After chatting with the little girl for a while, the old man was pushed in his wheelchair by White Zetsu to a high platform. His previously cheerful mood became desolate once again.
From there, he could overlook most of the scenery of the True World City, but he was in no mood to watch.
He had also previously seen Kushina and the others bring back the Tailed Beasts.
The seated old man's gaze merely hardened slightly, without much reaction.
White Zetsu, who was at his side, called out, "Lord Madara, you saw that just now, right? Our plan is completely unworkable. His Majesty has even killed several of the Tailed Beasts, he's about to finish them all off."
"And they're the kind that can't be revived!"
Uchiha Madara was speechless. At this moment, he couldn't care less about the life or death of the Tailed Beasts.
His only motivation for living right now was to kill Ōtsutsuki Black Zetsu!
If Black Zetsu did not die, even in death, he could not wash away this humiliation.
After being brought back by Lucian, his injuries were healed by Lucian's illusionary abilities. However, Madara's body was already decaying, and he had been relying on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to stay alive.
Seeing Madara's heavy heart, Lucian was not in a hurry to remodel him.
Especially after Lucian told him the whole truth, Uchiha Madara's mentality almost collapsed, and he still hasn't fully recovered.
"Black Zetsu!"
Just that one name made Madara's gaze incomparably cold.
"...Uchiha Madara?"
A slightly nervous and curious voice sounded. Madara looked back slightly, his gaze pausing.
Nagato, is it? He's really grown a lot.
The two looked at each other, speechless!
White Zetsu's eyes darted back and forth, and for some unknown reason, he kept smirking slyly.
Yahiko, who was beside them, spoke up: "Why did you give your eyes to Nagato? Didn't it hurt?"
"Heh..."
Uchiha Madara couldn't be bothered to explain.
Has this child been protected too well by Lucian? So naive!
"Although I don't know what you were planning to do before, but... thank you!"
To Madara's surprise, Nagato thanked him sincerely.
White Zetsu was stunned, "Hey, hey, you've got the wrong person, right? Lord Madara was..."
As he spoke, White Zetsu stopped and coughed lightly, "Ahem, it's nothing."
Perhaps reminiscing, a sad look appeared in Nagato's eyes. "A few months ago, a conflict broke out between Konoha and Amegakure. Two Konoha ninja broke into my home."
"I saw my parents lying in a pool of blood. The two ninja were apologizing to their bodies, saying they had made a mistake, that they had mistaken them for enemies and acted."
"Such a reason, how ridiculous!"
Nagato's tone was laced with anger. "My rage caused me to erupt with a power I couldn't comprehend, and I killed them directly."
"My parents' death brought me pain."
"What made me even more grieved and confused!"
"After Konan took me away, I found out... that in those few months, there were too many children like me who had lost their families."
"My story is just a microcosm of war."
Ah, a microcosm of war!
Yahiko also fell silent. His parents had also died because of the war.
While dealing with matters concerning Kisame and Terumi Mei, Lucian listened to the conversation there.
"Thanking Madara...."
At the moment, Lucian didn't feel there was anything wrong with it.
After all, the plan hadn't started yet, and Madara's Rinnegan had helped him get revenge.
Some people say that Madara had Nagato's parents killed in order to awaken his eyes.
Lucian was speechless. Such a baseless rumor!
The power of the Rinnegan is not something a small child can withstand.
He hadn't even found someone to guide Nagato as his successor, so what was the use of awakening his eyes?
It was fortunate that Nagato at that time hadn't even cultivated his chakra; it was purely an eruption of the residual visual prowess left by Madara.
Otherwise, in such a small body, an outburst of rage could have directly consumed him into a dried corpse.
The death of Nagato's parents was merely an expression of the cruelty of war.
Uchiha Madara was silent for a long time before saying somberly, "Not everything in this world goes as you wish. The longer you live... the more clearly you see that reality is, in fact, helplessness, pain, and emptiness."
"Listen well. In this world, wherever there is light, there will always be shadows."
Gazing at the distant sky, Madara seemed to see the handsome figure of Hashirama in the clouds, and he continued to speak slowly:
"If one wishes to maintain peace for their own selfish reasons, it will inevitably lead to war. In order to protect love, hatred is born."
"This chain of cause and effect cannot be severed. Such is reality."
"The real world is hell."
His long, elderly life in a cave had filled Uchiha Madara with much emotion.
"A world with only victors, only peace, only love..."
"I was going to create such a world."
But the result...
Uchiha Madara couldn't help but be lost in a daze.
After realizing he was a mere tool, Madara began to reflect.
If there was nothing wrong with Black Zetsu and the Infinite Tsukuyomi, was the result truly what he wanted?
Everyone trapped in a genjutsu, how false.
His path had gone astray.
"Old man..."
"Silence! I, Uchiha Madara, have not decayed!"
Hearing Yahiko's words "old man," Uchiha Madara's eyes instantly sharpened.
The little girl from before was one thing, she was just an ordinary girl, but Yahiko and the others were not allowed!
Unwilling to admit his age, yet powerless to do anything but accept it—perhaps this is the regret of the strong.
"He is an old man...."
Yahiko couldn't help but mutter, which instantly made Madara's Rinnegan flare, making him want to give Yahiko a beating.
Never mind, an adult wouldn't get serious with a child.
"Are you done with your nonsense?"
Uchiha Madara snorted coldly and continued to reminisce about the great Hashirama.
Nagato took out a glowing orb and handed it over. "This body must be uncomfortable. His Majesty asked me to bring this."
"Eating it will allow you to return to your peak and obtain new power."
Looking at the crystal-clear orb, which contained a drop of blood, Uchiha Madara did not take it.
Yahiko: "Don't you want to return to your peak? ...This new power can grant you immortality."
"If you have a dream, a long life can help you achieve it."
"By the way, His Majesty told me to tell you something."
"The lives of those who are granted power by His Majesty are in His Majesty's hands. That is the price of the power."
That fellow, so frank!
Uchiha Madara couldn't describe his feelings; they were too complex.
Uchiha Madara, now needing to be saved by a child. If Hashirama knew, he would die of laughter.
But thinking of Black Zetsu living splendidly made him feel suffocated.
Seeing that Madara still had no reaction, Nagato also said: "His Majesty said, if you don't accept it, then..."
Nagato stood up straight, mimicking Lucian's posture, and spoke indifferently.
"For the great Shura of the Ninja World to be so faithless, you are unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the God of Shinobi!"
"Ha! A taunt? You've succeeded!"
Uchiha Madara's visual prowess suddenly erupted. The formless aura directly shocked everyone back a few steps.
He indifferently took the orb and swallowed it!
Gulp!
Swallowed in one gulp, the transformation began.
Uchiha Madara didn't even frown, his face expressionless.
But Yahiko, Nagato, and White Zetsu were all dumbfounded. The pain of having one's soul torn apart, taken so easily?
"As expected of the Shura of the Ninja World...."
Lucian praised him in his mind. Such great perseverance.
That orb.
Lucian had condensed into it more than a hundred times the total amount of Spirit Particles required to create three thousand Holy Soldiers.
Spirit Particles gasified, then liquefied, then condensed into a spirit water!
Then, he compressed a massive amount of this spirit water to its limit to form a spirit orb, into which he dripped his blood.
The concentration of Spirit Particles within it was greater than the total amount absorbed by Kushina and the others combined, comparable to a Super Kage Level.
It wasn't that Lucian was biased.
Before, Orochimaru and the other two could at best be called Quasi-Kage level; otherwise, they wouldn't have been unable to defeat even a single Hanzo.
Kushina and Mikoto were at the Genin level, and the three little ones were complete novices.
The group of eight was completely incapable of controlling such immense power; they could only take it slowly.
But Uchiha Madara could control it with ease.
"Wow, Lord Madara is becoming handsome..."
Watching Madara change, White Zetsu exclaimed in surprise.
The great Lord Madara was instantly displeased.
I've always been handsome, alright.
The decaying Madara's white hair turned black strand by strand, his old face grew younger, his aura skyrocketed, and his life force erupted.
The building they were on cracked, unable to withstand it.
Yahiko was stunned: "Such strong Spiritual Pressure! This spiritual power is... immense!"
Nagato nodded: "In terms of ninja levels... his spiritual power alone is at the Super Kage Level."
A moment later, a Uchiha Madara who looked to be in his thirties was back online!
He exuded an aura of looking down on all creation, one that people dared not look at directly.
The wheelchair was directly shattered by the Spiritual Pressure. Uchiha Madara, showing neither joy nor sorrow, raised his hand towards the sky.
"Shinra Tensei!"
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