That ancient and sharp call echoed in Xuan's mind for a moment, and then receded like a tide, leaving behind an ever-deeper dead silence.
He led the Root elite and sneaked down the steep spiral staircase.
There are no torches here, and the only source of light comes from the things embedded in the rock wall - hundreds of Sharingan that have completely dried up and lost their luster.
These eyeballs are not placed randomly, but are arranged in some weird spiral spell array, extending from the entrance of the cave into the bottomless darkness.
They seem to be countless pairs of eyes nailed here, silently watching every creature that steps into this place.
With every step he took, the faint whispers in the air became clearer, like countless dead souls whispering in his ears, or like the subtle screams of chakra flowing through these dry eyeballs.
Root Tongue, a ninja who was proficient in perception and interrogation, was walking beside Xuan. His body suddenly stiffened for a moment.
There was a meaningless gurgling sound in his throat, and the pupils of his eyes suddenly shrank. Then, a mechanical and emotionless voice that was completely not his own came out of his mouth. "... The seventh batch of materials has been put into storage... The pupil power purity test has passed the standard...'His' life can continue for another thirty years..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Root Tongue trembled suddenly and coughed violently, as if he wanted to cough something out of his lungs.
He looked at Xuan in horror, not understanding what he just said.
Xuan's eyes turned cold as frost in an instant.
Materials? Storage?
He glanced at the densely packed eyeballs on the wall, and a terrible suspicion formed in his mind.
These Sharingan, which were regarded as honors and curses by the Uchiha Clan, are here just treated as some kind of consumables, some kind of... energy pool that can extend the lives of others!
They are not only trophies or collectibles, but also the fuel to maintain the life of a certain "fake Madara Uchiha".
"Keep going." Xuan's voice was without a trace of ripples, but Baba Tesshin and Saori behind him could feel the overwhelming anger suppressed under the calm.
At the end of the passage, it suddenly becomes clear.
A huge underground cavity appeared in front of everyone.
There are no walls here, instead there is an altar made of countless broken eyeballs mixed with some kind of black gel.
The altar exudes a strong aura of blood and resentment, and in the center of the altar, a huge black crystal with a diameter of more than one meter is quietly suspended.
Inside the crystal, there is a huge Three-Tomoe Sharingan sealed. The eye has no eyelids and only blinks mechanically and endlessly. Each blink causes a weak pulse in the energy of the entire space.
"Captain, this is..." Saori Hand Seals quickly pressed his hands on the ground, and a light blue perception barrier spread out with her as the center.
After a few seconds, she raised her head solemnly. "The energy fluctuations are very similar to Lord Orochimaru's previous cell activity experiment, but... it is mixed with some kind of spiritual co-channel technology that I have never seen before. It is like a signal receiving tower, continuously receiving simultaneously... the last remnants of consciousness of all Shinobi World's dying Uchiha Clan people!"
Xuan let out a cold laugh, which sounded particularly harsh in this dead space, "So, you don't even plan to let the dead go. Not only do you want to take away their eyes, but you also want to drain their last vestige of obsession before death?"
These words are not only addressed to the enemies who may exist behind the scenes, but also question the disgusting crime itself.
"You bastard!" Baba Tesshin, who had the most violent personality, roared angrily, unable to stand this kind of desecration of the bones of his own race any longer.
He rushed forward suddenly, the sword in his hand was wrapped in sharp chakra, and he struck straight at the suspended crystal.
However, the moment the blade was about to touch the crystal, an invisible force field suddenly bounced away!
Baba Tesshin felt an overwhelming force hit his chest, and his whole body flew backwards like a kite with its string cut off, hitting the rock wall hard, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"Don't be impulsive." Xuan raised his hand to stop others who wanted to step forward. His eyes were fixed on the energy patterns flowing around the crystal, "This is the 'Blood Succession Seal Thousand Eyes Prison'. The core of this seal is not the crystal itself, but connected to all the eyeballs here. Any attempt to forcefully break it will instantly detonate hundreds of resentment chakras accumulated in Sharingan for hundreds of years. By then, we will all be torn into pieces by this force."
He slowly closed his eyes, no longer observing with his naked eyes, but sinking all his mind into his own system.
After devouring Flying Thunder God Technique, his understanding of the laws of space has changed dramatically.
At this moment, he cleverly combined the fragments of space laws he had realized with his unique [Void Devouring and Returning to Ruins] ability, and began to simulate an unprecedented state around his body.
"System Calculation... Phase Quiet State... activated."
In an instant, Xuan's aura, Chakra, and even the sense of physical existence were briefly "erased" from this coordinate of reality.
He is standing here, but the seal of Thousand Eyes Prison cannot sense his existence at all, as if he is just a non-existent ghost.
That's it now!
Xuan suddenly opened his eyes, the Mangekyō Sharingan pattern in his right eye rotated wildly, and the center of the Uzumaki Clan seemed to turn into a black hole that swallowed everything.
[Myriad Phenomena Devouring System]'s deep mode - information plundering, launched with a bang!
His target was not the indestructible crystal, but the reverse invasion of the long-dried eyeballs connected to the seal!
What he wants is not destruction, but the truth!
In an instant, like a torrent bursting from a dam, a large number of broken, chaotic memory fragments, full of pain and unwillingness, poured into Xuan's mind crazily along invisible links!
A black and white picture flashed by, it was the funeral of Madara Uchiha, with countless mournful faces of the clan members.
In the dark underground cave, half of Obito's body was crushed, and he was dragged out from under the boulder by a pair of old hands.
Under the high tower of Amegakure, in a secret operation performed under the shadowless lamp, Rinnegan of Nagato was quietly transplanted.
Scene after scene, pile after pile, are all shocking secrets hidden in the shadow of Shinobi World history!
And the clearest and most critical scene is frozen in an even older secret room.
An old man wearing a white guard robe with a wrinkled face held a living Sharingan in his hand and carefully implanted it into the eye socket of a faceless white corpse lying on a stone platform.
With his eyes perfectly embedded, the old man whispered in an almost whispering tone with a hint of fanaticism and awe:
"From now on, you are...Madara Uchiha."
The truth is revealed to the world!
The moment Xuan captured this most core secret, the entire underground space shook violently!
The altar made an overwhelming hum, and the huge Sharingan sealed in the crystal suddenly stopped blinking and stared in Xuan's direction!
An old, cold, emotionless voice seemed to span time and space and sounded directly in the depths of everyone's soul:
"Trespasser... you have touched the 'principle of eternity'."
The moment the words fell, the entire space began to collapse at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Hundreds of dry eyeballs embedded in the wall split open in an instant, and scarlet mist spurted out. It was an entity formed by pure resentment and eye power!
The mist rolled and condensed in mid-air, and in the blink of an eye it turned into dozens of translucent samurai figures holding chakra blades - Sharingan dead!
These dead people have no sanity and only have the instinct to kill. Their empty eye sockets are burning with scarlet flames and they roar silently as they attack Xiang Xuan and his team from all directions!
Faced with this desperate situation, Xuan did not retreat but advanced.
He slowly opened his arms, as if to embrace the death that was coming towards him. The Uzumaki Clan in his right eye spun at an unprecedented speed, and bottomless black mist burst out from it!
"You failed to awaken from the curse of these eyes during your lifetime, and you are not worthy of being called my enemy after your death!"
His voice resounded throughout the space that was about to collapse, with a hint of pity, but more of a domineering voice.
"Today, I... accept this debt for you!"
Devouring has begun.
The black mist was no longer simply absorbed, but turned into a huge mouth that covered the sky and the sun, sweeping the entire place instantly!
Every Sharingan dead body that rushed forward was torn apart, decomposed, and reorganized like melting ice and snow once it came into contact with the black mist. Their remaining eye power and broken memories were all ruthlessly incorporated into Xuan's right eye!
"Ah--!"
The violent torrent of energy and resentment crazily washed away Xuan's nerves, but he remained standing and instead let out a suppressed roar.
With the surge of energy, the lines on his right eye Mangekyō Sharingan began to undergo transformations visible to the naked eye. A faint prototype of a reincarnation circle appeared on the edge of the originally dark pupil, symbolizing the power of God!
The system prompts sounded crazily in his mind:
"Warning! A high concentration of pupil power and resentment is pouring in!"
"Forced fusion in progress...Sharingan residual soul fusion progress 89%...92%...95%..."
"Rinnegan awakening demand analysis... Estimated distance from complete awakening: there are about 3 swallows of the same scale remaining."
At the same time that a shocking change occurred deep underground, thousands of miles away, Konoha.
In the Naka Shrine ancestral hall of the Uchiha Clan, an old priest in charge of cleaning was hunched over and sweeping away the dust on the stone tablet with a whisk.
Suddenly, his body stiffened and stopped all movements.
"Crack."
The mahogany whisk that had been in use for decades broke in his hand without any warning.
The old man's cloudy eyes suddenly opened wide, full of shock and disbelief. He trembled his lips and murmured:
"...Eye Mound... crying..."
Boom--!
Deep underground, as the last soul of the dead was devoured, the altar as the core of energy could no longer maintain its shape and completely collapsed with a loud noise.
Countless broken eyeballs turned into powder, huge crystals exploded, and the entire underground space turned into a mess of ruins.
Smoke and dust filled the air, and rocks pierced the sky.
In the middle of the dead ruins, Xuan Jing stood quietly, his right eye closed tightly, and wisps of pure black chakra slowly swirled around him as if alive, as if he was adapting to this new container that had been reborn.