Chapter 83

The reason is actually quite simple—if these shrine maidens were truly "missing" and there were police reports, Jingo Rin would certainly know. But are they really "missing"?

These people might not have been kidnapped at all… but rather "sold out."

Since no one reported it, naturally no one would investigate.

On the other side, Qi Xing stood at the street corner, looking at the hospital surrounded by police tape, and couldn't help but frown: "I remember that opening a hospital in Japan is quite troublesome. How much would it cost to open a hospital of this scale?"

"Land, equipment, licenses, personnel… and to just abandon such a large asset, where on earth did they get so much money?"

Money—this is a very serious thing, even in the supernatural world, even in this absurd, yellow universe. Where did they get so much money?

At the same time, who exactly is currently in desperate need of money?

Not long after, Elaine and Old Wolf also arrived at the scene. After learning what had happened, Old Wolf was fine, but Elaine sighed directly: "This matter has become increasingly serious."

"I will immediately report this to the Papal Privy Council and request assistance, asking the Holy See to make a demand to the Japanese government—this case involves the issue of Satan worship, so we must conduct a joint investigation."

Compared to a Satanic cult possessing such terrifying potential power, the fact that Jingo Rin possesses angelic divine power was no longer a big deal for the Vatican. There are priorities in all things. The Vatican was not stupid enough to fail to distinguish what could be put aside for the moment.

"Are you sure it's a Satan-worshipping cult? Is it that serious?" Qi Xing rubbed his forehead and frowned, "But Satan is still hanging over my head."

Elaine shook her head: "That doesn't mean they can't obtain dangerous power through other means."

If anything, in this absurd world, even without the devil himself intervening, there are probably already plenty of ways to obtain dark power through absurd methods.

"That white-haired shrine maiden should have been killed by me," Qi Xing mused, "I feel like she was the leader. Shouldn't they be leaderless now?"

"Hard to say." Elaine was not very optimistic about this.

Qi Xing was a super-warrior, a powerhouse. In the past, he only needed to kill, and he was often responsible for decapitation strikes—blasting away the main force, the strongest members, and the leaders of cults was enough.

As an administrator, Elaine knew that although a cult built on the personal charisma of its leader would often decline quickly once the head was cut off—but "often" does not equal "absolutely," and "quickly" does not equal "immediately."

Moreover, they both knew that in this magical world, even if someone had been "killed once," it didn't mean they couldn't have left behind a contingency plan.

Regardless, if they wanted to conduct a joint investigation, Jingo Rin, the "Guardian of the North," definitely had to nod first. When Qi Xing and Elaine walked over, they happened to see Jingo Rin listening to Kito Reima relay the last piece of important information from her memory.

"I saw all three of them. I had never seen the white-robed shrine maiden or the girl with the katana before. But the third girl dressed as an Onmyoji—I just thought about it, and I think I recognize her," Kito Reima said nervously.

This was truly good news. Jingo Rin immediately said: "Tell me in detail."

"It's Kisaragi Mayu of the Kisaragi Family," Kito Reima said gloomily, "The one from over two years ago in Aomori Prefecture, the Kisaragi Family that didn't want to accept the regulations of the Onmyoryo, so they secretly switched to becoming curse masters, were exposed, and were wiped out by you when you showed up at their door."

To strengthen their bloodlines, many exorcist families would choose to intermarry or incorporate the seeds of excellent foreign mages—crazy families that truly practiced inbreeding were actually quite rare. Because true endogamy was too easy to cause self-destruction.

The Kito Family and the Kisaragi Family in Aomori Prefecture could be considered distant relatives. When she was a child, Kito Reima had seen Kisaragi Mayu, this distant cousin, at a family gathering.

"Her hair is black and white, very distinctive; you won't forget it once you've seen it. So when I saw her in the hospital basement, I remembered immediately," Kito Reima explained.

Jingo Rin's brows immediately furrowed even tighter.

Qi Xing had also heard this story from Elaine before, so he asked her: "I thought you had crippled the powers of all those families that stepped onto the evil path?"

"Kisaragi Mayu, I do have an impression of her," Jingo Rin replied indifferently, "She was younger than me at the time and didn't participate in the crimes. I couldn't just burn away the qi channels of a thirteen-year-old child with black flames."

"True," Qi Xing nodded, "But after her whole family went to prison, how was she handled?"

"I remember she should have been sent to a foster care institution in Sendai."

Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region of Japan, and theoretically, it is considered within the jurisdiction of the "Guardian of the North," less than three hundred kilometers from Jingo Rin's home. It only takes Jingo Rin a dozen minutes to fly there. If there were cases, she could definitely make it in time to fight monsters. But if she really wanted to control it as meticulously as her hometown, she indeed couldn't achieve that level of precision.

Moreover, the administrative efficiency of the Japanese government is actually not very impressive.

Now, Jingo Rin immediately had her subordinates call to inquire—and as a result, oh my, Kisaragi Mayu had actually gone missing last year!

No one knew where she had run off to.

"Why didn't anyone report this to me?" Jingo Rin looked like she was about to smoke with anger.

"Most likely they were afraid of being held accountable, so they hid it," Qi Xing said calmly. He had traveled all over the world for the past ten years and had seen many such bastards, "Besides, with that white-haired shrine maiden's abilities, kidnapping someone without anyone knowing is indeed very easy."

Even so, all the cursed tools and spell inheritances of the Kisaragi Family should have been burned away by Jingo Rin's black flames. Just kidnapping a little girl—what could she possibly be used for?

Out of curiosity, Qi Xing poked Kito Reima, the celestial maiden who was still quite afraid of him, and asked her: "What kind of magic was this Kisaragi Family good at?"

"Uh, they used to be the best Onmyoji curse doctors in the Northeast." Kito Reima was terrified of Qi Xing and quickly shrank back,

"The Kisaragi Family was originally an Onmyoji family responsible for dispelling curses, but they would also secretly do some work cursing people. After the curse-dispelling work decreased, they probably wanted to take on more cursing commissions, but ended up getting exposed instead."

Hmm, doesn't sound suspicious.

"Miss Jingo, as the president of the "International Exorcism Association," I have a proposal now," Elaine also spoke up at this moment,

"We already know that long before we arrived, in the last two months, strange evil objects have appeared from time to time in Aomori Prefecture, formed when human evil hearts were extracted and attached to objects. Although you have successfully eliminated them so far, the root of the problem has never been solved."

"Now we suspect that behind this shrine maiden who calls herself "Ise," there may be a supernatural terrorist organization related to Satan worship." Her tone sank, and she said quite solemnly,

"Your life is threatened, and we want to eliminate the Satan worshippers. So I hope you can allow the "Exorcism Association" to cooperate with you to investigate and solve this problem."

In fact, Elaine knew very well how to talk to people like Jingo Rin: just get straight to the point.

Because Elaine had long since seen that Jingo Rin was very similar to Qi Xing. For people who act based on their preferences, the more you beat around the bush, the more she will resent it.

"Sure." As expected, such a simple proposal was actually able to make Jingo Rin nod, "Anyway, I don't have that much time to run to every place by myself."

Since the "Guardian of the North" nodded, the resistance in negotiating with the Japanese government would not be great.

Qi Xing also grinned: "Very good. Where shall we start investigating first?"

These kinds of things were always what Elaine was best at planning.

"I will arrange for relevant experts to investigate other clues as soon as possible. Many things are more convenient to investigate as an organization than as an individual," Elaine said, her expression a bit cold,

"But there is one thing that I must ask you two to do first."

"What kind of role the Kito Family played in this case—you two should make them provide some explanation."

"And it's best to go as soon as possible, before they destroy the evidence or are even silenced."

Once this was said, it made it seem quite legitimate for Qi Xing and Jingo Rin to even kick down someone else's door.

The smile on Qi Xing's face grew even broader.

Five minutes later, Qi Xing visited the Kito Family for the second time today. When he visited in the morning, he was a guest; this time, hehe.

At first glance, seeing Qi Xing, the people of the Kito Family were still beaming with joy. But when they saw Jingo Rin following behind, they couldn't laugh anymore.

By the way, Jingo Rin had now changed back into her red and white shrine maiden attire and changed her hair back to that jet-black, shiny long hair.

This meant that the person coming now was not the high school girl Jingo Rin, but the "Guardian of the North" designated by the Imperial Court, Mutsuhime · Jingo Rin. She was here on official business, as a high-ranking official acting on behalf of the heavens to inspect the territory. She was here to cause trouble.

What to do now? Fight to the death and resist? Impossible.

One Jingo Rin was already scary enough, and now there's a "Master Leipu"? Are you joking, are you kidding me!

But on the other hand, anyone could figure out with their knees that if they really let Jingo Rin know what the Kito Family had done and what ghosts they had been playing behind the scenes, life would probably be worse than death from now on. Just like the Kisaragi Family, first being crippled and then eating prison food for the rest of their lives. For a magical family, this pain was even worse than a quick death!

What on earth should they do?!

"Move aside." Just as the Kito Family was in a panic, a majestic and low voice suddenly came from behind the house, like a heavy drum striking the heart.

It turned out to be an old man wearing a black haori with the family crest, walking out slowly. Although his steps were slow, every step sounded like thunder. His hair and beard were white, his face was as stern as if carved by a knife, the handle of his black wooden staff was engraved with reliefs of a hundred ghosts, and behind him, the outlines of the Eight Gates of Hellfire faintly appeared.

He was the Supreme Elder of the Kito Family, the Councilor, Kito Genzai—the top Onmyoji in the Tohoku region!

Staring directly at Jingo Rin and Qi Xing standing in front of the gate, his expression did not waver in the slightest, and he said in a deep voice: "Since the Kito Family has no path of retreat, I, Kito Genzai, will use this spell to challenge the final battle!"

He raised his hand, and as his sleeves rolled up, an eight-layered Onmyoji magic circle appeared beneath his feet, rotating and nesting within each other. The air seemed to be scorched by invisible ghost fire, the Prison of the Eight Gates slowly opened, and spell power surged!

Fight! There is honor in death, no shame in living!

The Supreme Elder of the Kito Family, Kito Genzai, he was a figure reputed to be like the reincarnation of Kito Motonori, the founding ancestor of Kito sorcery eight hundred years ago!

He inherited the family name whose authority had lasted for eight hundred years, and he would never be easily defeated!

"Open the Prison of the Eight Gates, sacrifice the spirits of the hundred ghosts. I use my life as fuel, offering this flame to the King of Hell."

In the center of the magic circle, thousands of ghost shadows roared and rose, crimson flames gathered into a ghost-faced flame god, opening its mouth and roaring furiously!

" [Ghost Dao · Forbidden · Eight-Fold Calamity Fire Formation] !!"

No sooner said than done! The hundreds-of-zhang-high crimson flames poured down like a waterfall in an instant, condensing the hatred of a hundred ghosts and the weight of spell power. With a single strike, even the clouds in the sky were dyed red and black!

The calamity fire, unstoppable, slammed into Qi Xing! — — Pfft. It was like throwing an incendiary bomb into the Pacific Ocean.

The ghost fire hit Qi Xing and collapsed at the first touch, not even splashing a ripple, as if it had crashed into a deep abyss of the sea, not even bubbling a fart.

"…" The scene fell into dead silence. Kito Genzai stood motionless, his face stiff.

He hadn't even had time to shout "Take this" or "Eat my attack" before it was already over.

"So fast?" Qi Xing scratched his head, looking puzzled, "You didn't even have the other clansmen try to buy time, or take the opportunity to chant for three minutes before unleashing your ultimate move, gambling all your strength and opportunity on this one strike."

"A desperate fight like this without any serious thinking will, of course, only have one result."

After speaking, Qi Xing drove the command of the "Dominator" into Kito Genzai's face with a punch.

"Now can you tell us, 'what exactly does your Kito Family know'?"

Just like that, they confessed honestly. Everything they knew about the emerging Shinto secret sect that rose after World War II—the "True Buddhism."

084: She is smug about her own shocking wisdom

"True Buddhism." The Kito Family first came into contact with them two and a half years ago, when the Kisaragi Family had just been crippled by Jingo Rin for stepping onto the evil path.

A distant relative's family being wiped out by the newly appointed high-ranking official representing the central government, the "Guardian of the North," was truly a terrifying thing for local powerhouses. This should be easy to understand without needing to go into detail, right?

A mysterious girl who called herself the leader, called herself Ise, and was dressed as if Amaterasu Omikami had descended into the world, appeared suddenly before the panicked and terrified high-ranking members of the Kito clan at this time.

She displayed quite high magic power—of course, not the overwhelming, peerless strength of Jingo Rin or "Master Leipu," but it still made the elders and heads of the Kito Family extremely astonished. After all, she looked at most like she was in her teens or twenties.

And then, she brought out another thing.