Before entering the Rune Dimension to fight Reishi Ōtsutsuki directly, Brook even drew on the energy of the Ten Tails, Groot.
He watched as Reishi grew weaker and weaker. The small sun behind him had already vanished, and he had stopped bombarding the sealing runes Brook had painstakingly repaired again and again. Now, all his strength was focused on resisting the ominous death aura.
Even so, Brook did not rush in.
After living through three worlds, he no longer believed in easy victories.
Instead, he continued controlling the death energy inside the Rune Dimension, letting it erode Reishi little by little.
A moment later, Reishi suddenly screamed in pain.
The protective power of [Yomotsu Hirasaka] around him flickered and collapsed. The ominous death energy rushed in, corrupting his body. He dropped to the ground, thrashing violently for several minutes before finally going still.
The entire Rune Dimension fell into dead silence.
Brook remained alert.
He kept using the ominous death energy to corrode Reishi's body from a distance.
He refused to believe that an Ōtsutsuki elder could be worn down and killed so easily.
Another half hour passed.
Only then did Brook cautiously enter the Rune Dimension.
If he waited too long, the corpse would be invaded by too much ominous death energy and lose too much power. That would be a loss for him.
Brook slowly approached Reishi's fallen body.
Then, just as he came close, the Ōtsutsuki elder's eyes snapped open.
A small sun appeared once more.
In an instant, Brook was burned into a puff of white smoke.
"I finally took you down!"
Reishi stood up, chest rising and falling as he glared at the place where Brook had vanished.
His teeth were clenched in rage.
"What a pity. I couldn't recover your body. You made me suffer such a heavy loss!"
Reishi's voice was full of hatred.
He had consumed so many chakra fruits and pills today, yet in the end, he had gained nothing.
Still, if he had not been decisive, he might truly have been worn down and killed in this cursed place.
At this moment, the nine tomoe golden Rinnegan on his forehead had dimmed considerably.
That was because he had just activated his life saving eye technique, [Heavenly Blessing].
It was a divine technique that allowed him to revive at any time, even after complete death.
Once [Heavenly Blessing] was activated, if he died, his consciousness would observe the outside world from the void and choose the most suitable moment to resurrect.
As long as the tomoe were fully charged, he could activate [Heavenly Blessing] again.
Long ago, when he had followed Lord Shibai to conquer a powerful planet, the war had dragged on for a long time.
Back then, Reishi used [Never Setting Sun] and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. Because of that, he was ambushed and killed three times by the enemy leader.
But because of [Heavenly Blessing], he survived each death.
Every time he resurrected, he waited until [Heavenly Blessing] recovered before activating [Never Setting Sun] again.
During that war, he used [Heavenly Blessing] three times and revived successfully each time, earning the title of the Undying Legion.
That enemy leader had once been a mighty figure capable of rivaling Ōtsutsuki Shibai.
The memory flashed through Reishi's mind for only a moment.
Then he immediately rushed toward the gap in the seal.
He did not want to stay in this suffocating rune filled alternate dimension for even another second.
Once he escaped, he would find a way to seize this slightly damaged artifact.
At the very least, that would count as a small gain.
More importantly, since this rune based alternate dimension had forced him into such a sorry state, it could also become a powerful tool for trapping and killing the other Ōtsutsuki elders.
Just as half of Reishi's body passed through the gap in the sealing barrier, he relaxed for the briefest instant.
Then a bone chilling killing intent swept over him.
His scalp went numb.
"You only killed a clone. Why are you celebrating so early?"
Brook's devilish voice rang beside Reishi's ear.
[Spirit King's Power, Time Stop!]
[Super Four Gods Sealing!]
[Rune Shield, Shrink!]
Reishi felt time freeze around him.
A hand covered in endless golden runes slammed into his forehead.
Then the gap in the runic alternate dimension shrank in an instant.
It felt as if his waist had been severed.
In panic, Reishi erupted with chakra, trying to break free from the seal and activate [Yomotsu Hirasaka] to escape.
"It's useless."
Brook's nine tomoe golden Rinnegan released a terrifying amount of chakra, interrupting Reishi's outburst.
At the same time, Brook's own [Yomotsu Hirasaka] forcibly disrupted Reishi's [Yomotsu Hirasaka].
The sealing runes finally suppressed the Ōtsutsuki elder.
Countless Four Gods sealing black rods appeared in Brook's hands and stabbed madly into Reishi's body.
Then Brook shoved his hand into Reishi's forehead with excitement.
"Finally got it!"
Brook laughed wildly as he ripped out Reishi Ōtsutsuki's nine tomoe golden Rinnegan.
But in the next moment, seven or eight teleportation channels to the Underworld opened across the ruins of the Northern Underworld.
Several terrifying auras appeared at once.
Brook's expression changed.
He kicked Reishi, who was covered in sealing black rods, back into the enlarged Rune Dimension. Then he immediately activated [Yomotsu Hirasaka] and left the Northern Underworld, returning to the Monster World.
The place where Brook had just stood was quickly surrounded by four powerful auras.
Soon after, several elite Ōtsutsuki who had awakened [Yomotsu Hirasaka] also appeared.
"It's Reishi's aura!"
Ōtsutsuki Ken suppressed his anger, his voice cold and gloomy.
"Someone actually fought an elder of the Ōtsutsuki clan. And Reishi was the one who fell into trouble."
"Kageshiki, use your rewind ability."
An Ōtsutsuki elder immediately spoke to a second generation clansman.
"Yes!"
Ōtsutsuki Kageshiki activated his Rinnegan ability at once.
But soon, because Reishi and Brook were both far above him in level, he failed to rewind the battle between them.
"I am sorry, my lord. I am incompetent!"
Kageshiki immediately bowed and apologized to the four Ōtsutsuki elders.
A few minutes later, the second generation Ōtsutsuki and the elite clansmen could no longer endure the ruins of the Underworld. They had no choice but to leave.
"I'll do it."
Ōtsutsuki Ken spoke without expression.
Reishi was his ally, after all. He had a responsibility to find out what had happened.
Ken's aura erupted.
The six tomoe golden Rinnegan on his forehead transformed into a sacred white Rinnegan.
[Divine Art, Time Rewind!]
Under Kenshiki's powerful divine technique, Brook's figure appeared before everyone.
They saw him standing inside a spatial rift, continuously pouring ominous death energy into it. Golden light flickered in his hands again and again, as if he were releasing a sealing technique.
"It's the sealing rune of that god!"
"Is Reishi sealed inside?"
"He used ominous curse energy and death aura to wear Reishi down?"
The other three elders immediately began analyzing the scene.
Their expressions turned grave.
If this mysterious man could seal Reishi, did that mean he could also seal them?
Because the white Rinnegan could not be maintained for long, Ken sped up the rewind.
Then they saw it.
Reishi was cut in half at the waist by that mysterious man.
Golden runes sealed his body.
And at his strongest state, Reishi's nine tomoe golden Rinnegan was ripped from his forehead.
For a moment, all of the Ōtsutsuki elders fell into absolute silence.
---------
Finally, as if sensing their arrival, the mysterious man dragged Reishi away and opened a [Yomotsu Hirasaka] portal to leave.
The Ōtsutsuki elders were furious.
Reishi Ōtsutsuki, one of the five elders of the Ōtsutsuki clan, had been stripped of his nine tomoe golden Rinnegan. His whereabouts were unknown, and whether he lived or died was impossible to tell.
"Ah!"
Ken Ōtsutsuki roared toward the dark sky.
"My son Kenshiki must have been captured by that bastard too! Find him! Find out who he is!"
At last, he understood why his son had vanished without a trace.
Kenshiki must have been ambushed by that mysterious man inside this dark, ominous space.
Even Elder Reishi had failed to defeat him. Then in front of that monster, his son would have been nothing but easy prey.
The thought of the massive amount of chakra energy stolen from him made Ken's rage boil even hotter.
"Why was Reishi here?"
Elder Rashiki Ōtsutsuki's expression darkened.
"And how was he ambushed so silently? Shouldn't he have been in the Elder Hall right now?"
His gaze turned cold.
"But now that a powerful outside enemy has appeared, this is no longer the time for us elders to scheme against one another."
This scourge had to be eliminated.
Only then could the Ōtsutsuki clan continue to prosper.
"The key point is that [Yomotsu Hirasaka] is no longer safe."
Elder Natsuki Ōtsutsuki spoke in a solemn voice.
"Even we may be in danger now, let alone the juniors."
"I never imagined the enemy would target this dark and ominous space."
"Could he be that god's successor?"
Ōtsutsuki Ranshiki narrowed his eyes.
"Those golden sealing runes clearly belong to that god. And this dark, ominous space is also that god's territory."
"Although Lord Shibai obtained much of the inheritance left by our ancestor and that god, the whereabouts of that god's heart and spine are still unknown. This mysterious man may have inherited part of it."
At this point, they had basically confirmed that the mysterious man had received the inheritance of the god of the Underworld.
That made the elders wary.
But it also ignited endless greed in their hearts.
If they could capture this mysterious man, then just like Ōtsutsuki Shibai, they too might be able to step onto the path of godhood.
"Find out at once why Reishi left the Elder Hall and where he went."
Ken Ōtsutsuki gave the order with an expressionless face.
"From now on, the four of us will take turns guarding this place. One person will remain here for two hours at a time."
Although Kenshiki had lost Reishi as an ally, he was still the strongest elder of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
On top of that, he was currently in a state of towering fury, so the other three elders did not object.
Once this mysterious man was dealt with, the three of them would naturally be able to suppress Ken alone.
Ken was the first to remain in the ruins of the Underworld, continuing to search for clues.
He also wanted to find the place where his son Kenshiki had disappeared.
No matter what, he had to find that bastard.
Meanwhile, the Ōtsutsuki clan's territory was thrown into chaos.
An elder had encountered trouble.
Such a thing had not happened in thousands of years.
Inside the Elder Hall, Ōtsutsuki Shiki turned pale with fright when the three elders arrived. When he heard that Elder Reishi had met with disaster, his legs went weak.
His father and elder brother were both gone?
"I truly don't know where Father took Elder Brother!"
Ōtsutsuki Shiki hurriedly explained, trembling.
"Elders, please, you must rescue my father and brother!"
He explained Reishi's previous instructions in detail. But after checking every matter Reishi had handled, the elders still could not find a single clue.
"The message must have been destroyed by Reishi himself."
Elder Ranshiki's face was filled with disdain.
"Reishi brought this disaster on himself."
"Finding the mysterious man is the priority."
Elder Rashiki spoke coldly.
"Investigate every matter Reishi handled over the past month. I want to know what made him leave with only his son."
Rashiki had already sensed something.
Reishi had likely discovered something tempting enough to make him sneak away without notifying the other elders.
Thinking of the divine runes in the mysterious man's hands, Rashiki guessed that Reishi must have found clues related to the divine inheritance, only to be killed by the inheritor himself.
How shameful.
And it had cost him his life.
If Reishi had called the others, perhaps they would have already captured that successor of the gods.
It was Reishi's own greed, his desire to monopolize the inheritance, that had led him straight to death.
None of them believed Reishi could survive that mysterious man's attack.
His nine tomoe golden Rinnegan had already been gouged out. Even if he lived, Reishi had no chance of remaining an elder.
...
While the Ōtsutsuki elders were investigating the mysterious man, Brook once again captured the monsters gathered by the three headed dragon, Ghidorah, in the Monster World.
Then he put Ghidorah and the two monster king puppets into [Kichijoten], ready to leave that world at any time.
Brook's three Rinnegan had already been restored.
He immediately fused Reishi Ōtsutsuki's nine tomoe golden Rinnegan into the Rinnegan on his forehead.
This time, he did not leave Kaguya or the others any gifts.
Instead, he absorbed everything from Reishi Ōtsutsuki.
That included the highly pure Byakugan, the special clear eye, and Reishi's body itself.
This time, Brook even found a secluded place in the Monster World and hid inside the Rune Dimension, quickly absorbing the wealth of an Ōtsutsuki elder.
This absorption not only restored Brook's nine tomoe golden Rinnegan to its peak, it pushed him to the true limit of this stage.
However, those eyes seemed to have reached their ceiling.
Without divine level energy, further evolution would likely be extremely difficult.
The three tomoe golden Rinnegan on his forehead had also reached the peak of the six tomoe stage. With just a little more power, it could immediately advance into a nine tomoe golden Rinnegan.
Brook's current overall strength was no weaker than that of the strongest elder, Ken Ōtsutsuki.
If the two truly fought, victory would depend on whose eye techniques were stronger and who struck first.
With the power of the Four Gods, Brook possessed many different eye techniques and abilities. The Ōtsutsuki Rinnegan, by comparison, usually only had two powerful exclusive abilities, along with a few minor ones.
Most importantly, Brook was currently hidden in the shadows, while the Ōtsutsuki clan stood in the open.
He had already seized the initiative in this war.
Back in the Ōtsutsuki clan's territory, after several days of investigation, the elders eliminated countless distractions but still found no clues about the divine inheritance.
However, news of a red mutated chakra fruit caught their attention.
The support team sent to that planet had not reported back at all.
This sort of mission team was different from a tree planting team. They were required to send progress reports frequently.
Because of that, the elders quickly determined that something had gone wrong with the team.
Although they still did not know whether it was connected to Reishi's incident, they decided to go there personally.
After all, a mutated chakra fruit was tempting enough to make even the elders move.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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