Chapter 377: Yamata no Orochi

Above the Yasukuni Shrine, dark clouds gathered and baleful energy surged to the heavens. Great, thick billows of black mist emerged from the Underground Demon Cave, making the area within the Yasukuni Shrine feel like the Ninefold Netherworld.

"Wuwu... yanyan..." A series of sobbing, weeping sounds came through, as if countless lonely souls and wild ghosts were recounting their painful experiences.

These cries were mostly the voices of women from Shenzhou, though there were also many women from other countries wailing.

Meng Yifan was stunned. He focused his hearing and was shocked to discover that they were indeed many female ghosts from Shenzhou, mourning and recounting how they had been captured as comfort women, subjected to brutal abuse, tortured to death, and finally, their Yin Souls had been captured by Onmyoji, trapped in the Demon Cave for eternity to be enjoyed by this group of Dongying ghost soldiers and generals.

"Bastards!" Meng Yifan's anger burned. These poor women had suffered endless torture while alive, and he had never expected that they would not find peace even in death, continuing to suffer in the Demon Cave.

These female ghosts were all compatriots of Meng Yifan. They seemed to sense the aura of Meng Yifan and Zhang Sanfeng and wanted to escape from the Demon Cave.

"Clatter!" Pitch-black chains were tied around their necks, tethering them just like dogs.

When they tried to struggle, barbs shot out from the chains like red-hot branding irons, piercing into their soul bodies. The intense pain from their Yin Souls made their soul bodies tremble incessantly.

"Immortal Master, kill us, please kill us, let us escape this sea of suffering..." these female ghosts pleaded.

For over eighty years, they had endured too much pain; they truly could neither live nor die. They only wanted to dissipate into nothingness as soon as possible, but the chains refined by the Onmyoji would cause their soul bodies intense pain without letting them die.

Meng Yifan and Zhang Sanfeng were both gnashing their teeth in anger. The two wanted to rush over to save the female ghosts, but at that very moment, a pair of blood-red eyes suddenly emerged from the Underground Demon Cave, radiating endless bloodthirst and madness.

Meng Yifan and Zhang Sanfeng both felt a chill run down their spines, as if ordinary people had been stared at by a lion on the grasslands.

"Is this a Divine Dragon?" Meng Yifan was greatly shocked. The terrifying creature crawling out of the black mist had a head larger than a room, with horns like a deer, a head like a camel, eyes like a rabbit, and a neck like a snake—very similar to the Divine Dragon in myths and legends.

This dragon head had two rows of sharp fangs that glinted; each one was a foot long. A pillar made of reinforced concrete blocked its path; the dragon head opened its maw, bit the pillar in two with a 'Crack!', chewed a few times, and swallowed it.

After this dragon head rushed out of the black mist, seven more dragon heads emerged one after another, followed by a massive body nine meters thick and over twenty meters long, covered in dense scales.

Finally, eight tails of different colors also crawled out of the Underground Demon Cave.

"Is this Yamata no Orochi?" Zhang Sanfeng said in surprise.

Yamata no Orochi was the most terrifying Demon Beast in Dongying myths and legends, a terrifying existence capable of fighting gods.

Earth had long since entered the End of Dharma Era; Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was exhausted, gods had vanished, and even Cultivating Immortality and Seeking the Dao was difficult at every step.

No one had expected that a divine beast like Yamata no Orochi actually existed and had been living in the Underground Demon Cave of the Yasukuni Shrine all along.

Meng Yifan's expression was grave. His Spiritual Power keenly sensed that each of Yamata no Orochi's heads contained different energy fluctuations.

Gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, and Yin—except for the lack of Yang Attribute energy, the other eight types of energy were all present.

Moreover, the energy fluctuation within each dragon head was at least comparable to a Fifth-grade Lower-tier Immortal Cultivator, and the Yin Attribute dragon head in the very center was even comparable to a Grade 5 Peak Great Demon.

"Earth has long entered the End of Dharma Era, how could there still be such a terrifying Demon Beast?"

The eight heads of Yamata no Orochi were comparable to eight Fifth-grade Cultivators, which left both Zhang Sanfeng and Meng Yifan dumbfounded and feeling it was unbelievable.

Fifth-grade Cultivators like Meng Yifan and Zhang Sanfeng relied mainly on the Spirit Power stored within their bodies to perform Immortal Art.

Because the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi on Earth was very thin, cultivators had to be calculating when performing Immortal Art, not daring to waste a single bit of Spirit Power.

Over these years, Zhang Sanfeng's strength had been constantly regressing, even declining to the Fourth Grade realm, precisely because of the severe lack of Spirit Qi.

Yamata no Orochi was comparable to eight Fifth-grade Cultivators; how did it maintain such combat power?

Meng Yifan was puzzled. After a careful investigation, he discovered that after Yamata no Orochi appeared, the Array in the Yasukuni Shrine enveloped it, and the Faith Power gathered from all directions flowed into its body like a tide.

"Yamata no Orochi uses Faith Power as energy, then uses a special secret technique to convert it into eight types of energy." Meng Yifan muttered, knowing that this time they had kicked an iron plate; Yamata no Orochi's strength was formidable, and it would be very tricky to deal with.

On the dragon head in the very center of Yamata no Orochi, Kamo no Tadayuki's lower body was merged into the dragon head, while his upper body grew out of it, looking very eerie.

In order to deal with Meng Yifan, Kamo no Tadayuki had risked entering the Underground Demon Cave to contract a powerful Shikigami. Even he had not expected to discover the presence of Yamata no Orochi deep underground.

Under normal circumstances, an Onmyoji could only contract a Shikigami weaker than themselves; otherwise, they would be unable to control it and might even be possessed by the Shikigami.

Kamo no Tadayuki was merely a Fourth Grade Peak Onmyoji; logically speaking, he was not qualified at all to complete a contract with a terrifying Shikigami like Yamata no Orochi.

However, perhaps Yamata no Orochi had been asleep for too long and wanted to go out for a stroll, or perhaps Amaterasu in the netherworld had sensed a great enemy invading Dongying and had arranged for Yamata no Orochi to emerge.

In any case, Kamo no Tadayuki and Yamata no Orochi had very smoothly completed the contract ritual; one man and one monster had become one, sharing a single body.

"Baka! Daring to invade Dongying, you deserve to die!" After Kamo no Tadayuki emerged, he looked at the dilapidated shrine and then at the many corpses of Onmyoji and Ninja, cursing in a rage.

With a thought from Kamo no Tadayuki, the eight dragon heads of Yamata no Orochi flashed with different lights. The massive dragon maws opened, and a golden sword, wooden spikes, water arrows, Fireball, earth bombs, Wind Blade, Thunder, and viscous poison gushed out from the eight dragon heads respectively.

Zhang Sanfeng performed the Yin-Yang Millstone to block the scorching earth bombs and Fireball. The earth bomb, the size of a human head, weighed ten thousand catties and was unstoppable, directly smashing Zhang Sanfeng flying dozens of meters away, knocking down six concrete walls along the way.

What terrified Zhang Sanfeng even more was that the Fireball was like a maggot on a tarsal bone, adhering to the Yin-Yang Millstone and burning continuously. Even through the Yin-Yang Millstone, it made him feel as if he had fallen into a furnace, his whole body feeling scorched.

Zhang Sanfeng pinched a seal with his right hand and performed a Yin Attribute spell. A layer of black Qi flashed, attempting to extinguish the Fireball, but he discovered it was completely useless.

That cluster of ghostly blue flames not only did not extinguish but burned even more vigorously, wanting to burn Zhang Sanfeng to ashes.