I'm having fun in Tokyo

She sighed: "You are my father, of course you are my father, but as for why I believe you are my father, that's a long story."

"However, I can first explain to you, Father, why this place is the boundary between the present world and the afterlife, the closest place to the Land of the Dead." The girl pointed to the black river in the distance.

"That river is the Sanzu River, which is the river through which souls go after they die and travel to the land of the dead."

"When any living being dies, its soul will drift towards the Yellow Springs because it loses its physical body. It enters this river, transforms into a wisp of spirit, and carries its soul fire toward the land of the Yellow Springs."

"If a living being's sins are too heavy and its soul too burdened, it will be unable to support its own soul fire and will sink into the river. Its soul fire will also be extinguished and turn into part of the river water, losing the opportunity to enter the land of the dead."

"That torii gate is the gate to the land of the dead."

"As long as the soul carries its own soul fire through the Gate of the Underworld, it can reach the Land of the Underworld, enter that paradise of the afterlife, and enjoy endless eternal life without having to bear any more suffering."

"But it's no longer usable."

"No matter how many souls enter the River of Three Crossings and head towards the Gate of the Underworld, they will all sink into the river before the gate, becoming part of the river water, and forever sinking into oblivion."

Morikawa Yu asked instinctively, "Why?"

"Because it was blocked by you, Father."

The girl looked at Morikawa Yu, a clear hint of hatred in her eyes.

Although the hatred was fleeting, it was incredibly deep and cold, making Morikawa Yu feel a little uneasy. She couldn't understand why she had such deep hatred, nor could she understand why she said he had blocked the gates of the underworld.

Fortunately, the girl quickly and skillfully concealed her hatred.

A smile returned to her face, making her look like a young girl eagerly awaiting her father's return home, her beautiful eyes seemingly reflecting starlight.

"But now it's all right, Father. You've finally returned, and you've taken back your power from those sinners. Although one part of your power is incomplete, it can still be used."

“If I give you the power again, Father, you will be able to use it to open the gates of the underworld.”

"Then we can reunite with our mother, allow you to atone for your sins to her, bring her back to the present world, and then make the present world a part of the afterlife."

"Only your power, Father, can open this door. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to wait so long... Never mind, let's bring Mother back first!"

The young goddess walked towards him with a smile on her face, wanting to take his hand.

Morikawa Yu took a step back, still holding his beloved sword Tsurumaru, the blade held horizontally between him and the young girl, and released his other two beloved swords, Mikazuki and Futsu-no-Mitama no Tsurugi.

Morikawa Yu didn't believe a word she said.

She just said that the Land of the Dead is a place where souls enjoy endless immortality and no longer have to bear any suffering, but as far as he knows, the Land of the Dead during the Age of Gods was a place filled with despair and death.

When a soul passes through the Gates of the Underworld, it loses all consciousness and transforms into a cloud of lifeless necromancy, drifting endlessly across the land of the afterlife.

Izanami, the lord of the underworld, will turn them into a part of the underworld when she sees them, and enslave them forever.

The smile on the young goddess's face slowly froze.

Suspicion returned to her eyes as she looked at him with confusion: "Father, after all I've said, haven't you remembered who you are yet?"

Morikawa Yu frowned, too lazy to listen to her anymore, and said in a low voice, "Alright, stop joking around here."

"What father? What Yellow Springs?"

"The Age of Gods has already ended, so how can a place like the Underworld still exist?"

"Hurry back. The Mizuki Shrine and the others have already arrived in Tokyo. The Shrine meeting is about to begin. If you don't want to go, Ryoko and the others will come looking for us soon."

However, to his surprise, the girl could no longer maintain her smile when she heard his words, and her gaze turned cold.

She squinted at Morikawa Yu: "I'm not joking, Father."

"Although the Age of Gods has ended, the Underworld still exists. The secret realm of our Ise Grand Shrine and Matsue Castle in the land of Izumo are the closest places to the Underworld."

"And there will be no more council meetings in the future."

“When I bring my mother back from the underworld and hand you over to her, she will kill all the sinners who have usurped our power and authority, and transform this world into a part of the afterlife, turning all people in this world into living souls who will enjoy eternal bliss.”

After the girl finished speaking, her expression softened slightly, as if she had recalled the scene she had described.

She paused for a moment, then smiled again: "I can roughly understand why you don't believe me now, Father. After all, you haven't remembered your own identity yet."

"I brought you here alone so that I could see you and remind you of your past memories."

Morikawa Yu frowned.

He instinctively sensed something was wrong and began to speculate about the girl's identity.

She wanted to bring her mother back from the land of the dead, so that her mother could make this world a part of the afterlife, and transform all living beings into living souls.

The ruler of the Land of the Dead is called Izanami.

She was the mother goddess of many gods during the Age of Gods, and also the wife of Izanagi, the father god of all gods during the Age of Gods.

In other words, she wanted to bring back Izanami from the underworld, and believed that he was Izanagi, or rather, the reincarnation of Izanagi.

How can it be?

He was a time traveler from the Celestial Empire, not a remnant soul of a god from the Age of Gods.

As for the girl's identity, he has not yet made a specific conclusion, but he feels that the girl should be a descendant of the father god Izanagi and the mother god Izanami.

But he didn't understand why the girl was pretending to be a priestess, or rather, using the identity of a priestess to say these things to him.

He wasn't sure which of those descendant gods the girl was.

More importantly, there are no gods left in the world.

He was very sure of this.

After all, the last god in the world died at his hands, and he was known as the "End of the Age of Gods".

This puzzled him greatly, making it increasingly difficult for him to ascertain the girl's identity.

He looked at the girl and fell into deep thought.

The girl smiled gently at him, her voice light and melodious: "Father, let me help you remember those things from the past, so that you can recall your identity."

"But these things are a bit complicated to explain... Never mind, I'll just tell you a story instead."

She slowly walked towards Morikawa Yu, circled around him, and said softly, "In the past, there was no life in this world, only a silent, dark, desolate wasteland. But in this dark wasteland, consciousness gradually emerged."

"From the moment this consciousness was born, it wandered through the world. Finally, it passed by a piece of stardust and discovered that there were actually living beings on this inconspicuous stardust."

"It observed these creatures and found that although they were weak, they were full of life. It liked their vitality very much, especially the most intelligent of these creatures. It used their image to form a body for itself, and because of the gender of these creatures, it longed to have a partner and divided itself into two parts."

"Then it became them, the original gods, the father and mother of many of our gods."

Chapter 676 The Real Reason for the Extinction of the Divine Era

"But in the beginning, they were not completely separated. They wanted to unite and produce offspring like humans, but they could not succeed. They only created many realms different from the present world. So they transformed back into Him, returned to their original form, and then separated into two people and reunited."

"This time they succeeded, and had many offspring. They ruled the world as gods, and the Age of Gods began."

Morikawa Yu frowned as she listened to the girl's words.

The girl's words were very different from the myths and legends of the Age of Gods he had heard, but since she wanted him to "remember his identity," she was definitely not lying.

Moreover, Shinjue was in his own Goshuin-shrine space, listening to the girl's words. If the girl was lying, Shinjue would definitely remind him.

In other words, the Age of Gods did indeed begin because of this.

The "dark wasteland" where the first god was born was very likely the original universe, and then He wandered in the universe and came to Earth.

The girl looked at Morikawa Yu's expression.

Seeing that Morikawa Yu was unmoved, she frowned and continued, "Then, the 'she' among them realized that living beings only experience death, and after death there is no destination, only meaningless extinction."

"So she wanted to help these creatures so that they could continue even after they died, and she prepared to create a realm."

"Unfortunately, such a realm is not easy to create. It consumed too much of her power. When she gave birth to another child, her divine body collapsed, and she could only maintain her existence by relying on that realm known as the Otherworld."

"The other 'he' among them was also reluctant to let 'she' be separated from 'him' and wanted to bring 'her' back from the afterlife."

"But when 'he' found 'her,' he found her appearance incredibly terrifying, and he felt disgusted and wanted to escape back to the present world, which also angered her, who was in that otherworldly place."

"She desperately wanted to keep him, so the 'he' who ran away became even more disgusted and afraid. When he left the other world, he used his power to seal the gate between the other world and the present world, fearing that she would return to the present world."

"She, who remained in the afterlife, also hated him intensely for his escape and made a resolute vow with him to make all living beings in this world perish and to cut off his lineage."

“From then on, the barrier between the present world and the afterlife affected their connection.”

“At that time, almost all the gods came from them. After they severed their relationship, the age of gods began to die out.”

Morikawa Yu couldn't help but widen her eyes: "Wait...you mean, the Divine Era ended because of the two of them making a decisive break?"

The young goddess shook her head: "Yes and no."

“After the ‘he’ among them returned to the mortal world, he separated his divine body and transformed into a new descendant of gods in order to resist the vow of another ‘she’ in the other world.”

"But when 'he' lost 'her,' he also lost his own endless cycle of power."

"They were originally a whole. As long as they recognized each other, they could use each other's power to live on endlessly, just like all things in the world are always constant and unchanging, like yin and yang being twins. After the power is used, it will not really disappear, but will reappear."

"After the connection between them was severed, each time he used his power to create offspring and divide his power, he became weaker and weaker, until he finally lost all his power and disappeared from the world, only to wait for the day he would be reborn."

"In addition, his descendants also lost their source of power, becoming increasingly weak and only able to gain power through human faith."

"In order to seize these faiths, they incite hatred, provoke wars among humans, and even claim to be the only god, wanting to gain the faith of all living beings."

"But faith cannot solve the problem."

"When humanity discovers that it can solve many problems without relying on gods, its faith weakens, and the ultimate meaning of the existence of gods in the world is denied."

"Besides humans, there are also those monsters."

“Those monsters are nothing more than the same consciousness that comes from the world, yet in our final days they kill us like hunters and steal our powers.”

"And those sinners."

“She was just a priestess who believed in and served our gods, but like those monsters, she stole our power and authority, and tried to kill us all, and eventually became the so-called god.”

"All of this is because the original 'him' betrayed his mother and sealed off the path between the present world and the afterlife."

"It's all his fault!" the young goddess gritted her teeth, her eyes once again filled with hatred.

But her gaze was fixed on Morikawa Yu.

Even if Morikawa Yu were slow-witted, she couldn't possibly fail to realize that the "he" she was referring to was him.

He had completely understood what the girl meant.

He was the father god Izanagi, whom she described as having abandoned his mother goddess Izanami, sealed off the path between the afterlife and the present world, and was the culprit who led to the demise of the Age of Gods.

But he couldn't understand why she thought he was the father god Izanagi.

He was clearly a time traveler from the Celestial Empire, and had no connection whatsoever with the Father God who created the gods and then abandoned his wife.

And there's something else he doesn't understand.

That is, the "them" mentioned by the young goddess created the gods by combining their powers, but in the end, only the Japanese age of gods died out the slowest, while the ages of gods in other parts of the world ended much earlier.

But he immediately remembered what the girl had just said.

Because the path between the afterlife and the present life was severed, and the Father God feared the Mother God's resolute vow, he divided his power and authority to create gods on his own, which eventually dissipated. The gods lost their source of power and could only rely on faith as their foundation, plundering faith from all sides.

However, as civilization developed, humanity quickly recognized its own power and stopped believing that gods were the only ones, thus shaking the foundation for the continued existence of gods.

This was also the conclusion that the Great Fox had reached about the demise of the Age of Gods.

However, the great fox only knew that the gods perished because they lost faith and meaning in their existence, but he did not know that the most fundamental reason for the gods' demise was the break between the father god and the mother god, as well as the father god's weakening and dissipation.

That makes sense; myths and legends from all over the world are quite similar.

Among their descendants were so many gods, and perhaps each region's gods had their own rules for vying for faith in their respective regions, which eventually became the prototype of mythology.

Furthermore, the names of the father and mother gods are not necessarily Izanami and Izanagi. They are called Izanami and Izanagi in Japan, but they are probably called by other names in other places.

Moreover, myths have been passed down for so long that they all have elements of artistic embellishment, and they may have become something else entirely.

The true history of the Age of Gods is not known to ordinary people.

Finally, seeing Morikawa Yu's expression of realization, the young goddess also smiled.

Her body slowly came to a stop, and the golden light shining on her body continued to grow brighter, eventually forming a golden, shimmering human figure behind her.

As the humanoid figure fully solidified, the golden light slowly dissipated, revealing the human form beneath the light.

She stretched out her hands, yawned, and stretched her body.

Her long, radiant platinum-gold hair slid down her fair, smooth shoulders, and the divine light solidified into a robe imprinted with divine power, concealing her slender and graceful figure.

"Ah, I can finally get out."