Inside a cave on Mount Sumeru.
Lin Ze slowly opened his eyes.
Within his azure Rinnegan, rings of deep azure ripples spread silently like eternal ripples, while deep in his pupils, the shadow of an Azure Dragon flickered in and out of sight.
"He actually didn't attack?"
Lin Ze murmured to himself.
From the moment he had witnessed Black Zetsu easily control Madara Uchiha, he had been pondering the reason, ultimately concluding that the Six Paths power with which Madara Uchiha awakened his Rinnegan had definitely come from Black Zetsu.
That was precisely why he could be controlled so easily.
Since then, Lin Ze and Kabuto had studied the Rinnegan seized from Nagato from multiple angles, discovering that the Six Paths power within them actually contained two distinct auras.
Clearly, the other source was-
The Sage of Six Paths!
Thus, from the moment he began merging with the Rinnegan, Lin Ze had been prepared to fight. He had even anticipated a siege by five Six Paths-level opponents-Hagoromo Otsutsuki, Hamura, Toneri, Naruto, and Sasuke-and had prepared a hidden contingency for it.
Yet in the end-
The Sage of Six Paths had come but hadn't attacked?
Lin Ze frowned in thought.
Although he had been fully focused on merging the powers just now, he had kept his perception extended and had vaguely sensed two powerful auras appear in the space outside Mount Sumeru.
And only the Sage of Six Paths and Hamura Otsutsuki possessed auras like those.
They had come, then left.
Why?
A thoughtful glint flashed through Lin Ze's eyes as that earlier vision surfaced in his mind again-
The boundless Primeval Land, the Dark-Gold Trident descending from the sky, the impaled Earth Dragon, and that indifferent whisper:
"Soon. Next time, you will become one with me completely."
"Was it because