Chapter 1

It was around five or six in the afternoon.

The sunlight wasn't quite as scorching, but the leaves on the roadside trees were still drooping.

The dust on the ground radiated stifling heat.

In a small lane that students passed on their way home from school, an old man sat on the ground with a few small items in front of him. He looked very old and lonely. Not many people passed by, but there were a few. For some reason, whether they were men or women, old or young, they all seemed to ignore the old man.

The old man didn't seem to care. He just puffed away at his dry tobacco pipe.

Suddenly,

a shadow fell over him.

Finally, a customer stood before his stall.

It was a monk, but his head was not branded with the precepts. He wore a black cassock and wooden clogs, and looked at the old man with a smile that was not quite a smile. He put his palms together, bowed slightly, and spoke in Japanese, "It's been a long time, layman."

The old man's dim eyes stared at him, then looked away, and said:

"Son of the Motegi family, why have you come here?"

The black-robed monk sighed and replied:

"I didn't want to come either."

"But something happened to Oyamatsumi-no-Kami (the god of mountains). His daughter, the goddess of Mount Fuji, has died. Oyamatsumi-no-Kami is very angry and summoned many mountain gods to his shrine. But for some reason, many of the mountain gods he summoned were also killed soon after."

"Even some famous and historical shrines have been slaughtered."

"Even the Yasukuni Shrine was scorched by a mountain wind carrying flames, and some of the spirits of the enshrined war gods disappeared. Officially, it's being called mismanagement, but I've been there. It was deliberately destroyed. Many of the war gods' spirits even had limbs left behind, discarded on the ground, almost as a demonstration and mockery."

"The head priest was found dead in the shrine, having committed seppuku, his head missing, the scene bloody and terrifying. To be honest, it was a bit disgusting."

"This is a big deal, so it alarmed the great gods."

"Amaterasu Omikami (the sun goddess) divined that the cause comes from Shenzhou (China), so I took this opportunity to come here to find you."

A flicker of emotion crossed the old man's eyes, and he said slowly:

"Couldn't Amaterasu Omikami foresee why the killer acted beforehand?"

The black-robed monk shook his head simply and said, "No, or rather, there was no reason."

"No reason?"

The black-robed monk nodded, thought for a moment, and casually plucked a leaf, explaining, "It's like we reach out and pluck leaves and flowers. It's important to the plant, but we don't care. Do I hate this plant and want to pluck its leaves? No. Am I doing it for profit? No, either."

"I'm just picking it casually. There's no thought process behind the action."

"The person who acted is the same. He doesn't care about hatred or profit. It's not a conclusion reached after weighing the pros and cons or careful consideration, so his killing is also extremely pure... even majestic. It's the kind of killing that doesn't need a reason, as if he's bound to do it as soon as he appears there."

"This behavior is so natural that it doesn't need a reason."

The old man couldn't help but ask, "...Were there no survivors?"

"Yes, that's one of the reasons why I came to Shenzhou."

The black-robed monk said, "The only survivor is a six-year-old child with Shenzhou blood. She was separated from her parents at the time and saw the murderer at the shrine, but she couldn't describe the person's appearance in detail. She only remembered that he seemed to have helped her get a balloon that had flown into a tree."

The old man was silent for a while, then said, "I see."

He tapped the ashes from his dry tobacco pipe on the stone slab and said:

"Shenzhou has indeed undergone many changes during this period. Be careful when you come here."

The black-robed monk asked, "Actually, I don't understand. Why have you stayed here for decades?"

The old man's eyes were cloudy. He glanced at him and said faintly, "This is the only one of the four major divine systems from the Age of Gods that has been completely passed down. This land is full of treasures. The Buddhist sect found new possibilities here back then, and then they encroached on our homeland, giving Shintoism a chance."

"At that time, Buddhist temples had armies and were even more powerful and prestigious than ordinary daimyo (feudal lords)."

"Now a new era is coming. This is an opportunity, a great opportunity. We are born in this era, so how can we easily let it go?"

The monk frowned and said, "But Shenzhou is too dangerous here. Aren't you worried?"

The old man chuckled and said, "Dangerous? Shenzhou is indeed vast and has a deep foundation, but now it is only the first stage of the spiritual qi revival. Only a hundred years have passed since the spiritual qi began to rise on a large scale. The number of true cultivators on this land is still limited. Perhaps this is the disadvantage of having too much land."

"They can only maintain general stability now, but it's a bit stretched when spread out to each city."

"I don't need to face the strongest cultivators in Shenzhou."

"I just need to be careful and not let them find me."

"So I won't use our Sakura Island's divine arts. I just find those buried artifacts in this land, and then scatter them, so that evil spirits can be bred on these artifacts, creating hidden 'calamities' one by one. When the time is right, as long as these 'calamities' are detonated, it will bring a great trouble to Shenzhou."

"That's what they say, 'A thousand-mile dyke is destroyed by an ant hole.'"

"Besides, I also have the protection of the gods, so everything will be safe."

The black-robed monk and the old man's gazes both fell on the delicate geisha doll. The monk put his hands together in front of his chest, bowed slightly, and said:

"Yes, with the protection of the gods, you will definitely be safe and sound. The shrine is still waiting for you to go back and preside over it."

The old man did not answer.

He had wandered on the land of Shenzhou for more than fifty years, never daring to think about stepping out of Shenzhou.

It was okay for him to hide with these antiques, and he could move quietly, but once he planned to transport these Shenzhou antiques out, it would attract a direct search from the Special Operations Team, and might even attract inquiries from a Zheng Yi Dao (one of the main Taoist sects) cultivator who had been granted the Five Thunder Talisman.

The old man skipped over this topic and looked at the god, and said:

"Our country has eight million gods. In this era, we will definitely be able to create glory."

"All things have spirits. For the general public, they are only dealt with by fabricated myths, but do you know why our country has eight million gods?"

The monk came from a famous family and knew a little about the truths hidden in history, but not much. He gestured for the old man to tell him. The old man first respectfully worshiped the divinity residing in the doll, and then slowly began to tell:

"This is the real mythology, and it is also history."

"In the beginning, there was no distinction between gods. All the gods were originally one. Their divinity converged into a divine tree that connected the heavens and the earth. The divine tree connected Takamagahara (the plain of high heaven) and its roots reached deep into Yomi (the underworld). It was incomparably great, and all the gods were nurtured and slept in this divine tree, never having been to the earth."

"Then one day, a majestic divine eagle descended from a distant country."

"The many gods in the divine tree shouted loudly and ordered this divine eagle."

"They ordered the divine eagle to use its sharp claws to tear apart the roots of the divine tree; ordered the divine eagle to tear open the tough bark; ordered the divine eagle to break off the towering branches. The divine tree was too great, and the divine eagle's blood dripped down, but finally it was slowly torn open with cracks."

"And at this time, the many gods worked together and finally emerged from the divine tree, constantly pushing each other and rushing in all directions. The constantly emerging divinity was like a rain of light that sprinkled on the country, falling on bridges, on trees, on wolf packs. Those that fell on the bridges turned into bridge maidens, those that fell on the trees turned into wood spirits, and those that fell into the wolf packs turned into mountain gods."

"The rain of light lasted for three days and three nights, with eight million raindrops falling, so all things had spirituality and the basis to become gods, forming eight million gods."

"In the end, the gods who finally gained freedom for this reason danced, but the divine eagle was reluctant to leave. So the gods used wisdom and bravery to finally subdue the divine eagle. They ordered the divine eagle to leave quickly and never come back, otherwise they would definitely kill it."

The monk was thoughtful. He knew that the divine tree in the legend should be the original divinity from which the country was born. He curiously asked:

"Then why did the divine eagle never appear in mythology again?"

It was not the old man who answered, but the delicate geisha doll, and the divinity attached to it, its tone ethereal, calm, and indifferent: "Because it died."

"Died?"

"Defying the gods naturally brings divine punishment. It died long ago."

ps: Second update today... two thousand seven hundred words~