Immediately, the other five stage 7 Immortals transformed into beams of light, and their cultivation bases surged. Dharma Idols appeared, 21,000-meter illusory giants. Of course, none of these Dharma Idols represented the cultivators themselves; all of them were false Immortals!

They closed in on Naruto in the blink of an eye. One of the Dharma Idols was an enormous war drum, which emanated a rumbling like that of thunder. Two of the other Dharma Idols were vicious black dragons, which roared as they slashed through the air toward Naruto.

Of the final two Dharma Idols, one was a three-headed six-armed statue, and the other was an enormous crimson python with a forked tongue and sinister eyes.

The five men all attacked simultaneously, and it didn't look like they were trying to arrest Naruto. Instead, killing intent flickered in their eyes, although it was faint and well-concealed. However, Naruto had experienced many things during his life, including two intense wars on Planet Lands of Ninshu. He had also slaughtered countless people, so killing intent like this was something he was keenly attuned to.

"Wanna kill me?" he asked with an icy cold smile. He took a step forward and clenched his right hand into a fist. It shot toward the crimson python at high speed, creating a sonic boom that echoed out in all directions. The air distorted as the power of Naruto's true Immortal fleshly body exploded out.

As the boom rang through the air, the crimson python shattered, revealing the cultivator behind it, ashen face awash with shock. Before he could retreat, Naruto leaped forward and kicked him viciously with his right foot. Cracking sounds could be heard as it slammed into the man's chest, and blood sprayed from his mouth. He tumbled backward.

At the same time, the other four cultivators closed in, divine abilities and magical techniques raging. Naruto's face flickered with iciness. Instead of dodging to the side, he turned and transformed into a golden roc, then shot directly toward his four opponents with incredible speed. A wave of a hand caused numerous mountains to appear, which formed a mountain chain that dropped down toward them.

Next, he made a grasping motion, and a long spear appeared in his hand, the haft carved from the World Tree and the spearhead made from white bone. When he stabbed forward with it, everything darkened, and a sobbing sound rang out. The war drum collapsed into pieces, and the cultivator within it coughed up blood and fell into retreat.

Simultaneously, the head of a Blood Demon appeared, and a blood-colored halo materialized beneath Naruto's feet. He punched again, and the three-headed, six-armed statue exploded. At the same time, the two black dragon Dharma Idols managed to land attacks on Naruto's chest.

The two cultivators controlling the black dragons glared with killing intent. Their cultivation bases exploded with power that would be enough to fell virtually any other cultivator who was weaker than a stage 7 Immortal.

A boom could be heard, and suddenly everything went silent. The two cultivators who had just successfully landed attacks on Naruto stared in shock, and then gasped. It wasn't that they weren't aware that Naruto had a true Immortal fleshly body. However… in their minds, his cultivation base was not at the true Immortal stage, so therefore, they didn't believe his true Immortal fleshly body would really be all that powerful.

As of this moment, though… they had a clear idea… of what exactly a true Immortal fleshly body was!

"So weak!" Naruto said casually. He glared at the men aggressively, and it was like piercing light stabbing into their eyes.

Naruto hadn't even budged an inch. In fact, he didn't even appear to be harmed at all. At the same time, the two men who had just attacked him felt a powerful counterattack surging toward them, and suddenly, blood oozed out of their mouths.

The two men were scared witless, and were about to retreat when Naruto reached out and grabbed one of them, then lifted him into the air and shook him back and forth. The man couldn't control his own body, and felt massive power battering him. Cracking sounds could be heard as his bones were broken and dislocated, and he was then thrown violently toward the second retreating man.

A boom rang out as the second man was sent tumbling backward, his bones shattered and blood spraying from his mouth.

All of this took place in only a few breaths' worth of time. Five stage 7 Immortals were seriously injured, and Naruto remained standing there. He then turned toward the first middle-aged man, the one with the unfathomable cultivation base.

The man's eyes widened. He had never imagined that a true Immortal fleshly body would be so shockingly powerful. It was an exceedingly rare thing for a cultivator to have a fleshly body developed to this level, and was in fact something he had never seen before.

As the two of them faced off, Naruto's Dharma Idol appeared, 24,000 meters tall. Combined with his true Saint fleshly body, it caused his energy to surge with intense power that only continued to increase. He then extended his right hand, and a glowing sphere materialized above it. As it floated there, the sphere seemed to suck in all of the warmth in the area and cause everything to instantly grow cold.

The man's expression was solemn, and his eyes focused intently on Naruto. He sensed a feeling of grave danger when he looked at the sphere of light. And then, Naruto started to walk toward him. It was at this moment that…

"Naruto, come to the main temple!" The Grand Elder's archaic voice echoed out around them.

Naruto said nothing, but his eyes flashed almost indiscernibly. As for the middle-aged man, when he heard the Grand Elder's voice, he gave an inward sigh of relief.

At the same time, his eyes emanated a sharp glow, and a murderous will gradually rose up in his heart. That was because he had realized that Naruto's Dharma Idol was still standing there, and Naruto's powerful energy hadn't faded away. It was almost as if he was preparing to refuse the Grand Elder's summons.

The man's eyes glittered as he readied himself. He looked at Naruto.

Ten breaths of time passed, during which Naruto's expression never changed. Finally, his Dharma Idol vanished, and his surging energy dissipated. Everything returned to normal. However, the glowing sphere remained floating there. As he began to walk forward, it drifted up toward the top of his head, sucking in all of the heat and light around it.

Naruto put the bone-tip spear away, and then completely ignored the middle-aged man as he flew into the air toward the ancestral mansion's main temple.

Inwardly, the middle-aged man sighed in regret, and then reined in the killing intent in his gaze. Finally, he followed Naruto. As for the other five men, they had not received fatal injuries, but were still very seriously hurt. They wouldn't be able to fully recover any time soon, so for the moment, all they could do was struggle to their feet and then consume some medicinal pills. After that, they followed along, faces pale.

Naruto flew the entire way, followed by the six men. Quite a few clan members saw him. Many of them had originally intended to go observe his efforts in the Dao of Alchemy Division, and were taken aback when they saw him flying toward the main temple.

This was especially the case when they saw the six men following him, five of whom were seriously injured and had dismal, ashen faces. The clan members who saw this were all shaken inwardly.

From the look of things, a violent storm was brewing under the surface of the Namikaze Clan, and was just barely being kept under control.

At some point, the sky above the Namikaze Clan had changed from its usual bright, sunny, and endlessly blue appearance. Now, black clouds gathered, and the rumbling of thunder shook the ground. Flashes that resembled silver dragons could occasionally be seen flickering in the clouds.

When the Namikaze Clan members saw this, they grew very quiet. They weren't sure exactly what had happened, but they could clearly sense that the air was growing increasingly colder.

Naruto's expression was calm as he proceeded forward. The sphere of light above his head continued to grow larger. Soon it was 300 meters wide, and incredibly shocking in appearance….

The six Namikaze Clan guardsmen behind him looked on with tingling scalps, completely astonished. No one else understood why the sky had changed color and the air was growing cold, but they knew. It was all caused by the glowing sphere of light above Naruto's head!

As Naruto headed toward the main temple, the sphere of light continued to absorb all the heat and light around him!

"This is the divine ability he created when he faced the sun!" thought the leader of the group of six men. His eyes widened, and despite the level of his cultivation base, he still felt fear growing inside of him.

It didn't take long before the sphere of light was 600 meters wide. Naruto was now outside of the main temple. The first thing he noticed was the Grand Elder, sitting there inside.

There were also numerous Elders sitting in the enormous seats that filled the temple hall. Each one of them wore calm expressions, and none of them spoke, which actually caused the temple hall to be filled with enormous pressure.

Sitting near the Grand Elder were Menma's grandfather and father. Both of them looked over icily at Naruto.

Killing intent flickered deep within Kajura's eyes.

Naruto's expression was as calm as ever. Without any hesitation, he stepped into the middle of the temple hall.

As for the 600-meter sphere of light, Naruto left it floating just outside of the temple, where it continued to absorb light and heat.

Because of the sphere, Naruto's entrance into the temple hall was accompanied by icy coldness. The light even began to fade, and frost began to appear on the ground.

The surrounding Elders' facial expressions did not change, but they had long since sent their divine sense out to inspect the sphere of light hovering outside the temple.

"Naruto extends greetings to the Grand Elder and other Elders," he said, his voice neither haughty nor humble as he clasped hands and bowed deeply. He was clearly following the clan rules down to the letter.

The Grand Elder's face was expressionless as he looked at Naruto.

"Naruto," he said slowly, "you displayed shocking talent during the rise of the East Ascension Sun. You flew up higher than any member of the Junior generation of the clan has ever flown throughout our countless years of history.

"You stepped off of the planet and into the starry sky, you faced the sun for ten breaths of time, and you received significant good fortune and enlightenment.

"All of these things make me very happy for you." Although he spoke words of praise and encouragement, his expression was completely emotionless the entire time.

Naruto stood there silently and scanned the crowd. He remembered the words of that direct bloodline Elder who had warned him about Kajura. Half a month had already passed since then, and from what Naruto could tell, this summons could not be a good thing for him.

That was especially true when he noticed the anxiety within the eyes of the direct bloodline Elders who were present in the temple. Furthermore, Hotarubi's father was present, and was looking nervously at Naruto.

"The Elders have all proposed that you be rewarded for your actions," the Grand Elder continued, "and after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that I agree. Your reward will come in the form of access to the clan's ancestral land, which was created by the first generation Patriarch. At one time, our ancestral land was part of the Ruins of Immortality. However, the Patriarch cut that part of the Ruins away and brought it here."

When Naruto heard this, his eyes narrowed. He knew that the Namikaze Clan possessed deep resources, but he hadn't been aware that the first generation Patriarch was so strong that he could take away part of the Ruins of Immortality and bring it back to the clan to serve as an ancestral land!

"The divine abilities and magical techniques of the Namikaze Clan were not all simply handed down by the first generation Patriarch," the Grand Elder explained. "Instead, for generation after generation, members of our clan have entered the ancestral land he left behind. After thoroughly searching it over and over again, the various magics of the Namikaze Clan have slowly been collected together.

"However… there are still many magical techniques that have yet to be discovered. To find them is a matter of chance and good fortune.

"Furthermore, for countless years, any Namikaze Clan member who reached the Dao Realm and did not perish off planet, chose to be buried in this ancestral land when it came time for them to return to the dust. There, they would leave behind their cultivation magic and other secrets, where they remain, just waiting for a predestined successor to go in and acquire them.

"As for the first generation Patriarch's five great Daoist magics, four of them have been located. However, the most powerful of them all, the One Thought Stellar Transformation, has never been found. 1

"In addition to all that, there are also medicinal plants and pill formulas in the ancestral land. There are even Immortal Ancient Daoist Treasures, all just waiting for their destined person to come along and take them." As the Grand Elder spoke, his cold voice echoed throughout the temple hall.

Naruto listened to everything, his face as still as stone.

"Opening the ancestral land requires a significant expenditure of resources. Generally speaking, we only open it once every thousand years. However, even though the appointed time has not arrived, we are going to make an exception and open it for you.

"However…." It was at this point that the Grand Elder suddenly paused and looked deeply at Naruto for a long moment before continuing.

"Great danger lurks inside. That danger exists in the form of trials by fire left behind by the first generation Patriarch for his successors. The ancestral land is a bizarre place, in which various strange beings can arise.

"Therefore, to someone like you, the ancestral land might be a place of good fortune, but it can also be extremely dangerous. Although not many people have actually died in the ancestral land over the years, some have.

"You may consider… whether or not you wish to take advantage of this reward." The Grand Elder's final words caused Kajura's and Menma's grandfather's expressions to flicker almost imperceptibly. Without even thinking about it, they glanced over at the Grand Elder.

Kajura's brow furrowed. According to their previous agreement with the Grand Elder, when the ancestral land was opened, Naruto would be forced to enter it whether he wanted to or not. He was not to be given a choice in the matter.

As of this moment, both Kajura and Menma's Grandfather couldn't understand why the Grand Elder, who had always supported their bloodline, would, at the very last moment, suddenly give Naruto the option of whether or not to enter!

As the two of them hesitated, the Grand Elder waved his finger, causing a vortex to appear in midair in the middle of the temple. The vortex spun out, growing to dozens of meters in size. It was filled with swirling mists, within which slowly appeared the image of another world.

Gradually, that world grew clearer and clearer.

Naruto's face was calm as he looked at the Grand Elder. The fact that he had been given a choice was somewhat strange. After a moment of thought, he glanced over at the direct bloodline Elders, and could see that they were also hesitating. He was now being given an opportunity that he would be hard-pressed to come across in any other situation.

At the same time, he was facing imminent danger.

"Naruto," said Hotarubi's father, 19th Uncle, "you really need to consider the matter carefully. I suggest that you don't enter the ancestral land. Wait until you're in the Immortal Realm. In another few hundred years, then you can go into the ancestral land. That would be much better. There's really no reason for you to enter now. Naruto, consider things carefully."

Naruto was silent for a moment before turning back to the Grand Elder, clasping hands and bowing deeply.

"Grand Elder, am I the only one who can enter on this occasion? May I choose to decline the chance to enter?"

"If you enter, you will do so alone," the Grand Elder said slowly, his expression one of neither joy nor anger. "If you wish to decline the chance to enter, you may go to the Dao of Alchemy Division to challenge the medicine pavilion."

Off to the side, Kajura sat there nervously. He had paid a very heavy price to arrange this matter, and if Naruto didn't enter, it would be impossible for him to have Naruto killed.

"Bear in mind," continued the Grand Elder, looking at Naruto with a piercing gaze, "all contact with the outside will be severed once you enter the ancestral land. Nothing that happens inside will be visible to any of us."

Those words caused Kajura's face to twitch. He looked over at his father, and saw that, although his face was expressionless, his pupils had constricted.

Naruto was unsure as to why the Grand Elder was taking this stance. The normal thing to happen would be for the Grand Elder to give him no choice in the matter. For things to turn out this way caused Naruto to look over at the vortex thoughtfully. He was just about to say that he would decline what was obviously an ambush set up by Kajura when suddenly, a tremor ran through his body. As he looked into the world inside of the vortex, his eyes suddenly went wide.

For a moment, it seemed as if he had caught sight of something completely unbelievable. However, his expression quickly returned to normal. Nontheless, inwardly, he was more shocked than if he had been struck by lightning. His heart began to pound beyond control.

Mouth and throat dry, he immediately said, "I choose to enter the ancestral land!"

When the Elders in the temple who tended to support Menma's bloodline heard Naruto's words, they looked over at him expressionlessly. As for the direct bloodline, anxious expressions could be seen on their faces. However, since this was Naruto's decision, they did nothing to persuade him to change his mind.

After all, the Grand Elder had clearly explained that there would be great danger in the ancestral land. Considering that Naruto had chosen to enter even under such circumstances caused 19th Uncle and the direct bloodline Elders to be able to sense his level of determination.

All they could do was sigh inwardly.

The Grand Elder looked deeply at Naruto for a moment, his expression revealing nothing about what he was thinking. However, the way he was looking at Naruto did seem… somewhat strange.

Most excited of all was Kajura. He took a deep breath and stared at Naruto without revealing any of the boiling killing intent in his heart. Menma's grandfather frowned thoughtfully at the way the Grand Elder was looking at Naruto. For some reason, he had a very uneasy feeling inside.

The Grand Elder was silent for a moment, then coolly said, "Since that is your decision, then go now."

He waved his hand, and a gentle breeze rose up, wrapped around Naruto, and sent him toward the vortex.

"In two months, the ancestral land will automatically open again, and you may come out. During those two months… please take care of yourself." Even as the words rang out, Naruto flew through the air in the wind. In the blink of an eye, he was right outside of the vortex. When he looked inside, his heart pounded madly, and a feeling of reminiscence floated in his heart.

RUMBLE!

Upon contact, he sank into the vortex as if it were water. Then he vanished. The vortex stopped moving, and then faded away from the temple hall.

In that same moment, there were nine areas in different parts of Planet East Victory which suddenly shone with mysterious black light. That light was cast up by teleportation portals, within which sat nine cold and expressionless cultivators wearing black robes.

These nine cultivators seethed with murderous auras, as if innumerable foes had been slain by their hands.

If Naruto were able to see any of them, he would recognize them immediately. The black robes worn by these nine men seemed to be exactly the same as the ones worn by the people who had ambushed him and 19th Uncle en route to Planet East Victory!

As they sat there cross-legged in the teleportation portals, light suddenly rose up around them, and they vanished. This was in the exact moment in which Naruto vanished into the ancestral land.

Another thing happened at exactly the same time. Deep underground beneath the Namikaze Clan ancestral mansion, seven withered figures sat cross-legged in meditation. One of them was the crimson-robed old man who had opened his eyes during the rising of the East Ascension Sun, aroused by Naruto's Essence of Divine Flame. At this moment, his eyes opened, and they shone with boundless ancientness.

"This kid's bloodline is strong…. He's a descendant of Eldest Brother. He must be THE Chosen of this generation of the clan." The old man's eyes flickered as he sensed the black-robed men vanishing, and then a cold light gleamed therein.

"Interesting. Someone actually dares to violate clan rules and fight inside the clan…. Not only that, but they chose to fight within the ancestral land!" The coldness in his eyes grew more intense.

"Is it Sixth Brother's bloodline….?" The old man's brow furrowed in thought for a while. He turned his head to look at the sixth figure sitting there meditating in the inky blackness of the stony cavern.

There were a total of seven people inside this underground lair. Originally, the old man in the crimson robe should have been asleep, and should not have awakened in this age. According to the clan rules, it was the Sixth Patriarch who was supposed to regain consciousness in this millennium.

However, Naruto's Essence of Divine Flame had stimulated his aura during the rise of the Eastern Ascension Sun, reviving him. Afterward, he had planned to return to meditation, but had then changed his mind.

"Sixth Brother is in an astral projection. His soul is no longer in his body." He thought for another moment.

"Sixth Brother has already cultivated the Reincarnation Incantation Daoist magic to the pinnacle. But… was it worth it?" The old man closed his eyes. This closing of the eyes was not a return to a state of inactivity. Instead, he quietly sent out some divine sense, which transformed into a stream of divine will that made its way through the earth… toward the ancestral land!

Heaven and Earth trembled as lightning and thunder danced about in the clouds, as if seeking a way to lash the earth. The ground itself was a brownish color that made it look like it was soaked with blood, and stretched out as far as the eye could see.

What parts of the land were not covered with deep cracks were choked with weeds.

A seemingly eternal air of desolation and bleakness spread out in all directions. Off in the distance, ruins could be seen, and even further off, a volcano which belched thick black smoke.

Occasionally, frightening roars could be heard echoing about, which raged across the lands like storm winds, causing everything to shake.

The mystery of this place came from the fact that it used to be part of the Ruins of Immortality. Its solemn dignity came because it was now an ancestral land of the Namikaze Clan.

The first generation Patriarch was buried here. Other Dao Realm Patriarchs of the clan, his descendants, were also laid to rest here after passing away in meditation.

The entire ancestral land was laid out in the shape of a straight line. The further one went in, the more danger there was. As for the brown-earthed region near the entrance, two chains of mountains were visible.

These two mountain ranges were like two stone dragons, lofty, imposing, and jagged.

Between the two mountain chains was a path, so far down from the peaks of the mountains that the sky was almost like a sliver up above. It was like a great door leading into the ancestral land, although there was no actual door present, only… an enormous statue larger than the mountains themselves!

This statue looked as if it were inseparably connected to the mountains. It was pitch black, and wore a heavy suit of armor. Its two hands rested on the pommel of a greatsword, and the statue itself seemed incomparably ancient.

The sword was dozens of meters wide, and was thrust down into the earth. Ancient magical symbols were engraved onto its surface, which seemed simple and almost crude, and yet contained profound meaning that was impossible to decipher.

The statue's eyes lacked any expression whatsoever, making the statue itself seem completely lifeless. It almost seemed to be a mere decoration standing guard over the ancestral land.

However, from a distance, it was possible to see that the statue was looking up into the sky, staring off into the distance as if… it was waiting for something.

Any Namikaze Clan member who had been to the ancestral land knew about this statue. According to the legends, the origins of the statue were a complete mystery. Supposedly, it had flown here from somewhere out in the starry sky, the same year that the Hebi Clan changed the Heavens and took over the Ninth Mountain and Sea.

From then on, the statue had remained in this spot, apparently guarding the ancestral land.

Over the years, rumors began to spread that the statue was not just there to guard the ancestral land, but actually, all of the Namikaze Clan's bloodlines.

Years and years passed, and eventually, the rumors and stories died out. In every generation of the Namikaze Clan, there would be many people who came and laid eyes on the statue. However, they never called to mind the absurd stories of the past. After all… they were simply legends.

As for the reason why the statue held its head up as if it were waiting for something, people had long since stopped wondering about it.

No one had any idea why this statue had come here to the Namikaze Clan on its own… nor what it was waiting for.

It emanated the aura of a powerful expert, an intense aura that was strong enough to shake Heaven and Earth. When Naruto looked at it, the feeling he got was so intense that not even the Grand Elder could compare.

This statue was so strong… that in the past, Naruto wouldn't have been able to even identify how powerful it was. Now, though, when he looked at the statue, he understood…. This statue's aura was almost like that of a Paragon!

Naruto stood in the vast land between the two mountain chains. This was the location that he had appeared in upon entering the ancestral land. Currently, he was standing there stock-still, looking thoughtfully at the statue.

He was well aware that this trip to the ancestral land was an ambush. He also knew that the best choice had been to not come here, but instead take advantage of the opportunity given him by the Grand Elder.

In fact, originally he had no plans whatsoever to enter this place. However, after looking into the vortex and seeing this enormous statue, his heart had filled with roaring.

The roaring had soon inundated him completely, tugging at him, pulling him into distant memories.

He trembled, and his eyes flashed with reminiscence. He couldn't even control himself as he walked forward to stand in front of the statue. He came to a stop in front of its foot, after which he reached his hand out and patted it gently.

His hand shook, and after it touched the statue, his whole body started trembling. He slowly looked up at the enormously tall statue, and then started to float up into the air.

He moved slowly, as if he wanted to take a clear look at the entire statue. Eventually, he reached its head, and looked into its eyes. It was at this point… that tears appeared in his own eyes.

"Terracotta soldier…." he murmured softly. Finally, the tears began to roll down his cheeks and fall to the ground. He remembered this terracotta soldier being about three meters tall. Even though it was now much bigger than before, he would never forget this terracotta soldier with whom he had such a connection.

The only reason he had chosen to enter this ancestral land despite all the danger… was because of this statue.

Back in the temple, when he had looked into the vortex and seen the statue, he almost couldn't believe it.

How could he have forgotten about this statue…? How was it even possible?

This was… one of the two terracotta soldiers that had been created for him in illusory world of the Second Plane of the ancient Demon Immortal Sect, by his foster father Mui!

He would never, ever be able to forget the life he had lived as Muku back in the ancient Demon Immortal Sect.

"Father…." said Naruto, tears streaming down his face. His entire body shook, and as he looked at the statue, he wept. All of the memories of the ancient Demon Immortal Sect flooded into his mind. All of a sudden, Mui's stern and yet loving face appeared in his mind.

The ninety-nine bell tolls from that year seemed to echo in his ears once again. 1

He had long since assumed that he would never see the two terracotta soldiers again. He had searched for them in the Third Plane of the ancient Demon Immortal Sect, in the real world, but hadn't found them.

There was no possible way that Naruto would ever have thought that he might see one of the statues here… in the Namikaze Clan's ancestral land.

Mui, knowing that his longevity was reaching its end, had created this terracotta soldier to protect Naruto. It was only because of it that Naruto had unhesitatingly entered the ancestral land, despite knowing of the dangers.

It wouldn't have mattered if the danger had been was exponentially greater than it was, Naruto would never have hesitated to come here.

And the entire reason… was because of Mui!

What was it waiting for?

This was a question that no one in the Namikaze Clan had been able to answer for generations.

Naruto looked at the statue, weeping, fully aware… that the statue had been waiting for him.

It had waited here alone for him for tens of thousands of years….

The reason it had flown here to the Namikaze Clan was because of the soul blood that had emerged from Naruto's forehead to connect him to the statue. Because of that, it didn't matter how much time separated them, or who ended up taking possession of the soldier. Naruto… was always its original master. 1

Years ago, before Naruto had even been born, the statue flew through space, guided by his blood, all the way to the Namikaze Clan. It had found a place where it sensed a familiar bloodline, and then chosen to wait there in silence.

This was the simple answer to the question asked by so many members of the Namikaze Clan.

This was only one of the two statues that had been created for Naruto by Mui.

As for the other statue, perhaps it had fallen in battle at some point throughout the years. Or perhaps it was in some other distant location, standing alone and looking off into the sky just like this statue, waiting for Naruto to come.

Time passed by slowly, and eventually, Naruto sat down cross-legged on the statue's head. He patted the surface of the statue, and his expression continued to be one of reminiscence. He recalled everything that had happened in the ancient Demon Immortal Sect, and his heart filled with sorrow.

Sometimes, a certain object will make you think of a certain person.

When Naruto looked at the statue, he missed Mui. He missed the man he had called father in that ancient world.

At the same time that Naruto sat down on the statue, there were nine areas in the Namikaze Clan ancestral land where the air distorted, and nine black-robed men emerged. They immediately produced jade slips that they could use to detect bloodlines, then transformed into beams of light that shot away from their original locations.

Killing intent boiled in the ancestral land.

One of the black-robed men held the jade slip in hand, and the desire to kill gleamed in his eyes as he realized that he was the closest of them all to Naruto. He made no effort to conceal the level of his cultivation base. Power exploded out as he shot through the air in a beam of light, following the jade slip's guidance.

His cultivation base caused the clouds up above to seethe, and the ground to shake. This was an Ancient Realm cultivation base, and as he sped through the air, it was possible to see nine lamps behind him.

They were wooden lamps that burned with green flames. Eight of the lamps were lit, one was began orbiting around the man, and they pulsed with the power of a natural law of Heaven and Earth!

The Ancient Realm is also called the Ancient Soul. Based on the accumulations and preparations made in the Immortal Realm, a minimum of nine Soul Lamps will appear upon breaking through to the Ancient Realm. More can appear depending on the profundity of the cultivator's cultivation base. To proceed through the Ancient Realm, the lamps must be extinguished one by one. The extinguishing of each lamp counts as a deadly test, and if the cultivator can extinguish all of the lamps and remain alive, then they will be qualified to step into the Dao Realm!

However, to do so is incredibly hard!

The more Soul Lamps one possesses, the harder it is to break through, and the greater the chance of death. At the same time, though, the more Soul Lamps one has… the more shockingly powerful they will be if they succeed in breaking through!

That was so much so that there were some people with ten or more Soul Lamps who, after reaching the late Ancient Realm, were qualified to fight with someone in the Dao Realm!

In any given clan or sect, a cultivator with one extinguished Soul Lamp would be considered to have the status of an Elder. The single stamp of a foot could shake everything. Just one such person would be enough to slaughter Naruto, but Kajura was obviously uneasy about the situation. It was impossible to say what vast price he had paid, for he had actually hired nine almighty Ancient Realm cultivators, each of them with one extinguished Soul Lamp. Clearly, he wanted no mishaps or accidents in having Naruto exterminated.

Meanwhile, a vague image appeared high up in the air where it was impossible for anyone to see. An old man hovered there, looking down at Naruto, who was still sitting on the statue's head.

This image was none other than the divine will of the Seventh Patriarch from the subterranean cavern beneath the Namikaze Clan.

When he saw Naruto sitting there abjectly on top of the statue, he gaped in shock.

"What's the kid doing?" he thought.

Naruto sat there atop of the statue for a while before raising his head and looking off into the distance, where he saw a figure speeding toward him like an arrow piercing through the roiling clouds.

The figure moved with incredible speed, bursting with astonishing energy that seemed capable of splitting Heaven and Earth. This was a power that Naruto could never fight against. Behind the figure were nine lamps, eight burning and one extinguished, which emanated a primordial will that cast strange colors into the sky.

Naruto's eyes widened. This was his first time seeing Soul Lamps, and after a moment of consideration, the coldness in his eyes grew more intense.

"Soul Lamps are cultivated in the Ancient Realm…." he murmured. "So, an Ancient Realm expert has appeared in the ancestral land. Kajura… is this the expression of your killing intent?" He looked at the figure that split the air as it shot toward him. It was a powerful expert wearing a black robe, and he was closing in rapidly.

He made no effort to conceal his monstrous cultivation base or his massive killing intent. A wind kicked up, spreading across the lands and kicking up dust. The wind couldn't dispel the bleak feeling that lay over the land, and in fact, made everything even more harsh and desolate.

The moment Naruto saw the black robe, killing intent flickered in his eyes. He immediately thought back to how he had fled from deadly pursuit in the starry sky.

"So, I guessed correctly," he thought. "It was Menma's bloodline who tried to prevent me from making it back to the clan alive." His face was calm as he faced the wild wind. His robes and hair flapped in the wind, and yet, he continued to calmly pat the statue's head.

The Seventh Patriarch's divine will image floated in midair, astonished. In his opinion, Naruto was now facing an Ancient Realm expert with one extinguished Soul Lamp. For him to be acting so calm left the Seventh Patriarch in a state of wonderment.

"Let's see what kind of trump card the kid has to get him out of this deadly situation," thought the Seventh Patriarch, smiling and paying close attention. He had already decided that he would take action in the moment before Naruto would actually be killed.

The reason he had come here, though, was not for Naruto, but rather, for those people who had dared to violate the clan rules.

Screaming wind filled the air as the black-robed man shot toward Naruto. He was middle-aged and very skinny. His expression was calm, without the slightest bit of excitement visible. To him, killing a member of the Junior generation who wasn't even an Immortal, was far too simple of a task.

It didn't matter if his target had a rare true Immortal fleshly body. To him, Naruto was merely a member of a younger generation. In his opinion, Kajura was making a mountain out of a molehill to ask nine people to all attack Naruto.

By this point, he was about 3,000 meters away from Naruto. In a flash, that distance shrank to only a few hundred meters.

He said nothing, just extended his right hand and pointed toward Naruto.

In response, the land up ahead twisted as a huge fissure opened up. It looked like a vicious, evil dragon that shot toward Naruto.

Bizarre colors flashed, and natural law manifested. The light and the darkness in the world seemed to be in flux.

From a distance, the sky appeared to have become a huge net; as soon as the fissure appeared in the ground, the entire sky seemed to have shattered!

Naruto's pupils constricted. The man's arrival made it seem as if a stifling pressure were weighing down on the entire area, like Heavenly might. The pressure caused his blood to seethe, and his cultivation base to begin to shatter. Even his fleshly body began to emanate cracking sounds.

"So this is an Ancient Realm expert, huh…?" A strange light gleamed in Naruto's eyes as the air ripped apart in response to the man's waving finger. This man's manipulation of the natural law of Heaven and Earth had already reached the acme of perfection; apparently, if this man wanted the air to rip apart, then the air would absolutely do just that.

An intense sensation of deadly crisis rose up in Naruto.

However, as that fissure snaked toward him, Naruto's lips twisted up into a smile of ridicule.

In that moment, he did not move. What moved was the statue beneath him!

The statue's eyes had previously been blank, without the slightest sign of life. But now, they suddenly began to shine with bright light that turned into consciousness. The face now flickered with expression, and its aura roiled out.

It was nothing more than an aura, and yet it caused Heaven and Earth to tremble, and the fissure that was extending rapidly toward Naruto suddenly vanished into nothing!

The massive net up in the sky also collapsed.

Rumbling sounds echoed out in all directions, and the ground quaked. The mountains themselves shook as Naruto's statue seemed to wake up from a slumber that had lasted for tens of thousands of years. It was as if it were being resurrected from the dead.

Its aura grew stronger and stronger, growing infinitely close to the level of a Paragon. This type of Paragon was not the same type of Paragon as the title held by that white-robed woman who had appeared in that year in the Three Great Daoist Societies' trial by fire. This was… the Quasi-Dao Realm, which was referred to by the title Paragon in the Nine Mountains and Seas!

As for why exactly it was referred to in that manner, there was a specific reason!

The terracotta soldier's eyes were growing brighter and clearer, and its energy was surging to monstrous heights. It was as if the statue was now rising up to accomplish the mission assigned to it by Mui all those years ago!

Its mission… was to protect Naruto for all time, to eternally act as his safeguard!

It was to never allow Naruto to come to any harm, to never experience grief, and most definitely to never be killed. That… was the statue's mission, and the entire purpose why Mui had created it.

Naruto sat on top of the statue, and he saw Mui in his mind's eye. His face was stern, but his eyes were filled with love. Yet again, tears appeared in Naruto's eyes.

Once again… he felt Mui's fatherly love.

This time, it was manifested in the real world.

Cracking sounds could be heard, and everything shook. Fissures appeared in the mountain chains and then spread out in all directions.

The middle-aged man's face flickered with disbelief and astonishment, and his mind reeled. He subconsciously stopped in place, and his eyes widened.

He was also a member of the Namikaze Clan, and what he was seeing left him stupefied. He watched with his own eyes as the legendary protector of the ancestral land and the Namikaze Clan itself, that enormous statue which had never budged over countless years… suddenly moved!

He saw Naruto sitting atop the statue as it lifted its right foot and took a step forward.

From a distance, the statue looked boundlessly tall and shockingly powerful. When its foot landed on the ground, the entire world quaked. At the same time, the statue's arms moved, and cracking sounds could be heard as the mountains that were connected to the statue crumbled, transforming into nothing but rocks and dust that rolled off of the statue down onto the ground.

Everything was covered in a haze of dust, which only served to make the statue in the center of it all even more shocking.

It raised its other foot and took another step, causing the land to rumble, and more mountains to collapse.

The haze of dust continued to spread out rapidly in pulsing waves, creating an astonishing sight. The middle-aged man's scalp went numb, and his mind spun. This was literally the most unbelievable thing he had ever seen in his entire life. His face instantly became devoid of blood, and he looked shocked beyond belief.

He suddenly cried out involuntarily, "That's… that's… that's the aura of a Quasi-Dao Realm Paragon!"

His eyes were wide, and his heart pounded wildly.

He was well-aware how powerful a Quasi-Dao Paragon was, and what they represented. He was extremely conscientious of the fact that the Quasi-Dao Realm… was a completely astonishing Realm within the Nine Mountains and Seas. It was a realm of madness and terror, so powerful that strongest experts in the Nine Mountains and Seas had no choice but to call people in that Realm… Paragons!

The middle-aged man wasn't the only shocked one. The old man up in midair, the manifestation of the Seventh Patriarch's divine will, was watching with wide eyes and open mouth. He was completely astonished, and could scarcely believe what he was seeing.

"How is this possible?!" he thought, panting, his mind spinning. "The Dao Guardsman, is actually… moving!" He suddenly looked at Naruto sitting on top of the statue's head, and viewed the look of sorrow on his face in a new light. For an instant, the rarely-shocked Seventh Patriarch's scalp went numb.

The ground quaked and mountains crumbled. A massive rumbling sound filled the air, and the haze of dust churned as boulders crashed down.

The weeds in the area were blown flat by the wind, and cracks appeared in the surface of the ground, although it was all rapidly covered over by the dust.

Up in the air, the Seventh Patriarch was panting as he stared mutely at the statue.

As for the skinny man, he couldn't be more shocked. His mind reeled as he looked at the earth-shaking statue. He could sense the aura emanating out from it, and it turned his face ashen. Without another moment's hesitation, he fled.

This unexpected turn of events was something he couldn't handle. From his perspective, killing Naruto should have been as simple as turning over his hand. Moments later, though, everything was completely reversed.

He suddenly realized why Kajura would hire nine experts like himself to kill a mere member of the Junior generation. Although the conclusion he reached was actually fallacious, in his mind, it was the obvious answer.

"Dammit! How could things turn out like this! Kajura, you bastard, you conned me. Y-y-you sent me, with one extinguished Soul Lamp, in here to kill a cultivator protected by a Quasi-Dao Paragon? Why didn't you tell us ahead of time that this inhuman Naruto could actually bring the Dao Guardsman back to life!?" The man retreated with all the speed he could muster.

However, in the moment that he began to flee, the statue's gaze stabbed through the haze of dust like a beam of light to land directly on the man.

In the instant the statue's gaze locked onto him, a sound like thunder rumbled in the man's mind. An intense sense of deadly crisis rose up, and he let out a bellow. He instantly spit out blood and unleashed a secret magic to try to flee.

He was scared. As an Ancient Realm expert, he did not often encounter frightening situations, but as of this moment, he was afraid. In fact, he was terrified, all the way down to his bones.

He knew exactly how terrifyingly powerful a Quasi-Dao Paragon was. Years ago, he had actually personally witnessed the wild and devastating power of just such an individual.

There was no way he couldn't feel terror. The awakening of the statue shook his mind, and caused him to think back to the legends he had heard regarding the statue.

"I… have provoked a truly inhuman monster! I can't believe… I can't believe this is happening!" He felt incredible regret, and swore that, if he managed to live through this, he would make things very difficult for Kajura when he got out of the ancestral land.

However, it was at this moment that the huge statue's hands tightened on the enormous greatsword that was thrust into the ground. Rumbling and cracking sounds could be heard from the ground as fissures spread out from the sword in all directions. Suddenly, the greatsword… was pulled out from the earth!

The shocking statue's eyes were as cold as ice as it hefted the greatsword in both hands. Then it swung the sword, which descended as fast as lighting toward the fleeing man.

The sword caused the whole world to go silent.

The avalanches of boulders made no sound. The crumbling mountains were silent. The haze of dust seethed in terrifying quietude. It was as if time itself… were frozen in place.

The fleeing man also seemed to be stopped in midair, his expression that of terror and astonishment. His pupils were frozen in place, and the nine Soul Lamps behind him were motionless. It was as if everything in the world were completely incapable of moving.

The only thing that was moving was the statue's greatsword. As it cleaved downward, blood oozed from the man's forehead, then trickled down his nose, then his chin. Finally, the sword passed through his torso, simultaneously shattering his Soul Lamps.

The world returned to normal. The terracotta soldier's greatsword once again stabbed into the ground, which trembled and quaked. Sound returned… in midair, the middle-aged man's body had been completely cleaved into two pieces, and all of his Soul Lamps were destroyed.

The man had numerous magical items, all of which were shattered, and flew out in pieces along with the man's flesh and blood.

There was no way for him to fight back or block. He couldn't even struggle, let alone evade.

Blood sprayed out as his Nascent Divinity, his Soul Lamps, all of him… faded away.

Only his bag of holding remained, which came to float in front of Naruto.

Naruto sat silently on the statue.

High up in the air, the Seventh Patriarch took a deep breath. Even he felt a sense of fear when he looked at the statue, and also knew how shocking and terrifying its sword was.

"That sword has its own Dao that replaces the natural law of Heaven and Earth! That sword… can sever Daos, sever natural laws, can sever… anything that exists!

"This is definitely the power of a Quasi-Dao Paragon! However… it's obviously nothing more than a statue! If a statue could be so powerful, then whoever created that statue… must be even more terrifying!

"I suppose… only someone in the true Dao Realm, who also possessed some rare Heavenly material or Earthly treasure, would be able to create something like this. But…with such a treasure, it would make more sense to craft some other item, something that would be of more use to a Dao Realm cultivator." Simply looking at the statue caused the Seventh Patriarch's heart to tremble.

He knew that Quasi-Dao Realm cultivators… were a maniacal bunch. They were madmen who could ignore anybody; they were people who nobody dared to provoke.

They were people who had prepared for years, who had transcended one deadly Soul Lamp tribulation after another, who had reached the peak of the Ancient Realm filled with hope. But after extinguishing their final Soul Lamp, they were unable to enter the Dao Realm, and would exist forever half a step away from it. Their lifespans had crumbled away, and they would be left with only a few dozen years of life. People like that… were in the Quasi-Dao Realm!

They were doomed to die, and could not be saved by anything in Heaven and Earth. Therefore, they went mad, stuck half a step into the Dao Realm, possessing a certain level of Dao Essence that earned them respect and awe. No one dared to provoke them, and everyone called them Paragons.

For tens of thousands of years, only eleven such people had ever appeared in the Namikaze Clan. Some of them went mad and carried out slaughters. Some of them quietly waited until their life force reached its end.

When the Grand Elder had spoken of past Dao Realm Patriarchs of the Namikaze Clan who were buried in the ancestral land, he was referring to… Quasi-Dao Paragons! The only one among these who was a true Dao Realm expert was the first generation Patriarch!

Mui had also met with failure at that final step. However, his cultivation base was so terrifyingly profound that, even after his failure, even being only half a step into the Dao Realm, even with a failing longevity… he had still managed to force out many more years of life to protect his son.

At that time, his battle prowess had far exceeded the Ancient Realm, and could actually be considered to be in the Dao Realm.

As for his final Soul Lamp, that was the very lamp with the body of a dragon and the wick of a phoenix, the one he had been buried with!

He had actually used that lamp to make the terracotta soldiers, which had thus contained much of Mui's life force. As a result… they were incredibly powerful!

The Seventh Patriarch was panting as he looked at the statue in fear. He himself… was not in the Dao Realm; he was only in the Ancient Realm. However, he had summoned fifteen Soul Lamps, and to date had managed to extinguish thirteen of them.

"Only Elder Brother, the Earth Patriarch, could suppress that statue with his Dao Realm cultivation base. Nobody else could, not even Old Second and Old Third with their fourteen extinguished Soul Lamps. They only have one more lamp each to extinguish, but they still wouldn't be matches for this statue. After all, they're still merely in the Ancient Realm!"

Most shocking of all to him was that this Dao Guardsman of the Namikaze Clan was actually protecting Naruto!

"This kid actually managed to get the Dao Guardsman to move! How did he pull it off? Why was he able to do it? The fact that he was so confident before shows that he was sure ahead of time that the statue would fight for him and protect him!

"This… is absurdly unbelievable!" The Seventh Patriarch took an incredulous breath as he looked down at what was happening. There was no way for him to explain what was going on, and if his divine will wasn't here to personally witness it, then, if he had been told the story later, he would have called it nonsensical ravings.

And yet, here he was watching it happen, shocked.

Naruto patted the statue's head. Gradually, the land around him quieted down. The dust faded away, and everything returned to normal. Naruto looked up, and returned the precious memories of Mui to the depths of his heart. Sometimes a certain object will make you think of a certain person. His memories filled him with grief that he couldn't somehow undo the death of Mui.

He closed his eyes for a long moment before opening them again. The he looked down at the statue. To him, it was no mere terracotta soldier, but rather, a precious memento left to him by Mui.

"Let's go," he said softly. "Come with me to take a look around this ancestral land of the Namikaze Clan." The statue's eyes shone brightly as it flew into the air and took Naruto further into the ancestral land.

That simple action almost caused the Seventh Patriarch's eyeballs to pop out of his head. He very nearly cried out in shock.

He gasped, and a look of disbelief covered his face as he stared at the statue taking Naruto off into the distance. He was well-aware of the difference between Naruto getting the statue to protect him, and getting it to carry him around. They were two completely different things.

One required passively responding, the other required taking action!

"He… can actually control the clan's Dao Guardsman!" The Seventh Patriarch was panting. Now that he knew the full situation, his mind spun, and he completely forgot about any rule-violating members of the clan. He looked at Naruto with shining eyes, and couldn't help but be filled with the growing notion that Naruto would be a future pillar of the clan.

As Naruto proceeded along, he opened up the bag of holding that had belonged to the man who had just been killed. He scanned its contents with divine sense, finding a good quantity of spirit stones and Immortal jade. There were also a lot of medicinal pills, and even some jade slips. One of those jade slips was black, and Naruto's face grew frosty as soon as he picked it up and scanned it.

"He was an Elder of the Namikaze Clan!" he murmured. The command medallion he held in his hand was a token of authentication provided by the clan, and revealed that the man from moments ago was definitely one of the clan Elders.

After all, this was the Namikaze Clan's ancestral land. Kajura wanted Naruto dead more than anything, but he still wouldn't dare to allow outsiders into the ancestral land. He wouldn't have been able to bear the consequences of that.

In his estimation, when it came to killing Naruto, reducing the risk and aftermath was only a matter of using his bloodline's status in the clan a bit cleverly.

After grabbing the identity medallion from the bag of holding and tossing it aside, Naruto pulled a jade box out. It glittered with bright light, and emanated strong Immortal Chakra.

After opening it, he began to pant, and his eyes shone brightly.

Inside the jade box was a tiny bell made completely of jade. It was exquisitely beautiful, and Immortal Chakra swirled around it. Naruto instantly recognized that it was an Immortal treasure of the highest quality. It was definitely no ordinary object.

He picked up the tiny bell and held it in his hand. Then, he sent some Immortal Chakra from his Immortal meridian into the bell, which caused it to emit a droning sound. It flew up into the air above his head, growing to a size of three meters and rotating around him, emitting countless magical symbols at the same time.

An intense pressure immediately spread out.

Naruto's eyes shone, and he took a deep breath.

"As far as Immortal treasures are concerned, this bell is definitely of an extremely high quality!" He could sense the Immortal might emanating off of the bell, and his eyes glittered as he opened his mouth and breathed in. In response, the bell shrunk and then turned into a beam of light that shot into Naruto's mouth and came to rest inside of his Immortal meridian.

Immediately, his entire body filled with the echoing toll of a bell. The bell began to emit bright light, and at the same time, his Immortal meridian grew more solid.

Naruto's spirits were instantly lifted. What he didn't know was that this Immortal bell had been a gift prepared by Kajura for that clan Elder. Although it wasn't an Ancient treasure, it was an extremely high quality Immortal treasure, and with a bit of refining could have been turned into something similar to an Ancient Realm treasure.

Ancient treasures were rare, and were something that many Ancient Realm experts didn't even possess. Even though the man had been a Namikaze Clan elder, he had only extinguished one Soul Lamp, and therefore didn't qualify to acquire Ancient treasures from the clan.

Actually, Kajura had expended quite a bit of resources a few years back to acquire the tiny bell. However, for the sake of having Naruto killed, he had employed everything at his disposal.

"He was a clan Elder, and all he had was this one magical item?" Naruto seemed a bit skeptical, but then he remembered all of the magical items that had shattered in the moment of his death.

"There seem to be many unique aspects to the Ancient Realm," he thought. He scanned the rest of the jade slips in the bag of holding, and then suddenly, his eyes came to rest on one of them. After further scanning, his face darkened.

This jade slip was a bloodline tracker. He could clearly see nine dots of light, one of which represented himself. The other eight were spread out in various directions, and were all heading towards him.

The nearest one wasn't very far away.

"So, you actually sent nine people to kill me." Naruto's eyes were like ice as he sent out some divine will that caused the terracotta soldier to stop in place, then change directions. Suddenly, it began to speed off in the direction of the dot of light closest to Naruto.

"There's no need to come looking for me," said Naruto. "I'll come to you!" He sat there cross-legged atop the statue, his eyes boiling with murderous intent. His pupils shone with an intense light like that of a razor-sharp blade.

As of this moment, his entire person seethed with the desire to kill.

He wouldn't dare to kill anyone inside the Namikaze Clan itself. That was a violation of clan rules. However, in this place… he had no compunctions whatsoever. Since these people had come here to kill him, then he might as well return the favor one by one!

"This place won't open up again for two months. That's plenty of time for me to have some fun with you people!" Powerful killing intent flickered in his eyes, and the murderous aura which surrounded him grew stronger.

Up above, the Seventh Patriarch followed along, his excitement and interest in Naruto growing stronger.

The terracotta soldier moved with such incredible speed that it caused sonic booms to echo out. It shot forward, seemingly slicing a hole into the air of the ancestral land.

Naruto sat cross-legged up above, his hair whipping about as the powerful wind buffeted his true Immortal fleshly body.

Roughly five hundred kilometers ahead of him, a beam of light shot through the air, within which was a black-robed young man. Although his appearance was young, there was something about the way he furrowed his brow that seemed to carry an ancient will.

He was surrounded by nine lamps, which rotated around him. Just like the other man, eight were burning and one was extinguished. These Soul Lamps didn't seem to be real, but rather illusory.

His passing caused the sky and the land to distort, and he kept his hands clasped behind his back as he proceeded.

His expression was calm, but a gleam of vigilance could be seen deep in his eyes.

"I can't believe one of us died…." he murmured, his eyes flickering. "All we're supposed to do is kill someone from the Junior generation, and yet somebody actually perished…. Furthermore, he wasn't killed by something dangerous from within the ancestral land. He died a short time after making contact with that member of the Junior generation." A strange gleam appeared in the young man's eyes. Moments ago, one of the dots of light had vanished from the jade slip he had been observing, which left him shocked.

"No wonder Kajura wanted nine of us to come in here. This Junior… must be harboring some incredible secret!

"Whatever that secret is, it enabled him to kill an Ancient Realm cultivator with one extinguished Soul Lamp, while he himself barely counts as being in the Immortal Realm!

"However, whatever method he's using definitely can't be used long-term." A cold glow appeared in the young man's eyes, and his pupils glittered with greed. He lifted his right hand and sent divine sense into the jade slip held therein. Then, his face flickered, and he suddenly stopped in place.

"That can't be right," he thought, frowning. "He changed direction, and now he's heading toward me…. And look at how fast he's moving! Even with a true Immortal fleshly body, he shouldn't be able to move that fast!" The young man hesitated.

"Is it just an empty show of strength, a bluff? Is he just trying to scare me off, or… does that secret technique give him the confidence to think he can kill me?" The young man's eyes flickered a few times before filling with determination.

"It doesn't matter. I can just check the situation out from a distance to see whether or not he's just putting on a show." With that, the young man hovered there in midair, coldly looking off into the distance as he waited for Naruto to approach.

He was being very cautious, and was even ready to flee away at top speed if necessary. He kept his cultivation base rotating, ensuring that he was at the peak of power and readiness.

After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, a rumbling sound could suddenly be heard from off in the distance. Everything began to shake.

Even the condition of the sky changed; the clouds churned, and endless bolts of lightning danced about.

The young man's eyes went wide, and he sent his divine sense out to scan the area up ahead. It was at this point that a tremor ran through him, and his eyes went wide with disbelief. He couldn't even breathe, and his eyes bulged. It almost looked like someone was strangling him. His mind filled with a buzz, as if someone has struck him hard on the top of the head.

He staggered backward, panting, face pale.

"That's… that's…." He almost didn't dare to believe what he was seeing. "What is that!?"

Tens of thousands of meters up in the sky, the clouds parted as an enormous statue appeared. It was thousands of meters high, and caused the clouds to surge away from it as it descended.

Its energy was shocking and virtually impossible to describe!

Its speed was incredible, causing flames to lick the air around the terracotta soldier. It was like a shooting star!

Naruto sat cross-legged atop the terracotta soldier, eyes flashing with killing intent. He looked like a drawn sword that refused to be sheathed without shedding blood!

RUMMMBLLLLE!

Massive roaring sounds filled the air as the terracotta soldier screamed through the air toward the black-robed youth. As it neared, the aura of a Quasi-Dao Paragon rippled out in all directions, shaking everything.

The terracotta soldier's eyes were icy and emotionless, and it held a greatsword in its hand. When the young man saw all of this, his face drained of blood.

"That's the ancestral land's Dao Guardsman!

"It has the aura of a Quasi-Dao Paragon!

"How… how could this be? He… he can actually control the Dao Guardsman!?" The black-robed young man's scalp was tingling so hard it seemed like his head was about to explode. Flabbergasted and scared witless, he didn't even have time to think. He immediately turned and employed all the power he could muster in a mad dash to flee.

As of that moment, he cursed the fact that he had only extinguished one Soul Lamp. He cursed the fact that he couldn't flee fast enough. He cursed the fact that he had been conceited enough to just stand there waiting for his opponent to arrive.

He suddenly understood why that other Ancient Realm Elder had died!

"Damn you, Kajura! I can't believe you sent us in here to kill a monster who can control the Dao Guardsman! You… you didn't send us in here to kill him… you obviously sent us in here so that he could kill us!" The black-robed young man's heart was pounding, and his face was as white as death. Nearly frightened out of his mind by the sense of deadly crisis, he roared, spitting out blood and using all the secret magics he knew to try to get away.

No one outside could see the things that were happening in the ancestral land.

Neither the Grand Elder nor Menma's father and grandfather could see anything at all. The Grand Elder hadn't been lying when he had explained that point. It was literally impossible for anyone to observe what occurred inside.

In the Namikaze Clan, everything was going along as normal, except that the direct bloodline clan members were very nervous. Hotarubi was in incredibly low spirits, and was very worried about Naruto.

The Dao of Alchemy Division had received news of Naruto heading into the ancestral land as a trial by fire, and were also extremely anxious. In fact, the eighteen tier 8 alchemists all went in person to speak with the Grand Elder.

A huge argument ensued that ended with the tier 8 alchemists storming off in a fury. Not long after, the Dao of Alchemy Division announced that they wouldn't concoct pills for the clan until Naruto returned safely.

As word of this development spread, the entire clan was shaken. The Grand Elder then personally went to the Dao of Alchemy Division to pay respects to Pill Elder, yet Pill Elder flatly refused to see him.

It was at this point that Menma's bloodline was starting to realize that Naruto had firmly rooted himself within the clan, and had built up such a level of power that even they were beginning to feel fear rising up inside of them.

The Dao of Alchemy Division was definitely Naruto's bastion of reliance within the clan!

The whole matter was a major slip-up on the part of Kajura. The only thing he could do was spend vast resources to placate the anger and dissatisfaction of the Elders in his own bloodline regarding the losses they had suffered.

However, Kajura still had hope. As long as Naruto died, then the Dao of Alchemy Division wouldn't fight against the clan over a corpse. Everything would be resolved, and his own son, Menma, would once again be the number one Chosen in the clan, and his bloodline would finally be able to supersede the current direct bloodline!

However, his hope… was rapidly unraveled because of what happened next.

Menma was currently sealed in secluded meditation in his secret chamber. Kajura sat cross-legged outside, his face a mass of disbelief as he looked at a crystal he held in his hand.

Within the crystal was an image of the Namikaze Clan's Lifeslip Hall. There, countless jade slips that represented the lives of Namikaze Clan members were on display.

If a clan member died, the jade slip would shatter, immediately notifying the clan, which would then investigate the matter.

Moments ago, Kajura had been looking at Naruto's jade slip, which rested among all the other countless jade slips.

As soon as Naruto had returned to the clan and acquired a jade command medallion, he had also left a lifeslip in the Lifeslip Hall. Currently, it glowed with bright light, and wasn't even the least bit cracked.

On a higher shelf were the lifeslips of all of the clan's Ancient Realm clan members. Just now, one of those jade slips had made a cracking sound and then shattered. This instantly attracted a lot of attention, and an investigation had begun.

The shattering of that jade slip caused Kajura's heart to begin to pound.

He had paid a heavy price to arrange for nine Ancient Realm Elders to go into the ancestral land and kill Naruto.

"What happened in there!?" he thought, panting. "An Ancient Realm Elder… actually died? How!?

"To top it off, that damned son of a bitch is still alive!" He couldn't even imagine what possibly might have happened inside the ancestral land.

The clan began a thorough investigation into the Ancient Realm clan member's death. Fortunately for Kajura, he had previously arranged for all nine of the experts who entered the ancestral land to make it seem like they had left the planet to carry out clan assignments.

However, that would only delay the clan for so long. The rigorous investigation would eventually turn up clues.

"He probably died because of some dangerous situation in the ancestral land," thought Kajura. "This was nothing more than an accident…. It won't be much longer before that damned son of a bitch is dead in body and spirit!" Killing intent flickered in his eyes, and he couldn't wait to see Naruto's lifeslip shatter.

"Once the little son of a bitch is dead, and Menma makes his breakthrough to true Immortal Ascension, then… it doesn't matter even if people do discover the truth. By that time, it won't matter. Naruto's death will be meaningless to the clan!"

Kajura took a deep breath, and his eyes filled with veins of blood.

Meanwhile, in the Namikaze Clan ancestral land, the black-robed young man was indignantly cursing Kajura as he fled in terror.

"How shameless!" he thought. "What a deception! Two months? Dammit! There are still two more months… before this place will open up and I can get out of here. W-what do I do?" The young man's face was pale white as he fled. Behind him, rumbling sounds echoed out, piercing through his ears into his very heart.

Further back, Naruto's statue was wreathed in flames as it shot after the young man. Naruto sat cross-legged atop it, and as they closed in, his eyes flickered with killing intent.

The distance between them narrowed. 30,000 meters. 25,000 meters. 15,000 meters. 10,000 meters….

At that point the black-robed young man was virtually going crazy, and was ready to pull out all the stops. He spun in place, performing an incantation gesture that caused his nine Soul Lamps to rotate rapidly and then shoot toward Naruto.

He was attacking with Soul Lamps that contained his own life force. From this, it was possible to see how mad and desperate he was.

When the eight lit and one extinguished Soul Lamps neared Naruto, Naruto's statue raised its greatsword, and the explosive aura of a Quasi-Dao Paragon exploded out.

"Leave him alive," Naruto suddenly said.

Instantly, the terracotta soldier switched the great sword from its right hand to its left. Then, it's right hand shot out to grab the black-robed young man.

Instantly, everything in the area stopped moving, just like before. The black-robed young man was stuck in place, his body stiff and incapable of moving. His consciousness even began to fade.

A power surged out that was impossible to resist or fight against and seemed to envelop the entire sky. In front of the terracotta soldier, the black-robed young man with his one extinguished Soul Lamp was like nothing more than an insect.

When the terracotta soldier's huge hand reached the nine Soul Lamps, it almost seemed as if it was on a different plane of existence. It passed directly through them and, to the astonishment and despair of the black-robed young man, closed around him in the blink of an eye. As the hand tightened, cracking sounds could be heard as many of the young man's bones were crushed.

After grabbing and retrieving him, the world returned to normal. The air once again moved, and the sounds of the black-robed young man's screaming echoed out in all directions.

Blood sprayed from his mouth, and intense pain wracked his body. He was completely trapped inside the terracotta soldier's hand, his cultivation base dissipated and as weak as a mortal. He trembled, and hopelessness filled his eyes, along with the fear of dying.

"Kajura!" he screamed. "I won't let you off for this even if I become a ghost!" At the moment, he hated Naruto, but he hated Kajura even more.

"And you, Naruto," he raged, "if it weren't for our clan's Dao Guardsman, I'd kill you… it would be as easy as crushing a chicken to death!" Blood oozed from his mouth, and his eyes shone with hatred for Naruto.

"At the moment," said Naruto, his face calm. "I could crush you to death much easier than crushing a chicken."

Eyes flickering, he performed a strange incantation gesture with his right hand. Suddenly, numerous magical symbols appeared on his hand.

The magical symbols flickered, some of them white and some of them black. It almost looked like his hand had turned black and white.

A bizarre aura appeared around him, seemingly forming a stream of Chakra that converged on his hand and then merged with the magical symbols. Soon, everything in the area looked black and white.

Naruto's hand trembled, although no onlooker would be able to tell, not even the Seventh Patriarch up in midair. All he could sense was that the black and white magical symbols on Naruto's right hand contained the aura of some sort of Essence.

This was… the Sixth Demon Sealing Hex!

Naruto had acquired it from the sword in the Ruins of Immortality, which contained the aura of the Sixth Hex. He had continuously contemplated enlightenment of the Hex, and was now attempting to use it. However, the magic was too difficult, and although he could complete its casting, he had never successfully used it.

Much of this had to do with his lack of appropriate targets to practice on, and right now, he had just such a living target in front of him.

His eyes shone with a strange light as his right hand suddenly stabilized, and he pointed at the black-robed young man. Instantly, the black and white magical symbols merged together and shot toward him.

The man's eyes went wide, but he was incapable of resisting. The magical symbols flickered as they slammed into his forehead, and then began to bore into his body.

Naruto watched closely for the space of a few breaths. The black-robed young man's face distorted, and veins popped out on his forehead. He then let out miserable scream.

The sound of that scream even caused the Seventh Patriarch to wince.

Indescribable pain wracked the young man; it felt like his soul was being consumed and his body was being ripped away. Soon, his screams turned into something that sounded like the shrieks of an animal.

It lasted for the space of about five breaths before the young man's body suddenly exploded into a haze of blood and gore. He was dead, in body and in spirit.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch gasped. As his solemn gaze came to rest back on Naruto, his eyes gradually began to fill with admiration.

"Quite ruthless," he thought. In his opinion, Naruto's temper was actually very similar to his own.

Naruto frowned and then sighed.

"Another failure. Maybe I'm not using it correctly." He thought back to the way the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer had used the Life-Death Hex, and how all the people he had hexed suddenly had their control of their own life or death taken away from them. Those people… had essentially become like puppets in the hand of the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer.

In the same moment that the young man died, Kajura was sitting in his place back in the Namikaze Clan's ancestral mansion. His face was pale as he saw… another of the life slips shatter.

"Impossible! This is impossible! The ancestral land is just too perilous!" Kajura was trembling, and his eyes were bloodshot.

In the moment that the young man died, a sharp cracking sound rang out in the Namikaze Clan's Lifeslip Hall in the ancestral mansion. The sound immediately attracted the attention of all the Elders in the ancestral mansion.

As beams of light began to shoot through the air, Kajura took a deep breath and forced himself into a state of calm. Then, he also flew into the air.

It didn't take long for multiple Elders to arrive at the Lifeslip Hall. Grand Elder Kageki was already there, hands clasped behind his back as he studied the shattered lifeslip. His expression gradually grew darker and darker.

People began to crowd into the hall, and agitated expressions appeared on their faces when they saw the shattered lifeslip.

The crowd began to converse in low tones.

"Another one… that's two lifeslips that have shattered in the past few days. I can't believe two Elders have perished!"

"Something strange is going on…."

"The strangest thing of all is that it was impossible to determine where exactly the first one died!"

Finally, the Grand Elder turned around and looked out at the crowd. His gaze lingered on Kajura for a moment.

Kajura's heart thumped, but his expression was calm.

"Two Elders have died in succession," the Grand Elder announced in a dignified voice. "And yet it has been impossible to use the power of their lifeslips to determine where exactly they died…. Where did they go?"

An Elder stepped out of the crowd, clasped hands and bowed. "According to my investigation, both of them went out alone on assignments from the clan."

"Assignments…? Do you really believe that?" Looking irritated, the Grand Elder flicked his sleeve and started to walk out. "Continue the investigation. Find out exactly how many Elders have gone out on supposed assignments. Furthermore, find out who gave them these assignments. I want all the details! Every single scrap of information!" The Grand Elder's voice continued to echo out in the hall even after he was gone.

Kajura felt incredible pressure as he departed along with the rest of the crowd. Suddenly, the Grand Elder's icy voice sounded out in his ear, transmitted via divine will.

"In our clan, nothing is more important than the clan rules. Therefore, I will be sure to shield Menma from any trouble. However… if a third Elder dies, you had better start thinking of a way to explain all of this to me."

Kajura trembled silently.

Back in the ancestral land, the black-robed young man died, and the seven other cultivators with the single extinguished Soul Lamps… all stopped in their tracks.

It was impossible for them to do anything else. All of them had a bloodline jade slip, and had clearly seen the other two suddenly die as soon as they got close to Naruto.

The first one could be chalked up to an accident, but two…. If any of these seven still believed that to be an accident, then they didn't deserve to be called Ancient Realm experts.

The faces of all seven men flickered with shock. They couldn't imagine what had happened, why two of their group who were supposed to kill a member of the Junior generation, were instead themselves killed.

Their hearts were shaken, and fear of Naruto gradually began to build inside of them. All of a sudden, the dot of light that represented Naruto seemed strange and mysterious.

Suddenly, the situation on Naruto's jade slip changed, and his mouth twisted into a cold smile. The seven dots of light were no longer closing in on him; in contrast, they were now speeding away from him in different directions.

"I bet you people are also stuck in here for two months. There will be plenty of time for us to have a little game of cat and mouse." Naruto patted the terracotta soldier again, which turned and flew off into the distance with him.

Naruto's eyes gleamed as he looked at the lands speeding by below, and gradually, a bashful expression appeared on his face. "Since I'm here, I need to get my hands on some of this ancestral land's good fortune, no matter what."

Up in the air, the Seventh Patriarch saw the gleam in Naruto's eyes, and then nodded to himself.

"Based on the gleam in his eyes, it seems he's going to go searching for some of the good fortune in the ancestral land. Good, this is what a descendant of the Namikaze Clan ought to do." Stroking his beard, he smiled. "The kid looks a bit dainty; although he slaughters enemies ruthlessly, he's also pure and charming. I wonder what kind of good fortune he's destined to get here."

This was the first time the old man had ever seen a gleam like that in Naruto's eyes, and also the first time he had seen him act bashfully….

"Whenever I visit a place, I scrape it clean," Naruto thought, justifying his actions to himself as best he could. "With this terracotta soldier to accompany me, if I let this place off any easier than usual, I would definitely regret it in the future!" With that, the gleam in his eye grew brighter.

Under Naruto's control, the terracotta soldier flew off into the distance.

The ancestral land was laid out in a long strip, and Naruto's current location was at the very beginning. After some time passed, and he had a chance to survey the lands up ahead, he sent some divine will into the terracotta soldier.

The terracotta soldier stopped, and Naruto rose to his feet and stared down at the ground. There below was a field of huge boulders. The surface of each boulder was carved with various images that contained natural law.

Naruto leapt off of the terracotta soldier and floated down into the field of boulders. As he looked around, his eyes began to shine brightly.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch nodded to himself.

"Excellent. This area is nothing extremely special, but is actually very well suited to him. To gain enlightenment of some magical techniques would still count as good fortune." The Seventh Patriarch began to smile, but then quickly gaped in astonishment and then in confusion.

Down below, Naruto had backed up a bit, then sent his divine will out. Next, the terracotta soldier descended and used both of its hands to reach down and pluck a boulder out of the ground.

Naruto's eyes shone brightly as he quickly stored the boulder in his bag of holding, then sent the terracotta soldier to another boulder. It didn't take long before the dozens of boulders in the area were all pulled from the ground and placed into Naruto's bag of holding.

Afterwards, Naruto flew back up and sat down on the terracotta soldier's head, then proceeded onward excitedly.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch still hadn't recovered from his shock. He stared at the dozens of holes in the ground left behind by Naruto, then gazed blankly at Naruto making his way off into the distance.

"What… what is he doing?" he murmured. "Didn't he come here to contemplate enlightenment? To gain good fortune?" Naruto's actions left him thoroughly shocked.

Time passed. Naruto caught sight of a rather small lake that looked like a mirror. As the sun glinted off of its surface, magical symbols rose up from the water.

Naruto waved his hand, and the terracotta soldier chopped down with its greatsword. After a few slashes, it managed to slice all of the ground surrounding the lake. Afterward, Naruto struggled mightily to wrench the entire lake out of the ground and then put it in his bag of holding.

He actually had many bags of holding, some larger than others. After laboriously forcing the lake into one of them, he produced yet another bag of holding. Looking around shiftily, he sat back down on the terracotta soldier and proceeded onward.

The Seventh Patriarch was panting, and his eyes were wide as he watched what was happening. He even began to tremble.

As Naruto continued on, he saw a small mountain, which he took!

He saw a little pagoda, which he took!

He saw a bamboo forest, which he took!

He saw a log cabin, which he took!

He saw a carved sculpture, which he took!

Everything that he saw, every location that seemed to house good fortune, was taken away by the giant hands of the terracotta soldier, and then put into a bag of holding.

Naruto had a vast collection of bags of holding. When he ran out of big ones, he used small ones. If something was too big, he would dismantle the object into smaller pieces and cram it in.

As he sped along, he looked a bit ill at ease, even embarrassed. Up above, the Seventh Patriarch was trembling, and his beard was in disarray. His eyes shone with disbelief, as if he simply couldn't imagine how such a charming, innocent child… would actually do something like this!

Were it not for the fact that he actually feared the terracotta soldier, the Seventh Patriarch might have instantly slaughtered the treasonous and disgraceful Naruto!

"Wha… what is he doing!? He's not contemplating any enlightenment! He's just taking all of the various items created and collected by the past Patriarchs… and putting them in his bags of holding!"

This was especially true considering that, at one point, Naruto reached a palace. The Patriarch's jaw dropped as he watched Naruto quickly began to dismantle the entire palace, including the floor tiles. He moved with a precision and accuracy that made it seem as if this was something he did on a daily basis.

This finally seemed to provoke a reaction from the ancestral land. Even as he went about dismantling the palace, stripping away even the columns, leaving it completely stark and bare… roaring could be heard from off in the distance as a pack of giant apes flew toward him.

There were more than a hundred of them, and each one had a cultivation base that was similar to the peak of the Immortal realm. Their bodies were covered with thick coats of luxuriant fur, and their eyes glowed bright red. Apparently, they were the palace guards, and their eyes were fixed hatefully on Naruto as they charged forward.

When Naruto saw the apes, he didn't have the terracotta soldier attack. Instead, he slapped his bag of holding, causing the parrot to fly out.

It had apparently been stuffed into the bag of holding for too long, because as soon as it emerged, it flew several circles in the air at top speed. The meat jelly was attached to its foot in the shape of a bell, and immediately began to let out nonstop jingling sounds.

"Lord Fifth is out again!

"When Lord Fifth appears, who dares to cause strife!

"Attention, all furred and feathered concubines, Lord Fifth is here to dote upon you!" Almost as soon as the parrot appeared, its eyes suddenly went wide, and it almost forgot to flap its wings. It even began to drool as it stared fixedly at the luxuriantly furred apes.

"So many concubines…." it said, eyes shining excitedly. Suddenly feeling quite hot and bothered, it squawked and then shot toward the charging apes at top speed.

Naruto cleared his throat, then flew back up to sit on the terracotta soldier, which sped off into the distance.

The Seventh Patriarch's eyes went wide as it watched the parrot and the troupe of apes, and he suddenly felt completely nauseous.

It didn't take long before miserable shrieks rang out, seemingly filled with indescribable tragedy.

By that time, Naruto had reached a location where the land was black. He saw a huge coffin, atop which was a stone statue of a majestic old man!

Beneath the statue were various offerings of tribute. There were chunks of rare Immortal jade, as well as other objects seldom seen in the outside world. There were high-grade spirit stones, as well as three magical items that emanated shocking auras, and even two dark green bamboo lamps.

As soon as Naruto saw the coffin and the statue, his expression turned serious. He dropped to the ground, then clasped hands and bowed deeply to the statue.

"Namikaze Clan member Naruto pays respects to you, Ancestor!"

When the Seventh Patriarch saw Naruto acting in this way, his expression softened a bit. However, what Naruto said next cause him to almost go blind.

"Ancestor," he said, his tone grave, "I'm not sure which generation Patriarch you are, sir, but… I can't believe the other Namikaze Clan members behaved so shockingly. How incredible that none of the previous clan members ever exchanged any of these offerings for new ones!

"Look, sir. These offerings are all dusty! They've clearly been sitting here for far, far too long. Patriarch, don't you worry. I'll help you to switch them out. As a member of the Junior generation, this is something I simply must do."

Over many generations, clan members who came to this place would prostrate themselves in front of this coffin and statue with the utmost respect. None of them had ever even thought of having designs on the offerings.

Naruto was the first.

His expression was somber as, after bowing deeply, he swished his sleeve in a way that made it seem like he was truly and wholeheartedly performing a service for the Patriarch. He walked up to the offerings without the slightest hesitation.

He couldn't help but let out a long sigh when he looked at the fist-sized chunk of Immortal jade.

"Patriarch, those other clan members who came to visit in the past were truly disloyal descendants. I can't believe they let so much dust pile up on this Immortal jade! To leave it sitting here for so many years is really shocking!

"SHOCKING!" Naruto truly seemed angry as he stooped over and picked up the Immortal jade. In that same instant, a powerful aura suddenly shot out from the three magical items enshrined there.

Naruto didn't seem to be fazed in the least. He actually ignored the magical items completely. He was the type of person who dared to snatch items directly from that Immortal pavilion in the Ruins of Immortality, so how could he possibly be scared of these three magical items?

He quickly put the large Immortal jade away, and then produced a fingernail-sized piece of Immortal jade to replace it. He carefully placed it onto the tribute dais.

"Patriarch, look, this piece of Immortal jade is sparkling and crystal-clear. It's beautiful and lacks even the slightest speck of dust. Only a piece of Immortal jade like this is befitting of a Patriarch like you." Naruto cleared his throat, then looked toward the other offerings and spirit stones with shining eyes.

It was at this point that the auras of the three magical items exploded out, causing incredible pressure to weigh down on the area.

"Beat it!" roared Naruto, glaring at the magical items. "I'm from the Namikaze Clan, and I have Namikaze Clan blood in me! If I want to tidy up the Patriarch's grave by replacing some of the tribute items, then do you magical item spirits dare to stop me?!" The auras emanating from the magical items suddenly stopped in place.

In that instant, Naruto employed the fastest speed he could muster to quickly place the items and spirit stones into his bag of holding.

"How shocking! These spirit stones are all covered in dust! As a Junior member of the clan, I simply can't tolerate such a thing!" He immediately produced some fingernail-sized, low-grade spirit stones which he somberly placed onto the tribute dais.

"Outrageous! They only placed some bamboo lamps in front of this Namikaze Clan Patriarch's grave? That won't do. As a member of the Junior generation, it is my duty to exchange these for iron lamps!" He looked at the two bamboo lamps, which glowed with mysterious light, and licked his lips.

He was just about to grab them when the auras of the three magical items exploded out again, filled with intense killing intent, seemingly incensed. It was as if they felt Naruto had committed an offense against morality itself.

Apparently, if Naruto dared to touch the bamboo lamps, the three magical items would slay him where he stood.

Naruto stopped, then cleared his throat in embarrassment and slowly pulled his hand back.

"What are you getting so excited for?" he said quietly. "It's not that big a deal! I'm acting in good faith." He eyed the three magical items covetously, then thought for a moment. Eventually, he gave up on the idea of using Karma to force a destiny connection with them. After all, this wasn't that Immortal pavilion, in which the items had no connection to a particular master. These three magical items were clearly objects that had belonged to the fallen Patriarch, and the spirits inside of them were charged with protecting this place.

Naruto might be greedy, but he had principles.

"Fine then. You're clearly very loyal to the Patriarch. I have to admire that." Sighing deeply, Naruto took a few steps back. Face solemn, he clasped hands and bowed low.

Up above in midair, the Seventh Patriarch was now in a rage. Seeing Naruto switching out the offerings, and then hearing his words, left the Seventh Patriarch stamping with fury.

"How could the Namikaze Clan bloodline possibly produce such a shameless scoundrel!" he said through gritted teeth. Then he saw Naruto clasp hands and bow, and couldn't help but gape again. Sensing Naruto's sincerity, he looked on silently for a moment, and finally, his gaze softened. From the look of things, Naruto wasn't completely beyond redemption.

"Let's see what this little hoodlum is actually like deep down, and what sort of waves he can make in this place!" After a moment, he looked off into the distance with a wistful expression.

"The ancestral land is divided into six main areas," he murmured. "The Dao Guardsman, the Field of Magic Enlightenment, the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, the Nine Nethermountains, the Ancient Burial Ground, and the Misty Heaven Vault!

"Those six areas are essentially arranged in a straight line. The further one goes along, the more danger they will face. However, the good fortune… also increases!

"This particular tomb lies on the border between the Field of Magic Enlightenment and the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs.

"From ancient times until now, the Nine Nethermountains have been the farthest that most clan members can make it into the ancestral land. It would be easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn than to find someone who could reach the Ancient Burial Ground. As far as the necropolis in the Misty Heaven Vault, not even Eldest Brother, an almighty Dao Realm expert, was destined to enter it.

"The reason, of course, is that at the end of the Ancient Burial Ground, there is no path.

"The necropolis of the first generation Patriarch is located somewhere inside the Misty Heaven Vault, along with his most powerful magical technique… the One Thought Stellar Transformation!" Finally he closed his eyes.

He had never actually seen the first generation Patriarch. The only person who actually had was the old man in the stony cavern that the Seventh Patriarch referred to as Eldest Brother.

The other six people in that cavern had been born in different generations. However, after extinguishing ten Soul Lamps, matters of seniority weren't important, and because of the bloodlines that connected them all, they called each other Brother.

"The clan has experienced three catastrophes…." said the Seventh Patriarch, sighing. Because of those three catastrophes, the small group in the stony cavern were the only cultivators in the entire clan who had extinguished more than ten Soul Lamps.

In the moment that the Seventh Patriarch sighed, Naruto finished bowing to the stone statue, and then sped away on the terracotta soldier.

Meanwhile, something was happening that even the Seventh Patriarch didn't notice. As Naruto made his way through the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, taking anything he saw that appeared to be valuable, an aura was slowly building up in the ancestral land, an aura that had never appeared there before.

The aura had actually first appeared when the terracotta soldier had caused the mountains to crumble, and then flew up into the air. When the statue then picked up all of the boulders that contained enlightenment of Daoist magics and divine abilities, the aura had grown even stronger.

Gradually, a very thin mist was building up over the lands.

Time passed. Naruto sat atop the terracotta soldier as it proceeded forward. As he traveled, he continued to encounter enormous tombs. Strangely, these tombs had no tombstones or writing on them whatsoever.

Naruto could only speculate based on what the Grand Elder had told him that this was the location where the Dao Realm Patriarchs were buried.

However, he didn't know their names, so he found the nameless tombs to be somewhat odd. It was as if they had intentionally come here before perishing, and didn't want anyone to know who they were.

"Weird…." thought Naruto. However, this didn't stop him from carrying out his duty to tend to the tombs, and help the Patriarchs exchange their various offerings.

As Naruto swept the tombs of the Quasi-Dao Patriarchs clean, the Seventh Patriarch up above was finding it much harder to contain his wrath.

The only reason he could maintain his temper was that Naruto always respectfully bowed to the grave upon arriving and departing, and didn't touch the tombs themselves.

A few days later, Naruto descended from above once again. This time, the sight of the coffin and statue caused his eyes to widen. He stopped in place and looked at the statue and the tombstone in front of it.

Up to this point, he had encountered seven tombs. None of those seven tombs had any writing to explain who was buried there, but the tomb he was in front of now did have a name!

Shin!

The name was written in calligraphy that was as bold and flamboyant as dancing dragons and phoenixes, and emanated a boundless aura. Beneath the name was the Patriarch's life story.

Naruto read over the life story of the Patriarch named Shin, and it caused rumbling sounds to fill his mind.

The story described Shin's life from the moment he started practicing cultivation. When he stepped into the Immortal Realm, he was the foremost true Immortal of his generation. His path was always that of a Chosen, and was viewed as a blazing sun by the clan. When he entered the Ancient Realm, he summoned fifteen Soul Lamps.

He performed countless meritorious deeds for the sect, and even forged new paths in the Ruins of Immortality. He became the most outstanding member of his generation, and successfully accomplished the deadly task of extinguishing fourteen Soul Lamps, eventually becoming the Patriarch of his generation. In the end, despite having extinguished the final Soul Lamp, he failed to break into the Dao Realm, and became a Quasi-Dao Paragon.

However, he did not go mad like most others did, becoming evil and committing heinous acts. Instead, he maintained a tranquil heart, and lived out his final fifty years of life in peace.

During those fifty years, he still worked hard for the clan before finally closing his eyes and passing away into meditation.

That was why this tomb was inscribed with his name and story. It also contained a vivid introduction of the Quasi-Dao Realm, as well a clear description of how terrifying it was.

By the time Naruto finished reading the story, he was panting. Now, he understood the meaning of the term 'Quasi-Dao Paragon'.

He thought back to the ancient Demon Immortal Sect, and how Mui had passed away in meditation. He also thought about Mui's description of what it meant to be at the peak of the Ancient Realm.

"So, it turns out that between the peak of the Ancient Realm and the true Dao Realm, there is another realm called the Quasi-Dao Realm. In that Realm, one's longevity collapses, leading to certain death. As such, people go mad, and are called Paragons by others as a form of respect. It's almost as if people think using such a title will prevent those people from going fully mad." He looked at the stone tablet for a moment, and then refrained from even touching any of the offerings. Instead he clasped hands and bowed deeply.

After a moment, he left. It took a few more days to finish passing through the tombs of the Quasi-Dao Patriarchs. There were eleven of them in total, only three of which bore inscriptions.

They all had different experiences, but similar endings. The inscriptions were almost like a book of comfort written for the clan, instructing them about that Realm between the Ancient Realm and the Dao Realm. The people in that realm, the Quasi-Dao Paragons, either went mad and performed horrific deeds, or were worshiped in veneration for generations to come.

"The Dao Realm…." After passing the last tomb, Naruto stood there and looked back thoughtfully. "The path of cultivation is one of grave danger. Life or death crises present themselves at every step. Very few people… can make it to the very end." Naruto sighed, then clasped hands and bowed to the tombs of all the Quasi-Dao Patriarchs.

Just as he straightened up to leave, he felt something vibrating in his bag of holding. It was the ancient Demon Sealing Jade, which had remained silent for such a long time. The intensity of the vibration even exceeded the time when he had encountered the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer!

At the same time, Naruto suddenly felt an intense sensation that he was being summoned, coming from deep within the ancestral land.

"How could the League of Demon Sealers be buried in the Mountains and Seas? They tread the path of Dao Tribulation of the Nine Mountains and Seas. If they succeed… then the Mountain and Sea Realm… will return to the League of Demon Sealers!"

After hearing this, Naruto instantly began to tremble.

"So, there are clues about the League of Demon Sealers here!" Naruto's mind spun; he almost couldn't believe that the League of Demon Sealers was somehow connected to the Namikaze Clan ancestral land.

"Return…. That voice just now said the word 'return'!" Naruto began to breathe heavily as the ancient voice of the Demon Sealing Jade faded away. However, the summons that came from deeper within the ancestral land only continued to grow stronger.

That summons was the type he felt when encountering another cultivator from the League, and it was something that only other members of the League of Demon Sealers would be able to feel in this place.

Suddenly, a new voice could be heard echoing in Naruto's ears. This voice was not ancient, but rather, sounded like that of a young man.

"The Nine Demon Sealing Hexes. The Mountain and Sea Realm. The Nine Hexes united as One. A concept unknown in all the skies….."

Naruto's heart began to pound uncontrollably, and the aura around him suddenly changed. It was as if countless streams of Demonic Chakra were shooting toward him, accompanied by the roars of innumerable Greater Demons.

After a while, the voice faded away, but Naruto could feel the summons growing stronger.

Panting, he eventually turned and looked further into the depths of the ancestral land. Far off in the distance, he could just barely make out nine enormous mountains.

The summons was coming… from somewhere beyond those nine mountains!

Naruto's eyes flickered as he thought about the similar summons he had felt in the Ruins of Immortality, and he felt somewhat unsettled. There was far too much about the League of Demon Sealers that he didn't understand. As the Ninth Generation Demon Sealer, he wanted to know… what was the actual origin and purpose of the League of Demon Sealers!

He thought back to what the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer had told him, and about the terrifying events in the Ruins of Immortality that had led to him being named 13th in the Echelon by the white-robed woman. There was something very strange about how that woman had looked at him.

Naruto would never be able to forget that.

He had the feeling that the League of Demon Sealers… was wrapped up in some Heaven-shaking, world-shattering secret, something that defied description, a secret that was connected to all of the Nine Mountains and Seas.

After standing there silently for a bit, Naruto managed to settle his thoughts. His eyes shone with determination and he gazed deeply in the direction of the summons. Finally, he turned and once again bowed deeply to all of the ancestral tombs behind him.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch could not hear the call or feel the summons, nor could he sense the Demonic Chakra that swirled around Naruto. However, he could tell that something strange had just happened, and despite being unable to see what it was, it left him feeling shocked.

"The aura just now on this member of the Junior generation…." A profound gleam appeared in his eyes. As time progressed, the Seventh Patriarch continued to be filled with the sensation that Naruto was a person of deep secrets, secrets that he himself could not see through.

As Naruto made his way off into the distance, the Seventh Patriarch looked back at the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, and let out a soft sigh.

"All he did was switch out some offerings. He didn't disturb the tombs themselves, and even bowed in formal greeting. And he didn't touch any of the items from the tombs with inscriptions…. He might be a bit greedy, but he has a good heart, and knows how to keep himself in line….

"One day, when the time comes for me to extinguish my final Soul Lamp, if I fail…. I wonder if I will be able to preserve my Dao heart. After I perish and am laid to rest here in the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, I wonder if they will erect a tombstone for me…." The Seventh Patriarch was well aware that the entire purpose of the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs was to ensure that members of the Junior generation would clearly understand the madness of the Quasi-Dao Realm. It was to serve as a warning to any of them who had the chance to attempt to step into the Dao Realm!

After leaving the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, Naruto sat atop the terracotta soldier, which whistled through the air at top speed. Occasionally, motes of light would pulse out from the terracotta soldier and then melt into the surrounding air. Moments later, they would reappear and return to it, almost as if it were breathing.

It was something Naruto had just noticed as he controlled the terracotta soldier's movements.

As he proceeded along, the feeling of the summons would occasionally get more intense, and at other times would fade. Naruto's eyes flickered, although his facial expression remained unchanged. Inwardly, he remained as vigilant as ever.

Due to everything that had happened with the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer, he currently felt proverbial alarm bells going off in his head.

As he continued forward, Naruto scoured the lands below for possible good fortune, and also spent some time observing the terracotta soldier. He soon realized that it had some sort of strange connection with the ancestral land.

It was as if a resonance existed between them.

This realization caused certain speculations to form in his heart. After a while, he sighed, and looked at the terracotta soldier, thinking about how he didn't wish to part ways with it in the future.

Days later, Naruto's mood gradually stabilized. The summons continued to tug at him, but he had grown used to it and ignored it. Instead of following the pull, he did his best to scrape the area clean of any good fortune.

The more things he acquired, the wider his smile grew.

Eventually, the land in front of Naruto turned crimson in color, and he saw nine mountains.

The Nine Nethermountains!

This was the fourth region in the Namikaze Clan's ancestral land, and could be considered the depths of the lands. From ancient times until now, most people could not get past the Nine Nethermountains and into the Ancient Burial Ground.

Nine mountains towered up into the sky, and when you looked at them, it seemed almost impossible to see their tops, as if they connected the ground and the sky.

Roaring sounds could be heard drifting out occasionally from the nine mountains. They were sounds miserable and savage, shocking to the extreme.

There were many dangerous areas here, and many aspects that could easily kill you. Such fatal aspects came in the form of various beasts, as well as from the nine mountains themselves.

A thick aura of death filled the area, and from a distance, Naruto could see layers of gray mist swirling around the mountains. Because of the gray mists, the entire area was blurry and difficult to see clearly.

About the time that he neared the Nine Nethermountains, the parrot and the meat jelly caught up with him. Many of the parrot's feathers were missing, and it looked disheveled and out of sorts. However, its expression was one of extreme satisfaction.

As it flew over, it didn't even wait for Naruto to call out to it before it looked over at the nine mountains, heard the roaring coming from within them, and suddenly shivered. Looking extremely excited, it let out a few piercing squawks and then sped toward the mountains, brimming with energy. The meat jelly bell jingled the whole time.

"You can't do this! It's wrong! It's immoral! It's shameless! I'm going to convert you…." The echo of the meat jelly's garrulous chatter rang out from off in the distance.

Naruto glanced at the parrot for a moment and then ignored it completely. This place might be full of dangers, but the parrot and the meat jelly were capable enough, and would be very difficult to kill.

In front of the Nine Nethermountains, a stone stele rose up roughly three thousand meters tall. It emanated an archaic aura that seemed to indicate that it had existed for many, many years.

There were three lines of text on the stele.

"Nine Nethermountains, filled with endless treasures. Each one of these mountains is filled with endless opportunities. Any who challenge the mountains will have the chance to get good fortune and divine abilities!

"They are a deadly trial by fire. For those under the Immortal Realm, half a mountain is your limit. For those under the Ancient Realm, you will be able to proceed through three mountains. If you can pass through all nine mountains, you can acquire the secret magic of the Nethermoon!

"Namikaze Clan descendants can use their bloodline to open the path through the mountains. Whether you live or die is up to fate!"

The words were not attributed to any person in particular, but they seemed to be filled with an intense pressure, indicating that any person who entered this place would be facing grave danger.

Naruto looked at the nine mountains, and an odd expression could be seen on his face. Gradually, his eyes began to shine, and he licked his lips. He glanced down at the terracotta soldier, which then began to shrink rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it was only about three meters tall.

"This ancestral land really is a Blessed Land for me!" To other clan members, it was a place of extreme danger. To him, though, these weren't nine dangerous mountains, they were nine treasure mountains.

He slapped his bag of holding, producing the bloodline jade slip. After scanning it with divine sense, he smiled.

The seven Ancient Realm Elders had all scattered in different directions. One of them was inside of the Nine Nethermountains. Obviously, he had tried to acquire some of the good fortune therein, but had ended up trapped and unable to extricate himself.

"Well, no need to get anxious. Just wait for me to track you down." Naruto's eyes began to shine brightly, and he cleared his throat. Immediately, the terracotta soldier began to walk forward into the mountains.

Naruto quickly flew up to sit on the statue's shoulder as it began to charge forward.

"Challenge one mountain at a time, and then clear all nine of them of treasure…." These thoughts immediately filled him with excitement.

As the terracotta soldier sped along, the Seventh Patriarch sighed and looked on helplessly. When he saw the light shining in Naruto's eyes, he began to murmur to himself.

"To him, these really are treasure mountains. The little scoundrel has the Dao Guardsman to protect him, leaving him free to do whatever he wants!

"Now that I think about it, if I had the Dao Guardsman to protect me when I came here for the first time, how could I possibly have left any of the treasures in these mountains to be passed on to anyone else?" There was nothing he could do, so the Seventh Patriarch calmed himself, looked at Naruto charging into the mountains with the terracotta soldier, and sighed.

Time passed. Naruto sat on the terracotta soldier's shoulder, which wielded its greatsword the entire way as they charged into the first mountain. When they encountered restrictive spells, they would simply break through them. When they encountered beasts, they would put them down. When they encountered obstacles, they would smash them to pieces.

Nothing could stand in their way and nothing could stop them!

Things weren't thrown into absolute chaos, but suffice to say, the first mountain was filled with miserable shrieks and roars.

"Whoah! That boulder actually has a carving of a magical technique! Pretty nice! I'm taking it!

"Who could be so immoral as to leave a bunch of Immortal jade laying around in this place! I'm taking it!

"So many spirit stones…. Hey, slow down, Onyx! Let me pick these things up, then we can keep going!"

Naruto's eyes continued to grow brighter, and he quivered with excitement. He had collected quite a bit of Immortal jade and spirit stones so far, as well as a good collection of magical items. A deafening roar could be heard as he neared the mountain's peak, heralding the approach of a two-headed giant.

The giant held an enormous cudgel in its hand, and was clearly the mountain's boss, tasked with guarding the mountain peak. When it leapt out, roaring, the terracotta soldier's aura surged.

The surging aura caused the previously overbearing two-headed giant to shiver, and immediately cease roaring. It stared blankly at Naruto, then at the terracotta soldier he was standing on, and cold sweat began to drip down its two foreheads.

After looking at them for the space of two breaths, the two-headed giant let out a plaintive shriek, then turned and fled back inside the mountain, vanishing without a trace.

Naruto looked around proudly as the terracotta soldier set foot on the peak of the mountain. From here, he could see an enormous cliff, upon which was carved a half moon.

Naruto's eyes widened as the same image of a half moon suddenly appeared in his mind.

He couldn't take the stone cliff away, nor could he duplicate or reproduce it physically. It seemed that the only thing he could do was to look at it. That said, a single glance would completely engrave the image inside of him. However, Naruto could also tell that the image would only last for nine days.

Nine days later, the image of the half moon would fade, and he would be unable to remember it.

"This is the Nethermoon…? So, I guess I need to gaze upon all nine mountains within nine days, huh?" Naruto smiled. To others, this would have been difficult, but to him, accomplishing such a task would be quite simple.

"This place really is a Blessed Land." He sighed, then patted the terracotta soldier, causing it to fly down the first mountain and head toward the second.

From the time the Nine Nethermountains had been created by the first generation Patriarch years ago until now, something like this had never happened. As Naruto proceeded forward, anything that was available for the taking was placed into a bag of holding.

All obstacles, all beasts, were like dried weeds that he could crush without any effort….

Even the mountaintop bosses would cower in hiding as soon as they saw the terracotta soldier. Naruto was allowed to easily pass through the second mountain, and then the third….

He acquired so many legacies and magical techniques that he lost track of how many there were. Nor did he have time to keep them organized. As long as he had an available bag of holding, he would throw his acquisitions inside.

"Blessed Land!

"Once I get out of here, I might be able to trade these things for even better stuff in the clan!" Naruto was only continuing to get more and more excited. For the first time in this place, he was beginning to experience the sensation of being rich.

The feeling fueled his excitement, and he quickly sped onward through the fourth and fifth mountains.

At the cliff on top of each mountain was an image of a half moon. Each time Naruto looked at the image, the imprint of the half moon inside of him grew clearer. Gradually, an increasingly powerful pressure began to emanate out from the imprinted image in his mind.

Time passed. By the time the third day had gone by, he was at the eighth mountain.

Meanwhile, a black-robed old man stood at a position near the top of the eighth mountain, stuck in a spell formation, looking with alarm at a certain jade slip. For the past three days, he had been observing the jade slip continuously, and could clearly see the dot of light that represented Naruto getting closer and closer to his own position within the Nine Nethermountains.

When he saw Naruto choose to start at the first mountain, he sighed with relief, and even laughed coldly. In his mind, Naruto most likely didn't dare to select the mountain that he himself was on. This caused him to consider chasing after Naruto after all.

However, his new idea was quickly shattered to pieces when he saw, to his astonishment, that Naruto actually… passed through the entire first mountain in only a few hours.

After that, it took him just three days to go from the first mountain all the way to the eighth mountain, upon which he stood. This scene caused his scalp to tingle so much it seemed about to explode. His mind buzzed, and he began to get jittery from fear. He wished he could simply leave the mountain and flee.

He had no idea how Naruto was doing what he was doing. But actually, that wasn't important. By this point, he was certain that if he ended up meeting Naruto, he would more than likely end up dead.

"What do I do? What do I do…?" The black-robed old man looked at the jade slip, and the dot of light that represented Naruto. It was now heading toward him with terrifying speed, causing the old man to begin to pant with alarm.

After several hours passed… he could see Naruto, barreling toward him from further down on the mountain. Then he saw… the terracotta soldier Naruto was sitting on. The old man let out a cry of alarm.

"That's the aura of a Quasi-Dao Paragon!

"This… this…." As soon as the old man saw the statue, he understood everything. Then he realized that the statue looked very familiar, and it only took a moment for him to realize what it was. At that point, his legs suddenly grew weak, and the shadow of death spread out across his entire body.

He began to pant as hundreds of thoughts ran through his mind. After a breath of time passed, Naruto and the terracotta soldier were closing in. The old man took a deep breath, then, expression somber, clasped hands and bowed deeply toward Naruto.

"I am Fanboy Namikaze!" he gushed. "Greetings, Prince Naruto!

"Prince, you must be quite shocked to run into me here. That contemptible and shameless Kajura made a lot of promises to me to convince me to come here and kill you, honorable prince. However, Kajura was unaware that I am actually upright and not given to flattery, and have always admired the exalted Minato! How could I possibly give aid to a villain like Kajura!?

"Therefore, I accepted Kajura's proposal. However, my true goal was to come here and protect you, Prince! Prince Naruto… um, you know, when you were small, I actually held you in my arms…."

Even as Fanboy spoke, the terracotta soldier came to a stop directly in front of him. It was nine meters tall, not gigantic, and yet it emanated a certain pressure, as well as a Quasi-Dao aura, that caused the old man to tremble. He swallowed hard, then forced a smile onto his face, trying to make himself look as harmless as possible.

Naruto sat on the terracotta soldier, looking down at Fanboy.

"You held me when I was a baby?" Naruto asked calmly.

"Yeah, that's right!" he replied, nodding his head vigorously. "Prince Naruto, I really did hold you in my arms. You were so cute when you were small! And now you've grown up to be so handsome…." This old man was not the type to speak flattering words, but in this situation, he didn't hesitate at all.

Naruto looked at the old man thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded.

"Fine. Since that's the case, drop your cultivation base to the Immortal Realm. I'm going to hex you with a restrictive spell. From now on, you'll be following my orders."

Fanboy was shocked to hear Naruto's words. However, the terracotta soldier's aura exploded out before he could refuse. It was like a mountain crushing down on Fanboy, and he was filled with a sense of deadly crisis that caused him to grow ashen, and sweat to pour down his face.

Inwardly, he was cursing Kajura to death. His hatred for Kajura had reached an indescribable level, and he was also filled with deep and profound regret.

Then he saw the cold gleam in Naruto's eyes, and his heart seized. After a moment of silence, he let out a long sigh, unhesitatingly lifted his right hand up, and then smacked it down onto his chest.

Blood sprayed out of his mouth as many of his Chakra passageways were shattered, and his cultivation base dropped from having one extinguished Soul Lamp, down to the peak of the Immortal Realm.

Naruto did not seem to be moved by this action. With the terracotta soldier present, there was no question that Fanboy would agree to Naruto's requirement. However, if Naruto didn't have the terracotta soldier to protect him, there was no doubt in his mind that the old man's face would be as cold as ice, and he would slaughter him where he stood.

Naruto did not show pity to enemies; sparing the man's life was more than enough kindness.

When he saw Fanboy's cultivation base drop, Naruto extended his right hand and unleashed the Sixth Demon Sealing Hex. Instantly, streams of black and white Chakra began to swirl around his hand. The two streams of Chakra illuminated his face with flickering black and white, making him look extremely bizarre.

Fanboy's scalp went numb; the black and white Chakra left him trembling with fear.

He hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Prince Naruto… what… what is that restrictive spell?"

"Oh, it's a hexing spell I learned a few days ago," Naruto replied, glancing at Fanboy. "I'm still getting used to it, but don't worry. This is the first time I'm really confident that I can succeed. In fact, if you lower your cultivation base a bit more, there's a much higher chance of success."

Fanboy's face fell.

"You learned it a few days ago? Still not used to it? This is the first time you've felt confident in using it?" More beads of sweat popped out on the old man's face. He was getting the increasing feeling that these two streams of black and white Chakra could suck his soul away. He even had the premonition that if the hexing failed, he would most likely die an agonizing death.

He watched as Naruto pointed at him, whereupon Fanboy threw his hands up in front of him and cried out.

"Wait, hold on…." He began to step backward, but then, the terracotta soldier raised its greatsword, which radiated killing intent. Fanboy immediately stopped in place.

His face was pale white as he clenched his jaw and then slapped his chest several times in quick succession. He coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. The severe self-inflicted injury caused his cultivation base to drop from the Immortal Realm down to something equivalent to the Dao Seeking stage. At that point, he stopped, looking up at Naruto with an ashen face and a bitter smile.

His sudden action caused Naruto to look at him closely for a moment, then point out with his right finger again. Immediately, the black and white streams of Chakra shot through the air and burrowed into Fanboy's body. He trembled, fell to the ground, and began to shriek miserably. At the same time, gray magical symbols began to appear on his skin, where they circulated back and forth. Apparently, these magical symbols grew up from inside his body and manifested on his skin.

Naruto stared closely at Fanboy. This time, he had used a slightly different method to utilize the Sixth Hex. If this method didn't work, then he would have to attempt some other way.

Time passed. Fanboy's shrieks eventually grew weaker. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he suddenly went very stiff, and all of the magical symbols faded away. The only thing left behind was a new magical symbol, on his forehead. That magical symbol then made a popping sound as it flew out from his forehead and merged into Naruto.

When that happened, Naruto could sense a warm current flowing within him. At the same time, the image of a tiny person appeared in his mind, a tiny person whose physical appearance was exactly the same as Fanboy.

"Did it work?" thought Naruto, looking a bit shocked. After so many times trying out the technique, this seemed like his first success.

Fanboy stared in shock for a moment, then crawled to his feet. The overwhelming pain he had experienced moments ago was now gone. He blinked a few times, then moved his arms and legs a bit. He didn't feel the least bit different than before.

"Prince, you… you succeeded?" he asked tentatively.

Naruto frowned as he studied the tiny figure within his mind. Heart thumping, he imagined smacking the tiny figure with his palm. As soon as he did, Fanboy let out a shriek. It was as if some enormous, invisible hand had just smacked him; blood sprayed from his mouth, and he was knocked to the ground. After struggling back to his feet, he looked around in confusion.

Naruto's eyes began to shine as he imagined the old man being struck by lightning.

Nothing visible happened, and yet, Fanboy screamed as if he were being struck by lightning.

Naruto's eyes shone even brighter as he imagined the old man being burned, drowned, trampled, crushed by a mountain….

Fanboy shrieked miserably as he felt his hair burning, his body being submerged in water, his muscles bruised, and, in the end, he lay pinned on the ground as if he were being crushed by some gigantic object. All of these things caused him to look at Naruto with terror. He knew of all sorts of hexing magics and restrictive spells, but he had never heard of anything as unbelievably terrifying as this.

He suddenly had the sensation… the Naruto was going to toy with him until he died.

"So, this is the Sixth Hex, huh…. The Life-Death Hex… is absolute control." He took a deep breath and then smiled.

His smile caused Fanboy to shudder. The sense of humiliation he felt at that moment was intense, and that caused his hatred of Kajura to seep down into his bones!

The Eighth Hex was the hexing of the body, and could even be called Bodily Cultivation Hexing!

The Seventh Hex was Karmic Hexing!

The Sixth Hex was Life-Death Hexing!

The three Demon Sealing Hexes that Naruto had learned spun in his mind. Each Hex had its own unique features, and each could be considered a powerful secret magic!

The League of Demon Sealers was terrifying, and as of this moment Naruto could say that he had experienced it personally. In fact, he got the feeling that it was very likely the Hebi Clan's Karmic Severing had actually been created by imitating the Seventh Hex.

"I wonder what type of hexing magic… the Fifth Hex is!?" Naruto's eyes glittered, and he took a deep breath. Ignoring Fanboy, he sent some divine will into the terracotta soldier, causing it to leap into the air and head toward the mountain peak. As for the spell formation that Fanboy was trapped in, the terracotta soldier shattered it casually.

When Fanboy saw that happen, he trembled inwardly, and suddenly realized that the decision he had just made was definitely the correct one. Without any hesitation, he began to follow Naruto.

After reaching the mountain peak, Naruto saw the half moon carved into the cliff face, and once again, the image imprinted in his mind grew clearer. Furthermore, the image of a half moon was now visible on his forehead.

"Nethermoon secret magic!" gasped Fanboy. Suddenly, he recalled how Naruto had charged through the seven other mountains, and then, his eyes began to fill with envy.

"Is the Nethermoon Magic powerful?" Naruto asked.

Fanboy immediately began to explain: "The first generation Patriarch left behind five great Daoist Magics and three secret magics. The Nethermoon Magic is one of those three great secret magics.

"The Nethermoon Magic becomes more destructive the higher your cultivation base gets. It can alter the sun and the moon, and can unleash power exponentially greater than your cultivation base. It's an excellent trump card in battle!

"Back in the clan, the only way to get the Nethermoon secret magic is to pay a huge amount of merit points. In fact… there are only a handful of people in the entire clan who have mastered it!" The look of envy in his eyes was becoming more and more obvious.

Naruto's eyes flickered, and he chuckled. He looked over at the ninth Nethermountain with anticipation. The terracotta soldier then began to speed toward the ninth mountain, with Fanboy flying close behind.

Fanboy panted the entire way. Finally, he understood how Naruto had been able to move so quickly from the first mountain all the way to the eighth. The clan's Dao Guardsman could sweep through anything and everything; it didn't matter what appeared up ahead, it was easily crushed.

Several hours later, Naruto reached the ninth Nethermountain. What he saw was a large group of luxuriantly furred beasts. They were in miserable condition, and their eyes were bright red as they chased the parrot.

The Parrot soared through the air, occasionally letting out a mighty squawk. It appeared to be incredibly excited, and every so often it would transform into a colorful beam of light that shot back into the group of beasts. When it emerged, it appeared to be incredibly satisfied, and would let out loud whoops of triumph.

The parrot's enthusiastic demeanor caused Naruto to feel a bit bad for the beasts of this ninth mountain. However, considering that the parrot had essentially cleared the mountain of beasts, Naruto was able to proceed through it very smoothly.

At the peak of the mountain was the final cliff, and the final image of the half moon, which caused Naruto's mind to tremble.

The half moon on his forehead glittered brightly and then faded away. However, even though it wasn't visible, the half moon seemed to be eternally imprinted into his memory. Flashes of enlightenment also appeared in his mind.

After some time passed, Naruto opened his eyes, and his aura seemed different than before. He lifted his left hand up, and the half moon appeared on his forehead. At the same time, a black half moon floated above his palm.

The sudden appearance of the moon caused an emotional look to appear on Fanboy's face. However, moments later, his eyes went wide when he suddenly saw… a sphere of light also appear above Naruto's hand.

The sphere was white, and looked like a sun. Its light reflected off of the black surface of the moon as the two of them circulated around each other above his palm. Black and white. The sun and the moon. At this moment, they let off a shocking pressure.

Even Fanboy could feel it, and was astonished.

"A unified magical technique," he thought. "I can't believe that he actually combined two magical techniques. Only people who have extinguished multiple Soul Lamps, who can grasp Essence transformations, and who have the image of a great Dao within them, could possibly combine magical techniques and create such powerful transformations. And yet he… he actually combined them! He isn't even in the Immortal Realm! How can he have the image of a great Dao in his heart?"

Fanboy almost couldn't believe it. To create a combination of magical techniques in this way was a very complicated matter, and even he didn't understand much about it. All he did know was that it had something to do with the image of a great Dao, as well as the legendary Essence.

Naruto looked at the sun and the moon floating above his hand, and muttered to himself thoughtfully. It was at this point that suddenly, a tiny mountain appeared next to the sun and the moon.

This was none other than the projection of the Ninth Mountain, which Naruto had seen during his dreamlike voyage on the boat that year.

The image of the Ninth Mountain might seem incredibly powerful, but actually, it was already too weak to be useful to Naruto in his current state. However, its appearance now seemed to be in accord with some sort of natural law. As the sun and the moon rotated around it, it surged with even greater energy than before.

The powerful energy caused Fanboy to gasp, and his face to flicker.

"Th-th-that's another sequential combination! What kind of monster is this kid!? Even with such a low cultivation base, he managed to perform two combinations of magical techniques! How many images of great Daos does he have…?" Fanboy took a deep breath. He knew that images of great Daos required mysterious enlightenment. Even he, who was in the Ancient Realm, had only ever had a single great Dao appear within him. And yet, he had just personally witnessed one great Dao image after another appear in Naruto's hand. It was unbelievable.

Even more shocking to him was the threatening feeling he got when he looked at the Ninth Mountain and the sun and moon!

Fanboy was panting, and he looked on with wide eyes. However, it was at this point that a thoughtful expression appeared on Naruto's face, causing Fanboy's heart to start pounding.

"Could it be… that he… he's going to… make a third consecutive magical technique combination!?" The mere idea of this virtually blew Fanboy's mind.

Even as the thought entered his mind, two pearls appeared outside of the Ninth Mountain and the sun and moon. The pearls were black and white, and they began to circulate noiselessly around the Ninth Mountain and the sun and moon.

The Ninth mountain was in the center, around which rotated the sun and moon, with the two pearls orbiting in an outer ring. They didn't interfere with each other, and in fact rotated in harmony, creating a resplendent image.

An even more incredibly powerful aura then exploded out.

It only lasted for the space of a single breath before the Black White pearls faded away, the Ninth Mountain collapsed, and the sun and moon went dark. Naruto frowned and muttered to himself for a moment.

He didn't notice the terrified expression on Fanboy's face, who stood off to the side, jaw hanging and mind spinning.

"Three combinations… he really did it three times…."

Moments ago, the aura he had felt had filled him with complete astonishment. He was an Ancient Realm expert, and yet was astonished by the magical technique of a cultivator who wasn't even in the Immortal Realm yet. Such a thing was completely unheard-of!

"He still isn't a true Immortal, but he will be soon…. Once he's a true Immortal, how many meridians will he open? I'd say 90 at the least!" As Fanboy looked at Naruto, he suddenly realized why Kajura had spared no cost in trying to have Naruto killed.

"He's not even human…."

Naruto was just about to make another attempt when suddenly, the summons from the League of Demon Sealers flared inside of him with incredible intensity.

He dropped his hand and looked out from his position on the peak of the ninth Nethermountain.

From where he was standing, he could see a vast region that stretched out below the mountain in front of him. The ground was pitch black, and the sky seemed to be split in two; everywhere else it was the middle of day, but this one region lay in the darkness of night.

The area where it was night was actually the center of the region of black earth. Sitting there cross-legged was a young man with a pale face and a head of long hair which floated around him. He wore a long robe, and was surrounded by innumerable corpses whose faces were twisted and distorted, as if they had experienced indescribable suffering before they had died.

There were men and women, and there were cultivators. Some of them had the bodies of beasts, and there were some with even stranger appearances, sinister and malevolent, things that didn't seem to be creatures from the Nine Mountains and Seas.

The corpses were dressed in ancient garments, clothing that reminded Naruto of the garb worn by the people in his visions back in the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple!

He had seen things just like this in his vision of the massive Heavenly war in which nine suns and nine butterflies had appeared!

A sense of extreme ancientness emanated out from the young man, and the area around him was filled with illusory rifts that almost looked like huge mouths that occasionally opened and closed. From the look of it, there were roughly 100,000 such rifts.

The young man was completely encircled by the rifts. As Naruto looked over at him, the young man looked back, and a gleam of anticipation could be seen in his eyes.

"Come…." he said, his voice soft. It seemed to be transmitted to Naruto through the air, floating from the depths of time, boring into his ears.

A tremor ran through him. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the entire area up ahead was empty. There was nothing there except the rifts in the air; not even the shadow of a person was visible.

It was as if everything Naruto had just seen had been an illusion!

The only noteworthy thing that he could see was an enormous stone stele, standing right in the middle of the region of night. Although it was very far away, Naruto could still sense the stele's majestic aura, and could also clearly see… that it seethed with Demonic Chakra!

The reason that this region was different was due to the influence of this dense Demonic Chakra , which ensured that it was a land of perpetual night.

Naruto stood there silently for a moment, then looked over to make sure that Fanboy had not been able to see the images he had just seen. He continued to stand there in contemplation for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn before a look of determination appeared in his eyes.

Without any further hesitation, he sent out a stream of divine will. The terracotta soldier's eyes gleamed as he carried Naruto forward. Rumbling filled the air as it transformed into a shooting star that sped forward at top speed.

Fanboy followed along as they proceeded forward.

Several hours later, the region of night was getting closer. Naruto could clearly see the area filled with the 100,000 rifts up ahead. He stood at the border of the entire region, and it felt like he was standing on the edge between night and day. With a single step forward, he would be in the dark of night.

The sound of wailing rose and fell within the darkness.

Almost at the same moment that he came to stand on the border between night and day, the feeling of the summons rose up again within him. It was as if a huge hand had plunged into his chest and grabbed ahold of his heart. Panting, he looked up at the illusory rifts ahead, and once again caught sight of the young man sitting there in the middle of everything.

It was impossible to see the young man's face clearly, but his voice echoed out within Naruto's mind.

"Come….

"Successor of the League of Demon Sealers…. Come….

"I am… the Fifth Generation Demon Sealer…."

Few people ever made it to the Ancient Burial Ground region of the clan's ancestral land. For most people, the Nine Nethermountains were the limit. Over the ancestral land's countless years of existence, even the few people that did make it to the Ancient Burial Ground had been unable to proceed any further.

It wasn't that nobody had ever passed this stage before. However, of the very few of those who had successfully challenged this region, none were able to pass the final region, the Misty Heaven Vault. Even for those in the Dao Realm, none could progress more than a few steps into it.

Naruto stood at the border of the Ancient Burial Ground, looking at the darkness of night up ahead. A strange gleam flickered in his eyes, and after a moment of contemplation, he sent out some divine will, causing the terracotta soldier to stride forward and enter the darkness of the Ancient Burial Ground.

In the moment that they entered, all of the illusory rifts suddenly opened wide, like huge mouths. Instantly, the entire area was surrounded.

Naruto could see different worlds inside the rifts, each of which appeared to be some sort of trial by fire.

There was also an incredible pressure that emanated out of them. Some of these rifts seemed to have auras similar to the terracotta soldier.

He could sense numerous terrifying auras that caused his eyes to flicker. This was the first time he had encountered an environment that would pose a danger to him even considering the presence of the terracotta soldier.

"This place is like a maze, huh…. Getting through all these trials by fire is a matter of luck, but will also depend on one's cultivation base." Naruto's eyes shone with determination, whereas the terracotta soldier's glittered with a cold light. It strode forward, selected a rift, and stepped in.

Meanwhile, the Seventh Patriarch floated in midair. His brow was furrowed, but a bright light flickered in his eyes. To him, there was something different about the Ancient Burial Ground.

"Something seems off…." he thought. After looking around, his gaze settled on something in the distance, and he suddenly began to tremble.

"Huh?" He sent out some divine sense, and after a moment, his expression changed to one of surprise.

He had just discovered that at some unknown point, a mist had begun to rise up within the ancestral land. It covered everything. This was something completely unprecedented, and left him astonished. After the Ancient Burial Ground was the Misty Heaven Vault, a place no one had ever been. Apparently that was the source of this mist, and apparently, the mists in the Misty Heaven Vault were growing thicker.

This change caused the Seventh Patriarch's eyes to narrow in thought.

Fanboy didn't dare to get any closer than he was. He stayed at the border of the Ancient Burial Ground, watching as Naruto unhesitatingly entered the rift. He paused for a moment as he considered leaving. Then he thought back to the pain he had endured, and he realized that he didn't dare to. He sat down cross-legged to wait in silence.

When Naruto entered the rift, he found himself in a majestic land, in the middle of which was a huge rift that was the exit.

As soon as he appeared in this world, numerous globes of ghost fire appeared and then shot toward him. As soon as they got close, they began to self-detonate.

Booms filled the air as the terracotta soldier swung its sword. A Quasi-Dao aura exploded out, and the self-detonating ghost fire globes couldn't even get close before they were frozen in midair.

Naruto's expression was the same as ever as he sat on the terracotta soldier. It proceeded forward, and before long, emerged from the rift back into another location within the Ancient Burial Ground, several thousand meters further in than it had originally been.

Once again, they were surrounded by numerous rifts. Just as Naruto had speculated, this place was a maze, with each of the rifts acting as a tunnel that led to another location.

"How exactly do you get to the end of a maze like this…?" Naruto thought with a frown. His eyes flickered for a moment before he closed them. His Demon Sealer's aura then emanated out, gradually forming a resonance with the stone stele in the central position of this region.

A moment later, Naruto's eyes opened. Without hesitation, he commanded the terracotta soldier to reverse direction and step into one of the numerous nearby rifts.

After entering the rift, he found himself in a world of lightning and thunder. There was no ground, only a sea, with huge waves, each dozens of meters high.

Gigantic shadows could be seen beneath the surface of the water, which would occasionally lash out, transforming into giant tentacles that attacked Naruto. An aura similar to the Ancient Realm emanated out from the bottom of the sea.

Naruto's face was calm as the terracotta soldier extended its right hand and then pushed downward toward the surface of the sea. Immediately, a blue light emanated out from its body, and ice spread out across the water. Cracking sounds could be heard as the entire sea was transformed into a chunk of ice!

The waves were frozen in place, and the tentacles were turned into statues. Even the Ancient Realm aura beneath the surface of the water was completely sealed.

The terracotta soldier proceeded onward, flying through the air until it reached the exit. They reappeared in the Ancient Burial Ground, a bit closer to the center region.

Naruto didn't hesitate at all. Relying on his strange Demon Sealer resonance, he entered a third rift.

A few days passed in which he went through rift after rift. Soon, he had passed through more than a hundred. Most of them contained an enemy or enemies who were comparable to the Ancient Realm.

There were three in which he encountered beings who were at the peak of the Ancient Realm.

However, the most dangerous situation he faced was an encounter with an illusory middle-aged man who, shockingly, was a Quasi-Dao Paragon.

That battle was world-shaking, and although the terracotta soldier won in the end, it did suffer damage.

The difficulty of the challenges he faced left Naruto shocked. Without the terracotta soldier, and relying only on his own power, he would never have been able to reach this point. Fundamentally speaking, this good fortune simply did not belong to Naruto!

Naruto might have thought that what he was doing was quite a challenge, but as for Fanboy, who was still waiting at the border of the Ancient Burial Ground, he was flabbergasted yet again. As an Elder of the clan, he was well-aware of how terrifying this place was.

There were 100,000 rift worlds, none of which were fixed in place. They could change at any time, and inside of each world, there could be enemies of the Spirit Realm, the Immortal Realm, the Ancient Realm and the Quasi-Dao Realm. There were even some terrifying beings of the actual Dao Realm!

Their appearance within the worlds was completely random, making passage through them extremely difficult.

This place had been constructed by the first generation Patriarch in his later years, and was a place of bizarre mysteries.

"He's gotten through more than a hundred, and each time it seems like he picks the right one and gets closer to the center!" It wasn't just Fanboy who had made this judgement. The Seventh Patriarch was also watching Naruto's progress through the rifts with silent astonishment.

"The little hoodlum somehow knows which path to follow? No, that's impossible! There is no path to follow. It's just that his luck is way too good! Not a single choice he made is a waste; every step he takes brings him closer to the center!"

As Fanboy and the Seventh Patriarch looked on in shock, Naruto entered another rift. He continued forward relentlessly until, the following day, he emerged from a rift and found himself in the exact center of the Ancient Burial Ground!

Directly in front of him was an enormous stone stele, rising tall up into the air, emanating a mysterious light!

To Naruto's eyes, though, this was not a stone stele, but rather, a young man wearing a long robe, sitting there cross-legged. As Naruto approached, he looked up.

Their eyes met, and Naruto's mind filled with roaring. At the same time, the ancient Demon Sealing Jade in his bag of holding began to vibrate.

When the young man spoke, his voice was soft.

"For you to be able to stand in front of me indicates that your cultivation base is probably at the peak of the Ancient Realm, only a hair away from the Dao Realm. You probably already have a profound understanding of the Essence.

"Years ago, when I left the Mountain and Sea Realm, someone told me that I should leave a stream of divine sense behind, to give some hope to future generations of the League of Demon Sealers….

"Therefore, I left my Daoist magic behind, sending it throughout the Mountain and Sea Realm for people to acquire…. Throughout the great Nine Mountains and Seas, my magic created numerous Ancient Burial Grounds. Each and every one of those Ancient Burial Grounds contains my magic, but only members of the League of Demon Sealers can receive my true legacy.

"What you are looking at now is just one of these locations. Throughout the Nine Mountains and Seas, there are a total of more than 90,000 such locations. Anyone can be enlightened regarding my magic, but the legacy can only be passed on four times. After that, the divine will that I left behind in the Ancient Burial Grounds will disperse amidst the Mountains and Seas, never to be seen again. Currently… this is the fourth time my legacy is being passed on.

"I am not a cultivator from the Mountain and Sea Realm, and only arrived here by accident. I became the Fifth Generation Demon Sealer due to a mishap; a chance occurrence, you might say, and was only able to stay in the Mountain and Sea Realm for a thousand years. My Hex is called, Inside and Outside.

"The countless rifts around you are like the surface of a mirror. The concept of being inside or outside of that mirror is a concept which also exists in your own heart.

"There are 100,000 rifts here, and this… is my Fifth Demon Sealing Hex… Inside-Outside Hexing!" With that, he lifted his right hand, and a tiny rift opened up in his palm, which began to rotate.

At the same time, the surrounding 100,000 rifts began to spin around, a bizarre scene that caused the Seventh Patriarch and Fanboy to stare with wide eyes and reeling minds.

"This is the Essence of Inside and Outside," the young man said coolly. "When I say Inside, Heaven and Earth can be consumed…." At this point, all of the rifts opened wide, causing the entire Ancient Burial Ground, as well the rest of the ancestral land, to twist and distort. Simultaneously, outside in the Namikaze Clan, twisting distortions could also be seen on Planet East Victory.

It was as if some invisible, terrifying force were about to swallow up the whole planet!

A terrifying hexing magic like this caused Naruto's mind to reel. How could he ever have imagined that the Fifth Hex… would actually be so powerful it could shake Heaven and Earth!?

Then the young man spoke again.

"When I say Outside, the Heavens are released…." All of the rifts suddenly shrank, sealing up. The Ancient Burial Ground, the ancestral land, the Namikaze Clan, and Planet East Victory all returned to normal in the blink of an eye.

All of these strange transformations happened so incredibly quickly that most people didn't even notice them.

However, deep beneath the Namikaze Clan ancestral mansion, in the stony cavern, the Namikaze Clan Patriarchs who had been asleep suddenly trembled and then began to open their eyes.

Furthermore, in the deepest recesses of the cavern, the Earth Patriarch of the Namikaze Clan slowly opened his eyes. The sky faded, and the lands trembled.

"Inside and Outside. Consuming and releasing. This is my Hex…. Sit in front of me and contemplate this hexing magic. In the League of Demon Sealers… when the Nine Hexes are combined, the Mountain and Sea Realm will be returned to the Demon Sealers!

"If you are destined to leave the Mountain and Sea Realm, and I, Tian Pingzi am still alive, then you can seek me out. I owe the League of Demon Sealers, and can act as your Dao Protector." With that, the young man closed his eyes.

A tremor ran through Naruto, and he began to pant. He knew that this area was somewhere he should never even have been able to step into. Furthermore, his cultivation base should have been at the peak of the Ancient Realm before attempting to accept the legacy of the Fifth Hex.

And yet, because of the terracotta soldier, here he was!

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he didn't immediately take action. He still remembered the sense of crisis he had felt because of the Sixth Generation Demon Sealer, and thus, he proceeded with caution and even a bit of hesitation.

He did not sense any feeling of danger from the Fifth Generation Demon Sealer, and the ancient Demon Sealing Jade hadn't acted strangely. He muttered to himself for a bit, unwilling to give up so easily.

"It's too bad my second true self is still in the process of recovering after being destroyed. If he was here I could have him try it out first." After a moment, his eyes shone with determination.

Rewards come only with risk, and it is better to take a gamble than to simply give up.

He decided to hesitate no longer. He walked up to the young man and bowed. Then, maintaining full vigilance, he gradually sent his cultivation base to rotating. If anything unexpected happened, he would use all of his divine abilities to flee instantly. Furthermore, he used divine will to have the terracotta soldier stand guard next to him.

As he crossed his legs and began to meditate, the young man slowly extended his arm and pushed down on Naruto's forehead.

The two of them suddenly seemed to be connected through ages of time and distant space.

A legacy was being passed on!

They were separated by many generations, by many years, and by the distance between them. Despite that, they were both here in the Namikaze Clan ancestral land, performing the bequeathment of a legacy!

A massive rumbling like a Dao river or a Heavenly sea poured into Naruto's forehead. In the blink of an eye, he felt as if his mind would collapse, his head explode.

His heart trembled as though lightning were exploding relentlessly inside of him. His face instantly turned ashen, and blood oozed out of his mouth. An intense sense of deadly crisis appeared. There was no sensation that made him think the young man in front of him wished him dead. It was simply that Naruto's cultivation base was insufficient, not strong enough to support the legacy.

However, he gritted his teeth and, expression one of determination, continued to accept the legacy that he originally should not have been able to accept given his current level of power.

His body gradually came to occupy a space between illusory and corporeal. His aura weakened, as though the flame of his life force were dimming.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch stared in confusion. He was able to tell that something strange was going on with the Ancient Burial Ground because Naruto had entered it.

He looked closely at Naruto, and then, his pupils constricted as if he had just noticed something. He was visibly moved and took a deep breath.

"He's accepting a legacy!

"This Ancient Burial Ground has been here for countless years. Although not many people are capable of reaching this location, there have been a few. Those rifts are locations of trials by fire, not legacies. And yet… this kid is actually contemplating enlightenment of a legacy!" The Seventh Patriarch's mind filled with roaring.

"But whose legacy is it that he can sense?" A profound gleam appeared in his mind as he looked in the direction of the Misty Heaven Vault off in the distance.

Time passed slowly. Naruto's aura grew weaker, and the flame of his life force dimmed. Anyone who could see him personally would realize that he was accepting a legacy. However, on the bloodline jade slip, it simply looked like he was dying.

Of course, there were six other black-robed cultivators in the ancestral land in addition to Fanboy, and all of them were checking their jade slips. What they clearly saw was that the dot representing Naruto was growing weaker and darker. They also saw that Fanboy's dot of light was very close to Naruto.

This made it very easy for them to jump to the wrong conclusion.

They all thought that Naruto's light was growing weaker because of Fanboy.

Although the remaining six black-robed men were in general being very cautious, all of them had different personalities. Some were decisive, some were hesitant, some were anxious, and some were impulsive!

About five hundred kilometers from Naruto's current location was a middle-aged man in a long black robe, whose eyes were glittering brightly. "Naruto definitely has some sort of valuable treasure. That's how he was able to kill two Ancient Realm Elders in a row. Most likely, he can't utilize the power of that magical item for a long time, because his cultivation base isn't sufficient. And now… Fanboy is there…. Since he's not dead, that means we have a chance!

The man was skinny and had a long, hooked nose, making him look especially sinister.

"A precious treasure that can enable a cultivator nearly in the Immortal Realm to be able to slay an Ancient Realm cultivator…." The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then looked at the bloodline jade slip again. What he noticed was that two other dots were already moving in Naruto's direction, which caused his eyes to fill with determination.

"I'm the closest, so as long as I'm careful, there shouldn't be any problems!" Without hesitating any further, the man quickly shot off into the distance.

At the same time, two other black-robed cultivators were nearing from two other directions. They were thinking the same thing as the first black-robed man, and rapidly began to close in on Naruto.

As for the other three black-robed men, two of them wavered back and forth a bit before deciding to play it safe. The final black-robed man… was an old man who was standing at the entrance to the ancestral land, where the Dao Guardsman had once been.

He was examining the collapsed mountains; the endless amounts of ruins and rubble that filled the area caused his mind to tremble. Unable to even think of what to say, he just looked at the scene for a while before taking in a deep breath.

"The Dao Guardsman… is gone?" he thought. Great waves of shock filled him, and he began to shiver. A look of astonishment filled his eyes as he suddenly realized that the first Ancient Realm Elder who had been killed… died in this location.

He almost immediately realized why. When the answer occurred to him, he could hardly believe it. However, that answer explained everything, as unbelievable as it was.

"How could Naruto have possibly taken control of the Dao Guardsman!?" He took out the bloodline jade slip and looked at the fading dot that represented Naruto. Then he looked at the three other cultivators who were rapidly closing in on him. There was no way for him to get word to the others while he was in the ancestral land, so he could only watch as the three dots began to converge on Naruto, drawn like moths to the flame.

"If those people die, then it will confirm my speculation that Naruto has somehow managed to take control of the Dao Guardsman!" The old man panted, unwilling to accept that he was correct, and yet unable to come up with any other explanation.

Time passed by quickly. It was now three days later, and Naruto had already been in the ancestral land for about a month. Currently, he sat cross-legged in front of the stone stele, eyes closed, completely motionless.

His aura was extremely weak, and the flame of his life force was almost on the point of being extinguished. His mind crashed with lightning and thunder as the legacy of the Fifth Hex continuously poured into him. The images he saw made him feel like he was descending into some bottomless abyss.

It was as if his mind were being forcibly distended, which led to intense, tearing pain. He felt like he was stuck in a living hell.

Because he was accepting a legacy like this with such a low cultivation base, his Eternal stratum had long since gone to work, and was in a perpetual state of support, ensuring that his mind did not collapse or explode.

As for his true Immortal fleshly body, it was immense help in keeping his mind stable.

As the legacy of the Fifth Hex poured into him, it began to form a pattern like that of a hand that continuously flipped back and forth in his mind.

Sometimes it faced up, sometimes it faced down. That cycle seemed to contain Yin and Yang, as if the entire cosmos was hidden within it! It contained a great Dao of Heaven and Earth!

The 100,000 rifts that surrounded him in the Ancient Burial Ground also went into a cyclical pattern, as if they were breathing. Occasionally they would open, other times they would close. From a distance, it looked like 100,000 eyes, continuously opening and closing.

The cycle continued for three days, never ending.

Fanboy had long since begun to gape at the scene. He was once again completely shaken by Naruto, and couldn't help but view him as a terrifying figure, a cultivator essentially in the Immortal Realm, the likes of which he had never before seen.

In fact, he had never even heard of anything like this.

"If he reaches Immortal Ascension… he'll definitely shake all of Planet East Victory!" Fanboy's eyes shone with a strange light, and he suddenly realized that having his life or death controlled by Naruto, wasn't actually… a particularly unacceptable thing.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch looked down at Naruto, and his mind trembled even more than Fanboy's. His eyes shone with a brilliant light as he looked at Naruto, and he suddenly had the feeling that he was looking at the future of the Namikaze Clan.

"He already has a true Immortal fleshly body, and the Immortal Chakra within him has almost reached the pinnacle….

"He has absolutely no aura of an Immortality Illumination Vine on him. Or perhaps his Immortality Illumination Vine has already been fully absorbed by his Dharma Idol. In that case… this kid is going to reach Immortal Ascension in less than a hundred days!

"In the future, he will definitely become a pillar of the Namikaze Clan!"

Meanwhile, outside of the Ninth Mountain, in the boundless sea among the stars, the Ninth Sea, a shocking aura suddenly exploded out.

That aura caused vast mists to roil up from the surface of the sea, which formed into the shape of countless figures that seemed to dance about gracefully. Lightning crackled up above, and a Tribulation Cloud began to form.

At the same time, an enormous Door of Immortality gradually came into view above the Ninth Sea!

The Ninth Sea had countless islands, many of which were inhabited by cultivators. Currently, all of those cultivators' minds filled with shock, and they looked up into the air. No matter how far away they were, they could sense the Immortal Chakra that was roiling out.

"That's… a Door of True Immortality!

"Who is about to reach true Immortal Ascension!? Who is about to batter open the Door of Immortality!?"

As the cultivators on the various islands in the Ninth Sea were all shocked, a massive rift opened up in the surface of the sea below the Door of Immortality. From within that rift appeared another massive door, which rose up from inside the water.

Inside the door was a young woman, behind whom floated a female corpse. The woman didn't hesitate for a moment before flying up into the air toward the Door of Immortality.

At the same time, more than a thousand cultivators also flew out of the door in the sea. There were men and women, and all of them wore extremely somber expressions as they fanned out in every direction to form a huge spell formation. Next, a hundred enormous sea dragons shot out of the door, roaring as they circled about the area to act as Dharma Protectors for the young woman. Ten old men also appeared, each one of whom emanated astonishing auras. All of them were at the peak of the Ancient Realm, and each one had extinguished a minimum of thirteen or fourteen Soul Lamps!

These… were the cultivators of the Nine Seas God World! The Three Great Daoist Societies had deep reserves, as was plainly visible now!

The last person to appear was an old woman who wore a sea-blue robe. Her aura superseded the auras of all the other cultivators present, as if her presence could cause even the Heavens to acquiesce to her.

"Fū, your day of true Immortality has arrived," the old woman said coolly. "Open that Door of Immortality, accept the Immortal Chakra, and achieve true Immortal Ascension!"

Fū took a deep breath and then shot toward the Door of Immortality.

Lightning crashed and thunder boomed, and yet, it could do nothing to cause Fū to even pause. Her body suddenly exploded with an energy that could rival the Immortal Tribulation itself.

A great event was beginning, heralding the arrival of a new generation of Chosen. Among them was someone who had suppressed her cultivation in the previous era just for the sake of becoming a true Immortal in the current era. A cultivator of the Ninth Mountain and Sea, the second to follow in the footsteps of Pill Demon and achieve true Immortal Ascension… Fū!

As of this moment, people in sects and clans all over the Ninth Mountain and Sea used a variety of methods to observe as Fū achieved Immortal Ascension above the Ninth Sea!

Meanwhile….

In the underworld of the Fourth Mountain, next to the Bridge of Reincarnation, a cold woman stood there, looking over her shoulder profoundly at what seemed to be the direction of the Ninth Mountain. It was as if she hoped to get one clear look at the Ninth Mountain so she would never forget it. Her long, black hair danced in the wind. She looked as graceful as a butterfly as she stepped forward into Reincarnation.

In her previous life, her name had been Hinata.

The Door of Immortality appeared above the Ninth Sea, and Fū rose up into the sky. In the instant in which she slammed into the door, the various clans and sects throughout the Ninth Mountain and Sea could sense a sudden change in the Heavens.

The change was not drastic; it was merely a slight strengthening in the Immortal Chakra of the Ninth Mountain and Sea. However, the change was like slight ripples on a glassy surface of water, and was detectable by many.

It was most obvious in the areas around the Door of Immortality in the Ninth Sea. There, the Immortal Chakra surged as a great Dao descended. Rumbling filled the air, Tribulation Lightning crackled, and mists churned.

Fū was surrounded by Tribulation Lightning as she slammed into the Door of Immortality. Her eyes were filled with determination, and her heart was filled with one thought.

"Naruto, I absolutely must surpass you!"

Fū was the second person in this generation after Pill Demon to attack the Door of Immortality. At the same time, the other Chosen who were in secluded meditation were preparing to emerge and attempt to break through to the true Immortal Realm. They could sense the change in the Immortal Chakra, but they ignored it. Eyes shining with determination, they continued with their secluded meditation.

Kazan currently sat cross-legged in a secret chamber in the Sublime Flow Sword Grotto.

"The age of true Immortal Ascension has arrived," he murmured. "The Three Great Daoist Sects, the Four Great Clans, the Five Holy Lands, the Three Churches and Six Sects… have been building up power and resources for years, all for the Chosen who will become true Immortals.

"They all plan to use their collected resources and dammed-up cultivation to surge forth into the true Immortal Realm. It will be like the saying 'The bird is silent, but its first song amazes all men!'" Kazan's eyes suddenly opened.

"Opening 70 meridians is average. 80 meridians qualifies one to be Chosen. Opening 90 meridians… makes you the blazing sun of a generation!

"Kazama… I wonder if you will be able to enter this age of true Immortality!?" Kazan's eyes gleamed brightly. He had long since recovered from his injuries, as well as from the psychological blow he had suffered. However, he knew that deep within his heart, a shadow lurked, weighing down on him. It had become something like an inner Devil.

Naruto, in his guise as Kazama, had become Kazan's inner Devil!

It was with his true identity of Naruto that he had become Fū's inner Devil!

Similarly, all of the other Chosen he had encountered in the Ninth Mountain and Sea had inner Devils because of him!

On Planet East Victory, in the Namikaze Clan's ancestral mansion, Menma was trembling. His life force aura occasionally glittered brilliantly, and occasionally went dim. Sometimes his features twisted savagely, while at other times he wore a smile. Strange ripples undulated off of him as he absorbed Immortal Chakra from the nine withered old men who surrounded him.

"Naruto… true Immortality is upon me. If I fail, then there will no longer be a Menma under the Heavens. However, if I succeed… then the instant I become a true Immortal, I will cut you down and sever this inner Devil of mine!"

On Planet North Reed, in the restricted area in the Shimura Clan, there was a lotus pond. The pond waters were clear, and fish could be seen swimming to and fro. Birdsongs filled the air, along with the fragrance of flowers. It was like a miniature utopia. Mei sat there cross-legged atop a lotus. Her skin was clear and delicate, and slightly flushed. She wore a simple, plain robe, but it still managed to accentuate her exquisite and alluring body.

She was also about to break through to the true Immortal Realm!

At the same time, Shisui, Sora, Bisuke, Chiriku, and many others were in their respective sects and clans, all preparing to break through to the true Immortal Realm.

As all of these people made their breakthroughs, Naruto's image floated in their minds. Naruto… had become the inner Devil of an entire generation of Chosen.

Meanwhile, a young man sat cross-legged on an asteroid floating in the starry sky of the Ninth Mountain and Sea. He wore a black robe, and had long white hair. His features were handsome, and at the same time, ancient.

Immortal Chakra swirled around him, and shockingly, he held an Immortality Illumination vine in his hand.

"In the Uchiha Clan… Shisui is the blazing sun, and I have been forgotten. That doesn't matter. The only thing I need is this Immortality Illumination Vine." The young man lifted the Immortality Illumination Vine above his head and looked off into space.

"Naruto, I very much look forward to the day when you and I can meet again…." This young man was none other than Sasuke!

At around this time, Shikamaru, Fatty, Cheng Fan, and all of Naruto's other companions from Planet Lands of Ninshu who had scattered out to the various other sects, were all being informed by Senior members of their respective organizations about the matter of true Immortality. All of them were looking up into the Heavens.

"I wonder where Naruto is right now…." Fatty murmured, sounding a bit depressed.

In the Baldy Society, Sakura quietly sat there cross-legged. No Immortal Chakra swirled around her, but she wasn't anxious. She had a whole thousand years after true Immortal destiny appeared in which she could achieve her own true Immortal Ascension.

Although she couldn't keep up with the first wave, she was confident that she would be able to reach true Immortality in those thousand years.

"The age of True Immortality is here…." murmured Pill Demon, who stood on a nearby mountain boulder. He looked up into the stars.

At the same moment, another person spoke those same words.

It was an old man who stood there on Planet Lands of Ninshu, in a mountain in the Eastern Lands. He looked up into the Heavens and muttered the exact same sentence.

That man… was Sai.

Naruto was unaware of the stir that had been caused in the Ninth Mountain and Sea due to Fū's Door of Immortality. He continued to sit cross-legged in front of the stone stele in the Ancient Burial Ground, accepting the legacy of the Fifth Hex.

His aura was incredibly weak, and the flame of his life force seemed to be on the verge of being extinguished. The 100,000 rifts around him were trembling slightly, their cycles of opening and closing becoming more rapid. The Ancient Burial Ground was starting to look even more bizarre than usual.

Gradually, mist appeared on the ground; it grew thicker as it spread out through the ancestral land, into all of the regions and areas.

The mist also collected in the Ancient Burial Ground, and was especially thick in the area around Naruto. It covered the terracotta soldier, making it invisible even to divine sense.

Naruto's figure began to grow blurry.

Fanboy was extremely frightened. He worried that if Naruto died, then because of the strange hexing magic, he would also die.

As he continued to grow more and more frightened, a beam of prismatic light appeared off in the distance. It was another of the black-robed men, who shot in his general direction. Initially, his speed was not particularly fast, but at about thirty thousand meters away, the man seemed to catch sight of something that caused him to accelerate explosively.

Fanboy's eyes flickered as he turned to look at the man in the beam of light. He shot forward with incredible speed, coming to a stop about three hundred meters away. The man's face was grim as he looked over.

"Elder Fanboy, we're all in this together, if one of us hogs everything for himself, it will be difficult to explain to the others." The man's eyes glittered as he looked further into the Ancient Burial Ground. He saw Naruto sitting cross-legged in meditation, mostly covered by mists. He didn't notice the terracotta soldier, which was now completely enveloped by the mists.

His eyes sparkled with avarice, then he looked back at Fanboy and smiled insincerely.

"If you want to go in there, I won't stop you," Fanboy said loftily. "However, there's no need to play with words." He snorted coldly, acting as he would under normal circumstances.

The other black-robed man's eyes flickered as he turned from Fanboy to look at Naruto. Inwardly, he was a bit hesitant. However, Naruto's current state made it seem like he was on the verge of death; the man was unable to see that he was accepting a legacy.

"Well, never mind then. Since you're waiting patiently, Elder Fanboy, then I'll just wait with you." With that, he smiled and then sat down cross-legged.

Fanboy showed no reaction whatsoever to this. Inwardly, though, he breathed a sigh of relief. His life was now under Naruto's control, and even if he appeared to be on the verge of dying, Fanboy wasn't about to take any risks. In fact, he was even more nervous than Naruto would be; he feared that Naruto's death would result in his own soul dispersing.

After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Naruto trembled. Blood oozed out of his mouth, and only a tiny spark remained of his flame of life force. His body was now stiff, and he looked as pale as a corpse.

The rifts around him flickered rapidly as they opened and closed. They were like 100,000 eyes blinking, and left Fanboy and the other black-robed man feeling incredibly shocked.

One of them was nervous. The other one waited in anticipation.

Around this time, two more beams of light sped along, apparently having detected Naruto's abnormal state. They shot forward with explosive speed until they appeared at the border of the Ancient Burial Ground, where they turned into two black-robed men.

As soon as they appeared, Fanboy's eyes narrowed. One of the men didn't pause at all, but rather, instantly shot into the Ancient Burial Ground. Taking advantage of a moment when the rifts were closed, he shot forward about three hundred meters.

Fanboy's heart began to thump, and the black-robed man who had arrived earlier frowned. After a moment, he also waited until the rifts were closed and then stepped forward into the Ancient Burial Ground.

The third black-robed man also flickered forward, advancing toward Naruto.

"Naruto has a valuable treasure! Let's kill him and get the treasure. We can decide what to do with it afterward!"

"Excellent plan!" After coming to an agreement, the three men waited until the 100,000 rifts closed again, and then advanced at top speed.

Fanboy watched in silence, coldly eyeing the three men as they proceeded into the Ancient Burial Ground. Finally, he decided to join them, although he moved slowly, ensuring that he was bringing up the rear.

Four men walked in a line, heading ever closer to Naruto in the center of the Ancient Burial Ground.

Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, in which time the 100,000 rifts opened and closed. Eventually, the two fastest men reached a position about six hundred meters from Naruto.

Another tremor ran through Naruto at that point, but instead of just a trickle of blood oozing out, Naruto coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, and all color drained out of his face. At that point, the flame of his life force actually winked out.

In that moment, the rifts in the area all shuddered and closed, leaving a clear path all the way to Naruto.

With the exception of Fanboy, who was still extremely anxious and feared that he was about to die, the black-robed men's eyes all glowed with greed. They had been acting very cautiously before, but that seemed to be forgotten as they exploded with speed. Rumbling filled the air as they closed in on Naruto.

However, when the two black-robed men in the lead were only about thirty meters away, Naruto's eyes suddenly snapped open. They were bloodshot, and his gaze was as sharp as a blade, filled with naked savagery.

An indescribably terrifying aura suddenly exploded out from Naruto. In that instant, all of the closed rifts in the area suddenly opened simultaneously.

It was like 100,000 eyes had instantly opened and were looking at the four men!

Being glared at by 100,000 cold eyes is something that would cause many people to be so terrified their hair would stand on end. These black-robed men had profound cultivation bases, and might have been able to disregard the phenomena, were it not for the fact that Naruto had opened his eyes at exactly the same time.

There was also a brutality that seemed to surround Naruto. Add the fact that he had just recently killed two Ancient Realm experts, and it caused the faces of the nearest two black-robed men to flicker.

However, they were decisive people. Killing intent flashed in their eyes. Having come this far and having no path of retreat, they decided that they might as well attack!

"He's as weak as an arrow at the end of its flight! Killing him will be easy!"

"His precious treasure is probably difficult to activate! Considering his current state, he definitely can't use it! Kill him!"

Their eyes flickered coldly, and their killing intent raged. Their cultivation bases surged as their nine Soul Lamps, eight burning and one extinguished, caused the aura of the Ancient Realm to swirl about. The natural law in the area was affected, and ripples spread out.

They also pulled out magical items. One of them had a jade cauldron; the other, a piece of green bamboo. Inside the jade cauldron were several flying swords engraved with dragons, and the bamboo was surrounded by arcs of crackling lightning. Both objects were clearly extraordinary.

They waved their sleeves, causing the magical items to speed toward Naruto, as they sped close behind. Bolstered by the power of their Soul Lamps, their killing intent surged, and their greed was impossible to conceal.

In almost the same moment that they attacked, the terracotta soldier, which was still covered by the mist, suddenly stepped forward.

The ground quaked, and some of the mist dissipated from around the terracotta soldier, making it mostly visible.

A ring-shaped ripple surged out, with the terracotta soldier and Naruto at the center. When it passed over the jade cauldron, the swords inside shattered as if they were nothing more than dried up twigs. The cauldron itself cracked and then collapsed.

As for the green bamboo, it was the same; it shattered into countless pieces that became nothing more than flying ash. The lightning in the bamboo was also snuffed out, and vanished without a trace.

As the ripple spread out, the pressure it emanated caused the two black-robed men's hearts to tremble. Blood sprayed out of their mouths as they fell backward in retreat, almost falling into one of the rifts behind them.

When they finally came to a stop, they looked at the terracotta soldier, and their faces fell as they were almost struck speechless.

The greatsword it held in its hand, the suddenness with which it its aura had burst out, as well as the familiarity of its figure, immediately caused the men to feel roaring in their minds, as if an enormous, shapeless hand were ripping apart their psyches.

"That's the aura of a Quasi-Dao Paragon!"

"There's actually a statue here!"

"That statue looks so familiar…."

"That's… that's… the Dao Guardsman!" The two cultivators' eyes went wide with disbelief. They felt as if a mountain were crushing down onto them; their minds reeled as they realized their lives were about to meet an uncertain end.

"This is impossible!" They were thoroughly astonished, and now that they could sense the terracotta soldier's aura, they had no doubt in their mind as to how the other two Ancient Realm elders had suddenly died.

"He… he can actually control the Dao Guardsman!" They no longer had any desire whatsoever to engage in battle. Their scalps were numb, and they were scared out of their minds. They thought back to how they had bravely charged into this situation, and they suddenly realized that doing so was potentially the most foolish and stupid thing they had ever done in their lives. They backed up at top speed, cursing their weak cultivation bases, and cursing all of the rifts in the area that made it impossible to escape.

The other black-robed man was also looking on with wide eyes, panting in disbelief.

Fanboy was the only one whose facial expression was calm. Inwardly, he heaved a sigh of relief, and his eyes began to flicker. His cultivation base had long since recovered, and he was now trying to decide how he could perform some meritorious service in aid of Naruto.

In the exact moment that the two black-robed men up front began to retreat, Naruto's eyes flickered with killing intent. The terracotta soldier raised its greatsword and then slashed it down toward one of the two men. In the blink of an eye, everything went still and quiet. Scintillating, blinding sword light appeared, slashing toward the black-robed man's throat.

"Bring him to me, alive," Naruto murmured weakly.

The world returned to normal. The terracotta soldier's blade twisted, turning the strike from a slash into a slap. Blood sprayed from the black-robed cultivator's mouth as his body crumpled. The terracotta soldier reached out, grabbed him, and pinned him down on the ground in front of Naruto.

Naruto's face was pale white as he reached out and pushed his hand onto the black-robed man's forehead. He took a deep breath, and his eyes shone with the glow of blood as he utilized the Blood Demon Grand Magic.

The black-robed man's eyes went wide, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream. When the other people present heard the scream, their minds trembled because of the indescribable tragic wretchedness therein.

The black-robed man's body withered. His cultivation base rapidly faded away. Even his soul was absorbed by Naruto. Everything, even his life force, was used by Naruto to aid in his recovery.

It took only a moment for the screams to fade away. The only thing that remained behind was a terrifying desiccated corpse that lay motionless beneath Naruto's hand.

Naruto's face was no longer as pale as death. His skin had a bit of color, and his breathing was steady. His eyes shone brightly once again.

As he thought back to how he had accepted the legacy of the Fifth Hex, Naruto realized that he had narrowly escaped from death. He really should have died, and had only managed to survive by a fluke.

Considering the level of his cultivation base, he was really incapable of acquiring the Fifth Hex. The price he had paid was actually his life. The flame of his life force really had been extinguished, leaving him hovering on the brink of death. Thankfully, just as he was about to die… these black-robed men came, giving him a second lease on life.

He had only slightly recovered, but this caused the other two black-robed men to feel an even greater sense of deadly crisis.

"W-what technique was that!?"

"Damn you, Kajura! For sending us in here to kill this kid… you deserve to die a horrible death!"

The two men retreated, looking back in fear at Naruto.

However, they were surrounded by rifts that made it impossible for them to escape.

Up above, the Seventh Patriarch watched with a serious expression. He slowly retracted his hand, and looked over thoughtfully at Naruto.

"Is that the legacy technique he just acquired?"

Back on the ground, Naruto slowly rose to his feet. His face was mostly back to normal, and a profound look gleamed in his eyes. He seemed to be filled with a sea of power that caused anyone who looked at him to feel as if their souls would be absorbed.

"Grab me another one," he said calmly.

In response to his words, the terracotta soldier immediately strode forward toward the nearest black-robed man. The man howled and, having no other options, leapt into the nearest rift.

The third of the black-robed men was a bit further away from Naruto. He gritted his teeth and was about to jump into a nearby rift, when Fanboy suddenly blocked his way. The man roared in rage, and the two of them began to fight.

Booms echoed out in all directions. The terracotta soldier stepped into the rift in pursuit and emerged after the space of only a few breaths, holding the black-robed cultivator who had been trying to flee.

The man was trembling, and his face was pale. Even as he looked over at Naruto, Naruto raised his hand, causing an illusory rift to appear. That slight movement, though, caused the bit of his life force that had been painstakingly restored to be sucked towards the palm of his hand. This caused Naruto to immediately stop what he was doing. After a moment of analysis, Naruto realized why.

"Although I've accepted the legacy, I'm incapable of actually using the Fifth Hex. Considering the level of my cultivation base, if I try to force it, even if I use all of my cultivation base to cast it, I still can't form the Inside-Outside rifts of the Fifth Hex!

"Perhaps I'll be able to after I reach the Immortal Realm! This Fifth Hex is similar to the Paragon Bridge. I'll be able to use it as a trump card when I reach the Immortal Realm!" With that, he pushed his hand out toward the black-robed man, who was then surrounded by blood-colored light.

Miserable screams rang out as the man was transformed into a desiccated corpse. Naruto's face finally looked normal, and he was completely recovered. He then closed his eyes and rotated his cultivation base.

In response to this, the black-robed man who was fighting Fanboy looked terrified. What he was seeing was far beyond any other deadly crisis that he had ever experienced.

"This guy can't be a near-Immortal Realm cultivator," he thought. "How could someone of that level have such a terrifying divine ability!? Kajura, if I don't die in here, then after I get back to the clan, you and I are going to have a reckoning!"

Fanboy's expression was the same as ever, but inwardly he was trembling. The mysteries surrounding Naruto only seemed to grow deeper. After a moment of hesitation, he looked over at the man he was fighting with.

"Komitsu, if you want to get out of here alive, then listen to me and don't fight back!" These words caused Komitsu to gape in shock. Then he thought back to how Fanboy hadn't died despite being near Naruto for so long. Suddenly, the hope for life appeared in his heart. Gritting his teeth, he allowed Fanboy to strike him in the chest.

Blood sprayed out of his mouth as Fanboy struck him over and over, seriously injuring Komitsu and causing his cultivation base to drop. Soon, it was comparable to a Spirit Realm cultivator, whereupon Fanboy stopped his attacks. Giving a meaningful glance to Komitsu, he immediately turned and bowed respectfully to Naruto.

"Prince, it would be quite a waste to let this man die. Why not use your restrictive spell on him? Once we get back to the clan, he and I will both want a chance to get revenge on Kajura."

Naruto's eyes opened, and he looked coldly at Fanboy, then at Komitsu, who was acting very subserviently. Without another word, streams of black and white Chakra appeared in his hand. After rotating around each other for a moment, he sent them flying toward Komitsu's forehead. Komitsu screamed, then began to shudder. Sweat soaked him almost instantaneously as magical symbols appeared all over his body. Eventually, they converged on his forehead into the form of a single magical symbol that flew out of his forehead and then merged into Naruto. Komitsu then let out a weak sigh.

Naruto looked up at the rifts in the area, and now, they seemed familiar to him.

It almost seemed as if he could control their opening and closing.

"Let's go," he said. "We're going to find out what else is past this Ancient Burial Ground." With that, he stepped forward. Immediately, the rifts all closed, allowing him to walk directly off into the distance.

Naruto strode along like a monarch to these rifts that contained the Fifth Hex. He looked like he was simply taking a stroll through his own Immortal kingdom.

The scene playing out in front of Fanboy and Komitsu left them shaken mentally. They immediately followed behind, staring at the terracotta soldier next to Naruto. When it came to the statue, Fanboy was slightly less surprised, whereas Komitsu was completely astonished.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch looked closely at Naruto, his expression growing more serious by the moment. Based on everything Naruto had done along the way, and all his unprecedented accomplishments, as long as he didn't lose his life, he would surely shake the entire Ninth Mountain and Sea one day.

"In the future, he will be the main pillar of the Namikaze Clan!"

Meanwhile, Fū was still in the midst of her Immortal Tribulation, battering her Door of Immortality. In the Namikaze Clan Ancestral Mansion, Kajura was staring pale-faced into a crystal, observing what was happening in the Lifeslip Hall.

One after another, without even half an incense stick of time between them, the lifeslips belonging to two Ancient Realm Elders emitted cracking sounds and then shattered into pieces….

The other jade slip that he had been watching this entire time remained completely unchanged.

"Impossible…. The deaths of the previous two could be chalked up to dangers in the ancestral land. But… but a whole month has passed, Naruto is still alive, and two more Ancient Realm Elders are dead!

"What exactly is going on in the ancestral land? How could this be happening? What's going on!?" Kajura's eyes were completely bloodshot, and his hair was in disarray. He sat there trembling, having long since moved from his own residence to a hidden chamber.

This chamber was very close to where his son Menma was in the middle of secluded meditation. At the moment, Kajura didn't dare to set foot outside. Currently, he had no way of resolving the situation, so he had no choice but to conceal himself here.

"As long as Menma becomes a true Immortal, the Grand Elder will handle everything according to the clan rules. The clan is most important, so he won't make things too difficult for me. Plus, I have father to help take care of things. This matter will soon be a thing of the past.

"Naruto, you shall die! If you don't die in the ancestral land, then you'll die at Menma's hand!" Kajura's expression twisted, and he gritted his teeth. Apparently, that outcome was the only one which could release the shock and anxiety he felt in his heart. However, he still couldn't understand why the nine Ancient Realm Elders he had hired couldn't kill a solitary Naruto. In fact, over the course of a month, four of them were now dead, while Naruto was still alive.

Just what had happened in there to cause this unforeseen turn of events? This was currently the source of his greatest confusion.

Even as Kajura sat there thinking, the Grand Elder was in another location in the Namikaze Clan ancestral mansion. He was in a rage, his face twisted in anger over what was happening in the Lifeslip Hall. He, of course, was well aware of exactly why all the Elders had died.

His eyes glinted coldly when he summoned Kajura, only to receive a reply that Kajura was in secluded meditation near Menma. That caused the Grand Elder to hesitate for a moment.

At the moment, Menma's Immortal Ascension was the most important matter in the whole clan. All other matters were of secondary importance.

"Menma. Naruto…. Let's see which of the two of you… is the true Chosen." After another moment of thought, the Grand Elder flicked his sleeve and left.

Back in the ancestral land, Naruto proceeded along. The rifts closed wherever he went, all the way until he reached the end of the Ancient Burial Ground. After having passed through regions of 100,000 rifts, he was now surrounded by thick mist.

The mist didn't just exist in this place. The entire ancestral land was filled with it, something that was completely unheard of. Even the Seventh Patriarch was shocked.

Naruto stood at the edge of the Ancient Burial Ground, looking at the thick mists up ahead of him. Compared to the mist in his immediate vicinity, the mists up ahead seemed boundless, as if they covered everything, even the Heavens.

Everything was covered in endless, majestic mists.

Off to the side was another huge stone stele, upon which was written three shocking characters….

Misty Heaven Vault!

Beneath the three characters were lines of text, each one being the name of a person. Next to each name was a number.

The first name on the list was Komushi Namikaze, and next to it was the number 39.

There were nineteen names in total, and the last few names on the list all had the number 1 next to them.

The names emanated an ancient feeling, as if they had existed on the stele for many years. When Naruto reached the ninth name on the list, his eyes widened in surprise.

The name was Isago!

He was the Dao of Alchemy Division's current Pill Elder!

Fanboy stood next to Naruto explaining the location in a low voice. "There is no path through the Heavenly Mist Vault.

"This is the last section of the ancestral land…. The first generation Patriarch's necropolis is located somewhere inside, although nobody knows exactly where.

"From the moment of its creation, this place has been the end of the line for the clan members who come here. According to the rumors, nobody has ever found the necropolis within the mists. The reason for that, of course, is that there is no path inside.

"From ancient times to now, only nineteen Senior clan members have ever made it to the Misty Heaven Vault, and those numbers next to their names are how many steps they were able to take inside."

Naruto's eyes focused intently on the stele.

"Nobody's ever been able to step into the necropolis?" he asked. As he looked at the list of names and numbers on the stele, he sent his divine sense out into the mists. As soon as it entered, it encountered an intense repelling force, and was expelled. These mists truly seemed to be like an impenetrable fortress that did not allow anything to enter.

"Prince," Fanboy hurried to say, "you really shouldn't try to go in…. This is a place where people under the Immortal Realm can't even enter. Not even the Dao Guardsman can go in.

"If you want to enter the Misty Heaven Vault, you have to meet two conditions. First, your cultivation base has to be in the Ancient Realm or higher so that you can use your Soul Lamp to guide the way. The second requirement is that you have to possess a corporeal body."

Naruto didn't respond. He sent some divine will into the terracotta statue, and sent it forward toward the mists. However, as soon as it touched the border, the same force shoved back, making it impossible for the terracotta soldier to move forward. When he tried to force it to do so, a terrifying pressure exploded out from within the mists.

Naruto's mind was shaken, and he immediately pulled the terracotta soldier back.

"Prince, your… your cultivation base isn't in the Ancient Realm, and you have no Soul Lamp. You simply can't proceed." Fanboy glanced over at Naruto and stepped toward the mists.

As he did so, he inhaled deeply and nine Soul Lamps appeared around him. As they rotated around him, they slowly merged together. When they had combined into a single lamp, they floated forward to make contact with the mists. As soon as the lamp touched the mist, it sank back by a centimeter.

"Look, Prince," said Fanboy, sighing slightly and stepping back to stand next to Naruto. "This is my limit, only a single centimeter. If you had a powerful Soul Lamp, you would be able to resist the mists and get much further in."

Naruto frowned. Having gotten all the way to this point, he just couldn't resign himself to leaving. If this was the first generation Patriarch's necropolis, then it meant that the Namikaze Clan's most powerful Daoist Magic, the One Thought Stellar Transformation, would be inside.

It was like standing in front of a mountain of treasure and being incapable of reaching it. To Naruto, it was a very intolerable feeling.

However, he was not the type of person to be easily convinced by what could be fallacious information. He stepped forward and, as he stood there in front of the mists, extended his right hand and pushed it forward. Immediately, a powerful force pushed back, as if there were an invisible barrier which prevented him from pushing his hand in at all.

Naruto tried pushing a few more times before letting out a resigned sigh. He was just about to retract his hand when his eyes then went wide as he suddenly sensed his Immortal meridian pulsing wildly in a way it never had before. It was almost as if it were reacting to something that existed inside the mists, something that was attracting his Immortal meridian.

Naruto had experienced such a sensation before; it was the same sort of feeling he got when the Immortal meridian had strengthened itself by consuming the massive quantities of energy from the stone steles in the Three Great Daoist Societies' trial by fire.

Naruto started panting, and his eyes began to glitter brightly. He had an intense premonition that if he could get into the Misty Heaven Vault, then perhaps… he could break through to true Immortality right here in the ancestral land!

Naruto immediately began to attempt numerous methods to succeed. After two hours passed, he finally had to admit… that it was a place he really wasn't able to enter.

"Prince," said Fanboy, "there's no need to keep trying. We still have less than a month before the ancestral land opens up again. There are still other places with good fortune, places that you can easily get to with the Dao Guardsman. As for this place here… without a Soul Lamp, you might as well just forget about it."

Naruto stood there silently.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch was currently paying close attention to what was happening. He watched Naruto make his repeated attempts, then sighed, and his eyes flickered with disappointment.

"I guess I set my expectations too high," he thought, shaking his head. "The Misty Heaven Vault requires an Ancient Realm Soul Lamp. That's something the Dao Guardsman can't help out with. The more powerful the Soul Lamp, the further into the Heavenly Mist Vault you can get. However, not even Eldest Brother, the Earth Patriarch, could get more than 39 steps in."

Suddenly, Naruto looked up at the Misty Heaven Vault, and his eyes began to gleam with light of curiosity.

"You need a Soul Lamp…. A Soul Lamp to lead the way…. A lamp…. I have a lamp!" Naruto began to pant as he glanced back at the Soul Lamps circling around Fanboy. Just now, a completely preposterous idea had formed in his mind.

It was a completely absurd plan, and it involved an object he had never before thought to associate with the Soul Lamps of Ancient Realm cultivators.

Even now, it seemed like something completely improbable.

Finally, though, it reached the point where he couldn't hold back. He just had to try, so, eyes flickering, he slapped his bag of holding… causing a bronze lamp to suddenly fly out!

This bronze lamp was none other than the one he had acquired from the temple hall in the ruins of the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple, the same treasure from which he had acquired his Immortal meridian, that now contained a flame from the Essence of Divine Flame.

Holding the bronze lamp in hand, Naruto took a deep breath and then slowly walked toward the wall of mist up ahead. When Fanboy and Komitsu caught sight of the bronze lamp, they gaped in shock. Were it not for the fact that Naruto held their lives firmly in his hand, they would most certainly be incapable of holding back from laughing at Naruto's apparent insanity.

However, their expressions quickly changed to ones of open-mouthed astonishment, and they began to tremble uncontrollably.

As Naruto neared the mists, rumbling sounds suddenly filled the air. Strange colors flashed as everything shook. The mists began to fall apart, churning in an unprecedented fashion. All of the mists inside of the ancestral land seemed to be going crazy, and immediately, more mist began to surge out from every nook and cranny, making it so that the entire ancestral land became just like the Misty Heaven Vault.

The mist was trembling, almost as if in fear!

Naruto's bronze lamp seemed to have cast the entire ancestral land into a state of awe, and the mists almost appeared to be prostrating themselves in worship!

As for the mists directly in front of Naruto, as soon as the bronze lamp neared them, they seemed to be torn apart with domineering force. It didn't matter who this place previously belonged to, or who used to dwell here, as of this moment, everything was submitting to the bronze lamp.

Amidst the rumbling, the mists were torn apart… and parted down the middle!

A path was carved out… which led straight ahead!

It was a huge path, at the end of which, shockingly… was an enormous, pitch-black temple hall!

This sight caused Fanboy's and Komitsu's minds to reel, and their hearts to lurch with enormous waves of shock. They trembled violently, filled with unspeakable astonishment. Even knowing that Naruto had taken control of the Dao Guardsman hadn't turned their world upside down as much as the scene that was playing out in front of them right now!

The Seventh Patriarch had been on the verge of turning away and leaving.

"Impossible!" he said, voice quavering.

He began to tremble, and his mind filled with roaring and he almost fell out of the sky in shock. Even his cultivation base was now somewhat unstable.

He panted, staring dead at the bronze lamp in Naruto's hand. The lamp caused his scalp to grow numb, and terror washed through him as a shocking question filled his mind.

"That Soul Lamp… whose is it?!"

The mist in the Misty Heaven Vault seethed, spreading out to fill the entire ancestral land. The Ancient Burial Grounds, the Nine Nethermountains, the Quasi-Dao Patriarch Tombs, and even the Field of Magic Enlightenment were all submerged in endless mist.

The lands almost looked like they had become a sea of mist, concealing all, casting everything into shadow. The area around Naruto was the only area of light, which was illuminated by the glow of the Essence of Divine Flame.

Naruto was panting, and his heart pounded even more strongly than Fanboy and Komitsu, or the astonished Seventh Patriarch.

Taking out the bronze Soul Lamp had been a simple experiment, and in fact, even Naruto had assumed the idea to be laughable and virtually impossible.

He had always thought that it was nothing more than an ancient bronze lamp…. He had never, ever thought to compare it to the Soul Lamp of an Ancient Realm cultivator.

But now, as he looked around at the churning mists, at the path that had been ripped open in front of him, and the tunnel leading toward the pitch-black temple up ahead, his heart pounded with unprecedented intensity.

"This Soul Lamp… whose is it?!" That was the mind blowing question that rolled around in Naruto's mind as he thought back to that year in the temple hall when he had acquired the bronze lamp.

How many years had it been there…?

He had kept the lamp alive with his own blood, and when it was extinguished, he had absorbed the black smoke that it emitted. That was what… had caused him to become different than everyone else, to have a true Immortal meridian inside of him.

"It's actually a Soul Lamp. A mere lamp contains such shocking, domineering power that even this Namikaze Clan ancestral land has no choice but to submit to it!

"If this lamp is so powerful… then whatever almighty being created it must be unbelievably powerful!" Naruto was panting at this unbelievable turn of events. It truly was a matter that couldn't be pondered too deeply, for the more he thought about it, the more it astonished him.

"Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple…." Naruto's eyes glowed with intense light as a new sense of determination filled him and he made a firm resolution. "I definitely need to go to the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite!" The only clues to the story behind this lamp, which he had found in the temple hall in the ruins of Planet Lands of Ninshu's Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite, seemed to lay in the four words 'Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite'.

From the way things looked, grabbing this bronze lamp that year had changed his entire fate in life!

Nearby, Fanboy and Komitsu were looking on with numbed scalps, and minds that felt as if they were being struck by lightning. Their jaws hung open and their eyes were wide.

They simply couldn't believe or even think of words to describe what they were seeing. It was as if they had been struck dumb. Then, they saw Naruto take a deep breath, tightly grasp the bronze lamp in his hands, and step toward the path. That image seemed to shake them to their senses.

"How could this be happening…?" thought Fanboy as he quietly watched Naruto walking toward the path in the mist. He felt like he was in an illusion, a dream or fantasy in his own mind.

Komitsu punched himself hard in the chest, and the resulting pain caused his eyes to widen with surprise. He felt like the world had been turned upside down. Up ahead was the necropolis of the first generation Patriarch, a place no one had ever entered, and yet Naruto… had casually pulled out a bronze lamp, and then… walked right into the mists.

Komitsu shuddered, and he was suddenly struck with a feeling of rejoicing, rejoicing at the fact that he had attacked someone as terrifyingly inhuman as this, and yet was still alive.

Up in midair, the Seventh Patriarch was also panting. In terms of both his inward disposition and his external expression, he was incapable of maintaining his calm. It didn't matter that his cultivation base was at the peak of the Ancient Realm, he was still profoundly shaken by Naruto.

"Eldest Brother has a 1 Essence Dao Realm cultivation base and the status of Namikaze Clan's Earth Patriarch, and yet he could only advance 39 steps into the mists. However, the lamp that kid is holding can actually scrape a path clean through the Misty Heaven Vault all the way to the necropolis!

"If you calculate that path based on the number of steps that can be taken, it must be at least 1,000!

"It's just a soul lamp, and yet it even exceeds the power of 1 Essence. What was the cultivation base of the person who formed that Soul Lamp? In terms of level, were they a 6 Essences Paragon? Or perhaps a 9 Essences Paragon?!

"Impossible, in all the Nine Mountains and Seas, there aren't even any 9 Essences Paragons at all! The only people who ever entered the 9 Essences level of the Dao Realm were those three Paragons from the legendary age of the Immortal Ancient, during that Heaven-shaking, Earth-rocking war!

"I shouldn't even be thinking about 9 Essences. Even 7 Essences Paragons don't exist in the Nine Mountains and Seas. The highest cultivation base in this day and age is only 6 Essences!" The shock roiling in the Seventh Patriarch's heart was impossible to describe. He looked at the scene of Naruto striding down the path in the mists with lamp in hand. Then, he took a deep breath, and his eyes began to shine with a strange light.

There was no greediness that arose within him. Since Naruto possessed the bronze lamp, he was qualified to enter the Misty Heaven Vault. To others, however, this would be the end of the line.

Although the Seventh Patriarch couldn't help but look covetously at the bronze lamp, he did not attempt to snatch it away. He was an elder of the Clan, and furthermore, he was one of its guardian entities. Besides, he had his principles when it came to objects belonging to the members of the Junior generation.

Those were the clan rules!

They were rules that allowed the clan to multiply and grow, and to withstand the test of time!

Members of the same generation could fight and steal destiny from each other. Such things were permitted. But even if the Heavens did not care whether members of the Elder generation stole from the Juniors, it was something that was completely prohibited by the clan rules.

Although some people might brave the risks and do such things, the Seventh Patriarch was not that type of person.

"From the time the ancient first generation Patriarch passed away in meditation until now, this is… the first time his necropolis has become visible! Could it be that the One Thought Stellar Transformation will make a reappearance in the Ninth Mountain and Sea!?" The Seventh Patriarch looked at Naruto's back as he walked off into the distance. He suddenly felt a premonition deep within him.

"His future prospects might not just be limited to the Ninth Mountain and Sea! Perhaps he can lead the Namikaze Clan to new heights of glory!"

Back on the path in the Misty Heaven Vault, Naruto's heart was pounding. He held the bronze lamp in his hand as he slowly walked forward through the mists. Although it appeared as if there was an empty void beneath his feet, the ground was as solid as ever as he trod upon it.

The light of flame flickered out from the bronze lamp, and the mists on each side of him churned. Any obstructions ahead dissipated as Naruto continued onwards.

As he passed in further, the mists closed up behind him, blocking off the path. Any outsider, including Fanboy and Komitsu, and even the Seventh Patriarch, gradually lost sight of Naruto as he disappeared into the mists.

Fanboy and Komitsu exchanged a look, and could see the shock in each other's eyes, as well as… the astonishment.

Their life or death was in Naruto's hands, so to them, the more powerful Naruto got, the less chance they ever had to escape. However… as he increased in power, their future prospects… actually grew even more limitless.

"Perhaps Kajura has inadvertently given the two of us a chance to achieve a meteoric rise to success!" Fanboy said hoarsely.

Komitsu took a deep breath and nodded. "If Naruto can get some good fortune in the necropolis, if he can become the only person in the clan who can cultivate the One Thought Stellar Transformation, then his future prospects are limitless!"

Their eyes shone with determination as they sat cross-legged outside of the Misty Heaven Vault, acting as Dharma Protectors as they waited for Naruto to emerge.

Back in the Misty Heaven Vault, the pitch-black temple at the end of the long path didn't seem to be very far away. However, Naruto ended up walking for a long time.

One day. Two days. Three days.

On the third day, Naruto finally began to get close to the pitch-black temple. Although the temple was still about three thousand meters away, he knew.. that he was in the region of the necropolis!

Rising up above the pitch-black temple was an enormous statue of a middle-aged man. He wore a Daoist robe, and had an expression that was lofty and imposing, yet exposed no trace of anger, and even contained a hint of debonaire. He sat there cross-legged, eyes closed as if he were doing breathing exercises. It was merely a statue, but when you looked at it, it almost looked alive.

He looked somewhat similar to Naruto, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that all members of the Namikaze Clan had some features similar to this statue.

That was because he was none other than the first generation Patriarch.

He was the peerless, breathtaking man who had risen to become the first Patriarch of a clan!

Eighteen enormous coiling dragons could be seen on the steps leading up to the temple, each of which emanated an archaic feel. It almost looked like those eighteen dragons were actually supporting the entire necropolis with their bodies.

Simply put, it was a majestic sight!

Naruto's heart trembled as he looked at the huge temple; he knew that this was the final resting place of the first generation Patriarch!

The first generation Patriarch was how the Namikaze Clan had come to be. It was because of him that the powerful Namikaze Clan currently existed in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, and there was no end to the legends and myths about him that circulated in the clan.

There was a legend that the first generation Patriarch acquired the bloodline power of the Namikaze Clan in the Ruins of Immortality, and had followed Lord Asura in his campaign to subjugate the Ninth Mountain and Sea to quell the chaos and unify all!

There was another story that the first generation Patriarch didn't actually die, that he had lived a fifth life, in which he disappeared to live a carefree existence.

There were various legends that spun in Naruto's mind. He took a deep breath as he passed the 3,000-meter mark, approaching the necropolis itself. When he neared the steps, he looked up at the huge temple doors and bowed deeply.

"Junior generation Namikaze Clan member Naruto extends greetings, first generation Patriarch!"

As his words echoed, the temple began to tremble, and the ornately decorated temple doors began to slowly open!

It was in that exact moment that… outside of the ancestral land, outside of Planet East Victory, Fū slammed into the Door of Immortality above the Ninth Sea, causing the door to slowly begin to open. Boundless Immortal light was set free, washing over Fū, causing her to gradually become translucent. The holiness that she exuded grew even more intense.

She was already beautiful, but as of this moment, her beauty was beyond compare.

The cultivators of the Nine Seas God World stared at her intently, for they knew… that the critical moment had arrived.

Now was the time to see exactly how many Immortal meridians Fū would open!

It wasn't just the Nine Seas God World cultivators who were watching closely. All the other sects and clans were using various methods to observe exactly what happened with Fū!

The old Dao Realm woman stood there quietly, looking up at Fū with a slight smile, eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Above the Ninth Sea, the Door of Immortality opened, and boundless Immortal light emanated out, completely bathing Fū. At the same time, enormous quantities of Immortal Chakra exploded out from the door and bored into her body.

When the Door of Immortality opens, so do Immortal meridians. Every person is different, so the number of Immortal meridians that can be opened depends on a variety of aspects.

Take Pill Demon for example. Although the moment of his true Immortal Ascension did not come with any display of Immortal meridians, that was because he was the first true Immortal of the era. Therefore, he had gained the approval of all the Nine Mountains and Seas, and his name was engraved upon the Immortal scroll.

Those who used Immortality Illumination Vines to become true Immortals were also approved by the Nine Mountains and Seas, and their names were also recorded on the Immortal scroll, although they were viewed as lacking some of the destiny of Heaven and Earth that Pill Demon had.

However, at its root, cultivation is about defying the Heavens and contending for control of fate. The path to Immortality is one of ascension through defiance of the Heavens.

As far as Naruto was concerned, if he succeeded in becoming a true Immortal without using an Immortality Illumination Vine, and without acquiring the Immortal destiny to gain the approval to become a true Immortal, then his true Immortality would be completely domineering!

He would be an overbearing true Immortal who everyone had to acknowledge, whether they wanted to or not!

Currently, Immortal Chakra raged above the Ninth Sea. Everyone watched as Fū's body emitted scintillating light, and her aura exploded with power.

10 meridians. 20 meridians. 30 meridians…. The light which emanated out from her grew more intense, and shocking images like that of dragons or phoenixes swirled around her!

40 meridians. 60 meridians. 80 meridians…. Rumbling filled the air and shook the hearts of all onlookers as she reached 90 meridians! She was now the complete center of attention, and yet, wasn't done yet!

91 meridians. 93 meridians. In the end… she opened 96 meridians!

The entire Ninth Sea was completely astonished!

As the Door of Immortality faded away, Fū hovered there in midair, her 96 Immortal meridians emanating Immortal power. She could sense that she had been thoroughly remolded, and was now vastly more powerful than before.

She looked out into the starry sky in the direction of Planet East Victory.

"Naruto…. I'm a true Immortal now, and when I utilize the Ninth Sea Immortality Incantation, I can double my power. There is still a fight to be had between us, so I hope you're able to keep up with the current generation."

At almost the same moment that Fū opened 96 Immortal meridians, back in the Namikaze Clan ancestral land on Planet East Victory, within the mist, Naruto was holding the bronze lamp aloft as he stepped into the open door of the necropolis.

He was now entering a place… that no one had ever entered from the moment the first generation Patriarch passed away in meditation until now! The necropolis!

As he entered, he looked up and saw a field of twinkling stars. There was also a huge mountain, which was surrounded by four planets. Next to the mountain was a starry sea.

It was the Ninth Mountain, the Ninth Sea, and the four planets.

That was the ceiling of the enormous hall in which he found himself. Starlight glittered down onto a middle-aged man who sat atop a woven rush mat. His face was calm, without the slightest hint that he might be dead. And yet, his entire person emanated an aura of rot.

He was almost like a statue that had been sitting there motionless for countless years.

He wore a simple robe and a scholar's hat. He sat there cross-legged, his lips turned up in a slight smile. In his hand he held a scroll of bamboo slips, and a glowing sphere of starlight hovered around him, flickering.

In addition to this, there was a pill furnace, without any cover. Inside of the furnace was a swirling mass of seven-colored mist, making it impossible to see clearly whatever was inside. Above the pill furnace, occupying Naruto's entire field of view, was… a dragon.

It was… a dragon cast from bronze, its long body twisted around the columns that supported the roof. Cracks spread out from the areas where the dragon's claws sank into the column, and its tail disappeared into the darkness. Its head hung down directly above the pill furnace, into which it was gazing with an expression of greed. Its mouth was open as if it were about to consume whatever was inside the pill furnace.

The bronze dragon was incredibly realistic, even down to the scales, making it almost look alive. Naruto even noticed several areas on the dragon's body where the scales were severely damaged, as if they were scars earned from hundreds of battles.

As he looked at everything around him, Naruto began to pant. He almost couldn't believe that this was merely a bronze casting of a dragon; to him, it almost felt as if it were a real, flesh-and-blood dragon.

One of the reasons for that sensation was that when he looked at it, the Immortal meridian inside of him began to pulse violently and emit an aura of longing, as if it wanted to completely absorb it!

Naruto hesitated for a moment. In a situation like this, he would not act rashly. He scanned the huge temple hall, and then decided to skirt the pill furnace and head over to the man sitting on the rush mat. He looked at him sitting there meditating, and realized that he looked exactly like the statue outside.

"First generation Patriarch…." murmured Naruto. As he looked at the man, his blood began to thrum, as if it were a resonance between the two of them.

After a long moment, Naruto knelt down and kowtowed to the man.

"Naruto of the Junior generation offers greetings, Patriarch," he said, his voice sincere. Although he might have a bit of enmity toward the Namikaze Clan, he only had feelings of respect for the first generation Patriarch who had founded the clan.

After kowtowing, Naruto got to his feet and looked at the sphere of starlight hovering around of the first generation Patriarch. Deep inside the light, he could just barely make out a fingernail-sized asteroid.

As the starlight entered his eyes, Naruto's breathing sped up a bit. From what he could tell, this object… was probably a manifestation of the One Thought Stellar Transformation.

He tried to reach out and grab the starlight, but no matter how he attempted to take ahold of it, it did no good, as if the sphere were completely ignoring him. It just continued to orbit the first generation Patriarch.

Naruto thought for a moment, then abandoned any attempts to force the matter. After all, the sphere of starlight was hovering around the first generation Patriarch, so any attempt to forcibly take it away would probably involve making contact with the Patriarch's corpse, a level of disrespect that Naruto wouldn't show.

He took a few steps back, looking around and then floating up into the air to take a closer look at the places where the bronze dragon's claws sank into the column. After a moment, he took in a deep breath, and his expression was one of complete disbelief.

He then sank back down to the ground and glanced around vigilantly, his heart pounding.

Moments ago, he had been able to determine that the cracks had not been carved there, but had occurred naturally, as if… on some day in the past, a real dragon had actually latched onto the column with its claws.

As he continued to gaze at the bronze dragon, images began to appear in his mind. In the vision, he saw the hall, empty and peaceful. Then a dragon charged in, swirling through hall and then wrapping around one column after another. Its claws pierced into the columns as it lowered its head, eyes flickering with greed as it attempted to consume the pill furnace. It was in that moment that a powerful force rippled out, and the dragon died instantly, transforming into nothing more than a bronze statue.

As soon as Naruto experienced this vision, he was filled with shock.

"This necropolis sure is full of strange things…." he thought, blinking. He looked back at the first generation Patriarch, then was struck by a sudden impulse. Naruto walked past him, then sat down across from him, back facing the Patriarch, looking out into the hall.

His scalp instantly went numb as he realized that from this position, he could directly see the dragon's chin, and the lower part of its body. Furthermore, it appeared that… if he were powerful enough, he could use a single finger to cause the entire bronze dragon to explode.

He raised his hand and pointed in that very manner, then stood up and followed the line that his finger had pointed at. When he arrived at the place where that path intersected with the dragon's chin, and examined it more closely, he could sense something that caused his mind to tremble.

He was almost frightened out of his senses when that specific spot on the dragon's chin rippled as if with magic; apparently there was still the residue of some sort of magical technique, left behind in this spot.

That indicated… that this was the point of impact that had led to the bronze dragon being turned into a statue!

Naruto slowly turned around to face the first generation Patriarch. Mouth parched and dry, he forced a smile onto his face and then clasped hands and bowed.

"Patriarch," he began carefully, "I am a member of the Namikaze Clan, the sole descendant of the direct bloodline. I'm the only heir. Do you get what that means, sir?! Basically, if I die, then the direct bloodline will be gone!

"Sir, you are an exalted and magnanimous person, so, um… well, I'm here, not to disturb you, sir, but rather, to acquire a legacy so that I can perform meritorious services for the clan!"

Naruto's speech was met with silence, so after a moment, he backed up, thought for a moment, then looked over at the pill furnace in hesitation.

"Whatever it was that caused this incredibly powerful dragon to feel such greed must definitely be a precious treasure…. Who knows how this dragon managed to charge its way in here, but it shows that it's definitely not weak. Most likely, it actually came here before the Misty Heaven Vault was created, and before the first generation Patriarch perished. The fact that the first generation Patriarch caused the dragon to remain in the necropolis shows just how powerful it was.

"And the item it desired…." Naruto's heart thumped as he hesitated, torn about what to do. Finally, he looked up and yet again clasped hands to the first generation Patriarch.

"Patriarch, my Bloodline Gatebeam rose up 30,000 meters, making me fit to be called the number one figure of the Namikaze bloodline right now. That indicates… that you and I have a very close connection, grandfather." He blinked.

"Considering our close relationship, if you were still alive, sir, well, I think you would be very happy to see me. I have a pretty good personality, and an even temper. I'm very obedient, and always follow instructions. Pretty much everyone likes me." Naruto slapped his chest proudly as he described himself.

"Patriarch, you're a member of the Elder generation, so to see someone of the Junior generation after so many years, especially someone as outstanding as myself, must surely make you very happy. You definitely would want a member of the Junior generation like me to be handsomely rewarded.

"I actually want nothing else than the contents of that pill furnace. Why don't you give it to me, okay? Oh, and the One Thought Stellar Transformation? I'd love to continue to develop it. Right, about that dragon, I'll clear it out for you, how about that!?" Naruto, feeling emboldened, and yet also gritting his teeth, slowly approached the pill furnace and looked at the seven-colored mist inside. He then gently blew on the mist.

As soon as his breath touched the mist, Naruto saw that inside of the pill furnace was a jade plate, upon which was a blob of seven-colored liquid.

The moment he saw the seven-colored liquid, all of the hair on his body stood on end. As a Grandmaster of the Dao of alchemy, it didn't matter that he had never seen a liquid like this before, his intuition instantly informed him that this was something that could not be consumed by cultivators.

It contained a shocking, violent aura which indicated that any cultivator who consumed it would be killed instantly.

It was at this moment that a thrumming sound could suddenly be heard from within his bag of holding. The jade box inside shattered, and the two Nirvana Fruits that had been given to him by the Grand Elder, the ones that belonged to the first generation Patriarch, suddenly flew out of their own volition. Seemingly striving to outdo each other, they shot toward the seven-colored liquid inside the pill furnace.

It was as if the first fruit to touch the liquid would be completely restored!

It happened so suddenly that Naruto could only watch with wide eyes as the two Nirvana Fruits shot toward the pill furnace. The one that took the lead was the one which Naruto had spent so many spirit stones on, and was on the verge of already being completely restored.

Naruto's mind filled with roaring as he suddenly realized that the seven-colored liquid must have the same function as Spirit Elixir. It wasn't meant to be consumed, it was meant to be used to restore Nirvana Fruits.

A Yin aura of death could be sensed within the liquid, an aura that represented the lack of life and destruction. The Nirvana Fruits had been withered for eons, and were essentially dead. However, it seemed that when they touched the seven-colored liquid, the Yin death aura would reach a pinnacle in which life force suddenly appeared!

That life force represented the restoration of the Nirvana Fruits.

The violent surge of energy from the seven-colored liquid would replenish the Nirvana Fruits, leading to a rapid increase in life force.

Naruto's mind trembled; the first thought that entered his mind was that he must not under any circumstances allow the Nirvana Fruit which he had so painstakingly worked on to succeed right now. If it did, the losses he would sustain as a result would be too incredible.

He used all the power he could muster to reach out and grab the Nirvana Fruit, which was just on the verge of touching the seven-colored liquid. Even as he did this, the other Nirvana Fruit that he had ignored all this time melt down into the liquid.

In that instant, blinding beams of seven-colored light stabbed out, and a thick, seven-colored mist spread out to cover the entire pill furnace.

The other Nirvana Fruit, which Naruto now held in his hand, seemed to calm down, and ceased moving. Naruto quickly tossed it into his bag of holding, and then backed up several paces, his facial expression fluctuating with anxiety.

He looked over at the first generation Patriarch, then back at the seven-colored mist in the pill furnace, and began muttering to himself in uncertainty.

"No one has ever been to this necropolis before…. Therefore, nobody knows that the Spirit Extract within the pill furnace can provoke such a reaction from the Nirvana Fruits…. This is the necropolis of the first generation Patriarch, and the Nirvana Fruits belong to him.

"I wonder if, after the fusion is complete, the Nirvana Fruit could be consumed?" Naruto hesitated for a moment; currently, he couldn't see anything in particular inside of the pill furnace's mist.

"If I can consume it, then it would definitely be a big win for me!" Naruto's eyes shone with bright light.

"Even if I can't consume it, losing one of the Nirvana Fruits isn't completely unacceptable." With that, Naruto took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Then, he looked up at the bronze dragon.

This time, it seemed different than before. Its greedy expression had changed into one of fear, and instead of its mouth being open in preparation to consume the pill furnace, it now looked as if someone had violently wrenched its mouth open with the purpose of distilling the essence of its life force.

That essence seemed to be formed from the frenzied terror it had experienced in the moment of death. Then, after it died, the Yin death power formed together… merging to create a drop of liquid filled with boundless Yin death and violence. That drop had then descended onto the jade plate in the pill furnace.

Naruto wasn't sure whether or not he was mistaken, but it seemed that as soon as the Nirvana Fruit merged into the liquid and the dense mist filled the pill furnace, some sort of natural law seemed to have been nullified, which made the bronze dragon's expression change again. This time, it seemed almost relieved, as if it had experienced a release.

Next, cracks suddenly spread out across the bronze dragon's body. They rapidly covered its entire body, to the point where the dragon gradually… began to dissipate right before his eyes!

He stared in shock, and took a deep breath as he backed up.

He looked on as the bronze dragon began to fade, transforming into strands of mist that maintained the shape of a dragon as they intertwined with each other and began to swirl around the hall.

When it got close to Naruto, the misty dragon head looked at him thoughtfully. Eventually, a gleam of appreciation could be seen in its eyes, after which it shot forward and slammed headfirst into Naruto!

It instantly began to fuse into him, transforming into Immortal Chakra, which then surged into his Immortal meridian.

Naruto's mind trembled, and his Immortal meridian shook violently. It even began to resemble the appearance of a dragon as it madly absorbed the misty dragon's Immortal Chakra.

Cracking sounds could be heard as his Immortal meridian solidified even further, and Naruto's true Immortal aura grew stronger and stronger.

A strange gleam appeared in his eyes. His breath came in ragged pants as he experienced the sensation of the true Immortal Realm more strongly than he ever had before. Previously, he had been at the point of needing a hundred days to completely solidify his Immortal meridian, but now it was proceeding much faster than before.

In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, rumbling filled Naruto's body as his Immortal meridian was completely formed!

Immortal light pulsed out from him, and Immortal Chakra multiplied rapidly, circulating through his body, causing his Cultivation base to change completely.

He had been waiting for this moment for a long time. His journey had started in the lands of Lands of Ninshu, in the moment that he witnessed his master Pill Demon reach true Immortal Ascension. That was when his anticipation had begun to build!

From this moment on, he was not a mortal, but an Immortal.

During the Daoist Societies' trial by fire, Naruto had seen the glimmer of hope. After arriving on Planet East Victory, his anticipation deepened. Originally, he thought it would take a bit longer, but now, in the ancestral land, within the necropolis, he acquired the vast, heavenly good fortune to complete that final step into true Immortality.

Were Naruto not in this necropolis, which was part of the Ruins of Immortality, then Immortal Tribulation would currently be forming up above, and a Door of Immortality would appear.

Only by bashing open that door would he be able to make the final leap to success by opening the rest of his Immortal meridians.

However at this moment, the Door of Immortality had no way to sense Naruto's aura, no way to realize that he was about to step into the Immortal Realm. Therefore, it did not appear.

Because of that… Naruto's cultivation base had actually reached an indescribably shocking level.

Lucky breaks like this were something incredibly rare. To be able to achieve true Immortal Ascension like this required three criteria; to achieve Immortality without the use of an Immortality Illumination Vine, to be in a place with both a necropolis and a piece of the Ruins of Immortality, and for that place to have sufficient Immortal Chakra.

Though it seemed that the three stipulations would be a simple matter to meet, it was actually incredibly difficult. Normally speaking, it would be easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn than to meet the first requirement, not to mention the other two!

They were so difficult that, although you couldn't say they were impossible to meet, they were definitely extremely, extremely unlikely. In fact, in the entire Ninth Mountain and Sea, Naruto was the only person who, by a series of chance occurrences, had managed to achieve it!

Perhaps in some of the other Eight Mountains and Seas, there had been other people throughout the years who attempted to do the same thing. However, none of those people could compare to Naruto. That was because he had started out with a foundation for true Immortality, which was the Immortal meridian that had been given to him by none other than the bronze lamp!

It was an authentic Immortal meridian, exceeding that of all other Immortals, making him… a true Immortal among true Immortals!

Naruto was actually the first person in all of the Nine Mountains and Seas to come across such a lucky break!

However many extra Immortal meridians he had now would remain with him when he underwent his Immortal Tribulation on the outside, and would not superimpose with those Immortal meridians he acquired, but would increase their number!

All souls had three spiritual aspects and seven physical soul aspects, with ten meridians composing each of the ten vessels. Immortals with 100 meridians had three spiritual soul aspects, seven physical soul aspects, and ten soul vessels. People who exceeded 100 meridians were extremely rare in the Nine Mountains and Seas. In fact, such people existed virtually in legend only. Each meridian that exceeded 100 resulted in an additional soul vessel!

Naruto's body filled with rumbling as his first Immortal Meridian was completed. Furthermore, thanks to the misty dragon, a second Immortal meridian was also beginning to take shape. As soon as it appeared, it began to solidify.

Good preparation leads to success. Other Chosen had already prepared themselves to their utmost limits, so, when they stepped into true Immortality, it would be a shocking event. As for Naruto, he had taken himself to be well prepared, but now, with this sudden lucky break, he was accumulating even more potential.

If any outsider became aware of this kind of extra preparation, it would shock the entire Ninth Mountain and Sea.

At the same time that Naruto sat there cross-legged, madly absorbing Immortal Chakra and forming a second Immortal meridian, clouds were forming in the starry sky outside of Planet East Victory. It started as a mist that rapidly formed into Tribulation Clouds alongside a shocking Door of Immortality.

A Door of Immortality had been floating over the Ninth Sea just a short time ago, and now, one materialized over East Victory and was slowly descending toward the planet.

Countless people saw it, and it immediately led to a complete uproar. Namikaze Clan members looked at it excitedly, especially the clan Elders.

"True Immortal Tribulation!" the Grand Elder gasped, eyes shining brightly.

The descent of the Door of Immortality was not because of Naruto; rather, it was because of… Menma!

Beneath the ancestral mansion, Kajura awakened from meditation, body trembling, expression one of excitement as he looked over at the stone wall next to him. Suddenly, the stone wall opened up to reveal a tall figure striding out, who was none other than Menma.

His left eye was pitch black, a darkness that seemed to contain death itself. His right eye was completely white, as if it contained the vitality of daytime. His entire person radiated the aura of true Immortality.

His expression was sober and serious as he simultaneously exuded the aura of reincarnation and the icy coldness of the Yellow Springs.

"Menma," said Kajura excitedly, "you…."

"Dad, I succeeded," was the reply. Menma immediately blasted a hole in the ceiling of the chamber and then flew out into the air above.

Kajura tilted his head back and began to laugh loudly. Seeing Menma fly out filled his heart with excitement, and he knew that as of this moment, all of his violations of clan rules were no longer important, and could easily be swept under the rug.

Indeed, it really was true. As Menma shot up into the sky, the Grand Elder caught sight of Kajura and gave him a deep look, although he didn't say anything.

At the moment, Menma was the only person flying up in midair. Seeing this from their positions down below, the Elders of his bloodline also flew up to act as Dharma Protectors. At the same time, the Namikaze Clan's grand spell formation was also activated, making Menma the center of all attention on Planet East Victory.

Down in the stony cavern beneath the ancestral mansion, the other six Patriarchs stirred and began to observe the scene. Although they didn't appear in person, their divine senses locked down the whole planet.

As of this moment, Menma was the focus of all eyes!

Hotarubi stood within the crowds, fists clenched, eyes filled with defiance.

"Naruto should be the one reaching true Immortal Ascension!

"Naruto, Coz, I hope you're okay, and I hope you know that Menma… succeeded with his Immortal Ascension and is now preparing to attack the Door of Immortality and open his Immortal meridians!"

Rumbling filled the Heavens as the Door of Immortality descended. All of the clans and sects in the Ninth Mountain and Sea were using various methods to observe what was happening on Planet East Victory.

If you didn't count Pill Demon, Menma was the second person in this generation after Fū… to become a true Immortal cultivator!

"Fū opened 96 Immortal meridians. I wonder… how many Immortal meridians Menma will open?!" That was the question on the minds of all the people watching throughout the Ninth Mountain and Sea.

Menma looked like a shooting star as he soared up into the sky toward the rumbling Immortal Tribulation. Lightning crashed around him as he roared, eyes filled with determination as he completely ignored the Immortal Tribulation and focused completely on the Door of Immortality within the cloud.

"My goal is to open 98 meridians!" he murmured softly. "After I have my Immortal meridians, Naruto… you will be nothing more than an ant to me. Your two Nirvana Fruits will make me, Menma, the number one person within my generation!

"However, I'm still going to crush you to death to sever the Devil in my heart!" Menma's eyes shone with pride and arrogance as he contemplated his desire to… return to the position he had occupied before the rising of the East Ascension Sun… Prince Menma of the Namikaze Clan!

As Naruto meditated in seclusion in the necropolis, having completed his first Immortal meridian and moved on to his second, the Door of Immortality rumbled above Planet East Victory, and Immortal Tribulation descended.

Menma flew up above the land, heading into the tribulation, the focus of all eyes, not only on Planet East Victory, but in all of the sects and clans, who used various different methods to bear witness to Menma becoming a true Immortal.

Fū had opened 96 meridians, causing widespread shock. Now that Menma had reached Immortal Ascension, everyone was considering the question of how many meridians he would open. His Immortal Ascension represented the potential rise of a new almighty figure within the Namikaze Clan.

As everything rumbled, the Immortal Tribulation battered Menma, and he roared. Lightning crashed down, and he let it. The aura of reincarnation swirled around him, and the will of the Yellow Springs surged strongly.

Furthermore, a bizarre light shone in his eyes. The left one was black, the right one white, which was the manifestation of the successful cultivation of One Breath Yellow Springs Dao. As for the aura of reincarnation that swirled around him, that was from the One Thought Reincarnation Incantation!

These were signature divine abilities of the Namikaze Clan, and shockingly, he had cultivated two of them!

Amidst the rumbling, Menma slammed into the door of Immortality, immediately opening it a crack. Boundless Immortal light began to spill out, and the Immortal tribulation grew more intense, covering everything in the sky.

Time passed. Soon, three days had gone by.

During those three days, Menma's image shocked everyone. He continued to completely ignore the Immortal Tribulation, which didn't seem capable of pushing him back even the least bit. In fact, he even seemed to be gaining strength from it. Lightning filled the Heavens, and Menma's presence there left everyone astonished.

"Menma is the number one Chosen of the Namikaze Clan! He's the Namikaze Clan's Prince Menma!"

"The Immortal Tribulation is going to dissipate! He's about to truly open the Door of Immortality!"

"Menma! Menma!" Everyone in the Namikaze Clan was excited, and their voices quickly filled the air, turning into sound waves that rolled out in all directions.

Moments later, a shocking boom could be heard as Menma pushed open the Door of Immortality. Immortal light surged out, filling the sky, the blinding beams immediately dispersing the Immortal Tribulation.

The Immortal light wreathed Menma as he threw his head back and let out a long shout. His hair whipped about, and his tall frame grew even more refined as it shed its mortal constraints. He was now stepping into the true Immortal Realm.

At the same time, the Immortal light sent out boundless Immortal Chakra that surrounded Menma and poured into his body.

Everyone down below was in an uproar as they observed the proceedings. The Grand Elder's eyes shone with brilliant light. Off to the side, Menma's grandfather and Kajura both looked extremely excited.

20 meridians. 40 meridians. 60 meridians. 80 meridians!

In the space of a few breaths worth of time, Immortal light washed over Menma, and he opened 80 Immortal meridians, causing intense pressure to radiate out. Rumbling echoed out from within him as the Immortal meridians writhed like vicious dragons, and emanated the power of true Immortality.

83 meridians. 87 meridians. 90 meridians!

The Namikaze Clan was in a huge commotion, and all observers on Planet East Victory were trembling. The clan members of other clans were all looking at Menma as he rose once again to prominence, opening 90 meridians!

However, things weren't over yet. More shocking rumbling could be heard from within Menma. 91, 92, 93….

When the 96th meridian appeared, there was universal astonishment!

"Fū opened 96 meridians, and now Menma has actually done the same thing!"

"He fully deserves to be called a Chosen!"

"He… he actually seems to have a bit of energy left. Just how many resources did Menma pour into his preparations!? This is astonishing!"

Rumbling sounds continue to echo out as the 97th meridian opened inside of Menma!

Kajura was trembling, and his expression was one of intense excitement. He looked up into the sky and began to laugh heartily. Next to him, Menma's grandfather looked very pleased. Even the Grand Elder appeared to be smiling.

The entire Namikaze Clan was roused into complete excitement.

However, Menma wasn't satisfied. He remained in the Door of Immortality, surrounded by Immortal light, his cultivation base climbing higher and higher. He continued to rise higher as he suddenly shouted out.

"98th meridian, OPEN!"

The instant his voice echoed out, a shocking rumbling sound could be heard. In the blink of an eye, his aura leaped exponentially, emitting a terrifying aura as he formed… a 98th meridian!

98 horned dragons appeared around him in the void, swirling gracefully, causing anyone who saw them to begin to pant.

In the moment that the 98th meridian was formed, 10,000 illusory figures appeared in the area surrounding the Door of immortality. They wore armor and held Immortal weapons, and they quickly surrounded Menma and then themselves prostrated in worship.

Everyone on Planet East Victory who saw this couldn't help but gasp, and the cultivators from the other sects and clans were completely shaken.

"The Namikaze Clan has produced a qilin-like prodigy!"

"98 meridians! It's rare for even one person like that to appear every 10,000 years! Strange signs will appear whenever anyone exceeds 95 meridians, for example, the flying dragons and phoenixes of Fū. However, Menma… actually caused 10,000 ancient Immortal warriors to appear!"

"He's been touched by the destiny of the Mountains and Seas! Destiny of the Mountains and Seas is upon him!"

The Namikaze Clan was abuzz, and the rest of the Ninth Mountain and Sea was also shaken. Even the Hebi Clan on the Ninth Mountain took notice.

As of this moment, Menma was now the number one figure in his generation!

As the Door of Immortality slowly faded away, Menma hovered in midair, his robe as pure as fresh snow, his long hair swirling about. He had been handsome to begin with, but now his demeanor was even more elegant and entrancing. His eyes shone with a pride that looked down on both Heaven and Earth; as of this moment, he made no effort to conceal his cultivation base. He allowed it to explode out, causing the sky to tremble, and Immortal might to shake the land.

"Naruto, come out and fight!" he suddenly roared, his words echoing out like thunder. No one had expected these words to be the first things to come out of his mouth.

"Naruto, get out here and fight me!" His words echoed back and forth constantly, roaring like thunder.

It was at this point that quite a few people recalled Naruto. Actually, in the days following the rise of the East Ascension Sun, the number one Chosen in the clan wasn't Menma, it was Naruto!

No one said anything. The entire Namikaze Clan went quiet. Actually, not many people knew about Naruto entering the ancestral land. Most of them had no idea that Naruto was not currently inside the premises of the Clan.

Even Menma wasn't aware of the current situation!

As his voice echoed out, the clan went quiet as they waited to see if Naruto would come out. Hotarubi was in the crowd, jaw clenched tightly. Finally, he let out a mighty cry bolstered by all of his cultivation base.

"My Coz Naruto is in the ancestral land! Once he comes out, you won't need to go looking for him! He'll find you to do battle!" In response to Hotarubi's words, Menma's expression remained the same as ever. However, icy coldness appeared in his eyes as he looked down at Hotarubi.

"Well then, I'll just wait for him to come out!" With that, he shot down toward the ground, appearing just outside the main temple hall, where he sat down cross-legged.

Indeed, like he had said, he was going to wait for Naruto to return so that he could fight and kill him!

Even if Naruto hadn't achieved true Immortal Ascension yet, Menma would kill him anyway. After all, if Naruto didn't achieve true Immortality, naturally he would not be qualified to be Menma's rival. To kill a lesser person such as that would clear his clouded mind.

"You'd better not disappoint me," he thought, the killing intent in his eyes growing as he looked at the temple hall.

The fact that Menma and Naruto were soon going to have a decisive battle attracted quite a bit of attention on the part of the rest of the clan. Earlier, many of them had taken a liking to Naruto, but now that they had personally watched Menma become a true Immortal, their hearts wavered.

"Will Naruto lose…?"

"How could one even fight against a Chosen like that…?"

The expressions of the direct bloodline members were somewhat gloomy. Only Hotarubi had the utmost confidence in Naruto. He stood there, hands clenched into fists, completely sure that Naruto would never lose!