Chapter 931

PS：I dreamed yesterday that my older brother was beaten up, I was so heartbroken I cried myself unconscious, so I didn't update. I never imagined that today my dream would actually come true—Uesugi Muneyuki finished dealing with the police side of things and quickly went to find Ahiru.

In the single-occupancy cell of the detention center, the white light of the fluorescent lamp lay like a thin layer of frost, evenly covering the gray walls and floor. The former Olympic champion Ahiru sat on the iron bed in the corner, his back against the wall, legs curled up, arms wrapped around his knees.

His eyes were half-open, pupils dilated and unfocused, his gaze fixed on some nonexistent point ahead.

He kept muttering something—sometimes nervous, sometimes hysterical, sometimes sobbing uncontrollably.

Only the existence of the inner world knows what's going on with him.

His reproductive wheel shattered, and all sources of inner world power were destroyed.

Human nature consists of two aspects: one is humanity, the other is animality.

The ascension of the First New God and the Last Old God brought the Logic Tide, which represents the determination and consolidation of humanity.

But humanity's nature is still biological, and the nature of biology entails animality—strong reproductive urges, destructive impulses, unlawful entry desires, unlawful voyeuristic cravings, and so on and so forth.

The inner world represents humanity's primal animality, and this part was shattered by Mai Xuejie's Demon-Destroying Arrow; now only Ahiru's humanity remains.

This is quite strange.

But with only humanity left, this means Uesugi Muneyuki now has a chance to communicate with Ahiru.

At that moment, the iron door opened.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway from far to near, paused at the doorway, then someone walked in. Uesugi Muneyuki stood at the door, holding nothing, his coat unbuttoned, the gap at the collar revealing the edge of a white shirt.

He looked at Ahiru for a moment, then walked over and sat down on another iron bed.

The distance between the two was less than two meters.

Uesugi Muneyuki said nothing, and Ahiru did not look at him.

A long time passed.

Ahiru's eyeballs twitched slightly, shifting from that vacant focus toward Uesugi Muneyuki's direction. The corner of his mouth twitched once. "You came? Kukuku~"

His voice was hoarse and dry, like a machine long unused trying to restart: "Don't you want to know why I became like this?"

Uesugi Muneyuki didn't respond, just stared at him: "What do you want to do?"

Ahiru's lips moved slightly: "Do you know what a New God is? You should know, you ought to know—you're a descendant of Uesugi Kenshin, you know that! Right?"

Uesugi Muneyuki's body didn't move; he thought for a moment, then nodded: "In other words, you want to become a god? You want to ascend to New God?" "I don't want to become a god! I discovered a path. A path that lets one transcend the flesh, transcend lifespan, transcend all limits. Haven't you already seen it? You also have that power. Your heart is like the world, your Wisdom Kings, your abilities. You and I are the same kind of person. You just chose a different path. You use those powers to maintain the existing order, to catch bad people, in the name of so-called justice. You've trapped yourself in a tiny cage. You clearly could go further."

Ahiru was both excited and angry, he rolled his eyes: "Your vision is truly small!"

Uesugi Muneyuki's gaze didn't leave his face: "Then how far do you want to go?"

Ahiru's voice suddenly grew softer, so soft it seemed like he was speaking a dream no one else should hear: "I want to become a New God. To behold something that transcends all existing forms of being. Once I ascend to New God, I will no longer age, no longer die. I can exist forever, possess infinite power, control everything I desire. That path is narrow, but all it takes is sufficient obsession and the correct ritual." Uesugi Muneyuki understood.

In other words, this is a New God ascension ritual—Ahiru wants to assault the New God realm through a sacrifice of the five viscera?

Hey? Do you even qualify for that?

You dog! You're just a dog of Mahabrahma!

Absurd—then whose dog are you?

I'm Mai Xuejie's dog!

He thought it over, wondering who taught him that.

If this could make one a New God, then Oda Nobunaga could have been Buddha 500 times over!

This is way too cheap!

Moreover, the authority of a New God after ascension is actually very brief—yes, theoretically, after death a New God's soul returns to the High Plain of Heaven and then no longer ages or dies, can exist forever.

But what about the ending?

New Gods who have fulfilled their historical mission sit in the main divine hall of the High Plain of Heaven, idle, waiting through endless, boundless time for the arrival of a new rule. They know something about worldly affairs, but they can do nothing.

Ahiru would think this way—someone must have taught him!

Just as Uesugi Muneyuki's understanding of the inner world basically comes entirely from Mai Xuejie, and some things she won't say unless he asks, so his knowledge is one-sided, but people can't imagine what they've never seen—some things truly require him to actively ask before it's appropriate to tell him. Uesugi Muneyuki leaned against the wall: "With these two stunts of yours, you still want to ascend to New God? You killed a woman and four children, collected five organs, summoned a projection of Mahakala, and then I shattered it. Do you even deserve it?"

Ahiru's mouth corner twitched again: "You're still young. You can still laugh, still mock, still feel you're on the right side. But you'll age too. You'll notice your body stops obeying, your energy declines, things you used to do slowly become impossible. When that day comes, you'll understand why someone would choose that path."

Uesugi Muneyuki now understood.

Actually, this is just inner world energy anxiety.

Every inner world entity experiences similar anxiety, because the amount of inner world energy a person can generate in a lifetime is limited, so they all yearn to do something.

Only Uesugi Muneyuki, this strange exception, can obtain inner world energy.

Therefore his thinking differs from others.

But does Ahiru need to know these things?

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up and walked to the iron door, didn't go out, just stood inside the doorframe, arms crossed: "Who told you? Who told you how to ascend to New God? Who assigned you those rituals?"

Ahiru's head lifted slightly, his eyes flickering once in the fluorescent white light: "An."

Sure enough, it's him!

Uesugi Muneyuki's breath didn't hitch: "Kansai Unification Church's patriarch His Holiness, An?"

"He said he's always been looking for suitable candidates, said my obsession is strong enough, my foundation solid. He gave me all the ritual steps, gave me the needed tools, gave me everything. He said after I ascend to New God, I'll become his strongest ally. I just… didn't make it in time." Uesugi Muneyuki looked at him: "He said if you can ascend, you can ascend? Do you believe everything he said?"

"If I don't believe him, who else would I believe?" Ahiru said coldly, smirking: "Believe you? At least he led me onto that path, let me touch the power of the world's inner side! He told me I could do it, so I did—just that simple!"

"So you tried to assault the Logic Tide with a few murders and the breaking voice of two Olympic judo champions?"

Ahiru's pupils contracted slightly: "Logic Tide… you even know this??"

Uesugi Muneyuki didn't answer him. His gaze shifted from Ahiru's face to the long, thin crack in the gray wall: "I know far more than you do, and far deeper."

"I see, then my loss isn't unjust." Ahiru looked at Uesugi Muneyuki for a while, finally laughed in relief.

"Silly blessing!" Uesugi Muneyuki glanced at Ahiru again.

This guy's been retired this long, still spouting the same logic.

In judo there's a custom: if your skill is inferior, you gracefully accept defeat. Since you've already lost, you should admit it with dignity and poise. Ahiru, however, is an Olympic judo champion, and in a sense a small-town exam warrior—in his view, losing is losing. He staked everything, lost everything, his expression looks exactly like having eaten Akita flank steak—utterly satisfied.

Also, these years he's played enough, had enough fun.

But precisely, it is precisely such people who are most hateful, because from beginning to end he never felt that there was anything wrong with himself.

"Just wait for the legal sanctions to come." Uesugi Muneyuki sighed.

"I'm waiting!" Ahiru first shouted with great momentum, then became very discouraged: "I was wrong, I shouldn't have done this kind of thing, I don't know, I just... I just didn't expect that someone could actually break through my domain!"

"No." Uesugi Muneyuki frowned.

Someone thought of it.

No, that person should naturally have thought of it!

Suburbs of Osaka, a certain hidden stronghold of the Unification Church.

The building's exterior looks like an ordinary rural temple, gray tile roof, white walls, at the door stands a wooden plaque inscribed with "Religious Corporation; Kansai Unification Church," but the interior space is much larger than it appears from outside, corridors crisscross, leading to deep underground secret chambers and prayer rooms.

The Kansai New God, God of Separation and Unity An, sits in the deepest secret chamber, before him is a low, long table, on the table is spread a huge map drawn on sheepskin.

The lines on the map are not a map, but markings older than map symbols, like a diagram of the flow of some kind of energy.

He wears a dark gray monk's robe, his hair is cut very short, the wrinkles on his face look as if carved by a knife, no one knows his age, he looks about forty or fifty.

Standing before him is a man in a black suit, quietly reporting something.

"Your Eminence, something big has happened in Kansai... yes, Ahiru was arrested, uh, he might betray us."

"The ritual was not successful, Hakubi from Kanto also came."

"There are major changes in the Kansai police, will the offerings continue afterward?"

After listening, An remained silent for a long time, then slowly nodded: "He failed. As expected. But the experiment was very successful."

"Afterward, things will proceed according to the plan."

"Yes." That person left, leaving only the frowning An.

His finger drew a line on the sheepskin map.

The Logic Tide left behind by the last Old God and the First New God is not so easily broken.

It is the strongest seal of this era, this world.

All who attempt to become New Gods will be restricted, bound, and erased by it.

But this great experiment made An feel a breakthrough point.

If he can let a person first attempt promotion at a location, when promotion succeeds at that moment, then let this inner world exist to repeat an earlier similar ritual for promotion again, letting the conflict between the two successive New God promotions become a passage, then the Logic Tide's restriction can be broken. Uesugi Muneyuki at that time projected his own heart, like the world reflected, into Ahiru's inner world, that in itself was a small-scale superposition, at certain specific moments, when the Lingam and Gold Vajra Pestle collided, the Logic Tide exhibited violent fluctuations.

Although the time was short, it was enough for him to confirm that the passage exists.

This is actually similar to exploiting a bug or invincibility frames.

He withdrew his finger from the map, his gaze fell on a wall at the end of the secret chamber.

That wall had no decoration, but in his eyes, that wall was slowly, silently cracking open a fissure.

Deep in the fissure there was no light, a darkness older than light, the chaos before all things were separated.

"Just once. One superposition large enough, enough energy, enough intense conflict, just that can open a road to the deepest reaches of the universe. Then we will be able to reconnect with those Old Gods. Those ancient deities that existed before the Logic Tide appeared, those never sealed, truly original chaos. When they return, all boundaries of this world will disappear. Humanity will no longer be divided individuals, no longer have walls between each other, no longer have national borders, ethnicities, faiths, languages. All things return to one, all people become one again." "All things, in the end, shall return to unity!"

He paused, looking at the imagined door before him.

"That is true salvation. Not the immortality of an individual, but the return of the whole world."

He closed the map, stood up, and walked out of the secret chamber.

There was no one in the corridor.

He walked alone between those gray-white walls, footsteps echoing in the empty corridor, like the beat of some ancient ritual. He walked very far, passed through several doors, finally stopping before an iron door.

Inside were placed the New God bone ash of Uesugi Kenshin that Sohō Hinata obtained from the Yonezawa Uesugi Shrine.

These bone ashes will guide him to the High Plain of Heaven, and reveal the path and direction by which the Old Gods left the world for the "Void," creating for him a heavenly ladder.

As for his grudge with Uesugi Muneyuki, it is utterly unimportant.

An has already turned his gaze toward the far shore of the starry sky, toward the void where the gods departed after creating Maha Bo.

What exactly is the opposite shore of the Soul Sea?

He wants to go see.

He knows there might be sacrifice, there might be very cruel things happening, it might not align with many people's wishes.

But so what? Being able to become part of the path to the Void is not a curse, it is glory.

No matter how many people are sacrificed, he doesn't care, because he only wants to see, wants to know, wants to go.

Just this simple.