Gacha games can't save this bizarre world.

Look, as expected of the young lady of the extraordinary organization, she speaks so tactfully that it's hard to refuse her.

They've made up their minds to latch onto a powerful figure!

With her intelligence, she naturally couldn't have failed to realize that her trip to the secret realm was a trap. However, Ashiya Doman ultimately accomplished nothing, returning to the human world as a shikigami and handing over the "Jade Rabbit Collection".

Yasuo, the great swordsman, casually flipped through the pages and tossed them to himself.

What kind of courage and boldness is this? What kind of strength and confidence? Enough said, even if you beat me up today, I won't leave!

I must say, the awareness and determination of the Japanese in this regard are truly frightening. They acted without the slightest hesitation!

Taking the Shinkansen is fast; it passes through Osaka, Heian-kyo, Nagoya, and then Kyoto (formerly known as Edo).

The whole trip only takes about five hours. You can just relax, drink and eat meat, enjoy the songs and dances, or take a nap. It'll be over quickly.

After getting into the car and chatting with everyone for a while, Zhao Hao lay down on the bed and pretended to doze off.

He gets to manage his newly acquired territory in his dream.

That's a huge area; there are still many monsters and cursed spirits that need to be cleared and subdued.

If the Minions were to handle everything on their own, they could create anything.

Once inside the dream world, the Minions' side had already begun.

The metaverse goddess Ika took charge of the overall situation, and all the bronze-level combatants, such as the Hellfire Lava Hound and the Wind Goddess Great Dragon, were deployed. The Minions, along with various mechs, fighter jets, magical artifacts, alchemical robots, and spiritual dolls, were also running around shouting and yelling.

Basically, cursed spirits are destroyed upon encounter. If a monster that can be communicated with and is willing to surrender is encountered, it is accepted after being marked with a curse seal. Then, an alchemical array is set up, and spiritual energy is used to modify the dream, roads are built, and resource areas are planned...

Yashiki Castle was chosen as the new settlement, and some of the original inhabitants, who could no longer be considered living beings, were naturally incorporated into the dream world, receiving precious dream green cards—what a wonderful thing!

Because Ica's computing power is already extremely high. After all, there are 70,000 to 80,000 super-powerful botnets around the world acting as cloud computing, which can precisely micromanage every small battlefield.

So everything went smoothly, and Zhao Hao was very satisfied.

When he came out of the dream, he found that the car had already stopped.

"Where are we?" Zhao Hao asked.

The shrine maiden Chika, holding a teacup, replied, "My lord, we have arrived in Heian-kyo. We will pause for 10 minutes and then continue our journey."

"Oh. Heian-kyo!"

Heian-kyo is the old capital of Japan.

Edo Castle has only been the present-day Kyoto for a little over a hundred years; before that, Kyoto in Japan was known as Heian-kyo. It has a long history.

However, Zhao Hao had no intention of sightseeing or anything like that. He planned to go straight to Kyoto, show off his power, and intimidate the Qi Ye family, making them think twice before sending their people up.

This has already delayed things for more than two weeks. If this goes on for too long, the Bureau of Mysteries will definitely become suspicious of my whereabouts.

But what was that saying again? Man proposes, God disposes.

Just as the Shinkansen train was about to depart, a massive explosion suddenly occurred in Heian-kyo, not far away!

"Holy crap! What's going on?!" Er had dropped the steak he was holding and was craning his neck to look out the window.

Ramen Maru, who was sleeping, was so frightened that she jumped onto the roof of the car, Miyoshi Shochu hid behind Chika, and several geishas playing music and singing screamed in terror. The scene was in complete chaos.

Chosokabu, sitting by the window, rested his hand on his sword hilt and peered into the distance: "Master, it seems a major spiritual disaster has occurred!"

Then Yoshino Rei rushed over, "Sir, a large-scale spiritual disaster has occurred! The Shinkansen has been destroyed!"

Chapter 437 The Decisive Battle of Heian-kyo?

Just before Zhao Hao and his group arrived in Heian-kyo by Shinkansen, several battles had already taken place in the underworld near Heian-kyo.

Several factions got mixed up together and fought a terrible battle.

This spiritual disaster was also caused by the demon forces during the great war, using cursed spirits to instigate it.

Ordinary people cannot see the cursed spirits, but since they have formed a spiritual disaster, they have already had an impact on the surface world.

Explosions, collapses, and even people who are nearby may be inexplicably killed, dismembered, cut in half, or corroded and melted by something, or swallowed whole by something!

Heian-kyo has served as the capital of Japan since ancient times, so it must be extraordinary.

According to the Eastern supernatural world's interpretation, this place is considered a convergence point of underground spiritual veins in Japan. It boasts numerous secret realms and excellent feng shui.

Spiritual veins can be seen as the "blood vessels" connecting the underworld, the inner world, and the outer world.

Ordinary capillaries form places where spiritual energy easily gathers in the surface world; larger veins tend to form secret realms that connect the surface and the inner world; and the more powerful aorta directly connects the three realms of the surface, the inner world, and the underworld.

Such places are relatively rare, such as Fengdu Ghost Gate in China, Yomotsu Hirasaka in Izumo, Japan, the Eye of Hell in Darvaza village, Ahal Oblast, Turkmenistan, the entrance to hell in the Frigari wilderness, Italy, the gates to the underworld in the ancient city of Hierapolis, Turkey, the mouth of hell at Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, and Heracles volcano in Iceland...

These places have been sealed off and closed by various means, cutting off their influence from the three realms.

The Eye of Hell in Turkmenistan was even ignited by the Red Big Brother with the "Eternal Flame," forming a perpetual sacred flame to sever the connection between the three realms.

While Heian-kyo is not the "main artery," it is a node where "veins" converge.

The capital was established here to utilize the spiritual veins of the entire nation to form a ritual array, firstly to suppress the nation's destiny, and secondly to inhibit the birth of demons and cursed spirits.

However, Heian-kyo has not been Kyoto for over a hundred years. The center of the country has shifted to Edo-kyo, so it is inevitable that some problems will arise here.

Such a geomantically auspicious place is a huge piece of meat in the eyes of many forces, and can even be said to be the foundation of a king's empire!

After all, the psionic resurgence has been going on for over a decade now, the strength of the supernatural forces in the underworld has increased dramatically, and it has been basically confirmed that this psionic resurgence is not a small, accidental fluctuation, but a truly large-scale and sustained resurgence.

In that case, the emperor's throne will rotate, and next year it will be my turn!

In Tanba Province, northwest of Heian-kyo, there is a mountain called Mount Ōe.

This mountain is a spiritual vein; it exists not only in the outer world but also has a reflection in the inner world.

A famous great demon once appeared on Mount Oe—Shuten-dōji!

This story is well-known in Japan.

Legend has it that in the 10th century AD, a great demon appeared on Mount Ōe in the province of Tanba. He built an Iron Palace and led a horde of demons in rampant chaos. Not only did he eat raw meat and blood, devouring human flesh, but he also frequently sneaked into the mansions of nobles in the capital at night to steal jewels and money. He even often disguised himself as a handsome young man to seduce the young ladies of nearby noble families, torturing, killing, and eating them. This was intolerable!

So the famous Minamoto no Yorimitsu, along with his Four Heavenly Kings, set off to exorcise the demon.

After a series of events, he beheaded Shuten-dōji and became famous throughout the world.

The sword that severed the head of the great demon was also praised as Dojigiri Yasutsuna and was known as one of the Five Great Swords of the Land!

Legend has it that Shuten-dōji, whose head was cut off, was not dead and could still attack Minamoto no Yorimitsu with his flying head, which shows that great demons are not easy to kill.

Now that psionic energy has been dormant for hundreds of years and the human world is relatively peaceful, after a long period of story transmission, enough fear has been accumulated. Coupled with the opportunity of psionic energy revival, Shuten-dōji, who has not been completely dead, has taken the opportunity to be resurrected.

Eight or nine hundred years ago, he was already a great monster who caused havoc in the region. Now that he has just been resurrected, how can he not reveal his name?

On the side of the yokai forces causing trouble in Heian-kyo, the yokai led by Shuten-dōji of Mt. Ōe is one of them.

Besides these, there are two other yokai factions. One is a yokai army called the Moth Group, whose general is called the Flying Moth, a powerful yokai. It is said that he is also an old yokai resurrected from a thousand years ago.

There's another force whose backer is currently unknown. But presumably, someone powerful demon must be involved in this matter. Anyone who dares to challenge the infamous Shuten-dōji for territory is certainly no ordinary opponent.

In addition to these, there are also forces on the human side, which are numerous and extremely complex.

The situation is complicated because, although they are all human, they are not only not subordinate to each other, but some are also quite hostile.

For example, there are three powerful Buddhist sects: the monks and soldiers of the Tendai sect at Mount Hiei in Heian-kyo, the demon-slaying monks of the Shingon sect at Mount Koya in Nara, and the monks of the Hossō sect at Genkō-ji Temple in Heian-kyo.

These three monks alone could hardly be said to get along.

The Tendai sect of Nahiei Mountain was founded by the monk Saichō after he returned from Tang Dynasty Japan. It has been highly respected since ancient times for protecting the royal city and is one of the two major Buddhist holy sites in Japan.

However, things naturally change after being passed down for thousands of years. Moreover, during the hundreds of years of spiritual dormancy, the extraordinary retreated and secular forces gained the upper hand, and Mount Hiei inevitably began to get involved in the mortal world and politics.

There was once a very famous event where the monks of Mount Hiei established a warrior monk army during the Warring States period, which became a powerful force and even sheltered Oda Nobunaga's enemies.

This ultimately led to Oda Nobunaga burning down Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei.

Buddhism has always held a high position in Japan, with a large number of believers. Many nobles and even the emperor have become monks or grown up in temples. Mount Hiei holds a position in Japan comparable to Jerusalem in the West. Nobunaga's actions have stirred up a hornet's nest.

After Nobunaga burned Mount Hiei, Takeda Shingen accused Nobunaga of tyranny and depravity, criticizing him as "a manifestation of the destruction of Buddhist and royal laws, and a transformation of the demon king," which led to Nobunaga being called "the Sixth Demon King" in later years.

However, Arai Hakuseki, a scholar of Neo-Confucianism in the mid-Edo period, held the view that "the one who died at the gate was not Nobunaga, but the gate itself."

It means that the Tiantai monks brought this upon themselves; they courted death and deserved it!

That fire left this Buddhist holy site looking quite disheveled and utterly devastated. However, even a weakened camel is bigger than a horse; with the resurgence of spiritual energy, this profound strength is recovering extremely quickly!

Then there's the Shingon sect of Mount Koya, which is another of the two major Buddhist holy sites in Japan.

Shingon Buddhism is a branch of Esoteric Buddhism, also known as Eastern Esoteric Buddhism.

Esoteric Buddhism arose in India when Brahmanism suppressed Buddhism, and it involves the secret transmission of teachings. There are three types: Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, Tang Esoteric Buddhism, and Dong Esoteric Buddhism.

The Tangmi (Tang Esoteric Buddhism) tradition in China has been lost. There are small sects in the underworld that claim to be Tangmi, but they are all empty talk without the two fundamental Vajrayana and Garbhadhatu mantras...

On the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, it was founded by the monk Kūkai, who traveled to the Tang Dynasty to "learn from the scriptures."

Along with the monk Saichō of the Tiantai school mentioned above, they were both monks who went to the Tang Dynasty to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

The Hosso school of Buddhism at Genko-ji Temple in Heian-kyo (Kyoto) was passed down by another monk, Doshō, who went to Tang China to obtain Buddhist scriptures. Doshō predates the two monks mentioned above by nearly two hundred years. He was a student of the monk Xuanzang!

Due to certain reasons in the underworld, Xuanzang, who took a detour to the Western Regions to obtain Buddhist scriptures from India, was the founder of the Faxiang School.

This Japanese monk, Daozhao, studied under Xuanzang and brought the Faxiang school of Buddhism to Japan.

Later, their Hossō sect produced a famous monk named Dōkyō, who was hailed as one of the three great villains of Japan.

How powerful was this man? He took advantage of a trip to the palace to pray and became involved with Empress Kōken. The Empress later even offered to abdicate in his favor!

This is the treatment Tang Sanzang received in the Women's Kingdom!

Besides, there is also the Nichiren sect in Japan, which is the same sect as the Ryōzan-ji temple where the young monk Sōjun came from.

There's also the Vinaya school, which was brought from Jianzhen's eastward journey; the Pure Land school, which involves eating meat, drinking alcohol, getting married, and playing rock and roll; the Chan school, which was brought from the Song Dynasty; and the Huayan, Sanlun, Chengshi, and Jushe schools... In total, there are more than a dozen major schools!

There are even some small sects that incorporate Buddhist scriptures or create their own, thus forming a sect.

It's incredibly chaotic!

Moreover, religious conflicts are the most brutal. During the Warring States period in Japan, it was common for different sects to fight each other.

Although we live in a modern world and shouldn't resort to violence over ideologies so easily, there is absolutely no harmony between us.

In addition, there are also the Iga and Koga ninjas on the human side, since this place is not far from Iga Province and is the birthplace of two major ninja schools.

There are also the influence of two shrines: Izumo Taisha and Ise Grand Shrine.

Izumo Taisha has a long history, while Ise Grand Shrine in Heian-kyo is arguably the largest shrine in Japan! It is said to enshrine the Yata no Kagami, one of the Three Sacred Treasures!