Collapse, Kaslana's Way of Survival

"Oh, of course you can stop at any time if you're not in the mood. There's no need to make it hard on yourself."

Worried that the other party might almost burst into tears like before, Kainuo added a sentence at the end.

This actually caused Yaezakura to smile slightly.

"No, not anymore." Yaezakura shook her head. "I've already vented most of the emotions I expressed in the overview... Let me tell you about Yaemura's past."

After she finished speaking, Yaezakura pursed her lips.

She turned her head and looked at the sun outside through the window. The expression on her face was unconsciously a little dazed, and her eyes were full of memories.

"Kaino, I should have mentioned the Yae Village Festival to you before, right?"

Kainuo nodded when he heard this. He had been searching for clues since he came to the spiritual space, and of course he did not ignore anything Yaesakura said.

"I remember, it's the ritual you mentioned that could bring down rain from the sky in Yae Village. It was the one a few years ago. I said it was superstitious at the time. (Six) Private Wife Ba-Pa."

"Yes, that's it," Yaezakura's voice trembled slightly, "but what I didn't tell you before, Kaino, is that the sacrifices required for the sacrifice are not pigs, cows, chickens, or sheep, but humans."

"To be more precise, it's the women who work at the shrine."

"People?!" Kaino's pupils shrank slightly, and he couldn't help but frowned. "Wait, it must be a woman working in the shrine. Then the priestess you mentioned four years ago..."

"That's my sister." Yae Sakura interrupted Kaino's question and gently closed her eyes, "My beloved sister, Rin."

"Because she was frail and sickly, she was the sacrifice. Because I was more useful, I was not the sacrifice."

"I tried to take her away, but the villagers cut her tendons. I tried to stand in front of Rin, but she was deceived by them and smiled and told me that she was willing to sacrifice herself..."

"This is what happened that year, the complete story."

Taking a deep breath, Yae Sakura suppressed the sadness in her heart and opened her eyes to look at Kainuo. There was still unconcealable sadness hidden deep in her eyes.

"Are all the people in your village crazy?" Kainuo couldn't help asking through gritted teeth.

It is strange to say.

He had seen madmen who exploited others' lives to perfect their experiments in order to revive their wives, and bandits who killed recklessly for profit. In contrast, the people of Yae Village were simply sacrificing a few individuals for the survival of the whole. Their nature was completely different.

But perhaps this act of forcing others to sacrifice touched a nerve in him, or perhaps it was Yae Sakura's inability to save her sister that gave him a strange sense of déjà vu. Although he hadn't experienced it firsthand, after hearing Yae Sakura's story, the anger in his heart was much greater than when he faced the previous two situations.

"Crazy? Maybe." Yae Sakura laughed self-deprecatingly. "Anyway, this is what happened. And like I said before, even for the sake of those who have already sacrificed their lives, I still need to protect them."

Keno opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing, just closed it with a little resentment.

"Well, it's over." Seeing Kainuo's performance, Yae Sakura shook her head and smiled: "It's getting late, Kainuo, your doubts have been answered. After breakfast, we should go to eliminate the monster..."

"Miko! Get out here!"

Several loud roars suddenly rang out from the shrine, interrupting Yaesakura's mid-sentence.

Accompanied by a flurry of chaotic footsteps, the door of the room where the two were was suddenly opened, revealing several villagers with angry faces behind the door.

The leader quickly scanned the room, paused at Kayno, then looked at Yae Sakura, then knocked on the wall beside him with his eyes wide open.

"Miko, what about the protection you promised the villagers? Is this how you protect them?!"

Yaezakura frowned, observed the expressions of several people in turn, and then had her first conversation with the villagers after four years.

"What happened?"

"What happened? Ha, ha ha!"

The leading villager laughed as if he had heard a joke. He widened his eyes, pointed at Yaezakura, and turned to look outside the door.

"Look, look at this! This witch who keeps saying she'll protect the villagers doesn't even know what happened! This witch who keeps saying she'll go out and destroy the monsters doesn't even know our villagers were killed by monsters!"

"Yesterday at the meeting, her father said he believed she could destroy the monsters, but look at her! In broad daylight, she's still in the house doing something with an extrovert..."

The man stopped talking and looked at the sword across his neck in disbelief.

Yaezakura stood not far in front of the man, holding a cherry blossom snowflake, her light blue eyes as cold as ice.

"Please be careful with your words and actions."

Chapter 169 The Calm Before the Storm

Kainuo, who had just put on his clothes and was about to rush forward, stopped suddenly when he saw this scene. He hid the Xuanyuan Sword that had just been projected behind him and observed the situation.

"You, you actually dare to point a knife at me?!"

The villagers were frightened by Yaezakura's aura for a moment, stunned for a moment, swallowed their saliva, and became even more angry.

"It's not enough that you killed Tanaka because of your incompetence, now you want to kill the people in the village with your own hands!"

"I don't think I've done anything incompetent. I'm warning you only to protect my friends and my own reputation."

Yaezakura withdrew her gaze from the corpse placed in the center of the shrine courtyard, still staring at the other person with cold eyes.

"As for someone being attacked and killed by a monster... I'm very sure no monster ever set foot in the village, and I'm also very sure I warned you not to leave the village. As for why he died, I don't know."

"Don't leave the village? Then how are we going to farm and eat?!" The villagers were about to get angry again. "You're a witch who spends every day playing with noodles and doesn't need to farm. Who do you think grows the food you eat? You..."

"So, in fact, it's all your own fault." Yaezakura said with an unchanging expression, "If you have any objections to me, I can relieve myself of my duties as a miko."

The villager was stunned, his face flushed and he gritted his teeth. The two villagers next to him looked at each other for a long time without daring to speak.

Seeing this, Yaezakura shook her head in disappointment, took a step back and sheathed Sakura Fubuki.

She knew these villagers very well.

In fact, as long as they are vigilant enough, even if there are only five or six people working together, they can successfully kill the monster without any life-threatening danger.

As a large village with more than a hundred adult villagers, even at the moment when the number of monsters is suddenly increasing, Yae Village is fully capable of dealing with the monsters that attack every day.

But the fact is that they have no intention of resisting the monsters on their own - if someone can protect them, why should they risk their lives to fight against the monsters?

They certainly didn't have the courage to fear death. If they did, they wouldn't have rushed to kill Lin...

Yaezakura took a deep breath and said indifferently: "Okay, please go back."

"Well, you forced us to do this!" The villager suddenly spoke up, staring at Yaezakura with a gloomy look: "Don't regret it!"

After saying this, without waiting for Yae Sakura to respond, the leading villager glared at Yae Sakura and Kaino, turned around and left with several villagers and the corpse in the courtyard without looking back.

Watching them leave coldly, Yae Sakura sighed softly and looked at Kaino with a hint of apology in her eyes.

"Sorry to make you laugh, Kaino."

"Uh, it's okay." Kaino scratched his face. "I've seen people who are worse than this, so... well, I expected it."

This is a lie.

Of the people Kaino had met so far, the worst were those involved in human experiments. Even they weren't cowards who would completely lose their courage without human protection.

And even Kayno had to admit that although those researchers were inhumane, their research results mostly promoted the process of human beings fighting against the Honkai, rather than simply helping cowards to survive for themselves.

"Is this Nine Zero Four similar to Liu Qiba? Then, Kainuo, your past life is a bit scary."

She pursed her lips and smiled slightly, then Yaesakura shook her head again.

"And... I'm sorry, I probably can't go out with you, Kaino, today."

Kaino was stunned for a moment, then he opened his eyes wide and pointed at the gate where several villagers left: "You want to protect them?"

"There's nothing I can do about it. I can't just leave them alone."

Yaezakura sighed and said.

Then she smiled at Kainuo in a comforting way.

"You don't need to worry about their threats. After all, I am the last shrine maiden. And now there are more and more monsters. The possibility of your friends being in danger is increasing. It's better for you to go find them as soon as possible."

After a moment's hesitation, Kaino nodded.

There was really no need to worry about Yaesakura's safety. He could just stay invisible by Yaesakura's side for a whole day anyway.

"Well, Ying, remember to be safe. If you encounter a group of monsters again, remember to delay until I come back."

"Well, bye then."

"Oh, by the way," seeing Yae Sakura turning around to leave, Kaino hurriedly called out to her, "Thank you for standing up for me just now."

Although the villager insulted both of them before, it is also a fact that Yaezakura directly put the knife to the other person's neck.

"Hmm? Ah, you mean that?" Yaesakura was stunned for a moment, then shook her head nonchalantly after realizing what was happening. "You're welcome. Like you said, aren't we friends?"

……

The entire day passed in a flash, and at night no villagers would enter or leave Yae Village. Therefore, whether it was Yae Sakura who was guarding the villagers or Kaino who was squatting beside Yae Sakura, they all returned to the shrine one after another.

"Well, Keno, you're back."

Yaesakura was slightly stunned when she walked out of the room. Her gaze paused slightly on the empty ground behind Kainuo, and her tone was inevitably filled with a hint of worry.

"You didn't find your friends today either?"

"Ah, yes." Kaino sighed pretentiously. "I followed that stream all the way upstream and found the place where we were attacked. I don't know whether I should be thankful or not. Although the place was a bit messy, there was no blood or bodies."

Yaezakura breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

"The absence of bad news is itself good news. Since they escaped that disaster, they must still be alive now."

"Then I'll lend you some good words."

Kaino shrugged, then looked at Yae Sakura with concern: "What about you, Sakura? They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

"Not really." Yaezakura shook her head. "Although they looked at me with a bit of scrutiny today, that's all."

Kainuo curled his lips secretly.

There was more than just a hint of scrutiny in his eyes.

From what he had observed today, the looks in those people's eyes were filled with malice. And out of Yae Sakura's sight, they also subjected her and him to verbal abuse, insults, and rumors.

If he hadn't kept thinking about the overall situation and wanted to prevent them from further stigmatizing Yaezakura, he would have probably drawn his sword and attacked.

Kaino sighed inwardly, looked at Yae Sakura, and raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"By the way, Yueyi Shouying, are you going out?"

He had obviously waited for some time after Yaesakura came back before returning, but now Yaesakura was not wearing the usual home clothes but the shrine maiden clothes she wore when she went out on weekdays, as if she was going to continue to eliminate demons.

"Yes." Yae Sakura nodded and couldn't help sighing. "The salt in the kitchen is used up. I'm going to the store to buy some. Don't worry, it won't take long. Kaino, you should rest for a while."

Keno nodded.

"Row."

Chapter 170 A Familiar Breath

Counting from the moment he awoke in this spiritual world, it was already three days. Over 48 hours was enough time for Tianming to discover the abnormalities in Changkong City and himself and to launch an annihilation operation against the being that had dragged him into this spiritual world.

And since the enemy has already appeared, there is no possibility of failure in this action. With his invincible sister and Otto, who has controlled destiny for five hundred years, it would be impossible for him to lose.

Except for three cases.

First, the unknown existence was now entangled with the spirits of the two of them and the dragon. In that case, it was possible that Tianming, concerned about their safety, would be at a loss for a moment.

Second, Otto had some hidden agenda, so it was normal for the entire Destiny to be held hostage by him. Given that he was assigned to Changkong City and had encountered unexpected circumstances, it was difficult for Kainuo to rule out the possibility that Otto was interfering.

As for the three...

Kainuo looked at the rising moon in the sky and couldn't help feeling a little annoyed.

As a world constructed purely by the mind, changing the speed of time between here and reality is not difficult to do. Although he has lived here for nearly three days, in reality, not even a second has passed.

And this is exactly the worst situation.

No matter whether fate is powerless or Otto is interfering, at least their lives can be guaranteed to a certain extent. If it is the third case, then if there is no breakthrough point, it is not impossible that they will be imprisoned and suffer mental breakdown.

Even in this situation, they were completely isolated and helpless.

Kaino sighed helplessly.

It’s really a headache to think about it this way.

And speaking of which...isn't this moon a little red?

Kainuo frowned.

The moon, which had been a normal dark grey not long ago, had unnoticed taken on a rusty red hue, and was rapidly approaching a blood-red hue. Simultaneously, the entire sky seemed to be draped in a crimson veil, completely enveloped by the crimson night.

At this moment, the whole world seems to be covered with a red filter.

Staring blankly at this suddenly changing scene, Kainuo suddenly slapped his head.

How long has Yaezakura been out?