Chapter 227: I Stand Right Before You, How Much Do You See Me As I Used To Be

"Hehehehe."

Otsutsuki Biraku walked out of the patriarch's castle with a silly giggle, her pleasant mood making her steps light, as if she had returned to those youthful days.

Back then, she was the greatest beauty in the clan, before her figure had lost its shape due to psychological reasons.

Humming a cheerful little tune, she skipped along, and with every hop, the floating castle showed faint signs of an earthquake, causing dust and sand on the walls to shake off.

Inside the castle.

The magnificent crystal chandelier began to sway left and right under the influence of the unknown tremor, and the dust accumulated on it drifted down, about to land on the bright and smooth long hair of Otsutsuki Tsukihime.

"Pop~"

A cyan-blue light erupted from Otsutsuki Tsukihime's body like a cloak, repelling all the falling dust above her head. Knowing the identity of the culprit, she was not annoyed; instead, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and a trace of nostalgia flashed in her pure white eyes.

"Is it Biraku again? It's been a long time since I've seen her in such a good mood. She couldn't make such a big scene in the past~"

In her memories, a curvaceous and charming back appeared, every glance and smile filled with endless allure, her every movement causing countless men to bow before her.

Who would have thought that the Otsutsuki Biraku who once captivated thousands of young men would become what she is today.

"Forget it, let her be."

Otsutsuki Tsukihime rarely revealed a smile. A cool breeze blew by, and feeling a chill in her crotch, she put on an angry expression, her silver teeth nearly shattering, as she fiercely grumbled in her heart.

Hmph! If that thief dares to come again tonight, I will definitely teach him a lesson!

On the other side.

"Boss Hei, what is that place for?"

Uchiha Gin, soaring in the sky, pointed at a floating island shaped like a temple above his head, his eyes filled with irrepressible curiosity.

"Beep beep beep, Mr. Gin, are you asking me?"

The black puppet, clearly not having reacted in time, had no joy or sorrow in its yellow eyes. Facing Uchiha Gin's question, it did not answer directly, but instead raised its own question.

"Do you think it sounds bad?"

"I can analyze the emotions in human speech. Mr. Gin, your tone just now clearly contained mockery and disrespect."

For the first time, the black puppet engaged in a dialogue with Uchiha Gin regarding its own questions. This thinking ability, which surpassed that of an ordinary puppet, made him, as a human, secretly surprised.

This is serious, the ninja world: The rise of AlphaGo?

"Sorry, I shouldn't have used that to joke."

Hearing this, Uchiha Gin scratched his curly hair, his face full of apologies, though it was unclear if they were genuine or fake; regardless, apologizing was the right thing to do.

"That place is where the servants of the Otsutsuki clan once came to worship."

Seeing Uchiha Gin apologize, the black puppet did not pursue the matter further and turned to explain the temple he had just asked about.

"It houses the former supreme treasures of the Otsutsuki clan, but the real items are not here; they are just replicas inside."

"Can I go take a look?"

"Yes."

The black puppet raised its hands, and the airship accelerated instantly, arriving at the entrance of the dilapidated temple in the blink of an eye.

Looking at the neglected temple, Uchiha Gin couldn't help but sigh at the importance of population. The current Otsutsuki clan was withering, not even having servants, and could only rely on figurines to attend to daily life.

Walking slowly into the temple, a huge stone ball was placed on the high platform at the very back. The patterns carved on it were exactly the design of the Tenseigan from the movies. Judging by the size, it should be a 1: Tenseigan figurine made by the branch family, placed here for people to worship and spread the glorious deeds of the past.

Unfortunately, time eventually wears away all traces, just like this dilapidated temple, forgotten in an inconspicuous corner.

"Beep beep beep."

A harsh beeping sound interrupted Uchiha Gin's thoughts. He saw the black puppet seemingly receiving some message, its yellow eyes flickering with the sound. When the sound disappeared, the puppet's eyes regained their color. It turned its head and said to Uchiha Gin in an irresistible tone.

"Mr. Gin, it's getting late, I should go back."

"Alright, I've seen enough, and it's time to eat."

Uchiha Gin calculated the time, then touched his somewhat empty lower abdomen and nodded in agreement.

The man and the machine walked out of the temple one after another, stepped onto the airship, and left the desolate temple.

At this moment, the artificial sun followed the set time precisely, changing from the dazzling heat of the day to the orange-red of dusk. The airship passed through the sun and finally landed steadily at the entrance of Otsutsuki Biraku's palace.

Following the black puppet into the palace, the short attendants, with high efficiency, had already brought out the cooked delicacies. Uchiha Gin did not stand on ceremony and immediately began to feast.

After being wined and dined, two kimono-clad maid puppets carried a bewildered Uchiha Gin to a palace filled with steam. Looking at the bath in the middle that emitted a faint sulfur smell, he couldn't figure out even if he racked his brains: what kind of decent person would dig a hot spring in their own home?

"Lord Gin, please bathe and change."

The CPUs of the two maids were clearly inferior to the black puppet's; they could only execute rigid commands and began to strip Uchiha Gin's clothes without a word, scaring him into retreating repeatedly.

"You guys go out, I can handle it myself!"

Covering his collar, Uchiha Gin looked terrified. Although the other party was a puppet, their exquisite faces were no different from real people. He was the type who couldn't take off his clothes in front of strangers.

"Lord Gin, please bathe and change."

However, the other party's actions would not be changed by Uchiha Gin's words. Four strong little hands grabbed his clothes tightly, determined to wash him clean.

Tsk! Why did I forget to ask the Great-Granduncle for the puppet control technique last time? I was too busy listening to him brag, causing me to forget this major event.

Seeing his chastity at risk, Uchiha Gin had no choice but to prepare to violently protect his secret garden. His black pupils began to change color, and a cold, gloomy power was slowly released. He prepared to activate the old man's Mangekyo to "hide" these two puppets. Anyway, there were so many in the palace, one or two less shouldn't be noticed~

"Eh? What's going on?"

Just as one of Uchiha Gin's eyes turned into an equilateral triangle, he suddenly felt a fetal movement in his eye, and then a breath that made him feel very intimate was guiding him. The source of that breath was in the crust under his feet.

"Hoo~"

Although he didn't detect any malice from that breath, Uchiha Gin, who had always been cautious, upheld the principle that it was better to avoid trouble, so he cut off the connection with that breath, and the equilateral triangle in his eyes slowly disappeared.

"No way, let's try something else."

Since he couldn't use the Shadow Realm to hide these two puppets, Uchiha Gin had to activate his mutated Byakugan, trying to find the switch on the puppets to force them to shut down.

"Sigh! What is this mark?"

In the perspective of the activated Byakugan, Uchiha Gin looked up and down at the two kimono puppets that were no different from ordinary people. When he "accidentally" swept his full-power X-ray vision to their chests, he was not attracted by the fair skin, but was instead interested in the moon mark branded on their chests.

This mark seemed to be visible only in the Byakugan state. He hadn't noticed this mark when he used the Sharingan just now. It seems this is the switch set by the Otsutsuki clan on the puppets.

Holding a heart of scientific research, Uchiha Gin slowly extended his Byakugan's ocular power into that mark. After fumbling for a long time, he found a familiar breath inside; it was Otsutsuki Biraku's chakra.

He tried to erase the mark left by Otsutsuki Biraku with his ocular power. Unexpectedly, the chakra left by the other party was very fragile and dissipated instantly when he touched it lightly. The two puppets' yellow eyes also dimmed, and their movements stopped instantly, looking like batteries that had run out.

"Sure enough, the Otsutsuki clan relies on this method to control puppets."

Uchiha Gin looked at the two powerless puppets, thought for a moment, and tried to send his own chakra into the kimono maid's body through his ocular power.

Unexpectedly, as soon as it entered, the mark on the chest was activated again, but this time, the chakra inside had become Uchiha Gin's shape.

"Master, what are your orders?"*2

The two maids changed from their previous rigidity, their yellow eyes carrying a spirit similar to the black puppet, with a bit more liveliness belonging to high-level AI than at the beginning.

"Squat down."

Uchiha Gin tried to give orders to the two maid puppets. Unexpectedly, they did not hesitate at all and did it directly.

"Reach out~"

Done.

"Lie down~"

Done.

"Rub my belly!"

"."

"Hehe, I'm joking."

Uchiha Gin gave a dry laugh, looking at the two puppets with vigilant expressions, and laughed it off.

"Master, please abide by the three laws of robotics."

The maid puppet covering her lower abdomen, with no emotion in her cold eyes, coldly warned Uchiha Gin of the principles he should abide by.

"Seriously, I said I was joking. You two are not as open as the pink little refrigerator."

Unexpectedly being lectured by his own puppets, Uchiha Gin hung his head and complained.

"Alright, alright, you guys go down first, I'll wash myself."

Waving his hand to order the two puppets to go out and wait, Uchiha Gin stripped himself clean after they left and soaked comfortably in the hot spring. Smelling the faint sulfur smell around him, this was the true moment of relaxation.

Remember the last time I soaked in a hot spring...

Uchiha Gin's face turned green, almost recalling the sealed memory. He hurriedly reached out to wipe away that memory and focused his gaze on this spacious hot spring palace. Scanning the framed paintings on the wall, his eyes were attracted by one in the very center.

"Tsk! This young lady is really something, I wonder whose family she belongs to."

Uchiha Gin's extremely strong dynamic vision only took one look, and he was attracted by the beautiful woman in the painting. He couldn't help but look a few more times.

The woman in the painting had slightly curly white long hair, a pair of peach blossom eyes that were exceptionally alluring, and full, plump red lips that seemed to have some kind of magic, making people yearn for her. There was also a beautiful black mole at the corner of her mouth, giving her a touch of mature charm and less of a young girl's greenness.

"Eh? There's a signature, let me see, 'Gifted to Otsutsuki Bi'..."

Sharp-eyed, he caught a signature in the lower right corner of the painting. Out of curiosity, Uchiha Gin used his dynamic vision to look over. He saw a line of blurred small characters, vaguely writing "Gifted to Otsutsuki Bi".

Although the last character had been deliberately erased, Uchiha Gin guessed the answer from the first few characters alone.

Hmph hmph, it must be that Bo Gang's sister. I didn't expect that Otsutsuki Biraku, in that state, would have such a beautiful and moving sister.

This sister-in-law, I'm determined to make friends with!

Apart from this painting of a beauty, there was nothing else that could attract Uchiha Gin, so he closed his eyes and began to relax and enjoy this hard-won hot spring.

After all, after that incident last time, he already had some PTSD regarding hot springs.

"Eh, why have two puppets lost contact?"

In the inner chamber of the palace, Otsutsuki Biraku, who was reviewing the personnel list, had her two small white eyes filled with confusion, which then returned to normal, and she muttered to herself.

"Maybe it's been too long, and the chakra supply has been cut off."

Thinking of this, she stopped worrying and continued to arrange the list of 66 people one by one.

"Hmm, the patriarch must be first. You didn't see how anxious she was. Tonight, I'll send the washed and clean Gin into her bed~"

Recalling how impatient Kaguya Otsutsuki looked during the day, Bi Luo Otsutsuki smiled with understanding; what young girl does not dream of love? The clan leader had reached that age, so some impatience was normal.

Had she herself not been the same back then? It was just that she had been deceived in love and had stopped trusting men.

"Second place is definitely mine. Even if we go by seniority, if I claim third, who would dare claim second?"

Grinning, she once again solidified her position in second place. On her upturned lips, a hidden black mole was exceptionally conspicuous under the reflection of the lamplight.

"Hehehe."

At the same time, in the deepest part of the moon's crust, a figure that had been silent for a long time slowly opened their eyes. Sensing that their aura had been unilaterally cut off, the figure's white eyes were filled with disappointment.

This figure was bound by countless chains within a circular space, and directly above their head was a barely perceptible crack.

Wisps of faint light slowly spilled down, illuminating the figure's face and revealing a beautiful, moving countenance. However, at this moment, her delicate brows were slightly furrowed, and her two cute, rounded eyebrows were tightly knitted together; her expression, as if on the verge of tears, would evoke a great sense of pity in anyone.

"Hagoromo, you have already come, why are you hiding from me!"

Through the gap above, having finally sensed the aura of her eldest son once again, she pouted in disappointment, her white eyes filled with confusion.

But fortunately, after repeated attempts, she finally managed to send out a wisp of aura carrying her spiritual power, beginning to track that aura of Hagoromo's which had appeared twice.

This time, she would definitely teach that rebellious son a good lesson!

Once the aura drifted away, a flash of satisfaction crossed her white eyes, followed immediately by a flash of cyan-green light, and only then did the corners of her mouth lift slightly.

As for that foolish boy Hamura, he had already been dealt with~

Sorry, I was working as staff at a college entrance exam site today, which delayed me. It won't happen again (probably)~

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(End of chapter)