The moment the paper blanket was spread out, the soft light dispersed the darkness in the pit.
Everyone looked down. They originally thought it was just an ordinary collapse area, but now they saw a shocking sight.
The bottom of the pit is not just rubble and ruins.
An ancient circular altar with a diameter of more than twenty meters lay quietly there.
The altar is made of some unknown blue-black stone, and its surface is densely engraved with cuneiform characters. Those characters are similar to the symbols on the crystal of Moon Country, but they are older and more obscure.
Twelve broken stone pillars are evenly distributed around the edge of the altar, and there are metal chains that have been forcibly torn off on each stone pillar.
In the center of the altar, a hole about three meters in diameter was punched out, as dark as an abyss.
"This is..." Ōnoki took a breath of cold air.
As Tsuchikage who has lived for decades, he has seen countless ancient ruins, but the aura emanating from the altar in front of him sent shivers down his spine.
The fragments of the first and second teleportation Node are scattered on the surface of the altar, shining with a faint blue light under the light of the paper carpet.
"Wait, don't move!" Sasuke stopped Naruto who was about to go down. Rinnegan carefully observed every detail on the altar.
But Naruto couldn't hold it any longer.
"Why do you care so much! Get the fragments and go home early!" He jumped directly into the pit.
"The end of the crane!" Sasuke frowned.
Naruto landed firmly on the edge of the altar. Just as he was about to step towards the fragments, his fingers accidentally touched the stone slab of the altar.
Buzz!
In an instant, the cuneiform characters on the entire altar suddenly lit up with scarlet light!
"Oops!" Sasuke's face changed drastically.
An invisible spiritual shock erupted from the altar like a flood that broke a dam, and accurately poured into Naruto's brain!
"Ahhhh--!"
Naruto screamed and fell to the ground with his head in his hands, veins popping out on his forehead.
His mind seemed to be filled with thousands of resentful souls. Those voices were shrill, desperate, and resentful, screaming and wailing, trying to tear his consciousness into pieces.
That's the resentment left behind when the Moon Country ancient guard was sacrificed!
For hundreds of years, these resentments have been bound in the altar, fermenting, distorting, and strengthening day after day, and finally turned into this terrifying trap on the spiritual level.
"Naruto!" Konan wants to control Paper Shards to pull him up.
"Don't touch him!" Sasuke shouted, "Physical contact cannot relieve Mental Pollution, but it will drag you in!"
His Rinnegan turned rapidly and saw through the nature of the trap.
Those resentments themselves have been completely dissipated. What really works is the Runes array on the altar. They amplify the remaining resentment Chakra hundreds of times, forming this "Mental Pollution area" that is comparable to an illusion.
"Use Senjutsu Chakra to feel! Don't touch with your body!" Sasuke's voice directly rang in Naruto's mind.
Naruto gritted his teeth and tried his best to mobilize the Natural Energy in his body.
The golden Senjutsu Chakra surged out of his body, forming a thin barrier on the surface of his skin. The moment the impact of resentment touched this barrier, it was like encountering a natural enemy, emitting a piercing scream before dissipating without a trace.
Natural Energy is the purest power, which is naturally incompatible with dirty things like resentment.
"Huh... huh..." Naruto gasped for air, his forehead covered with cold sweat, "I almost fell down."
"Stop talking nonsense and get your stuff quickly!" Sasuke said angrily.
Naruto learned the lesson this time and maintained Senjutsu Chakra's protection. He carefully walked around Runes on the altar and picked up the scattered fragments one by one.
"This piece has the strongest energy... this piece has the most complete lines..." He muttered, putting a few key fragments into his arms.
At this moment, Kageyama, who had been standing by the pit, empty as a puppet, suddenly moved.
"What is he doing?!" Raikage immediately became alert.
Kageyama ignored everyone's exclamations and obstructions and jumped into the pit.
His movements were stiff and mechanical, but with some unstoppable obsession, he walked straight towards the dark hole in the center of the altar.
"Be careful!" Gaara controlled the sand and tried to intercept it, but was stopped by Sasuke.
"Don't irritate him, observe first." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
The moment Kageyama stepped onto the altar, the red lights of Runes turned off automatically, as if surrendering to him.
He walked step by step to the hole and knelt down.
There was an expression of disobedience on that charred face, with almost no facial features visible.
That was not an expression that a rational Kageyama would have, but a look of pure, admiring, and longing.
"Mother..." He stretched out his charred hand and pointed at the dark hole, his voice drifting like a dream, "I... am back."
The words just fell.
Rumble!
The entire pit began to shake violently!
Naruto almost lost his footing and hurriedly used Chakra to steady himself.
Deep in the pit, in the darkness of the hole, two scarlet lights suddenly lit up!
No, that's not light.
Those are eyes.
A pair of huge eyes that seemed to be made of magma and full of primitive violence!
Just for a moment when they looked into those eyes, everyone present felt that their souls were being tightly grasped, and a terrifying coercion far exceeding that of Kageyama when it transformed into a monster was overwhelmingly suppressed.
Raikage's face was ashen, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Ōnoki's body was shaking and he could hardly stand still.
The sand controlled by Gaara is trembling.
This is not the suppression of Chakra, but the crushing of life levels!
"What is this?!" Mei Terumi lost his voice.
Rinnegan of Sasuke saw more.
Behind those scarlet eyes, there was a huddled black shadow that was unimaginably huge. The outline of the black shadow was blurry, but a vague human shape could be seen, or in other words, it had once been a human shape.
Countless thick chains extended from under the altar and were nailed to every part of the black figure's body.
The chain is engraved with the same Runes as the altar, and emits a faint blue light.
"What this altar suppresses is not a relic..." Sasuke's voice was dry, "It is a living creature!"
A failed experiment that was exiled here by Otsutsuki main family and relied on devouring the energy of the moon's core for an unknown number of years... to survive!
The birth of Kageyama was not to rule mankind from the beginning, nor was it to realize any ideal.
He is just a caretaker.
A tool created specifically to monitor and study this "matrix".
"Come here!" Konan responded the fastest.
Countless purple Paper Shards turned into chains, and at the critical moment, they entangled Kageyama who wanted to continue getting closer to the hole, and forcibly pulled him back.
Those scarlet eyes stared at Kageyama who was being pulled away, and let out an angry roar.
Roar--!
The sound waves tore through the air, causing the entire interior of the moon to tremble!
The cracks in the dome expanded rapidly, and countless boulders fell like raindrops.
"Quickly retreat!"
Ōnoki shouted.