The gate to Mount Myoboku slowly opened amid ancient sage chakra fluctuations. The heavy stone doors let out a deep rumble, revealing a quiet path leading into the sacred land.
Reki stood outside the gate, his face immediately filling with delight.
He had already prepared himself to be driven away, but he never expected Mount Myoboku to actually open its gates for him.
"It really... opened?"
Reki murmured, his eyes full of excitement.
He quickly lowered his head and kowtowed respectfully before carefully stepping through the mountain gate.
———
Meanwhile, on the land below, Otsutsuki Kaguya stood expressionlessly beside the Ten-Tails sapling, staring blankly at the enormous young tree that continuously drew the planet's life force into itself.
The thought that, in a few years, she would be fed to the Ten-Tails and become its nourishment naturally left her in no mood to feel happy.
A trace of complicated emotion flashed through her pale eyes, but in the end, she said nothing.
Beside her, Otsutsuki Isshiki frowned and swept his gaze across the surroundings.
"It feels like something is watching us... This planet doesn't seem so simple."
Isshiki turned to look at Kaguya and coldly ordered, "Move freely."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure blurred and vanished from where he stood, rushing toward the source of that hidden gaze.
Kaguya let out a faint sigh without resisting.
She walked alone toward a nearby forest, hoping a stroll would calm her mind.
After wandering through the forest for a while without any particular destination, Kaguya happened to run into the procession led by the Son of Heaven of the Land of Ancestors.
The guards in splendid robes were startled by her foreign appearance at first, then quickly surrounded her.
Kaguya looked ahead calmly, without the slightest intention of resisting.
She allowed them to capture her and take her back to the Land of Ancestors.
———
At the same time, Otsutsuki Isshiki was searching frantically across this ancient land, trying to find the source of the gaze spying on him.
He had no idea that the gaze actually came from Mount Myoboku in another dimension.
Just as Isshiki was growing increasingly impatient, a white figure suddenly entered his sight.
"Hm?! I knew my instincts were right!"
A cold light flashed through Isshiki's eyes as he shot toward that direction.
At a secluded waterfall, the White Ape King was hiding sneakily behind a rock, looking up at Isshiki's figure in the sky.
"Hiss... Looks like two troublesome outsiders showed up..."
The White Ape King scratched its head, a solemn look appearing on its face.
It had come to investigate after sensing the disturbance between heaven and earth, but it hadn't expected to run into one of them directly.
The moment the White Ape King finished speaking, the figure in the sky closed in like a ghost.
Looking down from above, Otsutsuki Isshiki stared coldly at the snow-white giant ape, a cruel smile curling onto his lips.
"So it's just a beast hiding its head."
The White Ape King was startled. It hadn't expected to be discovered so quickly.
But with its Adamantine Body, it wasn't afraid.
"Good timing! I've been waiting for someone to play with me!"
Seeing the other side charging at it aggressively, the White Ape King stopped hiding.
Its body suddenly expanded as a faint golden glow spread over it. Its muscles bulged like an ancient demonic ape as it directly activated Ape Sage Art!
"Roar!"
With a heaven-shaking roar, the White Ape King's Adamantine Body was fully unleashed. Its fists slammed into the ground, sending up terrifying shockwaves.
Its body was unbelievably powerful. Every punch and kick carried enough force to split mountains and shatter the earth.
Otsutsuki Isshiki neither dodged nor retreated. His body twisted nimbly through the air, easily avoiding most of the attacks.
At the same time, he waved his right hand, and several black rod-shaped weapons appeared out of thin air, carrying strange spatial fluctuations as they shot toward the White Ape King.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The two instantly clashed.
Relying on Ape Sage Art and its Adamantine Body, the White Ape King's defense was terrifyingly strong.
Every attack Isshiki landed on it produced only a dull impact, unable to truly break through its defense.
Even spatial piercing could only leave faint white marks on its tough fur, and they healed in an instant.
But at the same time, the White Ape King could do nothing to Isshiki.
Isshiki's speed, reactions, and spatial abilities were far too strange. Although the White Ape King's attacks were fierce and overbearing, they missed again and again.
Even when one occasionally connected, Isshiki effortlessly neutralized it through space movement that seemed to shrink the distance itself.
The White Ape King lacked any effective way to break through Isshiki's defenses. It could only rely on brute force, yet it was never able to seriously injure him.
The battle quickly spread from the waterfall to the forests, then the plains, and finally into the sky.
One day...
Two days...
Three days and three nights...
They fought from day to night, then from night back to day.
The land was left full of scars. Mountains collapsed, rivers changed course, and everything within hundreds of miles became ruins.
The White Ape King was suppressed by Otsutsuki Isshiki for a full three days and three nights.
Again and again it was blasted away, smashed into mountains, and thrown into deep chasms, only to roar and climb back to its feet each time, relying on its nearly immortal recovery to continue fighting to the death.
"I can fight you all day."
The White Ape King's face was bruised and swollen from the beating, but it still clenched its fists.
"This lowly creature can actually fight this well..."
Otsutsuki Isshiki's frown deepened.
He had never expected such a troublesome creature to exist on this primitive planet.
The opponent couldn't break through his defenses at all, yet it was like an indestructible rock, tying him down for three whole days and three nights.
He himself hadn't used much strength.
The White Ape King's attacks did no damage to him, but his own attacks also seemed unable to do any real damage to the White Ape King.
It was just like a blood demon that refused to die.
"Interesting... but this ends here."
Killing intent surged in Isshiki's eyes. His figure suddenly split into several afterimages as he prepared to use an even stronger trump card.
Since the other side was so durable, he would use the Sealing Cauldron to seal it away.
Or he could simply throw this big white ape into the Ten-Tails' mouth first.
The White Ape King panted heavily. Covered in wounds, it still stood firm, a low growl rumbling in its throat as it prepared to face the next assault.
Just as the White Ape King and Otsutsuki Isshiki were fighting so fiercely that heaven and earth seemed to lose their color, a figure quietly appeared high in the sky.
"White Ape King... we meet again."
Arisu's gaze fell upon the blood-soaked yet still unyielding White Ape King, and countless emotions welled up in his heart.
He naturally knew that, back then, when the White Ape King said it had "fought Isshiki for three days and three nights," it had been telling the truth.
The scene before him was the best proof.
At that moment, the battle suddenly changed.
A cold gleam flared in Otsutsuki Isshiki's eyes. He clapped his hands together and shouted in a low voice, "It's time to end this."
A black sealing technique erupted instantly, transforming into a massive Sealing Cauldron that descended from the sky, its terrifying suction enveloping the White Ape King.
The White Ape King roared as it tried to break free, but it was already too late. Its body was instantly sucked into the Sealing Cauldron and completely sealed inside.
BOOM!
The Sealing Cauldron crashed heavily onto the ground, sending dust flying everywhere.
Arisu was slightly startled, his brows knitting together.
He clearly remembered that, according to the original course of events, the White Ape King should have escaped after this battle and returned to the Summoning Realm.
But now... why hadn't it gone back?
Just as Arisu was wondering, the system's cold voice sounded in his mind.
[The White Ape King was originally meant to die during this period. It only survived because of the butterfly effect you previously caused. Therefore, death is its original destined path.]
Hearing this, Arisu frowned even more deeply.
Others might not be able to change it.
But he... could.
He was just that kind of hypocrite.
Just as Isshiki thought everything had been settled, a figure suddenly appeared behind him.