168: Logical Erasure and the Capture of the Soul of Desire

“That’s it? I thought it was something big.”

Tang Yan’s face was filled with pure, heartfelt confusion.

“The intensity of this mental attack isn’t even as strong as my emotional fluctuation when I forgot to pay my credit card bill last month.”

“Bill… credit card bill?” Yugito barely struggled out of the despair of being abandoned by the world, her mind still a mess, only able to instinctively repeat the unfamiliar word.

Gaara was slightly better, but the gourd on his back was still trembling slightly, not out of caution, but because he had almost been dragged back to his childhood by that sense of loneliness, reliving the feeling of being treated as a monster by the whole world.

As for Obito, he was already numb. His worldview had just been formatted, and now, this mental shock was like the startup music after a computer reboot for him—annoying, but he was used to it.

“Loneliness? Just a subjective emotion, lacking objective physical quantification standards, a dreg of idealism.”

Tang Yan made an academic summary with an understated tone, and at the same time, he raised his hand and summoned a brand-new puppet from a scroll.

With a “poof,” the light smoke dispersed.

A puppet, entirely made of smooth, jade-like white ceramic, stood silently before everyone. It had a perfect human silhouette, but what was most eerie was that its face had no features, only a perfect mirror so smooth it could reflect a person’s image.

This puppet’s codename was—【Logic·Law】.

It emitted no killing intent, nor any Chakra fluctuations; it simply stood there, like a cold, absolutely rational philosophical concept materialized.

Looking at the continuously gathering Will Guards, preparing to launch their second wave of mental attacks, Tang Yan yawned and ordered 【Logic·Law】: “Time to work. Let’s popularize the ‘materialistic iron fist’ for these guys living in their own worlds.”

【Logic·Law】 nodded slightly, a movement so fluid it didn’t seem like a puppet. It extended its ceramic hands, palms facing each other. On its mirror-like face, a torrent of green data streams began to appear frantically, like a classic scene from The Matrix.

It didn’t form hand signs, nor did it release Ninjutsu; instead, it released an invisible fluctuation towards the overwhelming storm of “loneliness,” “betrayal,” and “hatred” wills.

—“Logic Overlay Field,” activated.

Buzz!

The entire space seemed to have been muted.

Gaara and Yugito were astonished to find that the tumultuous negative emotions in their minds were forcibly smoothed out by an invisible large hand.

Immediately after, an even stranger feeling surged into their hearts.

They seemed to hear an emotionless system prompt broadcasting in their minds:

【Definition Correction in progress…】

【“Loneliness”: Redefined as “a physical state of individual independent existence, without social connections.”】

【“Betrayal”: Redefined as “asymmetric rupture of the interest chain and unilateral termination of cooperation agreements.”】

【“Hatred”: Redefined as “a persistent negative marker for high-threat targets; suggests initiating cleanup or evasion procedures.”】

【“Love”: Redefined as “an irrational impulse driven by hormones such as phenylethylamine, dopamine, and oxytocin, with the ultimate goal of species reproduction.”】

…

The shadowy guard, resembling Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, which bore the brunt of the attack, its existence was entirely based on pure, ineffable emotional concepts. At this moment, in 【Logic·Law】’s absolutely rational logic field, its existential foundation was directly erased from the bottom-level logic.

It let out a silent shriek, and the entire black shadow began to flicker violently, like a program with a fatal bug. The emotional energy forming its body, after being “redefined,” could no longer maintain its aggregated form.

The next second, it was like code dragged into the recycle bin by a programmer; after a burst of garbled distortion, it dissipated inch by inch, transforming into the purest data stream, which was absorbed by 【Logic·Law】’s mirrored face.

Along with the other smaller Will Guards around it, they were also “deleted” one after another, like virus files scanned by antivirus software.

The entire process was quiet, efficient, and full of dimensionality reduction attacks on emotional beings.

Yugito’s mouth hung open for a long time: “This… what is this? Ninjutsu? Genjutsu?”

Gaara’s mouth twitched; he felt his perception being violently rubbed into the ground: “No… this is more like… someone is reinstalling the operating system for this world.”

Obito, meanwhile, looked at Tang Yan with the gaze one reserves for a monster.

He completely understood now.

This man wasn’t here to fight at all.

He was here to fix bugs.

And he himself, along with everything he cherished, was merely a bug in this dilapidated server.

After clearing all the “viruses,” Tang Yan led a “tour group” with shattered worldviews and leisurely walked to the massive black heart.

The main body of the desire's soul sensed his arrival.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The black heart, over a hundred meters in diameter, began to beat frantically, each pulsation projecting the most extreme, primal temptations into Tang Yan’s mind.

【Become me, and you will be immortal!】

【Become me, and you will control all things in the universe!】

【Become me, past, present, future—everything will be defined by you; you will be the only true god!】

Illusions of countless beautiful women surrounding him, mountains of wealth, myriad beings kneeling in worship… the most supreme desires any creature could imagine, played out before him like a VR panoramic movie.

However, Tang Yan merely picked his ears, a hint of impatience on his face.

He curled his lip in disdain at the heart, which was still vigorously promoting itself.

“Immortality? Is clocking in for work every day considered immortality?”

“Controlling the universe? Have you paid off your mortgage yet to be thinking about that?”

“Becoming the lord of all things? Do you know how tiring it is to be a group administrator?”

He shook his head, letting out a long sigh: “Too small-minded, too narrow-sighted. It’s always the same old stuff, not even a new trick. Boring.”

As his voice fell, the Myriad Forms Ingenuity Box on his wrist glowed brightly.

Countless data chains, shimmering with a ghostly blue light, projected out from the Ingenuity Box, instantly coiling around the massive desire's soul like living beings.

These data chains were not mere restraints; they rapidly wove in the air, forming a bizarre, self-intertwining structure impossible to exist in three-dimensional space.

—“Möbius Cage”!

The cage instantly formed, firmly locking the desire's soul within it.

The desire's soul struggled wildly, releasing even more powerful desire fluctuations, attempting to break through the cage.

【I want to get out!】

However, the cage’s logic immediately fed it a paradox.

【Logic Trigger: ‘Getting out’ is to satisfy ‘desire’.】

【If ‘out’, then ‘desire’ is satisfied.】

【If ‘desire’ is satisfied, then the motive for ‘getting out’ disappears.】

【If motive disappears, then no intention to ‘get out’ can be generated.】

【If no intention to ‘get out’ can be generated, then you ‘do not want to get out’.】

【Loop initiated…】

The desire's soul’s struggles instantly froze. Its powerful will of desire was completely locked by this simple logical paradox, falling into an infinite loop. It was like a computer with a maxed-out CPU, completely frozen, and eventually, in constant self-contradiction, its energy rapidly depleted, its light dimmed, turning into a harmless black crystal.

“Done, time to knock off.”

Tang Yan snapped his fingers contentedly, and 【Logic·Law】 stepped forward, taking the sealed desire's soul crystal into its body.

The entire strange space began to stabilize, no longer having that eerie whispering and mental pressure.

“Let’s go, to the next scenic spot, the Mountain Graveyard.” Tang Yan turned, preparing to leave with his spoils and the tour group.

However, just as they walked towards the exit formed by the spatial swirl, a shadowy figure, as if permeating from the shadows, silently blocked their path.

It was a puddle of sentient oil, the most senior mastermind of this continent—Black Zetsu.

Its body was heaving violently, clearly very enraged.

Behind it, ripples in space continuously spread, and White Zetsu, each wearing an Uzumaki mask, emerged one by one, densely packed, quickly forming an army of hundreds.

These White Zetsu were completely different from the ordinary kind; they were all enveloped in powerful life force, each fused with Hashirama cells, possessing combat power comparable to a Jonin.

A sinister smile appeared on Black Zetsu’s crude face, and it stared intently at Tang Yan.

“You tore up the script I’d been planning for a millennium, and you even stole the most important prop… Do you think you can leave so easily with my things?”