Throne of Heaven, core control room.
"The target has been confirmed, 720 nautical miles east of Land of Water, the isolated island number is 'B-7'. The life signal disappeared, and the high-intensity heat source reaction lasted for three minutes and then annihilated."
Chiyo Saori's cold voice sounded in the quiet control room. She stood in front of the huge light curtain, and the data flow in her eyes was faster than the calculations of any puppet core.
In just a few minutes, she intercepted this encrypted information from the Land of Water patrol team from the remaining communication channel of Allied Shinobi Forces.
"A fisherman who burned his boat and committed suicide..." She murmured to herself, and then called up the real-time energy fluctuation records of the twelve Fire Altar.
On the light screen, the twelve energy pillars representing the altar steadily output a faint light, but when Chiyo Saori traced the timeline back to last night, one of the energy pillars representing the leyline node in the direction of Land of Water suddenly erupted into a dazzling spike.
"Spontaneous combustion without instructions."
Her pupils contracted slightly, and her fingertips passed across the light screen to adjust the detailed parameters.
"The duration is seven seconds, and the peak intensity... is equivalent to 30% of the intensity when you activate 'Fire-Forged Fate Stele'."
A chill seemed particularly clear even to this puppet queen who had stripped away most of her emotions.
This is not a simple energy leakage, nor is it an operating error of Law Network.
At that moment, without any instructions from Uchiha Xuan, the "concept of fire" that he injected into the earth's veins seemed to have its own consciousness and burned briefly and violently.
Chiyo Saori closed the light curtain and stared into the deep darkness ahead, the spiritual link reaching directly into the depths of Uchiha Xuan's consciousness.
"The fire started by itself."
There are no unnecessary embellishments, just the most straightforward conclusion.
At this moment, Uchiha Xuan is sitting cross-legged in an ocean of consciousness composed of billions of light filaments.
Every fiber of light is connected to a dreaming soul.
He was like a king at the center of a spider web, overlooking the nightmare empire he had spun with his own hands.
However, he had already noticed something was wrong.
In his perception, thousands of dream threads that should be accurately controlled by him are undergoing strange distortions.
The black stone tablets that he had shaped in his dream, symbolizing absolute rule, no longer stood still in the wasteland.
Some of them are moving slowly, crossing mountains and rivers; some even rise from the ground and begin to "summon" the owner of the dream in an unknown direction.
What's even weirder is that some adapters who have a weak connection with his bloodline have the Fire Seal in their bodies activated in advance under the stimulation of dreams, and spontaneously develop an almost fanatical impulse to worship the word "Xuanlin".
This kind of worship does not originate from fear or surrender, but an instinctive desire from the depths of the soul to integrate oneself into the flame.
[Warning: Reverse erosion of spiritual imprints.]
[It has been detected that the conceptual power 'Divine Erosion Flame' is spontaneously gathering faith and trying to generate independent will.]
[The weight of the host consciousness towards 'Law Network' is being diluted...]
Cold system notifications sounded one after another in the sea of consciousness, announcing that the power he had released personally was trying to backfire on its owner.
This beast that he released from its cage, after devouring enough fear and despair, not only was it unsatisfied, but it also developed the ambition to become a god.
There was no trace of shock or anger on Uchiha Xuan's face, but instead a sneer of utmost indifference.
"Fire wants to be a god?"
His voice echoed in the sea of his consciousness, with a hint of mockery.
"Then let's see how a real god is refined."
The moment he finished speaking, his closed eyes suddenly opened!
Buzz--!
A circle of indescribable purple ripples spread out from the center of his eyebrows, and nine Tomoe Rinne Sharingan were reflected in the void, like an ominous moon overlooking all living beings!
"Break."
One word, said in the same way.
In "Law Network" spread throughout Shinobi World, all the fragments of consciousness belonging to Uchiha Xuan, those wills that invaded other people's dreams like viruses, were cut off and recalled at this moment!
The entire nightmare empire lost its "king" in an instant.
Those moving stone tablets and those flaming figures calling themselves "Xuan's Apostles" all lost their guidance at the same time and became chaotic and violent.
However, this is just the beginning.
Uchiha Xuan recalls all fragments of consciousness, not for evasion, but for an unprecedented "reconstruction".
He poured all these fragments, together with his huge soul power, into the Rinne Sharingan between his eyebrows.
This time, he is no longer "guiding" the dream outwards.
Instead, it injects a "categorical imperative" in reverse, an ultimate law for the concept of "dream" itself!
"Everyone who sees the monument has only one thought:"
His oracle-like voice penetrated the boundary between reality and illusion, and directly carved a new definition on the level of law.
"Surrender, or perish."
That night, the dreams of all survivors around the world changed drastically!
All those who had dreamed of the black stone monument, without exception, were dragged into that place of despair again.
But the scene in front of me was completely different.
The wasteland disappeared, and so did the bloody sky.
Instead, there is an endless, dead void from which not even light can escape.
The huge black stone tablet was suspended quietly in the center of the void.
In front of the monument, the dark golden flaming figure still had his back to everyone, but his whole body was tightly entangled with countless chain-like black flames, as if suppressing some kind of terror that could destroy everything.
Depressing, dead, and suffocating.
This time, people in the dream found that they could move.
A resolute Jonin suppressed the fear in his heart and tried to analyze this strange situation.
However, the moment he thought of resistance -
Click!
The black stone tablet in front of him was suddenly covered with cracks, and then collapsed!
Billions of locusts the size of fists, with dark golden flames burning all over their bodies, surged out from the cracked stone tablet overwhelmingly, with soul-gnawing screams, and instantly drowned him!
"Ahhhhhh--!"
The cruel howl did not come from his throat, but exploded directly in the origin of his soul.
It was a kind of pain that was billions of times more terrifying than any torture, the pain of being eaten alive.
In stark contrast, there is a young man whose will has been blunted in the previous nightmare.
When he saw this scene, he instinctively fell to his knees, his body trembling violently with fear, and he uncontrollably whispered the name that had been engraved into his soul.
"Xuan... Lin..."
The moment he said the name, the black chain around the flaming figure with its back to him made a soft "clatter" sound, as if it had loosened a little.
The terrifying scene in front of the young man receded like a tide, and a warm current as warm as jade came from his forehead, healing all the wounds in his soul.
The next second, he suddenly woke up and found himself lying on the bed safe and sound. The Fire Seal that had just been branded on his forehead was exuding a faint warmth. The originally thin chakra in his body became active at an unprecedented speed, and his affinity quietly increased a lot.
This night became an indelible watershed in the history of Shinobi World.
Or, in the dream, he is eaten by endless Flame Locusts until his soul collapses, and in reality he becomes an empty shell that has lost his soul.
Or, kneel down, say that name, wake up, and gain strength.
There is no third option.
"Report."
Within Throne of Heaven, Chiyo Saori's voice sounded again. This time, even she could not conceal the trace of emotion in her tone.
"After you promulgated the 'new law', within twelve hours, the number of registered Flame Seal Order increased fourfold. Among them, 92% of the registered individuals took the initiative to swear an oath, and the stability of the mental link was rated 'extremely high'."
The will of Uchiha Xuan, in the most arrogant and unreasonable way, crushed the ambition of "Fire" and completely domesticated it into a shepherd dog that harvested loyalty and faith.
"But," Chiyo Saori changed the subject, and a set of unusually bright red data popped up on the light screen, "I noticed a set of abnormal signals."
Her finger pointed at a coordinate point Land of Wind deep in the desert on the map.
"Coordinates 'Sha-3', a Hyuga Main Family experimental puppet sealed by our clan a hundred years ago. Without anyone triggering it, the Byakugan energy core in its body suddenly activated three hours ago, and its eyes ignited with faint blue flames."
"What's more important is that at the moment it was activated, a short-lived resonance lasted for 0.3 seconds in the leyline Fire Seal in the area where it was located."
Chiyo Saori raised his head and looked into the darkness.
"Something... is imitating your rules."
In the core room, Uchiha Xuan slowly opened his eyes. Those pupils with golden flames were as calm as a bottomless cold pool.
He opened his palm, and a white sphere composed of the ashes of Kaguya was compressed and silently shattered and floated away in his palm.
"Not an imitation..."
He spoke calmly, with no emotion in his voice.
"It's a response."
"After I devoured Kaguya, I buried several 'temple foundations' in Valley of the End, the moon, and several Dragon Vein nodes. Now it seems that they have begun to spontaneously absorb the energy spilled from Flame-Seal Network."
He didn't finish his words.
On the light screen in front of Chiyo Saori, the surveillance puppet from the border of Land of Wind suddenly sent back an extremely abnormal picture!
I saw the end of the distant sky, right above the desert where the Hyūga Clan puppet was activated, a cold flame pillar that was completely blue and completely different from Divine Erosion Flame, rising into the sky without warning, tearing through the night and penetrating the sky!
The cold blue flame did not dissipate after it reached its highest point. Instead, it slowly spread to both sides, slowly outlining a huge outline in the dark night sky with an ancient and solemn gesture.
That is an ancient Uchiha Clan Crest that has long been forgotten in the dust of history.