You say this is a love game?

"Has he escaped from the crevice, or is he still inside it?"

"He shouldn't be able to leave the cracks..."

Makoto Mizutani was analyzing Kurosawa Ryohito's past performance.

The most intuitive thing is that Kurosawa Ryohito is guiding him to open up the gap.

In the early days, Kurosawa Ryohito provided him with a lot of information. While acting as a worldview commentator, he also gave him a task - to prevent the cracks from eroding the present world.

It is precisely based on this standard performance of the righteous camp that Mizutani Makoto's suspicion of Kurosawa Yoshihito has always been limited to suspicion. Before he was sure that Kurosawa Yoshihito really stabbed him in the back, he had a considerable degree of trust in what Kurosawa Yoshihito said.

"He's destroying rifts too?"

"At the same time, he is also preventing the cracks from eroding the real world..."

Let's say he's Yajimazu's accomplice, but his actions seem to be trying to deceive Yajimazu...

"Either they had a falling out, or Old Black has turned over a new leaf."

"But judging by Lao Hei's disappearance, he's most likely fallen out with Yashimazu and is now planning to be the culprit himself..."

I have a hunch.

The next time he meets Kurosawa Ryohito, he might become a celebrity.

Mizutani Makoto stood up and looked up at Kagura Hokorin who was floating in the air.

"This hokorin has to be kept here."

This is a very troublesome thing.

When he tried to sit on the fire to refresh, the hoko bell would automatically return to his inventory. This was actually the second time he put the hoko bell up. The condition for using this hoko bell was that he really had to not sit on the fire and endure for two days.

This is very strange.

He could only leave the Hokorin here and treat it as an idle call.

"When I left to explore the map just now, no one came to touch this hokorin."

At least, I don’t have to squat here all day.

Mizutani Makoto glanced at Hokorin who was still counting down and could only shake his head helplessly.

Then, the souls he can obtain will be limited.

Mizutani Makoto went to electrocute all the fish in the refreshed swimming pool and collected nearly four thousand souls again. Now the souls he had on hand once again reached over ten thousand, not counting the [weak souls] and [ordinary souls] in his backpack. If all these souls were squeezed out, his soul number would probably reach seventeen or eighteen thousand.

He took a look and saw that his current spiritual power was 38.

It is considered to be relatively strong among the top ones.

"Save it for a while."

"Souls are still somewhat useful in the living world, so there's no need to rush to get them... It'll take two days to crack Hokorin. If I squeeze in during these two days, I should be able to clear the map of the Rift. Then I'll see how many souls I need and take them from my backpack."

"By then, I will be able to reach the spiritual power limit of the rank."

"As I need a combined-level spirit core to upgrade from a paper rank to a combined-level, then I should also need a combined-level spirit core to upgrade from a combined-level to a strong-level."

"Do you still need one? Or do you need more?"

Now, Mizutani Makoto has witnessed the gap between the strong rank and the parallel rank, and also has a vague premonition that the path from the parallel rank to the strong rank is probably much more difficult than the path from the paper rank to the parallel rank.

"But Tang Shizi's spirit core is very compatible with Chidori...Miss Furuya also gave Chidori the advice she needed to digest it."

The absorption of spiritual cores has always been about "compatibility", which is also related to the issue of absorption efficiency.

Of course, Mizutani Makoto would not intercept Chidori's resources. Besides, the future will be dealt with in the future. Now he must strengthen the combat power at hand.

"I still have a Slit-Mouthed Woman's spirit core on hand. It's enough to keep it as a backup."

Mizutani Makoto calculated the resources at hand.

The boy continued to be active in the crevice for a while, killing all the monsters in the teaching building and the cafeteria. Finally, he returned to the vermilion torii gate under the cherry tree and chose to log off on the spot.

Jingle bells~~

Jingle bells~~

In mid-air, the Kagura Hokorin sounded automatically without any wind, making a clear and crisp sound.

Kurosawa Ryojin stood on the rooftop of the teaching building, looking quietly at the cherry tree.

Kurosawa Ryojin, a former exorcist.

In the early years, the circle of exorcists was still in a stage of wild development.

At that time, the department in charge of the overall situation was not called the "Exorcist Association", but the "Onmyoji Bureau" which had been passed down from ancient times. The Onmyoji Bureau was an orthodox government agency that only recruited powerful Onmyojis. The entire agency probably had only a few hundred people and did not care about the weak exorcists in the opposition at all.

The Onmyoji Bureau, the Onmyoji family, and wild exorcists, this was the structure of the exorcism circle a hundred years ago.

At that time, the only options for wild exorcists were to fend for themselves, or to join a powerful Onmyoji family and become their "subjects."

Kurosawa Ryojin is such a wild exorcist.

In this world, most exorcists cannot pass the threshold of the rank.

But Kurosawa Ryojin was different. He grew up in the countryside and relied on his decent talent to become a mid-level exorcist in his forties. With such a level, he was definitely considered a talented person with special skills according to the standards of the aristocratic families, so he was naturally chosen.

But this guy, Kurosawa Ryojin... he has a quirk.

He likes "scams".

He thought he would be an idle savage all his life.

Until, he met Soichiro Hiiragihara.

26-year-old Soichiro Hiiragihara is the 42nd head of the Hiiragihara family.

He had heard of the Hiiragihara family, a prominent family with a thousand-year-old heritage. Its inheritance was almost cut off eight hundred years ago, but it restored its glory six hundred years ago and became a local noble lord surrounded by a group of Onmyojis. It guarded the spiritual vein of Night Lantern City for eight hundred years.

A thousand-year-old family, just hearing about it is fascinating.

Kurosawa Ryohito had even forgotten what kind of mentality he had when he defected to the Hiiragihara family. Perhaps he happened to pass by here and wanted to play with this thousand-year-old family, or perhaps he was curious about what kind of person the head of this thousand-year-old family was... In short, he went to meet Hiiragihara Soichiro.

This was the only time he showed his loyalty to Soichiro.

He has been a con man all his life, and the only person he is willing to entrust his trust and loyalty to is his lord, Soichiro.

It was difficult for Kurosawa Ryohito to describe the feeling that Soichiro gave him, but Soichiro was like his confidant, or a close friend who was extremely compatible with him. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had found a soulmate in the mountains and rivers, and he also felt that in addition to "scams" in life, there were other things worth his happiness.

He was placed in the private Hiiragigaoka Academy.

Soichiro is the head of the Hiiragihara family, and is in charge of several Onmyoji families. In Soichiro's eyes, an Onmyoji like himself is at most an elite, but is far from being a confidant or a strong man. However, Soichiro is so open-hearted with him, so he is naturally deeply pleased and works for Soichiro even more wholeheartedly.

During that period, the two people Soichiro trusted most were him and a monk named "Gufeng Yiyun".

Soichiro and the monk were planning a "solar eclipse".

As one of the insiders, he was also an important executor of this plan.

Soichiro assigned many steps to him.

After realizing that Soichiro trusted him more than he trusted Gufeng Yiyun, his mood suddenly became cheerful, and even his usually strict attitude towards students improved a lot.

He brought the ghost bear under restraint.

He buried all the dead students under a deep pit for Soichiro.

He even started the fire.

In his confession to Makoto Mizutani, he was also "lying".

What Kurosawa Ryojin and Mizutani Makoto said was indeed a mixture of truth and falsehood.

He said, "A few days before the fire, someone was secretly hiding in the gymnasium." That person was himself. He also said later that he wanted to "wait for a while," so he did not lie to Makoto Mizutani about hiding in the gymnasium.

He also said that he found "someone hid a large amount of gasoline in the gymnasium", which was true, but he was the one who moved the gasoline in, and the gasoline was indeed moved away later. He moved it to another place and set the entire private Hiiragiyama Academy on fire.

He was indeed in the gymnasium when the fire broke out.

This was not to stop the fire from burning, on the contrary, he wanted to ensure that the fire was ignited smoothly... To this end, he stuffed the girl who discovered the situation in advance into the locker room, and even the resentment of the girl in the gap was created by him.

However, he also died in the fire.

It was not until the entire gymnasium was burning, the entire private Hiiragiyama Academy was set on fire, and he was trapped by an entire barrier when he should have escaped from the school, that he finally understood one thing - he had been deceived.

As a liar who deceived countless people, he was ruthlessly deceived the only time he was loyal.

It was not until the moment before his death that Kurosawa Ryohito finally regained consciousness.

Why is he so obsessed with Soichiro?

Why is Soichiro paying so much attention to him?

The reason is that they are both the same kind of people.

Soichiro Hiiragihara is also a con man who is proficient in "cheating techniques".

Unlike himself, Soichiro was deceiving everyone...his wife, children, subordinates, and even himself.

Perhaps it was because Soichiro saw through his nature as a "liar" that he paid so much attention to him.

He and Soichiro were indeed kindred spirits who had met too late.

But Soichiro's attitude towards him was nothing more than one liar's contempt for another liar.

The so-called seeking a soulmate among the mountains and rivers was all fake. Soichiro just looked down upon him with contempt, as if he was watching a clown performing.

"I'm going to kill him."

He really enjoyed the process of deceiving people.

Weave a wonderful lie with your own hands and fool others.

He had deceived people into losing their families and separating them from their wives and children. He had also deceived his peers and even fooled monsters... But when the fact of being "deceived" fell upon him, Kurosawa Ryohito was almost madly angry.

His value was denied by Soichiro.

Everything about him as a "liar" was trampled under the feet of Soichiro and mocked harshly.

The resentment, along with the flames that he had ignited with his own hands, burned fiercely in the cracks, and he wandered in a daze for decades.

Until three years ago, when Soichiro suffered a severe blow, the entire Rift was in turmoil and was almost destroyed. He took advantage of Soichiro's weakest moment and was finally able to turn the situation around. After usurping the authority of the Rift, he began to plan until today.

"Will he be there?"

The place where Makoto Mizutani is now known as Kagura Hokorin is actually the location of the "God's Egg".

This is the place where Kurosawa Ryohito has always been unable to pass.

Three years ago, Kurosawa Ryojin usurped part of the authority of the rift, but there are still places in this rift that he cannot go to. One is the school building, and the other is the location of the "God's Egg" blocked by the roots of the cherry tree controlled by Soichiro.

Soichiro must still be alive.

That's why the roots rejected him.

For three years, Kurosawa Ryojin could only vaguely sense the status of the God's Egg through the connection with the rift. He had also guessed whether Soichiro had merged with the God's Egg, but that path had been blocked, and he had no chance to go to the root system to check.

All he could do was seal the gap.

What is happening in the cracks cannot be discovered by the outside world.

One reason was that he was psychologically traumatized by the attack from the gods three years ago, and he was afraid that someone would do it again.

The second is that he is "fighting alone"... Soichiro must have his own family in the outside world, whether it is the Hiiragihara family or the Yajima family. Once the door of the rift is opened to the outside world, those who rush into the rift will definitely be Soichiro's helpers, which he cannot accept.

There is also a crucial point. The God's Egg is still very weak. On the one hand, he has to find a way to kill Soichiro to prevent Soichiro from resurrecting with the help of the God's Egg. On the other hand, he has to wait for the God's Egg to recover on its own... These two are even somewhat contradictory. Soichiro must be killed completely before he can execute the step of taking over the God's Egg.

Therefore, Kurosawa Ryohito was unwilling to see the gap connected to the outside world.

He had previously urged Mizutani Makoto to destroy the crack door with this in mind.

"How long will it take for the God's Egg?"

"One month, or two months? Or longer?"

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

Everyone is chasing time.

The crack is constantly eroding the real world. As long as the soul is still wandering in the real world, this crack will sooner or later cover the real world... By then, the end will be irreversible.

Kurosawa Ryojin has too many things to consider. He is even considering how to deal with Mizutani Makoto...

"You have to be here, Soichiro."

He looked under the cherry tree.