Obito Uchiha

White Tiger Duke Mansion, rear courtyard.

This was a woodshed where even the servants refused to linger.

Huo Yuhao knelt before the hard plank bed, gripping his mother's hand tightly in both of his.

"Mom..."

His voice was exceedingly hoarse.

So this was what they called fate?

How ridiculous. In his previous life, he had pulled Ten-Tails Obito in a mobile game, hit the hard pity, and smashed his phone in rage.

Then, the moment he opened his eyes, he had become Huo Yuhao in this Peerless Tang Sect world.

This kneel was for everything he had suffered in this world over the past eleven years.

Memories surged through his mind like a flickering lantern.

Huo Yun'er, the only person in this world who had ever loved him, was gone.

Within the magnificent and prestigious White Tiger Duke Mansion, mother and son had lived like rats in a gutter.

Having their provisions docked was routine. Rotten meals and moldy buns were humiliations they had no choice but to swallow if they wanted to survive.

The original Huo Yuhao would become a god someday, shining with unmatched brilliance. But so what?

The God King's son-in-law?

He would be nothing more than the Tang Clan's dog.

He seemed infinitely glorious, but in truth, every step of his life was plotted out by others.

He was toyed with in the Valley of Love Inquiry, only to end up gratefully becoming a good dog.

How was that life any different from Uchiha Obito, who had been played in Madara's palm?

Huo Yuhao lowered his head, pressing his forehead against his mother's icy hand as silent tears seeped into the bedsheet.

Bang!

The rickety wooden door was kicked open.

A slightly plump middle-aged man stood in the doorway, waving away the dust before him in disgust.

"Have you cried enough?"

The man did not step inside, as if even the air in this woodshed would stain his clothes.

Leaning against the doorframe, he spoke with impatient cruelty.

"If you're done crying, move the corpse out. Don't let this bad luck contaminate the woodshed. The Duke Mansion still needs this place to store firewood."

Huo Yuhao abruptly looked up.

In that instant, the grief in his eyes was swept away by a sudden surge of murderous fury.

A corpse?

His mother had a name. She was called Huo Yun'er!

In your eyes, was a human life not even worth a pile of dead wood?

The middle-aged man was Steward Zhou, who had often withheld the food rations of Huo Yuhao and his mother.

At that moment, his oily face was filled with indifference.

"What are you staring at? Keep glaring, and I'll dig your eyes out!"

Steward Zhou felt a chill crawl over his scalp under Huo Yuhao's deep-blue gaze.

Humiliated into anger, he stepped over the threshold. His leather boots creaked against the wooden floorboards.

"I'll give you one last minute. Clean this up and get out, or don't blame me for taking matters into my own hands."

After saying that, he disdainfully glanced at the corpse on the bed and added,

"Crying? That counts toward the time too!"

Huo Yuhao's nails dug deeply into his palms.

Rage exploded in his chest, scorching his organs.

Kill him... I want to kill him!

He tried to stand, but his body trembled from overwhelming grief and fury, his legs heavy as lead.

Facing this level-thirty-two Soul Elder, he, at level ten, was as weak as an ant.

That feeling again... that suffocating sense of helplessness.

Watching his mother die of illness because he had no money for medicine. Watching his tormentors swagger before him, yet being unable to resist.

Without power, even anger was laughable.

If I had power... even if I had to sell my soul to a demon...

At that moment, the world seemed to freeze for an instant.

A crisp electronic chime erupted in the depths of his mind like heavenly music.

[Ding]

[Ten-Tails Jinchūriki System awakened]

[Host has been detected to meet the awakening requirements]

[Witnessed the death of a beloved person and experienced extreme helplessness and despair]

[Rage Child Template loading...]

Huo Yuhao suddenly covered his right eye.

Agonizing pain.

His originally azure Spirit Eye instantly lost its color, replaced by crimson red.

Was this... the Sharingan?

Deep within that blood-red pupil, one black Tomoe emerged, followed by a second, then a third.

They spun madly before suddenly crashing together, intertwining and merging into three black sickle-shaped patterns connected end to end.

Mangekyō Sharingan, Kamui!

At the same time, a white fluid-like substance appeared out of thin air.

It instantly wrapped around Huo Yuhao's frail body.

Steward Zhou had been about to step forward and drag him away by force. Seeing this, he froze on the spot.

"Th-this... what the hell is that? A mutated martial soul? No, that's not right. Isn't this trash's martial soul just an eye?"

The disdain in his eyes turned to terror.

The frail boy before him had vanished.

In his place stood a strange figure whose entire body was wrapped in white, spiral-patterned matter.

Only his right eye was exposed. The blood-red triple-sickle pattern turned slowly, radiating a chilling aura that made one's heart tremble.

He tilted his head. From beneath the white mask came a nonhuman roar, carrying the release of long-suppressed emotion as it echoed through the cramped woodshed.

Die!

Huo Yuhao's right hand, tightly wrapped in white matter, slowly rose.

There was no dazzling glow of Soul Power in his palm.

There was only an ordinary-looking branch, growing wildly.

Whoosh—

The branch shot forth like an arrow loosed from its bow, slicing through the air as it flew straight for Steward Zhou's throat.

Wood Release: Cutting Technique!

Steward Zhou's pupils shrank as he instinctively sensed a trace of danger.

But when he saw that it was only a piece of wood, that flicker of alarm was swiftly buried beneath the arrogance of a Soul Elder.

He was merely a level-ten piece of trash. Even if he had gained a mutated martial soul, what could he possibly do?

"You overestimate yourself!"

Steward Zhou shouted, and two Soul Rings rose rapidly beneath his feet.

One white, two yellow.

"Iron Claw Tiger, possess me!"

With a low tiger's roar, his hands rapidly swelled.

Sharp steel claws emerged from his fingertips, gleaming with a metallic coldness.

He did not dodge. Instead, he directly swung tiger claws capable of tearing apart stone toward the incoming branch.

"These tiger claws possess the power to shatter stone!"

Yet the next second, reality shattered everything he believed.

Squelch.

There was no sharp clash of metal, only the dull sound of a blade cutting into tofu.

That not particularly thick branch completely ignored a Soul Elder's defenses.

It pierced directly through those steel-like tiger claws, then drove viciously into Steward Zhou's right shoulder without losing momentum.

"Wh-what... How is this possible?!"

Blinding pain struck, and Steward Zhou's eyes widened in disbelief.

This piece of wood was harder than refined iron!

The lone eye beneath Huo Yuhao's mask showed no fluctuation. His right hand suddenly clenched in the air.

Feel pain.

Explode!

Before Steward Zhou could even scream, the branch embedded in his body seemed to come alive.

Crack! Crack!

Countless sharp branches instantly grew and split wildly inside his body.

His blood vessels burst, his muscles tore apart, and his organs were ruthlessly pierced through.

"Ah—!!"

The shrill howl lasted only half a second before abruptly cutting off.

Steward Zhou's body swelled and twisted at a visible rate.

In the end, countless branches burst through his skin, turning his entire body into a grotesque humanoid tree.