Chapter 36: On Lake Ashi

The sunset after a storm is always beautiful and makes one linger.

Minamoto Kiyomoto sat cross-legged on the horizontal beam of the torii gate, gazing at the beautiful sunset on the horizon. Everything in the world was shining brightly.

The surface of Lake Ashi was already full of people. In the sky, people were still pulling the divine power light that was like the tail of a meteor, squeezing into the crowd.

It seemed that he had to use his divine power to make everyone hear his voice.

Minamoto Kiyomoto admired the beautiful sunset while letting his thoughts wander, killing the last bit of time.

“If you feel like you’ve become a Buddha, remember to block your ears,” when the time came, Minamoto Kiyomoto reminded.

The cultivators who had heard it once laughed a few times as if to give him face.

When the laughter disappeared and the entire Hakone became as quiet as a photograph, Minamoto Kiyomoto began to recite the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’.

“Wait!” The voice was not harsh, but it tore the photograph in half.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the person who had spoken. He was wearing the field hakama of an ancient Japanese commoner warrior, was about thirty years old, and his eyes were a little sinister.

Himemiya Izayoi, who was also sitting on the horizontal beam of the torii gate based on her strength and status, covered her mouth with her folding fan, as if she had seen something interesting.

“Is there something?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Yes, of course there is,” the man stood up.

“Kenichiro, what are you doing? Sit down quickly!”

“We can talk about it later. Don’t waste everyone’s time!”

Some cultivators scolded, very dissatisfied with the person named Kenichiro for interrupting them from listening to the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’.

“Everyone, wait a moment!” Kenichiro said loudly. “What I have to say is related to the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’.”

The crowd looked at each other, stopped their accusations, and planned to see what he was going to say.

Kenichiro turned his head and stared at Minamoto Kiyomoto on the horizontal beam of the torii gate, “May I ask, Your Excellency Minamoto, is the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’ you mentioned real?”

A commotion broke out throughout Lake Ashi.

“I heard about the last time the curse was recited,” Kenichiro raised his voice, overpowering the crowd. “I have a few doubts in my heart, and I hope Your Excellency Minamoto can answer them for me.”

“Answering questions can be done after the lecture…”

Before Minamoto Kiyomoto could finish, the other party interrupted, “I must ask these few questions before you speak!”

“He’s not coming with good intentions,” Himemiya Izayoi laughed in a low voice, with a look of watching a good show.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s gaze fell on this cultivator named Kenichiro.

“If you have something to ask, ask quickly. Don’t waste time!” someone urged.

Kenichiro looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto and said with a sneer, “What I want to ask is—why are you the only one who can remember the full curse? Why can you use the ‘Tathagata Dharma Body’ just one day after obtaining the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’?”

“Capacity…”

“Capacity!” Kenichiro interrupted Minamoto Kiyomoto again, turned his head to the people present and said, “He says capacity? It’s one thing for us ordinary people to have poor capacity, but what about the Kosen? Even the Divine Miko can’t do it, but this kid who came out of nowhere can? Don’t you all find it suspicious?”

“What do you mean by that?” someone asked loudly.

Kenichiro raised his hand, pointed at Minamoto Kiyomoto on the torii gate, and said in a trembling voice, “He’s lying!”

There was an uproar, and the crowd whispered among themselves.

Kenichiro then said righteously, “What sharing the curse? What world peace? It’s just that he doesn’t dare to monopolize the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’ alone, so he pretends to be kind and uses a trick, speaking a fake curse!”

“What evidence do you have?” someone asked loudly.

“Do we still need evidence for this? We can’t even remember it, but this kid can use it the next day!” someone in the crowd replied sarcastically.

“Nonsense!” a monk from Mount Koya retorted loudly.

“When presiding over the ‘swastika’ wheel of light, we transmitted all the Buddhist sutras we had read to His Excellency Minamoto, so His Excellency Minamoto was able to use the ‘Tathagata Dharma Body’ the next day!”

“Can you use the ‘Tathagata Dharma Body’ immediately after obtaining the Buddhist teachings?”

“Master Kukai cultivated for three years, but he was only a Vajra, right?”

“Let that kid speak the true curse!”

“That’s right! This kid is too cunning. What a good person he’s pretending to be! I almost believed him and was even grateful to him!”

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the crowd who were loudly agreeing and only found it ridiculous.

Just after killing a yokai, these demons popped out. Why were there so many demons and monsters in this world?

Looking around, Amamiya Noa was half-believing, half-doubting. Amamiya Mari and Asamiya Sakura had helpless expressions. Some of the monks of Mount Koya were loudly explaining for him, but some were also half-believing, half-doubting.

Those who were originally neutral had a look of letting things take their course.

As for those who already disliked him, they were even more hostile and fanned the flames.

He had thought that this day would come, but he didn’t expect it to come so soon, just after he had desperately participated in a subjugation.

Although the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’ was a Buddhist curse, it was as tempting as a demon.

“What do you want to do?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Your Excellency Minamoto, it’s one thing if you don’t want to share the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra,’ but why did you deceive us with a fake one!” Someone had already determined that Minamoto Kiyomoto was lying.

“That’s right. Kanto is a civilized society. Would we force you to hand over the curse?”

“Do you mean that Kansai and Hokkaido are not civilized societies?”

“You know it yourself!”

“Damn it, I…”

“Enough, we’re talking about the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’!”

“Your Excellency Minamoto, you deceived us. You should at least apologize, right?”

“Hand over the true sutra!”

At first, the crowd was talking at once, but in the end, it became a slogan, and they shouted in unison, “Hand over the true sutra! Hand over the true sutra!”

The sound was like thunder, and it was even more ear-piercing than the roar of the red and black giant dragon during the day.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at these people coldly. Kamibayashi Miko’s face was expressionless, and Himemiya Izayoi’s smile became even happier.

“Gentlemen!” Kenichiro used his divine power, and his voice overpowered the crowd.

The shouting gradually subsided, and the cultivators all looked at him.

“We can’t believe him anymore. If he can deceive us once, he can deceive us a second time!”

“Then what do you say we do?” someone asked.

“My shikigami is a ‘Lie-Swallowing Cat.’ As long as we let it eat Minamoto Kiyomoto first, the cat will answer our questions for him. After we get the real ‘Mahavairocana Sutra,’ we can let the ‘Lie-Swallowing Cat’ spit him out.”

“Good idea!”

“Let’s do it!”

“I believe His Excellency Minamoto! Your Excellency Minamoto, please prove it to them!”

“Your Excellency Minamoto, please rest assured. We guarantee your safety! If Your Excellency did not lie, we will definitely make Kenichiro kneel and apologize to you!”

Some of the monks of Mount Koya had ugly expressions, but they did not refute. They thought that it was not a bad thing for Minamoto Kiyomoto to prove his innocence.

Even they had this attitude, let alone the others.

But in a blink of an eye, things had developed to this point.

Minamoto Kiyomoto remembered what Kamibayashi Miko had said to him last night—

“At that time, those who admired you today, when others find an opportunity to frame you, ruin your reputation, and kill you, even if they are not deceived, they will not stand on your side. In the final analysis, this world is all about interests.”

He had seen a newlywed couple commit suicide by jumping into a river, heard about Mansaku’s wife and daughter being humiliated, and experienced cultivators betraying humanity and going to Shintoism to enjoy a few more days because they were going to die anyway.

He sincerely wanted everyone to have a little more strength so that there would be fewer tragedies in the world, but he didn’t expect that in the end, he would be the one who was wrong.

Was such a world worth his effort to save?
“What if I’m not willing?” Minamoto Kiyomoto sneered.

“Your Excellency Minamoto, with so many of us here, we will definitely not let the ‘Lie-Swallowing Cat’ harm you!”

“If the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’ you mentioned is real, what are you afraid of?”

“I think this kid is just feeling guilty!”

“Everyone, rest assured. I will definitely not harm His Excellency Minamoto!” Kenichiro said, forming a hand seal and summoning a three-meter-tall black cat with three tails.

The cat’s eyes were very strange, as if they were ghosts without a physical body, and its fur was also abnormally black.

It was said that the ‘Lie-Swallowing Cat’s’ fur was originally white, but it had turned black because it had eaten too many lies.

Minamoto Kiyomoto listened to the accusations of the crowd and looked at those who were pretending to be considerate of him, persuading him to be eaten by the ‘Lie-Swallowing Cat.’ His original attitude of watching a show, as if a volcano covered in ice and snow had erupted, was full of anger.

He wished he could turn into the evil dragon from the daytime and eat all these people.

“Your Excellency Minamoto!” Following Kenichiro’s final verdict, the crowd’s gazes stared at Minamoto Kiyomoto like sharp arrows.

The distant sunset was precarious, and the slanting rays were dying.

Lake Ashi was like a sleeping deep-sea giant, gloomy and terrifying.

Hakone was silent. At this moment, the crowd heard Himemiya Izayoi tilt her head playfully and ask Minamoto Kiyomoto:
“My Young Master Kiyoshi, what should we do now?”

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the people before him and remained silent.

“Let me teach you, big sister,” Himemiya Izayoi smiled and closed her folding fan, pointing at Kenichiro. “Kill him, and him, and her, and those people over there.”

The people she pointed at with her folding fan’s faces changed drastically.

Those who had seen Himemiya Izayoi’s strength, and were a little timid, were already pale and sweating.

Some people had not seen her attack, or did not believe that she dared to kill, and glared back without fear.

“Does the Lady Miko want to favor him?”

“Could it be that the miko and this kid made a secret deal and got the true sutra themselves?”

As soon as he said this, the crowd thought it made sense. Just as they were about to agree, they heard that person let out a terrified and painful roar. In a blink of an eye, he was burned to a crisp and swallowed by the dark Lake Ashi.

He really killed someone.

The crowd was dumbfounded, not expecting this at all.

“It’s one thing to throw dirty water on a little pervert, but you dare to frame me?” Himemiya Izayoi sneered. “Who else has the same opinion as him? Thinks this miko has a problem?”

The crowd took a deep breath. When Himemiya Izayoi’s gaze swept over them, they quickly averted their eyes. Even if they were angry, they did not dare to refute.

“See, Young Master Kiyoshi? Only by beating them until they tremble and killing them until they shiver will these demons and monsters run away when they see you and kneel on the ground when they hear your words,” Himemiya Izayoi did not take the people below seriously at all.

“If you can’t even kill the demons in your heart, how can you become the number one in the world?” At this time, Kamibayashi Miko, on the other side of the torii gate’s horizontal beam, spoke.

Himemiya Izayoi glanced at Kamibayashi Miko and said, “Young Master Kiyoshi, you are twenty years old this year. Besides your own mother, you don’t have to take anyone’s crap.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto felt his temples throbbing with his heartbeat.

“A person who achieves great things has a thunderous heart but a calm face. A person who conquers their own heart is truly powerful,” Kamibayashi Miko said again.

“Can you change the world with benevolence and righteousness?” Himemiya Izayoi sneered with a smile.

“Benevolence and righteousness are the best way to change the world. If you kill people out of anger now, you will also push those who support you to the other side.”

“From ancient times to the present, there has never been a peace that was obtained through peaceful means. Darkness gives birth to light. With war, there is peace.”

“A war without benevolence and righteousness is doomed to fail.”

“Then what do you say we should do in this situation?” Himemiya Izayoi asked Kamibayashi Miko.

Kamibayashi Miko’s clear and pure eyes looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto, and she said calmly:

“You don’t need to pay attention to these people. You just need to continue reciting the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra.’ In order to listen to the curse, someone will stand up and make those who don’t want to listen shut up. Didn’t you say it yourself? ‘It is precisely because the world is not perfect that I must do my best to create a better world.’ Then you must have a tenacious and indomitable will.”

“Stupid,” Himemiya Izayoi refuted mercilessly. “If you have the idea of saving the world in your heart, you must kill without batting an eye. When the two of us speak, the people below don’t dare to interrupt. Is it because we are benevolent and righteous? It’s because we are stronger than them!”

Her lips were close to Minamoto Kiyomoto’s ear, and she murmured with hot breath:

“Young Master Kiyoshi, as long as you say the word, I will kill all the people present who have framed you.”

“Do you think you’re a yokai? Invincible?” a Kosen from below sneered.

“We’re just not bothering with you for the sake of Ise Shrine!” another Kosen sneered.

Date Masamune glanced at the two of them.

Himemiya Izayoi ignored them and looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto with a smile, her expression leisurely.

“Can you kill them?” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s peripheral vision looked at those Kosen and asked Himemiya Izayoi.

“Before they run out of Lake Ashi, if I haven’t killed them, I, Izayoi, will go back to Shikoku with you and be your wife.”

“Arrogant! Who do you think you are?” a Kosen stood up, and his light green divine power boiled like a large bonfire.

The sky, which had already darkened, was illuminated by the divine power, and the night wind blew, like a scene from hell.

The crowd shouted in agreement, especially Kenichiro and the others, who were even more arrogant and flaunted their power.

“Kill or not?” Himemiya Izayoi’s gaze was always on Minamoto Kiyomoto.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at those people. In the light green divine power light wave, they all looked like demons.

Right now, as long as he said ‘kill,’ he could immediately make these demons disappear. In the future, he could hide in Hakusan Shrine and not be bothered by them.

But if he couldn’t even overcome this small difficulty, even if he became the number one in the world in the future, could he kill the Shakyamuni in his heart?

For these clowns, would it affect the outcome of the battle between him and Shakyamuni?

Minamoto Kiyomoto forcefully suppressed his thoughts of taking revenge and, regardless of whether the people below could hear him or not, he began to speak:

“What I see, what I hear, what I touch, what I think…”

Hearing his “answer,” the tense atmosphere eased, and many people let out a sigh of relief.

“Wait,” the one who said this was not Kenichiro and the others, but Himemiya Izayoi.

She was still sitting cross-legged on the horizontal beam of the torii gate, “Young Master Kiyoshi won’t kill you, but the matter of this miko being provoked is not over yet.”

“What do you want to do? Even if you are more powerful than a Kosen, the Lady Divine Miko is still here!” a smart person tried to drag Kamibayashi Miko into the water.

“Divine Miko? Hahaha!” Himemiya Izayoi seemed to have heard something very funny, and her bell-like laughter echoed over Lake Ashi.

The voice was innocent and enchanting, making one’s heart flutter. Everyone had the feeling that ‘it would be nice to listen to her laugh all night long’.

Seeing that she was tired of laughing, she rested her arm on Minamoto Kiyomoto’s shoulder. Her heart couldn’t help but feel jealous, and she became even more repulsed by Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“You don’t think she was speaking up for you just now, do you?” Himemiya Izayoi said with a smile. “She was just educating her precious Kiyomoto. You people who framed her precious one, do you think she would care about you?”

As soon as her voice fell, a flame-like divine power shot up into the sky with an extremely terrifying momentum.

The divine power spread out in the night sky, covering the sky and the sun, as if a fierce fire were burning. The water of Lake Ashi reflected it, and the world was a sea of crimson.

“Roar!” A sky-shaking, earth-shattering roar.

“What?!” The cultivators who had participated in today’s battle looked at the sky in terror.

A huge dragon, except that it was not black, was exactly the same as the yokai from the daytime, thrashing and swaying in the air.

“Lady Himemiya Miko! Please calm down. Let’s talk things over!”

“Run!”

The crowd shouted and ran, afraid of being caught in it.

“I’d like to see if the curses of the Twelve Miko are more powerful, or if my Thirty-Six Kosen’s divine power is stronger!” The Kosen who had provoked Himemiya Izayoi was not afraid at all. He drew his bronze long spear and roared at the sky.

A poisonous snake coiled around the bronze long spear, hissing at the red giant dragon in the air.

“One of the uses of shikigami is to seal them in weapons to increase their power,” Kamibayashi Miko said to Minamoto Kiyomoto. “But against yokai, as a shikigami that is also a spirit of heaven and earth, its power will be weakened.”

“No wonder I didn’t see anyone use it during the day,” Minamoto Kiyomoto nodded.

Some people had originally hoped that the Divine Miko would mediate, but seeing her still instructing Minamoto Kiyomoto in this situation, they knew that what Himemiya Izayoi had said was true.

Some people also looked at the other miko and Kosen, hoping that they would stop this fight.

“Everyone, stand back a little. Don’t get accidentally injured,” the Suitengu Miko reminded gently.

“I’m tired after a long day. I’ve aged more than twenty years. I must rest well,” the thirty-something Ashi Miko stretched her full body and flew to a tree by the lake.

“Haha!” Date Masamune also flew to the shore with a loud laugh.

Some of them, also as one of the Twelve Miko, wanted Himemiya Izayoi to teach the Thirty-Six Kosen a lesson;
Some had long been dissatisfied with Ise Shrine’s title of ‘number one shrine in the world’ and were happy to see her get into a dispute;
As for the Kosen, their various thoughts were more or less the same.

Whether it was the Twelve Miko or the Thirty-Six Kosen, they all thought that Himemiya Izayoi was stronger, but they did not believe that she could kill a Kosen.

However.

“Roar—”

The fire dragon roared like thunder, its huge mouth opened wide, and it swooped down on that Kosen with an irresistible momentum.

That Kosen did not evade. He raised his long spear and, with a vast divine power, crashed into it head-on.

“Boom!”

The Kosen’s divine power light wave was instantly submerged. Only the fire dragon’s red light pillar stood between heaven and earth.

When the divine power fluctuation disappeared, a three-meter-long small dragon bit the bronze long spear and flew to Himemiya Izayoi.

“A stinky man’s thing for a stinky man,” she pinched her delicate nose and fanned herself with her fan in disgust.

The small dragon, as if spitting, spat the bronze long spear into Minamoto Kiyomoto’s arms, then circled in the air twice and disappeared.

In the night sky, the crowd’s eyes were wide open, but they could not find any trace of that Kosen.

Kamibayashi Miko’s eyes flickered, and for the first time, she showed a look of surprise.

She was the only one who thought that Himemiya Izayoi could kill a Kosen, but she did not think that with Himemiya Izayoi’s strength, she could kill the other party so easily.

What else had happened in that pillar of light?

“Does anyone else have an opinion?” At this moment, Himemiya Izayoi’s beautiful little face was even more terrifying than a yokai’s.

The entire Lake Ashi was silent. Those who had agreed with Kenichiro had already fled in panic. Kenichiro himself was so scared that he knelt on the ground.

Himemiya Izayoi didn’t even glance at them.

She tilted her head, showed a girlishly proud smile, and asked Minamoto Kiyomoto, “Young Master Kiyoshi, how was it?”

“…What curse is this? It feels like there are many curses! I want to learn this!”

“Alright, say ‘I like big sister Izayoi the most’ and let me hear it.”

“I most… I am devoted to Miss Kamibayashi.”

“You’ll never learn it in your life! Hmph!”

Minamoto Kiyomoto picked up the long spear. It was about two meters long, and a ferocious poisonous snake was carved on the handle.

Putting the long spear aside, regardless of whether there was anyone below, regardless of whether they were still listening, he began to recite the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’.

He understood.

Benevolence and righteousness without power were powerlessness.

In the world of cultivators, it was still the law of the jungle where the strong preyed on the weak.

(End of Chapter)