Divine Realm

Heian-kyo, outside the Onmyoryo's council hall, Kamo no Tadayuki, Fujiwara no Saneyori, and Minamoto no Mitsunaka, three Senior Secretaries, stood with mouths agape, gazing in incredulous astonishment at the column of light shooting down from the distant sky. Streaks of brilliant light scattered through the gaps in the dark clouds, and they felt the vibrant life force emanating from it dispel the eerie demonic aura shrouding Heian-kyo. The entire city was even gradually escaping its transformation into a demon realm.

“Is this… Asakura Hao’s trump card? It’s truly incredible… We never imagined that Asakura Hao’s purpose in having us stall for time was to prepare for a Deity Summoning from the Celestial Realm…” Minamoto no Mitsunaka slowly remarked, his voice filled with awe.

“Indeed. To be so young, yet capable of peering into the Celestial Realm solely through her own power, and directly communicating with divine will without being a Shinto priestess or miko—perhaps this is what they call a true genius…” It was Fujiwara no Saneyori who spoke. He had once felt his assessment of Asakura Hao, this Onmyodo genius, was too low.

“Communicating with divine will is one thing; persuading a Heavenly Deity to personally intervene is another. Alas… I wonder what price Asakura Hao paid for this Deity Summoning. But no matter what, she has truly saved everything in this most perilous moment. If not for a True God of the Celestial Realm… I don’t know who else could have stopped that monster. Perhaps we would have ultimately had to risk Old Ancestor Fujiwara activating the Vermilion Bird Seal…” Kamo no Tadayuki murmured, his hands clasped behind his back.

Earlier, the genius Onmyoji Asakura Hao had used a shikigami to inform them to stall for time against the new, powerful enemy, allowing her to prepare her trump card. At the time, the three Senior Secretaries had speculated what Asakura Hao’s trump card might be, but they never expected it to be a direct Deity Summoning from the Celestial Realm!

“I was very curious before why Asakura Hao frequently entered the Archives Bureau’s library, yet only borrowed and copied Deity Summoning Jutsu-shiki, completely ignoring all other types of jutsu-shiki. Now I understand the reason. The reason she collected so many Deity Summoning Spells in the library was likely because she wanted to specifically research Deity Summoning Jutsu-shiki…” Kamo no Tadayuki suddenly mused, as if something had just occurred to him. As a Senior Secretary of the Onmyoryo, he naturally had the authority to review the Archives Bureau’s copying and borrowing records, and as a genius Onmyoji, Asakura Hao, who spent long periods in the library, was definitely someone he had paid special attention to.

“Hmm, using the numerous Deity Summoning Jutsu-shiki stored in the Onmyoryo as a blueprint, she meticulously researched the path to communicating with deities, and ultimately managed to convey her will to the Celestial Realm, making the gods listen… It seems the so-called Asakura family isn’t just skilled in direct destruction.” Following Kamo no Tadayuki’s words, Fujiwara no Saneyori added, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt Kamo no Tadayuki’s line of reasoning made sense.

“Hmph… If that’s the case, being an Onmyoji is truly beneath Asakura Hao’s talents. With her talent, to directly cultivate the Way or Buddhism, to ascend to immortality or achieve Buddhahood in the flesh, wouldn’t be impossible.” Minamoto no Mitsunaka’s tone towards Asakura Hao wasn’t very pleasant, but he nevertheless acknowledged her talent.

“Indeed, becoming an immortal or a Buddha… To climb to the Celestial Realm with a mortal body, that is the ultimate dream of all cultivators in the world. But alas, there is no such path in Onmyodo.” Kamo no Tadayuki continued with a sigh. Just then, another disturbance arose from the direction of the battlefield.

A tremendous wail echoed, and the earth began to tremble like an earthquake. Kamo no Tadayuki and the others could clearly see the distant Great Snake thrashing its body in agony. The vibrations caused by the hundreds-of-meters-long behemoth rolling around directly reached the Onmyoryo’s side.

“Truly worthy of a Heavenly Deity! That monster has been severely wounded!”

Seeing this, Kamo no Tadayuki exclaimed, his expression changing. The three Senior Secretaries simultaneously looked towards the battlefield, towards the golden radiance soaring towards the Great Snake.

“I wonder… which Heavenly Deity Asakura Hao has summoned?” Kamo no Tadayuki’s voice was filled with doubt and wonder as he gazed at the brilliant light piercing through the darkness.

“No matter which deity it is, it is not for us to pry into…” Fujiwara no Saneyori said, pulling out a mirror from behind him and examining it.

It was a bronze mirror with intricate patterns, its surface shattered by several large cracks. This was a treasure stored within the Fujiwara family, used to observe distant scenes. Earlier, the three Senior Secretaries had used the power of this treasured mirror to observe the battlefield. Now, the mirror was too damaged to be used.

The reason for the damage was simple: when the three Senior Secretaries saw the pillar of light descending from the sky, they immediately used the mirror to observe the bottom of that light column, the blurred figure enveloped in radiance. When Fujiwara no Saneyori instinctively manipulated the mirror to zoom in, wanting to see the details of the figure, the entire mirror cracked and shattered, becoming useless.

At first, Fujiwara no Saneyori found this phenomenon unbelievable, but after confirming the figure’s identity as a Deity, a wave of dread rose in his heart.

The Fujiwara family’s treasured mirror functioned by manifesting distant scenes based on divination. His action of zooming in to see the Deity’s appearance was equivalent to forcibly divining a Deity, which meant interfering with the Deity’s Thread of Causality. Naturally, he suffered a karmic backlash, and the mirror was directly destroyed.

Prying into a Deity through divination was a great act of disrespect. After understanding the situation, Fujiwara no Saneyori was seized with panic, his mind unable to settle for a long time, yet he also felt a slight sense of relief.

Unwittingly prying into a Deity was a grave sin, but the ultimate result was merely the destruction of the divination tool by a natural karmic backlash; the Deity itself had not cast any divine punishment for this act of prying. This indicated that the Deity currently present was likely a benevolent and compassionate one, who did not hold this disrespectful act against them.

With various thoughts surfacing, the Senior Secretaries, now without their means of observation, collectively looked towards the horizon of the battlefield. At this moment, a large area of space there was being warped by golden power, becoming dreamlike and ethereal.

…

Riding her Divine Messenger and using her divine power, Miketsu, fighting for the first time as a Deity, soared into the sky. During this process, divine power transformed into golden ripples that spread from her body, and the surrounding space rapidly underwent strange changes under the influence of Miketsu’s divine power.

After a burst of dazzling brilliance, the entire battlefield’s environment underwent a drastic transformation. The world itself was rewritten by Miketsu’s divine power.

The pitch-black night turned into day, and the rolling dark clouds were replaced by a clear azure sky. Beneath this vast expanse, lay endless golden rice fields. Row upon row of vermilion torii gates were arranged according to a certain rule across the rice fields, stretching into the distant horizon. Various fox statues were scattered throughout the rice fields. A gentle breeze rustled the dense rice ears, making them undulate like ocean waves, while ethereal and serene flute music echoed within this vast and distant space…

This was a divine realm, a capability only possessed by True Gods. Every True God had their own unique domain, and this Fox Hunt Realm was the divine realm belonging to Inari Okami.

To prevent the battle with the Great Snake from affecting the innocent, Miketsu chose to directly activate her divine realm and pull the Great Snake into it. Here, she intended to completely destroy the Great Snake.