Chapter 632: Another Divine Tree Fruit?

Chapter 632: Chapter 632: Another Divine Tree Fruit?

Chapter 632: Another Divine Tree Fruit?

Kenichi entered the Kara base before him.

Unfortunately, there was not much left that could still be considered useful.

Kenichi felt somewhat helpless.

The reason was obvious.

His earlier bombardment had caused catastrophic damage to the entire underground complex.

There was nothing he could do about that now.

Still, if Kenichi had known beforehand that Kaguya possessed such an overwhelming advantage against Isshiki, he would never have wasted so many resources bombarding the place.

Just thinking about all the materials he had used made his heart ache.

Looking around at the ruined base, Kenichi sighed.

Almost everything had been destroyed.

Aside from chaotic debris and objects damaged beyond recognition, he could find practically nothing of value.

Unwilling to give up, Kenichi searched the ruins again.

This time, he actually found something.

Deep underground was a strangely well-sealed space.

Kenichi curiously opened the door and stepped inside.

The room appeared to have once been a laboratory.

And at its center stood a strange container.

Kenichi approached it.

Only then did he realize that it was not an ordinary container at all.

It was a nutrient pod.

And inside...

A boy was floating in the liquid.

Kenichi narrowed his eyes.

There were some unusual features on the boy’s head.

He had seen something similar on Isshiki before.

But Isshiki had never explained what they were.

At the time, Kenichi had been far too busy gathering information about the Otsutsuki Clan to ask about every detail.

"Isshiki went through all the trouble of hiding a container here, and the security level is this high."

Kenichi studied the nutrient pod thoughtfully.

"What exactly is this?"

The sight reminded him of his previous experiments.

Especially the work he had done involving human experimentation.

When Kenichi had worked with Amado before, he had seen similar containers in Amado’s laboratory.

Those had been cloning pods.

Clones could be cultivated and allowed to develop inside them.

The pod before him looked remarkably similar.

Kenichi stared at it curiously.

Part of him wanted to open it immediately and inspect whatever was inside.

But he hesitated.

This was something Isshiki had hidden in a highly secure laboratory.

Opening it carelessly might cause unexpected problems.

Kenichi fell into thought.

If he were Isshiki...

Why would he deliberately cultivate a child like this?

Kenichi considered Isshiki’s personality.

There were very few things Isshiki genuinely cared about.

His own recovery.

His own strength.

Restoring his original body.

Everything else was secondary.

In other words, Isshiki cared primarily about himself.

Following that logic, Kenichi doubted the boy had been created because Isshiki wanted an heir or a son.

The far more likely explanation was that this body had been cultivated for Isshiki himself.

Perhaps Isshiki intended to develop the child into a vessel compatible with him.

Then, using the same method he had once used to parasitize Jigen, Isshiki could occupy this child’s body.

If that succeeded, Isshiki might be able to resurrect through a much more suitable vessel.

And if the compatibility was high enough, his restored strength might become even more terrifying.

Kenichi felt this explanation was extremely plausible.

After all, Isshiki’s greatest obsession had always been restoring himself to his prime before taking revenge on Kaguya.

Jigen’s body had never been truly suitable for him.

So it made perfect sense that Isshiki would secretly prepare another vessel.

Kenichi narrowed his eyes.

The boy before him was probably one of Isshiki’s backup plans.

Still...

Kenichi could not completely rule out the possibility that the boy had already become some kind of vessel for Isshiki.

Isshiki possessed many strange techniques.

There was no telling what hidden contingency he might have left behind.

Kenichi therefore decided that the simplest solution would be to destroy the potential vessel completely.

But before doing that, he wanted to preserve its genetic information.

So Kenichi opened the pod and prepared to collect a blood sample.

The instant he did...

The world changed.

Kenichi found himself standing somewhere completely unfamiliar.

He looked around in confusion.

Then his expression became serious.

A genjutsu.

And not an ordinary one.

This was an extremely high-level genjutsu.

Still, Kenichi immediately noticed the abnormalities within it.

Before him stretched an endless wasteland.

Pale.

Desolate.

Completely lifeless.

Between heaven and earth, it seemed that nothing remained except the howling wind and the endless passage of time.

There were no traces of civilization.

No colors of life.

Only deathly silence.

Kenichi looked around.

Not even the most stubborn weeds dared grow here.

It was almost as though some mysterious force had drained everything from the land.

Yet in the center of that barren world...

A gigantic tree stood.

Kenichi recognized it immediately.

The Divine Tree.

And this one was even larger than the Divine Tree he knew.

Its existence seemed like the only miracle remaining in the wasteland.

The trunk was unimaginably thick.

Its bark carried the marks of countless years.

Above it, enormous branches spread outward, covered in dense leaves that rustled gently in the wind.

That sound was the only sign of life in the dead world.

The Divine Tree stood like a silent guardian watching over an abandoned land.

And above the tree...

A man floated in the air.

He wore a flowing robe whose hem moved gently in the wind.

His face was indistinct.

Yet his entire body carried an aura of transcendence that instinctively inspired awe.

He floated quietly with his hands clasped together.

Perhaps praying.

Perhaps thinking.

The surrounding wind continued to howl, but it seemed unable to touch him.

He resembled a god standing above the wasteland, completely detached from everything below.

Sunlight filtered through sparse clouds and fell across his body, creating shifting patches of light and shadow.

The scene gave him an almost sacred presence.

Despite the desolation surrounding them, there was an inexplicable sense of peace beneath the Divine Tree and around the floating figure.

Kenichi narrowed his eyes.

He recognized him immediately.

Isshiki Otsutsuki.

Kenichi took a slow breath.

His first instinct had been to shatter the genjutsu immediately.

But now...

He became interested.

He wanted to see what Isshiki had left behind here.

Was this memory somehow related to the Divine Tree?

"You came."

As Kenichi approached, Isshiki looked down at him calmly.

Kenichi paused.

He did not answer.

Instead, he simply walked over and stopped beside Isshiki.

Isshiki glanced at him.

Then he waved one hand.

The world changed again.

The wasteland disappeared.

In its place appeared the universe.

An endless sea of stars stretched in every direction.

Countless planets floated throughout the boundless darkness.

From this distance, they looked like grains of sand scattered across an infinite ocean.

Small.

Lonely.

Insignificant.

Yet among those planets were a few that nurtured astonishing life.

And on those worlds stood enormous Divine Trees.

One after another.

Their trunks towered toward the heavens, extending so high that they seemed to pierce directly into the stars.

Even from the depths of space, their enormous silhouettes remained clearly visible.

Their branches were lush.

Their leaves were green.

From afar, they resembled vast floating oases.

Their trunks were unimaginably thick, their surfaces carrying the marks of long ages.

They were the sources of life upon those worlds.

They were also objects of worship for countless living beings.

Under the protection of those enormous trees, countless creatures lived their lives.

Some moved between the trees.

Some cultivated land beneath their branches.

Others laughed and played among the treetops.

Against the scale of the Divine Trees, those lives appeared incredibly small.

Yet they were filled with vitality.

Then Kenichi saw one person push another toward a Divine Tree.

The Divine Tree consumed the sacrifice.

Soon afterward...

It bore fruit.

That fruit was eaten by someone else.

The instant the person consumed it, his body became vastly stronger.

His skin shone like polished gemstone.

As power surged through him, even the surrounding space began to ripple slightly.

The person then became the guardian of that planet.

He used his newfound strength to protect his home.

And he also protected the Divine Tree that had granted him such power.

After that...

Those people eventually left the planet.

"This was originally the path I should have taken."

Isshiki’s voice was cold.

"But now..."

"I can no longer walk it."

Hatred entered his tone.

His gaze shifted toward an image of Kaguya within the genjutsu.

Deep resentment burned in his eyes.

The way Isshiki looked at her was almost as though he wanted to devour her alive.

His eyes widened, filled with vicious rage, as though he wanted to tear Kaguya apart with his bare hands.

The hatred in his gaze seemed almost tangible.

His lips curled into a mocking smile.

Every word he spoke carried resentment that had accumulated for countless years.

His voice became low and cold, like something rising from the deepest part of an abyss.

The anger within it was sharp enough to cut.

Veins bulged across Isshiki’s forehead as he struggled to contain his fury.

His voice became increasingly violent, like the roar of a beast trapped inside a cage.

Every word carried overwhelming hatred.

Then Isshiki laughed.

The sound was harsh and filled with almost insane resentment.

It was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to tear Kaguya into pieces.

But now...

He no longer even possessed the strength to take revenge.

Kenichi scratched his head.

The relationship between Isshiki and Kaguya truly was complicated.

Still, Kenichi was not particularly interested in their personal hatred.

What he wanted to know was why Isshiki had left this genjutsu behind.

Isshiki finally turned away from Kaguya and looked at Kenichi.

Then he smiled.

"Do you know?"

"I still have one Divine Tree seed."

Kenichi’s pupils contracted.

A Divine Tree seed?

If it could genuinely be planted...

Then Kenichi might be able to obtain another chakra fruit.

And if that happened, he could potentially become even stronger.

But where had Isshiki obtained another seed?

Kenichi clearly remembered Isshiki saying before his death that he had only brought one Divine Tree seed to this world.

Nothing else.

Yet now Isshiki was claiming that another one existed.

That genuinely surprised Kenichi.

"Where is it?"

He could not stop himself from asking.

Isshiki smiled.

Then...

Without any visible movement from him, the entire genjutsu shattered.

Kenichi was instantly thrown back into reality.

The boy in the nutrient pod suddenly opened his eyes.

Then his body rapidly aged.

His skin shriveled.

His flesh decayed.

Within moments, the boy’s body collapsed completely.

And something else appeared in the laboratory.

Kenichi stared at it in astonishment.

A Gedo Statue.

Naturally, Kenichi knew what the Gedo Statue was.

He also knew that it was essentially the husk of the Divine Tree.

Normally, if someone wanted to release Kaguya from her seal, they would need to gather the power of the Tailed Beasts into the Gedo Statue.

That was why Kenichi had once wondered how Hagoromo had managed to skip that entire process and directly release Kaguya.

He had asked Hagoromo about it afterward.

According to Hagoromo, he had borrowed the power of the Pure Land to support Kaguya’s temporary unsealing.

However, if Kaguya wanted to remain permanently in the living world, the chakra of the Tailed Beasts would eventually still need to be gathered.

Hagoromo had deliberately arranged it that way because he wanted to preserve the possibility of sealing Kaguya again if necessary.

So theoretically...

A Gedo Statue should not have been hidden here.

Yet Isshiki had somehow prepared one.

Kenichi stared at it for several seconds.

Then his excitement faded.

This was not a Divine Tree seed at all.

"Didn’t you say it was a seed?"

Kenichi felt somewhat disappointed.

If it had truly been another seed, it would have held enormous value.

But if it was merely another Gedo Statue...

Then its research value was much lower.

After all, if Kenichi wanted to study a Gedo Statue, obtaining access to one was not particularly difficult.

His relationship with Hagoromo was quite good.

Borrowing the original for research would hardly be impossible.

Then Isshiki’s lingering voice echoed once more.

"There isn’t much I can still give you."

....

? QUICK NOTE FOR MY READERS

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The beta is opening soon, and I’ll be doing some special community events and rewards for readers who want to join.

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I won’t put all the details here, but if you’re curious, check my Patreon/community pages for the full announcement.

Story updates here will continue normally.

Thanks for reading, and maybe I’ll see some of you in THE ANCHOR. ?

[[email protected]/FanficLord03].