Night, a heavy blanket, pressed down upon the eaves of the Ise Grand Shrine.
Unlike the scene outside the stone chamber in the back mountain, steeped in humiliation and hatred, the Amaterasu Shrine Maiden's residence was utterly silent... Ise Hinata knelt in the center of the empty room, a solitary lamp on the low table before her, illuminating her exquisitely beautiful, unblemished face.
But at this moment, this shrine maiden, who carried the National Luck of Japan and whose heart was usually as clear as the moon, was experiencing an unprecedented tempest within her soul.
Lu Cheng had already left.
But his voice, his gaze, every word he had spoken, echoed repeatedly in her heart like an indelible, haunting shadow.
A birdcage... a canary... She slowly raised her hands, looking at her slender, fair palms.
These hands had once soothed the restless National Luck, had once drawn sacred runes, and had been revered as divine by countless believers.
But today, for the first time, she felt as if these hands were entangled by countless invisible shackles, named "fate."
"You could have become a phoenix soaring through the nine heavens..."
"Yet you willingly remain trapped in this small pond..."
A phoenix?
A pond?
Ise Hinata slowly closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind, and as usual, sink into that tranquil, empty state of oneness with Amaterasu.
However, she failed.
The familiar, warm, omnipresent divine light of Amaterasu, which was usually so close, now seemed somewhat distant and ethereal.
In its place was a suffocating sense of constraint.
She could clearly "see" countless golden threads extending from her, connecting to the mountains and rivers of this land, and to the destinies of every Japanese citizen.
This was the National Luck.
In the past, she regarded it as an honor, the very meaning of her existence.
But now, she only felt it was a vast net, trapping her firmly in place.
Amidst her agitated mind, a strong sense of exhaustion washed over her.
She simply lay prostrate on the table and fell into a deep sleep.
Then, she began to dream.
It was not an ordinary dream, but a... miracle.
In her dream, she was no longer the shrine maiden of the Ise Grand Shrine, but a pure "consciousness," floating in an boundless sea of stars.
Lu Cheng stood beside her, still with that same cynical demeanor.
He said nothing, merely casually raised his hand and pointed into the distance.
A blazing star, under his will, obediently changed its orbit.
With another wave of his hand, a brilliant galaxy, composed of countless stars, obediently coiled around his fingertip.
"The sun, moon, and stars are merely decorations in my garden."
"So-called laws, so-called destiny..."
"All are determined by my single word."
That grand and indifferent voice no longer reached her through her ears, but directly resonated in the depths of her soul.
At the end of the dream, his gaze lowered and fell upon her.
"This is the true world."
"Do you want to... fly out and see?"
..."Hoo!"
Ise Hinata jolted awake from her dream, her body drenched in cold sweat.
She panted heavily, her chest rising and falling erratically, and her eyes, reflecting the moonlight, were filled with... longing.
The feeling in the dream was too real.
That freedom of breaking free from all constraints and looking down upon the birth and death of all things had given her a taste she could never forget.
She looked up, surveying the solemn, unchanging room that had stood for a thousand years.
Every blade of grass and every tree here was imbued with a sacred aura.
Every brick and tile here carried the faith of the populace.
But now, in her eyes, this place was a supremely beautiful... cage.
No!
A thought, one that even frightened her, wildly sprouted.
She could no longer sit idly by!
She had to know what kind of existence that man truly was!
And whether the "world outside the cage" he spoke of was real or not!
Once this thought appeared, it could no longer be suppressed.
Ise Hinata suddenly stood up, not even bothering to tidy her disheveled silver hair, and quickly walked towards the depths of her residence.
She pushed open a heavy door, behind which was a deep, ancient staircase leading underground.
This was one of the forbidden areas of the Ise Grand Shrine, the "Forbidden Library."
It housed forbidden ancient texts that had subverted understanding since ancient times.
Only successive Amaterasu Shrine Maidens were qualified to enter.
A strong, musty scent rushed over her; there were no lamps lit in the library, yet countless ethereal blue rune orbs floated, illuminating the endless rows of ancient bookshelves with flickering light.
Ise Hinata had never imagined that one day she would enter this place with such urgency.
She did not look through the scrolls detailing forbidden techniques, nor did she peruse the stone tablets recording the secret histories of the gods.
Her goal was clear.
She sought records about the "world" itself.
Records about "beyond the gods"!
She moved between the bookshelves, her jade fingers tracing over the cold bamboo slips, the yellowed papers, and even the turtle shells engraved with tadpole script.
She did not know how long passed, just as she was almost overwhelmed by the vast sea of ancient texts and on the verge of despair.
Her fingertips touched a tattered scroll made of some kind of animal hide, sealed with numerous talismans.
"Screech—"
The moment her divine power touched the seal, the talismans wailed and shattered inch by inch.
This scroll seemed to have been waiting for her.
She slowly unrolled the scroll, and ancient, obscure characters came into view.
The scroll did not record any earth-shattering secrets, but simply described the "foundation" of this world with an extremely ancient brushstroke.
"When heaven and earth first opened, chaos was undivided, laws were unmanifested, and all things were unstable..."
"There were ancient people, whose bloodline differed from ordinary humans, who could move the foundation of heaven and earth, stabilize the four directions, secure the eight poles, and transform chaos into order, thus becoming... the Anchor of the World."
Ise Hinata's pupils suddenly constricted!
She continued to read.
"If the Anchor is present, the world is stable. If the Anchor is damaged, the laws are chaotic. If the Anchor is lost, heaven and earth will collapse, the world barrier will thin, attracting the covetous gaze of evil creatures from the void, leading to eternal damnation..."
"This bloodline was later called... Onmyoji."
Ise Hinata's mind felt as if it had been struck by a bolt of lightning!
Onmyoji bloodline... A name instantly leaped into her mind.
Kamiya Makoto!
So that's it!
So that's how it is!
She had always thought that Kamiya Makoto's Onmyoji bloodline was merely a "key" to subdue demons.
But now she understood that it wasn't a key!
It was the cornerstone supporting the stability of the entire Japan!
Chaotic laws, weakened world barriers, attracting evil creatures from the void... That would be a doomsday a thousand times more terrifying than the decline of National Luck!
She must protect Kamiya Makoto!
This thought became incredibly clear, incredibly firm.
Certainly, part of it was her duty as the Amaterasu Shrine Maiden to protect this land.
But more than that was a... selfish motive that even she had not noticed.
If this place truly was a "cage."
Then, before finding a way to "fly out," she must ensure that this cage was absolutely stable.
Kamiya Makoto, this "Anchor of the Japanese World," was her trump card.
Using him to stabilize the foundation.
Perhaps, she herself could then be freed from her constraints and scheme for that "world outside the cage."
Ise Hinata re-rolled the animal hide scroll.
She looked up, her eyes, once like the clear, cold moonlight, now held a glint mixed with ambition and cold calculation.
Soon, her figure had disappeared into the darkness of the Forbidden Library.
She was going to the back mountain.
She was going to find that chess piece that everyone had considered "useless."