The morning light in Ōtsutsuki Divine City, where the God Tree resides, is never golden.
It was a vibrant green, flowing with the very essence of life, cascading down from the top of the colossal God Tree in the city center—a tree powerful enough to obscure half the planet—passing through layers of branches as thick as mountains, and landing on the floating palace complex below. These palaces were all constructed of crystal formed from the sap of the God Tree, and in the light they refracted, one could see tiny energy particles pulsating within them—this was the heart of the Ōtsutsuki civilization, the spiritual totem of all its people, and the abode of the true ruler, the " God of the God Tree."
No Ōtsutsuki dared to disrespect this God Tree. Legend has it that the first inhabitants of their race were born from its golden fruit. The Ten-Tails God Tree scattered across the cities of Ōtsutsuki Planet and throughout the universe are merely the emanations of its fallen seeds. Over billions of years, the Ōtsutsuki Clan has Reproduction to trillions upon trillions of people, their footprints covering hundreds of millions of star systems. Yet, only thirteen people ever stand atop the main city—the thirteen Saint Level powerhouses in the entire Ōtsutsuki civilization's billions of years, the true "heavens" governing this planet, second only to the God of the God Tree.
At this moment, the phantoms of the thirteen Saint were suspended in the council hall deep within the main trunk of the God Tree, and even the emerald light in the air was tinged with solemnity.
"There's something big going on in Xuanxiao City in Nanzhou." A saint on the left wearing a dark golden armor with the word "" carved on his eyebrows spoke. His voice was as thick as a meteorite striking metal, "The last line of communication over there was cut off last night, and the screen was full of... moving corpses of clan members."
"And Red Rock City and Dark Devouring City," another Saint, surrounded by flame patterns, added, flicking three illusory images from his fingertips—scenes of the three cities before their fall: once pristine streets now filled with dark purple corpse energy; clansmen dressed in Ōtsutsuki swaying stiffly, black blood trickling from their mouths, lunging and biting anyone they saw; even those blasted to pieces by energy cannons could reassemble their limbs within the corpse energy. "The surrounding four cities have also lost contact; preliminary assessment suggests some kind of... contagious demonic entity."
The council hall fell silent for a moment before the Saint in the center, shrouded in an aura of chaos, slowly spoke, his voice resonating directly in everyone's consciousness. "Have you found the source?"
"Not yet," the Saint in charge of intelligence shook his head, pulling up a string of data from the illusory image, "But judging from the earliest anomalies in Genshō City, it seems to be some kind of cosmic mutated virus—possibly brought back accidentally by a previous exploration team, attached to a sample on some planet."
"A virus?" The Saint in dark gold armor scoffed, a dazzling light coalescing in his palm. "Whatever it is, just eliminate it. They're just crawling corpses; what can they possibly do?"
"We cannot be careless." The voice of the God of the God Tree suddenly rang out in the hall. It was a fluctuation without a specific timbre, yet it made all the Saint lower their heads. "That area has been permeated with death rules that do not belong to our universe. Three of you go and first seal off the spread, then completely eliminate it."
No one objected.
That afternoon, three beams of light, powerful enough to tear through the atmosphere, shot into the sky from the main city and headed straight for the occupied area—they were the " Ōtsutsuki Sōichi " Saint wearing dark gold armor, the " Ōtsutsuki Enmu " Saint who controlled fire, and the " Ōtsutsuki Konkei " Saint who was skilled in soul secret techniques.
When the three arrived, the dark purple corpse aura had already spread to the starport on the outskirts of Dark Devouring City. Several clansmen who had survived by sheer luck were being chased by a group of zombies and were about to be bitten when Sōichi raised his hand and unleashed a golden blade of light, instantly turning the entire group of zombies into ashes.
"Seal it first." Enmu waste any words. The moment his hands Hand Seals, the ground cracked open into a bottomless ravine. Countless magma-like runes surged out of the ravine and quickly spread along the boundary of the spreading corpse energy. In less than half an hour, a giant barrier covering tens of thousands of kilometers was formed. This barrier was like an inverted glass dome, with its surface flowing with interwoven emerald green and gold light, trapping all the corpse energy and zombies inside—this was the Ōtsutsuki Clan's " Heaven and Earth Barrier Sealing Jutsu," specially designed to isolate dangerous energy, capable of blocking even attacks at the Saint Level.
"Go in." Konkei stepped into the barrier first, his body radiating a pale blue soul fluctuation. Wherever he passed, the heads of the zombies exploded—he was directly annihilating the "active source" within these corpses. Sōichi and Enmu followed closely behind, golden light blades and crimson flames raining down like a storm, burning swathes of zombies to ashes or shattering them into pieces, even purifying much of the corpse energy on the ground.
The three had worked together for millions of years, and their cleanup efficiency was astonishing. In less than a day, the city that had been occupied by zombies within the barrier was restored to "cleanliness," leaving only ashes and the lingering smell of burning.
"It's over?" Enmu landed atop a dilapidated palace, frowning as he looked down. "It felt too easy."
Sōichi also sensed something was wrong. "What about the so-called 'source of the virus'? We haven't found it."
Konkei's soul energy swept across the entire barrier, then he shook his head. "No living beings, not even a fragment of a soul... Apart from the remnants of death rules in this place, there's nothing."
The three of them didn't dare leave and stayed outside the barrier all night.
The Tensei, as the first rays of sunlight shone into the barrier, the three of them simultaneously narrowed their eyes—on the previously deserted streets, where the ashes had been burned, dark purple corpse energy was re-condensing, and stiff bodies were crawling out of the ashes—the very zombies they had cleared out the day before!
"How is this possible?!" Enmu's flames surged instantly, burning the zombies in the front row to charcoal once again. But the next second, even more zombies emerged from the Yin Shadow, even more than yesterday—their corpse aura was denser, their speed was faster, and some could even use the spells they had used in life.
Sōichi's light blade cleaved the zombie in two, but it was able to drag its upper body and continue crawling; Konkei's soul attack landed on the zombie, but the zombie only paused for a moment before continuing to charge forward.
"Their source of life isn't in their souls! Or rather, they don't have souls." Konkei was grave. "Neither are they in their bodies—it's as if they're bound to the death rules of this region!"
Over the next three days, the three tried every method imaginable.
Sōichi used all his strength to pulverize the zombie into atoms, but the next day the atoms recombine into zombies in the corpse energy; Enmu summoned flames like the core of the sun, burning the entire area into a glassy ground, but dark purple corpse energy could seep out from the cracks in the glass and re-condense the corpses; Konkei even used forbidden secret techniques to try to strip away the death rules of this area, but found that the rules seemed to be rooted deep in space and could not be shaken at all.
What terrified them even more was that these zombies seemed to be "evolving"—absorbing yin energy and devouring the corpses of the Ōtsutsuki Clan who hadn't managed to evacuate in time. Their skin began to harden, and some even grew Chakra tails similar to those of Tailed Beast.
"It's not a virus." On the Tensei, Sōichi looked at the zombie horde that had revived, his voice carrying a serious tone for the first time. "Something is controlling all of this, using special death rules to create a cycle—as long as that thing is still around, these zombies will never be killed."
"But we've searched the entire barrier and still haven't found that 'thing'." Enmu his teeth, the flames in his palms becoming unstable. "We can't just blow up this whole star field, can we? It's too close to the main city; the energy fluctuations will alert the God of the God Tree."
After a long silence, Konkei suddenly spoke, "I just sensed a faint aura of disguise in the core area of the barrier—very well hidden, concealed within the densest corpse aura, as if... it was deliberately avoiding us."
The three exchanged a glance, and they all understood.
The "source" controlling the zombie horde had long sensed their arrival and deliberately hid. It's even possible that... they had anticipated their use of Sealing Jutsu.
"We can't afford to waste any more time." Sōichi took a deep breath. "The rules of death here are getting stronger and stronger. If we drag this out any longer, even the barrier might not be able to hold us back."
Ultimately, the three made a decision—to abandon the complete eradication and permanently seal off the area.
They reinforced the " Heaven and Earth Barrier Sealing Jutsu," adding three more layers of Saint Level seals to the outer layer of the barrier, and even setting up rune arrays at the edge of the barrier that could automatically purify the corpse energy. After doing all this, Sōichi volunteered to stay behind. "I'll guard this place and periodically clear out the zombies inside to prevent them from evolving to the point where they can break through the barrier."
When the news reached the main city, the thirteen Saint finally designated this area as an "absolute forbidden zone." The Ōtsutsuki Clan privately called it the " Land of Zombies "—no one knew what was hidden inside, only that behind that emerald green barrier lay an endless stream of monsters, a death loop that even the Saint could not yet break.
Meanwhile, deep beneath Dark Devouring City, the core of the Land of Zombies, thick corpse energy surged like liquid.
At the center of the corpse aura, Orochimaru slowly materialized from a cloud of black mist, a cold smile on his pale face. He raised his hand, and a Ōtsutsuki zombie with three pairs of wings immediately knelt down on one knee, offering a still-beating heart—the heart of an Ōtsutsuki Domain Level powerhouse whom he had lured here before, containing pure energy.
" Saint Level... not bad after all." Orochimaru toyed with the heart, his fingertips tracing the patterns on it. "But, that's all."
He had long anticipated the arrival of powerful figures, and when Sōichi and the other two set up the first seal, he proactively "dismembered himself into a million pieces," hiding his body fragments in different nodes of death energy—no matter how strong the attacks of those Saint were, they would not be able to detect him hidden deep within the death energy.
"We can't get out for now. The Saint is indeed a problem," Orochimaru crushed his heart, absorbing its energy, his gaze sweeping over the zombies around him who were constantly absorbing Yin energy at night. "But it's alright, there's plenty of 'research material' here."
Within the dark purple aura of death, countless scarlet eyes lit up, like Xingchen in this land of death. Orochimaru leaned against the shoulder of a giant zombie, gazing at the emerald light on the distant barrier, his smile growing ever wider.
He has plenty of time. Once he has thoroughly studied the Ōtsutsuki bloodline and evolved to the point where he can contend with Saint, that so-called "seal" will merely be the first door he has to step out of this paradise.
Outside the barrier, Sōichi stood in the void, watching the constantly resurrecting zombies below, his brows furrowed. He felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him, watching the entire Ōtsutsuki Clan, from this land of death—a gaze filled with mockery and greed that made this Saint, who had lived for billions of years, feel a chill for the first time.