Who Lit a Lamp for the Blind?

Xuan Jing stood atop the collapsed watchtower, his figure like a statue merged with the night. Only the crimson Mangekyo in his left eye slowly spun in the boundless darkness, eerie and cold.

His field of vision had long been parsed and reconstructed by the system. Several illusory red lines, invisible to ordinary people, stretched across the sky, precisely marking Madara Uchiha's patrol route and timing.

This was the golden hunting point he had calculated after several days, using intelligence stolen from the Crow organization and his own formidable deductive abilities.

The wait did not last long.

A figure tore through the night sky in the distance, walking through the air toward him.

Several ink-black rods floated beneath his feet. He stood tall, his white robe symbolizing the power of the Six Paths snapping in the gale. Even from afar, those pale violet Rinnegan radiated the detached indifference of a god looking down upon all living things.

The arrival was not Madara Uchiha's real body, but a shadow clone with seventy percent of his strength.

This was the most perfect part of Xuan's plan: nourishment strong enough to let him achieve a qualitative leap, yet not strong enough to alert the Rabbit Goddess lurking deep within the moon and trigger the final world-ending script ahead of time.

Xuan did not conceal himself. Instead, he did the opposite.

With a slight thought, a faint yet pure aura of a Tailed Beast cloak flashed across his body, like a hunter lighting a bonfire in the night, precisely sending a signal of provocation to his target.

Sure enough, the figure abruptly halted in midair. His Rinnegan turned slightly and instantly locked onto Xuan atop the watchtower.

The next second, he landed silently before Xuan. The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch, unable to withstand his pressure.

"You are the Earth Eater who has recently been stirring up trouble in the rear and devouring ninja and Tailed Beast chakra?" Madara's clone spoke in a low voice, carrying an innate arrogance, as if examining an ant that posed a slight threat.

A cold curve touched Xuan's lips, while the pattern in his left Mangekyo spun even faster. "Earth Eater? I don't like that name. I merely came to collect a little overdue interest from Madara Uchiha."

Before his words had faded, the world suddenly lost all color!

"Genjutsu: Ashen Realm Prison!"

The power of Xuan's left eye erupted instantly. Centered on him, all light and sound in the area were stripped away, plunging everything into absolute darkness and deathly silence.

Then, from beneath the charred ground, countless bones burning with ghostly blue flames burst forth. They intertwined and climbed, forming an airtight bone prison in the blink of an eye, trapping Madara's clone within.

Every bone radiated soul-scorching heat and resentment, enough to unnerve any Kage-level powerhouse.

Yet Madara's clone showed no reaction at all, not even a trace of surprise.

Looking at the rising bone prison around him, he revealed a scornful sneer.

"Using Sharingan genjutsu against the Rinnegan? Foolish."

He formed a single hand seal.

"Universal Black Attraction!"

There was no earth-shattering boom, only an invisible and terrifying force of attraction that abruptly erupted from his body.

Space itself seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand and violently clenched inward!

The seemingly indestructible Ashen Realm Prison formed by genjutsu could not even last a second before shattering with a thunderous crash amid extreme distortion, dissolving into countless specks of light.

The darkness faded, and moonlight returned.

Madara's clone stood where he was without a scratch. He slowly raised a hand, and an ink-black sphere condensed from nothingness in his palm.

It was a Truth-Seeking Orb, containing the power of Yin–Yang and the five elements. It was the pinnacle of all phenomena, representing absolute destruction.

"Shar-ing-an?" he enunciated each syllable, the contempt in his tone nearly tangible. "What a pity. Before my eyes, you do not even possess the right to be mentioned in the same breath as me."

The aura of destruction emanating from the Truth-Seeking Orb rushed toward Xuan, as if it would erase him and this entire stretch of land from existence the next instant.

Yet in the face of this killing blow, Xuan showed no fear.

Rather than retreat, he advanced. Against the suffocating pressure, he stepped forward and fiercely flipped his right palm.

"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"

Buzzz!

The air trembled violently.

A vortex of highly compressed iron sand spun madly in his palm. Then, countless black needles, finer and denser than cow hairs, shot toward Madara's clone like a flood bursting through a dam!

This was no ordinary Magnet Release. Every iron-sand needle carried chakra Xuan had parsed, imbued with powerful corrosive properties.

Madara's clone frowned slightly, clearly not expecting his opponent to wield the Hidden Sand Village's bloodline limit to such an extent.

He tried to dodge sideways, but Xuan's calculations went far beyond that.

The instant he moved, the rain of iron-sand needles abruptly stopped in midair. Then, impossibly, they split and recombined in the air, transforming into a huge, intricate iron-sand net that precisely sealed off every path of escape!

"Trivial tricks!" Madara's clone snorted. Forced to raise his arm, he prepared to withstand it with a shield formed from Truth-Seeking Orbs.

But this momentary pause was exactly what Xuan had been waiting for!

"Wood Release: Earth-Binding Root Kill!"

Crash!

The ground beneath Madara's clone exploded without warning. Dozens of thick, resilient wooden roots, like giant serpents come alive, wrapped around his legs with lightning speed. Their immense binding force instantly nailed him in place.

Movement restricted: 0.5 seconds!

For a true powerhouse, those 0.5 seconds were the dividing line between life and death!

Xuan's left Mangekyo spun to its limit. Deep within his pupil, every node of chakra flow inside Madara's clone, every momentary gap, was reflected with absolute clarity.

A mass of black mist, deeper than the night itself, exploded from his right palm. Carrying a terrifying aura that devoured all things, it passed through the gaps between the iron sand and Wood Release and struck directly at his opponent's chest!

At the same time, a cold system prompt rang out in his mind.

"Six Paths-level chakra vessel detected (clone). Energy structure integrity: 71.3%. Contains a high concentration of Yin–Yang Release power and partial Rinnegan origin energy. Initiate high-level devouring?"

There was not the slightest hesitation in Xuan's eyes. Only one word roared in his heart.

"Devour!"

The mass of black mist seemed to come alive, transforming into a greedy giant maw. The instant it touched Madara's clone's chest, it snapped shut!

A frenzied suction force erupted. The vast, ocean-like Yin–Yang chakra within Madara's clone, along with the origin energy belonging to the Rinnegan, was forcibly drawn out like floodwaters released from a dam and poured into Xuan's body!

"What... what kind of power is this?!" For the first time, shock and fury appeared on Madara's clone's face.

He roared, erupting with astonishing chakra in an attempt to break free, but under the dual suppression of the Magnet Release net and Wood Release roots, he had already missed the crucial moment to escape!

The process lasted only three short seconds.

Three seconds later, with an unwilling roar, Madara's clone could no longer maintain his form. He exploded with a bang, turning into a torrent of the purest chakra. The black mist swallowed it all like a whale before it finally vanished completely into the night wind.

"Pfft!"

Xuan spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered back several steps before dropping to one knee.

His body shook violently. Every meridian felt as though it were being scorched by molten lava, and every inch of flesh cried out in agony.

Forcing himself to devour Six Paths-level energy was still far too great a burden for his current body.

Yet as he knelt there, the blood spilling from his lips could not hide the wild smile on his face.

Because a series of system prompts, heavenly music to his ears, was echoing through his mind!

"Devouring successful! Obtained a massive amount of quasi-Six Paths-level chakra!"

"Analyzing target energy composition... Rinnegan origin energy analysis progress: 7.3%... Yin–Yang Release power analysis progress: 11.5%..."

"Congratulations, Host! Unlocked [Bloodline Evolution: Rinnegan Catalyst Path]! When Rinnegan origin energy analysis reaches 100%, Bloodline Evolution may be activated!"

"Current energy reserves have surpassed 1,200 points! Temporary skill unlocked: Six Paths Mode Mimicry (duration: 1 minute). May simulate a portion of Six Paths power in critical situations!"

As the prompts ended, Xuan endured the agonizing pain and slowly raised his head.

He could clearly feel it: deep within his left Mangekyo, an extremely faint yet incomparably noble phantom of a Rinnegan pattern was quietly emerging, flickering in and out of sight.

Just then, that ancient and mysterious voice, seemingly from the depths of the earth, rang in his mind once more without warning:

"...The Child of Light is about to awaken... The seed of darkness has already taken root... Only... the one who devours the light can sever this endless chain of reincarnation..."

Xuan panted heavily. Slowly lifting his head, he gazed at the blood-red moon nearing fullness in the sky and muttered in a hoarse voice filled with boundless ambition, "Madara Uchiha, your clone was still too weak."

Supporting himself on his knee, he slowly rose to his feet.

Residual black mist and chakra curled around him. From the scorched earth beneath his feet, countless grains of iron sand and newly grown wooden roots burst forth. They rapidly intertwined and took shape, ultimately forming a crude yet tyrannical temporary throne behind him.

And a thousand miles away, deep within an unknown shrine, Kaguya Otsutsuki, who had been sealed for a thousand years and should have been lost in eternal slumber, had one of her long eyelashes twitch ever so slightly beyond her control.

Xuan sat upon the throne, his gaze passing over the battlefield's ruins and smoke toward the direction of the Uchiha Clan's former sacred ground—the Naka River Shrine.

There lay the next key to his plan.