21st Century Necromancer

Chapter 114 Gods and the Dead (Please Recommend, Please Collect)

Through his conversation with the Little Rice Princess, Chen Yu learned a lot of useful information and also came to understand the current situation of Saegusa Kyoko.

In Japan, Yomi had long existed; from the information Chen Yu gathered from the Little Rice Princess, he felt it might be a corner of the Underworld in the Central Region, simply occupied by the Yomotsu Oni Tribe and turned into the realm of the dead for Japanese Shintoism.

Of course, the origins of Yomi weren't important; tracing back thousands of years to the age of myths was fine for story-telling, but delving too deep would seem exceedingly tedious.

For contemporary Japan, Yomi still represented a place of rest and rebirth for the deceased. As for the Pure Land, it was believed by those who followed Buddhism that if one died without any worldly attachments, they could be reborn in the Buddhist Pure Land.

Since the Little Rice Princess was a deity of Shintoism, her understanding of the Pure Land was not very thorough—she only knew that those without attachments who had believed in Buddhism in life could be reborn there; clearly, Saegusa Kyoko no longer met these conditions.

As for Yomi, whether one had attachments was irrelevant; as long as one hadn't become a Bound Spirit, small demons would arrive in a flaming chariot to guide their soul into Yomi.

Naturally, this was a tale from ancient mythology; the yokai train had transformed into a modern train. The departed souls only needed to head to their nearest subway station, and at midnight, a subway heading to Yomi-no-kuni would appear to ferry the departed souls to Yomi.

After all, there were far too many dead nowadays to rely solely on chariots and small demons for guidance; thus, the dead had to take the train themselves now.

Nonetheless, there were still restrictions on the souls for Yomi; only pure souls could cross the gates into Yomi.

For a soul like Saegusa Kyoko that had absorbed Negative Energy, traditional beliefs held that it would either become a Bound Spirit or an Evil Ghost, but according to the Little Rice Princess, the Yin Force absorbed by Saegusa Kyoko had been purified and processed by Chen Yu; thus, her transformation was not into an attachment- and grudge-influenced Bound Spirit or Evil Ghost, but into a purer Divine Servant.

However, once such a transformation began, it meant that Saegusa Kyoko could no longer pass through the gates of Yomi because Yomi would not accept Divine Servants of other deities. If Saegusa Kyoko wished to enter Yomi, she would have to do so through Hirasaka Ridge, but that was an entirely different matter from the dead entering Yomi.

"What do you plan to do now? Although the Little Rice Princess said she could introduce you to become a Divine Servant of Miketsu no Kami, it still depends on your own decision," Chen Yu said, looking at Saegusa Kyoko sitting on his gravestone.

For example, Little Rice Princess is merely a rather powerful being, not even powerful enough, and if she were to be classified according to a Transcendent's levels, she would be at Expert Level at best, not even Legendary-rank, but according to Japanese standards, she is still considered a deity.

Of course, as Little Rice Princess herself had mentioned, she only evolved from a fox to a Divine Servant after receiving the Divine Power of the Inari God Miketsu no Kami, then was assigned to this tiny Shrine to act as a deity. Such a minor god was, of course, not a standard for measuring the power of a deity.

According to Little Rice Princess, Japanese deities could generally be divided into two categories: One type was the naturally occurring deities, for example, the famous deities such as Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Inari, and other traditional Shinto deities.

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The second type comprised spirits worthily worshipped such as mountains, trees, foxes, and other animal souls, as well as the souls of famous deceased individuals and various evil specters and yokai.

In Shintoism, these deities are commonly referred to as "kami." Initially, this term meant the souls of the deceased, but with the rise and development of Shintoism, it came to be used specifically for deities.

The deities were classified based on the strength of their Divine Power. The powerful ones, such as the Sun God Amaterasu or the Inari God who have Shrines throughout the country, naturally received a great deal of faith and possessed mighty Divine Power.

According to Little Rice Princess, they each held at least one aspect of authority, like Amaterasu being the Sun God, and the Inari God being the God of Harvest.

Such deities are also recorded in the "Multiverse Universal Necromancy Spell Compendium," and are at least the entities that have successfully mastered a Divine Duty. Even by the standards of the "Multiverse Universal Necromancy Spell Compendium," they qualify as true deities.

As for others who achieve the title of deity through being worshipped and can only protect a certain region like Little Rice Princess, according to the "Multiverse Universal Necromancy Spell Compendium," they would only be considered "Ancestral Spirits," not true deities.

While they possess Divine Power and Divinity, because they haven't genuinely formed a Divine Duty and their power is quite weak, they cannot be regarded as true deities.

Having understood this, Chen Yu suddenly became interested in divine enthronement.

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