The highest order of Scarlet Eye Tower turned into an iron law before dawn and was imprinted in the minds of every citizen of the New Uchiha Empire: Dream Tribunal is established.
"Anyone who has received the spiritual purification of 'Silencing Seal' must go to the nearest empire station at six o'clock every morning to make a mandatory dream declaration."
"Anyone who has not registered, or whose declared content deviates significantly from the system's background monitoring records, will trigger an immediate review and in-depth re-education process."
The instructions are cold and unchallenged.
This is the second trump card Uchiha Xuan throws out after distorting the concept of "atonement" - to completely bring Dreamland, the last spiritual place of humankind, under the jurisdiction of the empire.
He not only wants to define reality, but also monopolizes illusion.
On the first day of the implementation of the new law, fear spread among the people like a plague.
More than three hundred former ninjas tremblingly submitted their dream logs in front of the data terminal.
They described the same dreams: empty squares, burning blue flames, and a kind of inner peace and relief.
However, the system's cold screening net accurately captured the noise.
"Alert. Seventeen cases of high-risk abnormal dreams have been detected." In the main control room, a cold electronic sound sounded, "The common characteristics of the target: in the dream description, it is mentioned that 'there seems to be a fuzzy face in the flames' or 'noise other than the burning flames is heard'."
"Process." Uchiha Xuan didn't raise his head, and his eyes were still locked on another screen, where the next strategy for Land of Lightning was being deduced.
The moment the order was given, the empire's violent machine was running efficiently.
Seventeen ninjas scattered across various places, whether at home, at work, or at the declaration site, were subdued by black-armored guards who suddenly appeared almost at the same time.
Without interrogation or explanation, they were escorted directly to the depths of Scarlet Eye Tower, the terrifying nine floors underground - a "re-education center" that would never see the light of day.
The empire's iron fist is fully exposed in the face of bloody reality.
And at the top of this judgment tower, Chiyo Saori ushered in her new identity.
"From today on, you are the chief judge of Dream Tribunal." Uchiha Xuan placed a Obsidian Ring that was completely black and shimmering with light in front of her.
The surface of the ring is as smooth as a mirror, but the inside seems to contain a starry sky.
"This is 'Nightmare's Eye'." Uchiha Xuan explained, "It has a built-in micro Rinnegan projection device, which is directly connected to the empire's main system. Wearing it, you can read any target's dream image remaining in the cerebral cortex in real time. The authenticity can be determined by your thoughts."
Chiyo Saori took the ring, and the coldness from her fingertips cheered her up.
Without any hesitation, she put the ring on her right index finger.
The size fits her perfectly, as if it was tailor-made for her.
She went from being purged to becoming the top executive of the purge system.
Her first execution came sooner than expected.
A young ninja judged as "moderate risk" was brought to her.
He once omitted a detail in his declaration: the flames in the dream were "warmer" than the standard template.
"Chief Judge, I... I just... dreamed of my mother..." The young man knelt on the ground, crying, "She smiled at me in the fire, and hummed the songs I listened to when I was a child... I swear, I did not betray the empire!"
Chiyo Saori looked at him condescendingly, his cold mask covering all his expressions.
There was no wave in her voice, like a precise scalpel, cutting open the other person's last fantasy.
"Mother cannot sing in the fire."
The moment she finished speaking, she raised her right hand.
The dim light on Obsidian Ring suddenly lit up, and an energy beam invisible to the naked eye accurately shot into the young ninja's eyebrows.
"Ah--!"
The screams echoed through the interrogation room.
The young man's eyes instantly lost focus, and the scene he least wanted to look back reflected in his pupils.
The scene of "Master-Burning Ceremony" was forced to go back.
The puppets of the seventeen mentors were thrown into the furnace, and blazing blue flames rose into the sky.
The shrill wails, the crackling of bones, the smell of burnt flesh and blood... all the senses were forcibly deprived, leaving only the endless cycle of burning hell.
He was forced to watch the "sin" he had ignited with his own hands over and over again from a first-person perspective.
The cries gradually became fainter and eventually turned into voiceless convulsions.
His spirit was completely crushed and reshaped in absolute terror and despair.
Chi-Dai Saori withdrew his hand indifferently, and the light on the ring dimmed.
"Send to the seventh floor for a month of 'silent therapy'."
That night, Uchiha Xuan reviewed all the review records of Dream Tribunal on the first day.
Seventeen high-risk reports and 121 medium- and low-risk cases were processed, and the result was without exception - absolute compliance.
However, when he conducted an in-depth comparison of the brainwave data of all individuals labeled as "abnormal dreams", a strange phenomenon emerged.
When these people's brainwave peaks appeared abnormal in their dreams, their unique frequency actually produced an extremely weak coupling resonance with a sealed signal source deep in the database.
The code name of that signal source is-"Ling's Lament".
That is the remaining will of the woman who was the core of emotional sacrifice when the "Silencing Seal" system was constructed.
A cry that should have been completely silenced.
What is even more astonishing is that after being "re-educated" by Chiyo Saori, these mentally broken individuals no longer have "faces" or "noises" in their dreams, but instead collectively begin to appear a brand new stone temple that does not exist on any known map.
The door of the palace is closed, and a set of complex and ancient totems are engraved on the door.
In the system information database, the name of that set of totems is clearly marked: <Gate-Opening Rite>.
"The source cannot be traced..." the system gave a cold conclusion, "The generation logic of the dream scene bypassed the monitoring protocol of the main database."
In Uchiha Xuan's eyes, Eternal Mangekyō's Tomoe turned slowly.
He said nothing, and there wasn't even the slightest surprise on his face.
The presence of disobedient prey in this hunting ground he has opened up by himself will only make hunting more interesting.
Instead of ordering a thorough investigation, he issued a second instruction. "Starting immediately, expand the scale of Dream Tribunal three times. Chief Judge Chiyo Saori has the highest authority to independently design the interrogation process and lines."
The authorized Chiyo Saori showed extraordinary ruthlessness and creativity.
She quickly added a link called "Repentance Chant" to the interrogation process.
All those under trial must kneel on the ground and recite the third movement of "Soul-Calming Variation" written by her over and over again.
It is a poem with a strange melody and lyrics full of self-denial and soul sacrifice.
Uchiha Xuan While approving the draft, the corner of his mouth curved in an unnoticed way.
He personally fine-tuned that melody, hiding in it a reverse harmonic that goes against the human subconscious defense mechanism.
Once someone's brain produces the slightest resistance while chanting, even if it is just a subconscious resistance, the neural interface in the back of the neck will automatically release a trace amount of neurotoxin.
The toxin will instantly paralyze the respiratory muscles, causing a severe suffocation sensation that lasts for ten seconds.
Use fear to correct deviations in belief.
On the third day, tragedy struck as expected.
A Iwagakure traitor who was being interrogated suddenly had violent convulsions after chanting <Soul-Calming Variation> more than thirty times in a row.
In the near-death hallucination caused by the feeling of suffocation, he suddenly broke free from the restraints, stared at Chiyo Saori with his scarlet eyes, and roared with his last strength:
"What you are burning is not a corpse! It is a seed! It is a seed--!"
Before his roar ended, he spurted out a mouthful of dark blood and fell to the ground.
The strange thing is that his pupils, which were dilated due to lack of oxygen, shrank into layers of Rinnegan shapes at the moment before death!
Chiyo Saori's face changed slightly, and he immediately ordered the scene to be cordoned off and sent the body to the highest level purification furnace.
But before the guards took away the body, she caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye and saw something that seemed to be tightly grasped in the ninja's convulsing and curled palms.
She Earth Flow walked over calmly, and quickly put the thing into her sleeve in the name of checking the body.
It was a small piece of the talisman's remnants, hardened like stone.
On the surface of the residue, a familiar crack is clearly visible. In the crack, two looming Chinese characters exude an ominous atmosphere - "pay off debt".
Chiyo Saori's heart sank suddenly.
She was silent for a long time, and finally, in a corner where no one was paying attention, she personally threw this vital piece of evidence into the purifying flames of the destruction passage.
But in the report she subsequently submitted to Uchiha Xuan, the roar about the "seed" and the remnants of the spell were deliberately omitted.
Late at night, the top of Scarlet Eye Tower.
Uchiha Xuan entered the empire's core database alone.
He bypassed all regular interfaces and directly called up a highest-level surveillance screen labeled "Absolute Silence."
On the screen, there is a pure white altar located deep underground.
A girl in white clothes was sitting quietly in the middle of the altar.
Her eyes were closed tightly, and the rise and fall of her chest was so weak that it was almost imperceptible, like a lifeless wax figure.
She is "Bell", the emotional source of the entire "Silencing Seal" system, a living sacrifice that was sacrificed.
Uchiha Xuan looked at the surveillance screen expressionlessly, looking at the data flow that was as smooth as a straight line.
Suddenly, the girl on the screen opened her eyes without warning.
They were a pair of empty and dead eyes, but at this moment, they were looking directly at Uchiha Xuan in front of the screen across billions of data streams.
Then, the corners of her pale mouth raised slightly, outlining a strange and satisfied smile.
At the same moment, in the entire territory of the New Uchiha Empire, on the seventh, eighth and ninth underground floors of Scarlet Eye Tower, as well as in the "re-education centers" in major cities, all 327 ninjas who had completed their spiritual cleansing and should have fallen asleep, no matter where they were or what kind of torture they were experiencing, all opened their eyes simultaneously.
There was no sparkle in their pupils, but they opened their mouths in unison, and in a uniform and emotionless tone, whispered a prayer that had never been entered into any system:
"Where the ashes fall, the door will open."
Uchiha Xuan slowly closed the surveillance screen. There was deathly silence in the main control room.
He turned around and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the steel city below that had completely surrendered to him.
"System." He ordered in a low voice, with no emotion or anger in his voice, "Prepare the 'Shadow-Level Purge second batch'. Target: Five Great Nations's current core circle of Kage Level's advisory group. This time," he paused, a hint of extreme coldness and madness flashed through Eternal Mangekyō, "I want them to forget that they ever slept before."
The command is executed instantly.
And in the energy core area at the bottom of Scarlet Eye Tower, in an unnoticed corner, a new vine wrapped with light green chakra was quietly protruding from the gap in the metal floor, gently wrapped around a brand-new spell base plate that had just been produced, and began to slowly and greedily absorb the huge energy contained in it that did not belong to it.
Uchiha Xuan ignored all this and recited the abrupt prayer - "Where the ashes fall, the goalkeeper will open."
In his cold eyes, countless data streams flashed through like waterfalls, and he began to frantically analyze the hidden communication paths and grammatical logic behind these eight words.
A silent rebellion originating from within the system seems to have just begun.