The shrine grounds weren't that large. There were only three large buildings. The Main Hall was in the center, with the Offering Hall and Worship Hall on either side, symmetrical to each other.
In the large shrine courtyard, a shrine maiden in her red and white robes was slowly sweeping the ground. In the past, citizens from the city would come by from time to time to worship and pray, but because these were special times, the shrine had forbidden the public from coming to worship.
Lisa hadn't been here in a long time.
The last time she came here was when she was a child. But even though several years had passed, the layout of the shrine hadn't changed much from her memory.
At this moment.
At the entrance of the Main Hall up ahead, a handsome man wearing blue robes and a black cap was standing there. Behind him were nine golden tails, similar to Lisa's. When he looked at Lisa, his eyes were filled with an irrepressible joy and longing.
"Dad!"
Lisa hurried over. She hadn't seen her father in several years. On top of that, her mother had left her. If it hadn't been for Lucas, Lisa might not have been able to bear the pressure. After all, she was just a child in her early teens. Normally, a child her age would just be starting junior high, but Lisa had to bear so much.
The reunion between father and daughter was heartwarming.
This stirred up some not-so-good memories for Skadi.
She once had parents and a family too... It's just that they had all died in front of her.
Skadi's expression turned gloomy. Lucas noticed and reached out, rubbing Skadi's soft, cool head. Skadi seemed to enjoy the feeling, even leaning into it, nudging Lucas's hand with her head.
Just then, Nian thought of a tricky question.
"Speaking of which."
"According to human logic, parents are parents because they gave birth to a child. By that logic... wouldn't that make the old geezer one too? Hiss...."
Remembering the terrifying, ferocious appearance and the bone-chillingly dreadful aura of Sui-Xiang, Nian shook her head.
"Forget it, why am I having such a weird thought."
Laurentina, beside them, said: "We Aegir don't place much importance on bloodlines. For us, nurturing parents are far more important than biological parents."
"Nurturing parents?"
Nian fell into thought. Who were her nurturing parents?
Oh... she was born this awesome. It seems the concept of 'nurturing' didn't apply.
"Whatever."
Nian tossed the boring thought aside. Then, while Lisa and her father were catching up, she shouldered her camera and started filming randomly.
"Dad, these are my friends. This is Big Brother Lucas. After Mom left, he's been the one taking care of me."
Lisa pulled her father's hand and walked over to Lucas Reeve.
"Thank you for taking care of my daughter."
Lisa's father thanked Lucas Reeve gratefully. Lucas quickly waved his hands, saying it was what he should do. After all, she was such an adorable girl.
Magallan muttered, "Say, Miss Nian, does this count as 'meeting the parents'?"
Nian nodded. "I guess so."
Magallan: "I remember Lucas seems to have met parents more than once. He met Jessica's parents before, tsk tsk... He's really busy, huh."
Nian, for some reason, blurted out, "He's met mine and Dusk-bao's, too."
Magallan: "???"
Nian didn't really get it either. Theoretically, meeting Sui-Xiang should count, right? It was a meeting, after all.
Nian continued, "And then the three of us, him, me, and Dusk, beat the crap out of the old geezer. It was pretty satisfying. Not even scraps were left."
Magallan's expression crumpled. She looked at Nian in confusion, words on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't know where to begin.
He beat up the father-in-law with the two daughters?
Is Lucas that hardcore?
"Oh, and one of mine and Dusk's older sisters."
Nian continued.
"Originally, I called Dusk and Sister Ling, planning for the three of us to beat up the old geezer. But Sister Ling didn't want to do it, and my Second Brother was still helping the old geezer. In the end, with Lucas's help, not only did we smash the old geezer, we turned Second Brother's soul to dust too."
"Miss Surtr, Skadi, and Laurentina were all watching from the side. Dusk didn't dare to hit the old geezer, so Skadi and the other two had to cheer her on from behind."
Magallan: "???"
Countless question marks flashed over Magallan's cute penguin head.
Was it that terrifying?
Are all of Jessica's new friends this terrifying?
From Nian's detailed description, an outrageous story formed in Magallan's mind.
Nian and Dusk called another sister, Ling, to beat up their old father. Magallan didn't know the reason, but their sister had a crisis of conscience and chose to watch from the sidelines. Then Nian pulled in Lucas. Dusk didn't dare to do it, so Skadi and the other two helped lift her hands. Then Nian's Second Brother wanted to help his father, but he got smashed to bits along with him by the three great villains, led by Lucas.
Magallan fell into deep thought. She was wondering if she should call the police.
Lucas Reeve couldn't help but rap Nian on the head.
"Stop telling weird stories with a straight face."
Lucas explained to Magallan, "Don't listen to Nian's nonsense, Miss Magallan. It was Nian and Dusk's old geezer who wanted to *eat* them, so they fought back. That Second Brother was helping because he wanted to take the old geezer's place."
Eat?
Eat?
*Eat*?
At this moment, it felt as if several volcanoes had erupted in Magallan's mind. She was utterly shocked.
What kind of super-messed-up family drama was this?
Magallan thought of some manga plots from Higashi.
"Hiss, this 'eat'... what exactly do you mean?"
Magallan asked cautiously.
Nian said matter-of-factly, "Exactly what it means. Eat them, put them in his stomach."
"???"
F*ck!
Isn't that even more ridiculous?!
Cannibalism, right!!
Originally, Magallan thought it was something twisted and incestuous, but it turned out to be cannibalism.
And the Second Brother was even more ridiculous...
Second Brother actually wanted to take his father's place?
F*ck!
What is *with* this family?
Magallan looked at Nian, her face filled with shock. She had traveled to many places, but this was the first time she had ever heard of such a messed-up family. Angelina was the same. She was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family. After hearing such shocking news, the expression on her face was just as priceless as Magallan's.
Lisa's father's strength was decent, but only decent. He was quite strong among ordinary people, but compared to the people around Lucas, he was rather average. And Lisa's father naturally couldn't see that Lucas Reeve was his daughter's Shikigami. Since he couldn't see through Lucas, he naturally couldn't see through Nian either. In his eyes, Lucas and Nian were just two ordinary people.
Skadi and Laurentina's bodies were different from land-dwellers; they didn't rely on Originium energy. So, to a land-dweller's senses, there wasn't a trace of power in their bodies, so they were also treated as ordinary people.
As for Magallan...
She was a *genuinely* ordinary person.
After some simple pleasantries.
Lisa's father led the group into the shrine's Main Hall.
The Main Hall is the core building of a shrine, the place where the god is enshrined. It's also called the inner sanctuary.
The Main Hall is not open to the public. If ordinary citizens need to worship, they can just go to the Worship Hall next to it. The shrine's operating funds generally come from the city's budget allocation and donations from the public during worship.
As outsiders.
Lucas and the others were not allowed to enter the core area of the Main Hall where the god was enshrined. They could only rest in the large hall on the outer side, which was used for daily worship by the Shinto priests. Lisa's father, meanwhile, led Lisa into the innermost area.
Although the shrine looked a bit old from the outside, once inside, this great hall used for worship by the priests was indescribably luxurious. In the very center, a giant statue of a nine-tailed fox was enshrined. The statue was so lifelike it seemed alive, exuding an indescribable dominance.
Magallan quickly tugged on Lucas's sleeve.
"Lucas, Lucas! I wasn't lying! This is what I saw in my dream!! In the dream, it ate the pangolin that was trying to poison me."
Lucas Reeve raised his head and met the gaze of the nine-tailed fox statue. It was just an ordinary statue, with no divine soul within it.
If he wasn't mistaken.
The thing containing a part of the divine soul should be in the innermost part of the Main Hall.
However, that fox's divine soul felt very weak. It was probably just a divine soul, with no consciousness, like a program acting based on pre-set instructions. Otherwise, the moment Nian and Lucas stepped into the shrine, this fox's divine soul should have come out immediately. If not, it must have a massive ego.
"By the way, do you know this fox, Nian?"
Lucas pointed at the fox statue and asked. If a priest saw this, they'd probably have an aneurysm. After all, this was highly disrespectful.
Nian replied without thinking, "Sure, I know her."
"In the ancient era, gods also had factions. Some gods liked to help humans, like Miss Nine-Colored Deer. In the past, Higashi also had a few gods willing to protect all of Higashi. This nine-tailed fox was one of the more powerful ones among them."
"Of course, this 'powerful' is only relative. At her peak, her strength was about the same as Sister Ling's, not as good as Big Brother or Second Brother. You have to know, Sister Ling is invincible in Yan, second only to the Old Celestial Master. And Big Brother and Second Brother are truly invincible. You can only beat them with numbers."
Nian chattered on.
Magallan and Angelina at the side felt like they were listening to Greek.
What do you mean, 'you know her'?
You know the god of this statue?
Huh???
According to Nian's description.
Gods are also divided into different ranks.
Sui was among the most ancient, powerful, and mysterious of the gods.
The divine fragments split from Sui were definitely stronger than ordinary gods.
Just like Patriot, no matter how weakened he was, he could still easily crush ordinary Operators.
Of course.
Big Brother, Second Brother, and Sister Ling are in a league of their own. You can't even call those three divine fragments anymore. In terms of true power, those three are already comparable to many complete gods.
Nian, Dusk, and the others are the true reflection of what divine fragments are like.
Big Brother, Second Brother, and Ling are just exceptions.
After all, if every god was as powerful as Sui, what would be the point of fighting?
A single, complete Sui required Yan to sacrifice an entire capital city and lose more than 70% of its army. And that was after Yan had painstakingly studied Sui's weaknesses for thousands of years. If one Sui was like that, several Sui would be unimaginable.
Magallan was completely bewildered.
She subconsciously felt that Nian was telling a story from a novel, or some historical legend.
But the way she told it... directly in the first person, as if Nian had personally experienced it.
How is that possible.
Magallan dismissed the unrealistic idea from her mind.
Nian looked to be in her early twenties at most. She was very young.
Just then.
A divine power that ordinary people couldn't perceive radiated from within the Main Hall, forming a pure white barrier. This was a pure, divine soul power. Only those like Lucas and Nian could see it clearly; mortals couldn't sense it.
This divine soul power intertwined throughout the great hall, completely enveloping the Main Hall.
In Lucas and Nian's vision.
The entire great hall seemed to be dyed a sacred white, and faint blue flames floated in the air.
Just then.
Several waves of evil spirit energy surged over.
"Hehehe... an unconscious god's divine soul... devour... the greatest nourishment..."
A monster as ugly as a video game demon appeared outside the shrine hall. These evil spirits had peculiar forms, and ordinary people generally couldn't see them with the naked eye.
"Hiss... say, do you guys feel a bit cold?"
Magallan and Angelina couldn't help but rub their bare arms.
That shouldn't be right.
It was almost summer, how could it suddenly get cold? And there didn't seem to be any air conditioning in this hall.
"So many humans... hehehe... nourishment..."
This evil spirit revealed a sinister smile and slowly stepped into the shrine hall it normally wouldn't dare to enter. However, it had only just set foot inside when it saw two people staring intently at it.
Mortals can see me?
A thought flashed through the evil spirit's mind.
And just then.
The evil spirit suddenly saw a giant, pure-white dragon and the phantom of a divine being surging with golden light. The pressure alone almost crushed it.
F*ck!!
In an instant, the evil spirit broke out in a cold sweat.
"Sor... sorry... wrong place."
I've come to the wrong place.
;
The evil spirit performed an on-the-spot 'reverse park', backing out exactly the way it came in.
It seemed there were quite a few such evil spirits.
As soon as the first evil spirit left, a second one came over. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth...
"Sorry, my mistake...."
"Wrong place..."
"Hello, goodbye..."
"My mom's calling me home for dinner..."
Magallan didn't know what was happening. She asked Lucas in confusion.
"By the way, why are you two staring at the door? Is there something out there?"
At this moment.
In the core area of the Main Hall.
Several Vulpo with nine-tailed fox bloodlines were standing in the inner chamber, Lisa among them. At the head was an elderly man who was praying to the god statue.
The remaining few, including Lisa's father, were shrine priests who had already set up a barrier, ready for battle at any time.
"Strange... the ritual has been going on for so long and is almost over, why hasn't a single evil spirit shown up...."
One of the Onmyōji muttered in confusion.
Lisa's father was also puzzled.
The elderly head priest was also baffled. He remembered very clearly that the god's unconscious power was the greatest nourishment for evil spirits. Basically, every time this ritual was performed, it would attract countless evil spirits to snatch the divine soul. Why was it so absurdly quiet today? Not a single one.
It's actually quite lonely.
Did these evil spirits learn their lesson?