When I walked out of the shrine again, it was already late at night. Ah Feng did not wait for me at the door, but sat on the stone steps.

"Go back." I said.

"What did Achu say?" Afeng was a little happy.

“…”

"Didn't you agree?"

What should I say? Do I say it directly?

"That A Chu, is the little girl you saved?"

“…”

"Where did you save it?"

"Next to that hole." Perhaps seeing my face was not good, Afeng said again, "Did Achu say something to you?"

I took a deep breath: "What did you say...of course I said a lot...at the price, I told her about what was in that hole."

Afeng stopped talking, she stood there, not knowing what she was thinking.

"I said, do you know there were gods here before?" I didn't look at her again, but just went down the stone steps. "It is precisely because of this, this village has been able to have good weather and harvest every year for a long time. But what happened later? Why didn't that god protect this place anymore? Since there were gods before, why couldn't we even see a shrine when we came?"

When the witch Achu told me about this, I observed her carefully, but still couldn't see anything strange.

“…even if there was a god here before, it wouldn’t be a strange thing—”

"Of course not." I stopped, "but if you want to continue to protect this place, you must figure it out."

"What did Achu and Ru say?"

What did you say-

"There was a period when this village was able to be well-off even if it didn't go out of the outside world, that was when the god was still there. One day in the past, the gods disappeared. The village began to be ruined and our family was persecuted. Everyone blamed us for not being pious enough, so the gods left the village. After the village suffered famine every year, our family became the first family to be eaten." A Chu's wrinkled face still had no expression, pious and tender.

"The god is gone? How do you know that the god is gone, instead of leaving?"

Achu ignored my question and continued, "This village is guilty, and my family disappeared to conceal that crime. Is God? Is God really important to this village? For so long, there are no gods in this village, so we are not alive."

"…What is the crime in this village?"

"What sin?" The witch Achu slowly laughed, "Haha, what sin is it? Speaking of which, the young god is willing to stay here, is largely because of me."

“…”

"I have understood her power since I was a child, and I also depended on her like a child's mother. But how long it took for God to be. When I could handle many things alone, when I understood many things, she was still as childish and innocent as she was back then. I don't know the feelings, I don't know how to make the village better, and I don't understand the small tricks that the villagers are playing behind their backs. I just blindly use the power of the gods to bless the rain here. Of course, there was no problem at the beginning, and everyone would be impressed by such power. But over time, everyone got used to it."

“…”

"So I started to teach her, just like she taught me a lot of things when I was a child. Teach her to understand feelings, teach her how to manage the villagers... I thought at least there would be growth, but she only learned the most useless feelings. As for the scheming methods that can be used on people, she didn't understand at all." When the witch Achu said this, he looked at me again, "I don't know why you look exactly like her, but if it were you, I would have thought it was barely enough to pass, but it was still too naive. This village is not a childish god who can save it, but she didn't want to leave."

"...You grew up by her side, and you should understand her character better than others."

"It is precisely because of this that I am extremely disappointed with her and extremely disappointed with the so-called gods. It turns out that God is nothing more than that. If I could have so much time and power as her, I would have done better than her."

"——Since you look down on her, why do you want to be a witch? Isn't be the witch's responsibility to believe in gods?"

"Witch..." The smile on the witch Achu's face disappeared, "I was just close to her, so I was selected. At that time, I was thinking that since I became a witch, I would guide everyone to believe in her. Now the shrines are everywhere, which is the result of my efforts at that time."

"Did you think at that time? Why do you think so again now?"

"Because eighty-seven years have passed, she still has not changed. Her appearance remains unchanged, her body remains unchanged, and her way of dealing with people has not changed. Even the way I wanted her to change her speaking several times has not changed. Everyone is used to such a spiritless god, praying for blessings at the Harvest Festival, and more and more people are getting more and more frugal. The prestige accumulated in this village has now disappeared completely."

“…”

"Didn't you have anything to say? I thought you would at least say a few words for her. I heard from the witches that you are together, just like your own sisters - will God have family?"

"I don't know." I stared at Achu and said, "Since I look down on the gods and hers so much, why don't I let her leave?"

"Don't let her leave? We don't let her leave, she is willing to stay here. Since there is a god who is willing to contribute to his own stay, we have no reason to refuse."

Taking God's gifts so for granted, I'm afraid it's not the witch Achu who thinks so alone, but most people in this village think so. Judging from the attitude of the witches just now, treating this great witch is much more respectful than Afeng. Afeng can't even speak in front of her.

"I can tell you something about this village." said Achu, the witch, "That cave existed very early. When did it come to the beginning? At least before the god appeared, it existed. These are things that can only be seen in the old books recorded by witches of our family in history. They are secrets that only belong to our family. How about it, using the above to exchange for what you see in the cave, isn't it a loss?"

"That hole?"

The witch Achu still looked pious-

Even though she doesn't believe in God, who is her piety for?

"What exactly is in that hole?"

"You have said so much, why don't you tell me again why you care so much about this hole."

The witch Achu raised her eyes to look at me, her eyes as sharp as a beast, but in an instant it converged into her warm and pious face.

Her voice was low but not hoarse, and she even had a soft voice: "The childish god said that she found me next to the cave. After she took me back to the village, she relied on the Yushou she carried on to find out her identity."

"So you are so persistent in that hole?" I changed my previous silence and said happily, "That may disappoint you. Going in from that hole and walking to the end, you will see green light emitted there, but it is just a hole. Jump down from there-"

"Is there anything?"

"No." I smiled, "There is nothing in it, a grassy field, surrounded by walls, that's all."

"What-" The witch Achu suddenly stood up, "You are lying-"

"Why should I lie? When I came back, I didn't believe you didn't see me. Why did I lie like this, who was almost lost, so why did I lie like this? To be honest, if it weren't for Afeng, I wouldn't have the heart to listen to you say so much here."

"How could there be nothing in that hole?! Impossible - absolutely impossible -" The pious and tender devoured on the face of the witch Achu disappeared, her eyes were bursting, and her hands were pointing at me tremblingly, "You must be lying!"

"Why are you so sure that there must be something in that hole?" I asked as she looked embarrassed, "Have you seen anything coming out of that hole?"

"Of course I've seen it-" The witch Achu suddenly slowly put down his hand, stared at me and said, "Who are you?"

"Who am I? That's not what you should know."

-

I finally turned around to look at Afeng, and she finally walked down. Until she walked to me, she said something.

That was what Achu encountered when she was young. Before saving Achu, a monster was guarding her side, with some broken limbs of people next to her.

"That might be one of Achu's parents, right?" I asked, "How did you save her later?"

Afeng nodded silently: "I did nothing, and the monster melted like snow and flowed into those "tides of nothingness."

So, Achu thought that what was in the cave was. Otherwise, she should have been picked up and eaten by the hungry people in the village.

"So, Blessing Dance-that, is there anything special?"

"It is the reason for the blessing of God." Afeng answered quickly this time.

"Blessed?"

"As an outsider in the village, you naturally cannot accept my blessings for no reason."

"As a great witch, wouldn't I be blessed every harvest festival?" I followed Afeng down the stone steps.

"Achu has always been helping me, so his blessings cannot be neglected," said Afeng.

Therefore, although the witch Achu is over 100 years old, his appearance is not old. Although Afeng can still maintain his status in the village, it is largely due to Achu's prestige. The great witch, who is nominally a god, is actually a person with more prestige than the village chief and a god.

"...Anyway, I will investigate the affairs of that god. Although it has been fine for a hundred years, since I know this, it is better to know it."

We finally walked out of the long stone steps of the shrine and came to the relatively bright road.

"You seem to be worried."

"Because, if that unknown god left by himself, in your words, the god is not responsible. But if this god is not leaving by himself..." A snake head suddenly rushed out between me and Afeng and snatched what I was going to say,

"It would be very dangerous if you didn't leave by yourself." I glanced at the snake with a blank expression and continued, "There may be another unknown danger here."

"Don't be stupid. I have seen this village from beginning to end. There is nothing to worry about except that hole." The old god also came out of Afeng's body at this time and floated on Afeng's right. "And I have agreed to that hole and asked Afeng to follow him to Gaotianyuan. Besides, I have never heard of any rumors that the gods have disappeared before."

"Oh? So if you don't leave Izumo Country, can you know what's going on outside?"

As expected, the old god may have mocked Yamata Orochi again.

This time, the old god just snorted coldly and didn't say anything. But Yamata Orochi didn't seem to have planned to give up. When he returned to Afeng's house, the old god had already impatiently penetrated into Afeng's body.

After returning to my room for a while, I still couldn't sleep, so I walked out of the room again. What the witch Achu said to me made me feel uneasy.

Put on my clothes, I still plan to go to the hole to take a look.

"Where are you going?"

As soon as I walked to the courtyard, the sound of Yamata Orochi came from behind me.

“Walk around.”

"I'll go, too."

“…”

"Are you that worried?" He walked up to me and asked, "Or, in the future, she no longer trusts humans so much?"

I didn't say anything, just pushed the door and walked straight to the other side of the hole.

The moonlight was already dim, and only a little demon fire on my fingertips illuminated the road beneath my feet. The road to the cave was not obvious. If I had not rely on the Torii, I would not be able to see the path leading to the forest.

However, just as we stepped on the path, we could see a faint flash of fire in front of us.
To be continued...