Chapter 346

I am Uesugi Muneyuki.

Arimura Hana, dressed in a plain white under-kimono, appeared behind Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai, standing silently like an ice sculpture about to melt, radiating an aloof loneliness and lingering sorrow, snowflakes gently and continuously covering her, as if heaven and earth were dressing this soon-to-wither white plum in its final garment.

"Come on, Uesugi Muneyuki, didn't you say you wanted to be my eyes and window, so I could see the outside world?" The woman in white kimono and black princess hairstyle in the snow, like the faint fragrance of white plum, spoke coldly.

"Well, Rain Woman Princess, aren't you not supposed to leave the inner world?" Uesugi Muneyuki saw her actually come out and was startled.

"I haven't left the Rain Realm; this is merely my projection. I connect with you through the Rain Contract, borrowing your five senses to perceive the outside world, so I can feel the outside without disturbance." Arimura Hana merely stared at Uesugi Muneyuki: "Only you and she can see my projection——problem, problem, again problem, contractor, I hate answering questions the most, ask another question and I'll kill you, now, lead the way."

"Yes!" Uesugi Muneyuki quickly shut his mouth.

The figure in the snow walked with an oil-paper umbrella, silently following behind Uesugi Muneyuki. Arimura Hana seemed to like the snow scenery, and Uesugi Muneyuki could feel through the contract a wave of cool pleasure, like raindrops falling on water and rippling outward, as the Rain Woman "savored" this "Snow Below" that had settled for hundreds of years.

"Are all powerful beings in the inner world like this?" Uesugi Muneyuki turned to Shirakawa Mai Xuejie and said. Arimura Hana couldn't understand human language, so he told Shirakawa Mai Xuejie on the road about his communication with Arimura Hana: "I feel she is fundamentally not human."

Shirakawa Mai Xuejie still felt a bit frightened, shaking her head repeatedly: "Yes, she is fundamentally not human nor a grudge formed from humanity. Actually, among the inner world beings I've encountered, she is unimaginably rational and capable of reasoning. I think we were truly—unimaginably smooth this time! And we actually managed to sign a relatively equal contract with such a being!"

"Ah?!" Uesugi Muneyuki looked shocked.

You call this... rationality and ability to reason?

"Each being symbolizing the essence of the inner world has a different personality—some arrogant, some domineering, some very curious—but without exception, none can communicate, and whether one can retreat unharmed almost entirely depends on their initial goodwill toward humans,

and her goodwill toward humans—you've also seen it." Shirakawa Mai Xuejie whispered: "Under these circumstances, she actually willing to let us go—truly unimaginable—Uesugi, you actually have the ability to communicate with high-ranking beings!"

"Is that so—then what exactly are the High Plain of Heaven and void she mentioned earlier?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked again: "And what is the gate?"

"I should have told you before, the Old Gods all left this world around the fourth century BCE. It is said that the High Plain of Heaven is the plane where they once existed, and those who pass the Old Gods' trials can become New Gods, and even after their lifespans end, they do not truly die; ascended souls also go to the plane where the Old Gods once existed, namely the High Plain of Heaven." Shirakawa Mai Xuejie furrowed her brows: "As for void, or what is called emptiness, I don't know either."

"Only New Gods who pass the Old Gods' trials can have their souls enter the High Plain of Heaven after death; otherwise, the gate of the High Plain of Heaven has been eternally sealed since the Old Gods' departure, at least from ancient times to now, the gate has never opened again."

"All inner world beings and our supernatural abilities stem from the same source—residual divine power and influence of the Old Gods. For a being like Arimura Hana, the Old Gods' aura is like the scent of hometown kin. I even suspect, given her displayed wisdom and understanding, she clearly knows the gate will never open again."

"Then why is she still guarding the gate? And since she doesn't know Kurozawa Yōko or what the Kanto Shinai Alliance is, that shows she came here only after the Kurosawa Shinai was completely abandoned."

Shirakawa Mai Xuejie thought for a moment, then said casually: "Let me give an example, using the 'gate' as a metaphor—no gate can be completely sealed in the true sense, otherwise the souls of New Gods at the end of their lifespans couldn't slip into the High Plain of Heaven, and sometimes, standing at the gate, the breeze blowing from within the High Plain of Heaven still carries traces of the Old Gods' scent. Although we can no longer see the departed Old Gods, we can catch a glimpse of a phantom of the Divine Sovereign of the Old Days, which is enough to satisfy such inner world beings."

"It's a pity we couldn't complete our exploration of the Kurosawa Shinai—what exactly happened there, whether any other inheritance remains, and what anomalies occurred after the shrine lost maintenance—we can no longer know." Shirakawa Mai smiled brightly: "But just having signed this contract, our gains are already beyond imagination."

"Exactly." Uesugi Muneyuki held Shirakawa Mai Xuejie's small hand and smiled: "More importantly, we have always been together,

no wonder you're the senior student—so strong, it seems I still have much room to improve."

"No problem, at least time has always been on our side, and moreover, with her, we already have a safe house." Shirakawa Mai Xuejie glanced at Arimura Hana following behind.

If Shirakawa Mai's beauty is 100, Watanabe Minami's is 99, then Arimura Hana's is 98.

But how did she come to look like this?

Unfortunately, she hates answering questions.

Since she's come out, let's not rush back—Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai discussed it and decided to take the opportunity to have fun in Gunma.

At 3 p. m. the next afternoon, they drove to Lightning Marsh, Japan's most famous resort and summer retreat. Every winter and summer, a huge number of political and business elites from Tokyo come here to spend the winter, and even the Emperor has a month-long summer retreat each year. The famous Emperor Renwa met Empress Michiko while playing tennis at Lightning Marsh.

Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai checked into the renowned Kusatsu Onsen inn "Season's Garden." Naturally, this is Shirakawa Mai Xuejie's private property; she booked the best room, soaked in the private bath to relieve travel fatigue, and the floor-to-ceiling window faced the snow pine forest of Gunma Mountain.

Arimura Hana, borrowing Uesugi Muneyuki's senses, truly opened her eyes to the world. She was astonished at how vastly the outside world had changed—so much so that her memories of the outside world still lingered in the era of the Eighth Shogun Yoshimune of the Edo Shogunate. Now seeing outside, she found cockroaches had built such a vast Cockroach Kingdom. Arimura Hana stood in the wind and snow, silent for a long time.

Uesugi Muneyuki didn't bother saying more to her; he simply treated Arimura Hana as air, and with Shirakawa Mai Xuejie enjoyed the pleasure of flying together as a pair. They first soaked in the hot springs, then clung to each other until exhausted. Around 5:30 p. m., they enjoyed a full set of Negita onion hot pot. The top-grade Negita onion whites cooked by the master chef were indeed especially delicious—sweet like fruit, the broth made from simmering local chicken into golden high-grade stock, paired with Gunma Wagyu frost-marbled meat, local handicrafts. Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai ate heartily.

These sensations were also transmitted into Arimura Hana's contract through their actions.

After dinner, the two wrapped in warm robes walked hand in hand along "Steam Mist," watching steam condense into ice-lace scenery in the subzero temperature, and visited the Kusatsu Onsen's "Snow Lantern Festival." Facing variously shaped snow lanterns, Uesugi Muneyuki explained throughout, while Arimura Hana merely listened lightly—sometimes curious and asking questions, sometimes silent.

You female ghost, dare to ignore the lantern!

Wearing a plain, high-quality plum blossom small-pattern kimono, Shirakawa Mai outlined a slender, graceful figure. She took Uesugi Muneyuki's hand, pointed to the snow lantern hung on the snow pine, and said: "Hey, Snow Pine Maru? Did you see that mushroom-shaped snow lantern?"

Uesugi Muneyuki rolled his eyes at the words, thinking: You also call me by my nickname?

Damn it, don't think you can just push me around because you're my senior student!

"The snow lantern high on the snow pine—why not just call it High Pine Lantern? Haha~"

"That's ice-lace, not snow pine—should be called Ice-Lace Lantern, right?"

Uesugi Muneyuki couldn't help but say.

"Ice-Lace—Lantern?" Arimura Hana stared at the snow lantern high up, her face showing interest.

The surging waves crashing on shore like a tsunami, the torrenting waterfall like thunder, the tropical downpour in chaos—this is her Water Power.

What Uesugi Muneyuki showed her was the crystal-clear transparency of high mountain glaciers, the silent beauty of snowy nights, and the myriad snow lanterns crafted through meticulous artistry.

This is the vibrant "emotion of life" in stark contrast to Black Death Stillness.

Likewise, the grandeur of Lightning Marsh scenery, the magnificence of human creations, the scattered stars of lights, and the bustling scene of hot spring inns and vacationers above—these pure and grand sights gave Arimura Hana new feelings.

This mortal speaks truly—the outside world has changed greatly.

Of course, she still cannot understand human writing and language; all explanations must be fully given by Uesugi Muneyuki, and even her communication with Shirakawa Mai must be translated by Uesugi Muneyuki.

So when it reached ten o'clock at night, the two returned to the inn room to rest, and Arimura Hana actively interrupted their foreplay before intercourse: "You guys wait a bit—is reproductive behavior really this fun?"

"You're not human, you can't understand our innate reproductive need in human DNA." Uesugi Muneyuki saw Arimura Hana initiate speech, so he had to stop: "Just like your longing for the gate—Rain Woman Princess, your human female form."

"This image I obtained from a mortal woman." Arimura Hana said lightly: "In the Edo Shogunate era, she was the eldest daughter of a lower warrior family, but her fiancé died in the Shimabara Rebellion and never returned. She wore the pure white kimono, filled with resentment and sorrow, fading into the world. This stirred my resonance; I consumed her body and soul, decided henceforth to act in her image, and it is said humans prefer the image of unmarried young women."

"Then your name—. " Uesugi Muneyuki hesitated to ask.

"Naturally, it's also hers." Arimura Hana was in a good mood, she casually replied, but quickly cut off Uesugi Muneyuki's question coldly: "Again a question, I hate answering questions."

"Yes." Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai Xuejie sat properly before Arimura Hana, waiting for the Village Flower Palace to speak.

"Indeed, the outside world has changed so much that even I feel a hint of—strangeness." Arimura Hana pondered long: "Uesugi Muneyuki, will you still go to more places?"

"Well, I have work to do—my status is somewhat like a hatamoto under the shogunate, most of my time is spent serving in Edo, I may go out on official business, and in the future I should expand my operations nationwide."

"Good, then according to the contract, you have the obligation to take me traveling, show me the outside world, and tell me everything." The Village Flower Palace spoke not in a negotiating tone: "You and her, take me."

"And I will bestow my power upon you through the Rain Contract.

Having said that, Arimura Hana didn't wait for Uesugi Muneyuki's agreement but directly activated!

Her power surged into Uesugi Muneyuki's body and quickly found a place to bear her power!

The third wheel from the bottom, the navel chakra!

"Ugh!" The power of the Rain Contract was so strong and so irresistible that Uesugi Muneyuki let out a painful groan, feeling as if he were being directly infused by the Village Flower Palace! And it was wave after wave of nonstop infusion!

I never thought that I, the esteemed Uesugi, would have a day of being infused?

And as Uesugi Muneyuki was fiercely infused, the third Wisdom King finally manifested from within his body.

Western Lotus Division, Great Virtue Wisdom King!

In the likeness of the Holdbright Court of the Womb Realm Mandala, the Wisdom King's image—entirely dark blue-black, in angry form, with six faces, six arms, and six legs, seated upon the restless throne—gradually took shape, and with it came a new capability.

Spirit Vision!