Chapter 201: The Mountain Wind Blown by the Mountain Wind Cave

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After Minamoto Kiyomoto and his group left the Tokyo Daijingu.

Kuwayama came to the public dojo. On the wooden plaque, the two words “Martial Arts Hall” were written by a kendo master.

As soon as he walked in, the scene changed. Inside, it was like a small world, with mountains, water, rivers, a desert with flying sand, and a pine forest like a screen.

He walked and stopped, and came to a stream with barren grass on both sides.

There were two swordsmen on the stream, facing each other with bamboo swords. The killing intent stirred up waves on the water surface and bent the barren grass.

By the stream, Ishikawa sat cross-legged, as if watching a battle.

Kuwayama walked through the weeds that submerged his calves and sat down beside him.

“They’ve been facing each other for ten minutes. I’m about to fall asleep,” Ishikawa pointed at the two people on the stream and said.

Kuwayama didn’t speak. Ishikawa hadn’t contacted him during this time, until today, after the Honshu Shinto Lord went to Gunma Prefecture.

“Ura,” Ishikawa pointed at the swordsman on the left, “the number one master of the Imaeda-ryu. In terms of secret techniques, he has even surpassed his master. Relying on the secret manual, he has learned the true teachings that his master could not learn.”

“Miki,” he pointed at the swordsman on the right again, “the Fuden-ryu. He obtained the ‘menkyo’ in his first year of entry. In his class, he is undoubtedly a swordsman of heaven…”

“What do you want from me?” Kuwayama interrupted him.

Ishikawa laughed and still looked at the two people facing each other on the stream, saying, “These two are companions…”

Kuwayama couldn’t help but size up the two of them.

Ura of the Imaeda-ryu was handsome and wore a kendo uniform, like the protagonist of a movie playing a wandering samurai.

Miki of the Fuden-ryu was ordinary-looking. If he were thrown into a crowd, someone would notice him, but if you didn’t pay attention, you would even ignore his sword.

“What… what is your purpose?” Kuwayama asked.

“Assassinate him,” Ishikawa said as if he were commenting on the two of them.

“…”

In the Tokyo Daijingu, “he” could only refer to the Honshu Shinto Lord.

While Kuwayama was silent, Ishikawa continued as if talking to himself, “It doesn’t matter if there’s one more Honshu Shinto Lord, but it’s not okay to have one more Minamoto Kiyomoto.”

Kuwayama thought about the meaning of this sentence.

“He’s a very dangerous person,” Ishikawa said again.

Kuwayama still didn’t answer. He didn’t care whether he was dangerous or not. All he did was obey orders.

But whose orders should he obey? In the past, it was Hokkaido. Now, is it the person behind Ishikawa?
A fierce shout interrupted his thoughts. Ura and Miki, the Fuden-ryu and the Imaeda-ryu, began to fight at a speed that was too fast for the eye to see.

The bamboo swords clashed, making a clear sound. The river water was instantly cut into a rotten cloth by the sword qi.

“Just you, and me?” Kuwayama’s gaze followed the two people who had turned into light and shadow.

“Everyone has a weakness. Powerful people have very few weaknesses, but these pitifully few weaknesses will be even more fatal.”

The two people who were fighting stopped and faced each other again. The river that had been cut off returned to its original state and flowed away.

At the end of the river was a waterfall.

When he came up, Kuwayama saw many practitioners, not using divine power, but only relying on their bodies to withstand the impact of the waterfall.

“Weakness?”

“You know…” Ishikawa paused, as if he were bored, and looked around. “His own strength is only at the Kasen level. The demon body spell is powerful, but it takes time. As long as we cut him off before the river reaches the waterfall…”

“Bang—” the bamboo swords clashed.

With the two of them as the center, the river water swirled, forming a vortex like a Roman coliseum.

“What about the people around him?” Kuwayama was unmoved.

“Wait, we can only wait. Wait for them to separate,” Ishikawa pointed his finger and blocked the flying river water. “He is a Shinto Lord. He will inevitably have to deal with various matters and attend various meetings. Someone will create an opportunity for us.”

Kuwayama didn’t think things would be so simple.

“Can you guarantee that he can only use the power of the Coral Demon Moth in his demon body state?”

“I can’t,” Ishikawa replied readily.

The matter on the Pacific Ocean had already spread. Everyone knew that the Coral Demon Moth could absorb divine energy and divine power, and also needed to absorb divine energy and divine power.

At first, Kuwayama thought that Minamoto Kiyomoto would immediately look for yokai to replenish the Coral Demon Moth’s divine energy when he returned to the shore.

The result was the opposite of his prediction. Minamoto Kiyomoto directly took the shrine maidens and shikigami back to Shikoku for the New Year.

Kuwayama thought carefully and found that Minamoto Kiyomoto really didn’t need to waste time—whether it was a human or a yokai, appearing in front of him was to send him divine energy and divine power.

The Honshu Shinto Lord was like a dry sea, and did not need to actively draw seawater.

The rivers from the land, the rain from the sky, could not harm him, but were instead throwing themselves into a net.

As for the Coral Demon Moth’s weakness—the divine artifact, it was not worth mentioning to Minamoto Kiyomoto. This had already been verified on the Pacific Ocean.

Kuwayama recalled a scene that a practitioner who had gone out to sea with him had reproduced at a banquet.

The enlarged sea turtle, the four pillars supporting the sky, the mountains that were moved around like chess pieces, and the terrifying three-colored divine light.

This was the divine might displayed after the fusion of a human and a county-level yokai, no, it was Minamoto Kiyomoto and a county-level yokai.

“What if he can use the three-colored divine light in his human form? What do you plan to do?” Kuwayama turned his head and looked at Ishikawa for the first time.

“Didn’t we already know the answer on the first day of the first lesson at the practitioner’s academy?” Ishikawa said calmly.

The two people fighting on the river, every move was to kill the other, not at all like a spar.

Kuwayama remembered that lesson. No one should forget it.

“Are you afraid of death?” the teacher with a broken arm roared.

“We face death as if it were our home!” a group of fifteen-year-old boys and girls roared in response.

Kuwayama roared very loudly. At that time, he was full of hot blood and wanted to use his own flesh and soul to build the first barrier for mankind.

Only later did he understand that the human sword was not only swung at yokai, but more at humans themselves.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked without any emotion.

“You can’t do anything. Continue to read your ‘Guiguzi’.”

Kuwayama looked at Ishikawa.

“A battle of that level—” Ishikawa hesitated, as if looking for words. “It’s like ordinary practitioners. They’re useless, but the world can’t do without them. Who knows who among them will become a Kasen. For example, Minamoto Kiyomoto, before he became a practitioner, was just an ordinary university student, a little smarter than the average person. Who would have thought that he would be invincible in a year.”

“Since I can’t do anything, why are you looking for me?”

“I said, who knows who will be useful. We need as many helpers as possible, even if that person can’t be a helper, just like an ordinary practitioner. And we happen to have a handle on you, so we’ll count you in.”

Kuwayama knew that he was not like an ordinary practitioner at all.

Ordinary practitioners were of little use, but they at least had things they could do, protect civilians, repair earth spirits, participate in the subjugation of ordinary village-level yokai, and high-level practitioners would also protect them.

And in the battle with the Honshu Shinto Lord, he might be of no use, and no one would protect him.

“The main force is them,” Ishikawa pointed at the river, at the two people who were facing each other again. “Before he turns into a demon body, with the fastest and most fierce attack, a thunderous blow, cut off his head.”

After he finished, he emphasized:
“According to his battle in Izumo, it must be the head. If you happen to be useful, remember, you must aim for the head.”

“It’s a bit like ‘The Avengers’,” Kuwayama said. This was something he had watched a long time ago, when he still had a girlfriend.

Ishikawa was stunned for a moment, nodded, and said, “Yes, like ‘The Avengers’. We are the Avengers, and he is Thanos. We must cut off his head.”

“We’re the bad guys, right?” Kuwayama turned his head and looked at Ishikawa quietly.

“Not necessarily. Whoever loses is the bad guy,” Ishikawa returned the same calm gaze.

At this time, a voice like a broadcast came from the vast world of the dojo.

“Lord Shinto is back! He also caught a yokai!”

“Lord Shinto is back! He also caught a yokai!”

The swordsmen fighting on the river stopped. Kuwayama and Ishikawa looked at each other, and the four of them flew towards the exit at the same time.

In the spacious dojo, meteors shot up from time to in time. They were all practitioners who had heard the news and were preparing to go and see what was going on.

‘Caught a yokai?’ Kuwayama couldn’t help but think, ‘If Minamoto Kiyomoto can capture yokai, then in the future—’

“It seems we have to act as soon as possible. Remember, aim for the head!” Ishikawa’s low shout came from his ear.

Yes, to him, no, to the person behind him, the more prestigious Minamoto Kiyomoto was, the greater the threat, and the more he had to be eliminated.

Kuwayama thought of the first lesson he had at the practitioner’s academy when he was fifteen.

“Are you afraid of death?”

“We face death as if it were our home!”

I still haven’t lived the life I wanted.

Leaving the dojo, they put away their divine power. The group walked quickly and squeezed towards the shrine square.

“Lord Shinto actually caught a yokai?!”

“Then in the future, all yokai can be captured?”

“It’s still early! Wait until three days later, and see if that yokai self-destructs!”

Everyone’s faces were full of admiration, anticipation, anxiety, admiration, and curiosity, and also some disapproval.

Kuwayama habitually observed. His peripheral vision glanced at Ishikawa. He had an excited face and was talking to the people around him about ‘if yokai can be subdued, how peaceful the world will be’.

Ishikawa’s gaze was also observing him.

They were wary of each other, worried that the other would betray them and inform on them.

The square was three layers inside and three layers outside. The people who came late couldn’t see anything. They couldn’t use their divine power, and they were no different from ordinary people.

The Honshu Shinto Lord did not stay long and left the square directly, heading for the main hall at the top of the mountain. The main hall’s official name was “Coral Hall.”

The people from the Bugyosho who had gone to Gunma Prefecture with him became the target of the siege. Looking from the top of the mountain, they were like fish food being fought over by koi.

The news of what had happened quickly spread.

A very troublesome village-level yokai, according to a group leader’s speculation, should have been formed by the mountain wind and could spit out ghostly figures that could not be killed.

Besides being unkillable, the ghostly figures themselves were also very troublesome. Each of them had the strength of a fifteen-time practitioner and could also let out a strange roar.

If hundreds of them shrieked together, even a Kasen would be stunned.

“And! And! I have more news!” a practitioner raised his voice.

“What else?” the crowd quieted down and looked at him in unison.

“I heard Lord Shinto say,” the person deliberately paused, “if that yokai dares to self-destruct, he’ll use it to fill the stomach of the Coral Divine Moth! That yokai was so scared it trembled!”

This person, at a glance, was a fanatical follower of the Honshu Shinto Lord.

“Nonsense!” a group leader said with a laugh. “When Lord Shinto said this, I was standing right beside him. How come I didn’t see the yokai tremble?”

“I’m telling the truth!” the person was not convinced.

“I don’t know if the yokai trembled or not, but I did see someone surrounded by ten ghostly figures, so scared they trembled,” another practitioner said.

“I was excited!”

The crowd laughed.

Ishikawa laughed along with them, thinking.

Hundreds of unkillable ghostly figures, each equivalent to a fifteen-time practitioner, and also a spell similar to a combined attack.

Once subdued by Minamoto Kiyomoto and carried with him, who could kill him before he turned into a demon body?

“You guys say, if Lord Shinto really subdues this yokai, in the future when we participate in subjugation, won’t these yokai be able to follow us and absorb the damage for us?”

“That’s right! That yokai relied on this move to block the attack of the Divine Medium!”

“I hope Lord Shinto can succeed!”

“As long as Lord Shinto wants to do something, he will definitely succeed!” the person who had said the yokai trembled was very sure.

Turning into a yokai, subduing a yokai. In Minamoto Kiyomoto, the practitioners present saw endless possibilities.

They had a premonition that an unprecedented era was coming.

Some were looking forward to it, some were uneasy, some were indifferent, and some were trying their best to prevent the arrival of the new era.

The premise of all this was that he could really subdue it. If Minamoto Kiyomoto could only subdue one, and only he himself could do it, everything was empty talk.

When Minamoto Kiyomoto created the “Demon Body Spell,” the world of practitioners was also in a frenzy, thinking that the era when everyone could have a demon body was coming.

The result was that after half a year, only Minamoto Kiyomoto had succeeded.

Some people said that he had hidden the most crucial spell of the “Demon Body Spell”; others said that it was purely because of the difference in capacity.

According to these two statements, two factions were formed.

The former were Minamoto Kiyomoto’s detractors, hoping that he would be disgraced and even die suddenly.

The latter were Minamoto Kiyomoto’s followers, who believed that his capacity was unparalleled and that he was a great figure destined to save mankind.

The “Dainichi Nyorai Spell,” the “Demon Body Spell,” the Laurel Crown, entering the human world with a dead body, the Coral Demon Moth, one thing after another, made the latter’s team grow stronger.

The fanatics among them even believed that Minamoto Kiyomoto was the same as a yokai, a manifestation of the human race as a whole, a real god.

They also believed that if it weren’t for the Holy Mother—Ayako—who loved Lord Shinto too much, so much so that Lord Shinto only started cultivating at the age of twenty, there might have been no yokai in the world long ago, and it would have completely become the territory of mankind.

Kuwayama understood these situations.

Understanding these situations was part of his job.

He was also very clear that regardless of whether others could subdue one in the future, as long as Minamoto Kiyomoto really subdued this yokai, his prestige would be greatly enhanced again.

Correspondingly, the people who wanted to kill him would also be more urgent and more unscrupulous.

The assassination planned by Ishikawa was just a small attempt among these methods, and many people, including him, would lose their lives for this attempt.

He also did not believe that if Minamoto Kiyomoto eliminated the yokai, mankind would really achieve peace.

Those who believed that without yokai, mankind could enjoy peace were all unrealistic idealists and pacifists.

And these people could not decide the future at all.

The ones who decided the future were those high and mighty rulers, the vested interests, and the people who wanted to rule and profit.

Everyone was too shrewd about their own interests. Without a natural enemy, the natural enemy of mankind was themselves.

Having a common enemy like yokai was not necessarily a bad thing.

Kuwayama had no burden in assassinating Minamoto Kiyomoto.

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On the high mountain, Himegami Izayoi smiled and reminded Minamoto Kiyomoto, “It’s not so easy to be a Shinto Lord. There are many things to deal with, and many of these things are outside of divine power.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at the mountain below and just smiled.

He was not the number one in the world, but if the three divine artifacts did not appear, and the three yokai did not appear, no one was his opponent.