In the shrine office of Chichibu Shrine, after a simple consultation, the Kano-miko invited Honma Meiko to a separate room next door to examine her body.
This was a hidden service within the shrine. Ordinary wealthy people didn't even know about this special package.
Only those with sufficiently high status, who were qualified to know about the inner world, could enjoy this examination package that used spiritual power to conduct a full-body scan.
She had naturally not heard of Miyauchi Hikage's name before, but the name Asahigaoka was very well-known.
After all, Asahigaoka was so close to Chichibu. It was originally just a countryside village, but in just a few short years, it had become the number one internet-famous village in Japan, and its fame was about to spread abroad.
It wasn't until Miyauchi Hikage was "reserved" by the Jujutsu world, not only having a leader of the younger generation like Gojo Satoru escorting him, but also awakening to the supernatural in the process of dealing with vengeful spirits, officially becoming a member of the inner world.
In addition, he had also been filming videos of haunted houses, which could easily expose information about the inner world. Only then did his situation enter the sight of the Shinto upper echelons.
One day was enough for the Shinto side to get a general grasp of Miyauchi Hikage's situation.
It was also after reading his identity information that the Kano-miko, who felt that he could have great achievements in the future, agreed to let him bring another ordinary girl who was not from the inner world to the shrine.
It was just using spiritual power to help a frail girl recuperate her body. This kind of thing wouldn't be any loss for them.
However, after seeing Honma Meiko, the Kano-miko, with just a few glances, discovered that this girl's spiritual power talent seemed to be quite good.
To be precise, she wasn't sure how good Honma Meiko's spiritual power talent was, but she seemed to have a very high compatibility with the ley line.
Although she was still just an ordinary person, ever since she entered the shrine, the spiritual power emanating from the shrine's ley line had shown a very high affinity for her.
Even though she was already a Grade 1 supernatural being, the Kano-miko had rarely seen anyone with such a high affinity for the ley line in all these years.
So, the Kano-miko immediately developed a fondness for this talent and wanted to take Honma Meiko as her disciple.
She didn't think that just because Miyauchi Hikage was from the Jujutsu world, the person he brought would also be from the Jujutsu world.
She would even say that Miyauchi Hikage clearly knew many people from the Jujutsu world, but wasn't he still bringing Honma Meiko to the shrine for help now?
In that case, Honma Meiko herself was a person from Chichibu City, so she should rightly become a shrine maiden on their Shinto side!
Anyway, because the supernatural had been in decline for more than a century, the various forces in the inner world had been forced to abandon their past sectarian views under the circumstances.
Or perhaps it could be said that the forces or families that were unwilling to abandon their sectarian views had long been submerged in the dust of history.
Now, after the spiritual resurgence, although the exchanges between different forces were still full of open and hidden struggles, they had become much more normal in the past two years under the restraint of the upper echelons.
And on the Shinto side, although shrine maidens were still nominally "children of god" who served the deities, serving the deities was a thing of the past.
Not to mention that more than half of the current shrine maidens were part-time assistant maidens who came to work temporarily. More importantly, the true gods of the past who possessed great power had not shown themselves in the human world for two hundred years.
The gods that truly existed now were almost all new gods who had been artificially elevated to godhood by the Shinto upper echelons after the spiritual resurgence.
Therefore, even the special-grade spirit mediums of Shinto did not have restrictions on marriage now. At most, in the past, there was a restriction on not marrying into other forces.
But this restriction had long since been broken during the spiritual resurgence.
The current supernatural forces basically all had a large number of basic cultivation methods from other forces in storage.
Buddhist power, spiritual power, cursed energy, magic power, demonic power, and even the cultivation methods for resentment power could be found.
So, as long as it didn't involve more core secrets, even after Honma Meiko became a shrine maiden, she could still be with Miyauchi Hikage, who was developing in the Jujutsu world.
It wasn't strange for the Kano-miko to think this way.
Although in Miyauchi Hikage's file, he seemed to have many so-called "childhood friends" and "confidantes" around him.
But after he awakened his supernatural powers and entered the inner world, it meant that he would definitely deal more with other supernatural beings from the inner world in the future, and his relationship with those ordinary people would probably only grow more and more distant.
At least in the Kano-miko's eyes, Miyauchi Hikage, who had already become a supernatural being, would never choose to marry an ordinary person in the future, unless he chose to take a concubine—
Although Japan had officially abolished the concubinage system after the Meiji Restoration, in reality, there were still many important figures in the outer world who secretly kept mistresses. Not to mention in the inner world, the overall rules were still determined by the higher-ups of the inner world.
In addition, there was the "binding vow" that the stronger a supernatural being was, the harder it was to have offspring, and that the offspring of supernatural beings had a higher probability of becoming supernatural beings. This meant that if a supernatural being wanted to stably form a supernatural family, they had to adopt a philanthropic model of sowing seeds widely and harvesting centrally.
So the rule of not being able to take concubines was, until now, just a piece of paper with no binding force in the inner world. As long as it wasn't brought out into the open, everyone tacitly acknowledged the behavior of the powerhouses in the supernatural families taking more concubines to pass on their excellent talents.
With this in mind, the Kano-miko also began to use her spiritual power to check Honma Meiko's body.
"Hmm..." As soon as she started, she felt that something was wrong.
There seemed to be another warm power flowing faintly within Honma Meiko's body.
Although it was not as powerful as spiritual power, in terms of nourishing the body, it seemed to be gentler than spiritual power.
At the same time, it was this power that was maintaining the vitality in her body.
If this warm power were to be removed, this pale-faced girl would probably even have difficulty walking on the ground.
Immediately, the Kano-miko perked up and checked Honma Meiko's physical condition more seriously with her spiritual power.
The more she checked, the more alarmed she became.
Apart from being a bit thin, there was nothing wrong with her body from the outside.
But her insides were almost hollowed out, and she was completely relying on that special power to prop up this body.
Her judgment that she couldn't walk on the ground was even a bit conservative.
Without the nourishment of that power, this girl's body could probably only last until this summer at most!
What on earth was the reason that had caused this girl's body to be hollowed out to such an extent?
The Kano-miko now understood why Miyauchi Hikage had come to them for help. There was indeed a hidden story in this girl's body.
She first slowly infused a stream of pure spiritual power into her body, nourishing this body together with that power.
Then she asked Honma Meiko about her physical condition and what that power in her body was.
Without receiving any threat warning from the diary, and confirming that the other party probably really wanted her to join the shrine and become a shrine maiden, Honma Meiko felt much more at ease, and then explained the origin of the breathing method as Shiina Mashiro and she had explained to Miyauchi Hikage before.
It had to be said that the Shinto side indeed had a lot more secret information than other forces.
After hearing about the breathing method, although the Kano-miko didn't recall it at first, after she reported this matter to the only special-grade spirit medium in the shrine, this chief priestess, after thinking for a while, didn't fail to recall it, but rather, because there were too many things related to breathing in her mind, she needed to do some screening.
Breathing was originally an act closely related to life. All living beings have the process of breathing.
Therefore, among the supernatural forces, there were naturally quite a few power systems related to breathing.
Qigong, Taoist breathing techniques, breathing styles...
After thinking for a while, and after hearing about Honma Meiko's weakened physical condition, the chief priestess really did think of a breathing style that had disappeared for nearly a hundred years but was still being passed down in a small circle.
"Apart from that ancient upper country, where many Taoist techniques related to breathing are still circulating, it might also be the Demon Slayer Corps, which was established from its inception to hunt down a certain so-called demon king. That force had a very close cooperative relationship with a branch of Shintoism back then, and also left behind relatively complete written records. It can be considered one of the few supernatural forces that were still frequently active during the period of supernatural decline."
She briefly explained the situation of that Demon Slayer Corps to the Kano-miko.
"Back then, that demon king was judged as a special-grade vampire species, with a life force comparable to that of a True Ancestor. His blood could also make ordinary humans lose their minds and become demons who obeyed his commands. And his ability to escape was also very strong. He could survive even after his head was cut off and his body was cut into thousands of pieces. Relying on this ability, he had survived in the world for nearly a thousand years. His only weakness was that, like most low-level vampire species, he was extremely afraid of sunlight."
"According to later speculations, it was probably precisely because of his great weakness of fearing sunlight that he was far more tyrannical than ordinary vampire species. In addition, he was very good at escaping. He would choose to run away when he encountered other special-grade beings, which was why he could survive until modern times."
"And that Demon Slayer Corps relied on a special breathing style developed by a swordsman from the Warring States period, combined with Nichirin Blades made from a special ore with the power of the sun, to have the ability to fight against that demon king and the demons he created."
"And after being entangled with that demon king for hundreds of years, the Demon Slayer Corps finally, during the period of supernatural decline, took advantage of the demon king's desire to overcome his weakness to sunlight, lured out the weakened demon king, and finally, after paying a huge sacrifice, they finally eliminated him. After that, the Demon Slayer Corps disbanded."
"That breathing style has also been passed down among the descendants of those Demon Slayer Corps members. Because that breathing style has the risk of shortening one's life if overused, although we have a collection of this breathing style in our shrine, we generally don't let people practice it."
The Kano-miko couldn't help but frown.
"You mean, that breathing style might be the reason for Miss Honma's physical deficit."
The chief priestess shook her head. "I'm just guessing. After all, I've never practiced the breathing style, and I can only learn about what happened back then from the records."
"That breathing style also has many branch schools. Among them, the Sun Breathing used by the founder possessed the most powerful strength, and it also seemed to be able to simulate a power similar to the sun through breathing, which is somewhat similar to the situation you described."
"And it's not strange for the most powerful breathing style to have the biggest side effects."
"But the specific situation still needs to be seen in person."
"If you feel that that girl has a high compatibility with the ley line and is a good seedling, then I'll go and take a look."
As she said this, she, who had not even left her room for a while, stood up and, under the guidance of the Kano-miko, walked towards the shrine office.
Among them, when she passed by Miyauchi Hikage, her gaze only glanced at him briefly.
She naturally already knew his identity from the Kano-miko.
So after sensing the vigorous vitality in his body, she did not have any particular reaction, just sighed slightly in her heart.
Those jujutsu sorcerers are really lucky. Since the spiritual resurgence began, they've always been able to dig up a lot of promising newcomers in recent years.
But after she saw Honma Meiko, her thoughts changed.
The shrine side had indeed also encountered a good seedling.
The Kano-miko was only a Grade 1 shrine maiden, and she had not been at Chichibu Shrine for many years, so her connection with the ley line was not particularly close.
But she, who had been stationed at Chichibu Shrine for more than ten years and was almost completely connected to the ley line, could see Honma Meiko's essence at a glance.
How could she just have a high compatibility with the ley line?
She was already connected to the ley line of Chichibu City, and from the looks of it, she had been connected for at least several years.
Although it was not the main line in the city center, she had only sensed it briefly and had already felt the aura of a certain branch line from her.
It looked like the branch line from the northeast.
However, a person's aura was too insignificant compared to the ley line itself, so she had really not noticed this change over the years.
But how could an ordinary person be connected to the ley line?
So after thinking for a moment, the chief priestess directly chose to do a divination.
Using the blessing of Chichibu's ley line to take a closer look at this Honma Meiko's fate.
But this one divination, the chief priestess saw an exceptionally ethereal result.
This girl before her, whose body looked as if it had been hollowed out, according to the result of the divination, she should have already passed away five years ago!