Uchiha Yoru nodded and said, "As long as you've made up your mind. Now tell me where Mōryō is, what condition it's currently in, and everything you know about it."
Miroku replied, "Mōryō is inside an underground temple in the Land of Swamps. In fact, it hasn't completely broken free of its seal yet."
Miwa Masayo asked, "It hasn't completely broken free of the seal... What does that mean, meow?"
Miroku respectfully replied, "Lady Miwa Masayo, the relationship between the priestess and Mōryō is unusual. The power used to seal Mōryō actually originates from Mōryō itself."
"Because the power comes from the same source, no matter how tightly the seal is constructed, Mōryō's power can still seep through it."
"After several decades of accumulation, the power that leaks through gathers together and condenses within a certain human, forming a portion of Mōryō that exists outside the seal."
A strange smile appeared on Uchiha Yoru's face.
"Wait. Don't tell me this human is the so-called Yomi?"
Miroku lowered her head and quietly replied, "You are correct. It is Yomi."
Miwa Masayo stared dumbfounded, while Uchiha Yoru burst into laughter.
This was simply too interesting.
The Land of Demons had maintained its inheritance for a thousand years, giving rise to countless dramatic and stirring legends.
Yet in the end, all of it was nothing more than infighting within a single super-lifeform.
There truly was nothing new under the sun.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the tendencies of the same world were always similar.
If one looked down upon the history of the shinobi world over the past several thousand years from a sufficiently high perspective, one would discover that practically all of it amounted to relatives fighting amongst themselves.
The great struggle of the shinobi world wasn't truly a war among the Five Great Shinobi Villages or the Five Great Nations.
It was an internal family dispute within the Ōtsutsuki clan centered around how their mother should be treated.
The centuries-long conflict between the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan had always been shrouded in the shadow of a philosophical dispute between two brothers.
That shadow even continued into Konoha's internal struggles, clinging to the village like maggots burrowing into bone and continuously consuming the lives of Konoha shinobi.
The Land of Demons had gone one step further.
This was infighting created after a single lifeform split itself apart.
The main portion, Mōryō, wanted to devour the smaller portion known as the priestess, while the priestess sealed away the irrational main body in order to preserve herself.
Meanwhile, the sealed Mōryō created a third portion, Yomi, who tirelessly worked to help Mōryō devour the priestess.
Uchiha Yoru curiously asked, "Does Yomi not know that he's also a part of Mōryō? Doesn't he want to preserve his current independence?"
Miroku replied, "I've had contact with Yomi before. He firmly believes that he is human. He firmly believes that after releasing Mōryō, he will be able to control it, gain its immortal and indestructible power, and ultimately dominate the entire shinobi world."
Uchiha Yoru praised, "Using desire to drive a puppet into action. Mōryō's method of controlling Yomi is quite sophisticated. How did it accomplish that? Or did it form naturally?"
This time, Miroku shook her head.
"I don't know. In my impression, this seems to have been an accidental result rather than something Mōryō deliberately created."
She didn't know, yet she had an impression of it.
The priestess's explanation only made things more confusing.
Miwa Masayo curiously asked about this contradiction.
Miroku smiled bitterly.
"That is also the result of an accident—and an accident that I myself don't fully understand."
She then explained her own circumstances to Miwa Masayo and Uchiha Yoru.
Originally, the conflict among the three portions of the same lifeform had been very clear.
Mōryō was immortal and indestructible. It could only be sealed, not killed.
The priestess's essence was indestructible as well, but her physical body was merely human and possessed only a lifespan of several decades.
She passed herself down by giving birth to a daughter.
All of the priestess's power—including her memories and emotions—would be perfectly inherited by her daughter.
The original priestess appeared to have been passed down from generation to generation, but in reality, she had always been the same person.
It was, quite literally, giving birth to herself.
The original Yomi, meanwhile, had been an ignorant puppet who merely followed instinct and helped the main body break free from its seal.
He had been very easy to deal with.
Thus, during the first several hundred years, the priestess could always defeat Yomi with ease and successfully reseal Mōryō.
However, no matter how simple something was, after continuing for a thousand years, accidents were inevitably bound to occur.
During several such accidents, Mōryō was the first to develop problems.
It lost its rationality and transformed from an intelligent lifeform into a chaotic monster.
It charged wildly down the path of madness until it could no longer even maintain its own existence, ultimately becoming a mass of energy.
That change allowed Mōryō to successfully merge with the earth.
The difficulty of sealing it increased dramatically, and in the most recent generations, the process had even become dangerous enough to force the priestesses to die while sealing it.
Mōryō's collapse into madness also freed Yomi.
He became deeply fused with the human body he inhabited, transforming from an ignorant puppet into an ambitious creature overflowing with desire.
Finally, problems also appeared in the priestess's inheritance.
Perhaps because the increasing difficulty of the sealing ritual had caused several consecutive priestesses to die, their memories could no longer be passed down to the next generation.
All that remained were vague impressions.
From that point onward, consecutive generations of priestesses became truly mother and daughter.
By now, everything in the Land of Demons had become a tangled mess.
Forget outsiders like Miwa Masayo and Uchiha Yoru—even the priestess herself could no longer explain everything clearly.
Miroku smiled.
"From the prophecy I just received, I learned that you have the ability to deal with Mōryō and Yomi."
"I also discovered that even if I die because Mōryō dies, Shion won't die with me."
"My daughter won't even inherit the priestess's power used to seal Mōryō."
"She'll completely escape the cycle of the priestesses and become a true human being."
"The fate that has trapped the priestesses of the Land of Demons into sealing Mōryō generation after generation will end completely with her."
Miroku stared at her daughter.
Her gaze contained sorrow and relief, along with a trace of fear she couldn't completely suppress.
She was a living human being.
Fear of death was perfectly normal.
Uchiha Yoru remained silent for a while before asking, "You've already seen the future. Shouldn't you know your own fate? Why are you still afraid of dying?"
Miroku explained, "Because prophecy has never been reliable."
"Every scene I see is merely a possible future, and it isn't necessarily even the most likely possibility."
"Judging from my experience, as long as you come into conflict with Mōryō, there's a possibility that it will die."
"And if it dies, there's also a possibility that I'll die with it."
Uchiha Yoru nodded in agreement.
"The future has never been fixed, while the past cannot be changed."
He greatly admired Miroku's attitude toward prophecy.
She placed great importance on her foresight while remaining sufficiently cautious, never blindly believing in or relying upon it.
Moreover, this woman was exceptionally skilled at dealing with people and situations.
When she first met Uchiha Yoru, Miroku had shattered his genjutsu domain to display her strength while speaking to him in a deliberately reluctant tone.
During their conversation, she maintained just the right amount of pressure, restrainedly expressed her dissatisfaction and anger, yet also politely conveyed her respect for Konoha.
Miroku was the most troublesome politician Uchiha Yoru had encountered in the nineteen years since his rebirth.
Compared with this priestess, those ministers from the Land of Fire were all like foolish sons of wealthy landlords.
Uchiha Yoru had been maneuvered into a very uncomfortable position, yet he couldn't find an effective way to counterattack.
Fortunately, he had already flipped the table in front of the Third Hokage.
If he was unhappy, he would simply do the same thing again.
As a result, the instant he revealed his Mangekyō Sharingan, Miroku immediately backed down.
And she hadn't merely backed down.
At just the right moment, she mentioned the Eternal Mangekyō, attempting to tempt Uchiha Yoru.
After discovering that Uchiha Yoru wasn't tempted, she sensed danger and immediately set her daughter aside to evoke sympathy.
Once she sensed Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo's attitudes softening, Miroku even disregarded her dignity as the ruler of a nation and performed a full prostration before Uchiha Yoru, expressing complete submission.
Then she openly revealed everything she knew, honestly exposing her own secrets and demonstrating her value.
Priestess Miroku was truly perceptive and worldly-wise.
She was indeed worthy of being the priestess who carried a thousand-year inheritance.
It seemed that after the inheritance lost its memories while retaining impressions, the priestess lineage had achieved a balance between preserving tradition and renewing itself.
Through generational replacement, the priestesses could continuously update their knowledge and perspectives, preventing themselves from being abandoned by the changing times.
Compared with Miroku, her daughter Shion was far too disappointing.
Although Uchiha Yoru had seen through Miroku's intentions, he no longer had any desire to punish her.
Instead, his heart was filled with appreciation, and he even wanted to recruit this priestess as his subordinate.
This was a naturally occurring management talent.
She possessed excellent administrative abilities, tremendous personal strength, and deeply rooted prestige throughout the Land of Demons.
Through the shrine's priestesses and priests, Miroku could even exert influence over the surrounding small nations.
One had to remember that the location where Mōryō was sealed wasn't even inside the Land of Demons.
It was far away to the west, in the Land of Swamps.
Yet every time something went wrong with the seal, no one came out to protest.
That alone demonstrated just how much prestige the priestess possessed among these small nations.
A versatile talent of this caliber was an absolutely scarce resource in the shinobi world.
...
After obtaining the location of the seal, Uchiha Yoru left the shrine with Miwa Masayo.
Then they rose into the sky and flew directly west toward the Land of Swamps.
While they were flying, Miwa Masayo suddenly asked, "Why didn't you accept the priestess's offer of allegiance, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru froze for a moment, then smiled.
"Because the timing isn't right. Even if I agreed right now, she wouldn't sincerely accept it."
"Meow? She bowed, knelt, and complained about her troubles to you. Wasn't she asking for your protection, meow?"
"Haha, that was merely a gesture."
"I only showed her a pair of pretty eyes. I haven't demonstrated the strength needed to deal with Mōryō yet."
"She was merely preparing in advance for whatever comes afterward."
"Besides, if I really kill Mōryō, she'll die along with it."
"When a person dies, the lamp goes out. When a person leaves, the tea grows cold."
"A promise that only the three of us heard—do you really think the people of the Land of Demons will faithfully honor it?"
"So that's how it is, meow!"
"She really is a hateful woman, meow! No wonder I disliked her the moment I saw her, meow!"
"Rika-chan, are you jealous?"
"Peh! Of course not, meow!" ((ˇˇ))
"Mm~ Rika-chan getting jealous and embarrassed is so cute."
"Meow meow meow? Meow meow meow, meow meow, meow meow?"
"Pretending you suddenly can't speak won't work."
"You're annoying, meow!"
The embarrassed and furious Miwa Masayo unleashed her Cat-Cat Fists.
Her little white paws and springy paw pads landed on Uchiha Yoru's thick-skinned head, producing only the gentlest sensation.
Uchiha Yoru laughed loudly and accelerated his flight.
Sure enough, with a tabby cat accompanying him, even a dull journey became incredibly entertaining.
Especially when flying.
Once the initial frenzy and excitement gradually faded, traveling by flight became tedious and monotonous work.
After all, Uchiha Yoru was the one controlling the flight.
He wasn't a passenger sitting back and enjoying the ride.
At this moment, he suddenly understood those immortals.
No wonder none of them liked flying by themselves.
They either got themselves a mount or acquired some magical treasure.
Some magical treasures even contained magnificent scenery and entire landscapes within them.
From the outside, they appeared to be flying at extreme speed.
Inside, however, their owners could leisurely enjoy mountains and rivers, drink to their heart's content, and surround themselves with music and dancing.
A life befitting immortals indeed.
Immortals truly knew how to enjoy themselves.
Uchiha Yoru secretly decided that he would make a similar magical treasure for himself someday.
Of course, it wouldn't be used for traveling around the shinobi world.
The shinobi world itself wasn't particularly large, measuring no more than forty thousand li from one end to the other.
As long as he spent some time on it, he would eventually cover every landmass of the shinobi world with Flying Thunder God marks arranged according to latitude and longitude.
At that point, no matter where he wanted to go, he would need at most only a few hundred kilometers of short-distance flight.
A flying magical treasure would instead be used for much more distant journeys.
For example...
Ascending into the heavens.
And traveling across the vast sea of stars.
Uchiha Yoru wasn't indulging in unrealistic fantasies.
His own existence proved that such things were possible, while the Ōtsutsuki clan was also a fact.
Eventually, they would come.
And Uchiha Yoru himself would continue growing.
With an unlimited lifespan supporting him, sooner or later he would become bored with the shinobi world and find that it no longer held any amusement for him.
By then, aside from the very few beings closest to him, there would no longer be any living creatures in the shinobi world that he recognized.
Taking the companions who could attain longevity with him, leaving the cradle behind, and setting off into the distance might very well become his only choice.
Their flying speed was extremely fast.
Its greatest advantage was that they could completely bypass the terrible terrain of the Land of Swamps.
Uchiha Yoru soon reached the sealing site.
From high in the sky, Miwa Masayo and Uchiha Yoru looked downward.
Countless clay figures covered the ground in densely packed formations.
They stood in neat ranks, vigorously swinging the weapons in their hands as they excavated crisscrossing trenches throughout the earth.
The trenches were being used to drain water.
At the same time, they were also being used to destroy the seal.
Uchiha Yoru keenly sensed that as the clay figures continued working, the strange chakra seeping from underground was clearly increasing.
As strands of this gloomy chakra seeped out, clay figures emerged from the ground like bamboo shoots after rain.
They then joined the clay army.
As more and more clay figures joined the army, the excavation progressed faster and faster.
The leakage of the sinister chakra also continued accelerating.
Clearly, the seal was about to be broken.
Miwa Masayo noticed the change as well.
"The seal is about to break, meow. What do we do?"
Uchiha Yoru replied, "We wait until it breaks."
"My targets aren't these clay figurines."
"Besides, there are far too many of them."
"If Mōryō doesn't appear, I won't even be able to find Yomi among this entire field of mud."
"So we'll wait."
The crisscrossing trenches continued extending across the earth.
Uchiha Yoru watched them with great interest, but most of his attention was focused on the countless clay figures.
According to the plot he remembered, Yomi called these clay figures the Terracotta Army.
They were immune to ordinary weapons and possessed considerable combat power.
Of course, that strength existed only from the perspective of ordinary people.
Before ninja, the clay figures were practically useless and could be disposed of with ease.
However, Uchiha Yoru greatly admired this method of large-scale control.
In some respects, it had even gone a step beyond the puppet masters of Sunagakure.
The method used to control these clay figures resembled the stone puppets of the Ōtsutsuki clan on the moon.
However, whether in terms of quality or degree of control, the two were worlds apart.
The stone puppets could be considered a luxurious, massively enhanced version.
The clay figures before him were the ultimate bankrupt beggar's version.
Even so, Uchiha Yoru felt that he could use the technique far better than Mōryō and Yomi.
Using Wood Release as the internal skeleton and clay as filling material to create and control gigantic humanoid puppets...
That idea might have some potential.
Most importantly, within the Purple Mansion world, there was no need to consider material limitations at all.
As long as the energy circulation structure was reasonable, it could theoretically be strengthened to the maximum extent possible.
What Uchiha Yoru urgently wanted most was its ability to operate and work automatically.
There were only a few buildings above the clouds within the Purple Mansion world.
It wasn't because Uchiha Yoru liked keeping his world in a primitive wilderness state.
It was simply because no one was available to carry out construction.
The Purple Mansion world was his spiritual world.
Construction required neither physical strength nor building materials.
But it did require Uchiha Yoru to consume his own imagination and mental energy, building everything piece by piece.
No matter how efficient he was, he was only one person.
Forget how long it would take—he couldn't even tolerate the sheer boredom involved.
If these clay figures could truly be replicated inside the Purple Mansion and take over the exhausting construction work for him, turning development of the Purple Mansion world into an idle game, that would be wonderful.
Miwa Masayo, however, had no interest in any of this.
She quickly lost the motivation to keep watching, curled up on Uchiha Yoru's shoulder, and narrowed her eyes to rest.
Fortunately, their luck was good.
The diligently working clay figures didn't make the two of them wait for long.
By nightfall, the seal completely broke.
A chaotic and sinister chakra fluctuation surged into the heavens.
The new location was roughly twenty kilometers away from Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo.
By the time Uchiha Yoru flew over, he happened to see Yomi walking out from the excavated underground cavern.
Illuminated by torches raised by the clay figures, Yomi's hair and beard spread wildly around him.
His cold expression carried unmistakable madness and arrogance.
He stretched out a hand and pushed forward.
More clay figures rose in perfect unison from the earth.
These figures wore helmets and armor and carried long-handled weapons.
They clearly looked much stronger than the previously disorderly mass of clay figures.
These truly deserved to be called a Terracotta Army.
Although there wasn't another living person anywhere nearby and only the Terracotta Army was there to watch him, Yomi still loudly declared,
"Today!"
"Today marks the beginning of my conquest of the shinobi world!"
"Move out!"
"Our target is the shrine of the Land of Demons!"
"As long as I devour the priestess, no one in this world will be able to stop my Terracotta Army!"
Thunderous footsteps began to sound.
The Terracotta Army moved into action, gradually forming one square formation after another as it marched eastward in great strides.
Even the previously filthy, mud-covered clay figures changed appearance as Yomi passed them.
Each gained thick armor and sharp weapons before joining the vast army.
Miwa Masayo and Uchiha Yoru stared in speechless disbelief.
Not because the Terracotta Army was powerful.
But because it moved far too slowly.
Its forceful, clanging footsteps certainly displayed an imposing momentum.
Yet the army's marching speed was at most five kilometers per hour.
That was simply far too slow.
No wonder the seal had nearly broken while the priestess could still calmly remain seated inside the shrine, peacefully waiting for reinforcements from the three great shinobi villages.
She really knew exactly how much time she had.
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