The advancement from the Mangekyo Sharingan to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was not as agonizing as the leap from the Three Tomoe. Although there was still some pain, it remained well within Qiu Xia's range of tolerance.
Once his eyes evolved into the Mangekyo Sharingan, Qiu Xia felt his spiritual power surge several times over. Beyond the raw power, new patterns manifested within his pupils, and his eyes granted him a suite of new abilities.
Regarding the patterns, his eyes had originally displayed the Taiji Diagram. Now, they had transformed into the Eight Trigrams: Qian as three solid lines, Kun as six broken, Li empty in the middle, Kan full at the center, Zhen like an upright bowl, Gen like an overturned cup, Dui with a gap at the top, and Xun broken at the bottom.
In terms of Dojutsu, in addition to his original powers of Life, Death, Devour, and Susanoo, he now possessed two more: Kotoamatsukami and Eight Trigrams. Kotoamatsukami was self explanatory, being the ability he had acquired by devouring Shisui's Mangekyo.
The Eight Trigrams ability, however, was somewhat similar to Feng Hou Qi Men. By activating the power of the trigrams, he could lay down a Qimen Domain, manipulate the formation's plate, and even alter time within the domain itself.
"I didn't expect the benefits of killing that fool to be so immense," Qiu Xia mused. "Perhaps I should take care of that other idiot, Itachi Uchiha, before moving forward."
After killing Shisui Uchiha, a realization had dawned on Qiu Xia: hiding and waiting in silence was not a long-term solution. He could choose to strike first. While Obito Uchiha was currently away from Konoha, the Third Hokage, Danzo Shimura, and the rest of the village high command were all right here.
If he confronted them directly in combat, he might not only fail to kill them but could end up being killed himself. But what if he used a curse? A Maoshan Taoist was skilled in more than just exorcising evil and catching ghosts; they were masters of the hex.
Typically, a formal priest would be restricted by the rules of their sect, never using a lethal curse unless it was an absolute last resort, often limiting themselves to mere pranks. But this was a different world. The Founding Master could hardly cross through dimensions to discipline him.
Even if the Founding Master could come here, he likely wouldn't interfere after seeing the people Qiu Xia was dealing with. They were either lunatics or villains whose crimes were too numerous to count.
Having made his decision, Qiu Xia began preparing the materials for the curse. Simultaneously, he dispatched paper puppets every night to secretly spy on the Ninjutsu scrolls collected by the Uchiha Clan. The seals guarding the scrolls might have stumped others, but they were no obstacle for him.
He easily collected hair from Itachi Uchiha, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado. Only Danzo proved difficult, as he spent most of his time hidden within the depths of Root. Qiu Xia didn't manage to secure a sample of his hair until there were only three days left in his thirty-day window.
"That bastard Danzo... because of you, I've had to wait all this time. I decided the others only deserve three knives and six holes, but for an old turtle like you, I'm going straight to Lingchi."
Deep beneath Qiu Xia's courtyard lay a hidden space he had excavated in his spare time. He practiced his cultivation there at night, only appearing in the yard during the day. This underground sanctum contained a bed,
a bookshelf, and a desk. The bookshelf held the Dharma instruments he had crafted and the Talismans he had drawn, while the desk had been arranged into a Daoist altar.
At the center of the desk sat a Bagua Mirror. Flanking the mirror were clay figures representing Itachi Uchiha, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu, and Homura. In front of their respective figures stood a straw man.
With a heart full of cold fury, Qiu Xia mixed Danzo's hair with clay to mold a figure of the man, placing it upon the altar. Then, he hand-crafted a straw man and stood it directly before Danzo's likeness.
"Heaven is clear and Earth is spiritual, Qian and Kun manifest their divinity. Grant me divine power to protect my peace. Clay as the body, straw as the soul, swiftly as if by command!" As he chanted the mantra, his fingers blurred through a series of Daoist seals.
When he finished, the straw man that had been lying before Itachi's clay figure suddenly stood bolt upright.
Seeing the straw man rise, Qiu Xia reached toward the table and snatched two wooden needles. With a swift motion, he plunged them into the straw man's eyes.
As he struck, two pits appeared in the eyes of the clay figure standing behind the straw man, and streaks of red blood began to flow down. Having blinded his target, Qiu Xia took another wooden needle and drove it into the straw man's chest. Just as before, a large amount of blood began to seep from the corresponding spot on the clay figure.
While Qiu Xia was performing his ritual, Itachi Uchiha and Kakashi were waiting in the room adjacent to the Hokage's Office. Itachi had been in a foul mood lately. His elder brother, Shisui Uchiha, had vanished mysteriously without leaving behind a single trace. The last place he had been headed was the home of an Uchiha child.
Members of the Uchiha Clan and the Anbu had searched the premises, but they found nothing. The boy was just an ordinary child. His parents were Genin who had died on the battlefield, which earned him a spot in the Ninja Academy, yet the boy had no desire to become a shinobi.
There were very few in Konoha who didn't want to be ninjas, and it was even more surprising to find one in the Uchiha Clan. However, wanting to live as a commoner wasn't unacceptable. In fact, Itachi almost wished the entire clan were ordinary people so they could better integrate into the village.
In the wake of Shisui's disappearance, the Anbu, Root, and the Uchiha Clan had all been searching for him to no avail. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. But people didn't just disappear; it was highly probable that Shisui had been murdered, though the identity of the killer remained a mystery.
It wasn't just Itachi who suspected foul play; Hiruzen Sarutobi had reached the same conclusion. He had deployed many Anbu to find the Uchiha youth he had successfully brainwashed, but they found nothing. Hiruzen suspected his wicked old comrade, Danzo, was behind it, but he had no evidence.
In truth, Hiruzen wasn't the only one blaming "The Pot King" for Shisui's disappearance. The Uchiha high command also laid the blame at Danzo's door. A person couldn't just vanish in Konoha without a trace unless a high-ranking official was involved, and among the leadership, "The Pot King" was the most hostile toward the Uchiha.
The disappearance of a genius like Shisui only fueled the growing unrest between the Uchiha and the village. Hiruzen was plagued by headaches. Part of him wanted to send the village's elite ninja to wipe out the Uchiha Clan immediately, but he feared the backlash would leave Konoha so weakened that a new Great Ninja War would erupt.
As Hiruzen sat lost in his worries, a blood-curdling scream suddenly erupted from the neighboring room. Startled, he rushed toward the source of the sound.
At the exact moment Qiu Xia drove the wooden needles into the straw man's eyes, Itachi's own eyes burst apart. Itachi had no idea what was happening; he felt only an explosion of white-hot agony.
To those standing around him, Itachi who had been on guard duty with Kakashi suddenly had his eyes rupture, spraying blood everywhere. Kakashi was shocked and immediately began scanning the surroundings, his nerves on edge.
By the time Hiruzen arrived and saw Itachi's face covered in blood and twisted in pain, his expression paled. "What happened?" he demanded. He thought to himself: Who is doing this? Isn't the situation messy enough? Shisui's death was bad enough, but Itachi was the son of Fugaku Uchiha. If Itachi died, even the Doves within the clan would not let this matter rest.
"I don't know, Lord Third. The injuries on Dark Crow appeared instantly, without any warning," Kakashi reported. But as he spoke, Itachi's screams suddenly caught in his throat. The young man, who had been standing and clutching his eyes, collapsed to the floor and grew still.
Kakashi moved forward to check Itachi's condition. His voice was shaky as he spoke: "He's dead!"
Confirming the news of Itachi's death, Hiruzen felt a mixture of fury and absolute dread. He was furious that Itachi had been killed right here in the Hokage Building, but he was terrified because he couldn't see how it was done. If the enemy could kill Itachi Uchiha so effortlessly, did that mean they could kill him just as easily?
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