The bloodshot eyeball looked like a miniature, dying star in the extreme darkness.
Its sight has no focus, but it seems to be simultaneously examining every inch of the rock wall and every wisp of air on the nine underground floors, as well as the invisible force field of obedience and fear that pervades the entire empire after being twisted by the cage.
Three days, only three days.
The mutations are escalating at a reproduction rate that is beyond normal biological organisms.
From the first one, to dozens, and now to nearly a hundred pitch-black vines wandering around the crack like ghosts.
They show amazing intelligence, and their growth path perfectly avoids the scanning sectors of all fixed surveillance probes and patrol puppets.
Chiyo Saori's Gray Eye are the only eyes that can capture their full appearance.
At this moment, in the central control room, her subjective perspective is being broadcast in real time on a light screen made of pure chakra.
The scene in the light curtain was cold and dead, with only the red heat signal representing the vines crawling silently in the darkness.
Suddenly, one of the tiniest red signals stopped.
Chiyo Saori's body also stopped in reality.
The signal slowly changed direction on the light screen, accurately locking on the humanoid outline that represented herself, exuding a light blue halo.
Seventeen minutes of intense gaze.
In the monitoring room, the puppet responsible for recording data made a monotonous electronic sound: [Warning: The target locking behavior frequency is completely consistent with the database number C-S-001, Chiyo Saori, and the brain wave rhythm in the "night terror" state in childhood.
Matching degree 99.97%.]
Uchiha Xuan sat on the throne, tapping his slender fingers lightly on the armrest. He didn't even look at the light screen, his eyes always fell on the data flow waterfall in front of him.
He had already noticed this strange resonance.
This vine seems to be peeking into this new world through Chiyo Saori, the individual who had "first contact" with it.
He didn't show any emotion at all, but quietly opened a new monitoring protocol in the background interface of Myriad Phenomena Devouring System.
[Protocol name: Passive listening mode]
[Monitoring target: all unclassified abnormal mental fluctuations]
[Marking instructions: Those who match the childhood memory wavelength of "Chiyo Saori" will be automatically classified as... [Symbiosis Signal Candidate].]
He wanted to see what these "relics" born from resentment wanted to do.
"Clear." The cold command was given directly to Chiyo Saori through the communication channel.
"Yes."
Chiyo Saori didn't hesitate at all.
She raised her arm, and the gauntlet instantly deformed, with one muzzle flashing orange light.
"Buzz--!"
The scorching chakra jet turned into a fire dragon and swept through the area in a destructive manner.
The pitch-black vines twisted and shrunk violently under the high temperature, and turned into charred ashes without making any sound.
The task was completed quickly and easily.
However, that night, a routine test report from the medical puppet popped up a high-risk warning on Uchiha Xuan's terminal.
[Detection object: Chiyo Saori]
[Abnormal report: "Gray Eye" captured extremely weak residual brain wave echo when scanning the residual ashes.]
[Response content analysis:... don't... go...]
Almost at the same time, Chiyo Saori's encrypted communication was also submitted. The content was concise and clear. "The equipment is aging and misreading hallucinations occur. Please apply for replacement of the visual core."
Uchiha Xuan's mouth curved in an imperceptible arc.
Through surveillance from another angle, he saw that after Chiyo Saori returned to his room, he took out an ash fragment the size of a fingernail wrapped in special metal foil from the interlayer of his combat uniform.
She stood in front of the private purification furnace in the room and stood quietly for a long time. The hand that was about to throw the fragment into the flames finally slowly lowered it.
"Innocent." Uchiha Xuan whispered to himself.
He has already understood everything.
This vine is not spying at all, but "calling".
It is calling out to its "kindred spirits" and those memories that have also been forgotten and suppressed.
"Physical clear, pause." He issued a new command, "Start 'Resonance Lure Formation'."
Orders are like mercury falling on the ground, and they are executed quickly.
Seventeen elite communication puppets that were damaged in the previous battle, their still-beating chakra core hearts were all taken out, and buried around the underground cracks like sacrifices.
Each core is implanted with a <Soul-Calming Variation> tune that has been personally modified by Uchiha Xuan.
The fundamental frequency of this changed tone is no longer a simple child's cry.
It uses the cry of the "bell" that contains an ancient curse as its skeleton, but uses the rapid breathing rhythm that Chiyo Saori secretly recorded when he was young, every time he woke up from a nightmare, as its flesh and blood.
This is a calling engraved deep in our genes.
The third night, midnight.
"Boom!"
There was a dull loud noise from the ninth floor underground, causing the entire Xuan Tower to tremble slightly.
In the crack, a dark vine as thick as an adult's arm suddenly burst out of the ground!
It is no longer the slender and twisted form before, but is full of power and vitality.
At the top of the vine, the bloodshot eyeball has expanded to the size of a human head.
What's even more chilling is that on the whites of the cloudy eyes, there are circles and circles composed of countless small names - those are the real names of all the children who died in the experiment since the establishment of the Scarlet Eye Academy!
It was like a hungry giant beast awakening from the depths of hell, turning slowly, and finally locked its sights on the heart of the puppet closest to it.
The tip of the vine stretched out like a tentacle, gently resting on the still pulsating core.
The moment of contact, a sudden change occurred!
The chakra stored in the core of the puppet and used for trapping did not invade the vines. Instead, it was swallowed up by the vines in an unimaginable way like a torrent that broke a bank!
On the throne at the top of the tower, Uchiha Xuan watched this scene through the surveillance camera, with a cold smile finally showing on his face.
"It's not you who is listening to us..." he whispered, his voice full of controlling indifference, "It's us who raised you."
In just a few seconds, the puppet's heart shriveled completely and turned into powder.
The dark vines, which had absorbed huge amounts of energy, did not retreat back into the crack.
Its huge body crawled slowly but firmly on the ground, using its sharp tip to draw an extremely precise map on the hard sound-absorbing stone ground!
Those are the seven most secret chakra node locations under the Xuan Tower foundation!
Its location and layout are exactly the same as the records about the "bloodline anchor point" in the top secret document Uchiha Clan passed down from generation to generation - <Primordial Burial Canon>!
An even more amazing scene is presented in real time through background data.
The trajectory of the vines moving on the ground, every turn and every pause in the nerve discharge pattern, are all in astonishing synchronization with the nerve signals of the "bell" sleeping in the altar at this moment, when the body is unconsciously twitching!
The answer to the mystery is completely revealed.
Uchiha Xuan finally confirmed that this thing is not the product of pure resentment at all.
It is a living channel that was forcibly suppressed by "Voiceprint Prison" and originated from the "mother consciousness" of ancient Uchiha Clan. It was bred through the remaining Yin Release Chakra in the earth's veins!
An "organ" that can communicate with the real world!
"Parasite protocol, activated."
A cold order was given.
Puppet Legion, who were already on standby, swarmed up and covered the entire vine with a special energy net.
They roughly dug it up by the roots, and during its violent struggle, they accurately peeled off the huge eyeball and quickly implanted it into a special culture tank filled with high-concentration nutrient solution.
As for the remaining vine trunk, it was put into a huge grinder and ground into a pitch-black slurry, which was perfectly mixed with the new generation "Silencing Seal" sealing ink.
When the first new talisman seal containing vine sap was accurately carved on the inside of the ear canal of an imperial newborn, the baby who should have cried loudly just opened his mouth silently, and tears burst out.
And deep in his pure pupils, a faint green light flashed away.
That was a sign of the initial integration of vine cells with the human nervous system.
Uchiha Xuan stared at the huge eyeball that was still beating tenaciously in the culture tank. His voice was low and cold, as if announcing the arrival of a new era.
"From now on, even the thought of resisting will grow within my rules."
And in the deepest part of the ground, at the edge of the crack that was dug violently, new, more slender buds were quietly sprouting from the dried black sap.
It sways silently, as if waiting for the next and only listener it truly desires.
At this time, on the bottom floor of Xuan Tower, on the ancient altar where the "Bell" was imprisoned, the girl who had been twitching unconsciously due to the leakage of her clan mother's consciousness slowly calmed down for the first time.