Miss Heber is fighting her way out of the Lostbelt!

Eastern Volume: 72: Separation and Separation

Miss Along cannot enter Heian-kyo.

Heber knew this a long time ago.

Scar Father will not allow "beasts" to enter the human realm, not to mention that human society has never tolerated "non-humans" - whether Miss A Long has turned into a dragon or not, it is the same.

So from the very beginning, the destination of the journey that Heber arranged for Miss Aaron was outside Heian-kyo.

As long as Miss Aaron follows Heber's arrangements, there will be no mistakes. She can maneuver in the gap between the two ruling parties, successfully transform into a dragon, and even be believed by the world.

This is certainly a bright and glorious future, but will Miss A Long be a monster who obediently follows arrangements?

A sudden worry arose in Hebe's heart, she knew the answer.

"Ms. Aaron." Heber suddenly took Aaron's hand and said, "Can you listen to me?"

"Sure." Miss Aaron replied.

......

Oeyama is expelling humans who have not yet assimilated, but Heber and Miss Along are still detained here because Miss Along's transformation into a dragon has reached a critical moment.

Among the descriptions of dragons in Zhendan, there is a sentence: "Without a ruler and a piece of wood, a dragon cannot ascend to heaven."

The "chimu" here refers to the dragon's horns. For dragons, horns are not only a symbol of power, but also a crown that demonstrates the level of their life, and the source of wisdom and strength.

This time, Miss A-Long will transform into a dragon and grow dragon horns - and when she completes this step, she will completely break away from the snake and join the ranks of "dragon seeds".

Four days ago, Miss Aaron returned to her original form. She hung on the beam of the room with a listless look on her face, like a water-soaked rope.

Melancholy and sadness were spreading like weeds in Aaron's heart.

What she was worried about was not whether she could transform into a dragon, but that Hebe was about to leave her.

Not fast, especially not fast.

The paper sliding door moved away, and a petite figure stood outside the door.

It's Shuten-doji.

The Ghost King's face was still a little pale. She smiled at Miss Aaron and then sat cross-legged on the ground.

Aaron stared at Shuten-douji warily, but strangely enough, she didn't hate Shuten-douji, and even felt a sense of familiarity from him.

"Haha, there's no need to be so wary of me." The Ghost King sat outside the door, drinking alone. "After all, I'm very happy to see you bring that noble Miss Sky Fox to this floating world."

"What...world?" the big snake said with its tongue out.

Shuten-doji narrowed his eyes and did not discuss this issue with Aaron.

"Don't you want Miss Tamamo to always be with you?" Shuten-doji whispered, "Don't you want to completely possess her, entwine her, devour every inch of her flesh and blood, so that she can never leave you again?"

"Don't you want to?"

"We all know that dragons are powerful and greedy creatures. They will never allow their treasures to be shared with others." Shuten-doji said softly, "A person like Miss Tenko, are you willing to let her become the apple of someone else's eye?"

Aaron didn't respond.

Shuten-doji continued talking to himself.

"My divine wine can prolong the time it takes for you to grow dragon horns." Shuten-doji finally drained the wine from her cup and stood up leisurely. "During this time, Ms. Arlong, do everything you can to keep that celestial fox by your side... If she leaves for Heian-kyo, my plans and your wishes will all be in vain."

She slowly tipped the gourd over, pouring out the clear wine.

There was no strong smell of alcohol as imagined, nor any bizarre illusions, only clear liquid shaking slightly in the bowl.

Shuten-doji placed the bowl full of wine in the room, then left with a chuckle.

The big snake coiled on the roof stared at the cup and closed its eyes slightly.

The wine bowl overturned.

......

At night, the moonlight in the courtyard was like water. Heber saw Miss Aaron standing in front of the window, gazing at the bright moon hanging high in the sky.

"Are you leaving?" she said. "Along still didn't protect Fox."

"No, that has nothing to do with you." Heber walked over and held her hand. "It's something I have to do."

Hebe was ready to make many explanations.

But Aaron said nothing.

"Yeah, Aaron knows. Foxy has something very important to do. But Aaron is still very sad."

Miss Aaron wiped away her tears desperately.

She didn't know what the fox was going to do, she only knew that Hebe was going to be separated from her.

But Miss Aaron is very smart and sensible, and will never cause trouble to others.

Heber took a deep breath.

She stood on tiptoe and wiped the tears from Miss Aaron's face.

"Everything will be alright, Miss Aaron. I promise you, everything will be alright."

Heber whispered to Miss Along, "Go back to the mountains of Takachiho and wait for me there. I will come back when the mountain flowers bloom."

She tore off a tuft of hair from the tip of the tail, tied it with a red string, and handed it to Miss Aaron.

"Take it. Seeing it is like seeing me."

The green-eyed girl said so.

"Along has a gift for Fox too!"

She rummaged through her body and found three somewhat shriveled berries.

Aaron still remembered that Heber said that she didn't like eating frogs or mice. She remembered it very clearly, so she brought back the most delicious berries from the mountains of Takachiho.

I had planned to share it with Hebe on the way, but I never had the time.

Miss Aaron looked at the berries and felt even sadder.

"Thank you, I like it very much." Heber reached out, picked up the berry in her palm, put it into his mouth and chewed it carefully.

The berries have been stored for a long time, and there is not much juice left inside. The sweetness is almost gone, and they taste bland.

But the green-eyed girl ate them meticulously and swallowed them.

Miss Aaron looked at her and couldn't help laughing again.

Heber thought that Miss Aaron was still so easy to understand.

The moonlight shone quietly on the courtyard, and Miss A-long returned to her original form. Sharp horns about an inch long sprouted from the top of her head. In time, these two short horns would turn into magnificent coral-like pieces of wood.

But now she just lay quietly on the ground, breathing evenly and falling asleep.

A graceful fox leaned against her side, with two large fluffy tails, one wrapped around itself and the other covering Aaron's body, just like they did in Mount Takachiho.

The moonlight was still quietly falling on the stone platform, and Shuten-doji raised his wine glass to the moon.

“Oh, fate, how cruel and yet so unpredictable it is… Here’s to all the grand and beautiful deaths!”

Shuten-doji laughed heartily and poured all the wine in the cup onto the ground.

P.S. There is another chapter coming up, I am writing it now, it is so painful to be stuck

Eastern Volume: 73: Teacher

Miss Along left and returned to the mountains of Takachiho.

There she will shelter the mountain people and grow up until she becomes a real dragon.

Heber left Oeyama amid the ecstatic cheers of almost all the ghosts.

She was alone again.

Heber's body swayed slightly as his clogs stepped on the grass and pebbles.

She saw a familiar figure sitting under a tree in the distance.

As if noticing her gaze, the figure raised the cup in his hand and waved to her.

Heber walked over and saw a low table under the tree with two bowls on it.

Shuten-doji poured wine from the gourd and filled both bowls.

"Your distinguished guest is going on a long journey. As the lord of Mount Oe, of course I have to come and see you off." Shuten-doji picked up the bowl in front of him.

"I'm afraid it's a bad guest?" Hebe also picked up the bowl and touched it lightly with it.

"Ah, this ceremony is quite novel and indeed interesting." Shuten-doji showed a slightly shocked expression, then laughed, "Ms. Tamamo is also a wonderful person who loves drinking."

Heber didn't answer, but drank the wine in the bowl.

The wine bowl was placed on the table with a thud.

Her figure completely disappeared at the end of the dense forest, leaving only Shuten-doji still drinking alone under the tree.

......

There is a narrow buffer zone between Oeyama and Heian-kyo, which is the fief of Seiwa Genji.

Whenever the Oeyama demons rioted, the Seiwa Genji were always the first to bear the brunt and suffered heavy losses.

Especially after Ibaraki Douji built the city and drove out the monsters, the pressure faced by Seiwa Genji became even greater.

This even caused Minamoto no Mitsunaka, the head of the Seiwa Genji clan, to have his hair turned gray due to worry.

He was worried that he would die in the battle with the demons, and he was also worried that no one would be able to support the banner of Seiwa Genji after his death. More importantly, once Seiwa Genji's defense line was broken, Heian-kyo would be directly exposed to the fangs of the demons.

Minamoto no Manaka once desperately wanted to have a child with supreme power, so that there would be hope on the road to defeating the demons.

The gods heard his prayers.

The child had indeed arrived.

Her eyes were cold. When Yuan Manzhong wanted to hug her, those eyes without any emotion made Yuan Manzhong withdraw his hand in fear.

"Those are not the eyes of a living person. If they are not from gods or Buddhas, they are from the dead." Yuan Manzhong would be frightened speechless by those cold eyes every time he woke up in the middle of the night.

He once thought about abandoning it, just like treating the family of a criminal, and leaving it at the seaside.

But Yuan Manzhong knew that he was extremely wrong. When he brought the child to the beach under extremely terrible pressure, the moment he let go of his hand, those hungry seagulls flew over.

But these white birds did not want to eat the child. They spread their wings one by one and covered the child like a quilt.

Yuan Manzhong was extremely frightened and quickly took the child back home.

From then on, the once wise and brave general of the garrison became a man who was in constant fear.

In Yuan Manzhong's opinion, the child's indifferent eyes just proved that she had already remembered what she had done.

Sooner or later, the reckoning will come.

The more others congratulated him, the more uneasy Minamoto Manzhong became. Only he knew that his daughter, Minamoto no Raikou, was an absolute monster. Her fate should be on the battlefield, preferably to perish together with those ghost kings.

Minamoto no Mitsuhiro secretly confined Minamoto no Yorimitsu to a courtyard, hoping that she would die early due to various accidental causes. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Instead, Minamoto no Mitsuhiro suffered from hysteria, which was almost incurable, due to the heavy mental stress.

Minamoto no Yorimitsu's existence was unknown to the public, and after Minamoto no Mitsunaka became incapacitated, everyone had forgotten that there was still someone living in the Kiyokawa Genji's mansion.

until today.

……

A fox broke into the yard.

The young Minamoto no Raikou had seen this scene many times in his dreams. She stared at the huge fox, which sometimes shook its tail and sometimes sneered like a human.

She had dreamed of this fox many times, Minamoto no Raikou thought. Onmyojis said dreaming of a fox was a bad omen, but she didn't care.

After all, even she herself was seen as a disaster by her relatives, so she actually empathized with the fox.

When the big fox in his dream finally appeared before his eyes, Minamoto no Raikou laughed.

"Are you Raikou?" she heard the fox ask.

"I am Raikou." This was the answer of the young Minamoto no Raikou at that time.

She was very thin, with thick dark circles hanging around her eye sockets, and her voice was hoarse and cold, like a rusty sword.