"Mr. Yasumoto, don't belittle yourself. You just happened to encounter something you're not good at," Ayaka comforted him.
"That's true, but I still feel a bit useless."
"I'm a doctor; healing and saving lives are my duty. But for these people infected by the curse gods, I have no way to help."
"So, aren't there professionals here? Please stop blaming yourself, alright?"
Shiki felt like her ears were going to callus over. I know you feel guilty for being powerless, but you don't have to keep saying it, do you?
"Oh, right, right! Everyone will be saved now that you're here!" Yasumoto said very happily.
Ayaka, who was beside them, hesitated to speak, but after careful consideration, she decided to tell him about Washizu's madness and human sacrifices.
"Doctor Yasumoto, have there been any unexplained disappearances in Crimsonwood Village recently?"
Yasumoto recalled for a moment and then said, "Now that you mention it, there have been. But the village is already in this state, so no one really pays attention to how those people disappeared."
"For example, me, I'm busy taking care of these people every day, I can't even take care of myself. If you hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have thought of it at all."
"So, what I'm about to tell you might be a bit of a blow to you," Ayaka said with a sorrowful expression.
"Those disappearances were caused by Village Chief Washizu. He has been infected by the curse gods and completely lost his mind, turning into a monster that only performs human sacrifices."
"Ah? How could this be? Then you two just now were actually..." Yasumoto's eyes widened, and he asked in disbelief.
"Killed him," Shiki said calmly. "Don't look like that. After being infected by the curse gods, he already lost himself. You could say the original him was already dead."
"And me slaying him is equivalent to clearing a demon. Do you understand it that way?"
"I understand, but since Village Chief Washizu turned into a monster, does that mean if you two hadn't come, these people would eventually turn into such monsters too?"
Yasumoto's face turned grim. He never expected that the village chief, who was usually kind to everyone, would undergo such a drastic change under the influence of the curse gods.
"That won't happen. Probably due to their physique, the symptoms shown by each person infected by the curse gods are different. These villagers will only die in pain and won't turn into those kinds of demons. Of course, with me here, they won't die."
Shiki explained, and at the same time, gave Yasumoto a guarantee: as long as she was there, no one would die from the curse gods again.
"Alright, the drying is almost done. It's time to get to business."
Putting her now-dry furisode back on, Shiki drew her dagger, then held a ball of golden electro element in her palm and walked towards bed number two.
Cleaning up the curse gods was not difficult for Shiki, but there were simply too many infected people here. Even with her efficiency of nearly one per minute, it still took almost half an hour.
"This is the last one. After they wake up, Yasumoto, brew some qi and blood-tonifying herbal soup for them. Once the Tenryou Commission's ship arrives, you can leave Yashiori Island."
"Wuwuwu, thank you so much!"
Yasumoto looked at the villagers, who, though still malnourished, clearly had the complexion of normal people, and wept tears of gratitude. If the girl hadn't come, none of these villagers infected by the curse gods would have survived.
"Then I'll accept your thanks. Remember to brew the herbal soup, and also notify the other villagers to board the ship and leave Yashiori Island. We still need to repair the Warding Stones, so we'll take our leave first."
Shiki deserved this thanks. Of course, she wasn't the only one who could cleanse the curse gods; the Grand Narukami Shrine miko could also expel them.
But the problem is, you'd have to get to Grand Narukami Shrine first!
If you can't even leave Yashiori Island, where are you going to find a miko to help you exorcise evil? Mikos are a scarce resource; those without Talents can't become one.
Not to mention having a Vision to wield elemental power, at the very least, you need to be able to perceive it, right? Otherwise, if you can't even perceive elemental power, how can you use those various talismans?
Opening her umbrella, Shiki and Ayaka left Crimsonwood Village.
One of Yashiori Island's Warding Stones is near Musoujin Gorge, one at Serpent's Head, one near Snake Bone Mine, and the last one at the westernmost Nameless Fort. Shiki had asked about these locations at Grand Narukami Shrine beforehand.
Although those two puzzles gave her a huge headache when she first explored, if you asked her to recall the original process now, she really couldn't remember.
She could only recall a general idea, only knowing that she had to pick up a bead or something and put it back into the shrine.
After all, people don't remember things that annoy them, just like you can easily recall Yasuo's airblade combo, but it's hard to memorize a twenty-character ancient poem.
Directly teleporting to the northernmost Waypoint on Yashiori Island via the Statue of the Seven, they had to plan their route beforehand, because there was only one such teleport waypoint nearby.
If they accidentally took a wrong turn, not only could they not teleport back, but they would also have to take a huge detour to get back to the nearest Statue of the Seven.
"There should be a Warding Stone nearby. To be safe, let's not split up. Although it's slower in terms of efficiency, it's safer."
Now that Yashiori Island was ravaged by the curse gods, who knew if a group of infected Kairagi, like Village Chief Washizu, would suddenly appear and be immune to blades and spears?
Shiki would be fine, but what about Ayaka? She didn't have Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. All she could rely on were her electro element and the sword in her hand.
One wouldn't matter; she could maintain permafreeze. But what if they encountered two or even more? If Shiki wasn't there at that time, wouldn't she be in grave danger?
"Okay, I'll listen to you," Ayaka nodded.
The two walked south and finally found a shrine at the edge of Musoujin Gorge. However, the Warding Stone and the inlaid bead that were originally placed inside were missing. Without a doubt, Nathan, that Fatui traitor, must have taken them and thrown them away.
Fortunately, the Warding Stones had spirits and would automatically go to the sealed place after being discarded, otherwise, where would they even look for them?
Following the Vision guidance given by the shrine, the two came to the beach north of it. A large chunk of the mountain here was missing, and in the center was a blue barrier.
Ayaka looked around at the stone pillars surrounding them and found that at the very top of the pillars were things similar to weather vanes, and they could also rotate in different directions.
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