Chapter 244

After leaving the Village of the Lightning Shadow, Senju Yukika returned directly to the Void Night Palace.

He immediately summoned Orochimaru and Hatake Shigeru from the upper-tier war simulation.

When the two formidable warriors appeared before Yukika, their faces were filled with confusion. They had no idea why Yukika had suddenly called them back from the peak battle scenario.

At the same time, several other skilled allies had already gathered there.

Yukika's order to them was simple: to quickly construct a dozen massive statues.

These statues were to be built from stone foundations and cast with rare metals, giving them a majestic and awe-inspiring appearance. Each sculpture had been meticulously designed by Yukika himself and would stand hundreds of meters tall.

Every statue bore enormous black wings, a pair of sharp, twisted horns on their heads, and pupils that glowed a deep emerald green—speckled with faint golden light shimmering in the cold darkness.

The statues would be placed in every ninja village across the continent. Their purpose was clear: to become objects of worship, through which Yukika could absorb the villagers' spiritual devotion—their faith.

Now that Yukika fully understood the nature of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, he sensed that he too could harness the power of faith to elevate himself. Perhaps, he could even carve out an entirely new world with it.

The warriors forged in the peak battle simulations had significantly advanced Yukika's template development. His abilities continued to grow stronger each day.

Even his spiritual pressure had reached staggering levels—so immense and vast it seemed infinitely more powerful than before.

A few days later, Orochimaru led a team of subordinates and transported one of the towering statues to the Village of the Sand.

There, the statue was erected at a prominent corner of the village entrance. Once it stood tall, all the ninjas in the village stared up at it in awe, a wave of reverence and unease rising in their hearts.

"Look at that! What kind of statue is that? It's massive... I feel my heart trembling just looking at it!"

"I swear I've seen that form somewhere before... it looks familiar…"

"Oh my god, I can't bear to keep looking. The eyes of that statue are terrifying, like they're hiding immense power! I feel like I've been pulled right into them!"

The villagers of the Sand were abuzz with discussion.

They all shared one sensation—a natural, involuntary sense of awe. Just standing near the statue made them feel as though they were in the presence of something divine.

The atmosphere was solemn. A mysterious energy seemed to thicken the air—just as Yukika had anticipated. It was faith energy, the collective reverence of the people, now pouring directly into the statue.

Back in the Void Night Palace, Yukika could feel it too. The power of belief was rapidly accumulating inside him.

At the same time, he sensed a subtle but meaningful shift in his own strength—as though something long sealed had begun to loosen.

"I didn't expect it... to actually be able to absorb faith. What an unexpected gift."

Yukika murmured to himself, a rare smile curling at his lips.

Originally, he had planned to journey to the Ōtsutsuki homeworld for further cultivation. But now, he no longer felt the urgency.

The ability to harness faith wasn't part of the plan—but it might very well be a different path to transcendence.

Yukika had never been satisfied with his current power. He believed that with enough effort, even the impossible could be achieved.

And so, he delayed leaving the planet. In a hundred years, a supreme Ōtsutsuki would arrive on this very world.

If Yukika left now, this native planet would stand no chance—it would be destroyed in an instant by such an entity.

After all, beings of that caliber were godlike, capable of obliterating entire worlds with a mere gesture.

Time passed swiftly. It had already been decades since the Great Ninja War.

Yukika remained in the Void Night Palace, rarely venturing out.

The day of divine reckoning was drawing ever closer, and the towering statues in each village were feeding him stronger and stronger waves of spiritual energy—deepening his power beyond measure.

Even his closest lieutenants had undergone staggering evolutions.

Take Orochimaru and Hatake Shigeru, for example. They now seemed almost on par with the legendary Sage of Six Paths.

In all these years, only one noteworthy event had occurred—the beast Qiongqi, which had been quietly curled inside Yukika's storage pouch, initiated contact.

Their conversation was highly secretive, but ever since then, Qiongqi had been fully liberated. No longer withdrawn, it now roamed the ninja world freely.

After traveling across the land and experiencing countless events, the beast began to change.

There was no longer a need for Yukika to suppress Qiongqi—it had come to genuinely submit to him as its master.

Yukika quietly observed the change in its eyes and understood everything.

All these years, he had been searching for the last remaining Ōtsutsuki on this planet. All the others had returned to their ancestral homeworld via the star teleportation array.

What Yukika didn't know was that the clan had secretly returned through those very same teleportation gates.

As Ōtsutsuki, they had their own means of communication.

The only clan member left on this planet had sensed the disappearance of his brethren. Shocked and panicked, he chose to abandon the planet as quickly as possible.

One day, as Yukika sat calmly within the Void Night Palace, a sudden realization struck him. He lifted his gaze toward the sky.

The sky above the planet seemed to darken in an instant. Thick clouds rolled in, and black lightning danced within them.

BOOM!

The earth rumbled violently, as if a massive earthquake were about to tear the world apart.

In all five great nations, ninjas and villagers alike were terrified, staring skyward, certain that the end of days had arrived.

No one dared to leave their homes.

Seeing this shift in the world, Yukika smiled coldly.

"So... the moment has finally come."

He stood up from his seat and stepped forward. His black wings unfurled with a soft rustle—and in the next second, he soared into the sky.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away from Earth, deep within the vast universe, a cloaked elder flew swiftly through the void.

His gaze was emotionless, devoid of any human warmth. The pressure he exuded was so explosive that it seemed poised to shatter the very stars.