Gacha games can't save this bizarre world.

In addition, there were also unusual occurrences at Shiramine Shrine in Heian-kyo, where the priests said that Emperor Sutoku's divine tablet had collapsed.

Emperor Sutoku was the 75th emperor of Japan. He ascended the throne at the age of 5 and was forced to abdicate at the age of 23 by his nominal father, Emperor Retired Toba (in fact, he was born to his grandfather, Emperor Retired Shirakawa, and Emperor Retired Toba's wife, Taikenmon-in, making him Emperor Retired Toba's brother).

Later, he joined forces with Left Minister Fujiwara no Yorinaga and Minamoto no Tametomo to launch a coup, known in Japanese history as the "Hogen Rebellion." After the failure, he was exiled to Sanuki.

He spent three years writing five Mahayana Buddhist scriptures in blood, hoping to atone for his sins, and pleaded with the court to send the scriptures to the capital and place them in a temple, but this request was refused.

After being exiled for eight years, Chongde finally suffered a complete mental breakdown, lamenting that "life is no longer of any use" and from then on, he stopped cutting his hair and nails, "becoming the appearance of a celestial dog."

Filled with resentment, Chongde wrote after his blood-written scriptures: "I copied Buddhist scriptures to accumulate good karma to atone for my sins. Since I am not forgiven, let that karma be cast into the three evil realms, helping me become a great demon in Japan, 'killing the people for the emperor, and killing the emperor for the people.'" After writing this, he sank the scriptures into the sea, bit off his tongue, and committed suicide at the age of forty-six.

It is said that after his death he transformed into a great tengu, known as the greatest demon king in Japan, ranked high above Oda Nobunaga, and called the source of chaos.

After the death of Emperor Sutoku, the Taira clan usurped power and rose above the imperial family, thus beginning nearly seven hundred years of samurai puppet politics that treated the imperial family as puppets.

The Shiramine Shrine was built to enshrine the First Demon King, Emperor Sutoku the Great Tengu.

……

The Shinkansen line has been damaged, and trains can no longer travel on it.

Zhao Hao and his group stayed at a nearby hotel for the time being. After hearing the information that Yoshino Rei had gathered, Zhao Hao was completely bewildered—what was going on with so many forces suddenly appearing?

Actually, that's not all, because we also have to take into account the influence of the Yin-Yang Hall!

The Countermeasures Bureau, being relatively new, doesn't have many personnel in Heian-kyo, but the Onmyo Agency is different. They've been based there for a millennium. Therefore, the Onmyoji's power is arguably the strongest.

The people currently suppressing the spiritual disaster are also from the Yin-Yang Bureau. However, things don't seem to be going very smoothly!

If an ordinary person were to look at the "natural gas leak and explosion" site from a distance, they would only see dark clouds overhead, giving off an abnormal weather appearance. They would feel very depressed and uncomfortable, and wouldn't want to look any longer.

However, in the eyes of the extraordinary, a vast, azure barrier composed of six pivots was firmly trapping a place where miasma was churning, preventing it from spreading.

But that's all there is to it.

As mentioned before, many forces are currently fighting amongst themselves in the inner world, and there are also many extraordinary individuals such as evil sorcerers and curse masters taking the opportunity to cause trouble. The Onmyoji can only do their best to suppress the spiritual disaster and prevent it from spreading.

They couldn't do more; they were suppressing the countless cursed spirits and monsters gathering in the inner world...

In the underworld, several demonic forces are vying for spiritual veins, and some have even used cursed spirits to create spiritual calamities.

Meanwhile, the Great Tengu Emperor once again took the opportunity to vent his resentment and escalate the situation.

The three monks on the human side disliked each other. Although they were all fighting against demonic spirits, they did not unite and even kept their distance.

The shrine maidens of Izumo Taisha are on their way, while the priests of Ise Grand Shrine have already gone to the underworld.

The Iga and Koga ninjas were invited by the government to participate in the operation, taking the opportunity to make their presence felt.

There were also some civilian warriors who came to join the fun, wild superhumans, malevolent sorcerers, and ninja monks mixed in...

Chaos! Chaos! The entire Heian-kyo is in complete chaos!

Just as Zhao Hao was thinking about whether to fly to Kyoto, someone came to his door.

A younger man knocked on the hotel door and then whispered a few words to Yoshino Rei.

Yoshino Rei walked to the window behind Zhao Hao. "My lord, it is the Curse Investigator from the Yin-Yang Bureau who requests an audience."

"Ah, please let him in." Zhao Hao had already heard it.

Soon, the squinty-eyed man Zhao Hao had seen in the valley appeared.

He walked up to Zhao Hao and bowed.

"Lord Yasuo, we meet again. I am Hoshino Hiroshi, a Level 2 Curse Investigator from the Curse Crime Investigation Department of the Onmyo Agency."

Zhao Hao nodded. "Is there something you need from me?"

Hoshino Kuro, with his narrowed eyes, said, "Most of the Onmyo Agency's personnel in Heian-kyo have gone to the Underworld... If the spiritual calamity cannot be exorcised in a short time, it will only get worse. If the barrier can't hold, who knows how many people will die! I dare to ask you, sir, to take action to exorcise the spiritual calamity!"

Zhao Hao shrugged and looked out the window, saying, "What's it to me?"

Zhao Hao now felt like he was on a pilgrimage to the West, facing one hardship after another.

Hoshino Hiroshi said with slight anxiety, "Lord Yasuo, are you going to stand by and watch us die?"

Zhao Hao shrugged again. "None of your business."

Hoshino Hiroshi's face showed disappointment and anxiety, but inwardly he felt a surge of joy: Just as I thought, he's a capricious person. Then we'll have to try a different approach…

"Then I'll take my leave!" Hoshino Hiroshi said, a hint of anger in his voice, and turned to leave.

The others all looked at Zhao Hao. After all, they were young and had the courage to do the right thing. However, they could not disobey their lord and speak without permission, especially in front of outsiders.

Hoshino Hiroshi walked to the door, then suddenly turned around and said, "Lord Yaso, those demons are said to be fighting over something extremely important."

Zhao Hao looked at him with a calm expression.

Hoshino Hiroshi said, "Just say it's the divine nature of Ōkuninushi!"

Chapter 438 The Divine Status of a Great Nation?

"Divinity" is a Western term; in the East, it should be called "divine position."

Something like this represents the manifestation of divine authority and function.

Zhao Hao possessed more than half of it—the divine essence of the Dream God of the Olympian pantheon.

Perhaps the three Dream God brothers realized that since they were all about to leave this world, their divine status as Dream Gods was no longer useful, so they left it for someone destined to possess it. Even the Rainbow Bridge ended up in Zhao Hao's possession.

Currently, in the ruins of the Dream God in the Underworld, there is still one last piece of the "dream of objects without life forms," ​​or rather, the "dream of all unreal illusions," that has not yet been obtained.

Although Morpheus, the eldest who possesses the "Dream of Man," is the strongest of the three Dream God brothers, Tarsus, the third oldest, possesses the most obscure "Dream of the Dead."

Although Zhao Hao had passed the function card [The Way of Deception] and slightly grasped the principle of the transformation between reality and illusion, he still could not break through the trial of the dream after many attempts and could not comprehend this dream of inanimate objects.

Perhaps it's because I'm too upright and incorruptible, disdaining to resort to underhanded tactics? Alas, I'm too noble!

And the "divinity" of the Ōkuninushi god mentioned by Hoshino Hirokazu is something similar.

It could be a translation error or a loanword, but the meaning is the same.

In China, that would be called "bestowing a divine title."

Examples of this kind of method include Jiang Ziya's Investiture of the Gods and some emperors' decrees to enshrine deceased famous officials as gods.

After being officially appointed, one essentially acquires the relevant authority and becomes a deity. The most common example is the Earth God!

The status of the Okuninushi deity in Japan is quite unusual, and can be described as rather awkward.

According to Yoshino Rei's account of Japanese mythology and legends, as well as some existing materials about the underworld, it can be seen that the entire Japanese mythological system is very complex and redundant.

This is actually normal, because even in a pantheon, there are constant changes in the hierarchy.

Take the Olympian pantheon, for example. The king of the gods has changed three times, with the Titans and Titans replacing the old with the new.

Like the Celestial Empire, from the earliest group of Eastern King Duke and Western Queen Mother, to the later Yellow Heaven, Primordial Heavenly King, Central Yellow Taiyi, and then to the establishment of Taoism, which began to destroy mountains and temples to eliminate the "Six Heavenly Ghosts", later, all the old gods such as Gonggong and Zhurong, Yunzhongjun, the god of Yunmengze, the goddess of Wushan, and Wuzhiqi, the water god of Huai River, gradually disappeared.

Ultimately, this led to the formation of a Heavenly Court that integrated multiple lineages and underwent a generational change.

And Japan is similar to its suzerain state. It's just that things are a little simpler for them.

It mainly involves a battle between two major factions of gods.

The Amatsu gods born in Takamagahara, represented by Amaterasu Ōmikami; and the descendants of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the Kunitsu gods born in Ashihara no Nakatsukuni on Earth.

Originally, the gods of Tianjin were enjoying themselves on Takamagahara and looked down on the gods on earth.

However, Ōkuninushi endured countless hardships among his hundred or so brothers, dying and being resurrected repeatedly, even becoming Susanoo's son-in-law in the underworld... In the end, he eliminated his remaining brothers, became the master of Ashihara no Nakatsukuni on earth, established a nation, and reached the pinnacle of his life!

That's why he's called the God of Great Nation. He had several names before, but he was the first to establish a nation on Earth, which is why he became the God of Great Nation.

However, their good fortune didn't last long. After only a few days of merriment, the gods of Tianjin in the heavens became displeased: "You lowly gods on earth, how dare you live in peace and prosperity and have endless fun like us? That won't do!"

So Amaterasu gave the order that Ōkuninushi should abdicate the throne and let his descendant take over.

That's right, that's what they said.

The land of Reshihara no Nakatsukuni was gradually expanded by Susanoo pulling and stretching it bit by bit. In the beginning, there was only Izumo no Nakatsukuni, which was very small.

Now that you have more land and more wealth, you come to rob us? Are you even human?!

Ah, it's Amaterasu, that makes sense.

That great lord was not happy!

Susanoo is my father-in-law. I inherited his territory, worked hard to build the country, obtained an iron shovel, split rocks through mountains, cleared mud and water, reinforced the land, and started agricultural work, etc.

You could say the father-in-law started the land reclamation, and the ruler of a large country developed and cultivated it – how hard that must have been! Don't you own any land yourself?

If you just give in to me like that, wouldn't I lose face?

However, after several delays, Amaterasu sent people directly. At first, she sent two, but they were of little use.

Then Amaterasu sent the martial arts faction, including Takemikazuchi and Amaterasu.

The one in the back was originally a ship; isn't it because of this that it became a god?

When Takemikazuchi arrived, he immediately declared, "Are you going to give it to me or not?! Give me a straight answer! I'll count to three, just three!"

The great lord himself dared not resist, but he signaled to his son to step forward.

One of them, Takeminakata, challenged Takemikazuchi to a duel, and ended up having both of his hands severed.

Who knows how the wrestling match ended up severing both hands? Anyway, we now know that Takemikazuchi had a treasured sword called Futsu-no-Mitama...

Takemikazuchi: You think you can fight me, Takemikazuchi? All's fair in war, take this! Hmph, I gave you a chance, but you failed miserably~

Seeing that he could not win, Ōkuninushi was ultimately forced to abdicate, and from then on, Amaterasu's descendants became emperors.

Because of his meritorious service, Takemikazuchi became increasingly active and was eventually revered as the god of thunder, the god of swords, the god of archery, the god of war, and the god of military affairs.

That great lord was ousted and then appointed as the country's guardian deity—how pathetic!

Their own country was taken away, and they still had to defend it for the enemy.

This is equivalent to committing adultery with one's husband! Disgusting! Disgusting! Utterly disgusting!

The current situation is that there will definitely be huge changes in the pantheon when the period of psychic dormancy begins.

Whether Ōkuninushi has completely perished or, before leaving, wished to cause trouble for Amaterasu's descendants, he left behind his divine status.

Nowadays, rumors are circulating near Heian-kyo that the divine status of Ōkuninushi has appeared, which is the real reason for the conflict between various forces.

The initial reason for vying for the spiritual vein nodes wasn't entirely false; if one could have both, wouldn't that be wonderful? However, this did indeed lull many people into a false sense of security.

After all, seizing the divine status of the Great Lord of the Nation and occupying the spiritual vein node of the Heian-kyo world are not even on the same level.