"Is this the book that guy wanted me to see?"
Neji Hyuga's throat bobbed as he carefully pulled out the book. The cover was tough but cracked, seemingly made from some kind of tanned animal hide, feeling cold and ancient to the touch.
"Let's see what's inside..."
Neji Hyuga took a deep breath and opened the mysterious book.
However, after flipping through a dozen pages, all he found were obscure, incomprehensible characters, like meaningless scribbles. Neji frowned, patiently turning more pages, only to find even older historical records of the clan that he could barely make out in broken sentences. The content seemed to describe how a certain Hyuga Main House elder had mediated a trivial clan dispute, using three whole pages to depict his "wise and mighty" deeds...
"Is this what that guy was so earnestly hinting at, this secret that was supposed to overturn my understanding?"
Neji Hyuga's face darkened, his fingers pressed against the pages, his fingertips even turning white from the force. To expend such effort to sneak into this cursed place, facing the risk of severe punishment or even execution, only to find such an empty, meaningless piece of writing?
The exasperation and disappointment of being fooled gradually replaced his initial tension and expectation. Was that guy retaliating against him, or simply toying with him?
At this thought, Neji Hyuga instinctively wanted to put the useless book back. He didn't have much time; the old Main House elder responsible for guarding the Forbidden Jutsu Archive would be back soon.
But at that moment, a fleeting glimpse of Hyuga Kawa's eyes, briefly shimmering with a beautiful hue, like a fleeting illusion, suddenly appeared in his mind.
"..."
Neji Hyuga's movements halted. He licked his dry lips and looked down at the book again. This time, he looked very carefully, even activating his Byakugan, causing grotesque blue veins to crawl across his face. In Neji Hyuga's Byakugan vision, the scene before him instantly changed.
Below the obscure characters, which resembled scribbles, hidden images and text emerged like reefs at low tide.
"What is this?"
Neji Hyuga instinctively held his breath, his eyeballs throbbing faintly under the intense strain.
[Ancestor Worship Rite, Heavenly Order Chaotic, the Lowly Rise Abruptly, Servant Slaying His Master...]
[Blood of the Main House, stained the ancestral shrine red, almost utterly annihilated in this battle...]
[The eyes of the dead were gouged out, their whereabouts unknown...]
[Conceal their name, erase their traces...]
Neji Hyuga used his already weak linguistic ability to decipher the text revealed by his Byakugan. But soon, his face gradually paled, then quickly flushed with a sickly red.
Thud!
Neji Hyuga abruptly slammed the ancient text shut. In that brief moment, cold sweat had already drenched his back. He stood rooted to the spot, leaning against the cold wall, his body stiff.
The surroundings were eerily silent. Only his own heart pounded violently in his chest, echoing in his ears like a drum, each beat bringing a deeper surge of heat.
Branch House!
A Branch House member, branded with the Caged Bird Seal! To actually slaughter clan members during the Ancestor Worship Rite, which the Main House regarded as sacred and inviolable? So, the reason why only five pure bloodlines of the Main House remained was because they were almost entirely wiped out by that person a long time ago? And even the reason why the Main House was so rigid towards the Branch House now was due to the shadow left by that person?
All of this seemed possible. But what chilled Neji Hyuga the most was that this scene gave him an extremely strong sense of familiarity.
"Could it be, the eyes that appeared in my dream..." His low murmur was already extremely hoarse.
There was one more thing that bothered him: since the Branch House member mentioned in this secret text was able to almost wipe out all Main House members, didn't that mean they had broken the Caged Bird Seal? How was it done?
Neji Hyuga's gaze continuously swept over those few short sentences, finally resting on the line: [The eyes of the dead were gouged out, their whereabouts unknown...]
Perhaps to others, this was an act of revenge and catharsis, but he knew more.
"Those eyes..."
Neji Hyuga murmured in a daze, a bold and terrifying thought emerging in his mind, his body unconsciously trembling. To possess those eyes, would he need many Byakugan?
What Hyuga Kawa guided him to find seemed to be more than just a secret. It was an attempt to tell him, with this cold and bloody precedent, that the cage of the Caged Bird could be broken, and that the Hyuga clan still hid unknown powers.
His originally bleak life, destined to be confined by the Caged Bird, suddenly felt as if a sturdy gate had been slightly shaken. A ray of light shone in from the crack in the gate, allowing Neji to see that he had another path he could choose.
However, this gate was now tightly locked, requiring a key to open it. And the key to open this gate, it seemed, needed to be forged with the fresh blood of his own clan...
"Cough cough! Cough!"
A sudden coughing sound echoed in the silent Forbidden Jutsu Archive. The cough was forceful, as if the vocal cords would crack and bleed with each sound. In the entire Hyuga clan, there was only one person who coughed like that. The old Main House elder who guarded the Forbidden Library had an extremely high standing in the Hyuga clan.
"How did he come back so fast?!"
Neji suddenly awoke from the emotional shock, as if a basin of bone-chilling ice water had been poured over him. All the blood in his body instantly froze.
Click-clack... click-clack...
Footsteps, extremely faint and dragging, with the characteristic slowness of an elder, approached from far away.
What to do?
Hide? The layout of the Forbidden Jutsu Archive wasn't complex; there was nowhere for him to hide.
Escape? The only exit was in the direction the elder was coming from.
Force his way out? Even more impossible. It would definitely alert clan members, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
Instantly, countless thoughts swirled in Neji's mind like red-hot branding irons. Fear, like a giant python, coiled around his heart. He instinctively looked at the book in his hand. The wild, twisted characters in the book once again reflected in his tormented eyes.
[The Lowly Rise Abruptly, Servant Slaying His Master...]
[The eyes of the dead were gouged out...]
In that instant, as if a crack appeared in his heart, that intense impulse rapidly spread. Neji Hyuga suddenly gripped the book tighter.
He couldn't be discovered! He absolutely couldn't be discovered! This old man had to disappear!
He instinctively crouched down, pressing his body deeper into the shadows. The dim candlelight cast a long shadow of a person on the ground. The elder slowly approached, holding a faintly flickering lamp. The lamplight illuminated his cloudy Byakugan, which had almost lost its luster. He didn't notice anything unusual, or rather, he simply hadn't considered that anyone would dare to infiltrate the Forbidden Library, especially someone from the Branch House. He was merely habitually patrolling this "tomb" where he had spent the latter half of his life.
Finally, he stumbled his way to the row of bookshelves where Neji was hiding.
One step... two steps...
As he drew closer, Neji Hyuga's body gradually stiffened, actually falling into hesitation. But soon, recalling his father who had become a sacrificial pawn, a look of intense ferocity and hatred flashed across Neji Hyuga's youthful face. He would never fall to that level, even if it meant death!
Whoosh!
Neji Hyuga sprang out, his body low to the ground, pure, cold killing intent burning in his Byakugan. His target was singular.
—The throat!
The elder's cloudy Byakugan abruptly constricted. A look of horror appeared on his shriveled face, but his sluggish reactive nerves didn't have time to let out a gasp. A hand, cold and hard as iron tongs, with a ruthlessness unlike that of a child, instantly clamped down on his withered neck!
Crack!
The elder's decrepit throat was first instantly crushed, preventing any sound, then Neji Hyuga turned his claw into a palm and smashed it out as if to vent his hatred.
Crunch!
Instantly, the elder's neck snapped like a piece of broken rotten wood, twisting at a grotesque angle. His cloudy Byakugan instantly lost its last faint glimmer. His body convulsed a few times, then completely fell silent.
"Hmph! Hmph! Cough cough!"
Neji Hyuga's chest heaved violently. He looked at the lifeless corpse, a wave of cold air rushing into his lungs, his stomach churning violently. What had he just done? He killed someone? Yes, he killed someone. And he killed an old man.
A strong urge to vomit instantly surged up, and Neji, his face pale, raised a hand to cover his mouth. This was his first kill. The physiological revulsion and the shock of his first murder were extremely strong.
After a long while, his emotions gradually calmed. He gasped for breath, looking at the corpse, and at the Byakugan that lacked the Caged Bird Seal. Given the elder's age, those Byakugan were actually useless, almost blind.
But...
Neji Hyuga's throat bobbed. He joined his five fingers and reached for those Byakugan.
Rip!
The sound of flesh and tissue being forcibly torn was exceptionally clear and grating in the silence! Two grayish, cloudy eyeballs, still warm with residual body heat, were thus brutally gouged out from their sunken sockets!
Blood finally found its outlet, rapidly gushing from the two bloody holes in the eye sockets, mixing with an indescribable murky liquid, meandering across the cold ground.
"..."
Neji's fingers were stained with sticky crimson, clinging to tiny nerves and flesh. Feeling the warm, viscous sensation, his body involuntarily began to tremble slightly. But he still gritted his teeth, tightly clutching the two murky Byakugan. Just like holding the key to a cage.
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