Chapter 398: Yomi's Choice
Ishiro unfastened the bell containing the Priestess's power from his neck and handed it back to Miroku. "Lady Priestess, this bell is returned to you. Thanks to this, otherwise I might not have been able to defeat Mōryō."
Miroku looked at the bell for a moment but did not immediately take it. She raised her head, looked at Ishiro, and said, "Lord Tsuchikage, as per our agreement, from now on, the Land of Demons officially joins Iwagakure's alliance. Iwagakure may establish a branch within the Land of Demons, and the Land of Demons will provide military funds for Iwagakure, just like the Land of Snow."
Ishiro didn't understand why Miroku didn't take the bell, but he still smiled and nodded. "I will send people to liaise with you, Lady Priestess. We will still need your cooperation for the subsequent construction of the branch."
Miroku did not speak directly. She thought for a moment and said, "Lord Tsuchikage, Mōryō has been completely sealed. The profession of the Priestess is no longer necessary. I do not wish to be a Priestess anymore, nor do I wish for Shion to continue as one in the future. Therefore, from now on, let the Land of Demons be directly managed by Iwagakure."
"Since this bell containing the Priestess's power is helpful to you, Lord Tsuchikage, please accept it as a gift. Mōryō has been sealed; there is no use in keeping it."
Whenever Miroku remembered that the Mōryō her ancestors had continuously sealed with their lives had been so easily dealt with by Ishiro, she felt a certain resistance to the title of "Priestess" in her heart.
Ishiro thought for a moment. Miroku's proposal was certainly beneficial to Iwagakure, but the village could not interfere in a country's internal politics; otherwise, it would be ostracized by all the Daimyo.
So, Ishiro said to Miroku, "Since you no longer wish to be a Priestess, then be a Daimyo. From today on, you are the Daimyo of the Land of Demons."
"Daimyo?" Miroku was taken aback. It can be like that? She thought about how other countries had Daimyo, while her own did not, which made them seem a bit out of step. So, she did not refuse.
"However, there is one more thing I need your cooperation on, Daimyo Miroku. For the time being, do not announce what has happened these past few days. Wait a few more days, and make it public only when I notify you," Ishiro said.
Although Miroku found it strange, she was tactful enough not to ask too many questions and directly nodded in agreement.
Next, while leading everyone back to the capital of the Land of Demons, Ishiro had a detailed chat with Miroku about matters concerning their cooperation.
After concluding the affairs in the Land of Demons, Ishiro planned to take his disciples back to Iwagakure. A small incident occurred during this time. Little Shion was having so much fun playing with the two Tailed Beasts that she refused to be separated from them.
When little Shion was hugging Little Chōmei and refused to let go, Miroku stepped forward to try and pull her hand away. As a result, the anxious little Shion accidentally used the power of Mōryō, directly flinging Miroku's hand away. If not for the fact that Miroku herself also possessed the Priestess's power, she would have likely been injured.
Ishiro saw it clearly. This power was not exactly the same as the Mōryō he had fought for so long. Upon careful distinction, this power should be a new energy produced by little Shion fusing her own power with the scattered power of Mōryō.
It seemed that sealing Mōryō within Shion's body was the right choice.
After Miroku finally managed to persuade little Shion to let go, Ishiro's party was at last able to return safely.
Upon parting, Ishiro said to Miroku, "As for the part of Mōryō's power that broke the seal and escaped, our Iwagakure will send people to search for it. Please also pay close attention, Daimyo Miroku."
Miroku nodded, then thanked Ishiro again.
...
In a dark underground location somewhere in the ninja world, a young man stood before a pile of terracotta soldiers, performing some kind of ritual. Suddenly, a dark aura within his body began to fluctuate violently.
The young man was disturbed, and the ritual, which was halfway through, had to be stopped.
A long time later, the fluctuation ended. The young man felt the changes in his body, and his face became extremely ugly.
"How is this possible? How could Mōryō be sealed? There is still a long time before the Priestess's inspection of the seal. Who discovered the loophole?" the young man muttered to himself, unwilling to accept it.
"And even if Mōryō was sealed, the dark power within my body shouldn't have changed like this! Could it be that some other accident happened to Mōryō?"
"How is this possible? Mōryō is immortal and indestructible. Should I go check on Mōryō's seal? What if there's a trap? No matter who sealed Mōryō, they must know that I stole its power."
The young man was caught in a mental struggle.
His name was Yomi, the very person who had stolen Mōryō's power before. He had used his own body to carry a part of its power, with the goal of using this dark energy to grant "life" to the terracotta soldiers before him, to have them help him completely break Mōryō's seal. But he hadn't expected that before his own preparations had even begun, an accident would happen on Mōryō's side.
Yomi hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he gave up on the plan to control the terracotta soldiers with Mōryō's power. If something had happened to Mōryō, then the power he possessed would diminish with every use. It was no longer worth it to waste power controlling the terracotta soldiers.
So, Yomi ultimately left this underground space.
Under the flap of Ishiro's butterfly wings, unlike in the original story, Yomi had embarked on the path of developing dark medical ninjutsu ahead of schedule.
...
After returning to Iwagakure, Ishiro immediately convened the high-ranking officials and began to prepare for the cleanup of rogue ninja and bandits in the surrounding countries.
Ishiro said, "This cleanup operation, we must make it sufficiently high-profile. The momentum must be great, to make the other four great nations feel the pressure."
"But we must also let those small countries feel our sincerity. We cannot let them feel any pressure, or think that we will invade them. We must make it clear to them in advance that we are only suppressing bandits and will not make any excessive moves."
"If the Daimyo of these small countries have any requests, such as where we can't go, or if there are any restrictions on the number of people we send out to suppress bandits, we will satisfy them all."
"In any case, there is only one goal: to make the other four great nations think that we want to expand, but on the side of these small and medium-sized countries, they cannot have any hostility towards us."
"As for whether we really eliminate a large number of rogue ninja in the end, that's not important. Ikura, you will be personally in charge of this matter. With you, a Kage-level shinobi and advisor, personally leading it, we can also increase the momentum."
Ikura said, "Don't worry, I understand the measure."
After arranging the bandit suppression matters, Ishiro said again, "I have obtained some special spiritual bodies from Mōryō. We need to establish a soul-related research group to specifically study this thing."
"Although Mōryō has lived for a long time, it is still uncertain whether these tentacles that have left its body can exist for a long time. So, the relevant research must be arranged as soon as possible. This kind of materialized soul research material is not easy to come by."
Bella said, "The village already has quite a few experiments like this. Adding one more is not a big deal. Is it dangerous? Do we need to build a separate laboratory?"
Ishiro shook his head. "No need. This research is very safe."
Most of Iwagakure's research was conducted together in the place where Ishiro had previously taken the Gedo Statue fragment. That place was heavily guarded by a large number of Anbu, and the security was very high. But some research was separate, such as the research on natural energy. This was too dangerous and not suitable to be placed with other research. Another example was the shrine that Ishiro had moved back. It was unknown what kind of existence was sealed in that statue, so Ishiro had also placed it separately outside the village.
Bella nodded. "As long as it's not dangerous. There are still empty rooms over at the laboratory. After you've arranged the researchers, just have them go there directly."
Ishiro thought for a moment. "I'm afraid no one in our village can study this thing. I will temporarily serve as the head of the research group. Let Katsumata and Natsuki be my deputies."
Bella had no objection to this. Ishiro had just brought back an entire Land of Demons; a small matter like this was naturally not a problem.
After the matters were arranged, Ishiro began his research on Mōryō's tentacles. In truth, he didn't have many clues about this research himself. So, in his capacity as Tsuchikage, he directly summoned all the ninja in the village who were even slightly proficient in genjutsu, intending to brainstorm.
This research was different from the previous research on the shrine. There was no rush with the shrine; after Ishiro had thrown the task to Katsumata and Natsuki, he didn't have to manage it. Periodically checking on their research results to judge if they were of any use to him was all he needed to do. As for how long the two of them would conduct the research, he didn't really care.
But the research on Mōryō's tentacles had a time limit. No one knew when these tentacles would dissipate. So, Ishiro had summoned a large number of ninja to participate in this research.
In the laboratory, Ishiro and the others looked at Mōryō's tentacles, marveling. After a simple test, everyone first confirmed that these things were indeed solid entities, but they were completely different from the bodies of normal living beings, and also different from any known substance.
"Master Ishiro, it seems that the Yin Release training levels we summarized before were not wrong. The manifestation of high-level Yin Release is a condensed, materialized soul," Katsumata analyzed.
"Although the volume of these tentacles is large, their weight is very light. Compared to a human body of the same volume, the weight is less than one percent. Master Ishiro, you should have noticed Mōryō's weight when you brought its main body from underground to the sky, right?"
Ishiro nodded. "That's right. Mōryō's weight is not at all as exaggerated as its body. At that time, I was prepared for huge consumption, but the result was surprising. Bringing Mōryō to a high altitude didn't consume much of my chakra at all."
"In addition, I also have a guess. The weight of a soul may be a reflection of its degree of condensation. I estimate that Mōryō is still far from the true fourth stage; otherwise, it shouldn't be so light. But it may be in a transitional period from the third stage to the fourth."
Katsumata nodded thoughtfully.
(End of Chapter)
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 35 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you