Chapter 399: Who Is the True Sage of Six Paths?

"The Sage of Six Paths must have perfected the Three Corpse Technique, reaching the absolute limit that this 'fishpond' could possibly nurture!"

"That's why he attracted the attention of whatever exists behind the scenes—and they simply reeled in his true body as the biggest 'catch'!"

Panic erupted through the crowd and spread like a plague.

Their former pride in the Sage of Six Paths' strength, and their satisfaction at seeing Ōtsutsuki Graywhite flee in disgrace, had now transformed entirely into profound fear and helplessness.

The founder they revered as a god, the very cornerstone upon which they believed the world stood, was nothing more than fish on a chopping board before a higher-dimensional existence. Even struggling seemed laughably futile.

"Reeled in... Then what are we supposed to do?" A young shinobi's voice trembled on the verge of tears as he looked around helplessly. "The Sage of Six Paths... can he still escape? He's so powerful..."

"Escape?" A hoarse, cold laugh came from beside him, filled with despairing self-mockery.

"When you catch a fish, do you let it get away?"

"Once it's been reeled in, at best it'll be kept as some rare curiosity in a more luxurious 'aquarium.' Or..." His voice grew grim. "It'll simply be slaughtered, eaten, or refined into something else! Do you think an existence like that goes to the trouble of 'fishing' just to set its catch free?"

Those words were the final straw, crushing what little hope remained in many people's hearts.

Despair swept over one soul after another like an icy tide.

The world was a fishpond. They were ignorant little fish swimming within it. Even the "Dragon King" they had once looked up to was merely a larger fish that had been caught and taken away.

So what about them?

What meaning did their struggles, hatred, love, and sacrifices... any of it have?

However, amid the nearly frozen atmosphere of despair, a shinobi with deeply furrowed brows stared intently toward the place where the Heavenly Curtain had vanished and suddenly raised an objection.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense!" His voice wasn't loud, but it sliced through the suffocating despair like a blade.

"If... if the Sage of Six Paths' true body was reeled in so early, then afterward... how did he establish the Ninshū, spread Chakra, or even have descendants? It doesn't add up! The timeline doesn't match!"

His words struck the muddled minds of the crowd like a thunderclap!

For a moment, silence fell again. But this time, beneath that silence, thoughts raced and realization began to dawn.

Then, in the next instant, a trembling yet crystal-clear voice pointed out the key.

"Heh... Have you all forgotten?" The speaker's eyes were sharp, carrying the complicated expression of someone who had seen through one layer of fog only to find himself surrounded by an even deeper mist.

"Only his 'true body' was reeled in! He still had his Good Corpse and Evil Corpse!"

"Those two bodies possessed strength almost identical to that of the Sage of Six Paths himself!"

"At the end of the Heavenly Curtain, they were merely sent flying and severely injured. They weren't reeled in, and they didn't disappear!"

"So that's it!!"

"My God... So that's what happened!"

"Then does that mean... the 'Sage of Six Paths' shown later in the Heavenly Curtain—and the one we know from history—wasn't actually the real person at all?"

"The one who repaired the world, founded Ninshū, and spread Chakra... was that the Good Corpse, or the Evil Corpse?"

New and even more horrifying questions instantly wrapped themselves around everyone's minds like wildly growing vines.

The despair was temporarily suppressed by this earth-shattering speculation, replaced by deeper confusion and unease, along with the absurd feeling that they had been completely deceived.

Arguments immediately erupted. The crowd split into two camps, each stubbornly defending its own theory as they tried to piece together evidence from fragments of history and details revealed by the Heavenly Curtain.

"I think it was the Good Corpse! Otherwise, why would he be so kind? Repairing the world everywhere, founding Ninshū to guide humanity, and spreading Chakra? That's clearly the conduct of someone compassionate, someone devoted to guiding mankind! Only the Good Corpse, representing benevolent intent and the purification of senjutsu, would do something like that!"

"The Good Corpse? Impossible!" An opponent immediately shot back, his voice agitated.

"Have you forgotten what happened afterward? The shinobi world has spent over a thousand years killing and fighting, with wars never ceasing. Did he ever do anything about it?"

"And what about the Pure Land collecting souls and Chakra? Does that sound like the behavior of 'good'?"

"I say it was obviously the Evil Corpse! The Evil Corpse represents power and desire. Disguising himself as a savior and spreading the Chakra system was nothing more than a way to better gather this world's energy and souls in pursuit of some unknown goal!"

"Founding Ninshū? That was just a more efficient way to manage and cultivate the 'crops'!"

One piercing question after another was thrown out, striking heavily against everyone's hearts.

If a clone had truly been responsible for everything that followed, then what was the true purpose of Ninshū?

Was the Pure Land's collection of souls an act of benevolence—or a conspiracy?

The will and plans of the "Sage of Six Paths" under which they had believed, struggled, and lived for the past thousand years...

Did they originate from "good," or from "evil"?

Or perhaps... from some twisted coexistence and balance between the two?

No one could provide an answer.

The "god" they had looked up to might no longer have been the original person.

The "world" they lived in might have been operating beneath the shadow of a "clone" from the very beginning.

And that "fisherman" lurking behind the scenes...

When would it decide once again that the "fish" in this pond had grown fat enough?

Deep within the Pure Land.

The real Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo, was also "watching" the Heavenly Curtain.

At first, as the Heavenly Curtain replayed the complicated emotions he had experienced after sealing his mother and the long years he had spent repairing the world, only the faintest ripple from that distant past stirred within his otherwise ancient, tranquil consciousness.

He had long understood the Heavenly Curtain's habitual "adaptations" and distortions, and even regarded them with a trace of detached indifference.

However, when the story suddenly took a sharp turn—from the Three Corpse Technique frightening Ōtsutsuki Graywhite away to the appearance of that bizarre fishing line, which reeled "his" true body away like a fish...

For a rare moment, Hagoromo's timeless existence seemed to freeze.

An indescribable sense of numbness, bordering on the absurd, descended like the deepest, coldest fog and enveloped every corner of his consciousness.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?

After existing for countless years, these three most fundamental questions were forced upon him in such a ridiculous and bewildering manner by the Heavenly Curtain's absurd storyline.

He knew the Heavenly Curtain was fabricating nonsense, but he had never imagined it could fabricate something so thoroughly outrageous that it overturned even the very question of whether his "true body" existed at all!

"My real self was reeled in? Then who am I? The Good Corpse or the Evil Corpse?"

That question, born from the Heavenly Curtain's ridiculous narrative, left him caught between laughter and tears—and stirred within him... a faint but genuine anger at having been so thoroughly offended.

He had lived for so long, watched over the changing shinobi world, and witnessed countless tragedies and joys. He had long grown accustomed to being revered, speculated about, and even misunderstood.

But being written into a bizarre farce in which he was turned into "a fish that had been caught," while his identity itself was supposedly stolen by one of his own clones—that was truly a first.

Would there come a day when some fellow suddenly appeared in the shinobi world and declared that he was the real Sage of Six Paths?

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