The blood sprayed out by the fused War God evaporated into a crimson mist in midair under the searing heat. This time, as he toppled headfirst onto the lava, he did not even have the strength to speak.
Because he felt a fear that came from the very depths of his soul.
Perhaps the experimental data had already been gathered. Or perhaps it was for some other reason.
Satsuki's Tenseigan stopped continuing its spatial swapping of the fused War God. Instead, she withdrew from her sleeve a jewel that closely resembled the Shikon Jewel and tossed it high into the air.
Then she extended a single finger and pointed toward the Four War Gods.
At that gesture, the fused War God's entire body trembled uncontrollably. His six eyes rolled back, turning white as if his mind had gone blank.
Before long, a somewhat illusory soul form of the fused War God rose upward from the sky. Under Satsuki's control, it was drawn into the jewel suspended above.
For the current Satsuki, controlling souls was no longer any difficulty. Back when she developed [Judgment of the Ten Kings · Samsara Genesis], she had already been only a single step away from this level. After obtaining the Rinnegan's data, she fully analyzed the various abilities contained within it—including the soul-manipulating power of the Human Path.
It was precisely because of that final completion of the Human Path that Satsuki could now easily toy with life and death.
High in the sky, the Shikon Jewel shone brilliantly. With the assistance of the Cauldron of Resonance's power, it began absorbing the fused War God's immense soul and the demonic power contained within it.
The Four War Gods possessed demonic power on the level of a great yōkai. Its intensity was no weaker than that of the fused demon originally formed inside the Shikon Jewel. Moreover, part of the Lunar Palace's power was mixed within it. In terms of total volume, the demonic power contained in this newly reconstructed Shikon Jewel would far surpass the original one.
"The demon portion is complete. Next comes the shrine maiden's spiritual power and soul."
Although Midoriko had been hailed as the greatest shrine maiden in a century, her strength alone had not been enough to oppose the fused War God. Therefore, Satsuki required the spiritual power of even more powerful shrine maidens. To maintain balance with the demonic power currently inside the jewel, what she intended to create this time would not be merely Midoriko's soul alone.
Recreating souls was no difficult matter for Satsuki. Yin-Yang Release itself was a technique capable of creating all things from nothing and bestowing life upon them.
Satsuki had further expanded it into the more versatile and powerful Yin-Yang Sage Art.
Creating unconscious soul forms was absurdly simple for her.
She brought her hands together before her chest. In an instant, Yin-Yang Sage Art activated. Within the void before her, four blank soul consciousness forms gradually took shape and were born.
Merely having blank souls was naturally not enough.
The second step was to fill them with the data of the powerful shrine maidens Satsuki had selected.
According to the information recorded within the giant Tenseigan, four suitable targets were chosen.
[Exorcist Shrine Maiden] Kikyo.
[Barrier Shrine Maiden] Kagura Magenrou.
[Divine Harmony Shrine Maiden] Sakura Fubuki.
[Summoning Shrine Maiden] Kyohime.
After selecting the targets, the Sacred Wheel on Satsuki's wrist emitted a blue radiance of authority, shining upon the soul forms one by one. What had originally been vague, pale-gray silhouettes suddenly underwent drastic transformation as the blue light filled them.
Before long, the four once-indistinct shrine maiden souls appeared before Satsuki with their eyes closed.
Thus, the second step was complete.
What remained was to have the Shikon Jewel fuse these shrine maidens' souls and spiritual power.
For Satsuki, this step presented no difficulty. The Tenseigan's mental light sphere could already dominate consciousness, while the Rinnegan possessed the power to manipulate souls.
Although these four shrine maidens possessed extremely powerful souls, before Satsuki—whose essence was Māra, the Demon Buddha—they had no power to resist.
Just as she had guided the fused War God's soul into the Shikon Jewel, Satsuki now cast the four shrine maiden souls into it as well.
At once, inside the Shikon Jewel, immense spiritual power collided violently with the demonic power within. Pink-purple spiritual energy and violet-black demonic energy rampaged wildly, generating a massive energy tide. The excess power surged outward, forming a dazzling brilliance.
However, along with that brilliant light, cracks gradually began to appear on the surface of the jewel.
"Although the souls have begun preliminary fusion, it seems far from smooth," Ōtsutsuki Kaguya said as she looked up at the Shikon Jewel. "If left alone like this, the gem will not withstand such a clash of power. It will soon shatter."
"Which is precisely why I chose to perform this step inside the Cauldron of Resonance."
From the very beginning, Satsuki had anticipated that the most difficult part of the entire process would be how to successfully fuse the powers of shrine maidens and demons into a dynamic balance.
The original Shikon Jewel had relied on Midoriko's Soul Purification Technique to maintain relative unity between the four souls of demon and shrine maiden, allowing their souls and powers to become interchangeable to a certain extent.
That was why the Shikon Jewel could sometimes be purified and sometimes be corrupted, yet its power never disappeared.
Logically speaking, a purified demon or a corrupted shrine maiden should never have been able to recover their original power. Yet the Shikon Jewel could repeatedly swing between the two states. This was because its four souls existed in a state of dynamic flux.
But this time, the power contained within was simply too vast.
Not only did the fused War God's demonic power far exceed that of the fused demon formed during Midoriko's battle long ago, the spiritual power on the shrine maiden side also far surpassed what had been produced by Midoriko's soul alone, since it now combined the strength of four powerful shrine maidens.
The final conclusion was clear: to stabilize the current jewel, a force similar to Midoriko's Soul Purification Technique—but far stronger—was required to mediate these two powers.
And the Cauldron of Resonance was the crucial artifact that would provide that assistance.
As expected, the Cauldron of Resonance, as an extraordinary divine instrument, operated autonomously. When it detected two mutually conflicting forces erupting within its body, it was as though some function had been automatically activated.
Rumble...
The high-temperature lava that filled the surrounding space underwent a strange transformation amid mechanical tremors. Immediately afterward, from within the surrounding magma drifted a peculiar, illusory flame. It rose and coiled around the Shikon Jewel above.
"This is...?!"
Even someone as powerful as Kaguya felt a sense of crisis upon seeing that flame. Instinctively, she deployed Amenominaka around herself, shifting space to avoid being touched by it.
When Satsuki's Tenseigan beheld the flame born from the void, the calm expression she usually wore rarely gave way to seriousness.
"So this... is the true secret of the Cauldron of Resonance."
With Kanade's abilities as an ordinary human, she clearly did not possess the capacity to construct such a device.
Although the celestial maiden Kaguyayo might have had the ability, she had merely borrowed the power of the Cauldron of Resonance to maintain the Time Barrier formed by the Art of Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
Then what exactly was the true nature of the Cauldron of Resonance as a divine artifact? And for what purpose had it been built?
When Satsuki first learned that the Cauldron of Resonance was located on Hōraijima, she had once asked En no Ozunu about the island while at Katori Shrine.
From him, she heard a most intriguing legend: Hōraijima was said to be an ancient island of the gods. It was rumored that Qin Shi Huang had once dispatched Xu Fu along with three thousand boys and girls to search for Penglai in pursuit of the secret of immortality.
If that legend were true, then this so-called Cauldron of Resonance was very likely an alchemy furnace constructed by the world's "Xu Fu" and the three thousand youths sent with him.
And the purpose of its construction was obvious—the so-called elixir of immortality.
After witnessing the flame born from the void, Satsuki completely confirmed this hypothesis.
Because this was no ordinary fire, but the Samadhi True Fire of Daoism.
...
In the outside world.
The activation of the Cauldron of Resonance also caused celestial phenomena to shift. Immense energy surged into the sky, passing through the opening above the cauldron and piercing into the heavens, forming a crimson pillar of light that connected earth and sky in a single line.
Gazing at the red beam rising from the mountain peak straight into the firmament, Kaguyayo's expression grew solemn.
Standing beside her, Kanade also furrowed her brows. Confusion filled her delicate face. "Why has the Cauldron of Resonance changed so violently? Could something have happened to Shrine Maiden Satsuki and the others?"
"We can no longer approach the Cauldron of Resonance," Kaguyayo said. "The Time Barrier there has already been distorted and shows signs of spreading. Recklessly drawing near would only cause you to age rapidly."
Through the Mirror of Life, Kaguyayo could see that the Art of Mirror Flower, Water Moon near the Cauldron of Resonance had already been damaged. As a celestial maiden whose body and spirit were immortal, the collapse of the Time Barrier would not affect her. But the residents of Hōraijima would face catastrophe once the barrier failed.
Hōraijima originally existed by leaping into another temporal frame through the Time Barrier. Its time did not match that of the outside world. If the barrier collapsed, the island's time flow would be corrected and synchronized with the outside. When that happened, all life upon the island would rapidly age.
"I must recast the spell and repair the Time Barrier," Kaguyayo said gravely. "Kanade, deploy your barrier and ensure no one is struck by the light of my technique."
"Understood."
Kanade nodded and immediately began gathering the residents of Hōraijima, guiding them to take shelter before her shrine. There, a barrier she had prepared would protect them all.
After Kanade departed, Kaguyayo descended onto the lake's surface. Five runes of different colors emerged around her.
Holding the Mirror of Life high in both hands, she raised it into the air. Within its surface appeared the image of a bright full moon.
As the moon manifested, Kaguyayo began to chant: "Beneath this shared moon, the eternal dream banquet—if not now, then when..."
The moment the incantation left her lips, beams of light ignited from five corners of Hōraijima, shooting skyward.
At the same time, the Mirror of Life rose higher, hanging directly above the island.
Under Kaguyayo's control, five beams—including the one from the Cauldron of Resonance—wove themselves around the moonlike Mirror of Life in the sky, forming the pattern of a pentagram.
As the pentagram took shape, pale pink radiance spread outward. Wherever the light touched, the full form of the Time Barrier covering Hōraijima became visible.
The barrier that should have encompassed the entire island now bore a conspicuous void at the location of the crimson pillar. Clearly, the changes within the Cauldron of Resonance had torn it open.
"Now it depends on whether my power can last until they emerge."
With that thought, Kaguyayo raised her fingers and resumed chanting. Vast divine power surged from her body into the moonlike Mirror of Life above. Through the pentagram, it transformed into the pink light of the Art of Mirror Flower, Water Moon, beginning to mend the breach caused by the Cauldron of Resonance.
On one side was Kaguyayo, tirelessly repairing the Time Barrier with the Art of Mirror Flower, Water Moon. On the other was the Cauldron of Resonance, its awakened power rampaging and continuously smashing against the barrier.
For a time, the two immense forces wrestled in the outside world.
...
Inside the Cauldron of Resonance.
"I see. So this is the secret to harmonizing demonic power and spiritual power."
Satsuki's Tenseigan observed the ever-changing radiance of the Shikon Jewel without pause, recording every detail of the True Fire of Samadhi and the jewel's transformations throughout the process.
Having grasped the entire mechanism, she found the principle itself was not complicated. It was essentially the Daoist method of harmonization used in alchemy.
Harmonization meant the transformation of yin and yang and the mutual generation and restraint of the Five Elements.
Such concepts were applicable not only in this world, but in the world of shinobi as well, where the interactions of nature transformations reflected similar principles of opposition and balance.
Within the Cauldron of Resonance, the spiritual power and demonic power contained in the Shikon Jewel generated and restrained one another, perfectly satisfying the attributes of yin and yang.
Although the principle was simple, actually balancing yin and yang was no easy task. Even Satsuki could not forcibly maintain dynamic equilibrium between the two forces through the authority of Energy Control alone.
The true key lay in the Cauldron of Resonance's ability to produce True Fire of Samadhi.
The heart was the sovereign fire, also called spirit fire—known as the Upper Samadhi. The kidneys were the minister fire, also called essence fire—known as the Middle Samadhi. The bladder, the sea of qi below the navel, was the common fire—known as the Lower Samadhi. Together, these formed the True Fire of Samadhi.
True Fire of Samadhi was not fire in the conventional sense. If it were merely ordinary flame, Kaguya would not have sensed danger from it.
Even the black flames of Amaterasu were nothing more than trivial tricks in her eyes—let alone any other fire.
While recording the fluctuations of the True Fire of Samadhi, Satsuki carefully observed the changes within the Shikon Jewel.
Gradually, the jewel ceased emitting its brilliant light. Like a divine treasure concealing its radiance, the spiritual and demonic energies within no longer clashed violently. Under the burning refinement of the True Fire of Samadhi, the powers suspended within the Shikon Jewel began to fuse together.
And at that moment, a long-unheard system notification sounded in Satsuki's mind.
[One of this world's Origins has been detected. Absorb it?]