Chapter 41 The Fall of a Genius

Dragged into the shadows by the elderly jailer, Uchiha Gin felt a sense of suffocation. The surroundings were as pitch-black as ink, and his senses lost all perception of the outside world, followed closely by a wave of powerlessness.

He tried to activate the Sharingan. With crimson eyes, Uchiha Gin was surprised to find that he could rely on his dojutsu power to offset the encroachment of the surrounding darkness.

As he increased his dojutsu power, his senses were liberated, and he finally saw the old jailer standing opposite him.

"What is your ultimate goal?"

Although he had received the other's help, Uchiha Gin could not let his guard down without knowing whether the person was a friend or an enemy.

"Hehehe, I have been waiting for you."

The old jailer's pale eyes revealed a trace of long-suppressed anticipation.

"Once you enter Cell Number 0 and find the person waiting for you, you will understand everything."

The old jailer spoke in a disjointed manner. Before Uchiha Gin could ask another question, he felt his body lighten, and in the blink of an eye, he was back in Uchiha Ryuei's office.

By this time, Uchiha Ryuei had long since left. Uchiha Gin looked down at his own calm reflection.

Without much hesitation, he reached out and felt the vase on Uchiha Ryuei's desk. As the vase was rotated one full circle, the bookshelf behind the desk flipped, and a dark, deep passage appeared before Uchiha Gin's eyes.

It seemed this was the entrance to Cell Number 0. Uchiha Gin was now riding a tiger and difficult to dismount; all known clues pointed to this dungeon, and whether he could solve the mystery of the original owner's memories could only be answered by finding it inside.

Entering the secret door, there was a switch on the wall. Uchiha Gin tried flipping it, and the secret door of the dungeon revolved back into place. It seemed this was the switch for the secret door.

Taking a deep breath, Uchiha Gin did not dare to deactivate his Sharingan. With his crimson eyes blazing, he scanned his surroundings vigilantly, guarding against any sudden danger.

The layout of Cell Number 0 was similar to the other dungeons, with dilapidated cells on both sides of the corridor long abandoned and left unused.

A pungent, moldy smell made Uchiha Gin frown deeply, but since it was personally overseen by Uchiha Ryuei, there must be untold secrets hidden within this place.

As Uchiha Gin went deeper, mottled skeletons appeared in the cells on both sides. From the irregular bends in the skeletons' hands and feet, it could be seen that the prisoners here had undergone extremely cruel torture.

Along the way, aside from the corpses, Uchiha Gin discovered nothing else, until he walked to the last cell closed by an iron door.

Looking at the seal composed of complex jutsu formulas on the door, Uchiha Gin knew he had found it.

Knowing nothing about fuinjutsu, he looked worriedly at the door before him. If he used brute force to break it open, he would inevitably be discovered by whoever came later.

Yet he lacked the lockpicking skills either. Just as he was at his wit's end, the old jailer's familiar voice echoed from the shadow behind him.

"Hehehe, I can take you inside."

"Then I must trouble you, senior."

Turning his head to look at the old jailer who was smiling creepily at him, Uchiha Gin did not refuse.

Since the other party had been guiding him to this place all along, they undoubtedly wanted him to meet the person imprisoned in the dungeon.

Besides, he was not some pivotal, important figure within the clan; there was no need for this old jailer to go to such great lengths for a good-for-nothing Uchiha with a terrible reputation like himself.

Hearing Uchiha Gin's unhesitating reply, the old jailer acted as if it were expected, then extended his withered, chicken-claw-like hands and pulled Uchiha Gin back into the shadows.

Without a physical body, the reflection surprisingly did not dissipate. Instead, like a pool of black ink, it slowly seeped into the gaps of the iron door, squeezing its way completely through in no time.

Having experienced being in the shadows once before, Uchiha Gin did not feel too much discomfort this time. Feeling only his eyes close and open, he crossed from outside the iron door directly into the interior of the cell.

The environment inside the cell was not as bad as Uchiha Gin had imagined: neat and clean walls, a bookshelf, and simple furniture readily available, making it resemble a study room far more than a prison.

There was a desk beside the bookshelf, and a figure with their back to Uchiha was writing furiously there. Hearing someone's movement, the figure stopped the pen in their hand and slowly straightened up.

"You've finally come."

The owner of the voice turned around. A head of gray-white curly hair, and a face lined with ravines brimming with excitement.

One of his eyes was gray-white, much like the old jailer's, and his stooped figure trembled slightly with emotion upon seeing Uchiha Gin.

"You are?"

The elderly man before him looked identical to the old man in the photograph he had found at home. Looking at the familiar curly hair and the strikingly similar appearance, Uchiha Gin vaguely guessed the other's identity.

"Truly, do you not remember?"

Seeing Uchiha Gin's unfamiliar expression, the old man reined in his emotions, wearing an expression that seemed to say he had expected this.

"This old man's name is Uchiha Yao."

The old man uttered an unfamiliar name from his mouth. "I have a son named Uchiha Jin."

Uchiha Jin, the early-deceased father in the original owner's memories. As he recalled the gentle and refined man from his memories, the identity of the old man opposite him became crystal clear.

"You're my grandfather?"

Uchiha Gin asked cautiously.

"Indeed, my fine grandson."

Uchiha Yao nodded with satisfaction.

"Then why do I have not even the slightest impression of you?"

The old man's identity completely matched his guess. With no doubts left, Uchiha Gin could not help but ask.

"That's a long story, but you must remember..." Uchiha Yao shook his head with a sigh, and then dropped a shocking statement:

"The mastermind behind all of this is your uncle, Uchiha Tajima."

"???"

Uchiha Gin felt a slight ache in his head. Uchiha Tajima, the maternal uncle who had taken care of him quite a bit in the original owner's memories.

To have him pointed out by his own grandfather as the culprit responsible for his memory loss was something he found a bit difficult to accept for a moment.

Looking at Uchiha Gin's incredulous expression, Uchiha Yao narrated the beginning and end of the matter.

"Over a dozen years ago, I used to be the head of the clan's research department, dedicated to developing the power of the clan's Sharingan."

"Just like that Uchiha Miao?"

Uchiha Gin could not help chiming in. His own grandfather was actually the head of the research department; putting it in the present context, he was practically the child of a high-ranking official.

"Hmph! Uchiha Miao, that coward."

Uchiha Yao seemed to sneer at the current head of the research department.

"And that Uchiha Yan who imprisoned me—they are both my paternal cousins."

He had not expected that the two most flourishing elders within the current Uchiha clan were both his relatives, but from Uchiha Yao's expression, it was evident that he had deep conflicts with the two of them.

"Let's not mention these two traitors for now."

Uchiha Yao disdained wasting words on those two individuals.

"The beginning of everything dates back to the day my son died in battle."

Mentioning his son, Uchiha Yao's tone turned extremely sorrowful.

Dying in battle for the clan could be said to be a supreme honor, but for Uchiha Yao, it meant a white-haired man sending off a black-haired one, making this nearly septuagenarian elder's frame even more stooped.

Regarding the sacrifice of Uchiha Jin, there was only a faint trace left in Uchiha Gin's mind, as if most of it had been erased by someone.

No matter how hard he tried to recall the details, he could not remember them, and the more he tried to think, the more his head hurt, as if needles were piercing it.

"My son, Uchiha Jin, was once the clan's number one genius and the most powerful contender for the position of clan head."

Talking about his son, Uchiha Yao's tone was filled with irrepressible pride.

His own old man was actually the number one genius? Uchiha Gin's brain nearly short-circuited.

In the original owner's memories, there were very few images of his father. He only remembered that his father was extremely gentle, completely submissive to his wife at home, and cared deeply for him—a top-tier model husband, but he had no profound impression regarding his strength.

"Your father awakened his eyes at the age of eight, and by twelve he had the three tomoe, overwhelming many contemporary ninjas of that era—a genuine genius. But..."

Uchiha Yao continued,

"He shouldn't have died! I thought he died on the battlefield, dying for the honor of the clan."

"Wasn't he?" Uchiha Gin asked with a frown.