While Aoba was observing his surroundings, a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Human, was it you who awakened me?"
The word awaken was quite interesting, it perfectly aligned with Aoba's earlier observation that the Shinigami originally had no consciousness.
"I'm not entirely sure. If by 'awaken' you mean the ritual just now, then yes, it was me."
"Very well. It has been a long time since someone in this world could wield natural energy. Although your control is crude, you have indeed grasped it. However, the foreign energy within you is far stronger.
Right now, you are merely suppressing it temporarily. Once that energy erupts, you still won't achieve true freedom."
"I understand. That's precisely why I am trying to communicate with you. I need to know what really happened back then. Why did all the native deities of this world perish?
I've received some information before, but it's incomplete. To defeat that guy, I need more. I need to know exactly what happened back then."
"So you have already received the messages they left behind? But instead of blindly believing them, you continued to seek the truth. That's smart. The early history of the Shinobi World is extremely complex—it's not something that can be explained with just a simple message."
"It seems you know a lot. May I ask why?"
"The reason is simple, you cannot kill death itself. I am the Shinigami of this world. I can be defeated, but as long as the concept of death exists, I cannot truly die.
I was born the moment the first life appeared in this world, and I will only vanish when the last life is gone."
"I understand the concept, but in practice, it seems like you haven't really been fulfilling your role as the Shinigami."
"That's right. Although they couldn't kill me back then, they still took away part of my authority. This caused me to lose most of my power. I am immortal, but I can no longer do much."
"What about the other deities?"
"You should already know part of the answer from the messages they left behind.
Foreign beings descended from the heavens, and our world resisted.
But in the end, we failed. All of the native deities were slain. After that, the outsiders planted that seed in this world.
It absorbed the energy of this world and transformed it into the power that humans use today. Most humans can barely perceive the change, but for us deities, it was a devastating blow.
Originally, the fallen gods could have gradually revived through natural energy. However, the entire Shinobi World became polluted, pure natural energy is almost impossible to find. This made resurrection incredibly difficult.
After that, the foreign beings fell into internal conflict. A certain woman emerged victorious and obtained the fruit, becoming the progenitor of this new power. But soon after, her descendants rebelled against her, trying to seize control of that power for themselves."
The Sage and his brother rebelling against Kaguya to claim control over chakra, Aoba had long suspected this.
From the beginning, he never believed that two brothers who were born practically as gods would inexplicably stand on the side of humanity and rebel against their mother.
In reality, their actions shouldn't have had much impact on humanity. Whether it was natural energy or chakra, neither originally belonged to humans. Early humans didn't cultivate at all, nor did the ninja profession exist.
It was only after the brothers sealed Kaguya and the Sage of Six Paths spread the method of chakra cultivation that humanity began to access this power.
"Did they succeed in the end?"
"No. Although those two brothers defeated their mother, they couldn't seize control over the power. The exact reason is unclear to me. I only know that from then on, they upheld two different ideologies, one went to the place of sealing, while the other began to walk among mortals."
This aligned with Aoba's deductions.
One of the brothers tried to restore his ancestral lineage through the body, while the other attempted to gradually steal Kaguya's authority by accumulating small gains.
As for the one on the moon, his plan had clearly failed. His clan fell into internal conflict, and in the end, only Toneri remained, who was now within Aoba's grasp.
"Tell me about the one who walked among mortals."
"Heh..."
At the mention of the Sage of Six Paths, Aoba could clearly sense an emotional fluctuation from the Shinigami. However, since they were communicating on a spiritual level, he couldn't discern the Shinigami's expression.
"The Sage of Six Paths, that's what you call him, right?"
"Honestly, I think that title was something he spread himself."
"Hahaha! You truly are different from other humans.
The Sage of Six Paths chose a different path. He passed down the method of cultivating that power to humans, allowing the entire human world to begin training in it.
In theory, every human who mastered that power could claim a small portion of the authority. Though weak, it still existed. Upon their death, that authority would dissipate into the world, waiting for the next wielder to appear.
The Sage of Six Paths took control of the Pure Land and sealed the pathway of reincarnation. All the deceased souls could no longer return to nature or enter the cycle of reincarnation, because he needed to extract the fragments of authority from those souls.
From billions of souls, he slowly accumulated fragments, extracting their authority and adding a bit of his own power. Theoretically, every soul in the Shinobi World could be influenced by him, though the degree varied.
Based on my deductions, the stronger a shinobi was, the more authority their soul contained after death, and the greater the influence he could exert over them."
"I can understand that, but it seems like there was an exception."
"Hahaha, yes! There was an exception. Just like his mother, he also had two sons, Asura and Indra.
But they weren't actually his real children. They were special manifestations of his original chakra, split from himself out of necessity.
After sealing his mother, most of the energy's authority was also sealed away, including the power inside the Sage of Six Paths himself.
The most peculiar thing about this power is that you may believe it belongs to you, but it actually doesn't. It belongs to the first being who ate the fruit. He couldn't control the power inside him, so he had to separate parts of it.
Thus, his two 'children', Asura and Indra, were born. They were essentially two unique energy entities, but the Sage of Six Paths gave them consciousness.
And then, the most interesting part happened. His two children also began to rebel."
"Both of them?"
"Yes, both. Just like the two brothers who rebelled against their mother, his children also turned against him.
And for this, the Sage of Six Paths paid a tremendous price..."
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