I'm a demon in Tokyo!

Chapter 342 The Great Wilderness God Eight-Tailed Fox, Mere Servant! The Effect of the Walking Command Token, the Gaze and Gift of the Inari God.
Ugh?
how so.

The little witch didn't understand; a clear, foolish look appeared in her eyes as she was still in college.

There are truly powerful divine messengers in the shrine, so how could there be anything that we can't get?

—She saw it with her own eyes!

Two months ago, when those terrifying monsters appeared, it was the fox spirits who could fly and burrow underground to protect them that appeared and easily exorcised those monsters.

To her, they could all be considered true gods.

Uesugi Tetsu looked at Fukuda Granny, whose face was covered in wrinkles.

Although this elderly witch looked like an ordinary person, her eyesight was extraordinary.

He smiled and said, "I'm not asking for this for myself, I just want to bring some souvenirs for my friends who are in Tokyo and couldn't come."

He then looked at the little witch: "Excuse me, could you recommend one?"

"Good good!"

The shrine maiden patted her cheeks, instantly putting on a professional smile, and pointed to the items hanging in the sales area for display.
"This is a lucky money charm that can attract wealth, while this is a fox charm that brings good fortune..."

There are also the guardian tablets of the shrine, and personal amulets..."

The little shrine maiden's explanation left Uesugi Tetsu completely bewildered.

He coughed and said again, "Actually, this is my first time buying amulets at a shrine..."

The young shrine maiden, who had originally intended to introduce more of the unique amulets of the shrine, immediately understood. She paused and asked, "Then, sir, may I ask who you are buying this as a souvenir for?"

"Hmm... two girls."

Uesugi Tetsu gestured slightly: "One is about your age, who has devoted herself to kendo and achieved some success; the other girl just graduated from elementary school."

He was referring to Ririko and Chisa, who was about to become Ririko's apprentice.

As for Nanjo-nee... given her terrifying record of single-handedly sweeping away all the demons and spirits in Hokkaido, it would be a miracle if these small gifts sold to ordinary people had any effect on her.

If I actually buy it, she might even give me a thumbs up.

Upon hearing this, the little witch stroked her chin and pondered for a while before taking out two small items.

"How about this!"

She opened her palm.

"One is a shrine amulet to protect your career luck; the other is the little fox statue that I mentioned before, which can bring good fortune. This one is cuter, and little girls like it."

Uesugi Tetsu examined the two items the shrine maiden had taken out and found that the little fox was very similar to the fox phantoms he had seen, except that it only had one tail.

On the other side, Granny Fukuda took out a "peace charm" that few people would ask for at Fushimi Inari Shrine and placed it in Karuta's palm.

The little witch nodded, a bright smile spreading across her face: "Thank you for your patronage, the total is..."

"We're here, we're here!"

Before the priestess could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a two-foot-tall man who was already jumping up and down in a panic, but who was not even as tall as her legs.

When the two-foot-tall man saw her looking over, he finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Lovely priestess, we want a little fox too~"

The little witch was startled and squatted down to rub the two-foot-tall man's small face.
"Guest, is this your daughter? She's only a few years old, but she can already talk so well!"

Er Chi was furious: "I'm a fully grown adult, no doubt about it!"

"Alright, alright, little guest, you're an adult too..."

Having had her fill of playing with her hands, the little shrine maiden then took a small fox and placed it in Uesugi Tetsuya's hand as well.

Two amulets and two little fox sculptures, totaling 6000 yen.

This price is actually quite cheap for a tourist attraction... not to mention that these little items also contain the true power of Fushimi Inari Shrine.

If it were sold to the outside world, even at 60 yen, there would be plenty of buyers.

Seeing Uesugi Tetsu readily pay the money, the little shrine maiden, who had only been working part-time for a short time, suddenly felt invincible.

She rolled her eyes and looked at Yuan Jingshui, who hadn't said much since earlier.

The little witch approached and winked at her.

"Esteemed guest, since you're already here, why don't you buy some amulets or something?"

Although Yuan Jingshui remained expressionless, which frightened her a little, the little shrine maiden still went ahead, relying on her experience of easily succeeding earlier.

After being stared at by the little witch for a while, Yuan Jingshui shook her head.

"I'll forget it."

The little witch took a deep breath, her voice softening considerably.
"It's nothing...why don't you want me to take a look?"

Yuan Jingshui glanced at her indifferently and said nothing.

Instantly, a mountain of pressure fell on the little witch's shoulders, causing her heart rate to spike and cold sweat to pour from her forehead.

"Um...guest, I'm sorry." The little witch couldn't help but bow her head and apologize, "I shouldn't have said that."

"no need to say sorry."

Yuan Jingshui closed her eyes briefly and answered calmly.

"I just... simply don't like it, that's all."

The shrine maiden nodded like a chick pecking at rice, then slowly moved away, returning to the sales area behind Granny Fukuda.

Since they had already bought souvenirs—the light blue amulet was held in Karudo's hand, and the snow-white little fox was taken out of the box by Erchi-sama, who was having a great time playing with it.

Then it's time to leave and move on to other places.

Just before he was about to leave, Granny Fukuda in the sales area suddenly spoke up: "Sir, would you like to stay and watch the Yomi-no-Miya Festival today...?"

"It only happens once a year, so it's a rare occasion."

“Yes, I will.” Uesugi Tetsuya stopped and turned his head to reply.

Grandma Fukuda smiled and said, "Then I, this old woman, wish you all a pleasant time today."

After walking a distance, Yuan Jingshui suddenly spoke.
"That old lady Fukuda is no ordinary person."

Even if she couldn't see any clues, that's what her intuition told her.

"I know."

Uesugi Tetsu nodded, skillfully using his internal energy to transmit his voice.

"It's nothing, it was just a kind reminder, and besides, we're still in the sacred grounds of Fushimi Inari Shrine."

In other words, if the other side wanted to do anything to these insignificant junior officers, they wouldn't need to expend so much effort.

"Too."

Yuan Jingshui nodded: "So what's next? There's still plenty of time until the Yomi-no-Miya Festival starts at six o'clock tonight."

Uesugi Tetsu replied, having anticipated this.

"I'm going to travel around with Erchi and study the matters related to the shrine."

The two-foot-tall man fiddling with the fox pendant: ?

"Okay, see you tonight."

"See you tonight."

With a bewildered young man and Karuta following at a distance of two steps behind, who had taken out a notebook and pen, Uesugi Tetsu began to stroll through each shrine in Fushimi Inari.

In front of each shrine, Uesugi Tetsu would stand attentively for ten minutes, observing intently from a distance. He also made him watch the two-foot-tall man who would be enshrined on a divine throne in the future.

But the latter saw nothing but a large pile of 5-yen coins falling into the cash box all afternoon.

Uesugi Tetsu used his interpretive eye to observe and sense things very carefully, not only glimpsing the [power of faith] that was even more subtle than spatial fluctuations, but also summarizing three patterns.

Uesugi Tetsuya beckoned Karuta to come to the side and, who was temporarily sitting on a stone bench, spoke.
"I said, you remember."

Karudo nodded seriously, turned to a new page in his notebook, and folded the corner to mark the key points.

"Firstly, the more devout the people who come to worship and make wishes, the more power of faith they will emanate."

This is easy to see and aligns with Uesugi Tetsu's consistent understanding.

"Secondly, if these people have a clear object of faith—such as Cangdao…this person, then the power of faith will be greatly enhanced."

Conversely, if one only has faith in the Inari gods, much of the power of faith will dissipate because there is no clear goal.

Thirdly, compared to simply worshipping and making wishes, the power of faith generated when people come to fulfill their vows far surpasses the former two.

"Have you remembered these three points?"

The afterimage of Karudo's small hand slowly dissipated, and she nodded earnestly.

Uesugi Tetsu continued, "Fourth, this is still uncertain—the stronger a person's [vitality] is, the more faith power they generate."

Just as he finished speaking his last word, Karudo's pen stopped.

The speed and efficiency of this recording are undeniably impressive.

Uesugi Tetsu smiled and nodded at her, thus concluding his mission to "observe" the situation.

As for how to build the shrine... to be honest, that's not something an outsider like him could consider.

Professional matters should be handled by professionals.

After that, you can also ask the Special Affairs Department for some information about the power of faith to see if it matches your own objective investigation.

After finishing his business, Uesugi Tetsu looked at the two-foot-tall man whose cheeks were bulging from stuffing himself with iced daifuku dumplings, and tapped the stone handrail with his fingers.

"Erchi, tell me, what did you understand?"

"Mmm..." After finally swallowing the daifuku in his mouth, Erchi-sama revealed a pure smile: "Hehe, no."

Uesugi Tetsu: “…”

He shook his head helplessly, thinking that with Erchi's almost zero level of education, it would be quite good if he could recognize all the characters and master a lot of common sense.

Let's not ask for more and make things difficult for her.

"Fine, you can just be your mascot when the time comes."

"Yes, yes! If Lord Che says to go east, as long as he doesn't say stop, we'll run until our legs break!"

Uesugi Tetsuya had complete confidence in Erchi's execution ability and trustworthiness.

He pondered some small details about the Nisha Shrine.

—If, at that time, the Second Master can place a protective halo around each of her sculptures, the amount of faith power she gains will surely be much greater.

—And what about the “miracle”?

……

Uesugi Tetsu thought about many details of how to increase faith power after the shrine was established, but he was mostly confused and couldn't understand most of them.

However, this harvest was already quite substantial.

Well, Lady Ni-Chi also had a good haul—she ate all the snacks in the entire Fushimi Inari Shrine and shared a lot with Uesugi Tetsuya.

Even though there were many songs, I still managed to get quite a lot by the end of the afternoon, which was quite a treat.

As she observed the situation, Lady Two Feather noticed that Karuta and Uesugi Tetsu maintained a good distance between themselves, which she greatly appreciated.
Seeing that Nissaku had divided the last red bean paste daifuku in half with Uesugi Tetsuya, Kaga Kiyomitsu, who was hanging at his waist, murmured in a dazed voice,
"If only we could eat..."

During this time, there were also realistic slurping sounds, similar to drooling.

Seeing its three owners eat so many novel foods and snacks, it was so hungry!
"It will happen sooner or later, Jia."

Uesugi Tetsu, almost overwhelmed by the sweetness, glanced at Nichi's blissful face and thought to himself, "As expected, people get different when they get old; they don't like sweets anymore..."

Well, having an old mindset is a kind of old age.

Regarding Xiao Jia's Soul Points, once you've accumulated around 2 Soul Ash, you should be able to start upgrading Kuku for him.

The key point is the magistrate in Edo Castle.

If Fang Xiangshi isn't eliminated, even if Uesugi Tetsu sneaks in to farm monsters, he'll be arrested within minutes.

The worst-case scenario is that Fang Xiangshi discovers the spawn point during repeated monster battles—as a samurai demon, Fang Xiangshi's intelligence is by no means low.

If the fountain is truly blocked, then the Edo Castle map will be useless until he ascends to the level of a demon god.

There is no need to lose the big picture for the small.

But in the end, he still didn't become a ghost or god...

Ghosts and spirits! Ghosts and spirits!
Unfortunately... Nanjo Manami went to Hokkaido to eat alone before, and didn't let him come along.

Even if you were just a lackey and an assistant, you'd probably still get at least tens of thousands of Soul Ashes.

But Uesugi Tetsuya also knew that Hokkaido was full of ghosts and gods, strange and bizarre tales, and there might even be tales of wild gods.

Nanjo Manami just didn't say it.

If he goes there, Nanjo Manami will have to be distracted to protect him... That won't do.

But now, the entire Hokkaido area has probably been wiped out by the Special Affairs Bureau. A few hundred or a thousand soul ash points are not as valuable as him going to Edo Castle to beg for money.

Rather than that, let's see what happens at tonight's [Yori-miya Festival].

Uesugi Tetsu breathed a sigh of relief, watching the gradually appearing sunset, and called for the two girls to follow.

When they reached the Senbon Torii gates again and encountered Minamoto Shizumizu, who was eating a half-eaten candied hawthorn skewer, Uesugi Tetsu noticed that she seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.

This feeling……

—It's a change in mindset.

Seeing Uesugi Tetsu staring at the candied hawthorn in her hand, Minamoto Shizumi shook it calmly and said,
"I knew you couldn't eat anymore, so I didn't buy it for you."

"By the way, why is it sour even though it's called candied hawthorn..."

—I'm afraid that Genji Shizumi's swordsmanship will soon be complete.

Uesugi Tetsu suggested, "Then you can lick off the outer sugar coating, but don't eat the inside."

"Waste is bad."

Because they had walked all over the shrine in the afternoon, Uesugi Tetsu easily led everyone to a viewpoint with a high and open view and few people.

As the evening festival approaches, more and more curious people gather along the main approach, but the shrine maidens maintain basic order, and no one steps onto the approach.

The sunlight gradually dimmed, and the sunset faded away.

As night fell, the large red lanterns they had seen during the day lit up one by one, illuminating the entire Fushimi Inari Shrine and Mount Inari.

On the night of the Yomi-no-Miya Festival, Mount Inari is undoubtedly the most eye-catching.

Ten thousand lanterns lit up the mountain, and the ceremony called "Ten Thousand Lanterns Ritual" began with the sound of copper bells and drums.

—During the festival, all mobile phones inside the shrine must be put away, and there must be no flash photography or taking pictures.

This is a warning that the shrine maidens have repeatedly given to every worshipper and onlooker who stays at the shrine tonight.

Of course, not everyone can listen and do as instructed.

But in the realm of gods, how could the little actions of ordinary people escape the eyes of the "divine messengers"?

After the festival began, the bodies of the fox phantoms guarding the shrine that Uesugi Tetsu had seen before gradually solidified.

The first few small, unarmed, one-tailed foxes that appeared caused the cell phones to malfunction.

"Look! Everyone, look!"

"Inari God's messenger! It's a divine messenger!"

A series of gasps erupted from the crowd, but there was no further commotion.

Boom!
Boom!Boom!
Accompanied by a series of rhythmic and deep drumbeats, the fox phantoms standing silently on both sides of the approach, on either side of the torii gate, solidified one by one.

First, there are the most numerous odd and even numbers, and the three-tailed fox.

They stood on both sides of the approach, maintaining order and watching the welcoming procession slowly emerge from the depths of the shrine.

Immediately afterwards, four-tailed, five-tailed, and even six-tailed foxes of the same rank as Uesugi Tetsu began to appear one by one in the eyes of ordinary people, leaving everyone speechless with astonishment.

Even the shrine maidens in many large shrines are like this.

The highest level of sight that ordinary people could see was a six-tailed fox—but the appearance of the ghostly aura had already left them speechless with shock.

Uesugi Tetsuya was different from Minamoto Shizumi beside him.

Not only are there six-tailed foxes, but also a large number of seven-tailed foxes... and even at least two eight-tailed foxes!

Deep within the shrine, two eight-tailed foxes wearing fox masks, whose presence, even from a great distance, weighed heavily on Uesugi Tetsuya's heart, were pacing along the approach, shaking copper bells and performing a mysterious dance.

Aragami!

Indeed, there is an aragami in Fushimi Inari Shrine!
Moreover, they are different from Factory Owner Z; they are not ordinary Aragami.

The two eight-tailed foxes possessed a natural harmony that seemed to blend seamlessly into their surroundings and the world around them.

Uesugi Tetsu remembered what Hoshiguma Doji had told him.

Yes!

These two eight-tailed foxes are the Great Wilderness Gods, Great Wilderness Gods who have received blessings from Mount Inari or the Great Shrine!

That is to say...

Uesugi Tetsu and Minamoto Shizumi's gazes simultaneously fell upon the main hall behind the eight-tailed fox.

The true Inari deity may reside within that one.

The two were so nervous that they even forgot to breathe for a moment.

Even Minamoto Shizumi, who came from the Minamoto family, never saw a real god in his life.

She sometimes even doubted whether the concept of "gods" still existed in this era.

They waited there for a long time, until the two eight-tailed foxes finished their dance and disappeared, but they didn't see any sign of the gods.

At 10 p.m., the grand and lively festival came to an end.

The stunned crowd gradually dispersed, and the red lanterns that had illuminated the entire Inari Mountain dimmed one by one.

Uesugi Tetsuya couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

They waited for another two hours, but still found nothing.

"Is leaving the only option...?"

Before leaving, Uesugi Tetsu thought for a moment, then silently took out his travel token and hung it on his waist.

Then, just one step before they left the shrine grounds of Fushimi Inari Taisha.

suddenly.

Uesugi Tetsuya clearly sensed that a grand and majestic will appeared in an instant, and then lingered on him for an immeasurable moment.

pat.

He looked down.

A four-tailed fox pendant with gleaming golden eyes landed out of nowhere in front of his toes.

(End of this chapter)