Page 208

Page 208

Watching Hachiken leave, Ling turned and walked towards the gate tower.

"Let's go too, the sun will soon set."

Then Ling also found that her clothes were pulled by Sakura.

"Is it really okay here?"

It was the same question as Hachiken's just now. But Reiya's answer was different.

"Of course it does matter. Didn't I tell you this is a haunted house?"

Hearing about it is one thing, but when you actually stand here, you will still be afraid if you should be afraid.

However, compared to the last time she walked into the so-called 'Zhoushan couple's' house, this time because Ling was there, she was not overly frightened. At least she still had the courage to follow Ling inside.

Chishi, on the other hand, showed no fear at all. Instead, he took out his phone and turned on the recording function, recording everything with great interest. He looked like a supernatural anchor.

After entering the gatehouse and passing through a long, dark corridor, they came to a place similar to a station. This was not the shrine that Lingye had mentioned before.

Sakura suddenly heard the sound of wind blowing through the grass, and the unique fragrance of green grass filled her nose.

When they walked out of the station, what came into view was a piece of unpolluted blue sky and grassland. Between the vast sky and earth, there was no one but them.

"I'm right, this is a great place for a picnic."

Chapter 242 Oil House

The industrialization of Tokyo at this time was not as advanced as that of 20 or 30 years later. However, this land without any trace of human pollution still made Tomoyo and Sakura, who had lived in Tokyo for many years, feel particularly strange.

It would indeed be a great place for a picnic - if the sun was shining brighter.

It was almost evening, and the sky began to turn crimson, and the colors between heaven and earth also changed.

“Is there really a hot spring hotel here?”

"Well, let's go a little further. We'll cross a dry river, which is the dividing line. We have to hurry because when night falls, the river will be flooded and strangers will not be allowed to cross. We have to take a boat to cross the river. I don't want to take a paper boat."

Ling also said this and led the way in front.

A dry river? A paper boat?

The three of them walked on the vast grassland for more than ten minutes, and Zhishi kept taking pictures. The half-human-high grass covered many traces. When the wind blew the grass low, some ruins could be vaguely seen, and it was unclear whether they were temples or tombs. There were also some houses that were buried with only the eaves left. At some point in the past, this should have been a village.

Sakura didn't dare to walk in front or at the end, so she just stood closely between Tomoyo and Reiya.

Then they saw the river, the so-called dividing line that Lingye mentioned. The exposed riverbed was a pile of round stones covered with green water plants. In the cracks between the stones, some water flowed slowly.

"Is there already a river? It looks like the sun is about to set. Be careful not to touch the river."

Sakura didn't feel it at first, but after Lingye reminded her, she became even more frightened.

"Is this river water something bad? A curse? A monster?"

"No, the temperature here is quite low. It would be very uncomfortable to get wet by the river water. If you catch a cold, you will get sick."

So that's what it was. Tomoyo at the back laughed. Her phone was still recording, capturing Sakura's embarrassment.

"Tomoyo, once you cross this dividing line, stop recording."

"Hey, can't we record it?"

"Well, even if we record it, it will probably just be blank data after we get out. After all, we have already crossed the River Oblivion."

Forgotten River?

Tomoyo and Sakura looked back again and saw that the water level of the dry river had risen a little more and had already submerged the bluestone of the riverbed.

In front of them were ancient stone steps. Walking up the steps, the three of them found themselves in a desolate town.

The town itself has many buildings, various restaurants and street stalls, clothing stores, flower shops, and seafood markets. Red lanterns are hung in front of every house. In terms of the scale of the buildings, it is already a very prosperous town, even more prosperous than the one at the foot of the mountain. What makes this place look desolate is that there is no human habitation.

It was empty, without a single person in sight. When a town is deserted, even if there are tall buildings, all that remains are ruins.

Chishi subconsciously took out her phone again, but when she turned on the camera function, she found that there was no picture in the camera lens. It was as if the phone was broken.

To be honest, what they had experienced so far was the standard routine of a supernatural story. But Tomoyo didn't feel scared.

A main street in the town stretches forward, and at the end is a tall red building. The classic Japanese style seems to have stood there since the Edo period, and then presented from an ancient story to reality.

On one side of the building hung a white canvas flag with the word "Oil" written in black ink. If you have better eyesight, you can see the big sign "Oil House" on the eaves.

The sunset dyed the entire sky red, and at some point, they smelled a fragrance.

I don't know when it started, but food appeared in the restaurants and food stalls on the roadside, all kinds of barbecue and stewed dishes were displayed on the side. But there was still no one in sight, and no one noticed how they appeared.

Smelling that aroma, Tomoyo and Sakura both felt a little hungry. Although they had eaten a lot of snacks on the way and skipped lunch, they had almost digested it by now.

They now began to believe that this was indeed a resort hotel with delicious food and hot springs.

"But why is the word 'hot spring' written as 'Yuya'?" Sakura was puzzled. Yutang should be written as 'tang'.

"It probably means 'sell oil'."

Laziness, leisure, so this is a place for people to relax. If in the next 20 or 30 years, there will be a more appropriate term - leisure club

"Can I eat this food on the roadside? But there are no salespeople."

"Better not, you don't want to eat those things. They are just some wax oil and incense ash, although they are not poisonous. Come with me, let's go to the oil house, there are things suitable for us to eat."

When the sun sets in the west, night falls.

There were more black shadows on the street, floating around, some looked like human figures, and some were completely invisible. Slowly, the shadows increased. These should be ghosts and monsters. Sakura felt that she should be afraid, but when the three of them walked by, the shadows would stop and make way for them. Sakura felt that she could no longer be afraid.

To be more precise, they were making way for Lingye.

"They are all spirits from the past. Because they have been forgotten, they can no longer maintain their physical form."

No one dared to walk in the middle of the road, or even stand side by side with these monsters.

Soon, the vermilion bridge appeared in front of them. Under the light of the oil house, the dark shadows were no longer erratic and showed their shapes.

They look all sorts of weird and strange, some are like those described in "A Hundred Ghosts Parade at Night" and "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", and some have no idea where they came from.

On the other side of the bridge, there were people dressed as waiters welcoming guests. They looked more like frogs than people, with big eyes and wide mouths, which looked a bit funny.

At this time, the receptionist frowned.

"There's a human smell? It stinks. Are there really humans here? Bandai Frog, go call Yubaba!"

It ordered the servant beside it to tell Yubaba, the owner of the bathhouse, because this was a place where humans were absolutely not allowed to set foot. Any human who got lost and disappeared here would be dealt with by Yubaba.

The servant named Fantaiwa was a palm-sized frog, also dressed as a waiter. He jumped back to the oil house.

But soon, the waiter saw the three people walking on the bridge, especially the one in front. He was surprised and quickly put on a flattering smile.

"Sir, you are here! Your presence has brought glory to our humble shop!"

It didn't know who the girl was, she looked like an ordinary human. But it knew very well that when the girl came here last time, Yubaba treated her with the highest courtesy, almost like a worship.

Before that, it had never seen Yubaba be so humble. Even when facing the famous River God, Yubaba was just polite to her guests.

But before it could greet the guests, Yubaba, who had received the report from the frog, had already arrived. It was never a small matter for a human to enter her territory. She came in anger, and after seeing who was coming, she also immediately changed her attitude.

She was much more enthusiastic than the guy and even got on her knees.

"Welcome to the Great Imperial Divine Mandate! You are here. I am ignorant and have not offended you, have I?"

The clerk also knelt down quickly. The only one who could be called the Great God was probably the Three Noble Sons, the supreme god who was high above Takamagahara. In the past, a small spirit like it was not qualified to look up to him.

In this apocalypse where gods and ghosts no longer exist, can such gods still exist in the world?

"I brought a friend here today, is that okay?"

"It's okay, of course it's okay! You're most welcome!" Yubaba's expression was exaggerated, her flattering mouth stretched behind her ears.

She looked very old, whether it was her gray hair, the wrinkles on her face that could kill a fly, or her height that had shrunk to that of a child due to bone age. She was a thousand-year-old witch, and she lived up to her name. But she didn't dare to neglect the distinguished guest in front of her.

The rule that humans cannot enter the ablution house, go to hell, even if that rule was made by her herself. Yubaba personally led the three girls into the ablution house.

"I brought my friends here to enjoy the cherry blossoms. By the way, there are cherry blossoms here, right?"

"Yes! Of course!" Yubaba agreed. This hidden place has flowers of all seasons. Spring orchids, summer lotus, autumn chrysanthemums, and winter plums. Flowers of all seasons bloom here at the same time.

She remembered that there were cherry blossoms, and even if there weren't, she would catch a few cherry blossom spirits on the spot and order them to bloom. Compared to the famous big monsters, there are many small monsters like this that remain in the world.

After all, humans may forget the legend of the great monster, but they will never forget the cherry blossoms. Every spring is the season for cherry blossom viewing, and it has even become a ritual. As long as it is remembered and worshipped like a ritual, the legend will always exist.

"Omi-jinmei, are you planning to enjoy the cherry blossoms tonight?"

"You don't have to call me that. My name is Oshima Reiya, just call me by my name."

The human name made Yubaba feel a little uncomfortable, but she certainly didn't dare to object.

"It's too late today, and the cherry blossoms at night aren't that good to look at. Let's go tomorrow. We've been in the car all day, so we need to take a break. The medicinal soup here is pretty good, so we can soak in it more."

Reiya's last words were addressed to Tomoyo and Sakura.

Yubaba suddenly felt proud.

"Of course. Throughout the Hidden Land, the hot spring medicinal soup in our oil house is unanimously recognized by all...all the spirits and monsters."

She wanted to say "gods", but she didn't dare to say that in front of this person. The visitors to the oil house all regarded themselves as eight million gods, but in fact, they were just monsters in the past. The real gods that remained were only the river gods and land gods who were still worshipped in the wild temples in the mountain villages.

"The Yanmingtang and Pengxiantang here are very famous. Please...please enjoy them to your heart's content!"

"Oh, right." After getting the hot spring bath sign at the front desk, Ling suddenly stopped and said, "I saw a shop on the street outside that said it provides 'human flesh'. Could there be man-eating monsters here?"

Yubaba jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

"How dare we! How dare we! In this era, we are already too busy hiding from humans. You know, those shops outside are just selling incense sticks and incense ashes. Some monsters are greedy and miss the days when they ate humans, so they just make the incense sticks and incense ashes look like that."

"It's better not to show up here like this monster."

"Of course! Don't worry, there will never be such monsters in this hidden place again!"

Tangbaba lowered her head deeply, not daring to raise it for a long time, until she felt that the girl had really left, she carefully reached out to wipe away the cold sweat. In the previous moment, she felt that she would really be wiped out because of a thought. She didn't dare to raise any thoughts.

A thousand-year-old witch like herself is no different from an ant in front of the real Great God.

Sakura, yes, Sakura spirit!

"Where's Bailong? Call Bailong here quickly."

She asked Haku to go to Shikoku Island overnight to capture the cherry blossom elves, and she herself was responsible for capturing all the cherry blossom elves on Honshu Island.

After instructing the accountant to receive the distinguished guest carefully and not to be negligent in any way in fulfilling any of the requirements, Yubaba hurried out and transformed herself into a crow and flew away.

Chapter 243 Expenses