The Mountain of Dead Souls in the Underworld. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Originally, this was a natural village formed by those spirits who still had knots in their hearts and could not be reincarnated, and it was formed for some unknown reason, as if they were still alive, everyone still got up on time and went out, talking and laughing together, but here time has no meaning, and the sky is always an obscure gray, so in many cases, everyone just uses their feelings to roughly judge the so-called sunrise and moonlight.

And from time to time, many demons here will suddenly appear from the village or the mountains one by one through the scattered abyssal cracks, and fill the mouths of those unlucky old and weak, which is completely evil.

In most cases, these spirits are completely unaware of the deceased, or in their opinion, they are still "alive".

I don't know why, here, the spirits are no longer ethereal, they move as freely as they did when they were alive, they bleed, they shed tears, everything is as full and content as when they had that body, not to mention the inexplicable appearance of the animals and plants and the surrounding environment that make them more convinced of this false impression that they themselves are just living in a more chaotic world. However, the endless stream of newcomers has made it easy for them to integrate into the area and get used to the precarious life here.

Of course, there are some restless people who want to change, they are some special groups, between the edge of spirits and demons, they hold special soul slashing blades, and use the way of accepting tasks to kill demons, they never talk about the past, and they don't know where their return is, they just silently carry out the task, until they are killed and lost in their nature and are cleaned up by the organization, in the eyes of many people, they are a group of puppets without a heart, a toy manipulated by a powerful force......

……

In a room in a town inn.

He slept like a child, his forehead covered with fluffy black hair like fluffy fluff. At this time, with the dim light of dawn and the damp mist, Liu Meier faintly heard his light breathing.

One high and one low, one high and one low, she beat her breathing, her pale fingertips tapped softly on the peachwood table covered with a thin layer of ash, and in about a quarter of an hour, the bell of Yamaguchi Town was about to ring.

After the bell strikes twelve, the morning fog slowly clears, and when the bell rings again, it's the demon's favorite breakfast time. Liu Mei'er even thinks that these monsters, which follow strict rules, may have come from the academies of the Qin and Han dynasties - only the Confucian scholars at that time regarded almost rigid rigor as a virtue.

In the early morning, the wind carried moisture through the cracks in the wooden window into the inn's hut, and the man curled up on the bed shuddered, and reached out to pull the light gray felt wrapped around his neck. He muttered something in a low voice, and Liu Mei'er pricked up her ears to catch his fleeting dreams, but the sound was as elusive as the morning mist. She leaned over to listen more closely, but a flash of morning light just crossed the tower's hundred-year-old bronze bell and landed on her cheek.

Liu Mei'er swore that at the very moment when the dull bell rang over the town of Yamaguchi, she caught a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of her eye cutting through the fog in the mountains and quickly disappearing in the direction of the church, Jizo-an, in the center of the town, where many orphans had gathered.

Picking up the long sword leaning against the corner of the bed, Liu Mei'er pushed open the wooden window and jumped down, just like she had jumped down hundreds of times, landing lightly on the empty road.

"Liu Mei'er!"

Liu Meier looked up at the past, and the man was crouching by the window and rubbing his eyes vigorously.

“…… Lock the window. ”

"Wait for me! I'll be down right away! ”

The black hair quickly disappeared from sight, and Liu Mei'er sighed in a low voice.

When she met this man, she met two months ago, and Liu Meier received a fairly simple task.

As usual, she came to the village where she didn't even know the name. Actually, she really doesn't need to know - if she succeeds, someone will naturally collect the commission, and if she fails, this will become her graveyard - anyway, this is the underworld, once she dies, it means eternal death, so what is called here, who it is, and what happened has nothing to do with Liu Meier.

Passing through the crowd, Liu Meier walked along the old stone road into the depths of the town.

It's a small town, but she's already at the end of the day, the arch embedded in the ruins is quiet as if it's another world, and no one will hide in the corner like a youkai to talk about her hair color or those silver eyes, and she will have to wait a long time until the youkai lurking in this town are like the ones she has encountered, and they can't hold back their appetite and reveal their whereabouts.

"Hmm...... It's just a normal girl......"

The man in front of him was looking at Liu Mei'er with his hands behind his head, not a demon...... It almost didn't take a closer look to see it, Liu Meier could feel it.

"What are you doing with me......

"You're what they say about a half-demon swordsman, aren't you? I thought it was uglier and scarier! ”

"That's what you call it yourself, we don't have names...... You...... Aren't you afraid of me? ”

"Huh? Why should I be afraid of you? You're just an ordinary girl...... I think you're much prettier than this girl. ”

Liu Meier was silent for a moment, but the man just stood beside her with a smile and did not leave.

"Why...... Why are you so interested in me? ”

"You're a half-demon."

"I've already said it, that's your name privately......"

"Anyway," the man interrupted Liu Mei'er's words and began to talk to himself.

"You're here to destroy demons, aren't you? In that case...... You're a very kind person. The first people to be killed in this village were my landlord and his wife...... At that time, I was there, but I couldn't do anything, and when I came to my senses, only the bloodied child and I were left. If I still have the strength, I can, I can...... But...... So, I wish you were the one who killed those bastards for me! ”

“………… I'm just accepting a commission, not trying to kill your enemies. ”

"I know, that's, that's not bad, hehe."

The man scratched the top of his head with his dusty hand, and the light dyed his black hair a damp brown and sprinkled a thin halo of frosting.

The bells rang from the church in the center of town, a long, dull, death-knell-like sound.

"Ahh I'm sorry, I'm going home to prepare dinner, and I'm staying with a relative's host. ”

The man turned around and ran for less than two steps, then suddenly stopped as if he remembered something, "I, my name is Aoki, you can tell me your name too!" ”

"There's no need, it's going to be forgotten soon."

Like the name of this town, it is quickly forgotten.

The figure of this man named Aoki quickly disappeared into the evening bell, and Liu Mei'er recalled that the bell was no different from the bell here, dull and distant, like a song of the soul that had been hovering for a hundred years and had not yet dispersed.

"Liu Mei'er! What do you think?! It would be bad if you couldn't catch up! ”

The moisture of the residual morning mist seeped into the cotton clothes clinging to his skin, Aoki tightened his collar, the weather in Yamaguchi Town had an indescribable coldness different from his hometown, and if it really could, he really wished it was a demon haunted by the midday sun.

"What are you doing here?"

"You always need a helper, what if there is?! For example, for example, ......"

"Like last month?"

Liu Meier remembered that the last time she was on the mountain, if Aoki hadn't hugged her out-of-control self tightly, maybe she had crossed the line between humans and demons and completely became an "awakened person". Once she thought of that experience, Liu Meier felt that the demonic power surging in her body seemed to be the second of life, how much time did she have left, and could she be so lucky to return to the human state from the edge of awakening next time?

The most important thing is that if the thing that she almost woke up is known to the Order......

Liu Meier knows that if she wants to live, she must bury this big secret in her heart, she still has one more thing to do, and now is not the time.

"Aoki ......"

"What?"

Aoki followed closely behind Liu Mei'er, he saw that her figure looked so thin in the gradually clear scenery, he had heard that the other half-demon swordsmen were also girls like Liu Mei'er, but why did they have to do such a dangerous job, every time he wanted to ask Liu Mei'er, he was also stopped by an inexplicable premonition, this seemed to be a question he couldn't ask.

"If I'm seriously injured, or...... I'm going to wake up, how far to run, how far to run. ”

“…… I won't run away anymore...... There will be no more runaway like before. ”

Aoki's gaze went beyond the spires of the red houses layered on top of each other, and rested on the towers with bronze bells hanging not far away, this time, he wouldn't be as hopeless as he had been last time.

The small square in front of the Jizo-an gate was deserted, and most of the people who had gathered here to pray had moved to other places to escape the demons, leaving only the lay people who lived with the gods all day long, and of course the orphans who were treated as their meals.

Liu Meier...... It's so quiet......"

There were no screams, no cries for help, not even any sounds related to life, it was so quiet that Rui was abnormal. Liu Mei'er raised her head, the sky was still iron-gray when the morning fog had cleared, and the dark clouds gathered from all around covered the sky over Yamaguchi Town, whether Liu Mei'er wanted to believe it or not, it was always a bad sign.

"Aoki, follow me."

Liu Mei'er clenched the half-demon swordsman in her hand and stepped on the blue-white stone steps leading to the Jizo Nunnery.

The marble-paved stone steps apparently led straight to the slaughterhouse of the demon, and the blood that had penetrated deep into the cracks in the stone had gradually turned dark brown and became part of the marble veins, intricately coiled together.

Taking a deep breath, there was no strong smell of blood and rust in the air, what was wrong, Liu Mei'er's chest was squeezed by an indescribable foreboding.

"Obviously the bell has struck ......"

Aoki could almost hear the sound of his heart beating violently, he had seen many murderous demons in the days he had followed Liu Mei'er, but the most tense time every time was the time before the demon appeared, I don't know which direction it came from, I don't know how powerful it will be, can it tear people to pieces with a single claw, but this time...... This terrifying time is infinitely magnified, as if it is endless, and he and Liu Mei'er will shuttle through this dead and silent Jizo Nunnery.

"Oops!"

As if the soul was sucked away by this Jizo-an, which was full of necromancy, Aoki accidentally bumped into Liu Mei'er's armor, "Why did you stop suddenly?" ”

Poking his head out from behind Liu Mei'er, Aoki saw an intricately carved stone gate in front of him, he took a step back, and carefully looked at the intricate carvings on the stone door—the Heavenly Maiden blew the horn above the door, and countless people were entrenched on both sides of the door, struggling to stretch out their dry arms upward, "...... What is it......? ”

"The door of hell to the Buddha realm," Liu Mei'er stretched out her hand to carefully rub the uneven lines, "There is a chapter in the Buddhist scriptures that says that sinful people must go through many trials and wash away their sins with their own blood on the road to bliss from hell, and when the blood is exhausted, only flesh and bones remain, you can hear the horn of the goddess, and the gate of heaven will open at that moment......"

"I don't think it's a lucky thing...... Are these sinners? So many people ......"

"No one is innocent."

Liu Meier pushed open the heavy stone door, and with a squeak, the whole picture of the nunnery was displayed in front of the two of them.

One can almost imagine how splendid the building once was, with quaint coiled flowers carved on the armrests of wooden benches, and remnants of gold leaf faintly visible between the curly vines, but now only dust lingers on them.

"Wow......" Aoki raised his head and looked at the towering dome, the mural on it was probably the most complete artwork preserved in this hundred-year-old nunnery, "I know this, this is the flying sky, this is the Buddha, this is the ...... Wait, what's that ......? ”

Liu Mei'er looked in the direction Aoki pointed, where Elysium should have been painted, but now it had turned a blurry dark brown, as if it had just been painted with vermilion oil paint over the dome.

"Blood, that's blood."

Taking a deep breath, Liu Mei'er jumped onto the curved beam, and gently wiped the blood-smeared area with her hand, covering her fingers with a thin layer of crimson powder.

Not new......

What the hell is going on? The people in the town who asked for help from the organization didn't leave their names, and everyone she asked about was silent about the demons, what was going on here?

"Aoki, we...... Aoki?! ”

Liu Meier's gaze hurriedly swept over every corner of the hall, but there was no Aoki in sight.

The idol hidden behind the incense burner was watching this place with compassionate and serene eyes, watching the place where those people had crawled under his feet, but from Liu Mei'er's point of view, he seemed to be smiling, watching everything that happened here with a cold and sarcastic look.

Jumping off the beam, Liu Meier landed in the center of the hall, and when she turned around, the statue was once again holy and peaceful, hidden in the shadow of the high altar.

"Aoki!" (To be continued.) )