Chapter 73: The Body of a Giant Dragon

Flying back to the shore from the hill in the sea, walking on the beach at night.

The clouds parted, and the moonlight shone on the waves. The waves were small, rising slightly and breaking gently. The white foam of the waves washed up to their feet with a “whoosh.”

“Young Master Kiyoshi, you’re going to Kyoto tomorrow. Can you master your Jushin-ryu?” Himemiya Izayoi asked with a teasing smile.

“Of course I can,” Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head to look at her. The cherry blossom hairpin in her hair shone in the night. “With the experience of the Shinto religion, all that’s left now is the determination to try.”

“Try now?” Himemiya Izayoi pointed at the breakwater.

On the dim seaside road, the streetlights were lit one by one, as neat as the markings on a clock, extending into the distance.

“Alright! Today, I’ll see how strong a yokai’s capacity is!” Minamoto Kiyomoto walked towards the breakwater.

“This miko is going to ride a dragon to Kyoto tomorrow, how majestic!” Himemiya Izayoi followed behind him with a grin.

“Wait,” Kamibayashi Miko called out to Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“What’s wrong?” Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head and looked at her. The clouds were slowly being blown away by the wind, and the moonlight was scattered on the sea behind her.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Are you worried about me?” Minamoto Kiyomoto laughed.

“I just don’t want you to die before me,” Kamibayashi Miko’s tone was cold. She glanced at him, more beautiful than the moon.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was momentarily stunned.

He remembered the time in the deep sea, when Kamibayashi Miko stood in the void, wearing a crown and magnificent clothes. Just imagining it made him feel helpless and discouraged.

Could such a woman really be held in his arms?
“As long as a person is born, there is danger,” Himemiya Izayoi walked behind Minamoto Kiyomoto, her hands on his shoulders, and her chin on his right shoulder.

She blew a breath of air into Minamoto Kiyomoto’s ear, “What are you standing there for? You’re not scared, are you?”

“…Please don’t disturb me from looking at Miss Kamibayashi,” Minamoto Kiyomoto pushed her head away.

“Am I not as good as her?” Himemiya Izayoi’s hand reached his face, forming an orchid finger, and looked at him alluringly.

“In terms of looks alone, it was the same before, but not now,” Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at the beautiful back of her hand.

“Why?”

“The Divine Miko’s Curse, sacred and beautiful.”

Himemiya Izayoi let go of her orchid finger with a laugh and asked him, “Is it the person who is beautiful, or the clothes that are beautiful?”

“The clothes are beautiful because of the person, and the person is also beautiful because of the clothes,” Minamoto Kiyomoto closed his eyes slightly, savoring the memory as if he had eaten something delicious.

That expression made Kamibayashi Miko purse her lips in disgust.

“This miko is already the most beautiful in the world. You say she is more beautiful than me. Do you think that no one can compare to her?” Himemiya Izayoi tilted her head and asked.

“Of course!” Minamoto Kiyomoto was extremely certain.

“Alright then,” Himemiya Izayoi revealed a smile. “If, one day, I can compare to her, you… will you promise me one condition?”

“What condition?”

“If you ask that, it means you’re not confident in Miko’s beauty.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at Kamibayashi Miko. Yes, she was very beautiful, unparalleled in the world.

“Alright,” he withdrew his gaze. “I promise you, but we must set a time. It can’t be that after Miss Kamibayashi is dead, you point at her bones and ask me: Young Master Kiyoshi, now, is she more beautiful or am I?”

Himemiya Izayoi was amused by the scene he described.

“Very fair,” she said. “The time will be set before we leave Kyoto. How about it? If I can’t do it, I’ll promise you one condition.”

“It’s a deal,” Minamoto Kiyomoto happily agreed.

“Alright, it’s over,” Himemiya Izayoi extended her hand and turned his body back. “Go on, go on, this miko wants to ride a dragon!”

She pushed Minamoto Kiyomoto, and the two of them, like high school students playing, walked towards the breakwater.

“My bones are also spirit bones, even if I die,” Kamibayashi Miko followed behind, insisting inexplicably.

“A beauty in bones,” Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head back to praise, then said, “I just don’t know if my bones will still be handsome after I die. I hope you won’t dislike me then.”

Arriving at the breakwater, Minamoto Kiyomoto faced the sea, sat cross-legged, and held the remains of the red and black evil dragon that he had borrowed from Kamibayashi Miko.

He adjusted his breathing and glanced at the two of them, “I’m going.”

“Go on, go on, good luck!”

“Be careful.”

“Yes.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto closed his eyes, and his thoughts sank into the sea.

It was difficult for an ordinary person to quickly enter a state of cultivation. All kinds of thoughts, wild thoughts, could not be controlled.

But for him, ending a fantasy was as simple as crushing a cigarette butt with his hand.

After entering meditation, he first took the views that he had accumulated in the depths of his mind and, like pieces of a puzzle, put together all that could be put together.

The so-called epiphany was actually an accelerated version of this. Facing a puzzle that he was at a loss with, he suddenly got an idea and quickly finished a part of it.

After digesting the experience of the competition and learning the method of the Shinto religion to manipulate the remains of the “Underworld Demon Dragon,” the time had come.

“Divine Power Transformation Curse”!
The remains of the red and black evil dragon were activated by the curse, letting out a ferocious dragon’s roar. A dragon-shaped red and black divine breath slowly overflowed.

Minamoto Kiyomoto suddenly opened his eyes, opened his mouth, and sucked the dragon-shaped divine breath into his mouth.

Kamibayashi Miko subconsciously took a step forward, about to reach out to stop him.

Himemiya Izayoi also reached out and grabbed Kamibayashi Miko’s wrist.

“You don’t believe him?” Himemiya Izayoi’s usual playful and angry expression was gone, and there was only a faint smile on her face—it was not a smile that expressed emotion.

Kamibayashi Miko glanced at her and pulled her hand back.

“What exactly is your purpose?” she asked.

“To find possibilities,” Himemiya Izayoi looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto.

There was no wind tonight, but the clothes on his body were rustling, and his bangs were flying.

A fierce collision between the black divine power and the red and black divine breath.

The three conditions of the “Divine Power Transformation Curse” were to possess the remains, suppress the capacity, and have the strength to control.

After the red and black evil dragon died, most of its capacity dissipated, leaving only the most primitive and indestructible part in the remains.

Just this part, some Kosen who were just making up the numbers might not be able to suppress.

As for Minamoto Kiyomoto, this was even simpler than ‘walking a thousand meters to Kamibayashi Miko’s house to borrow the remains’.

But even if he suppressed the capacity, the third step—controlling the yokai’s strength—was even more difficult for him than paying off his debt in one go.

So he changed his strategy from the second step. He didn’t suppress, but fused.

The capacity of the red and black evil dragon silently gushed out, soaking every cell in his body like magma.

A yokai’s capacity was a part of the will of heaven and earth. The red and black evil dragon’s capacity was the manifestation of the Hakone volcano.

In the face of this power of heaven and earth, Minamoto Kiyomoto’s capacity was very at ease, letting the magma splash and fly, but still as unshakable as a mountain.

He wanted to suppress this will, and only needed to move a thought, but to fuse, he had to do something ‘like a person jumping directly into molten iron-like rock’.

What was to come would always come. His expression was calm, and his capacity began to melt. The black magma dripped into the magma.

“Hiss!” A sharp pain immediately came.

It was even more painful than a person’s hand pressing on a red-hot iron pot!
A person’s instinct subconsciously made Minamoto Kiyomoto want to take his hand away, but he endured it.

“Transform the mountains, rivers, and the great earth into my true self, and transform my true self into the mountains, rivers, and the great earth!” The curse he had obtained from the Shinto religion was recited rapidly.

The capacity continued to melt, and the great pain was like a huge wave, coming one after another, each wave stronger than the last.

Tough will, profound curses, and all kinds of knowledge, these condensed into the final dam, preventing Minamoto Kiyomoto from losing consciousness.

Outside, Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi saw him sweating profusely, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Just by looking, they could feel the same, as if they were watching a person smash their own fingers one by one, and their hearts would also ache.

As the capacity dissolved and completely mixed with the magma, Minamoto Kiyomoto gradually could not feel the sharp pain, but a sense of suffocation immediately followed.

He was dying in the cruel flood, struggling in pain.

He held onto the vent near the ceiling tightly, begging for the fresh air outside.

However, the air he inhaled from there was so dry that it almost caught fire, and it burned his throat.

Water and thirst, cold and heat, the senses that should have been opposite, attacked him in unison.

He now had two choices.

One, push open the iron net on the vent, jump out, and declare failure;

Two, wait for the flood to rise, and in the suffocation, pain, and burning, try to become one with the red and black evil dragon.

Minamoto Kiyomoto recalled why he had come to this point today, gasping for breath at this vent.

Going to Hakone, on the ‘Romancecar’, under the momentum of the Kosen, he couldn’t even move a finger;

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, in the aftershock of the Kosen’s battle, he was no different from a conch attached to a rock. His fate was in the hands of others, and he was powerless.

Anyone, as long as they freed their hands, could kill him at any time.

And Kamibayashi Miko’s powerful divinity, Himemiya Izayoi’s unfathomability.

Minamoto Kiyomoto not only had the self-esteem of a man, but also his own arrogance. It was either the first, or he would not do it at all.

The will was like a fire burning. Not only was it the reason of the red and black evil dragon, but he himself was also burning!
He didn’t say it, but his self-esteem had been suppressed for too long.

Minamoto Kiyomoto turned around and kicked the vent, then plunged into the depths of the ocean of divine breath.

“Heaven and earth are of the same root as me, and all things are one with me!”

In the real world, on that face that was enduring pain and suffocation, Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi saw a sense of recklessness, and even tragedy.

Kamibayashi Miko wanted to make a move, but it was already too late.

In the sea breeze, the black divine power and the red and black divine breath had long since become indistinguishable.

Now, there was only waiting, waiting for Minamoto Kiyomoto to succeed, or… for Minamoto Kiyomoto’s capacity to disappear, and his body to become an empty shell.

Arrogant, domineering, and conceited!
These emotions of the red and black evil dragon were about to dismember Minamoto Kiyomoto.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s will had also disintegrated, and he had long since lost his main consciousness. Stimulated by the red and black evil dragon, his will was like a barrel of explosives whose fuse had burned out, and it exploded with a “bang.”

He was more arrogant, he was more domineering, he was more conceited!
The first wave of the red and black evil dragon’s offensive did not even last a second under his counterattack.

The second wave, still a second;
Minamoto Kiyomoto’s wills became even more furious, as if they were even more furious than the first time that the other party dared to provoke him twice.

“Kill, kill, kill!” He had lost his ability to speak, and only had the most instinctive expression left.

The third wave, still a second;
The fourth wave, more than a second;
The fifth wave, two seconds;

The one hundred and thirty-first wave, half an hour;

The red and black evil dragon was panting, extremely weak.

While relying on the remains to absorb the divine breath to recover, it stared at Minamoto Kiyomoto’s dim capacity, like looking at a hedgehog that had been pried open with bare hands.

It was unknown how long had passed. Maybe the day had already broken, or maybe only a minute had passed. Minamoto Kiyomoto’s will finally began to weaken.

The fury began to subside, the will became negative and low, and reason also began to return.

Why am I here? Is being strong really meaningful?

Wasn’t the previous life good? If I cultivated properly, couldn’t I become a Kosen?
If I die, what will my mother do? I haven’t held Kamibayashi Miko, and there’s still Himemiya Izayoi…
Minamoto Kiyomoto suddenly woke up!
His capacity was extremely profound, so he almost died at the hands of his own arrogance and conceit.

The red and black evil dragon began to swim, looking for a place to bite. Its strength was gradually recovering.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s will was still weak. He formed a wisdom mudra with his hands, just as Shakyamuni had attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and a python had blocked the rain for him.

“The green bamboo is all the dharma body; the lush yellow flowers are nothing but prajna.”

He entered a state of clarity.

Humans, nature, even the evening dew on the flower petals, the night rain on the green leaves, the morning chicken and the evening crow, the summer insects and the autumn butterflies, the green moss on the pond, the yellow oriole under the leaves, were no longer irrelevant or opposite, but the shore that was closely connected to the soul, his companion to eliminate arrogance.

The red and black evil dragon pounced and bit him. Minamoto Kiyomoto let it bite.

This time, it was not just pain. His will was also dissipating bit by bit.

The originally blazing divine power around his body gradually withered. In the end, under the gaze of Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi, only a thin layer was left.

Minamoto Kiyomoto finally couldn’t bear it anymore. At this time, he was like the capacity of the red and black evil dragon, the most fundamental and indestructible part of all capacity.

Damn the unity of heaven and man, damn the enlightenment!
The will counterattacked with a palm, high above, as a matter of course, and the red and black evil dragon was instantly slapped away.

The scattered divine breath instantly gathered in the distance.

“Roar!” It roared at the sky and swooped down.

Minamoto Kiyomoto slapped again, but this time it only sent it flying. He had already lost the strength to continue to resist.

“You want to stay in the bones forever? To be ordered around by people all day?” he cursed loudly.

The red and black evil dragon circled above his consciousness. Its hundred-meter-long body was still winding.

“Heaven, earth, and man are not one at all! But they shouldn’t be distinguished by whether they are human or not!”

“Listen, we are the same kind!” Minamoto Kiyomoto roared.

“You, leave this place and continue to soar in the heavens and the earth!”

“I, use your power to control my own destiny!”

“The two of us will never be looked down upon by anyone or anything! We will never let anyone or anything be above us!”

“Cooperate with me, let’s rush out together!”

What responded to him was a roar from the red and black evil dragon, and then it swooped down.

A strong wind swept through, and a heat wave wrapped around his body. His will was blurred.

The weak Minamoto Kiyomoto had already lost his ability to think, and only had something called instinct left—if he had to die, he would die standing!
Dead silence.

The sea of capacity, which had been fighting fiercely just now, was as dead as if it had died.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the red and black evil dragon that had stopped in front of his nose. Its scarlet eyes were like two huge glass walls, reflecting his entire body.

“What’s going on?” Kamibayashi Miko looked at the black divine power that was no longer disappearing and was gradually stabilizing.

At this moment, Minamoto Kiyomoto’s divine power was like a bean-sized oil lamp. Any gust of wind would extinguish it.

Himemiya Izayoi slowly revealed a smile. The mirror that was about to appear behind her head disappeared into the void again.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s originally almost stopped breathing became stronger and stronger. In the end, between inhaling and exhaling, it even caused a vortex and an air wave.

He inhaled, and a visible cyclone appeared on the entire beach;
He exhaled, and a strong wind suddenly rose, and the waves were blown back.

A powerful force poured into his limbs and bones. The qi in his body boiled, and a strong impulse was about to rush out of his throat.

“Ah—” Minamoto Kiyomoto suddenly opened his eyes and roared at the sky.

A series of air waves, with him as the center, pushed out in all directions.

The roar became louder and louder, and in the end, it actually turned into a passionate dragon’s roar.

The entire Shodoshima began to shake, and the rise and fall of the seawater lost its regularity. A tsunami was about to strike.

When Ayako arrived, she only heard a “boom.” A black light shot up into the sky and flew into the stars in a blink of an eye.

“Where’s Kiyomoto?” she quickly asked the two of them.

Kamibayashi Miko didn’t say a word and turned into a golden light, chasing after the black light.

“Aunt Ayako, let’s go and see too,” Himemiya Izayoi said to Ayako with a smile.

“Was that Kiyomoto just now?” Ayako asked, and without waiting for Himemiya Izayoi’s answer, her body flew into the sky.

Himemiya Izayoi quickly caught up with the two of them, because they had stopped on the clouds and were looking into the distance.

“Hahaha!” A series of wild laughter and a series of dragon roars.

The clouds seemed to have become a sea. A red and black giant dragon would sometimes break through the waves, and sometimes plunge into the deep sea, riding the clouds and the wind.

The capacity of the red and black evil dragon was also roaring, letting out a series of happy sounds, as if it were particularly satisfied with Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Roar—” Another dragon’s roar. Minamoto Kiyomoto stopped and circled above the sea of clouds.

The Milky Way stretched across his head, showing the remoteness, vastness, depth, and mystery of the universe.

He saw the countless bright stars shining, swaying with the cool summer night wind, as if they would fall if he were not careful.

He was excited, thrilled, and even had a sense of happiness, as if he could reach out and pick the stars, and if he closed his eyes, he could hear the words of the immortals.

He roamed among the stars, and light was at his fingertips.

Heaven and man as one!

Endless divine breath, like a dam opening to release water, poured into his body.

“Roar!” The next moment, the state of heaven and man as one was immediately interrupted.

The capacity of the red and black evil dragon sent a will. It did not like the stars, only volcanoes. Anything with fire would do.

Minamoto Kiyomoto laughed loudly, but what came out of his mouth was a series of high-pitched dragon roars.

He didn’t care at all about the heaven and man as one that ordinary cultivators regarded as a miracle.

In fact, heaven and man as one could not supplement the divine power for him, who had turned into a giant dragon.

He could only use the divine breath in the remains of the red and black evil dragon. Once it was used up, he could only rely on the physical strength of the dragon’s body.

If he wanted to use curses in the dragon’s body again, he could only wait for the remains to be recharged next time.

That was also enough. It could allow him to fight against a Kosen.

Minamoto Kiyomoto let out a roar, swooped down, and when he flew out of the sea of clouds again, he was already carrying his mother, Kamibayashi Miko, and Himemiya Izayoi on his back.

“Kiyomoto?” Ayako confirmed in disbelief.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s chest was about to explode with joy. He couldn’t speak properly and could only carry them, sometimes tumbling in the sea of clouds, and sometimes rushing into the sea.

He was like a trapped beast that had finally been liberated, rampaging to his heart’s content.

“Good boy, good brother,” in the comfortable strong wind, only Himemiya Izayoi’s laughter could be heard. “From today on, you and I will be above ten thousand people!”

When Minamoto Kiyomoto carried them and flew back to Shodoshima, the sun had already jumped out from the eastern horizon, scattering ten thousand golden lights.

Below his feet was an endless sea of clouds, and in the distance was a grassland. In the morning sun, everything was magnificent, sacred, and a beautiful land.

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(End of Chapter)