“You…”
Words with a strong sense of bewitchment came from beside his ear, making the distracted Hizashi Hyuga suddenly startled.
He subconsciously took a step back, staggered, and almost missed his footing.
“What exactly are you?” Looking at the black-robed person beside him, Hizashi’s scalp went numb, and he couldn’t help but ask with a trembling voice, “Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m just weeding and pruning, while looking forward to what kind of flower will bloom.”
When Yun Chuan Hyuga said this sentence, even though he couldn’t see the face in the shadow, Hizashi seemed to see a pair of eyes, a pair of eyes hiding deep malice.
It was like a fire burning, neither fierce nor magnificent, just flickering silently.
The other party didn’t care what his fire would ignite or destroy; he, the head of the branch family, was just firewood to fuel the fire.
Hizashi Hyuga fell silent.
“The main branch of the Hyuga is the root of the Hyuga clan.
As long as the root is still there, there’s no need to worry about whether the branches and leaves wither or bloom.”
This was what he had been instilled with since childhood by his father, who was the clan head.
However, thinking again of Hinata, who was full of flaws and weak during training, all sorts of dark thoughts uncontrollably surged into his mind.
“With Neji’s talent, he could clearly become a strong powerhouse of the Hyuga clan, yet because of his status as a branch family member, he had to be planted with the Caged Bird, completely losing his freedom, living his whole life under the shadow of the main branch…”
“And the cowardly daughter of the main branch can sit back and enjoy the fruits of others’ labor, taking Neji’s protection for granted, letting him offer up his life…”
As a father, if he had to personally strip away his child’s freedom, it would be too incompetent.
For fleeting freedom, he could choose to die humbly.
But, he wanted Neji to live more freely, to live with flesh and blood.
Instead of being an appendage to anyone, let alone bearing the so-called fate.
“Believe me, selling your soul to the devil is not shameful.”
Yun Chuan Hyuga said softly: “Not getting a good price for it is what’s shameful.”
“…What can you do?”
After a long silence, finally, Hizashi Hyuga spoke: “What do I need to pay?”
“I can give you the power to break free from the cage.” Yun Chuan Hyuga’s tone was calm, continuing, “You need to pay everything you have, your name, your future, your life, your soul…”
“You…” Hizashi Hyuga was taken aback, and couldn’t help asking, “This deal is not fair at all?”
“Isn’t the devil just like that?” Yun Chuan Hyuga’s tone was quite candid, “So, what is your answer?”
Hizashi Hyuga’s breathing gradually became rapid.
Even so, even knowing the other party’s malice, he found himself unable to voice any retort.
The other party really stripped him completely bare, acting exactly like a devil who sees through human desires, meticulously scraping his flesh and blood inch by inch, placing his desires precisely on the chopping block.
A moment later, he gritted his teeth and shook his head, saying: “I don’t believe you can let Neji and me break free from the cage, nor do I believe anyone can do it.”
As long as the Caged Bird curse mark exists for a single day, Neji could never truly break free from the cage.
But even the head of the main branch only has the method to activate the curse mark, not the method to lift it.
“Very well.” Yun Chuan Hyuga didn’t mind his questioning, nodded, and reached an arm out from the shadow of the black robe, “Then let you experience it once.”
At the same time, he silently recited in his heart: “Materialize Object – Lift Caged Bird curse mark for ten seconds.”
[Cost 300 realization points, do you want to materialize?]
“As expected, not asking for the lifting method, just lifting it for ten seconds doesn’t cost too much.” Yun Chuan Hyuga’s eyes flickered, and he responded in his heart, “Materialize.”
Hearing his words, Hizashi Hyuga was stunned.
Watching the two fingers held together reaching towards his forehead, he felt all the blood in his body stop flowing for a moment, and subconsciously wanted to step back.
But the next moment, those two fingers stopped in front of his forehead, and a palpitation instantly surged into his heart.
It was as if a crack had opened on his forehead, a clear spring pouring in from outside, dividing into several thin tributaries, washing away every blockage in his brain.
Hizashi Hyuga even heard the sound of invisible shackles breaking open, and felt a layer of gauze covering his eyes slowly lifting.
The world had never been so clear.
Hizashi Hyuga’s pupils trembled.
The first reaction after coming to his senses was the veins popping out around his eye sockets.
“Byakugan!
Open!!”
Gone?
It’s really gone.
The blind spot in his vision was really gone!
How is this possible?!
Hizashi Hyuga couldn’t believe everything he felt, but a smile of ecstatic joy, almost savage, gradually emerged on his face.
“Hahaha!”
Is this the feeling of freedom?
Light, clear, joyful…
Various sensations filled his limbs and bones, as if some obscure confinement had been lifted.
The entire world became bright at this moment.
Hizashi Hyuga completely lost the etiquette he usually paid attention to at all times.
His laughter was incredibly reckless and crazy, even tearing up at the corners of his eyes.
Others couldn’t empathize with this feeling—having possessed something, only to have it ruthlessly stripped away, having one’s life held in the hands of others at all times, and now suddenly regaining it.
However, soon, the Caged Bird mark on Hizashi Hyuga’s forehead, which had faded significantly, recovered.
And the originally 360-degree flawless Byakugan, directly behind the first thoracic vertebra, once again spread out a blind spot, and the world became gloomy again.
“What’s going on?”
Hizashi Hyuga’s joyful expression instantly froze on his face, and a hint of bewildered pain even surfaced in his eyes.
But he quickly remembered that this was just an “experience.”
“You!” Hizashi Hyuga abruptly grabbed the arm of the person beside him, and asked impatiently, “What do you want me to do?”
Yun Chuan Hyuga wasn’t surprised, nor was he in a hurry to answer.
Instead, he asked back: “You and Hiashi Hyuga are identical twins, right?”
“…Right.”
Seeing him nod with a gloomy expression, Yun Chuan Hyuga’s tone remained calm: “I need you to become Hiashi Hyuga, and Hizashi Hyuga will die here.”
“What?” Hizashi Hyuga’s pupils shrank, blurting out, “Impossible!”
This guy wants him to fake his death, and then have him replace his brother?
How could this be done?
“You said you could.” Yun Chuan Hyuga looked at the hand gripping his arm, raised his own hand, applied slight pressure to pry it open, and said softly, “You just need to follow orders.”
The moonlight cast the shadows of the two on the ground, swaying under the indistinct shadows of the surrounding trees.
“…”
Thinking of everything he just felt, the incredibly rich desire almost crushed him.
Hizashi Hyuga gritted his teeth tightly: “Okay!
I’ll do it!”
Seeing his loss of composure, Yun Chuan Hyuga also chuckled inwardly.
A bird that had originally lost its freedom briefly regains it and soars in the vast sky again.
How could it be willing to return to a small cage?
However, Hizashi Hyuga is just a supporting character he selected.
The truly important pawn…
Yun Chuan Hyuga’s gaze shifted slightly, looking towards a dead silent courtyard in the distance.
(END CHAPTER)