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Chapter 312: Want Resurrection? Then Work Honestly for the Empire
Center of the Holy City, Imperial Palace Dome.
Starlight poured in through the massive, colorless crystal dome, spreading a layer of cold frost across the floor.
Inside the vast and majestic bedchamber, incense burned silently in a bronze beast-head cauldron. White smoke curled upward before being scattered by the night breeze.
Alex leaned casually against a massive, dark-gold chaise lounge, propping his forehead up with one hand while playing with a smooth, white jade cup in the other.
Konan sat beside him. She had shed her luxurious divine robes for the day, wearing only a soft, light-purple nightgown.
Her long hair spilled over her smooth shoulders. She had shed some of her lofty divinity, replacing it with the lazy, soft allure of a mortal woman.
Hovering directly in front of them was a water mirror condensed from chakra.
The image in the mirror was crystal clear.
In front of the Hyuga residence, Tsunade bowing her head in supplication, Sakura digging her nails into her palms, the anxious expressions of the women standing before Hinata—every detail was captured perfectly.
Alex tilted his wrist, downing the liquor in the cup in a single gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"Interesting."
He set the jade cup down on the low table with a sharp clack, a faint smile curving the corners of his lips.
Konan waved her pale hand gently, and the chakra water mirror shattered into motes of fluorescent light, dissolving into the air.
"It's human nature," Konan said. Her voice was cold, carrying the profound rationality of someone who had seen through life and death. "The living can be suppressed by force. They can be stripped of their chakra. You can even sever their ties to their countries and families.
But the dead... they are a bottomless abyss in the hearts of the living that can never be filled."
She understood that feeling better than anyone.
The ninja village system had only existed for a mere sixty years, yet it had managed to fill four Great Ninja Wars with blood.
In this twisted land, the lifespan of a ninja had been infinitely compressed by war. Living to thirty was considered a long life.
Over these sixty years, who hadn't wept bitterly in front of a memorial stone? Who hadn't sat awake in the dead of night waiting for dawn?
Tsunade had lost her brother and her lover. Kurenai Yuhi had lost her father. Sakura had lost Naruto and Sasuke. Tenten had lost her parents...
The entire city was filled with people carrying regrets.
In the past, death was the absolute finish line. Regrets could only be buried in the dirt alongside the corpses, transforming into a numbing anchor that forced people to keep living.
But today, in front of millions of people, Konan had forcibly ripped Yahiko and Nagato straight out of the Pure Land.
Real flesh and blood, warm breath. The moment that miracle manifested in the world, the stagnant water turned into a boiling cauldron.
Even if these lofty gods were out of reach, even if the price of this resurrection was bound to be horrifyingly severe...
As long as hope existed, as long as this spider's thread genuinely hung over their heads, these embers of the old era—who had fallen to rock bottom—would desperately claw their way up like moths to a flame.
It wasn't a reflection of the moon in a well, nor a flower in the water.
This was a real, tangible way out that would let them keep breathing, keep fighting, and finally mend their broken hearts.
Alex sat up straight, his knuckles tapping rhythmically on the low table with a dull thud-thud.
"I suppose I did overlook Hinata's mother."
He chuckled, his gaze piercing through the crystal dome as if overlooking the silhouette of the entire Holy City.
"That old fox, Hiashi Hyuga, really knows which way the wind blows." Alex's tone was casual, yet it perfectly pierced through the Hyuga Clan's survival philosophy. "He took a thousand years of his clan's accumulated wealth and poured every last cent of it into the Holy City's treasury.
His clan took over the engineering and security jobs. They keep their heads down and know their place.
They didn't jump out and act arrogantly just because Hinata had climbed to the center of the Empire's power. The Hyuga Clan, whether in the old Konoha or the new Empire, will always be the most law-abiding subjects."
Alex didn't particularly care if the people below him were honest or not.
Under an absolute gap in power, any superficial compliance or factional plotting was nothing more than ants testing the walls of a glass tank in his eyes.
The Empire's laws were draconian. Once someone crossed the line, they would be met with thunderous, overwhelming annihilation.
But not caring didn't mean he wouldn't reward and punish clearly.
A ruler didn't fear ambitious subordinates; a ruler feared subordinates who couldn't read the room.
The Hyuga Clan actively sliced off their own flesh to prove their loyalty and kept their posture incredibly low. Naturally, such tactful subjects needed to be made into a prime example.
Konan had governed the Akatsuki for years, carving her way out from mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and the suffocating pressure of various factions. When it came to leadership and management, her wrists were firmer and clearer than anyone's.
She reached out, refilling Alex's jade cup as the liquor rippled slightly.
"Hinata is one of us," Konan analyzed rationally, devoid of any personal emotion. "Since she asked, resurrecting her mother isn't an issue. The familiars of the gods ought to enjoy privileges."
Konan paused for a moment, her eyes glinting with the shrewdness of a chess master. "As for Hizashi Hyuga... the Hyuga Clan has spent this entire period contributing both money and labor, handling matters beautifully.
Fulfilling Hiashi's wish can be considered a reward. It will show those remnants of the old ninja villages—who are still watching from the sidelines in terror—exactly what kind of rewards they can get by submitting to the Empire and working diligently."
Applying both grace and might was the true path of a ruler.
Alex nodded, picking up his wine glass. A highly oppressive, calculating light flashed in his dark eyes.
"Aside from Hinata's family members, as for everyone else's resurrection requests..."
A cold, playful smile tugged at the corners of Alex's mouth. "Let them work honestly for the Empire."
The Empire had just been established. Its territory encompassed the entire ninja world, and a fractured world lay waiting to be rebuilt.
Although everything was under control, thoroughly cleaning up this massive territory, establishing new transportation networks, energy grids, administrative systems, and even future defensive outposts for expanding into the stars would require an ocean of manpower and labor.
These ninjas from the old era had been forcibly stripped of their villages, their faiths, and their nations. While they were temporarily cowed by absolute force and didn't dare rebel, their spirits had already scattered.
If left alone, they would easily fall into a state of "lying flat and playing dead," becoming a horde of walking corpses that only followed basic orders.
Alex didn't need walking corpses.
He needed tireless, self-combusting perpetual motion machines.
"Lost their motivation? Then I'll give them the ultimate motivation." Alex played with his wine glass. "Draft a comprehensive Codex of Merit. You want to resurrect your loved ones? Fine. Pay for it with your life. Trade for it with your blood and sweat.
Building cities, reclaiming wastelands, exploring, slaughtering—as long as they create enough value for the Empire and accumulate the corresponding merit points, the gods will naturally bestow their blessings."
He would use the most absolute miracle to hold the lifeline of every person in the ninja world hostage.
As long as the names on that list hadn't been revived, these arrogant ninjas would act like donkeys turning a millstone—willingly, and even frantically, working themselves to death for the Empire.
They would actively compete against each other. They would fight for merit points, completely forgetting the hatred that once belonged to Konohagakure or Kumogakure.
Because in the new world, only merit could buy back the people haunting their dreams.
A flash of realization crossed Konan's eyes before she pursed her lips into a light smile.
"Alex, you're going to squeeze every last drop of blood and bone out of them."
"Just making the best use of everything," Alex said, downing his wine and casually tossing the jade cup onto the low table. "Since they crave a miracle, they have to pay an equivalent price.
First thing tomorrow morning, have Hinata issue the Codex of Merit. Tell Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the rest that the price of resurrection is steep. Tell them to prepare to be skinned alive."
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