Why can't humans do it too?

No wonder these humans look shorter.

Wouldn't a burly man like me stand out like a crane among chickens if I walked into the city? How could I possibly sneak in?

Suer fell into deep thought.

"How about using magic to transform into a cute little boy?" Floating beside Suer, a faint lightbulb appeared above Xinke's head. "Suer, your appearance has always been my type—delicate and refined—so it won't feel out of place at all, right?"

“Thank you, but it’s not necessary at all.” The moment Xin Ke finished speaking, she rejected the foolish suggestion and began to look around for anything she could use.

"What about petite girls?"

"The problem isn't about gender at all! Wake up!"

Xin Ke's subsequent supplementary suggestions were also met with ruthless resistance. Although she had toned down her behavior a lot after falling in love with Su Er because of his personality and values, Su Er was still troubled by the occasional strange thoughts that Xin Ke revealed. He really couldn't imagine how complicated the games between normal forest elves must be.

"Why don't we all go into my gap and move in through it? That would be quite discreet, wouldn't it?"

“Thank you, but no need,” Sull rejected outright without even considering Yukari Yakumo’s suggestion. “Besides, hiding isn’t difficult. The point is that I want to talk to the people in the city without being noticed.”

Suer wasn't foolish enough to trespass into someone else's territory; who knew what Yakumo Yukari might do in the gap?

"How about we knock some people out and bring them out for questioning?" Yuuka Kazami offered a constructive suggestion.

"Won't the management find out? Won't it cause a commotion?"

“Ah, there’s no need to worry about that at all. The disappearance of individual humans is not within the scope of concern of those gods and deities… Wait a minute,” Yakumo Yukari suddenly raised an eyebrow, as if she had remembered something, “Perhaps it is within their scope now… After all this time, even I don’t know what Yamato has become.”

“…What do you mean?” Suer looked at the blonde banshee whose words were full of meaning.

“Perhaps I don’t need to say anything more. Aren’t we already outside the city?” Yakumo Yukari said with a smile, slightly turning her body and extending a hand. “Let’s just go in and take a look.”

"..."

That smile undoubtedly stemmed from the nature of the monsters, a smile that yearned for chaos and fun.

Suer ultimately chose to disguise himself by draping a crudely made burlap sack over his body and sneaking around with a cane and a hunched back.

Even though they are youkai, Yakumo Yukari and Kazami Yuuka are both female youkai. They unanimously rejected the plan to disguise themselves in such an ugly way, and simply hid their forms, leaving the negotiation work entirely to Sue.

It is said that the city gate was blessed by Amaterasu, the goddess of the sea. Therefore, Suer and his party did not choose to enter through the main gate, but instead chose a secluded corner and climbed over the city wall.

The so-called deserted place was only relative to the city. At least when Suer landed lightly on the ground, he found that it was quite lively in front of him.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Choice

He saw a group of dwarfs threatening another group of dwarfs.

The only way to describe that style of clothing is to describe it as a wrap. The color is also more vibrant than the others. A sword is hanging at the waist. The leader, a dwarf whose status is clearly higher than the others, is holding another dwarf wrapped in burlap clothes by his hand.

It was clear that he had tried very hard to lift the other person up with one hand, but unfortunately his strength did not support him to do such an arrogant thing. The other person did not resist at all, even though his face was red from suffocation because he was choking on his breath. The feeling of suffocation was not easy to bear no matter what.

However, the person whose neck was stuck instinctively avoided the person who was holding him while struggling with his limbs, as if touching him would be a sin... or perhaps it was an instinctive fear?

"Damn it! Where's this month's blood?! Why haven't you handed it in yet?!" Perhaps realizing how embarrassing his inability to lift himself was, the leader of the dwarves slammed the person he was holding to the ground and roared, "Do you want to be sent to be a potion maker, you bastard?!"

Coughing violently, the little man, who had finally gained the right to breathe but hadn't even had time to catch his breath, covered his neck and tried to explain, but all that came out of his mouth was a continuous cough. Fortunately, at that moment, someone who was probably his companion spoke up for him.

"But sir, this month's amount has already been paid, hasn't it? Riga really—"

"Please don't send us to make medicine, sir!"

Before anyone could finish explaining, the coughing dwarf had already prostrated himself on the ground and started banging his head against it repeatedly. In just a few seconds, the ground was stained red.

"Damn it! What are you doing?!" The leader of the dwarves, who had also noticed the red, became even more enraged. "Don't waste it!"

As he spoke, he yanked the dwarf who was crawling on the ground up and then gestured for his men to come forward and catch him.

With a flash of cold light from a sharp weapon, Suer and the others saw red liquid flowing down the arm of the ragged dwarf. It was so thick that it hardly looked like blood. Compared to its owner's disheveled appearance, the blood resembled a string of heavy gems, rolling above the skin until it dripped into a vessel that the leader had taken from his waist.

It didn't take long for the leader of the dwarves to scrape away the last bit of blood from the arm in front of him, and then he let out a heavy snort and shook him off.

No one could escape this process. Soon, those ragged people were curled up on the ground, clutching their arms, and remained motionless.

The leading dwarf raised the vessel filled with blood to his ear with satisfaction and shook it slightly. Hearing the pleasant sound coming from the vessel, he finally smiled. However, this smile disappeared when he saw the people lying on the ground.

"Don't let me hear your weak words again! If we anger the gods, we'll all die! Go!" With that fierce threat, the dwarf leader swaggered away, surrounded by his men.

They had been standing to the side since the beginning, seeing the whole scene clearly, but no one present noticed. Suer and his companions watched as the group of people swaggered away.

"Blood?" Sull asked, turning his head to Yakumo Yukari, puzzled by the series of actions he had just witnessed.

“Hmm… it’s blood, or some kind of special energy extracted from humans? It’s not just blood,” Yukari Yakumo frowned in thought. “That’s strange. Has the situation deteriorated? At least it wasn’t like this when I last came to Yamato…”

The word "squeeze" alone sparked a flurry of speculations in Suer and Xinke's minds, none of which were positive.

"Because of that curse? The curse of Oyama Tsumimi God?", speaking directly from inside Su'er's body, Xin Ke forcibly pinched the jawbone of a person curled up on the ground, making him lift his head.

Even her breathing seemed extremely weak. If she hadn't realized this the moment she applied the force and eased her grip, Xin Ke would probably be holding a head in her hand right now.

"Well, none of my previous descriptions were exaggerated. To be honest, out of respect for the power of the gods, I had already toned down my words quite a bit," she said with a standard fake smile. It was obvious that the respect for the power of the gods in Yakumo Yukari's words didn't carry much weight.

Whether it was the Heavenly Grandson whose name was ridiculously long or his descendants, those gods whose bloodlines became increasingly impure after the first generation and after multiple interbreeding, they gripped any rope they could find in order to survive the curse of lifespan.

[Frantically searching for something that can resist the curse and prolong one's life, frantically practicing methods that would be considered cruel even among yokai... Similarly, that is also the root of human suffering under the rule of Yamato]—These are the original words that Yakumo Yukari once said.

Were they conservative all along?

“…Let’s go and see what’s going on. I’m a little curious,” Sue said, much calmer than Yukari Yakumo had imagined.

“If we’re going to the place where they’ll send the blood, there’s no need to rush. I’ve already figured out what’s here during my previous explorations… But Sull, are you really sure which side you want to stand on?” Yuuka Kazami asked with a smile, standing in place as Sull, who hadn’t followed her forward steps.

"...What will happen to them?" After a moment of silence, without giving an answer to the question, Suer simply turned his body slightly, his gaze sweeping over the people who were curled up on the ground, stiff as corpses despite being bathed in the winter sun.

“If it were a few years ago when I last came here, I would have answered you that they are the property of the gods and deities… or tools. It doesn’t matter what you call them. Anyway, you will protect your property, right? Like that bamboo house? Or repair the worn-out tools so that they can serve you for a while longer…” Yakumo Yukari’s smile remained unchanged.

"What now?"

"I don't know," Yakumo Yukari answered frankly and decisively, a troubled expression on her face. "After all, a tool is just a tool... there are always new ones, aren't there?"

"..."

Speechless, even Suer didn't know what to say about this fact. He could only turn around and walk in the direction where the group of people had left. His semi-transparent soul separated from his back, and Xin Ke was watching the blonde banshee who had asked the question.

"He's only on my side."

Chapter Twenty-Five: "The Ant Nest"

To be honest, when I first arrived outside Yamato City, I looked down on the gods and their descendants there.

After all, even with immense power, the land he lived in was so small, and the people he ruled crawled like weeds. The entire country was devoid of any vitality or life force, instead appearing lifeless like an old man in his twilight years.

Despite never having lived a single day in this Yamato country, Suer found himself strangely able to understand the thoughts of those short people—where else could they possibly escape to?

Tangible and intangible, illusory and real, cruel and hungry... countless demons lurk on the land outside the city, on the mountains, and in the rivers, waiting for their lost prey.

However, now, perhaps Sull should apologize for his thoughts outside the city.

The city of Yamato was not small; in fact, it was even larger than Suer had imagined.

It's just underground.

"Initially, it was just about opening up the dungeons beneath the city. However, what should have been an addition expanded at an astonishing rate over the centuries, to the point that in the end, the city on the ground became more like an add-on," Yukari Yakumo recounted as she led the way, sharing the history she knew.

"Is it because the ground is too dangerous?" Su'er asked casually, observing the surrounding scenery.

If you were to pour molten aluminum into a fire ant's nest, and then wait for the boiling aluminum to cool down before digging it out and washing it clean, you would be deeply amazed by the wonders the fire ants have created. At the entrance to the nest, there are towering mounds of soil that seem as magnificent as mountains to the fire ants, but they are nothing compared to the kingdom they have dug underground, just like the Yamato Castle on the surface and its underground parts, whose main structure has been turned upside down.

“Of course not,” Yakumo Yukari chuckled, surprised by Suer’s words. “I do know an interesting theory—that the grandson of the heavens chose to ignore the cities on the ground and focus on digging underground in order to avoid the gaze of Amaterasu Omikami, since the underground cannot be illuminated by sunlight.”

"But isn't that his grandmother?"

"Yes, that's why we need to avoid it even more."

Kazami Yuuka raised a question, and Yakumo Yukari easily provided an answer, seemingly saying nothing, yet saying everything.

That born god, Ten'er Qizhi Guo'er Qizhi Tianjin Hidaka Zifan Nenger Yiming, was probably also feeling guilty... He chose to descend to the mortal world at the behest of his beloved grandmother, but ended up like this.

However, it was only a turn back.

"It's just one perspective. The ruthlessness of the gods may be beyond the imagination of the youkai, but for me, I do tend to agree with this perspective," Yukari Yakumo added frankly, seeing that her words seemed to have prompted others to think.

"Is it possible that it's related to the Underworld?" Xin Ke, who was also observing this underground city and whose city had a completely different style from the goblin city, suddenly asked, "For example, is the Heavenly Grandson hoping to get a way to lift the curse from the Underworld?"

Xin Ke's conjecture is also related to the unique shape of this world. It is not flat or overlapping, but rather divided into three layers: Takamagahara, Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, and Yomi no Kyoto, distributed from top to bottom in this order. Then there is the Milky Way, which appeared suddenly from top to bottom without even the gods of Takamagahara knowing when it happened, connecting this world.

“Of course it’s possible, but wouldn’t that bring the problem back to square one?” Yakumo Yukari seemed to have been waiting for Shinko’s question for too long. She turned around and pointed to the direction above her head, the direction of the solidified Milky Way.

This underground city is huge, but in contrast to its size, it is empty. Normally, such a huge city should have a population that matches it or even be more densely populated. However, Suer has not seen many humans along the way.

Yes, the well-dressed humans are probably the true inhabitants of Yamato. Their status and lifestyle are significantly higher than those of the humans in the city walls and the naked humans outside the city.

Suer had already seen the group of humans who had left earlier, carrying the collected blood. In this underground city, they hunched their backs, which had been raised to the sky when they were on the surface, trying their best to appear more humble.

Standing before the gate leading to a deeper underground realm, Yakumo Yukari said solemnly, "...What the next few people will see may be the greatest secret hidden by the Yamato Kingdom. If the gods discover this, it won't be something that can be resolved with kind words..."

“If they can do it,” Yakumo Yukari’s suggestive words received the expected reply. Sue simply said this calmly, then walked past her and pushed open the iron door.

The demonic energy, gathered like clouds, swirled at the very top of this layer. It shifted and twisted, displaying different appearances, yet it did not represent any particular will. It was demonic energy, but it was not the same as the demonic energy of Yakumo Yukari and Kazami Yuuka. Even Sue could sense its strangeness, like salt grains of the same size mixed into a dish of white sugar. They were similar only in appearance, but tasted completely different—yet it was indeed one.

It can be described as a contradictory and bizarre creature even among yokai.

Perhaps for the residents living on this floor, it's just an ordinary day, like the rising and setting of the sun and moon. But for first-time visitors, it's an unsettling experience of stepping into a foreign land, with every inch of their skin protesting and wishing they could wrap themselves up.

The dense and strange demonic aura proclaims an intangible concept—a strange entity mixed with the concept of divinity—is it really a demon?