Chapter 330: The Forgotten Past of the Old Era: The Original Three Sacred Sites!

The slug hadn't expected Uchiha Jin to ask about this.

But after a long while,

he let out a faint sigh, then spoke in a low, slow voice.

“The Wet Bone Forest…”

“Actually, this is a recent nickname from the last few centuries; its original name was—Corpse Bone Forest!”

“Here lie countless gods, onmyōji, yokai, shrine priests, and miko from the Old Era.”

“That war was terrifying. At the time, I had just gained sentience. My earliest memory is of a group of gods and powerful beings using their strength to sever this land and banish it entirely into another dimension.”

“Thus, chakra struggles to survive here.”

“This is also why the heirs of the other two sacred sites frequently travel to the Toad Mountain and Dragon Cave to train, while the Wet Bone Forest’s heir only summons me to the ninja world—rarely ever coming here.”

“Because here, Itachi cannot cultivate chakra!”

“For the same reason, I’ve rarely contracted new heirs over the years.”

“But staying here is too boring, so I still keep one heir—just so my clone can go to the ninja continent. Staying here alone for too long is too lonely.”

The slug spoke eloquently, her voice still sweet.

Yet Uchiha Jin could still sense an indescribable loneliness, solitude, and coldness within her gentle words.

Thinking carefully, it made sense.

The Toad Mountain and Dragon Cave are inhabited by entire lineages, but the Wet Bone Forest holds only the slug herself—all those countless small and large slugs scattered across the land are merely her clones, created to stave off boredom.

Such prolonged solitude would be unbearable for any normal living being.

Realizing this, his wariness eased somewhat.

He began to ponder the slug’s words, combining them with the original manga he’d read in his past life, gradually piecing together the outline of the Old Era as she described it.

Gods, onmyōji, yokai, shrine priests, miko…

These professions, familiar from his past life, must have been the original occupations on this planet before the Ōtsutsuki arrived.

But now?

The gods remain only as faint legends—the Yanwang summoned by Nagato’s Rinnegan, the heretic-worshiping Hidan, and the death god resembling an Ōtsutsuki, whom I suspect might be Hagoromo…

What remains are hollow shells—more accurately, mere husks.

Are these gods dead or alive?

No one knows; the original manga never clarified.

As for onmyōji, yokai, miko, and shrine priests—nowadays, no one in the ninja world has even heard of them, not even a whisper of legend remains.

Uchiha Jin had long assumed that the corpses of these Old Era elites had all been devoured by the God Tree, rooted in the ninja world, by Kaguya and Isshiki.

Yet he hadn’t expected—

There were powerful beings among the Old Era gods who managed to preserve the corpses of these fallen spirits and used their strength to banish this land into another dimension.

“So that’s how it was!”

“Still, it’s understandable. After all, those Ōtsutsuki were not beings ordinary mortals could oppose.”

“What I’m more curious about now is the Toad Mountain and the Dragon Cave.”

Uchiha Jin paused, then voiced his question.

If the Wet Bone Forest was created by the Old Era gods, what of the other two sacred sites?

Meanwhile, on the other side,

before he could resolve this question, the slug’s voice turned surprised.

“Lord Jin, Itachi know of the Ōtsutsuki?”

“Hmm. I know a little.”

Uchiha Jin nodded.

He had no interest in explaining to the slug; instead, he asked directly: “What’s the difference between the Toad Mountain and the Dragon Cave compared to the Wet Bone Forest?”

The slug sighed softly and fell silent.

He hadn’t expected Uchiha Jin to know anything about the Ōtsutsuki.

But—how was that possible?

Since Hagoromo and Hamura’s era ended, no Ōtsutsuki have walked the ninja world.

Especially since humans in the ninja world have no habit of recording history, and constant warfare has erased most surviving information—leaving only fragments of the Sage of Six Paths’ words.

So she truly couldn’t fathom how Uchiha Jin knew.

Yet—

This made her vaguely understand why Uchiha Jin’s campaign to unify the ninja world had become so slow and convoluted; he was likely guarding against the one in the Pure Land.

But, never mind.

It wasn’t her concern, so after a brief pause, she sighed and said: “There are some differences from the Wet Bone Forest, but they were also created by the Old Era gods.”

“Yet their purposes differ.”

“The Wet Bone Forest serves as a tomb, honoring the fallen gods and powerful beings of the past, and also as a place for living beings to grow stronger.”

“The Toad Mountain is the largest, serving as a place of survival for all living things.”

“The Dragon Cave, however, is designed as a place of combat and trial.”

“That war in the Old Era was too brutal. When the gods and powerful beings realized they could not turn the tide, they pooled their strength to tear off these three fragments of land and banished them into another dimension using immense power.”

“Each fragment serves a distinct role, preserving a patch of soil for life.”

“The Toad Mountain ensures the basic survival of all beings; the Wet Bone Forest serves as a place of legacy and remembrance, where living beings may inherit techniques; the Dragon Cave serves as a battleground for trial and combat.”

“Once strong enough, they would unite and strike back at their homeland, declaring war on the two Ōtsutsuki.”

“But, unfortunately—”

“The Toad King of the Toad Mountain was the first to betray them, actively seeking and accepting chakra, then allying with the Ōtsutsuki to trap and eliminate the last of the Old Era’s powerful beings and gods.”

“Later, when Kaguya stood in opposition to Hagoromo and Hamura, the Toad King allied with the brothers to seal Kaguya, eventually becoming one of the three sacred sites.”

“Those toads had the closest ties with Hagoromo, and thus interacted most frequently with humans in the ninja world today.”

“Seeing this, the White Snake Immortal of the Dragon Cave also began embracing chakra, becoming one of the three sacred sites today.”

“But unlike the Toad Mountain, the White Snake Immortal fears the Ōtsutsuki; their snakes have merely hidden within the Dragon Cave and never contacted Kaguya or any other Ōtsutsuki.”

“Because the three sacred sites exist in another dimension, unless they actively open their entrances, even the Ōtsutsuki cannot find them—so the Ōtsutsuki never located the Dragon Cave.”

“The Wet Bone Forest is the most unique.”

“Because it holds the corpses of so many Old Era gods and powerful beings, chakra flows with extreme difficulty here—this is the true reason why the Wet Bone Forest’s ‘immortal technique’ is said to be the hardest to master.”

“But the Wet Bone Forest has no immortal technique at all. It’s merely a trivial thing I created over my long boredom—taking some chakra from the outside world, blending it with the divine arts of the Old Era gods, and mixing them with natural energy.”

“Over time, since it was also one of the three sacred sites, people began calling it ‘immortal chakra.’”

“After all this time, only Hashirama has truly mastered it.”

“Other contract holders, including Tsunade, have never even attempted to cultivate immortal chakra—they rarely come to the Wet Bone Forest at all, since this place is unfriendly to chakra users.”