Survive with the beautiful girl

The ghosts here should have been completely defeated by the protagonist Hinasaki Shinku during her exploration.

“Since no ghosts appear, let’s go directly to the location of the Yellow Spring.

Jianzi, take a look at where the resentment is heaviest."

Chapter 363: Rope-Splitting Ritual and Human Nature

Yotsuya Kenko rolled her eyes at Liucheng in annoyance, but she still obediently blinked her bright yellow eyes and looked around the ruins.

"If you do this, won't you destroy all the information about the ceremony?"

The four of them walked and talked as they searched for the entrance to the underground tunnel where the "Yellow Spring" was located. It was undeniable that Liu Cheng's act of directly destroying the dilapidated old house did make them feel very safe.

"What's so worthy of in-depth research into such a cruel ritual? It would be best if it disappeared into the dust of history."

Liu Cheng curled her lips. The ceremony held by the Himuro family to seal the "Yellow Spring" once every ten years is called "Rope Breaking". The Rope Priestess who is responsible for sacrificing her own life to seal the "Gate of Yellow Spring" underground was also selected in the last "Dazzling" ceremony.

The general method is that the Himuro family gathers little girls of appropriate age in their family to play the ghost tour game with the girl who was chosen as the "Eye-hidden Demon" in the last "Scorching Ceremony".

The first girl caught is considered to have the weakest spiritual power. She will wear a special mask that blinds her eyes and become the next "Eye-hidden Demon". The last girl caught is considered to have the strongest spiritual power. As a rope priestess, she has been brainwashed by the priests since childhood about her duty as a priestess to sacrifice her life to seal the "Gate of the Underworld". Ten years later, on the day of "Disaster", the rope priestess needs to purify herself and perform the extremely cruel "rope splitting" ceremony.

The so-called "rope splitting" is to tie each Rope Priestess's head and limbs with ropes, and then use a turntable to tear her body apart...

The spiritual power of the rope priestesses who endure extreme pain before death will be enhanced to an extremely powerful level. The priests performing the ceremony will tie the ropes soaked in the priestesses' spiritual blood together with the "Divine Mirror" they worship to the "Gate of the Underworld" to seal it.

In this way, this cruel ritual was performed from generation to generation. The only thing worth mentioning was the "sacrifice" of the Himuro family who chose to sacrifice the life of their own daughter to seal the "Yellow Spring".

This cruel and strict ritual will naturally encounter various problems when it is carried out...

The priest imprisoned the shrine maidens for ten years, but released them a few days before the ceremony in an attempt to cut off their attachment to the world...

During the reign of a certain generation of the Rope Maiden before the last one, a samurai who fell in love with that shrine maiden attempted to rescue her from the "rope splitting" ceremony, but the head and priests of the Himuro family were not powerless, and every head of the Himuro family was a master of swordsmanship.

As expected, the warrior's crude rescue operation failed and the warrior himself was killed and turned into a vengeful spirit that lingered near the "Gate of the Underworld". Until the last rope priestess Himuro Kirie, she felt resentful because the stranger she had a crush on was killed by the priest who was worried about affecting the ceremony. At the same time, she had a lingering attachment to the world. The vengeful spirit of the warrior appeared in her dream and told her that as long as she broke the seal of the Gate of the Underworld, she could meet her dead lover...

The last "rope splitting" ceremony failed because of the resentment of the rope priestess Himuro Kirie. Not only did the blood-stained rope with spiritual power break, but even the "God Mirror" was split into five pieces...

The miasma gushing out from the "Yellow Spring" killed most of the Himuro family. In order to prevent the disaster, the head of the Himuro family at that time killed those priests with spiritual powers as human pillars to block the spread of the miasma from the Yellow Spring. He used the fragments of the "God Mirror" to set up a barrier and then committed suicide to make himself the last human pillar, sealing the miasma in the Himuro family's area.

What follows is the story of the folklorists who came here to "die", the magazine editors who came to the Himuro residence to collect materials, and the Hinasaki siblings.

"found it."

Yotsuya Miko's tone revealed joy as she pointed to the entrance of a dark underground tunnel.

They were not in a hurry to go down, but waited for Liucheng to control the airflow to empty the foul air that had been deposited in the underground passage for many years and replace it with fresh air before they went down slowly.

In order to avoid turning back to kill the ghost, Liucheng was commanded by Yuzu to walk at the back, and she pulled Yotsuya Miko to walk in the front.

Compared with other girls, Yuzu Aihara, who had not experienced the baptism of the world of "Bloodborne", was naturally more afraid, but the Zanpakuto in her hand gave her a lot of confidence.

Because she was safe along the way and her brother Liucheng did not do anything to scare her, Yuzi felt anxious and frustrated, as if she had the skills to slay dragons but nowhere to use them.

Everything was safe and sound until they arrived at the gate of Hades where the Himuro family performed the "rope splitting" ceremony.

Shinomiya Kaguya took out all the high-powered lights she had and turned them on, placing them in the four corners of the underground cave.

Liucheng carefully avoided the corpse of the young man leaning against the Yellow Springs Gate, and carefully looked at the so-called "Yellow Springs Gate" with his hand on his chin.

"What are you thinking about?"

Yotsuya Kenko came forward and spoke in a low voice.

“Is this Yellow Spring Gate real?

Could it be that the ancient people were superstitious and regarded the toxic gas erupting from the ground as a disaster rushing out from the "Yellow Spring"?

You choose to sacrifice the witch just to seek psychological comfort, right?

As many priestesses died in the cruel "rope-splitting" rituals here, all kinds of resentment, negative emotions, and gases produced by the decay of corpses accumulated and settled, giving rise to supernatural phenomena.

This "rope splitting" ritual seems wrong no matter how you look at it. Could it be that someone deliberately misled the ancestors of the Himuro family in order to cultivate demons or shikigami?"

The more Liu Cheng talked, the more he doubted the rituals of the Himuro family. He reached out to touch the "Divine Mirror" and wanted to uncover the seal to see the truth of the so-called "Yellow Spring".

"But isn't there a temple in your world that specializes in exorcism? The arrows on Kaguya's body were purchased from his temple..."

Yotsuya Miko refuted Liucheng's guess with some confusion, and Yuzu pulled her back a few steps away from the "Gate of the Underworld".

"Brother, be careful.

Jianzi, you forgot that these "Yellow Springs" originally existed in Kaguya and her friends' world. In our world, if you encounter evil spirits, you can just go to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha. If there are any difficult evil spirits, there will be special "exorcists" to deal with them. "

Yuzu Aihara reminded Yotsuya Miko, and she nervously watched her brother untie the rope that was entangled with the "God Mirror".

"I almost forgot... Xiaoye is active in your world. She has lived for thousands of years, right?

I heard that she has been protecting people from those monsters."

Yotsuya Miko stuck out her tongue and looked at Shinomiya Kaguya who was silently staring at Liu Cheng.

After noticing Jianzi's gaze, Shinomiya Kaguya spoke softly: "This may be related to the decline of spiritual power in our world... In our history, after Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Neon, he discovered that spiritual stones would produce monsters, so he concentrated the spiritual stones and destroyed them.

The ancestor of the Himuro family might be an Onmyoji. Due to the decline of spiritual power, the power of these families has declined, and they have no choice but to resort to this extreme method of sacrifice to strengthen spiritual power to seal the Gate of the Underworld.

This "Divine Mirror" as a magical tool requires spiritual power to drive it, but the ancestors of the Himuro family obviously did not have enough spiritual power, so..."

Before Shinomiya Kaguya could finish her words, Liu Cheng shook her head and interrupted her, "This is not a reason to sacrifice the lives of those women. Think about it carefully. The last head of the Himuro family used the method of sacrificing and sealing the "human pillar" to prevent the spread of the "miasma". Can't this also be used to seal the "Yellow Spring"?

It is only because sacrificing women has the lowest cost, is easiest to control, and is convenient for concealing from the public that it has continued to exist.

Perhaps the original "rope-breaking" ceremony was held... simply because the then head of the Himuro family wanted to maintain the prestige of the Onmyoji family and its dominance over the nearby villages, and was unwilling to seek help from the outside world because of his pitiful face and dignity?

This kind of ritual will always change as it is passed down...

Tsk, human nature."

Chapter 364: Destroying the Yellow Springs Gate

Shinomiya Kaguya was speechless for a moment. Although Liucheng's point of view was a bit conspiracy-theory, it did make some sense.

In the history of their world, there are many powerful samurai and ninjas who have killed various powerful monsters and exterminated various strange and bizarre vengeful spirits in their life experiences.

This comparison makes the Himuro family's act of sacrificing their daughter's life to seal the "Yellow Springs" seem extremely stupid and ridiculous.

"Please stop!"

As if he could no longer bear it, at the moment when Liucheng was about to take off the "Divine Mirror", the spirit of Himuro Kirie, the last rope priestess of the Himuro family, appeared in front of the four of them.

She had naturally heard the three people's comments on the Himuro family just now, and the dangerous aura from Liu Cheng and the others was something she had never encountered before...

However, Liu Cheng's attempt to open the seal of "Yellow Spring" would bring endless disasters to the world, forcing Himuro Kirie to bite the bullet and show her spirit to stop him.

“Sure enough, you’re still here.

Oh, I want to ask something unrelated to this.

Has Hinasaki Mafuyu been accompanying you to suppress the underworld after his death?"

Liucheng stopped what he was doing and turned to look at the poor witch in white.

Even though Hinasaki Mafuyu decided to stay and share the pain and loneliness with her, her spiritual power and willpower were almost gone after nearly fifty years, and Himuro Kirie's spirit body is now almost transparent.

"Why do you ask this? He has been with me in Huangquan."

Himuro Kirie looked tenderly at the body of the young man leaning against the "Gate of the Underworld". When she came to her senses, she was horrified to find that Liucheng had taken the "Divine Mirror" off the "Gate of the Underworld".

“Leave now!?

The miasma gushing out of the door will kill you...

what!

Why...?”

Himuro Kirie's face was filled with disbelief. The thick miasma inside the Gate of Hades, which was strong enough to drive all humans touched by it into madness, seemed to have encountered an incredible air barrier. It rolled helplessly in front of this mysterious man. No matter how it changed its form, it could not invade the outside world.

The spirit of words. A place without dust.

The best way to deal with this poisonous gas is that with Liucheng's current strength, he doesn't even need to chant dragon words. He can just use his thoughts to give orders to all the substances in the field and directly create a vacuum area to defend against these dangerous poisonous gas attacks.

“You can think of this as a kind of Yin-Yang magic. Let me study the composition of these miasma.

Jianzi, is there anything else inside this "Gate of the Underworld"? "

Liu Cheng waved to Yotsuya Kenko, and he extracted some miasma from the Gate of Hades, froze it, and sent it into the dream, leaving it to the main body to analyze.

"Can't you see it too? Why do you need me to come... I'm a very timid person."

Yotsuya Miko said this but still moved closer very faithfully, opening her eyes wide and looking carefully behind the door.

Liu Cheng touched her head and explained helplessly, "My main body is still in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness. The real side of the world that I see may not be as much as what you see."

Yotsuya Miko showed a look of reluctant conviction on her face. She opened her eyes wide and tried to see through the layers of miasma to make everything in front of her clearer.

“It’s the sea, and there are many dead people walking on the sea.

There seems to be a coast on the other side of the sea... Could it be the underworld over there?"

Liu Cheng nodded thoughtfully. The world in Yotsuya Miko's eyes was similar to what he saw. This "Yellow Spring Gate" was more like a passage connecting the world of the living and the world of the dead. It was a purely natural product.

"I'll try and see if the dangers from the underworld will still affect reality after destroying this passage."

Liu Cheng handed the "Divine Mirror" to Himuro Kirie, "If you still want to be with Hinasaki Mafuyu, take this and return to the underworld quickly.

Once this passage connecting the two worlds is destroyed, I will not be responsible for sending you back."

There were lightning and thunder in the dark sky above the Himuro residence, and strong winds were blowing. The accumulated thunderclouds were vaguely condensing into the shape of an eye of the storm towards the direction where the Himuro family was holding the "rope-splitting" ceremony.

Even though she was underground, Himuro Kirie could still feel the majestic power of heaven coming from above.

"Don't worry, my brother is very strong.

As long as we destroy this door, you won't have to guard here anymore, right?

Even if there is a problem, my brother will definitely solve it!"

Yuzu Aihara quickly spoke up to try to persuade her. She was afraid that this priestess would be ignorant and stay in the human world and annoy Liucheng. She was very keenly aware that as her brother became stronger, he was becoming more and more domineering. In the past, he had always been gentle and tolerant of Yumeko's excessive behavior, but now, whenever Yumeko Jabami disagreed with Liucheng, she would obediently follow Liucheng's ideas without Liucheng raising an eyebrow to teach her a lesson.

She didn't know whether Liucheng had done anything to Jabami Yumeko, but Yuzu felt that those contents must have made Yumeko very "satisfied".

Himuro Kirie is not a person without vision, even though her life that truly belongs to her is only the short period before she was seven years old and before performing the "rope splitting" ceremony.

She put down the "Imperial Mirror" very decisively, left a message saying that she would give the "Imperial Mirror" to Liu Cheng in advance as the price for solving the problem of the Yellow Springs Gate, and then she entered the "Yellow Springs Gate" and went to the underworld as a dead person.