And he also had techniques like "Vajra Subduing Demon Force" and "Five Thunder Orthodox Method," moves and cultivation methods specially meant to restrain demons, monsters, and evil spirits.
But not being afraid was one thing. This Yamanoke urban legend would still more or less delay him a bit.
Hikari had not forgotten why he rushed to Ino Shrine tonight. It was to stop Yoshizawa Eigen's plot against Jinno Sumire.
Better to end it quickly.
He did not know whether it was the ability of the Yamanoke, but along with its hopping movements, gusts of strong wind kept blowing past. The wild grass by the roadside rustled loudly as it was swept by the wind.
Hikari fully released his five senses. After confirming that there was no other danger within several hundred meters around him, he immediately kicked off the ground and, toward the Yamanoke that was hopping on one foot and charging at him, rushed forward just as fiercely himself.
———
The sun set and night spread. In the pitch-black darkness, two bright lanterns hung in front of the main gate of Ino Shrine.
It was dinnertime, so there were not many worshippers coming and going at the shrine entrance.
Aside from the two shrine maidens standing guard at the gate, there were only a few scattered worshippers entering and leaving the shrine.
However, whether it was the gatekeeping shrine maidens or those worshippers going in and out, none of them noticed that, in the forest not far outside the shrine gate, several figures were lying in wait.
At this moment, all of those figures were staring intently at the situation at Ino Shrine.
"Damn mosquitoes! If I'd known, I would've sprayed some repellent before coming!", Squatting in the dense woods, Yoshizawa Eigen suddenly felt an itch on his leg. He looked down and saw that a mosquito bite had swollen up into a big bump.
After all, back when he was the head of the Yoshizawa family, with companies and hospitals under him, he had been pampered for years. Yoshizawa Eigen really was not used to things like lying in ambush.
As for his fussiness, the subordinates beside him naturally kept their eyes forward, noses down, minds calm, pretending they had heard nothing.
"Get yourselves ready. When we go into the shrine later, all of you pay attention. Don't get discovered by the people protecting Jinno Sumire. Understood!", After scratching the mosquito bite a few times, Yoshizawa Eigen turned and instructed the five subordinates.
"Understood!", The subordinates answered one after another.
One of them could not help but ask, "Lord Yoshizawa, you said that after we go in, we just need to help grab Jinno Sumire. We understand that. But Jinno Sumire is a shrine priest of Ino Shrine and stays inside the shrine all the time. There are quite a few shrine maidens and guards around her. How are we supposed to get into Ino Shrine?"
Recently, the Ino family had launched frenzied retaliation against the Yoshizawa family, capturing many people around Yoshizawa Eigen. The remaining five subordinates had all barely managed to escape together during those arrests.
So they all knew very well that over on the Jinno family and Ino Shrine side, there were definitely many people who recognized Yoshizawa Eigen, possibly including themselves.
And every entrance of Ino Shrine had either shrine maidens or guards watching it.
Ordinary worshippers could enter the shrine easily, but with their identities, it would not be easy at all for them to get inside.
If they just walked straight in and got recognized by the shrine people, wouldn't that be throwing themselves into a trap?
This was not only confusing for the subordinate who spoke up. The others were also extremely puzzled and all looked toward Yoshizawa Eigen.
Facing their gazes, Yoshizawa Eigen snorted and did not answer. He only said, "All of you wait here quietly for a bit. Remember my orders. You'll know how I'm taking you into the shrine soon enough."
Yoshizawa Eigen took out his phone, edited a message, and sent it.
Only a few minutes passed before one of the shrine maidens standing at the main gate of Ino Shrine suddenly made an excuse to her colleague about needing to use the restroom. She then turned and left, hurrying toward the dense forest beside the shrine.
Seeing the shrine maiden enter the forest, looking around in panic, Yoshizawa Eigen smiled faintly. Then he left his subordinates and walked toward the flustered shrine maiden.
"Yoshizawa Eigen?", The shrine maiden who had rushed into the forest recognized at a glance the face of the man wanted by the head priest. Instinctively, she wanted to turn around immediately and leave to call people to capture him.
But before she could walk out of the forest, a voice came from behind her.
"Saori, you don't want the fact that you repeatedly inflated prices and pocketed kickbacks while purchasing daily supplies for the shrine to be known by others, do you?", Yoshizawa Eigen said with a smile as he walked toward the shrine maiden called Saori.
Hearing his words, Saori, who was just about to leave the forest, trembled violently. She stopped, turned around, and stared at Yoshizawa Eigen in panic.
"That threatening message just now… was that sent by you?"
Yoshizawa Eigen nodded, "Yes. It was me."
"You… how do you know about me taking kickbacks?", Saori asked in fear.
"How do I know? Heh! Heh!", Yoshizawa Eigen smiled mysteriously.
As the person in control of the Yoshizawa family, Yoshizawa Eigen was especially cautious and extremely devious.
When handling things in daily life, he would deliberately collect other people's dirt.
Especially the dirt and weak points of people who might come in handy.
For example, this shrine maiden named Saori who worked at Ino Shrine and was in charge of procurement.
They were all major powers in Ino Town with name and status. Before the Ino family and the Yoshizawa family had fallen out, Ino Shrine had purchased some goods from the Yoshizawa family.
Back then, when his subordinate accountants checked the books, they discovered that the shrine maiden responsible for purchasing supplies on the Ino Shrine side had been embezzling and falsifying prices, pocketing kickbacks.
Yoshizawa Eigen held quite a few pieces of dirt like this on different people, just waiting to pull them out when he needed to threaten someone.
Normally, dirt on a small fry like a mere shrine maiden would not be worth much to Yoshizawa Eigen.
But this time, his plan happened to need her, so it could be used at a critical moment.
A flash of past caution crossed his mind, and Yoshizawa Eigen felt rather pleased with himself.
But he had no intention of explaining anything to this kickback-taking shrine maiden.
He just smiled and said, "You don't need to know how I know about your embezzlement. I only need to ask you one thing."
"You don't want the fact that you took kickbacks while purchasing supplies for the shrine to be known by the head priest, do you?"
Seeing Saori's face change drastically, Yoshizawa Eigen continued threatening her.
"If your kickback-taking gets exposed, not only will you be expelled from the shrine and removed from the ranks of shrine maidens, but as someone who embezzled Ino Shrine's funds, the Jinno family definitely won't let you off. How miserable your end would be then, I really can't even imagine."
Hearing this, Saori's face instantly turned deathly pale.
"You… what do you want me to do?", She was not stupid. She knew very well that Yoshizawa Eigen would not say so much for no reason.
Him threatening her with all this clearly meant he wanted her to do something.
Hearing her words, Yoshizawa Eigen finally showed a smile, "Very smart. I do have a small favor I need from you. As long as you help me with this little thing, I'll give you all the records of your embezzlement and kickbacks."
"What is it?", Saori asked warily, looking at him.
Yoshizawa Eigen was a big figure in Ino Town. Recently, she had also heard that he had a major conflict with the shrine's head priest. Him showing up now probably meant nothing good.
Facing her cautious expression, Yoshizawa Eigen said sincerely, "This favor is really very simple. You should also know that recently, your shrine's head priest hasn't been getting along with me."
"But actually, there's a big misunderstanding in all this. That's why I came specially today to explain things to her."
"But I'm worried that if I go over directly like this, I'll be grabbed by those unreasonable guards. That would really hurt our relationship."
"So I'd like to trouble you to briefly divert the guards at the side entrance for a few minutes. I'll go straight into the shrine and explain things to the head priest."
"When the misunderstanding between me and Lady Jinno Sumire is resolved, not only will I give you those unpleasant procurement kickback records, I'll also give you an extremely generous reward."
Hearing this, Saori was somewhat tempted. She looked at Yoshizawa Eigen and asked hesitantly, "You… you really just want to go in and explain the misunderstanding to the head priest?"
Yoshizawa Eigen nodded, "Really. I guarantee it in the name of the Yoshizawa family."
"And you'll really give me a generous reward?", Being able to do something like taking kickbacks, Saori naturally could not remain unmoved by money.
"Of course. You might not trust anything else about me, but you wouldn't go so far as to not trust my financial strength, right?", Yoshizawa Eigen raised his arm slightly, revealing a luxurious watch on his wrist worth tens of millions.
Saori's eyes lit up. Finally, she could not help but nod, "Alright! Then I agree. I'll go divert the guards right now. Five minutes later, you can go straight in."
After the deal was struck, Saori hurriedly left the forest.
Watching her retreating figure, Yoshizawa Eigen smiled faintly and turned to walk toward the subordinates hiding in the bushes behind him.
"The matter of getting into the shrine is settled. You all remember my orders, right?"
"We remember!", Hearing his words, the subordinates all looked at him with admiration.
After all, in such a critical moment, he could actually find a way to break the deadlock and even directly attack the enemy's base. This really was not something an ordinary person could think of.
However, as they answered, Yoshizawa Eigen noticed that two of them sounded a bit distracted. Looking closer, he realized those two were secretly staring at the curvy back of the kickback-taking shrine maiden as she left.
Yoshizawa Eigen's eyes shifted slightly. Instead of getting angry or scolding them, he spoke up.
"Alright, stop looking."
"As long as this thing gets done, I'll be able to directly take control of Ino Shrine."
"When that time comes, all the shrine maidens in the shrine will be for you guys to choose from. You can play with them however you like. For now, just think properly about how to get things done for me."
Yoshizawa Eigen knew that right before getting things done, scolding subordinates was not as good as dangling bait in front of them.
Sure enough, after hearing this, the subordinates immediately got excited.
"Really? We'll be able to play with those pretty shrine maidens?"
"When I came to the shrine before, I already wanted to play with them. They all look so pure. I really want to str!p them naked and see if their bodies are just as clean inside."
"Same here. I've wanted to def!le those high-and-mighty shrine maidens for a long time! Just thinking about how slu*ty they'll look when they're being facked gets me so excited I can't stand it!"
The ones who followed Yoshizawa Eigen were naturally not good people. At the thought of being able to defile shrine maidens, they were all extremely excited.
Although he felt these lackeys were really uncultured, thinking that even the noble and dignified Jinno Sumire could be someone he might taste or even conquer made Yoshizawa Eigen feel excited as well.
Seeing them flushed with excitement, like they had been injected with steroids, Yoshizawa Eigen picked up the briefcase containing the powerful hallucinogenic drugs. With a slight smile, he waved his hand and ordered, "Move out!"
Leading his subordinates, Yoshizawa Eigen quickly headed toward the small side gate of Ino Shrine.
Standing not far outside the shrine, Yoshizawa Eigen first observed for a while. After seeing that the guards at the gate were indeed gone and the entire entrance was completely empty, he led his men in quickly.
Ino Shrine was very large. Not only was there a main hall, there were also many front halls, rear halls, and side halls.
The subordinates who followed him inside looked at the winding paths and immediately felt a bit dizzy.
"Lord Yoshizawa, which way should we go?"
Yoshizawa Eigen carefully examined the general layout of Ino Shrine, then pointed at a certain spot and said, "Follow me. That shrine maiden said that Jinno Sumire usually rests in this side hall!"
After fixing the direction, Yoshizawa Eigen took the lead and walked forward. His subordinates hurriedly followed behind him.
———
In a quiet, secluded side hall toward the back of Ino Shrine, Jinno Sumire, dressed in her priestly uniform, was sitting quietly on the tatami, resting.
Normally, the affairs of the shrine alone were already quite numerous. And besides managing Ino Shrine, she also had to make decisions on many matters of the Jinno family.
On top of that, recently she had been pretending to have found a new husband. She often had to drag Hikari in front of her father, Jinno Takashi, to show off their affection, to gain his trust and get him to relinquish the power in his hands. That could not be handled carelessly either.
So lately, Jinno Sumire was truly very busy, almost running herself ragged every day.
Only now, after finally finishing today's shrine affairs, did she manage to steal a bit of leisure from her busy life and rest alone in the side hall, thinking quietly.
However, Jinno Sumire, who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them.
Because some faint commotion came from the courtyard outside the side hall.
"What are you doing? Who are you people?"
"Why did you suddenly barge in? You guys… AHH!"
Hearing the strange cries of the shrine maiden guarding the hall door outside, Jinno Sumire frowned deeply and asked, "What's going on?"
After her words fell, there was no response outside. The earlier noise vanished, returning to an eerie silence.
But under such abnormal circumstances, Jinno Sumire naturally would not sit back down to rest.
With a grave expression, she stood up and moved lightly, preparing to go outside.
But she had just stood up and taken only a few steps when a figure suddenly pushed open the door of the side hall and walked straight in.
"Lady Jinno Sumire, head priest. Long time no see," The gray-haired Yoshizawa Eigen carried a briefcase and walked into the side hall laughing loudly.
"Yoshizawa Eigen?"
Seeing Yoshizawa Eigen suddenly appear here, Jinno Sumire stopped in her tracks and looked at him in shock.
"That's right, it's me. Lady Jinno Sumire has been having people hunt me down lately. Now that I'm standing right in front of you, surely you won't say you can't recognize me," Yoshizawa Eigen said with a smile.
"How did you get in here? Where is everyone else in the shrine? Saori, Kaori, come out here!" Jinno Sumire shouted several times toward the outside of the door.
Yoshizawa Eigen only chuckled. "Hasn't Lady Jinno Sumire been looking for me lately? So I took the initiative to come to you. As for the Saori and Kaori you mentioned, those two shrine maidens guarding the door, right?"
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