"You wish to resign from your position as Chief Instructor of the Imperial Capital's New Recruit Camp?"
In the Schönbrunn Palace courtyard, cradling the two little troublemakers—Little Godzilla and Little Ghidorah, who were already biting and clawing each other despite being clones—Selene's pupils suddenly grew clear.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Fu Hua clasped her fist to her chest and bowed her head respectfully.
"While training the new recruits in the capital, my compilations and studies on the School of Taixuan, the martial arts manuals of the Shenzhou martial world, and the collected knowledge on the annihilated Taixu Seven Swords have all reached a bottleneck. Perhaps, if I go out and experience the world, I may gain something new. To read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles—shouldn't the two complement each other?"
In her words, the Immortal Phoenix no longer carried the self-blame or remorse she once had for having slain her own rebellious disciples, the Seven Swords of Taixu. What remained was calm acceptance. The past was past, history had already been written, and one must look forward.
As for vengeance? How could she even take revenge? All seven of her disciples had already turned to dust.
Except for Li Sushang, the descendants of the other Seven Swords, along with their sects, had long perished in the Empire's conquest wars. The martial factions of the Shenzhou world had been uprooted, and all their martial arts manuals were collected by the Imperial New Recruit Camp, unified, refined, and taught.
The Sacred Selene Empire no longer needed a martial world filled with wandering swordsmen and personal vendettas.
"For true sublimation, one must step out into the world—only then can quantity turn into quality. Your Majesty entrusted me with training the new recruits, and I should achieve more. I humbly ask for Your Majesty's permission."
She bowed deeply, her hands clasped together.
"There's no need to be so formal, Lady Fu Hua..."
Selene set down the small Godzilla, who was currently spraying atomic breath—youth edition, then tossed Little Ghidorah away like a puppy on a leash. Watching the little Godzilla charge after it on its stubby legs, Selene chuckled softly and shook her head.
"You make me sound like some heartless, inhuman tyrant. This is my private garden—no need for such ceremony." As she spoke, Selene picked up two cups of black tea from the glass table under the pavilion and handed one over.
"I grant your request."
Selene placed her hand gently on Fu Hua's straightened shoulder. "However... the New Recruit Camp still needs experienced, skilled instructors. Others just don't have the same finesse."
Nowadays, the Empire's New Recruit Camp, which recruited and trained soldiers every two years, produced more talents than ever before. Some of the junior instructors often found themselves unable to keep up with the rapid progress of exceptional trainees, which affected both training efficiency and results.
This was, in truth, a leftover problem from the past.
In the beginning, to make the most of Fu Hua's abilities—or rather, to squeeze them out—Selene had tossed her into the New Recruit Camp as a close-combat instructor, despite Fu Hua's disinterest in killing and fighting.
Unexpectedly, it worked wonders.
Though Fu Hua had lost her passion for conquest and bloodshed, when it came to training those who would fight for glory, honor, family, the Empire, and their Empress, her fighting spirit burned anew.
Diligent and responsible, she met every request. With her fifty thousand years of experience and mastery of ancient and modern martial techniques, combined with her years of teaching and mentoring, Fu Hua had greatly improved the overall quality of the recruits.
You could say her destructive power wasn't her strength, but her skill refinement was truly at the peak.
As for Selene? Pure brick-throwing brute force!
Selene didn't need techniques—they weren't even on the same path. What she pursued now was greater mass, higher-dimensional energy output, effortless manipulation of universal laws—alteration, distortion, inversion, annihilation.
If Selene were to instruct others herself…
Selene: "First, you do this... then that... just move your mind, clap your hands, and you can move mountains, shift seas, reverse galaxies, annihilate superclusters, create universes... simple enough. No hands required."
Recruits: "Learn? Learn what, exactly?!"
From simplicity to extravagance is easy; from extravagance back to simplicity, hard.
Having experienced Fu Hua's patient, precise guidance—her ability to teach any style, no matter how obscure—she had become indispensable as Chief Instructor.
Selene asked, "So, which corps do you plan to report to? The Legions? The Tribunal? The Administrative Department?"
Taking a sip of the black tea Selene had offered, Fu Hua's heart relaxed slightly, and she replied:
"No, I plan to act together with Durandal... The divine tree, the unknown energy fruit that was harvested, and those ancient Shenzhou-style patterns resembling clan crests—they reminded me of the days I spent with Danzhu and Cangxuan."
"...I see."
Selene looked at the elegant, strong beauty before her with a tone of genuine care. "That's indeed a good choice. The Ōtsutsuki Clan should have plenty of strong individuals skilled in techniques and seals..."
"The Ōtsutsuki Clan? Your Majesty has made another discovery."
"Mm. I've observed them briefly—a transcendent cosmic race that plants trees across the universe, obsessed with consuming the fruits of the divine trees. Their existence revolves around cultivating divine trees on suitable life-bearing planets, letting the trees devour all life to harvest the fruit."
Selene's voice carried a mysterious tone, her smile hinting at secrets unknown. "Take this... hopefully, you won't need to use it."
"A Honkai Cube..."
"Keep it. We're friends, aren't we? You are my precious Chief Instructor—an essential pillar of the Empire—worthy of such a gift."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"No need to thank me just yet. If you head to the spaceport now and depart with the rapid-response fleet, you should be able to catch up with Bianka soon."
Selene took a slow sip of her tea. Watching Fu Hua bow respectfully and leave, the Honkai Gem carefully stored away, she seemed to recall something. A faint smile formed on her lips as she called out brightly, "Oh, one more thing."
"Where's Senti? How long has she been swaggering around Kiana's territory, slacking off and playing tyrant? Someone bring Instructor Senti back here! It's time for her to take over some responsibilities!"
...
Meanwhile, in one of the newly expanded conquest worlds of the 13th Ultramarines Legion of the Sacred Selene Empire—Colony World No. XIII-638059.
Far from the Imperial frontier colonies and the governor's central planet, in a remote star system—
Orbiting an unremarkable life-bearing planet, within its lunar orbit—
Darkness.
Depth.
Amid faint, drip-drop echoes, within a narrow, sealed space that had remained closed for thousands of years, eternal loneliness, the pain of betrayal, and the shadow of death intertwined with the pitch-black void. These emotions stretched endlessly outward, fermenting, expanding, gestating—
Until they seemed to press violently against the barriers of the flesh itself.
The heart of one once known as the Progenitor of Chakra, the Rabbit Goddess—betrayed mother and forgotten guardian—throbbed beneath that suffocating darkness.
"A thousand years have passed in a blink."
"At last, it has come."
"Hagoromo (the Sage of Six Paths)... Hamura... Why..."
In this void without orientation, a trace of light suddenly bloomed.
It was a pair of eyes—beautiful as night pearls. Their jade-white luster filled her pupils like liquid moonlight, shimmering softly, glowing faintly. Tears welled and fell silently from those eyes.
Yet in the next instant, the flow ceased. The white eyes turned cold and still, gleaming like a frozen lake—lifeless, icy, eternal.
"It should not have come to this... Why did you betray me? Why could you not understand my will and helplessness? To betray your own mother... Do the fleeting lives of mere ants matter more than the mother who gave you life—more than your mother's life itself?"
Her voice, beautiful yet parched, echoed with both inquiry and declaration. Dense resentment, sorrow, and hatred filled the entire dark void, spreading like poison.
In that darkness, the sealed Rabbit Goddess—the Progenitor of Chakra, or rather, the progenitor of chakra for the shinobi world—Kaguya Ōtsutsuki sat cross-legged in silent dignity.
Humm—!
As her emotions rippled once more, her chakra—so dense it had long since become physical—rose like a tidal wave. A pale silver light spread across her skin, illuminating her imprisoned, pitifully delicate figure, trapped for millennia by her own children.
Her long blue-white hair trailed far past her body. Two symmetrical horns curved from her head. Her pale skin was adorned with magatama markings and regal patterns upon an ancient moonlit robe. Her fingers were slender, her face fair and flawless, lacking eyebrows, eyes pure white—and on her forehead, a crimson Rinne Sharingan with nine tomoe glowed faintly.
"...Since that's how it is, then let it all be destroyed together. Hagoromo, Hamura—your love for this 'garden' is meaningless. The ants have survived for a thousand years; that should be enough to honor your affection for them."
"My kin... those of my clan who yet survive in the cosmos—none of them are easy to deal with."
She murmured softly, and without a single gesture, the darkness before her eyes transformed in an instant.
The shinobi world.
After the divine tree was planted a thousand years ago and the apocalyptic battle that followed, the world's ecosystem had collapsed. The technique that sealed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had even shattered part of the planet, forming the moon. Though the planet still retained the basic natural conditions necessary for life, its continents were fragmented and scattered. Fertile lands were few.
And now, stirred by the contingency she had left behind, the Fourth Shinobi World War had erupted once more. The divine tree, in its post-chakra-depleted form—what the shinobi now called the Gedo Statue or the Ten Tails—had begun to move again.
If Kaguya Ōtsutsuki were to break free completely, even if the brothers of the Six Paths were to rise from their graves and once more perform a Divine Chibaku Tensei seal, could the planet possibly survive it?
Her kin—the higher echelons of the Ōtsutsuki Clan—must have already sensed the anomaly.
Because the divine tree only bore fruit once every thousand years, the Ōtsutsuki elders had not initially realized Kaguya's betrayal. Only when she failed to deliver the divine tree fruit at the appointed time, and even cut off the flow of chakra meant for the clan, did they begin to suspect.
Knowing her cold, greedy kin as she did, Kaguya knew they would never sit idly by.
Especially when...
That strange, primal tremor—something resonating deep within her chakra's origin—shuddered through her. From the far reaches of deep space, across the remnants of another divine tree, came an unmistakable gaze, unmasked in its malice and greed.
A blurred, radiant silhouette. In that instant, through the network of divine trees and chakra fruits—through the resonance between them—it noticed her.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could not quite describe the feeling.
At that moment, it was as though she had fallen into a nightmare: space and time twisted, and she plunged into a bottomless abyss, watched by a pair of unseen, scarlet-glowing eyes suspended high in the heavens.
In the drowning dark, something slithered. The sound of corrosion, like sulfuric acid eating through metal, filled her mind. The surrounding space seemed to crumble in an instant, and everything—every sense, every thought—was consumed by a hollow, empty void.
She knew this was not a real sensation, yet that did not stop the chill of malice that scraped along her skin and soul, striking her body like hammers, yearning for a feast.
Worse still, when she broke free from that weak restraint and awoke, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki found herself powerless—utterly incapable of resistance.
She did not know, nor could she be certain, whether that presence was the so-called God of the Ōtsutsuki Clan... or perhaps something entirely alien—an entity beyond even her race.
The only thing she was sure of was this:
She was not alone. Every Ōtsutsuki who had consumed a chakra fruit—every being who had absorbed a divine tree, becoming its living vessel, its Ten Tails Jinchūriki—had been marked and watched by that same unfathomable shadow.
That realization sent a ripple of unease through her heart.
Yet, alongside it came a twisted, hysterical satisfaction.
Even if Black Zetsu had failed, even if her treacherous kin were already descending upon this world, even if the unknown entities from beyond the stars had already locked onto this planet's coordinates...
She no longer cared.
"Hamura... how will you respond, my eldest son? Will you rely on your reincarnated descendants—or on those filthy toads?"
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's expression remained serene.
Her voice was calm, as though she were speaking of something utterly detached from herself. A thousand years of darkness had long eroded what little patience and compassion she once possessed.
...
The shinobi world.
Ruins and rubble. Dust choking the air. Wails echoing through the dying land. The crimson light of the setting sun bathed everything in the glow of burning clouds.
The color of blood.
It tainted everything—the massive, gnarled, single-eyed monstrosity; the collapsing mountains and deserts; the shattered headbands marked with the 'shinobi' symbol; and the faces of the wounded and dying.
Among them stood a man, half his face scarred and ruined.
"This world, filled with despair, no longer deserves to exist. Rin... I will create a world where you still live."
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