(Heartfelt thanks to 'Yuezhao 8 Starry Sky,' 'Lei Xiang,' 'poke-mon,' 'Erciyuan de Shuangxiezuo,' and 'Kaipier' for their rewards!)
The next day, early morning...
In the top-floor hall of the Heart of the Eras, Hinagiku, Mikoto, Ikaros, and Astrea stood in a row, their gazes directed ahead.
Standing before Hinagiku, Mikoto, Ikaros, and Astrea were Wu Yan, holding Little Flandre in his arms, and Purple, who held a parasol and yawned continuously.
"Master..." Looking at Wu Yan holding Little Flandre, Ikaros spoke worriedly.
"Can't I come with you?..."
"Do we really not need to come with you?..." As soon as Ikaros finished speaking, Hinagiku, her lovely brows tightly furrowed, spoke as well.
"Although you said there are many extremely high-level yokai and gods in Gensokyo, we're all at the ninth tier now. Even if we can't be considered among Gensokyo's strongest, we should still count as experts, right?..."
That was true.
Gensokyo was not an Instance World. It was merely a small region within one.
On the surface, the world containing Gensokyo held no mysteries at all. It was just like an ordinary world.
The people there did not believe in the existence of ghosts, yokai, gods, or anything of the sort. It did not even have something like Sword Art Online, where people could enter a game world and experience games. It was an utterly ordinary world.
Yet in a corner of that world, in a place beyond humanity's reach, lay Gensokyo.
The reason people did not believe in anything mysterious was because all mysteries were gathered within the place called Gensokyo.
Ghosts...
Yokai...
Gods...
Vampires...
All kinds of beings that did not exist within human common sense lived in Gensokyo.
Gensokyo was covered by a barrier known as the Great Hakurei Barrier. Its creator, Purple, the Yokai Sage, had