novelThe Responsibility of God
| ← Ch.360 | Ch.362 → |
It's the color of blooming flowers. When she walks, you can see numerous flowers of spring.
The cage where she has been held prisoner for more than 400 years has collapsed. The woman who can't be seen clearly takes a deep breath of free air. She is now filled with emotion. Being an unconsolidated shadow means the so-called free space for her is just a wind through... Without any feeling, she cannot know how fresh the air is and how delicious berries are.
But anyway, she can still enjoy freedom, can't she?
"Hey, we had a deal. I set you free and you have to help us defeat Yamata no Orochi." The shadow is just standing there. Lin Luodong sees it and feels extremely anxious.
Her face is like to be covered by a layer of mist. The shadow in a flower dress smiles gently at the two teenagers and then disappears.
After Cui Hejian and others join the battle, Saito Asada's people are losing ground. If he has not received the order from the goddess guarding the mountain, he will not keep fighting now with his belief.
They are in a really bad situation. Saito Asada thinks he will not live up to the goddess's expectations.
A magical bullet takes another shrine servant's life. Saito Asada's eyes are so red and he feels deeply helpless—is there really no way for him to defeat these Huaxia cultivators? Then how can he take over the shrine and become the Grand Priest!
Saito Asada is already crazy. Wen Guanjing can't hold him back and Saito slips away. He rushes to Li Xi'er with his Katana. In the face of danger, he wants to know these seemingly straightforward Huaxia cultivators will choose to save themselves or the ordinary soldiers!
They have been fighting for a long time. These Special Forces guys can attack from time to time owing to Li Xi'er's protection. Seeing Asada Saito's Katana coming for her fiercely, Li Xi'er moves her wrist and sends out" Sting Tip Thousand Needles" of the Gold.
Sharp needles of the Gold suddenly appear around Saito Asada. He forces Li Xi'er to make a choice so Li Xi'er also forces him to choose.
Is killing the enemy more important than protecting yourself?
After years of experience and growth, Li Xi'er is no longer the young girl who had no force to fight back a golden hawk. She will never allow herself to hold "school sister Lin" back, never.
Saito Asada is shocked. He does not foresee this seemingly weak Huaxia female cultivator has such courage. Knowing that she can't do the two things together, she just chooses to gamble?
Then she has made a wrong choice.
Since he was no longer a ridiculous teenager and chose to become a servant of Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, he has devoted his life to god. Saito Asada will never forget that he finally became the Security officer after so much hard work. And then one day, he suddenly felt the power of faith flowing through his body for the first time in the main hall.
That was the response to his devoutness from the goddess.
Some gold needles have been pierced into Saito Asada's body and the sharpness of the Gold spell makes his meridians disordered all at once.
In the meantime, his katana chops on Li Xi'er's magical shield.
Sparks splatter when the gold meets the stone. This is doomed to be a lose-lose situation!
"Asada."
Who is calling him? Saito Asada suddenly stops.
"Asada." The voice rings again like a breeze blowing across the hills and it sounds like the gentle and dignified senior sister he admired when he was young. Saito Asada cannot help but look up.
Her skirt hem is as bright as blossoming flowers. Her body is covered with all colors of Mount Fuji but still looks very harmonious. Saito Asada doesn't even have the courage to look at her face.
"Asada, you are fooled by Orochi but you have always served god with a devout heart. You can be the Grand Priest of the shrine."
The shrine servants and Nihonese cultivators who are mounting attacks suddenly stop. They feel familiar with the shadow floating in the air. It's like they have known this undistinguished woman for a long time and such a feeling always lingers on.
Saito Asada feels the same way. To be exact, he feels it more deeply.
You can be the Grand Priest of the shrine... He suddenly realizes who the woman in the floral dress is—goddess Konohananosakuyahime, the goddess guarding the sacred mountain.
Then the god's sound he has always been listening to is from the monster Orochi?
Saito Asada's katana falls to the ground.
"I don't deserve to be the Grand Priest."
...
Lin Luoran isn't surprised to see a shadow falling slowly. However, the arrogant Orochi under the hard soil layer suddenly becomes very quiet. Lin Luoran can even feel it is trembling.
"You seemingly didn't notice I was there that day. Mortal Heart Fairy, why don't you feel surprised now?"
The shadow's voice is soft and Lin Luoran realizes she is not speaking Nihonese.
"You also know I'm Mortal Heart, don't you?" Though Lin Luoran says so, she still feels very nervous from her originally guessing to the final confirmation. If the sparrow's testimony was true, there must be a flashing bright-colored skirt hem that made those sparrows impressive when the murder and disappearance occurred.
Lin Luoran once thought everything was the masterpiece of goddess "Konohananosakuyahime". However, the statue dug up at the Komaba Park was a monster with eight heads and eight tails. It's impossible for goddess Konohananosakuyahime to gather the power of faith for others. Then it must be Yamata no Orochi which is stealing the power of faith from the goddess guarding the Mount Fuji.
She did not know what had happened between them. At the time, she didn't even know Yamata no Orochi was suppressed under Mount Fuji.
Nonetheless, when she entered the dream and saw the vivid Edo era, the incoherent fragments finally became a complete clue.
Four hundred years ago, Tokugawa Ieyasu did something special when he expanded Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine to help Orochi steal the power of faith. More than one hundred years later, his great-grandson Tokugawa Yoshimune followed his ancestor's wishes and made the falcon hunting area in Shibuya. As a medium, the buried statue of Yamata no Orochi had been absorbing the negative emotions of the army as dark faith nourishment for Tokugawa Ieyasu's dream inside Mount Fuji for four hundred years. It also helped Orochi to gather the power of faith with darkness attribute for four hundred years.
If the falcon hunting area didn't become a peaceful park so Orochi and the dream world both lost the supplemental energy, Orochi would not attempt to lure living people into the dream.
Then maybe she would not come to Nihon and Konohananosakuyahime would not reappear now.
However, according to keen-eyed fire phoenix, this shadow should be just the remnants left by the god when she abandoned the human world. After years of incense, she grows an independent mind and performs duties on behalf of the goddess.
She was imprisoned by Yamata no Orochi in a vicious way. Orochi may think the remnants have completely been wiped out. It will never know that goddess's remnants are still very powerful. She has been hiding her capacities and biding her time just for a fatal blow when she is free.
"After you guys go up there, hurry down the mountain the sooner the better. The volcano will erupt at any time." The shadow raises her hand and those dying Nihonese youths are all sent out of the crater.
Lin Luoran is surprised, "You don't blame them?"
The shadow shakes her head, "Blame? Gods may also make mistakes, not to mention these mortals."
What is blame? As a shadow that just has her independent consciousness, she still can't feel the emotions of mortals. She comes from the remnants of goddess Konohananosakuyahime who is a hardhearted goddess cut off all emotions of ordinary people. Perhaps many years ago, she also knew emotions. However, she only had lofty and mighty mercy when she left those remnants.
Lin Luoran thinks for a while and then she points to a man curling up on a pile of white bones under the volcano wall. It's Tokugawa Ieyasu who is too old to be a man on the brink of death.
"What about him? Do you resent him?"
Lin Luoran can feel Tokugawa Ieyasu's remaining breath disappears when she asks this question. His breathing has always been shallow but now it even becomes imperceptible. He is not suddenly dead but holding his breath when waiting for the answer.
The shadow hesitates for a while."Four hundred years ago, he led people to expand Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine and imprisoned me by changing the structure of shrine. At that time, I didn't like him very much. I couldn't feel at ease whenever I thought of him. Did I resent him?"
Lin Luoran nods.
The shadow sighs, "But I forgive him seeing the way he is now."
Lin Luoran takes a glance at skinny Tokugawa Ieyasu. He moves a little bit and even sheds tears. Lin Luoran can still see it clearly although water vapor evaporates instantly because of the heat of hellfire. When Tokugawa Ieyasu bursts into tears and then passes away, a group of faith light as bright as an incandescent lamp drifts to the shadow and melts right between her eyes.
Is it Tokugawa Ieyasu's power of faith before he dies?
With Tokugawa Ieyasu's strong power of faith which turns from black to white before his death, the shadow's face can finally be seen clearly.
She is a very friendly woman. Lin Luoran never expects that the first goddess she has ever seen is with single-fold eyelids.
Lin Luoran does not get the chance to talk to her again. Orochi now finally tears off its fake fear to the shadow.
"Very good. One with faith, one with godhead... when I take over, I can have it both."
Its shuddering voice is gone and only its complacency remains. The soil layer cracks completely and Orochi's head comes out of the lava.
Lin Luoran frowns. Do Mr. Lin and others withdraw from Mount Fuji? If so, does she still have to fight desperately with Orochi?
Using her personal ability to rescue ordinary Nihonese who she always doesn't like... Lin Luoran is not a mercy goddess. She is hesitant and even thinks it worthless.
Lin Luoran is still hesitating about fighting or leaving as the lava flows over the Water Dome and the volcano is erupting.
At this moment, she sees the woman in a flower dress who has not had her own name yet and just become conscious a moment ago. This woman leaves an extremely beautiful smile with her face covered with a layer of holy soft light.
Her solid figure gradually collapses, reverted to some small light spots of the power of faith.
A little bit by a little bit, the angry lava calms down and solidifies wherever the light spots go. Orochi's laughter comes to an abrupt end.
These are the most holy lights in the world: the power of faith belonging to millions of ordinary people.
Lin Luoran is sent out of the crater by her in the Water Dome. She is completely moved, asking, "Why do you do this?"
The shadow is about to dissipate. Her smile is more beautiful than the dress of flowers."You will know... this is the responsibility of god."
—but you are not a real god. Do you also need to protect the mountain and people at the cost of your life?
Lin Luoran does not get the opportunity to ask this question.
Everything has been settled.
The mushroom cloud over Mount Fuji doesn't explode as expected and Mount Fuji does not collapse. Without rising volcanic ashes, no one can imagine what happened a moment ago.
The last residual god of Nihon is gone with Yamata no Orochi—
| ← Ch. 360 | Ch. 362 → |