Only a Blind Man Would Believe the Ancestors Wouldn't Make a Move

Pain!

A tearing pain exploded from deep within his right eye socket, as if a red-hot branding iron were violently stirring his optic nerve.

Xuan knelt on one knee, blood mixed with some scalding liquid streaming endlessly down his cheek.

The altar trembled more and more violently, as if cheering for the birth of some ancient existence, yet also groaning in terror beneath its pressure.

Yet amid this extreme agony, his vision reached an unprecedented clarity.

The world split in two.

The Mangekyō Sharingan in his left eye still faithfully reflected the movements of the material world. The path of every mote of dust in the air, every minute twitch of Kato Masumi's muscles, even the next crack that would form in the altar's stone slabs from energy overload—all were reflected in his mind with absolute clarity, forming a perfectly precise map of the future.

But his right eye—that crimson pupil spinning in reverse—saw an entirely different sight: a world of souls woven from countless threads of light, some bright and some dim, some thick and some thin.

He saw the bone needle piercing through Kato Masumi's spine. Its true nature was not some chakra construct at all.

It... was alive!

It was a life-form carefully cultivated from living White Zetsu Mother tissue, coiled around the core of Kato Masumi's soul like a parasite.

What made his scalp go numb was that the very end of the bone needle extended a nearly invisible energy filament. It pierced through the altar, through the rock strata, all the way to the unfathomable depths of the earth, where it secretly connected to some vast network of consciousness.

And that was not all.

A deeper will quietly surfaced within his mindscape.

The Stele Forest Remnant Souls devoured by his Myriad Phenomena Devouring System had not completely dissipated as he had assumed. Instead, they had become the purest nourishment and were now gathering around him once more, forming the blurry figure of an old man.

The Stele Spirit Elder!

"You are not a vessel... you are an inheritor."

An ancient, weary voice rang directly in the depths of his soul. It carried no emotion, yet held unquestionable authority.

"This body, including everything you have awakened, was originally the Reboot Vessel prepared for you."

Xuan's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints.

A Reboot Vessel?

An inheritor?

What exactly did that mean?

Countless questions instantly filled his mind, but his enemy clearly would not give him time to think.

"No matter what you saw, go to hell!" A crazed resolve appeared on Kato Masumi's face. He clasped his hands together, squeezing out every last bit of life force and soul power in his body and pouring it into the final soul chain stretched above Xuan's head.

"Soul Return to Rebirth: Chain-Breaking Slash!"

Bzzzt—!

The air let out a strained wail.

The soul chain instantly dissolved and reassembled into an enormous blade gleaming with chilling silver light. It made not the slightest sound as it cleaved through the air, yet it carried a terrifying aura capable of severing causality and stripping away reincarnation as it slashed straight toward Xuan's crown!

This strike did not cut the flesh, but the very foundation of existence!

If it landed, his soul would be permanently torn from this body and turned into an unconscious wandering spirit, drifting through the world forever.

At that critical moment, the shadow of death descended!

Xuan suddenly raised his head. The crimson pinwheel pattern in his bleeding right eye accelerated violently, reaching an inconceivable frequency!

An invisible and utterly terrifying ripple, undetectable to the naked eye, erupted from his right pupil!

Eye Art: Soul-Devouring Ripple!

The instant the ripple swept across the altar, time seemed to have been paused.

The thirty Impure World Reincarnation ninjas who had been attacking him turned into weathered sand sculptures, exploding into dust that filled the sky within a second!

Even stranger, the chakra threads connecting their souls to their bodies did not snap. Instead, as if sucked in by a giant whale drawing water, they and their muddled souls transformed into thirty streams of light that swept back like stalks of wheat, all of them sucked into Xuan's tiny right pupil!

The altar was instantly cleared!

"N-No way!" The madness froze on Kato Masumi's face, replaced by a fear rooted deep in his bloodline. "This kind of eye power that directly devours souls for its own use... it is forbidden! It is a forbidden eye power that only the first Uchiha Clan chief ever accidentally used once when driven into a corner! How could you possibly..."

Xuan slowly rose to his feet, allowing the blood from his right eye to stain half his face red, making him look like an asura returned from hell.

His scarlet eyes locked tightly onto the terrified Kato Masumi, his voice hoarse and cold.

"I am not one of them... I am the one who came after."

Before his words had even faded, he stopped defending passively! In an instant, offense and defense reversed!

His left eye predicted every stiff movement Kato Masumi made out of fear, while his right eye pierced through the surface of his soul and firmly locked onto the origin of that White Zetsu bone needle.

His two eyes worked in concert as new power surged through his body!

Myriad Phenomena Devouring: Chain Attraction!

The black mist system coiled behind him responded. No longer devouring chaotically, it condensed into two savage giant pythons.

One shot out like lightning, opening its jaws toward Kato Masumi's neck to restrain his body. The other was even more sinister, slithering close to the ground around behind him before driving its pointed head viciously toward the exposed end of the bone needle!

When the black mist touched that writhing piece of White Zetsu tissue, the system's cold prompt sounded in Xuan's mind.

Detected active Primordial Wood Release cells containing immense life energy and partial genetic information from the First Hokage. Simultaneously devour?

"Devour it!" Xuan did not hesitate in the slightest.

In an instant, a gentle life force completely unlike the black mist's devouring power surged upstream through the black mist python and flooded into his meridians!

The wounds he had received while being besieged by the Impure World Reincarnation ninjas healed at a visible rate. Even the tearing agony in his right eye was greatly eased.

His physical recovery speed instantly increased more than threefold!

"Ahhh—! Stop!" Kato Masumi let out an inhuman scream. He struggled desperately, his eyes filled with a fear deeper than death itself. "You don't understand! You don't understand at all! That thing... that thing will contaminate your bloodline! It will destroy you!"

But it was already too late.

The black mist python controlled by Xuan's left hand suddenly tightened, completely suppressing Kato Masumi's body, while his right hand shot out like lightning and seized the faintly trembling bone needle!

Crack!

The bone needle shattered at once.

At the same time, Xuan's right hand formed a claw and pressed tightly against Kato Masumi's skull. The black mist system inside him ran at full power and surged in wildly!

Devouring complete. Obtained "Impure World Reincarnation Control Knowledge" +1.

Extracting Soul Return to Rebirth Formation: Incomplete Model. Beginning reverse analysis... Analysis successful. Obtained the basic pathway of "Soul Code Reassembly."

Xuan lowered his head and looked at the tiny fragments of white tissue remaining in his palm. They were still instinctively wriggling, trying to invade his skin.

He snorted coldly. The black mist surged forth and completely broke them down and absorbed them.

"Contamination? No. This is nourishment for evolution."

Deep in his mindscape, the Stele Spirit Elder's figure became somewhat clearer after this massive infusion of soul energy.

He seemed to nod in satisfaction, then raised his illusory arm and pointed toward Xuan's spine.

"Look at your back."

With a thought from Xuan, the system interface appeared before his eyes.

To his shock, the mass of black mist energy that had once merely floated in his mindscape had now settled into his body and physically fused with it!

Following his spinal nerves, it had transformed into a translucent structure, crystalline like bone jade, embedded within his vertebrae.

Faint streams of dark-blue light flowed slowly inside this unusual "bone," while three ancient grooves were clearly engraved on its surface.

[System Notification: The Myriad Phenomena Devouring System has entered Phase II. A physical anchor has been generated.]

[Three-template parallel storage function unlocked.]

[Currently available slots: ① Bloodline Limit ② Soul-Type ③ Non-Chakra Energy Entity]

Xuan instinctively reached back and touched himself. His fingertips felt the same solid texture as ordinary bone, yet a continuous stream of power was slowly nourishing his entire body from that newly formed "divine bone."

He slowly exhaled a breath of foul air. The last trace of confusion in his eyes was replaced by absolute calm and ambition.

"Now... it's my turn to dig up other people's secrets."

The altar finally fell into deathly silence.

Only Xuan remained, sitting cross-legged at the center of the former formation.

He slowly closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into his body as he began sorting through the immense amount of information and power he had gained in just a few minutes.

And along his back, unnoticed even by him, that newly formed crystalline bone began to grow faintly warm as his thoughts settled into stillness.