Chapter 342: Great Wild God Eight-tailed Fox, Mere Servant! Effects Of The Walker Token, Inari Kami’s Gaze And Gift
Huh?
How could it be like this.
The little miko didn’t understand, and clear, foolish eyes appeared in the gaze of her who was still in university.
There are truly messengers of the gods with “divine power” in the grand shrine, so how could there be something that can’t be sought?
——This was something she had seen with her own eyes!
Two months ago, when those frightening yokai appeared, it was the fox divine messengers who could fly through the sky and earth, protecting them in peace, that appeared and easily exorcised those yokai.
To her, they could all be called true deities.
Shangshan Che looked toward Fukuda Obaasan, whose face was full of wrinkles.
This elderly miko might look like an ordinary person, but her eyesight was extraordinary.
He smiled: “It’s not for myself, I just want to bring some souvenirs for my friends in Tokyo who didn’t come.”
He looked at the little miko again: “Could you recommend some?”
“Sure, sure!”
The miko patted her cheeks, immediately switching to a sales smile, and pointed to the display items hanging at the sales area,
“This is the fortune pouch that can【attract gold fortune】, and this is the fox that【brings good luck and fortune】…
There’s also the grand shrine’s guardian tablet, and personal amulets…”
The little miko’s introduction left Shangshan Che completely unable to choose.
He coughed once and said again: “Actually, this is my first time coming to a shrine to buy amulets…”
The little miko, who had originally wanted to introduce more grand shrine exclusive amulets, immediately understood. She paused and asked: “Then, customer, may I ask who you want to bring souvenirs for?”
“Uh… two girls.”
Shangshan Che gestured slightly: “One is about the same age as you, wholeheartedly devoted to kendo and has achieved something; the other girl just graduated from elementary school.”
The ones he was talking about were naturally Lili Zi and little Chisa who was about to become a disciple.
As for Sister Nanjo… with her terrifying record of sweeping all the ghost gods in Hokkaido single-handedly, these little gifts sold to ordinary people would have an effect on her only if there were ghosts.
If he really bought some, she might even point at them and laugh.
Hearing this, the little miko pinched her chin and pondered for a moment, then took out two small items.
“How about this!”
She spread open her palm,
“One is the grand shrine amulet that protects career fortune; the other is the little fox statue that brings good luck and fortune mentioned earlier, and this one is cuter too, little girls all like it.”
Shangshan Che examined the two items the miko took out and found that the little fox surprisingly resembled the fox phantoms he had seen, though it only had one tail.
Meanwhile, Fukuda Obaasan on the other side took out a【peace charm】 that few people in Fushimi Inari Shrine would seek, and placed it in Karuta’s palm.
The little miko nodded and showed a bright smile: “Thank you for your patronage, total of…”
“We have more, we have more!”
Before the miko could finish, she was interrupted by Two-Foot Adult, who was already jumping in anxiety but not as tall as her legs.
Seeing her look over, Two-Foot Adult finally breathed a sigh of relief: “Cute miko Your Excellency, we want a little fox too~”
The little miko was shocked and squatted down to rub Two-Foot Adult’s little face,
“Customer, is this your daughter? So young and already so good at talking!”
Two-Foot Adult was furious: “We are an indisputably mature adult!”
“Yes, yes, yes, little customer, you are also an adult…”
Having satisfied her hand itch, the little miko fetched another little fox and placed it together in Shangshan Che’s hand.
Two amulets, two little fox statues, total 6000 yen.
This price was actually very cheap even in a tourist spot… not to mention that these small items contained the true power of Fushimi Inari Shrine.
In the outside world, even at 600,000 yen, plenty of people would buy them.
Seeing Shangshan Che pay quickly, the little miko who had not been working long suddenly felt omnipotent.
She rolled her eyes and looked toward Minamoto Shizuka, who had barely spoken since earlier, on the side.
The little miko approached and blinked at her,
“This customer, since you’re here, won’t you buy some amulets or the like?”
Although Minamoto Shizuka had always been expressionless, making her a bit scared, relying on the easy success just now, the little miko still went for it.
Having been stared at by the little miko for a while, Minamoto Shizuka shook her head,
“I’ll pass.”
The little miko took a deep breath, her voice much softer,
“It’s okay… how about taking a look.”
Minamoto Shizuka glanced faintly at her and said nothing.
Instantly, pressure like a mountain fell on the little miko’s shoulders, making her heart rate soar in an instant, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
“Um… customer, sorry.” The little miko couldn’t help but lower her head in apology, “I shouldn’t have spoken extra.”
“No need to apologize.”
Minamoto Shizuka closed her eyes briefly and answered flatly,
“I just… simply don’t like them, that’s all.”
The miko nodded like a chick pecking rice and retreated step by step to behind Fukuda Obaasan at the sales area.
Since the souvenirs were bought—the pale green peace charm was held in Karuta’s hand, and the snow-white little fox was taken out of the packaging box by Two-Foot Adult, who was playing with it happily.
It was also time to leave and continue walking to other places.
Just before leaving, Fukuda Obaasan at the sales area suddenly spoke: “Mister, are you staying to see the Yoimiya Festival tonight…”
“Once a year, very rare.”
“Yes.” Shangshan Che stopped and turned his head to reply.
Fukuda Obaasan smiled slightly: “Then this old woman wishes you all a pleasant time today.”
After walking far away, Minamoto Shizuka suddenly spoke,
“That Fukuda Obaasan is not simple.”
Even though she couldn’t see any clues, her intuition told her so.
“I know.”
Shangshan Che nodded and skillfully used qi barrier to transmit sound,
“It’s nothing, she’s giving a kind reminder, and we’re still in the sacred realm of Fushimi Inari Shrine.”
Meaning, if the other party wanted to do something to them, these little ones not even ghost gods, there was no need to go to so much trouble.
“True.”
Minamoto Shizuka nodded: “So what’s next? There’s still quite some time until the Yoimiya Festival starts at six in the evening.”
Shangshan Che, who had planned ahead, replied,
“I want to wander around with Two-Foot to study shrine-related matters.”
Two-Foot Adult, who was fiddling with the fox pendant: ?
“Alright then, see you tonight.”
“See you tonight.”
Bringing the bewildered Two-Foot Adult and Karuta, who was following two steps behind at a neither close nor far distance and had taken out a notebook and pen, Shangshan Che began to briskly tour every shrine in Fushimi Inari.
Before each shrine, Shangshan Che would observe intently from a distance for ten minutes, and Two-Foot Adult, who was to be enshrined on the divine seat in the future, was also required by him to watch.
But the latter saw nothing in the afternoon except a bunch of 5-yen coins falling into the offering box.
Shangshan Che, on the other hand, carefully used the eye of interpretation to observe and sense, not only peering into the【power of faith】 even more subtle than spatial fluctuations, but even summarizing three patterns.
Beckoning Karuta to his side, Shangshan Che, who was temporarily sitting on a stone bench, spoke,
“I’ll say, you record.”
Karuta nodded seriously, flipped to a new page in her notebook and folded the corner, marking it as important.
“First, the more devout the worshippers and wish-makers are, the more power of faith they emit.”
This point was simple to see and aligned with Shangshan Che’s consistent cognition.
“Second, if these people have a clear faith target—for example, Inari… this one, then the power of faith greatly increases.
Conversely, if it’s just faith in the【Inari Gods】, much of the power of faith dissipates into smoke without a clear target.
Third, compared to simple worship and wishing, when people come to fulfill vows, the power of faith generated far exceeds the former two.”
“These three points, got them?”
The afterimages of Karuta’s little hands slowly faded, and she nodded seriously.
Shangshan Che continued: “Fourth, this one is still uncertain—the stronger the【vitality】 of the faithful, the more power of faith generated.”
As his last word finished, Karuta’s pen also stopped perfectly.
This recording speed and efficiency were remarkably high.
Shangshan Che smiled and nodded at her, and the “observation” task this time was thus complete.
As for how to build the shrine… honestly, that was beyond the scope of consideration for an outsider like him.
Professional matters should be left to professionals.
Afterward, he could also ask the Special Affairs Office for some materials on the power of faith to see if they matched his pragmatic observations.
After finishing the main business, Shangshan Che looked at Two-Foot Adult, whose cheeks were bulging from stuffing in an ice daifuku dumpling, and tapped the stone armrest with his finger,
“Two-Foot, tell me, what did you understand?”
“Mmm mmm…”
Finally swallowing the daifuku in her mouth with difficulty, Two-Foot Adult showed a pure smile: “Hehe, nothing.”
Shangshan Che: “…”
He shook his head helplessly, thinking that with Two-Foot’s near-zero education level, being able to recognize all characters and grasp much common sense was already very good.
Better not to demand more, no need to make it hard for her.
“Forget it, just be a good mascot when the time comes.”
“Mm mm! If Che Adult says go east, as long as you don’t say stop, we’ll run our legs off!”
Shangshan Che was very reassured about Two-Foot Adult’s execution and trustworthiness.
He pondered some small details about Two-Foot Shrine.
——When the time comes, if Two-Foot Adult can set up a life protection aura on each of her statues, the harvested power of faith would definitely increase a lot.
——And “manifesting spirits,” how to handle that.
…
Shangshan Che thought of many details for increasing power of faith acquisition after the shrine was established, but most left him confused and unable to figure out.
Still, this harvest was already not small.
Hmm, Two-Foot Adult’s harvest wasn’t small either—she ate all the snacks in the entire Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine and shared many with Shangshan Che.
Even Karuta got quite a few over the afternoon, a real feast.
Because after walking the whole way, Two-Foot Adult noticed that the distance between Karuta and Shangshan Che was well maintained, which got high praise from her; she was very satisfied!
Seeing Two-Foot split the last red bean daifuku half with Shangshan Che, Kaga Kiyomitsu hanging at the waist murmured drowsily,
“If only we could eat…”
Accompanied by slurping sounds like drooling sound effects.
Watching her master and the others eat so many novel foods and snacks, it was starving!
“Soon, Little Jia.”
Shangshan Che, who was almost overwhelmed by the sweetness, glanced at the blissful-faced Two-Foot and thought that sure enough, getting old meant not liking sweet food…
Hmm, an old mentality also counted as old.
Regarding Little Jia’s soul spirit points, once about 20,000 soul ash were saved up, he should be able to start upgrading it.
The key point lay in that Fang Xiang Shi in Edo Castle.
If Fang Xiang Shi wasn’t dealt with, even if Shangshan Che sneaked in to farm monsters, he’d be arrested in minutes.
The worst scenario would be being cornered at the spawn point during repeated farming—Fang Xiang Shi, as a samurai ghost god, had fully high intelligence.
If truly blocked at the spring, then Edo Castle this map would be useless for him before ascending to ghost god.
No need to lose big for small gains.
But in the end, still not a ghost god yet…
Ghost god, ghost god!
Unfortunately… earlier Nanjo Emi went to Hokkaido to eat alone, without letting him follow.
Even just as a tag-along helping out, the soul ash gained would probably be at least ten thousand.
But Shangshan Che knew well—Hokkaido was all ghost gods at minimum, with bizarre supernatural phenomena, possibly even wild god supernatural phenomena.
Nanjo Emi just didn’t say.
If he went, Nanjo Emi would have to divert attention to protect him… that wouldn’t do.
But now, the entire Hokkaido was probably mostly cleared by the Special Affairs Office, a few hundred or thousand soul ash not as good as him going to Edo Castle to mooch.
Better to see what happens at tonight’s【Yoimiya Festival】.
Shangshan Che exhaled, watching the evening glow gradually appear, and called the two girls to follow.
When they reached the thousand torii gates again and met Minamoto Shizuka, who was holding a half-eaten candied hawthorn skewer, Shangshan Che noticed she seemed to have some subtle change.
This feeling…
——A change in state of mind.
Seeing Shangshan Che staring at the candied hawthorn in her hand, Minamoto Shizuka shook it and said calmly,
“I know you can’t eat more, so I didn’t buy you any.”
“By the way, why is it called candied hawthorn when it’s sour…”
——Probably, Minamoto Shizuka’s sword heart was about to form soon.
Shangshan Che instructed: “You can lick off the sugar coating on the outside and not eat the inside.”
“Wasting is bad.”
Because they had walked the entire grand shrine in the afternoon, Shangshan Che easily led everyone to a high, open, and sparsely populated viewing spot.
As the Yoimiya Festival neared, curious crowds gathered more and more along both sides of the main approach, but under the mikos’ maintenance, basic order was ensured, with no one stepping onto the approach.
Daylight gradually dimmed, evening glow dispersed.
Night fell, and the big red lanterns they saw during the day lit up one by one, illuminating the entire Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine and the entire Inari Mountain.
On the night of the Yoimiya Festival, the most eye-catching was Inari Mountain.
Tens of thousands of lanterns in the mountain lit up together, and the ritual called【Ten Thousand Lantern Divine Event】 began amid copper bell and drum sounds.
——During the festival, all mobile phones in the grand shrine must be put away; no flashlights or photography allowed.
This was repeatedly warned by the mikos to every worshipper and onlooker staying in the grand shrine tonight.
Of course, not everyone would obey.
But in the sacred realm, how could ordinary people’s little actions escape the eyes of the “divine messengers.”
After the festival began, the fox phantom bodies guarding the grand shrine that Shangshan Che had seen earlier gradually solidified.
The first to appear were the short ones without weapons in hand, single-tail foxes, making those mobile phones malfunction.
“Look! Everyone look!”
“Inari divine messenger! It’s the divine messenger!”
Bursts of exclamations erupted from the crowd, but there was no extra commotion.
Dong!
Dong! Dong!
Accompanied by rhythmic, deep drum beats, the silent fox phantoms standing along both sides of the approach and torii gates solidified one after another.
First were the most numerous single and double, and three-tailed foxes.
They stood along both sides of the approach, maintaining order, watching the welcoming procession slowly emerge from the depths of the grand shrine.
Next, four-tailed, five-tailed, and even six-tailed foxes on the same rank as Shangshan Che began appearing one by one in ordinary people’s eyes, leaving everyone stunned with mouths agape.
Even many mikos in the grand shrine were the same.
The highest ordinary people could see was six-tailed foxes—but the ghost god qi had already shocked them into silence.
Shangshan Che and Minamoto Shizuka beside him were different.
Not only six-tailed foxes, but large numbers of seven-tailed… and at least two eight-tailed foxes existed!
In the depths of the grand shrine, those two eight-tailed foxes wearing fox masks, even from a distant distance pressing Shangshan Che’s chest tight, were shaking copper bells on both sides of the approach, stepping lightly in a mysterious dance.
Wild God!
Sure enough, there were wild gods in Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine!
Moreover, they were different from Factory Owner Z, not ordinary wild gods.
Those two eight-tailed foxes had a natural harmony, almost blending into the surrounding environment and heaven and earth.
Shangshan Che recalled what Shuten Doji had said to him.
Right!
These two eight-tailed foxes were great wild gods, great wild gods blessed by Inari Mountain or the grand shrine!
In other words…
Shangshan Che and Minamoto Shizuka’s gazes simultaneously fell into the grand hall behind the eight-tailed foxes.
The true Inari God might be among them.
The two were tense, even forgetting to breathe for a moment.
Even Minamoto Shizuka from the Minamoto Family had never seen a true deity in her life.
She sometimes even doubted whether【deities】 still existed in this era.
But they waited in place for a long time, until those two eight-tailed foxes finished dancing and disappeared, without seeing any sign of a deity.
At ten p.m., the grand and lively festival ended.
The shocked crowd gradually dispersed, and the red lanterns that had lit up the entire Inari Mountain dimmed one by one.
Shangshan Che couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.
After waiting another two hours, they still gained nothing.
“Have to leave then…”
Before leaving, Shangshan Che thought and silently took out the walker token and hung it at his waist.
Then, just one step before they left the Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine sacred realm.
Suddenly.
Shangshan Che clearly felt a grand and majestic will appear fleetingly, then subtly pause on him for an immeasurable moment.
Patta.
He looked down.
A “four-tailed” fox pendant with brilliant golden eyes had appeared out of thin air before his toes.
