Chapter 18 Without eliminating this person, there will never be peace...
The piercing alarm sounded like a cold knife, severing the peaceful and tranquil twilight of the Uchiha clan.
One second, Kaori was smiling as she placed a plate of sweets in front of Michikatsu, and Madara and Izuna had just given their birthday presents. The next second, a piercing alarm bell froze all the warmth in an instant.
"Stay here, and absolutely do not come out!" Madara's expression instantly turned cold, and his Sharingan suddenly activated. He then exchanged a glance with Izuna, and without saying a word, the two of them shot towards the door like arrows.
Jiazhi's expression changed as well. She quickly hugged Yan Sheng and said, "Stay in your room and don't wander around. Your brothers and I will go check on you and be right back." With that, she hurried after him and closed Yan Sheng's door behind her.
The room was suddenly left with only Yan Sheng and the untouched food on the table. Outside, the shouts of the tribesmen, the hurried footsteps, and the scraping of weapons as they were drawn were all mixed together in a chaotic cacophony, accompanied by the sound of explosions.
Yan Sheng sat quietly in his seat, his expression calm. He had no intention of participating in the Uchiha's defense; the outside turmoil was none of his concern.
However, just as he was preparing to wait for the storm to pass—
A faint, chilling aura, yet so powerful it sent shivers down his spine, licked towards him from the direction of the gate, like the most venomous snake's tongue, even from a great distance!
Yan Sheng's body suddenly froze, and his blood seemed to cool instantly.
That's it!
That cold, viscous aura, filled with endless malice, felt exactly like Muzan Kibutsuji.
As an infant, this aura had appeared around him several times. At that time, Yan Sheng was completely defenseless, and every time the other party appeared, Yan Sheng's nerves would be on edge. Fortunately, the other party did not harm him.
He disappeared for a while, but reappeared once when he was two and once when he was three. Then he reappeared again until now.
Yan Sheng's heart pounded violently, not out of fear, but from an extreme sense of vigilance and killing intent. He was almost certain that no one in his family knew of the other's existence; it was hidden too deeply. If he hadn't once been a demon and hadn't lived with Muzan for a hundred years, making him extremely sensitive to such auras, he wouldn't have been able to detect it.
Yan Sheng stood up.
He had to confirm it, he had to know exactly what that existence was.
No one understood the evil of demons better than him. Therefore, he couldn't help but be concerned about this aura that shared the same origin as demons. Especially... given that the other party clearly harbored malice towards the Uchiha.
Yan Sheng took out a plain wooden mask from his inner pocket and put it on. Then he pushed open the window and, like a weightless fallen leaf, silently disappeared into the hazy twilight.
His goal was clear—not to join the melee at the gate, but to precisely pursue the evil aura that was gradually receding into the distance.
By combining breathing techniques with chakra to the extreme, Yan Sheng's figure moved through the shadows of the trees at an incredible speed, perfectly avoiding all the Uchiha clan members who were gathering and searching.
They were getting closer and closer to that aura.
Finally, in a clearing in the woods, he caught up with the figure.
"Stop." Yan Sheng's voice, carrying a cold buzzing tone, came through the mask and blocked the other party's way.
"Senju Seiji" stopped in his tracks, his empty gaze sweeping over the short, masked figure before him. A twisted smile tugged at the corner of his mouth: "Hmm? Who are you?"
Yan Sheng ignored him and asked in an icy voice, "What are you?"
"Senju Seiji" raised an eyebrow, then suddenly sprang into action with astonishing speed, his kunai aimed straight at Yan Sheng's face! The attack was cunning and ruthless, completely unlike the Senju clan's usual fierce style.
Yan Sheng retreated swiftly, narrowly avoiding the attack. At close range, the chilling and evil aura almost assaulted his senses, making him feel deeply uncomfortable and causing him to frown involuntarily.
When the first attack failed, "Senju Masaharu" immediately followed up with a second strike.
This time, Yan Sheng, who was well-prepared, flicked his right hand, and a short knife slid down and landed in his palm. It was a birthday gift from Ban Cai, and he could use it now.
He flung it away forcefully, aiming straight for the back of Senju Seiji's neck.
"laugh!"
The short knife was inserted into the meat.
"Ughhhhh—!" A scream escaped from Senju Seiji's throat.
At the same time, Senju Seiji's movements suddenly froze, and a large amount of dark, viscous, wriggling substance suddenly overflowed from his eye sockets, mouth, nose, and ears.
After the substance detached from "Seiji Senju's" body, it instantly seeped into the ground and disappeared without a trace.
Watching helplessly as the eerie, dark substance seeped into the ground, Yan Sheng's brows furrowed tightly beneath his mask.
In his previous life, with his physique honed to its peak and immense power, he was confident that even if his opponent burrowed a hundred feet underground, he could cleave the earth open with a single strike, drag him out, and cut him down.
Unfortunately... his current body was far too weak. Even maintaining that brief period of high-speed pursuit and accurate throwing was already incredibly difficult, let alone splitting mountains and shattering rocks. He could only watch helplessly as his opponent slipped away before his eyes. This sense of powerlessness stirred dissatisfaction with the current situation within him, which then transformed into irritability.
Yan Sheng took a breath, suppressing his surging emotions.
At least, it wasn't all for naught; he glimpsed the thing's true form—a dark, viscous, mud-like substance.
......
......
......
etc.
A flash of lightning suddenly struck Yan Sheng's mind.
He suddenly remembered that when he was an infant, he had tried to track this chilling aura when he first sensed it. Unfortunately, he failed, but he did discover a large number of strange, fungal spore-like black particles growing underground.
He still remembers that when he touched those spores, they instantly became active, turning into countless black threads finer than a hair, which rushed toward his chakra as if they had a mind of their own.
—Both are black...both can operate underground...and exude the same aura...
Yan Sheng deduced a startling conclusion: the "spores" scattered throughout the ground and the "black sludge" seen today are very likely different forms of the same entity! In other words, those spores are very likely clones of the latter, and considering their location, they are there to monitor the Uchiha?
Its function is obvious; it is likely to act as an "eyes and ears."
This discovery made Yan Sheng's expression even more unpleasant.
If the inference is correct, it means that the other party's penetration of the world is far beyond imagination. It's like an invisible net, silently enveloping this land through underground "spores".
It can be said that there is nothing in the world that it does not know.
Such an existence...if it is not completely eradicated and annihilated, he will never have a peaceful day in this lifetime.
The air around Yan Sheng suddenly froze, and a tangible, icy killing intent surged forth, like an invisible cold blade cleaving through the sun and sunset—though it only lasted for a moment, it was so chilling that even the chirping of insects around him became silent and deathly still.
He concealed himself extremely quickly, as if it were just an illusion. However, the surging killing intent in his eyes hidden behind the mask did not subside immediately. It continued to churn violently like a deep pool whirlpool, containing the cruelty and coldness accumulated over three hundred years, almost piercing through the wooden mask and freezing the void in front of him.
Deep underground.
As Black Zetsu fled in panic, he felt a strong sense of unease, as if his deeply buried secrets had been dug up and exposed to the sunlight.
Black Zetsu shivered and stopped thinking about it. What truly chilled him to the bone was the masked figure that had suddenly appeared. Though it had the voice and physique of a child, what kind of child could be so...eerie and bizarre?
The power wielded by the opponent was incredibly strange—it was certainly not simple chakra: there was another unknown power, full of vitality and sharpness, perfectly fused with the chakra. This combined power was more effective at restraining and damaging his body than anyone could have imagined; even in that brief contact, it had directly burned the Yin Release essence that constituted his body!
Every cell in his body screamed a warning at that moment: Escape! You must escape immediately! Otherwise, you will die.
Black Zetsu glanced back with lingering fear, making sure the other party wasn't chasing after him, but he still didn't dare to stop.
That thing... what kind of monster is that?!
On the other side.
Yan Sheng snapped out of his reverie, glanced down at Senju Seiji's gradually cooling corpse, then took two steps back, his figure disappearing into the shadows. He needed to get back as soon as possible.
He got there before his two older brothers and mother.
***
He removed the mask and carefully put it away. Yan Sheng sat back in his chair; everything in the room was exactly the same as when he left, including his posture.
Soon, the door was pushed open.
Only Izuna returned; Madara and his mother Kaori did not follow him.
Yan Sheng's gaze swept past Izuna, then looked at the empty corridor behind him, and asked, "Where are Mother and my elder brother?"
A deep, unyielding gloom settled between Izuna's brows, clearly indicating that something dire had happened outside. However, when he turned to Michikatsu, his face showed no trace of gloom; instead, a gentle smile appeared on his lips.
He walked up to Yan Sheng, his tone apologetic: "Mother and Brother Ban have some urgent matters to attend to, so they... probably won't be able to come back to celebrate your birthday with you tonight. They asked me to apologize to you on their behalf." He paused, then reached out and ruffled Yan Sheng's hair, his voice softening even more, "But it's alright, your second brother will be with you tonight, your birthday won't be lonely."
Yan Sheng gave an "Oh," his face showing neither disappointment nor any joy—in fact, he had never shown the joy one would expect on a birthday from the very beginning.
Looking at his younger brother's quiet and sensible appearance, Izuna felt as if his heart had been pricked by a fine needle, a dense, persistent pain spreading through him. This heartache instantly transformed into a deeper resentment towards his nemesis, burning within his chest.
Damn the Senju! If they hadn't chosen this day to cause trouble, my brother's birthday wouldn't have ended like this.
Izuna suppressed his anger and tried to make his tone sound lighter. He walked to the table, looked at the almost untouched snacks and small birthday gifts, and felt a pang of bitterness in his heart again.
“These snacks look good, why aren’t you eating any, Yan Sheng?” He picked up a red bean paste pastry shaped like a little rabbit and handed it to his younger brother. “Mom made them especially for you.”
Yan Sheng glanced at the pastries, then looked up at Izuna's face, which was trying to hide his emotions, and silently accepted them, eating them in small bites.
It tastes very sweet, so sweet it's cloying and makes it a little hard to swallow.
His family in this life had a great sweet tooth. Although he also liked to eat sweet things, compared to his family in this life, his sweetness was merely mild.
Seeing his younger brother eating obediently, Izuna felt a little better. He sat down next to Yansheng and began to chatter about unrelated anecdotes, trying to dispel the cold atmosphere in the room.
He talked about the eccentric clients he encountered during his missions, the embarrassing story of how Ban accidentally burned off half of his eyebrow during training when he was a child, and the newly opened dumpling shop on the street...
Yan Sheng listened and ate at the same time, thinking about the "black mud" incident, and occasionally he would reply to Izuna's words. It was impossible to tell that he was daydreaming.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Author: How do you feel about being exposed so quickly?
Black Zetsu: Hehe
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