Yae Village

According to historical records, in the three years following the Chi You calamity, Yan Emperor Jiang Zhu and Jingwei made multiple attempts to enter the sea, but all ended in failure. It was as if they were searching for something in the vast ocean, yet found nothing.

Records left by Yan Emperor Jiang Zhu state that Chi You was sealed in the Nine Netherworld by the combined might of several ancient warriors, but they too vanished without a trace.

Among them, the two most powerful warriors, Yinglong and Xing Tian, survived the Chi You calamity. However, after leaving behind their weapons, they too disappeared. To honor these two warriors, their inheritors, who carried on their will and weapons, changed their surnames to "Xing" and "Ying" respectively, passing them down through generations.

Eighty-six years after the Chi You calamity, Yan Emperor Jiang Zhu passed away, and her remains vanished.

Her weapon, the Shennong Ruler, was inherited by her clansmen.

In 221 BCE, the Qin Dynasty was established. A fisherman by the sea caught a large fish with dragon horns. Upon dissecting its belly, he found a jade statue.

The jade statue was in a posture of five-heart-facing-heaven, with its eyes tightly shut. There was a gap in its chest. The moment the jade statue was removed, the dragon fish immediately died.

Fearful, the fisherman threw the jade statue into the wilderness.

Later, the fisherman's son searched for it, but the jade statue was nowhere to be found.

In 753, the twelfth year of Tang Tianbao, the fifth year of Tenpyō Shōhō.

The Tang Dynasty monk Jianzhen made his sixth voyage to Japan, bringing a jade statue with him on his ship.

In the year 1450 or so... in a small village in Japan, a pair of twin sisters were born.

As the daughters of the Shrine Master of a shrine, they carried great expectations from their father and the villagers from a young age.

When their father named them, he named the elder sister Sakura and the younger sister Rin. [lin, this character is pronounced lin, I see many people mispronounce it... so just a side note.]

The name of this small village was... Yae Village.

These two girls were named Yae Sakura and Yae Rin.

—Six years later—

"Rin! Why did you come here again?"

A pink-haired little girl in a miko outfit arrived at the hillside of Yae Village. Sitting on the hillside was a little girl almost identical to her.

If there was any difference to be found, it was probably that the little girl sitting there had tied up her hair and had a noticeably weak expression.

Yae Sakura ran to Yae Rin's side, taking her hand, her face filled with deep worry. "Rin, you're still sick. Catching a cold from the wind on this hillside could make it worse."

But Yae Rin replied with a relaxed smile, "It's okay, sister. Spending more time basking in the sun on the hillside might even be good for my illness."

"And besides..." Yae Rin looked in one direction on the hillside, where the grass was noticeably lusher than elsewhere. "Every time I come to this spot, my body seems to feel a little better, as if blessed by a deity."

"Rin, if the deity wanted to cure your illness, why would it be on a small hillside like this? Let's hurry back to the shrine. Father is looking for us."

"Okay, sister, let's go back now."

After Yae Sakura and Yae Rin left the hillside, a butterfly with half of its scaled wings broken fluttered unsteadily from elsewhere. It circled the spot Yae Rin had been looking at, as if drawn by something.

Before long, the butterfly flew away from that spot, and its scaled wings had returned to normal.

—Yae Shrine—

Yae Sakura and Yae Rin were now sitting before their father, the Shrine Master of Yae Shrine. The atmosphere between the three of them was tense.

Behind the Yae Shrine Master stood a massive fox sculpture, and before it, a jade statue no larger than half a person, in a seated position.

"Sakura, Rin."

The Yae Shrine Master's expression was exceptionally serious as he addressed his two daughters.

"Tomorrow is your birthday, and some things are due to be told to you."

The Yae Shrine Master paused before continuing, "Our Yae Shrine has always enshrined two deities."

"One is the Fox God, who blesses our Yae Village with favorable weather."

"And the other is another deity who protects the peace of our village."

Yae Sakura asked curiously, "Father, is the other deity you mentioned the jade statue in the shrine?"

"Yes."

The Yae Shrine Master continued without minding Yae Sakura's interruption. "What I need to tell you today is about this deity."

"It's a very old story..."

The Yae Shrine Master reminisced.

"Since a long time ago, Yae Village has enshrined this deity. Back then, Yae Village didn't have as many people as it does now; it was just a very, very small village."

"Amidst the war, Yae Village was once on the brink of destruction, but it was at that moment that the deity's appearance saved our village."

The Yae Shrine Master's tone carried a hint of excitement.

"It was then that the deity's jade statue was brought to Yae Village by the village's miko at the time and enshrined in the shrine."

"The miko at that time single-handedly protected the peace of Yae Village, and that miko also left behind a secret within our shrine."

The Shrine Master of Yae Village paused here.

"Father, what secret is it?"

Yae Rin could tell that this secret was likely related to her and her sister.

The Shrine Master of Yae Village looked at the statue in the shrine behind him, its eyes closed, and said, "Others may not know, but we people of the Yae Shrine have known this secret for generations—the priestess of that year, all the power she possessed was learned and honed from the statue."

"Every priestess after that would, at the age of six, drip blood into the heart of the divine being, and the divine being would then bestow power upon those young priestesses."

"The last priestess to receive this power was your mother. She learned formidable swordsmanship from the divine being."

"And now... you, as this generation's priestesses, have also reached the time to uncover this secret."

The Shrine Master of Yae Village stood up from the ground, walked to a nearby wall, took down a finely crafted long sword from the wall, and returned before Yae Sakura and Yae Rin.

"This... is the sword your mother left behind, Kite Bird."

"She insisted on naming this sword back then, and now... she's no longer with us..."

A very gentle look appeared in the Shrine Master of Yae Village's eyes, as if he were recalling the past.

Then, his expression turned serious, and he looked at Yae Sakura and Yae Rin.

"Sakura, Rin, now is the time for you to undergo the divine being's trial."