After discovering that Kunihiko Aso was related to Higashiyama, Shizuku and Hinasaki Miku also read Aso Kunihiko's relics and gained some understanding of Higashiyama's situation.

Legend has it that since ancient times, Rishang Mountain has been a holy place for suicide, or in other words, it attracts those who want to commit suicide to come to Rishang Mountain. After those people commit suicide, their souls will merge into the Night Spring of Rishang Mountain, thus achieving transcendence. However, everything is excessive, and if the Night Spring absorbs too many wronged souls, it will explode on the spot, and directly burst the dam, and at that time it will be like the Gate of the Underworld, causing disasters to the world.

Therefore, there is also a priestess in Rishang Mountain who is responsible for suppressing Yequan.

Of course, these witches all possess a special ability - "Shadow Seeing", which is the ability to read other people's thoughts through their remaining objects.

Well, to be honest, after seeing this, Shizuku was convinced that the Kurosawa family in Minamigami Village must be closely related to the shrine maidens of Higashiyama. Because Hinasaki Shinku had this ability, and her great-grandmother was Kurosawa Yae. From this blood relationship, the Kurosawa Yae family should have been members of the shrine maidens of Higashiyama.

On the other hand, Amagura Kan and Amagura Mio are ordinary psychics. They can sense the thoughts of the dead, but they do not have the ability to read the past by touching objects. From a certain perspective, they are actually the same kind of mediums as Hara Masago.

Okay, without further ado, let’s get back to the topic.

In order to suppress Yoizumi, Higashiyama also used several forms of sacrifice - but compared to the Himuro residence, Minamigami Village and the Kuze family, Higashiyama's sacrifices seemed much milder.

First, the shrine maidens will "read" the minds of people who commit suicide on the mountain, in order to read their memories and pain. After all, people who commit suicide must be full of despair and pain, and the shrine maidens on the mountain use this method to read the pain of others, and then bear this pain on their behalf, so that the person can commit suicide without any worries.

Well... from a certain perspective, this is very similar to the Tattooed Daughter Ritual of the Kuze family. Perhaps it's because the Kuze family is not as powerful as the Higamiyama Miko, so they can only divert their pain in this way.

Of course, this is just a ritual similar to "disinfection". In order to suppress the night spring, Higashiyama will prepare several wooden boxes, and then put the shrine maidens in them as human pillars, soaking them in the night spring water. Of course, if it was ordinary water, people would have drowned long ago. But the night spring water is different. As mentioned before, the night spring gathers the souls of the dead and is a special kind of water. What the shrine maidens have to do is to soak in the night spring water and use their own power to suppress the pain and resentment of the dead.

Of course, this also has a limit. Once the limit is reached, the witch will be corroded by the night spring and then disappear quietly. At that time, we have to find a new witch and put her in the box, sink it into the night spring, and continue to suppress it.

From a formal point of view, this ceremony is obviously more humane than other types of sacrifices. Not only that, these priestesses who are immersed in the night spring as "human pillars" still have "benefits".

Before being made into "human pillars", these priestesses would have their portraits drawn, and then after they were immersed in the night spring, they would likely participate in a ghost marriage ceremony.

The so-called ghost marriage ceremony is to select a man from among the men who go up the mountain to seek death. If a man wants to participate in this ghost marriage ceremony, the priestesses of Rishang Mountain will put out the portraits of the priestesses who are used as human pillars for them to choose. Once they are chosen, they can summon the soul of the priestess sealed in the box to perform a ghost marriage.

Well, it's a bit like that...everyone knows it, so I won't say much.

However, the ghost marriage ritual is not without danger.

Although the priestesses are all very beautiful, at the ghost marriage scene, they will reveal a side of themselves that has been eroded by the Night Spring. If the man can accept such a priestess, then his soul will be taken away by the priestess's soul, and they will return together to the small box sunk in the Night Spring to live...we don't know what kind of life that will be.

But if the man is frightened and unwilling to accept the corrupted priestess, the ghost ritual will fail, and the man's limbs will be broken and stuffed into a small box to be used as the lowest level human pillar.

Although it's tragic, those who go up the mountain today are here to seek death, so it's almost the same, right?

But times are progressing and technology is developing. More than ten years later, the shrine maidens of Mt. Higami heard about Kunihiko Aso and the projector he invented from somewhere, so they invited Kunihiko Aso to the mountain to take a photo of a shrine maiden who was about to become a pillar - after all, drawing is not as convenient as taking photos.

So Kunihiko Aso accepted the invitation and went to Mt. Higami.

But he did not come to complete the ghost marriage ceremony with the girl of his childhood, because... Kunihiko Aso had already forgotten her!

Forgot!

This is outrageous!

Not only that, when Kunihiko Aso was taking pictures of the shrine maiden named Kurosawa Aise, he was attracted by her beauty!

Although there was no unforgettable love between the two, in fact, Kunihiko Aso went down the mountain after taking the photo, but for the girls who learned the whole story...

“That’s terrible!”

"I've never seen such a bad man!"

"How could he forget? That girl has been waiting for him!!"

Sitting in the car, Hinasaki Shinku, Amakura Mayu and Amakura Mio launched a criticism and accusation against Aso Kunihiko. They originally thought that Aso Kunihiko, who invented the projector that can expel evil spirits, should be a very great person, but they didn't expect that he was actually a half-hearted Chen Shimei? !

Are there people like you who not only forgot your childhood sweetheart, but also fell in love with other women?

Then they thought that although Aso Kunihiko liked the shrine maiden named Kurosawa Aise, he turned around and went down the mountain to Oborozuki Island to get married and have children... wow, now the girls have even less good feelings towards Aso Kunihiko.

This is simply the detritus of the world where one falls in love with every girl he meets!

People like this should have their limbs broken off and stuffed into a box to be used as human pillars!

It was precisely because of this anger that the three girls criticized Kunihiko Aso almost all the way, so much so that they did not care about Shizuku's extraordinary driving skills - well, just like modern people would criticize the plot in a third-rate romance drama after watching it.

Of course, Shizuku didn't join in the fun at this time.

Anyway, it was Kunihiko Aso who was wrong.

Soon, the group arrived at the small town at the foot of Higashin Mountain and met up with Kurosawa Rei who was waiting there.

"Ah, Miss Shizuku, you're here."

Seeing Shizuku appear, Kurosawa Rei hurriedly greeted her.

"Hmm...Have you dealt with this?"

"Yes, I also prepared some information about Rishang Mountain, and I also contacted my relatives... Uh, what happened to them?"

Looking at the three girls behind her who were united in their hatred of the enemy, Kurosawa Rei was confused.

"Nothing, I'm just mad at that scumbag... Let's go, where should we go now?"

"Let's go to the coffee shop first, and we'll talk about it when we get there."

Kurosawa Rei also nodded quickly, and then led everyone to the direction of the coffee shop. On the way, she also introduced her relatives to Shizuku and others. According to Kurosawa Rei, she has a distant cousin named Kurosawa Mika, who opened an antique coffee shop here and was also responsible for finding people.

Of course, this is different from how a private detective finds someone.

As mentioned before, Rishang Mountain attracts those who want to commit suicide, but this does not mean that everyone can accept this. Therefore, there are often parents and families of missing people looking for their children who go to Rishang Mountain, and Kurosawa Mika is responsible for accepting their commissions to go up the mountain to find those who committed suicide.

On the one hand, Kurosawa Mika is a local and is very familiar with Mt. Hinami. On the other hand, she seems to have the ability to "go back" similar to Hinasaki Shinku, so when she goes to look for someone, there is a high probability that she will be able to see the person alive... or even the body if he is dead.

As they were talking, everyone came to the coffee shop called "Antique Coffee Kurosawa". From the outside, it looked like an ordinary antique shop. If there were not a few tables placed against the wall, no one would mistake it for a coffee shop.

"Welcome."

When they pushed open the door and walked in, they saw a young girl standing in front of the counter in a daze. It seemed that the doorbell interrupted her thoughts. The girl hurriedly raised her head and greeted everyone.

"Hello, this is Kurosawa Rei who called earlier. Is Mika here?"

"Oh, yes, just a moment!"

Hearing what Kurosawa Rei said, the girl nodded hurriedly, then hurriedly ran to the back. Soon, after a while, a woman with shoulder-length hair and dressed very fashionably came out. Her figure looked like a model and she was also very beautiful.

"Hello, Mihua, long time no see."

"Sister Lian..."

Seeing Kurosawa Rei, the woman also gave a bitter smile.

"What brought you here? And what did you say about Rishang Mountain?"

"I can't really explain this... Anyway, let's have a cup of coffee first and then talk."

Soon, everyone ordered coffee and desserts, and then Kurosawa Mika also sat down and looked at Kurosawa Rei in confusion, and the latter shook his head.

"Don't look at me. It wasn't my idea to come here. It was actually proposed by Miss Kasugano Shizuku."

"Ms. Kasugano?"

Hearing this, Kurosawa Mika looked at Shizuku in confusion, and the latter nodded.

"Hello, nice to meet you, Ms. Kurosawa Mika. I'm Kasugano Shizuku, the director of the Difficult Case Investigation Office. Actually, I came to Higashiyama this time..."

As she spoke, Shizuku took out a document and placed it in front of Kurosawa Mika.

"…We were commissioned by the Metropolitan Police Department to investigate and resolve the issues at Mt. Higashiyama."

"Why?!"

Hearing Shizuku's answer and looking at the documents in front of her, Kurosawa Mika was suddenly shocked.