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Chapter 197: Priestess, Human Sage Art, Sacrifice
"You want the boss to have a baby with you?!"
Yahiko opened his mouth, unable to believe his ears.
What does it mean to give birth to the next generation?
Even Yahiko, who knows nothing about men and women, knows what these words "give birth to the next generation" mean.
Doesn't that mean mating... ahem, having children?
But the boss only looks to be in his teens, right?
This priestess I just met, although she has a delicate appearance and elegant temperament, she must be at least in her twenties, right?
Isn't this a bit...
"Unruly meow!"
Yahiko, who was hesitant to speak, deflated like a balloon that had been punctured, and then his face twitched slightly as he looked in the direction where the sound came from.
Is the word "unruly" a bit too much?
He just wanted to say "shameless".
Ayumi, who was originally dozing off in Kumokawa's arms, suddenly stood up, staring at the woman in the red and white shrine maiden costume with her heterochromatic eyes.
The silky black hair was slightly puffed up, and the habit of speaking that was suppressed in front of outsiders could no longer be suppressed.
Being stared at with astonishment by Yahiko, Ayumi also realized her own gaffe, but her ears were still pressed back, and her cat pupils were wide open with hostility as she asked, "Is this how all 'priestess' court a mate?"
Even Kumokawa was stunned when he heard Miroku's words. He only came to his senses when he heard Ayumi's angry breathing.
"Ahem."
Knowing that this was the cat's natural "territorial consciousness", or "possessiveness" and "food protection" instinct, Kumokawa touched the black cat's tail that was wagging in dissatisfaction and coughed lightly, "Priestess-sama, that shouldn't be what you meant, right?"
Miroku's smile was still gentle, but her delicate face was rarely flushed. She explained, "It's not what you think. In fact, priestesses don't need to give birth."
"Or in other words, every generation of priestesses is fatherless."
Upon hearing this, Yahiko with a weird look in his eyes and Ayumi with an angry face were both stunned.
Kumokawa wasn't too surprised, but asked curiously, "So what do you mean by asking me to help you 'give birth to the next generation'?"
Miroku did not rush to answer his question. She stretched out her hands from her wide sleeves and raised them in front of her with her palms facing up.
The next moment, the bright light around her became dim, and a dark purple aura gradually emerged.
The originally solemn and cold Hall of Heroes was tinged with a faint gloomy feeling, and even Yahiko shuddered subconsciously.
"This is..."
Looking at the misty black and purple energy on Miroku's left hand, Kumokawa felt something familiar, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
Zero Tail? 'Dark Chakra'?
No, it's purer and wilder than Zero Tail's 'Dark Chakra'.
"This is part of the demon 'Mōryō'."
I don't know if it was the influence of that strange aura, but Miroku's gentle smile faded a little: "You don't seem surprised, I guess you know something about 'demons'."
"In that case, can you see the nature of this power?"
Hearing this, Kumokawa narrowed his eyes, the light flickered, and he said thoughtfully: "I have indeed studied things similar to the demons you mentioned... However, the 'negative emotions' of your demon seem to be too pure."
"Zero Tail" is a chakra creation similar to the tailed beasts, composed purely of "dark chakra", and "dark chakra" is a combination of "chakra", "vitality" and "negative emotions".
Shinno has now become the Jinchūriki of "Zero Tail". With his almost infinite vitality after becoming a "demon", he no longer needs to restore the power of "Zero Tail" by draining the lives of thousands of people as he did before.
However, the so-called "negative emotions", or the so-called "evil thoughts" and "desires", still need to be slowly absorbed and stored.
However, there are now two thousand "demons", and there are hundreds of "demons" subordinate to Shinno.
"Demons" undoubtedly have the most negative emotions, and they can all be connected to Shinno through "blood".
They can all provide "negative emotions" to Zero Tail, and the person being absorbed will not suffer any adverse effects. Instead, it will be beneficial to the stability of his own mental state.
The demon "Mōryō" should be similar to "Zero Tail", and his power comes from the "evil thoughts" in the human heart.
Be it "Yin Attribute Chakra" or "negative emotions", human emotions are very complicated things, not to mention that there are tens of thousands of people gathered together.
Compared with the chaotic aura of "Zero Tail", the power of "Mōryō" seems too pure.
"It's just like..." Kumokawa touched his chin and said with interest, "The 'evil' cut out from a person."
Hearing this, a hint of surprise flashed across Miroku's eyes, and then she looked deeply at Kumokawa and stretched out her other right hand.
The next moment, pink and white mist rose from the palm of her hand, dispelling the cold chill around her.
One hand is filled with pink and white mist, the other hand is filled with black and purple mist, a perfect balance...
"Is this the power of the priestess?" Kumokawa said with a surprised expression, "It's as pure as the aura of the demons, but..."
The essences displayed by the two are completely opposite.
If the power of demons is like all the dark and filthy parts of the human heart.
The power of the priestess is to give people a feeling of supremacy, purity and inviolability.
Comfort, tranquility, nature, stability...
"You are right." Miroku sighed softly, "The priestess and the demon are opposites, because we are two sides of the same coin."
"In other words, the demons are the dark side that the priestesses of all generations have stripped away."
Hearing this, Kumokawa couldn't help but narrow his eyes, remembering Shinno's extremely terrified expression when he first saw his "evil thoughts".
If Shinno knew that the "dark side" of the priestess was strong enough to create a "demon", I wonder what expression he would show.
"But is it really okay to forcibly remove your dark side?" Kumokawa asked curiously.
The dark side is a weird thing that actually exists in everyone, and he knows about it.
In the original work, in order to learn how to control the power of the tailed beasts, Naruto, Might Guy, and Yamashiro Aoba went to Turtle Island to practice.
There is a temple on Turtle Island. Inside the temple is a special waterfall called the "Waterfalls of Truth". That waterfall can reflect a person's dark side.
When Naruto stood in front of the waterfall, his dark side emerged, reflecting Naruto's inner inferiority and his past experience of being bullied and excluded by villagers because of his status as a Jinchūriki.
However, Kumokawa did not expect that the priestess could actually peel off her "dark side", and it was a "dark side" that was enough to become a "demon".
"We have no choice."
Miroku shook her head and said calmly: "This is the inheritance of the 'Priestess' and also the fate of the 'Priestess'. Just like the three holy places, if you want to gain power, you have to pay a price."
"In the distant ancient times, when chakra did not exist, people lacked the mastery and understanding of nature and could not understand natural disasters and phenomena such as lightning and thunder, landslides and floods."
"So, we attributed it all to the manipulation of gods, and began to revere nature and believe that all things have spirits."
"From this, the worship of nature and primitive witchcraft were derived, hoping to master the power to control nature through certain rituals and methods."
"Later, due to its extremely harsh training conditions and the spread of chakra to a more popular level, this power that humans called witchcraft gradually disappeared."
"In other words, the power inherited by the priestess is the 'Sage Art' that belongs to humans?"
After hearing Miroku's explanation, Kumokawa's eyes sparkled brightly.
It is also a way of utilizing natural energy. Like the Sage Mode of the three holy places, it is undoubtedly a kind of "Sage Art".
"..." Miroku was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "Whether it's sage arts or witchcraft, do you think that humans who have lost their 'evil thoughts' are still human beings?"
In mythology, there are legends about the power of wishes of all living beings.
It is a kind of power generated by the emotional fluctuations of sentient beings who yearn for a better life, and it contains the purest blessings.
A priestess, through the belief in oneself, gathers the "willpower" of all living beings into herself, thereby mobilizing the power of nature.
"But if you want to gain power, you have to pay a price."
Miroku spoke slowly, het tone complicated: "To use the power of priestesses, you need to accept people's faith and respect, and use the priestess's inherited ability to absorb the 'will power' of all living beings."
"But if one does not have enough determination to maintain one's self while accepting worship, one will be assimilated into the way the believers want one to be, or even have one's mind polluted by the believers' evil thoughts."
"In order to avoid such consequences to the greatest extent possible, the demons were separated by successive generations of priestesses to bear the evil thoughts of the alien body, and the remaining sentient beings' will is the pure spiritual power that can be absorbed and digested."
This is a method of using "natural energy" that is unique to "priestesses".
However, after the Six Paths Sage founded the "Ninshu" and sowed the seeds of chakra, the "priestesses" with harsh training conditions gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
Today, only the lineage of the priestesses from the Land of Demons remains.
"Interesting." Kumokawa said to himself, "But it seems that the flaws of the 'priestess' power are obvious. The evil thoughts in the will must be eliminated, and there must be a sufficient 'quantity', so it can't be popularized at all."
Despite this, the priestess tradition is still worth learning from.
Thinking of this, Kumokawa looked at Miroku again and smiled slightly, "Priestess-sama, what do you want?"
As if she could see what Kumokawa was thinking, Miroku smiled gently again: "I believe you also understand that forcibly removing your dark side is a failed and undesirable approach."
"It was because of the priestess's first attempt that the subsequent priestesses caused endless troubles."
"Because the demon and the priestess are two sides of the same coin, the priestess can only choose to seal the demon, but there is no permanent seal in this world."
Kumokawa nodded in agreement.
Even the powerful sealing technique of "Six Paths Chibaku Tensei" cast by the brothers Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura will gradually dissipate with the passage of time, not to mention the seal cast by the priestess.
As time goes on, the seal will inevitably have various flaws, and every time a flaw appears, it is a test of life and death for the priestess.
Because the strength of "Mōryō" and the priestess is similar, and "Mōryō" obviously has no such thing as a moral bottom line, the priestess is often at a disadvantage in the confrontation.
Therefore, removing and sealing the dark side from one's body is nothing but a temporary solution and will only cause endless harm.
"That is why it is the responsibility of every generation of priestesses to burn their own lives and souls when the demons escape, break them up again, seal them, and pass on power and hope to the next generation."
"This is the fate and curse of a priestess. It is also the responsibility that a priestess must bear. It has been like this for thousands of years."
There was no so-called sadness in her tone, and she seemed to be unconcerned about her own death: "If I am gone, my daughter will become a priestess and die at the hands of demons... That's what I thought."
At this point, Miroku paused, looked up at Kumokawa, and smiled slightly, "However, I have lost the ability or curse to foresee death, and I also see hope in you as a 'defier of fate'."
"As a priestess, I can die as a matter of course, but as a mother, I cannot watch my child die as a matter of course."
"To change my daughter's fate, even if it means she can become an ordinary person, grow up ordinary, and live an ordinary life."
"To achieve all this, we must end the war completely in my generation and make sure that the demons lose all hope of recovery!"
Compared to the indifference that seems to see through everything in the world, Miroku seems to have seen too many facts that cannot be changed, and finally accepted her future and death calmly.
Because of the power passed down from generation to generation by the priestesses, they can see the fate of human death and should have lost their negative emotions.
But such a person shows the "selfishness" of a mother.
For the sake of her own children, she was willing to bring the neutral country of Land of Demons to submit, and was willing to help Kumokawa who was "starting a war for peace."
Thinking of this, Kumokawa couldn't help but smile with interest: "You should know a lot of inside information, the Rabbit Goddess, the Sage of Six Paths, the three holy places... Why do you believe so much that only I can do it?"
Miroku shook her head, and the smile on her lips seemed to have a little more sarcasm and self-mockery: "If even the 'defier' can't do it, this unchanging world is really hopeless."
Hearing this, Kumokawa's smile deepened, he stretched out his left hand and smiled slightly, "Then, welcome to join us, Priestess Miroku."
Miroku was stunned for a moment, but soon reacted and also stretched out her left hand to gently shake it.
"Please take good care of me in the future, Lord Kumokawa."
(End of this chapter)