"Divine Lord! Divine Lord!"
In her dreams, Yae Rin hurriedly entered her soul state to search for Xu Yanwu, wanting to understand what exactly had happened.
Yae Sakura had not entered yet, but Yae Rin was already frantic and immediately began searching.
When Yae Rin entered the shrine where Xu Yanwu's body was kept, the sight before her made her stagger back several steps and cover her mouth.
In Yae Rin's eyes, the shrine was now wrapped in clumps of black matter, including Xu Yanwu's body.
Xu Yanwu's soul was currently bound in midair by that black mist, unable to move.
"Divine Lord!"
Yae Rin cried out anxiously.
"...Rin?"
Xu Yanwu struggled to open his eyes. "Go... leave this place... don't come back..."
Xu Yanwu did not know where he found the strength, but he forcibly broke free of the black mist binding his soul body's right hand and shoved Yae Rin away.
Yae Rin only felt a force directly send her flying.
The next moment... Yae Rin jolted awake in her bed.
"Mm... Rin...?"
Yae Rin's abrupt movement woke Yae Sakura, who had been sleeping beside her.
Meanwhile, on Xu Yanwu's side...
"Divine Lord..." The Eerie Woman sat beside Xu Yanwu. "You still have the spare thought to worry about other people?"
"Oh, that child just now... could she be the daughter of that Miko from over ten years ago?"
The Eerie Woman could not help feeling surprised. "Her child is already this grown... Back then, she truly was a unique existence... After being treated as a sacrifice by the villagers, she did not bear even the slightest resentment... She did not join 'us'..."
"I really want to know what her daughter will be like. I really want to..."
"Shut up!"
Xu Yanwu glared fiercely at the Eerie Woman.
"You... cannot touch them. They are different from those villagers. I do not care what you do otherwise... but you absolutely cannot hurt them!"
After hearing Xu Yanwu's words, the Eerie Woman laughed. "My... Divine Lord, you truly dote on them..."
"But..." The Eerie Woman's expression became somewhat twisted. "What about us? Were we simply people meant to die?"
"We believed in you as well... our Divine Lord..."
"But why did we become sacrifices? Divine Lord... tell me why!"
Xu Yanwu fell silent.
Ultimately... the Eerie Woman had never done anything wrong.
She... or rather, they, had always been victims.
Xu Yanwu said in a low voice, "As for what happened to you... all I can say is that I am sorry. I did not have the ability to stop those villagers..."
"An apology... Is an apology useful, Divine Lord?"
"Right now... I only want to destroy everything in Yae Village..."
—Inside Yae Shrine—
"Rin, what's wrong?"
Yae Sakura asked Yae Rin with concern.
"Sister! The Divine Lord..." Yae Rin anxiously grabbed Yae Sakura's shoulders and told her, "The Divine Lord... something happened to him..."
After hearing Yae Rin's words, Yae Sakura could not help recalling the corpse of that older girl from their village that she had seen at the altar that evening. Her stomach churned.
Yet before her younger sister, Yae Sakura still forced a smile. "What are you talking about, Rin? The Divine Lord... isn't he perfectly fine? How could something have happened to him?"
"But..." Yae Rin hesitated, wanting to say more, but Yae Sakura interrupted her.
"Enough, Rin... Don't say any more... Get some sleep..."
After Yae Rin lay down and tried to enter Xu Yanwu's world again, she could not do so no matter what.
It was as if Xu Yanwu had shut the door to that world.
Drought...
For villagers who lived by farming, it was one of their greatest enemies.
Three consecutive months of drought had left the crops planted by Yae Village's villagers nearly dead. Even if they fetched water from nearby rivers, the water they carried back was merely a drop in the bucket for the vast fields, incapable of solving the problems brought by the drought.
The villagers of Yae Village naturally believed this was the Divine Lord's wrath.
They also attributed the rain's failure to come after the Sacrifice Ritual to the fact that the sacrifice in the previous ritual had not been a virgin.
Thus, they gathered outside Yae Shrine once more.
And Yae Sakura, as the future Miko, sat beside the Yae God Master and watched those villagers gathered there.
"God Master, it has not rained for three months! Please hold another Sacrifice Ritual!"
"Wasn't there a Sacrifice Ritual just a month ago?!"
"Why hasn't it rained yet?!"
Seeing the villagers like this, Yae Sakura only felt that the villagers of Yae Village, once so familiar to her, now looked so... ugly.
An elder who appeared to be the most respected among the villagers of Yae Village spoke up. "It must be because the girl offered last time was not a virgin. She angered the Divine Lord!"
"We encountered this once ten years ago. Only by offering a sacrifice of Miko bloodline can we quell the Divine Lord's wrath!"
Upon hearing the words "Miko bloodline," Yae Sakura trembled all over and looked at her father.
After remaining silent for a long time, the Yae God Master finally spoke.
"I understand."
The Yae God Master slowly rose from the ground and said, "Then we will use Rin as the sacrifice. Her illness has lingered for so long without recovery. If she can contribute something to the village, I am sure she will be happy as well."
Yae Sakura urgently said to her father, "But Father, Rin's health is getting bet—"
"Sakura! Say no more. It has already been decided that Rin will be the sacrifice!"
After rebuking Yae Sakura, the Yae God Master told her, "Sakura, you will preside over the Sacrifice Ritual two days from now. Prepare yourself well."
"..."
Yae Sakura's hand on her knee clenched tightly around the hem of her skirt. Only after a long while did she force out those few words.
"Yes... Father."
Every one of her movements was seen by the Yae God Master.
That night...
"Hehe... Divine Lord, did you see that? This was not my doing... Those foolish villagers... are about to send the little girl you cherish so much to you as a sacrifice..."
"But... in your current state... you probably cannot hear me anymore... Hehe..."
Before you continue