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Don’t look directly at God!
Not the gods created by faith, but the true and only God in this world, the world itself.
Precisely because she understood the rules, she would never allow these eyes to peek. She absolutely could not afford the price.
"I just got here, just when you were talking about the frog monster. Reimu, Amber will appear in the scene we're filming today, and I'm here to pick you up."
"Oh, I almost forgot." Ling Meng remembered that Ling had told her about this before. "Am I late?"
"Don't worry, there's still time."
This was originally filmed by Chise, it was not a formal crew, so there was no concept of being late.
"When you said 'yes' just now, did you mean there is a role for Yakumo?"
"Well, if you don't mind playing the villain."
"Villain... Do you mind, Yakumo?" Reimu said, but found that Yakumo was not in a good state, "Yakumo?"
Yakumo seemed to be in a daze and was not listening to them at all.
"Yakumo, I just heard your conversation. Your name is Yakumo Yukari?"
When Lingye spoke, Zi's eyes inevitably met hers.
There was no collapse as expected, but rather unexpected calm.
I looked directly into the rules and saw nothing, as if the other person was just an ordinary human girl.
Everything seems more like Yakumo Yukari's unfounded worries.
But Yakumo knew that he was protected.
Chapter 365: Underground Chariot
Ling was dressed as Ling from Inuyasha and sat down casually on the tatami. Reimu made her a cup of tea. The tea in Gensokyo was very good, with the fragrance of gardenia, and the water was the sweet spring water flowing down from Takamagahara.
The tea stems are vertical.
"I'm so lucky today." Reimu said.
When making tea, most of the tea leaves are filtered out by the filter, but some tea stems happen to pass through the filter and remain upright in the water. This is not common and has been considered a good omen since ancient times.
Yakumo had closed the gap and was kneeling beside the fire in the shrine room like an ordinary human being.
Reimu didn't make tea for Yakumo. He was a regular customer, so if he wanted to drink tea, he had to come by himself.
But she found that Yakumo was a little strangely restrained today.
"Yakumo, can you tell me more about the fallen frog god you mentioned?" Lingye asked.
"..."
Yakumo wanted to speak, but got stuck at the beginning of the honorific. She wanted to call him the Supreme God or the Supreme Lord, but He was obviously deliberately showing a human attitude and did not want to be regarded as a god. So after a second and a half of being stunned, she chose to throw away the honorific and answer the question directly.
"The frog god was a common belief in ancient times, regardless of region. Whether it was Shikoku, Kyushu, or as far away as Hokkaido, in ancient times, even the royal family worshipped it."
This is not surprising, as the frog has the same pronunciation as the Chinese character for peace and wealth. At that time, many people worshipped the frog because of its homophonic meaning.
Even if modern people have gotten rid of superstition and choose a license plate with a good homophonic sound, the floors of hospitals are taboo to have numbers 4 and 14. If you see them, just skip them. This has been the case since ancient times.
Frogs, including toads, are indeed a common belief in the island nation. The legendary toad fairy is very popular, and Ling also remembers that she saw many monsters in the oil house of Yubaba in the image of frogs and toads.
"Because he lost his faith, he degenerated into an evil god..." Ling also sighed.
There is no concept of good or evil in God. Its essence is the human need for spiritual sustenance.
Human beings' beliefs and the wishes of all living beings lead to the creation of gods. That's because humans need spiritual comfort.
But without warning, mankind entered the technological age, and in just a hundred years, it completely abandoned the beliefs and customs of the past thousands of years.
Gods cannot adapt to the sudden changes in humanity; they are no longer needed and are useless.
So just like other waste products that are no longer useful in human life, they are thrown into the garbage dump without even being separated into dry and wet garbage.
"It's really unfair when you think about it. Use it when you want and throw it away when you don't." Lingye said, feeling that it was a bit too much even from a human perspective.
But humans are like this, and we have known this for a long time.
It has been like this in the past and it will not change in the future.
"Yakumo, do you think gods should hate humans?"
Ling just asked without thinking, but this question was obviously inappropriate.
Yakumo's facial muscles stiffened visibly. What kind of life-threatening question was this?
To say that it shouldn't be done? That's really hypocritical. Since you don't hate humans and are willing to disappear, why do you have to linger in this fantasy town?
But if he said he should hate her, Yakumo really couldn't grasp her thoughts. She was willing to show herself as a human. If he said he hated humans, wouldn't He just treat him as an evil god and exterminate him?
Yakumo couldn't answer. Fortunately, this was just a casual question from Reiya, and he didn't expect a response, so Reiya spoke the answer in his heart.
"I think that since they are born, they should have the right to continue to live. So even if humans no longer need gods, the gods and monsters want to continue to live, and this wish should be respected."
So she created this fantasy land, where there are monsters and gods.
When humans are helpless, they pray to gods, but what if gods are helpless?
At least, even if it is the gods, there is still this planet willing to listen to their requests when they are helpless.
Yakumo understood that the world was still tolerant of them. This answer was much better than she had imagined.
Reimu was a little confused by the conversation between the two. God? Human?
"But I don't like human sacrifice. Evil gods that harm humans and even feed on humans must be defeated. This is the bottom line. After all, I am the Sunday maiden of Izumo Taisha Shrine." Lingye put down his teacup and said seriously.
When she said this, Yakumo thought she would feel the weight of the rules, but she didn't.
She said this not as the will of the planet, but from a purely human perspective.
Praying for mankind and expelling evil gods and demons is not Gaia's responsibility. Gaia treats everyone equally. This has been the responsibility of the Sunday maidens of Izumo Taisha Shrine since ancient times.
That's why she put on the scarlet kimono and put on Chihaya's cloak. She was willing to take over the Demon-Breaking Bow from Hisayo.
If Gaia felt that she had done something wrong, she would take back the light she had entrusted to her, even if it meant taking back the life she had given her. She would not regret it until then.
"Can you tell me where the evil god is now?"
Yakumo naturally wouldn't hide it.
"Frogs hibernate in the winter, and so does the frog god. The last time I saw it was near Mie Prefecture last year, where it has its nest. It's winter in this world as well, so it shouldn't be far away."
Not far indeed.
Mie Prefecture, Kumano City, Namatasu Town
There was an underground cave under a large lake. A huge creature was hiding in the cave, sleeping with its eyes closed. There were some crystal-like egg-shaped objects around it, which were almost transparent, and you could vaguely see the human form inside. Some of them were completely motionless, while some still had signs of life moving.
That's the food it stores for hibernation.
Humans who have abandoned it are the best food for it.
More than ten meters above the cave is the bottom of the lake, and dozens of meters above the lake surface, ZAT is discussing an action plan.
"This is an artificial lake, right? If you ask me, we should block both the outlet and the inlet, pump out all the water, and then we will know what's inside." Nanyuan suggested.
The lake is quite large, but with ZAT’s technology, the above project can be easily accomplished.
However, this would require such a big fuss, and the villagers might not agree.
"This freshwater lake is used by villagers to raise fish and shrimp. If it is drained, the losses will be huge," the patrolman advised.
Winter is the fishing season, so that the fry can grow into big fish. Many people's livelihood depends on it. If the water is drained, the fish and shrimp will die. Even if the monster dies, how will the villagers make a living next year?
"But what if there is a monster in the lake? Aren't the villagers afraid of living with the monster?"
After hearing this, the patrolman hesitated again.
"Don't you have a better way? Like sending a submarine to conduct reconnaissance?"
"Submarine? Are you kidding? This is an inland lake. Where can a submarine come from?"
"Yes, we really do." Araki was originally wearing sunglasses, with his hands on his hips, staring at the lake, wondering what he was thinking. When he heard what Nanyuan and the patrolman were saying, he immediately interrupted.
"ZAT has the Pyrumida II underground tank, which can also be used underwater."
"Underground and underwater dual-purpose tank? Our ZAT team has something like this?"
"Well, the Palumida II was developed based on TAC's Platypus Loader. It was originally the Palumida I of the Kurt Team, and it was one of the few equipment that the Defense Force did not take. I heard from the Defense Force that its performance is very reliable. TAC has relied on it to fight underground enemies twice. It can be used on the ground, underwater, and underground. It has a wide range of uses."
Eh? How strange that the Defense Force would leave such good stuff behind. Nanyuan and Beidao both found it a little unbelievable. Especially Beidao, who usually liked to study weapons and knew exactly what the Defense Force had left behind for them.
Kotaro didn't know about the conflict between the Defense Force and the ZAT team, and he didn't think it was strange. It was natural for the ZAT team to inherit the advanced weapons of their predecessor TAC.
Araki contacted the headquarters, and soon, another Tengyu with the Pyrumida 2 flying arrived above the ancient village.
"This is the No. 2 aircraft of the Sky Whale, coming to take over the transport mission."
A female voice came from the communicator.
"Moriya? How come you're here? You can fly a plane, too?"
"Deputy Captain, well, I studied for a while."
As the communicator of the ZAT team, Moriyama usually looks weak, but seeing that the Sky Whale remains stable even when carrying the underground tank, his words "I learned it for a while" are obviously modesty.
None of the people present, including Kitajima, Minamihara, and Araki himself, dared to say that their driving skills were better than this.
The Pyrumida 2 was unloaded on the shore. Moriyama did not leave, she hovered in the air in the Sky Whale to keep alert.
Araki looked at the Sky Whale driven by Moriyama, and then at Kitajima who was fishing lazily.
He suddenly wondered if there was something wrong with the allocation of positions for the combatants.
At this moment, the ground suddenly shook.
"What? An earthquake?"
It was already late, and the lake was not very clear. Even with the searchlight from the Tianjing, visibility was still low.
"Will-o'-the-wisp! Captain, there are will-o'-the-wisp under the lake!" Moriyama had the best view in the air, and she was the first to discover the abnormality when she looked from above.
Before Araki could say anything, Kitajima was the first to express his disbelief.
"How can a will-o'-the-wisp be in the water? Moriyama, are you seeing things?"
Will-o'-the-wisp is formed by the spontaneous combustion of phosphorus, not sodium. How can it burn underwater without oxygen?