Above the sky, that giant eye is intertwined with endless illusory power and spiritual energy. The Eternal Mangekyō pattern deep in its pupil rotates slowly, like a black millstone that obliterates all things.
It stared indifferently at the land that had just been forcibly unified by violence, and then, after a slow and decisive blink, disappeared silently into the void.
It was as if nothing had happened.
But all the creatures who have been bathed in that gaze, whether they are ninjas or civilians, have left an indelible mark deep in their souls - that is the awe and fear of the word "Xuan", which stems from the instinct of life.
The old site of Naka River Shrine has now been replaced by "Scarlet Eye Tower" which is completely black and reaches into the sky.
The deepest part of the tower is an underground chamber that does not exist on any architectural drawings.
The air here is cold and ancient, and the four walls are covered with densely packed Uchiha Clan taboo runes that look like cuneiform.
Uchiha Xuan stood here alone. The stone wall in the center in front of him was as smooth as a mirror, but as deep as an abyss.
With the slight movement of his thoughts, a raw data stream from "Myriad Phenomena Devouring System" was retrieved.
On the stone wall, the light and shadow began to distort, and an intermittent and blurry image emerged - that was the last remaining memory of this body before it was taken away by him.
In the picture, an old man Uchiha Clan, wearing the family emblem Yuori and with a withered face, is carefully placing a young body...Uchiha Xuan's current body into a crystal clear crystal coffin with trembling hands.
The old man's voice was old and decisive, with the sadness of his bloodline being cut off. "Madara's path is destruction... but the blood of the Uchiha Clan, the surname 'Xuan', cannot be cut off..."
After the words fell, the old man bit his fingertips and used his own blood as a guide to draw the final seal on the crystal coffin.
Immediately, the entire shrine suddenly sank when his life force burned out, and was completely sealed deep in the earth, waiting for an illusory future.
Uchiha Xuan watched all this with a blank expression.
This is the "truth" why this body was sealed - a helpless move to preserve the oldest bloodline of the Uchiha Clan.
Ridiculous.
He raised his hand, and an almost invisible silver Divine Seed mark between his eyebrows shone slightly.
The memory image that was just played back was completely stripped from the system in an instant, turned into a layer-encrypted data package, and archived in the deepest corner of the system.
"This piece of 'truth' can only belong to me from now on." He whispered to himself, his voice not echoing in the empty secret room.
When he turned around, there was no trace of ripples in those silver ring-shaped pupils, only absolute coldness and reason remained.
History... has always been a toy for the victor.
Border, Village No. 37.
Late at night, Kakkō soaring into the sky tore apart the tranquility of the village.
An ancestral hall that had just been secretly built with logs and stones collapsed in the flames.
In the ancestral hall, those ancestral tablets that were trying to be re-engraved with old surnames such as "Yamanaka Clan" and "Nara Clan" were twisted and carbonized in the fire, and eventually turned into a handful of unrecognizable fly ash.
This is the first organized symbolic resistance since the seven-day "surname change order" was promulgated.
The villagers thought that by rebuilding the ancestral temple at night, they could maintain their poor, last dignity.
However, Scarlet Eye Sentinels are everywhere.
Amidst the sound of cold metal collision, Hidden Sand Village, deputy captain Baba Tesshin, led twelve black puppet ninjas, appearing from the shadows like ghosts.
He didn't even say any unnecessary nonsense, he just raised his hand and pointed.
"Kill."
The puppet's eyes flashed red, and the poison-quenching blade instantly popped out of its arm.
The white-haired elder at the head, who was trying to call on everyone to protect the family tree, didn't even have time to scream, and his heart was instantly pierced.
Blood dyed the fragmentary pages of the family tree scattered on the ground red.
"All original family trees, rubbings, and even any objects with old surnames recorded on them will be burned. Anyone who resists will be killed without mercy." Baba Tesshin's voice was like his puppet, without any emotion.
The next morning, when the surviving villagers walked out of their homes in fear, they saw only a piece of scorched earth.
A huge obsidian tablet was erected in the place where the ancestral hall originally stood. The body of the tablet was as smooth as a mirror, with only a line of cold characters engraved in the center using blood-red dye:
"The land of delusions does not deserve its name."
In the central command tower thousands of miles away, Chiyo Saori looked at the real-time monitoring screen sent back by the remote puppet, and his fingertips flew across the data board.
"Report to Mr. Xuan. The riots in Village No. 37 have subsided. According to the analysis of the emotion fluctuation model, the group resistance reached its peak at the third hour in the morning, but after witnessing the execution and the erection of the stone tablet, it began to fall off a cliff. It is expected that within seven days, the 'group cognition curve' in this area will fall to a controllable range."
Her report was calm and professional, as if she was not talking about human lives, but a series of cold data.
At the same time, in the newly built "Canon Lectern", a special summons was taking place.
Representatives of the twenty-one largest clans in the area who had chosen to surrender were all summoned here.
They were once a famous family in this land, but now they are like a group of prisoners awaiting trial, standing tremblingly under an empty pulpit.
There was no one on the high platform of the pulpit.
Suddenly, the air in the center distorted, and a blazing black flame appeared out of thin air.
In the flames, Uchiha Xuan's figure slowly condensed in the form of a projection. He did not reveal his true appearance, but was just a vague and majestic outline, but his domineering aura made everyone below feel terrified.
His voice didn't seem to come from flames, but more like it came from the void above the nine heavens, grand and indifferent.
"Your ancestors once fought for the glory of their surnames on this land with swords and blood."
"Now, I give you a surname that you don't have to fight for--"
"Because it is destiny."
The moment the words fell, neat lines of people stepped in from the entrances on both sides of the podium.
There were thousands of children from various villages. The oldest among them was only seven or eight years old, and the youngest had just learned to walk.
But on everyone's neck, they wear a "Scarlet Eye Sigil Ring" that shines with a faint red light.
Their eyes were empty and their faces expressionless. Under the command of a black-robed instructor, they stood in line, then opened their mouths in unison, and began to recite in a childish and uniform voice:
"<Scarlet Eye Canon>, the first chapter of the opening chapter·Origin: The world has not yet opened, and all things are in chaos. It is called 'Xuan', which is the Tao, which is the light, which is the beginning of all things, and which is the root of us..."
The immature childish voice was like the sharpest knives at this moment, repeatedly slicing the nerves of every old patriarch present.
They saw their grandchildren and granddaughters using extremely pious tones, denying their bloodline roots that had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years.
An old patriarch with white beard and hair, his eyes were twitching violently uncontrollably, his hands were clenched into fists, and his nails were almost embedded in his palms.
However, in the end, he just lowered his head further, not daring to let anyone see the fleeting grief and anger in his eyes.
He doesn't dare and is not qualified.
That night, a Hidden Leaf Village exiled ninja who was lucky enough to slip through the crackdown used secret skills to sneak in and quietly touched the ruins of "Canon Lectern".
He looked at the huge stone steps, with the flames of revenge burning in his eyes.
He is a branch of the Sarutobi Clan. He wants to carve the words "Sarutobi Clan" here. Even if it only exists for a second, it is a silent accusation against the tyrant.
He stretched out his right hand that had been trained hard to break stones, condensed chakra on his fingertips, and slashed hard towards the ground.
However, the moment his fingertips touched the stone steps--
A sealing rune invisible to the naked eye suddenly lit up, and a dark red light flashed away.
"Ah--!"
A shrill scream pierced the night sky.
The ninja's entire right hand, starting from the wrist, instantly became blackened and carbonized, and fell off to the ground like a piece of burned charcoal.
Before the severe pain swept through his brain, a gap suddenly opened in the ground under his feet. A cold puppet with no facial features suddenly stretched out its metal arm, grabbed his throat, and dragged his screaming figure into the endless darkness.
Three days later, in an advanced class at "Scarlet Eye Academy".
This former member of the Sarutobi Clan tribe appears again.
He was used as a "counterexample teaching tool". He was alive but deprived of his name, and his vocal cords were crudely modified by puppet surgery.
He stood on the podium and mechanically repeated the same sentence over and over again in a weird and hoarse tone:
"I... don't deserve... to have... a last name..."
Under the stage, dozens of teenagers and girls wearing "Scarlet Eye Sigil Ring" were meticulously recording the teaching explanations in their notes. When they looked at the "teaching aid" on the stage, there was no sympathy, no fear, only numb indifference.
"According to system reports, in the past seven days, a weak resonance phenomenon with similar frequencies has appeared in the brainwave data of all adult individuals marked as 'potential resisters'."
Chiyo Saori stood behind Uchiha Xuan, with a hint of unnoticeable worry in his tone.
"Although extremely weak, this may be the embryonic form of collective resistance at a subconscious level. I suggest... Can the next step of radical policies be postponed and replaced by more moderate cultural penetration and guidance?"
Uchiha Xuan stood on the top of the tower, overlooking the prototype of his empire, without even looking back.
"If fear is not thorough, it will become the enemy of faith." He calmly rejected her proposal. "Since I still dare to miss the past in my dreams, it means that I have not dug deep enough."
He raised his hand, and an order was issued instantly through the mental network.
"Start 'Echo Plan'. From now on, all direct descendants of individuals who are recorded in the system files as having participated in sacrificial activities with their old surnames must be forced to accept 'Purification Hearing' at midnight on the day they turn five years old."
Chiyo Saori's pupils shrank slightly. "Purification Hearing?"
"Listen to the solo version of <Xuan's First Tone> by the giant bell on the top of the tower, lasting for an hour." Uchiha Xuan's voice was so plain that it made people shudder.
Seventh day, midnight.
When--!
The huge bell on top of Scarlet Eye Tower was rung again.
But this time, it is no longer the majestic and weird compound syllables before.
Instead, it was a monotonous, long, single-frequency sound that seemed to penetrate the soul, stretching endlessly, covering hundreds of miles.
In this territory, in countless villages, all the sleeping children who happened to be five years old today suddenly opened their eyes at the same moment.
There were circles of faint red light in their pupils, their expressions were empty and confused, and they murmured unconsciously in a sleep-like tone:
"Xuan... I... am Xuan..."
And at the northernmost point, in the ruins of a long-abandoned village.
A wild dog was chewing on a rotten and broken wooden plaque with ancient fonts on it, and the words "Hyūga Clan" could still be vaguely discerned.
Suddenly, the wild dog stopped moving.
It suddenly raised its head and looked towards the far south - the direction of Scarlet Eye Tower, and let out a low, weird roar from its throat:
"... Xuan."
At the top of Scarlet Eye Tower, Uchiha Xuan felt that the huge spiritual network, with blood and fear as nodes and bells as leads, quietly spread throughout the jurisdiction, was completely closed at this moment.
He stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to hold the dreams of everyone in this land into his palm, with a cold arc at the corner of his mouth, and whispered:
"The name is the first chain. Now, they can't even dream of escaping."
This giant web of mind control is just the foundation.
And to cultivate what he defined as a "new species" on this foundation requires more precise screening and more thorough shaping.
His gaze seemed to penetrate through the layers of buildings and landed on the deepest part of the Scarlet Eye Academy.
The first generation of "products" that have been initially formatted, that is, the new students who have been awarded the "K" batch number, are time to undergo their final quality inspection.