Chapter 556: Respect for God and Rejection
Time has entered the spring of the new year, and everything in this season is revived and full of vitality.
At this moment, outside Aoki Shrine, in the spacious martial arts square,
Hideki Furukawa is concentrating on demonstrating a set of basic boxing techniques for the new disciples who joined the martial arts club.
His movements were calm and powerful, and every punch seemed so smooth and natural.
However, in this quiet moment, suddenly a figure crossed the sky.
Faced with this sudden situation, Furukawa Hideki did not appear panicked, and seemed to be used to such interruptions.
He calmly stopped the boxing demonstration in his hand and secretly sent a message to his master to inform him of the unexpected situation.
"This is already the third time this month..."
He whispered to himself softly, with a little helplessness in his tone.
Despite this, he quickly took his disciples to one side and then faced them alone.
When the figure landed firmly on the ground, Furukawa Hideki immediately stepped forward,
He bowed his hands respectfully: "Kinoshita-sama."
This middle-aged man, known as Kinoshita-sama, was dressed in luxurious clothing. His eyes swept across the martial arts disciples around him, and then settled on Furukawa Hideki.
He asked bluntly: "How is your master thinking about it?"
Furukawa Hideki immediately responded:
"Master feels that he still has a lot of room for improvement in martial arts. He hopes to make further progress in the way of the samurai before serving the noble Majesty Amaterasu."
Amaterasu here is the name of the god Nichiren who is widely praised by the people. He is revered as the god in charge of light and the sun, and is also the god of salvation in Yingzhou.
Kinoshita just shook his head gently and said slowly:
"There is nothing to consider. I am convinced that your teacher's strength will not be inferior to that of the Sword Master."
"After he completes the ritual of worshiping the gods, he will soon be able to return to his previous major attributes strength, and may even reach a higher level."
He continued: "The reason why your teacher is reluctant to agree now is probably mainly because of the incident with the Lingshou Division. He was deprived of his Yin and Yang skills, which inevitably made him feel a little resentful."
What Kinoshita said seemed to understand Kurokawa Takeshi's feelings, and his tone was full of sympathy.
Then he looked at Furukawa Hideki and said seriously: "Go and call your teacher. I want to have a good talk with him in person, and maybe I can untie his knot."
Just as he was talking, Xie Que slowly walked out of the shrine. He looked at Kinoshita: "Lord Kinoshita, I'm here."
Seeing Xie Que, Kinoshita's face immediately filled with a smile.
As he walked towards Takeshi Kurokawa, he said enthusiastically:
"Master Kurokawa, this is the third time we have met. It feels so cordial."
Xie Que also showed a faint smile and responded:
"Kinoshita-sama, as the royal seal of Jingshen Mansion, has an extremely noble status. I feel extremely honored to have met you many times."
After hearing this, Kinoshita chuckled and said, "If you really think so, then I'll be relieved."
Then he changed the topic, looked at Xie Que and said:
"I heard that Master Kurokawa heroically killed a beautiful snake that could speak human words and do magic in the Nagano Mountains a few days ago. The snake had actually lived for three thousand years. I wonder if I would be lucky enough to see that beautiful snake. What’s your true appearance?”
When Xie Que heard Kinoshita's words, he immediately smiled, waved his hand gently, and said humbly: "Sir Kinoshita, you are really good at joking. How can I have such a great ability?"
"The so-called beauty snake is actually just a little demon that can learn how women speak and use it to seduce passers-by. It has not yet been able to transform into a human form, let alone anything else."
Xie Que tried to pass the topic lightly.
However, he knew that what Kinoshita said was true. The snake demon had indeed entered the ranks of the great demons of the five realms.
But Xie Que knew very well that once he admitted his strength, it meant that as a "warrior", he already had power comparable to Shaoyun's Onmyoji.
Such a thing was not beneficial to him, so he chose to remain silent.
Seeing Xie Que's denial, Kinoshita did not show any displeasure on his face. He whispered:
"Lord Palm Print has made it clear that if Master Kurokawa is willing to join our God-worshiping Mansion, we will generously give Master Kurokawa an additional place to worship God."
Having said this, he couldn't help but stretch out his right hand with all five fingers spread out to emphasize the next words:
"As long as Master Kurokawa nods his consent, we will immediately provide him with five more places to worship the gods."
As soon as these words came out, several disciples on the field held their breaths and looked solemn.
They knew very well that although their teacher "Takeshi Kurokawa" was not very tempted by worshiping God because of his great strength,
But the opportunity still makes them excited. After all, they all know how precious the quota of worshiping gods is.
And in their eyes, worshiping gods seems to be a shortcut to success.
It seems that as long as you can worship God devoutly, you can be transformed overnight and become a big shot above the Onmyoji.
This attractive prospect is undoubtedly very attractive to young people who are inexperienced in the world and eager to get ahead.
How could they not be moved by it, how could they not yearn for it?
Even the Aoki Martial Arts disciple, Hideki Furukawa, who has always been calm, can't help but feel excited at this moment.
However, the strict concept of respect and inferiority in the Yingzhou world has long been rooted in everyone's hearts, so before Xie Que spoke, these disciples would never dare to rashly put forward their own suggestions.
Kinoshita looked around and keenly caught the desire in the eyes of the disciples.
He saw several young men swallowing their saliva secretly, as if trying to calm their inner excitement and nervousness.
This scene made Kinoshita more convinced that there was a lot of potential in this matter.
You, Kurokawa Takeshi, may not be moved by worshiping the gods, but this does not mean that the people around you will be the same!
Kinoshita knew that as long as he could cleverly use the influence and promotion of the people around him, through day-to-day indirect persuasion, he might be able to gradually change Kurokawa Takeshi's mind.
After all, people are all made of flesh and blood. Who can resist the earnest expectations and continuous persuasion of the people?
And worshiping the gods... represents the dignity of His Majesty Nichiren, and also represents the glory beyond the Onmyoji. No one can refuse it, let alone these little warriors?
What Kinoshita didn't expect was that Kurokawa Takeshi shook his head easily: "No need, Master Kinoshita."
"Although my disciples and I admire and respect Her Majesty Amaterasu, we also know that the qualification to worship God should belong to those Onmyojis. If they can worship God, it will be more helpful to my Dongshan Road!"
Xie Que said this beautifully, but Kinoshita felt differently when he heard it.
He immediately understood that the other party was afraid that after he worshipped God, he would squeeze out the quota of other Onmyojis and was afraid of being retaliated.
Muxia's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with a smile: "Master Kurokawa, there is no need to worry about the feelings of those Yin-Yang masters. Although there are not many places for worshipping the gods, after entering my worshipping house, those Yin-Yang masters outside will never dare to have any objections."
"If they have any objections, my Dongshan Daoling Hunting Division will not hunt them down now, but it does not mean that they are completely..."
Xie Que still interrupted him with a shake of his head: "No, Master Muxia, I don't mean that, I just think..."
"Now is not the time to worship the gods, I feel that I can still improve..."
As he said, Xie Que punched out in the air, and a series of air explosions sounded.
Under the wind of the fist, even many disciples dozens of meters away could not help but retreat.
The fist force finally broke a small tree directly from a distance of a hundred meters, and the power was almost comparable to the Yin-Yang technique released by a fourth-level Yin-Yang master.
Muxia looked at the power and was looking forward to it. This top warrior who was stronger than the sword saint would become a "high priest" comparable to Shao Yun Yin Yang Master after worshipping the gods.
If he could be admitted to the Jingshen Mansion, his contribution would be great!
But then, no matter how Muxia persuaded him, Xie Que only showed his martial arts heart and worship of Majesty Amaterasu, and had no intention of joining the Jingshen Mansion.
Muxia had no choice but to leave again.
After all, worshipping the gods cannot be forced. If one is not sincere, the achievements after worshipping the gods will not be great.
In addition, the worship method has been spread for three to five years, and it is also difficult to find a good seedling for worshipping the gods.
Muxia left, and several disciples came out.
Xie Que also knew what they wanted to ask, including his most trusted disciple Furukawa Hideki.
They all had longing in their eyes, which was a natural idea generated by the young man's admiration for the strong, and he could not stop it.
Xie Que couldn't help but sigh inwardly. After all, it was difficult for him to explain to them the consequences of worshipping the gods.
The best thing now was to say nothing and let them continue to practice martial arts.
One day, they would find that the so-called spiritual guards and spiritual kings would also be trampled under their feet.
However, Xie Que also knew that some things still needed to be explained to stimulate the fighting spirit of the disciples.
So at this time, he did not keep silent about the matter of worshipping gods, but just said lightly:
"When I first started practicing martial arts, I had already said that the way of a warrior is to worship oneself, not external things, and even gods are not worthy of our envy."
"There is an old saying, saying that the heaven is vigorous, and the gentleman strives for self-improvement."
"After worshipping gods, you are slaves of gods, and you will always be slaves in the future."
"No matter how powerful you are, you can't get rid of your identity as a slave."
"But if we rely on ourselves, we can be on par with gods, and even... surpass gods!"
The "god" in Xie Que's mouth did not refer to anything clearly.
After all, in this world and this era, the personal worship of Nichiren God is too amazing.
Even if these young men are his disciples, Xie Que can't say it clearly.
But the Yingzhou world is said to have eight million gods, and Her Majesty Amaterasu rules all gods.
Even the bear demon killed by Furukawa Hideki, more than ten years ago, there were villagers who wanted to worship it as a god.
So it is okay to be vague about the "god" here, but being too clear will cause trouble to yourself.
After all, there are indeed many Onmyojis whose strength is better than that of gods.
As soon as this was said, several young men felt their blood boiling, and they wanted to practice a few sets of boxing right here and there.
Seeing this, Xie Que also knew that he had temporarily suppressed the ambitions of these young men.
But this was only for a short time. After a long time, these young men realized how fast their strength improved after worshiping gods,
and the sweat, tears and long time required as a warrior, and they would still choose to worship gods.
Xie Que didn't find this strange, but rather thought it was human nature.
After scattering the other disciples, Xie Que called Furukawa Hideki to enter the shrine alone.
After worshiping the gods, Ling Shouji didn't pay much attention to the external Onmyoji.
Some places even started to support those with extraordinary talents to practice again.
Therefore, Kurokawa Ichiro has also been out for a long time and plans to re-learn Onmyoji.
The only ones left in the shrine now are Xie Que and a few core disciples.
Xie Que brought Furukawa Hideki to the side hall and immediately sat on a chair. Furukawa Hideki on the side saw this and immediately poured tea for the teacher:
"Teacher, please have tea."
Xie Tiao nodded, casually dipped a little tea on his lips, and said with a smile, "What? Do you want to worship God?"
He didn't care much about other disciples.
But this Furukawa Hideki's talent is not bad.
Xie Que is confident that this disciple may be his biggest helper when he seizes the Tianxin Seal in the future.
Therefore, he still cares very much about Hideki Furukawa.
Hideki hesitated, but asked another question: "Teacher, if we practice the way of the warrior... do we really have a chance to surpass the gods..."
Faced with this question, Xie Que just chuckled: "What do you think?"
Hideki said bluntly at this time: "Teacher, what we are practicing now... I'm afraid it's not the way of the samurai..."
"I saw those warriors when I went to Dongshan City. It seems that no matter how strong they are... they don't seem to be as good as Junior Brother Xiaoquan who has just practiced for a year."
"Moreover, he seems to be a master warrior who has been immersed in swordsmanship for decades."
Xie Que chuckled: "Then what do you think we are practicing if we are not practicing the way of warriors?"
After thinking about it for a while, Hideki continued: "I think what the teacher taught us should be some kind of onmyoji that is based on the physical body."
"Because after practicing, I also felt the need for the harmony of yin and yang inside and outside the body, which is very similar to some things I have seen in books."
"And compared to the way of the warrior, I don't know how advanced it is."
As he said that, Hideki stretched out a hand and looked at his fist: "I feel... even the Kinoshita-sama who came today, I can beat him to death."
At this time, Hideki's cultivation level was already extremely close to that of a human immortal after practicing "The Ultimate Immortal Path to the End of Heaven and Earth".
The god worshipers transformed by these half-hearted Onmyojis are naturally not as strong as him.
When Xie Que heard this, he smiled and said no more: "Now that you know everything, then go to sleep."
Hideki said "hmm" and his heart suddenly felt relaxed. He walked out of the side hall and returned to his room.
Xie Que walked out of the shrine directly, looked at the stars outside, and said softly:
"Come out, you have been hiding here for so long, I guess you don't need me to invite you."