When Uchiha Yoru and Tobirama Senju engraved the twenty-fourth sealing rune, an attractive force suddenly appeared, drawing down the faith power gathered above the shrine.
Miroku, the Miko, seemed to sense something.
She raised both hands and placed the crown she had worn two days ago upon her head. Then she took a kagura suzu in one hand and a folding fan in the other.
Right before the divine statue, the Miko dressed in white and crimson began to dance, performing an ancient kagura.
There was clearly no musical accompaniment.
Yet as her body moved, even Tobirama Senju and Uchiha Yoru, who were not looking at her, seemed to hear music in their hearts.
The ancient rhythm was slow and measured, carrying the raw flavor of a primordial age.
It complemented Miroku's movements perfectly, reenacting the reverence and prayers humanity's ancestors had once offered to the gods, thereby guiding the faith power toward the divine statue.
Gradually, Uchiha Yoru sensed a connection forming between his mind and the statue.
He did not dare neglect it.
He immediately split off part of his attention and entered the Purple Mansion world. Using the Heavenly Emperor persona, he received the incoming faith power and rapidly sorted through the faith threads within it, preventing them from directly contaminating Uchiha Yoru's true self.
Successive generations of Miko had avoided faith like the plague.
Uchiha Yoru was no different.
Ever since he had received a massive number of faith threads in the Southern Sea under his Zhurong persona, he had become aware of the danger hidden within them.
Behind every single faith thread stood someone who worshiped him, praising and flattering him day and night without pause.
Who could withstand that?
Tens of thousands of people constantly surrounding you with flattery—
That feeling would be even more intoxicating than being the Old Immortal of Xingxiu.
Give it just a little time and a person's heart would rot.
Arrogance.
Conceit.
Contempt for all living beings.
Those feelings could go straight to your head in minutes.
That was why Uchiha Yoru had hurriedly separated the persona from himself, even going so far as to use the Heart Ape as its core, all so he could keep those noisy faith threads as far away from himself as possible.
The sealing formation designed by Tobirama Senju contained a filtering function.
Even so, Uchiha Yoru could still hear the prayers and gratitude mixed within the faith power.
The Land of Demons was one of the shinobi world's famously barren regions, known for its sparse population.
But that "sparse" population was only relative to the Five Great Nations.
As a country, the Land of Demons still had a population of more than three million.
The national-level sealing formation had been integrated with the waterworks and covered roughly two-thirds of the country.
In other words, around two million people were benefiting from the waterworks.
Of those, roughly one-tenth had developed faith out of gratitude.
That was two hundred thousand faith threads.
Through those connections, the voices of two hundred thousand people poured over.
Mixed together, they became a thunderous roar like the mutterings of an evil god.
Clearly, Tobirama Senju had not designed this function well enough.
At the very least, when constructing the system, he had failed to consider complete sound isolation.
The designer himself was now hearing those terrifying voices.
Even though he currently possessed an Edo Tensei body, his face still turned pale, and even the movements of his hands slowed for a beat.
Uchiha Yoru endured the feeling of his scalp going numb and said,
"Faster."
"It should improve once we finish."
Uchiha Yoru and Tobirama Senju exchanged a glance and simultaneously accelerated their movements.
Miroku could not sense faith power herself.
But from the changes in the two men, she knew the problem was serious.
So the Miko matched their pace, quickening the rhythm of her kagura dance and accelerating the convergence of faith power.
No matter what, Uchiha Yoru was still a great Golden Core cultivator with two personas pretending to be gods.
Under the bombardment of the faith murmurs, he merely felt uncomfortable.
There was no serious harm.
Tobirama Senju was different.
Fortunately, he was already dead, so the bombardment of faith murmurs would not drive him insane.
Unfortunately, precisely because he was dead, his soul lacked the protection of a physical body and was even more fragile.
Under the assault of those countless whispers, his soul began to sway on the verge of collapse.
His Edo Tensei body was affected for the first time.
The cracks across it deepened.
Ash-like fragments began to drift away as the body showed signs of disintegration.
By the time the sealing formation was finally completed, Tobirama Senju had become almost unrecognizable.
He was only one step away from being forced out of the vessel and returned to the Pure Land.
Given his current situation, if he returned to the Pure Land, the Sage of Six Paths would certainly discover the abnormality.
And after that, who knew what he might encounter?
As the sealing formation successfully restrained the faith threads, the murmuring prayers vanished.
The world became quiet again.
Tobirama Senju looked toward Uchiha Yoru with his one remaining eye and smiled.
"My luck isn't bad."
"I can already feel the attraction of the 'Hall of Heroes.'"
He only had time to say that one sentence.
Then his entire body completely disintegrated.
His soul returned to the invisible space deep within the divine statue.
Uchiha Yoru stopped moving.
A smug smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Excellent.
Truly excellent.
At last, he had successfully snatched Tobirama Senju away from the Pure Land and turned him into something under his own control.
With this one example in hand, Uchiha Yoru could follow the same method and extract the souls he wanted from the Pure Land one after another.
But more importantly—
With Tobirama Senju in his hands, Uchiha Yoru had now effectively grasped Konoha's political legitimacy.
This kind of legitimacy did not exist in only one person.
At the very least, Tsunade possessed some as well.
Because of her strength and her status as the Third Hokage's disciple, Tsunade's legitimacy was meaningless while the Third Hokage remained alive.
But when that legitimacy fell into Uchiha Yoru's hands, his identity as an Uchiha and his current status as the strongest person in the shinobi world allowed him to bring its true power into full play.
For example—
The next time he met the Third Hokage, he would no longer merely curse him to his face.
He could directly overturn him by force.
And he would not have to worry about Konoha's morale collapsing because of it.
Konoha's foundation was excellent.
As long as the people's hearts did not collapse while dismantling the Third Hokage's faction, the village could recover rapidly.
Orochimaru had already proven his ability to everyone.
During the period when he had effectively sidelined the Third Hokage, Konoha had gained the upper hand on almost every battlefield.
Uchiha Yoru had to admit that before leaving for the Land of Demons—
No, even just a few days ago—
He had never imagined that the conditions for the Third Hokage Collapse Plan would be fulfilled even earlier than those for the Uchiha Clan Head Replacement Plan.
After Tobirama Senju entered the Hall of Heroes, Uchiha Yoru carefully sensed the interior of the divine statue and examined the state of Tobirama's soul.
The situation was extremely good.
An enormous amount of faith power flowed through the divine sealing formation and into the Purple Mansion world.
There, the two divine personas converted it into divine power.
Most of that divine power became nourishment for the Purple Mansion world.
A small portion was returned as compensation to the believers of the Land of Demons.
Only a tiny fraction of the purest divine power entered the Hall of Heroes inside the divine statue.
The proportion was extremely small.
But the total amount was anything but.
For Tobirama Senju's soul, it exceeded his requirements by hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.
Bathed in abundant divine power, the damage to Tobirama Senju's soul healed at astonishing speed.
At this rate, it would only take two days for him to return to a normal state.
In other words—
Two days from now, Tobirama Senju could be summoned with Edo Tensei again in perfect condition.
And two days was just enough time for Uchiha Yoru to fly back to Konoha.
Uchiha Yoru's heart began pounding violently.
In only an instant, he decided to change the order of his plans.
He would return to the village now and bring the Third Hokage down.
He did not want to wait another moment.
Uchiha Yoru turned to Miroku.
"Everything here is finished."
"From now on, all we need to do is wait for the faith power to accumulate and for the Hall of Heroes to stabilize."
Miroku immediately understood the implication.
She asked in surprise,
"Yoru-sama, are you returning to Konoha?"
Uchiha Yoru revealed a bright, open smile.
"Yes."
"I'm going back to Konoha."
"There's one major problem there that has troubled me for nineteen years."
"It's time to resolve it."
Miroku heard the killing intent hidden in his words.
That dense murderous intent felt like a volcano that had accumulated pressure to its absolute limit and was about to erupt.
Every hair on her body stood on end.
The Miko suppressed the fear filling her heart and lowered her head respectfully.
"I wish you a safe journey."
"Please don't worry about the Land of Demons."
"I'll handle everything here."
Uchiha Yoru was already walking outside impatiently.
Without looking back, he replied,
"Then I'll leave it to you."
He was so eager that after striding out of the shrine's side hall, he directly leapt high into the air and shot toward the heavens.
Miroku hurried after him.
But by the time she stepped outside, she only caught a brief glimpse of Uchiha Yoru's silhouette flashing across the sky.
Then he vanished beyond the horizon.
She softly exhaled and whispered,
"That terrifying man is finally gone."
Uchiha Yoru had no idea that, in Miroku's eyes, he had resembled a monster from the very beginning.
An incomparably enormous monster—
Yet one that behaved awkwardly, restrained its limbs, and constantly held itself back.
To the Miko, this monster resembled the elephants of the south.
When young, they were tied down with hemp ropes.
Even after growing up and gaining enough strength to snap those ropes effortlessly, they failed to realize it and remained restrained by something they could easily break.
What frightened Miroku most was that this monster seemed to have finally realized that the shackles which had once terrified him could no longer bind him.
But instead of immediately breaking free, he kept testing them.
Pulling once.
Then again.
Probing.
Testing.
That was precisely what Miroku feared most.
If Uchiha Yoru suddenly shattered those restraints, he might recklessly unleash his power in a frenzy.
The Land of Demons could never withstand his madness.
Miroku had even secretly decided long ago that if the worst possible situation occurred, she would immediately surrender and hand everything in the Land of Demons over to Uchiha Yoru.
Perhaps he would show mercy toward something that belonged to him.
Fortunately, things had not developed in the worst direction.
When the monster named Uchiha Yoru finally broke free of its restraints, he chose someone in Konoha as his target.
He flew away without the slightest hesitation.
Miroku sensed Uchiha Yoru's aura rising higher and higher.
In the sky, it spread its fangs and claws like a true colossal beast.
The more she sensed it, the more fortunate she felt that both she and the Land of Demons had been spared.
The Miko remained standing in the courtyard, staring blankly at the sky.
Only after Uchiha Yoru's presence disappeared completely did her entire body go weak.
She collapsed onto the ground.
"Miko-sama!"
Cries of alarm rang out.
The shrine maidens and priests who had seen Miroku fall could no longer restrain themselves and rushed over.
Among them was someone carrying Shion.
The moment Miroku saw her daughter, strength returned to her body.
She immediately stepped forward, took Shion into her arms, and deeply inhaled the milky fragrance of her daughter.
Only then did she finally relax completely.
Afterward, she gave an order.
"Go."
"Tell those Konoha shinobi that Yoru-sama has already left."
"Remember to find the mission document and give it to them."
"Have them take it back to Konoha."
Uchiha Yoru had broken free of his restraints and departed with the carefree freedom of a flood dragon ascending to the heavens.
He did not care in the slightest whether the mission was officially considered complete.
But Miroku could not afford to be so careless.
She had to properly handle all the loose ends for him.
Once the divine statue in the side hall had been established, it became the focal point for gathering the Land of Demons' faith power.
That was equivalent to placing the entire country into the hands of Uchiha Yoru, who could control faith power.
Miroku could imagine that if Uchiha Yoru wished, he could directly use this place to destroy every waterworks facility in the Land of Demons.
No.
He would not even need to act through this place.
If Uchiha Yoru could build the Land of Demons' waterworks in two days, then he could destroy them all in one.
Destruction was always easier than construction.
Thinking of this, Miroku addressed everyone around her.
"From now on, the Land of Demons will exist under the protection of Yoru-sama."
"Every one of you must show him sufficient respect."
The attendant shrine maidens and priests exchanged glances.
Although they found the order somewhat inexplicable, they still accepted it.
The Miko had ruled the Land of Demons for more than a thousand years.
Obeying her commands had long since become instinct for everyone.
…
Uchiha Yoru flew through the sky.
His heart pounded wildly.
His blood flowed like blazing magma, scorching him until he nearly went mad.
Miroku's guess had been completely correct.
He had broken free of the shackles within his heart.
And those shackles were not merely the ones accumulated across the nineteen years of this life.
There were also the golden chains of forty years from his previous life.
Just as Master Zhishen had suddenly attained enlightenment before his death, Uchiha Yoru had likewise experienced a sudden enlightenment.
At last, he had completely shattered his old outlook on life and values.
The final flash of inspiration had come when Tobirama Senju entered the Hall of Heroes.
But what had truly shattered his worldview had been the previous two days, when he had constructed waterworks across the entire Land of Demons.
While resting in that half-awake state afterward, he had repeatedly examined everything he had done.
Across nearly sixty years of life between two worlds, the firm conviction—
"I am human."
—had shattered.
No human could construct an entire nation alone.
He had done it.
No human could destroy an entire nation alone.
He could.
Therefore—
He, Uchiha Yoru, was no longer human.
Ah.
I'm not human anymore.
Peh!
Why the hell am I not human?
I'm not Dio!
Then what am I?
An immortal?
A monster?
Of course I'm an immortal!
In truth, after the faith power woke him, Uchiha Yoru had appeared conscious, but most of his mind had been trapped in this looping train of thought.
It occupied the majority of his attention.
He was like someone riding a bicycle while lost in thought.
Relying on his long-practiced ability to divide his attention, he had cooperated with Tobirama Senju and Miroku to complete the faith-power seal almost automatically.
Then, at the end, Uchiha Yoru had watched Tobirama Senju's body disintegrate.
His soul had entered the Hall of Heroes.
In other words—
It had fallen completely under Uchiha Yoru's control.
That absolute control over a renowned heroic spirit made him feel his own difference with unprecedented clarity.
At last, he confirmed it.
He was no longer an ordinary "human."
In that instant, Uchiha Yoru shattered the golden rope and tore apart the jade lock.
At last, he understood who he was.
He was not the timid old neighborhood policeman from his previous life, who had worked hard for twenty years and still lived cautiously.
He was not the Uchiha shinobi who had hidden his Sharingan in fear, constantly worried that he might suddenly die.
He was Uchiha Yoru.
The first true immortal of the shinobi world.
Relying on intuition alone, he had pioneered the Golden Core Great Dao.
After his success, every so-called immortal that had existed in the shinobi world before him could only be called a monster.
Zhurong, the Fire Spirit God worshiped by more than a hundred thousand believers in the Capital of Rivers—
That was his persona.
The Heavenly Emperor, to whom two hundred thousand people in the Land of Demons now offered sincere gratitude—
That was also his persona.
Oh.
And he was Miwa Masayo's Dao Companion.
At the thought of the tabby cat, a trace of tenderness flashed through Uchiha Yoru's eyes.
Then it was buried beneath endless majesty and indifference.
For some inexplicable reason, he slowed down.
He stood quietly in midair.
Then he suddenly raised his right hand and looked at it.
Afterward, he placed it against his forehead.
His long fingers spread apart like a comb.
He slowly swept them backward through his hair.
The bangs that had originally fallen over his forehead followed the movement of his fingers and slicked neatly backward.
Uchiha Yoru's smooth forehead was revealed.
His three-ring Mangekyō Sharingan was displayed without the slightest concealment.
Combined with his sharply defined sword-like eyebrows, his entire aura became imposing, fierce, and majestic.
A water mirror appeared in the air.
Uchiha Yoru looked at his new hairstyle and could not help laughing.
"So the hair-slicking pose really is useful."
"I guess that completes the ritual I was missing."
"Right."
"I should say something too."
"What should I say?"
"With great power…"
"Comes great authority!"
"Hahaha, amusing."
Uchiha Yoru laughed softly.
At this moment, his mind was clearer than ever.
He knew exactly what he wanted.
The Third Hokage's life.
Using it as the final sacrifice for his metamorphosis—
There could hardly be anything more suitable.
Uchiha Yoru clasped his hands behind his back.
His gaze sharpened slightly.
Then he suddenly accelerated forward, entering the vast desert skies of the Land of Wind.
His return speed was far greater than when he had traveled to the Land of Demons.
In only half a day, he crossed the Land of Wind and entered the Land of Rivers.
At that moment, the biological clock inside Uchiha Yoru's mind suddenly rang.
He remembered.
It was time for the Divine Court Meeting he had announced in the name of the Heavenly Emperor.
His brows furrowed slightly.
For the first time, he hesitated over whether he should continue maintaining the Divine Court Meetings.
Now that his self-perception had changed, he could openly step forward and publicly seize power.
As a secret organization, the Divine Court Meeting no longer seemed nearly as valuable.
But if he simply ignored it, he would be breaking his word.
That did not sit well with him.
Uchiha Yoru's brows relaxed.
Since it bothered him—
Then he would do it.
He stopped.
Instead of descending to the ground, he flew even higher.
Only when his body encountered a stable crosswind and the temperature dropped below freezing did he finally stop.
High above the Land of Rivers, Uchiha Yoru withdrew his mind inward.
He sent most of his consciousness into the Purple Mansion world.
Then his consciousness split into three.
Within the Divine Court's great hall, he manifested as the Heavenly Emperor, Zhurong, and Uchiha Yoru himself.
This time, the process was smooth and natural.
His mind naturally divided into three distinct personalities.
It was as if he had genuinely become three separate people.
And yet, simultaneously, he clearly knew that all three were Uchiha Yoru.
That mysterious sensation suddenly stirred a faint realization within him.
But it remained indistinct.
He could not grasp it clearly.
Uchiha Yoru knew that the conditions for this insight were not yet complete, so he simply set it aside.
The Heavenly Emperor raised a hand.
Following the lines of karma and faith, He flicked lightly.
A signal announcing the imminent meeting was sent to everyone.
Then He silently counted ten minutes.
Once the time was up, He reached out again.
With a gentle pull, everyone was drawn into the Divine Court's great hall.
The Divine Court Meeting began.
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