Chapter 61 Qianhe: The master of the soup is everywhere, literally everywhere.
Why?
Bai Ye and Yang Yan looked at each other and saw deep doubt in each other's eyes.
Clearly, in front of the shrine this afternoon, they could all clearly hear through their headphones the miko's attempt to stop You Yu and the others. The threats and murderous intent in her voice did not sound fake at all. Why did she unexpectedly speak up now and help them out?
Could it be that this priestess...really thinks that the fox active in this crucial group of hot springs is hers?
Is this some kind of funny comic strip plot?
"Oh, it's the miko-sama. Are you here to collect camellia flowers to decorate the shrine? Lady Tang Hong, I wish you all the best. I'll leave this place to you!"
Ghost Face's eyes swept over the flower basket in the shrine maiden's hand. In it were many camellia flowers decorated with white snow, stacked together layer by layer, like an elaborately carved gardening tower. He instantly understood that the shrine maiden of the shrine came from a Shinto family, and before performing the sacrificial ceremony, they would use the camellia flowers, the symbol of the Shinto family, to decorate the sacrificial environment.
The ghost-faced attendant bowed and saluted the Shinto Chizuru very respectfully, then turned around and walked towards the outskirts of the shrine again.
Bai Ye and Yang Yan looked at each other and quickly increased the speed of their actions, trying to cut off all the blood vessels that were spreading from the blood cocoon and absorbing her soul particles from the blood butterfly in the blood cocoon without making any sound. Although the two of them moved very gently, it was inevitable that some of the blood vessels broke and fell into the pool, making a slight sound of falling into the water.
The sound of something falling into the water, caused by Yang Yan's panicked action to catch it, was particularly obvious. Bai Ye and Yang Yan stopped moving at the same time, as if they were playing a game of "statue", and were frozen in place with guilt.
The light and solemn footsteps of the witch were getting closer and closer. Bai Ye didn't care whether he would be discovered or not. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. The sound of his sigh was full of the breath of bitterness of life.
I feel like my life is more bitter than Yedao’s specialty matcha.
Yang Yan touched his cheek guiltily. If it wasn't the wrong timing, he would have made a "hehehe" sound to get away with it.
"Okay, friends..."
The witch's voice was soft and clear, "Those ghost-faced soup guards under your vigilant soup master have left. Can you come out now?"
Yang Yan stood at attention reflexively. He had complicated feelings towards the shrine maiden. Even though she was a bad guy who was in cahoots with the soup owner, he was a homeless child who grew up in Huangquan Town eating at many houses. Whenever he had nowhere to go, the shrine maiden would casually assign him a place to live, so that he could get through the bad times when he couldn't find an apprenticeship job.
At least before he became soup stock, the witch really gave him many meals and a place to stay.
Bai Ye patted his shoulder, and Yang Yan finally reacted. He and Bai Ye dragged the young blood butterfly that was still soaking in the hot spring to the edge of the hot spring pool.
"… Sorry for disturbing you… Miss Miko."
Bai Ye breathed a sigh of relief. He had used up all his strength to cut open those strange blood vessels clinging to the young blood butterfly. He was a little dizzy now, but he still put on a calm look and prepared to negotiate with the witch.
After all… Yang Yan next to him looked so “wise” that he really couldn’t be relied upon.
"…How is she now?"
Unexpectedly, Shinto Chizuru did not ask Bai Ye and Yang Yan what they were doing. Instead, she looked at the blood butterfly beside the hot spring pool with concern.
"She is doing fine now, but for some reason, she can't wake up."
Yang Yan professionally took out the Law Enforcement Bureau's Soul Particle Demonization Detector and performed a preliminary vital sign check on the girl lying on the ground. The result was that although the concentration of demonic power in the girl's body was high due to soaking in the hot spring for a long time, the level and activity of soul particles were surprisingly normal.
"It looks like there's nothing abnormal at the moment. Phew, that puts me at ease. This child suddenly fainted while patrolling in Huangquan Town, so Lord Tang had to put her in the hot spring pool for treatment."
The witch spoke gently, she leaned over and looked at the unconscious young version of Blood Butterfly, her eyes full of genuine worry.
"Miss Miko... we both know each other's intentions now. There is no need to speak for the soup master anymore, right?"
Bai Ye stared at Shindou Chizuru's eyes. There was only aloofness and gentleness in the other's light gray eyes, but there was also a coldness that seemed to see through everything.
"Two days ago, the strongest guard of Huangquan Town, Xuedie, fainted unexpectedly during a patrol. The apprentice who often lingered outside the shrine also disappeared, and the student of Lord Tang was also missing."
Shindou Chizuru stood up and looked at Yangyan and Baiye: "But soon, three travelers who looked very similar to the missing and unconscious people arrived in Huangquan Town that night. Tell me, what would I think?"
The shrine maiden stood up and looked at Bai Ye, her gaze resting on the face of Yang Yan behind Bai Ye. The other's face looked just like the grown-up orphan who often had no food to eat because he could not find an apprenticeship job and could only make do in the small house next to the shrine.
"If I'm not mistaken, the blood butterfly won't wake up before you leave."
Bai Ye looked up suddenly, and Qianhe's eyes were full of calmness, but it shouldn't be like this.
Because the DM system clearly stated that all demon players will exist in different timelines in the superimposed world due to the influence of the DM system, in order to reduce as much as possible the presence of demon players in the eyes of the projections of people who have existed in these superimposed worlds, so that demon players and demon apostles can more easily integrate into the superimposed world and complete tasks more conveniently.
But... now this shrine maiden from the Shinto family has actually surpassed the restrictions of the DM system and realized the true relationship between these foreign tourists and herself, the "devil players" of the timeline in the superimposed world designed by the DM system to avoid the encounter between the "selves" from two different timelines, and the devil players.
It was so sharp, just like an NPC in a game suddenly asking the player, "What is the world like over there?" It was shocking.
No.
Bai Ye shook his head. Because of the existence of t173, he unconsciously began to use the relationship between NPCs and players in the game to summarize the relationship between the people in this timeline and the external demon players in the superimposed world. However, these people are real people in this world, so such an analogy cannot be made.
He can't get used to treating people as NPCs.
"Well, apart from this town and this shrine, I don't care about anything. However, even without the oracle of the Tang Hongshan God, I can still feel the presence of you special people from the future."
Shinto Chizuru looked at Xuedie who was supported by Yangyan: "I was uncertain at first, but this child... I mean Xuedie. She has a similar experience to Yangyan. They were both wanderers in Huangquan Town. After the Tang Master came, she was hired by the Tang Master to be the Tang Guard of the Great Evil Tangju, the pillar industry of Huangquan Town, so that she could have food and clothing. When she chose to stay at the shrine because she had nowhere to go, I gave her a Xuedie hair accessory for some reason. I know that she has always cherished it. Now..."
"But I saw the same hair ornament on the head of the future Blood Butterfly who came here with you. It seems that she really kept her promise."
Shinto Chizuru's voice was earnest.
Bai Ye understood that if there was this detail, it would be normal for Chizuru, who had the blood of a god, to realize that everything around her was just a game.
Shinto Chizuru looked at the hot springs, her eyes revealing a sadness that was even more fragile than the ripples on the hot springs. "You may not believe this, but at least a dozen years ago, this Huangquan Town was just an ordinary small mountain village deep in Tanghong Mountain. Everyone made a living by hunting in Tanghong Mountain and trading furs with people down the mountain every day. The money they earned was not enough to fill their stomachs. Only when the head of the mountain group led a group of brothers down the mountain to fight, did Huangquan Town connect to the outside world. However, the soup owner spread the hot spring industry throughout Huangquan Town in a short period of time, turning a primitive mountain village into a hot spring hometown famous throughout the world."
“But that’s not the case.”
Yang Yan and Bai Ye spoke in unison, and there was a firm determination in the eyes of the young men to take down the curtain above the sky.
"...Yes, you already know a lot of the truth, so there is no need to pretend in front of you, although that was really how I felt when I first met the soup master."
Qianhe smiled and said, "We have only been in Huangquan Town for one day, and you have obtained so many clues. You are really amazing. If I am not mistaken, you should have known the truth about Huangquan Town by now, right?"
"The story about the hot springs that flow with the blood of the devil, about Susano killing the Yamata no Orochi, and about..."
Chizuru looked towards Bai Ye, the clear eyes of the shrine maiden of Shinto blood made people feel the fear of being seen clearly for no reason: "The sword that is said to be able to cut off everything, even everything, contains the treasure of the Ten Commandments that isolate the demons in the other world."
"The Ten Commandments Token—Ama-Kume."
Chizuru stood up straight, and the camellia flowers in the basket in her hand trembled slightly with her movements, light and beautiful.
"I've known for a long time that you are people from the future. The goal of the demon apostles is not only the hot spring that condenses the blood of the demon king, but also the Ten Commandments that are said to be able to control the inner and outer worlds after they are gathered. I will help you find the knife on Yedao, and the oracle told me that this game, no matter what the result, will directly overwrite reality. The demon game has existed for a long time, but there has never been a precedent of overwriting the front of the timeline from the back. This is beyond the normal scope of demons, so you must..."
Shinto Chizuru said solemnly: "Stop them."
Bai Ye nodded in agreement and spoke softly, as if talking to himself.
"In fact, I have long felt that... this competition designed by DM doesn't seem like a reunion at all, but more like a madman's... last-ditch effort."
"But Qianzuru Palace Master, why did you keep stopping us from exploring the truth when you clearly didn't agree with what the soup master did?"
Yang Yan thought for a moment and asked his question. His thoughts were very confused. On the one hand, because Chizuru's help to him when he was young made him believe that Chizuru was a good person, but Chizuru's previous actions made it obvious that she was a collaborator of the soup master.
"Because the soup master is everywhere, literally everywhere. Only at this moment in this hot spring, he will temporarily relax his surveillance because his plan of many years is close to success. I can tell you a few words of the truth."
Qianhe put down the flower basket in her hand, walked to the edge of the hot spring pool, and pointed to the blood cocoon that had just wrapped the blood butterfly.
"Where are you looking?"
The two looked in the direction of Qianhe's hand, and saw that under the hot spring, the blood vessels of the blood cocoon extended all the way to the crevices in the rocks deep in the hot spring.
"The flesh and blood of the soup master are like the blood vessels on the remains of the demon king that have been born. They can be generated at will in the entire Huangquan Town. As long as the hot spring of the demon king's blood flows through a place, he can create a new self."
The new me...
Bai Ye raised his head suddenly: "Not good! We need to alert You Yu and the others who are still in Huangquan Town!"
Yang Yan added: "Especially Rin who just said he wanted to fight Tangzhu!"
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