[T/N: 🎊 HAPPY NEW YEAR chaps! 🎊 May this year be Healthy and Productive for you! Enjoy~]
Seeing this, Hikari was already used to it, and he smiled as he praised Sayako.
Miyuri snorted unhappily, quickened her pace, and started searching too, planning to find a key herself.
Once Miyuri got serious, she soon groped out a key from a patch of thick grass.
Just like Sayako, who had been showing off just now, Miyuri proudly held it up high, "Sayako, I found a key too, what's so great about it?"
Just as she was happily talking, Miyuri suddenly slipped underfoot and fell backward.
"Ah!"
Miyuri shouted loudly, drawing everyone's attention.
Watching Miyuri's figure suddenly disappear, Sayako, who was closest to her, immediately hurried over.
"Ah! It's a cliff down here! Miyuri is about to fall, hurry over here!"
Hisugi Ridge's terrain sloped upward from front to back and was actually a bit steep. Normally, walking along the mountain path was no problem, but just now Miyuri had gone off to the side to look for the key, and when her foot slipped she almost fell down the mountain.
Right now Miyuri was clutching a tree trunk at the cliff's edge, with more than half her body hanging in midair. It looked extremely dangerous.
Miyuri's voice also seemed to have startled the others who were taking part in the courage test.
Natsuki Akito, Sakai Yutaka, and the people from the other two teams all heard the commotion and rushed over.
When they heard Sayako describe Miyuri's dangerous situation, everyone got quite anxious.
But just now, in order to compete with Sayako, Miyuri had gone to a place that was both high up and off to the side to look for the key. To rescue her now, hanging on the cliff edge, would not only be troublesome but also involve a certain amount of risk.
Natsuki Akito, who arrived very quickly, looked at the crisis his beloved was in and hesitated badly. He wanted to step forward to save her, but he was also afraid that he might slip and fall himself.
The cliff edge where Miyuri was hanging was at least several dozen meters above the ground. Falling would hurt a lot.
While Natsuki Akito was still hesitating, a figure had already quickly climbed up the high ground and reached the cliff edge.
That agile figure was none other than Hikari.
At the cliff edge, seeing Miyuri's pale face and tightly bitten lip, he grabbed her arm in one swift motion and, with a bit of force, pulled her up.
"Hik... Hikari-kun!"
Back on solid ground, Miyuri clung tightly to Hikari's arm, her face drained of color, still looking quite shaken.
"Let's go down first, Auntie."
Hikari supported Miyuri as they walked down from the high little mound of earth and came to the others.
Seeing Hikari's quick reaction in saving Miyuri, Sayako and the others all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hikari-kun... thank you for saving Auntie. Auntie almost lost her life," After she had mostly calmed down, Miyuri hugged Hikari's arm tightly and said this, still trembling with fear.
"It's fine."
Hikari was just about to respond when Natsuki Akito, who had been hesitating just now, quickly came over and cut in, "Miyuri... sister-in-law, y... you're okay, right?"
In the face of her brother-in-law Natsuki Akito's concern, Miyuri didn't give much of a response. She just casually nodded and then ignored him, continuing to hold onto Hikari's arm to show her gratitude.
After resting for a few more minutes, the color finally returned to Miyuri's face. She smiled and said, "Alright, no need to crowd around here anymore. Let's continue the courage test."
Hearing that, the others were still a bit worried. Sayako even asked, "Are you sure you still want to continue? Miyuri, are you really okay?"
Miyuri shook her head with a smile, "I'm fine. Hikari-kun just happened to catch me in time, so now I'm totally fine. What are you all worrying about? Let's keep taking part in the courage test. I'm definitely going to be the champion."
Hearing Miyuri's cheerful tone restored, the others could only smile helplessly and shake their heads, then continue heading up the mountain.
They more or less understood that Miyuri didn't want her situation to ruin everyone's fun.
But since Miyuri had said so and indeed looked fine, they might as well just continue.
After Natsuki Akito and the others left, Miyuri also called out to Hikari, Sayako, and Jinno Ai to keep moving.
But after walking forward for a while, Miyuri suddenly frowned and stopped.
Hikari and the other two immediately turned to look at her, "What's wrong?"
Miyuri lowered her head and frowned, "I didn't fall just now, but it seems my pants got some water from the tree on them. They're a bit wet."
They all looked down and indeed saw that the right pant leg of Miyuri's jeans had a wet patch.
Hikari immediately said, "Then, Auntie, you'd better head home first."
"Mm, I'll go back first," Miyuri nodded.
Hikari said, "I'll walk you back."
Miyuri quickly shook her head, "No need. We haven't gone that far. I can go back by myself. You guys keep taking part in the courage test."
After Miyuri repeatedly refused several times and he realized she didn't want to affect the others, Hikari had no choice but to keep climbing with Sayako and Jinno Ai.
But after they walked forward another few dozen steps, Hikari suddenly frowned slightly and stopped walking.
"Hikari-kun, what's wrong?", Seeing him stop, Sayako and Jinno Ai both looked over in puzzlement.
Hikari smiled and explained, "It's nothing, I'm just still a bit worried about Auntie Miyuri. How about this, I'll go walk her down the mountain first, then come back and join you two for the courage test."
"Alright, I'm a bit worried about her too," Sayako and Jinno Ai both nodded, agreeing to his suggestion.
Hikari immediately turned around and headed down the mountain alone.
But once he was out of Sayako and Jinno Ai's line of sight, he did not walk in the direction Miyuri had left, that main road they had taken up the mountain. Instead, he turned to the right and went onto another rarely traveled path, a small trail with wild grass growing along it.
In fact, just now, Hikari hadn't suddenly changed his mind and really decided to walk Miyuri down.
It was that, with his Vajra Demon-Subduing Force and extremely sharp senses, he had suddenly sensed a strange aura.
This eerie aura was similar to the ones he had felt from the urban legends he'd encountered before, like Hanako Himoki in the bathroom and Miss Mary.
'It seems to be some kind of urban legend or weird entity?'
Hikari had originally thought this was just a courage test arranged by people.
"So there really are some kinds of demons and monsters hidden in the mountain?"
The sudden, unexpected aura surprised him a little.
Although he had long known that monsters and strange entities and other supernatural things existed in this world, he hadn't expected to encounter them on a trip back to the countryside to visit relatives.
Running into a weird aura even in the countryside, was that really just a coincidence?
Hikari wasn't sure.
But he didn't like this kind of unknown situation, and he was confident he did not lose to those demons and monsters from rural Neon legends.
So after confirming that Sayako and the others all carried protective items like the Clear Jade amulets and were in no danger, Hikari decided to go over and investigate.
Following that strange aura, he walked off in another direction.
This was another remote little path on Hisugi Ridge. The road he had just taken with Jinno Ai and the others for the courage challenge was a main road that people had deliberately opened up; basically everyone used that side to go up the mountain.
So almost no one walked this small path anymore. Not only was it rough and hard to walk on, it was also overgrown with weeds.
Although there were none of those deliberately set up props to add horror for the courage test along this path, the silent, deserted atmosphere here was even more eerie and frightening.
Hikari walked several dozen steps in a row without anything happening, as if everything before had just been his imagination.
But in the next moment, a strange sound faintly reached him.
Hikari's ears twitched slightly, and he focused his attention on his hearing.
PO! PO! PO!
A gloomy wind brushed past his face, and that strange sound rang out again, like the muffled pop of a wooden stopper being pulled out of a thermos, constantly reaching his ears.
The bizarre sound was like a demon god's whisper, constantly echoing in his ears.
The situation in front of Hikari was clearly very abnormal.
The mountain path was pitch black, not even a trace of moonlight, almost so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
At the same time, the strange sound kept coming.
If it had been anyone else from Ino Village encountering this, they probably would have already turned and fled in panic.
But Hikari was highly skilled and very bold. Not only was his physique far beyond that of an ordinary person right now, he also possessed the Vajra Demon-Subduing Force and the lightning seed that could discharge electricity, and had already subdued more than one demon or monster. Naturally, he was not afraid of this at all.
He had come precisely to investigate, so Hikari kept moving forward in the direction of that strange sound.
But after walking for a while, nothing happened. The weird sound in his ears grew fainter and even completely disappeared, as if everything before had just been an illusion.
Just as Hikari was wondering whether the thing had hidden itself and considering whether to use some method to search for the traces of this sneaky demon, he suddenly stopped.
Standing on the muddy mountain trail, he took his phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight mode.
A beam of white light shone out from the back of his phone and illuminated the ground. Hikari stared intently.
He saw that on the muddy dirt road in front of him, a footprint had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
He had actually been paying attention along the way. Before he stepped onto this path, there had been absolutely no other footprints.
And in front of this suddenly appearing footprint, as well as to its left and right, there were no other footprints at all.
This footprint was as if someone had suddenly dropped down from the sky, stepped once, and then disappeared again.
Not only had this footprint appeared strangely and all of a sudden, what was even more chilling was that, its size was actually close to twice that of an ordinary person's, like a giant's footprint.
Carefully sensing the footprint, Hikari could clearly feel a strange aura from it.
He frowned slightly.
It wasn't because the footprint was big.
In fact, with his physique, lions and tigers were no match for him, and he wasn't afraid of someone whose build was twice that of an ordinary person either.
But the strange aura left in this footprint was unusually strong, even making Hikari feel a faint twinge of unease in his heart.
"If this footprint was left behind by some weird entity, its power is probably not weak, maybe even above Hanako Himoki and Miss Mary. I'd better be careful," Hikari grew wary.
"That eerie sound just now, and this footprint, could it be..."
Based on some materials he had read before, Hikari had a vague guess in his heart.
Although he already had a few rough guesses, before he actually saw it with his own eyes, he didn't want to randomly jump to conclusions and cause bad consequences by misjudging. He might as well keep investigating a bit more, or wait until he returned to check more of those Neon ghost story materials.
This weird fellow hid its tracks extremely well. He didn't know whether it was deliberately avoiding him or just happened to pass by. In any case, after that strange "po" sound disappeared, Hikari could only search by the faint aura left behind and couldn't pinpoint its direction.
If he kept searching, he might be able to find it directly, but it might also be a waste of effort.
Just as Hikari was pondering whether to keep going forward to investigate, a prompt sound suddenly rang in his mind.
Hikari frowned slightly and immediately stopped moving forward.
After memorizing the strange aura that accompanied this big footprint, he turned around and quickly headed in another direction.
———
In Ino Shrine, the lights were bright and the place was bustling.
But on the back mountain of Ino Shrine, there were only faint lights.
Miyuri walked down along the mountain path, her expression clearly not very happy.
After all, she had just taken part in a courage test and almost fallen off a cliff. Even though Hikari had pulled her up in time, she was still shaken.
On top of that, her pants had been soaked by the dew, so she could only go home first.
Thinking about letting her sworn enemy Sayako continue taking part in the courage test with Hikari made Miyuri feel a bit depressed.
"Forget it, forget it, I should just hurry back and change clothes first," Miyuri shook her head and slowly walked down the mountain.
But halfway down, she suddenly noticed that a group of people at the side had been staring at her.
A vague sense of dread rose in Miyuri's heart. She didn't look too much, just lowered her head and quietly quickened her pace.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.