Walking to the top of the mountain and looking at the lake and torii in front of her, Shizuku couldn't help but sigh.
Unlike other places, a lot of sacrifices are needed to suppress the Yellow Springs Gate at Rishang Mountain - this is normal, after all, people have been going to die here for many years, which is obviously different from places like Himuro Mansion and Minamigami Village where no one is allowed to enter.
Therefore, Higashiyama also needs a lot of shrine maidens to serve as human pillars. They will divide them into different levels according to their spiritual power, and then stuff them into different wooden boxes.
The one with the strongest spiritual power among them is called Dazhu, and the wooden box she is in is also the largest. Although it is not as big as three bedrooms and a living room, it is at least the size of a bedroom.
The second is the middle pillar. The "housing area" of the middle pillar is slightly smaller than that of the big pillar, but it can also accommodate people, which is equivalent to the level of a train berth.
The last one is the bandit, which is strictly speaking the bottom of the pyramid. It seems the least important, but it is indispensable. The box of the bandit is the smallest, just like the bathroom, only enough for one person to get in - of course, usually their limbs are broken and then stuffed in.
Those who become "bandits" are generally men whose ghost marriages fail, and witches who lack spiritual power.
With Shiragiku's spiritual power, she could have become the "big pillar", but I don't know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that the "big pillar" of Rishang Mountain was still there and had not disappeared. So Shiragiku was chosen as the "middle pillar" and then sealed up. However, due to her own strong spiritual power, the pressure on the middle pillar was not as heavy as that of the big pillar, so Shiragiku became the longest-lived middle pillar so far.
What's more amazing is that after being soaked in the night spring, the big and middle pillars will fall into a state called "permanent flower", which can be said to be a bit like hibernation. Their bodies will be preserved by the night spring, and as long as their spirits can still support it, there will be no problems with their bodies.
But on the other hand, if their spirits collapse, their bodies will melt and disappear along with the night spring.
This is one of the reasons why Shizuku comforted Shiragiku, because unlike those wronged souls, strictly speaking, Shiragiku has the possibility of resurrection. Of course, it may take some effort, but as long as her body is still there, it is not difficult to wake her up.
Before coming here, Shiragiku also told Shizuku about Kurosawa Aise - after all, she was sealed as the middle pillar much earlier than Kurosawa Aise, so she knew something about this great pillar.
According to Shiragiku, Kurosawa Fuyo's power was originally enough to suppress Yequan. However, because the woodcutter massacred all the priestesses in Hijoyama, the mental shock brought by their tragic deaths was all gathered on Kurosawa Fuyo, which immediately caused her great pain. Although Kurosawa Fuyo is still struggling to hold on, Shiragiku said that he didn't know how long Kurosawa Fuyo could hold on.
Or rather, she could no longer hold on.
On the top of the mountain, the night spring was already pitch black. The stone lanterns on both sides formed a passage leading to the torii gate in the center of the lake. When Shizuku came to the lake, the dark night spring water seemed to sense something and began to roll back instinctively. At the same time, a woman in black slowly emerged from the water.
"Falling... falling... I'm going to melt, melt... disappear."
As she spoke, the woman raised her head - her originally beautiful face had now been eroded beyond recognition by the black water, with only her eyes emitting a faint blue glow.
"Come on... come on."
The woman extended her hand toward Shizuku.
"If the pillar disappears... the night spring will overflow..."
Looking at the woman in front of her, Shizuku held the hand she extended - and then the next moment, the scene in front of her suddenly changed.
In the center of the Night Spring, a woman in white slowly walked towards the wooden box in front of her. She knew her fate. She would be a human pillar and fall into the Night Spring forever. That was her mission.
The woman entered the wooden box, immersed her whole body in the night spring, and began her mission. However, an accident soon occurred.
A massacre swept across the entire Rishang Mountain.
The witches were killed and their eyes were gouged out. Their pain turned into a night spring and flowed into the body of the woman in white. At this time, the woman in white could no longer hold on - the roaring night spring water gushed out of the wooden box and spread to the surroundings. The woman in white fell into a bottomless abyss. She slowly sank under the night spring. It was an abyss without a bottom. She would fall forever, repeating those painful deaths forever.
All the deaths would be repeated forever, and all the memories would converge on her. The deaths experienced by those slaughtered witches, and the repetition of this experience again and again, had brought her spirit to the brink of collapse.
"Someone... someone come to catch me..."
The woman in white desperately stretched out her hands in front of her, but she knew that no one would come to save her.
She is the only one who will completely melt into this darkness...
However, at this moment, a voice suddenly sounded.
“You’ve worked hard.”
The next moment, the falling body of the woman in white suddenly stopped, and a hand stretched out from above and held the hand of the woman in white. This sudden scene surprised the woman in white. She widened her eyes in surprise and looked at the blurry figure in front of her.
Then, a huge force suddenly pulled her. In just a blink of an eye, the woman in white felt as if she was a drowning person who was finally pulled out of the water. She suddenly opened her eyes and saw a black-haired, blue-eyed girl, looking at her with a smile.
"Hello, Miss Kurosawa Aise, how are you feeling?"
"I……"
Kurosawa Fengshi turned her head and looked around in surprise, only to see silence all around her, with dark night spring water flowing in it, but she was being pulled out of a wooden box by the girl.
"This... How can this be..."
"I know you have a lot to say, but now is not the time. But don't worry, I'm here, and the Night Spring will not overflow."
As she spoke, Shizuku turned her head and looked behind her.
Over there, the figures of Shenhong and the others can be vaguely seen.
"It seems that they are here too."
Soon, the group met in front of the torii in the center of the lake. To everyone’s surprise, the winners of this woodcutter hunting competition were… the Amakura sisters.
In other words, it was Amakura Kan's human radar that came into play again. While Hinasaki Shinku and Kurosawa Rei were still trying their luck, she had already sensed the location of the woodcutter through her spiritual power. Then the two sisters rode the ghost bear and rushed over directly. Then Amakura Mio raised her camera and started shooting at the woodcutter.
And then nothing happened.
“This is cheating!”
Hinasaki Shinku was obviously quite dissatisfied with this. She also had strong spiritual power, but Hinasaki Shinku's inspiration stress was mainly used for retrospection, and it was not a human radar like Tenkura Kanon, so she was one step slower.
As for Kurosawa Rei, the important thing is participation.
"Okay, okay, I can only say that I'm out of luck... After all, you both specialize in different fields."
Shizuku also smiled and comforted Hinasaki Shinku with a few words, then turned to Amakura Mio.
"Where's that guy?"
"Here."
Hearing Shizuku's question, Amakura Mio took out the camera, and then Shizuku pointed, and then saw a light spot emerge from it, and then fell to the ground, turning into a burly woodcutter. At this moment, he still looked ferocious, holding a hatchet in his hand, and tried to swing the hatchet to attack the people around him the moment he appeared - but Shizuku just snorted coldly, and then the woodcutter collapsed to the ground.
"Sister Shizuku, what are you going to do with him?"
Amakura Mayu couldn't help but ask. On the way to capture the woodcutter, she and Amakura Mio naturally shared each other's memories. They saw how the woodcutter brutally killed those priestesses and dug out their eyeballs.
For the two sisters, they certainly would not tolerate such a brutal crime. At this moment, they looked at the woodcutter with anger and disgust.
"Well... I'm not very good at this kind of punishment. Although sending him directly to hell is not bad, it would be a bit awkward if I can't see him being punished... But luckily, I have a bunch of torture experts here."
As she spoke, Shizuku snapped her fingers. Along with her movements, the water surface made a rumbling sound, and then a stone platform slowly emerged from under the water. Around this stone platform, there were five mechanisms that looked like rotating millstones.
Seeing this, Hinasaki's face turned red, but she didn't say anything.
At the same time, as if summoned, dozens of witches dressed in black and wearing veils came from all directions. They were all victims of the woodcutter. Not only were they killed by him, but even after that, they had to suffer the same death over and over again, and this had lasted for a hundred years... This kind of pain and resentment naturally could not be easily dissipated.
Then, Shizuku tapped the sword lightly.
"bite."
With a slight sound, four witch ghosts in red and white witch costumes flew out from the sword, holding wedges and stone hammers, and flew to the woodcutter. Then, they held down the woodcutter's limbs and pressed him tightly on the stone platform. Then, the witches aimed the wedges in their hands at the woodcutter's hands and feet, swung the stone hammers, and smashed them down hard.
"clang!!!"
“Aa ...
The woodcutter screamed as the hammer banged against him, and everyone felt sorry for him. Kurosawa Rei also looked at the scene in astonishment and screamed in a low voice.
"Is it the town girl?"
"Town girl?"
Hearing what Kurosawa Rei said, Kurosawa Mika looked at her in surprise.
"What is that?"
"Those were the evil spirits I encountered in the Sleeping House before... They were originally the executors of a ritual. What they did was to use wedges to pierce the hands and feet of the ritual maiden and nail them to the ground... Come to think of it, these evil spirits were indeed taken in by Miss Shizuku."
"clang!!!"
The stone hammer was raised again, and then swung down with force. Soon, the woodcutter screamed again. And every time he screamed, the black marks on the witches watching on the stone platform would fade a little. The dark resentment was like hair, flowing along the water and seeping into the woodcutter's body.
Then, black tattoos appeared on the woodcutter's body.
"clang!!!"
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!!”
Just as the Great Pillar would bear the pain of all those who died in Rishang Mountain, the woodcutter was now forced to relive the pain of those witches who were killed. The black tattoo tore through his skin and bones, penetrating deep into his soul. And the worst thing was that there wouldn't even be a town girl to sing a requiem for him - after all, he was a grown man, not a tattooed girl.
After nailing the woodcutter's hands and feet to the stone platform, the town girls returned to Frostmourne. But this was not the end. Soon, several ropes appeared in the void, binding the woodcutter's hands, feet and neck. These five ropes were entangled with the five millstones next to the stone platform. Then, five men in priest costumes appeared out of thin air and began to push the millstones.
“This… this is…”
Seeing this scene, everyone turned pale, only Shizuku yawned.
"This is going to take a while, why don't we go over there and wait for a while."
As she spoke, Shizuku pointed to the shore, and everyone nodded without hesitation and hurriedly turned away - they certainly understood what fate the woodcutter would face next, but they did not want to witness it with their own eyes.
However, this was obviously not the case with the witches and vengeful spirits that came up the mountain every day. They silently surrounded the entire stone platform and stared at the woodcutter who was suffering there.
“Ah—ah—!!!!”
The screams of pain echoed across the entire lake. Even the girls who walked to the lakeside couldn't help but feel a lingering fear after hearing the screams.
"Shizuku-nee, isn't it a bit too much to use that against him?"
Hinasaki Shinkuen gently pulled Shizuku's sleeve and asked in a low voice. She was the one who was most familiar with "that ceremony" among these people, so she naturally understood what the woodcutter would go through.
"This is necessary in order to dispel the resentment of the witches. And I think you have also seen what that guy did. I think that just based on what he did, it would not be excessive for him to die a hundred and eighty times."
“…”
Hearing this, Hinasaki Shinku was speechless. Just as Shizuku said, while tracking the woodcutter, she also used her "backtracking" power to see what the woodcutter did... It was indeed cruel and evil, and there was no room for sympathy.
"This is God's punishment. Good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be punished with evil. We always say this, but we have to do it this way."
"But...how long will this last?"
Hearing Hinasaki's uneasi question, Shizuku shrugged her shoulders and turned to look at the center of the lake - at that moment, the woodcutter was screaming heartbreakingly there.
"That depends on when the resentment of these witches can be eliminated."
Then she answered.