Chapter 283: The Sword Of Damocles

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Unto Shrine had been established for over 1,000 years, but there had always been a population of just dozens of households down the hill of Sakagami Village. It was not that the villagers were unwilling to expand Sakagami Village, but ever since the Majin was sealed by their ancestors, the entire Sakagami Village was then under a curse.

Every child born would feed on human’s blood and they would vomit uncontrollably if fed with milk. As they grew up, they naturally gained the ability of night vision. Even though they mentally longed for brightness, their bodies hated daytime. Owing to the reason of being cursed, Sakagami Village was always closed. Furthermore, the curse was not to be told to outsiders. If one were to spill the beans, he would no doubt die of inverse blood flow in the entire body. It was exceptionally terrifying.

This strange phenomenon was like having the Sword of Damocles hung over their heads. That kind of tremendous stress had been pressuring the people of Sakagami Village for generations.

That was, until the modern era, when the people of Sakagami Village finally started to revolt. In other words, this was not their first ever revolution, they had tried to resist for several times or even dozens of times now. In these thousands of years, Sakagami Village had actually started a rebellion once long ago, but was propitiated by the Onmyoji and shrine maiden of Unto Shrine.

However as it was passed down from generation to generation, the Onmyoji and shrine maiden of Unto Shrine had forgotten their initial intentions. It was not that the Onmyoji and shrine maiden of Unto Shrine had a change of heart, it was just that they were threatened and enchanted by the Majin.

In the earlier generations, the Onmyoji who were in charge of Unto Shrine were the strongest Onmyoji of Sakagami Village. Nonetheless, the inheritance of such cultivation would eventually break. The Onmyoji and shrine maiden of Unto Shrine were all selected by the people of Sakagami Village. However the population of Sakagami Village, which had been around dozens of households all these while, seemed to have only 200 people at most!

In the era of weak reiki, it was extremely rare to find even one person who had the practitioner’s potential among more than 200 people. Nevertheless, in every generation, whenever the big birthday of the Onmyoji was around the corner, the people would continue to choose the one for inheritance, even without having the practitioner’s potential. Besides ensuring that the ways of practice continued on, this inheritance was also meant to let the Onmyoji who had taken over know that Unto Shrine was suppressing the Majin.

During the suppression, the Onmyoji did not have to do anything except to check every day that there was nothing unusual to the seal. That was because the Jade of Four Souls which had the Majin sealed, possessed the purest power in the entire world.

The God of Inheritance of Unto Shrine had been protecting Unto Shrine all along. The only thing was that the God of Inheritance would fall into a deep sleep if the Onmyoji was just an ordinary person, and stayed that way until the appearance of an Onmyoji with the practitioner’s potential. Only then, it would awaken the God of Inheritance.

Therefore when Unto Shrine was under the control of the Onmyoji who had no potential and was no different from ordinary people, those Onmyoji and shrine maiden lived in Unto Shrine and had to check on the seal every day. Under this condition for long, they naturally got influenced by Majin. On top of the fact that it was really difficult to find an Onmyoji with the practitioner’s potential, Unto Shrine had been controlled by common Onmyoji and shrine maiden most of the time in the past thousand years. So, these ordinary people had long been enchanted and lost their minds.

Even with them enchanted, the seal could not be touched.

The curse of Unto Shrine made the people of Sakagami Village become the existence of evil. Hence the containment power of the Jade of Four Souls toward the Sakagami Village was also very strong. Even so, a year ago, the Jade of Four Souls was still damaged.

While being sealed for such a long time, the Majin was in a deep sleep most of the time. After the Jade of Four Souls was damaged, it parasitized on Otome Sakagami. During this year of school, Otome Sakagami went to class during the day and fed on blood everywhere in Tokyo during the night. Moreover, she was very cautious. She had been feeding on the homeless. No one would care even if these homeless were dead.

In the end, she fed on her boyfriend, Keiichi Koizumi because during this time back to the village, she wanted to recover her strength with the help of the energy from the insides of the Jade of Four Souls. After that, she would not attend school anymore.

However, the Jade of Four Souls was obviously taken away by Kimura Kazuki now, and it seemed like they were no longer at Unto Shrine as there was no human breath in the village anymore. Could they have gone back already?

Otome Sakagami fell into deep thought. If she were to come here and investigate Unto Shrine, and after obtaining the Jade of Four Souls and knowing that the Majin had already broken the seal, perhaps she would have left too?

The expression on Otome Sakagami’s face was filled with uncertainty. Her recovery would be very slow without the strong power from the insides of the Jade of Four Souls.

While thinking, Otome Sakagami, who was controlling the puppet, saw a middle-aged man coming up the hill with an umbrella. There was a slight move in Otome Sakagami’s heart when she saw him. She knew this person, he was the son of the chief of Sakagami Village.

Obviously, he went up the hill during the day to make sure whether Kimura Kazuki and the others were still there.

Only the villagers knew about the curse on Sakagami Village. Recently they were preparing to hold a ceremony to break the curse, so of course no outsiders should be allowed at the scene. That was the reason why Grandma Sakagami revealed the facts about the Jade of Four Souls, so as to let Kimura Kazuki and others take the Jade of Four Souls away with them.

Otome Sakagami, who was hiding behind the tree, studied the middle-aged man. His face was pale-white. It was August, so it was the hottest season ever. The sun was scorching hot even in the morning. Common people would not even leave their houses at this time, not to mention the people of Sakagami Village. The blazing sun was said to be the strongest poison to the people of Sakagami Village. Even with an umbrella, it felt as if the heat almost caused the middle-aged man to disappear into thin air.

He gritted his teeth as he stumbled and rushed toward Unto Shrine. He swore quietly at Kimura Kazuki and the others. Why did these people come to Sakagami Village at such a crucial moment when they were about to lift the curse. It was simply toxic.

He was rushing toward Unto Shrine and obviously did not realize that Otome Sakagami was approaching him from behind.

The next moment, the body of the middle-aged man shook. Lowering his head, he saw a rough-skinned arm had pierced directly through his body. Unconsciously, he pressed the arm with his hands and started to tremble. As the umbrella in his hand dropped to the ground, he was shrouded by the scorching sunlight. He only managed to turn his head and glanced backward before he was entirely under the rays of the sun. With discomfort all over his body, he fidgeted as he tried to avoid the sun.

“Uncle Naonari…”

In the blink of an eye, the middle-aged man looked at the puppet who was controlled by Otome Sakagami and unbelievably opened his mouth to talk. The next second, the middle-aged man felt a bite on his neck. He opened his mouth to make a sound but his mouth was covered all of a sudden. He was in great pain. After a few moments, the middle-aged man turned into ashes.

Otome Sakagami looked at the scene indifferently. She frowned and spat out a mouthful of blood. “This blood is so smelly.”

Uncle Naonari, who was mentioned by the middle-aged man, was actually a puppet controlled by her.

The full name of the puppet was Naonari Sakagami. He was the former and last Onmyoji of Unto Shrine. As the Onmyoji of Unto Shrine, Naonari Sakagami would naturally never let the villagers break the seal. However, the villagers of Sakagami Village had obviously been driven almost to madness and could not live normal lives. This caused the villagers to know that if they continued this way, none of their descendants would be able to be successful.

In addition, this was a modern society and not the ancient times. Sooner or later, Sakagami Village would be exposed. If the curse could not be lifted, it was better to have the entire village annihilated than having their descendants suffer.

It was the will of all the people in Sakagami Village to break the curse. However, Naonari Sakagami wanted to hold on to the regulations of Unto Shrine, so in the end he could only be sacrificed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep