Don't worry, I have no problem with talent; I have the perfect candidates in mind. Inside the Inari Secret Realm, Miketsu spoke with considerable confidence as she looked at Suwako.
"Hmm... in that case, that solves part of the issue with your divine remains. But didn't you say that a larger portion of them aren't mechanical puppets like this? You'll actually have to recast those parts," Suwako said, glancing at the unidentifiable metal wreckage lying beside the mecha.
"Mm... that's true. Moreover, there are other impurities in there that do not belong to my divine remains; I'll have to extract those as well..." Miketsu murmured while looking at the metal wreckage. These things couldn't be fixed by mere assembly; they had to be completely remelted and cast anew.
"Phew... in any case, congratulations. Not only have you once again thoroughly removed an ancient god threat from this world, but you've also found your divine remains. Regardless, you are one step closer to your revival." Suwako spoke bluntly with a congratulatory tone. Now that Miketsu's divine remains were in hand, her revival would not be far off.
"Of course. However, I'm still missing a few things. Compared to me, that snake and that worm are progressing a bit faster—especially that worm..."
Miketsu spoke plainly. The one with the most progress currently was actually the Eternal Worm. It only needed to consume a large amount of energy to pupate and then wait for time to pass. It was just difficult for it to quietly acquire such a massive amount of energy, especially now that Miketsu could monitor the global ley lines via the space station. No matter where it tried to gnaw on a ley line, Miketsu would discover it.
"That worm is indeed troublesome, but of the two, the most difficult one is actually that snake. I advise you never to underestimate it. Although its strength isn't considered top-tier among the ancient gods, it is an unabashed schemer. Rather than direct confrontation, it prefers to use disgusting methods, and its abilities are particularly suited for plotting." Suwako looked at Miketsu seriously, her tone full of warning.
"The Great Snake is an ancient god who rules over flesh and erosion. Its poison can penetrate boundaries, and it can even erode other ancient gods. It can unknowingly infect thousands of living beings and turn them into its servants. Anything it has ever touched can never hope to escape its influence... It was these traits that allowed it to survive the conflicts between ancient gods and become a late-era ancient god."
'An ancient god who rules over... erosion?' Miketsu pondered Suwako's words.
...
Above the sea, Miketsu finished her recollection inside the ship. She then extended her hand, and an abstract tiger-shaped mark appeared in her palm; it was the White Tiger Seal she had previously extracted from Yura.
Currently, half of this White Tiger Seal had turned a purplish-black color. This represented the progress of the erosion on the White Tiger Array, the final array of the Four Symbols Array.
The spiritual power within the entire White Tiger Array was now half-contaminated by the Great God, and the remaining half wouldn't last much longer. Once the entire White Tiger Array was completely eroded, the seal binding the Great God's divine remains and divine soul would be undone, and the Great Snake would officially begin its revival.
What it lacked... seemed only to be a ritual priest...
Miketsu had a feeling that the moment the Great Snake's seal was fully undone would be the moment of their final battle.
Withdrawing the seal, Miketsu looked out at the sea. At this moment, countless pieces of metal wreckage were floating on the surface. The wreckage containing divine remains from the deep-sea battlefield had all been excavated and sent up. The quantity was immense; the floating metal wreckage already filled Miketsu's field of vision.
'This is certainly a lot. It seems my ancient god form will be incredibly massive, at least much larger than that three-to-four-hundred-meter-long fish...'
Miketsu recalled the form her divine soul had displayed when it was released during the battle against the Moon Feather Princess; its wingspan alone had exceeded a thousand meters...
'Truly worthy of a peak ancient god. But correspondingly, the amount of divine remains is also quite large, and the processing time required will be very long.'
'I hope those rabbits can pull their weight...'
Miketsu sighed. She then began to manipulate the water, gathering the wreckage on the sea surface, preparing to bundle it all up and take it back to land in one go.
After devouring the divine soul of the sea ancient god, Miketsu's own divine soul had not only improved further, but she had also, as if winning the lottery, acquired a small portion of water-manipulation ability. Although she couldn't reach the level of a modern sea god, she was already beyond the reach of ordinary mortal water-manipulators. With this ability, Miketsu would no longer need to constantly borrow divine authority.
In truth, the probability of acquiring an ability by devouring an ancient god's soul was extremely low. But for an ancient god of fate, as long as an event had a probability of occurring, that was enough.
For the Fate Weaver, as long as there was a probability, it was equal to a hundred percent probability...
This was a further application of Miketsu's ancient god power... though it required the help of a divine power crystal... and currently, this ability could not influence things too broadly. The event of devouring the divine soul had occurred within her own body, so it was able to succeed effortlessly.
...
By the time she brought the tens of thousands of tons of trash-like wreckage back to Heian-kyo, it was already night. Shortly after she placed the metal wreckage within the secret realm, she met Eirin, who had just returned from the Lunar Capital.
Inside the Inari Secret Realm, within Eirin's laboratory, Miketsu and Eirin sat facing each other across a table. A white-haired moon rabbit girl was pouring tea for them.
"Please have some tea... Lady Uka, Master."
The moon rabbit girl, dressed in a kimono, spoke respectfully after pouring the tea. Eirin nodded.
"That will be all, Reisen. You may step down now," Eirin said slowly, nodding to Reisen. However, Reisen did not immediately comply; instead, she looked at Eirin with expectant eyes.
"Um... Master, when can you take me back to the Lunar Capital to see Lady Yorihime?"
"About that... Yorihime is very busy lately, so it's not the right time yet. I'll take you there when the opportunity arises," Eirin told Reisen, whose ears drooped in disappointment.
"Oh... then I'll take my leave now."
Reisen exited the room. Watching her figure, Miketsu spoke with some curiosity.
"She recovered quite well; there aren't any side effects at all."
Miketsu knew that this was the body Chang'e had once used; the fact that she was like this was quite incredible.
"Yes, I didn't expect that after being possessed by Chang'e, she would be completely fine aside from her memories, and even retain a fully independent consciousness." Eirin spoke with a slight sigh of admiration after taking a sip of tea. In East Siberia, after finding Reisen, she had brought her back for observation and research to determine if any of Chang'e's power remained.
As it turned out, not only was there not a trace of Chang'e's power left in her, but her body had suffered no damage whatsoever; she had simply lost a large portion of her memories.
Currently, aside from knowing she was a moon rabbit born in the Lunar Capital and having served under Yorihime, Reisen remembered nothing. She had forgotten all her experiences as a slave, as a leader of the revolutionary army, and as a prisoner. She was as pure as a blank sheet of paper.
Seeing Reisen like this, Miketsu thought of the scene during her final confrontation with Chang'e. At that time, just before being sealed, Chang'e had requested to repair the body of her host, Reisen.
And now it seemed that Chang'e had not only repaired Reisen's body but had also wiped away all her painful memories.
The main body of Chang'e's moon rabbit swarm was a uniquely unified ultimate will; all other moon rabbits were supposed to be its external organs. Yet now, it showed such care for this external organ that had gained an independent will. What did this signify?
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