Chapter 203
Li Yue nodded in response.
It's been a few months since I last saw her, but I have to say, ornamental fish are indeed ornamental fish. When Kokomi takes off her swimsuit and puts on a shrine maiden outfit, she really looks quite good. Especially since Kokomi herself is already very pretty, wearing a shrine maiden outfit, plus the submissive look when facing me, makes me want to tease her.
How about we tease her a little? After all, she's the shrine maiden serving us now, so teasing her a bit shouldn't be a problem, right?
356. The Yae Miko Who Dances with the Great God
In the end, Li Yue did not let Kokomi stay, because finding Kikue was the priority. So Li Yue let Kokomi and Kamisato Ayaka accompany Yae Miko to deal with Sakura Cleansing Ritual.
Because of the Portal opened by Li Yue, they were able to resolve the Sakura Cleansing Ritual very quickly. They would arrive at a location, remove the filth from the nodes in just a few minutes, and then return to Grand Narukami Shrine to proceed to the next location. All the nodes, including several, took less than half an hour to resolve. After the entire process was completed, Yae and the other two returned to Grand Narukami Shrine, while Li Yue closed the Portal and focused her attention on the pit below Mt. Yougou.
As the filth at several nodes was cleared, the pit below the Mt. Yougou was exposed as the water level dropped, revealing the entire internal structure of the pit.
After the floodwaters receded completely, Li Yue jumped off Mt. Yougou and landed directly into the pit. Throughout the entire process, Li Yue did not slow down at all. Only when she was about to land did she use a Flash Step to land on the ground.
The interior of the entire pit is extremely large. How large? It looks like it could fit several Grand Narukami Shrine inside; it's practically an underground football stadium.
Is the Lady Kitsune located here?
Raiden Ei transformed into lightning and landed behind Li Yue, looking around and asking Li Yue questions.
"No matter where Lady Kitsune was before, Lady Kitsune will only exist here now."
The filth at several nodes has been completely cleaned up, and now all the remaining filth of the entire Sacred Sakura Tree is concentrated here. Since Kikue is also part of the filth, she must be here.
"Then how do we find her?"
"The method to find it is very simple."
Li Yue drew her Enma's Blade.
"The memories of the Lady Kitsune are combined with the filth and have their own consciousness, but the filth itself does not have its own active consciousness. So what I need to do is very simple: just find that consciousness and separate it from the filth."
Just as Li Yue thought, Kikue has its own consciousness. This consciousness is easy for Li Yue to find because it is completely different from something filthy.
After drawing the Enma's Blade, Li Yue jumped directly onto the filthy sphere at the very center. It was a polymer of all the filth absorbed by the Sacred Sakura from Inazuma, and it looked like a pitch-black heart. If you had to say, it looked a lot like the Black Holy Grail from the Type-Moon world that Li Yue had visited before. In short, it looked extremely terrifying.
Li Yue jumped up and landed on the nearby roots, then thrust the needle directly into the dark, filthy ball below.
After the Enma's Blade entered the Sphere of Impurity, Li Yue began to input Reiatsu, searching for Kikue's consciousness within it. Because the Sphere of Impurity was very small, compared to the previous World Tree, he quickly found an independent consciousness.
After finding this consciousness, Li Yue did not rush to bring it out, but continued to search to see if there were any other consciousnesses in the entire filthy sphere, to make sure that she had not made a mistake.
After all, if the memories of the Lady Kitsune can be merged with filth, then perhaps the consciousness of other people can also be merged into it.
Unfortunately, there is no one else's consciousness here, so the only consciousness should be Kikue.
Li Yue directly wielded the Enma's Blade, pulling the only remaining consciousness out of the filth. After being pulled out, Kikue's consciousness transformed into a remnant soul that floated in the underground cavern.
"Lady Kitsune!"
Seeing the Raiden Ei floating out from Kikue, he quickly stepped forward and used his Elemental Power to stop Kikue and protect her.
As a lingering consciousness, Kikue's lifespan without the support of impurity is not as long as one might imagine, so Raiden Ei is very worried that Kikue might encounter problems.
Because there was no filth to support her, Kikue was in a coma when Li Yue pulled her out. She hadn't woken up yet, but fortunately, her lifespan was not a problem for a short time.
"Let's go. We'll take her back to Grand Narukami Shrine first and have Yae stabilize her soul."
"Good."
Raiden Ei, carrying Kikue, transformed into lightning and returned to Grand Narukami Shrine, while Li Yue faced the filthy sphere alone.
Seemingly knowing that Li Yue wanted to purify these filth, the filth ball violently trembled, and a group of menacing wandering warriors appeared in front of Li Yue. In front of this group of wandering warriors, there were even two Kairagi.
"There are far more of them than in the game."
Back when we did the Sakura Cleansing Ritual in the game, there were only two Kairagi. Now, in addition to the two Kairagi, there is also a group of Wandering Samurai. However, unfortunately, neither the Wandering Samurai nor the Kairagi are useful when facing Li Yue, because these things are trash when facing a god.
"Although you look scary, too bad, I can take care of you in an instant!"
Behind Li Yue, an icy blue light appeared, and wind and snow began to fill the entire pit.
Power of the North Wind manifested, the originally dark pit transformed into the Dragonspine Mountain, with massive amounts of wind and Kairagi filling the pit. Despite lacking water elemental power, these wandering warriors and Kairagi were instantly frozen in place.
After freezing all the Kairagi in place, Li Yue gripped the Enma's Blade at his waist, then crouched down slightly, spiritual energy shimmering around Li Yue.
The moment the sword was drawn, the entire world turned black and white, followed by a cutting sound, and the entire world shattered into fragments.
Dimension Slash!
Having completed a single area-of-effect attack, Li Yue sheathed the Enma's Blade, then watched as the wandering samurai and the Kairagi below all fell to the ground, turning into black ash and disappearing.
After Li Yue chopped down all the filthy wandering warriors and Kairagi, the entire underground pit suddenly became bright. The originally barren ground instantly sprouted a large amount of grass and cherry blossoms, just like the Mt. Yougou.
The once-in-a-lifetime Sakura Cleansing Ritual was finally completed with Li Yue's final strike. The filth within the Sacred Sakura Tree was completely cleansed away with Li Yue's last blow.
Having completed the final blow of the Sakura Cleansing Ritual, Li Yue opened a Portal and returned to Grand Narukami Shrine.
Inside Grand Narukami Shrine, as soon as Li Yue returned, he saw Yae and Raiden Ei performing a ritual around Kikue.
Yes, that's how it's done.
Raiden Ei sat on the ground with Kikue in his arms, while Yae waved her Kagura bell, jumping and circling around Kikue and Raiden Ei. She held the Kagura bell in one hand and waved a long ribbon in the other. Clearly, she was performing a shamanic dance!
357. The Priestess Who Serves the Gods
Although Yae Miko is relatively young, among the many divine beings, she is considered very young. If you put her in Liyue, she would be a little sister. Ganyu is probably younger, so she calls Ganyu "older sister," but according to the backup, she should actually be called "auntie Ganyu."
However, although Yae Miko is young, she knows a surprising number of spells. As a descendant of the Shiro Shin clan, she has learned almost all the spells of the Lady Kitsune and also has mastered the spells of the Hundred Ghosts. Therefore, Yae Miko also knows how to preserve the soul.
After a series of shamanistic rituals, Kikue's soul was successfully stabilized by Yae.
But after Kikue's soul was preserved, the next thing to consider was how to give Kikue a body. After all, it's not good to just be a soul forever. Just because Yae Miko preserved her soul doesn't mean that she can exist in the form of a soul forever. So this is where Raiden Ei comes in.
"Make a doll for Lady Kitsune?"
"That's right. All you need to do is make a doll for Lady Kitsune to house your soul. You don't need to leave a consciousness like when you made the Raiden Shogun. You just need to make a doll without consciousness that can house Lady Kitsune. Of course, in order for Lady Kitsune to be able to help you, this doll also needs to have a certain combat ability."
"I see, I understand now."
Raiden Ei immediately nodded in agreement. For her, making a doll was not a problem. Although she couldn't make a doll of the Demon God level like herself due to a lack of materials, making a doll of the Familia level was still no problem. The Scaramouche was a Familia-level doll she had made before.
"I'll go to the Tenshukaku later. There are leftover materials from when I made the dolls. Making a doll won't be a problem at all."
Speaking of making dolls, Li Yue remembered that there was another doll in Sumeru waiting for her to modify it.
"After you finish making this doll, it would be best if you came with me to Sumeru."
"Sumeru?"
Raiden Ei was very puzzled. Wasn't Sumeru Nahida's territory? Why would she be sent to Sumeru?
"That's right, the Scaramouche are currently at Sumeru."
"Scaramouche?"
"It was you who caused the Kunikuzushi back then."
"The Kunikuzushi, and it was him?"
Raiden Ei never expected that the dolls he made back then would actually end up in Sumeru.
"Is he called Scaramouche now?"
"He joined the Fatui and became Fatui Sixth Seat, codenamed 'Scattered Scaramouche.' He was causing trouble with the Fatui in Sumeru before, and I beat him up."
"He joined the Fatui?! And he even went to Sumeru to cause trouble?"
Raiden Ei was extremely shocked because of Li Yue's previous revelations. Raiden Ei now deeply hates the Fatui. All the things she did before were because of the Fatui. Inazuma becoming that Fatui was also because of the Fool Clan.
Although it was Raiden Shogun who issued the order, it was the Fatui who tricked Raiden Shogun into issuing the order, so the Fools should take the Fatui!
Therefore, upon hearing that the cannon had joined the Fatui and even caused trouble in Sumeru, Raiden Ei's expression immediately turned displeased. Originally, she was in a good mood when she saw the return of the Lady Kitsune, but now she was told that the doll she had made had gone out to cause trouble and even joined the Fool Fatui, which had caused a lot of damage to Inazuma.
"I'll go and stab him right now!"
Wrath, Raiden Ei was ready to go and kill the Scaramouche. The Fatui were Inazuma's enemies, and since he had joined the enemy, she couldn't let him live!
"No need. If I really wanted to cut him off, I would have done it long ago. I deliberately left him alive."
Do you have any plans for him?
"Do you remember what I just said? I need you to come with me to Sumeru to modify it, because you are its creator and you are most familiar with its physical structure."
"You want to reform him?"
"That's right, I plan to use him to help me with some things."
"If he can help you, that would be great."
Raiden Ei originally intended to eliminate the Scaramouche, but upon hearing that Li Yue needed to use Scaramouche, he immediately changed his mind.
"How do you need me to make the modifications? If it's complicated, I'll need to prepare some materials in advance."
"It's not a complicated modification. I want to put a restriction inside him, the kind of control that allows me to remotely control him and shut him down."
"This is not a difficult modification; it requires no preparation and can be done very easily."
Li Yue's request wasn't difficult, so Raiden Ei could easily fulfill it.
"That would be perfect."
Li Yue nodded happily.
"Now, you should start by working as a puppet for the Lady Kitsune."
"Good!"
After Raiden Ei nodded, she transformed into lightning and disappeared from the spot. She was going to return to the Tenshukaku to create a doll that could house the Lady Kitsune.
Li Yue stayed at Grand Narukami Shrine and looked at the two little shrine maidens watching from the side.
Kamisato Ayaka and Kokomi.
"Lord Li Yue."
Seeing Li Yue's gaze fall upon them, the two little witches quickly bowed their heads in greeting.
"How are you two doing here?"
Li Yue walked over, adopting an attitude of checking on her subordinate's work.
"Lord Li Yue, I am doing very well at Grand Narukami Shrine. Guuji has been taking good care of me."
Kamisato Ayaka was the first to answer.
Do you have any complaints about how I handled the Kamisato clan before?
"I am very sorry for what the Kamisato clan did before. My brother and I have no complaints about the punishment you gave the Kamisato clan, Lord Li Yue. In fact, because you removed the Kamisato clan from the position of Yashiro Commission, my brother and I are living a freer and happier life."
"Oh?"
Li Yue remembered that Kamisato Ayato and Thoma opened a milk tea shop in Inazuma City. For Kamisato Ayato, this was indeed a happy thing. As for Kamisato Ayaka...
"Actually, I was always under a lot of pressure because I was previously known as the White Heron Princess and shouldered the heavy responsibility of reviving the Kamisato clan. Now that I am no longer burdened by the responsibility of Yashiro Commission and the Kamisato clan, I feel much more relaxed."
From being imprisoned as the White Heron Princess, to becoming the free Kamisato Ayaka, things have indeed become much easier for her. Although she is still working at Grand Narukami Shrine and managing the rituals, the level of pressure is completely different from before.
"And what about you?"
Li Yue looked towards Kokomi.
"Kokomi, how do you feel staying here?"
"Lord Li Yue, I feel very comfortable here too."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
Kokomi smiled slightly.
"Although the battle at that time caused heavy losses to the people of Watatsumi Island, from a long-term perspective, Watatsumi Island can finally be integrated into Watatsumi Island. Moreover, with Inazuma's support, the people of Watatsumi Island no longer have to worry about going Inazuma. This is a very good thing for the future of Watatsumi Island. As for me personally, I can finally put down the pressure of always being prepared to face the gods, and I don't have to think about the army of the wise Watatsumi Island anymore. I can quietly be a shrine maiden."
"It seems that you two are quite satisfied with the current situation."
"Yes."
"Since you're all quite satisfied, it's my turn next."
"Ah?"
The two girls looked at Li Yue with confusion, wondering what he meant.
"As shrine maidens of Grand Narukami Shrine, you should know what a shrine maiden is supposed to do."
The two girls immediately understood what Li Yue meant, and then they were stunned.
Faced with the two stunned girls, Li Yue simply opened her arms.