"Me, my original fate was to die five years ago, and then... become a god?"
These words were indeed too much of a shock for Honma Meiko. However, it wasn't as if she was completely unprepared for something like this.
When she had just joined the chat group, watching everyone in the group talk about their respective stories, she had also wondered what her own original story might have been.
After she mentioned that she had been saved by Miyauchi Hikage once, the opinion that "You're a female protagonist, how could you die there? Even if Miyauchi Hikage hadn't come to save her, she definitely would have survived because of something else" had appeared in the group.
After all, how could there be a female protagonist who dies before the story even begins? But in her heart, she had never accepted such remarks.
Especially with the help of the chief priestess, she had seen the situation of the day she fell into the water more clearly, and only then did she finally confirm: If it weren't for Miyauchi Hikage, she really should have died that day.
She thought this, and then couldn't help but move a little closer to Miyauchi Hikage's position.
Perhaps it was because she knew this in her heart that she trusted Miyauchi Hikage so much, even though they had only met a few times.
But now, after telling her this fact, the chief priestess gave her even more shocking news.
If she had died at that time, she could have become a god? Was this kind of thing real? This was just too bizarre.
Before Honma Meiko could speak, Miyauchi Hikage was the first to frown and ask the chief priestess, "Do you mean that I shouldn't have saved Menma back then?"
The chief priestess naturally shook her head. "Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. This is never wrong. Moreover, after becoming a god with a mortal soul, your soul might be influenced by divinity, causing you to gradually lose your human emotions."
"This kind of thing isn't necessarily good or bad. It's just that from what I've divined, drowning and then becoming the mountain god of this place was indeed her original fate."
"But fate has never been fixed."
"Even Amenominakanushi-no-Kami cannot absolutely control human destiny."
She reassured Honma Meiko, "So, although Meiko, you were fated to die young, because of Miyauchi-kun's two appearances, your fate has turned onto another path."
Two appearances. One was five years ago, and one was today.
This is also why Honma Meiko's fate still showed that she had drowned five years ago.
"If Miyauchi Hikage hadn't brought you to our shrine tonight, perhaps in a few more months, your body would have completely lost its life force, and finally returned to the fate of five years ago, letting you become the mountain god of this place after death."
"And I was just expressing my emotion that you could become a god so easily, I didn't mean anything else."
For a spirit medium who cultivated the way of Shinto, becoming a true god or a divine messenger was naturally considered the ultimate pursuit.
This kind of god was not simply the kind who, after death, was moved into a shrine to be worshipped because of their status in life, such as an emperor or his siblings.
This kind of god, who relies on faith and incense to continue their existence, is the easiest to fall apart and even perish completely after losing that faith and incense.
The "Four Pillars" currently enshrined in their Chichibu Shrine were the local official who had built the shrine back then and his ancestors, then Amenominakanushi-no-Kami, who was moved in by the State Shinto after the Meiji Restoration, and the remaining one was the younger brother of the Emperor during the Showa era.
It seemed that because of the Emperor, the divine status of his younger brother now enjoyed flourishing incense, and there was even a special festival every year to worship him. The incense he received was even more abundant than the other three gods who had a history of thousands of years.
But despite being under such incense, due to his own ****, he had only awakened a trace of divine power after the spiritual resurgence, and was still at least decades or even hundreds of years of worship away from becoming a true god.
However, as long as his incense was interrupted for a year or two in the process, or even after becoming a god, if the incense was cut off, he would lose his divinity at light speed, and only in the future, when he was worshipped by people again, would he have a chance to regain it.
In this regard, the shrine maidens and priests of Chichibu Shrine were well aware of this. They knew that elevating him to one of the Four Pillars was already a sign of the inner world's weakness towards the outer world during the supernatural decline, and they didn't think he had any chance of becoming a true god.
In contrast, if one could first connect with a ley line to become a god, then even without incense, one could rely on the power of the ley line to maintain one's own existence for a long time.
Even during the period of supernatural decline, these 'gods' would still not dissipate by relying on the ley line. It was just that they also couldn't use too much power and often needed to hibernate.
However, there were not many such gods in Japan, and they were almost all hidden gods who were unwilling to interact with humans, nor were they willing to go and live in Takamagahara, the dwelling place of the gods.
Even the Shinto upper echelons couldn't get the truth about the other gods' departure from the human world and the supernatural decline from the mouths of these scattered and reclusive gods.
And as time went on, those gods either chose to leave the human world or completely hid themselves so that others could not find their traces.
It wasn't until the recent spiritual resurgence that some people had rediscovered the traces of a few reclusive gods who hadn't found a way to leave the human world and had hidden themselves. But for Japan, which claimed to have eight million gods back then, this could indeed only be considered a drop in the ocean.
"Why does it sound a bit like the youkai from legends?" Miyauchi Hikage, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but feel a trace of doubt after hearing the chief priestess's explanation.
But seeing the envious expression on the chief priestess's face as she looked at Honma Meiko's current situation, there should be a difference between the two.
"Most mountain spirits and wild monsters are indeed born from ley lines, but their birth is somewhat similar to Cursed Spirits, requiring human 'emotions or desires for a certain aspect' to fully manifest."
"So, these youkai who appear because of desire can be considered the 'illegitimate children' of the ley line and are not recognized by it. However, they do possess supernatural powers and can, like Cursed Spirits, become stronger because of human emotions, and even leave their birthplace after growing up."
"Even during the period of supernatural decline, these youkai did not suddenly disappear from the human world like those gods, but hid in the human world. There were even some youkai who secretly coupled with humans and had offspring. But the matter of half-demons has existed since a thousand years ago, it's just that it has become relatively more common in modern times."
"Only a very small number of 'spirits' with pure hearts can be chosen by the ley line and become the local gods."
As she said this, she also looked at Honma Meiko, who was sitting restlessly, with emotion.
"Your soul is very pure, and you may even carry a trace of a 'sprite's' aura. Coupled with your fate of an early death, perhaps for this reason, the ley line here regarded you as its own child, wanting to accept your soul here and let you become the mountain god of this place after you drowned according to your original fate."
Speaking of this, the chief priestess looked at Miyauchi Hikage, who was standing behind Honma Meiko, with a subtle gaze.
She indeed didn't know how Miyauchi Hikage had forcibly inserted himself and changed this part of Honma Meiko's fate, but considering that his own life path was vague, and as a junior valued by the Jujutsu world and that Gojo Satoru, it was normal for him to have some strange aspects.
Among supernatural beings, there were martyrs who were willing to sacrifice themselves for a prophecy, and there were also beings who did not bow to fate and always insisted on being themselves.
There was no superiority or inferiority between the two, but it seemed that Miyauchi Hikage was the latter.
She didn't know if he would cause any impact on the Jujutsu world or even the entire inner world in the future.
In short, Miyauchi Hikage's sudden intervention had probably confused the ley line as well.
The contract is set, and the person should indeed be dead. After all, the contract has already been connected, but why is the mountain god I chose missing?
But the ley line did not have such high intelligence, only the subconscious instinct to call out to the mountain god it had chosen.
"And your body also felt that you should give up this human body and become a true god, but your own consciousness was telling yourself that you were truly alive. This contradiction is the root cause of your weakened body."
In the eyes of the ley line, it was not absorbing Honma Meiko's life force, but helping its "good daughter" break free from the shackles of her physical body and complete her evolution in life level sooner.
"And shrine maidens like us, even if we cultivate for a lifetime, it's almost impossible to be chosen by a ley line. At most, with the help of incense, we can become a divine messenger parasitic on the ley line after death."
"However, because of the supernatural decline, the divine messengers of that time either left with the gods, or remained in the human world to eke out a living, and even degenerated into evil spirits. It is only in recent years that new divine messengers have begun to appear again."
Under such circumstances, Honma Meiko, who had been chosen by the ley line to ascend to heaven in one step without any cultivation, was indeed worthy of her envy.
As she had said, after becoming a mountain god, Honma Meiko still had a chance, while other gods had not yet returned to the human world and new gods had not yet come to Chichibu, to be the first to become the revered god who ruled the entire Chichibu region.
At that time, Chichibu Shrine could also get rid of the title of State Shinto, logically invite that **** revered god out of the shrine, and then give Honma Meiko a divine name she likes, to be worshipped as one of the new Four Pillars.
Although this kind of thing was not common now, in the inner world, especially in the human world before the gods had departed, it was very normal for a shrine to adjust the gods it worshipped due to conflicts or contests between them.
However, she glanced at Honma Meiko. Seeing her hesitant appearance, she knew that it was impossible for her to give up her human identity.
Or rather, she had not fully believed what she had said, nor had she thought that she would have the chance to become a so-called god.
A peaceful, pure-hearted, and frail girl who just wanted a healthy body would find it very difficult to make the choice to give up her body and the "human emotions" she now possessed.
Even she, a special-grade spirit medium who had cultivated for decades, could abandon her physical body for the sake of becoming a god, but if it would really make her emotions and even her memories as a human disappear, then she would still hesitate.
She could see this point, so before Honma Meiko had clarified her attitude, she first said to her:
"The contract between you and the ley line cannot be broken, because that contract has already penetrated deep into your soul and the ley line of this place. If it is forcibly broken, your current body will not be able to withstand the consequences, and it may also trigger a riot from the ley line. I don't think you want that to happen either."
"The best choice now is to continue to maintain the existence of the contract. Then I can find a way to communicate with the ley line and make it so that the contract will not affect your body again in the short term. It might even be possible to have the ley line feed back spiritual power to your body, allowing it to recover as soon as possible."
"As for the time, I'm not too sure at the moment. It still depends on how obsessed the ley line here is with you, but it should be able to buy you a few years."
"Of course, because we have to take the ley line's feelings into account, you probably won't be able to leave Chichibu City too far for a long time in the future. Otherwise, it might cause the connection between you and the ley line to break, which would also trigger a backlash in your body and a riot from the ley line."
Hearing this, Miyauchi Hikage couldn't help but scratch his head.
Previously, Honma Meiko had only come to Asahigaoka, which was not too far from Chichibu.
And Honma Meiko, due to her health, had stayed in Chichibu City without going out, which was why she had been safe all this time.
He had previously thought about taking Honma Meiko to a farther place to try and break the thread on her and see what would happen.
Fortunately, he hadn't had time to act yet, and had come to Chichibu Shrine to ask the professionals first. Otherwise, it would have really caused a big disaster.
Then, the chief priestess also solemnly extended an invitation to Honma Meiko.
"Although it may sound a bit forceful to say this at this time, we Shinto are indeed one of the supernatural forces with the deepest research into ley lines, and Chichibu Shrine is also one of the oldest shrines in Saitama Prefecture."
"So I hope you can join our shrine. I will take you as my disciple and teach you the secret methods to normally establish a connection with the ley line. After you learn these secret methods, you can also communicate with the ley line yourself and buy more time for yourself, until you are qualified to become a true god."
She paused at this somewhat sensitive point, and then added, "Of course, this does not require you to give up your body, but to ascend to godhood together with your body."
"Although there hasn't been an existence of ascending to godhood in the flesh in modern times for many years, the waves of the spiritual resurgence are now surging one after another. I think with your talent, you still have a good chance."