tokyo creator

Chapter 322 Wedge: 5-2-6

Ise Jingu Shrine, Inner Palace, Entrance.

In front of the Uji Bridge on the Isuzu River, a continuous stream of worshipers slowly surged.

Unknowingly, some kind of inconspicuous whistle sounded over the area.

Next, without the guidance of any staff or any reason, the crowd slowly began to form a certain fixed "flow" and spontaneously avoided somewhere near the main road in the square in front of the bridge.

Soon, in the square that was not supposed to allow any vehicles to enter, a black luxury car drove silently and stopped in the middle of the open space.

But no matter whether it was the inexplicably empty area or the car that suddenly drove in, no one among the hundreds of tourists glanced there.

It was as if that area had become a non-existent blind spot in everyone's thinking.

Next to the black limousine, two bodyguards in black suits got out of the car first and protected the surroundings, and then came the real passenger - a handsome but slightly melancholy young man.

The tall man was wearing a Western suit and a coat, followed by two bodyguards, walking across the square in front of the bridge at a leisurely pace.

As he marched, the whistles continued to sound and the crowds surged.

The empty circle with a diameter of tens of meters always surrounded the man.

But outside the empty circle, among the increasingly crowded crowds, no one took a second look at this man and the strange emptiness around him - but when the man approached, the crowd would always automatically turn around as if nothing had happened. The ground is separated.

Finally, the man reached the torii gate at the end of the bridge and stopped.

Here, there was already a young shrine maiden waiting here.

She held a bunch of cinnamon branches in her arms and a modern data terminal in her other hand.

When they saw the three people who appeared together with the strange emptiness, they immediately came up to them, stopped a few steps in front of the man, and bowed to him respectfully.

But at this moment, the two bodyguards took a step forward and blocked the man.

"Verification," one of them said in an emotionless voice.

So, the miko stood there knowingly and opened her arms.The early morning light penetrated from behind her, and the outline of her naked body without any tools or weapons was outlined under the thin miko uniform.

Two expressionless bodyguards stepped forward.One person scanned the graphic password on the data terminal in her hand, and the other checked the cinnamon twig in her hand.

In the end, the two of them carefully groped the witch up and down.

At this point, as if some kind of "handover" process was completed, the bodyguard finally stepped back and let the man behind him out.

"There are no other questions, right? From now on, the safety of our distinguished guests will be guaranteed by the shrine and our lord." The witch put down her arms, her expression still calm and pure, as if nothing had happened just now, "Please wait for the others immediately leave."

The man nodded towards the two bodyguards, so they turned and left without hesitation after saluting the man.

"I'm sorry." The witch turned to the man and said softly first, then broke off a small branch with green leaves from the cinnamon branch in her hand, took another step, stood on tiptoes and inserted it into the tall man's chest. In the breast pocket of the suit.

Finally, the miko retreated.

She looked at the man's position again, deliberately walked to one side, turned around, spread her hands, and said to the right side of Uji Bridge: "The center of the shrine is a path reserved for gods, and it is not for mortals like me to walk. So, please leave, distinguished guest. This way."

The man looked up at her.

Then he took a step forward.

——Standing firmly on the central axis of the bridge deck.

The miko smiled bitterly, but didn't seem to dare to say anything. She just continued to lower her head, maintaining a humble posture towards the man, and retreated from the right side of the bridge into the torii gate.

The man, on the other hand, continues to move forward along the "untouchable" center line.

Go through the Torii.

At this step, he entered another different world.

The modern city in the distance is gone.Underfoot, the wooden bridge turned into an older stone bridge, covered with moss.

Pedestrians who were supposed to be walking on the bridge to the inner palace turned into dim soul fires, silently floating forward along the right side of the stone bridge, passing through the second torii one by one, and entering a place full of ancient atmosphere. The mist shrouded the looming sacred road in the mountain.

But neither the shrine maiden nor the man showed any strangeness about this.

They just silently led one in front and the other behind, slowly crossed the bridge, entered the second torii gate, and then continued along the road to the Shenyuan, guarded by tall cypress trees on both sides.

After passing by Temizuya, where bloody red water flowed, they came to the third torii gate outside the restaurant.

A long white procession came from the forest road behind them, silently passing the two of them, and took the lead in passing through the torii gate.

Looking from a distance, the long queue seemed to be composed of fifty priests in clean white clothes and black hats.

But if you look closely, you will find that these terrifyingly silent priests are not human beings. Instead, their exposed heads and hands are living souls composed of transparent stars.

The inhuman priests with souls lined up in a straight line without any deviation, slowly passed through the torii gate of the sacred garden, and walked in unison on the white sand ground while embarking on the road to the main palace.

But the miko and the man still turned a blind eye to this.

The two continued to move forward in silence.The shrine maiden led the man along the usual worship route in the palace, passing through other palaces such as the Wind and Sun Prayer Palace, the Tsukiyomi Palace, and the Arasai Palace.

In the mist-filled divine realm, these shrines that were separated from other palaces also showed different appearances.

The shrine where the divine body is housed is much smaller than other worship halls because humans are not allowed to set foot in it.Its size is no more than three rooms in width and three rooms in depth. The roof of the hanging mountain style is covered with thatch, and the angle is steep.To put it disrespectfully, it’s just a “hut.”

But in this space, at the top of these other palaces and shrines, there are huge souls entrenched.

Those souls rarely have a human form, but they have a size that is several times larger than the shrine below them.

In the thick fog, only their limb-like parts can be seen, paddling slowly like fish fins in the white fog.

...At the same time, from the upper part hidden behind the thick fog, there were waves of strange wailing sounds.As for the guiding witch, every time she passed by the steps of the annex palace, she would pause, apologize to the guests behind her, and then earnestly pay homage to the main hall of the annex palace from a distance...or the spirit on the top of the main hall. , and finally moved on.

Finally, there is the front door of the Shogu Shrine, which is said to enshrine the body of Yata Kagami.

But the witch didn't lead the guests closer.

This time, she was still standing at the foot of the steps, looking at a huge eyeball on the top of the main palace from a distance. After completing the worship, she continued to lead the guests along the road and quickly bypassed the main palace. , walked towards the depths of Shenlu Mountain.

After an unknown amount of time, at the end of the deserted mountain road, at the top of the Holy Road Mountain, another shrine "made only by God" finally appeared.

This shrine is similar in size and style to the main hall of Kodaijingu Shrine. It is also only three rooms wide and two rooms deep.But the only difference is that the pillars at the foot of this shrine are several times higher than those of any previous main palace.

The thick pillars are only inserted into the white stone foundation, raising the entire shrine about ten meters in the air.

The eaves staircase connecting the gate of the shrine to the ground has therefore extended its length to more than tens of meters, forming a relatively gentle slope.

But the long staircase with eaves also hides the palace gate above it tightly.

At the foot of the starting point of the stairs where the palace gate could not be seen at all, the guiding witch stopped at the bottom of the steps, turned around and signaled to the guests that they could continue forward, but she could only stop here.

So, the man politely thanked the shrine maiden who led the way, and then walked up the steps alone.

Finally, he saw the short, closed gate of the palace.

Beside the door, there was an old woman priest waiting there, bowing to the guests from a distance.

The man climbed the last few steps and stopped in front of the palace gate.

"Mr. Zheli." The old woman bowed to the man.

The man returned the greeting and spoke in a gentle and elegant voice: "Long time no see, Onishi Miyaji."

"I have resigned as the palace secretary of Inari Taisha Shrine, and now I am just an ordinary shrine maiden serving Saio here." The woman replied.

"I see, then I should call you Onishi Miki at this time."

"Actually, there is no priesthood." Onishi smiled again and said: "I am just an ordinary miko who takes care of the child."

After a brief exchange of greetings, Onishi said seriously: "I'm really sorry this time."

"After all, the matter is so important that it is not suitable to send an envoy, and it is inconvenient for my Lord to move... I can only trouble you to make the trip in person."

"Not only that, I heard that you particularly don't like places with noisy crowds, but this time I have to trouble you to enter the Dance Hall from the Uji Bridge." Onishi smiled bitterly, "...but since ancient times, the Dance Hall There is only one intersection in Shenlu Mountain."

"Anyway, I really caused you a lot of trouble." She finally bowed again and apologized.

Zheli wrote lightly: "Don't worry, after all, this is just a 'private visit' that cannot be made public. So it doesn't matter who comes to make this trip."

Daxi nodded: "Then, my lord is already waiting for you, please."

Then, she opened the low palace door and made a "please come in" gesture.

Fold away nodded, bent down and got into the low palace gate.Behind him, Daxi took advantage of the situation and closed the palace gate.

There was darkness in the palace.

But in an instant, the light became brighter.

Zheli looked around without difficulty - he was not in any small hut, let alone indoors.

After passing through a door, Zheli stood on the "Sacred Road Mountain" again.

He stood on the unfamiliar moss ground, with an ancient stone torii gate behind him, and the surrounding mountains and forests were filled with thick fog.Under the soft light from an unknown source, the familiar shrines of the Emperor's Grand Shrine and various other palaces loomed in the distance.

It's just that there is no soul entrenched on it.

In this huge but silent mountain forest, there are only three existences.

——Fold off.

——Not far away from him, a miko was sitting on the moss ground.

——And there is a huge thing in the thick fog behind the miko.

Its body was so huge that it seemed bigger than the mountain. Like a wall, it rose straight to the top of the clouds and mist, making it difficult to see the whole thing.Its wall-like body moved, breaking through the fog barrier from time to time, vaguely revealing the matrix of flesh and blood - but it was completely impossible to judge what the behemoth "is as a whole" based on this.

Zheli raised his head and glanced at the silhouette, but after just one glance, he gave up his curiosity. He just lowered his head and walked steadily towards the witch.

The miko is dressed as Chihaya and wears a crown from the top of her head, but her hair is weirdly dyed blond.Although his posture was dignified, his smile was unexpectedly charming.

She just smiled towards Zheli, but there was some kind of silent but active invitation radiating around her.

Fold away just walked towards her normally, but it seemed as if he was being gradually sucked into some kind of vortex.

——But just before crossing the irreversible boundary of the whirlpool, Zheli suddenly stopped and finally stood ten meters away from the witch.

The witch's smile seemed unchanged, but she also seemed to have a sense of regret.

After a moment of silence between the two parties, a tentacle of flesh and blood slowly stretched out from the thick fog behind the witch, from the direction of the huge thing like a wall of flesh and blood.The tentacle rolled up a data disk, stretched it out in front of the man, and stopped.

Without changing his expression, Zhi Li reached out and took the data disk from the tentacle's hand.

Then, he turned and left.

But at this time, the miko finally spoke behind him.

"You're leaving now? We've finally arrived at Laixiang's house, can't you... stay with Laixiang for a little longer?" She said in a coquettish voice.

(End of this chapter)