At this point, if the God of Death were to lose this batch of Uzumaki survivors, half of the divine power it had painstakingly restored over decades would immediately vanish.
That divine power had been accumulated bit by bit over many years by these fanatical followers.
The Shinigami hadn't dared to show its face, at first fearing detection by the Sage of Six Paths, and later fearing Aoba. It hid deep in the remote mountains, relying on the faith of a single village to slowly rebuild its strength.
Its life was nothing short of miserable.
The key thing was, after enduring for decades, it had finally seen a glimmer of hope. Aoba Kamikawa and the Sage of Six Paths, the two beings it feared most, had actually started fighting each other.
Fearing that Aoba might not be a match for the Sage of Six Paths, the Shinigami had even taken the initiative to help Aoba once, giving him an epic-level boost by aiding him in absorbing the remnants of the native shinobi world deities.
Those remnants were things the Shinigami itself didn't dare absorb. Since they were of the same nature as itself, if it had been at full strength, it could have devoured them one by one. But having been expelled from the Pure Land by the Sage of Six Paths, its power was only a fraction of what it once was.
Absorbing such remnants now would only corrupt and pollute it.
But to its shock, Aoba turned out to be even more bizarre than the Sage of Six Paths. After absorbing so many soul fragments, Aoba wasn't affected at all. Instead, he completely mastered the powers and leapt to become an unprecedented super-god in the shinobi world.
This made the Shinigami start worrying that the Sage of Six Paths might not be able to hold out.
Because if Aoba defeated the Sage of Six Paths, he would surely reclaim the Pure Land and seize most of the Shinigami's divine authority. At that point, he wouldn't even need to deal with the Shinigami separately, he would be the real God of Death, and the Shinigami would be the imposter.
The Shinigami wasn't particularly worried about the Sage of Six Paths, because the Sage's goal was chakra, his plan to seize the Pure Land was for manipulating souls at a different level.
Meanwhile, the Shinigami, hiding deep in the mountains, prayed day and night for the two of them to start a full-on battle.
But to its despair, although tensions ran high for years, they never actually fought seriously.
Their few confrontations, despite being grand and earth-shaking, were nothing but probing skirmishes. Neither Aoba nor the Sage of Six Paths truly went all out.
And the most frustrating part? While Aoba was wrestling with the Sage of Six Paths, he started turning his attention to it.
As the third party, the Shinigami's only advantage was remaining hidden.
Compared to Aoba, who was out in the open in the shinobi world, and the Sage of Six Paths, who was known to be in the Pure Land, the Shinigami alone was still concealed.
Hiding in the shadows had been its biggest trump card, the only reason it dared to get involved in this high-stakes game.
But Aoba had suddenly begun flipping through its cards.
The Shinigami panicked completely. Before it could even figure out a countermeasure, Aoba had already pinpointed its hiding place.
Only now did the Shinigami realize it had made a huge mistake, it had seriously underestimated the blessing Aoba received from absorbing hundreds of native gods' fragments.
Once Aoba got used to his powers, he could easily find a way to counter the Shinigami among his vast array of divine authorities. Like now.
The Shinigami had erased every trace of itself. There was no record of the Uzumaki survivors left in the entire shinobi world.
Yet, under the blessing of pure luck, Jiraiya just happened to stumble right onto them.
The villagers noticed Aoba's arrival. Several strong young men appeared, trying to stop him.
Judging from their chakra levels, these people were at least elite jōnin level, and one of them was even on par with a traditional Kage-level fighter.
By the old shinobi world standards, this Uzumaki village's high-end combat power could have overwhelmed any one of the Five Great Nations.
Unfortunately, this time, they encountered Aoba.
With a single glance, Aoba could see how weak and fragile their souls were, already on the verge of collapsing. He had no desire to even engage.
In a flash, Aoba vanished from where he stood.
In the next instant, he appeared inside the village's temple.
"Found you."
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI