Priestess Miroku sat in an ancient-style white jade seat, while to her left, a godlike giant was watching her.
That calm gaze alone was enough to make the priestess tremble all over.
She was a professional priestess and had studied gods professionally. She knew very well how terrifying and majestic gods were, but she also knew even better just how difficult the current circumstances of gods were.
Was this guy really a god?
If he truly was one, then which god was he?
How could he directly drag her into this mysterious place?
How could he possibly possess such tremendous power?
Wasn't he afraid of being hunted down by the Sage of Six Paths?
The god looked at the priestess and said, "The spirit separated from that brat Mōryō actually managed to complete itself and become an independent human being. What a miracle."
"Mōryō is already my property. It should technically count as part of your body, but considering that my capture of Mōryō permanently removed the danger hanging over you, we can consider this an equivalent exchange."
The priestess sensed the aura of Mōryō that Uchiha Yoru deliberately revealed, and at last became completely convinced that this was a true god.
After all, only a true god could deal with an undying demon so cleanly and capture it alive.
Miroku had already known there was something unusual about Mōryō's disappearance, but she never imagined that an actual god had personally intervened.
So there was a true god standing behind Lord Uchiha Yoru.
No wonder he was so powerful!
When the unfamiliar god declared that this had been an equivalent exchange, Miroku could only nod while trembling.
What else could she possibly say?
If she refused to acknowledge it as an equivalent exchange, was the god supposed to give Mōryō back to her?
What a joke.
There were no gods in the shinobi world kindhearted enough to do something like that!
What did it mean for the tables to turn?
Only a few minutes ago, the priestess had been awe-inspiring as she stood in the position of a superior and reprimanded the former chief priest until the old man trembled all over.
Now it was her turn to face a superior.
And she was trembling just as badly.
His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor spoke again.
"Can you tell me where the faith of the Land of Demons has gone?"
"If you are willing to give me that information, I will reward you and grant you protection."
At the mention of both a reward and protection, Miroku's eyes immediately lit up.
Even her body stopped trembling.
"Great God, the faith of the Land of Demons is with me. I am willing to hand over the power of faith in exchange for your protection."
Uchiha Yoru nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good."
But to his surprise, Miroku continued asking, "B-But as far as I know, gods can no longer manifest their power in the present world. H-How would you provide that protection?"
[Damn it. No wonder people say the ones who believe in gods the least are often the clergy themselves. That saying really isn't wrong.]
Uchiha Yoru glanced at the priestess and slowly closed his eyes.
At the same time, he secretly mobilized the power of the Purple Mansion world and applied spiritual pressure to Miroku, using it to express his displeasure at being questioned.
To leave himself some room, he deliberately controlled his spiritual power so that it remained absolutely calm and neutral, without revealing the slightest hostility or malice.
He merely relied on the sheer scale of spiritual power within the Purple Mansion world, as well as the natural repulsion between the spirits of two separate lifeforms, to exert pressure on the priestess.
That alone was enough.
From Miroku's perspective, the great god had merely glanced at her before withdrawing his gaze and the benevolent appreciation within it.
Yet in that instant, she felt an indescribably terrifying pressure descend upon her.
It was even more frightening than having a mountain placed on her back.
It felt as though she had suddenly been plunged into the deepest ocean.
Or as though an entire world had been pressed down upon her body.
Divine might was like a prison.
Terrifying beyond measure.
At last, the priestess realized that the being before her was a true god, not one of the idols she used to fool ordinary people.
Although priestesses were special, she was still fundamentally human.
And humans could not offend gods, just as ants could not offend humans.
As fear swelled in her heart, the god before Miroku appeared larger and larger in her eyes, which in turn intensified her terror.
Eventually, that fear completely crushed her pride.
Miroku wanted to beg for forgiveness, only to discover that beneath the overwhelming pressure, she couldn't even open her mouth.
Through the fluctuations in the priestess's spirit, Uchiha Yoru knew the timing was about right.
But to maintain the proper style, even ending the punishment couldn't be something the Heavenly Emperor persona initiated on his own.
At times like this, he needed someone else to speak up.
Should he use the Zhurong persona?
No.
Zhurong was both an immortal and a god.
Having him step forward to defuse the situation wouldn't fit his status.
After hesitating for only an instant, Uchiha Yoru made his decision.
He projected his own original appearance into the first seat on the left.
Inside his own spiritual world, a projection of himself was indistinguishable from a genuine existence.
Uchiha Yoru sat down in the seat and opened his eyes.
He glanced at Miroku and, after confirming the plea and relief in her eyes, nodded before deliberately shaking his head and sighing.
Only after making those suggestive gestures did he pretend to intercede with the Heavenly Emperor.
"Your Majesty, I don't know what mistake Priestess Miroku has committed, but please consider that this is her first time appearing before a true god and forgive her."
"Very well."
Instantly, the spiritual pressure vanished.
The priestess, suddenly released from that tremendous oppression, involuntarily took a long, deep breath.
The pressure was gone, but fear wasn't something that disappeared so easily.
Her body began trembling violently.
Even her fingers shook uncontrollably.
But she ignored the discomfort in her body and immediately bowed down from her seat.
Miroku was a ruler who knew perfectly well when to bend.
She had been willing to perform a full prostration even before Uchiha Yoru.
Now that she was facing an even greater existence, there was naturally no hesitation whatsoever.
After taking several deep breaths, she repeatedly apologized to the Heavenly Emperor with a trembling voice.
Finally, the Heavenly Emperor seemed satisfied.
He lightly waved a hand.
A stream of divine power flowed into the priestess's soul, soothing away her fear and unease.
Only after experiencing overwhelming terror did Miroku understand what it meant for "divine grace to be as vast as the sea."
Her body stopped trembling.
And her resolve to submit to His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor no longer contained even the slightest hesitation.
Once her condition stabilized, Uchiha Yoru said,
"Priestess Miroku, you should now understand the greatness of His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor. Do not question him again in the future."
Miroku turned toward Uchiha Yoru and respectfully answered, "Lord Uchiha Yoru, I understand. It will never happen again."
Then she turned toward the Heavenly Emperor and sincerely answered,
"Great Heavenly Emperor, although the faith of the Land of Demons is very stable, the priestesses throughout the generations never dared to directly accept the power of faith."
"So we used sealing techniques to transfer the faith, shifting its final target toward a mysterious stone."
"That stone is hidden in the Land of Gloom."
Uchiha Yoru immediately became interested.
This was exactly what he wanted.
Switching back to the Heavenly Emperor's perspective, he said,
"To be able to use sealing techniques to alter the destination of faith and isolate yourselves from its influence... the sealing techniques of the priestess lineage are quite interesting."
"Are you willing to give me the sealing technique that redirects the target of faith?"
"I am willing, Your Majesty."
"Very good. Recall it now. The Divine Court can manifest your sealing technique directly."
The instant he finished speaking, a blank scroll appeared out of thin air in the priestess's hands.
As she tentatively began recalling the technique, lines of writing and diagrams appeared across the scroll one after another.
Without even needing to look at the scroll directly, Uchiha Yoru naturally knew everything recorded on it.
It was an enormous sealing technique covering a radius of more than fifteen hundred meters.
It forcibly redirected faith originally aimed at the priestess toward another object capable of receiving faith.
He admired the countless ingenious ideas contained within the sealing technique and couldn't help marveling at the wisdom accumulated by generations of priestesses.
The only regret was that Uchiha Yoru couldn't understand the core portion of this marvelous sealing technique.
Namely, the method by which the direction of faith was actually altered.
If he couldn't understand it, he couldn't directly use it himself.
Still, that wasn't something worth worrying about.
There was a master of sealing techniques behind him.
Uchiha Yoru believed that Lord Senju Tobirama would definitely be able to crack the mystery.
When Miroku manifested the final portion of the technique, Uchiha Yoru said,
"I am very satisfied with your sealing technique."
"As a god who believes in equivalent exchange, I will give you a sufficient reward."
"What do you want?"
Seeing the scroll disappear directly from her hands, Miroku relaxed slightly and made her request.
"Great Heavenly Emperor, I hope you will protect the entire Land of Demons."
The god smiled.
He said, "Priestess, protecting a person and protecting a nation are two different things."
"A person is a single individual. The target of protection is clear. Ensuring that they remain alive and that their life proceeds smoothly is enough."
"But a nation is a complicated collective."
"For all manner of reasons, its people divide themselves into different groups."
"Different classes, ethnic groups, regions, and faiths all possess different needs and interests."
"Even an omniscient and omnipotent god above gods could not simultaneously protect every person within a nation."
"If you made such a request to one of those foolish gods, they would probably twist your impossible wish into reality by bringing about a catastrophe that destroyed the entire nation."
"You are fortunate to have encountered me."
"But you must describe your request precisely."
"Who, exactly, do you want me to protect?"
"The farmers?"
"The nobles?"
"The priestesses?"
"The priests?"
"The merchants?"
"The shrine?"
"The state itself?"
"Or your believers?"
No matter how intelligent, worldly, and politically skilled Miroku was, she still found herself deeply shaken.
From the Heavenly Emperor's words, she truly sensed an unprecedentedly vast perspective, one that nevertheless struck directly at the smallest structures composing a nation.
Inspired by those words, her understanding of what a nation truly was deepened considerably.
After careful consideration, Miroku solemnly answered,
"Please consider the maximization of the Land of Demons' overall interests and protect the overwhelming majority of the Land of Demons' people."
The Heavenly Emperor suddenly laughed.
"Priestess, you are intelligent."
"Extremely intelligent."
"Your request can be fulfilled."
"But according to the principle of equivalent exchange, what you have offered is insufficient."
"Far, far from sufficient."
Miroku already knew that her request was difficult.
Protecting a person lasted, at most, a hundred years.
Protecting a nation, however, could mean several thousand years.
The Heavenly Emperor hadn't mentioned the matter of time.
Perhaps that was simply because he had little sensitivity to the passage of time.
But that didn't mean Miroku herself could ignore it.
If she wanted His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor to protect the Land of Demons, she would need to pay a greater price.
The problem was that she didn't know what else she possessed that could serve as payment.
So-called equivalent exchange wasn't actually about two things having precisely the same objective value.
Its essence was that one party possessed an abundant resource that happened to be scarce for the other party.
Only then would exchange occur.
An exchange had to create value before it had any practical meaning.
If both parties possessed nothing but gold, there was no reason to exchange anything.
The transaction would be meaningless.
But if Party A possessed only gold while Party B possessed only pearls, an exchange could double the diversity of both parties' assets.
Then both sides had sufficient motivation to trade.
For Miroku, the greatest problem in this transaction between human and god was information asymmetry.
She knew what she wanted.
But she didn't know what the Heavenly Emperor wanted.
Even more importantly, she had no idea how valuable her possessions were in the Heavenly Emperor's eyes.
So Miroku simply gave up the initiative and handed the matter of setting a price over to the Heavenly Emperor.
She respectfully asked,
"Your Majesty, what else do I possess that I can offer in exchange?"
The Heavenly Emperor fell silent.
He seemed to be carefully evaluating the priestess's assets.
Only after a long time did he slowly say,
"Nothing you currently possess has sufficient value."
Miroku couldn't help feeling deeply disappointed.
Was she really going to miss such a rare opportunity?
Uchiha Yoru suddenly spoke.
"Your Majesty, Priestess Miroku may not currently possess sufficient assets, but could she use future assets for the exchange?"
"The future priestess possesses sufficient assets to trade."
"But she would need to continue paying for more than a hundred years."
"She would also need to separately exchange for lifespan."
The Heavenly Emperor looked at Miroku.
"If you are willing to serve me for one hundred years, I will exchange one hundred years of lifespan with you."
"I AM WILLING!"
Miroku agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Although she still had no idea what she could offer as payment, this was practically a hundred-year interest-free loan.
Compared with the loans made by merchants in the shinobi world, whose annual interest rates easily reached thirty percent, the generosity of a god was simply unbelievable.
Serving a god wasn't a problem either.
Miroku's profession was that of a priestess.
She had originally served a false idol anyway—the strange stone used to redirect faith.
If she could replace that object of worship and instead serve a genuine god, why wouldn't she?
Not only would this job allow her to draw close to the great Heavenly Emperor, but it even came with one hundred years of lifespan as wages.
It was literally a divine occupation!
Only an idiot would refuse!
The Heavenly Emperor praised Miroku for understanding the situation so quickly and additionally rewarded her with a portion of divine power and a round of potential development.
Finally, he said,
"In six days, I will convene another Divine Court meeting."
"You will sit in the same seat you occupy now."
"You may refer to yourself as 'Lady Swallow.'"
Then he sent her back to the real world.
Priestess Miroku opened her eyes feeling somewhat dizzy.
Just as she began wondering whether everything she had experienced had been real or illusory, divine power traveled down the combined threads of faith and cause and effect.
The priestesses throughout the generations had always avoided faith as though it were poison.
But divine power refined by a god was an entirely different matter.
The divine power Uchiha Yoru produced through the Southern Fire Spirit God contained a refreshing warmth.
When it entered the priestess's soul, she felt as though her spirit had been immersed in a soothing hot spring.
The soul passed down through the priestess lineage for a thousand years had accumulated vast wisdom and experience through impressions.
But at the same time, it had also accumulated countless wounds and immeasurable exhaustion.
Under the soothing warmth of divine power, Miroku experienced a lightness she had never felt before.
When the divine power gradually faded, she felt completely renewed.
It was like a young woman from Jiangsu or Zhejiang visiting a northeastern bathhouse for the first time and having two jin of old grime and dead skin scrubbed off her body in one session.
She felt so light that she could practically fly.
With that foundation established, the potential development that followed produced even more obvious results.
The accumulation of a thousand years of priestess inheritance was simply too profound.
Potential development actually doubled Miroku's strength, and she could clearly sense that she still possessed an enormous amount of untapped potential.
After going through this entire process, Priestess Miroku's faith in His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor skyrocketed.
It had reached an utterly unshakable level.
She had become one of Uchiha Yoru's fanatical believers.
And she was the clear-headed kind.
As the ancient saying went:
Only the wisest and the most foolish cannot be changed.
Among members of the clergy, one could indeed find those who believed in gods the least.
But from the same group would also emerge the most devout believers.
Especially when the god served by those clergy members was a true god.
Clergy who thoroughly understood gods and believers would become the most unwavering worshipers of all.
Neither death nor suffering, neither authority nor wealth, not even glory or slander could shake their faith.
Uchiha Yoru stood before Priestess Miroku, silently guarding her transformation while carefully sensing every tiny detail of the changes taking place within her faith.
A long time later, Miroku opened her eyes.
Her gaze was bright and razor-sharp.
Her entire presence resembled a freshly sharpened sword, overflowing with an intimidating edge.
But the instant she saw Uchiha Yoru, the priestess smiled sweetly.
Deliberately pitching her voice higher, she called,
"Lord Uchiha Yoru~"
That single call instantly made goosebumps rise all over Uchiha Yoru's body.
Miwa Masayo, who had also stayed through the entire process, immediately puffed up all her fur.
With an outraged "Aow!" she charged straight at Miroku.
Miroku's strength had increased tremendously, but that didn't change the fact that close combat remained her weakness.
Faced with the tabby cat's sudden assault, Miroku's panicked attempts to defend herself were completely useless.
In an instant, her face was covered with dense red claw marks.
The priestess screamed in fright.
"I surrender! I surrender! I won't do it again!"
Seeing that the "enemy" had already surrendered, Miwa Masayo stopped attacking.
With a cold snort, she leaped back onto Uchiha Yoru's shoulder.
Miroku felt her face burning painfully and hurriedly summoned a water mirror to carefully inspect herself.
No matter how mentally mature or wise a woman might be, there was no way she wouldn't care about her appearance.
That was simply instinct.
After carefully checking herself, the priestess finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Her face was densely covered in intersecting claw marks.
Although they looked frightening, the actual injuries weren't serious.
The Cat Sage hadn't possessed any killing intent.
She had been extremely careful with the force behind her attacks, merely scratching the outer layer of skin without even drawing blood.
Even on an ordinary person, such wounds would fully recover within a day.
For the priestess, half an hour would be enough for them to disappear completely.
After dismissing the water mirror, Miroku shrugged as though nothing had happened and said to Uchiha Yoru,
"Lord Uchiha Yoru, there was something I forgot to ask just now."
"What exactly am I required to pay?"
"And what am I supposed to do from now on?"
Miroku acted as though she didn't care about what had just happened, but her voice had switched to an icy, emotionless tone.
Obviously, she had no intention of provoking the tabby cat again.
If she had used this cold voice and equally aloof expression from the very beginning, Uchiha Yoru would definitely have found the sight pleasing.
But after hearing that deliberately sweet voice just moments earlier, listening to this icy tone now only made Uchiha Yoru want to laugh.
Miwa Masayo was equally dumbfounded.
She couldn't help spitting disdainfully before muttering,
"This woman is really... getting more and more annoying, meow."
Uchiha Yoru nevertheless maintained a serious expression.
He answered the priestess's questions solemnly.
"His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor also wants that stone of yours, as well as the power of faith attached to it."
"For the next one hundred years, the faith of the Land of Demons will belong to His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor."
"And you will be responsible for managing the Land of Demons on His Majesty's behalf, including all secular and religious affairs."
Miroku sincerely said,
"The great Heavenly Emperor truly is extraordinarily generous!"
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