The reflection on the water disappeared.
"Old man, you can see my body is still there. Where am I? Why am I here? Am I dead or not? And why are you here?"
Uchiha Cheng seized the chance to ask a series of questions.
The Sage of Six Paths said, "This is your spiritual world. As for you, strictly speaking, you're on the boundary between life and death. Although your body is close to death, your powerful bloodline has preserved a sliver of life in you."
A powerful bloodline? Uchiha Cheng took note of that unusual phrase.
"A powerful bloodline? Don't joke around. You're the Sage of Six Paths, so you should know that I come from a branch family with a One-Tomoe Sharingan. My mother was an outsider, too. What powerful bloodline could I possibly have? You must be mistaken."
He gave a derisive laugh, his tone full of resentment and scorn toward the Uchiha Clan.
"A child's talent is never determined by their parents'. Take my sons, Indra and Asura, for example. They had the same parents, but my elder son, Indra, was exceptionally gifted, while my younger son, Asura, was far less so."
"The Uchiha Clan you come from are descendants of Indra, while the Senju Clan are descendants of Asura. They are both my bloodline. My son Indra was extraordinarily gifted. I had hoped he would use his strength to help others, but he resented my decision and became obsessed with power. I imagine the state of the Uchiha Clan has something to do with him."
As he said this, the Sage of Six Paths remained expressionless. But he paused briefly.
"Your father was a member of the Uchiha Clan and carried Indra's bloodline. Your mother was a descendant of Asura and carried Asura's bloodline."
His mother carried Asura's bloodline? Uchiha Cheng froze. He had never heard his mother mention it. All he knew was that she was an outsider. Even her name—Uchiha Mika—had been changed to the Uchiha surname after she married into the clan. He didn't even know what her original surname had been.
The Sage of Six Paths continued,
"Though both bloodlines were weak, when they combined, a wondrous mutation took place. A one-in-a-hundred-million miracle gave rise to the person you are now."
"What do you mean?"
"Simply put, your bloodline has reverted to an ancestral form."
Reverted? If the bloodlines of Asura and Indra combined and reverted, who could they have reverted to but the Sage of Six Paths standing before him?
"So my bloodline reverted all the way back to you, my ancestor?" Uchiha Cheng asked, hopeful.
"Exactly," the Sage of Six Paths said cheerfully. "It's like how a human is occasionally born with a tail. The odds are vanishingly small, but the possibility is always there; it simply takes an incredibly long time. I thought the process would take at least hundreds of millions of years, but you appeared so soon. Your parents' bloodlines were weak, yet yours is unexpectedly powerful. The reversion has even surpassed that of my two biological children, bringing you very close to me. You're a freak born from a one-in-a-hundred-million chance."
"If all goes well, you should have been born with a dojutsu like my Rinnegan. Unfortunately, your body is too weak to bear such a powerful awakening of your bloodline. You must have developed some strange symptoms lately."
"Could they all be because of my bloodline?" Uchiha Cheng asked.
"Exactly. Your bloodline's awakening caused your eyes to transform, and the Rinnegan's embryonic form has already appeared in them. But forming the Rinnegan requires an enormous amount of energy. Unless you have the strength of a powerful ninja, your body will be drained of all its life force and energy, and you'll die." The Sage of Six Paths explained the cause of his strange illness,