Master of Kaidan
Chapter 397: Orochi, Young Man!

Chapter 397: Chapter 397: Orochi, Young Man!

Although in true history, the so-called Great Mountain clan was just a group of bandits occupying the Great Mountain, occasionally raiding cities, in the Eastern Country rich with kaidan culture, people loved to mythologize the rulers and then make demons of their enemies.

For instance, earth spiders were simply natives living in the mountains, and the two-faced Sukuna was a local hero who once rebelled against the authorities. Later on, even when famous figures slew bandit raiders, people would exaggerate their achievements by labeling those bandits as "ghosts" to highlight their martial prowess.

Since Yoshitsune killed Shuten-doji, a famous person, the latter’s status naturally rose. After all, when you want to praise someone, the most direct and subtle way is to boast about the person they defeated.

Moreover, the story of Shuten-doji being "decapitated after getting drunk" clearly echoed the tale of Orochi being slain by Susanoo, thereby connecting Shuten-doji’s legend with Orochi, giving it the characteristic of the "Son of Orochi."

And at this very moment, Shuten-doji used alcohol as a medium and legend as bait, awakening the primordial kaidan of Orochi through the unique timing of the Midsummer Night Festival.

In theory, the "Orochi" beheaded in the legend should not appear as a primordial kaidan, for in people’s minds, it was truly "dead."

However, in recent years, in countless manga, novels, games, and films from the Eastern Country, Orochi revived time and again, in various roles, forms, and motivations drawn from the legends.

During this process, people influenced by the cultural invasion of the Eastern Country subconsciously added many characteristics, including "being able to resurrect," to this evil god.

And at that moment, on the site of this ritual that is most rich in tags, the Hundred Tales unleashed their greatest card using the intense attention and unique atmosphere.

The remnants of "tags," "elements," and "identity" from the previously deceased Hundred Tales, even the Kaidan Fire that dissipated after failing to integrate into the legend after the story was told, all began rapidly gathering, merging into those eight ferocious serpent heads.

More than seventy storytellers who hadn’t told their tales in unison recited sections about Orochi from the "Ancient Records," eventually turning discordant. Some began narrating about Yuan Lvzhi from Daimoson, others spoke of evil spirits in Ping’an City, and some told legends about the Orochi power as the collective negative consciousness of Earth...

The giant serpent with eight heads and eight tails was merely born from absorbing the characteristics of a Western country’s snake-slaying mythology, symbolizing a water disaster that takes away the harvest (Kushinadahime). However, as the acg culture that nearly served as a cultural emblem of the Eastern Country spread, it was adorned with all sorts of wonders, as though it could not be called Orochi if it were not strong.

Immense power, terrifying regenerative abilities, and toxic blood became mere surface traits, with all sorts of elements synonymous with evil filling its flesh and blood.

The more complex and powerful a kaidan setting, the more difficult it usually is to manifest. But once it appears, every perception about it would become the framework supporting its existence.

With the cultural circle of Blue Star nowadays, how many developed countries haven’t played Eastern Country games, watched Eastern Country animations, or read Eastern Country novels? And how many, as frequenters of acg culture, are aware of Orochi’s existence?

Flames of kaidan one by one extinguished, and each storyteller’s body turned into serpent scales, merging with the eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent.

The blazing Kaidan Fire rekindled a new sun under the night sky; even the sun, representing Amaterasu’s power, unfolded on Tamamo no Mae’s Takamagahara, dimmed fore.

A river formed from decomposing toxic blood surged through this divine realm, blemishing the previously exotic Divine Residence into a bizarre Demon Realm.

Dozens of unlit flames all transformed into nourishment for Orochi. This Midsummer Night Festival seemed a failure. However, midsummer nights weren’t over yet. Before July, every day could be a midsummer night.

Or, Orochi was precisely the result of the Hundred Tales tonight!

On the scroll floating mid-air, in the picture of the Night Parade of Hundred Demons, a silhouette of an eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent emerged behind the ghosts, becoming the background of this record of thousands of kaidan, the largest kaidan in the Night Parade of Hundred Demons.

"Squeezing the original setting of the primordial kaidan with different settings and then taking over... so it can be played like this?"

Seeing that large knot seemingly woven from countless flames yet belonging to none, Feng Xue instantly grasped its true principle and realized that the vast amount of anthropomorphizing, feminization, and humanization activities in the Eastern Country might not solely promote kaidan. They might also be preparing for such "takeovers."

Spirits were hard to counter primordial kaidan, so let the primordial ones lose their primordial state...

"The Hundred Tales accomplished something too..." Feng Xue took a deep breath in the cockpit, adjusted the inner breath, and transformed again into that indescribable, weird being, striking at Orochi, still absorbing "identity," with the Heavenly Demon Various Forms Fist.

The eight-headed, eight-tailed behemoth collided with the hundred-armed, hundred-legged Heavenly Demon in a primitive manner, yet the gale that splashed had nothing left to blow away.

Tamamo no Mae, stitched with Killing Stone, completed her mission of delay, wrapping the surviving cadres like Hundred-eyed Demon with nine tails and sprinting toward the distant Heavenly Guardian Tower.

Seeing this, Feng Xue pressed down his fingertips, triggering a button inside the control arm. A disc approximately thirty centimeters in diameter dislodged from the world’s wrist, drawing a graceful arc under the sun and moon’s radiant sky, flying toward the fleeing Nine-tailed Fox.

Orochi did not intercept this hidden weapon; instead, using Feng Xue’s distraction, it swung that blood-and-flesh-decaying-in-appearance tail, smacked the machine harshly, and under the terrifying size of nearly a hundred meters, even the world with the "armor" element was hard-pressed to bear.

Inside the softly lit cockpit, the red light began flickering, and the diagram on the screen, representing the state of the machine, had mostly turned red. Various texts denoting damage popped up successively from the displays of the logging computer. At this moment, the live broadcast room had hardly any scrolling comments, as though everyone held their breath, awaiting this confrontation’s final act.

The thrown disc precisely hit the demon fox of Nine Tails. Amidst its mournful cries, the shattered blood and flesh seemed to herald the fall of this top-five-ranked monster from the Eastern Country’s popularity charts.

Yet, the still-burning Kaidan Fire dismissed this thought, and as a soft golden fox tail descended from the sky, the previously flying flesh seemed to turn into an illusion. Only Tamamo no Mae, with eight tails remaining, returned to her pre-hit state as if time had reversed, swinging tails to lift rocks as a shield and speeding toward the Heavenly Guardian Tower.

By this time, Feng Xue was out of energy to chase. The world, enduring sixteen hits from Orochi, eventually couldn’t withstand the explosive bombardment. Amidst flickering sparks, it exploded into a handful of fireworks.