Passing through the dark and deep tunnel, Takuno finally set foot on the surface of the Moon.
The scene before his eyes instantly shattered his inherent perception of this dead and silent place.
Beneath his feet was not the desolate, lonely gray desert he had expected, but a vast expanse of azure.
That vast, boundless sea actually displayed an incredible circular distortion; light bent and swirled within it, holding aloft a distant island like a pavilion floating in the ethereal air, filled with a sense of unreality.
Surrounding this strange sea area were not just jagged rocks, but a vibrant, dense forest extending all the way to the end of his vision.
Everything here was completely different from the lifeless Moon in his memory.
A gentle, fresh breeze brushed over his cheeks, bringing the moist scent unique to forests;
Beneath his feet was a firm, heavy gravity, pulling at his body;
With every breath, what rushed into his lungs was fresh oxygen rich in the source of life...
Takuno subconsciously raised his head; above the firmament, a sun emitting a warm glow hung high.
Had he not known deep down that he was on the Moon, this continent-like environment would have almost given him the illusion that he was still on the continent below.
However, he remembered that this sun was fake, and was it also the true location of the palace where Toneri was located?
The grand chakra within Takuno's body instantly surged and boiled, and a pair of magnificent, condensed purple chakra wings abruptly unfolded behind his back, flowing with vibrant colors.
"Kujaku Myōhō: Wings!"
The wings flapped fiercely, and a powerful airflow exploded beneath his feet.
Takuno's figure turned into a swift purple stream of light, tearing through the air and flying rapidly toward the direction of that floating island.
In the blink of an eye, he was already standing in mid-air above the island.
Looking down from above, a continuous sea of verdant trees rolled up and down, and masked beneath those dense branches and leaves, specks of energy light spheres emitting a soft glow were clearly visible.
Enclosed within the light spheres were human-shaped puppets of peculiar design; like the most loyal sentries, they stood perfectly still, alerting the surroundings.
Takuno did not deliberately hide his aura, so he was certain that these puppets had long since captured his trail.
However, they merely "watched" quietly, their cold mechanical bodies showing not the slightest intention to attack.
This abnormal calmness instead caused doubts to rise thick in Takuno's heart.
Hovering in the air, his brow furrowed slightly: "Ōtsutsuki Toneri, or your father who might still be in the world—just what are you planning?"
After a brief thought, Takuno stopped dwelling on it.
Today was different from the past; having already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and successfully assimilated the Hashirama cells, stepping onto this lunar land, he had long possessed the capital to look down upon everything.
Too much suspicion was merely creating trouble for oneself.
Strength was the key to unlocking all mysteries.
With this thought, Takuno no longer hesitated.
The purple stream of light sliced through the sky once more, diving toward the silhouette of an ancient settlement-like outline looming at the end of the forest.
The chakra wings quietly retracted, and Takuno landed firmly within this peculiar village.
Looking around, an aura of vicissitude and loneliness rushed over him.
All the buildings were piled together from huge, clearly weathered yellowish-brown rocks, displaying a rugged, sandy tone.
The houses were closely arranged, the streets narrow; the entire village looked as if it had been directly chiseled out from the eternal dust of the Moon, bearing a primitive and heavy texture.
"As expected, it's that village..." Takuno muttered in a low voice, his sharp gaze sweeping across every broken wall and ruined pillar.
According to the information he knew, this was precisely the settlement of the other branch of the Ōtsutsuki clan that had once rivaled Toneri's faction, but ultimately suffered a tragic destruction.
He walked slowly through the deserted stone alleys.
A deathly silence enveloped these ruins, with only the wind blowing through the crevices of the stones making a wailing sound.
Takuno's thoughts settled on an important objective of this trip; if his memory was correct, this village... should also bury a Tenseigan.
The image of that golden Tenseigan located at the core of the Moon surfaced in his mind.
Except, the one belonging to this branch clan seemed to be a stone-sphere-shaped Tenseigan of a completely different form, which would emit a purple light when activated, also known as the Purple Tenseigan.
He wondered if it had survived that catastrophe, or if it had long since turned into dust?
Takuno collected his mind and quietly spread his perception like a spiderweb, beginning to search within this empty, silent stone village for the trail of that strange stone eye that might be deeply hidden beneath the ruins.
On the desolate surface of the Moon, the ruins of this reasonably large village appeared even more bleak amidst the open, dead silence.
Takuno's figure shuttled between the broken walls and ruined structures, the search consuming a significant amount of his time.
Ultimately, his footsteps stopped in a particularly solemn area—a sprawling, ancient graveyard.
At the center of the graveyard, situated on what was clearly the main tomb, a dusty stone sphere was enshrined.
Takuno's gaze instantly froze.
The surface of that stone sphere was covered with lines of age-old erosion and dust, but its outline perfectly overlapped with the image deep in his memory; this was precisely the appearance of that legendary stone Tenseigan.
He stepped forward slowly, extending his hand, and with a trace of investigative meaning in his fingertips, pressed lightly onto the cold surface of the sphere.
Beneath his palm was the coarse texture of rock.
He concentrated his mind to sense it, attempting to capture even the slightest ripple of energy... however, there was only a deathly silence.
This Tenseigan, which had once contained the power to destroy heaven and earth, seemed to have truly been completely stripped of all its divine anomalies by time, thoroughly reduced to a piece of ordinary stone.
"Perhaps... it really is just a stone."
Takuno muttered to himself, an undetectable trace of disappointment flitting across his heart.
He remembered that Toneri's side also seemed to have this kind of stone; the current him probably couldn't distinguish which one was the true Purple Tenseigan that had likely lost all its majesty.
He slowly withdrew his hand and shook his head.
At this moment, this stone sphere held zero value for him; it was merely a heavy relic bearing past history.
Once he truly awakened the Tenseigan himself in the future, perhaps coming back to this place to investigate would allow him to know if there were still secrets within.
With this thought, the idea of taking the stone Tenseigan away was completely abandoned.
Let it lie quietly in this piece of land belonging to the Moon.
Takuno's gaze swept over this silent graveyard, and a plan formed in his mind.
Once the affairs on the ground settled down, his entire experimental base could completely migrate to this boundless and hidden Moon.
Just as he turned to leave, his perception sharply captured a slight anomaly in a corner of the graveyard.
A blurry figure leaned against a tombstone, having long since lost its vital spark, like a part of the frozen death around it.
However, upon that ruined corpse, there actually still lingered an extremely weak chakra fluctuation, flickering like a remnant candle in the wind.
Takuno understood immediately.
This was, in his memory, that member of the Ōtsutsuki branch family who guarded this place, waiting for the arrival of the "True Byakugan Princess."
According to the setting, when perceiving pure Byakugan chakra, this ruined body would exhaust its final strength to project the memory illusions of that tragic civil war on the Moon to the Byakugan Princess.
However, Takuno had absolutely no interest in this.
Possessing the memories of his past life, he was already thoroughly familiar with this period of history.
The soaring of his strength had not only brought a qualitative change in power, but also made his spiritual energy unprecedentedly strong; the information he had read and cared about in the past was like being engraved in the depths of his mind, exceptionally clear.
Only those minor details that had never entered his heart back then would be completely forgotten.
No longer having the slightest attachment, Takuno's figure quietly vanished into the shadows of the lunar ruins, leaving behind that dead silent graveyard and that stone sphere that seemed to sleep forever.
A piercing, cold wind rolled with the dust of the tombs into his face; the moment Takuno's figure emerged from the graves of the Ōtsutsuki branch, his brow suddenly tightened.
His sharp gaze instantly locked onto the firmament, only to see that the originally open sky was now covered by a heart-palpitating "dark cloud."
That was not a true cloud, but a densely packed, strictly aligned legion of flying puppets!
Upon each and every cold, bone-textured flying puppet creation stood armed human-shaped puppets, all pointing directly at him.
"Heh..." A trace of understanding and disdain flashed in Takuno's eyes, "The Ōtsutsuki father-and-son... finally can't hold back anymore? It's just..."
His vision swept over that sky-blotting mechanical army, his mouth curving into a mocking arc, "Wanting to take me down with just these small fries? Isn't that taking me a bit too lightly!"
Just as the thought arose, a sudden change occurred! The movements of the puppet groups in the sky were uniform; countless metal arms instantly moved, forming cold seals of technical formulas!
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!!
In the next instant, a shrill sound of breaking air tore through the sky!
A chakra bullet storm so dense it was suffocating gathered into a destructive metal torrent, carrying blinding light as it poured down frantically from all directions toward Takuno on the ground!
The barrage was so dense it locked down almost all space for evasion.
However, facing this saturation strike that was enough to instantly tear an ordinary ninja to shreds, Takuno's expression remained composed.
In his eyes, those chakra bullets seemed to have been put on slow motion, their trajectories clearly visible.
He did not even deign to open the Sharingan that symbolized power.
"Buzz!"
A low energy hum exploded from within his body!
A pitch-black chakra so dense it was nearly physical, like a demon flame from the abyss, instantly erupted from all around his body!
This profound dark energy coalesced and shaped itself at his side at an astonishing speed, and in the blink of an eye, it constructed a pitch-black giant skeleton consisting only of a massive ribcage and part of a spine.
Precisely the initial form of Susanoo!
Currently, for the initial form of Susanoo, Takuno could freely condense it without relying on the Sharingan.
Only if he wanted to drive more powerful forms did he require the power of the Mangekyō.
But at this moment, to deal with the attacks of these puppets, this initial form of Susanoo was more than enough!
"Clang, clang, clang, clang!!"
Countless chakra bullets struck the pitch-black bone structure like a violent storm, exploding into a series of ear-piercing metallic screeches and splattering dazzling sparks of energy!
However, no matter how berserk and rampant that barrage was, that pitch-black skeleton remained completely unmoved, not even a single crack appearing on its surface, shielding Takuno firmly within, truly interpreting what absolute defense meant.
Situated under the protection of the Susanoo skeleton, Takuno's gaze suddenly turned cold.
His hands formed seals.
"Kujaku Myōhō: Dragon Snake!"
A purple chakra torrent even more condensed than before violently surged out from within his body!
This force was no longer merely a protective barrier, but was filled with a berserk will of destruction.
The purple gas boiled and rose like boiling water, rapidly gathering, stretching, and shaping itself in mid-air!
In just a single breath, a giant python composed of pure purple chakra majestically manifested between heaven and earth!
This python flowed entirely with a magnificent and dangerous purple light; its massive serpent head was held high, its cold vertical pupils seeming to possess sentience as they locked onto the prey in the sky, opening a bloody maw large enough to swallow mountain rocks, emitting a soul-shaking silent roar!
"Roar!"
An invisible energy shockwave expanded outward, causing all the puppets to involuntarily shake.
The python's massive body violently arched like a spring compressed to the limit, and in the next moment, it turned into a purple lightning bolt that tore through the sky, launching itself with lightning speed toward that dense puppet legion!
The serpent's mouth opened wide, carrying the majesty of devouring everything.
"BOOM! CRACK!!"
A loud explosion accompanied the dense sound of metal shattering!
The python's fangs and sharp teeth clamped down fiercely, instantly biting dozens of flying puppets along with the human-shaped puppets upon them into pieces along its path!
Metal parts and energy fragments splattered in all directions in the sky like fireworks!
The puppets fortunate enough not to be devoured in one bite immediately fell into chaos; they began to disperse to avoid, circle, and flee, attempting to stay far away from this terrifying purple god of death.
However, the dominance of this battle had long since changed hands.
The scene that followed thoroughly turned into a ruthless and efficient hunt.
The purple chakra giant python twisted and moved in the sky, fast as a ghost.
At times it swept like a long whip, blowing whole patches of puppets into dust;
At times it lunged like lightning, precisely devouring and crushing individual fleeing puppets in one bite;
At times it coiled and pursued, crushing puppet groups that attempted to gather and resist into iron pancakes!
Every opening and closing of the serpent's kiss, every swing of the giant tail, was accompanied by the mourning of metal dismantling and the flash of energy annihilation.
This one-sided slaughter lasted for only a moment.
When the final ear-piercing sound of metal tearing returned to silence, the rowdy sky finally recovered a death-like quiet.
That mighty purple giant python completed its mission, turning into specks of purple light and vanishing without a trace.
There was only the puppet wreckage, twisted metal fragments, and broken limbs falling rustling down from the sky like rain.
They smashed clattering onto the ground, paving a cold and messy carpet of death in the wilderness around the graves, silently telling the outcome of that hunt just now.
Takuno looked toward the artificial sun; behind his back, the chakra wings condensed once more, and with a flap of the dual wings, his entire person shot toward the artificial sun.
Upon this sun lay the traces of a barrier; generally speaking, one would need to use those puppets to open an entrance for him to enter.
But did Takuno need that?
The figure of him shooting toward the artificial sun was covered in white steam all over, as if his blood were boiling.
"Sage Art: Boil Release: Unrivaled Strength!"