I Did Not Kill a Man, I Killed Fate

At the top of the abandoned lighthouse, the salty sea wind poured through the shattered windows, making Xuan's black robe snap loudly.

He sat cross-legged atop an ancient altar covered in cracks, his eyes closed. Yet the entire world replayed silently in his mind with unprecedented clarity.

Behind him, the white crystal embedded in his spine rippled with faint blue waves like those of the deep sea, cold and powerful energy flowing throughout his body.

New function [Combat Experience Compression] activating.

The combat records from his battle with Mei Terumi, the Fifth Mizukage of the Hidden Mist Village, were broken down by the system into hundreds of millions of data frames.

Every frame, every twitch of muscle, every trace of chakra flow was infinitely slowed, analyzed, and reconstructed within Xuan's consciousness.

Like the coldest chess player, he reviewed a match he had already won, searching for even the slightest flaw and every possible improvement.

There were two focal points in the analysis.

First, how the Sharingan's powerful dynamic vision and predictive ability could be perfectly combined with the instantaneous activation of Magnet Release to achieve ambushes that crossed tiers of power.

In the replay, when Mei Terumi formed hand seals to unleash the "Water Dragon Bullet Technique," Xuan's Mangekyō Sharingan had already detected the point where chakra gathered within her body and the path along which it would be released.

At almost the exact same moment, countless grains of iron sand beneath his feet had already completed their reshaping.

The gap between prediction and execution had been compressed beyond the limits of human reaction.

That was the fundamental reason he could interrupt the opponent's ninjutsu with "Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle" and suppress her in turn with lightning speed.

Second, the combat efficiency of [Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye].

During his high-pressure confrontation with a Kage-level expert like Mei Terumi, the invisible force field emitted by his right-eye ocular technique disrupted the enemy's chakra flow by an astonishing seventeen percent.

Though that influence appeared minor, it was lethal in a battle balanced on the line between life and death.

It would create subtle delays in an opponent's hand seals and imperceptibly weaken the power of their ninjutsu.

When masters clashed, the slightest difference could lead to vastly different outcomes.

That seventeen percent disruption was precisely the key to Xuan maintaining the initiative and ultimately devouring her bloodline limit.

As the massive stream of data finished integrating, a series of cold system prompts rang out deep within Xuan's consciousness.

[Analysis complete.]

[Optimizing combat logic...]

[Callable tactical module generated: Combat Module: Aquatic Assault V1.0.]

[Effect: In aquatic or humid environments, the system will automatically optimize casting rhythm, movement paths, and Magnet Release forms according to the enemy's chakra type and strength. Combat efficiency increased by 30%.]

Xuan slowly opened his eyes, and a faint glimmer flashed through his deep pupils.

This was his true foundation. Every battle would become a step toward greater strength.

Not only could he devour his enemies' power, he could also devour their experience and turn it into his own cold, precise killing instinct.

Immediately afterward, he sank his consciousness into his body and summoned the genetic templates of [Lava Release] and [Boil Release], the spoils he had just devoured.

These two powers belonging to Mei Terumi flowed slowly through his meridians like two unruly masses of energy.

However, when Xuan attempted to fuse them with the deeply rooted Uchiha Clan bloodline within him, he encountered intense rejection.

[Warning: The target genetic templates lack complete bloodline limit factors and cannot perfectly fuse with the host bloodline. Forced fusion carries a 93% probability of bloodline collapse.]

Xuan frowned slightly.

He understood that power acquired through devouring was ultimately "secondhand." Without the most fundamental source imprint, it could not fuse all powers into one as a true Kekkei Mōra could.

But he had never intended to walk the exact same path as Kaguya Otsutsuki.

"Since fusion is impossible, I'll take another path," he muttered.

An entirely new idea took shape in his mind.

Since he could not create it from within, he would simulate it from without!

With a thought, Magnet Release chakra surged forth.

A jet-black iron spike rapidly condensed in his palm. But this time, its interior was not solid; it was filled with tiny, densely packed holes like a honeycomb.

Next, he carefully mobilized that corrosive chakra and poured it into those holes like liquid, coating the surface of the iron spike in a thin membrane that gave off an acidic scent.

Magnet Release iron as bone, Lava Release chakra as flesh!

"Go!" Xuan flicked a finger.

The seemingly ordinary iron spike transformed into a streak of black lightning and silently shot toward a massive stone pillar supporting the tower roof in the distance.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft pfft.

The iron spike effortlessly sank into the hard stone.

The next second, a terrifying sight unfolded.

Centered around the point where the spike entered, the pillar's surface rapidly blackened. White smoke rose from it, accompanied by hissing corrosion.

Within only a few breaths, a hole the size of a bowl had been forcibly corroded through it. The stone around the opening continued to melt and drip, as though it had been splashed with the most tyrannical aqua regia.

[Pseudo-skill: Lava-Iron Spike successfully developed.]

A cold curve lifted at the corner of Xuan's mouth.

Though it was not the true [Lava Release: Bone Spike Rain], its single-point penetration and corrosive power surpassed it in some situations.

Just then, an exceptionally faint sound of pebbles rolling came from outside the window, nearly buried beneath the wind.

Xuan's gaze instantly sharpened like a blade. He slowly turned his head toward the source of the sound.

A thin figure was curled up at the edge of the windowsill, drenched from head to toe and trembling violently from fear and cold.

It was the spy who had survived on Pirate Island and received a mental brand from him.

When the spy saw Xuan's gaze sweep over him, he was so frightened that he nearly fell from the tower. Clinging desperately to the window ledge, he shakily pulled something from his robes and held it high. His voice carried a sobbing tone. "M-Milord... this... this was salvaged from a shipwreck hundreds of years old... It... it has the words 'Xuan Gate' written on it."

Xuan's gaze fell upon the object. It was a palm-sized bronze fragment, weathered by seawater and covered in green patina. Yet two characters engraved upon it in an ancient script remained clearly visible—Xuan Gate.

"What else?" Xuan asked without a trace of emotion, as if he were merely asking about something insignificant.

Oppressed by his icy presence until he could barely breathe, the spy hurriedly added, "The old people on the island said... said that far, far out in the southern sea, there is an uncharted island. On it... there is a temple. It does not worship gods or Buddhas, but... but a closed eye!"

Xuan extended his hand. As though tugged by an invisible thread, the bronze fragment drifted lightly into his palm.

It felt ice-cold, carrying with it the weight of countless years.

The strange vertical-patterned Mangekyō Sharingan in his right eye turned slightly, and the invisible force field of [Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye] instantly enveloped the spy.

In his perception, the spy's heartbeat thundered like a drum and his adrenaline surged sharply. These were normal physiological reactions to extreme fear; there was no fluctuation of deceit.

The memories in his mind concerning the shipwreck and the temple legend were also clear and coherent, showing no signs of being altered or implanted.

However, what truly made Xuan's pupils contract was what he discovered within the bronze fragment.

Beneath the layers of patina lingered a faint yet incomparably familiar soul aura.

That aura was almost of the same origin as the lingering souls of Uchiha Clan ancestors he had sensed among the stone tablets beneath Naka River Shrine in the Hidden Leaf Village!

A thought buried deep in his memories exploded through his mind like thunder.

He suddenly understood.

That so-called temple enshrining a "closed eye" might not have been a temple at all. It might have been another sealed site of "Xuan," or perhaps an important fragment lost somewhere in this world when his soul had split apart!

Seeing Xuan remain silent for so long, the spy assumed that what he had offered was not enough to satisfy this demon god. His face went pale, and he prepared himself to be casually erased.

Yet Xuan neither rewarded nor killed him.

He merely put away the bronze fragment and spoke blandly, though his voice carried unquestionable authority. "Inform the entire intelligence network. Spread the news immediately—'A suspected relic of the Uchiha Clan Progenitor has appeared along the border of the Fire Country.'"

The spy froze completely. He raised his head in shock and stammered, "M-Milord... but didn't you just fight the Mizukage? The Hidden Mist Village must be frantically searching for you now. Shouldn't we... shouldn't we hide our tracks immediately?"

Xuan slowly rose to his feet and walked to the window, looking down at the dark, turbulent sea below.

He let out a faint, cold laugh, filled with absolute confidence and contempt. "I want them to come looking for me. Hidden Leaf Village, Hidden Mist Village, Hidden Stone Village... and all those rats hiding in the shadows. Let them all come."

He turned around. His scarlet Mangekyō glowed in the darkness like two ghostly lamps that guided souls to the underworld.

"True power never needs to hide," he said, his voice seeming to rise from the depths of hell. "It only needs... enough sacrifices."

That night, soaring flames completely consumed the lonely abandoned lighthouse.

Amid the ashes left behind by the raging inferno, an enormous rune was branded upon the ground—a savage vertical eye opened wide, and beneath its pupil was the character "Xuan," written with vigorous strokes and an endless ancient aura.

Three days later, this intelligence, laced with sensitive words such as "Progenitor" and "relic," seemed to grow wings as it was delivered directly to the desks of the upper ranks of the major ninja village alliance.

Inside the Mizukage's office in the Hidden Mist Village, Mei Terumi looked at the encrypted scroll in her hand. The fingers of the hand that had only recently healed after being pierced by iron sand trembled uncontrollably.

"Progenitor?" she murmured. Her beautiful face was filled with gravity and confusion. "But in the history of the Uchiha Clan, from Madara back to even more ancient times, this name has never appeared... Unless he is an existence deliberately erased by the entire ninja world."

At the same time, beneath the distant deep sea absent from all maps of the ninja world, a magnificent palace entirely covered in giant coral and strange seaweed suddenly gave off a heavy tremor.

Dust that had accumulated for a thousand years sifted down. At the center of the grand hall, a complex pattern slowly glowed atop a massive stone coffin carved from unknown black rock—the pattern was exactly identical to the Mangekyō in Xuan's right eye.

Over the southern sea, the once-clear sky became covered with dark clouds within minutes. The sea wind suddenly turned violent, brewing an extraordinary storm.

Ink-black clouds hung low, nearly touching the surging black waves, and the air was filled with suffocating oppression.