Outside, just as Sasuke lay down on the operating table and closed his eyes, his Shadow Clones sprang into action.
In an instant, Sasuke's body was covered in patches, each connected to a myriad of devices: brainwave monitors, electrocardiograms, blood pressure gauges, bioelectric sensors, and more—all to continuously monitor his physical and mental state.
Some of these devices were commercially available, while others required special access through Konoha Hospital.
Naturally, Sasuke had acquired all of them through Granny Cat's channels.
As for the energy and electricity powering these devices?
Don't ask!
The answer is Chakra!
Once the setup was complete, two Shadow Clones remained vigilantly by Sasuke's side, observing him closely.
The remaining clones stood before a row of precision instruments, their expressions utterly focused.
Suddenly, Sasuke's breathing, which had been calm and steady, slowed dramatically, though it remained remarkably steady and the change was subtle, almost imperceptible.
However, the two Shadow Clones constantly monitoring Sasuke immediately noticed the change.
"The main body's blood pressure is plummeting rapidly, already approaching the standard 90/60 mmHg range, and the rate of decline is accelerating."
"Body temperature, heart rate, metabolic activity, and other physiological functions are gradually decreasing, soon entering a state similar to the hibernation mechanism of hibernating animals."
"Brain neural activity is entering a state of paralysis. Mental fluctuations and brain bioelectrical activity are gradually disappearing, indicating an even deeper state of sleep."
As soon as these changes occurred in Sasuke's main body, the Shadow Clones monitoring him via various instruments swiftly reported the findings.
Sasuke had now entered a state similar to the hibernation mechanism of animals. In this state, his breathing was extremely shallow, and his heart rate was remarkably slow.
Even painful stimuli would only cause his body to twitch slightly, but could not wake him.
"The main body's brain waves are disappearing rapidly!!!"
"Cellular bioelectricity is vanishing rapidly!!!"
"Danger!!!"
"Danger!!!"
The Shadow Clones' expressions changed abruptly. As soon as they spoke, dozens of distant Shadow Clones simultaneously dispelled their techniques, returning to the original Sasuke.
In that instant, Sasuke's critically faint brainwave activity and cellular bioelectric currents recovered slightly, and his breathing visibly quickened.
___
'Within Sasuke's Mindscape:'
The moment Sasuke placed his hand on Ido Sasuke's head, choosing to merge with him:
'Darkness!'
'Silence!'
'What a strange feeling...'
Beyond plunging Sasuke into absolute stillness and darkness in an instant, a peculiar sensation spread through his entire being.
'Slow!'
'Too slow!'
'Slower and slower!'
Sasuke felt everything slowing down—even the thoughts in his mind were becoming increasingly sluggish.
'Slow to the extreme!'
It was as if his brain's neural pathways and mental processes had been frozen in millennia-old ice, growing rigid, weaker, and slower.
'Why were solitary confinement chambers so terrifying in his previous life?'
Because extreme spatial compression induced unbearable psychological pressure. Stripped of time and space, deprived of all sensory input, one was surrounded by darkness and dread.
Psychological experiments have shown that a normal person's mind begins to tense up after just one day without any external stimuli. By the second day, they experience significant anxiety, and after three days, they completely lose their grip on normalcy.
This is because all thought processes, including your judgment, are built upon the regular, patterned stimuli from the outside world.
Without a sense of time, you gradually sink into despair. What was initially a 72-hour punishment stretches into what feels like dozens of days—a catastrophe for an ordinary person.
That's why the most hardened criminals in prison can often endure extreme physical torture.
But throw them into a sensory deprivation cell for a few days, and they become docile, even begging for mercy on their knees!
However, the concept of absolute silence—a complete absence of perception—remained purely theoretical in my previous life.
Even the most specialized sensory deprivation cells cannot completely eliminate sound.
Inmates could always make noise themselves, let alone be completely stripped of all sensory input.
Even individuals paralyzed from head to toe or in a vegetative state retain some faint tactile sensation.
In my previous life, only the completely dead could truly be said to have lost all sensory perception!
Sasuke wasn't dead, but in many ways, he was no different from a corpse, except that he still possessed consciousness.
No sight, no sound, no sensation—only an endless void of absolute silence!
Yet at this moment, Sasuke's mind was unnervingly clear. His thoughts moved slower and slower, gradually approaching a state of complete stillness.
But Sasuke knew he had to force himself to think. Once his thoughts stopped...
...it would mean he couldn't endure the absolute silence and nothingness that had pressed upon him for over two years, reducing him to a sentient vegetable, devoid of all sensation.
"Heaven has bestowed upon us..."
Sasuke tried to recall an ancient poem or prose, but his thoughts moved agonizingly slowly.
Though it felt like nearly a day had passed, he hadn't even finished reciting the opening lines of the text in his mind. Uttering that single, vented phrase had consumed almost another day.
This drove him to the brink of madness, even though he knew the accumulated isolation of over two years wouldn't be easily endured.
The sheer difficulty of the task right from the start far exceeded his expectations.
In his previous life, psychologists had proposed a theory: when subjected to absolute darkness and absolute silence—a state distinct from confinement in a small, dark room or solitary confinement—time stretches infinitely.
A few hours would feel like decades, and a single day could drive even the most hardened warrior to complete collapse.
Such terrifying isolation could plunge anyone into madness, ultimately reducing them to a vegetative state, devoid of all awareness.
This was precisely the situation Sasuke now faced, compounded by over two years of accumulated solitude. In that distorted perception of time, even a rough estimate placed the perceived duration at several centuries.
Driven to the brink, Sasuke quickly descended into frenzy, madness, and hysteria. Yet, as time wore on, his emotional fluctuations gradually faded, replaced by an unsettling calm.
This wasn't a sign of progress. His mental activity was also fading, and the bioelectric currents that sustained his body were slowly disappearing.
Fortunately, just as Sasuke's mental fluctuations were nearing zero, the support he had left outside arrived.
Waves of memories from dozens of Shadow Clones—images of orchids blooming in secluded valleys, their tranquil, water-like stillness and serene detachment—flowed into Sasuke's collapsing consciousness, jolting him awake.
Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief as the Shadow Clones' meditation steadily reinforced his mind. He felt his mental state gradually improving, his thoughts beginning to regain their clarity.
In that brief moment, Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if he had gone too far.
He suspected that the negative emotions he had poured into Ido over the years had long been eroded away by the overwhelming solitude and boundless emptiness.
Why else would he only sense loneliness, without a trace of resentment or malice?
He even questioned whether the Shadow Clones he had left outside were enough to withstand this unending isolation and void.
Steadying himself, Sasuke steeled his mind and plunged back into the boundless solitude. This was only the beginning.
Time drifted by, stretching into what felt like countless years, though only a few hours had passed.
Nearly two-thirds of the Shadow Clones he had left outside had already dissipated.
During this time, Sasuke constantly reviewed his memories in his mind to reaffirm his existence and maintain his train of thought.
Just as Sasuke's consciousness began to blur once again, his spirit flickering like a candle flame in the wind, his thoughts suddenly returned to normal.
An unimaginably divine and indescribable ocular technique emerged in his mind:
Amenotokotachi!
In mythology, Amenotokotachi is one of the five ancient gods who emerged during the creation of heaven and earth.
Legend has it that as heaven and earth were taking shape, a reed-like sprout floating in the void transformed into Amenotokotachi.
Another interpretation suggests that this reed sprout was the manifestation of the world's temporal river.
Amenotokotachi represents the eternal constancy of heaven and earth, the god who governs time itself!
This ability, forged in Ido Sasuke's long, solitary existence, was the Seventh Sense of Time.
What is the Seventh Sense?
The Seventh Sense refers to a heightened sensitivity to time, also known as psychological time perception.
It's the human consciousness's ability to simulate the future and analyze it based on past memories—essentially the body's own "biological clock."
In Buddhism and Yogacara philosophy, the Seventh Sense is also known as the Manas Consciousness, the seventh consciousness beyond the six senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind).
Buddhism and Yogacara view the Manas Consciousness as a constant, unchanging entity that perpetually generates egoistic attachment due to its relative permanence.
This aligns with the mythological figure Amenotokotachi, who represents the eternal constancy of heaven and earth.
In his previous life, Sasuke possessed a sixth sense-like "heart-sense" and an extraordinarily keen visual perception ability derived from his sixth consciousness, the "conscious mind."
His other personality, Ido, naturally inherited this power as well.
In a sense, Ido Sasuke and Sasuke are the same person.
However, Ido's thoughts and actions are far more extreme, leaning heavily toward humanity's innate desires and primal instincts.
On that infinitely stretched timeline, even as Sasuke continuously provoked Ido with negative emotions, turning them into nourishment for his growth...
Yet Ido still teetered on the brink of collapse, trapped in a nightmarish dream of profound, agonizing stillness.
Absolute nothingness, like a black hole, relentlessly devoured his sense of self. He couldn't even feel pain or despair; even overwhelming negative emotions eventually failed to rouse Ido Sasuke.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Ido Sasuke would have ultimately perished from the dissolution of his consciousness.
But somehow, at the very brink of annihilation, he awakened a unique power, averting his impending demise.
The Seventh Sense of Time: Amenotokotachi!
This ability's essence lies in regulating the body's biological clock, mastering one's perception of time, and controlling the flow of time within oneself.
Sasuke only glimpsed the tip of the iceberg of this Dōjutsu's true potential, yet he was profoundly shaken.
Its capabilities were simply too immense!
Among the Mangekyō Dōjutsu, there exist some truly "broken" abilities.
Take Uchiha Obito's Kamui, for instance, which played a pivotal role even in the battle against Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, a Bloodline Reticulation-level threat.
Yet even Obito's dual Kamui couldn't rival the power of Amenotokotachi.
Though it consumed immense chakra and imposed severe limitations, if Sasuke truly unleashed this dōjutsu, even Ōtsutsuki Kaguya wouldn't be able to evade his attack, and he could easily dodge Might Guy's Night Guy.
It was practically a glitch within a glitch!
"A pity... this power I cannot control remains but a fleeting illusion, a flower in the mirror, a moon in the water."
Sasuke's gaze was cold, his voice tinged with the weight of ages. Though he had endured long periods of solitude, his heart had inevitably been deeply affected.
Amenotokotachi was Ido Sasuke's dōjutsu, not Sasuke's own.
To obtain this dōjutsu, Sasuke simply needed to allow Ido Sasuke's personality to dominate.
But this would transform Sasuke into an utterly apathetic being—a man devoid of emotion.
Ambition, desire, instinct, dreams—all would fade like passing clouds, leaving his heart untouched by even the slightest ripple.
Though Sasuke felt a pang of regret at losing this formidable dōjutsu, he harbored little true remorse.
As Sasuke sighed softly, the three tomoe in his eyes spun faster and faster, gradually merging into a single, swirling pattern.
Simultaneously, Ido Sasuke's figure began to dissolve into nothingness.
Suddenly, in the very instant Ido Sasuke vanished, a mass of crimson-black sludge erupted from the spot where he had been, lunging directly at Sasuke.
Pain, sorrow, confusion, anger, loneliness, fear, emptiness, jealousy, hatred, loss, despair—all the negative emotions humanity could possess were condensed within the black mud.
A single touch would be enough to corrode anyone who came into contact with it.
Sasuke wasn't surprised and allowed the mass of black mud to rush toward him.
Ido Sasuke's negative emotions had never vanished; they had merely been sealed away.
With Ido Sasuke's disappearance, this massive reservoir of negative emotions erupted to the surface.
In an instant, the area around Sasuke transformed into a vast, dark crimson swamp of black mud, as if this place had become hell itself. Countless churning waves of black mud and mist enveloped Sasuke.
This black mud and mist pulsed with potent Yin Release energy, but their overwhelming negative will was equally intense. Even distant observers could sense an infinite dread and despair emanating from it.
Externally, Sasuke's motionless body suddenly erupted with a dense killing intent and overwhelming desires, sending chills down the spine!
Sensing this shift, the shadow clones silently dispelled themselves and returned to the main body.
At this point, fewer than a hundred shadow clones remained active outside Sasuke's main body.
"Beastly desires... murder, consumption, plunder."
Sasuke murmured softly.
Compared to the endless solitude he had endured, these chillingly negative emotions now seemed insignificant.
After all, any negative emotion paled in comparison to the void itself.
Within his inner world, a crimson light suddenly pierced the sky, spawning countless swirling black clouds that rained down black droplets without end.
In a trance-like state, Sasuke seemed to witness a grotesque seed descend from the heavens and burrow into the earth.
Over millennia, it grew into a towering tree that blotted out the sun and obscured the sky.
Ultimately, the tree transformed into a ten-tailed monstrosity that annihilated all life on the planet, seizing its resources and energy.
The Uchiha clan were inheritors of the Ten-Tails' yin-infused bloodline. This primordial entity, capable of traversing the cosmos to devour planets and their resources, embodied the essence of plunder, destruction, and consumption.
Sasuke silently observed this spectacle.
No other Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan could have glimpsed such a vision from the depths of their genetic memory.
Yet Sasuke had witnessed it.
His awakening of the Mangekyō Sharingan was utterly unique, unprecedented, and likely to remain unparalleled.
Scientists remain divided on whether ancestral memories are encoded within biological genes.
However, players who had spent countless hours immersed in games like Assassin's Creed and Dynasty Warriors vehemently insisted on its existence, clinging to their conviction with unwavering certainty.
'Takamimusubi!'
As the black mud continuously merged into Sasuke's body, the name of a Dōjutsu surfaced in his mind.
Takamimusubi, whose full name is Takamimusubi-no-Kami, also known as Divine King Takamimusubi-no-Mikoto and Takamimusubi-no-Ōkami, is one of the Five Pillar Gods in Japanese mythology.
He is the deity of reproductive and creative energy, representing the universe's generative force.
In myth, Takamimusubi-no-Kami symbolizes creation, generation, and reproduction as the supreme deity.
Yet this Dōjutsu's effects are precisely the opposite, and remarkably simple.
Consume, absorb, plunder!
It devours others' Chakra, even the energy and resources of the universe, seizing their vitality to strengthen oneself.
It was the epitome of demonic arts, perfectly embodying the Ten-Tails' inherent nature: to devour the worlds, plundering all that exists.
'What a pity...'
Sasuke sighed inwardly.
Though this Dōjutsu rivaled the power of Amenotokotachi, he still chose to abandon it.
As with the previous flaw, selecting this Dōjutsu would again drastically alter his temperament, reducing him to a beast driven solely by primal instincts and desires.
One choice would turn him into a cold, emotionless automaton, devoid of human sentiment.
One was a beast driven by primal instincts and desire.
He wanted neither.
Moreover, Sasuke yearned to discover the true nature of his own awakened Mangekyō Dōjutsu.
Compared to these two techniques, his own awakened Dōjutsu would undoubtedly have far fewer drawbacks.
Three days later, Sasuke, who had been in a deep slumber, slowly opened his eyes.
His stark black-and-white eyes swirled with a mix of emotions: confusion, weariness, indifference, icy coldness, and more.
They then transformed into crimson, bloodshot eyes, twisted with insatiable hunger, brutality, devouring intent, and murderous intent.
Finally, they gradually settled into calm, and Sasuke's eyes spun faster and faster until they abruptly coalesced into an eerie, beautiful six-pointed star shape!
The Mangekyō Sharingan!
___
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