Sea Country's journey was more difficult and dangerous than expected.
The boat prepared by Yamada is an ancient sailing ship, with Otsutsuki and Runes engraved on the hull. It can sail automatically in the absence of wind. But this convenience comes with a price - the space on the ship seems to be distorted, sometimes as spacious as a palace, sometimes as narrow as a coffin, giving people a strong sense of dizziness.
"This is space folding technology." Yamada explained on the deck, the sea breeze rustling his robes. "Ōtsutsuki Clan is good at manipulating space. This ship is an ancient relic and can compress a voyage of several months into three days."
"Three days?" Sarada was holding on to the railing, her face pale. She had vomited twice on the boat, and Sharingan couldn't focus under this kind of spatial distortion.
Boruto's condition was better. Karma Seal's power made him naturally adaptable to changes in space. But he noticed that as the voyage progressed, the movements in his body became more and more active, as if responding to some kind of call.
"How long until arrival?" he asked.
"Tomorrow dawn." Yamada pointed to the horizon, "Did you see that black cloud layer? That is the protective barrier of the ruins, the eye of the storm."
Boruto squinted his eyes. The cloud layer did not appear to be naturally formed, but some kind of huge Chakra aggregate, with thunder and lightning flashing in it, and the outline of the building could be vaguely seen.
"That's where the wreckage of God of Ōtsutsuki is?"
"It's just the periphery." Yamada's expression became serious, "The real core is at the bottom of the sea, and you need to go through three layers of barriers to reach it. Boruto, are you ready?"
"I'm always ready."
At night, Boruto stood alone on the bow of the ship, watching the rolling waves. The moonlight was obscured by clouds, and only the Runes on the ship's hull provided faint light.
"Shiki." He called in his heart, "Are you awake?"
"I've been awake." Shi's voice sounded, clearer than usual, "The feeling of being close to my hometown makes it difficult to calm down."
"Hometown?"
"God of Ōtsutsuki is the origin of all people." Shi explained, "We are all born from the remains of God, like... cell division. Each Otsutsuki carries part of God's genes. I, you, Yamada, and even this ship are all the continuation of God."
"Is God still alive?"
"I don't know." Shi's voice was filled with rare confusion. "According to legend, God fell into a deep sleep after creating the universe. But some people think that God is dead and we are just maggots eating the corpse."
Boruto was silent. This metaphor made him feel uncomfortable, but it also made him understand a certain essence of the Ōtsutsuki Clan - their pursuit of power and persistence in evolution may all stem from this insecurity of "eating corpses".
"What would happen if I took the remains of a god?"
"I don't know." Shi said honestly, "You may gain unprecedented power, you may be swallowed by the consciousness of God, or... nothing will happen. This is unknown territory, and even Yamada can only speculate based on ancient books."
"Is it worth the risk?"
"It's worth it for you," Shiki said, "Because no matter what the outcome, you are moving towards the truth. About your birth, about my past, about the meaning of it all. You are not the kind of person who will run away from the truth, Boruto."
Boruto smile, "You know me better and better."
"We are merging, remember?" Shi's voice also had a hint of smile, "Maybe one day, even I won't be able to tell which ideas are mine and which are yours."
At dawn, the eye of the storm is close at hand.
The black clouds were like the mouth of a giant beast, waiting to swallow up all life that dared to break in. The waves were tens of meters high, and the ship's hull was struggling to move forward under the protection of Runes, groaning under the load.
"Hurry up!" Yamada shouted, "We are going to rush in!"
The moment the bow of the ship hit the clouds, the world turned pure white. Boruto felt like his consciousness was being torn apart, and his body seemed to be cut by countless thin lines. Sarada's screams came from a distance, followed by Naruto's roar, and finally everything fell silent.
When their vision returned, they were standing in a strange land.
It's not the bottom of the sea, but an island suspended in the Void. In the center of the island is a huge pyramid. The tower is made of some kind of black crystal and exudes a faint blue light. There are countless debris floating around the pyramid, some of which are building debris, some of which are biological fossils, and some of which are... human corpses.
"Welcome to the cemetery of God." Yamada opened his arms with a mixture of piety and madness on his face, "Here is the starting point and the end of the universe."
The inside of the pyramid is more magnificent than the outside.
The height of the passage is more than 100 meters, and the walls are covered with murals, depicting the history of the Ōtsutsuki Clan - from the sleep of the gods, to the dispersion of the people, to the conquest and destruction of various planets. As Boruto walked and read, it felt like he was reading a chronicle of the universe.
"These murals..." Sarada recorded with Sharingan, "The recorded technology far exceeds modern Shinobi World. If word spreads..."
"It will lead to war." Naruto answered, his hand kept pressed on the kunai, vigilant about Yamada's every move, "So it must be kept secret until we find the antidote and leave here."
Yamada walked in the front, paying no attention to the alert behind him. His eyes were always fixed on the top of the pyramid, where a blue light beam shot straight towards the Void.
"The core is up there," he said, "But there are three paths to the top, each with a guardian. Boruto, you need to choose one."
"Why me?"
"Because you are the only one who can communicate with the guardian." Yamada turned back, his white eyes looking particularly strange in the blue light, "They are the clones of God of Ōtsutsuki, and they only recognize pure blood. Although I have blood, it is not pure; your father is human; Sarada is Uchiha. Only you are the perfect fusion."
Boruto looked at the three passages. The one on the left exuded cold air, the one in the middle was filled with heat waves, and the one on the right was dead silent without any breath.
"I choose the right," he said.
"What a wise choice." Yamada said with a smile to everyone, "The road to death corresponds to the guardian of 'nothingness'. It is the most powerful and the easiest to communicate with - because it doesn't care about anything."
"Including our life and death?"
"Especially your life and death."
The four people walked into the passage on the right. As they went deeper, the light gradually disappeared, not swallowed by darkness, but replaced by some kind of "nothing". Boruto found that he could not see his own hands, could not hear his own footsteps, and even... couldn't feel his own existence.