The god's distortion was absolutely insane.
It far surpassed His previous reaction when He had coveted Uchiha Yoru. Very soon, the portion of the spirit body containing Little Ke bulged out from the god's vast spirit body.
With just a few more movements, it would have been peeled away.
But—
Everything was too late.
Little Ke was not an ordinary spiritual creature.
It was a spiritual monster born from humanity's endless madness, with the survival instinct as its core.
The octopus was not Little Ke's true appearance.
It was only its—
Its essence was living chaos and madness.
And the god's spirit body was filled with chaos restrained by a framework.
Chaos and madness were a perfect match.
Sometimes, people felt gods were insane.
Actually, this was wrong.
Gods themselves were existences of absolute order, bound by extremely strict rules.
The madness shown by gods was only their different faces. After insignificant humans perceived them, humans could not stand on a higher level and understand the connection between contradictions.
They could only interpret it as madness.
In truth, madness was a characteristic unique to humans.
Only humans suffered mental illness and did things that completely violated their own interests, including self-harm, suicide, and other acts that harmed both others and themselves.
But gods could be infected by madness.
Especially this evil god.
Because of the chaos in His own spirit, He was practically an easy infection body for madness.
After Little Ke entered the god's spiritual tentacle, the madness it released could still be concealed by the chaos it simultaneously emitted.
But once it was brought into the main body, chaos could no longer hide madness.
The god's own chaos was contaminated by Little Ke's madness.
Little Ke's madness was like faith poison purified trillions of times, pushing the god's chaos toward an extreme and directly clashing violently with the rule framework that restrained the god's existence.
Little Ke entering the evil god's spirit body was like a spark entering a hydrogen balloon.
In an instant, it detonated the chaotic collection of spirit bodies.
The rule framework was extremely strong, but in essence, it was still supported by the god's own spiritual power.
When the god's power was weak, the power of the rules was ultimately limited.
Especially when the impact came from His own spiritual power, the rules displayed their greatest fragility.
Bang—
The god's spirit body exploded.
At least one-fortieth of His spirit body transformed into a spiritual storm, and the related rule framework snapped and shattered.
With the rule framework damaged, the god's spiritual power leaked wildly.
His overall size shrank rapidly, and an unstoppable chain reaction even occurred.
As the spiritual power loss intensified, the unsupported rule framework continuously collapsed.
Then even more spiritual power leaked away.
But the most terrifying thing was still division.
When the evil god shrank to less than one ten-thousandth of His original size, He split into Them.
Among them, seven or eight completely independent spirit bodies were relatively stronger. Because of various circumstances, they had blocked their own spiritual power leakage.
Then these relatively strong second-generation gods began slaughtering each other, fighting over the spiritual power that belonged to a god and desperately strengthening themselves.
What a fine divine war.
But Yoru could no longer stay.
Because of the god's explosion, His devouring of the mental world had naturally stopped.
But it also caused this long-dead mental world to collapse.
The speed was so fast that Yoru could not continue remaining there.
Yoru had appeared here through the connection of the physical body.
If the mental world was completely destroyed, whether the corresponding connection could still exist—
He could not be certain.
Ignoring the danger of having his return path cut off was not something Uchiha Yoru could do.
Yoru grabbed back the hole-filled octopus Little Ke, who had grown larger by a circle.
Then he used eighteen big slaps to help the little octopus recall the fear and obedience it should have.
He tightened the large bundle of rule framework fragments on his back.
After taking one final look at the gods slaughtering each other endlessly, Yoru carried Little Ke and left with a bit of regret.
But in the final instant before leaving, he vaguely saw another vast consciousness body.
That enormous fellow appeared at the edge of his vision.
It possessed an even larger consciousness body and an even sturdier, more complicated rule framework.
At the same time, it also emitted even more direct and terrifying greed.
Without concealing its existence at all, it pounced toward the small evil gods.
After returning to his own mental world, Yoru felt both regretful and afraid.
He stood quietly for a long while before finally regaining his usual calm.
Only then did he remember that he was still holding Little Ke.
He casually threw Little Ke into the center of the four heart-shapes, letting the four heart-shapes squeeze spiritual power from it.
Then Yoru began carefully sorting the rule framework fragments he had brought back.
After inspecting them, Yoru discovered that these rule fragments showed no tendency to continue collapsing.
Nor did they have any effect on his mental world.
Of course, he also had no way to piece these things together.
This was not strange.
Although they all came from one evil god, the fragments belonged to different rule frameworks.
Not being able to fit them together was normal.
And even if they really could be pieced together, he did not know how to connect or handle them.
After thinking back and forth, Yoru still threw these high-grade goods into a corner of his mental world.
They piled up like a stack of firewood.
Then he left the mental world.
Yoru opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the monster's head under his hand.
He discovered that the monster had already begun rotting.
On the head whose mutation had yet to complete, foul-smelling corpse fluid was seeping out of all five facial openings.
He wanted to take a deep breath, but the stench made him stagger.
So he simply circulated chakra and punched the monster's corpse nine times in succession, imprinting nine golden fist marks.
When Yoru lifted the tent flap and walked out, the monster's corpse behind him had already been wrapped in golden flames.
Whether hair, corpse fluid, or stench—
Everything vanished in the fire.
Burning it could not only destroy this corpse whose source was difficult to explain, but also save the Uchiha little brothers the trouble of cleaning it up.
Two birds with one stone.
Miwa Masayo had come to the side of the tent the moment she sensed chakra fluctuations.
The instant Yoru appeared, she jumped onto her most familiar shoulder.
The tabby tilted her head and looked him up and down.
She asked with concern,
"Did you encounter danger, nya?"
Yoru had told her about possession.
Although she trusted her servant's strength and caution very much, this was still an exploration of a god's domain.
It was inevitable that she would worry.
Yoru did not immediately answer Miwa Masayo's question, because there were still Uchiha of the Tiger Unit nearby.
He first instructed Uchiha Shigenobu and Uchiha Tadamichi, telling them to wait until the fire went out before cleaning up the bone ash.
Most importantly, they had to remember to sift through the bone ash.
Yoru explained,
"Relax. Bone ash burned by golden flame won't stink."
"A monster's corpse like this might burn out something different."
The two eighteen-year-old Uchiha stood straight and answered together,
"Big Brother Yoru, don't worry. We'll handle it properly."
"Mm."
Yoru nodded with satisfaction and left with the cat sage.
Only after Uchiha Shigenobu and Uchiha Tadamichi watched the two of them walk far away did they slowly relax.
Shigenobu walked to the tent and pulled open the flap.
Golden firelight illuminated his and Tadamichi's faces.
Feeling the scorching light radiation, he shook his head with emotion.
Even Uchiha Tadamichi, with his silent and reserved personality, couldn't help sighing at this moment.
"I really… don't know what to say."
Uchiha Shigenobu smiled with unclear meaning.
"No wonder everyone now calls Big Brother Yoru 'Yoru the Cremator.' I don't even know when Big Brother Yoru developed this habit, but anyone who dies by his hands has to be burned into ash."
At this time, Kazushi, who arrived a few steps late, stuck his head in for a look and smiled.
"Did you all forget? When Big Brother Yoru taught us tactics, the thing he liked saying most was…"
"Scatter their ashes for him." x3
The three of them burst into laughter together.
Thinking back now, the training days from a few months ago were truly full of happiness.
Uchiha Shigenobu sighed.
"Before awakening the Sharingan, we all felt it was unbearable and complained constantly. Looking back now, days without fighting people with our lives on the line were happiness."
Uchiha Tadamichi said dully,
"If only there were no war. Then we wouldn't have lost so many little brothers."
Uchiha Kazushi sighed sadly.
"We were already lucky enough to meet Big Brother Yoru on the battlefield and receive his protection."
Shigenobu's heart tightened when he heard that. He hurriedly asked,
"What happened? What news did you find out?"
Kazushi answered,
"There's finally news about Ichiki."
"Ichiki returned to Konoha Hospital for treatment because of severe injuries. The news says his injuries are too heavy, and it might take another month of treatment before he recovers."
A huge stone in Uchiha Shigenobu's heart fell.
"It's good enough that he came back alive. What about the others?"
"Gone."
"What? What do you mean… gone?"
Uchiha Shigenobu and Uchiha Tadamichi were both stunned.
They never imagined it.
Uchiha Ichiki had gone to the Land of Rain with more than twenty companions.
More than twenty people.
Uchiha Kazushi nodded heavily.
"Other than Ichiki, all twenty-one little brothers died in battle."
"Damn it. We fought thousands of Kirigakure shinobi, and in the end, our losses were only a little over twenty. How could they all have died?"
"Could someone have targeted our Uchiha clan?"
"From how it looks right now, probably not. Konoha suffered a defeat in the Land of Rain, and the casualties were extremely heavy."
"Other shinobi from the clan also suffered heavy losses. Several other clans were about the same. Almost all were wiped out."
Having received Yoru's education, every member of the Tiger Unit had a sense of crisis that their clan was being targeted.
Although Yoru had deliberately controlled it so they would not clearly identify who was targeting them, they were not lacking in vigilance.
After hearing Kazushi's words, Shigenobu and Tadamichi relaxed only slightly.
After all, among the little brothers who went to the Land of Rain, six were Uchiha shinobi who had already awakened their eyes.
Their strength was at least comparable to chunin.
And according to convention, Uchiha shinobi were more likely to awaken the Sharingan in battles with heavy casualties.
Their survival rate should have far exceeded shinobi of other clans.
Moreover, Big Brother Yoru had taught everyone the Four-Four Tactics.
Although no one had taken it to heart at the time, who didn't know now that the Four-Four Tactics were the greatest factor for survival on the battlefield?
Although that set did not have much effect on whether an individual could survive, for a unit, it absolutely could greatly increase survival odds.
No matter how terrible the situation was, Uchiha shinobi should not have ended up completely wiped out.
Unless someone interfered and assigned them a certain-death mission.
Kazushi had already thought about all of these things long ago.
Unfortunately, the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Rain were far too far apart.
Too much time had passed.
It was already impossible for him to obtain the corresponding intelligence.
He could not even find the responsible person.
After all, the name of the frontline commander, Jonin Sugino Shūzō, had also been placed on the Memorial Stone.
Whether there had been human interference behind these casualties could only remain doubtful.
Uchiha Tadamichi said,
"According to what Big Brother Yoru said, as long as this matter is doubtful, we must treat it as real when deciding our attitude."
Uchiha Kazushi agreed.
"That's right. From now on, for every assigned mission, we must carefully study it. If we can't decide, we must obtain Big Brother Yoru's approval."
Uchiha Shigenobu nodded and added,
"If there is a situation where we can't contact Big Brother Yoru, we will directly refuse."
"We are the Tiger Unit that killed three thousand shinobi in one battle. We are shinobi of Konoha's number one noble clan. Isn't it only natural to act a little arrogant and domineering?"
"Well said. Let's do it that way."
Uchiha Shigenobu added again,
"Right. Kazushi, don't forget to write the report and apply to transfer Ichiki to the Tiger Unit."
"And all young Uchiha who are going to the battlefield. Pull in as many as possible."
"Don't worry. I already submitted that report."
"Right. Big Brother Yoru specifically instructed…"
"No Uchiha Obito. He's a disaster." x3
"Then there's no problem."
…
After Miwa Masayo finished listening to Yoru's account of his experience in the sea of mind, her eyes were full of little stars.
They were filled with expectation and envy.
"So nice. I'm so envious, nya."
"I still can't communicate with my own mind. Otherwise, I could accompany you on adventures, nya."
Yoru comforted her.
"Work hard. I feel you aren't far from success."
Miwa Masayo irritably scratched her ears with her paws and complained painfully,
"So annoying, nya. I was clearly the first to gather my thoughts into one, nya. But why is this 'one' so hard to eliminate, nya?"
Yoru was not sure either when Miwa Masayo would be able to gather her mind.
According to ancient myths, the core of powerful demon races born with a seed was bloodline.
Their continuous cultivation merely excavated and activated the ancestral talents hidden within their bloodlines.
But this method was purely slow grinding.
Without hundreds or thousands of years of accumulation, one would only be a small demon who could not appear on stage.
So aside from ancient demon races whose bloodlines were absurdly powerful, later rising demon races, once they awakened intelligence, all without exception imitated humans and sought breakthroughs along the immortal path.
Miwa Masayo was extremely lucky.
She awakened intelligence three months after birth and became a ninja cat of the Cat Castle.
It could be said that from the very beginning, she had already defeated 99.999% of demon races.
As for the second stage, spirit enlightenment, humans and demons each had advantages.
The greatest trouble for humans was that their thoughts were too flexible.
Their thoughts were as numerous and tangled as grass.
The first step, gathering thoughts and leaving only one, was truly too difficult.
But once this step was completed, they could very quickly transform the one into emptiness, draw out the true self from the deepest part of the heart, enlighten the true self into the superego, and begin tempering the mind more directly.
But demon races were influenced by instinct far more than humans.
For ninja cats with hunting instincts, gathering the mind into one required no effort at all.
But when it came to eliminating the one and transforming it into emptiness, the difficulty became far too high.
For an entire year, Miwa Masayo had made no progress.
In truth, Miwa Masayo's spirit enlightenment progress was not bad.
It was only that compared with Yoru's rapid progress, she inevitably felt somewhat disappointed.
Essence, energy, and spirit advanced in order.
But whether one could directly cultivate spirit determined the smoothness of the three supporting one another and growing in a cycle.
Ever since Yoru immersed himself into his mind, his cultivation progress had advanced a thousand miles a day.
In the end, he even brought Miwa Masayo along to soar.
The two of them both became sages in the shinobi world's sense.
Afterward, the gap between them grew larger and larger.
Miwa Masayo began worrying that she could not keep up.
This made her very irritable.
Yoru knew that at a time like this, his Dao companion needed comfort.
He rubbed the tabby cat's head and gently comforted her, cheering her on.
"Keep going. You're not far from success. You'll succeed very soon."
He was also very curious.
Inside Miwa Masayo's mind, what would her image be like?
According to Yoru's hopes, the self-image born inside Miwa Masayo's mind had better not be a majestic white tiger.
And absolutely not some strange winged tiger.
What he hoped to see was a petite and adorable cat-eared girl.
Or a seductive and charming leopard girl would also be good.
A healthy and full tiger girl was not unacceptable either.
But Yoru had grown used to the small tabby cat lying on his shoulder.
Without realizing it, he had formed the impression that Miwa Masayo was a cat-eared girl.
So—
Cat-eared girl supreme!
To achieve this goal, Yoru had put in enormous effort.
Through three years of continuous indoctrination, he had done his utmost to describe the concept of catgirls to Miwa Masayo.
He had even, through persistent effort, made the little cat accept such a kawaii name as "Rika-chan."
No matter what, Miwa Masayo was only four years old.
Three-fourths of her life had been spent with him, Uchiha Yoru.
There should always be some influence.
Yoru had put in so much effort for what he wanted in the future.
If Miwa Masayo truly counted as a real demon race, then she should have the chance to transform in the future.
And if she transformed, she must transform into a real catgirl!
Absolutely—
Absolutely—
She could not turn into a patrolling mountain goblin with a cat head and human body!!
If, for the endless years of the future, Yoru had to face Miwa Masayo in the form of a cat-headed mountain goblin…
He would die!!
Thinking of that terrifying possibility, he couldn't help shivering.
Miwa Masayo sensed her servant's abnormality and asked with concern,
"What's wrong? Is your body uncomfortable?"
Hearing his Dao companion's soft and beautiful voice, the worry in Yoru's heart was soothed.
He smiled and answered,
"It's nothing. I only thought of a terrifying future."
"But… it probably won't happen."
"Nya. As long as you're fine, nya."
Yes.
Such an adorable Miwa Masayo—
How could her transformed form possibly be an ugly cat-headed human?
Appearance was born from the heart.
So it was impossible.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)