Inside a spotlessly white training hall, a clan member responsible for teaching the methods of cultivating the God Tree was still drilling clan rules into this new generation below. Though calling them a "batch" might not be quite accurate, since there were only four listeners in the room.
"Although you were born into branch families, all of you naturally possess fairly good Byakugan, meeting the qualifications for selection. Because of this, the council has permitted you to serve as the protected ones, bringing along your Guardians as fertilizer, and to plant God Trees in the nursery star systems managed by the main family."
"However, there is one thing you must pay attention to. The fertility of each planet differs, and so do the quality and quantity of the fruits produced. According to clan rules, only the very first fruit, the one with the highest quality, must be handed over to the main family. As for the rest, it's up to you to decide whether to keep them or use them to curry favor with your Guardians. The main family will not interfere. You may even choose to hand over all the fruits to complete your quota as early as possible and return to the main family to transfer to another position. There's nothing against that either."
At this point, the instructor paused and gave Urashiki a meaningful glance, as if the following words were directed at him alone.
"As long as you can withstand the temptation of evolution. After all, being born with a Byakugan of such purity without divine techniques to match is not necessarily a good thing..."
He had essentially finished everything that needed to be taught.
Among the four branch-family members, the only one he truly thought highly of was Isshiki. The purity of his Byakugan was extremely high, putting him a full two tiers above the other three.
With such talent, if he could continue evolving steadily, he might even have a chance to enter the Divine Remains Council in the future.
As for the three other branch-family Ōtsutsuki serving as mere companions, especially that excessively talkative Urashiki, if they could recognize their own limits, swallow a dozen or so lower-quality fruits, then honestly stop and return to the main family to take an ordinary position, that would be fine. But if they failed to recognize those limits, then they would simply wait until their Byakugan could no longer suppress the chakra of the fruits, and their bodies would become reserved seeds for the Ten-Tails.
---
The pre-assignment training for tree planting came to an end.
The four branch-family Ōtsutsuki followed the procedures previously introduced, leaving the training room one after another and heading toward the Garden.
Through Isshiki's memories, it could be seen that after countless generations of Ōtsutsuki development, their home planet, once covered everywhere with God Trees, had been fully transformed into a completely habitable world. A special biological membrane enveloped the entire planet, blocking excessive cosmic radiation and stellar energy, providing the Ōtsutsuki clan with a sufficiently comfortable living environment.
Worth mentioning was that, unlike the imagined cyber-style alien high-tech architecture, the main family of the Ōtsutsuki clan resembled more a legendary world from ancient tales.
As far as the eye could see, there were majestic palaces and pavilions with carved beams and painted rafters, sweeping eaves and interlocking brackets, arranged in layered harmony. Truly a grand and elegant sight.
The only somewhat monotonous aspect was that the clan's dominant color scheme leaned overwhelmingly toward white.
The sky was a clear, pristine white. The buildings were constructed from immaculate stone and translucent crystals. Even the clothing of the Ōtsutsuki clan members was primarily white.
Almost everything within sight was this pure shade of white. This also reflected, in a subtle way, the Ōtsutsuki clan's obsessive pursuit of high-purity Byakugan.
On the way to the Garden, Urashiki continued chattering nonstop.
"Hey, hey, Isshiki, what kind of techniques do you think they'll inscribe into us later?"
"Didn't the instructor just say it?" Isshiki replied coolly. "At the start, only the Kāma used for cultivating the God Tree will be inscribed."
Compared to divine techniques, he was more interested in the Guardian the main family would assign to him next.
Hope it's someone easy to control, Isshiki thought to himself.
If their future cooperation in planting trees went smoothly, then while he evolved, it wouldn't hurt to reward the Guardian with a few lower-quality fruits.
Urashiki glanced at Isshiki beside him, whose expression remained cold and severe, and let out a soft sigh.
"Sigh... you're still too young. You don't understand how things work. What if we're lucky enough to run into some noble of the main family in the Garden? If they take a liking to the potential we've got, they might casually reward us with a few things..."
"That's enough."
Isshiki frowned, impatiently cutting off Urashiki's fantasy.
"If you're not afraid of being treated like walking chakra pills by those nobles, then go ahead."
Urashiki raised an eyebrow at that, the same carefree, mocking smile still hanging on his lips.
"Ah, come on. Don't always assume our own clan members are that cold-hearted. Everyone's a good person."
He said that, but seeing Isshiki's utterly unmoved, icy expression, Urashiki wisely refrained from continuing to bombard him with cheap chatter.
---
It didn't take long before the group, led by a branch-family guide, arrived at their destination, the Garden.
From the outside, the Garden looked like a massive white crystalline honeycomb. Each hexagonal prism face was suffused with flowing streams of liquid data.
The connections throughout the structure were woven from the roots of deactivated God Trees, while the surface near the base of the trunk was covered in large amounts of semi-transparent concave carapace plating.
This place was one of the Ōtsutsuki clan's most important strategic locations. Aside from council members and main-family nobles, any other clan member would be punished simply for approaching it.
That was because inside this enormous crystal, the main family used the power of Kāma to back up the majority of the clan's known divine technique data.
Through Daikokuten embedded within the tree trunk, the Garden could directly inscribe this data into an Ōtsutsuki clan member's body.
Of course, that was only possible if one's Byakugan was pure enough to withstand the chakra contamination that accompanied the divine techniques.
Urashiki gazed up at the Garden and couldn't help letting out a sincere sigh of admiration.
"This is incredible! They say every stream of data in there corresponds to a divine technique. If someone could master all of them, wouldn't they be able to rival the God of the Ōtsutsuki themselves?"
Just as Urashiki was marveling at the depth of the main family's foundation, an extremely arrogant voice suddenly rang out from ahead.
"Hmph. Ignorant, lowly clansman. With eyes like yours, being able to withstand two complete divine techniques would already be impressive."
The group turned toward the voice and saw a young man in pristine white robes, a transparent veil draped over his head, floating gracefully out from within the Garden, his posture haughty.
Behind him followed another clan member of abnormally tall stature, half his face hidden beneath a headwrap.
Urashiki glanced at the pair of horns atop the youth's head, the symbol of main-family status, and silently guessed which branch of the main family he belonged to.
To be able to freely bring others in and out of the Garden, he had to be a true noble even among the main family.
"Momoshiki-sama."
The branch-family guide clearly wasn't encountering this man for the first time. He hurriedly raised his right palm diagonally upward, then drew it back to his chest and bowed in salute.
Momoshiki didn't even spare a glance at the branch-family guide who was bowing to him. His gaze moved straight past him to the four branch-family members following behind.
"So this is the newly selected protected one from the branch family?"
However, when his eyes landed on Isshiki, a flash of surprise suddenly crossed those pure, unblemished white eyes.
"Oh? You managed to produce a Byakugan like this. Come and serve as my retainer."
At Momoshiki's words, Kinshiki, who had been silently following behind him, stepped forward, looking down at Isshiki with a condescending gaze.
"I'm not interested."
Isshiki rejected the sudden offer without a second thought.
He knew himself very well. He was not the type to obediently submit to someone else.
Seeing this, Urashiki hurriedly tugged at Isshiki's sleeve and whispered in persuasion, "This is a member from the main family. You're just rejecting him outright like that? At least hear what kind of conditions he's offering."
"Why are you so annoying?"
Isshiki couldn't take it anymore and shot Urashiki a cold glare.
"Alright. You win."
Urashiki took half a step back, raising both hands in a gesture of surrender.
Although he had been rejected, Momoshiki didn't seem angry at all. Instead, he looked at Isshiki's Byakugan several more times with an appreciative expression.
"Interesting. Your eyes may still have the potential to evolve in the future. But..."
"But what?"
"But I don't think I'm obligated to tell you."
A mocking smile appeared on Momoshiki's face. He raised a hand to signal Kinshiki to follow and, as he brushed past Isshiki, left behind one final remark.
"Your Byakugan is indeed impressive, but can it see through the human heart?"
The group of branch-family members could only watch as the noble drifted away.
Standing among them, Isshiki frowned deeply, thoroughly displeased with Momoshiki's deliberately mysterious attitude.
Urashiki smacked his lips a few times, tiptoed in place, and looked toward the two figures disappearing into the distance.
"Hey, Isshiki, don't you think that guy just now was kind of cute?"
"Cute?"
The remaining people present were rendered speechless by Urashiki's comment.
Although the Ōtsutsuki clan's rules strictly forbade killing one's own kin, if a low-ranking member casually mocked a high-ranking one and it was deemed provocation, being executed on the spot would be entirely their own fault.
"You're called Isshiki, right?"
At that moment, the branch-family guide spoke up, drawing everyone's attention.
"Are you going to try to persuade me too?"
"Of course not. Whether you choose to become a retainer of the main family is your own business. But since we're both from the branch family, I'll give you a piece of advice."
The guide paused, his expression turning serious, and continued solemnly.
"Momoshiki-sama's Byakugan is the purest to be born within the clan in tens of thousands of years. It was born with the ability to see through fate itself. So the words he just spoke, you'd do well to take them seriously."
Isshiki said nothing, only nodding expressionlessly.
A Byakugan that could see fate? Then was that remark a warning, that someday he would suffer a great loss because of human hearts?
Thinking this, Isshiki turned to look at Urashiki.
Sensing his gaze, Urashiki's eyes widened slightly as he said, "What's wrong with you? Are you seriously suspecting me?"
"I never said that."
Isshiki withdrew his gaze and forced out those words.
---
After this brief interlude passed, the group was finally allowed to enter the Garden with a nod from the two guards at the entrance.
The interior wasn't particularly complex. At the center of the crystallized hall stood row upon row of containers that resembled biological capsules.
"All of these ascension pods are the same. You four can just pick any one and lie down inside. After that, just follow the system's guidance to make your selections."
Following the guide's instructions, the four branch-family members lay down one by one inside the capsules in the first row.
The moment Isshiki lay down, he saw a transparent membrane slowly descend above him.
Immediately afterward, a cloud of pollen with a faintly hallucinogenic scent was released inside the pod. Then, a sudden chill ran across the back of his neck, as if something had attached itself there. Before he could figure out what was happening, a blue light screen abruptly appeared before his eyes.
Under the scan of the technique Ōkuninushi, a three-dimensional human model, clearly molded after Isshiki's original body, slowly rotated on the left side of the screen, while several lines of textual data appeared on the right.
[Authorization: Level III
Byakugan Purity: 67.9%
Number of Techniques: None +
Technique Contamination: 0%
Implanted Prosthetic Eye: None
Physical Adaptability: 100%]
Aside from the purity rating, the rest was a perfectly standard profile for a newly born Ōtsutsuki. Following the prompt, Isshiki used his thoughts to click the "+" symbol next to the divine techniques option, and the entire screen rapidly rearranged itself.
Because his Byakugan purity was close to seventy percent, in an instant a massive list of selectable divine techniques flooded onto the screen before him.
Sukunahikona, Claw Marks, Ten Directions, Senrigan, Kāma...
Seeing so many powerful techniques flash before his eyes, even the normally composed Isshiki couldn't help but swallow hard, his heart pounding.
According to what a previous instructor had privately told him, with his aptitude he should be able to shoulder at least three complete divine techniques. However, due to his Level III authorization after being promoted from the branch family, he could still choose only one.
With no other option, he could only select Kāma, the one most convenient for planting God Trees.
Still, Isshiki wasn't worried. This awkward limitation would be alleviated soon enough once he completed his first tree-planting mission.
For the Ōtsutsuki clan, obtaining divine techniques could be done in two ways. Aside from receiving a direct write-in at the Garden whenever one's authorization level increased, they could also rely on consuming chakra fruits to achieve autonomous evolution. It was important to note, however, that the probability of autonomous evolution was not one hundred percent.
In theory, two parameters affected the likelihood of evolving a divine technique. Byakugan purity and the quality of the chakra fruit.
For Isshiki, a Byakugan purity as high as 67.9% meant that even if he consumed an ordinary-grade fruit, there was still a high chance he would directly evolve his own divine technique. Although divine techniques obtained through autonomous evolution carried some uncertainty, since they couldn't be chosen freely and might result in weaker effects, their advantages were also very clear.
First, they caused no divine technique contamination to the body. Second, they did not occupy the upper limit of divine techniques that one's body could carry as set by the Garden.
Moreover, there was even a chance of awakening a brand-new, powerful divine technique never before recorded by the Ōtsutsuki clan.
In short, no matter what he rolled, there was nothing to lose.
Suppressing the longing in his heart for one of the techniques on the list, Isshiki clicked on the data entry for Kāma.
The central system of the Garden received the confirmation and backed up the data for Kāma once more.
Then, it autonomously activated Ōkuninushi. Streams of data flowed through the God Tree branch connected to the back of Isshiki's neck and were written directly into his body.