MM Racing Chapter 16: You all grew up listening to my master's stories.
Chapter 16: You all grew up listening to my master's stories.
"Teacher! Teacher! Just as you predicted, the girl Yu Yi likes has been sacrificed. I'm afraid Yu Yi will be unable to restrain himself any longer!"
Gamamaru reported what he had seen to Manji.
"Okay, I understand."
Wanci showed an expression that was not unexpected.
Indeed, women are truly men's exclusive domain.
Originally afraid of being punished by her mother, Yu Yi rebelled when she saw the girl she liked being sacrificed.
"Very good. Now, we just need to wait for them to come to me. Gamamaru, go outside and meet them."
Wanci said casually, his hands behind his back.
"Yes, teacher!"
Gamamaru immediately clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, marveling at his teacher's prophetic abilities.
He truly has the air of an immortal!
..............
Late night
"Haori, wait for me to save you!"
Hagoromo and Hamura sped through the night.
Yu Yi clenched her fists so tightly that her nails almost dug into her flesh, her mind filled with only one thought—to rescue Yu Zhi, no matter the cost.
At the foot of the sacred tree, the enormous roots intertwine, forming deep, dark openings, like entrances to hell.
"Wait, big brother!"
Hamura was the first to stop, took a deep breath, and his whites of his eyes instantly became covered with veins as he activated his Byakugan at full power!
Pale blue chakra flowed around his eyes, piercing through layers of darkness and the barrier of tree roots, gazing into the depths of the earth.
The next second, Hamura's expression changed drastically, and his pupils contracted due to extreme shock!
"Those...those are people! They're corpses!"
Then, Hamura rushed towards one of the deep cave entrances like a madman.
Yu Yi was greatly shocked and rushed into the cave after him.
After entering
Yu Yi saw the scene before her clearly.
The underground was a huge cavity, with countless roots extending down from the base of the divine tree, like greedy tentacles, entwining densely packed objects.
They were things wrapped in green leaves like silkworm cocoons, neatly stacked in the hollow, stretching as far as the eye could see.
The outline of a human figure could be vaguely seen inside.
"Big brother, quickly open these!"
Hamura shouted anxiously.
"good!"
With anger and anxiety mingling in his eyes, Yu Yi unleashed a Wind Release attack without hesitation.
Invisible wind blades roared out, slashing at the silkworm cocoons like sharp blades.
"Pfft"
"Pfft"
Yu Yi's gaze was fixed on each of the opened silkworm cocoons, her heart pounding in her chest with a mixture of anticipation and fear.
When one of the silkworm cocoons was cleaved open by the wind blade, a familiar figure rolled out.
Her plain-colored cloth robe was already soaked in slime and tattered. Her gentle face was bloodless, her eyes were closed, and she was lifeless—it was Yuzhi!
"Haori!!!"
Yu Yi screamed and rushed forward without thinking, holding Yu Zhi's cold body in her arms.
He reached out with trembling hands to check Yuzhi's breath, but all he heard from his fingertips was deathly silence.
"Haori! Wake up!"
"Wake up! I'm here to save you! You can't die!"
Hagoromo's voice was hoarse and broken, filled with desperate sobs as he shook Hagoromo's body violently, trying to wake her.
However, the girl in his arms still kept her eyes closed, with a faint, relieved smile on her lips, and did not respond at all no matter how Yu Yi called out to her or shook her.
"Big brother..."
"Haori...she's dead."
Hamura squatted to the side and spoke with difficulty.
"No! Impossible!"
Yu Yi held Yu Zhi's cold body tightly, as if trying to merge her into her own bones and blood.
The temperature in her arms kept dropping, and Yuzhi's body gradually stiffened. Those familiar eyes and gentle smile would only exist in her memory from now on.
Overwhelmed by immense grief, Yu Yi was swept away by a tidal wave, breaking through all his reason and defenses.
He felt something inside him shatter completely, followed by extreme pain and overwhelming rage.
He remembered how calmly Haori accepted her fate, how gentle she was when she put on the magatama necklace, his mother's deception, the greed of the sacred tree, and the desolation of this land.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki kept his lips tightly pressed together and remained silent.
The gentle warmth of the past had completely vanished from his eyes, leaving only a chilling coldness and intense anger.
That lofty sacred tree, the inviolable relic his mother spoke of, was now nothing more than a monster that devoured life in his eyes.
Those so-called rules were nothing more than cold shackles set up by the mother to satisfy her own selfish desires.
Gamamaru's words echoed in his ears again, the desolate scene around the Divine Tree flashed through his mind, and Haori's gentle yet desperate smile lingered before his eyes. All his doubts and awe crumbled completely at that moment!
"Aaaaaah—!!!"
A heart-wrenching roar erupted from Yu Yi's mouth!
Extreme emotions surged through his body, and an unprecedented power welled up from the depths of his eyes.
His eyes suddenly turned red, and black tomoe spun and condensed rapidly in his pupils, eventually transforming into three ferocious tomoe that floated in his red pupils—the Sharingan.
The Sharingan with its three tomoe emitted an eerie red light, illuminating Hagoromo's grief-stricken face and the countless cold corpses in the empty cave.
At this moment, his eyes no longer held their former gentleness, but were filled with endless sorrow, anger, and the flames of revenge.
"Big brother? Your eyes!"
Hamura stared at the Sharingan in his brother's eyes, speechless with shock.
He had never seen such eyes before, nor had he ever felt such a terrifying aura emanating from his brother!
............
As dawn broke, a pale, fish-belly white appeared on the horizon.
The two of them, stepping through the morning dew, sped along the way and finally arrived at the mountain peak where they had met Gamamaru that day.
The horrific scene beneath the Divine Tree, the cold corpse of Hagoromo, the unfamiliar power brought by the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes, and his mother's long-standing deception.
Like countless threads entwined in their hearts, they desperately wanted to find the truth!
"Gamamaru! Where are you? I need you!"
Yu Yi shouted into the empty valley, her voice hoarse from not having slept all night.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a cloud of smoke suddenly exploded in front of the two of them, and Gamamaru's chubby figure jumped out from it!
Gamamaru maintained his aloof demeanor and said calmly, "Stop shouting, I've been waiting for you here for a long time."
Yu Yi frowned, her mind filled with doubt: "How did you know I would definitely come?"
"Hmph, because that's what my master said!"
"My master is incredibly powerful and can predict the future; he knew you would come looking for me!"
Gamamaru puffed out his chest, his face full of pride and smugness.
"Who is your master?"
Yu Yi pressed for more information, her curiosity fully piqued.
Gamamaru smiled mysteriously and said meaningfully, "Let's go, I'll take you to meet him. Speaking of which, you should already know him, or even... have met him."
It paused, looking at the two people's astonished expressions, and added, "After all, you grew up listening to my master's stories."
"Growing up listening to his stories!?"
Hagoromo and Hamura were taken aback at first, then their expressions changed drastically, and a name flashed through their minds at the same time—Manji!
The heroic tales her mother had told over the years, the temple portraits she visited every year, and the man who mysteriously disappeared while fishing in the snow that day... all the clues suddenly came together.
"Could the person who fished that day be the Wan Ci that Mother mentioned?"
Yu Yi's pupils contracted, and she murmured in shock.
"Could it really be..."
Hamura was also shocked, his eyes filled with disbelief.
The man's appearance that day was almost identical to the boy in the portrait in the temple, except that he had a touch more of the composure and serenity that comes with the passage of time.
The person my mother molded into a hero, the person my mother felt guilty about and built a temple to worship, actually existed, and I even had a chance encounter with them!
"hehe...."
Seeing the two's shocked expressions, Gamamaru couldn't help but laugh and waved his forelegs: "Come with me."
Suppressing the turmoil in their hearts, the two followed closely behind Gamamaru.