Chapter 410: The Truth of the Underworld
The days of lethargy had finally passed, and Masahiko woke up with a long-lost sense of clarity.
After a hasty lunch and teasing Princess-kun, who had already grown a layer of red hair, for a while, Masahiko returned to his room to check the rewards of his Level 10 Yin attribute.
Kushina breathed a sigh of relief.
Minato rarely showed a helpless expression: "Kushina, why did you pluck Great Elder's leg hair?"
Kushina smiled awkwardly: "Great-grandfather's leg hair is very tough, incredibly tough. I had to use almost all my strength to break it."
Minato looked slightly bewildered: "Then...?"
Kushina glared: "So stupid, we can find someone to weave it into armor. It might be of great use at a critical moment!"
Minato's mouth twitched slightly. It was his first time discovering Kushina was so thrifty.
"It's a pity Great-grandfather destroyed the rest of his leg hair. I didn't collect much... Let me think about what to weave for Tsukika-kun."
Minato: "...Alright."
In the bedroom, Masahiko had finished browsing the changes in the attribute panel.
There were two main changes: first, 'Ninjutsu' increased from 20,000 to 30,000; second, his power rating changed from SSS- to SSS. Originally, he had to enter Sage Mode to reach SSS, but now his base form was enough. However, even after entering Sage Mode, he still couldn't reach SSS+.
"The power increase isn't massive. Although the power of the Bloodline Snare and Yin-Yang Release has improved a bit, the Gate of Opening is now occupied by the spiritual space, so I bid farewell to the Eight Inner Gates from now on. Therefore... the main reward is the spiritual space."
Masahiko focused his mind slightly, and his consciousness actually split into two streams: one controlled his body, and the other entered the spiritual space.
"Spiritual space, as expected, only consciousness can enter, not the physical body. But I didn't expect that after consciousness enters the space, the external body can still move freely. This is much too convenient."
Inside the spiritual space, Masahiko's consciousness slowly materialized. The surrounding scenery was completely different from the Eight Trigrams Space, or rather, there was no scenery at all; everything was shrouded in a vast white fog.
Masahiko had a thought, and the scenery around him instantly shifted. The surrounding fog slowly dispersed, and a familiar building appeared before his eyes: Kushina's house.
Masahiko walked inside and found that the furnishings were identical to the outside world. Even Minato, Kushina, and Princess-kun were 'home', but they were all lifeless. Masahiko concentrated for a long time but couldn't make them move within the spiritual space.
"Are they all just shells constructed by my consciousness? Just shells..."
As if thinking of something, Masahiko's expression changed slightly. He hurriedly walked out of Kushina's house and noticed that apart from this solitary building, everything else was once again shrouded in fog.
His mind linked and moved, and familiar faces and buildings appeared around Masahiko one after another. It wasn't until the fog was pushed back several kilometers that Masahiko felt mental fatigue.
"This really is a case of 'the space extends as far as my thoughts reach'." Masahiko took a deep breath and looked with a complex expression at the 'acquaintances' beside him, most of whom were already dead. A moment later, he half-closed his eyes, and everything before him shattered layer by layer, turning back into a vast white fog.
"These are all constructed by me, the master of this spiritual space. Their creation and destruction are entirely under my control. They only have form, no soul... But what would happen if I pull someone else's soul in?" Masahiko had a bold idea.
Outside world.
Masahiko's main body received the information transmitted from his consciousness in the spiritual space. Without hesitation, he immediately got up and took action, flashing through an Eight Trigrams spatial node into a desolate mountain wilderness.
"I will experiment with small animals first."
Half a day later, Masahiko rubbed his bulging stomach and left the desolate mountain.
He was never one to kill the innocent indiscriminately. When experimenting with small animals, he would eat them after killing them. This was called 'dying a worthy death'.
At this moment, Masahiko's face was full of joy. There were four new living creatures in his space: a rabbit, a bird, a snake, and a brown bear... Well, the brown bear was heavily injured.
"Souls can actually survive in the spiritual space. The usefulness of this thing is simply too great..." Masahiko sighed slightly and continued his experiments.
With the animal experiments finished, naturally it was time for humans. But he couldn't eat humans... Masahiko could only search around for dying people, wait quietly for them to die, and pull their souls into his spiritual space.
This task took him a full half month, but the results made him ecstatic.
Whether they were ordinary people or ninjas, their souls could survive in his spiritual space after death. As long as he, the master of the space, didn't want to obliterate their souls, they could live for countless more years inside the spiritual space, until their souls' lifespans reached their limits.
The lifespan of a soul was much longer than that of a physical body. Masahiko could estimate from the dissipation rate of the souls in his space that even an ordinary person with the weakest soul could have a soul lifespan of over 500 years. And the stronger the power, the longer the soul lived.
"An alternative form of immortality. If I had leveled my Yin attribute to ten earlier, those juniors wouldn't have left me one after another..." Masahiko's expression grew dazed, revealing a slight sigh.
"No, the spiritual space is just a temporary residence for souls. I still have to find a way to resurrect them!"
Masahiko frowned and concentrated. All the animals and people in the space felt that they were being expelled from heaven. A moment later, over a dozen souls appeared in front of Masahiko.
"Go to the Underworld where you belong. My space can't keep supporting you forever."
Manipulating the space to isolate living areas one by one was very mentally exhausting. Masahiko estimated he could only allow thirty to fifty souls to move freely. The quota was limited and couldn't be wasted on these experimental subjects.
However, in the next second, Masahiko's expression suddenly changed.
Among the dozen or so souls in front of him, aside from a few ninjas who were pulled away and disappeared by an inexplicable force, the other civilian and animal souls began to dissipate at an accelerated rate, eventually vanishing into heaven and earth.
"The Underworld only accepts ninjas?" Masahiko's expression froze for a long time before he exhaled a breath: "Old man Six Paths, you really know how to play. The Underworld... is actually something similar to my spiritual space?"
Figuring this out, Masahiko quickly cleared his thoughts.
The so-called Underworld was probably formed from the Sage of Six Paths' spiritual space. The Underworld only accepted ninjas, and the souls within lacked consciousness because the Sage of Six Paths also had limits to his manipulation of the spiritual space.
"No wonder this damn Underworld only collects souls and doesn't provide a 'reincarnation' service. Moreover, I'm already this strong, yet I still can't use the Edo Tensei, while others can. You are guarding against me stealing souls from you..."
"In that case... I have to find a way to collect the people I want to resurrect into my own 'Underworld', and when I have enough power, I'll revive them all in one go."
"Right now... Hashirama and Mito. When their bodies dissipate, I will collect their souls directly into my space. I'd like to see who dares to summon them from me after that; I'll trace their chakra over and beat them to death!"
With such a massive harvest, Masahiko returned to Konoha with a face full of joy, only to be hit head-on by bad news.
"Kagami Uchiha, is critically ill."
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