Uchiha Yoru eventually managed to suppress his wild ecstasy.
Exerting every ounce of effort to remain calm, he began observing and studying the Golden Core with trembling focus.
Although he didn't fully understand how the Golden Core had appeared, it was unquestionably connected to his mind and spirit.
The moment he formed the intention to observe it, everything about the Golden Core revealed itself within his heart.
At this point, Uchiha Yoru no longer needed intuition.
He completely understood the state of his Golden Core and how the road ahead should be traveled.
The Golden Core was complete.
He had entered the Immortal Dao.
Yes, Uchiha Yoru's path was the Great Dao of the Golden Core.
There would be no later divisions into stages or realms such as the Nascent Soul Realm or the Spirit Transformation Realm.
His path existed solely upon the Golden Core.
With its core law of the shinobi world as the center, he would comprehend the laws of the shinobi world one by one, then carefully engrave them onto the Golden Core.
With those laws serving as its framework, the Golden Core could condense more of the three treasures—essence, energy, and spirit—and gradually grow larger.
When every law of the shinobi world had been engraved upon the Golden Core, allowing it to reflect the shinobi world in reverse, Uchiha Yoru's Great Dao would be complete.
His Immortal Dao would then reach perfection.
As for what lay beyond that, it wasn't something the current Uchiha Yoru possessed enough knowledge to speculate about.
Now, looking at the straight and clearly defined Great Dao of the Golden Core, then turning back to examine the road he had already walked, he saw countless twists and turns.
Some had been mistakes born from insufficient knowledge and reckless speculation.
Some had been foolish acts caused by excessive greed and a lack of restraint.
Others had been lessons from insufficient caution and reckless behavior.
As Uchiha Yoru recalled everything that had happened, he felt joy at every deadly fork in the road he had fortunately avoided.
At the same time, a bone-chilling fear spread throughout his body.
As his memories continued, the uncontrollable, frenzied delight within him gradually calmed.
In the end, only quiet happiness remained.
How wonderful.
Although he had stumbled and staggered along the way, he had ultimately stepped onto the proper path of the Golden Core.
Everything was now behind him.
At that moment, the Golden Core stopped growing.
The convergence of liquefied natural energy and the three treasures of essence, energy, and spirit also came to a halt.
Such an enormous change naturally drew Uchiha Yoru's attention.
He focused and looked over.
At the center of the dantian, amid a hazy golden glow, a Golden Core spun rapidly.
It was perfectly round and flawless, shining with brilliant golden light and radiating an alluring aura of immortality.
With a single glance, one could sense the profound mysteries of the law at its core.
The only problem was its size.
Although there was nothing nearby that could serve as a reference, Uchiha Yoru still felt that it was so small it was almost invisible.
Even with his personality, he couldn't help complaining inwardly.
[Isn't this far too small?]
[I wonder whether it can continue growing. And how am I supposed to engrave the seals of law onto it?]
The moment Uchiha Yoru's thought appeared, a beam of light projected from his conscious form onto the tiny Golden Core.
His understanding of the natural energy of the Five Spirits flowed from his heart and was projected through the beam of his mind, engraving a blurry mark upon the brilliant golden surface.
Although the mark was indistinct, five emblems could still be distinguished.
They were nested within one another and formed a complete ring.
[The Rule Seal of the Five-Spirit Natural Energy Law!]
Before Uchiha Yoru could react further, another beam of light projected outward.
His knowledge concerning space and summoning flowed from his heart and engraved a second mark on the opposite side of the Golden Core.
This time, it was a blurry but complete set of three concentric rings.
However, Uchiha Yoru felt that there was clearly still room inside for additional rings.
[So this is what the Rule Seal of the Law of Space looks like.]
The instant the two Rule Seals were successfully engraved, the Golden Core abruptly trembled.
Using the two Rule Seals as supports, the golden light became almost tangible and outlined a pale-golden illusory sphere.
Immediately afterward, the natural energy within the dantian once again surged madly toward the Golden Core.
Uchiha Yoru's essence, energy, and spirit also continued blending into it strand by strand.
At this moment, Uchiha Yoru's perception of time failed once more.
To him, it seemed as though only an instant had passed, yet also as though several long years had gone by.
The pale-golden illusory sphere filled out and became completely solid.
The Golden Core had clearly grown larger.
If it had previously been the size of the ball in the tip of a ballpoint pen, it had now grown to the size of a grain of millet.
After experiencing the Golden Core's growth once, Uchiha Yoru finally understood that engraving a law didn't require him to comprehend it with absolute thoroughness.
As long as his understanding of the law was sufficiently complete, he could engrave its Rule Seal onto the Golden Core and use it as a supporting framework for the Golden Core's growth.
Afterward, as his understanding of the laws of the shinobi world became increasingly profound, he could naturally deepen and clarify those seals again.
The Great Dao of the Golden Core advanced gradually and continuously.
It didn't consist of enormous stage-by-stage leaps.
This was truly wonderful!
Uchiha Yoru released a tremendous sigh of relief.
He even laughed happily.
Because with the magnificent birth of the Golden Core, he had lost all perception of the limit of his own lifespan.
During the Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment, Uchiha Yoru had clearly sensed that his lifespan would reach somewhere between two hundred and three hundred years.
That limit had now completely disappeared.
Of course, he knew that his lifespan still had to possess some limit.
After all, even the seemingly eternal sun would one day die.
How could he be an exception?
But according to the concept of time Uchiha Yoru was currently accustomed to, he genuinely couldn't perceive where his lifespan's limit lay.
In a certain sense, it was no different from immortality.
For the now long-lived Uchiha Yoru, the work he loved most was something that could be slowly refined over time.
What he hated most were matters in which success or failure depended on a single decisive attempt.
[It's time to leave.]
The moment this thought surfaced in Uchiha Yoru's mind, the Golden Core suddenly released trillions of rays of light.
The light seemed almost tangible.
When it touched Uchiha Yoru, it accumulated in front of him and brought a powerful pushing force, driving him upward into an unknowable void.
In the next instant, Uchiha Yoru appeared within the Purple Mansion world.
He didn't experience any part of the transition.
He looked around blankly.
He discovered that he was standing in the exact place where he had been before sinking downward.
Even his posture remained bent forward as though descending.
Despite Uchiha Yoru's resilient temperament, he felt somewhat bewildered.
He couldn't determine whether his previous experience within the dantian had involved his spiritual body truly entering it, or whether only his consciousness had extended there along the mysterious connection.
But that wasn't important.
What mattered was that the Golden Core should truly have appeared.
It had truly grown once.
And the Golden Core had genuinely appeared within the Purple Mansion world.
Uchiha Yoru raised his head and looked toward an immeasurably high place in the sky.
There, a sphere radiating billions of rays of light resembled a true sun, illuminating the Purple Mansion world as brightly as real daytime.
He was completely certain that it was the reflection of the Golden Core within his dantian, projected into the Purple Mansion world.
Suddenly, Uchiha Yoru burst into laughter.
"How miraculous."
"Although the dantian is half-illusory, its position is unquestionably within the abdomen, while the Purple Mansion is clearly located between the eyebrows."
"Yet the Golden Core within the dantian is reflected in the Purple Mansion high above, in an unimaginably distant place."
"Above, below, inside, outside, large, small—the laws within my body are actually this contradictory..."
"Humanity is the essence of the world born in accordance with destiny. The human body must therefore be a reflection of the laws of heaven and earth."
"If my body is this chaotic, then the foundational laws of the shinobi world probably aren't orderly either."
"This is truly... fascinating!"
Laughing wildly, Uchiha Yoru left the Purple Mansion world.
Although the brilliantly illuminated Purple Mansion world was in complete disarray, and even the five heart-forms were beginning to stir restlessly, he could no longer concern himself with them.
He had received far too much information today.
His once-unshakable worldview had suffered an unprecedented impact.
From the beginning of the tribulations several days earlier until the successful formation of the Golden Core, Uchiha Yoru had experienced not only exhaustion, but also repeated emotional mania.
Whether it was frenzied joy, uncontrollable despair, or lingering fear that made his entire body tremble, all were signs that his worldview was approaching collapse.
To protect his will, he had repeatedly forced himself to suppress his agitated emotions.
His will was already overwhelmed.
When Uchiha Yoru saw the Golden Core sun above the Purple Mansion, his will had approached its absolute limit.
It could be said that he might collapse at any moment.
Uchiha Yoru understood that he urgently needed time to steady himself.
He didn't need to sleep deeply to restore his spirit.
Nor did he need to eat madly to satisfy his appetite.
What he needed was to experience the real world and use the sensations of reality to stabilize his worldview.
How terrifying was the collapse of one's worldview?
Einstein, known as the greatest scientist of the twentieth century, had encountered quantum mechanics.
He couldn't accept that the nature of the world was probabilistic, yet he couldn't find any scientific evidence to disprove what was then still a hypothesis.
Therefore, he painstakingly designed two experiments to falsify quantum mechanics.
The results instead confirmed its accuracy.
Thus, the great scientist's worldview collapsed.
In the end, he was forced into uttering an almost shameless famous saying:
"No matter what, I am convinced that God does not play dice."
Although everyone knew that the God in Einstein's mind wasn't a deity competing for faith on Earth, but the philosophical concept of God, the moment he said those words already reflected the fact that his worldview had shattered.
Although there were no terrifying consequences such as his head exploding on the spot, Einstein never advanced another step along the path of science afterward.
Human life lasted only a mere century.
Once Einstein stagnated, time soon carried him away from the world.
More young and brilliant scientists continued along his path, carrying civilization's exploration and research forward.
Death and new life completed the metabolism of human science.
But Uchiha Yoru had no way to undergo such renewal.
He was a true immortal.
The Great Dao of the Golden Core relied upon comprehending the laws of the shinobi world and engraving Rule Seals upon the Golden Core.
Only then could he continue progressing toward the ultimate Great Dao.
If his worldview shattered like old Einstein's and his understanding of the shinobi world remained permanently frozen at this day...
Then the longevity he had pursued and yearned for over so many years would instantly transform into a terrifying curse of eternal life.
...
Uchiha Yoru opened his eyes.
He discovered that he wasn't lying down, but reclining against a stone chair.
He repeatedly stroked the stone armrest with his right hand, feeling the finely polished marks.
He was completely certain that they had been left by a cat's claws.
So Miwa Masayo had moved stones here, carefully polished them into the shape of a chair, and then moved him onto it.
Thinking of the tabby cat's tiny, adorable body that weighed only thirteen pounds, then looking at the stone chair beneath him that weighed at least three hundred pounds...
And although the stone was heavy, Uchiha Yoru's body was even heavier!
After undergoing multiple breakthroughs during the Foundation Establishment stage, Uchiha Yoru's weight had long since exceeded six hundred pounds.
It was precisely this absurdly exaggerated bodily density that gave him such astonishing defensive power.
The moment he imagined the tiny tabby cat exhausting all her strength and laboriously moving his body, Uchiha Yoru couldn't help shaking his head.
At the same time, a tender smile unconsciously appeared in his eyes.
Uchiha Yoru stood up, moved his body slightly, then followed Miwa Masayo's presence forward.
He lowered his head and looked toward the final lava pool, which was now only three or four meters wide.
Three breaths later, Miwa Masayo's head emerged from the magma.
She immediately discovered Uchiha Yoru and became delighted.
The tabby cat placed her white paws upon the solidified rock crust and lightly leaped onto it.
She shook her body, flinging away the lava clinging to her fur, then bounded onto a platform more than ten meters above in only a few jumps.
Finally, she leaped gently onto the shoulder she found most comfortable.
Placing one small paw against Uchiha Yoru's temple, she said happily, "Yoru, you're awake, meow!"
The little cat was no longer merely warm.
Uchiha Yoru's body naturally wouldn't burn, but the dark-red hooded coat he used as a disguise couldn't withstand her heat.
With a soft whoosh, it was ignited by her paw.
Of course, only a tiny flame appeared before Uchiha Yoru extinguished it with his will.
There would be no tragedy of his clothes burning away.
He smiled and rubbed the scorching Miwa Masayo.
"Yes, I'm awake."
"You can already swim in magma. How many days have passed?"
The tabby cat proudly swayed her tail and replied happily, "Only one day has passed. Today is the Winter Solstice, meow!"
She looked Uchiha Yoru up and down, then sniffed him carefully.
Puzzled, she asked, "Did you succeed, meow? Why can't I smell anything, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru froze.
Instead of answering, he asked, "What does success have to do with smell?"
The tabby cat tilted her head.
"The smell of a successful breakthrough, meow. Every time you successfully break through, there's always a strange smell."
"Did you succeed or not, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru frowned and thought for a moment before finally understanding.
Every breakthrough during the Foundation Establishment stage had caused an enormous strengthening of his body.
At the same time, it produced an exaggerated level of metabolism.
The remains of a vast number of dead cells were forcibly expelled from his body as waste.
Although Uchiha Yoru had used various methods to clean himself every time, those were ultimately only temporary measures.
It was impossible to clean everything perfectly.
After realizing this, he couldn't avoid feeling somewhat embarrassed.
However, with Uchiha Yoru's thick skin, he threw the matter out of his mind in the next instant.
"I succeeded."
"Rika-chan, just as I once guessed among several possibilities, I successfully formed a Golden Core and stepped onto the Great Dao of the Golden Core."
"A Golden Core! Can you take it out and let me see it, meow?"
"Little cutie, although the Golden Core is real, it isn't material. I can't bring it into reality for you to see."
"I can't see the Golden Core? Boring, meow."
"Then did forming the Golden Core make you much stronger, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru froze at her words.
After forming the Golden Core, he had focused entirely on contemplating the future and pondering the Great Dao.
He genuinely hadn't considered how much stronger he had become.
Indeed.
No matter how smooth the Great Dao was or how long his lifespan became, without sufficient strength to protect his path, he could still be killed by competitors who had started earlier or by external heavenly demons.
In this chaotic shinobi world, whose depths were as unfathomable as an abyss, strength remained the foundation of everything.
Uchiha Yoru nodded to Miwa Masayo.
"Wait while I test it."
"I need to see whether I've become stronger and exactly how much stronger I am."
After speaking, he closed his eyes.
As a result, he saw karmic threads.
Not only were they clearer and filled with more visible detail, but he could even see the second layer of karmic threads.
In other words, Uchiha Yoru could now see the karmic connections belonging to those who shared karma with him.
For example, Miwa Masayo before him unquestionably possessed the closest connection to him.
The karmic thread between them was so thick and tightly intertwined that they nearly seemed to be a single person.
Following Miwa Masayo's karmic threads, Uchiha Yoru saw Nekosuke and Granny Cat, along with more than a dozen blood-related ninja cats she cared about.
Outside the Cat Castle, he also saw the ninken led by Kuromaru, her half-friends and regular sparring partners.
He also saw the young children of the Uchiha clan, who were fans that worshiped her.
The tabby cat's relationships were unexpectedly simple.
The improvement to his ability to observe karmic threads was an epic-level enhancement for Uchiha Yoru.
In terms of intelligence gathering, it had reached an unprecedented level.
However, this type of information concerning personal relationships was better described as strategic intelligence.
It was unbelievably powerful for directing a war, but had almost no influence in an individual battle.
Uchiha Yoru spread his perception and examined both the inside and outside of his body.
He was soon completely shocked.
The instant he released his perception, he knew that everything had changed.
The first thing he sensed was the Golden Core.
Whether it was perception or natural energy, everything now spread outward with the Golden Core as its center.
Although an additional step had seemingly been added, his actual reaction speed had instead increased.
Moreover, it had become almost one hundred times faster.
The clarity of his perception had risen to an indescribable degree.
His control over the inside of his own body was particularly exaggerated.
Every minute detail was completely visible, and he could control every single cell.
This meant that his physical strength had increased, his reflexes could bypass the nerves, and both ninjutsu and senjutsu could be activated faster and with greater power.
Although his external perception and control through the Golden Core weren't as strong as his internal control, they had still reached a level unimaginable to his former self.
Uchiha Yoru discovered that an area of absolute control had appeared around him.
It was a small spherical world projected outward from the Golden Core, separating him from the shinobi world.
Within this range, natural energy and chakra behaved as though they were inside his own body.
His control over them was unbelievably powerful, allowing ninjutsu and senjutsu to produce effects beyond imagination.
This sphere, which could practically be called an internal world, also elevated his "level of existence."
His relationship with the shinobi world underwent a qualitative change.
The most direct manifestation was that he could fly.
He could freely soar like a member of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Under Miwa Masayo's gaze, Uchiha Yoru slowly floated into the air.
There were no magnetic field lines connecting him to the clouds.
There was no wind-and-fire propulsion producing reverse thrust.
He simply rose into the air without any regard for reason.
The tabby cat stared in stunned silence.
Uchiha Yoru's face was also filled with delight.
Smiling at his Dao companion, he declared:
"Rika-chan, from this day forward, I shall walk in the heavens."
"Meow?"
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