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In terms of teamwork, even if the six Pains on the other side were all puppets controlled by one person, they still couldn't compare to Zed and his clones.

Shadow Blades flew through the air, and flesh and blood began to fall to the ground. With just one simultaneous charge, Zed and his clones chopped those enormous summoned beasts into a dish.

Huge heads crashed to the ground, rolling to one side with a thud, and the splattered blood stained the houses along the street red.

The reason why the summoning beast was captured was because the main object of the Heavenly Dao's protection was still his own companions. Every time Jie appeared next to any of Pain's bodies, he would immediately be hit by a Bansho Ten'in or Shinra Tensei.

This is also the only aspect of Pain that surpasses Zed: his ability to control the battlefield.

However, as the old saying goes, "If you hold on for too long, you will surely lose."

Once all the summoned beasts that could be discarded at will were dead, Zed began to compress the battlefield. One clone after another appeared behind multiple Pains at the same time. The Soul Slash left a phantom in the air, and at the same time, the shadows under Pains climbed up, locking Zed's target in place.

Shinra Tensei!

The Heavenly Dao struggled to break free from the shadow's control, spreading its arms towards the sky, and a tremendous repulsive force pushed outwards in all directions from its side.

Precise ninjutsu control allowed the repulsive force to bypass each Pain clone, effectively repelling Zai and his clones.

With a crash, the three Pain figures—the Hell Path, the Human Path, and the Animal Path—scattered on the ground like building blocks in full view of everyone. Their relative distance from the Deva Path was slightly greater, and that tiny gap was enough for Zai to complete his assassination.

After being knocked back, Jie did not immediately pounce again, because his energy was already depleted.

The fact that Pain could fight Zed one-on-one for so long clearly indicates that he is also a high-level professional. Facing an opponent of the same level, Zed's biggest problem has now come to the fore.

Unable to absorb and draw upon the omnipresent chakra in the environment, Zed's endurance was severely hampered. After only a dozen or so exchanges, his energy was completely depleted.

The Deva Path slightly raised its head, and the pieces of Pain's body, cut into several pieces, floated up. Behind the Hell Path, a huge phantom of Yama appeared, engulfing the single Pain corpse and beginning its resurrection.

From this perspective, a war of attrition is not an option.

Jie's eyes were locked on the Heavenly Path and the Hell Path. To win this encounter, he had to take care of these two.

Nagato was also aware of this, so the Deva Path and the Hell Path were practically glued together, while the other Pains kept watch over the blind spots. In short, apart from the two important Pains, the others could be used as scapegoats.

"Who is that person... to be fighting the leader like this?" Kakuzu watched the battle from a distance and suddenly felt like he was out of touch with the times.

"The Order of Balance, leader, Zetsu." Zetsu's figure emerged from behind Kakuzu. "This is the latest intelligence, but we haven't found any other members of the Order of Balance yet."

Looking back, Kakuzu's tense heart relaxed. White Zetsu, Tobi, Itachi Uchiha, Kisame, Konan, plus himself and Hidan, the entire Akatsuki, except for Sasori who went to cause trouble for the Sand Village and Deidara, all the other members were there.

"Everyone spread out and surround this place. He has too much information. We absolutely cannot let this guy get away!" Xiao Nan said fiercely, while fixing her hateful gaze on Jie.

"Ah, senior, isn't that too much trouble? How about we just go up and capture him alive?" Afei poked his head out next to Xiaonan, tilting his head to look at Jie in the air.

Konan gave Tobi a cold look. She knew this guy's true identity: Uchiha Madara. He was pretending to be like this to hide his identity, but Konan didn't care. Even if Senju Hashirama were resurrected, he couldn't stop her.

Afei tilted his head and took two steps back, looking as if he had been frightened by Xiaonan.

"Obey orders!" Xiao Nan said.

With a series of swift movements, the Akatsuki members quickly dispersed to form an encirclement around Pain and Zed.

Sensing the constantly shifting energy convergence points around him, Jie slowly straightened up. He had been thinking about how to conserve energy, but now it seemed there was no way.

"In the name of the Command Seal, I declare that I will be restored to my full strength!"

Jie loudly announced to those around him, and the faint, shadowy Command Seal on his arm was fully activated.

Dark, gleaming power emanated from the Command Seal, surging into Zed's body. His depleted energy reserves were rapidly replenished by the Command Seal, and in just one second, Zed was full of energy again. The small wounds on his body from close combat were also completely healed.

Forbidden Ultimate Technique - Instant Shadow Killing Formation!

The entire Shadow Realm of Amegakure trembled. The surging shadow power caused all the Akatsuki members to experience slight hallucinations. In these hallucinations, their shadows wriggled and stood up, constantly bowing towards the direction of Zed.

Shinra Tensei! Without hesitation, the Deva Path released the chakra within his body, unleashing the Shinra Tensei with its largest range and highest intensity. However, this time, the repulsive force seemed to have lost its effect.

It was as if Jie was not in the same space as everyone present, and he entered a state in which he could not be selected by external energy. Then the shadow rapidly contracted, and the center of the contraction point was the Hell Path.

As the official target, Hell Path was completely powerless to fight back. It was locked in the air by the shadows, and countless shadow lines that could not be clearly seen with the naked eye kept weaving through Hell Path's body.

"burst!"

At some point, the true form of Jie appeared behind Hell Path, slowly clenching his fist and uttering a single word.

Boom! A silent explosion, and Shadow disintegrated Hell Path into the smallest particles, along with the black rods made of unknown material stuck in his back.

The gravel-like Hell Path was sucked into the Shadow Realm without leaving a trace.

Zed was still a little stiff after leaving the Shadowlands. He hadn't fully mastered this move yet. When he could use it at any time, that's when he might step into the legendary realm.

The medic has been killed; now it's the turn of the control personnel.

Jie slowly looked at the last body of Pain, which was the Deva Path.

The Art of the God of Paper!

Seeing that Yahiko's corpse was about to turn to ashes, Konan panicked and unleashed her ultimate move.

One after another, thousands of sticks shot towards Jie's position. At the same time, the Heavenly Dao unleashed a Divine Luo Heavenly Expedition, this time targeting itself and rapidly widening the distance between itself and Jie.

When the rain of a thousand senbon fell on Jie, Jie had just fully recovered from his stiffness. The senbon blossoms unfolded and transformed into explosive tags. This was Konan's Divine Paper Technique, which could turn paper into anything.

Boom boom boom!

A massive explosion resounded across the sky, and brilliant flames illuminated the sky above Amegakure, even tearing a large hole in the lingering dark clouds.

The massive explosion gave Zed a headache. Even in his shadow form, he wasn't completely immune to other damage. The intense blast made him feel nauseous.

After exchanging positions with his clone who remained outside amidst the explosion, Zed hadn't even had a chance to breathe when a cluster of flames suddenly ignited on his body.

Itachi Uchiha's Mangekyou Sharingan was locked onto Jie, and Amaterasu's flames could burn directly in the area locked by Itachi's vision, and would not be extinguished until the target was burned to ashes.

Feeling the bone-corroding fire, the shadow within Jie's body fluctuated once more, exchanging with his clone again.

Then, Amaterasu suddenly burst into flames, burning the clone to ashes, while the main body of the cloning remained unharmed.

Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!

Kisame Hoshigaki quickly formed hand seals, unleashing a massive surge of chakra that conjured a gigantic waterfall above Amegakure. The waterfall, curving and carrying immense force, crashed directly into Jie.

Five shark-shaped water bullets! Kisame Hoshigaki slammed his palm on the surface of the waterfall, and five shark-shaped water bullets rushed towards the waterfall together.

Shadow Technique - Double Blades!

Jie threw out two shurikens, splitting the surging waterfall into three parts and shattering the swimming shark-shaped water bullets.

As the shark water bullet condensed again, Jie lightly touched the waterfall with his toes and leaped into the sky, looking down at the earth below and taking in the entire Akatsuki group that had formed a circle around him.

How many people are in this organization?!

Suddenly, the space behind Jie distorted, and A Fei appeared there, then clenched his fist and punched down.

The fist penetrated deep into Jie's body, but Afei did not feel any physical contact; he felt as if his hand was swirling into a cloud of mist.

Jie's counterattack followed closely, the Shadow Blade piercing through A Fei's body without causing any damage. The area where A Fei was attacked was transparent and empty; this part of his body had already been teleported to another dimension through "Divine Might".

It's those eyes again, looking like they have conjunctivitis!

When Jie saw the Mangekyou Sharingan behind the mask, he made another mental note of it.

While observing, Jie and Afei continued their attacks, frantically launching ineffective attacks, turning what should have been a friendly fight into a contest of endurance.

After exchanging more than a dozen blows, Jie formed hand seals and broke free from Xiao's encirclement with a bang. His figure constantly shifted among his various clones, because if he stopped, the Heavenly Dao that was hiding further away would definitely not do nothing.

Once locked on, it will probably be hit by another attack of the Myriad Manifestations Pull, as the energy required to transform into a clone under the interference of the powerful attraction is much greater than usual.

Such frequent changes in position, coupled with the recent release of his finishing move, have depleted the energy that Zed's body had just been filled with Command Seals.

Zed only has one of these items left, capable of instantly turning the tide of battle. He can't use it hastily, otherwise he won't be able to play a significant role the next time he encounters this group.

After assessing the situation, Zed realized that without continuing to use Command Seals to replenish his strength, it would be difficult to achieve any further gains here. Therefore, Zed decisively chose to retreat.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Jie merged directly into the shadows and then disappeared completely from Amegakure.

The vast majority of the members worked together, yet the person still managed to escape. This is the first time since the establishment of Akatsuki!

Even Hidan, the talkative one, was silent at this moment. He and Kakuzu had made virtually no contribution in the battle just now, so they decided to stay out of the way and not cause trouble for themselves.

"Ah, that kid's really lucky. The seniors just happen to be out of sorts today." Afei jumped out from the side space, making excuses for everyone.

With a series of thuds, Pain's Deva Path and the other Pain's corpses fell to the ground. After the Hell Path was erased, the other dismembered Pains could no longer be resurrected. To restore them to their original fighting strength, Nagato would have to select another target and create another Hell Path.

"Boss, should we recall Sasori and Deidara? The current situation doesn't seem to be the best time to launch the plan," Kisame Hoshigaki asked, holding Samehada in his arms.

“No, we need to speed up the plan. Time is running out. I will quickly replenish the forces we lost this time,” Payne said, looking up in the direction where Zed had retreated.

"He has no chakra in his body. Judging from our fight, his biggest problem is his endurance. If we encounter him in the future, we should try to stall him as much as possible."

Pain continued his analysis to the others, "Also, when he erased the Hell Path, which was when he said that sentence, I saw something like a tattoo disappear from his arm. That might be the key to performing the erasure ninjutsu, or it might be a way to quickly replenish energy."

"From his final choice to leave, it can be confirmed that the thing cannot be regenerated, or at least cannot be easily regenerated."

While listening, Itachi Uchiha was writing something in a notebook. He was recording what he had observed about Zed's abilities. After writing this down, he would have to find a way to send a copy to Konoha. Being an undercover agent is so miserable. You have to do several jobs but only get paid for one, and your future is uncertain.

While Akatsuki was holding a debriefing meeting, Zed had already discarded the arrogance he had developed since entering this world, and he was now focusing all his efforts on moving towards the location where he had appeared in the Land of Grass.

That's right, Zed is going to find the dog that received a Command Seal. Even if the dog doesn't recognize him as its owner in the end, it's fine. It's better to use the Command Seal to replenish the depleted energy than to leave it there to waste.

Chapter 256 The Electric Mouse, Buzzing Sound

"Big Head! Big Head! Where did you put him?!"

Inside the clock tower, Hemerdinger, who was still studying the Otsutsuki clan's black box, suddenly heard a familiar shout.

Immediately afterward, a purple lightning bolt streaked from outside the house all the way to his front. Due to its speed, even some of the mechanical guards here did not have time to react and intercept it.

"Kennan? Didn't you go back to visit your family?"

Heimerdinger was a little surprised to see the newcomer. They were both Yordles, and both were considered minorities inside the Clock Tower, so their relationship had always been alright.

"I'm back." Kennen hopped onto the table in front of Heimerdinger, then turned to stare at him. "Where are Shen and Zed? Where did you put them?"

"They've gone on a mission to investigate the alien race, the Otsutsuki. Can't you see the mission description on the mission platform?"

Heimerdinger felt something was off. A Kennen-level legendary account should be able to see these things. Could it be a bug?

“Mission platform?” Kenan paused for a moment. “I don’t like using those things; they always break with a little static electricity.”

That's true. Sometimes, the static electricity that Kennan releases unintentionally can damage the electronic components of the personal terminal he's equipped with. Given the current shortage of supplies and the fact that he doesn't particularly need it, a terminal wasn't specially customized according to Kennan's requirements.

"Make way, make way."

A girl's voice came from outside the door. Heimerdinger looked over and saw that it was Akali, who was squeezing through the gap between several automated mechanical bodies.

"If you don't move aside, believe me, I'll tear you apart!"