The banquet ended.
In Kamisato Ayaka's boudoir.
Jack lay on her lap pillow, resting his eyes, as the two enjoyed this moment of tranquility.
"Jack, you don't need to worry too much about my elder brother's request to investigate General Raiden Shogun's Tenshukaku. Please prioritize your safety above all else."
"What, Ayaka, are you worried that I might anger your Raiden Shogun and be judged again?"
Kamisato Ayaka pursed her lips, remaining silent.
Jack opened his eyes, looking up from the perspective of the lap pillow, and saw Ayaka's slightly worried face. He comforted her.
"Not to mention whether Ei will fight me, even if a battle occurs, with Morax's shield and Barbatos's escape ability, Baalzebul, who only has the power of one god, cannot defeat me."
However, these words alone could not reassure the young girl.
So Jack took her slender fingers and placed them on his chest.
"Then feel the surge of this divine power."
Jack opened his chest and mentally linked with Kamisato Ayaka's thoughts.
Then, with a shift in perspective.
Kamisato Ayaka arrived in Jack's mental space, an ocean filled with elemental power.
And she was merely a drop of water in this endless sea.
"So big! So amazing!"
"Right? So you don't need to worry about me."
Jack's consciousness energy body appeared behind her, like a formless wisp of smoke.
"Tonight... we are going to Narukami Shrine to perform the ritual."
"T-this quickly?"
"What, Ayaka, are you unwilling? But I saw you seemed very interested when you were chatting with Mona and the others this morning."
"Ah! You, you heard all of that?"
Despite being only a spiritual body, Kamisato Ayaka still showed signs of blushing. As the saying goes, appearance is born from the heart, and this was precisely such a situation.
"You're still too naive. Those two clearly knew I could hear them. To instill such knowledge in you under those circumstances, their goal was probably to see your embarrassed and shy expression after understanding the truth."
Mona might genuinely have just been sharing experience, but Lisa definitely had the intention of teasing a younger sister.
"However, it's a pity that this beautiful sight can only be admired by me now."
Jack transformed into a wisp of smoke, drifting in front of Kamisato Ayaka, and gently hooked her chin with his index finger.
"The Sacred Sakura Tree ritual requires our physical body and soul to reach a state of synchronization simultaneously. Physical synchronization can be achieved with a few more attempts, but mentally, this is the first time I've encountered such a requirement."
The spiritual body of Kamisato Ayaka's small mouth slightly parted, as if she knew what the other party was about to say next.
"Consciousness, soul... Jack, do you mean for us to attempt the so-called soul synchronization here?"
"Precisely. You've already learned to answer questions ahead of time. Let's start with something simple."
The smoke-like Jack's form gradually solidified, then he extended his right hand.
Ayaka, across from him, also cooperatively extended her left hand.
Unlike ordinary contact in the Mind Space, what Jack was about to do was to "embrace" Ayaka, allowing the two of them to become one on the conscious level.
So, when the tips of their index fingers touched, their "physical bodies" began to dematerialize, and their fingers actually merged together.
"This is..."
"Don't panic! Relax your mind and body, and slowly adapt to this feeling."
Kamisato Ayaka felt two layers of sensation on her hand simultaneously, and an unprecedented, wonderful feeling began to emerge, as if her small soul was rejoicing at being nourished by a more powerful existence.
This feeling, coming from the depths of her soul, was more shocking than any emotion in reality, as if a whole new world was unfolding before Kamisato Ayaka.
And this was merely the overlapping of a single finger.
"Mmm, I will!"
Kamisato Ayaka said, gritting her teeth, her spiritual body rippling, a sign of impending dissipation, but her willpower was firm, and she could still hold on.
Jack himself was not feeling well either, but he frequently used soul power related to the grass element, and correspondingly possessed resistance in this regard.
Furthermore, he was already the party with the larger soul, so the impact on his spiritual body form was relatively smaller.
The two looked at each other.
Then they merged their middle fingers, followed by their ring fingers, thumbs, pinky fingers... until their entire palms.
Pop ~
The moment their palms were about to merge, the intense impact in her mind directly caused Kamisato Ayaka's spiritual body form to dissipate, pulling her out of the wondrous state of soul fusion.
...
A few minutes earlier.
When their palms became one, Kamisato Ayaka felt her soul drifting among the clouds, and extremely fragmented images appeared before her.
She was as if standing in a white space, with two screens in front of her displaying different scenes.
The one on the left was hers.
As a child, she spent a peaceful and happy time with her parents.
As she grew older, her family underwent a drastic change, her mother became melancholic, and her young elder brother single-handedly took on the family's responsibilities.
As a young woman, she strived and struggled, picking up swords, which she was not skilled at, and became a genius in the eyes of others through her sweat.
As an adult, she became the Shirasagi Himegimi in everyone's eyes, but facing the turbulent Inazuma, she could only place her hopes on the Traveler who came from afar.
One event after another, one memory after another.
Finally, it stopped at the stream where the confession took place, where the young woman performed a dance called love.
"This is my memory, so that's it... Then the one on the right must be..."
Kamisato Ayaka suppressed the discomfort in her soul and looked to the right.
There, it should be the Traveler's memory.
The initial image was a bit blurry.
Only after she "widened her eyes" did the image gradually clear.
Under continuous rain, a person dressed in a yellow robe, whose face was unclear, placed an infant at the entrance of an orphanage, then hurried away.
The old dean, hearing the sound, opened the door and adopted the infant.
Then the infant grew, studied, struggled... entered the ivory tower, returned to the big social dye vat...
Until, under the gaze of everyone, blood splattered onto the clean street.
Logically speaking, this was merely the life of an extremely ordinary, unfortunate young man.
However...
"Why is it that besides Jack, everyone else is... Ah! My head, my head hurts so much!"
Before the word monster could be "spoken," Kamisato Ayaka felt intense pain, and was then struck out of the Mind Space by an irresistible force.
Buzz!
When she came to her senses, Kamisato Ayaka was already drenched in sweat.
"Ayaka? Are you alright!"
Jack held her, reaching out to touch her forehead.
"Jack... Huh? What just happened? I don't seem to remember anything?"
"You went too far into the Mind Space just now. Fortunately, I didn't resist, otherwise, with your current mental strength, you would have been annihilated by my power long ago."
Jack estimated that she probably saw some unspeakable power at the end.
How could a god's past be easily probed?
"You are not allowed to do that again in the future. You must follow my guidance closely, okay?"
"Mm, I won't next time."
"You've sweated so much, go take a bath and rest. We can talk about practice later."
"Okay ~"
...
Narukami Shrine, in front of the torii steps.
A furtive figure flashed by repeatedly.
After a search, she stopped at the main entrance, revealing her graceful figure.
"Nana-chan, did the Traveler come to the shrine today?"
Nana Kano, who was sitting in a daze, quickly stood up upon hearing the voice, then bowed to Yae Miko.
"Chief Priest, the Traveler did come to the shrine this morning."
"Oh? The little one finally came."
Clap!
The small folding fan opened, obscuring Yae Miko's joyful and excited expression.
But faintly behind her, a fox tail was swishing back and forth, reflecting its owner's current mood.
"Quick, tell me, what did he do when he came? Was he very disappointed and anxious because he couldn't find me?"
"Uh... The two Travelers came to the shrine hand in hand. After praying at the shrine, they asked for a child-blessing fortune slip from the shrine, and then they went down the mountain."
Nana Kano, noticing her Chief Priest's mood had worsened, quickly tried to make amends.
"I know that too. Alright, you can go now."
Yae Miko impatiently waved away the uneasy Nana Kano, and walked alone towards the Sacred Sakura Tree.
Upon arriving, she dismissed all the shrine maidens.
Alone, she looked up at the branches she had trimmed into the shape of a fox, and began to converse with the air.
"Sister Makoto, the little scoundrel has already arrived in Inazuma. I wonder if tricking Ei into coming over to return the Raiden Shogun's 'authority' to you succeeded last time. If Sister Ganyu were here, it would be great; she's the little scoundrel's familiar, so she should be able to see your current state, right?"
The words fell.
Yae Miko waited for dozens of seconds.
But no one answered her.
The fox lady's ears drooped, and her mood was a bit low.
"What kind of fool am I being? It's just a tree, how could it talk?"
Yae Miko laughed at herself mockingly.
Then she took out her catalyst, Kagura's Verity, from her god's eye.
Alone, she performed the Kagura Dance, a dance offered by shrine maidens to the gods.
Bells jingled.
This unique rhythm seemed to resonate with the Sacred Sakura Tree, and the Sacred Sakura Tree emitted a faint purple glow.
In a place where the Miko could not see, these lines of text appeared:
[Sacred Sakura Tree of Love and Marriage (☆☆☆☆ Unspeakable) has been strengthened]
[Ritual conditions have been increased]
[New ritual condition: Three-Day Moon Dance]
[Three-Day Moon Dance: In addition to the 7 marriage indicator object rituals, a joint ritual must be completed with 3 of them in front of the Sacred Sakura Tree]
...
Meanwhile, at Kamisato Estate.
Jack still didn't know that Yae Miko was deliberately avoiding him, and after missing their meeting, she had inadvertently strengthened the Sacred Sakura Tree.
He was currently facing an important choice.
Kamisato Ayaka invited him to bathe together.
Since it was the young woman's own private room, no one would disturb them, and no one would know.
He was wondering whether to be a beast or worse than a beast.
"Better to be worse than a beast. The Sacred Sakura Tree ritual tonight is important."
First experiences, for most young women, are memorable. This was also the easiest time to meet the ritual requirements.
"Jack, I don't have a bath towel for men here. Why don't you use mine first?"
Kamisato Ayaka, wearing a bath towel that clearly revealed her graceful figure, walked over. The pink skin showed obvious reddish marks, proving that she was not as calm as she appeared at the moment.
"A bath towel is actually such an inconvenience."
Jack, on the other hand, stated that when bathing with his wives, he had never used such bathing attire.
"Ah? Wouldn't that be..."
The innocent young woman shyly covered her face, her body temperature starting to rise sharply.
"You can't see it once you're in the water anyway, it's fine."
Under the persuasion of her experienced boyfriend, the well-bred Miss Ayaka completely crossed the line of etiquette.
"In that case, then... I won't use a bath towel either!"
"!!"
The white bath towel slipped down.
What appeared before Jack was a scene even whiter and softer than silk.
Perhaps... I should just be a beast?
...
Dong~
With a resounding 'dong' from the sika deer scare, a touch of color was added to the silent, solitary hot spring.
In the hot spring, a man and a woman sat cross-legged in the water, their hands clasped together, maintaining their most primitive state.
This was not a scene of martial arts power transfer in a wuxia novel.
Instead, it was a spiritual cultivation.
Dong~
The sika deer scare sounded again, and the woman among the two was the first to emerge from her meditative state, letting out a gasp and slumping back.
Whoosh!
The man quickly woke up and rushed over to hold the woman in his arms.
At this moment, the young woman was still trembling uncontrollably.
"Jack… I…"
"It's alright, take a moment to recover. The fusion just now reached your forearm, which is a great improvement."
That's right.
This was Jack and Kamisato Ayaka preparing for the Sacred Sakura Tree ceremony tonight.
Because soul fusion consumed a lot of physical strength, no matter where they conducted their spiritual fusion experiments, their clothes would become soaked with sweat.
So, the two of them decided to cultivate directly in the hot spring.
After sweating, they would wash themselves clean and then continue practicing.
As a green light of healing shone.
Kamisato Ayaka recovered.
She leaned against Jack's firm chest, her fingers tracing circles over his heart.
"Jack, am I useless? I can't even do something so simple."
Jack tucked her stray hair behind her ear and gently stroked the young woman's face.
"I can see Ayaka has tried very hard. It's alright, there's still a lot of time. Even if it doesn't succeed tonight, we can try more times later."
"Mm, no time to lose, Jack, let's go again!"
"It's only been a few minutes. Aren't you going to rest a bit longer?"
"Actually, I'm not very tired, and with your healing, Jack, isn't our goal to complete the soul synchronization as soon as possible?"
Looking at Kamisato Ayaka working so hard for his mission.
Jack felt a surge of emotion.
What more could a husband ask for than such a wife?
"Alright, since my Ayaka said so, then I must also show a man's responsibility! Come, let's continue!"
...
The entire afternoon.
Jack and Kamisato Ayaka spent in the hot spring practicing soul synchronization.
With Jack, the healer, present, they didn't have to worry about staying in the water for too long affecting their bodies; a quick flush of grass element would instantly revitalize them.
Although they were bare.
The two focused on spiritual communication, and physical intimacy was limited to small gestures like hugs and kisses.
Finally, after several hours of intense effort, within the Mind Space, the two successfully "embraced" each other.
"The basic puzzle is complete. Now we just wait for tonight to go to Narukami Shrine for the ceremony and see what the Sacred Sakura Tree's judgment criteria are."
...
Dinner time.
It was still the familiar dining room.
Jack and Kamisato Ayaka nestled together, feeding each other.
The young woman opened her delicate mouth, taking one end of the chopsticks, her fragrant tongue rolling to bring the food into her mouth, her gaze fixed on the man beside her.
The hand they had held since entering the room had never let go.
"..."
Could it be that I'm imagining things? Why do they seem less like they just started their relationship today and more like a couple who has been married for two or three years?
Kamisato Ayato fell into deep thought.
It was a good thing that his sister and the brother-in-law he approved of had such a good relationship, but the sudden feeling of being excluded, the older brother-in-law was a bit slow to react for a moment.
One dinner.
It felt like a lifetime had passed.
...
Night fell.
Jack and Kamisato Ayaka arrived at Narukami Shrine.
It was quiet all around; everyone was asleep and resting, making it a perfect time for mischief.
The first ceremony to obtain Narukami's great authority was about to begin.
"The shielding barrier has been set up. Let's just choose the open space in front of the Sacred Sakura Tree."
"Mm, Jack, I… I'm ready too!"
The young woman was like a female general about to go to battle.
Her usual clothes were removed, replaced by a "combat" outfit from Jinxiu Pavilion in Liyue.
-------------------------------
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