Two Worlds, Starting with Kaguya of Penglai Mountain

They really did get direct access to everything inside.

With such power, one can hardly be considered a true deity of Heian-kyo.

She looked up and glanced at the expressionless Hakurei Shrine Maiden sitting in the head seat.

His face was cold, his gaze unfocused. Although he was surrounded by the discussion of the crowd, he seemed to be all alone, showing no sign of fitting in.

Even the monk Shunhui, who was among those discussing the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, never considered the other's feelings when talking about her.

An omnipotent god? A pitiful god?

The cold girl dressed in red and white shrine maiden clothes is more like a Buddha statue worshipped on a shrine by everyone than a shrine maiden who worships gods.

The Buddha statues on the shrine are not owned by the temple's owners; the temple itself belongs to the monks.

Believers crave divine protection, but refuse to allow divine interference in their lives.

They are called gods, but they are more like tools.

Hakurei the Shrine Maiden: "Is there a problem?"

She posed a question to Kurokawa Kazuya.

When Kurokawa Kazuya looked at her, she looked back at him.

Kurokawa Kazuya: "No problem. I am very grateful that you have protected me in Heian-kyo."

He gave a polite reply, then quickly looked away.

The Buddha statues in the shrine cannot determine the direction of the temple.

By this time, Kurokawa Kazuya had realized that the person truly in charge of this meeting was not the Hakurei Shrine Maiden sitting at the head of the table.

Since that's the case, he doesn't need to invest any extra energy in the other party.

Turning his gaze away from the shrine maiden, Kurokawa Kazuya's eyes swept across the entire room.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Actually, besides discussing the handover of Heian-kyo's industries with you all, I have another idea in mind. I would like to engage in another related collaboration with you all."

The purpose of this group is to negotiate with Kurokawa Kazuya regarding the current state of Heian-kyo and allocate resources to avoid future chaos.

But Kurokawa and Mi's purpose was never just that. They had already risked their lives to escape from the small town, so they had to finish it all at once.

Kurokawa Kazuya: "I remember when you first met me, you said that since the Saigyouji family had all left, they should relinquish the resources they occupied, right?"

He looked at the monk not far away and suddenly spoke.

Monk Huishun: "..."

This happened so long ago, why are you starting to nitpick now?

Sweat instantly beaded on the old monk's forehead. He turned to look at the others behind him, only to be met with indifferent expressions from them.

Monk Huishun was originally a monk without much background or power; otherwise, he wouldn't have stepped forward to act as the vanguard in his interactions with Kurokawa Kazuya in order to secure resources for his juniors.

Monk Huishun: "What do you mean by this, benefactor? Isn't what happened back then already in the past?"

He closed his eyes and spoke to Kurokawa Kazuya as if resigned to his fate.

He shouldn't have thought he was about to die and made a nasty remark to Youmu who was following Kurokawa Kazuya. Now he can't blame anyone else for this situation.

Seeing his expression, Kurokawa Kazuya shook his head.

“Monk Huishun, you misunderstand. I was just confirming some things.”

Kurokawa Kazuya shook his head, organizing the information he had gathered: "According to my statistics, what you mainly plundered from the Saigyouji family was people, right?"

The properties belonging to the Saigyouji family were basically not seized.

Even now, Kurokawa and Mika still use the market in the Saigyouji family's market area to have illusionists create fan art for them.

Monk Huishun: "Yes, for us, people themselves are the most important."

The old monk nodded, naturally offering no objection to this common sense.

Population represents faith, and faith is an alternative source of sustenance for practitioners.

Humans need to eat to maintain bodily stability, and cultivators in this world also need to consume their corresponding faith to sustain themselves.

Therefore, it can actually be quite simple to treat the various emotions, or beliefs, of the people as crops.

They provide the sustenance necessary for the cultivators' progress and survival.

The more powerful a cultivator is, the more faith they need to maintain themselves and make progress.

If even the most basic faith cannot be provided, it's like a human body gradually atrophying due to a prolonged lack of nutrition.

A cultivator's power will continuously decline.

In ancient times, grain was the most important resource.

For extraordinary individuals, the faith brought by the population is the most indispensable universal resource, and the significance of the city of Heian-kyo lies in its gathering of people.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Oh, in that case, I have a question."

He nodded, his gaze sweeping around, a genuine look of doubt in his eyes:

"Currently, cultivators in Heian-kyo have begun vying for faith. Instead of dividing up the remaining amount of faith, why don't you all consider expanding the current population cap of Heian-kyo?"

This is neither mockery nor a condescending display of modern superiority.

The wisdom of the ancients was no less than that of modern people.

The power of superhumans is no less than that of the various tools available today.

Kurokawa Kazuya did not believe that the group of people in front of him were unaware of the fact that the population of Heian-kyo was now insufficient to provide enough faith.

It's like adding flour when there's too much water, adding water when there's too much flour, and growing more grain when there's not enough grain.

In this situation, anyone would think of increasing the population to increase faith.

However, this question was posed to Kurokawa Kazuya.

"——"

The cultivators, who had been talking privately, suddenly fell silent.

The scene fell into an inexplicable silence, as if a mute button had been pressed.

Everyone gradually turned their attention to the girl in the red and white shrine maiden outfit who had been completely unable to express any opinion just moments before.

She was always the only one who could answer questions on this subject.

Because after the problem was exposed, only she dared to take full responsibility.

Hakurei Shrine Maiden: "Things are already being done. Decades ago, the villages surrounding Heian-kyo were not treated like this."

The cold-blooded witch offered her own answer.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "The villagers' treatment?"

He recalled that since he transmigrated, he had hardly ever seen farmers who were starving and couldn't afford to eat.

Kurokawa and his friends lived peacefully simply because they had no exploitable value.

But upon closer examination, human evil cannot be fathomed by common sense. It is not uncommon in the history that Kurokawa and Miya knew that nobles would want to kill commoners at will.

Not to mention that even a mosquito's leg is meat. If the upper management doesn't care about this little bit of meat, what about the lowly soldiers in the lower management?

In retrospect, the presence of cultivators exerting their power is one of the reasons for this situation.

The patrolling monks and Onmyoji will try their best to minimize the occurrence of such incidents.

Without any benefit to be gained, such unrestrained venting behavior almost completely disappears.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "So a stable and safe environment should lead to a large increase in population, but the number of villages and people around Heian-kyo doesn't seem to be that many. They must have existed for a hundred years."

He recently had Youmu Konpaku investigate this matter through Yuyuko Saigyouji's connections.

Hakurei Shrine Maiden: "Because we also intend to control population growth, we take measures to encourage families within Heian-kyo, while we take measures to regulate the common people outside Heian-kyo at any time."

The cold voice carried little emotion.

The red and white shrine maiden recounted the policies she had adopted in Heian-kyo.

Hakurei Shrine Maiden: "Emotions are faith, and they have power. In the absence of various resources, allowing the population to expand unchecked will have very serious consequences. The despair brought about by the hunger and desperation of countless people will give birth to a huge number of monsters or gods who are inherently hostile to humanity."

As if they had witnessed such a scene in the past, many people around in the meeting hall also became quite solemn when the Hakurei Shrine Maiden recounted that scene.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "..."

Kazuya Kurokawa: "It seems you've experienced a similar tragedy on your side as well."

Although he knew there was something fishy going on, he didn't ask any further questions.

The families within Heian-kyo generally produce outstanding offspring, and there are sufficient resources to nurture them to prevent them from getting out of control, so they have many children.

Villagers from outside the village generally have lower birth rates because they are less likely to receive adequate education and are more prone to losing control, thus resulting in fewer births.

Eugenics and racism are the culprits that may have triggered massacres.

Unfortunately, eugenics is a real phenomenon in this world, and its effects are immediate.

Don't be fooled by how friendly and easy-going these people are to Kurokawa and Miya.

But in reality, this group of cultivators was even more indifferent than the five nobles who had proposed to Kaguya Houraisan that Kurokawa Kazuya had once met.

To them, "untouchables" was a perfectly accurate statement.

It's perfectly normal to not treat ordinary people as another race, like cattle or sheep.

It's ridiculous to expect cultivators with an average lifespan of over 500 years to empathize with ordinary people farming in the fields.

If it weren't for the fact that cultivation requires faith, this group of people probably wouldn't care about anything outside of themselves.

The shrine maiden of Hakurei dictated the control over population growth.

But population growth, with ample food and no other entertainment, is something you can't simply control.

Not to mention that people in this world are said to have talent, and the more children one has, the more likely one is to have an individual with extremely high extraordinary talent.

Despite the accumulation of numerous factors that could lead to population explosion, the population of Heian-kyo has strangely not increased much.

Kurokawa Kazuya had already discerned some of the subtext in the other person's words.

If things develop into the situation the Hakurei Shrine Maiden described.

She would then have to adjust the quantity at any time, which means—

She would then lead a group of cultivators to quietly remove the excess population without causing panic.

"The panic and despair of a massive crowd is a deadly poison to any cultivator, and even without a clear target, it could give rise to dangerous monsters. So please rest assured, everyone left with feelings of happiness."

The priestess's emotionless voice coldly described the current situation, her icy eyes revealing no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "..."

What to say?

Although he really wanted to say something, he couldn't even find a way to criticize the shrine maiden's actions and mindset.

In this era, humanity has not yet achieved complete dominance over the world, and various monsters and gods still occupy a dominant position in the world.

Regardless of their intentions, the villagers around Heian-kyo were indeed under their protection.

What's even more ironic is that, compared to the tragedies he knew that occurred in ancient history, this was a far cry from his own understanding of them.

The current group is sending away too many useless people with little pain, and it can't even be considered cruel.

Would you rather die happily in your short remaining years, or have a longer life but live in endless suffering?

Shaking my head banished these unnecessary thoughts from my mind.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Since long-term goals are troublesome, how about switching to short-term ones?"

Kazuya Kurokawa nodded to Yuyuko beside him.

The eldest daughter of the Saigyouji family immediately took out a thick book filled with writing from her bosom.

As expected, Option 1 was rejected, and Option 2 was the next option.

What was originally a plan for its own development has now taken on a strange sense of mission.

In particular, the shortcomings he originally intended to hide have become his strengths at this time, and could even be said to be the key to Kurokawa Kazuya's conscience.

As he took the book from Yuyuko and handed it to the person beside him to travel through time, he began to steer the conversation toward the main point of his discussion:

"Do you have any ideas about liberating the groups that currently provide less faith from the land?"