Chapter 81: Dust Settles.

Qi Xing shook his fist and looked closely.

The shrine maiden's corpse had already slumped over, her skull shattered, red and white matter pouring out incessantly, quickly staining the road and her luxurious shrine maiden robes crimson. It looked perfectly normal—dying just like any other mortal.

She was certainly dead. Qi Xing also felt that her life had dissipated.

But Qi Xing still narrowed his eyes slightly. He couldn't help but feel… something was a little off.

Although the white-haired shrine maiden had fallen, on the other side, that eerie Peacock Celestial Maiden, Reima, was still floating perfectly fine. However, she clearly couldn't smile anymore.

The weak male who had been tragically feminized, when faced with the [Strongest Man on Earth], hadn't even fought yet, but was now deathly pale, shrinking back and trembling.

Qi Xing couldn't be bothered to waste any more effort; he reached out, grabbed at the air towards him, and activated the Qi Prohibition.

The so-called [Prohibition Technique] refers to a method where a practitioner uses their own True Qi to restrain phenomena. Blade Prohibition can make weapons unable to harm, Fire Prohibition can prevent fire from starting. Naturally, there is also a method for prohibiting demonic charms. As Qi Xing's Earth Immortal True Qi moved, the demonic aura and evil energy of the entire street were forcibly suppressed by him.

And it wasn't just the [Qi] that was being suppressed by Qi Xing.

"Urgh, argh—"

Boom!

It was as if an invisible giant hand had pressed down fiercely from above, and the Peacock Demon Maiden's body was directly forced toward the ground!

She struggled with all her might, trying to steady herself, but that invisible True Qi was like an unseen, untouchable mountain of ten thousand jun, impossible to resist, leaving her no room to even struggle!

"St-stop—"

Bang!!!

The next second, she had already been pressed into the road by Qi Xing from a distance!

The asphalt road instantly cracked and caved in, as if a giant hammer had smashed a hideous deep pit into the ground!

Dust flew everywhere, stone chips rolled down, and the eerie Celestial Maiden was firmly pinned to the bottom of the pit, her limbs pressed down tightly, unable to move at all. Only that emerald demon light was still trembling slightly, futilely resisting this terrifying True Qi that was impossible to contend with.

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She couldn't believe—that she would actually be suppressed alive into the ground, like a demon whose dignity had been crushed and trampled underfoot!

"No! No!"

She could only shriek miserably—just like when he hadn't yet [fallen] and was caught by Ise earlier.

—Qi Xing curled his lip and prepared to add a little more force.

Until he looked through the demon maiden's panicked eyes and suddenly saw a faint, ethereal shadow of a young man flash across her pupils.

"Huh?"

Qi Xing finally frowned: "What's going on?"

"He is a young exorcist from the Kito Family."

Jingo Rin's voice finally came from behind him.

081: The Amazing Thunder █ Hero (Part 2)

It turned out that ever since Qi Xing made his heroic entrance at the critical moment, Jingo Rin naturally understood immediately that she no longer needed to draw her sword or use her full power.

So, while Qi Xing was blasting the white-haired shrine maiden to death and suppressing the Peacock Celestial Maiden, she immediately went to move all the surrounding passersby and civilians to safety in the alley by the street.

Now that the battle was over, she could finally explain the whole situation to Qi Xing: "The shrine maiden who called herself Ise seemed to have poured a large amount of filth into his body, seducing and forcing him to use this power to transform."

Filth is desire, and under the cosmic laws of Samael, desire is power; this is not hard to understand.

As for the transformation…

Qi Xing certainly knew that in this world, there weren't many ways to [transform], but they weren't particularly rare either. Including Magical Girls, there were many transformation heroes. After obtaining the [silver coin], Qi Xing also had transformation abilities based on mythological archetypes.

Based on mythological archetypes?

Glancing at [Ise]'s headless corpse, and then looking at the eerie Celestial Maiden pressed into the ground, Qi Xing suddenly understood a little—although much weaker in terms of power, in principle, this kind of transformation was similar to the authority of the [silver coin], which was to obtain corresponding power by playing a specific role.

Could it be that they were actually trying to imitate the [Silver Coin Messenger]…

"It hurts! It hurts, ahhh!"

More evil energy began to gush out frantically from the body of the Peacock Celestial Maiden, Reima, like a bursting flood.

The emerald turbid current churned endlessly, like thick fog spreading. But as soon as any escaping evil energy appeared, it was immediately firmly suppressed by Qi Xing's [Prohibition Technique] and forcibly locked at the bottom of the pit.

Consequently, the evil energy around her accumulated more and more, becoming increasingly intense, causing Reima to shriek heart-rendingly, as shrill as the wail of a dying beast.

"Why—why can I do nothing? Why can I become nothing?!"

Her fingertips dug into the ground, her knuckles turning white, and her nails even cracked and bled from being unable to withstand the pressure. Her entire body's muscles were spasming, as if being torn apart by tens of thousands of venomous snakes, with every inch of flesh backfiring on her.

Her tears had already rolled down, mixed with cold sweat.

"Everyone clearly said I was a genius, said I was the future pillar of the family! Why am I now… left with nothing… It hurts, it hurts, ahhh!"

Her voice had become hoarse and broken, as if she might stop breathing at any moment. Yet her body was still struggling, desperately trying to shake off this irresistible suppression.

"I don't want to die—I still don't want to die, ahhh!!"

But she had nowhere to run. After the filth of tens of thousands of people, the evil thoughts of tens of thousands of people, refined by thirty shrine maidens, had all been poured into Reima's body, this power was supposed to have become her weapon.

But now, after her defeat, after she could no longer control them, the filth instead became an unbearable shackle, dragging her into the abyss.

The emerald evil energy rolled frantically, accumulating more and more, becoming increasingly viscous, as if the entire hell was churning within her.

"Can you turn her back? Do some kind of purification or something?"

Qi Xing frowned and asked Jingo Rin, who was beside him.

Limited by his own talent, although he had the theoretical knowledge, he was completely unable to use such arts.

But Jingo Rin also shook her head, her expression slightly awkward: "Aside from the divine ability of the four-colored fire, I actually basically don't know any spells at all."

"Can't you use that white purification fire of yours?"

"The white fire can only be used to heal myself."

Ugh. This girl Jingo Rin's talent direction was even very similar to Qi Xing's. Qi Xing was also better at protecting himself than helping others.

"He's from the Kito Family?" Qi Xing smacked his lips and asked again.

Jingo Rin nodded, but didn't understand what he was trying to do.

But Qi Xing had already walked over.

He ignored the dense evil energy settled at the bottom of the pit—which would drive a normal person mad just by touching it—walked into the pit, took out the [Dominator] silver coin, lifted Reima up from the ground, and then slapped her twice!

Now they were both stunned.

"[Do not scream]."

Qi Xing said calmly,

"This is something those shrine maidens used as human pillars by the Kito Family experienced before they died. So you [are not allowed to scream]."

The [Dominator] issued the command, and Reima was immediately silenced as if muted, unable to make a single sound.

Speaking of this, Qi Xing couldn't help but recall last night when he, the Wolf Lord, and Elaine were looking at these exorcist family files, and he had been stunned by the various [astonishing wisdoms] of these local exorcist families.

For example, dispatching over a dozen shrine maidens as sacrifices to drain and weaken a great demon through █ █ █, and then sealing it. Afterward, turning the shrine maidens into living pillars, driving them into spiritual vein nodes, and using the resentment of the shrine maidens after death to erode and incapacitate the great demon.

For example, when encountering a great demon they couldn't beat, deliberately sending the exorcist shrine maiden up to be sacrificed first, using this to give birth to the great demon's offspring, then turning the born demon into a cursed tool to kill the original great demon.

Such brutal operations were recorded throughout history. Including the Kito Family, the Jūyaku Clan, and so on, in fact, most local exorcist families in Japan had often done such things throughout history.

After all, don't forget, this was, after all, an absurd world created by Sasa. █ is both a disaster and a power.

As for why they stopped in modern times, or at least basically stopped, or at least didn't dare to do it openly, it was actually because the central government's official exorcism power had increased, and international exorcism support had also increased—after all, even Japan had been sprinting toward centralization after the Meiji Restoration, and after World War II, foreign exorcists could also enter and leave freely.

But on the other hand, if a ferocious demon that the family couldn't handle suddenly appeared in the local area again, these families would probably still take out their ancestral recipes and use them again.

So much so that Qi Xing even suspected at one point whether these people all knew a folklorist holding an exorcism camera. After all, these operations of theirs could be called the classic stereotypes of Japanese exorcist families.

However, the conclusion the three of them reached in the end was surprisingly unanimous: recruiting talent under the name of the [International Exorcism Association] could only be a cover. Otherwise, not to mention that Qi Xing found it disgusting and would want to kill them, Elaine would absolutely never agree to actually recruit this group of people into the [Association].

Therefore, Qi Xing naturally wouldn't give any good looks to these local exorcist families.

Now, many local exorcist families treated the Holy See, this foreign monk, as a straw to grasp for their lives.

But Qi Xing had no intention of saving them.

"Do you want power? I see you've been injected with a lot of power now."

So Qi Xing lifted the demon celestial maiden and said to her,

"If you want power, I will help you control this evil energy."

"If you don't want power, I will make you spit this evil energy out."

"But now, I [command] you to regain consciousness!"

082: Because I Like It

I have to admit, the [silver coin] is really useful.

As long as the power is sufficient, and as long as the [Silver Coin Messenger]'s willpower is clear and firm enough, the person being [commanded] cannot disobey. Even things she herself couldn't do were the same—even if she had seen it, she could be [commanded] into [You saw nothing]; even if she was not conscious, she could be [commanded] to [Regain consciousness immediately]!

So now, this Peacock Celestial Maiden, Reima, had regained consciousness, or at least looked like she had. She was now sitting blankly on the road, the evil energy having receded, obediently listening to Qi Xing, though her eyes were still glazed over.

Is this [consciousness] commanded out really true consciousness?

"Not bad, your brain has finally become flexible, and you've started to slightly understand how [Dominator] should actually be used."

Sasa was sitting on Qi Xing's head watching the fun, and she was in a pretty good mood,

"Although you haven't fully understood yet—[Command] is just the most superficial usage of [Dominator]. You need to carefully consider again what the high-level usages of these concepts—Dominator, Command, Rule—actually are. Actually, you have already used it once before, but it seems your brain hasn't fully reacted yet."

Why didn't Sasa just tell Qi Xing directly? A small part was, of course, because of the devil's mischievous intentions, but the greater part was truly for Qi Xing's own good: the essence of the [silver coin]'s divine power transcended human natural language. If the [Messenger] couldn't realize that [flavor] on their own and only understood it from the literal meaning, they would easily fall into an intellectual barrier and instead fall into a lower level.

However, compared to the Evil God's power, Qi Xing was more concerned about another matter now: "Sasa, that white-haired shrine maiden, isn't she your follower, is she?"

He was genuinely a bit worried about this.

"Huh? How would I know?"

Yet this detestable Loli Evil God didn't care about this at all,

"Do you think I am that kind of minor god who needs to be worshipped to have power, and spends every day replying to users like customer service?"

"I really don't think so."

"So I also don't know what her background is."

This Loli Evil God is truly as disappointing as ever!

Back to the scene.

The street that had just been invaded by evil energy and was almost on the verge of losing control. Although the battle had ended, the air was still filled with the lingering filth. Not everything was resolved yet.

However, just at this moment, Qi Xing saw a group of young girls wearing traditional red and white shrine maiden robes suddenly driving over in a van, rushing to the scene!

There weren't many of them, only six, but they all looked like legitimate shrine maidens. As soon as they stepped into this area where the filth and evil energy had not yet dispersed, their faces instantly turned deathly pale.

The leading shrine maiden was slightly older, walking in a hurry, with slight sweat on her forehead, and even the gohei in her hand was trembling slightly due to the intensity of her running. She looked up and saw Jingo Rin standing in the middle of the street, immediately stopped, bowed deeply, her tone full of apology: "Guardian! Please forgive us for being late!"

The other shrine maidens also hurriedly lowered their heads to apologize, their expressions flustered.

Jingo Rin only shook her head slightly, her tone calm: "You are too slow. Clean this place up first."

"Yes!"

The shrine maidens hurriedly responded, then immediately split up to act.

They were, of course, not here to repair the smashed street; that kind of thing could be left to mortal engineering teams.

The task they had to be responsible for was naturally to perform purification on those unconscious ordinary civilians, driving away the impurity and evil energy.

"Amenominakanushi-no-Kami,"

"Izanagi-no-Okami, the Imperial Ancestor,"

"Haraedo-no-Okami, all pure deities,"

"Please descend to this place and wash away all sins and impurities."

"May we be as clean as before, our bodies like morning dew, clear and flawless; our souls like the bright moon, shining across the vast sky."

"With utmost sincerity, we offer this prayer."