They had already forgotten what had happened moments ago as they continued their way to Unto Shrine.
Kimura Kazuki finally spoke at this moment. “Shigeru-sama, I guess you should tell me the reason you invited me here.”
It was true, up till now he was still clueless even though he had followed Sei Shigeru here. All he had were some speculations in his mind.
During this moment in his past life, it was already at the initial stage of the reiki recuperation period, the world was in chaos at that time. Naturally, he did not know what had happened in Japan as he was in Huaxia, but as Sei Shigeru eventually grew famous for his powers, he had begun to learn about this Great Japanese Onmyoji. However, Sei Shigeru had already surpassed the level of a Great Onmyoji and he was known as Holy Onmyoji to all the Onmyojis in Japan.
Sei Shigeru had obviously been interviewed before but as he was gentle, modest and extremely low profile, hence, he had never revealed why his powers could grow at such an incredible rate. All he said was that he experienced a special encounter during the initial stage of reiki recuperation.
That was why when Sei Shigeru invited Kimura Kazuki to come over, he had the idea of taking a piece of the action as he would never reject any opportunity to improve himself.
Of course, he also knew that this might be a dreadful matter, for Sei Shigeru to have invited him to tag along. Besides, now was not the era of recuperation of reiki anymore and the reiki was weak because it had not recuperated. Right now, Sei Shigeru’s powers may not be the same as he had powers in his past life.
According to his train of thought, Sei Shigeru had most likely reached the peak of the Core Formation State by this time in his past life.
Then again, he had the nerve to come along because the opponent was not very strong either. After all, it was as mentioned, the power of cultivators worldwide would stay at the current level for quite some time since the reiki had not been recuperated.
“I thought Kimura-sama would never ask.” Sei Shigeru laughed as he spoke. He was rather surprised by Kimura Kazuki’s inpersition to keep it in for so long before asking. After all, he was just a high school student, so it goes to show his attitude and personality. As he thought about Kimura Kazuki being a mere high school student yet having such capabilities, he could not help but wonder how Kimura Kazuki practiced, though he kept that question to himself. After pondering for a moment, he began, “This mountain that we are hiking right now is known as Mount Unto. It has almost 2,000 years of history, and 2,000 years ago, Mount Unto was more than 3,000 meters above sea level.”
When Kimura Kazuki heard about it, he looked around his surroundings before staring up at the taller regions where the summit could be seen easily.
Through his visual observation, Mount Unto was only a little over 300 meters at most. That was 10 times less than 3,000 meters.
However, he also understood that after 2,000 years of history, the current appearance of Mount Unto could have been caused by plate motion. It was normal to have strange topography in Japan given the high frequency of earthquakes in the country.
“Unto Shrine is located at the peak of Mount Unto, having a history of 1,200 years. In terms of time, it has a long historical standing as well, only second to Shigeru Shrine,” said Sei Shigeru.
Mei and Asuka were brimming with pride as they heard their grandfather’s words.
Shigeru Shrine had a history of almost 1,400 years and Onmyojis revered it as the No.1 Shrine in Japan. Even though Shigeru Shrine had a legacy for 1,400 years, it was different from the other Shrine as it was just a small-sized Shrine. Unlike Arisu Shrine and Fukuyama Shrine, Shigeru Shrine was basically unknown in Japan. Only Onmyojis within the community could comprehend the mystery and power of the Shigeru Shrine.
However, for Unto Shrine to be able to pass down their legacy for 1,200 years, it could be acknowledged that they have their own ways of doing things.
“Unto Shrine was built solely under Sakanoue no Tamuramaro’s supervision which makes it rather special. The purpose of building it was not to inherit incense, train Omnyoji and neither to study divine spell. It was built to suppress Majin.”
“Majin?” Kimura Kazuki glanced at Sei Shigeru.
“Majin is actually an ancient saying.” Sei Shigeru paused for a moment and continued, “It should probably be called shikigami now. But at that time, shikigami haven’t been discovered by Omnyojis and shrine maidens. Therefore, shikigami which form naturally at that time were known as Majin. But of course, my guess would be that it was not a shikigami, but a Tsukumogami instead.”
As Kimura Kazuki and the others were listening carefully, he continued, “Shikigami is the name given by Omnyojis and shrine maidens, and was also created by them. The existence of shikigami was just slightly over a thousand years and probably did not exist in this world before it was created. So my guess is that the Majin was most probably a Tsukumogami. In fact, it’s very likely that it was an undying type of Tsukumogami. That was why General Sakanoue built Unto Shrine and suppressed it. When he retired, he built a village and produced descendants here, suppressing the Majin for generations.”
Kimura Kazuki nodded in agreement to Sei Shigeru’s presumption after listening to him. Tsukumogamis had a peculiar variety of abilities, some of them were incomprehensible while some were weak and incompetent, but somehow in the end, their weaknesses could always be found.
As for Harunaka, she was listening intently from the side. Ever since her mother had activated consanguinity yesterday and became a shikigami, she had opened the gates to a new world. For now, all the talk about shikigami and Majin had painted a mythical fairy tale in her mind. Akino would have trembled with excitement if she were here.
“When you went to Mount Tobiuo last time, was it to invite Sword Saint Takeda to come and assist you?”
“That’s right.” Sei Shigeru nodded and glanced at Kimura Kazuki. He failed to invite Hiroshi Takeda as he was overseas. He had planned to invite the Arisu Family afterwards, but ran into Kimura Kazuki unexpectedly. Though he left decisively when he noticed that the situation was not quite right. After that, it was obvious that he could no longer request assistance from the Arisu family. It would be ridiculous to ask someone for help when he had simply stood by and watched while they needed help.
However, that was the Shigeru family’s principle when dealing with all matters. They remained neutral and would not attempt to regulate the contradictions between either sides. It was mainly because if they were to get involved, they must let down one side who would eventually turn against them.
The Shigeru family was able to pass on their legacy until today because they held by the principle of being kind to everyone. And of course, possession of great strength and power was fundamental.
While he had tried to invite Fukuyama Shrine the day before, he was also rejected as they had their own missions at the moment. In the end, Kimura Kazuki was the only one who tagged along.
He also felt troubled by the Majin that was suppressed by the Unto Shrine due to the lack of information from the Deity Rising Palace. The main reason was that even though people from Unto Shrine had been reporting to Deity Rising Palace, but they remained in a closed society, never allowing outsiders to intervene in their affairs. Therefore, outsiders were pretty much clueless when it comes to Unto Shrine.
Now that something had happened, Sei Shigeru as the Onmyoji in charge of this issue was just as confused. He only managed to find some vague information through checking their historical background.
Sei Shigeru sighed in his heart as he stared at the summit. It was shrouded by clouds. He silently wished that the problem could be resolved after they make their trip up Mount Unto.
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