Human? God?

Su Chen remained silent for a long time, his eyes flickering. No one knew what he was thinking.

Seeing this, Li Shuhua spoke bluntly.

"Mr. Su, your knowledge and perspective far surpass ours. Whatever you want to say, just say it."

Zhu Yuanzheng nodded as well.

"That's right, Su. Since the Foot-Basin Chicken didn't do this, who else do you think it could have been? Who could have that kind of power?"

Su Chen raised his eyelids slightly and glanced at the two men before speaking hesitantly.

"I do have some ideas. Let me put them out there, and just hear me out."

"As for whether they hold up, we can analyze them together once I'm finished."

Only after both men nodded did Su Chen look at the fragments scattered across the floor and speak slowly.

"This Yata Mirror is one of Sakura's supreme Three Sacred Treasures."

"For a long time, it has symbolized the emperor's authority."

"But if we really examine it, the Yata Mirror never belonged exclusively to any one emperor, nor can it represent any single Sakura ancestor."

"The Three Sacred Treasures exist entirely to demonstrate that the emperor's authority was bestowed by the gods."

"So, in my opinion, the Yata Mirror doesn't qualify as an ancestor symbol at all."

Li Shuhua furrowed his brows, deep in thought.

He had never even heard of the Yata Mirror before.

Nor did he understand how Su Chen knew all this.

Even if Huaxia's ancestors had visited him in his dreams...

Surely they wouldn't have explained Sakura's local customs as well?

How much free time did they have?

But he trusted Su Chen.

Especially at a time like this, Su Chen would never talk nonsense.

Since he sounded so certain, he had to be right.

"Mr. Su, are you saying that even if the Yata Mirror ended up in Sakura, the Foot-Basin Chicken couldn't activate it, much less summon an ancestor phantom?"

"But if that's the case, what was the point of the Yata Mirror appearing?"

At this, the corner of Zhu Yuanzheng's mouth suddenly twitched.

"Do you think this Yata Mirror thing might have appeared specifically to target us?"

"Otherwise, releasing a symbol that can't be activated for no reason would accomplish nothing!"

Li Shuhua's eyes widened as he looked at Zhu Yuanzheng in disbelief.

"Surely not?"

"Didn't we already conclude that some force was probably influencing the appearance of ancestor symbols?"

"If that force brought Huaxia's symbol into the world, why would it release the Yata Mirror to crash into it?"

"Wouldn't that be completely unnecessary?"

Zhu Yuanzheng froze, unable to reply.

Only when neither man spoke again did Su Chen continue.

"Elder Li is right, but General Zhu's analysis isn't entirely unreasonable either."

"Since we're all speculating anyway, why not be a little bolder?"

"What if we assume that there isn't just one force controlling the appearance of ancestor symbols, but many?"

"What if those forces belong to different factions, and there's some kind of competition between them?"

"Wouldn't that explain it?"

Seeing the bewilderment on Zhu Yuanzheng's and Li Shuhua's faces, Su Chen took a deep breath and changed tack.

"There's a deity called Amaterasu-Ōmikami in Sakura's mythology. You've heard of her, haven't you, Elder Li?"

Li Shuhua came back to his senses and quickly nodded.

"Yes. Amaterasu-Ōmikami is also called Amaterasu-Ōkami. She's one of the three principal deities in Sakura's mythology."

"She's revered as the ancestor of Sakura's imperial family, which is why she's also called the Imperial Ancestor Deity. She's also the supreme deity of Shinto."

At this point, Li Shuhua's gaze grew somewhat puzzled.

"Why are you suddenly asking about this, Mr. Su?"

Su Chen smiled and pointed at the bronze mirror fragments again.

"Then what if I told you that, in Sakura's mythology, the Yata Mirror is actually an incarnation of Amaterasu-Ōmikami? Would you believe me?"

"What?"

At those words, not only did Li Shuhua freeze again, but Zhu Yuanzheng was startled too.

"Mr. Su, surely you aren't suggesting that a Sakura deity was actually controlling the Yata Mirror when it struck Huaxia's symbol?"

"Isn't that... a little too far-fetched?"

"Su, all this stuff about gods and spirits was made up!"

"The Foot-Basin Chicken imperial family fabricated those myths and legends just to make the people believe they were descended from gods and secure their own position."

"You actually believe that nonsense?"

Su Chen did not rush to speak. He waited until both men had calmed down before continuing.

"As I said earlier, let me put my ideas out there, and just hear me out."

"We can take our time analyzing whether they make sense."

After saying that, Su Chen took a couple of steps and spoke in a low, serious voice.

"Every country's mythology was invented by people. On that point, I agree with General Zhu."

"But although the myths were invented, the gods in those myths weren't necessarily invented."

"You may not know this, but Huaxia's mythology is every bit as rich as that of other countries, if not richer."

"Yet a large portion of Huaxia's gods were originally humans, rather than beings imagined out of thin air."

"But since you haven't heard of those gods, I won't go into them."

"Let's talk about something real."

"You both saw Emperor Xia Dayu with your own eyes, didn't you?"

"Four thousand years ago, he was a living, breathing human. There's no question about that, right?"

"But earlier, even a mere remnant of Dayu's soul subdued every foreign Awakened within Huaxia with a single glance and stripped them of their bloodline power."

"How do you think that differs from the gods of legend?"

"A god may once have been human."

"And a human can become a god."

"Those ancestors from the distant past may now exist as beings akin to gods."

"In other words, the forces manipulating the descent of ancestor symbols behind the scenes may well be the ancestors themselves!"

Zhu Yuanzheng and Li Shuhua exchanged looks, unable to speak for a long while.

But Su Chen's eyes grew brighter and brighter, as though he had brushed against the edge of some enormous secret.

"If this hypothesis is correct, then everything makes sense!"

"Dayu mentioned earlier that a great calamity was approaching, one that would devastate the entire world."

"Although we don't know exactly what this calamity is, the departed ancestors of every civilization certainly wouldn't stand idly by."

"Perhaps for some reason, or perhaps because the ancestors who became gods are too powerful, they can't truly descend into this world."

"That's why they sent down symbols to strengthen their descendants and help them survive the calamity."

"And this world has its own rules. Only during a certain window can the symbols descend without disrupting its normal functioning."

"That's why the symbols appeared all over the world at the same time!"

"What resides within the ancestor symbols is probably just a wisp of consciousness separated from each ancestor."

"Their true bodies and souls are all in some other, unknowable place, watching everything."

"These ancestors come from different civilizations, so naturally they would form different factions."

"The ancestors of each faction wouldn't just want their descendants to survive the calamity. They would surely also hope to seize this opportunity to surpass the other factions."

"I don't know whether the Yata Mirror is truly connected to Amaterasu-Ōmikami, but it's definitely connected to Sakura's ancestors."

"The Foot-Basin Chicken really didn't have the power to do this, but their ancestors did!"