The One Crawling Out of the Grave Is the True Ancestor

The searing sensation did not come from boiling chakra, but from a tremor originating in the very source of life, as though genetic codes that had slept for hundreds of millions of years were being awakened.

Xuan's consciousness sank into his body, and he clearly "saw" the newly formed crystalline vertebra. It was no longer merely bone, but more like a miniature energy core, resonating with some mark deep within his soul.

He did not panic. Instead, he followed that guidance and directed his thoughts into the system interface.

The newly unlocked section, emanating an eerie aura—[Soul Template]—floated silently there.

Within it, gray mist formed from countless tiny motes of light slowly swirled. It was the collective of the Stele Forest Remnant Souls.

The moment he looked at it, the old and illusory figure of the stele spirit elder emerged from the mist. His voice carried the weight of ages past as it rang directly in Xuan's mind. "We have sensed it... the call of 'Beginning.' Child, do you wish to know who you are? Do you wish to know the true origin of these eyes? Then... enter our memories and accept this inheritance."

"Enter your memories?" Xuan murmured inwardly, without the slightest hesitation.

He was not a sheep waiting to be passively led. He was a hungry wolf actively hunting.

"System, initiate reverse analysis. Target the Stele Forest Remnant Soul collective and extract its core information!"

Following his cold command, a stream of dark blue data instantly shot into the gray mist of the [Soul Template]!

Bzzzz—!

Xuan's brain seemed to have been thrown into a furnace. Countless fragmented images, sounds, and emotions surged into his sea of consciousness like a roaring flood bursting through a dam!

This was not mere observation. It was an immersive experience!

He saw a primitive age of slash-and-burn farming, with two suns hanging in the sky. Giant beasts roamed the earth, while humans were like ants.

He saw the Progenitor of chakra descend, the Divine Tree take root in the earth, and drain the life from the planet.

He saw countless tribes possessing primordial bloodlines wage the most savage and bloody wars for survival and faith.

The scenes whirled past before finally freezing atop an enormous volcano that spewed the fires of the earth's core all year round.

A ragged one-eyed youth stood silently at the edge of the rolling lava.

His left eye was an empty socket marked by a hideous scar, while three tomoe slowly revolved in his right eye, radiating a deathly stillness.

At his feet lay another youth with an identical face, but he had long since stopped breathing. A massive bloody hole in his chest was horrifying to behold.

They were twin brothers, the most powerful Uchiha Clan descendants of that era, and the first to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Yet they were also the first to taste the curse of that power—their ocular power had been overused, and light was irreversibly fading into darkness.

"Brother..." the one-eyed youth muttered, his voice as hoarse as if it had been scraped by sandpaper. "Rather than letting us both fall into darkness, I might as well... let you become my eternal light!"

As he spoke, he actually reached out with both hands and forcibly dug his dead brother's Mangekyō Sharingan—also weeping tears of blood—from his eye sockets!

Then, he performed an act that made every watching remnant soul tremble.

He gripped his brother's eyes and his own right eye tightly in his palms, then leapt into the volcano's crater, which could melt all things, using his entire body as an offering along with the three eyes!

"With my blood as the guide and my soul as the furnace, I shall fuse the eyes of twins and forge eternal light!"

At the final moment before his life and soul were devoured by the flames, he unleashed a roar that shook heaven and earth.

Within the lava, the three Mangekyō Sharingan were miraculously not destroyed. Instead, tempered by the fire of his soul, they began to melt and reform, finally condensing into an entirely new eye!

The pattern of that eye had never appeared in history.

It was intricate and mysterious, as though it contained the ultimate truth of the universe's birth and destruction.

The instant it formed, the volcano fell silent and heaven and earth lost their color.

The torrent of memories came to an abrupt halt. Every image dissolved into nothingness, leaving only a broken stone stele inscribed with an ancient maxim:

"Xuan means beginning."

Xuan suddenly opened his eyes, and the altar's stone chamber in the real world rapidly came into focus.

His left eye remained a deep three-tomoe Sharingan, while the Mangekyō Sharingan in his right eye—the one he had taken from Uchiha Setsuna—strangely rotated once on its own, without anyone activating it!

Hiss, hiss...

A faint suction force, almost impossible to detect, was released from his right eye.

Several specks of crushed stone on the ground around the altar rose slowly as though drawn by invisible threads, defying all physical laws as they automatically flew toward the depths of his pupil.

Xuan's heart gave a violent jolt!

He understood instantly.

This was not some simple genjutsu or physical attack. It was a gravitational field originating from the soul!

Rooted in the soul, as long as a target experienced intense emotional fluctuations or leaked even the slightest trace of chakra, they would be indiscriminately caught and drawn in by this force, creating the absolute precondition for the final "devouring"!

The so-called "eternity" was not undying, indestructible light. It was the Sharingan breaking through the limits of its bloodline by devouring and merging with a brother's soul and ocular power, evolving to an entirely new level of life!

This was the true beginning of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—a bloody and cruel truth!

Madara Uchiha's later act of transplanting his biological brother's eyes to gain eternal light was nothing more than the crudest imitation he had managed to discover.

"So... that's how it is." Xuan muttered, a cold curve rising at the corner of his mouth.

He finally understood why his system could devour everything.

Because the origin of his soul, his "Xuan," was the beginning of devouring!

He wanted to test the limits of this power!

With a thought, he slammed his palm against the cold surface of the altar.

A map of the underground structure instantly unfolded across the system interface, and a faint energy signal flickered deep beneath the earth.

"System, lock onto the remaining White Zetsu Mother branch below. Guide its energy and extract it!"

That thing was a "Divine Tree Cancer Cell" left behind after the Fourth Shinobi World War. Buried deep underground, it clung on like a parasite lodged in bone.

If an ordinary shinobi touched even the smallest trace of it, their chakra would immediately be drained dry and they would be assimilated into a new White Zetsu.

It was one of the purest and most primordial collections of life energy!

The command was issued. A strand of black mist deeper than night spilled from Xuan's palm. Like a venomous serpent with a life of its own, it instantly seeped through the thick rock layers and precisely coiled around the wriggling White Zetsu Mother branch, as thick as a baby's arm.

The White Zetsu branch seemed to sense the arrival of its natural enemy. It convulsed violently and attempted to absorb the black mist in return.

However, at that moment, the pupil of Xuan's right Mangekyō suddenly contracted to its limit!

An invisible vacuum vortex explosively formed around his right eye!

The soul-born gravitational field was pushed to its utmost limit at that instant, locking firmly onto the White Zetsu Mother fragment through nearly a hundred meters of rock!

"Get... over here!"

Xuan growled, a streak of bloody tears flowing from his right eye.

Deep underground, the White Zetsu Mother fragment let out a silent shriek. Its connection to the massive root system was forcibly ripped apart and severed by an irresistible brute force!

Then it transformed into a streak of white light, ignoring every physical obstacle as it was forcibly dragged from underground by the soul vortex and instantly sucked into Xuan's right eye!

[Successfully devoured a life fragment of 'Primordial Wood Release.' Analyzing...]

[Analysis complete! New template generated—[Basic Cell Regeneration Template]!]

[Template Effect: Can accelerate limb recovery to a limited extent. Regeneration speed and completeness depend on the life force consumed.]

It worked!

Suppressing the agonizing pain in his right eye, Xuan immediately gave the command. "Fuse [Basic Cell Regeneration Template]!"

He needed to immediately repair the right arm that had been severed during his battle with Uchiha Setsuna!

The instant the thought arose, a scarlet warning appeared on the system interface:

[Warning: This template is a life-force-burning template. Continued use will greatly consume the host's life essence.

A compatible evolution path, [Bloodline Evolution], has been detected. Recommended for combined use.]

[Highly active soul fuel detected—'Stele Forest Remnant Soul Collective.' Use it as a one-time catalyst to forcibly complete template fusion and arm regeneration?]

Use the remnant souls of those Uchiha ancestors as fuel?

There was not the slightest hesitation in Xuan's eyes. They were as cold as ice that had endured ten thousand years.

"Yes!"

In an instant, the gray mist within the [Soul Template] section churned violently. The illusory figure of the stele spirit elder trembled sharply, his entire outline dimming by a third like a candle flame in the wind.

At the same time, a vast and pure surge of life energy burst forth from the depths of the system like a river breaching its banks, instantly flooding every part of Xuan's body!

An unbearable itch and searing pain erupted from the stump of his right arm, which had been severed at the shoulder!

Visible to the naked eye, dark red muscle fibers began to proliferate wildly, intertwining and knotting together!

Pale white bone extended from the break at a speed that defied reason, while tendons and blood vessels rapidly climbed over it like vines!

Skin tissue swiftly covered it...

This process was faster than Tsunade's Creation Rebirth and more domineering than any medical ninjutsu!

In barely a dozen breaths, a brand-new arm had taken shape.

Xuan slowly raised his right hand and clenched his five fingers into a fist, feeling the power that had been restored to him.

He lowered his head and discovered in surprise that a faint layer of woody patterns, like the growth rings of a tree, had appeared upon the skin of his new arm!

This was the earliest and most direct sign of an initial fusion between Wood Release cells and the Uchiha bloodline!

"You... have gone farther than any of us expected..." the stele spirit elder's weak voice rang out again, carrying shock, fear, and a trace of... relief. "But they... will not let you live. That woman... Kaguya, her will still remembers your aura. That descendant... Madara, your shadow has always lingered within his dreams. Even the seals left behind by the Sage of Six Paths have set a separate lock for the character 'Xuan'!"

Xuan slowly rose to his feet and moved his new arm, feeling the unceasing power coursing through his body. A ruthless smile appeared on his face.

"Then let them all come."

He raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through layer upon layer of rock to see the war-torn sky outside.

The Mangekyō in his right eye slowly closed, returning to the form of a three-tomoe Sharingan.

"I did not come to inherit anyone's past," he said softly, as though speaking to the old man and declaring it to himself. "I came to... rewrite history."

With those words, he did not linger any longer.

Before leaving, he walked to the center of the altar and extended a finger, using his own chakra as ink to carve a new rune—an intricate mark woven from the black mist representing the system, the iron sand representing Magnet Release, and the woody patterns representing new life.

It was both a declaration and a coordinate.

After doing all this, he suddenly formed hand seals!

"[Magnet Release: Sand Iron Torrential Flow]!"

Rumble—!

The iron sand that had long been planted throughout the passageways detonated at once. Amid an earth-shattering boom, the entire underground altar and the only passage leading outside completely collapsed, buried beneath billions of tons of rock and soil.

And beneath the buried altar ruins, a hundred meters underground, the remaining root of the White Zetsu Mother that Xuan had torn apart but not completely devoured twitched slightly in the darkness.

A nearly imperceptible yet incomparably pure green fluorescence quietly seeped from its severed end. Following the underground waterways like a wandering ghost seeking a host, it silently flowed toward the central battlefield of the distant shinobi war.

A new variable had quietly begun to sprout in the darkness, unknown to all.