Dispatch

After thoroughly admonishing Oitsuki, Miketsu did not strip Oitsuki of the right to use her divine name, but allowed her to continue collecting faith as a wild god, managing her branch shrine. Of course, she also had to resolve the troubles caused by her previous recklessness.

Reinvigorated by the renewed faith and her wild god status, Oitsuki was bursting with zeal. She immediately threw herself into remedial actions. First, she secretly released the young man from the outer village who was originally to be sacrificed as a human pillar. Following her guidance, he rendezvoused with his fellow villagers who were rushing to the scene to rescue him, causing them to abandon their plan of advancing further for a violent confrontation.

Next, Oitsuki went to the family living on the village outskirts, who had deceived her into helping them find their oxen. She took away all the oxen they had used her to find, intending to return them to their rightful owners gradually. She also took back most of the children's toys, planning to return as many as possible. For the villagers who only knew how to pray to her for food, she directly tossed farming tools and some wild vegetables at their doorsteps…

These matters could not be resolved in a day or two; for a considerable period afterward, Oitsuki would be engaged in a reckoning with the insincere villagers. While this would negatively impact the faith she had painstakingly accumulated, it was also a necessary step for her to sustain faith collection long-term.

Fortunately, because Miketsu arrived in time, these instances of insincerity were still in their nascent stage and hadn't spread throughout the entire village. For Oitsuki, even losing the faith of these insincere individuals wouldn't have too significant an impact.

Another point was that, at Miketsu's suggestion, Oitsuki deliberately left some traces when releasing the human sacrifice and returning the items, leading the villagers to wonder if all this was the will of the deity in the village shrine. This would, firstly, serve as a warning to the insincere. Secondly, it would let people in neighboring villages know that the deity in this village's shrine truly manifested, and didn't solely protect its own villagers.

In this way, Oitsuki's influence could further spread to other villages, developing potential sites for faith. If Oitsuki had continued with her previous reckless methods, although faith would have grown rapidly within her village, her influence could never have expanded beyond it. This implicitly set a strict limit on the scope of her faith collection, making it a thankless and arduous task.

After seeing Oitsuki diligently rectify her past actions, Miketsu temporarily acknowledged her. Afterward, she mounted Makoto and once again flew towards Heian-kyo.

Oitsuki's situation sparked some thoughts within Miketsu, regarding her own faith collection.

If she could allow Oitsuki to collect faith using her divine name, could this situation be replicated? That is to say, find a reliable wild god, lend them the name of Inari Okami, and have them establish branch shrines in other places to collect faith, thereby expanding the influence of Inari Okami's worship?

This seemed like a feasible method, but the specific implementation plan would need careful deliberation back home. While the general idea was there, many details required thought, such as how to supervise the wild gods sharing the Inari Okami name, and how to distribute the collected faith with them?

If this plan proved truly viable, she could steadily propagate the worship of Inari Okami. Though Miketsu didn't fully understand faith yet, she believed no deity would ever have enough of it.

Faith, as it was called, was a power generated by the sincere devotion of living beings and wielded by deities. Unlike divine power, spiritual power, and demonic power, faith was more ethereal, difficult to quantify and use directly. Miketsu wasn't entirely clear on its specific uses and nature either. From her current observations, faith could directly amplify spiritual power and demonic power, and had an inexplicable connection to divine power. Whether yokai, Spirit Beasts, or ghosts, all could develop subtle divinity by collecting faith, thus becoming wild gods.

As it was her first encounter with a wild god, Miketsu asked Oitsuki some questions about deities before leaving. Oitsuki believed Miketsu was testing her, so she answered everything she knew without reservation.

During the inquiry, Miketsu discovered that wild gods were heavily dependent on faith. Their strength was entirely determined by the amount of faith they received. More faith meant greater power, while too little could even cause them to fall from godhood back into yokai. This was quite different from Miketsu, a true deity.

It was worth noting that due to her slumber and the fox hunters, Miketsu had lost a considerable amount of faith over the past century. Yet, this didn't seem to affect the immense divine power she harbored. When she converted it into spiritual or demonic power and unleashed it, she never found it insufficient.

From this perspective, for true deities, faith, while helpful, was not a decisive factor. True deities didn't seem to fully rely on faith to sustain themselves.

At this thought, a question arose in Miketsu's mind.

“So… what exactly is the difference between a true deity and a wild god?” Perched on Makoto's back, Miketsu voiced her question aloud, muttering to herself. Makoto, beneath her, happened to overhear and immediately spoke up.

“Lady Uka, are you perplexed by questions about deities?”

“Yes, indeed. Meeting Oitsuki has made me ponder a few things.” Miketsu answered Makoto directly.

“Regarding that, my mother mentioned it to me a long time ago… She said the difference between true deities and wild gods lies in whether they participated in myths.” Makoto recalled, adding that Itsumaden were yokai with a special connection to the Celestial Realm, and secrets of the Celestial Realm were passed down among their sparse clan.

“Participated in myths? What does that mean?” Miketsu asked, bewildered by Makoto's words.

“That, I wouldn't know. I was still young then, and my mother's words were very profound. I didn't understand them, so I forgot. My apologies, Lady Uka…”

Makoto apologized to Miketsu, and Miketsu, after a slight sigh, ceased her questioning.

“Myths… is that it?”

After Miketsu and her companions departed, Oitsuki did not slacken in her duties. She actively rectified her previous improper conduct, re-establishing herself, and adopting more of a guiding role towards her devotees. She also began diligently working to secretly mend relations between her village and neighboring ones.

Because she no longer indulged every prayer from her followers as before, and had punished some insincere individuals who exploited her, Oitsuki's faith experienced fluctuations and a decline for a time. Though she had prepared for this outcome, facing it still caused her some sadness and distress.

Although Miketsu's guidance had helped her see the implications clearly, understanding that she couldn't respond indiscriminately to her followers as before, a sense of loss still welled up in her heart when she met the slightly disappointed gazes of her formerly devout followers.

The new path of godhood was much harder than before. She couldn't simply fulfill her followers' wishes mindlessly anymore. When new challenges appeared before Oitsuki, she felt momentarily lost.

Just as she was at her lowest, an unexpected sight appeared before the Inari Shrine in the village. One morning, Oitsuki saw a brilliantly colored fox that had appeared beneath the shrine's Torii Gate at some unknown time. It was a fox that could perceive Oitsuki, a fox residing in the divine realm.

“You… you are…”

“Greetings, Lady Oitsuki. My name is Yunmei, an Inari Fox. I have been dispatched by Lady Uka from Mount Inari to assist and guide you as a Divine Messenger. Please extend your kind guidance in the future.” Bowing low, the Inari Fox named Yunmei respectfully saluted Oitsuki, and Oitsuki slowly recovered from her astonishment.

“You… you said you're a Divine Messenger sent by Lady Uka… for me? I have a Divine Messenger! An Inari Fox Divine Messenger belonging to Inari Okami!” Hearing Yunmei's words, Oitsuki's face lit up with joy, and she nearly leaped for glee.

She had never imagined that Miketsu, upon returning, would specifically arrange a Divine Messenger for her, and what's more, a quintessential Inari Fox Divine Messenger!

“A Divine Messenger… and also a supervisor, you see. In any case, let us get along well from now on, Lady Oitsuki. From this day forward, I will help you become a capable deity.”

“Indeed, of course!”

Looking at the Divine Messenger before her, Oitsuki's enthusiasm rekindled in her eyes.