As the Firebird unleashed its towering flames, various demons and monsters across the Ninja World sensed it and looked in the direction it was in. Even Kaguya, guarding the Divine Tree, opened her Byakugan, wanting to investigate...
At the bottom of the dark deep sea.
A massive creature slowly opened its eyes. Two lantern-sized eyes lit up, dispelling the surrounding darkness and revealing parts of its body.
This was a giant turtle-snake, a hundred meters in size. Its black, heavy turtle shell was covered with ferocious, hard bone spurs. The snake body of its tail coiled along the turtle's body, its snake head level with the turtle's head, both gazing in the direction of the Firebird.
In the ancient forest to the west.
Suddenly, a burst of azure lightning streaked through the depths of the dense forest. Following closely, a massive snake-like creature, with antlers on its head, its body covered in azure scales, and five claws on its belly, steadily floated above the ancient forest. Long whiskers on both sides of its mouth and a mane on its neck danced in the wind, and a pair of azure-green eyes contained electricity. It was currently curiously observing the anomaly at the Firebird's location.
In the depths of the Great Rift Valley to the north.
A white afterimage flashed by quickly, instantly causing a gust of wind within the valley.
"What kind of trouble did that Firebird get into, to even use its ultimate move?"
A loli-like female voice softly echoed. The owner of the voice was a giant, snow-white tiger with a pair of wings on its ribs. As it lightly licked its snow-white right paw, it curiously sensed the Firebird's location, pondering whether or not to go and take a look...
In the capital city named the Land of Witches.
A miko, dressed in miko attire, was kneeling on a meditation cushion. A hint of eerie purple-black flashed in her pure eyes. In the ethereal realm, a sense of unease emerged in her heart, and her sacred face was filled with worry for the second time. The first time was on the day that strange tree was born, a year ago...
"The era of demons and gods in this world is about to end, and the gods will eventually perish!"
The miko received this prophecy in her mind and spoke it aloud.
"Hehehe, what nonsense are you saying? With your divine power and my strength, no one in this world is our match!"
As a low, sinister voice sounded, a purple-black demon materialized in front of the miko. It continuously let out strange laughs, completely disbelieving the 'prophecy' the miko spoke!
"What's more, our powers haven't fully merged yet. Once they completely merge, the Land of Witches would have long since ruled this world under our leadership…"
The purple-black demon formed a hand and then tightly clenched it in front of the miko, as if the entire world was within its grasp.
"Moryo, you are too arrogant!"
The miko looked at the purple-black demon in front of her, her sacred face showing pity for it. It would never know how terrifying this world was. This world was not something a small demon like it could dominate...
"Hmph! If it weren't for accommodating you, I would have long since dominated this world!"
The demon named Moryo immediately snorted upon hearing the miko's words, a helpless tone appearing in its voice, as if something peculiar had happened between it and the miko...
The miko glanced at Moryo and said nothing, but a certain decision had formed in her heart!
...
Deep underground in the capital city named the Land of the Dead, on an empty altar, floated an ethereal figure dressed in a pale white, wide robe, looking like a shriveled zombie. Its ferocious, ghostly head had a pair of symmetrical blood-red abyssal demon horns. At this moment, it was leaning against the invisible air, idly combing its long gray hair that hung down from its head with its dark fingers, while speaking to the blurry black shadow in front of it: "Evil God, it seems you still can't truly descend?"
"No matter, I have already spread my doctrine. As long as there are continuous believers who worship me and offer me enough energy, my descent into this world is only a matter of time." The blurry black shadow, referred to as 'Evil God,' spoke, then said with a sour tone: "It is you who arrived in this world many years before me. I didn't expect you could even establish a country that worships your name, 'Death God,' in this world. That truly surprises me!"
"Hehe, they are just some indigenous humans who worship violence and slaughter. The country they established is merely a drop in the ocean of this world…"
The ferocious ghost-faced man, called 'Death God,' said indifferently, as if the existence of this country was dispensable to him.
"Truly worthy of your name, 'Death God'!"
The Evil God chuckled, wondering what it was thinking.
"By the way, a more powerful existence descended upon this world a year ago. If you want to descend, do it as soon as possible. I can sense that in the near future, something unpredictable and major will happen in this world! Especially the fluctuations born from the Firebird today, they make my premonition even stronger…" 'Death God' suddenly remembered something, then spoke to 'Evil God' with a serious expression. In this world, there were not many allies he could find, and the latter was undoubtedly the most suitable one, so he urgently hoped the latter could descend to this world quickly.
"Hmm, I'll try my best!"
'Evil God' looked at 'Death God's' serious ghost face, and he also spoke solemnly. Afterward, the blurry black shadow disappeared into thin air, leaving only 'Death God' floating alone on the blood-red altar. Then, its nearly three-meter-tall figure slowly vanished, disappearing from sight…
...
In the depths of a mountain range filled with natural energy, a yellow-skinned toad with nimble eyes seemed to sense something, looking in one direction, but its gaze was blocked by the tall mountains.
"The era of demons and gods is about to pass, but the remnants of the era will continue…"
After the yellow-skinned toad softly uttered this, it hopped and leaped towards the mountaintop...
In the depths of an unknown cave, dense natural energy, in the form of tangible mist, lingered within an ancient temple. Inside, a snow-white giant snake uneasily writhed its body.
"This world is truly about to change!"
The snow-white giant snake spoke in human tongue, muttering to itself. Ever since that strange tree began to grow a year ago, it had felt this way, and today, that feeling was even stronger!
This was the living place of countless slugs. Under the slugs' special bodily fluids, only a kind of tree emitting a pale, bone-like color could survive. The monotonous environment was filled with tranquility and loneliness.
"Is this world about to become turbulent again? How exciting…"
A massive slug seemed to sense something, openly expressing its thoughts.
...
Kaguya, guarding the Divine Tree, activated her Byakugan, but due to the Byakugan's range limitation, she couldn't see the situation over there. She wanted to investigate but worriedly glanced at the Divine Tree, ultimately not going over.
Kaguya knew that the Divine Tree was still in its seedling state. Once it lost her protection, it was highly likely to be destroyed by the demons wandering nearby!
This had often happened since the first day she planted the Divine Tree, which was why Kaguya dared not stray too far from the Divine Tree.
"Just a bunch of indigenous demons. Once the Divine Tree bears fruit, I will suppress and kill all of you!"
Kaguya sensed the presence of many demons wandering nearby and couldn't help but mutter to herself.
In fact, after Kaguya planted the Divine Tree, the demons living on this planet could clearly feel the natural energy being devoured and digested by that parasitic, strange tree!
It should be known that the natural energy on this planet was, to some extent, fixed. There was absorption and decomposition, but that suddenly appearing strange tree only absorbed natural energy without releasing any!
This also led to the hostility between the native demons and Kaguya, which resulted in many demons joining forces to destroy the Divine Tree a year ago. However, any demon that entered within a thousand li of the Divine Tree, regardless of their rank or strength, completely disappeared without a trace. Thus, the area within a thousand li around the Divine Tree became a forbidden zone for demons. Therefore, these unyielding demons only dared to wander outside a thousand li from the Divine Tree. Once Kaguya wanted to leave the Divine Tree, they would immediately destroy this parasitic Divine Tree...
Ketsuna, enveloped by the Firebird's towering flames, naturally did not know that his battle with the Firebird was being watched and sensed by many forces in the Ninja World, including demons, gods, intelligent life forms cultivating natural energy, and Kaguya, the Ōtsutsuki who planted the Divine Tree.