Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 594 Old acquaintance
I 'borrowed' a car from the governor's garage, and with Zhou You in tow, I stepped on the gas and headed straight for Fushimi Inari Shrine.

It was already late at night, and even in a place like Kyoto, there weren't many people on the streets. Only the police and Onmyoji on night duty were still patrolling—these guys still hadn't given up on capturing Zhou You!

The car entered a two-way street, and a checkpoint was set up not far away. Several policemen waved the car down and were about to come up to ask questions when they suddenly noticed the car's license plate.

The next moment, everyone stopped what they were doing.

The driver rolled down the window, and although he was smiling, his arrogance was unmistakable.

"This is the governor's car. What, you want to check it too?"

The police officers looked at each other for a while before pushing out an unlucky guy, who said with a forced smile.

"I'm so sorry, we really didn't see clearly at this hour. Is there something you need, Your Excellency, to come out so late?"

The other person rolled their eyes in response.

"Is there anything the governor needs to report to you? He's taking a nap in the back seat right now. Should we wake him up and let you guys know?"

And so, all the smiles froze on their faces.

Those assigned to stand guard late at night are already considered unpopular within the bureau; if they were to offend such a high-ranking leader...
With jobs so hard to find these days, and having finally managed to secure a government job, they certainly don't want to be fired and unemployed.

Fortunately, the other party did not hold it against them. They waved and asked them to move the roadblocks before driving into the night.

The few policemen left behind, sweating profusely, looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.

Sitting in the back seat of the luxury car, until the figures were out of sight, Zhou You finally spoke.

"Well, you managed to fool me again. How many is this now?"

When facing Zhou You, the arrogance on his face disappeared, replaced by a fawning smile.

"Sir, this is the seventh checkpoint—actually, it's not difficult. We're all just poor, low-level laborers. Who would want to offend someone of this caliber? They all cower at the sight of the car model, then at the license plate number, and finally, when I take a little tough stance and intimidate them, basically no one dares to pursue the matter."

Faced with such boastful words, Zhou You simply shook his head and didn't reply, instead looking out the window.

—It seems that some kind of celebration is being prepared, and Kyoto is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations everywhere. Even the martial law cannot hide the festive atmosphere. —However, Zhou You always felt that in this bright light, there was a subtle and indescribable sense of unease slowly floating around.

"Hey bro."

"Sir, please go ahead."

How much longer until we get there?

The doorman answered immediately.

"There's about an hour left. There are too many roads blocked now, there's really nothing we can do."

"Can it be quicker?"

The doorman was silent for a few seconds, then spoke hesitantly.

"It's possible, but the road conditions aren't great. And if we take a shortcut, we probably won't be able to use the governor's position as a shield anymore. Is that alright with you?"

His reply was only four simple words.

"sorry to bother you."

After receiving Zhou You's affirmative reply, the other party immediately sped up, almost charging ahead, even breaking through two checkpoints, and finally reduced the time by half to arrive at the main hall of Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Looking up, all I could see were vermilion torii gates stretching inwards, seemingly without end – this is a famous tourist attraction in Kyoto, known as the Thousand Torii Gates, which stretch for several kilometers.

Normally, Fushimi Inari Shrine is open 24 hours a day, and you can see tourists taking pictures even in the middle of the night—but because it is closed for maintenance, there is not a single person to be seen here at this time.

In the darkness of the night, only a deathly and eerie atmosphere accompanied it.

After getting off the bus, Zhou You immediately smelled that odor.

It was greasy, rotten, and stank like a swamp.

The doorman, who got off the bus with her, smiled shyly and suddenly whispered something.

"Mr. Mori, I still need to clean up what happened earlier, otherwise the police and the Onmyoji will be here soon."

It was obvious that this guy didn't want to go in with Zhou You at all, and he was making up all sorts of excuses.

Of course, Zhou You didn't expect any help from such an ordinary person, so after nodding, he walked directly to the inside.

To be fair, the road is perfectly normal, the lights are very bright, and at first glance there seems to be no problem.

However, the further they went in, the stronger the stench became, until at a certain point, Zhou You suddenly stopped.

Looking inside, there was only an ordinary torii gate, no different from the others in front and behind.

Zhou You closed his eyes, then made a fist with his left hand and tapped it lightly.

That was like knocking on a door—

When I opened my eyes again, the scenery around me had changed completely.

A hazy mist swirled around, obscuring any torii gates or shrines; all that could be seen was a landscape of craggy rocks.

Although he had never been here before, he had a strange sense of familiarity with the place.

"Is this the path to the underworld?"

Scooping up a cloud of gray mist with my palm, it looked extremely similar, but its essence was completely different.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhou You finally shook his head.

"I've always heard that the underworld is divided into several regions, each ruling its own area. I never imagined that other places would become like this. Could it be..."

Before he could finish speaking, his hand suddenly reached out to the other side.

The next moment, a sharp screech rang out.

From within the thick fog, a monster with a human head and a bird's body was forcibly pulled out. Even though Zhou You had held it down tightly, it still raised its head high, wanting to bite Zhou You.

Zhou You looked at the deformed monster but didn't say anything. He simply snapped its neck, threw it to the ground, and stomped it out.

"The only thing that hasn't changed is—it seems the whole world is just as rotten."

Things are simple after that.

Everything was done according to Zhou You's strengths: killing and hacking his way through, until finally he fought his way back from the torii gate to the main hall.

But after the whole ordeal, instead of feeling relieved, he was even more puzzled. —Speaking of which, this should be the sect's headquarters, right? He's caused such a ruckus, why hasn't a single person come out yet?

With doubt in his heart, he looked around.

The surrounding area is mostly filled with various Japanese shrine buildings—which is quite normal, as Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of Kyoto's iconic landmarks. However, compared to the exquisite elegance of the outside, this place looks as if it has been ravaged by a gale, with hardly any intact buildings to be seen.

Even the stench of decay dissipated considerably here.

He casually crushed a menacing, clawing human-faced object that was attacking him—in Japan, these things are called tsukumogami, but despite bearing the name of a god, they are extremely weak—then he propped up his chin, looking somewhat worried.

"This place only says it's in the Great Society, but it didn't mention entering the Underworld. How am I supposed to find it?"

Admittedly, he knew some feng shui, but this was different from divination; it was essentially based on the principles of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements. And the Yellow Springs Underworld...
—Damn it, all I see is yin energy, how am I supposed to find the fundamental principles?

Just as he was scratching his head, he suddenly saw another tsukumogami approaching out of the corner of his eye.

These things are like mosquitoes on a hot summer night; they're endless and impossible to kill. You wipe out one wave, and another one pops up from who-knows-where.

He sighed, just about to draw a yellow talisman to give these guys a bigger blow—but then he suddenly realized that the thing didn't seem to be coming towards him.

Interesting. Are they scared of me after I killed them?

Since he couldn't find the place anyway, driven by curiosity, Zhou You temporarily put aside his impatience and slowed his pace to follow the swaying cabinet.

Before long, as they turned a corner, it was as if a floodgate had been suddenly opened, and the stench of blood immediately assaulted their senses.

—A corpse lay on the ground.

—A dozen or so corpses that looked very fresh.

These corpses were all dressed in pure white robes; judging from their appearance, they were likely Onmyoji (yin-yang masters) from Kyoto.

But then a problem arises: weren't these guys chasing me like madmen? How did they end up here?
On the other side, the cabinet seemed to have been starving for a long time. The moment it saw the corpse, it eagerly opened the cabinet door, revealing its writhing internal organs, and greedily and frantically devoured the leftovers on the ground.

Zhou You had never been able to stand these things. He cracked his knuckles, just about to smash the thing to pieces.

But that's it.

Accompanied by a series of coughs, a deep red flame suddenly lit up and then smeared the face of the tsukumogami!
—Oh, there are still living people?
Unfortunately, the flame was very weak, and the cabinet quickly struggled out of it. Although it was charred in patches, it was clear that it was not fundamentally damaged.

And after this failed raid, it was time for it to come to its doom.

It opened its massive jaws, revealing a remarkably human-like smile, then slowly dragged a blood-soaked body out of the rubble, ignoring the other's struggles and roars, and was about to devour it—

The next second, it was punched straight through from top to bottom.

Zhou You shook off the sawdust and bloodstains from his hands, looked at the body, and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Hey, isn't this that Onmyoji kid from before? What's with you, giving up being a policeman and coming here? Oh right, I remember your name is... what was it again? Junji Ito?"

"It's Shinichi Domoto." The young Onmyoji coughed up blood, then looked at Zhou You in disbelief. "Thank you for saving my life. By the way, it seems you know me. May I ask who you are?"

"You don't recognize me? We met not long ago... Oh right, I forgot."

Zhou You took out a Guan Gong mask and put it on his face.

"Look, you should recognize this person now, right?"

Unexpectedly, upon seeing the mask, Domoto Makoto froze for a full ten seconds before scrambling to his feet and preparing to fight Zhou You to the death.

"So it was you! Damn it, it's all because of you that I'm in such a terrible state!!!"

A few minutes later, without much effort, Zhou You easily subdued the frantic Shinichi Domoto.

At this moment, he sat on a rock, looking at the young man who had been covered with yellow talismans and was now lying on the ground like a corpse, and then said knowingly.

"So it was because the attempt to capture me failed, and your shikigami severely injured me, that the higher-ups thought you were a complete waste, so they sent you to a garbage department that everyone hates and everyone despises, to investigate cults?"

"It's not as bad as you make it out to be." Having been punished by the iron fist several times, Shinichi Domoto had given up resisting; he could only sigh repeatedly. "It's just that I really don't have much fighting ability anymore, so until my shikigami recovers, they found me an easy job to do temporarily."

"Let me ask you this: how did you manage to wipe out the whole team with this 'easier job'?"

Upon hearing this, Shinichi Domoto's face immediately turned ashen, as if his father had died.

"Originally, we were just following orders to investigate and didn't need to directly confront them—but a few days ago, for some reason, the higher-ups went crazy and insisted that we go to Inari Shrine to clean up some wandering cultists, and as a result..."

"—When we arrived, we found that we hadn't seen a single believer at all. Instead, we had fallen into a trap and been dragged to this godforsaken place?"

Shinichi Domoto was truly stunned.

"How do you know it?"

Zhou You rolled his eyes.

"Just guessing. This development is too cliché. Even a novice could guess it."

Seeing that the other party didn't have any valuable information, Zhou You tore off the yellow talisman on his head, patted his butt, and decided to continue on his way.

Unexpectedly.

He had just stood up when he was pulled back by Shinichi Nadomoto.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Go find that cult, what else would you be doing there?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Shinichi Domoto looked at him as if he were a madman.

"Do you know where this is?! This is the Land of Eternal Fall, the place abandoned by the goddess Izanami. Don't think you're safe alone, even Yin Yang-head and his entire guild won't get away with this—you stop right there. I've already notified my superiors, and reinforcements will be here soon. You'll come with me then."

No, isn't this guy a bit too naive?
Zhou You looked at the young and handsome face and vaguely recognized a hint of a Japanese male protagonist. He finally realized what was going on. But just as he was about to give the other man a whack on the back of the neck to quiet him down, the man suddenly tilted his ear.

Then, he looked directly at Shinichi Domoto, who was pulling him along and refusing to leave, and suddenly asked a question.

"Hey you, did you feel anything?"

The other person looked completely bewildered.

"What's that noise? I didn't hear anything. No, could it be the erosion of this eternal ruin, as we were taught in school?"

Zhou You ignored him completely, instead tilting his head back, closing his eyes and carefully sensing for a while, before suddenly laughing.

"Really, after going around in circles for so long, there's actually someone to guide us."

(End of this chapter)