"Haah! Haah! Gwaaah! Hagoromo! Haah! Gwaaah! Never provoke that being again!"
The Great Toad Sage spoke while gasping for breath and suffering in a way he could not hide. One hand was pressed against the new blue eye that had appeared in the middle of his forehead, as though trying to confirm that it was real, or perhaps trying to deny its existence. His voice carried nothing but pure terror, untainted by any other emotion.
The Sage of Six Paths continued pouring his spiritual power into him as he replied,
"I know, Great Sage. Please focus on regaining your balance for now."
He was trying to help him recover the stability that had been violently shaken by that brief contact with Dan's presence. Yet deep inside, Hagoromo himself was also dealing with what he had just experienced a sensation of absolute danger unlike anything he had ever felt before, not even when facing his mother, Kaguya.
At the same time, Dan remained seated upon his stone throne and muttered quietly to himself,
"It seems I was a little too lenient with them."
In truth, Dan had not directly attacked the Great Toad Sage in any way. All he had done was allow the toad to freely connect with a portion of his presence without restraining or suppressing it. And that alone was an extremely dangerous thing for any living being that was not at his level or at least somewhere near it.
His spiritual power, in its unrestricted state, would have an overwhelming effect on any ordinary creature because that creature's mind would simply be incapable of comprehending all the information flowing toward it from such a tremendous source of power.
The brain functions within the limits of its capacity, even if that capacity is vastly greater than that of a normal human. If it is suddenly confronted with an immense quantity of information and spiritual energy many times beyond what it can process, it will begin to collapse gradually. Its internal balance will be disrupted, and its sense of direction and stability will become distorted.
Because of Dan's immense power and extraordinary density, there was simply no way the toad's brain could process the information it received. It would instinctively begin a desperate attempt to force its own spiritual power to evolve at a rapid pace in order to accommodate the overwhelming influx. Such unnatural, forced evolution would inevitably lead to distortions of both body and mind and, in the worst-case scenario, death itself.
The situation was remarkably similar to trying to force a terabyte of data into a storage drive capable of holding only a single gigabyte. The result would not be successful storage. It would be destruction.
That was precisely why Dan always kept his presence especially his spiritual power under the strictest possible control, so that he would not unintentionally affect the world around him or the members of his family. Maintaining that level of control required constant effort and uninterrupted concentration.
However, after successfully completing the Fifth Vitality Seal and integrating it with the previous four seals, every aspect of his power experienced an enormous leap forward all at once. That massive improvement caused the level of control required of him to rise far beyond what he had become accustomed to. Thus, he needed to enter the Inner World and train himself to adapt to this new level until it once again became natural and instinctive.
Unfortunately for the Great Toad Sage and the Sage of Six Paths, they had chosen precisely this delicate period when he was actively adjusting his power to spy on him and use prophecy techniques to investigate him. When Dan sensed them, he decided to let the toad experience for himself what it meant to completely lose control of one's mind and to feel genuine fear of the unknown of something their minds could neither comprehend, process, nor even properly classify.
In his calculations, that would be a far better, more effective, and far more lasting lesson than a simple verbal warning. He had already warned Hagoromo directly once before, yet the man had still insisted on trying to pry into his affairs and uncover his secrets. A warning without a tangible consequence eventually fades into nothing more than words. People grow bold and begin to ignore it. But a lesson etched into memory through genuine fear and pain is not easily forgotten, no matter how much time passes.
Dan also decided that if Hagoromo ever attempted another trick whether to interfere with him, spy on his future, or investigate his plans his response would be far harsher next time, with no leniency and no second chances.
It would not be as simple as allowing the other party to experience his unrestricted presence. It would be something far beyond that. At the same time, however, he doubted Hagoromo would attempt anything of the sort again in the foreseeable future. What the Great Toad Sage had experienced firsthand, and what he himself had witnessed, was more than enough for any rational being to understand the boundaries that should never be crossed. The message had been delivered clearly enough and required no further explanation.
Dan slowly closed his eyes once more and returned his focus to the process of control that had been briefly interrupted by this minor annoyance. There was still a great deal of work waiting for him here before he could return to the outside world as though nothing had happened.
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