In a secluded mountain in the southwest corner of Yashiori Island, a place unknown to anyone, lay the Evil Eye Factory.
"Hmm? I feel like something's off." After observing the faint purple glow flickering in and out of sight within the mountain cliff for a while, Shikanoin Heizou voiced his doubts.
He looked left and right, but saw no Fatui guards at the mountain's opening, which made him wonder if his deduction was wrong.
"What's off?" Ember also looked up at the eerie purple glow in the mountains, finding it perfectly consistent with his impression of the Fatui.
After all, only they would always engage in such extremely dangerous-looking activities.
"There are no Fatui guards around here. Logically, that shouldn't be the case, should it?"
Shikanoin Heizou stroked his chin, voicing his confusion.
If, as he had deduced, this was a supply base for the Fatui's aid to Watatsumi Island, then the Fatui should attach great importance to it.
There's no way they wouldn't post any guards at all.
If they were afraid of exposure, they could arrange for hidden sentinels, but from Shikanoin Heizou's own observations, there weren't even any hidden sentinels here.
"Eh!" Ember reached into Shikanoin Heizou's embrace and pulled out the warm stone from his pocket.
"Ember, what are you doing?" Seeing Ember's actions, Shikanoin Heizou was utterly bewildered.
"Look at the Sky?" Ember pointed to the overcast, lightless Sky above their heads.
"What about the Sky? It's just a cloudy day." Shikanoin Heizou looked up at the Sky, not knowing what Ember wanted to say.
"Three."
Ember made a "three" gesture with his hand.
"Three what?"
Shikanoin Heizou was full of questions.
"Two."
Shikanoin Heizou felt a tightness in his chest.
"One!"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
As soon as Ember finished saying "one," Shikanoin Heizou broke into a violent fit of coughing.
It took him a while to recover.
Shikanoin Heizou felt the stinging pain throughout his body and the dizziness in his head, and immediately realized what was happening.
This was tatarigami, and most of Yashiori Island was now permeated with tatarigami.
"Now you understand why there are no defenses, right?" Ember stuffed the warm stone back into his hand.
And the discomfort on Shikanoin Heizou's body was instantly dispelled, as if the previous pain had been a dream.
"Phew..., I understand, I understand."
Shikanoin Heizou clutched his chest, breathing heavily. Only now did he truly understand how destructive tatarigami could be.
"Ember, what do you plan to do next?" After adjusting his state, Shikanoin Heizou asked Ember.
"What do you want to do?"
"Call for people." Shikanoin Heizou didn't hesitate for a moment. A large Fatui stronghold was not like the camps on Watatsumi Island before.
If they rushed in with the same small-scale mentality as before, they probably wouldn't even know how they died.
"What about the tatarigami?"
"The Shogunate Army has talismans from the shrine; they should be able to get through."
Shikanoin Heizou replied without thinking.
Although tatarigami was dangerous, there were still some ways to temporarily obscure it. For example, the talismans made by the shrine maidens.
"Will the resistance just watch the Shogunate Army mobilize on a large scale?" Ember retorted again.
"And, from my notes, it's also clear that there are people within the Shogunate who don't want news of the tatarigami's spread to leak out." After thinking for a moment, Ember added another jab.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Shikanoin Heizou immediately deflated like a punctured ball.
He found that he seemed unable to do anything.
"Charge! Just the two of us!" Ember was just waiting for Shikanoin Heizou to ask that question!
"No..."
"What do you mean, no? Let's go!" Ember didn't care about anything, directly grabbed Shikanoin Heizou by the collar, and threw him into the opening in the mountain cliff... "Bang!"
"Hiss..."
The sound of a heavy object landing echoed, and Shikanoin Heizou steadied himself, then climbed up from the ground.
"Thump!"
"Creak..."
"What a hidden gem." Ember landed, making the wooden floorboards creak.
The narrow opening led to a surprisingly vast space inside.
Clean wooden floors, ubiquitous entryways, tastefully arranged bonsai, ancient-style doors... This didn't look like a Fatui base at all; it was clearly the main residence of a prominent Inazuma family!
"Be careful." Shikanoin Heizou quickly calmed down. Since Ember had brought him in, he had to get something valuable out of this, no matter what.
"I know, but where are the Fatui? Is this some rich noble's retirement home?" Ember responded perfunctorily.
He looked around but saw no one, which made him wonder if he had come to the wrong place.
"Hmph, would a retirement home have crystal marrow?" Shikanoin Heizou snorted coldly. Then he pushed with his palm, and a gust of clear wind tore open the nearby screen, revealing a pile of casually stacked crystal marrow.
Such a large pile, at current market prices, would be enough for an ordinary family to live comfortably without worries.
"And, Ember, have you noticed that the purple light we saw outside has also disappeared?"
With the screen torn open, the two realized that the end of the corridor they were in was a wide plaza.
"Now that you mention it, it does seem so." Ember nodded, it seemed there was indeed something fishy going on here.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Everything around them was extremely quiet, with only Ember's and Shikanoin Heizou's footsteps echoing.
This space truly seemed like a huge abandoned mansion.
"Hiss..., hiss..., hiss..."
Just as the two were advancing, a piercing buzzing sound suddenly came from the silent surroundings.
It sounded like the surging of lightning, but there was also a hint of an unwilling roar within it.
Then, wisps of purplish-black aura emerged from the railings on both sides of the corridor. They were distinctly separate from everything around them, like agile tentacles.
Seeing the tentacles approach, a floating Catalyst instantly appeared in Shikanoin Heizou's hand.
He held the constantly turning pages of the Catalyst with one hand and clenched his five fingers with the other.
Under the combined blessing of magic runes and his Vision, countless Anemo element forces gathered on Shikanoin Heizou's clenched fist, shining exceptionally brightly.
"Heart-Shattering Fist!"
Shikanoin Heizou punched the ground, unleashing all the accumulated elemental power.
"Rumble!"
The wooden planks were shredded by the sweeping gale, scattering like heavy snow. Under this gale, the purple mist that had just blown out from the ventilated railing was immediately dispersed, unable to get close to the two.
The corridor floor was directly torn up, and even the hard rock beneath was shaved off a layer by Shikanoin Heizou, but the walls on both sides of the corridor remained completely undamaged.
And the purplish-black mist that had just been dispersed then blew out again from the ventilated railings beneath the walls.
"Hurry up and go! We can't stay in the corridor!"
Shikanoin Heizou knew without thinking that these strange gases were definitely related to tatarigami, perhaps even "tatarigami" itself.
"Got it!" Ember immediately followed behind Shikanoin Heizou.
He saw the continuously spewing purplish-black gas from the ventilated railing and quietly took a sniff.
Very good, it wasn't tatarigami, but remnants of a god.
These two could be said to be exactly the same thing. tatarigami was the resentment of dead Gods, while remnants of a god were the corpses of dead Gods.
"Tsk, this danger is quite significant." Ember muttered a few words under his breath. Then, an empty jar engraved with ritual patterns appeared in his hand.
Ritual Jar — an empty jar that would restore itself even if broken. A special item with a stronger capacity than a cracked jar, a container required for making ritual jar-type tools.
Various materials and spells could be sealed inside the jar, and it would take effect when thrown.
"Suck it up for me!" Holding the Ritual Jar above his head, Ember activated the sealing runes within it.
The rising remnants of a god seemed to be pulled by an invisible large hand, frantically surging into the Ritual Jar above Ember's head.
Soon, a Ritual Jar glowing with purple light appeared in his hand.
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