Chapter 182

Then, as time went on, around the middle of the seventh century AD, the Miko began to charge fees!

The reason is that in 646 AD, Japan implemented the Taika Reform, a political reform that led to the decline of the status of the former Miko, and the introduction of Buddhism accelerated this process.

Even if the Miko are still being supported later on, is there any need to go and help them?

You're overthinking it; there's a word specifically prepared for them.

'Shrine Prostitute'. When a distinguished person arrives, they are required to provide a full range of services: singing, dancing, and performing various rituals. However, these Miko are not supported for their entire lives.

They also have a retirement age, but they don't retire too old. After losing their source of income, they simply continue doing this work around the shrines where they used to work.

Of course, there was a more elegant reason for accepting money: to worship the gods and to exchange goods with the deities.

The book "History of Japanese Miko" (written by Taro Nakayama) states that it is no exaggeration to say that every well-known shrine is located near a pleasure district.

Chapter 209 Fila is unbearable

For the farmers of Yae Village, it doesn't matter whether there is one more person or two more people in the village.

We're eating the shrine's food, not theirs.

And the extra woman seems somewhat useful; at least she can drive away those Honkai Beasts. As for the extra man...

I don't know, and it seems like not many people care about his appearance.

Anyway, it's not like I'm eating their food.

Every day at sunrise, they would shoulder their hoes and head to the fields. Although the threat of Honkai Beast had not been eliminated, the best way for ordinary people like them to fight against the Honkai in this era was to stay at home and not go anywhere.

But people still need to eat.

If you stay at home and let the land go to waste, it's truly a case of "the person neglects the land for a moment, and the land neglects the person for a year!"

At that point, forget about paying rent; the whole family might starve to death.

For people in this era, simply surviving requires giving it your all. The threat of Honkai Beast merely makes an already precarious existence slightly more complicated.

For ordinary people like them, it's either being killed by Honkai Beast or their whole family starving to death.

The ending is death, but being killed by Honkai Beast is a random event.

But if you neglect farming, starvation will be the inevitable outcome.

Even the landlords didn't have any surplus grain to give to these poor folks!

The farmers went back to farming, while the Honkai Beast lurking in the corners had already chosen their targets.

After eating breakfast, Li Pu ran out again.

Breakfast is still a relatively luxurious meal in this day and age. In fact, to be more precise, eating three meals a day is not entirely a habit that has existed since ancient times.

There is an ancient saying about eating three meals a day, but this is actually inaccurate.

They typically eat two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, with a snack at noon.

The concept of eating three meals a day, namely breakfast, lunch and dinner, was accepted in China starting around the Republic of China era, and only became mainstream after the reform and opening up and the resulting prosperity.

The main reason for eating only two meals a day in the past was low productivity, or to put it more bluntly, poverty!

Therefore, poor people in this era basically don't have much of a right to eat three meals a day.

Only those in high positions are qualified to talk about meals.

Yae Sakura and the Yae Shrine belong to the upper echelons here, so they naturally have the right to discuss matters of daily life. Besides, Yae Sakura is going to fight the Honkai Beast.

Not having enough to eat can seriously affect combat effectiveness.

Li Pu is temporarily staying at the Yae Shrine, which is a small benefit of his stay, as he gets to eat three meals a day.

But what about these three meals?

In Li Pu's own words, his breakfast portion was about the same as cat food. Not to mention the orange one, even the regular one seemed hungry.

Li Pu, a grown man, naturally couldn't get enough to eat.

To steal the farmers' crops?

What are you thinking about!

There are no potatoes or corn in this era. What's the main crop here, something you can practically steal to eat? Taro!

This is one of the staple foods for the farmers here. What is the other main food?

Millet!

As for rice, that was for tribute. It wasn't something these people could eat casually!

Ordinary samurai cannot eat rice casually.

Li Pu certainly wouldn't eat those things.

Li Pu chose to eat fish!

In this era, there wasn't as much industrial pollution, and the aquatic resources in the rivers were still very abundant. However, the problem was that this abundance of resources didn't match the potential for significant losses. Before the advent of aquaculture technology, fishing was an extremely high-investment, unpredictable, technically demanding, and risky activity.

Therefore, only idle men like Li Pu, who are not full but have nothing else to do, would think of catching fish to supplement their diet.

When catching fish, you should choose a place in a shallow river where there are likely to be many fish.

Holding a homemade wooden spear, he stood in the water and waited.

I've been keeping an eye on Fish Shadow.

Waiting for the right moment to strike!

Then...

"Huh? Something's not right," Li Pu said, looking at the empty river. "Why isn't there a single fish?"

"I did exactly what the book said."

Choose a location that also lowers the fish's guard. For example, come frequently but do nothing, letting the fish get used to your presence. Li Pu has made a lot of preparations for today.

There used to be plenty of fish here.

How come they all disappeared all at once?

This!

No! River! Something's wrong with you, damn it!

Fish! You're listless!

Hurry up, all of you swim over here!

No matter how anxious and frustrated Li Pu was, something was wrong with the river, and the fish just wouldn't move. He waited and waited, but nothing happened! It was completely different from before when he could see the fish leaping out of the water and jumping around aimlessly!

This...

"Hiss~ It's so cold!"

Li Pu suddenly felt a chill behind him.

No, this is even weirder!

It's not even summer yet, is it?

Why did I get this feeling?

Li Pu turned around almost reflexively, and guess what he saw? A pair of bright green eyes staring right at him!

"Damn! It's Honkai Beast!" Li Pu's heart jumped into his throat!

I can't contact my system right now, which is probably when I'm at my weakest, and to make matters worse, I've run into Honkai Beast! This is really incredibly unlucky!

What to do?

Li Pu was extremely anxious!

But the Honkai Beast wasn't in a hurry; it slowly emerged from the bushes.

"A wild boar?" Li Pu frowned; this was no simple matter!

It's a wild boar, but don't think wild boars are easy to bully! In fact, wild boars are creatures with an abundance of martial spirit, even an excess of it! They're the kind of creatures that even tigers don't want to confront head-on.

This wild boar is no ordinary wild boar, nor can it be considered Honkai Beast.

You can see the shadow of Honkai Beast in the wild boar.

However, it cannot be considered Honkai Beast.

These are beasts infected by Honkai!

'Not a genuine Honkai Beast?' Li Pu immediately had an answer in his mind.

'Yae Sakura!'

According to the setting, Yae Sakura used Honkai to infect wild beasts, causing these infected beasts to attack the villagers!

'As expected.' Li Pu's heart sank again.

'As expected, Yae Sakura made her move.'

Li Pu had anticipated that Yae Sakura would make a move against him. But he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly! He had thought Yae Sakura would use a slightly gentler method.

After all, he now has Kallen protecting him.

Miscalculation! What a miscalculation!

"But I'm not going to give up so easily!" Li Pu said resolutely. "Do you really think I'm a weakling?"

"I am not some worthless person!"

"Let me show you my martial virtue!"

"How abundant can it be!"

P. S.: On a side note, based on what was mentioned in the book in the previous chapter...

P. S.: Those with small breasts can't be Miko.

Chapter 210 Grant Me Power

When the time is right, face the wild boar head-on as it charges at you.

Wild boars have very limited attack methods: pounce, headbutt, and root. That's it. Plus, this wild boar is very large, with a lot of lower body space. If you seize the opportunity, charge forward, then quickly lower yourself and slide...

Instantly given away for free!

I slipped while shoveling, and then it was all for nothing.

What's so good about it?

Everything went back to the point where we couldn't catch any fish and ended up with a wild boar.

"Huh? Did I accidentally reload a save file?"

Li Pu was greatly surprised!

He thought the correct thing to do was to get out of bed, because even if you dream that you are dying, you will usually wake up and not actually die.

This is the body's self-protection mechanism. The causes of dreams are quite complex, but one aspect of dreams is related to the human subconscious.

If you die in your dream, your body will most likely die with you.

So, Li Pu was gambling on whether he was still in a dream or had truly traveled through time again. Traveling through time again didn't seem like it, but the dream felt too real.

This could be considered a good opportunity, but what if someone actually gets hurt...?

That's not true!

Li Pu anticipated that the system wouldn't let him die so easily. Although he didn't know what the two beings on the system's side were after, he was certain that he still had some value.

The system won't let you die until it's completely drained.

It sounds like capitalism, but that's probably the reality.

I rushed in, got killed, and was resurrected.

To be precise, it's not resurrection but rather a save/load. However, that's not entirely accurate, as saving and loading aren't things you can control. It's more like...486?

However, it is indeed possible to return to the few minutes before the battle began with complete memories, excluding the pain of being torn apart.

So what's next?