Did I fail?
Looking at his tiny, pink fists, Zhang Jingxiu sighed inwardly.
In his previous life, he had been the second personal disciple of Zhang Jingqing, the sixty-fourth Celestial Master of the Celestial Master Mansion.
His eldest senior brother was naturally Zhang Zhiwei, the sixty-fifth Celestial Master of the Celestial Master Mansion-the supreme Daoist adept who stood "beneath one person" when happy and "felled one person per blow" when unhappy.
Do I regret it?
Before Zhang Jingxiu could ponder that question, his infant brain, frail and underdeveloped, refused to let him think any further.
In his previous life, driven by his dream of immortality, Zhang Jingxiu had joined a group of thirty-six people, including Wu Gensheng of Quanxing, Zhou Sheng of Wudang, and Zheng Zibu of Maoshan Shangqing. Together, they had traveled to the Twenty-Four Festival Tongtian Valley to comprehend the Dao, seeking to transcend human limits and become unfettered immortals blessed with longevity and eternal sight.
He had taken the place that should originally have belonged to his junior brother, Zhang Huaiyi, and successfully comprehended Qi-State Origin-Flow.
Had Zhang Jingxiu stopped there, he would, at best, have become another Heaven Communicating Daoist.
Immortality would still have remained a distant dream.
So he had not stopped. Instead, he had taken his experiment one step further: What if I could unite ten thousand paths within a single Dao?
With Qi-State Origin-Flow, I will nurture my primordial spirit and govern my true self.
With Divine Machine Hundred Refinements, I will forge an immortal body and nurture my flesh.
With Six Treasury Immortal Thief, I will devour heaven and earth to sustain limitless vitality.
With Grand Luo Insight, I will regulate myself, transform the acquired into the innate, and remain in constant communion with heaven and earth to form a Dao embryo.
With Feng Hou Qimen, I will reshape my destiny and escape the fate heaven and earth have imposed on me.
With Heaven Communicating Talisman Art, I will inscribe Dao patterns, placing countless wondrous arts and methods at my fingertips.
With Twin Hands, I will restore myself, keeping my immortal body and primordial spirit free from damage and decay.
With Spirit Summoning and Dispatching, I will seal my primordial spirit within myself, preventing my soul from dispersing and entering the cycle of reincarnation.
Zhang Jingxiu's plan had sounded wonderful, but reality had defied his wishes. In the end, he had fallen short at the final hurdle.
Master, I have failed to repay your years of devoted guidance! But I have no regrets!
Now that I have come to this world, I will still pursue that elusive immortality!
At that thought, Zhang Jingxiu's eyes grew brighter. A smile crept onto his lips, and he even began to giggle.
That briefly stunned Madara Uchiha, who had only just turned five and had only just grown accustomed to holding swords, not babies.
So this is my little brother? He actually smiled at me! I must make sure my little brothers grow up safely! Power! I need greater power!
Jing Xiu's heartfelt smile left an indelible mark on the young Madara Uchiha's heart, strengthening his resolve to pursue power.
Madara glanced at Jing Xiu in his left arm, then at Izuna in his right. A rare, gentle smile appeared on his usually cold face.
"Madara! I'll leave your two little brothers to you. I still have matters to discuss with the clan elders!"
Uchiha Tajima donned his armor and walked toward the door without a backward glance. Even though his wife had died in childbirth, he showed no reluctance to leave his home behind.
"Don't forget to practice the swordsmanship I taught you! As the Uchiha's Young Clan Leader, you must be the strongest in the entire clan!"
Madara's gaze was resolute. Watching Uchiha Tajima's retreating back, he answered with utmost seriousness, "I will defeat you and take the position of clan leader from your hands!"
At the same time, a seed called ambition quietly began to take root in his heart. Only by becoming the strongest can I end this chaotic age and protect my little brothers!
Time flew. Jing Xiu had already buried three jars of cherry blossom wine in the Uchiha Clan Compound by the Naka River. Had his body not been too weak during his first two years, there would have been five by now.
"My foolish little brother, you're still standing there like an idiot!"
"Uchiha Style: Half-Moon Slash!"
Short sword in hand, Uchiha Izuna charged at Jing Xiu with tremendous speed.
Just as the blade came within inches of Jing Xiu's neck, an "accident" occurred right on cue.
Thud!
Izuna's advancing right foot landed on a pebble. He slid to the ground as smoothly as flowing milk, savoring the fragrance of dirt while his nose enjoyed an intimate encounter with the earth.
Madara Uchiha, who had just withdrawn from the front lines to replace the Fourth Uchiha Elder on garrison duty at Ueno Camp, had intended to test his two little brothers.
After all, this was the Warring States era. No matter how strong Madara became, there would always be moments when his attention slipped, so he seized every opportunity to train his brothers.
But when he noticed Jing Xiu's little trick, an unusual gleam appeared in his eyes.
Like a hunter who had found a new toy, he casually tossed a kunai toward Jing Xiu.
With his powerful mind and keen senses, Jing Xiu calculated where the kunai would strike almost the instant it was thrown and tried to evade it.
However, just as Jing Xiu was about to duck, a second kunai struck the first one's handle. The two kunai traced perfect arcs toward the back of his chest and his lower back.
What a pain!
Grumbling inwardly, Jing Xiu curled himself into a ball and dove forward.
He had already figured out who was there and why he had thrown the kunai. If he refused to play along, he might not end up a pincushion, but he would certainly fare several times worse than Izuna.
Even as he fell, Jing Xiu made sure to look toward the tree from which the kunai had come. His eyes held none of a boy's defiance, humiliation, or anger.
Instead, he wore a bored, dead-eyed stare.
Seeing that Jing Xiu understood the situation so well, Madara Uchiha's lips curved into a smile.
But that smile vanished an instant later. "Is this how you face an enemy? An Uchiha may die in battle, but no Uchiha is a coward who submits to the enemy!"
"Jing Xiu, you've disappointed me!"
Jing Xiu stood and brushed the dust off himself, ignoring Izuna, who was still spitting out sand nearby. "If a ninja of your caliber, Madara, really managed to get this close, why would I bother struggling?"
"Either the Uchiha Clan has already lost, or an elite enemy unit is carrying out an assassination. Either way, my foolish little brother Izuna and I would be doomed!"
Before Madara could say anything, Izuna pointed at Jing Xiu and shouted, "You're the little brother! Your whole family are little brothers!"
At those words, both Madara and Jing Xiu turned icy gazes on Izuna.
"All right, Izuna. Attack me together with Jing Xiu! Let me see what you two are made of!"
Although Jing Xiu and Izuna constantly argued over who was the younger brother, the twins fought together with flawless coordination.
One used his fists, the other his sword.
Jingxiu's fists flashed out, targeting the three hundred and sixty acupoints throughout his opponent's body.
Jing Xiu knew perfectly well that, at just five years old, neither his strength nor his speed could inflict even the slightest injury on Madara Uchiha.
His only option was the acupoints, something both unfamiliar and familiar to most ninja in the shinobi world.
After all, the Hyuga's Gentle Fist was renowned throughout the shinobi world.
It was a fighting art designed specifically to attack an opponent's acupoints, injecting the user's chakra into the enemy's body through fists, palms, and fingers to disrupt the flow of chakra within.
As long as Jing Xiu struck even one of his opponent's acupoints, he could halt their movements for an instant. With that fleeting opening, Izuna could at least shave a single hair off Madara!
Faced with such coordination, even someone as strong as Madara Uchiha brought out one percent of his strength to respond.
Unfortunately, no matter how strong the two were, before Madara, they were still nothing more than little brothers.
That night, just after finishing his evening practice and preparing to replace sleep with visualization, Jing Xiu's soul began sounding repeated warnings. He felt as though someone was watching him.
He immediately tensed, took out the pair of short swords Madara had given him and Izuna as birthday presents two years earlier, and woke Izuna, who was sleeping soundly nearby.