Chapter 34: Fierce Battle

The fierce wind howled, and the sky was dark.

Everyone looked at Lake Ashi. The lake water was surging wildly, forming a huge vortex.

The ‘swastika’ wheel of light did not rise into the sky again for a long time.

“How is this possible?” the Suitengu Miko said in disbelief, and the others were also filled with astonishment.

Not to mention the ‘swastika’ wheel of light itself, even if it were just the Venerable Manjuan alone, as a Kosen-level expert, he would only be seriously injured if he took this blow head-on.

“Roar!” The red and black giant dragon roared at the sky, and the terrifying volcanic divine breath instantly raised the temperature of the entire Hakone.

A heat wave rushed over. Some dry grass and trees faintly emitted green smoke and actually began to spontaneously combust.

“Everyone, be careful—”

Before the Ashi Miko could finish, her voice was drowned out by the deafening sound of thunder.

Before everyone could react, a golden lightning bolt as thick as a mountain, as if it were splitting heaven and earth, heavily struck the swaying and tail-wagging giant dragon.

With a boom, the thousand-meter-long dragon’s body was immersed in a sea of golden thunder. The scene was extremely divine.

But the god in the sea of thunder let out a roar of pain that had never been heard before.

Not only the red and black giant dragon, but all the cultivators who were close by felt their whole bodies go numb. Their eyes were stung by the golden light, and they quickly retreated in fear.

Before they could understand what was happening, a sunset suddenly appeared on the horizon.

The sunset rolled in with an astonishing momentum and crashed into the giant dragon with a bang.

“Roar!” The giant dragon struggled like a snake, thrashing and rolling desperately.

The red waves rolled, and they were actually hotter than the divine breath caused by the red and black giant dragon.

“Fire Thunder!” Date Masamune couldn’t help but shout.

Everyone stabilized themselves and subconsciously looked at the Divine Miko and Himemiya Izayoi.

Kamibayashi Miko’s beautiful and otherworldly face was as calm as water, and her whole body was bursting with golden light.

Himemiya Izayoi had a smile on her face, but her eyes were icy and full of killing intent. In her flame-like divine power, from time to time, electric light would flash.

At this moment, the red and black giant dragon roared again, rushed towards the sky, and drilled into the dark clouds.

Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi shot up into the sky, one golden and one red, like meteorites entering the sea, crashing into the clouds.

The members of the combat department reacted and roared as they rushed towards the sky.

“Kill!”

“Rumble!”

“Roar!”

The sound of thunder was endless, and the dragon’s roar shattered heaven and earth. Except for the Kosen-level, most of the cultivators in the combat department actually spat out a mouthful of blood and were pushed back by the air waves.

Everyone’s face was pale. Even the Suitengu Miko and the Ashi Miko couldn’t help but feel a little terrified.

Since the death of the previous Divine Miko, because of the Ogosho’s order, the new Divine Miko had not appeared in front of everyone for more than ten years.

As expected of the Divine Miko. Although she was also a miko, she had the title of ‘god,’ and her strength was far above theirs.

But the Divine Miko was one thing. What they didn’t expect was that the miko of Ise Shrine actually had a strength that was not weaker than the Divine Miko’s.

In the dark clouds, golden thunder was dense, and fire thunder shot up into the sky. The red and black divine breath was like a mountain collapsing and the sea overturning. For a moment, they didn’t even have the courage to go in.

At this moment, a long cry suddenly came from their ears. Date Masamune, wearing the ‘Tosei Gusoku,’ carried his longsword on his shoulder and crazily drilled into the dark clouds.

A hundred-meter-long sword light crisscrossed, like a fine net, crazily chopping at the occasionally appearing dragon’s body.

Suiten and Ashi looked at each other, suddenly laughed together, and flew into the sea of clouds side by side with a long cry.

“Our majestic human race, as tall as the clouds! Kill!” The other cultivators roared in unison, their saliva flying, and they rushed into the sea of clouds without any regard for their lives.

The repair department, the barrier department, the guard department, the volunteer department, and the rescue department all craned their necks and looked at the hellish dark clouds.

Countless splendid divine powers were rumbling. Occasionally, with a boom, the dark clouds would disperse, and in the azure sky, one could see the giant dragon moving and the cultivators fighting hard.

The battle took place at an altitude of ten thousand meters, but the aftershocks shook the earth, and rocks rolled down the Hakone mountains.

Just as everyone was gazing into the distance, a figure suddenly rushed up from the crowd and caught a cultivator who had fallen from the dark clouds, covered in blood.

“What are you standing there for!” The one who rushed out was the head of the rescue department.

“Yes!” The others quickly came back to their senses and replied loudly.

Amidst the rumbling, they repaired the Earth Spirit, blocked the aftershocks, and treated the wounded.

In a short while, everyone in the combat department except the Kosen-level experts had fallen out of the dark clouds.

The rescue department caught them one by one and found that some were unconscious, some were seriously injured, some were crippled, and some had already become corpses.

“Roar!”

A vast red light, rolling dark clouds, the red and black giant dragon swooped down.

Golden thunder, fire thunder, sword light, water waves, and meteorites followed closely behind.

In mid-air, the red and black giant dragon, which was originally swooping towards the ground, suddenly swung its tail. A hurricane raged, and it swept across the five beams of light with a boom.

The sword light dissipated, the water waves rose and fell, and the meteorites shattered. The three of them were directly sent flying.

Only the golden thunder and the fire thunder, with a flexible flash, dodged the dragon’s tail, passed through the hurricane, and moved forward around the huge dragon’s body.

The golden thunder rolled, and the fire light flashed. The red and black giant dragon let out an angry and painful roar.

The two of them and the dragon fought fiercely on the Hakone plateau.

The dragon’s tail swept, and the outer ring of mountains rumbled and wailed;
The giant claws broke through the air, and the top of Mount Soun collapsed;

The dragon’s body meandered, squeezing out a long canyon.

Kamibayashi Miko commanded the thunder. Her fair palms were wrapped in lightning, and every strike made the red and black giant dragon roar.

Himemiya Izayoi’s black hair was like fire. Every strike she made was like a sunset flying into the sky, with thunder and lightning, and an astonishing momentum.

“Ah!” With a long, continuous cry, Ashi, Suiten, and Date Masamune rushed into the battlefield.

One dragon and five people fought, sometimes passing through the rolling dark clouds, sometimes passing through the fiery sunset, sometimes passing through the canyon, and sometimes fighting into the mountains.

The space between heaven and earth was full of rumbling, and one after another, balls of divine power air waves exploded.

Everything in the world seemed to be collapsing and being destroyed.

The repair department, the barrier department, the guard department, the volunteer department, the rescue department, and the combat department, which had recovered from their injuries, continuously repaired the wailing Earth Spirit in the aftershocks of this world-destroying battle.

“Can we win?” Asamiya Sakura looked into the distance. The battlefield had already reached the ‘Thousand Waterfalls’.

Looking from Owakudani, besides the soaring light, there was only the occasional flashing figure of the red and black giant dragon.

“Of course we can win!” Amamiya Mari gritted her teeth and said with certainty.

The two of them had already exhausted their divine power and were sitting weakly in the barrier set up by the original barrier department.

“Instead of saying these useless things, why don’t you hurry up and recover!” Amamiya Noa was also sitting in the barrier.

In order to save the members of the combat department who had fallen from the dark clouds, she had been hit by the strong wind stirred up by the giant dragon and was seriously injured.

Now, she could only sit in the barrier and heal herself first.

“The divine breath of the entire Hakone is already in chaos. I can’t absorb it even if I want to,” Amamiya Mari’s tone was full of powerlessness.

“I wonder how Brother Minamoto is doing,” Asamiya Sakura looked at Lake Ashi with a worried expression.

“We don’t have the spare energy to save them. I hope they’re alright,” Amamiya Noa’s face was grim.

As she spoke, the ground trembled again. In the distance, rocks rolled down the mountains, and towering trees were uprooted like small blades of grass.

Occasionally, some would rush towards them and be blocked by the barrier.

“Are we really useful?” a person sitting in the barrier said to himself in a disheartened tone.

The others also fell silent. In a real battle, even the aftershocks could kill them. Did they really need them?

“Useless? Back then, Date Masamune and I were running around in the guard department. Weren’t we just small fries?” a member of the combat department who was lying on the ground laughed loudly.

A female cultivator from the rescue department said with a smile, “Back then, at the Hoshida Myokengu in Osaka, a small ‘village-level’ yokai seriously injured the two of you. You were crying and wanted to go back. I was the one who saved you.”

That person’s face turned red, and he retorted loudly, “That was to protect those idiots in the barrier department! And the one who cried was Date Masamune, not me!”

“Say that again and see if I don’t withdraw the barrier and see who protects whom, and who cries and wants to go back?” the head of the barrier department said with a laugh and a curse.

“Come, come, open the barrier. I can still charge a few hundred more times!”

Amamiya Mari, Asamiya Sakura, and the other newcomers who had just entered the battlefield looked at these old-timers, exposing each other’s shortcomings and cursing angrily, and couldn’t help but snicker.

Some of them didn’t like each other, but between them, a special relationship had been cultivated in battle—although they disliked each other, they admired, and even trusted each other.

“That guy Date Masamune was sent flying again!” the cultivator from the combat department, whose shortcomings had been exposed by the crowd, changed the subject and looked into the distance.

The crowd followed his gaze. A wave of light shot up into the sky, and a metallic silver light crashed heavily into the mountains.

Before the crowd could exclaim, the silver light soared into the sky again and pounced on the red and black giant dragon.

“If I had the ‘Tosei Gusoku,’ would I still be bullied by you here? I would have long since dismembered that beast,” the cultivator from the combat department said with envy.

The others ignored him and looked at the battlefield nervously.

For thousands of years, humans had been constantly fighting with yokai and had accumulated rich experience.

From being unilaterally slaughtered, to swarming them, and when the number of yokai decreased, the infighting began.

After the establishment of the Onmyo Bureau, based on the detected level of divine breath, only enough cultivators were sent to exterminate the yokai. The rest dealt with yokai in other places, or dealt with anti-human cultivators.

The Onmyo Bureau’s detection technology was very accurate, but since the world could give birth to such a magical creature as humans, there were naturally exceptions to everything.

For example, the Coral Sea Moth.

At that time, the Onmyo Bureau had rated it as ‘city-level’ based on the amount of divine breath. Who knew it was actually ‘prefecture-level’.

Almost all the cultivators in that battle had died.

The level assessment of the red and black giant dragon before them was not wrong, but who knew what accidents would happen?

Just like knowing that you would definitely be able to get into a certain university, and even estimating your score, but before the score came out, you were still uneasy, thinking:
Did I fill in my answer sheet wrong? What if the grader marked it wrong? Did I remember the answers wrong and estimate my score too high? Is it possible that I wanted to choose A, but wrote B instead?
And so on.

Now, the cultivators participating in this ‘battle’ were facing something a hundred times more serious than a university entrance exam. The anxiety and wild thoughts in their hearts were also a hundred times more serious.

Looking around, it was obvious that the main attackers were Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi.

The other three Kosen-level cultivators were assisting from the side, and sometimes they even had to dodge the large-scale thunder curses of those two.

The red and black giant dragon roared ferociously. Even though it was covered in blood, it was still extremely fierce. Occasionally, it would take a curse from someone head-on in order to pounce on another person.

Under the desperate attack of the evil dragon, even Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi, who were good at wind control curses, seemed to be restrained, let alone the other three.

The fierce wind howled, and rocks jumped. Amamiya Noa and the others felt as if they were on a ship in a storm.

The barrier swayed violently, like a flower in a storm, and it seemed as if it was about to collapse.

“Hah!” The cultivators of the combat department who could still move all attacked, and their powerful divine power poured into the barrier.

“We’re saved,” a newcomer from the barrier department, whose whole body was completely soaked in sweat, was like he had been pulled out of the water.

“Rumble!”

“Roar!”

The sound of thunder, roars, and the trembling of the earth grew closer and closer. Heaven and earth were trembling.

“Not good, this beast is going to attack the others!” The Suitengu Miko transformed into a stream of water. Every attack could draw a cut on the hard dragon’s body.

“It’s coming!” Amamiya Mari exclaimed.

The battlefield was shifting towards them.

The guard department, which had been constantly blocking attacks for everyone, also discovered the situation.

“Run! The evil dragon is coming this way!”

“Danger, run!”

The clamor rose and fell.

“The other departments go first! The combat department who are not dead, follow me!” The head of the combat department drew his broken longsword.

“Guard department A and B groups, stay with me! C and D groups, protect the people and retreat!” The head of the guard department knocked away a huge rock and landed beside the head of the combat department.

“Yes!”

“Captain, A group is unconscious!”

“I’ll stay!”

Amidst the various voices, the roar of the head of the repair department was heard again, “Repair department, don’t stop even if you retreat! Protect the Earth Spirit!”

The Amamiya sisters and Asamiya Sakura were supported by people from other departments and quickly fled with the wind.

Dark clouds rolled, and from time to time, they were illuminated by curses. Rocks flew everywhere, and everyone’s face was covered in dust.

A cedar tree that was more than thirty meters tall came crashing down. Asamiya Sakura couldn’t help but close her eyes and scream.

With a loud “boom.”

“Go!” a member of the guard department had forcefully knocked away the huge tree.

“Thank you!” The cultivator from the barrier department quickly fled with Asamiya Sakura.

The people from the guard department turned their heads and rushed back to the battlefield to protect the others as they retreated.

The red and black giant dragon was already approaching. The combat department, which had stayed behind, and a part of the guard department, stood in a row.

The fierce wind blew in their faces, and lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Besides the dragon’s roar, they could not hear anything.

But there was no need for orders anymore.

“Pa!” Everyone put their hands together, and their divine power suddenly swelled.

“Hell, Sacrifice!”

They had done this countless times.

The giant dragon broke through the air, and its huge tail swept angrily. Their divine power crashed into it without any evasion.

“Boom!”

The comrades beside them were roaring, but they couldn’t hear anything. They were also roaring, but they didn’t know where their voices had gone.

‘Hell, Sacrifice,’ as long as they were alive, as long as they had divine power, they could be forced to attack continuously.

In a blink of an eye, some of the cultivators from the combat department who were originally seriously injured were sent flying, spitting out blood, and their divine power light instantly dimmed.

The fierce wind poured into their ears and noses, and their mouths were full of the smell of blood.

But the red and black giant dragon’s furious blow was forcefully pushed back.

The giant dragon was sent flying. In the air, a golden thunder snake hissed and bit down on it.

Then, a fiery thunderbird crashed into it with a boom.

Sword lights raged, water waves surged, and meteorites fell.

“Roar!” The red and black giant dragon let out a mournful cry and was sent flying like a broken kite.

The combat department and the guard department, who were covering the rear, let out a sigh of relief and sat on the ground, paralyzed.

The rescue department, which had not gone far, quickly flew back and began the rescue.

The red and black giant dragon tumbled and fell in the air, whistling past. The strong wind pressure made the trees all over the mountains shake violently.

“Oh no!” Amamiya Noa exclaimed.

The others also had terrified expressions on their faces.

The giant dragon, like a meteor, crashed hard into Lake Ashi. There were still Minamoto Kiyomoto and the monks of Mount Koya there.

“Ah!” Date Masamune roared, and the Suitengu Miko and the Ashi Miko also followed closely behind, desperately chasing, planning to send the giant dragon flying again.

Kamibayashi Miko stood on the head of the golden python, her miko outfit billowing in the wind, but she did not move.

Himemiya Izayoi, who was originally about to attack, noticed her situation and also recalled her fiery thunderbird.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, fire light shot up into the sky, and the fierce wind howled. The sky was dark.

Just as the red and black giant dragon was about to crash into Lake Ashi, with a boom, the giant dragon was directly sent into the clouds by a golden light that shot out from the bottom of the lake.

The dark clouds were pierced, and the sunlight shone straight down on Lake Ashi through the hole. The surface of the lake glittered, as if in a dream.

Before everyone could understand what had happened, a thunderous laugh echoed through the Hakone mountains, followed by a sentence that was half-understood.

“A great wind rises, and the clouds fly!”

The water of Lake Ashi boiled, as if a high mountain were about to break through the surface of the lake and rise from within.

The laughter rolled like thunder, and the mountains trembled.

A great Buddha slowly rose from Lake Ashi. The lake water poured down from his head and shoulders, like a series of small waterfalls.

A series of Buddhist chants came, and countless Buddha’s lights gathered, condensing into a golden wheel behind the great Buddha’s head.

“The Dharma Body of the Great Vairocana Tathagata!”

The broken clouds slowly closed. Everyone looked at the glowing great Buddha, shocked, confused, and ecstatic, not understanding what had happened.

(End of Chapter)