The Shrine / The Food War

"I got ripped off for free."

Yuria sighed, saying that being Okita Qishen was indeed a very unpleasant feeling.

"He originally held no official position, and his dealings with that businessman were just normal business transactions, relying on the meager personal connections he had made. But because of his status as an honorary minister, he was able to use that connection to expand his network."

"Well, it doesn't need to be calculated that precisely."

Yotsuya Miko said nonchalantly, eating the bread in her hand.

"Did you go and ask Okita Qishen about the matter of the Honorary Minister?"

"Of course I need to find out, so I don't get taken advantage of again."

Yuria said irritably as she ate her bento.

"This guy got promoted because of Miko. He's now the head of the Divine Gate branch here. Although Divine Gate's decline is already visible, the position of head is still quite good these past few years."

"The first thing he did after becoming the Director-General was to appoint me as the Honorary Minister. I don't do any work, but I receive a salary every month. He uses my name to ensure that the funds for the Divine Gate are not blocked. He's quite shrewd; he paid the salary very readily."

She paused suddenly at this point.

She had originally intended to Okita Qishen from his position, but his words eventually moved her, leading her to accept the decision.

"Well... let's just say that's how it is. Anyway, he may not have made any contributions in these matters, but he certainly suffered a lot. It would be too tragic if the commander- Divine Gate."

"That's true."

Yotsuya Miko continued eating her bread, seemingly unconcerned by the explanation. As long as Yuria accepted it herself, she had nothing to say; she wouldn't interfere with Yulia's right to choose.

"Speaking of which, your position as deputy minister hasn't been held for more than a few days, has it?"

"... That's what they say."

Yuria glanced at her and retorted.

"If that's the case, Miko your so-called investigator status has only been around for less than a day."

"But I got the money."

Miko smiling as he spoke,

"You demanded a huge sum of money from Divine Gate back then, but you haven't used it much. Come to think of it, you're the one who's been exploited by Divine Gate for so many days, haven't you?"

"... After all, I was a government official for a while."

Yuria took a bite of tamagoyaki and spoke without changing her expression.

"I've met quite a few people, although I haven't received my salary yet, but..."

"You received a bribe?"

While eating, Hua listened silently to the two men's boasting, and, unaware of what had actually happened inside, blurted out what she had said.

"Did those people give you money Yuria?"

"Certainly."

Bullshit.

He mentally completed the rest, while outwardly maintaining a smug demeanor.

She did not accept their financial advances, and because of this, her relationship with them remained superficial. As for Divine Gate's salary, she declined it because of her resignation.

She remains the same as before. While she can't be described as penniless, she certainly has very little money. Because of her business dealings with the three businessmen yesterday, she made a show of buying expensive ingredients in front of them and even hired a barista to teach her students how to make coffee.

Although she received a discounted price thanks to the merchant's introduction, these expensive clothes and accessories still cost her most of her money.

Well, all I can say is that there are gains and losses.

After doing all this and waiting for public opinion to change, she finally managed to contact Okita Qishen again, wanting to inquire about the matter of the honorary minister.

Because of the money, I was eventually persuaded.

She hadn't cared much about money before, until Okita Qishen Shen mentioned something, and she suddenly realized what money could do.

That makes things much easier.

"Wow, Yuria, you're amazing!"

Hearing Hua's heartfelt words, Yuria couldn't help but smile. However... looking at the strange glances directed at her from time to time, she felt a sense of unease.

"Ah, because of this honorary minister, the public opinion he has created is far from what I envisioned."

She truly hadn't expected the merchant to personally come to greet her. It was precisely because of the merchant's overly respectful attitude that the three of them developed a deeper misunderstanding of her identity, ultimately leading to a troublesome situation.

"I really should go and have a proper talk with Okita Qishen again; we need more money."

"Really."

Yotsuya Miko casually cast a spell, making everyone ignore the incident, and continued eating her bread.

"The sons of officials, that's much closer to reality than the Silver Ball God."

"... Okita Qishen, damn it."

Achoo!

Almost simultaneously, Okita Qishen, who was working, received Yuria's grudge. He rubbed his nose and realized that he probably really had caught a cold.

"Maybe I should take some cold medicine?"

He muttered to himself as he processed the documents at hand.

With the large-scale disappearance of spirits, after a period of silence, the affairs of the Divine Gate have a new task: to establish a more streamlined Divine Gate system, as the original system has begun to become bloated.

This is the wish left behind by One Kyojun.

He, along with the remaining members of the Wagen Family, are handling the relevant matters, and it will probably not be long before they complete the reform of Divine Gate.

This reform will completely merge the two departments, streamline personnel, and make Divine Gate truly an organization responsible only for the Gate of the Underworld, rather than getting involved in some secular affairs.

Although the Wagen Family has declined, fortunately, an ancient family has stood up to support this reform.

"Meishouin..."

Okita Qishen stroked his stubble.

"I really didn't expect that."

Chapter 259 Matters of the Shrine

After that sudden downpour, the sky remained clear for several days without a drop of rain, as if the rain had exhausted all its energy.

Yotsuya Miko stepped onto the bluestone steps and looked at the Torii Gate in front of her. The Shimenawa on it had already collapsed and fallen to the ground.

As for the shrine atop the Torii Gate, it was in an even more desolate state.

"I never expected to end up here."

She murmured to herself, dispelling the hand seals she had been performing.

After killing the inner demon, although she lost a lot of information, she still managed to retain a trace of the inner demon's aura through the power of the magic technique, and used this trace to search for the inner demon's whereabouts.

The traces of her inner demons could be found in many places, so she started her investigation in this city. Following the lingering scent, she quickly found the shrine she had visited long ago.

When she visited, the shrine was already quite dilapidated, and now it has been completely destroyed. If there were any seals on the shrine, they have all dissipated by now.

"Did it come from this shrine?"

Yotsuya Miko released her Spiritual Sense. Since the last time her Spiritual Sense burned by the Xuanming Tribulation Fire, it had been greatly reduced, but it was still sufficient. Moreover, with the nourishment of the Profound Nether Qi, the lost Spiritual Sense was being replenished.

A sweep of Spiritual Sense into the collapsed shrine revealed that the sealing artifacts inside were completely shattered, leaving nothing unusual. The broken Shimenawa on the ground were the same; nothing remained.

"..."

Yotsuya Miko pondered for a moment, then probed the shrine's underground with her Spiritual Sense.

After descending more than ten meters underground, his Spiritual Sense finally detected the presence of an unusual object.

"Formation?"

He used a spell to transfer the soil on the strange object into mid-air, keeping it still.

The amount of soil she moved wasn't too much, at most a few hundred cubic meters, which was enough to maintain the volume and weight.

This clump of soil, with its perfectly square bottom and covered in leaves and building debris, floats in the air, revealing a deep layer of damp soil with a strong, fishy smell. If you look closely, you can see many tiny gaps and holes on the cut surface, and even crawling insects and earthworms.

Miko didn't pay attention to these things, her gaze quickly locked onto several marks in the center of the cut land, some very distinctive yellow talismans, probably because they were old, their surfaces were blurred and mixed with the soil.

This was not a formation set up by Zhang Qiudao; Miko could be certain of that. The formation was far too rudimentary, so rudimentary that its effectiveness was extremely limited.

Sealing it with the power of heaven and earth?

As she thought about it, the yellow talismans, half-buried in the soil, shed the dirt and floated to Talisman Paper Yotsuya Miko's feet. As the talismans floated, the huge clod of earth that had been hanging in the air returned to its original position.

"The spiritual energy of ordinary cultivators cannot sustain the long-term use of an array, because even the array's core has a limit to the amount of spiritual energy it can hold. Unless the array itself has the ability to absorb spiritual energy. This world obviously cannot absorb spiritual energy, so to maintain it for so long... it seems to indeed be borrowing the power of heaven and earth."

She murmured to herself, sensing the yellow talismans with her Spiritual Sense.

"The power of heaven and earth, the influence of a region. Like Heavenly Dao Oath, it is witnessed and borne by heaven and earth. To borrow the power of heaven and earth, one needs their approval, but the inner demon's words do fit this point. Heaven and earth provide the supply of spiritual energy... no, not spiritual energy, but Spiritual Power."

Having sensed the patterns on the yellow talismans, Yotsuya Miko already understood their purpose.

"The Spiritual Power and energy on this are both feasible, crude yet quite practical. Is it a product created by combining the Spiritual Power techniques of this world with the array formations of the Xuanhui Realm?"

If we're really going to talk about it, the Spiritual Power methods mentioned above were actually a mistake. This world's exploration of extraordinary powers is far less profound than that of the Xuanhui Realm.

There should be something else.

The Spiritual Sense moved away from the yellow talismans, which slowly fell to the ground and turned into ashes. Having lasted this long, these talismans had reached their limit.

"These yellow talismans alone are not enough for this formation. Zhang Qiudao's work... should still be there."

Judging from the inner demon she encountered, such a simple formation is not capable of controlling it.

Is it still underground?

So his Spiritual Sense continued to penetrate deeper into the ground, fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters... However, even at the limit that his Spiritual Sense could reach, he still found nothing else, nothing but these yellow talismans.

The trail went cold.

Slowly withdrawing her Spiritual Sense, Yotsuya Miko looked at the shrine before her, and many thoughts flashed through her mind.

She slowly walked to the back of the shrine.

"Perhaps it would be better to envelop the entire mountain with my Spiritual Sense."

Once again controlling his Spiritual Sense, this time the target he chose was no longer the shrine and the land beneath it, but the entire mountain range.

Excessive Spiritual Sense would place a great burden on her mind due to the intake of a large amount of information, but if it was only for a short time, the impact would not be too great.

However, even after searching again, she found nothing unusual within the area she had covered.

The array was the only anomaly she could detect, and even that array wasn't enough to seal away the inner demon. There must be something else she had missed.

"The original person in charge of this shrine."

Withdrawing my Spiritual Sense, since I can't find any clues here, I might as well turn my attention to other things related to this.

Yotsuya Miko quickly thought of something connected to this shrine: its former head priest. The heads of these shrines are usually hereditary, inheriting the shrine's affairs, so perhaps there are some hidden secrets about this shrine.

"Then we'll have to go find Okita Qishen first."

She didn't want to miss any possible information about the inner demon. With the appearance of this inner demon, it was sealed in this shrine. Perhaps the connection between this world and the Xuanhui Realm is not ordinary.

The Xuanming Python that appeared in the "Gate of the Underworld" last time, along with the Shepherd's leader, Tong Sheng Yuanhe, and the demonic cultivation techniques he possesses, indicate that the Xuanhui Realm's activities in this world have reached a point that warrants attention.

"And there's the legend of Kawamori."

Whether that dark era truly existed, she needed to find out more, and that required the help of the state authorities.

"Well, looks like this weekend is going to be busy."

She sighed. In the past, she would probably have gone out with Hua on the weekend. But unfortunately, Hua went to Yuria's house to learn how to cook.

"I wonder how Hua's studies are going."

She muttered to herself as she walked out of the shrine.

Chapter 260 Food War

Yurikawa Hana, who had been nagged by Miko, wiped the sweat from her brow, which had been burning in the kitchen, and let out a long sigh of relief.

"It's finally finished."

"... Yes, it's done."