This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 141 - 140: Wedding Purification Ceremony (10th update)

Chapter 141: Chapter 140: Wedding Purification Ceremony (10th update)

I won’t describe the climbing process in detail here.

Beichuan Si had returned to the Shenzhu Shrine, where a ghostly firelight still flickered in the main hall of the shrine.

The entire shrine complex was surprisingly simple, its front obscured by the main hall of the shrine, leaving only the general outline of the structures visible in the back.

With his energy replenished, he no longer hesitated, stepped onto the wooden path, and walked straight towards the front door of the shrine’s main hall.

Perhaps due to the rain yesterday, the entire wooden path had been submerged in murky water.

Beichuan Si stepped on the water and approached the wooden path, feeling the warmth gradually stripping away from his body.

The door of the temple was tightly shut, and Beichuan Si’s fingers, gripping the crack tightly, couldn’t pry it open.

It was as if it were connected to this space.

Beichuan Si took two steps back, and a cold glint from Jian Ding shot through his hand.

Infused with a heavy breath of death, the blade smashed fiercely against the traditional wooden door.

A strange scene unfolded.

At a distance of about a centimeter from the wooden door, Beichuan Si’s dagger could not get any closer, as if there was an invisible wall in the air, blocking him.

Beichuan Si simply increased the force in his hands and the intensity of the death energy he was channeling.

Crack, crack, crack—

Crack!

A crisp sound emanated, and the invisible wall seemed to be completely shattered and disappeared under the forceful and weighty strike from Beichuan Si.

Hoo.

Beichuan Si exhaled a breath, withdrew Jian Ding, and when he reached out to touch the wooden door again, he could easily pull it open.

"Let’s go," Beichuan Si said to Nishijou Kurenai, who was perched on his shoulder, while he dropped the outdoor backpack and the cold weather clothes where they were, taking only his waist pack and flashlight as he fumbled into the pitch-dark interior of the shrine’s main hall.

Although there were inexplicably flickering candle flames in the shrine, the overall atmosphere was still rather dim.

Beichuan Si could feel the malicious gazes hidden in the darkness all around.

But when he shone his flashlight there, he found nothing.

He shook his head and focused on surveying the surroundings.

The building’s interior space was large, with a dome overhead, where he could see crossbeams and gently swaying pale white lanterns that covered the sky.

Indeed, the sky was covered with paper lanterns, and it seemed there were names written on them.

With the help of the light, Beichuan Si barely made out the words written above.

Shenzhu...

Shenzhu...

Shenzhu...

The paper lanterns all bore the singular surname of Shenzhu!

As the main hall of the shrine, there was only one offering table inside, which had no offerings placed on it.

Only the paper lanterns overhead gently swayed.

It wasn’t hard to deduce that the main hall was dedicated to the members of the Shenzhu Family.

Beichuan Si’s gaze shifted—

"What’s that...?"

Something seemed to have fallen beneath the offering table.

Beichuan Si walked over with his flashlight.

It was an ancient, thick record book, which Beichuan Si picked up.

On the cover were written these few words,

"The Shenzhu Matrimonial Records."

Indeed, the Shenzhu Family had to maintain its lineage and could not be without marriage contracts.

But it was strange why a record book detailing these matrimonial affairs would be placed here.

Beichuan Si placed it on the altar table and looked under the light:

"The Shenzhu Shrine, the marriage purification ceremony."

"To maintain the legacy of the Shrine, a selection of husbands must be made every fifteen years to ascend the mountain and then conduct the marriage purification ceremony. If in harmony, they are granted the title of priest and crowned with the name of Shenzhu, thereafter being instilled with the Shrine’s philosophy by the Jinnv, so they focus on the ritual and settle on Shenzhu Mountain."

"Afterward, any child born to the son-in-law and the Shrine maiden is deemed a member of the Shenzhu branch family."

"The son-in-law must not engage with the core affairs of the Shrine, nor may members of the Shenzhu Main Family have any relations with the son-in-law. They must maintain the purity of their lineage and control the Shrine and the legacy of the ceremonial rites."

"Son-in-law? Could this be what Magong Yongshi was referring to...?" Beichuan Si recalled the story of the maiden and the man that Magong Yongshi had told.

It certainly was possible that a maiden from the Shenzhu Main Family could fall in love with a son-in-law.

If one of the Soul Suppressing Twins fell for a man and, due to the stringent rules of the Shenzhu Family, couldn’t meet the man she loved, causing the ceremony to fail—

Could that be possible?

And this page only mentioned the case of ’harmony.’ What if the man’s marriage purification ceremony ’did not harmonize’?

What would become of the man?

No record continued beyond this point.

Beichuan Si flipped open the book.

The contents began with the Taisho Era, but they weren’t particularly extensive.

After all, the mountain only brought men up once every fifteen years; naturally, there wasn’t much to record.

Moreover, sometimes the Shenzhu Shrine had many male members and thus didn’t need to select men from below the mountain. Thus, there were several gaps in the records.

But Beichuan Si paid no attention to these details; his concern was the records from ’08 or ’09.

According to the story narrated by the fragmented image of Magong Yongshi, there might be records about the maiden and the man.

"There it is," Beichuan Si’s expression brightened.

Just as he suspected, there was indeed a selection in the Heisei 21st year, 2009. There weren’t many men who ascended the mountain, roughly just over a dozen.

Additionally, about half of the names above had been crossed out in red, indicating those who presumably failed the marriage purification ceremony.

"So the remaining names must be among these, right?"

Beichuan Si perused the remaining list of names, one of which caught his eye.

His name had been marked with a red circle, seemingly a special notation.

Beichuan Si turned the page.

However, strangely, the record of the 2009 marriage purification ceremony vanished as if into thin air.

This didn’t match the previous format.

The standard format so far was:

Marriage purification candidates—those who passed the marriage purification ceremony (excluding males who failed the ceremony)—marriage purification candidates marrying a maiden of the Shrine.

But aside from the candidates and those who passed the marriage purification ceremony, this page was devoid of anything else.

Logically, it should proceed with the marriages—

"Which means, for some reason, the matter of marriage was temporarily delayed,"

Beichuan Si frowned.

What could possibly have happened that was more urgent than the significant matter of family lineage?

Beichuan Si quickly deduced the answer.

The only event more critical than family lineage would be the Soul Summoning Flower ceremony.

In 2009, the Shenzhu Shrine was preparing for the upcoming Soul Summoning Flower ceremony. By 2010, for some reason, the ceremony failed, the entire Shrine was decimated, and naturally, there were no follow-up records on the marriage purification ceremony.

"This deduction should be accurate."

Beichuan Si stood up.

The lantern above swayed in the dim reflection of the candlelight—

The spirits within the Shrine seemed to affirm Beichuan Si’s conjecture.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.