Mao didn't ask what to be careful about. Since she and Horii had known each other, the tacit understanding between the two of them was enough to convince her that Horii would never harm her. Moreover, as she got closer and closer to the shrine, she felt somewhat anxious.

Mao griped tightly her hands and caressed the lines on bow Only then did this, she felt a little more at ease.

"Here we are." While she was still wandering around, the village chief stopped and pointed at the shrine a hundred steps away. "Those people are inside the shrine," he said. The shrine had a barrier that could trap them. "If you go any further, you will enter the barrier filed … Mistress Witch lady, you must be careful when you enter. None of the monks and witches who came to eliminate the Yōkai will be able to come out alive. I think they should have been eaten by the monster."

"Naturally, I know my limits."

Mao replied, then pulled Horii 's sleeve and slowly walked towards the shrine. "Do you smell it?" Mao suddenly said when they were about to reach the entrance of the shrine. "Yes." Horii nodded. She had a keener sense of smell than normal people and had long sensed the stench of a low-grade Yōkai that enveloped the shrine. Mao covered nose and frowned in disgust, "It really smells terrible."

Horii smiled helplessly as she looked at her dissatisfied expression. Mao had always been a cleaner, and even she herself felt that this smell was really unpleasant, let alone a person with serious cleanliness? "… No, there seems to be a miasma inside as well." Mao suddenly raised eyebrows and changed disgusted expression. She spread out her palm towards Horii and said, " Horii, give it to me."

Horii understood and took out two adult-shaped talismans from her bag and handed them to Mao. Mao took them and chanted an incantation with talismans between her fingers. Talismans instantly turned into two streaks of blue light and entered through the window of the shrine. Everything returned to calm after two "chi-chi" sounds came from inside.

Horii also frowned. Those low-grade monsters seemed to be more powerful than they had imagined.

"The Shiki has been torn to pieces." Mao looked at her and said.

"But it's a bit abnormal. Those Yōkai didn't retaliate when they were attacked." Horii wrote in her hand.

"Perhaps it was due to the influence of the barrier?"

"The barrier outside the shrine can only trap them. There was no reason why they should not even dare to come out of the shrine. It seems that there was a mysterious power restricting them inside the shrine. I just don't know what it was."

"Since we don't know, then let's go in and take a look," Mao said.

"It's better to make some preparations before entering." After Horii finished, she grabbed Mao 's hand. She was really worried that this little ancestor would be willful for a moment and rushed into the shrine.

"Why are you pulling me for? I won't go in now!" Mao lowered her head and looked at the stones on the ground. She angrily kicked stones and angrily said. "It's really annoying to get rid of Yōkai and stuff like that!"

…

On the way to the village chief's home, Horii saw a pair of young siblings. The siblings looked about the same age as Eiko. They were dressed in rags and pitifully snuggled up in a corner. Mao followed her line of sight and saw the two of them as well. Without waiting for her to ask curiously, the village chief explained, "That's Torajirou and his sister Akiko. Their parents died in the last invasion of the monster, so they became orphans."

"Why don't they go home? Nobody cares about them?" Mao asked.

"Most of the houses in the village have been destroyed by the monsters. They haven't been rebuilt yet. Everyone's living is not good now. How can they bother with the two children? Furthermore, I heard …"

The village chief lowered his voice and mysteriously moved closer to the True Yang. "They are ominous."

"Ominous?" Mao 's tone rose slightly.

"It's the reincarnation of Calamity God … Everyone thinks that they brought calamity to the village."

"Is that so?" Mao smiled coldly and pulled Horii towards the two children.

Feeling that someone was approaching, the younger sister, Akiko, raised her head gently. Her clear amber eyes flashed with a trace of panic from being disturbed.

An ominous person? Horii stared at the pair of eyes and observed them repeatedly. Although she did not know how to divine like Reiko, a person with such pure eyes did not look like an ominous person. On the contrary, she could feel weak Spiritual Energy fluctuations from the girl’s body.

"Say something. “She hinted Mao with her eyes.

Mao rolled her eyes and tried to stiffly imitate Reiko’s usual gentle smile. She asked, "You are … called Akiko, aren't you?"

The girl blinked timidly, her large watery eyes revealing some uneasiness.

"You don't have to be afraid …"

Mao did not know how to ease the little girl. After a long time of struggling, she could only squeeze out such a dry sentence.

Perhaps seeing that Mao did not have any hostile intentions, the girl nodded slightly. She glanced at the old village chief standing not far away and whispered, "Mistress Witch, are you here to eliminate the demons?"

"Yes, we have been entrusted."

"Mistress Witch, you should leave quickly. This place is very dangerous."

Mao was amused by her sincere suggestion, "If it's dangerous here, we can't leave. As a witch, my duty is to protect people like you."

"But … it's really dangerous. The village chief is not the original village chief anymore …" Akiko's words stopped abruptly. She instantly restrained all her expressions and lowered her head. She just squeezed herself to her brother's side. "Mistress Witch." Mao was still curious about Akiko's behaviour, but the village chief's voice suddenly came from behind, causing her to be slightly surprised.

Was her perception lacking enough that she could not discover someone is approaching? She raised her head to look at Horii and found that Horii also shook her head with a calm expression. "Lady Witch, it's going to be dark soon. Let's hurry up and leave." "Let's go first." Horii silently wrote in Mao 's hand. Mao glanced at the siblings and signalled for the village chief to lead the way.

Her instincts told her that the siblings might know something, but with the village chief here, she probably wouldn't be able to ask anything. Thinking of this, Mao couldn't help but put a big question mark on the village chief.

What did Akiko mean by "the village chief is not the original village chief"? Why did she appear so afraid of the village chief? Mao only felt that she and Horii had entered a bureau filled with fog, and someone had already laid down a large net to wait for them in the dark.