Chapter 674: , Dialogue with Uesugi Kenshin!

PS: This chapter was especially hard to write; I struggled for a long time before figuring it out. This part is related to the grand finale, so please understand. The words of Uesugi Kenshin still echo in my ears, and thunderous explosions erupt around him.

Takamagahara, the Hall of the Gods.

Here, time measured in millennia is merely slow-moving dust.

The new gods—those who have severed their mortal bonds, wandering or sleeping here—take on various forms: some like the afterglow of stars, some like solidified prayers, others mere vortices of concept.

But now, at this very moment, their gazes are all fixed upon Uesugi Munesetsu, this unexpected visitor.

"Ancestor, I don't understand what you mean." "Uesugi Munesetsu's face was stern, sweat on his brow. After thinking, he still decided to say: 'I thought it was your power that summoned me here. The stone in my hand comes from the Bishamonten statue my brother obtained during archaeology...'" "You are the continuation of my bloodline—or rather, the bloodline of my sister, Senshouin. I do not deny that I feel the call of blood in you, but... you are not entirely my descendant! Because of the divide between the mortal world and the other shore, souls of the mortal world who have not ascended to new godhood cannot possibly transcend to reach Takamagahara!" Uesugi Kenshin spoke coldly, moving like thunder, unfathomable like shadow, two beams of light shooting from his eyes, directly enveloping Uesugi Munesetsu: "You are my descendant, you are Uesugi Munesetsu, but you are also not Uesugi Munesetsu! Who exactly are you!"

Uesugi Munesetsu swallowed, realizing he had nothing to say.

The first head of the Yonezawa Uesugi clan, Uesugi Kagekatsu, was the son of Uesugi Kenshin's sister Senshouin and Nagao Masakage, head of the Nagao clan of Ueda. However, Uesugi Kenshin later adopted him as his foster son, meaning Uesugi Kagekatsu is both Kenshin's son and nephew.

"I..." Uesugi Munesetsu struggled to lower his head.

He realized he could no longer avoid revealing his greatest secret to date.

Or, he would have to carry this secret to meet Marx.

At his core, Uesugi Kenshin is a cold-blooded person, valuing "righteousness" above all.

"I, Ancestor, I am indeed Uesugi Munesetsu, and I am indeed... from another world. I transmigrated here. Before touching the Bishamonten statue in my second year of high school, I had not yet awakened my past-life memories... only after touching the statue did I... awaken. But before and after, I remain Uesugi Munesetsu, the unworthy nineteenth-generation descendant of the Yonezawa Uesugi clan." Uesugi Munesetsu exhaled lightly, struggling to say: "But I am also... others."

In the hall, a ripple—not sound—passed through, as if a sleeping thought had been gently touched.

"Indeed." Only now did Uesugi Kenshin finally withdraw his killing intent. This former new god gazed at Uesugi Munesetsu, pondering long: "You are a lost child of the black hole... indeed."

"Our questions have been answered." Said a new god whose form resembled stacked transparent pages, its voice directly translated into Uesugi's consciousness as an understandable image: "Do you understand the tide of logic?"

"I've heard of it somewhat." Uesugi Munesetsu looked toward the page-god in the darkness.

"In the first year AD, that one... the first new god, after 40 days of death, perfectly ascended to become an old god, and unleashed the Logic Tide, covering the entire mortal world," supplemented another existence, seemingly woven from cold moonlight and warm candlelight, adding with a hint of playfulness: "Therefore, all existence in the mortal world can only enter Takamagahara after becoming a new god and having their soul pass on upon falling. This is the world's law—unless... Uesugi Munesetsu, you are not of this world."

A deity like a vast, silent gear turning slowly spoke, its words carrying mechanical precision: "This means your soul has never been covered by the Logic Tide, never accepted the Mahabbo Agreement... this is the only loophole, and indeed it is so."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha~" A burst of mad, twisted, dark laughter echoed from the Pale God's Hall.

"So it is, Uesugi Munesetsu, continuation of my bloodline, your soul possesses a certain... order." Uesugi Kenshin slightly nodded: "The beings above Takamagahara greet your arrival with respect. Welcome, my descendant, and also lost child of the black hole. You may ask a few questions—this is all we can do. Make the most of this opportunity; you may ask anything."

"How many questions you may ask depends on how resilient your soul is," asked the Page God.

Ask questions?

No, you summoned me here just to let me ask you questions?

Not you asking me? But me asking you?

Yet the opportunity is indeed rare. Uesugi Munesetsu thought for a moment and immediately asked the most fundamental question: "Lord Kenshin, according to records, you devoted your life to pursuing 'righteousness' and 'order.' Now as a new god, has this pursuit been fulfilled? Or is ascension itself merely an eternal prison?" A pale laughter echoed through the Hall of the Gods.

"A prison?" Uesugi Kenshin's reply carried a hazy nostalgia and sigh: "I once thought humanity itself was a prison. Flesh decays, convictions waver, love and hate distort judgment. Becoming a god indeed freed me from these limits."

He raised his hand, lightning dancing at his fingertips: "But I never imagined that becoming concept itself would be the ultimate imprisonment. My 'righteousness' is now a symbol, my 'war' an endless drama, and the people of Hokuriku worship only my shadow—not the man who would lose himself over a snowflake landing on his sword."

The new gods stirred slightly.

The War God let out a low laugh.

"You must understand, young man," Uesugi Kenshin continued, his voice for the first time showing something like fatigue: "Ascension is not a reward, but a failure. Human souls should return to the cycle, but we... our obsessions run too deep. So deep that after the Twilight of the Gods, our very existence fills the vacuum."

"This is exactly what I wanted to ask, Lord Kenshin: what is a new god?" Uesugi Munesetsu couldn't help but ask.

"In the peril after the Logic Tide, the old gods departed from us, never to be heard from again. Humanity had to protect itself, and thus we came into being," replied the Page God: "As you see, we are many, but as each concept we forge becomes part of the world's laws and our souls return to Takamagahara, we now sit here in the hall, idle, waiting for a new era and new rule to descend."

"After fulfilling the concept of righteousness, I have sat here for over four hundred years. This place is both a prison and a resting place. All we can do is bear witness. The primordial gods left this place for us, until the dawn of the next age." Uesugi Kenshin nodded.

Uesugi Munesetsu clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms.

Sitting here idle for over four hundred years?

Is ascension itself merely a trap... or is each new god's birth and sacrifice equivalent to passing the torch? Until each Fire-Keeper burns out, until even the ash of the fireless must be taken out to burn in the darkness' descent?

"Then, what have we guarded for four hundred years of the Yonezawa Uesugi lineage? Merely your relics, or... something more important?" Uesugi Munesetsu pondered, then asked.

Uesugi Kenshin's figure flickered for an instant.

Azure blood seeped from the throne, flowing along the patterns, finally forming a crest beneath Munesetsu's feet—the bamboo sparrow motif.

"Guard?" Uesugi Kenshin's voice became clear, as if from distant time and space: "I never asked you to 'guard' anything. I asked you to 'remember'."

"Remember that a person can be both a demon on the battlefield and an innocent child before the Buddha. Remember that the boundary between order and chaos is forever blurred. Remember..." he paused, and all of Takamagahara seemed to hold its breath: "Remember that new gods were once human, so gods are not worthy of worship, only of understanding." "Your family, Uesugi Munesetsu, what you guard is not my ashes or my sword. You guard that faint possibility—that one day, when the world again needs balance, a soul will remember the full truth, not the distorted shadow left by myth." Uesugi Munesetsu could feel Kenshin's sorrow and longing; he had exhausted his new god's power but had not truly changed the world, yet he hoped humanity could, like him, continue walking their own path.

"About Takeda Nobuyasu..." Uesugi Munesetsu tried to speak.

"Takeda Shingen was a stubborn brat, a vile villain. The foundation of his great achievements was simultaneously his most despicable trait. Promises from his mouth were pure nonsense. Swimming in his own vomit, his greatest pleasure was extorting those few—Kōsaka Masanobu and Baba Nobuharu—then writing love letters praising their skin rashes... He was a hero, and also a traitor, an insider, and a monument symbolizing the spirit of Kai." Uesugi Kenshin said: "As his rival, I am proud. To be called twin dragons with him, I feel ashamed."

Uesugi Munesetsu twitched the corner of his mouth, suddenly feeling Uesugi Kenshin was quite humorous.

This is what a true rustic hero from the poor mountains and evil waters would say.

"About that new god from Kansai, Abe no Shiomi?" Uesugi Munesetsu asked again.

"Abe no Shiomi... he is the god of divergence and unity." Uesugi Kenshin said: "We sensed him. A... beautiful error. He should have gone mad or dissolved during that crude ascension ritual, but he didn't. Through human obsession—specifically the fixation called 'loneliness'—he forcibly fused divinity and humanity, becoming a... stable anomaly, ascending the golden throne to become a new god."

The gear turned, carrying a strange smile and malicious mockery: "His divine office is 'divergence and unity.' A contradiction. Divergence creates more loneliness; unity seeks to erase it. All his actions use the former as fuel, trying to drive the latter—this machine that can never reach its destination. Inefficient, but... rather tragic."

The stacked 'pages' rippled again: "He thought we had 'left.' No. We merely... changed our state of existence. We are still here, not returned to the void. But he, he took 'leaving' itself as his goal. Like a child obsessed with dismantling house bricks to build a ladder to the clouds, unaware that inside and outside the house, it's all under the same sky."

The new gods' opinion of Abe no Shiomi is not high, but they have made some things clear.

Uesugi Munesetsu felt the connection beginning to destabilize.

The edge of the Pale God's Hall began to collapse, the blood patterns fading.

"Lord Kenshin, what should I do, or rather, what can I do?" Uesugi Munesetsu knew his time was short.

"In this world without gods, without obvious magic, is the pursuit of the inner world meaningful? Or am I merely searching for nonexistent sparks in already-extinguished ashes?"

The Hall of the Gods fell into complete silence.

The new gods all turned to Kenshin; this question seemed to touch some taboo.

Kenshin did not answer immediately, gazing at Uesugi Munesetsu, at his young face—the only variable in the Logic Tide, his soul not belonging to this world, thus able to bypass the Logic Tide to reach Takamagahara.

"Good question, Munesetsu, good question."

"For over four hundred years, I have countless times pondered this question..."