"You..."
The intensely seductive words by his ear jolted Hizashi Hyuga out of his daze. He instinctively staggered back a step, nearly stepping into empty air.
"What exactly are you?" Hizashi asked the Black Robe beside him, his scalp tingling as he trembled. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm merely pruning away pests while waiting to see what kind of flower will bloom."
When Hyuga Yunchuan said those words, Hizashi could not see the face hidden in the shadows, yet he seemed to see a pair of eyes—eyes concealing profound malice.
It was like a fire burning. Not fiercely, not spectacularly, merely flickering in silence.
The other party did not care what his fire would ignite or destroy. As the Branch Family Head, he was nothing more than kindling to feed it.
Hizashi Hyuga fell silent.
"The Main Branch of the Hyuga Clan is the clan's root. As long as the root remains, it does not matter whether the branches and leaves wither or flourish."
That was what his father, the clan head, had drilled into him since childhood.
But when he thought once more of Hinata, riddled with flaws and weak in training, all sorts of dark thoughts began to surge uncontrollably through his mind.
"With Neji's talent, he could clearly become a powerhouse of the Hyuga Clan, yet because he is from the Branch Family, he had the Caged Bird planted on him, completely losing his freedom and living beneath the Main Branch's shadow for the rest of his life..."
"Meanwhile, that cowardly and useless daughter of the Main Branch could simply reap the rewards, naturally enjoying Neji's protection and making him offer up his life..."
As a father, if he had to personally strip his own child of freedom, then he was truly too incompetent.
For a brief moment of freedom, he could choose to die humbly.
But he wanted Neji to live more freely, to live as a real person of flesh and blood.
Not as anyone's dependent, much less burdened by some so-called destiny.
"Believe me, selling your soul to the devil is not shameful."
Hyuga Yunchuan said softly, "What is shameful is failing to sell it for a good price."
"...What can you do?"
After a long silence, Hizashi finally spoke. "What do I need to give?"
"I can grant you the power to break free from the cage." Hyuga Yunchuan continued calmly, "You need to give everything you possess—your name, your future, your life, your soul..."
"You..." Hizashi froze for a moment, then could not help asking, "This deal is not fair at all, is it?"
"Isn't that what devils are like?" Hyuga Yunchuan replied with complete frankness. "So, what is your answer?"
Hizashi's breathing gradually quickened. Even so, even though he clearly knew of the other man's malice, he found himself unable to refute him.
The other man had truly stripped him bare. Like a devil who saw through human desire, he meticulously shaved away his flesh inch by inch, laying his desires out on the table by the pound and ounce.
After a while, he gritted his teeth and shook his head. "I don't believe you can let Neji and me break free from the cage. Nor do I believe anyone can do it."
As long as the Caged Bird Cursed Seal remained, Neji could never truly break free from the cage.
But even the Main Branch head only knew how to activate the Curse Mark, not how to remove it.
"Very well." Hyuga Yunchuan did not mind his doubt. He nodded and extended an arm from the shadow beneath his black robe. "Then experience it once for yourself."
At the same time, he silently recited in his heart, "Manifest item—Caged Bird Cursed Seal removal, ten seconds."
[Spend 300 Reality Points. Manifest?]
"As expected, without needing a removal method, merely removing it for ten seconds does not cost much." Hyuga Yunchuan's eyes flickered as he answered inwardly, "Manifest."
Hearing him, Hizashi froze. Watching the two joined fingers reach toward his forehead, he felt as though the blood throughout his body stopped for an instant, and he instinctively wanted to take a step back.
But in the next moment, those two fingers stopped before his forehead, and a sudden tremor surged through his heart.
It felt as though a crack had opened in his forehead, with a clear spring pouring in from outside before splitting into countless thin streams that washed through every blockage in his brain.
Hizashi Hyuga even heard the sound of invisible shackles breaking apart, and felt the veil covering his eyes slowly being lifted.
The world had never been so clear.
Hizashi's pupils trembled. The first thing he did when he came to his senses was make the veins around his eye sockets bulge.
"Byakugan! Activate!!"
It was gone?
It was really gone.
The blind spot in his vision was truly gone!
How was that possible?!
Hizashi could not believe what he was feeling, yet a grin of wild ecstasy gradually twisted across his face.
"Hahaha!"
Was this what freedom felt like?
Lightness, clarity, joy...
All kinds of sensations filled every part of his body. It was as if some hidden restraints had been removed, and the entire world had become bright at this moment.
Hizashi Hyuga completely lost the manners he had always carefully maintained. His laughter was utterly uninhibited and crazed, to the point that tears formed at the corners of his eyes.
Others could never truly understand this feeling—having once possessed something only to have it ruthlessly taken away, with his life constantly held in someone else's hands, and then suddenly regaining what had been lost.
However, before long, the faded Caged Bird mark on Hizashi's forehead returned.
And the Byakugan, once flawless and complete in all three hundred and sixty degrees like polished Jade, once again developed an expanding blind spot directly behind his first thoracic vertebra. The world became dim once more.
"What happened?"
The delighted expression on Hizashi's face instantly froze, and even a trace of bewildered pain appeared in his eyes.
But he quickly remembered that this was only an "experience."
"You!" Hizashi abruptly grabbed the arm of the person beside him and asked impatiently, "What do you want me to do?"
Hyuga Yunchuan was neither surprised nor in a hurry to answer. Instead, he asked, "You and Hyuga Hiashi are identical twins in appearance, correct?"
"...Yes."
Seeing him nod with a gloomy expression, Hyuga Yunchuan continued in the same calm tone, "I need you to become Hyuga Hiashi, while Hizashi Hyuga dies here and now."
"What?" Hizashi's pupils contracted as he blurted out, "Impossible!"
This guy wanted him to fake his death, then replace his elder brother?
How could that possibly be done?
"You said you could do it." Hyuga Yunchuan looked at the hand gripping his arm, raised his own hand, and gently pried it loose. "You only need to obey orders."
Moonlight cast the shadows of the two men upon the ground, where they swayed amid the silhouettes of the surrounding trees.
"..."
Thinking of what he had just felt, an overwhelming desire nearly crushed him. Hizashi clenched his teeth tightly. "Fine! I'll do it!"
Hyuga Yunchuan laughed softly in his heart as he watched him lose control like this.
A bird that had lost its freedom had briefly regained it, soaring through the vast sky once more.
How could it willingly return to a cramped cage?
However, Hizashi Hyuga was merely a supporting character he had selected.
The truly important chess piece...
Hyuga Yunchuan's gaze shifted slightly toward a deathly silent residence in the distance.
Before you continue