Blood Dragon Eye

A pupil shaped like the single horizontal line of Sage Mode, pale purple in color—just looking at it made one feel as if they could smell a thick, bloody stench.

"Don't look into his eyes," an older Uchiha quietly warned.

The Ketsuryūgan was a renowned illusionary eye, its power formidable; an Uchiha needed to reach the Three Tomoe state to match it.

Unfortunately, its awakening rate was even more absurd than the Sharingan's, or else they wouldn't have to fear the Daimyo's threats.

Clearly, the man standing before the group was a strong one—at least, he had been powerful once. Now, he had long been worn down by the special environment of the Valley of Hell until he was barely human.

Only those pupils still radiated an ominous light.

As the overseers, the Uchiha rarely interacted with them on a daily basis; they only needed to ensure the Chinoike Clan didn't escape from the valley.

But somehow, the Valley of Hell had recently seemed to stir with unusual unrest.

Sosuke's very first mission was to investigate the problems within the Chinoike Clan.

To test the target's strength, he deliberately ignored his senior's advice and stared at the man before him with a provocative gaze.

"Hmph, you don't know your place." The hot-tempered man instantly lost control of his emotions, aiming his Ketsuryūgan at the brat who dared to meet his eyes.

The moment their gazes clashed, Sosuke immediately sensed an abnormal Dojutsu Power invading his body.

In an instant, everything around him collapsed completely. He fell with the rubble into a sea of blood, the pungent smell of gore making it impossible to tell reality from illusion.

Struggling to break free to the surface, Sosuke looked around—the entire sky and earth seemed stained with a bloody hue.

A pair of Ketsuryūgan hung high in the sky, like a lofty God, watching the struggling ant in the blood sea with an indifferent gaze.

"What a realistic illusion." Sosuke eagerly absorbed the experience, hoping that one day he could create such an excellent illusion world himself.

Letting the unknown force drag him back under the sea, the youth closed his eyes tightly, his mental energy crashing against the entire world like a heavy hammer.

"Hm?" The eyes hanging in the sky finally lost their cold, emotionless demeanor.

The pale purple pupils trembled constantly, revealing undisguised shock, as if they couldn't understand how a mere brat could possess such terrifying mental energy.

Just as he was about to counterattack, Sosuke, deep in the blood sea, suddenly opened his eyes wide—another pair of pupils appeared in the dark red sky.

Crack!

The illusion world froze completely in that instant, then shattered like fragile glass with a thunderous explosion.

Back in the real world, Sosuke and the man both let out muffled groans, exhaustion written on both their faces.

"Mr. Qi." The man's companion looked utterly incredulous—the idol he considered the strongest in his heart had actually lost an illusion duel to a little brat.

As the one who initiated the attack, failing to quickly finish off his opponent and being dragged into breaking the illusion world by sheer force meant severe mental trauma.

No matter how you looked at it, it was their defeat.

"Let's go." The man shot the youth a vicious glare, then turned and left the canyon entrance.

Seeing this, Sosuke ignored the praise from his two clansmen and instead stared blankly at the departing pair.

Onlookers might have thought he was unwilling to accept defeat, but in truth, the youth's mind was entirely occupied with how to turn those two into points.

"That guy just now was pretty strong. If I killed him, I'd get at least a thousand points."

Investigate the cause of the Chinoike's unrest?

Now that he was here, the Chinoike Clan couldn't avoid rebelling even if they wanted to.

But then again, Sosuke had a mission entrusted by the Clan Head, so everything had to be done with proper justification.

At the very least, he had to wait for them to make the first move, so he could be forced to defend himself—and during that process, accidentally killing a dozen or so people would be perfectly reasonable.

"Ah, what can I say? I'm just a man who follows the rules."

News of this spread quickly, and the small garrison force soon learned that a remarkably talented youth had arrived.

At first, everyone was guessing his identity, but after Sosuke introduced himself, many gradually realized—he was the young genius who had created Chidori.

It wasn't that they didn't bother remembering people; it was that the information around here was too isolated. Even the main Uchiha clan often forgot that this group of people existed here at all.

In the end, the fallen Chinoike Clan wasn't that important. Sending a few hands was enough to suppress them and keep them from showing their faces.

A bunch like that naturally didn't get the Clan Head's attention. Over time, even the clansmen stationed here became marginalized.

Suddenly seeing the future star of hope, many people curiously gathered around.

"Your name is Sosuke? That's a nice name. Whoever named you must have been a scholar."

"You're amazing! Creating a ninjutsu at such a young age."

"I heard there are many variations in form."

"How many Tomoe has your Sharingan evolved to?"

"Is there a girl you like, Sosuke?"

"Sosuke."

"Sosuke."

"Sosuke."

Overwhelmed, the youth struggled hard to escape the encirclement of his clansmen.

It seemed everyone had been holding it in for too long—finally, a new face appeared, and they practically wanted to strip his underwear off just to see what color it was.

Though a bit exasperated, Sosuke understood their mindset well.

If it were him, even if he had to defect from his clan, he wouldn't waste ten years of his life rotting away here.

Good thing he had arrived. At the latest three days, at the earliest tonight, he would make sure the Blood Pond became a thing of the past.

At night, in the deepest part of the Valley of Hell, stood an altar forged from dark red blood.

Around the altar, many people were arranging the items needed for the ritual, most of which were objects related to blood and entrails.

Looking past the scattered corpses and flesh, at the center of the altar, a woman hung unconscious, chained up with iron links.

Occasionally shifting their gazes, the surrounding clan members wore expressions of slight guilt, but the moment they thought of the suffering they had endured for so many years, the apology in their eyes was replaced by ferocity and hatred.

"As long as we complete the ritual, the Blood Pond will gain the power to defeat everything."

"That's right—this ritual has been passed down since ancient times. It can't be wrong."

"Once the Blood Sacrifice is done, every clan member here can forcibly open their eyes. Then no one in the world will be our match."

"First destroy the Uchiha, then annihilate the Land of Lightning!!!"

"First destroy the Uchiha, then annihilate the Land of Lightning!!!"

"First destroy the Uchiha, then annihilate the Land of Lightning!!!"

Amid the waves of sick, frenzied shouts, only one person stood out as completely out of place.

"Let me go!!!" the man roared with all his might, but he couldn't break free from the restraints binding him.

His eyes were wrapped in cloth strips, with a large "Seal" character written on them—this was a safeguard to keep the man in check, otherwise he would stop at nothing to prevent the ritual.

After all, the woman being used as the living sacrifice was his wife, who had just given birth to his daughter.