There are also hiking trails for Mount Fuji in the other world.
However, unlike the real world, in Kamiyagawa's impression, Mount Fuji in the outside world has several climbing routes.
Among them, the Yoshida Line has the most complete facilities and is the most suitable for beginners to hike.
If you take the Yoshida Line, you can reach the top of the mountain in about five hours of hiking.
However, there are not so many passages to Mount Fuji in the other world. With the help of the little old man, only one mountain passage was finally found.
This mountain path is not spacious and is completely paved with black volcanic rocks broken into granular shapes.
Separating from the dense green vegetation at the foot of the mountain, the road winds up and down, with a steep slope and no end in sight.
All in all, this mountain trail doesn't look particularly easy to climb.
But it is better than no road.
"Inujiro."
Kamiyagawa summoned his big dog, climbed onto its back skillfully, and pulled the hard hair on the back of its neck.
Then he greeted the little old man.
"Let's go."
"drive!"
…
This only mountain road is somewhat like the shrine road used by pilgrims or pilgrims to climb Mount Fuji in ancient times.
It's really not that easy to walk.
If you take this road, you will never reach the top of the mountain in five hours.
At the foot of Mount Fuji, Kamiya River can still encounter monsters in the sea of trees, but the higher you climb, the less likely you are to encounter monsters.
After climbing the mountain for more than three hours, not a single monster was encountered. There was no vegetation around, only bare black rock and mud soil.
Going up the shrine, you can vaguely see several white torii gates spaced far apart above, spanning the mountain path.
Black Rock Road, White Torii Gate.
The superposition of two monotonous colors, black and white, combined with the atmosphere of the world, gives people a feeling of desolation.
Kamiyagawa patted the Inugami on the head, signaling it to stop and narrowed its eyes slightly to look down.
All I could see was a dark green layer of trees in the lower part, with the endless forest waves tumbling in the roaring mountain wind.
A steep mountain pass at a high altitude.
Kamiyagawa sat astride Inujiro's back, holding the unsheathed Ichimonji in one hand, and pulled on the nice-looking but somewhat thin black patterned haori.
The cold wind from high places penetrated directly into his sleeves, tugging at his gorgeous black clothes and making a sound, causing Inujiro's long hair to fly and sway.
As the altitude of your location increases, the temperature and air pressure decrease.
In such an unscientific place in the world, it is inexplicably scientific in such an insignificant aspect.
"It's a little cold."
"Woo woah——"
Inujiro understood, and his strong body began to shine red and warm, sparks stirring.
And he also managed the temperature of the fire of karma just right.
It only provides enough heat without burning the owner's noble butt.
"Thank you, much better."
Kamiyagawa once again reached out and patted Inujiro's head, which was covered with hard skull.
The latter responded by flicking his tail vigorously.
My dogs are really versatile.
When necessary, it can even serve as a large warm baby.
…
Pilgrim routes and caldera temples are carved alongside the scattered ruins that can be seen along the way.
These include shrines to Saint Kinga, stone houses, and natural volcanic features such as lava trees, lakes, springs, and waterfalls, which are worshiped with reverence.
This is what one person and one dog see when they climb Mount Fuji in this world alone, except for the monotonous black rock soil and the white torii gates that appear from time to time.
About three more hours passed.
The Kamiya River finally reaches the snow-capped Mount Fuji.
In the real world, if you start climbing a mountain at 7 a.m., it will be 1 p.m. when you reach the top.
This was only possible if Inujiro's feet were fast enough.
If you rely solely on human power to climb, God knows how long it will take to climb.
"I never expected that so far, the most painful thing in the Aokigahara map was actually rushing. There are only two shrines on such a big map. Who is trying to tire me to death!"
Because I rode Inujiro the whole way up, Kamiyagawa is in good condition now.
It's nothing more than a pain in the butt along the way.
As for the problem of hypoxia at high altitudes, because he has the Ah Mo breathing method to regulate it, it does not pose any threat at all.
As for Inujiro, his physical strength and endurance are countless times better than Kamiyagawa imagined.
I hiked the mountain trail for six hours, only stopping twice to take a short break by sticking my tongue out.
"Thanks for your hard work."
"Woof woof."
Kamiyagawa jumped off the dog's back and stepped on the thick white snow on the top of the mountain. The sound of rustling snow could be heard.
The location where he is now is not too far from the main crater of Mount Fuji. The vertical distance is only a few hundred meters, and he can see it when he looks up.
On the crater wall, the volcanic deposits are impacted into slopes, and the red deposits blend with the white snow.
“When you stand closer, you can see how big the main crater is.”
Kamiyakawa sighed for a moment.
Compared with such a large mountain, the image of human beings indeed seems too small.
It’s no wonder that mountains were often worshiped as gods throughout ancient Japan, giving rise to various mountain cultures and stories and legends about mountain spirits and gods.
According to what Shan Lao said before, the source of the collapse of the sea of trees is at the crater.
Standing at the current position of Kamiya River, there is indeed an aura of depravity and filth coming from above.
It’s exactly the same feeling as the Pig King.
Ding bell——ding bell——
Inside the [Mirage Cloth Bag], the golden ball bell where the Zashiki Warashi lived shook vigorously, making a loud and crisp clanging sound.
The little God of Fortune once again triggered his ability to seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and was giving an early warning to his old father.
Considering that this is likely to be the hideout of Duoshanyan, there might be black maggots present, so it is definitely dangerous.
Even if Zashiki didn't ring the bell, Kamiyagawa had no intention of going directly to investigate.
"The distance seems to be about the same."
Kamiyagawa took out the [Kabuki Puppet] and used the same trick again, creating a puppet in the shape of a Kusanagi.
Let's go up to the puppet first to explore the truth and see what's under the mountain pass.
Kamiya sat down on the spot and turned his attention to controlling Kuangshilang.
Inujiro, who had been following closely, lay down next to him, using the warmth provided by the Karmic Fire to keep him warm.
The wind on the top of Mount Fuji is very strong, and from time to time it will cause snowflakes on the ground to fly.
The brightly dressed Kuangshilang climbed towards the main crater on his hands and knees, his movements slightly stiff.
But when you look at the puppet's climbing back from below, it looks like a devout pilgrim.
The bright red and exaggerated kabuki costumes were blown by the wind and danced in the flying snow, like a sparkling fire that was constantly jumping in the snow.
There are no real roads to walk on the outer walls of the crater.
It was quite difficult for Kamiyagawa to climb with the Kakushirō puppet. After sliding down several times, it took more than 40 minutes to finally stand above the main crater.
He used the vision provided by the puppet to look around.
On the edge of the crater, there are some wells and springs formed by melting snow and shallow underground permafrost.
Inside the large bowl-shaped crater, there is only white snow and moss.
"I can feel that the same filthy and depraved aura as the Pig King is stronger here, but just looking at it with the naked eye, there seems to be nothing there."
Kamiyagawa hesitated for a while and tried to control Kuangshiro to climb toward the interior of the crater.
Although Mount Fuji is an active volcano, when it is dormant, the crater is covered by solid rock.
The weight of a puppet goes into it and nothing happens.
However, considering that this is another world, it is very likely that Touyama Yan is here, so it should be quite dangerous to go down directly. I don’t know what will happen.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
Kabuki puppets are originally used to protect against thunder. If they are really scrapped, they are scrapped. Anyway, after 24 hours, a new one can be made again.
Hua Hua——
Kuangshilang carefully climbed a third of the way down the rock wall, when his feet suddenly slipped on moss, leading down to a piece of red rock soil.
After Kamiyagawa finally controlled him and stabilized his figure, he suddenly felt the crater wall that was clinging to him loosen up.
A fat black tentacle suddenly emerged from under the rock soil.
It was greasy and limp and stuck to Kuangshilang's arm, twisting his body back and forth.
Soon, similar things emerged not only from under Kuangshilang, but also from other places in the huge crater.
The crater, which was originally only red and white, instantly turned into a disgusting, crawling black.
Kamiyagawa quickly recognized what those things were that came out from under the rock soil.
That's not a tentacle.
It's black maggots!
The black maggots were many, many times larger than those seen on King Zhuji!
Fat maggots burst out from under the red rock soil, gathering more and more.
They gathered together and surged toward the crater wall with the momentum of a volcanic eruption.
The Kuangshilang puppet, which was still hanging on the rock wall, could not cope with such a scene at all. His hands and feet slipped and fell directly towards the large tangle of black maggots.
For a moment, a disgusting squirming feeling spread all over the body.
Kamiyagawa directly chose to disconnect from Kuangshilang and turned his attention completely back to himself.
too disgusting.
I can't have that puppet anymore.
Kamiya, who was sitting about 500 meters away from the crater, looked up and saw that in the crater above, strips of squirming black were overflowing and rolling down.
The top of Mount Fuji, which was originally covered with snow and had a somewhat holy feel even in the other world, was suddenly covered in filth.
This scene seems familiar.
I haven't seen it with my own eyes in reality or in the otherworld.
But I had experienced such a scene before on the murals in the Pig King Cave.
The contents of that painting are still fresh in Kamiya’s memory——
The filthy black maggots spewed out from the crater of the volcano, causing the depravity of Mount Fuji God at that time.
The scene of maggots pouring out of the volcano in front of me pales in comparison to the aura of the painting.
But Kamiyagawa still felt that it was difficult to cope with it.
Ding bell——ding bell——
The Zashiki boy in the [Mirage Bag] rang the bell again.
It shook louder than ever before.
She can feel that Kamiya River is in a very dangerous situation now, and if she is not careful, she will be in catastrophe!
"Woo!"
The Inugami, which was curled up and leaning on its master, quickly jumped up from the ground, arched its body and bared its teeth to protect its master.
At this time, we can no longer stay on the bare hillside.
The terrain here is too bad.
Countless black maggots poured out from top to bottom like an avalanche, and there was no shelter around, making it impossible for people to avoid it.
The scene before him was consistent with the worst-case scenario Kamiyagawa expected to encounter before his trip.
Although the situation was critical and things were developing for the worst, since Kamiyagawa dared to climb Mount Fuji directly to explore the mountain pass after seeing the Pig King Cave Paintings, it meant that he was not completely unprepared.
He was sitting in the snow, and the [Gao Tian Yuan Shen Tong] that had been prepared a long time ago was standing beside him, with yellow and green fluorescent lights dancing on it.
Just as he disconnected the perception of Kuangshilang's puppet and looked up at the crater, his right hand had already reached out and touched the divine coffin.
The yellow-green light fragments spread out like fireflies on a summer night.
The next second, both the person and the dog disappeared.
About a minute after Kamiya teleported to Takamagahara, the overflowing black maggots came like an avalanche, washing over the place where he was originally sitting, and rolling down towards the foot of Mount Fuji...
…
The tree and the sea.
It is quite far away from Mount Fuji.
Kamiyagawa teleported back here from Takamagahara and quickly summoned Prajna.
He asked Prajna to pick him up and fly out of the forest-covered sky to check the situation on the other side of Mount Fuji.
Prajna naturally complied with this request.
oh……
She still chose to hug her own Onmyoji princess.
But at the critical moment, Kamiya didn't have time to worry about his awkward posture.
Flying out of the blockade of dense forest branches, the field of vision suddenly becomes wider.
Kamiyagawa looked towards Mount Fuji, and saw that the white cap above the holy mountain, which was supposed to be covered with white snow and shrouded in clouds, had turned black.
And the black color is still flowing slowly down the mountain like ink.
However, after a small part of the upper part of Mount Fuji was polluted, it stopped, or in other words, the downward flow became extremely slow.
The black stuff no longer continues to spray out from the top of the mountain.
"Although it is the worst-case scenario, it is similar to what I expected before."
When Kamiyagawa looked at the murals in the Pig King's Cave, he noticed some details.
For example, the painting depicting the depravity of Mount Fuji——
Even when the mountain god fell, the maggots spewed out of the crater of Mount Fuji only covered one-third of the mountain's volume.
There are indeed a lot of maggots, but it is impossible to swallow up the entire Mount Fuji and even the vast forest below.
"The next thing to do is to prepare to meet the enemy in the flat area under Mount Fuji. It is possible that Touyamayan has been seduced by me! Hannya, let's go down!"
Perhaps because of the plan, Kamiyagawa looked a little excited as he spoke and put one hand around Hannya's slender and soft waist, and the other hand put his arm around her shoulder.
This action caused their faces to be very close to each other.
"Well……"
The two ferocious and grotesque masks around Prajna rotated back and forth quickly.