Erlang Shen could be said to be the God who had left the deepest impression on Shinichi in his previous life. He still remembered watching Journey to the West as a child, believing the Monkey King was invincible, until he encountered the three-eyed heavenly God, who could fight him to a standstill and ultimately captured that utterly lawless monkey.
At that moment, the younger him had been deeply shaken.
As he grew older, he gradually learned more legends about this God and came to admire even more this righteous God who obeyed commands but not arbitrary summons, possessed immense divine powers, protected the nation and its people, yet steadfastly upheld his own convictions.
Since his future third avatar would follow the Priest system, he naturally had to choose a righteous God with a resounding title, a distinctive persona, and sufficient prestige as its template.
Thus, he decided to use the Illustrious Sage, True Lord Erlang, as the blueprint.
Therefore, the True Lord in Miroku's prophetic dream should be his future clone.
However, although he had figured out that this True Lord was indeed that True Lord, one question continued to linger in Shinichi's mind.
His third avatar had not even descended into the world yet. It was still in the planning and preparation stages. How could shrine maiden Miroku possibly foresee his future?
One had to know that all of his avatars were created through the talent on his system panel, and to this day, no one had ever detected any flaw.
Whether it was Isshiki Otsutsuki, a being akin to a God, or the Sage of Six Paths, the suspected founder of the Ninja Creed residing within the Pure Land, neither had harbored the slightest suspicion toward his Genjo avatar.
Yes, the Sage of Six Paths had seen it as well.
Because on the day the society was established, Shinichi was certain that the Sage of Six Paths had also turned his gaze toward that place.
Neither of these Godlike beings had been able to see through his current avatar. Yet, Miroku, an ordinary mortal, had been able to foresee in a dream an avatar that had not even appeared yet.
This was extremely abnormal. It could not be that Miroku's power of foresight surpassed even that of the Sage of Six Paths, could it?
"Could it be that my future self deliberately let Miroku see it?"
With that thought, such an idea could not help but arise in Shinichi's mind.
However, after pondering it for a while longer without reaching any conclusion, Shinichi stopped dwelling on it.
The future belonged to the future. Right now, he only needed to do what had to be done in the present.
At present, he possessed neither prophetic abilities nor any means of time travel, making it impossible for him to communicate with his future self.
Perhaps only his future self could take the initiative to contact his present self, and since his future self had not sent any message, that meant his future self believed there was no need.
However…
"Putting on a mystical act and making yourself look holy, only to end up showing off in front of yourself, huh?"
Shinichi silently mocked himself in his heart.
He even felt that the reason Miroku had been able to foresee the future True Lord, aside from being the officially recognized authority of the divine officer class system, was most likely because his future self was making a joke at his own expense.
In his previous life, the name Miroku had been the title of the future Buddha.
(Note: Miroku (the Japanese name for Maitreya | Buddha Maitreya - Wikipedia) is the prophesied future Buddha who is destined to descend to Earth and preach the Dharma anew when the teachings of the historical Gautama Buddha have completely faded.)
Of course, in this world it carried no such special meaning. Although Buddhism and the World-Honored One also existed here, there were ultimately still many differences.
Soon after, he stopped thinking about the matter.
However, through this encounter with Miroku, Shinichi also confirmed one thing, allowing him to finally put his mind at ease.
That was that after this great war ended, he would not disappear.
A few days ago, he inexplicably had a dream.
In the dream, after the Shinobi World War ended, he mysteriously vanished.
There was no cause, no aftermath, and no way of knowing whether he was dead or alive.
After waking up, Shinichi did not dismiss the dream as mere idle imagination but carefully reflected on it.
Someone like him should not have such a bizarre dream for no reason. Perhaps it had been a revelation?
Maybe he, Shinichi Higashino, also possessed a bit of talent for foresight?
Now it seemed he had simply been overthinking it!
...
On the morning four days later, the international humanitarian convention, which had attracted the attention of the entire Shinobi World, officially convened in the capital of the Land of Iron.
Initiator, Konoha.
Organizer, the Five Great Ninja Villages.
Observers, the various small nations, small ninja villages, and reporters from the major newspapers throughout the Shinobi World.
Even before the conference began, countless people already knew that it was destined to be a meeting filled with fierce verbal battles, political maneuvering, and perhaps even open conflict.
Everyone was secretly speculating over which side would be the first to lose its patience and overturn the table.
Would it be the conference's initiator, Konoha?
Or the Village Hidden in the Stones, which had been the first to respond while seemingly harboring other plans?
Or perhaps Village Hidden in the Cloud, long known for its overbearing and domineering style?
Or maybe Village Hidden in the Mist and the Village Hidden in the Sand, whose attitudes remained ambiguous?
Yet no one had expected that the first person to make a move would be someone absolutely no one had anticipated!
"Too troublesome!"
Inside the grand conference hall, under the stunned gazes of the representatives from the small nations, the small ninja villages, and the assembled reporters, the samurai seated at the central conference table as the Land of Iron's neutral representative suddenly stood up.
With brute force alone, he flipped the heavy round table onto the floor, sending cups, brushes, and inkstones crashing everywhere as the tremendous noise echoed throughout the silent hall.
With a cold expression and eyes as sharp as blades, Isshin swept his gaze over the equally dumbfounded representatives of the Five Great Shinobi Countries and Five Great Ninja Villages before him, along with the guards behind them, whose expressions had changed as they instinctively reached for their weapons.
"Then let's not hold it!"
The Land of Iron had spared no effort in preparing for this conference.
Not only had it meticulously arranged the travel schedules so that each delegation's journey to the capital was staggered, but it had also deliberately assigned them accommodations far apart from one another.
Whenever any delegation wished to go out and look around, the Land of Iron would also arrange guides in such a way that the representatives from the different villages were kept apart as much as possible, ensuring that the Five Great Ninja Village delegations would not meet until the conference officially began on the final day.
Whether it was the Land of Iron's careful planning that had worked or simply that the delegations of the Five Great Ninja Villages had no desire to stir up trouble at such a critical moment, everything remained peaceful until December 20, the day the conference officially commenced.
The venue was a newly constructed building that the Land of Iron had specially built for this conference.