Chapter 56: Yamata no Orochi

Arakawa High School, Grade 1, Class A.

At this moment.

The classroom was unnaturally silent, no one speaking, only the sound of the video playing and rapid breathing; their faces shared the same expression—shock, horror, curiosity, strangeness…

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei’s clear, flawless eyes sparkled with unusual brilliance, her delicate face glowing with intense emotion.

I wasn’t wrong—the Lost King is no ordinary person.

Even back when she saw the NH137 video, she had suspected the Lost King was no ordinary person; after all, the NH137 incident wasn’t a movie—it was a real, tangible accident. No ordinary person could have predicted it, remained calm enough to film it, let alone captured it from every angle.

Given all these factors, Tsuchimikado Xia Mei concluded the Lost King was likely an extraordinary being, very likely similar to her—but also different.

Similar in that he, like her, belonged to the Shinto, Buddhist, or Onmyōdō traditions.

Different in that his power surpassed hers.

“Is he Buddhist? Or Shinto? Or Onmyōdō?” Tsuchimikado Xia Mei personally leaned toward the Lost King being of Onmyōdō within Shinto.

As a member of a prestigious family, she knew drones existed—and she knew drones couldn’t film from several kilometers up without interference. To capture footage from such heights undisturbed, she thought of a technique from Shinto and Onmyōdō: Shikigami.

Shikigami are spirit beings commanded and controlled by an Onmyōji; their strength depends on the skill of the Onmyōji who wields them.

Why did Tsuchimikado Xia Mei know so much about Shikigami?

Besides being a Shinto priestess.

More importantly, her family’s ancient texts recorded that Shikigami were the Tsuchimikado clan’s signature art!!

Legend says Shikigami were first created by Onmyōji Abe no Seimei, the “Japanese Jiang Ziya,” and passed down through his direct descendants, the Tsuchimikado family, becoming a vital part of Tsuchimikado Shinto during the Edo period and highly favored by the Tokugawa shogunate.

The Tsuchimikado family Tsuchimikado Xia Mei belonged to was none other than the direct lineage of Abe no Seimei, Japan’s greatest Onmyōji throughout history.

As a descendant of the inventor of Shikigami, how could she not know what Shikigami were?

“I’ll ask Grandpa when I get home—besides our Tsuchimikado family, who else is skilled with Shikigami? But I can’t rule out investigating our own elders either. Maybe the Lost King is one of my own family’s seniors.”

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei made this decision with firm conviction.

She had already speculated the Lost King was a member of Shinto, and even suspected he might be one of her own family’s elders.

Still, she did not rule out the possibility that the Lost King was a yōkai.

The moment she realized the Lost King was no ordinary being, the sharp-minded Tsuchimikado Xia Mei began using her intellect to analyze.

Meanwhile, because this video differed from the Yunhu footage—it had sound and moving images, and the perspective was from within the Sakurada Group—the viewers gained a far more direct, clear understanding of what had happened that day with the Sakurada Group, and saw things previously unknown.

【This is!!】

【My god! What did I just see!!】

【Major discovery!! Earth-shattering discovery!!!】

As the video played, just like with the Yunhu footage, the Sakurada Group stared at the ancient city, their expressions stunned, utterly horrified.

They had seen this scene before—but now they reacted with extraordinary shock, even bordering on frenzy.

All because the video’s footage differed from Yunhu’s: while Yunhu showed the Sakurada Group’s shock, it never revealed what exactly they were seeing in the ancient city.

But this video was different!

It not only showed the Sakurada Group’s changing expressions—it directly revealed the scenery they were witnessing.

In the Yunhu footage, the ancient city had been shown, but not in full; the plaque at its highest point was hidden by clouds, invisible to the world.

Yet.

The video showed it.

The plaque of the ancient city, unseen in the Yunhu footage, had been captured!

The mystery that had puzzled countless people—what exactly had shocked the Sakurada Group when they saw the ancient city—was solved: they were stunned because they had clearly read the plaque.

【Heian-kyō!】

【The ancient city is Heian-kyō?!】

【The Heian-period Heian-kyō? Impossible—it’s that big?】

【Hey, does anyone remember the survivors online kept muttering “Yamata no Orochi,” “Yamata no Orochi”? Isn’t Yamata no Orochi a yōkai from the Heian period?】

【Gasp!! Could the ancient city belong to Yamata no Orochi?】

【Yamata no Orochi? Heian-kyō? Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang?! Could Yamata no Orochi be the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang?】

【Could the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang not be Shuten-dōji—but Yamata no Orochi?】

Countless people, upon seeing the plaque in the video, were thrown into wild shock.

Younger yōkai researchers lit cigarettes frantically, one after another, unable to stop—they needed nicotine to calm their nerves.

Older scholars were so overcome with excitement their bodies convulsed, bones rattling as if about to fall apart; the least affected among them collapsed, foaming at the mouth, rolling their eyes, and fainted on the spot.

No one understood better than them the immense significance of the plaque reading “Heian-kyō.”

Huge?

No!

It was colossal!

If the ancient city was Heian-kyō, the implications were enormous—it proved that in ancient times, at least during the Heian period, humans and yōkai had interacted, and the entire historical understanding of the Heian era might be overturned.

According to ancient records, Heian-kyō was never this large, nor did it float. In other words, did this prove the Heian period possessed a uniquely advanced technological civilization, as brilliant as the Maya?

These were only a fraction of the implications hidden in the fact that the ancient city was Heian-kyō—there were far more, touching on explosive questions of civilization and beyond.

Countless people went mad over the plaque captured in the video, and their curiosity toward the Lost King intensified.

If the footage of the ancient city’s plaque wasn’t a special effect, wasn’t fabricated, wasn’t added by the Lost King himself—but was real footage.

What kind of person was the Lost King? How could he have captured these images…

While viewers were stunned by the revelation that the ancient city was Heian-kyō, some still doubted.

Modern special effects were powerful; the Lost King might have faked it.

Yet very few believed he had fabricated it.

The reason? The NH137 video stood as proof—it had already been confirmed as genuine, not fake or a special effect, filmed truly by the Lost King.

For a moment.

With intense shock, wonder, and a desperate need to verify truth or falsehood, countless people stared without blinking at the video.

They wanted to know: was the ancient city truly Heian-kyō—or fake? They searched the footage for evidence.

Then.

The video continued playing.

The Sakurada Group encountered yōkai and were killed by them.

The footage played on.

Countless viewers felt their scalps crawl; they heard the screams absent from the Yunhu footage, and the yōkai addressing the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang and the Scholar. They went wild, their minds shaken.

Compared to the Yunhu incident, watching this video made everyone feel as if they were there, truly experiencing the terror of the yōkai, and feeling more clearly the horrifying spectacle of the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang’s Hundred Demon Night March.

【The online lip-reading translation was right—the Scholar really is Shuten-dōji!】

【What manner of being is the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang?】

【Is the Lord of the Chimei and Wangliang good or evil toward humans?】

Many posted countless questions as comments.

They were terrified, horrified.

Then, as the video continued and showed Shuten-dōji splitting the earth to send the three survivors away, the video did not end—it kept playing. Everyone saw the chariot and horses heading toward the ancient city.

At this moment.

From within the Hundred Demon Night March, the child yōkai spoke.

“Let’s go—to Yamata no Orochi’s banquet.”

…

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