The heavy alloy gate slowly rose with a harsh roar, revealing a staircase extending downward, illuminated by faint blue emergency lights.
The cold wind poured out from the ground like a ghost, blowing up a breath of dust and old metal, blowing the shabby clothes of the eight students, and also cooling the last remaining warmth in their hearts.
They were like walking zombies whose souls had been sucked out, with empty eyes, mechanically following Chiyo Saori down the stairs leading to the unknown.
Every step they took on the cold metal steps made a "clang, clunk" echo. In this dead underground passage, it seemed like a death knell for them.
At the end of the stairs is an unimaginably huge circular secret room.
The dome is high, and the ring-shaped walls are inlaid with rows of dark crystals, emitting a faint light that is enough to see things.
The temperature inside the room was at least ten degrees lower than the outside, and the air was filled with a creepy preservative smell similar to formalin.
In the center of the secret room, the most eye-catching thing is the twelve "statues" standing there quietly.
That's not a statue.
When the students saw their appearance clearly, a chill from the depths of their souls instantly swept through their bodies.
Those were twelve puppets that were exactly the same as them - including the four dead people - in body shape, face, and even the damage on their clothes!
The material of the puppet is extremely weird, showing a strange color between bone white and jet black, with a strong metallic luster under the dim light.
The connecting bearings at the joints are exposed, precise and complex, as if they can move at any time.
"This is..." A student's lips trembled and he could hardly utter a complete sentence.
"Use the taboo alloy left by instructor Ghost Cleaver - 'Bone Obsidian', mix the bone powder and hair of each of you, and create humanoid puppets in equal proportions." Chiyo Saori's voice was smooth, as if he was introducing an ordinary tool, "They are completely synchronized with your chakra frequency and nerve reflex pattern. Theoretically, you can control them perfectly like your own body."
She paused, and her cold gaze scanned the faces of everyone twisted in fear.
"Today, there is only one final lesson."
Chiyo Saori slowly raised his hand and pointed at the lifelike puppets, like another one of himself.
"You must learn to kill your future self."
Between the thrones, everything in the underground chamber is clearly displayed on the central light curtain.
Uchiha Xuan leaned on the cold throne, the scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan Gujing Wubo, as if he was enjoying a drama that had already been written.
His attention was not entirely focused on the desperate students, but part of it fell on the inconspicuous Obsidian Ring worn on Chiyo Saori's right thumb.
[System prompt: High-frequency weak chakra resonance detected.]
[Source lock: Target 'Chiyo Saori' wears object 'Obsidian Ring'.]
[Ingredient analysis: High-density Chakra crystals, with residual spiritual imprint sealed inside, the source of imprint...'Ghost Cleaver'.]
[System analysis: This item is the last piece of work before the soul of 'Ghost Cleaver' was burned. There is still a trace of obsession inside that has not been completely purified by Amaterasu, and there is a very weak causal link with the body of the 'door'.]
Uchiha Xuan's lips curved into an imperceptible sneer.
Of course he knew the origin of this ring.
From the moment Chiyo Saori swore allegiance, there was no secret about her that could be hidden from Myriad Phenomena Devouring System.
The reason why he did not dismantle or confiscate this "relic" was precisely because he needed it.
He needs this connection that is so weak that it is almost negligible, like an invisible fishing line, through the "fish float" Chiyo Saori, to accurately locate the sea of chaos named "Gate" hidden deep in the gap between time and space.
Ghost Cleaver is just a tainted wretch, and that "door" is the prey worthy of his attention.
In the underground secret room, the students have followed the instructions and stood in front of their own puppets.
Fear and despair intertwined, making their minds go blank.
They stretched out their trembling hands and followed Chiyo Saori's instructions to connect Chakra Threads to the interface on the back of the puppet's neck.
Buzz--
There was a slight resonance. The puppet's eyes lit up with scarlet light spots, as if they were injected with life.
"Kill your future self?" A student muttered to himself, with a morbid and relieved smile on his face, "So... that's what it means..."
He was the first to move.
Under the control of his mind, the puppet opposite him slowly raised his right hand, and a sharp short knife made of "Bone Obsidian" popped out of his arm.
The puppet's movements were completely synchronized with his own, and the cold blade was accurately aimed at the puppet's own heart.
When other students saw this, they also closed their eyes with similar expressions on their faces.
Self-destruction is the last mercy given to them by their master.
As long as you kill this "future self", you may be able to completely cut off all ties with that ghost.
However, just when the first student was about to give the "pierce" command--
A sudden change occurred!
"Click!"
There was a crisp sound of the machine jamming.
In the secret room, all the puppets who were preparing to commit suicide stopped abruptly at the same moment!
They stopped stiffly in place, their scarlet eyes flickering.
The next second, the twelve puppets seemed to have received instructions from a higher authority. They turned their heads in unison, ignoring the controller in front of them, and focused their gaze on the same focus--
Chiyo Saori!
"Shua--!"
With uniform movements, the twelve puppets simultaneously assumed an ancient and solemn posture.
The left hand points to the sky and the right hand points to the ground!
That was clearly an ancient ritual that Uchiha Clan would only use when Warring States Era made the most sacred vow!
The eight surviving students were so frightened by this sudden scene that they disconnected their chakra links and retreated one after another.
Only Chiyo Saori stood still, his expression unchanged.
She looked at the strange and solemn scene in front of her, as if she had expected it.
Her eyes, which were always as calm as water, were now filled with complicated and difficult-to-understand light.
Under everyone's horrified gaze, she slowly closed her eyes, opened her red lips, and recited in a low voice an ancient mantra that had been lost for a long time and had difficult syllables.
That voice was ethereal and ethereal, and it was exactly the same as the lifetime recording that Uchiha Xuan extracted from the memory fragments of Ghost Cleaver between the thrones!
On the throne, Uchiha Xuan calmly looked at everything in the light curtain without any intention of intervening.
This is "Shutdown Protocol".
The survivors who worked together to design and burn Ghost Cleaver, after completing the forbidden ritual, were also deeply afraid of being contaminated by the "door".
They left behind a back-up—Ghost Cleaver's last creation. Those puppets synchronized with themselves are the execution terminals of the agreement.
Once a successor can pass the test and can completely reproduce this "Shutdown Protocol" mantra with the voice of Ghost Cleaver and the ancient ritual of the Uchiha Clan, it can be judged as the birth of a "new teacher".
The old grudges and curses will automatically end at this moment, and the remaining authority will be handed over to the new person in charge.
This is the last shackles left by the weak to protect themselves.
As the last syllable of the incantation fell, the red light in the eyes of the twelve puppets gradually dimmed. They slowly retracted their posture and returned to their initial standing state, turning into motionless dead objects.
The darkness and madness that lasted for several days disappeared at this moment.
Chiyo Saori slowly opened his eyes, turned around, and walked out of the secret room alone, leaving behind the eight students who had survived the disaster and looked at each other.
She walked up the stairs, returned to the throne room, came to Uchiha Xuan, and bowed deeply.
Then, she took off Obsidian Ring from her thumb, held it up with both hands, and gently placed it on the armrest of the throne in front of Uchiha Xuan.
"It recognized me." Her voice was filled with an unprecedented level of exhaustion. "But, through it, I also saw... behind the door, not only the obsessions of the past, but also... the shadow of the future, pushing the door hard."
She raised her head, revealing her inner confusion and wavering for the first time in front of Uchiha Xuan.
"Can the order you talk about really stop that kind of thing?"
Uchiha Xuan picked up the cold ring, her scarlet pupils reflected her tired face.
He didn't answer.
Just put the ring in the palm of your hand and slowly close your fingers.
Click...
The obsidian forbidden alloy, which was extremely hard and comparable to diamond, was easily crushed into powder in his palm like a biscuit!
Black powder slipped from between his fingers.
"If you can't stop it," he said calmly, without any emotion in his voice, "Just swallow it."
The moment he finished speaking, the system prompt that only he could hear rang loudly in his mind!
[Warning! High intensity cross-timeline energy fluctuations detected!]
[The target has marked the causal link of the 'door', and the coordinate reverse tracking is in progress... Locked...]
At the same moment, thousands of miles away, the deepest part of Flame Master Ruins, which had long been turned into a scorched ruins, was under the mountains of bones that had been burned by Amaterasu.
There was a skull buried at the bottom that was as new as a newborn baby. There was something in the tightly closed eye sockets that was slowly... opening its eyes.