Chiyo Saori's fingertips hovered above the screen, and that line of cold instructions seemed to carry a substantial weight, making the air freeze.
There was no disorder in her breathing, as if the person in the photo was just a codename, a redundant entry that was about to be completely erased from the empire's database.
"As commanded."
She turned off the communicator, turned around and walked towards the arms depot deep in Xuan Tower.
She stopped in front of a humanoid frame made entirely of high-density Chakra Metal.
On the stand, lying quietly is a controller no bigger than the palm of your hand. The surface is as smooth as a mirror, without any buttons or lines, like a perfectly polished obsidian.
This is the new "shackles" given by Uchiha Xuan.
She stretched out her hand, and as soon as her fingertips touched the cold surface, a weak but sharp current flowed along the nerves into her palm, causing her fingers to numb subconsciously.
This is to prevent any unauthorized "autonomous memory" - those Hand Seals gestures that have long been imprinted deep in the muscles and belong to the puppet master.
Uchiha Xuan's voice sounded behind her, without any warmth, like pebbles hitting the ice in winter.
"Old habits can become new weaknesses. This time, you have to make sure he doesn't recognize you."
Chiyo Saori didn't look back, she just held the smooth controller in her palm, feeling the continuous trace amounts of paralyzing toxin, bit by bit eroding the dexterity of her most proud fingertips.
"Yes."
Eastern Special Prison No. 7, the bottom layer.
There are no windows here, and the only light source comes from the chakra crystals embedded in the walls that emit a dark green light, making everything look like ghosts.
Red Sand Demon was firmly fixed on a special restraint chair made of Seastone mixed metal. The limbs, neck, and even every finger were locked with precise buckles.
His eyes were covered with thick black cloth, and the light had been removed long ago, but there was a mocking sneer on his wrinkled face.
The heavy metal door slid open, and a figure walked in.
The footsteps were very light, leaving no trace on the ground, like a cat.
"Saori," Ghost Cleaver's head turned slightly, as if he could "see" the person coming, "The sound of your footsteps has changed... It's 30% lighter, and your center of gravity becomes absolutely balanced every time you land. It seems that you took yourself apart and replaced a lot of good parts."
Chiyo Saori did not answer.
She walked around to the back of the restraint chair and skillfully opened the console.
Rows of injections filled with liquids of various colors shone dangerously under the green light.
She picked up the needle labeled "Personality Overwriting-A7 Solvent", moved it accurately and steadily, and connected it to the nerve center interface on the back of Ghost Cleaver's neck.
"Stop talking? That's right. Now you probably feel that talking to us remnants of the 'old era' is a waste of energy." Ghost Cleaver's laughter became hoarse. "I taught you 1,300 puppet string manipulation techniques, but I didn't teach you how to turn your own heart into a puppet. It seems that you have found a better teacher."
Chiyo Saori's face is hidden in the shadows, and no emotion can be seen.
She checked the physiological data fed back on the screen, and after confirming that everything was normal, she stretched out her right hand, ready to press the final start switch.
At this moment - the ring finger of her right hand bent inwards very slightly without any warning.
That was a habit that even she was about to forget.
Twenty years ago, whenever she felt nervous about learning the complicated Puppet Technique, this finger would twitch unconsciously.
Her pupils shrank imperceptibly at that moment.
The next second, she retracted her right hand without hesitation, and reached out with her left hand like lightning. Using a completely opposite force method, she slammed the switch.
"Buzz--!"
Accompanied by a low beep, cold liquid was injected into Red Sand Demon's spinal cord at high pressure.
Ghost Cleaver's body trembled suddenly, and then began to twitch violently.
The brainwave probe installed on his temple projected his chaotic mental world in the center of the execution chamber in the form of an illusion.
Light and shadow flickered, and countless broken pictures passed quickly - the windy sand of Sunagakure, Kakkō of the puppet workshop, the broken puppet parts...
Suddenly, all the images froze.
The scene strangely goes back to the puppet master training ground twenty years ago.
In the illusion, a little girl of about seven or eight years old with twin ponytails was kneeling on the ground. Next to her was a training puppet that had lost control and was smashed to pieces. Not far away, another child's arm was bleeding.
The girl's cries were heartbreaking.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry teacher... I didn't mean it..."
At this time, a tall figure squatted down.
When she was young, Ghost Cleaver used her rough but warm palms to gently bandage her wounds caused by the puppet strings, and her voice was so gentle that it was unreasonable.
"It's not your fault, Saori." He said softly, "It's this world that doesn't know how to cherish things that are too delicate. Remember, the more sophisticated a creation is, the more fragile it is, and the more... it deserves to be protected."
This memory is as real as yesterday.
Almost the moment it appeared, a warning popped up in the cold red font of the system on the monitoring screen in front of Chiyo Saori.
[WARNING: A high intensity "emotional disruptor", defined as procedural rejection, has been detected.
Goal: Clear.]
The duty of Chiyo Saori is to immediately increase the energy output to completely crush and cover this "interference source".
But her fingertips were delayed for 0.7 seconds on the energy regulating valve.
Just 0.7 seconds.
But it was enough to make that warm illusion play one more frame - the frame where Ghost Cleaver wiped away her tears.
Xuan Tower, on the throne.
Uchiha Xuan's eyes reflected this scene without any ripples.
He just gently raised a finger and pointed it in the void.
"Pain reset program, activate."
In the execution room, Chiyo Saori's body suddenly stiffened!
An indescribable severe pain seemed to have pulled out every nerve in her body and put it on a soldering iron to burn it repeatedly, sweeping through her whole body in an instant!
The controller held in her left hand was frantically releasing punitive bioelectricity that far exceeded the paralyzing dose, like thousands of needles piercing the heart!
She gritted her teeth tightly, her gums were bitten, and rusty blood spilled from the corners of her mouth, but she didn't make a single sound.
Her left hand, as if it no longer belonged to her, pushed the energy valve to the top at an absolutely stable rate!
"Boom!"
The warm illusion of the training ground is like a scroll thrown into lava, instantly twisting, burning, and disintegrating!
Instead, there is the most cruel scene in <Soul-Calming Variation> - "String-Cutting Execution".
Hundreds of puppets of various shapes were hung in the air by invisible threads.
With a command, all the threads were broken at the same time, and the heads of the puppets burst together in an instant, turning into parts and sawdust flying all over the sky!
Red Sand Demon ru let out a miserable howl that was not like a human voice, and the entire spiritual world was completely washed away, covered, and rewritten by this bloody and absolute will to destroy.
Three days later.
Ghost Cleaver wakes up.
He didn't speak or make any unnecessary movements.
After the restraints were lifted, he just sat there quietly.
After a long time, he slowly raised his hands and placed a standard puppet control hand gesture in front of his chest - that was the Isshiki that Chiyo Saori learned twenty years ago.
Immediately afterwards, his knees weakened, and he knelt down heavily on the ground. He placed the palms of his hands completely on the cold ground, and his head hung deeply, as if he was dedicating everything he had to some supreme invisible existence.
Chiyo Saori The instrument behind him made a soft sound.
[Brain wave same-frequency calibration completed, synchronization rate with Scarlet Eye Tower is 99.7%...]
[Awe threshold detection... result: 96.1%...]
[Assessment: Meet the standard.]
The mission is over.
Returning to Xuan Tower's magnetic floating car, there was silence in the car.
Chiyo Saori stood alone at the end of the carriage, with his back to everyone, and took out the smooth mirror-like controller, unconsciously stroking it gently with his fingertips.
Suddenly, her wrist flicked for no reason, and the black controller came out of her hand, and fell to the metal floor with a crisp sound.
She lowered her head and looked at it quietly.
After a long time, she bent down and reached out to pick it up.
Just when her fingertips were about to touch the cold metal, her wrist suddenly turned over, and her five fingers made a retracting and pulling action with an extremely quick and delicate trajectory.
That was the first long-distance control technique she learned from Ghost Cleaver when she was seven years old in order to pick up the fallen puppet parts.
An instinctive action that belongs to the past.
Chiyo Saori's body completely froze.
The next second, a surge of anger and self-loathing surged into my heart.
She suddenly raised her hand and used all her strength to slam the controller she had just picked up against the alloy wall beside her!
"Bang--!!!"
The controller shattered instantly under the huge force, and the precise structure inside exploded into a ball of brilliant electric sparks, which then completely dimmed.
At the top of Xuan Tower, Uchiha Xuan on the throne watched indifferently as the sparks disappeared in the last frame of the surveillance screen.
There was no anger in his eyes, only absolute calmness.
A more thorough "antivirus" plan has been taken shape.
He faced the void and issued new instructions, his voice colder than the cold wind outside the window.
"Send the order to prepare the first batch of 'Shadow-Level Purge List'."
"Goal: All instructors who have granted Chiyo Saori skills, regardless of life or death, will dig their graves, open their coffins, extract brain marrow samples, and archive them digitally."
The wind picked up the broken pieces and passed over the spire of Scarlet Eye Tower.
It was as if a knife had finally learned how to swing itself. After cutting off the past, its owner was pointing it towards a wider and darker hunting ground.