"So, are you taking my eyes as well today?" Hiashi asked.
"Of course."
After the risk of nearly being exposed tonight, there was naturally no way Ning Qi could leave Hiashi's eyes in the head family residence.
Ning Qi nodded and was about to act.
"If you're going to do it, can you let me do it?"
Hiashi shook the shackles on his body and looked at Hinata in Ning Qi's arms, still unaware of the danger approaching.
Ning Qi blinked, understanding what Hiashi meant. For the sake of more than a dozen pairs of Byakugan, he gave a slight nod.
"No problem, as long as you don't damage my eyes."
He had long regarded Hiashi's eyes as his own possessions.
With his last hope shattered, Hiashi had become especially cooperative. He nodded, indicating that he would be careful.
Then he beckoned to his daughter. His dislocated hand dangled bonelessly in the air.
"Hinata, come here."
Though she had already been hurt once by the disheveled man before her, Hinata was obedient and kind. She raised her head, looked at the man, then at Ning Qi.
"Don't you want to know where I sent your father?"
"Come here."
"I'll tell you."
Hinata could not sense the slightest malice in the man's gentle words, and besides...
She looked at the chains wrapped around him. After hesitating for a moment, she slowly moved closer.
She truly wanted to know where her father had gone.
She wanted to know why her mother had died.
Why their home had become so filthy and chaotic.
She had far too many questions she wanted answered.
"Do you really know where my father went?" Hinata asked softly.
"Yes. Come a little closer, and I'll tell you." Hiashi was like an evil wolf luring Little Red Riding Hood.
She turned back to look at Ning Qi. Seeing no reaction from him, Hinata gathered her courage and stepped forward.
"I'm sorry, my daughter," Hiashi said apologetically.
All the suffering the Hyuga clan would face in the future was because he, their clan head, was too weak.
The pain his daughter Hinata had suffered until now was likewise because he had failed as a father.
His heart had long been dead... but he could not die yet.
He still had things he had to finish.
He slowly extended his hand. Just as Hinata sensed some strange yet familiar emotion from the man before her—
The next instant, blue light flashed and vanished.
Squelch!
Blood spurted.
Hinata's left eye, beneath the bandage, was easily removed by Hiashi.
"Ah—"
The girl was pinned to the desk, writhing in unbearable pain.
Hiashi presented the removed eye to Ning Qi with one arm, while his other arm desperately pinned down Hinata as she struggled on the table.
"This is the left eye," he said.
Earlier, in order to let Hinata see the illusion clearly, Hiashi's left eye had been swapped with Hinata's. Since Ning Qi wanted Hiashi's eyes now, all he had to do was switch them back.
After Ning Qi took the eye, chakra shot from Hiashi's palm once more, like threads of silk. He gouged out the left eye in his socket that had originally belonged to Hinata, then returned it to its rightful owner and pressed it into Hinata's terrified left eye socket.
Thud.
Hiashi released the arm restraining Hinata and let her roll onto the floor.
Expressionless, he used the same method, firing chakra from his palm to remove his sole remaining eye.
"This is the right eye," he said.
Ning Qi took out a small portable cultivation container and placed both of Hiashi's eyes inside.
Hiashi was not dead yet, and the Byakugan still retained a certain vitality. For the moment, it would be difficult to absorb the Byakugan Essence within them.
That was why Ning Qi could not merely take the eyes. He had to kill the man as well.
Looking at Hinata writhing in agony on the floor, Ning Qi shook his head. If Hiashi had not tried to be clever, she would not have had to suffer such pain. The responsibility lay entirely with Hiashi.
"You really can be ruthless," Ning Qi said. "Aren't you afraid she'll hate you for the rest of her life?"
"Even so, it's better than her hating you for the rest of her life," Hiashi said calmly.
After losing his eyes, his world had become nothingness. At least he no longer had to grieve at the sight of his daughter's suffering.
"You can't hide this forever. In the future, she'll definitely blame everything on me and hate both you and me—though I truly am the chief culprit behind her suffering. Still, if she comes looking for revenge, I won't hold back."
Ning Qi shrugged. He did not think highly of the actual effect of Hiashi's actions.
Could the hatred of a destroyed clan and a ruined family really be shifted so easily?
Even his own younger brother, Neji, would surely hate Ning Qi to the bone because of what he had done. Let alone Hinata, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Main Family.
"If I can shift even a little, that's enough," Hiashi said.
Having done everything he could and cast off all the burdens of responsibility, he felt the shackles on his body grow a little lighter.
"Besides, Hinata has a gentle nature and average talent. She probably won't have any chance to take revenge on you."
Ning Qi shook his head. No matter how gentle and obedient Hinata was, such a catastrophic change in her family would inevitably transform her personality. Besides, her talent was not average at all.
Hiashi wanted to preserve the Hyuga clan's legacy and make those younger members promised survival temporarily forget their hatred. He thought far too highly of himself.
Ning Qi did not continue the topic. He merely stared at Hiashi's palm. Just now, chakra threads had shot out from there.
"You..."
"Are you wondering how I can still use chakra after you sealed my acupoints?" As if sensing Ning Qi's gaze, Hiashi tilted his head and spoke.
"Release your Transformation Technique, then take Hinata to get treated. I'll tell you."
"Fine."
Ning Qi knew this was also part of Hiashi's effort to ease Hinata's hatred toward him.
It was merely the futile scheming of a dying father, painstakingly trying to accomplish something. Ning Qi did not care, so he agreed.
"You must never have seriously studied the Gentle Fist, nor have you truly made use of your eyes," Hiashi said decisively. "Your talent is very high, yet you wasted it on other useless skills. The inheritance of my Hyuga Family is clearly the strongest!"
Ning Qi found that hard to agree with. He looked up at the sky. It was precisely this skill Hiashi deemed useless—the This-Realm Naraku Technique—that had turned every member of the main family into Ning Qi's hunting grounds.
"Your genjutsu has a fatal flaw. It cannot last long. How can it compare to my Hyuga Family's Gentle Fist? You know that yourself," Hiashi said.
After being imprisoned for so long, he had already seen through the operating principles of the This-Realm Naraku Technique. Whenever he thought of how he had stumbled over such a flawed technique and buried the entire clan because of it, he grew especially furious, and his criticism became merciless.
"No matter how much I don't want to admit it, your bloodline cannot lie. You are Hizashi's biological son. You are a member of the Hyuga clan. Even if you become a rogue ninja, you are still a rogue ninja who came from the Hyuga clan. I will never allow you to disgrace the Hyuga clan's name!" Hiashi said.
"You've suddenly become rather open-minded," Ning Qi said with a faint smile.
"I truly have figured it out. The Caged Bird System should have been abolished long ago. Otherwise, how could today's disaster have happened?" Hiashi sighed. Unfortunately, he had realized it far too late.
"What inheritance is there to speak of if no one from the main family survives? This world may exist without the main family, but it must have Hyuga!"
"Since you've already planned things to this extent, no one can possibly stop you anymore. So I'll pretend you are a reformist within our rotten clan who advocated abolishing the Caged Bird System, launched a reform at the clan assembly, and did it all simply to establish a Hyuga clan free from the oppression of the Caged Bird."
Ning Qi did not care what kind of reputation others attached to his extermination of the clan, though to some extent, it really was an internal struggle within the Hyuga Family.
"No matter which side succeeds in the end, the true inheritance of the Hyuga clan must still be passed down. So listen carefully, Ning Qi," Hiashi said, his voice turning solemn.
Ning Qi crossed his arms. He wanted to hear what profound insight this defeated clan head had to offer.
As though he had forgotten that the boy before him was the enemy about to destroy the entire Hyuga clan, Hiashi calmly explained his understanding of the Hyuga Family's inheritance.
"The Kekkei Genkai—the Byakugan—is often our Hyuga clan's greatest advantage when facing enemies. Seeing the flow of chakra through the human body's meridians, or seeing through every obstacle to use insight to detect hidden enemies, are merely the most superficial applications of the Byakugan."
"Since all the laws governing the operation of the world are exposed before our eyes, what we should truly do is not describe the present."
"But summarize the future..."
Ning Qi's brows gradually furrowed. This old man seemed serious?
Hiashi truly had figured it out. Just as he had said before, though people died, the way lived on.
Though Ning Qi was now guilty of monstrous crimes, his son and grandson would eventually return to the Hyuga inheritance, perhaps even establish a new Hyuga Family.
Flowing water did not compete to be first. What mattered was its endless flow.
On the scale of a family's continuation across a thousand years, similar crises would occur once every few centuries. A hundred years from now, Ning Qi's actions would ultimately be no more than a single line of small print on the wall of the ancestral hall.
Before you continue