Above the sky, the huge Eternal Mangekyō pattern twisted by thick dark clouds is like a demon's eye overlooking the world. Deep in its pupils is an endless spiral that rotates slowly.
It did not bring down thunder or rain, but its mere existence projected an invisible and suffocating pressure onto every corner of the earth.
In front of the New Hall, on the high platform, Xuan Jing stands like a mountain.
The complex and mysterious Divine Seed between his eyebrows has completely bloomed. It is no longer a budding mark, but a blooming dark flower composed of pure spiritual energy.
The petals stretch out layer by layer, releasing a weak but far-reaching spiritual wave, which sweeps across a hundred miles in an instant like ripples.
This is not an attack.
For ordinary civilians, this fluctuation is just a brief trance, as if the mind is gently moved by an invisible hand.
But for ninjas with chakra, it feels completely different.
At that moment, it was as if three absolute marks had been burned with a soldering iron in the depths of their minds.
There is no sound, no image, only three words of laws that are extremely concise, but seem to contain the principles of heaven and earth, emerging out of thin air, like innate instincts.
1. Anyone who talks about resistance will have his tongue cut off and his soul imprisoned.
2. Anyone who gathers more than ten people and fails to report will be regarded as a rebel and will not be shot.
3. Anyone who worships reporter Crimson Eye Mark can enjoy shelter and food.
This is a kind of "cognitive implantation" that is beyond understanding. It bypasses all processes of thinking, judgment and questioning, and directly writes the concept itself into the soul.
Disobeying these three laws, just like trying to disobey breathing or heartbeat, will cause great rejection and fear from the origin of life.
At the same time, around the New Hall's base, Chiyo Saori is commanding her army of creepy puppets.
Twelve puppets of different shapes, with precise and uniform movements, slowly embedded the twelve ten-meter-high black stone pillars into the depth of the prepared base.
The surface of these stone pillars is as smooth as a mirror, but the twisted and struggling souls are sealed inside. They are the remnant souls of strong men that Xuan collected in past battles.
"Activate." Chiyo Saori spat out two words indifferently.
Buzz--!
The twelve soul stone pillars simultaneously emitted a low hum, and countless scarlet lines lit up on the black stone surface, like dense blood vessels.
A cold breath filled the air.
When a ninja on guard subconsciously approached one of the stone pillars, a sudden change occurred!
The surface of the stone pillar instantly turned into a light curtain, projecting an extremely clear three-dimensional image.
In the video, a Iwagakure Jonin was trying to rally his companions behind and plan a resistance. The moment he finished speaking, his eyes widened and he could not make any sound from his throat. His tongue was torn apart and crushed by an invisible force from Root.
Immediately afterwards, an illusory chain protruded from the void, pierced between his eyebrows, dragged his painful and twisted soul out, and sealed it into a red crystal.
At the end of the video, an emotionless systematic synthesized voice sounded around, as if coming from the depths of the Netherworld: "This is the result of disobeying the order."
The approaching ninja was so frightened that he rolled away and crawled away, the color drained from his face.
Chiyo Saori glanced at him and said calmly to Baba Tesshin beside him, "Fear must become a habit, and habit can become faith. When they will think of the consequences of disobedience every time they see these stone pillars, loyalty will become as natural as breathing."
Baba Tesshin nodded heavily, with a fanatical light shining in his eyes.
Without saying much, he turned around and led a group of cronies, heading straight to the three abandoned strongholds on the edge of the shrine's sphere of influence.
This time, they did not carry siege equipment, nor did they assume a massacre posture.
They just posted a huge notice at the entrance of each stronghold and in the most crowded places.
On the notice, the full text of <Crimson Eye Edict> was written in blood and ink by Xuan himself. The handwriting was flying and flying, but it exuded an unquestionable domineering and majestic look.
The three core laws are magnified and placed at the top, which is shocking.
As soon as the announcement came out, the civilians and wandering ninjas in the surrounding villages were first shocked and confused, and then fell into a deathly silence.
The content of the law is too harsh, especially the first and second articles, which almost eliminate the possibility of any form of resistance.
Soon, the first batch of ragged civilians with hungry faces arrived at the registration office set up in front of the stronghold, trembling Earth Flow after hesitating for a long time.
They handed over the only remaining weapons at home, knelt on the ground, kowtowed to a portrait with the inscription Crimson Eye Mark, and then received a portion of food that was enough to feed their families for three days.
Baba Tesshin watched all this with cold eyes and said to the adjutant beside him, "Remember, tell the people below that we are not forcing them to choose, but this chaotic world has left no chance for anyone to take the middle road. Either kneel down and receive our shelter and food; or stand and become a new image on the stone pillar of the law."
However, there are always people who do not believe in evil.
In a border village ten miles away from the stronghold, a surviving Hidden Leaf Village Chunin quietly blended into the villagers with his superb stealth skills.
He looked at the numb and frightened eyes of the villagers, and the flame of "Will of Fire" ignited in his heart.
Late at night, he summoned a few villagers who looked young and vigorous, lowered his voice, and said impassionedly, "Everyone, we can't just give in! That's not a god, it's a devil! We must unite to fight against this tyranny..."
Before he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred!
The eyes of the three villagers in front of him instantly became cloudy and hollow.
Their movements were without any warning, as if they were puppets controlled by invisible threads. They turned around at the same time, took out the Kunai that had been prepared from their arms, and with an amazing tacit understanding, they all stabbed into the chest and abdomen of this Hidden Leaf Village Chunin.
Chunin lowered his head in disbelief, looking at the sharp blade that penetrated his body, and then looked up at the three once-familiar faces.
He wanted to ask why, but his life force was rapidly passing away.
He will never understand until his death that Chiyo Saori has already mixed an extremely small amount of Divine Tree spores into all the food distributed through the stronghold.
The spores are harmless to the human body, but can induce mild psychotic attunement.
Although the villagers do not fully understand the details of the law, their subconscious minds have been anchored by Xuan's mental fluctuations, and they will have instinctive and extreme rejection and aggression towards any "words that violate the order."
The next day, the body of Hidden Leaf Village Chunin was hung high at the entrance of the village.
Below, a newly erected stone tablet is engraved with a line of words in blood. "This is the end of those who speak lies."
New Hall deep, above the throne.
Xuan slowly opened his eyes, and the Divine Seed flower between his eyebrows had lost its brilliance and turned into a closed mark again.
Above his head, the Bipolar Crystal Core composed of the power of Yin–Yang Release was floating quietly, and in the center of the crystal core, the Silver-Ring Eye, which symbolized the ultimate pupil power, was slowly closing at this moment, as if it had completed a certain stage of awakening.
He was not in a hurry to expand his territory or launch a war.
For him now, simple conquest is meaningless.
What he wants is a new civilization that is absolutely obedient, never rebellious, and maximizes efficiency.
His consciousness sank into the spiritual world and activated a module named "Civilization Reconstruction" in [Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye·Mimicry].
In an instant, he swallowed up countless memories in the past - from the establishment of Warring States Era to Five Great Shinobi Villages, and then to the previous Shinobi World wars, all about the flaws in national governance, the root causes of the outbreak of war, the logic of human betrayal... The massive torrent of data was being deduced and simulated hundreds of millions of times in his mind.
A new set of governance models is rapidly forming in his mind - with absolute loyalty as the core, fear implanted in the bone marrow as the chain, and resource allocation accurate to the individual as the bait, to build a social structure that eliminates the possibility of rebellion from the root.
The night is getting darker and everything is silent.
At this moment, an undetectable spatial fluctuation flashed across the New Hall.
A letter without any markings appeared out of thin air on the armrest of Xuan's throne.
Xuan's eyes fell on the letter paper.
The letter was blank, with no words on it, just a drop of blood that had not yet dried up, as if it contained endless vitality.
The moment this drop of blood came into contact with the air inside the New Hall, it quickly squirmed as if it was alive, and a line of ancient words that were beautiful but contained supreme majesty appeared automatically on the white letter paper:
"Kaguya's lingering regrets are still there, and He called your name in your dream."
Xuan stared at this line of words for a long time, and the corner of his mouth curled up with a playful smile.
"Very well... Do even the dead want to come and participate in the opening ceremony of my new era?"
He flicked his finger, and a ray of blue crystal fire fell on the letter paper.
The letter paper burned silently, but strangely, after the flames swallowed up the bloody words, it instantly turned from blue to dazzling red.
The red Kakkō reflects the boundless darkness outside the palace.
And in the darkness, one pair, ten pairs, hundreds of pairs, thousands of pairs... countless pairs of Scarlet Eye quietly opened, lit up, like stars reflected in the abyss of hell.
It was as if the entire earth had become an extension of his will, waiting for his next order.