The space was distorted by Uchiha Xuan's will. In the next moment, he had crossed thousands of miles and appeared silently on the ruins of Konoha.
This was once the heart of Shinobi World, but now only ruins remain.
He didn't stop for a moment, walking through like a ghost, and finally stopped in front of the familiar yet unfamiliar Naka River Shrine.
This is the starting point for his coming to this world and the end point for him as "Uchiha Xuan".
Pushing open the dusty stone door, a smell of blood and ancient dust hit my face.
He walked straight to the deepest secret room. There was nothing there, except for an ancient mirror made entirely of unknown bronze standing in the center.
The mirror surface is as smooth as water, but does not reflect any light. It is so deep that it seems to swallow everything.
This is the secret treasure used by the Uchiha Clan to observe the "shape of the heart". It is said that it can reflect the truest appearance of the ninja's heart.
Since Uchiha Xuan woke up, it has been standing here quietly, like a silent witness.
He sat cross-legged in front of the mirror, his expression calm.
However, when he raised his hand, a strange scene happened.
The "him" in the mirror moved half a beat slower, as if there was a layer of viscous liquid between him.
When he put down his hand, the hand of the person in the mirror fell slowly.
He tried to close his eyes, but the scarlet pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in the mirror remained open, looking at him with an almost scrutinizing cold gaze.
"Master Xuan."
Chiyo Saori's figure walked out of the shadows, her voice carrying an imperceptible solemnity.
As Xuan's most trusted strategic ally, she has the authority to enter and exit this place at any time.
"This mirror has had three anomalies. Since you promulgated <Scarlet Eye Canon>, its anomalies have become more frequent. I suggest that it be completely sealed immediately, or... destroyed." Her logic was clear and cold, and any potential threat should be nipped in the bud.
Uchiha Xuan shook his head slowly, with a cold arc at the corner of his mouth. "Seal? Destroy? Saori, if an emperor can't even look directly at his own reflection, how can he control the hearts of hundreds of millions of subjects?"
Not only did he not shrink back, but he developed an unprecedented desire to explore.
"Myriad Phenomena Devouring System, start."
With a command, the "Divine Seed" between Uchiha Xuan's eyebrows, symbolizing god-level power, suddenly lit up, and purple brilliance circulated.
His pair of silver ring-shaped Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan rotated at high speed, and his pupil power was no longer directed outwards, but instead scanned the ancient bronze mirror in front of him in reverse with unprecedented precision, trying to analyze its unique energy frequency.
[Ding! Start analyzing the target: Heart Mirror (Uchiha Clan ancient secret treasure)...]
[Energy frequency analysis...]
[Warning!
Unphysical reflection phenomenon detected!
The goal is not to 'reflect' the image, but to 'rehearse' it!]
[Analysis report: This mirror can capture the deepest decision-making impulse of the host's subconscious mind and materialize it.
These impulses are the most primitive desires and murderous intentions that have not been suppressed by your subjective rationality.]
[Deep scan results... warning! Timeline anomaly found!]
[The time flow of the image in the mirror is faster than reality]
0.7 seconds!
Uchiha Xuan's heart suddenly sank.
This trivial time difference may be meaningless in the eyes of mortals.
But in a battle of his level, 0.7 seconds is enough to decide life and death, enough to overturn the situation of the battle!
This is not just delay, this is usurpation!
The "him" in the mirror is trying to get ahead of him, make a choice, and seize the dominance of this body!
It wants to be the real Uchiha Xuan!
That night, Uchiha Xuan fell into a deep sleep in Scarlet Eye Tower's palace.
However, his consciousness fell into an endless sea of mirrors.
There are mirrors everywhere, up, down, left and right.
Each mirror reflects a different "Uchiha Xuan".
Some are old and tired wearing Warring States feathers; some are holding Six Paths Staff, which is sacred and inviolable; some are bound by dark chains, and their eyes are full of madness and despair.
These are all possible fragments recorded by the system after he devoured countless souls.
And in the center of all the mirrors, the largest and clearest mirror, stood a being exactly like him.
The only difference is that the man's eyes are pure black, without any pupil lines, and are as deep as the void of the universe.
"You have tampered with history and erased the truth."
The black-eyed "Uchiha Xuan" spoke, and his voice was exactly the same as his, but there was no emotion at all.
"But you seem to have forgotten the most basic rule - those who write history will eventually be swallowed up by history itself."
"Pretend to be a ghost!"
Uchiha Xuan's eyes were sharp, murderous intent burst out.
He never talks nonsense.
The silver ring Mangekyō Sharingan rotates crazily, and the terrifying illusion "Tsukuyomi·Infinite" that can shatter the real dimension is activated instantly, with the intention of completely crushing this absurd dream into powder!
However, the shadow with black eyes did not dodge. Instead, it opened its arms towards him, showing a strange smile that seemed to be both compassionate and mocking, and allowed itself to be submerged by the energy of the destructive illusion.
The moment the illusion touched his body--
"Crack... Crack, click!"
The entire sea of mirrors, with billions of mirrors, all shattered at the same instant!
Countless fragments poured down like a torrential rain, and each sharp fragment reflected the same picture - the <Scarlet Eye Canon> promulgated by him personally was being burned to ashes in the raging fire!
"!"
Uchiha Xuan suddenly sat up from the bed, a thin layer of cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
This is the first time he has felt such palpitations since he became Six Paths level.
He subconsciously glanced at his hand, which held a small fire stick for lighting, which was already cold and extinguished.
At this moment, a faint burnt smell drifted in from the window.
"Alarm! Alarm! Unknown fire in the archives cellar!"
The piercing alarm sounded through Scarlet Eye Tower, and the figure of Chiyo Saori appeared in front of him the next second, with an unprecedentedly ugly face. "Sir, cellar B-7 where all old historical books are stored... spontaneously combusted without any trace of external invasion. All documents have been reduced to ashes."
She called up all the surveillance videos inside and outside the cellar. There was no one in the picture, and there was no energy fluctuation. The mountains of books seemed to be ignited at the same moment by an invisible hand.
Chiyo Saori took a deep breath and came up with a hypothesis that even made her hair stand on end.
"Sir, your 'Myriad Phenomena Devouring System' has completed its ultimate evolution after devouring Kaguya Otsutsuki. It has devoured countless high-level chakras and soul information of strong men for a long time. Perhaps... perhaps it has formed an independent thinking module in the depths of your consciousness that is on the way to completion."
"You always thought that you were controlling the system," she said in a very low voice, as if she was afraid of being heard by something, "But is there a possibility... that the system is borrowing your body and will to complete its own evolution? That bronze mirror is the medium that concretely projects this 'new will'!"
Uchiha Xuan was silent and did not speak for a long time. The air in the palace seemed to solidify into substance.
After a long time, he suddenly spoke and asked an unrelated question, "Saori, what is the accuracy of the predictions made by the 'Prophet' Bell recently?"
Chiyo Saori was stunned for a moment, and then quickly replied, "Sir, it is as high as 98.3%, and as she adapts to Divine Tree's chakra, the error range continues to shrink."
Uchiha Xuan The corners of his mouth raised slightly, and the familiar, cold smile that controlled everything reappeared, "Very good. Then let her see... my future."
"Look at me, will I die?"
Early the next morning, the frightened girl Ling was brought to the deep mirror room.
She was just one of countless war orphans in the empire, but she was spotted by Xuan because of her natural ability to predict. She was connected to the micro Divine Tree network and became the "prophet" of the empire.
"Look at it and tell me what you see." Xuan's voice was calm and majestic.
The little girl trembled and turned her gaze to the silent ancient bronze mirror.
Time passed minute by minute.
Suddenly, Ling seemed to have seen something extremely terrifying. She suddenly held her head and squatted on the ground, her whole body trembled violently, and she let out painful sobs.
"I... I saw... he was crying..."
"No... it's two of you... both of you are crying..."
The girl's voice was filled with tears, and she shouted intermittently, "One is saying...'I must live! For the eternity of the empire!'... The other is saying...'Kill me! Before 'I' completely becomes 'it'!'..."
Before he finished speaking--
"Boom!!!"
The entire ancient bronze mirror exploded without warning!
Countless fragments shot out at terrifying speeds and were deeply embedded in the stone wall behind.
The strange thing is that these fragments are not scattered haphazardly, but are arranged on the wall to form a line of twisted and ancient cuneiform writing!
That was exactly the fragment of the original memory that was encrypted by the system on the stone wall that sealed the body of Uchiha Xuan and that he has not yet been able to completely decipher!
Uchiha Xuan's eyes were fixed on the line of words composed of mirror fragments, and the silver rings in his pupils were spinning rapidly, as if they were imprinting the ancient runes into the depths of his soul.
He slowly raised his hand, stroked his cold cheek, and whispered in a voice that only he could hear.
"So... is that so?"
"The most dangerous enemy is never outside."
His gaze suddenly became extremely sharp, like two unsheathed swords piercing all confusion and chaos.
This civil strife caused by himself, this drama of usurping the throne by the shadow in the mirror, is no longer his problem alone.
That "he" with black eyes, that will that evolved from the system, what is its foundation?
It's devouring.
And what was the foundation he established for the entire empire?
It is <Scarlet Eye Canon>, the "history" written by him personally and implanted in the minds of millions of people.
If the split will in his body is an inevitable cancer, then the huge spiritual network built by those millions of children who recite "At the beginning of heaven and earth, there is only one sound - Xuan" every day is the most fertile soil.
This is no longer a civil war for the soul.
This is an ideological plague that is about to sweep across the entire empire.
Uchiha Xuan's eyes were completely frozen with murderous intent.
"Before the cancer cells spread and metastasize, the lesions must be completely removed."