Chapter 581: The Path to Ascension

According to the Village Flower Palace, mortals who wish to ascend to become New Gods generally have three paths to take.

The first is to, like the last Old God and the first New God, thoroughly understand the essence of the entire world through reason and logic, through ultimate rational thought and spiritual enlightenment.

He thoroughly understood the mysteries of the world, and through pure mental power, negated the existence foundation of the Old Gods and Chaos, thereby imposing his logical concept upon the entire world, thus changing the world's origin, and the magnitude of his influence on the world was so great that even he himself had to leave this world.

Or, through ultimate violence and symbolism to prove.

Its core is "Through unparalleled merit or violence, prove to the world that you are the embodiment of that concept."

However, this is also very difficult in modern society; in ancient times, a warrior's single duel could perhaps change the outcome of an entire war, but as technological levels continuously rise and human comprehensive productivity increases, the possibility for an individual to change the world becomes ever smaller; a typical example is that after the Han Dynasty was established in ancient China, the personal bravery of generals was no longer a decisive factor in determining victory or defeat in war, and after the Tang Dynasty, generals' bravery could no longer influence the battlefield, so generals began to sit firmly in the central army, rarely going personally to the front lines.

Japan is also like this; in the early Genpei War, whoever won a single horseman duel basically meant they had already won, but by the time of the Southwest War in modern times, even if Saigo's rebel army defeated the enemy's main general in a single horseman duel, the Aizu domain samurai who formed the Metropolitan Police Department's Drawn Sword Unit still went up and thoroughly defeated the Satsuma people.

It is also becoming increasingly difficult for an individual to accomplish a great feat.

Therefore, An Kishinomi becoming a New God is very likely the last method.

Forbidden rituals and theft.

It is well known that the Old Gods merely left this world; they did not fall, and the places where they were active have left traces and remnants of their former power, forming the Inner World and all mystery; the birth of the New Gods actually also depends on the power of the Old Gods, and those forbidden places that connect the Old Gods and the mysteries of the universe may possibly contain the residual divinity and divine power of the Old Gods, and perhaps there are ways to steal the Old Gods' heritage to become a New God.

Or, since the Old Gods did not fall but left this world, they still exist somewhere in a higher dimension or deeper in the universe, and the tide of logic is not infallible; when, through the most primitive, darkest, and most insane rituals,

sometimes a small gap can be opened in the laws of the first New God, and those ancient Old Gods will then hear the mortal's call and bestow power upon them to elevate them to New God, but not necessarily what the mortal wants, just as the Village Flower Palace cannot understand human language, the Old Gods hearing the words might be like this: "Hagimi rubs south-north green beans~Asiga presses Kukuna Road~Washama stands up Mambo~Hagimi defeats green beans~"

What the hell is this guy mumbling?

Even if the Old Gods decipher it as "Honey Special Drink~Drank Honey Special Drink~Festival Mambo~Run fast fast fast~", they still cannot understand what it means.

"An Kishinomi may have become a New God by sheer coincidence, or perhaps through some forbidden ritual, or perhaps his powerful mad thinking broke through the blockade of the logic tide; in any case, he should have become a New God in this way." Mai Xuejie said seriously.

Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, he began to think.

Old Gods are natural phenomena (such as darkness, destruction, fertility). As long as the universe exists these phenomena, the power of the Old Gods exists. Their power is self-consistent and essential.

New Gods are cultural phenomena (such as logic, science, specific forms of warfare). They depend on specific stages of human civilization's development. Their power is his-consistent and derivative.

Therefore, New Gods are not "weak", but "ephemeral". Their greatness lies in the moment of changing the world's rules, but this greatness possesses extremely strong self-nature and timeliness; they are special weapons bred by the world to "solve problems", and after the problem is solved, the weapon is stored and sealed, gradually rusting.

However, Uesugi Muneyuki himself seems to be different, for the unique power he possesses seems to have nothing to do with cultural phenomena; the power he possesses is soul summoning, flashback memory, recovering grudges, fulfilling last wishes.

Following this path, the "death" and "wandering souls" represented by Uesugi Muneyuki are not cultural phenomena of human civilization, but like the Old Gods, based on biological instinct, natural phenomena.

As long as there is life that will die, as long as life exists with consciousness, Uesugi Muneyuki's power will not decline with the completion of concepts, and his "mission" will not have an ending day—because death and emotion for living beings are destined to be endless, this is part of the world's laws.

How come, it seems, like becoming a bug in this system?

Uesugi Muneyuki felt strange in his heart, but at this moment Mai Xuejie lightly poked him: "Anyway, before we figure out what An Kishinomi really wants to do, let's first lie low and temporarily avoid the spotlight; otherwise, if he recklessly charges to Kanto without regard for cost, even if we have the protection of the Metropolitan Police Department and secular forces, it will be very troublesome, for there is the saying 'a thousand days to be a thief, but not a thousand days to guard against thieves'; we ourselves aside, you still have family and friends and—your Minami Eirina Asuka, you can't possibly protect them every day?"

"That is to say, we first accept the other party's statement"?" Uesugi Muneyuki thought about it, and could only helplessly agree.

"Otherwise? Do we have to go to Kansai and fight him? New Gods are not enemies we can handle, even if this New God does not like nor is good at fighting—as for the rest, can you now convince the Metropolitan Police Department to go across districts" to Osaka with heavy firepower for law enforcement? Or let the Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan conduct a special military operation on Osaka?"

Mai Xuejie puffed out a laugh, she tightly gripped Uesugi Muneyuki's right hand, her radiant and gorgeous face blooming with a faint flush, her bright eyes burning with some unspeakable aura, revealing her unique aggressive smile: "Alright, also don't worry too much, we've already done our best, since we've come to Karuizawa for vacation—Junior Student, did you leave something for me?"

"????!!!!!" Uesugi Muneyuki, upon seeing Mai Xuejie's expression, knew a big battle was unavoidable!

But, he only fought a wheel battle all night last night, and now he's coming again?

I haven't got a single drop left!

"Oh? Look at your expression—could it be that you can't anymore?" Mai Xuejie saw Uesugi Muneyuki's face all green, chuckled and revealed a dissatisfied expression: "Have the guts to be my Inner World companion, no guts to feed me full? This won't do! However, the senior's requirements are not high—"

After saying that, Mai Xuejie wrote a "five" in Uesugi Muneyuki's palm.

Uesugi Muneyuki painfully closed his eyes.

Five times not enough!

And Mai Xuejie fiercely pinched his cheeks.

Void infusion, go!

The pleasant Karuizawa vacation is about to begin!

At the same time, in the third year of the Uesugi Era, August.

Just when Uesugi Muneyuki was on vacation in Karuizawa.

The Red Goldfinch is located in the secret headquarters of a certain abandoned textile factory in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The air is filled with dust, poor-quality printing ink, and a faint hint of iron rust.

When the police of the Joint Special Investigation Headquarters, formed by the Shizuoka Prefecture Police and the Metropolitan Police Department's elite, holding riot shields and submachine guns, carefully broke open the last reinforced iron door, they had anticipated various possibilities: intense gunfire, a hasty scene of destroying documents, or even fanatics sacrificing themselves.

But what they saw was a sight sufficient to shatter the toughest nerves.

——

The room was once the factory manager's office, spacious but oppressive. There were no traces of combat, no bloodstains, no scattered documents. Only in the center, directly beneath that lone hanging bulb emitting a dim yellow light, stood a——"East-West".

It was not a pile of杂物, but an畸形 aggregate formed by the seamless fusion of four human bodies—once human bodies—in a way that absolutely violates physical laws,

biological常识 and human comprehension.

The most suffocating thing is that the surface of this huge fusion body has no wounds at all.

No sutures, no torn lacerations, no welded scars. The skin is smooth as wax, the differences in skin tone between individuals naturally transition and blend like watercolor paintings, as if they were born this way, a malformed conjoined infant, enlarged by time to adult human scale.

The four skulls face different directions, eyes wide open, pupils dilated, frozen in a kind of extreme astonishment that transcends pain and approaches philosophical contemplation; the mouths of these four Red Goldfinch members are slightly open, as if they want to scream, but cannot make any sound, forming an eternal, silent shout.

Their arms and legs: some hang limp, some stretch out strangely upward, as if jointly supporting some invisible object, or as if praying to a nonexistent deity for deliverance.

So lonely, so lonely!

Time seemed to have solidified.

The few mobile unit members at the front, their movements instantly froze, the hands holding guns began to tremble uncontrollably. Someone instinctively stepped back, bumped into the person behind, yet no one uttered reproach, only heavy, suppressed breathing echoed in the dead silent room.

"This——this is what——" a young police officer's voice trembled with tears, almost wanting to vomit.

The face of the veteran criminal investigator leading the team turned deathly pale; he had investigated countless murder cases, seen the most brutal corpses, but the scene before him, surpassing all common sense, directly attacked the cognitive foundations of his humanity and his role as a law enforcer. He gritted his teeth against the turmoil in his stomach and ordered with a hoarse voice: "Don't, don't touch anything! Seal the scene! Call—call the Forensics Division! Call the coroner! Quickly go to the Metropolitan Police Department and request the Uesugi Chief!"

An intangible fear spread in the air, stronger than the smell of blood.

They felt they had intruded not into a crime scene, but into a heretical temple, and the central fused "holy image" was silently mocking all their laws, logic, and weapons.

However, when the team leader, Yokomizo Inspector of Shizuoka Prefecture, reported their findings upward, the Special Investigation Headquarters transmitted another order.

"Uesugi Chief is currently carrying out the special rest arranged by the Imperial Household Agency; any of his affairs require the highest level of cautious handling, and do not call the Forensic Pathologist from the Forensics Division."

"Since the members of the Red Goldfinch are right here, we can close the case now, retain their identity evidence, and then—burn the crime scene! Afterwards, announce externally that the organization's members made a severe operational error during the illegal manufacture of explosives, causing a leak of high-energy chemical substances, triggering a violent but non-diffusive reaction."

"This is an order; execute immediately!"

"Okayama Prefecture!!!"