Before departing, Uchiha Yoru decided to convene another Divine Court meeting.
The events in Amegakure involved Nagato, Konan, and the Rinnegan. To a certain extent, they were fully capable of determining the future of the shinobi world.
There was no way Uchiha Yoru could ignore them.
Besides, traveling thousands of kilometers to conduct an on-site investigation certainly couldn't compare to directly questioning someone involved.
Over the past several days, Konan's thread of faith had grown stronger with each passing day, while the faith she provided also increased daily.
It seemed that the fish egg had produced excellent results and filled the girl with gratitude.
Uchiha Yoru felt that with Konan's current level of faith, she probably wouldn't conceal anything or lie before the Heavenly Emperor.
Late at night, inside the lowest basement beneath his room, Uchiha Yoru immersed himself in the Purple Mansion world.
Standing upon the earth, he gazed into the distance at the five heart-forms and the hole-covered octopus. After confirming that their conditions were still good, he flew upward and entered the clouds.
Upon entering the Divine Court's great hall, Uchiha Yoru sat upon the enormous golden dragon throne.
At 183 centimeters tall, he appeared extraordinarily tiny.
He sat in the exact center, touching neither side nor the front or back. His feet were also suspended more than one and a half meters above the ground.
Uchiha Yoru couldn't help mocking himself.
"Hehe. Every time I sit here, it feels strange."
"This chair is far too large. It feels like Hana-chan sitting on my sofa."
"Next time, I should enlarge myself before sitting down."
With a thought from Uchiha Yoru, the imperial crown and ceremonial robes immediately flowed over his body like water.
Then his figure began expanding, rapidly growing until his size matched the entire golden dragon throne.
In this state, when Uchiha Yoru sat upon the throne again, he immediately felt as though he had become one with the entire Divine Court hall.
His perception of karmic threads became one hundred times clearer.
He sensed many karmic connections that had previously been almost imperceptible.
However, the current Uchiha Yoru had no interest in paying attention to people who had little to do with him.
He carefully examined the three threads of faith in his hand.
Once they overlapped with their corresponding karmic threads, they truly increased his ability to seize their owners considerably.
After testing the sensation, Uchiha Yoru was pleased to discover that he could easily bring all three of them here.
He was also sufficiently confident that he wouldn't harm their souls.
Then the first thing he needed to do was bring in the newcomer and give her enough time to recover, preventing her from embarrassing herself.
Target: Big-Breasted Princess.
However, after following the karmic thread, Uchiha Yoru was astonished to discover that a faint connection of faith existed between himself and Tsunade.
The thread of faith wasn't directed toward Uchiha Yoru himself, but toward his Heart Ape mask.
That made things troublesome.
A thread of faith that didn't point toward Uchiha Yoru himself would interfere with the precision of his operations through the karmic thread.
The karma between Tsunade and him was already weak, so the corresponding karmic thread was very thin.
Combined with the interference from her faith, the difficulty of seizing her increased considerably.
The direction of faith was extremely precise.
Unless it had been deliberately misled and deceived from the beginning, the initiative to change that direction belonged entirely to the believer.
Uchiha Yoru hesitated.
After thinking for quite a while, he finally decided to alter today's meeting plan.
One more newcomer needed to join today.
Moreover, that newcomer would be one of his alternate identities.
Uchiha Yoru reached forward and grasped.
The Heart Ape in the south squeaked twice before being dragged into the Divine Court hall.
After entering the hall, the Heart Ape immediately jumped into the second seat from the end on the left.
Then it remained perfectly still, appearing exceptionally dull.
Uchiha Yoru frowned slightly.
A Heart Ape like this was inferior even to a puppet.
No amount of subtle suggestion could conceal its abnormality.
However, if it were granted sufficient spirituality, it would never sit obediently like this.
Instead, it would leap up and wreak havoc throughout Heaven.
Ultimately, it was still the Heart Ape.
The day Uchiha Yoru completely subdued it would also be the day he attained the Dao.
However, as long as the time was kept sufficiently short, Uchiha Yoru had a method of granting the Heart Ape spirituality while still making it sit quietly.
He could even make it perform according to his will.
He flicked one finger.
The divine artifact, the Heart Ape mask, appeared upon the table before the Heart Ape.
The moment the mask appeared, the Heart Ape suddenly trembled.
Its dull expression could no longer be maintained, and its face openly displayed resistance.
However, under Uchiha Yoru's urging, the Heart Ape still extended both hands, picked up the mask, and placed it over its face.
In an instant, the existence of Zhurong, the God of the Southern Fire Spirit, covered the Heart Ape.
This rebellious and untamed Immortal—mad yet possessing his own limits—stood up and released an unrestrained wild laugh.
"Jie-jie-jie-jie!"
The laughter continued for a full five minutes.
Only then did Zhurong's personality finish digesting the Heart Ape's influence and return to its predetermined state of balance between calmness and madness.
Zhurong first bowed to Uchiha Yoru.
Only then did the Immortal slowly sit down.
Several minutes were enough for Uchiha Yoru to observe and confirm the Heart Ape's condition.
Part of that damned monkey's essence existed inside the Heart Ape mask.
Through its connection to the divine artifact, the Zhurong identity could fuse with the Heart Ape.
Although the divine alternate identity was merely an empty shell, it was supported by the power of faith.
Within the Heart Ape mask, its weight far surpassed that of the Heart Ape.
Once the two combined, it was enough to restrain the Heart Ape completely.
The most wonderful aspect was precisely that it was an empty shell.
No matter how infectious the Heart Ape was, it had nowhere to begin against an empty shell.
It could only transform it extremely slowly.
During that process, the empty shell could instead borrow the Heart Ape's spirituality and behave like an independent life-form.
At most, it would appear exceptionally indifferent and coldly inhuman.
Uchiha Yoru felt that this behavior fit the persona perfectly, making the mad Immortal Zhurong appear even more vivid and three-dimensional.
Such a combination could be called perfect.
The only problem was that the alternate identity was ultimately fake.
As an inanimate object, its control over the Heart Ape had a limit.
After enough time passed, it would be completely transformed by the Heart Ape, and the two would ultimately fuse perfectly into one.
At that point, a new independent god would be born.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Yoru's soul would be torn apart, leaving him either dead or crippled.
Uchiha Yoru quickly estimated how long Zhurong could safely cover the Heart Ape without any possibility of failure.
"The absolutely safe period is only eighteen minutes."
"That's far too tight. It isn't nearly enough."
Uchiha Yoru had no choice but to relax his standards.
"The dangerous period involving a certain amount of risk... should last around seventy minutes."
"That is enough time, but the risk approaches one percent. I must be extremely cautious."
"No matter how small the probability is, once it happens, it becomes one hundred percent."
"There can be no reliance on luck."
Uchiha Yoru didn't even consider any period during which the estimated risk exceeded one percent.
Even so, he still felt unsafe.
"Mm. Seventy minutes is too long... and too dangerous."
"I'll cut it in half and set it at thirty-five minutes..."
"Forget it. Since I'm already reducing it, I might as well round it down to half an hour."
"That will lower the risk considerably..."
After setting a safe duration for himself, Uchiha Yoru finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The enormous sword hanging above his head had finally moved slightly farther away.
Considering that he had already consumed a considerable amount of time, Uchiha Yoru didn't dare delay.
He grasped the karmic thread and pulled with all his strength, dragging Tsunade's soul over.
This female ninja was a standard Kage-level powerhouse, but the strength of her soul was absurdly high.
Dragging her proved exceptionally difficult for Uchiha Yoru.
Uchiha Yoru had already discovered last time that a ninja's strength wasn't completely linked to the strength of their soul.
Among the three people he had previously summoned, Konan had been the strongest, yet her soul had also been the weakest.
Tsunade's strength was considerable, but it certainly wasn't ten times greater than Konan's.
Yet her soul was dozens of times stronger than those three.
Uchiha Yoru couldn't help complaining.
"How strange."
"Tsunade, don't you suffer from hemophobia?"
"Don't you have a mental illness?"
"Haven't you become so dispirited that everyone finds you unpleasant?"
"Then how can your soul be this strong?"
"What exactly is the relationship between the mind and the soul?"
"And what exactly is this soul I'm seizing?"
"I'm becoming increasingly confused."
"Fine. Another unsolved mystery."
"Being a pioneer truly comes with endless troubles!"
Uchiha Yoru exerted all his strength.
Only after quite some time did he finally drag Tsunade into the Divine Court hall.
He didn't even have time to catch his breath before hurriedly beginning an examination.
When someone used all their strength, it was easy to lose control and become too heavy-handed.
He was extremely worried that he might have used excessive force and caused Tsunade severe damage.
That would be a terrible sin.
Unexpectedly, before Uchiha Yoru could begin examining her, the blonde female ninja's soul independently landed in its seat.
She arrived at the fourth seat from the end on the right and lay securely upon the table.
Immediately afterward, Tsunade showed signs of awakening.
The behavior of her soul clearly indicated that she hadn't suffered any injury whatsoever.
She didn't even need an infusion of divine power for treatment and could awaken on her own.
Tsunade's condition made Uchiha Yoru release a tremendous sigh of relief.
Then he sucked in an equally tremendous breath of cold air.
He knew exactly how violent his actions had been.
Even he would inevitably have felt uncomfortable after enduring them.
Yet Tsunade seemed completely unaffected.
How could her soul possibly be this strong?
No.
If her soul was this powerful, how had he managed to seize her at all?
Questions continuously surfaced, but time no longer permitted Uchiha Yoru to continue thinking.
Tsunade's eyelashes were already trembling rapidly.
She was about to awaken.
Uchiha Yoru hurriedly reached out three times, pulling Konan, Zabuza, and Yashamaru into the hall.
Thanks to the assistance of their stable threads of faith and the experience he had accumulated through practice, his seizure was extremely precise this time.
He didn't waste the slightest bit of strength or cause any harm to the three.
Therefore, all four people awakened together.
Because there had been no prior communication, the Divine Court meeting's three original members were still startled despite having mentally prepared themselves.
Zabuza even released a loud cry.
"Agh!"
His body abruptly pitched forward, and his head slammed heavily against the long table.
His strange posture allowed everyone to determine that Momochi Zabuza had just been running.
Moreover, he had been sprinting at extremely high speed across complicated terrain.
Sure enough, Zabuza raised his head and shouted fiercely, "It's over! I'm going to die!"
However, after Uchiha Yoru glanced at him indifferently, the ferocious fire in Zabuza's eyes was immediately extinguished.
His entire body even shrank into a ball from fear.
Under that detached gaze, the "Demon" Zabuza tremblingly pleaded, "Great Being, I-I apologize."
"I was just being pursued and hunted."
"Please forgive my rudeness."
"Also, please protect me and let me..."
He swallowed and forced himself to continue.
"Let me avoid being killed by my enemies."
Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly and replied calmly, "You will not die."
"No matter how much time passes here in the Divine Court, no time will pass in the material world."
"As long as you prepare yourself mentally before leaving, with your strength, you won't make a fatal mistake even if you were in the middle of battle."
Hearing this, Zabuza released a tremendous sigh of relief.
He and Yashamaru had finally confirmed their speculation.
Time spent here truly didn't consume time in the material world.
Naturally, their conclusion was incorrect.
The Divine Court hall belonged to the Purple Mansion world, while the Purple Mansion world was Uchiha Yoru's spiritual world.
Whether time within it synchronized with the material world was entirely decided by Uchiha Yoru.
When he formed the Golden Core and elevated the Purple Mansion sun, the Purple Mansion world obtained the characteristics of a lucid dream.
The speed of time's passage was entirely under Uchiha Yoru's control.
A single second could become one day.
An instant could also equal ten thousand years.
Uchiha Yoru smiled and continued, "However, you truly are facing considerable danger."
"I am a god who favors equivalent exchange."
"Since this danger was caused by me, naturally, I will compensate you."
"From this day onward, I permit you to invoke my honorific name and pray to me for treatment once."
After hearing the god's words, Zabuza felt both happy and worried.
He smacked his lips, unable to calculate whether the reward was good or bad.
For a long time, he refused to bow and offer thanks.
Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly but said nothing.
No matter what he said at this moment, it would greatly reduce His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor's dignity.
Therefore, it was time for his alternate identity to step forward and support the performance.
Zhurong, the God of the Southern Fire Spirit, sneered.
"Brat, stop acting reluctant."
"His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor's promise is a rare divine miracle."
"Even if you are beaten to death, His Majesty can retrieve you from the Pure Land!"
A seemingly casual promise of treatment actually included resurrection!
This was a god!
Everyone within the Divine Court was stunned.
Even Tsunade, who was filled with suspicion, couldn't stop herself from exclaiming.
She couldn't refuse to believe it, because she recognized the enormous monkey who had spoken.
He was the Immortal who had single-handedly resisted the natural disaster outside the River Capital's harbor.
Although she couldn't judge his physique while he was seated, and although removing his mask had revealed a ferocious blue monkey face, the aura of an Immortal couldn't be faked.
Especially that proud and untamed bearing.
Once seen, it could never be mistaken.
Although Tsunade was surprised that the Immortal was actually a Monkey Sage, what shocked her even more was naturally "resurrection."
This mysterious place could actually offer an opportunity for resurrection?
While Tsunade remained uncertain, Konan had already asked urgently, "Your Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, can you truly resurrect the dead?"
Everyone looked toward the enormous god.
He nodded slightly and answered, "I can."
Overwhelming joy instantly made Konan cover her mouth.
She continued, "Can my friend be resurrected?"
"Hehehe..."
Uchiha Yoru laughed.
"I have already said that I am a god who favors equivalent exchange."
"Are you certain you can afford the price of resurrection?"
Konan immediately fell silent.
Resurrection was unquestionably a miracle.
No matter how enormous the price required for such a miracle, it wouldn't seem excessive.
Uchiha Yoru boasted without concern.
With the excuse of equivalent exchange, he didn't need to worry about anyone being capable of paying a sufficient price to ask him to resurrect someone.
Before he truly mastered the ability to resurrect the dead, naturally, no price would ever be enough to exchange for resurrection.
However, he still decided to explain a little more.
It would increase the psychological threshold in the participants' minds while adding several more bricks to his lofty image.
"Furthermore, if someone has been dead for too long, not everyone can be resurrected."
"The first requirement for resurrection is locating the soul."
"Not every person's soul can be preserved within the Pure Land."
"The current Pure Land has an owner."
"He is a rather selective fellow."
"Souls without value are shattered and discarded by him."
"Resurrection also requires the deceased's flesh and blood."
"Only through the natural connection between flesh and soul can the soul be located within the Pure Land."
"Once the soul is in hand, only the restoration of the physical body remains."
"That is a trivial matter, no more difficult than turning over one's wrist."
Momochi Zabuza suddenly understood.
He said joyfully, "I understand!"
"Even if I die, as long as I pray to you, you will naturally be able to find my soul and resurrect me."
Now that he understood the value of the promise, he immediately prostrated himself completely and said with heartfelt gratitude, "Thank you for your generous gift, great... Your Majesty the Heavenly Emperor."
The thread of faith representing Zabuza shone brightly and instantly became several times thicker.
It wasn't only him.
The other two threads of faith also simultaneously became thicker and brighter.
Even Tsunade transmitted a faint trace of faith, quickly forming a weak connection.
Yashamaru was still extremely young and possessed no particular regrets.
Therefore, he recovered the fastest and asked, "Your Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, did you summon us this time because there are questions you wish us to answer?"
Uchiha Yoru nodded.
"First, allow me to introduce someone."
"This is a god from the Southern Sea."
"His identity is extremely distinctive and fundamentally impossible to conceal."
"Therefore, you may address him as Immortal Zhurong or the God of the Southern Fire Spirit."
The Zhurong alternate identity stood up.
He first bowed respectfully to Uchiha Yoru, then addressed everyone.
"Before the great Heavenly Emperor, we are all equal beings."
"Based upon my true form and my current seat, you may call me Mr. Monkey."
Momochi Zabuza was the boldest among them.
As long as he wasn't directly crushed by someone's aura, he could ignore any difference in status.
Hearing Zhurong call himself Mr. Monkey, his curiosity surged.
He asked, "Mr. Monkey, based on my seat, what should I be called?"
Only after Zhurong sat down did he glance at Zabuza.
His detached gaze frightened Zabuza so badly that his heart seemed to stop for a beat.
Only after terrifying Zabuza until his face became pale did Zhurong answer calmly.
"You are the 'Leopard.'"
"You may be called Leopard Boy."
Uchiha Yoru knew that the others would certainly be curious about this question and want to know what names their seats represented.
Therefore, he simply manipulated Zhurong into looking at each of them in turn and revealing the animal represented by each person's seat.
Konan was the Bat and would be called Miss Bat.
Yashamaru was the Goat and would be called Goat Boy.
As for Tsunade, she was the Steed and would be called Miss Horse.
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