On the highest hillside of the village, there is a carefully processed flat ground, which is linked to the mountains and forests behind it, and is about fifty meters away from the village on the plain below.

The hillside and the village are connected by a straight slanting ladder. A distance of 50 meters, even if one step is ten centimeters, there are still 500 steps. Therefore, it looks like a ladder to climb the sky. Whether from below or above, it seems to have no end and looks particularly long.

The stone stairs are built with good rocks for hundreds of years and are full of traces of the passage of time. At the end of the stone stairs is a huge torii, a Japanese-style building similar to a Chinese archway, which is often located on the avenue leading to the shrine or at the wooden fence around the shrine. It is mainly used to distinguish the divine realm from the secular world where humans live. It is regarded as a barrier, representing the entrance to the divine realm, and can be regarded as a "gate".

Entering the dark-colored Torii and moving forward along the avenue, it is the main hall of the shrine. Compared with the shrine where Kikyo once stationed, the scale of this shrine is even larger. Not only does it have a complete structure, but it also has a terrace and a small house dedicated to the shrine witches.

Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs. Generally speaking, there are only two reasons such a medium-sized village can have such a formal shrine. One is that there are many witches and priests in this shrine, so the scale is not proportional to the size of the village. Another is that the witches or priests stationed in this shrine, although there are very few people, they have powerful spiritual power.

This shrine is not this village, but is built by several or dozens of nearby villages. It highlights how hard people live in this era and suffer from the pain of war. It is necessary to maintain the piety of the shrine.

Because in this era, the shrine is not only a symbol of protecting a land, but also a witch or priest stationed in the shrine, but also a spiritual pillar that retries monsters, treats illnesses and soothes people's hearts. As long as the shrine is still there, no matter how suffering and torture the villagers encounter, they will have the confidence to support them, because they have a spiritual support.

At this time, it was approaching dusk and the sun set. The afterglow shone from the distant mountains, just shining on the stone stairs and Torii of the shrine. At this time, it was already dinner time. However, this medium-sized shrine did not move at all. Only at the top of the stone stairs and at the entrance of Torii, was a girl in a red and white witch suit. From this we can see that the second reason why this shrine is so large.

The witches stationed in this shrine have very powerful spiritual power.

The witch standing in front of Torii was about twenty years old and was wearing a white top and red skirt, but the style was slightly different from the witch suit of Kikyo. His blouse was not tied into the waist of his pants. Instead, it was scattered outside. His feet were similar to Kikyo, wearing white socks and herringbone straw sandals.

The witch's face is very delicate and simple, with a scent of dust. She has long black hair in the middle part, and the bangs on her forehead are not very dense, so you can see her smooth forehead. The eyebrows are very slender, like a pair of crescent moons. Below are two eyes that look like stars, and the deep black pain reflects the sunset, emitting a solemnity.

Her facial features are very delicate, her skin is fair, and she emits a faint fluorescent light, which is a proof of the huge spiritual power she possesses. Her cheeks without makeup are a little plump, but they give people a feeling of not being fat. Instead, they feel very correct. If the orchids in the valley are beautiful and beautiful, they are not stained with mud. Then this witch is a delicately constructed work of art, without experiencing the rendering and filth of the world, but a lily on a mountain.

This witch, whose temperament and appearance are comparable to those of Kikyo, carries a lot of decorations on her body. Each jewelry exudes powerful fluctuations of spiritual power, which is obviously very extraordinary.

On her right hand, she was holding a tower-shaped golden hand grip with many bells, and was obviously a witch who was good at spells.

At this time, this witch, facing the afterglow of the sunset, looked down at the village below. A child's song came from the village, and a faint sadness emanated from the depths of her deep eyes.

Suddenly, the witch hummed gently together with the children's songs.

"Bamboo...cage eyes, bamboo...cage eyes...birds in the cage..."

The voice was graceful and moving, but it was filled with loneliness and sorrow. Gradually, the witch's voice overlapped with another voice in her mind. Accompanied by the nursery rhyme, she fell into memories of the past.

Yes, that was fifteen years ago, the last day she spent as an ordinary girl, and it was the day when her fate turned around and she lost her only relative, grandpa.

"The crane and the turtle slipped... directly behind... who is it..."

The girl is still a child, wearing a witch suit, covering her eyes and squatting on the ground, surrounded by a group of children of the same age, singing the song "Bamboo cage". This is a guessing game circulating among Japanese folk. Children sing "Bamboo cage" while turning around and singing, and finally "ghost" has to guess who the person directly behind them is.

The song stopped with the sound of "Who is it". The witch with powerful spiritual power could sense who the person standing behind him was not through sound, but through intuition.

"Missary!"

The little witch stood up and shouted to her without hesitation.

But, at that moment, the breath changed.

The one who stood there instead of his friend's mistress was a mysterious man wearing a red coat and covered in silver hair. The other children all dispersed in fear and stood aside, staring at the weird guy who suddenly broke into their game with fear.

"Who are you?"

From this weird person, the little witch instinctively felt a very annoying aura, making her want to stay away from this person.

"You are Hitoko? My name is Inuyasha, I am the big brother who comes to find you to play with!"

"Want to play with me?"

After listening to the other person's words, the naive Tongzi suppressed his instinctive disgust. After all, he was a child and was very happy to hear that someone was willing to play with him.

When the silver-haired elder brother named Inuyasha smiled and reached out to him, Hitoko planned to reach out his hand with a sweet smile. At this moment, an elderly old priest ran down in panic from the shrine on the stone stairs behind.

"Tongzi, run away quickly. That guy is a monster!"

The old priest hurriedly ran behind Tongzi. Before he could calm his breathing, he pointed it at Inuyasha with his hand, waved it hard, and chanted the spell in his mouth.

"Divine power to protect. Flame!"

The fire-type spell with powerful evil-breaking effect was cast from the old priest. With the help of a golden magic weapon, a spiritual fire was shot at Inuyasha.

boom!

The pure white flame hit Inuyasha hard, but unfortunately it had no effect at all. Instead, it was dispelled by Inuyasha's evil spirit. Feeling the painless attack on his body, Inuyasha sneered disdainfully.

"Hmph, this level of spiritual power is actually trying to deal with me, it's ridiculous!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his right hand and pointed his palm at the old priest, and emitted a demonic aura. The blue and purple demonic aura was filled with evil aura, and it blasted heavily on the old priest's body and knocked him away.

"Grandpa.Grandpa!"

Seeing his only relative, his beloved grandfather was knocked to the ground by a monster, Tongzi finally recovered his mind from fear, cleverly revoked the barrier, turned around and ran to his grandfather, looking at him worriedly.

The old priest could not answer. His old body had been invaded by evil spirits by Inuyasha's attack just now. It destroyed the last trace of vitality and did not die on the spot. Thanks to the magic weapon in his hand, some of the evil spirits were offset.

“Hmmm…”

Seeing that Hitoko actually took the initiative to cancel the barrier that was in trouble, Inuyasha walked towards her with a sneer.

At this time, the Tongzi in the crisis finally showed her terrifying talent. At that moment, her index finger and middle finger carved a five-pointed magic array in the air, and at the same time she recited a spell that she occasionally saw in books.

"The evil spirit retreats!"

The huge spiritual power was guided along the magic circle carved by her fingers, and along the spell language spirit, forming a huge spiritual light, and hitting towards the approaching Inuyasha with the barrier that appeared in the air.

boom!

This time, the attack of the spirit light was much stronger than the attacks issued by the old priest with the help of the golden magic weapon. The huge spiritual power almost instantly wrapped Inuyasha's body. The evil-breaking power contained in it immediately burned his body to ashes.

"Has it been eliminated... No, I didn't expect that such a powerful monster was just a clone! Then the body of this monster..."

At this time, the old priest who had recovered a little bit of strength could finally speak. His eyes had completely turned black and he could not even stand up and move his fingers.

"Grandpa, cheer up!"

Xiao Tongzi, who heard his grandfather's voice, quickly turned around, knelt beside the old priest again, and said worriedly.

The old priest who realized that his life was about to die began to explain his funeral to his granddaughter.

"Tongzi, your spiritual power is comparable to that of the witch Kikyo who died decades ago. Those ghosts, monsters, monsters, monsters and monsters all want to take your life to avoid a second Kikyo! So you cannot slackewer..."

"grandfather!"

"You can only fight, just like Lord Kikyo! Unfortunately, it would be great if I could protect you to the extent that you grew up to be able to protect yourself! In this way, I can leave with confidence! But now you can't deal with the frame-up of the ubiquitous monsters!"

"Grandpa!" Xiaotongzi couldn't help but shout again.

"So, go to the Demon Castle, which is a holy place where humans and monsters coexist. There are many powerful witches guarding them. No monster dares to wield in that place. Grow up well until you have enough strength and return here to protect the people on this land. In this way, grandpa will feel at ease."

After saying this, the old priest who had returned to the scene with the last touch of strength handed the golden magic weapon in his right hand to Xiaotongzi's hand. His head tilted and finally stopped breathing. Only Xiaotongzi's sad wail echoed in the dusk.

"grandfather……"

PS: There is no follow-up, this chapter will look abrupt. However, there is nothing to write about the Death Chapter, so I no longer have to make up the word count. I will fill in the pit later, and the main content will start to return to Inuyasha.
Chapter completed!