"Who's there!"
Hearing a noise nearby, Kaguya Hime suddenly lifted her head.
There were still tears in the corners of her eyes, clearly showing she had just been crying.
Ye Liang stood before her, silently watching.
"It's been a long time."
Kaguya stared at him blankly.
"What? Don't you recognize me anymore?" Ye Liang asked as he stepped closer and extended his hand.
Ye Liang had altered the timeline; naturally, this version of Kaguya would also have changed.
"Who exactly are you?! Why did you attack me before and now come here pretending to be nice?!"
"Attack you?" Ye Liang looked at Kaguya's body, his face twitching slightly.
He had indeed used [Night Guy] to disperse Kaguya before, but at that time, he hadn't time-traveled to the past, so she wouldn't remember it happening.
"Back then, we were still enemies. Now, I suppose we're friends."
Ye Liang reached out again, trying to pull Kaguya up, but she shoved his hand away harshly.
"Hmph! Asking for death!" Kaguya Hime's pupils narrowed, immediately casting a hypnotic illusion. Next, she rapidly turned rock into blades, sharply thrusting them toward Ye Liang's head.
"What the hell, Kaguya?!"
Ye Liang was shocked.
He had never expected Kaguya to actually attack him directly.
Kaguya Hime shouted loudly, "Obviously to kill you!" Her speed remained unchanged. It wasn't just blades anymore; she also used [Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack].
Her palms condensed, moving almost faster than light.
Innumerable fists flew toward Ye Liang.
Ye Liang quickly burst backward!
From this short clash, he realized Kaguya Hime wasn't holding back at all, and judging by her expression, she truly didn't seem to recognize him.
"What in the world is going on here!"
Ye Liang immediately drew the Chaotic Cursed Blade.
Against Kaguya Hime, his own abilities alone wouldn't suffice; he could only rely on the cursed blade now!
The blade gleamed, and Kaguya's attacks vanished in an instant.
"Stop! I have no intention of fighting you. I only want to know what exactly has happened to you."
Kaguya ignored him. Seeing the Chaotic Cursed Blade flash, she immediately vanished into the distant spatial dimension.
"There goes Amenominaka again! This damn Space-Time Ninjutsu really is convenient," Ye Liang frowned slightly and rose up, leaving Kaguya's spatial realm.
The next moment,
He arrived at those mountains.
The Akatsuki organization had already left. Ye Liang detected their location, hesitated slightly, then suddenly flew toward the southeast.
What had exactly happened to Kaguya?
Why couldn't she remember him?
These questions kept circling in Ye Liang's mind.
If the timeline hadn't changed, that wouldn't make sense either, since Ye Liang had followed the time-space turtle.
This treasure of the Third Civilization couldn't possibly make such a mistake.
He arrived at a ruined wilderness.
He identified his current location based on the geological formations.
The former territory of Hitsu no Kuni!
He looked at the surface; there was a broken-down temple atop the barren hills, once the dwelling of Isshikiotsutsuki! He roughly scanned the area and landed.
"Why is there no one here?"
Ye Liang observed his surroundings, finding only broken spiderwebs. Even the temple's entrance had partially collapsed.
He stepped in quietly.
"Isshiki! What the hell are you playing at? Have you forgotten our promise?"
No one answered.
Ye Liang swept his gaze around once more.
There were many more temples and Buddha statues here. It looked completely different from the Otsutsuki Temple he had seen before, as if it were a whole other place.
"Could it be that Isshiki Otsutsuki is already gone? Then where did he go? Back to Kaguya's planet?" Ye Liang pondered, confused.
At that moment, sudden sweeping sounds came from outside the house. Ye Liang looked up and saw an old man busily sweeping.
"That's strange. How could someone still be sweeping when the temple has fallen into such disrepair?"
He walked right outside.
The old man outside was very focused, seemingly unaware of Ye Liang's presence, only concentrating on the dust before him.
"Elderly sir, do you happen to know Isshiki Otsutsuki?"
"Isshiki?" Hearing Ye Liang's words, the old man lifted his head. "Young man, that name belongs to events hundreds of years ago. Why bother digging it up again?"
"Hundreds of years?" Ye Liang thought for a moment.
Indeed.
For him, it had only been a blink of an eye; but for the Otsutsuki Clan, centuries had passed!
Three hundred years—long enough to forget oneself, long enough to drive a man mad.
"Elderly sir," Ye Liang continued cautiously, "from your tone, it seems you've heard of the Otsutsuki Clan. I had a deal with him. Do you know where he is now?"
"A deal?" The old man scrutinized Ye Liang again after hearing this. "I know who you are. I saw you the first time you entered this world."
"You... know me?"
Ye Liang examined the old man carefully, and his expression suddenly changed.
This old man—he really did recognize him!
Back when he had first crossed over into this world, he had once asked this very old man for directions. At the time, it had seemed insignificant, so he hadn't paid much attention.
Seeing Ye Liang's expression change, the old man smiled.
"I promised Isshiki to guard this world. It's been exactly three hundred years. Through wind and rain, hardship after hardship, I endured it all.
But I never imagined that the one I was waiting for all this time would turn out to be you!"
Hearing the old man's words, Ye Liang finally fell silent.
He lowered his head quietly. "You must be Jigen. I didn't expect you to have separated from Isshiki. Where is he now? And what exactly happened back then?"
The old man gave Ye Liang a serious look.
"Follow me."
Not long after,
Ye Liang followed the sweeping old man to a hidden valley.
"Originally, I intended to gather faith to destroy Isshiki. But in the end, I couldn't defeat him, and he sealed me away. However, fate had other plans. Later events weakened Isshiki's power, allowing me to escape.
As for the full details, you should ask him yourself."
The old man pointed toward the depths of the valley, where an elder sat upon a rock.
"This is Isshiki?" Ye Liang questioned doubtfully.
The Otsutsuki Clan possessed extremely long lifespans, and a few hundred years shouldn't have aged Isshiki so visibly. Feeling the old man give him a gentle push, Ye Liang slowly walked forward.
"Isshiki? Is that really you?"
The elder turned his head.
He smiled.
"You finally showed up! You actually broke your word!"
"What exactly happened? Look at the state you're in now! And what about Kaguya Hime? Why doesn't she even recognize me?"
Isshiki looked at Ye Liang, who had just bombarded him with questions, and suddenly burst into laughter.
"Haha! I see, you only care about Kaguya!"
He glared at Ye Liang with sudden hatred. "We had a pact back then — I'd protect the world, and you'd handle the Otsutsuki pursuers! What happened then? The Otsutsuki Clan has already arrived — where were you?"
"What?! The Otsutsuki Clan came already?" Ye Liang stared blankly at the shouting Isshiki. At that moment, he noticed Isshiki's body — the power of the Ten-Tails was completely gone, replaced instead by pitch-black energy that nearly resembled Death Qi (a dark, life-draining energy)!
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