The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 608 A Hundred Ghosts Parade
"Shout!"

The priest, who had transformed into a Guhuoniao, suddenly let out a shriek and swooped down from the roof like a large, pure white bird, pouncing towards Li Miao.

He is a descendant of the Emperor.

The Shinto Church's practice of keeping so many imperial descendants within Kyoto was certainly not solely for the purpose of cultivating shrine maidens to protect the shrines. These male imperial descendants who disappeared along with the shrine maidens would be brainwashed and become priests.

They are unable to visualize the divine image of Amaterasu, nor can they shoulder the responsibility of protecting the shrine. However, after being brainwashed, they possess a unique advantage in the practice of the Shinto sword technique.

In short, after losing their minds, they become more mentally aligned with the deity they are visualizing. This is why the priests who are visualizing the Ubume do not wait for their companions before swooping down alone.

Whoosh!
A swordsman guarding the palanquin changed his expression and flashed to the priest's landing spot. His crimson hiltless sword sprang from its sheath and unleashed a slash at the priest!
The priest in mid-air also let out a scream and slashed at the swordsman with his sword!

Two streaks of cold light ripped through the air, screeching as they approached, about to collide.

At this moment——

"Get out of the way, don't get in my way."

With that lazy, dismissive sound, a powerful whooshing sound that almost ripped the swordsman's eardrums suddenly rose from behind him!
"!!!"

His swordsman's instincts forced him to retract his sword strike, and despite the excruciating pain of his torn tendons, he twisted his body and desperately lunged to one side.

Bang!
A muffled thud sounded overhead.

He quickly looked up and stared in disbelief.

The priest who was about to fight him and was visualizing the Ubume had disappeared. Following the trajectory of his attack, a blank cylindrical object, about ten feet square, pierced through the eaves and the human body, and finally turned into a huge cloud of blood mist that spread out in mid-air dozens of feet away.

He suddenly turned his head to look behind him.

Li Miao dismissively withdrew his hand.

"You think you can just turn into a bird and jump right in front of me? Who gave you the courage?"

He then turned to the stunned Sai Haruaki and said.

"What are you doing standing still?"

“Ah, ah.”

Sai Seimei closed his mouth and looked at Li Miao.

Now, he had no doubts left.

The realm of the five paths in one is far beyond that of all martial artists and swordsmen of the present day, and is only about the same as that of Amaterasu, who has not appeared in the world for two hundred years!

To all the Japanese present, Li Miao's casual strike was like a myth reborn!
Sai Seimei now understood that he no longer needed to worry about the Shinto priests who came to intercept them... His job was to lead the swordsmen to guard the palanquin where Nanako was, and prevent the Shintoists from taking advantage of the situation!

"Don't worry about your surroundings, just follow me!"

With a roar, Sai Seimei drew a short sword from under his wide robe, rushed to the sedan chair, gathered the swordsmen to lift it together, and followed behind Li Miao.

"She's quite sensible."

Li Miao withdrew the protective energy that had been supporting the sedan chair with a single gesture, and walked forward with his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

"Shout!"

"Ouch——"

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

Various roars echoed from the rooftops on both sides as more and more royal priests completed their transformations and began to roar fiercely at Li Miao and the swordsmen in the middle of the road.

"hiss--"

Sai Harumi glanced at the rooftops on both sides and gasped in shock.

"Three-wheeled rotation - Jorogumo".

"気楽流——Earth Spider."

"Buchengliu - flesh man."

"Oishi Shenyingliu——Black Tomb..."

With just one glance, he took in dozens of different gods... or rather, monsters, all renowned in Japanese legends.

While practicing the Divine Sword Technique wouldn't actually transform the priests into the ghosts, skeletons, or spiders of mythology, the unique nature of their imperial bloodline made their transformation far more thorough than that of ordinary swordsmen. Beneath their pristine white priestly robes, their bodies had already taken on various twisted and grotesque shapes.

"A hundred, a hundred demons..."

Sai Harumi heard a swordsman behind him mutter intermittently.

"A hundred ghosts parade in a daytime..."

Sai Haruaki breathed a sigh of relief.

The legendary nighttime gathering of a hundred demons, a scene that existed only in ukiyo-e prints, has now come to life before my eyes.

This is the essence of Shintoism.

Each priest represents the highest level of a divine sword technique, a powerful figure worthy of the title of "Sword Saint," and they are densely distributed among the priests.

Sai Haruaki turned his head to look ahead.

The pale-faced man, draped in a dark black cloak, strolled leisurely with his hands behind his back, as if enjoying a spring outing, under the watchful eyes of countless gods.

"This is the Heavenly Demon."

"This is Li Miao, the Heavenly Demon who is on par with Bodhidharma, who ended the Age of Gods, and Sanfeng, who sealed Amaterasu!"

"Without him, Japan would not have been able to escape the control of Shintoism even after a thousand years. Today, we will die together at the hands of Shintoism... Our previous calculations were wrong."

Sai Haruaki gritted his teeth.

He made a decision.

"Even if the Emperor successfully ascends the throne, even if the chaos ends and things are restored to normal, Japan must never be his enemy!"

Li Miao, who was walking slowly ahead, was naturally unaware of Sai Seimei's inner thoughts. He continued walking slowly towards the direction of the Imperial Palace, even having the leisure to look around, observing the priests who had transformed into monsters as if he were visiting a zoo in his previous life.

"Oh, another Guhuoniao... I wonder if it knows Tiger Thrust, Hook Star, Blood Drip... Oh right, it probably can't be used with a katana, it needs a spear."

"Jorōgumo... how come he's a man? Ugh."

"Aoandon, Tamamo-no-Mae, Miketsu, Yuki-onna... they're all men transformed, tsk!"

"Where in the world is there a snow woman with a bunch of chest hair! Being beaten up by An Qisheng all night wasn't as damaging as this one glance!"

Li Miao frowned and raised his hand to deliver a slap.

Bang!
With a muffled thud, the "Snow Woman" along with several priests and monsters beside her were shattered.

But this palm strike also served as a signal.

"Roar!!!"

The priest, whose head was deformed and whose body was short and thin, suddenly roared and leaped down.

Like a curtain of rain falling, like dark clouds rising, the gods leaped high, their dense figures obscuring the sunlight, rushing towards Li Miao and the sedan chair.

In the shadows, Li Miao's lips curled into a smile, and he flicked his hand upwards with two fingers!
The protective aura, like a giant wave, roared and surged upwards.

--------

at the same time.

It is 150 miles away from the Emperor's Palace.

Ise Grand Shrine.

The once peaceful shrine was now in extraordinary turmoil.

"Roar——"

The humanoid figures dressed in priest and shrine maiden robes roared, drool dripping from their mouths, and pounced on the nearest person, tearing them apart with all their might.

It resembles the city of Tai'an from back then.

In the chaos, in a dark corner unnoticed by anyone, Ji Tianrui chuckled and splashed out a handful of Gu worms. Then, with a flash, she silently passed through the shade of the trees and headed towards the core area of ​​the Ise Grand Shrine.

(End of this chapter)