Chapter 151: Fierce Battle in the Back Mountain

Looking at the dim lighting, Du Bin tried to use his supernatural ability to generate light. To his surprise, he could not use any abilities at all in this place. Beside him, Kagura looked at his futile attempt, shook her head, and sighed, "Don't waste your effort. There is an array inside this cave that suppresses supernatural powers. No one except me can use their abilities here."

The latter felt helpless. This meant that if she wanted him dead, crushing him would be as easy as crushing an ant. Even outside this cave, given her strength, she could easily crush him just the same. Every place had its own rules, and one had to obey them.

Following her lead, he devoutly knelt and kowtowed to the mountain deity in the shrine. She reached out to pick up a string of beads placed on a small table in front of the shrine, put them on, and began to murmur in a language only she could understand. Countless characters began to appear on both sides of the shrine walls; these were ancient texts, and Du Bin could not recognize a single one.

As she chanted, a force emanated from her body and linked with the shrine. Black energy lingered around her, and a beam of light shot directly into the statue of the deity. The statue emitted a scorching brilliance, and a nine-tailed fox totem appeared on the wall. The two resonated with each other, producing a sharp, piercing high-pitched sound. A nine-tailed fox! Du Bin looked at it in astonishment.

Half an hour later, after she finished chanting, the entire cave suddenly began to shake. A flight of stairs slowly opened up beneath the shrine, and the totem vanished. Kagura stood up and walked straight down. "Don't panic. Below is the sacrificial altar."

The sudden tremor put everyone on high alert. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be an earthquake. The only place 平次郎 (Heijiro) could think of was the back mountain. He said in a panic, "Could she be inside the cave?"

The group, having just left the Nakajima family residence, felt the earthquake and immediately returned out of concern for Heijiro's safety. Seeing that he was unhurt, they breathed a sigh of relief. "Isn't the back mountain your family's forbidden ground? What is she doing there?"

"I have no idea. No one is allowed in there except the heir."

"No matter what, since she has come, we cannot let her leave." Matsui Yoshiken glanced at the crowd and smiled inwardly before speaking, and the others chimed in in agreement.

"Very well, surround the back mountain." Heijiro paced back and forth a few times, then resolutely picked up a samurai sword from the rack. With a gentle draw, the fine steel blade flashed with a cold light. Hundreds of men were deployed to encircle the entire back mountain tightly, layer upon layer, ensuring that not even a fly could escape.

At the end of the stairs was a passageway. Guided by Kagura, they walked deeper along this eerie path. Both sides of the walls were covered in ancient texts. At the end of the passageway, they arrived at a spacious area. Two six-armed stone statues stood tall on either side, and in the center lay a sacrificial altar. On the table rested a black staff, radiating an aura of evil. This feeling could lure someone to approach unconsciously, as if it were summoning one's soul.

"This is the forbidden altar." Du Bin was quite excited as he looked at the ruins. When he was studying, he had always been interested in world history, and now standing right in the middle of it, he felt a thrilling sense of excitement. The place was filled with a rich sense of history, and there were many artifacts from a bygone era scattered around.

Kagura stepped onto the altar and picked up the black staff. "This is the spacetime staff. Do you want to go across now, or what?"

"I'll go across now, alone?" Du Bin was somewhat troubled.

"Do you expect me to go with you? There is only one chance, you know. Things inside the forbidden land cannot be taken out."

"After all, going to a strange new place alone where I don't know anyone... can I bring Sister Lan and the others along? At least it would give me a sense of security." Being able to witness another world inevitably made Du Bin feel restless. Since they were looking for someone, having a few more people along could save a lot of time.

"Sending just you alone requires me to consume most of my energy. Do you think this is a group tour? Go if you want, or don't," Kagura said with a frown of dissatisfaction.

Seeing her get angry, Du Bin immediately tried to flatter her. "Alright, alright, Sister Kagura! Just me alone, no problem at all. But isn't the immediate priority to help you? Besides, I still have some personal matters unfinished. Going over like this feels a bit irresponsible."

"You don't need to worry about my business, your partners can handle that. As for your so-called personal matters, are they important?" Being called "sister" made her very uncomfortable. This guy was older than her yet called her sister; it felt entirely unnatural. However, Kagura did not bicker with him over it.

"It's about the R-vaccine from the Tianyou Group. If we leave it alone, heaven knows what the world will turn into."

"Can't you leave these things to your partners? Alright, enough said, let's just leave it at that!" Kagura remembered that the Tianyou Group was Zeng Jia's father's company. If Du Bin went after Zeng Yilong, wouldn't that also implicate Zeng Jia? Sending him off to another world sooner rather than later was the best strategy. Thinking of this, she smiled slightly. "I'll state this in advance: the parallel passageway I open might not necessarily lead to the same world she went to. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand. No matter what, I will find her," Du Bin said affirmatively. At that moment, he remembered a very important question and asked, "Right, how do we come back after finding her?"

Kagura gave him a blank stare, walked up to Du Bin, and knocked him heavily on the head. "Isn't there another me in the parallel world? Just find me, you idiot."

"Ah, right, I forgot. Hahaha..." Du Bin rubbed his aching head and laughed foolishly.

"Alright, stand in the center of the altar." Kagura didn't want to talk any more with this clueless idiot, as doing so would only make her feel like her own intelligence was dropping as well.

She channeled her energy into the spacetime staff, and the black crystal ball inside immediately emitted a glow. Different halos of light emanated from it, automatically connecting in an orderly fashion to form intersection points on the pillars surrounding the altar. A rotating magic array emerged on the ground. Inside the array, it spun clockwise like a clock, while the ancient texts on the outer perimeter of the array rotated counter-clockwise. Waves of light surged from the array into mid-air, forming a swirling current of air.

"Before you cross over, I will guide the power out of your body. Otherwise, with your current strength, going over there will just make you cannon fodder."

Although he was quite dissatisfied with the term "cannon fodder," if it could awaken the golden lightning within his body, it would be some consolation. He had been looking forward to it for a long time. The dark energy emanating from Kagura filled the entire room, and a sense of oppression made him feel uncomfortable. The spacetime staff floated in mid-air and soon merged into the vortex at the center of the array.

Du Bin felt his entire body being washed over by the dark energy, filling him with endless power. He could sense that streak of golden lightning struggling to break free from its restraints, and abruptly, the blue lightning transformed into golden lightning.

"Not bad. You actually managed to possess the power of light, just like my sister's. Although it's different from the Sacred Light Jade, it counts as a decent sacred power."

"Sacred power." Du Bin looked blankly at the sacred power radiating from his body. This power was even more intense than the previous lightning, which explained why he had been able to shatter Tao Wenjie's metallic body with a single hammer strike back then.

"Alright, have a safe trip." Kagura's pupils turned red, covered with circuit-board patterns that emitted a bright glow. A circular hexagram light pattern slowly descended from above Du Bin. The moment the light pattern touched his body, Du Bin felt an intense scorching heat, and his internal organs experienced extreme discomfort.

He shouted in agony as his body gradually disintegrated into molecules that floated upward into the colorful space above. The parts of his body swept by the hexagram light pattern turned into molecules, and in a split second, Du Bin was completely reduced to scattered starlight, entering the colorful space entirely.

After completing the ritual, Kagura felt a sharp pain in her brain. She squatted down, holding her head, and fought through the agony. "Remember your promise! If you ever get a chance to see that brat Masamasa Saito, slap him hard across the face for me!"

Unable to bear the pain any longer, she screamed out. After struggling for an unknown amount of time, she finally passed out in reluctance. The dark energy vanished. She opened her eyes, a pair of golden pupils flashing before they reverted back to her original black eyes.