In short, judging solely by the state of the corpse, Uchiha Shūichi was certain that it absolutely wasn't the mastermind behind his transmigration and Golden Finger.
Anyone capable of piercing dimensions and allowing people to reincarnate freely across universes with different worldviews would, no matter how you looked at it, be no weaker than the gods and immortals of legend.
In a fantasy world like Shrouding the Heavens, such a being would have to be at least an Immortal King. Even in a completely new version of the Primordial World, it would need to be a Great Unity Golden Immortal. After death, its corpse could still give rise to a miniature universe.
Even in manga and light novels with less impressive worldbuilding, anyone capable of that would have to be some kind of personified concept. Such beings either left no remains after death, or, if they left anything behind, it couldn't possibly be an ordinary corpse.
Uchiha Shūichi slowly approached the figure before him and examined it carefully. He even reached out and gently poked the dried-up corpse a few times.
The corpse was considerably tougher than an ordinary person, but under Uchiha Shūichi's touch, each poke still left a hole. Clearly, the body had been trained, but its owner hadn't been all that powerful in life—at least, nowhere near powerful enough to still be moving after death or rise as a corpse.
In fact, Uchiha Shūichi estimated that the body's toughness was about on par with a Kage-level taijutsu specialist like Might Guy or the Fourth Raikage.
Unless the man had been a mage or some other magic-user who didn't train his body much, or had practiced a special cultivation system like the one in A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, where losing one's magic left the body barely stronger than an ordinary person's, his physical condition suggested that he'd been about a Super Kage-level powerhouse in life.
After sensing this, Uchiha Shūichi felt even more at ease. His curiosity took over, and he lowered his head to look at the rod-shaped object resting across the powerhouse's knees.
From the outside, he hadn't been able to make out what it was. Now that he'd leaned closer, Uchiha Shūichi saw its true form—it was a long sword in its scabbard. The hilt was emerald green, and even inside its sheath, it gave off a faint heat.
The sword's scabbard, however, was a deep blue, as if carved from some kind of ice. The fact that it could still radiate heat under these circumstances meant it was undoubtedly a top-tier weapon.
Uchiha Shūichi was also quite skilled with a sword; otherwise, he wouldn't have tried to imitate a technique like Chidori Blade. Seeing such a fine weapon, he naturally reached for its hilt.
The moment he touched it, a terrifying, blazing aura flooded into him. In his mind, a Fire Kirin appeared, standing amid towering flames!
In an instant, the Mangekyo in Uchiha Shūichi's eyes spun without pause. Endless flames seemed to burn within them as the Fire Kirin, its body wreathed in demonic energy, leaped and roared, trying to burn away his reason.
But... the Mangekyo Sharingan was itself the ultimate crystallization of genjutsu, a condensation of Mental Power. And Kotoamatsukami's Mangekyo was the most powerful Mangekyo of the genjutsu type.
Though Uchiha Shūichi wasn't the true owner of these eyes, he could still wield most of their power. In a sense, with these Kotoamatsukami Mangekyo bolstering him, his mental defenses were no weaker than those of an ordinary Mangekyo user.
The Kotoamatsukami pattern appeared in his mind and collided with the Fire Kirin as it roared up at the sky. The two were evenly matched. Uchiha Shūichi immediately let go, and the sword in his hand clattered to the ground.
As it hit the ground, the sword slipped halfway out of its sheath. Its scarlet blade seemed to burn with blood-red flames, and the shape of a Kirin could just be seen roaring up at the sky.
"Blazing Kirin Sword?! How is that possible?!"
Uchiha Shūichi panted heavily and took several steps back. He stared at the fallen sword, his eyes filled with disbelief.
The Blazing Kirin Sword came from the Hong Kong manhua Fung Wan. It was a divine weapon on par with the Snow Drinking Saber, with a Fire Kirin's reverse scale embedded in it. It could greatly increase its wielder's power, but the Fire Kirin's demonic energy within the sword could also affect the wielder's state of mind and personality.
But... unless you counted background figures like Nuwa, the power level of the Fung Wan trilogy was still lower than that of Naruto!
Even the final boss of the trilogy had shown destructive power nowhere near Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara's. It might not even have surpassed the Tailed Beasts.
Destructive power didn't fully represent strength, of course, but it was at least one measure. At most, the Fung Wan trilogy's power level was roughly equal to that of the Naruto world without the Otsutsuki.
And although the Blazing Kirin Sword was a famous evil weapon in Fung Wan, honestly, it still fell short of the top-tier divine weapons and could only be ranked near the bottom.
Whether you compared it to the later Great Evil King, Peerless Demon Sword, or Sword of Demise, all of them surpassed the Blazing Kirin Sword in both prestige and power. To put it bluntly, in terms of strength, even an ordinary Jonin should be able to withstand the Blazing Kirin Sword's evil aura.
As a shinobi of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Shūichi should have been even more resistant to this kind of mental assault. Besides, the Blazing Kirin Sword's evil aura was supposed to gradually corrode the mind; it was nowhere near as violent and terrifying as the sword on the ground.
In Uchiha Shūichi's estimation, the demonic energy within this so-called Blazing Kirin Sword was far more violent than that of a demonic weapon like the Great Evil King. Any ordinary Kage-level Ninja who picked it up would probably go mad.
Even if traditional martial artists might have stronger mental discipline than shinobi of the same level, there was no way Duan Lang could have subdued such a terrifying Blazing Kirin Sword.
Not to mention, most martial artists in Hong Kong manhua didn't have much mental discipline to speak of. They were arguably even worse than shinobi!
"Maybe... it's a divine weapon that just looks like the Blazing Kirin Sword! Either way, I don't believe this is the real Blazing Kirin Sword!"
After scrutinizing the divine sword on the floor, Uchiha Shūichi raised his head and looked at the corpse again. He suddenly noticed that its chest seemed unusually full.
He pulled the clothes open and saw that the corpse's chest hadn't withered away at all. The flesh was still plump, and the reason was a necklace the corpse was wearing.
After he removed the necklace, the flesh on the corpse's chest began to shrivel. Uchiha Shūichi examined it closely. There was nothing special about the necklace itself; a clear, translucent gemstone that radiated cold air hung from its end.
As soon as Uchiha Shūichi held the gemstone pendant, a cool sensation seeped into his heart and lungs, and he seemed to calm down. The burning agitation left in his mind by the Blazing Kirin Sword vanished completely.
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