You say this is a love game?

An idea gradually formed in Mizutani Makoto's mind.

After he had contained the battlefield of this attack, the spirit cores that exploded from it allowed him to directly achieve the freedom of paper-level spirit cores. Now his reserves were astonishingly terrifying.

"Squeak!"

Mizutani Makoto was thinking when he suddenly heard a slight cry.

He turned around, but found only a dug hole in the corner of his home.

"Iron Rat?"

Mizutani Makoto walked over with curiosity on his face, bent down and checked the hole dug by the iron rat... In the hole, Mizutani Makoto found four pink and purple spiritual flowers.

This looks like...Shuyuhua?

【Violent Jade Flower】

Description: A rare pink-purple spiritual flower, grown in a land rich in spiritual energy and vitality, it has a unique fragrance that brings a refreshing and refreshing feeling. Now imbued with the violent aura of the spiritual vein, its potency has become even stronger, but also more difficult to digest.

"...!"

Mizutani Makoto stretched his neck and looked into the winding cave, but he could see nothing.

"Thank you."

He said something, and the sound carried into the cave. It was not known whether the iron rat heard it.

The fat rat with a red body was crawling in the hole.

Under the Yinli Village, there are a large number of underground tunnels dug by the Iron Rat, which allow it to move freely in the village.

Coming back here is as relaxing as coming home!

Of course, there were many ferocious old rats in Yinli Village before. Those idiots also liked to drill into the tunnels of the iron rats and occupy the tunnels of the iron rats from time to time, forcing it to drive away the old rats by itself sometimes - it is true that it is not good at fighting, but it is a middle-level monster after all. It is okay to be bullied by Ni Tianfang, but it is no problem to beat the old rats of the paper middle level.

"Squeak!"

When did a new neighbor come to this ruin?

...Forget it, Shushu doesn’t care!

Shushu is so tired today!

The gift of thanks has been delivered to Shushu, so he is going home to have a good sleep!

The fat iron rat, holding the glowing stone in its arms, twisted its short legs and big butt hard, and crawled towards its nest along the interconnected underground tunnels.

"squeak!"

Fat rat, sticking its head out.

A wooden board was propped up, and the Iron Rat looked around and found no signs of invasion by old rats.

It turned out to be an abandoned temple.

The iron rat crawled out of the hole in the ground and flew towards the cushion made of tattered cotton cloth. The fat rat in monk's clothes pounced in front of the broken and dusty Buddha statue and fell asleep in the blink of an eye.

……

……

"I take it back."

"You're the best rat ever."

After receiving a gift from Tieshu, Mizutani Makoto's mood instantly became cheerful.

Shuyu flower.

Makoto Mizutani had an impression of this thing. It was the Sogyoku flower that helped Satori Yoshiko break through from the middle position in paper making to the upper position in paper making.

For those at the Paper Rank and even the Combined Rank, this Jade Flower should have a good effect.

"The effect of the Jade Flower will be better if it is transformed into a violent form, but it will be more difficult to digest."

Mizutani Makoto began to think.

Satori Yoshiko hasn't reached her limit yet, so it would be useless to eat her now.

Chidori's strength is at the upper level, thanks to the fact that he feeds Chidori the spirit core every day. Now it is almost reaching the limit of the upper level. The effect of eating these flowers is definitely not obvious.

Then there is only one answer!

"Mai, how's your digestion?"

"Cuckoo-"

Mai Yajima, who was once a god and is now a quasi-god Pokémon, let out a vivid and vivid sneer.

Who do you look down on?

Mai Yajima took the jade flowers in one bite, stuffed all four of them into her mouth as if protecting food, and then burped.

"Give me a few days to digest it."

——OK.

Mizutani Makoto nodded, took another look at the Peach Blossom Demon who was diligently guarding the door, turned around and handed the spirit core of Wheel of Fortune and the spirit cores of a group of zombies to her, and then went offline.

He stayed in the gap for quite a long time. Today, Makoto Mizutani had an appointment with Inari Taisha Shrine, so he had to go and deal with it.

The time is set in the afternoon.

The location is determined by Inari Taisha Shrine, and it will still be the teahouse where Inari Taisha Shrine entertains guests.

But before that—

Mizutani Makoto took out his cell phone and found his secretary.

[Ms. S: Boss, what do you want to talk to me about?]

Blue-haired Water Monster: Can you mobilize some of the little monsters? I might have a place soon that needs a lot of manpower to work on it... I'll make the arrangements, but you can first ask the monsters about their wishes. Tell them that spiritual energy will be more abundant, and there will be rewards like spiritual cores.

[Ms. S: Wow... It feels like you're on to something big, Boss.]

[Ms. S: I will help you contact them, and I can also help you contact some monsters of the same rank that I know, but I can't guarantee how many monsters will come.]

Mizutani Makoto nodded.

As for Yiben Ta'e, he planned to wait until the blacksmith shop was settled before going to invite the old blacksmith in person.

He has to do a lot of things himself.

But it wasn't all a feeling of exhaustion. At least Mizutani Makoto felt that his life was quite fulfilling. He had something to do every day when he woke up, just like playing in Stardew Valley. He wished he could be so busy every day that he passed out.

With such complicated feelings, Mizutani Makoto went to Inari Taisha Shrine.

This time, Makoto Mizutani wants to discuss the matter of Misawa Medical Center in depth with Inari Taisha.

During these two days, Mizutani Makoto was not simply farming monsters in the crevices and hidden areas. He directly asked Inari Taisha to help investigate the information of Misawa Medical Center, and in his spare time, he would also go to Misawa Medical Center for a while.

The influence of Inari Taisha Shrine on Misawa Medical Center must also be mentioned.

Fukui Prefecture is not part of the Kyoto area.

Fukui Prefecture is located on the east side of Kyoto Prefecture, and Kyoto City is a city in Kyoto Prefecture. The entire Kyoto Prefecture has fifteen cities, eleven districts, ten towns and one village.

Inari Taisha is just a shrine in Kyoto City, and the area guarded by Gonozu is just Kyoto City, which was the ancient Heian-kyo.

Echizen City in Fukui Prefecture is not under the jurisdiction of Kyoto City at all.

Under Japan's prefecture system, prefectures and counties are of the same level. The reason for the distinction between prefectures and counties is simply because "prefectures" were once the political and economic centers in history, so the special name of prefectures was specially retained. Apart from that, there is no difference in authority and functions.

Letting Kyoto City take care of Echizen City's problems is tantamount to letting a city in a certain province interfere in the affairs of another city in another province, according to the elders.

Moreover, Inari Taisha Shrine cannot represent the city of Kyoto.

One is that Yuzhongjin is not that far away.

Secondly, Kyoto City is not the only city that has Inari Taisha Shrine.

The presence of a deity is a double-edged sword, granting Inari Taisha a significant voice while also restricting its secular development. The presence of a deity certainly doesn't allow Inari Taisha to do whatever it wants; on the contrary, precisely because of the deity's presence, the staff at Inari Taisha are generally more pious and restrained, preserving the traditional religious tradition of not excessively interfering in the secular world.

Because of this, most of the energy of Inari Taisha Shrine is compressed in Kyoto City. It can only be said that a shrine is a shrine after all, and it is not quite the same as a pure feudal warrior. Even if there is a god in charge, its influence shows no signs of expanding, but is guarded in Kyoto City.

Inari Taisha cannot be regarded as the Yajima family. The Yajima family is the lord of a place, while Inari Taisha is a religious shrine in Kyoto City with extremely high say. However, the lord who manages the spiritual veins is from a secular Onmyoji family and has nothing to do with Inari Taisha - this is also the difference between religious warriors and feudal warriors.

Outside of Kyoto City, even within Kyoto City itself, each region has its own local tyrants. Naturally, Inari Taisha will not break this customary rule.

"Fortunately, it's just an intelligence investigation. The requirements aren't too in-depth, so it's not difficult."

Makoto Mizutani commissioned Inari Taisha to help him investigate the matter of Misawa Medical Center.

It is not realistic to let Inari Taisha interfere with the Exorcist Association of Echizen City. The negotiation process alone will take an unknown amount of time. However, it is not difficult for Inari Taisha to investigate the detailed information of a company.

After the extensive investigation of Inari Taisha Shrine, the past and present of Misawa Medical Center were uncovered.

"Established in 1971..."

"A colleague maliciously fabricated a rumor, and gradually it became an urban legend within the hospital..."

"Patients died, doctors jumped off buildings... Many legends do exist, but according to official investigations in Echizen City, most of these incidents were the fault of patients and doctors, with only a very small number of cases involving monsters."

"Misawa Medical Center, the place itself is nothing special."

The tea room is not big, about the size of six tatami mats.

The four walls are separated by old wood-grained paper doors. The air is filled with a faint aroma of matcha and the aftertaste of burning old wood, mixed into a reassuring yet slightly heavy atmosphere.

Mizutani Makoto sat cross-legged on a plain cushion, listening to the girl's story.

No matter how you look at the information about Misawa Medical Center, there is nothing interesting to see.

So, the focus is on the second piece of information.

"There are often cracks in Echizen City?"

he asked.

Furuya Akiho replied, "It's not just Echizen City, but the entire Fukui Prefecture... We don't know the specific reason, but every twelve to thirty years, or forty to fifty years, a crack always appears somewhere in Fukui Prefecture."

"Those cracks have appeared in schools, hospitals, and even playgrounds. Their intensity is generally not high, and once discovered, they can be quickly eliminated."

Mizutani Makoto nodded slightly.

The person who explained the information to him was Akiho Furuya.

The girl is still young and in her youthful and lively years, but she is wearing a shrine maiden costume that highlights her nobility and calmness. This little shrine maiden looks quite contrasting.

She didn't really know much; others gathered and compiled the information, and she relayed it to Mizutani Makoto. The shrine's intention was definitely to make some familiar faces, but the way the girl furtively studied Mizutani Makoto made it seem like she was volunteering.

She was really curious about Mizutani Makoto.

This curiosity has little to do with his appearance. What's more important is Mizutani Makoto's background and his relationship with Furuya Ruriko...

Mizutani Makoto pondered, "There's always been a gap... Doesn't anyone care about this phenomenon?"

"A lot of people were worried at first, but not anymore."

"why?"

"It's been like this for thousands of years."

Furuya Akiho flipped through the information in her hand and explained it carefully.

"Since thousands of years ago, cracks have always appeared in the Fukui Prefecture area... In other places, cracks might not appear for a hundred years, but in Fukui Prefecture, one appears every thirty to forty years, which is relatively frequent."

"This phenomenon is no secret among exorcists... Throughout history, many Onmyoji have come to investigate, attempting to understand the source of the anomaly in Fukui Prefecture."

"The general consensus is that Fukui Prefecture's spiritual veins may have some unknown characteristics, causing cracks to appear more frequently there than elsewhere... For this reason, headquarters sends specialists to survey Fukui Prefecture's spiritual veins every year. At the same time, many Onmyoji have considered Fukui Prefecture's spiritual veins as the subject of their dissertations..."

"paper?"

Mizutani Makoto was stunned.

The little girl blinked. "A great Onmyoji, you have to have a convincing thesis, right? Just like writing a book back then, if you don't have some unique understanding, how can you convince everyone and make them recognize you as a great Onmyoji?"

"The paper is just a more modern medium."

"The Onmyojis' papers are essentially a study of Onmyoji techniques."

Let’s return to the topic of the cracks in Fukui Prefecture.

Although the frequency of cracks in Fukui Prefecture is much higher, those cracks are generally small-scale, and the monsters in them are at most of high rank.

As a result, Fukui Prefecture has not experienced any major disasters for thousands of years. This small-scale crack is regarded as a good way to release resentment, which is a unique advantage of Fukui Prefecture. As long as the crack is destroyed early, there will be no worries.

"..."