"And just now was the withered aspect. It is embarrassing to say this before this fellow monk, but when one grows old and tired from walking, one becomes accustomed to entering meditation in the withered aspect and treating it as a form of rest. The reason my fellow monk failed to sense me just now was likely because this humble monk had entered meditation and had not yet awakened."
'This bastard is talking complete nonsense!'
Madara Uchiha sneered inwardly.
The other party's explanation had been roundabout, full of talk about nirvana and withering and flourishing, but he had still grasped the rough meaning of it.
And in Madara Uchiha's view, the Sage of Six Paths was the first truly transcendent being in the world in the proper sense of the word.
Before the chakra system had spread throughout the Shinobi World, this world had only contained a group of monks too weak to truss a chicken, chanting sutras and meditating all day, speaking of nothing but vague and illusory things, while being unable to produce even the slightest real ability.
Only after the chakra system spread did the ninja monks of the Fire Temple appear, and only those people could barely be said to possess some genuine skill.
As for the so-called world-honored Buddha praised to the heavens in the scriptures, he was probably nothing more than a fraud from the ancient era who deceived people with his tongue.
Even the later Sage of Six Paths had been fooled by him, once calling himself that man's student and traveling everywhere preaching that empty nonsense about compassion and saving the world.
"So that is how it is. This fellow monk truly has remarkable skill."
Although he had already concluded in his heart that the monk was talking nonsense, Madara Uchiha did not expose him.
His condition was not good right now, and this trip was not for the sake of finding someone to fight. Even so, even in this state, he still believed that no one in the current Shinobi World could do anything to him.
Still, this monk before him was indeed far too mysterious, so mysterious that he felt a faint unease.
Once this matter was over, he could have White Zetsu investigate this person's origins in secret.
So he nodded, then casually found a relatively dry place and sat down.
In truth, if Madara Uchiha genuinely wished to avoid unnecessary trouble, then when faced with a mysterious figure whose depths even he could not see through, the wisest choice at this moment should have been to leave immediately.
After all, the purpose of this trip was only to go see that gathering. There was no need to clash with an unknown monk halfway there.
But who was Madara Uchiha?
There had only ever been others making way for him. Since when has he ever had reason to retreat on his own initiative?
So even knowing full well that the monk before him was no ordinary figure, he had no intention of leaving at all. Instead, he sat down openly and without reservation.
Isshiki Otsutsuki, however, was already thinking about how to find an opportunity to slip away.
Although he did not place the reincarnation of Indra before him in his eyes, even if he had awakened the Rinnegan in this life.
What was more, he had already seen that the other party's Rinnegan was not currently with him, and that his condition was terrible to the extreme.
Even so, he still adhered to the iron rule he had followed for nearly a thousand years; if he could avoid fighting, then he absolutely would not fight.
There was no meaning in getting angry with mortal insects, and once he made a move against this Indra, there was a very high chance that he would draw the attention of Kaguya's eldest son.
By then, the traces he had hidden for nearly a thousand years would be completely exposed.
Even if he managed to escape, he would probably never again be able to walk freely through the Shinobi World in his current manner, and what awaited him would be only one path: Complete annihilation.
Absurd as it was, from the moment the two fake monks began exchanging greetings until now, neither of them had ever reported their Buddhist name. However, both fake monks knew there was something wrong with the other, and both knew the other knew there was something wrong with them, yet each had his own concerns, and neither had torn away that thin layer of window paper first.
Time passed slowly, and the rain outside the temple gradually showed signs of weakening.
Isshiki Otsutsuki was just thinking of taking the opportunity to find an excuse to leave when Madara Uchiha, seated in the corner, suddenly lifted his head and turned toward the direction of the temple gate.
A crisp series of footsteps came from the mountain path, treading between mud and broken stones soaked through by the rain, neither hurried nor slow, each step calm and measured.
But after walking for a moment, the footsteps suddenly paused for an instant.
The pause was extremely brief, so brief that an ordinary person would never have noticed it, but the two sitting in the temple were no ordinary people, and both of them caught that instant of hesitation.
After the brief pause, the footsteps rang out again and continued toward the ancient temple as if nothing had happened.
A moment later, the newcomer came into view of Madara Uchiha and Isshiki Otsutsuki.
It was a young monk holding a string of bodhi seed prayer beads. His white monk's robes bore not the slightest trace of wetness despite the torrential rain, and his features were so handsome they were almost not of the mortal world. Between his brows and eyes rested a tranquil stillness like a pool of unmoving water.
Behind him, the night was deep, and the rain had not yet ceased, yet he himself looked as though he had stepped out of some ancient mural and into this dusty mortal world in a single stride.
What an extraordinarily transcendent young monk.
The moment they saw this young monk, that thought rose in both of their minds almost at the same time.
Even Isshiki Otsutsuki, a celestial god who for a thousand years had regarded everything in the Shinobi World with the indifference one reserved for ants, was no exception.
And then, both of them discreetly swept a glance over the string of bodhi seed prayer beads in the young monk's hand.
With a single look, they recognized it as a creation of Wood Style.
At a time and place like this, an unfamiliar young monk, carrying a string of prayer beads made in the Wood Style, had appeared.
Madara Uchiha in particular frowned inwardly, feeling that tonight's rainstorm was truly rather sinister.
First, he had run into a monk whose depths even he could not see through, and now another one had entered, a young monk carrying an object created from Wood Style, and he's so beautiful he hardly looked human.
This ruined mountain temple was starting to feel less like a place of shelter and more like a place specially made for running into freaks.
What made him feel even stranger was that the young monk before him seemed to give him a sense of familiarity.
It was clearly their first meeting, yet his features and the temperament he carried seemed as though Madara had seen them somewhere before.