Before dawn, inside the steel fortress on the Land of Lightning border, the air was as heavy as lead.
Five Great Nations's top decision-makers sat around a huge metal round table, with exhaustion and anxiety written all over their faces.
This impromptu emergency meeting had only one topic - whether to assemble all the power of Shinobi World to launch a final siege that would determine life and death against the man named "Xuan".
The debate lasted from midnight to dawn, and the differences were as sharp as knives.
"We can't wait any longer! Every second he exists, the world is in danger of being overturned!" Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki of Both Scales slammed the table, and disproportionate anger burst out from his old body. "He must be killed at all costs before he completely consolidates his power!"
"Erase? That's easy to say!" Fourth Raikage A's violent temper also came up, his muscles were tense, and his voice was like thunder, "Isn't Fourth Shinobi World War's lesson enough? What we are facing is a monster that goes beyond common sense! If you attack blindly, you will only die in vain!"
"Lord Raikage is right," Shikaku Nara, who was present on behalf of Hidden Leaf Village, analyzed with his usual calmness, "Xuan's purpose is not clear yet, and we know nothing about the boundaries of his power. Launching a general offensive with insufficient intelligence is tantamount to gambling on the entire Shinobi World's future. I advocate that we first test through diplomatic channels, and at the same time concentrate our efforts on defensive deployment, and slow down..."
Before he finished speaking, a piercing scream suddenly tore apart the dome of the fortress!
Everyone felt a darkness above their heads, and an indescribable heat and pressure descended from the sky.
Boom!
There was a loud noise, and the entire conference room shook violently. The solid alloy ceiling was melted and torn like paper. A giant Taiseki board burning with ominous black flames, carrying the force of thunder, accurately penetrated the layers of defense and was heavily embedded in the center of the conference round table!
The hot air waves mixed with the pungent smell of molten metal spread instantly, blocking everyone's words back in their throats.
The stone slab was completely black, as if it was condensed from the deepest nightmare. The black flame burning on the edge was not solid, but it exuded a chill that could freeze the soul.
There were all Shinobi World peak experts present, but no one dared to act rashly at this moment. Everyone's eyes were fixed on that stone slab.
The black flames gradually subsided, revealing the profound writing on the stone slab. It was a simple and domineering font, and every stroke seemed to contain unquestionable will.
Just seven words, but the pupils of all Kage Level characters present suddenly shrank.
"Anyone who refuses to obey will be treated as an enemy."
Below this line of words, there is an even weirder mark.
A giant black snake holding itself head to tail and constantly devouring itself forms a perfect circle, and in the center of the circle is a star composed of five sharp lines.
At the core of the star, there is a scarlet pupil. The pupil seems to be alive and is staring coldly at everyone in the conference room, full of contempt and judgment.
Almost at the same moment, somewhere thousands of miles away from Land of Lightning, at the top of an ancient shrine hidden in the mountains, Chiyo Saori was closing his eyes, and his slender fingers were like the most exquisite artist, controlling hundreds of miniature chakra puppets that were difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
These puppets turned into invisible radio waves and quietly invaded all military communication lines of Five Great Nations, directing them all to a preset interference frequency full of chaotic noise.
Next to her, Baba, a stooped old man, looked at the almost undetectable smoke column in the distant sky, which was the faint trace produced when the fortress was penetrated.
He asked in a hoarse voice, "Master Saori, Master Xuan really doesn't intend to give them any chance to negotiate? This will only force them to join forces."
Chiyo Saori opened her eyes, her beautiful eyes flashed with coldness and enthusiasm that were inconsistent with her appearance.
A sneer appeared at the corner of her mouth, "Baba, don't you understand yet? What Lord Xuan needs is not a group of negotiators who are begging for mercy, but a servant who kneels down and offers himself loyally in extreme fear. The choice is not in their hands from the beginning."
"But... what if they are really forced to risk everything and join forces to resist?" Baba was still worried.
"Join forces?" Chiyo Saori seemed to have heard a big joke. She turned around slowly and looked at the vast land shrouded in the morning light. Her tone was contemptuous but full of absolute confidence, "So what? I just take this opportunity to let them and the world see clearly what it means - one person, one country."
As soon as she finished speaking, the whole world seemed to be responding to her words.
Xuan's figure did not visit anywhere in person, but his will transcended the obstacles of space through a resonance network called [Crimson Eye Divine Realm].
On Hokage Rock in Hidden Leaf Village, on top of the Kazekage building in Sunagakure, in the Blood Mist Plaza in Hidden Mist Village, in Iwagakure On the top of the boulder of, on the top of the Thunder Cloud Peak of Hidden Cloud Village... on the most central and symbolic landmark of Five Great Nations, a giant illusion towering above the sky and the earth was simultaneously projected.
It was a figure sitting on a throne.
His throne is not made of gold, silver and jewels, but is made of countless twisted and wailing White Zetsu corpses, symbolizing the numerous bones of that war.
Under his feet, he trampled two things at random - a Mangekyō Sharingan that was full of cracks and dim, and a Rinnegan that also lost its luster and had broken lines.
The two eye skills that once symbolized the pinnacle of Shinobi World's power were now like gravel on the roadside, being crushed under his feet with contempt.
Xuan in the illusion slowly raised his head, and his deep eyes swept across the earth. The voice was not transmitted through the air, but sounded directly in the mind of every intelligent creature, like the order of the gods, majestic and cold.
"Fourth Shinobi World War, it's over."
Everyone who heard this sentence felt a sense of absurd relief in their hearts. However, the next sentence completely plunged them into a bottomless abyss.
"Now, it is the beginning of the sixth Shinobi World."
As the words fell, the illusion dissipated like smoke, leaving the entire Shinobi World with a deathly silence and bone-deep fear.
Just a few minutes later, this fear turned into a bloody reality.
Iwagakure In the underground elders' meeting hall, the three remaining elders were surrounding the map, urgently discussing countermeasures.
They are the most determined militant faction of Iwagakure, and just now they were clamoring to use Dust Release to turn Xuan into ashes.
Suddenly, the ground under the feet of one of the elders turned as dark as ink without warning, and then, countless vine-like black mist broke out of the ground, like poisonous snakes with life, wrapping around the bodies of the three people with lightning speed.
"This... what is this!"
"Save...!"
The frightened shouts suddenly stopped.
The black mist tightened in an instant, swallowing up the three Kage Level-strength elders together with their voices, chakra and even their existence itself.
The whole process took less than three seconds, and the thick black fog quickly dissipated, as if nothing had happened.
On the spot, only three black stone tablets appeared out of thin air, with cold words engraved on them in the same font as the fortress stone slabs.
"Objection, settled."
No one knows that in another dimension, the souls, memories and chakra characteristics of these three elders were instantly digitized, turned into three streams of pure information, and poured into a huge system.
Their combat experience and deep understanding of Earth Release were accurately extracted, analyzed, and integrated by the system, and finally turned into a few lines of insignificant code, used to perfect a program named "Rinnegan Simulation Template".
To Xuan, this is not even a battle, just an efficient resource recovery.
On the altar of the shrine, Xuan slowly closed his eyes, quietly feeling the majestic energy that was undergoing qualitative changes in his body.
In his perception, the stability of Kekkei Mōra Prototype, which symbolizes the ultimate power, has reached 21%.
This is a subtle critical point. There is only one final catalyst left before a real qualitative change - a complete battle memory data belonging to Six Paths level powerhouse.
He opened his right eye, with neither sadness nor joy in his pupils, and gave a command to the void calmly, "Release 'Truth-Seeking Orb Simulacra' and let them wander along the borders of each country. There is no need to attack, just exist."
The order was given, and dozens of dark spheres were activated in the unknown secret base.
They are pseudo-artifacts reconstructed through special technology from Truth-Seeking Orb fragments collected from Fourth Shinobi World War.
Although they have lost the ability to change combinations and annihilate all things, the aura they exude that belongs exclusively to Six Paths Power is real.
Like a group of ghosts, these bionic bodies began to move slowly on the territory of the Shinobi World continent. Their existence itself was the most terrifying declaration that Xuan had completely mastered Six Paths Power.
This will be the last straw that breaks Five Great Nations's remaining courage.
Night falls quietly, and the cool moonlight shines on the eaves of the shrine.
Xuan sat alone in the center of the altar, spread out his palms, and in his palms, a walnut-sized crystal core was quietly suspended.
Half of it is as dark as night, and half is as pure white as day. Between the black and white, a brand new complex pupil pattern that has never appeared in history is slowly gestating and taking shape.
This is his core--Bipolar Crystal Core.
He stared at the creation in his palm, as if whispering to the whole world, and declaring to himself. "You say I am a monster that subverts the order? Very good. Then let me become the rule that you can never resist, let alone kill."
At the same time as he whispered, deep in the ground, the core of the origin that he had imprisoned and studied for a long time - the last faint white light, representing the reverberation of the last will of an ancient existence, was finally completely extinguished at this moment.
But, this is not death or dissipation.
In Xuan's palm, around the Bipolar Crystal Core, a faint silver halo, like the rising crescent moon, quietly emerged, perfectly wrapping the black and white crystal core.
That ray of light was not destroyed, but was thoroughly analyzed and assimilated, turning into the first ray of coronation glory when a new rule was born.
At this moment, Xuan's aura became more and more unfathomable, and his connection with the entire world seemed to have entered a whole new level.
He is no longer a simple individual, but a moving, living, and self-evolving collection of laws.
In the distant Land of Lightning border, in the steel fortress that was penetrated, time seemed to have stopped.
The surviving senior officials of various countries still maintained the same posture as when the stone slab was smashed in, motionless.
From Xuan's global announcement, to the silent evaporation of Elder Iwagakure, to the desperate Six Paths aura on the border, a series of blows had already crushed all the anger, luck and will to resist in their hearts.
At this moment, there were no quarrels, discussions, or even breathing in the conference room.