Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 189 The Beginning of the Battle

When Uchiha Touyu left Konoha Prison, his original pure-blooded Otsutsuki clone had grown from a seven or eight-year-old to a ten-year-old.

He then visited the three ninja villages of Sunagakure, Mist Village, and Cloud Village, absorbing all the chakra and various energies from the four Chaos Treasure Boxes, stabilizing his pure-blooded Otsutsuki clone to the state of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old.

In fact, after being tempered by the Divine Sect Demonic Cultivation Method, Uchiha Touyu's pure-blooded Otsutsuki clone, in terms of talent, would definitely be considered top-tier among the Otsutsuki clan.

In the world of the Immortal Gourd, those innate divine and demonic clones that are cultivated, if they do not reach the final step of evolving by mixing the bloodlines of multiple innate divine and demonic beings, can probably only be considered as individuals with relatively poor original innate divine and demonic talents.

However, not to mention that the potential of innate gods and demons already surpasses that of the Otsutsuki clan, the innate gods and demons of the Immortal Gourd World also cultivate diligently, making them far superior to the Otsutsuki who only know how to eat fruit.

The cultivation method used to refine innate divine and demonic bloodlines, when applied to the Otsutsuki clan, actually increases the purity of the Otsutsuki clan's bloodline, making them arguably even purer and more powerful than the actual Otsutsuki.

However, Uchiha Touyu also had a vague feeling that the methods of cultivating bloodlines by the Divine Sect and the Demonic Sect probably had a certain upper limit. For weak bloodlines, they could not only be cultivated to a complete level, but also be optimized to a certain extent. However, for some powerful bloodlines that exceeded the power of the innate demon gods in the Immortal Gourd World, the effect would probably be much weaker.

You can't just randomly pick a witch from the prehistoric world, let him cultivate, and expect him to become Pangu! If they really had that ability, the Divine Sect and the Demonic Sect would have already unified the world of the Immortal Gourd World, and wouldn't be ranked below those Qi Refiners and Buddhist masters.

Of course, no matter what the upper limit of the Divine Sect and Demonic Sect's cultivation methods is, it is meaningless to Uchiha Touyu at the moment, because the Otsutsuki bloodline obviously cannot reach the upper limit of the Divine Sect and Demonic Sect, and is even far from it.

After completely integrating all the chakra, blood energy, and soul power he had collected over the years, Uchiha Touyu could feel that his chakra had increased almost tenfold, and his physical attributes and soul power had probably increased even more.

On the outskirts of the ninja world, in a completely desolate mountain range made of stone, Uchiha Touya casually swung his fist, and the terrifying fist stirred up a storm, directly leveling the more than 100-meter-high mountain in front of him.

Withdrawing his fist, Uchiha Touyu looked around at the mountains he had flattened. The original rocky mountains were now almost half turned into plains by his fist.

Even the so-called pure-blooded Otsutsuki clan members are powerful because of their massive chakra reserves and incredible ninjutsu. However, in terms of basic physical abilities, while Otsutsuki clan members far surpass ordinary ninjas, they are still no match for Uchiha Tou's current performance.

This can be seen from Madara Uchiha's performance in the battle against Guy, who had opened the Eight Gates Formation. It is clear that the pure strength, speed, and physique of most members of the Otsutsuki clan are far inferior to their various abilities.

In some ways, Otsutsuki, like most ninjas, is a glass cannon with high attack but low defense; his defensive power is far less than his offensive power.

It's just that because of their own high immunity to chakra, the ninjutsu of ordinary ninjas is ineffective against them, which allows these Otsutsuki to completely ignore the attacks of the grunts and appear so high and mighty.

If these Otsutsuki's access is restricted, and they lose their immunity to ordinary chakra ninjutsu, the weaker Otsutsuki might be surrounded and killed by ordinary ninjas.

But if it were Uchiha Tou...

"Wood Clone Technique!"

"Lightning Release: Chidori!"

The clone that was created slammed Chidori into Uchiha Touyu's chest, but it only left a scorch mark on Uchiha Touyu's clothes. This time, Uchiha Touyu did not use the ability to absorb ninjutsu, nor did he use any lightning release chakra mode. He simply used his body to withstand the A-rank ninjutsu.

"Among A-rank ninjutsu, Chidori is already considered the most powerful in terms of cutting ability, but even that can't harm me? Then let's try another one..."

"Lightning Release Chakra Mode - Hell Thrust, One-Shot Piercing Hand!"

With a crack, broken pieces of wood flew everywhere, piercing through nearby rocks. The Hell Thrust, which was originally like a meteor spear flashing with lightning, struck Uchiha Tou's chest as if he were wielding a glass sword and cutting into a mountain of steel.

The steel mountain was unharmed, but the unlucky one was the clone using Lightning Release Chakra Mode. The violent reaction force instantly shattered the hand that was using the One-Handed Split Technique, sending it flying into fragments. In mid-air, the flesh and blood transformed into wood, and the fragments exploded like shrapnel from a grenade, leaving the surrounding rocks and ground pitted and uneven.

Before the ninja world became a chaotic mess of demons and gods fighting each other, Hell Thrust One-Hit Spear was known as the strongest spear. In terms of pure physical damage, it was the best in the ninja world at the time. Even ordinary S-rank ninjutsu were inferior to it by several levels.

However, even without using any abilities, Uchiha Touya could reliably defend against this level of S-rank ninjutsu using only his physical body, demonstrating the extent of his physical strength.

"Very good... If I add the Sage Art: Lightning Release Chakra Mode and the defense of the Susanoo Armor... apart from Truth-Seeking Balls and the like, even ordinary Six Paths level ninjutsu won't do me much harm!"

The Truth-Seeking Ball can decompose all things, but of course there must be a limit to it. However, although Uchiha Touyu's physical abilities are currently very high, he did not dare to rashly test such a terrifying thing on himself.

While Truth-Seeking Balls are powerful, their attack speed is not fast. Furthermore, Uchiha Touya himself can also create Truth-Seeking Balls, which can completely cancel out the opponent's Truth-Seeking Balls.

Without Truth-Seeking Balls, Nagato's ninjutsu was basically unable to break through Uchiha Tou's defenses. His only powerful ninjutsu, Takamagahara, was a restriction-type ninjutsu.

This ninjutsu would indeed significantly reduce Uchiha Hiu's speed, and once the speed is slowed down, the power will also decrease accordingly. But the problem is that even if Uchiha Hiu's speed and power are reduced, he can still easily kill Might Guy who has opened the Eight Gates Formation, and take down Nagato, who has little close combat ability.

"It seems this time... I can truly fight Nagato to the death!"

After making the decision, Uchiha Tou didn't hesitate much and immediately began preparing the battlefield to kill Nagato.

……

Eight years have passed, and the Akatsuki organization has gradually grown stronger, becoming almost a platform among the five great nations, and even earning the title of the sixth great ninja village in the ninja world.

All of this was naturally inseparable from Nagato's hard work for his ideals. With his own powerful strength and the support of Iwagakure, Nagato not only established a platform for the five great nations to coexist peacefully, but also led the Akatsuki members to quell one chaotic situation after another in the five great nations.

The ordinary people in the five great nations have now fully awakened their chakra, and most of them are at a level that is slightly inferior to even ninja trainees. However, among the base of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, there must be many geniuses among the common people.

After gaining power, some of these people remained obedient, while others wanted to make their own way in the world. Most of these commoner geniuses were taken in by the ninja villages, but some of them relied on their own power to cause trouble and set their sights on things that didn't require effort.

With such a large base, even if the number of unscrupulous civilian geniuses is small, there are still at least tens of thousands distributed across each country, and they are all causing trouble in different places. Even if the major ninja villages try their best to suppress them, they are sometimes overwhelmed. This is when the Akatsuki organization comes into play.

After several moves, Nagato's unparalleled power had already shocked all the ninjas, and made all ordinary civilian geniuses think twice before doing anything—go and see the Akatsuki leader, how he destroyed the terrain with a single Shinra Tensei! If you don't have that ability, then don't go against the Five Great Nations.

Most importantly, Akatsuki is not a mercenary organization like the Five Great Ninja Villages, but is closer to a semi-mercenary, semi-voluntary charitable organization. The Five Great Ninja Villages would not care about many things before being hired, but Akatsuki truly organizes justice.

This is precisely why Nagato rose to prominence among the five great nations, and at the same time, the Akatsuki organization has grown from just over a hundred members to nearly tens of thousands.

Although the vast majority of them are just there to make up the numbers and are far inferior to the elites in the ninja villages in terms of strength, even if they are only relying on numbers to bolster their prestige, the Akatsuki organization is indeed second only to the five great ninja villages.

Over the course of eight years, Nagato Uzumaki was constantly busy. At first, he was busy putting out fires everywhere. As his strength and prestige increased, he became more and more powerful with the civilians who had awakened their chakra. Although he had fewer firefighting duties, the number of people joining the Akatsuki organization increased, and he began to be busy dealing with the internal affairs of the Akatsuki organization.

Compared to the five major ninja villages that had already developed and stabilized, the Akatsuki organization was a completely new force. Without any experience, leading an organization of tens of thousands of superpowered individuals naturally presented him with a lot of challenges at the beginning.

In recent years, Nagato has been so busy that he has even put aside the task of hunting down and finding Uchiha Tou. He only told the Akatsuki members and the five great ninja villages below him, and did not care much about this matter at all - there were just too many things to deal with, and he was simply unable to be in two places at once.

The Shadow Clone Technique is not something that just any ordinary person can use. Only someone as thick-skinned as Naruto Uzumaki can create so many clones without suffering a mental breakdown. Nagato appears arrogant, but he is actually very sensitive, meticulous, and persistent. If he were to try to use the Shadow Clone Technique like Naruto, he would definitely suffer a mental breakdown.

On this day, Nagato was dealing with the endless documents of the Akatsuki organization, just like any other day. At that moment, Konan pushed open the door and walked in.

"Nagato, we have news!"

Nagato, who was processing documents, looked up, a somewhat bewildered expression on her face:

"News? What news? Has the Akatsuki's prison been approved for construction? Or is there a resolution regarding the treatment of those rebels from the Land of Earth?"

"It's not just this news, Nagato, I think you're about to go crazy!"

Xiao Nan shook her head with a wry smile, then said:

"When I said there was news, I meant there was news about Uchiha Tou!"

"Uchiha Touya? He's finally shown up! Where is he!?"

Upon hearing the news about Uchiha Tou, Nagato immediately stood up, his eyes showing a serious expression.

Although Nagato himself did not spend much time searching for Uchiha Tou due to his busy schedule, the matter of finding Uchiha Tou was always on his mind and was the top priority of everything.

After all—his close friend and guiding light, Yahiko, died at the hands of Uchiha Touyu. In addition, the entire clan of the Great Toad Sage who had imparted his skills to him was wiped out by Uchiha Touyu. His teacher, Jiraiya, was also killed by Uchiha Touyu. The Akatsuki organization, which had just begun to develop, was nearly half destroyed by the aftershocks of Uchiha Touyu's sudden attack...

With each event added up, the hatred between Nagato and Uchiha Touya was already irreconcilable. Coupled with the Great Toad Sage's prophecy and the Sage of Six Paths' entrustment, it was almost certain that only one of them could survive.

"According to intelligence, Uchiha Touya has now appeared in a location beyond the ninja world, approximately several hundred kilometers away from the Land of Wind!"

After hearing Konan's words, Nagato nodded:

"Just as I expected, even the combined efforts of the five great ninja villages and the Akatsuki organization couldn't find any trace of him. There's only one possibility: he's hiding outside the ninja world."

Konan lowered her eyes slightly. She knew very well that Nagato's guess was ridiculously wrong. The reason she couldn't find Uchiha Hiu was because four of the five great ninja villages were actually secretly controlled by Uchiha Hiu. Even within the Akatsuki organization, there was a high-ranking traitor named herself, second only to Nagato.

In this situation, it would be an utterly bizarre thing if Nagato were to find Uchiha Hiu. Of the five great ninja villages and the Akatsuki organization, only Iwagakure is truly putting in the effort.

Thinking of this, a hint of reluctance flashed in Konan's eyes. She knew very well that Uchiha Touyu already knew all of Nagato's information. Now that he had openly exposed his location, he must be confident in defeating, or even killing, Nagato.

(End of this chapter)