Seven days later, before Scarlet Eye Tower.
The vast square that used to be used for military parades and gatherings has now been transformed into a majestic altar.
Three hundred cold puppets, like terracotta warriors and horses with their heads cut off, stood silently in the center of the square, arranged in a huge arrow formation pointing to Scarlet Eye Tower.
They were once ninjas, once powerful men with great military exploits, but now, their souls have been cleansed, their memories have been stripped away, leaving only their bodies, and they have been transformed into tools of the empire.
At the front of the array are seven particularly special puppets.
They were fixed on the obsidian pulpit, kneeling humbly, as if they were repenting to the world.
This is the infamous "Repentance Forum", driven by the brain core of seven original Hidden Leaf Village teachers, who instill the iron law of "betray the old world and embrace the new life" into the new generation of the Scarlet Eye Academy children day and night.
They are symbols of the old era, the remains of traditional teachings, and the first grand sacrifice that Uchiha Xuan will offer to the entire empire.
Chiyo Saori is dressed in a black imperial executive uniform, with a tall and straight figure and a face as cold as ice.
Holding a special torch with blue flames burning at the top, she passed through two rows of solemn coded ninja guards with wild eyes, and walked step by step towards the giant pyre made of corpses and memories.
She is the officiant of this "Master-Burning Ceremony" and the igniter personally designated by Uchiha Xuan.
The entire empire, and even the Five Great Nations intelligence personnel who snooped on this place through secret channels, are watching her.
Watch how this former genius of Hidden Sand Village, the disciple of Third Kazekage, will personally ignite the flames that bury his past.
There was no hesitation in her steps, each step was firm and powerful, as if her feet were not a cold stone slab, but a ladder leading to the highest power.
However, when she walked in front of the seven "Repentance Forum" and her eyes passed by one of the puppets code-named "Ghost Cleaver", her pupils shrank almost imperceptibly for a moment.
The puppet's mechanical arm was twisted in an extremely unnatural posture, and in its metal claws, it was holding tightly the fragments of a notebook that had been scorched black and curled by the fire.
Even though they were several meters apart, Chiyo Saori still recognized the familiar cover material and the outline of the writing that remained stubbornly remaining even if it turned into coke.
That was the graduation answer sheet she handed to her mentor Ghost Cleaver when she graduated from the Ninja Academy.
On the title page, there is a line that she wrote with all her enthusiasm and longing as a girl:
"Want to be the sharpest knife in your hand."
What was once a knife is now firewood.
And she will be the one who lights the firewood with her own hands.
At this moment, at the top of Scarlet Eye Tower, a figure appeared like a god.
Uchiha Xuan stood a hundred meters in the air with his hands behind his hands, overlooking the ant-like crowd below.
His voice did not pass through any amplification equipment, but was clearly poured into the ears of everyone present. It even vibrated in every corner of Shinobi World through the broadcast signal.
"Loyalty is the most precious cornerstone of the empire."
"But the loyalty of the past was an inferior product mixed with too many impurities such as emotion, mentorship, blood relationship, etc. It was fragile, fickle, and a breeding ground for betrayal."
"Today, I will strip these impurities from their carriers, concentrate them here, and burn them to the ground. You will witness with your own eyes how fragile the bonds of the old era are, and how pure and immortal the faith of the new world will be!"
The moment he finished speaking, he waved his hand suddenly!
Around the square, the eyes of seventeen huge communication puppets lit up with scarlet light at the same time, projecting seventeen huge holographic images, intertwining on the Scarlet Eye Tower tower to form a magnificent and strange picture.
The picture shows the proudest fighting moment of those three hundred ninjas.
Some people use Water Release in Dotō, some people Hand Seals fast in the forest, and some people use the exquisite Taijutsu to defeat one against a hundred... That is their most glorious moment as a "ninja".
But the next second, a strange and twisted melody--<Soul-Calming Variation>--resounded throughout the world.
The perseverance and glory on the faces of the heroes in the picture were instantly replaced by endless pain and confusion.
Their ninjutsu began to collapse, and their bodies spasmed uncontrollably. In the end, all the pictures were frozen in the same scene: they were in ragged clothes and covered in blood, but without exception, they all knelt down in the direction of Scarlet Eye Tower, shouting something silently.
"Praise King Xuan!"
"Praise to the Empire!"
In the square, tens of thousands of coded ninjas seemed to have been triggered by a certain switch, and they all knelt on the ground. The chanting of prayers like a roaring mountain and a tsunami converged into a wave of fanatical sound that could tear the sky apart.
The atmosphere reached its peak at this moment.
Chiyo Saori is in the center of this frenzy, the blue flame in her hand reflecting her unruffled face.
She took another step towards the puppet that held her past.
One step, two steps...
There are only three feet left from the sacrifice pile.
The moment she raised the torch and prepared to throw it--
"Click... click..."
There was a heartbreaking sound of metal friction.
The puppet codenamed "Ghost Cleaver", the metal head that had long since lost its vitality, turned around slowly and stiffly, its empty eye sockets pointed at Chiyo Saori.
A hoarse, dry mechanical sound, as if squeezed out of a rusty iron pipe, suddenly sounded, saying a sentence that should never exist in its program:
"If the knife... forgot who... sharpened it..."
"... Sooner or later... it will cut... Master."
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
Chiyo Saori's raised arms were stagnant in the air for a ten thousandth of a second.
The blue flame was only an inch away from the nearest dry wood.
Scarlet Eye Tower stood on top, Uchiha Xuan stood in the strong wind, his clothes rustling.
The cold light in the depths of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan condensed slightly, and the five fingers of his right hand resting on his side had quietly pressed a microcontroller hidden in his cuff.
As long as he makes a thought, he can instantly cut off all the energy of the puppet and forcibly interrupt this trivial "accident".
However, he didn't move.
He wanted to see what choice this "knife" recast by his own hands would make when faced with the final quenching process.
Chiyo Saori The moment of stasis was so short that no one could even notice it.
The next second, the remaining hesitation in her eyes was completely swallowed up by the overwhelming determination.
She didn't throw the torch.
Instead, he let out an extremely suppressed roar and rushed forward like an arrow. He used all his strength to insert the burning torch into the chest of the "Ghost Cleaver" puppet!
"I'm not a knife!"
"I am the law!"
Poof!
The blue flames seemed to have found an outlet and exploded from the inside of the puppet's chest!
Swallow it whole in an instant!
The flames greedily licked the cold steel body, and also licked the claws holding the notebook tightly.
Under the extreme heat, the charred paper pages and the words "willing to be the sharpest knife in your hand" were completely reduced to nothingness in less than half a second.
Boom--!
The entire memorial pile was instantly ignited, and the Kakkō soared into the sky, illuminating half of the sky in scarlet.
In the square, all the coding ninjas who witnessed this scene were shocked by the extreme violence and determination, and their prayers became even more fervent, as if they had witnessed the coming of a miracle.
[Target: Chiyo Saori.
Adrenaline levels soared to 317%.
The emotional detachment threshold breaks through the critical point of 98.9%.
The mental model has completed self-consistency reconstruction.]
The system's beep sounded in Uchiha Xuan's mind.
He slowly released his fingers on the controller, and for the first time, a hint of emotion that was almost "approval" appeared in his eyes that were all-seeing.
This knife is finally sharpened.
The fire burned all night.
At dawn, when the last sparks extinguished, the specially-made cleaning puppet entered silently, collected the pile of still-warm ashes - the residue carrying countless honors and bonds, and sent them to a special furnace underground in Scarlet Eye Tower.
In the furnace, these ashes were mixed with Hashirama Cells extracted from Divine Tree Root and "Tear Crystal" collected from the "Mother Goddess" Bell Eyes. After seventy-two hours of mysterious alchemy process, they were finally recast into pieces of black substrate as thin as cicada wings and shining with ghostly light.
A new generation of "Silencing Seal Substrate".
Uchiha Xuan stood in front of the furnace, personally picked up a piece of freshly baked substrate, faced the light, and admired the lines flowing on it, like the wails of resentful souls.
He issued a new order on the spot, "From now on, all infiltration operations by the empire against Kage Level targets must and can only use this batch of spells as the starting medium."
This means that those teachers who have taught their students carefully will eventually become their most proud disciples and the most vicious tools to overwrite other people's souls after they are reduced to ashes.
After the ceremony, Chiyo Saori returned to the dormitory on the upper floor of Xuan Tower alone.
She took out a metal box wrapped in layers of talisman paper from a hidden compartment on the wall.
Inside the box was the last personal item she had hidden away for a long time - a piece of metal foil that was broken during the mission and belonged to the core of her puppet.
That was the last gift that teacher Ghost Cleaver gave her.
She walked to the purification furnace in the corner of the room expressionlessly and threw the fragment into it.
The red flames rose up and swallowed up the last thought.
At the moment when the metal foil melted, an inaudible sigh seemed to come from the furnace, and a vague voice whispered deep in her soul:
"... good boy..."
Chiyo Saori's figure didn't pause for a moment, and she didn't even look back.
She just walked to the table, opened her task log, and recorded today's itinerary in cold writing:
"August 17. Completed the 'Flame Master' mission, no exceptions."
At the top of Scarlet Eye Tower, Uchiha Xuan was reviewing the high-definition surveillance footage of the last frame of the burning scene.
His eyes fell on the pile of ashes that had completely cooled.
Whether it was a coincidence or the remnants of some kind of will, the pile of ashes actually faintly arranged into a vague and incomplete symbol after cooling and shrinking naturally.
That symbol, and the ancient secret talisman representing "Gate-Opening Rite" that he captured from the depths of "Mother Goddess" Ling's subconscious, only needed the last stroke to close it.
Uchiha Xuan stared at the missing stroke for a long time, and a bottomless sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He whispered to the empty podium and ordered:
"Preparing to launch the first batch of 'Shadow-Level Purge'."
"Target: Five Great Nations is the current advisory group of Kage Level, all members."
The wind roared past the top of the tower, picking up the last remaining ash in the square and blowing it to the distant Five Great Nations direction.
It was as if countless lost souls were lining up, waiting to enter a brand new cage built by their own hands.
Uchiha Xuan's voice, like the final verdict, dissipated in the wind.
"This time, I want them... to light their teacher's grave with their own hands in their dreams."