Returning to the shrine again, the air here is clean and clear, giving people a wonderful feeling that can wash away the filth in the soul.

However, in this clean and clear air, there is still a bit of biting coldness.

It was not a chill caused by seasonal weather changes, but a more thorough and profound cold.

There was no crowd in the empty hall. Shiraishi was the first visitor to come here, and the usual maids and guards had not come yet.

Behind the curtain, Maitreya the witch can be seen clearly sitting there, holding a baby girl who is crying softly in her arms.

As soon as Shiraishi came over, the Maitreya witch over there had already spoken: "Mr. Shiraishi is here very early."

"Because I felt that the atmosphere here has changed a bit, and the nineteen months you mentioned, the production will end this month, so I came over to take a look. It seems to be going very well."

Shiraishi looked at the baby in Maitreya Miko's arms.

That should be Shion, the daughter of Maitreya Miko.

"Mr. Shiraishi should be able to sense it using magic."

Maitreya Miko must have asked something like this.

Shiraishi nodded, looking serious.

He could feel how weak the Maitreya witch was at this moment. On the contrary, the crying baby girl in her arms gave Shiraishi the same feeling as when he faced the Maitreya witch before, lacking in human aura.

Maitreya Miko's power is being transferred to the baby girl in her arms.

"But is it really okay to transfer power to the next generation in this way, Lord Maitreya?"

Shiraishi asked.

"It doesn't matter. As long as I am still alive, the power of the demons cannot touch the world. If I am gone in the future, Ziyuan will continue my work and suppress the demons again."

It sounds really tragically fatalistic.

However, there was no so-called sadness in Maitreya Miko's tone, she just said these words while eating and drinking water.

For a miko, this is probably the so-called fate, a responsibility that the miko must bear.

The evil fate that has been entangled with monsters since ancient times.

After a brief exchange, Shiraishi followed Miroku to the side hall of the shrine.

The side hall is not very far from the main hall. It takes about a minute to walk there. The interior space of the side hall is very wide. There is a circular altar engraved with mysterious runes in the center. In the center of the altar, there is a tightly closed altar.

Ancient stone gate.

Purple-black mist seeped into the outside world like threads through the cracks of the closed ancient stone door.

Even if the seal is flawless, it still cannot stop the erosion of monsters on the other side of the stone gate.

The closer to the stone door, the heavier the mental pressure Shiraishi endured. The purple-black mist was like some kind of poison targeting humans. If it were not for the magical chakra in the body to fight against it, ordinary ninjas would be able to fight it at close range.

Contact, probably has been deprived of reason by this part of darkness.

"this is……"

Even without Maitreya Maiden's explanation, Shiraishi still had some guesses in his mind.

"The altar that seals the sprites. But here is only the soul part of the sprites. The physical body was sealed by me in the ancestral hall of the Swamp Country."

The Country of Swamp is also a neighbor of the Country of Ghosts. However, due to its small territory and sparse population, Shiraishi has not included the Country of Swamp in his plans for the time being. Because after taking care of the Country of Netherworld and the Country of Bears, the Country of Swamp is just as simple as picking things up.

, at your fingertips.

Putting the baby in her arms into the cradle, Maitreya Maiden showed a rare look of kindness on her face.

Shiraishi looked at the position of the stone door, then looked at Maitreya and the baby girl who slowly stopped crying in the cradle, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

This was not the first time he had come into contact with the power of monsters.

Nineteen months ago, he already felt that something was fishy.

Now that I am using magic to sense things at close range, I feel that things are not as simple as I imagined.

The powers of the demon and the witch Maitreya are too similar.

It's just that the properties displayed are completely opposite.

The power of the witch gives people a feeling of being supreme and inviolable.

The power of monsters is more like a collection of all the dark and dirty parts of human hearts.

This kind of power is not just for ninjas, but for the human race.

Thinking deeper, maybe it is the sins of human beings that create monsters like monsters.

"Your Excellency Maitreya, I would like to confirm how long the seal here can continue to suppress the monsters?"

Shiraishi looked at the ancient stone door in the altar. The power of Maitreya Witch remained on it, but the aura was very weak. If this continued, it would only be a matter of time before the seal was opened.

Therefore, Shiraishi must be prepared before the demons break through the seal, lest something unexpected happens and it is too late to stop the demons and cause chaos in the land of ghosts.

According to the intelligence collected by Shiraishi, the last time the demons caused chaos, it not only caused unrest within the Kingdom of Demons, but also affected many surrounding countries.

Shiraishi did not want the Kingdom of Demons, which was finally built, to be ravaged by monsters.

Moreover, the place where the demon's soul is sealed is in the hinterland of the Kingdom of Ghosts. When the demon escapes from its trap, the disaster it will cause is immeasurable.

Maitreya hesitated and replied: "With my current strength, I can probably suppress the monsters for another five to ten years."

Five to ten years? That said, it's an uncertain amount of time.

This is not a good thing for Shiraishi.

"Then I will ask people from the Uzumaki clan to come over and strengthen the seal of the demon and extend his escape date."

The next five to ten years will be an important development period for the Kingdom of Ghosts. Even if the monster wants to escape from trouble, he must fight if he is well prepared.

"No, human sealing techniques are ineffective against monsters."

Maitreya Miko shook her head and said calmly to Shiraishi.

Shiraishi raised his eyebrows, and stepped forward to approach the ancient stone door with some disbelief. He pressed his palm lightly on the stone door, and the magic chakra began to circulate in his body, covering the ancient stone door in the form of magic.

However, what makes Baishi strange is that the ancient stone door is indeed covered with Maitreya's sealing incantation and another layer of sealing incantation, but the purple-black mist has not been reduced by the double sealing technique.

This also means that the sealing technique Shiraishi used just now is completely ineffective against monsters.

"It's really strange that the four-image sealing technique used to suppress demons is completely useless."

Obviously this sealing technique has a powerful binding effect on monsters like Zero Tails, but why does it not have any effect on monsters that are also monsters?

Shiraishi frowned, thinking about the answer to this question.

"The sprite is not an ordinary monster. It is a special monster naturally formed by mixing all the darkness in human hearts with chakra. The only way to deal with it is to turn yourself into the opposite 'matter' of the sprite.

To restrain the demon’s actions.”

Maitreya Witch explained.

“Can’t it be solved from the root cause?”

"Theoretically, it can be solved from the root cause, which is to eliminate all human desires, and the monster will naturally disappear. Otherwise, if you kill it once, future human desires will be intertwined again due to various causes and conditions.

Fusion with chakra to create a new 'monster'."

The darkness that resides in the depths of the human heart is the source of the existence of monsters.

Hearing Maitreya Miko's answer, Shiraishi sighed and confirmed some of his guesses.

"The reason why we witches don't kill sprites, but use seals, is because after sprites die once, they will be reborn randomly in a corner of the ninja world. It is more troublesome to find them, and the sprites' wisdom requires a lot of effort.

It is far beyond ordinary people, and it will be very troublesome if it is allowed to lie dormant and grow."

Maitreya Miko continued to talk about the Miko King.

Therefore, instead of killing the monster, choosing to seal it and suppress it is the best way for witches in the past to deal with it.

Otherwise, if the monster is randomly resurrected somewhere in the ninja world and lies dormant for hundreds of years, I am afraid that the power of the miko will not be able to pose a threat to it.

"The fate of you witches is really heavy."

"You just get used to it. In fact, Mr. Shiraishi also has the potential to become a 'miko'."

"?"

The corner of Baishi's mouth twitched, not knowing how to answer.

"As long as Mr. Shiraishi is willing to abandon human selfishness, he will have the power to restrain monsters. However, this kind of thing is probably not something Mr. Shiraishi wants to see. Mr. Shiraishi has more desires in his heart than many people."

Shiraishi remained silent, acquiescing to Maitreya Maiden's point of view.

"Of course, more desires does not mean evil. Using justice and evil to distinguish all things in the world is narrow-minded in itself. Therefore, even if the monsters wipe out humans one day, the problem will definitely appear on humans themselves. Create this part

The most fundamental cause of darkness is the countless wars that humans have fought over the past thousands of years. Every time a war breaks out, it is when the power of the monsters is strongest."

"Does Miroku-dono hate ninjas?"

"Of course, including the Six Paths Sage who established the Ninja Sect, he is also one of the most disliked people by shrine maidens in the past. Blind trust in humans has caused Chakra, a power derived from natural energy mutations, to spread among humans.

This led to the birth of monsters like monsters that can destroy human civilization, and imposed many unnecessary tasks on witches. Including the people of this country, they always imposed many unnecessary responsibilities on witches."

When Maitreya Witch walked to the ancient stone gate, she seemed to be narrating to Shiraishi, and she also seemed to be narrating her thoughts to the monsters on the other side of the stone gate.
To be continued...