Chapter 467: Evil God Festival · Houseboat |
Kitahara Souta smiled for a moment, but the smile quickly vanished. He gazed absentmindedly at the painting of the Luming Shrine amidst the waves hanging on the wall and said softly, “However, after that incident, the people of Luming County began to fear this Evil God’s physical body.”
“They didn’t dare place this Evil God’s body—which had endured so much pain for their ugly desires—within the mountain shrine after it had been scorched by the great fire. It was too close, and it made them afraid. Yet, they were unwilling to give up this annual Evil God Festival. Thus, they constructed a massive ship-shaped shrine, moving the Evil God’s body and the entire original Luming Shrine to the surface of the sea, far away from Luming County.”
Kitahara Aoi smiled mockingly. “So, this group of people used to risk their lives to be closer to God, and now they risk their lives to stay as far away from God as possible.”
“Yes.” Kitahara Souta lowered his head, looking at his blood-stained knuckles. “Later on, to prevent the offerings from uniting and rebelling during the training process, they separated the offerings for individual training. That is how the ‘Auspicious Room’ was built.”
“Every year during the Evil God Festival, the chosen offerings are placed on a small boat. Led by servants of the Eight Great Families and other villagers from Luming County who wish to make a request, they are taken to the sea shrine to be sacrificed.”
“We are taken onto the boat every year, but because the sacrifice fails, we are brought back,”Kitahara Aoi shrugged indifferently. “Bai Six is the same.”
Kitahara Souta hesitated for a moment, then defended in a small voice, “Our failed sacrifices are a bit different from Bai Six-sama’s, right?”
“We fail because we aren’t painful enough to awaken the Evil God, but Bai Six-sama is the most painful person among us.”
Kitahara Souta paused. “I heard it from other attendants. The Mifune family wants to sacrifice Bai Six-sama every year because Bai Six-sama is the most painful offering in history. But even when the Mifune servants grab Bai Six-sama’s hair and forcibly press him before the Evil God to sacrifice him—though the Evil God clearly awakens due to Bai Six-sama’s pain—He simply refuses to open His eyes…”
“These two…” Kitahara Aoi muttered quietly, “It’s really a series of unfortunate coincidences.”
“Back then, Bai Six guarded the shrine door every night, refusing to speak. Now it’s the Evil God’s turn to be in the sea shrine, seeing Bai Six only once a year, yet refusing to open His eyes to look at His only lover.”
“What kind of fairy tale is this anyway…”
Kitahara Souta also grew quiet for a moment. “Although the Mifune family says the Evil God is inside the sea shrine, every year when we go to the sacrifice, we never see the Evil God’s physical form. We only see an empty alcove placed in the sea shrine.”
“Supposedly, only an offering who can awaken the Evil God with their own pain can see the Evil God.”
Kitahara Souta frowned with some worry. “But we’ve been to the sea shrine so many times, and we’ve secretly searched other places too, yet we haven’t found the Evil God. I don’t know where those people from the Mifune family have hidden Him.”
“Those beasts of the Mifune family.” Kitahara Aoi clenched her fists and struck the ground, cursing spitefully. “Clearly, five years ago when the Evil God was killing people, those Mifune people were about to commit suicide under the influence of the Evil God’s corpse. But then some ‘True Evil God manifestation in a dream’ forcibly interrupted their suicide process, allowing these arrogant dogs to live until today!”
Kitahara Souta gazed at the wind and rain outside the window, murmuring to himself, “I wonder if this year’s Summer Festival will pass smoothly.”
*(T/N: This is some in-your-face exposition isn’t it?)*
***
In the heavy rain, at the seaside venue of the Summer Festival.
The crowd participating in the ritual scattered and fled under umbrellas. Small stalls originally set up along the coast opened large umbrellas to block the rain. Vendors hurriedly packed their goods while complaining about the hateful weather:
“What’s going on with the Summer Festival this year? It never rained in previous years…”
“Tonight’s fireworks display will have to be delayed too.”
“The rehearsal for the God-Sacrifice Dance was scheduled for tonight, right? With such heavy rain, are they still dancing?”
Standing on a high platform looking down at all this, the head of the Mifune family had a grim expression. Standing with his hands behind his back, his eyes were full of gloom just as they were five years ago. A servant beside him lowered his head respectfully, reporting in a low voice:
“Mifune-sama, the rain is very heavy. Do you think it’s appropriate to cancel or delay some of the ritual items?”
Mifune narrowed his eyes. “Delay the fireworks display. Do not cancel the other items; hold them as scheduled.”
The servant hesitated for a moment. “But Mifune-sama, according to tradition, the offerings from the Eight Great Families usually perform the sacrifice in advance. That means they should be setting sail for the sea shrine tonight. The waves are quite large now; is that not canceled either?”
“Ask them about that. Those who want to cancel can cancel, and those who don’t want to cancel can take their own boats.” The loose skin on Mifune’s face twitched, revealing a somewhat eerie smile. “But regardless of whether they cancel or not, the Mifune family will not cancel tonight.”
“Bring the offering Bai Six and his attendant. Tonight, we will set sail for the sea shrine for the sacrifice.”
The servant suddenly looked up, startled. “Bai Six again?”
Mifune glanced sideways at the servant. “What, do you have an objection?”
“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare!” The servant quickly lowered his head. After a long pause, he dared to look up timidly and ask carefully, “It’s just, Mifune-sama, hasn’t Bai Six been privately sacrificed by us nearly eighty times without success?”
“Isn’t it for exactly that reason that you chose Bai Six as the Evil God Heir and let him dance for the Evil God?”
The smile on Mifune’s face became increasingly strange. “Yes.”
“It is precisely for that reason that I insist on taking Bai Six for the sacrifice. He is an offering so painful that even the Evil God is unwilling to open His eyes to look at him.”
The servant looked up in confusion. “But Mifune-sama, no matter how painful Bai Six is, if the Evil God refuses to open His eyes for him, the sacrifice cannot succeed. What is the necessity of taking such an unsuccessful offering to the shrine?”
Mifune gazed out at the surging waves with clouded eyes. The smile on his face grew more treacherous, but his answer seemed unrelated to the question: “Last night, I had a dream.”
“In the dream, the True Evil God told me that tonight, I would sacrifice the most painful offering in the entire world and welcome the rebirth of the Evil God.”
By the shore, the restless waves crashed against the rocks, creating layers of spray.
Amidst the spray were two small boats tossing with the waves. These two boats were far apart, making it impossible to see the existence of the other in such a torrential rainy night.
A boatman wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat stood on each of these two small boats.
“Bai Six-sama.” A servant of the Mifune family, wearing a semi-transparent raincoat, bowed and led the way in front. He led Bai Liu to one of the small boats and respectfully made a gesture of invitation. “Please board the boat.”
Bai Liu held a paper umbrella in his left hand. He was completely dressed up in ritual attire, wearing a full set of sacrificial clothing: a white inner lining, a red hibakama, and an outer layer of light, semi-transparent gauze embroidered with gold-thread crane feathers on the large sleeves. His right hand lightly gripped the kagura bells.
Under such torrential rain, the gauze robe was soaked with water. His long hair fell over his shoulders, sticking to the wet gauze and winding down his fair neck into the inner lining. A pale dot of red rouge had been applied to the very center of his lips, which he had pursed and spread himself, making the color look even more vivid against the dark curtain of rain.
Bai Liu slowly raised his umbrella. His eyes were pitch black. Across the rim of the paper umbrella where water fell like a bead curtain, he calmly gazed at the Mifune servant who was leading him onto the boat, as if he had already guessed where he was being taken.
The servant was momentarily dazed by Bai Liu’s gaze.
No wonder Mifune-sama said this person was the Evil God’s…
Bai Liu’s voice was calm and clear as he asked back, “Dressing me up like this, isn’t it for me to dance for the God? Where are we going now?”
The servant quickly snapped back to his senses. He lowered his head, not daring to look at Bai Liu’s inexplicably intimidating eyes. “Bai Six-sama, it’s like this. Because of the heavy rain this year, the God-Sacrifice Dance will no longer be held on the shore, but at the sea shrine.”
“This year is the Great Festival held once every ten years, and it happens to coincide with heavy rain. Therefore, Mifune-sama has ordered that to show gratitude for the Evil God’s contributions to Luming County over the past ten years, you only need to dance for the Evil God this year; you no longer need to dance for the villagers of Luming County.”
“Please.” The servant stepped aside. “The rain is quite heavy. To ensure your safety, please board the boat alone to proceed to the sea shrine first. Your attendant will come later on another boat.”
Bai Liu glanced at him and jumped onto the boat.
The small boat rocked. The boatman looked up to confirm with the Mifune servant that Bai Liu was on board, then started rowing the wooden oars, heading toward the sea shrine tossing and turning amidst the waves.
At the moment the boat started, a system panel popped up in front of Bai Liu:
> [System Notification: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for unlocking the final scene map of “Evil God Festival · Houseboat” and triggering the final node of the plot.]
At the same time, on the other boat.
Spades stared at the Mifune servant in front of him, expressing his demand expressionlessly: “I want to go to the sea shrine.”
The servant looked at the whip in Spades’ hand, trembling and shrinking into a ball, wishing he could cry. “But, but you aren’t Bai Six-sama’s attendant! Please wait a moment!”
“If you want to go to the sea shrine, you can wait for the boat with the other attendants tomorrow…”
“I’m not waiting.” As soon as Spades finished speaking, he jumped onto the boat with crisp efficiency. With one stroke of his whip, he swatted the screaming boatman off the boat and onto the shore, then looked back coldly. “Tell them to wait. I’m in a hurry.”
After speaking, Spades raised his hand and used his whip to strike the surface of the sea left and right. Because the striking speed was extremely fast, it actually produced a bizarre effect like rowing oars. Spades’ small boat sped away from the shore like an arrow from a bow, heading toward the sea shrine.
The servant and boatman left on the shore were dumbfounded: “…”
***
Meanwhile, at the Viewing Pool.
Mu Shicheng looked at Spades on the big screen, his face so dark it looked like it could drip water. He bared his teeth and shook his legs. “What kind of dog-shit broadcast is this? The whole damn match is centered on this bastard. Where’s Bai Liu! Why aren’t they broadcasting Bai Liu’s situation!”
“The match is already half over, and all I’ve seen of Bai Liu is him starting to practice the dance. Every time they switch to Bai Liu’s side, he’s still practicing the dance.”
“Hey, I don’t damn well believe it!” Mu Shicheng slapped his thigh in anger. “I don’t believe for a second that Bai Liu would just keep practicing some damn dance the whole time he’s playing a match!”
“Is the system rigged! Why does Bai Liu have so little airtime! Has the system maliciously edited this!”
“Stop swearing, there’s a kid here.” Although Tang Erda said this, his brow was also furrowed and his expression was grim. He looked at Spades, who had just jumped onto the boat, on the big screen. “But there is indeed a big problem with this broadcast. Only the beginning and a small segment of the middle of Bai Liu’s match were shown. The rest of the time has been entirely focused on Spades. This is not a normal league game broadcast.”
Mu Ke’s expression was not very good. “Is it possible that the footage from Bai Liu’s side can’t be shown?”
“What do you mean can’t be shown?” Mu Shicheng immediately turned his head to look over.
Liu Jiayi stared intently at the big screen. “Like the situation with those five buildings last time.”
Tang Erda suddenly looked at Liu Jiayi. “You mean…”
Before Tang Erda could finish his sentence, Wang Shun’s voice, which was cracking with excitement, interrupted him: “It switched to Bai Liu’s screen!”
Almost everyone looked up at the big screen.
In the rainy night, Bai Liu—who was almost soaked through—held an umbrella. With his right hand, he lifted his cumbersome hibakama and stepped onto the steps of the sea shrine from a small boat. Simultaneously, in the left corner of the screen, Mu Shicheng could clearly see Spades leaping from another small boat, landing directly on the floor of the sea shrine.
The houseboat-style shrine swayed from the impact of Spades’ landing. The two people who had stepped onto the shrine from opposite sides looked up at the same time and saw each other.
Mu Shicheng couldn’t help but curse “fuck” loudly, punching Tang Erda’s leg beside him. “Dog system! We wait all this time for a broadcast, and as soon as it starts, it pulls something this big!”
Tang Erda: “…”
—
Author’s Note:
Now, let us interview the two contestants on their psychological activities.
Excuse me, both of you, in this tense and ready-to-burst combat situation, what was the first thought that came to mind when you saw the other person? (Holds up microphone)
Bai Liu: A fight to the death.
Spades: He looks so good.
