At this moment, Uchiha Yoru was completely certain that although the Heavenly Dao of the shinobi world might be extremely weak, it definitely existed and possessed a fairly complex set of rules.
It might even have reached the level of low intelligence.
Otherwise, the Heavenly Tribulation he encountered could never have been arranged so meticulously, trapping him at every step.
This absolutely wasn't a response that a mechanically operating Great Dao could produce.
Some form of intelligence had to exist, making adjustments as the process unfolded.
[I hope it isn't the Sage of Six Paths. Otherwise, he will no longer merely be my competitor. He will have formed an enmity with me for obstructing my Dao, and I won't be able to attain the Dao without killing him.]
[But killing him would mean offending his entire enormous family. Besides, in a certain sense, he is my ancestor. Killing one's ancestor is extremely inauspicious.]
[It would be best if I weren't forced into such a difficult choice. I would rather follow the original plan I arranged for him and treat him the same way he treated Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—seal him and be done with it.]
[He wouldn't be beaten to death by me, and I wouldn't feel guilty for exterminating my ancestor. The best of both worlds.]
Uchiha Yoru wasn't particularly worried about the Heavenly Tribulation.
After all, during his previous breakthrough, he had already experienced the strikes of lightning and tempered an enormous resistance to electricity through terrifying pain.
Later, as his body developed, he had deliberately strengthened the defensive power of his skin, placing particular emphasis on resisting cutting damage.
The wind-and-lightning Heavenly Tribulation could be said to be completely countered by him.
What was there to fear?
The wind was indeed nothing more than a simple tornado.
It couldn't uproot Uchiha Yoru as he stood upon the sea.
The wind blades contained within it struck his body without even producing a spark, much less cutting through his skin.
The lightning was also merely ordinary blue-violet lightning.
When it lashed against Uchiha Yoru, it felt numb and tingling, neither painful nor itchy.
But Uchiha Yoru's expression changed drastically.
He couldn't even let out a scream and could only groan inwardly.
[Mn... Mmmmmm... I'm finished!]
He never could have imagined that behind the extremely ordinary wind and lightning hid the true Heavenly Tribulation.
It was a terrifying divine lightning that specifically attacked the soul.
This lightning was as thin as an ox hair and possessed a dull purple color.
Before being struck, Uchiha Yoru didn't detect it in the slightest.
Even after the hair-thin bolt plunged deeply into the location of the Purple Mansion between his eyebrows, he still remained unaware.
It neither hurt nor itched, and its speed was incomparably fast.
Uchiha Yoru was struck without noticing anything.
His consciousness was stripped away and forcibly dragged into his own Purple Mansion world.
Inside this world of consciousness, the ox-hair-thin lightning transformed and revealed its ferocious true appearance.
It was a bolt of pure purple lightning resembling a colossal pillar that connected heaven and earth.
It even possessed a complete dragon head.
The lightning dragon rampaged through Uchiha Yoru's Purple Mansion like a genuine natural disaster.
The earth, plants, white clouds, and palaces were like building blocks in the hands of a destructive child.
The slightest touch reduced them to fragments that filled the sky.
By the time Uchiha Yoru entered the Purple Mansion, all five heart-forms had already been crippled by the lightning dragon.
Even the strongest and most arrogant Heart Ape had been burned entirely into charcoal.
Its whole monkey body lay at the site of the volcano, which had already become a deep crater.
The hole-covered octopus, Little Cthulhu, also seemed to have suffered a vicious blow.
It had transformed into a dust octopus drifting through the air, only a single thread away from complete annihilation.
The goldfish River God had converted much of the faith it secretly consumed into divine power.
Now it had spat all of it back out, transforming the power into bubbles that wrapped around its body and isolated every trace of information about itself.
It also seized the opportunity to flee the palace above the clouds.
It hid upon the devastated earth and crawled into a dried-up ravine, barely keeping itself alive with its own moisture.
The Purple Mansion world was Uchiha Yoru's spirit.
Damage to the Purple Mansion was the most direct form of damage to him.
However, the Purple Mansion world was ultimately inferior to the manifested Uchiha Yoru himself.
The moment he appeared within the Purple Mansion, the terrifying purple lightning dragon turned its head and charged toward him, ignoring everything else.
Caught completely off guard, Uchiha Yoru was struck directly by the lightning dragon and pushed all the way into the northern sea.
Purple lightning poured into his body like a tide, beating him as though he had fallen into hell.
The suffering was unbearable.
But inside this place, dying was impossible.
The only final release was complete disappearance.
Fortunately, Uchiha Yoru neither wanted to disappear nor die.
He was an immortal cultivator with hope of attaining longevity.
No matter how painful it became, he had to grit his teeth and endure.
He believed that even the most terrifying attack would eventually end.
Persistence meant victory!
Amazingly, Uchiha Yoru didn't die during the first round of attacks.
After the pain ended, he instead felt his spirit become vigorous.
Even the devastated earth surged with vitality.
Green shoots emerged from beneath the soil and began repairing the damage caused by the lightning dragon.
White clouds gathered again in the sky.
However, the palace Uchiha Yoru had painstakingly constructed remained a ruined mess of broken walls.
Most importantly, the five heart-forms recovered their original appearances at maximum speed.
At the same time, they shrank into their smallest forms and tightly hid themselves while covering their heads and sticking up their backsides.
Their posture made it seem as if a genuine natural disaster was about to descend.
Uchiha Yoru didn't understand what was happening, but he raised his vigilance to the highest level.
He paid particular attention to the lightning dragon staring at him.
Strangely, from that moment onward, nothing changed again.
Even the newly sprouted plants upon the earth stopped growing.
After waiting for an unknown length of time, Uchiha Yoru finally exhausted his patience.
To be honest, his current condition was poor.
He had spent five days and nights fully focused on opposing the volcano and had also exhausted enormous mental effort exploring the divine path.
His spirit had long since become unbearably fatigued.
Once his patience ran out, he attempted to move his body.
At the very least, he wanted to escape the lightning dragon's fixed gaze.
At that exact instant, the lightning dragon split apart.
From its fractured head, a bolt of lightning as thin as an ox hair shot out and struck Uchiha Yoru directly, pinning him firmly in place.
The completely disintegrated lightning dragon divided into countless pieces.
Then those fragments twisted and transformed into individual people.
Some were ninja, with Kirigakure ninja forming the majority.
Others were civilians dressed in clothing from the Lands of Wind, Fire, Water, and Lightning.
It was impossible to determine which nation had the most.
Among them were also newly dead civilians from the Land of Rivers.
Not only did they wear distinctive clothing, but it was obvious that they had all been crushed to death by heavy objects.
Uchiha Yoru was also astonished to discover nearly one hundred Root ninja led by Shimura Danzō.
Of course, what truly moved him were Uchiha Gorō, the Tiger Unit squad captain whom he had personally executed, and the younger Uchiha clansmen who maintained some distance from him and had died in battle under his command.
Uchiha Yoru secretly grieved.
However, their appearance also allowed him to confirm that the deaths of these souls were all related to him.
But what kind of Heavenly Tribulation trial was this?
Or had the Heavenly Tribulation already ended, and was it now time for the heart demon?
He couldn't understand it.
Ever since Uchiha Yoru began cultivating immortality, everything he encountered in the shinobi world had carried a sense of being similar yet fundamentally different.
He couldn't directly apply his original knowledge of immortal cultivation, but neither could he completely ignore it.
This was truly troublesome.
Even while remaining cautious at every moment, he could still fall into a trap at any stage.
Fortunately, the current situation wasn't too terrible.
The souls of these dead spirits possessed extremely poor resilience.
Some civilian spirits even deformed and shattered merely by colliding with the spirits of powerful ninja.
As the fragments of the dead spirits fell, they transformed into ash.
In the end, they became specks of light and disappeared completely.
The dead spirits possessed no discipline whatsoever.
The moment each spirit fully formed, it rushed toward Uchiha Yoru like a locust pouncing upon food.
They opened their mouths and released roars that shook the soul.
The ninja spirits shouted, "You killed me! Pay for my life!"
The civilian spirits shouted, "You caused my death! I want you dead!"
But the roars of even more spirits were vague and indistinct, making it impossible to understand what they were saying.
Uchiha Yoru became anxious.
Because he was pinned by the purple lightning, he couldn't even move his head.
He could only watch helplessly as the dead spirits lunged toward him while being unable to do anything.
But in the next instant, he was astonished to discover that the spirits couldn't harm him.
The civilian spirits merely approached him before beginning to melt like candles nearing a flame.
They emitted heart-rending screams.
The ninja spirits were far more resilient.
They even cunningly used the civilians as cover.
When the civilian spirits screamed and became unable to advance, the ninja spirits suddenly smashed through their shields and launched fierce attacks at Uchiha Yoru.
However, the weapons formed by the ninja spirits shattered instantly upon touching Uchiha Yoru.
Only then did they realize their own fragility and hurriedly attempt to retreat.
But there was no room behind them.
The endless stream of spirits surging forward pushed those in front, using them directly as weapons and crushing them against Uchiha Yoru's body.
The fragile civilian spirits couldn't endure the pressure.
They shattered one after another and transformed into light.
Even the more resilient ninja spirits broke apart like eggs striking stone when they touched Uchiha Yoru, also transforming into light.
Uchiha Yoru remained tense for only several seconds before discovering that he wasn't in any danger at all.
He immediately released a tremendous sigh of relief.
Even better changes followed.
As the number of dead spirits shattering into light increased, he felt himself gradually regaining the ability to move.
Uchiha Yoru could even clearly feel his own strength increasing, including his perception of and control over the Purple Mansion world.
He could manipulate the world's power much more easily.
He could even transform an entire group of civilian spirits into specks of light with nothing more than a glance.
As time passed, Uchiha Yoru finally broke completely free from the purple lightning's control.
At this point, the dead spirits couldn't even touch his body.
The moment they contacted the ring of fire surrounding him, they screamed and transformed into torches.
The spirits ignited by soul flames burned extremely quickly, almost like nitrocellulose.
Civilian spirits couldn't even burn for a full second before disappearing completely.
The more resilient ninja spirits could only endure for several seconds.
By this point, Uchiha Yoru clearly understood that he had completely passed this third, unclassifiable tribulation.
Now it was time to harvest the benefits.
He sneered.
"Heh. After making everything so troublesome, this was actually less threatening than the lightning dragon's attack."
"In the world of souls and spirits, the contest isn't about numbers."
"It is about will and conviction!"
"A group of dead spirits who didn't know why they lived while alive and didn't know why they died after death dare compare their convictions with mine?"
"Who do you think you are?"
"And who do you think I am?"
Feeling insulted, Uchiha Yoru released an enraged roar.
His body within the Purple Mansion suddenly shone and erupted with an incomparably powerful aura.
His presence expanded like a hurricane sweeping through everything.
It shattered the white clouds in the sky and crushed countless dead spirits, transforming them into specks of light that filled the heavens.
As his aura expanded, the ring of fire expanded as well.
It swept across the dead spirits filling the sky, igniting all of them and transforming them into dazzling spheres of light.
After an instantaneous conflagration, the overwhelming sea of spirits vanished.
Only several dozen comparatively resilient and resourceful souls remained.
Uchiha Yoru looked across them.
Sure enough, every remaining spirit was a ninja he recognized.
Umino Keisuke and Fusha, whom he had killed in the Land of Rivers.
Kaguya Gaiji, whom he had killed in the Land of Hot Water.
Shimura Danzō, whom he had strangled to death in Konoha...
"How interesting."
"Kaguya Gaiji is understandable. He knew that I killed him."
"But Umino Keisuke, Fusha, and Shimura Danzō didn't know who killed them. Why did they appear here as well?"
"The strangest one is Ying."
"There is no doubt that I killed him, and he also knew I was the one who killed him."
"Why hasn't he appeared here?"
"His subordinates appeared, and even women and children who were obviously members of the Yuki clan appeared."
"Why is he absent?"
Uchiha Yoru had already confirmed that he had passed the tribulation.
Naturally, he wasn't nervous in the slightest and began considering these questions.
He suddenly noticed that after the large number of spirits were destroyed, the wounds upon the earth began healing as the countless falling points of light dissipated.
These dead spirits truly were nourishment for the spiritual world.
Not only could they strengthen his own spiritual power, but they could also greatly accelerate the Purple Mansion world's recovery.
In that case, weren't the remaining several dozen powerful souls also excellent fertilizer?
As for danger, it didn't exist.
Their strong wills were still like trees without roots.
None of their persistence or ideals rested upon an indestructible foundation.
The moment they genuinely collided with him, they would inevitably shatter into specks of light.
Victory was already certain.
Therefore, Uchiha Yoru became even more concerned with why Ying hadn't appeared.
After thinking it over repeatedly, only one explanation made sense.
Ying had been summoned back into the living world through Edo Tensei.
His soul wasn't in the Pure Land, so he couldn't appear here.
Yes.
That had to be it.
These dead spirits were all based upon templates.
More specifically, they were copies created from the souls residing in the Pure Land.
Since a soul like Ying's wasn't currently in the Pure Land, he couldn't appear.
The reason these people had been selected was likely because Uchiha Yoru's appearance and activities in the shinobi world had contributed to their deaths to varying degrees.
Following death, the strongest form of karmic connection, the Heavenly Dao had filtered out these people and turned them into part of the Heavenly Tribulation.
Uchiha Yoru released a huge sigh of relief.
This explanation was acceptable.
As long as the strongest templates weren't being selected from his own soul or memories, everything was fine.
Because within his memories existed many souls that genuinely frightened him.
For example, the wills of higher life-forms such as the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, or Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
The very existence of a higher life-form might be something lower life-forms couldn't comprehend.
They might not necessarily be great, but they would certainly be vast beyond imagination.
Then there were long-lived beings such as the Great Toad Sage, Gamamaru, or the Slug Sage, Katsuyu.
The wisdom naturally polished through vast stretches of time would inevitably extend that temporal resilience into their souls.
Such souls possessed resilience filtered by time itself.
They were synonymous with indestructibility.
Uchiha Yoru had no confidence in defeating them.
Even fools like Jiraiya and Uchiha Obito would give Uchiha Yoru a terrible headache.
True idiots were invincible!
Even if Uchiha Yoru defeated them, he couldn't possibly eliminate them.
They would inevitably become hidden dangers within his Purple Mansion in the future.
Finally, there were the memories he had brought from another world.
The heroic spirits who wore straw sandals and ate grass roots upon snowy mountains and grasslands, who wore thin clothes and ate fried flour amid freezing winds and snow.
And beside those heroic spirits stood the majestic crimson giants.
If they appeared...
Uchiha Yoru would immediately bow his head and pledge allegiance without even taking a second to consider it.
From then on, he would kill gods who blocked his path and destroy Buddhas who stood before him.
The mere Six Paths could be crushed beneath one foot.
Not one of these unpredictable, resilient, invincible, or even supreme existences had appeared within the Purple Mansion world.
How fortunate.
At that moment, Uchiha Yoru discovered that his spiritual body could move.
This meant the tribulation had passed and his immortal spirit had fully matured.
Smiling, he extended his right hand and grasped toward Shimura Danzō.
Invisible power gathered into an invisible giant claw.
It seized Shimura Danzō and immediately clenched into a fist, crushing him into scraps.
This bastard was someone Uchiha Yoru deeply despised.
He didn't want to look at that face for even one extra second.
Therefore, Danzō had to die first.
The fragments scattered throughout the world just like the remains of the previous dead spirits.
Most didn't even reach the ground before completely disappearing in midair.
At that instant, Uchiha Yoru discovered that the foundation of the Purple Mansion world had grown stronger and that some form of connection had been severed.
His intuition told him that his safety had increased considerably.
These dead spirits possessed no intelligence whatsoever.
Even their memories consisted only of a small fragment from shortly before their deaths, specifically the portion directly connected to Uchiha Yoru.
The most interesting were people like Umino Keisuke and Fusha.
Their memories contained no trace of Uchiha Yoru.
They merely searched furiously for an unknown enemy.
Uchiha Yoru didn't dwell excessively on the matter.
He rapidly eliminated the remaining spirits, gaining further nourishment and an even greater sense of security.
Moreover, unlike the sensation he experienced when Shimura Danzō was crushed, Uchiha Yoru felt that each time these other spirits shattered, the bonds between himself and the world weakened considerably.
Uchiha Yoru couldn't understand why.
However, he had no time to examine the matter carefully and could only remember it for later.
After eliminating the final ninja spirits, Uchiha Yoru discovered that he could leave the Purple Mansion world.
The instant he noticed this, he immediately departed.
The purple lightning had forcibly dragged him into the Purple Mansion world.
His body remaining upon the sea had become a fatal vulnerability.
Protecting himself held far greater priority than investigating the problem.
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