Main World.
Konoha Year 25, summer.
Imperial Palace, underground secret chamber.
The light of the Dragon Vein slowly flowed through the heart of the rune array, bathing the entire chamber in a pale golden glow. Toyotomi Yinglang sat cross-legged at the center of the array, his eyes closed and his hands forming hand seals. His spiritual energy stretched like countless invisible tentacles into the depths of the void, following the Dragon Vein toward another world.
He was sensing it.
Shinobi World No. 1.
Some time had passed since he had last sensed it. He did not know how much time had passed over there-the two worlds flowed at the same rate, something he had long since grown accustomed to.
He knew that time over there should have advanced to a certain critical juncture.
His spiritual energy pierced the barrier between worlds like the finest probe, reaching into the parallel world where he had once laid his plans and now merely watched.
He "saw" it.
Konoha Year 51.
The One Village, Three Shadows arrangement remained. Konoha was split into three sections, like a shattered piece of porcelain barely fitted back together, its cracks only growing wider. The fighting had never stopped. Small-scale clashes, assassinations, infiltration, defections... they happened every day. Konoha's ninja were being depleted by internal strife, while outside enemies watched hungrily.
The Jashin Cult.
His Evil God avatar had left two hundred thousand legacies in Shinobi World No. 1. Each legacy could give its inheritor a modest increase in strength while also awakening their ambition and wicked thoughts. Before those inheritors died, they would leave new legacies behind. It was a cycle that could not be broken-the more believers were killed, the more there were; the more legacies were destroyed, the farther they spread. Never mind going to the