I'm raising a fox fairy wife in Tokyo

"Takagawa, there's a torii gate up ahead."

In the deserted town, Takagawa Takayuki and Shinomiya Kaguya walked together. The girl quite naturally took his hand and looked towards the closed shops not far away.

"so small!"

The torii gate is only the size of a palm, placed in the corner of the wall, with a small porcelain plate in front of it, but it is empty.

"What are they worshipping?"

"Ah, it's salted, isn't it?"

Salt has been believed to have the property of "warding off evil spirits" all over the world, probably because it was very expensive in ancient times.

Gao Chuanlong actually took out a bag of salt from the guitar bag he was carrying and poured it into the porcelain plate.

Your guitar case really does contain everything except a guitar, huh?!

The girl didn't even have time to complain.

Followed by.

The streetlights nearby suddenly lit up, as if guiding the two of them on their way.

"???"

"Let's go."

Gao Chuanlong, on the other hand, remained quite calm.

The town is small, and the commercial street where the two are located is actually a small "回"-shaped street, but it already occupies a small part of the town.

Besides these, there also seem to be residential areas, schools, hospitals, and other places to live.

And in the distance, behind the mountain, there seems to be an old town area.

The big fox and Fujiwara Chika headed towards the back mountain, while Kikyo, along with Shijou Maki and Hayasaka Ai, stayed in the residential area.

Takagawa Takayuki and Shinomiya Kaguya.

Following the glow of the streetlights, salt was continuously poured into the porcelain plates placed in front of the small torii gates by the roadside.

soon.

We arrived at a shrine located in the center of a commercial street.

It's not very big.

Behind the torii gate is a shrine that occupies about five or six square meters, like a small natural park. Next to it, there is a flag with a centipede pattern.

"It's the Centipede God."

Takagawa Ryu immediately recognized the deity worshipped at the shrine in front of him.

The centipede is also known as the centipede.

In the past, people believed that it had a deep connection with mines, so it was common to worship the centipede god in areas where mining was the main industry.

They might even regard the other party as a god of commerce, blessing the town with prosperity.

That's why the shrine was built in the shopping district.

"And it's a new shrine, probably only built a few years ago, unlike an Aragami shrine..."

"Takagawa, you've researched this too?!"

"You can tell by the smell of the torii gate; it's not cinnabar or anything like that, it's varnish."

"..."

"Ah, I see. It's probably because the townspeople have found new lovers and forgotten their old ones. After the centipede god appeared, no one worshipped the old gods anymore."

What's with this melodramatic love triangle plot?!

Don't make matters between deities sound like something a housewife would enjoy watching in the afternoon!

"Looks like this isn't the place. Let's go."

The shrine, now abandoned and unused, is probably located on the mountain where the old town is situated.

Just as the boy and girl were about to turn and leave.

Suddenly.

A small, dark head and a pair of murky, fish-like eyes peeked out from a roadside pond opposite the Centipede Shrine.

Wait a minute! He's balding!! It's so obvious under the streetlights!!

It was also topped with a very, very small dish filled with dirty liquid.

"It's a kappa."

Just the most ordinary, low-level monsters.

It can be said that it is a creature known to all Japanese people. The average kappa is at most a "D" size, which can be described as a super wretch at the bottom of the food chain.

however.

The kappa in the water stood up, and beneath its small head was an unusually robust body, as strong as a giant bear.

Now at least we have a "C".

His completely abnormal appearance made Gao Chuanlong worry that this guy might have pulled some kind of "Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin" and was about to ascend to a steroid planet in the next second.

Or……

Ok?

The boy noticed that something seemed to be glittering among the other person's seaweed-like chest hair.

It looks like tiny shards of glass or... fragments of jade?

A foul stench was spreading.

The kappa let out a low growl like a wild beast, its eyes fixed on itself and the girl, and then...

"Ming."

He took out the demon sword from his guitar case.

In an instant, Takagawa Ryu turned the abnormally large kappa in front of him into charred remains.

As its enormous body dissipated in the wind, the small jade piece also fell to the ground...

……

"The Shikon Jewel?!"

On the other side of the town.

Located in a residential area, Kikyo, having just shot down several giant crow monsters the size of houses, stared in disbelief at the tiny fragments that had fallen onto the street.

Can't go wrong.

This is... a fragment of the Shikon Jewel?

For a moment, Kikyo's thoughts were in a slight state of confusion.

Why is the Shikon Jewel here?

Why did the Shikon Jewel shatter?

but.

Before the girl could think for long, a terrifyingly large demonic aura suddenly appeared in the distant back mountains.

Not only Kikyo, but even Hayasaka Ai noticed it.

"I hope Chizuru is alright."

The direction from which that enormous demonic aura appeared was clearly where the great fox was located...

……

Chapter 98 Yuan Qianhe: "Watch me beat you until you kneel!" (Part 2)

The town used to have two deities enshrined in the old town area on the back hill.

The god of marriage, whose incense burns brightly, and the god of severing ties, who is largely ignored in comparison.

In the 1980s, a period of rapid economic development.

Young people, both men and women, come to pray for the red thread that will help them find their ideal partner.

The shrine where the connection was made is very popular, with people coming to make offerings day and night.

until...

With the bursting of the economic bubble, the trend of late marriage and non-marriage among young people in Japan has become increasingly serious. Everyone is choosing to live their own lives, and the gods that bring people together are becoming neglected. Instead, people are starting to worship the gods that can sever ties.

The red thread that bound the two of them together for life has become a kind of "curse".

In an instant, the two extremes reversed.

However, the red thread that once bound us together will eventually be cut.

The gods, completely devoid of any sense of crisis, worked diligently, only to find that once there were no more red threads to cut, people stopped coming to the shrine to worship.

Instead.

In the commercial street at the foot of the mountain, a brand new shrine dedicated to the centipede god has risen.

The mining industry brought new prosperity to the town, and the residents began to think that making money was the most important thing.

thus.

The gods who formed and severed ties became desolate gods with no one to worship them.

Such incidents are not uncommon throughout Japan. After all, as times change, people's beliefs and thoughts will inevitably change, which is something that cannot be helped.

Most of the wild gods will perish with nature.

Just like the changing seasons, the gods who are born from people's faith will also die with the demise of that faith.

But then, an unexpected thing happened...

……

"Is this the thing that gave you the guts?"

Inside the abandoned shrine, which was covered in lush trees, the already dilapidated main hall had now completely collapsed, and atop it sat a huge figure dressed in the sleek attire of an ancient warrior.

His disheveled hair shone a deep red under the moonlight, and he wore a terrifying pure white demon mask.

His tall, muscular body, as large as a small mountain, had two of his four arms draped over his legs. One arm held a pipe, and the other held a shard of the Shikon Jewel that shimmered eerily in the moonlight.

I put it away.

Then, he looked at the small figure shivering behind a rock.

"Get lost, kid. Go home tonight and don't wander around outside."

"what……"

The little girl nodded timidly, hugged her puppy, and finally said "thank you" before leaving.

She was the chosen sacrifice.

The power of monsters or gods originates from something called "fear," which can be simply called emotion.

Children's fears are the purest, and therefore, they are loved by many wicked monsters.

They deliberately choose children as sacrifices, making them struggle to survive in a world full of demons and monsters, and finally, in their last desperate bite, they devour them.

But guys who only bully young children are obviously useless.

"Battles between monsters are battles of fear, something trash like you wouldn't understand."

"A true strongman is one who makes other monsters too afraid to even look up, rather than children being afraid of him!"

The tall monster began to smoke and drink.

He looked disdainfully at the two broken, twisted, and deformed "gods" in the shrine courtyard.

They were two like giant Bodhidharma roly-poly toys.

It also resembled a short, gourd-like object, on the surface of which lay naked men and women—proof that they had eaten human sacrifices.