The hand that made a mourning gesture was slowly lowered into the nothingness of the dream.
Chiyo Saori's consciousness returned to reality, and she still stood quietly in place, like a perfect puppet, without showing any signs of strangeness.
But only she knew that in that silent dream, when she lowered her head, an invisible mark, like a branding iron, had been deeply engraved on the "door" of her subconscious.
Uchiha Xuan's eyes swept across her body, and there was no wave in his deep pupils, as if he had seen through everything, and as if he didn't care about anything at all.
He turned around and faced the twelve students with empty eyes who had survived the disaster.
"Course, continue."
His cold voice broke the dead silence and cheered everyone up.
"However, the rules need to be changed." Uchiha Xuan's lips curved into a playful arc, and the smile was even colder than the will-o'-the-wisp on the skeleton just now.
"Starting from tonight, the training content will no longer be specified by the instructor. Before going to bed every night, each of you must carve the name of the person you think will die tomorrow on a special wooden sign."
He paused, enjoying the shock and fear on the faces of the students.
"Place the wooden sign on the bedside. The next morning, I will personally test it. If your 'prophecy' comes true, then congratulations, your authority will be promoted to one level, and you will get more resources and higher-level secret techniques. But if... you guess wrong," his voice suddenly lowered, full of unquestionable pressure, "Then, you will endure the pain of burning your soul that will last for a day as a punishment for your lack of insight."
As soon as this statement came out, the whole place was in an uproar.
This is no longer training, this is forcing them to kill each other!
He is using the most vicious way to stir up the darkest suspicion and malice in their hearts!
"Dead people don't know how to call names," Uchiha Xuan paced slowly, his gaze scraping across every pale face like a blade, "But living people had better learn to name themselves."
Chiyo Saori felt a shiver in his heart, and instantly understood his master's intention.
This is not creating confusion, but conducting a more precise "screening"!
The pollution of that "door" is spread through cognition and memes. It needs a "host" to think about it and a "group" to worship it.
This rule is to force the deepest source of pollution to be actively exposed!
The first night was calm.
On the twelve wooden plaques in the early morning, there are various names engraved on them, including companions and enemies. Some people even wrote "Naruto Uzumaki" as far away as Hidden Leaf Village.
On the second night, no one died.
Twelve people all endured the pain of their souls being licked by the flames, and their screams echoed in their respective confinement rooms all day long.
The third night, the fourth night...
Between the thrones, Uchiha Xuan looked at the light curtain projected by Myriad Phenomena Devouring System.
The system faithfully records the name on each wooden sign.
A stream of data flows through, and an abnormal pattern is highlighted.
In the past four nights, among a total of forty-eight "prophecies", seven different students have repeatedly carved the same name on their wooden plaques--
Ghost Cleaver.
"Heh." Uchiha Xuan let out a cold laugh.
Miss you?
No.
This is not nostalgia at all.
Ghost Cleaver's soul has long been burned away by his Amaterasu, and he is not even qualified to enter Pure Land.
These students don't even know Ghost Cleaver's overall plan and final outcome.
"Gate" did not resurrect Ghost Cleaver at all, it just implanted the concept of "Ghost Cleaver's return" like a virus into the depths of these people's subconscious minds.
They carved this name not out of their original intention, but to implement an implanted thinking anchor and "confirm" this false existence in reality again and again.
The fifth day, midnight.
"Ahhhh--!"
A shrill scream broke the tranquility of Scarlet Eye Tower.
On the surveillance screen, blood splattered in the student's room numbered "Qi"!
The student's eyes were red and he looked like a madman. He actually tore open the alloy wall of the adjacent room with his bare hands, dragged out the sleeping "8" student, and broke his neck on the spot!
Immediately afterwards, he followed the same pattern and rushed into another solitary room.
The killing continues.
Chiyo Saori's figure instantly appeared in the central control room, and when he was about to stop him, Uchiha Xuan raised his hand to stop him.
"Let him do it." Xuan's voice was terrifyingly calm, "The ritual requires sacrifices. Let him complete the ritual."
Chiyo Saori's eyes returned to the light screen, and he saw the rampaging "Qi" trainee. After killing three companions, he cut off their heads and formed a strange circular sacrifice formation in the center of the training ground.
He knelt in the center of the sacrificial array, raised his hands high, and roared at the top of his lungs using an ancient syllable that had long been lost:
"Welcome my master and return to my position with honor!"
Buzz--!
As his last syllable fell, the dark ink-like mucus from before suddenly spewed out from the eyes, ears, mouths and noses of the three heads, and quickly gathered on the ground, outlining a summoning array that was a hundred times more complex than before!
A cold, evil aura that seemed to freeze the soul instantly filled the entire training ground.
However, at the moment when the formation was about to be completely formed and something indescribable was summoned.
Uchi-Hai Xuan on the throne moved.
He didn't get up, or even look at the chaotic field, but slowly raised his right hand.
The next second, the patterns in his scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan pupils rotated rapidly, reflecting towards the ground!
It doesn't reflect that crazy student, nor does it reflect that evil formation.
It was the shadow stretched by the light at the student's feet!
"Did you see it clearly, Saori?" Xuan's voice came through the spiritual link with a hint of mockery, "What they worship is never Ghost Cleaver."
Chiyo Saori looked at the master's will, and his pupils suddenly shrank!
Under Sharingan's insight, a thirteenth figure clearly emerged on the dark ground!
That shadow was stuck closely behind the "Qi" student, imitating his every move of kneeling and roaring in complete synchronization!
It has no entity and no breath. It seems to be just a two-dimensional plane, but it exudes the ultimate terror brought by "existence" itself!
"It exists by being 'worshipped', 'thought' and 'remembered'." Uchiha Xuan revealed the truth coldly, "The more you miss Ghost Cleaver, the stronger its power becomes. Your worship is the food that feeds it."
The moment his voice fell, he gave the order.
"Saori, detonate."
"Yes!"
Chiyo Saori His hands are like lightning Hand Seals!
"The Secret Art of Puppet·Burial in the Earth in Ten Directions!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Under the indestructible alloy floor of the training ground, ten high-compression chakra puppet cores that had been buried by Chiyo Saori were detonated at the same moment!
The violent shock wave did not move upward, but under precise control, like an invisible big hand, it grabbed the newly formed black formation from the ground and pinched it inward!
Click--!
The space seemed to be distorted for a moment.
The formation diagram that was enough to summon the evil god, together with the three heads as sacrifices, were instantly torn, crushed, and shaken into the most primitive particles by the violent energy flow!
"--Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally!"
A shrill scream that was not like a human voice but ten thousand times sharper than a baby's cry erupted from the mouth of Shadow No. 13!
It lost the sacrifices and the bridges built by believers. It twisted violently in the shock wave, and finally turned into a black light, desperately getting into the eyes of the student closest to it and the first to carve the name "Ghost Cleaver" on the wooden sign!
The student's whole body convulsed violently, and his eyeballs instantly turned as black as ink. Then his body went limp and he passed out.
Everything, Return to Silence is quiet.
Uchiha Xuan slowly walked down from the throne and came to the student who was invaded by the shadow.
He did not take action to kill this man.
Instead, he Hand Seals with one hand, countless transparent crystals rose from the ground, wrapping the student layer by layer, and finally formed a crystal clear, completely sealed crystal coffin.
"Put him under the podium."
Xuan's orders were devoid of emotion.
Soon, this crystal coffin, which contained the "living source of pollution", became the most shocking base of the Scarlet Eye Tower podium.
Uchiha Xuan stood on the crystal coffin, overlooking the eight surviving and shivering students below, as well as Chiyo Saori, who looked solemn.
"Now, you should understand." His voice echoed in the empty training ground, and every word was like a heavy hammer, hitting everyone's hearts.
"A dead person will never come back to call his name. But as long as there is one of you thinking about him, worrying about him, fearing him... he will always live among you."
He raised his foot and lightly stomped the crystal coffin under his feet.
"So-"
His scarlet gaze swept over everyone, as if he wanted to penetrate their souls completely.
"Do you want him to disappear completely?"
Early next morning.
On the cold podium, eight wooden plaques were neatly placed.
On each wooden sign, the same word was deeply engraved in trembling handwriting.
"I".
They finally understood that in order for that "ghost thing" to disappear completely, they must eradicate all possible carriers of "thinking" about it.
And the safest way is to make yourself disappear.
This is the most desperate realization at the cost of self-destruction.
However, in front of the eight wooden signs, Chiyo Saori stood quietly.
In her hand, she held the ninth wooden sign.
There is no word on it.
Uchiha Xuan's eyes fell on her, and for the first time in those eyes that had been frozen for thousands of years, there was a hint of approval.
"Very good." He nodded lightly, "Finally, someone has learned to think."
Self-destruction is the escape of the weak, but the truly strong will choose to pick out the disease with their own hands.
Uchiha Xuan's eyes passed over the eight desperate students, and finally settled on Chiyo Saori's calm and determined face.
"This last lesson," his voice returned to its usual indifference, but contained unquestionable authority, "It's up to you."
Chiyo Saori bowed deeply without any words.
She turned around and faced the eight companions who were already determined to die. Her voice was cold and firm.
"Everyone, follow me."
After that, she took the lead towards the heavy gate on the side of the training ground that had never been opened before and led to the depths of the ground.