Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Golden chains suddenly shot out from between his bone wings, carrying the last of his strength, and pierced into the crystal core.

The entire altar began to shake violently, cracks spread across the crystal surface like a spider web, and even the figure of the messenger of destiny became distorted.

Are you crazy? This is the first time the Second Hokage's avatar has shown a wavering expression. The crystal seals the collective will of all the ninjas from past generations. If you forcibly inject the chains, it will trigger a resonance explosion!

That's what I'm betting on. Bai Ye's bone wings vibrated and crackled. You think you can control me with the will of a living person? But you've forgotten—lightning flashed in his pupils, a light that resonated to the extreme with the Darui Fragment. The will of a ninja is never to be controlled, but rather... to illuminate each other!

boom--

The crystal shattered completely amidst the roar.

The violent energy storm tore apart all the illusions, even sending the figure of the Messenger flying backward.

Bai Ye was knocked to the ground by the shockwave, but before landing, he spread his bone wings and managed to stand up.

He saw that the messenger's armor had been torn in several places, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on his originally cold and hard face.

Your game will eventually be broken by me. Bai Ye approaches step by step, chains coalescing into spearheads in his palm. Now, it's time to settle the score.

But just as he was about to deliver the final blow, the crystal core suddenly erupted with a blinding purple light.

A runic array rose from the fragments and pierced through Bai Ye's chest as if it were a tangible object.

His vision went black as his consciousness was forcibly pulled into a dark space.

When his vision returned, he found himself standing in nothingness.

Countless points of light floated around, each point of light coalescing into a familiar face—Hiruzen Sarutobi's smile, Kakashi's Sharingan, Asuma's cigarette, and even a young Minato and Kushina.

They didn't speak, but gazed at him with the purest of eyes, as if waiting, or as if witnessing.

The real price is only beginning. The voices of the messengers of destiny surge from all directions; the will of these ninjas will ultimately crush your soul.

Bai Ye looked at those gazes and suddenly smiled.

He reached out and caught the nearest point of light—it was Hiruzen Sarutobi's face, with the exact same expression he had when he touched Hiruzen's head on the Hokage Rock in his memory.

"Crushed?" he whispered into the darkness. "No, they've come to tell me... I've never been fighting alone."

Deep within the dark space, something began to awaken.

Chapter 543 The Light of Faith

The chill in the dark space seeped into his body through his bones, and Bai Ye's fingers, hanging by his side, curled slightly.

Those suspended points of light were no longer just blurry faces. When he stared at one of them, a crack suddenly appeared in his memory—Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice, mixed with the morning bell of Konoha Shrine, crashed into his eardrums: "Byakuya, remember to bring some sugar next time you climb Hokage Rock. The old man's tea is too bitter."

His Adam's apple moved.

Twenty years ago, the naive boy who always sneaked up to the Hokage Rock to scribble his mark was finally able to see clearly that the marks he had carved on the stone were actually filled with the hidden smile in the old Hokage's eyes every time he shook his head after discovering them.

They are judging you. The voice of the messengers of destiny drags through the air like rusty chains. Hashirama's ideals, Tobirama's weighing of options, Hiruzen's protection... the beliefs these ninjas built with their entire lives are now going to crush your arrogance.

Bai Ye did not look up.

He noticed that the edges of each point of light had a very faint fluorescence, like some kind of unfinished trajectory.

When he reached out and touched Hiruzen Sarutobi's point of light, what he felt at his fingertips was not emptiness, but a warmth similar to body temperature—the warmth of the old Hokage's palm when he used chakra to protect the wound pierced by the Iwagakure ninja during the Third Shinobi World War.

They were praying. The voice of the white night was as soft as a sigh, yet it echoed in the empty space; it was not a judgment.

He suddenly remembered that during the third Chunin Exams, Kakashi had almost lost his Sharingan to the point of blindness while shielding him from a sneak attack by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Back then, the Copy Ninja who always wore his headband askew leaned against the wall and laughed: "If I go blind, you'll have to read 'Icha Icha Paradise' to me every day." And now, in the Kakashi dot floating to his right, the Sharingan's three tomoe are slowly rotating, overlapping with the moment in his memory when Kakashi laughed and said, "I'm a Jonin!"

You are deceiving yourself. The voice of the messenger of destiny carried a hint of anxiety. These wills will overwhelm you like a tide, and the life force within you is withering away—look, your fingertips are already beginning to turn transparent.

Bai Ye lowered his head.

Sure enough, the skin on my right index finger was becoming translucent at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the chakra light band flowing in my veins was dimming.

But he smiled instead, because he simultaneously felt that the power overflowing from those points of light was filling the gaps in his life force.

It wasn't just chakra; it was more like something older and purer—the burning heat of Asuma saying in front of the Fire Temple that a man's ninja way cannot be lost, the warmth of Minato shoving the Rasengan into his hand at the edge of the Valley of the End, and the tenderness of Kushina ruffling his hair and saying she would protect the village as if it were someone important to her.

So that's how it is. Bai Ye suddenly clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white from the force. Their belief wasn't the boulder that crushed me, it was... it was a bridge.

He closed his eyes, and the golden finger within his body, known as the Thunder Resonance, suddenly began to tremble.

This is the ability he awakened after being struck by natural lightning a hundred times in the Thunder Valley of Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning—the ability to convert any form of energy into lightning-attribute chakra, provided that it resonates with the user's will.

At that moment, the beliefs within those points of light suddenly surged forth as if they were alive.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's light spot transformed into a warm golden stream of light, Kakashi's Sharingan light spot burst forth with silver light, and Asuma's cigarette light spot carried a burnt smell but was wrapped in warmth... Byakuya gritted his teeth and activated the Thunder Resonance, with tiny arcs of electricity rising on his skin, weaving these light streams one by one into lightning threads as thick as a thumb.

"You're insane!" The voice of the Messenger of Destiny cracked for the first time, a crack that would utterly disrupt the rules of space!

Rules? Blue-purple lightning danced in Bai Ye's pupils. Did you say the same thing when Tobirama rewrote the rules of space with the Flying Thunder God Technique? He suddenly waved his hand, and lightning threads pierced into the core of the dark space like sharp arrows—there floated a ball of energy glowing purple, the source of the Destiny Messenger's power.

The space began to shake violently.

The suspended specks of light were shaken and bounced around, but instead of dissipating, they became even brighter.

With each pierce of the lightning threads, the purple sphere shrank, and the figure of the Messenger of Destiny became like ink stains dampened by water, its edges blurring.

"Enough!" A loud shout exploded from the void, and the purple sphere suddenly unleashed a powerful counterforce.

Chapter 544 Why Fight?

All the lightning threads snapped instantly, and the rebounding lightning force sent Bai Ye flying. His back slammed into an invisible spatial barrier, and sweet, bloody gushed from his mouth.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up to see the Messenger of Destiny materialize into a physical form—a semi-transparent body wearing the robes of the Second Hokage, with seven-tenths resemblance to Tobirama in his features, but with an added coldness and hardness that did not belong to the living.

Do you think these remnant souls' obsessions can fight against me? He raised his hand, and the rune array that had pierced Bai Ye's chest appeared in his palm. The real price is for you to witness firsthand that all your choices are just pieces on my chessboard.

A beam of purple light shot out from the rune array, and Bai Ye's consciousness was once again pulled into darkness.

This time, he did not fall into nothingness, but stood on a familiar battlefield—Kannabi Bridge.

At seventeen, he was squatting on a tree branch, watching Obito and Rin being surrounded by Iwagakure ninja below.

The boy's hand rested on the hilt of the kunai, his fingertips turning white with tension.

In the distance, Minato's Flying Thunder God seal was forming, but it would take another ten seconds.

"Save Lin." The memory of myself whispered, then jumped down from the tree.

"Stop." The voice of the messenger of destiny rang in my ears: "You see, if you had chosen to wait for Minato, Obito wouldn't have gone berserk, and the Uchiha clan massacre wouldn't have happened."

The scene changes instantly.

This time, Byakuya stood on the roof of the Uchiha clan's territory, with blood flowing down the streets below.

Obito's Sharingan glowed with an eerie red in the night. He held Rin's corpse in his arms, while his seventeen-year-old self held a blood-stained kunai, his face still smeared with the blood of the Uchiha clan.

Or, the scene changes again. This time it's the Five Kage Summit, and the Fourth Raikage's fist is about to smash into your head. If you hadn't exposed Danzo's conspiracy back then, the Five-Nation Alliance wouldn't have split up, the Fourth Shinobi World War would have ended three years earlier, and half the number of people who died would have been saved.

Bai Ye's temples throbbed.

In each scenario, each version of myself makes different choices, and each choice leads to a more tragic ending.

Finally, all the scenes overlapped, and he saw countless versions of himself standing at different points in time, with the same resolute yet equally bewildered expression on his face.

Every choice you make amplifies the casualties. The voice of the messenger of destiny pierces my brain like an icicle, now telling me—are you still willing to gamble this battered soul on a future that may not even exist?

Bai Ye suddenly laughed.

He walked toward the version of himself from his memory, the one who leaped off the tree branch at the Kannabi Bridge, and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

The boy didn't notice, but the wind in his memory suddenly became lighter, as if something had been rekindled.

"Of course I'm willing." He turned to look at the messenger of destiny, the lightning in his eyes burning brighter than ever before, because no matter which path he chose, he would choose to save Rin, expose Danzo, and stand by his comrades.

These choices may not be perfect, but they made me who I am today.

The rune array suddenly trembled violently, and fine cracks seeped out from the purple light.

The messenger of destiny finally showed signs of panic: You have no idea what you're doing—

I know. Bai Ye walked step by step toward the rune array. With each step, the resonance of thunder within his body roared louder. I knew that the eyes watching me in the darkness were not judging me, but telling me to keep going.

I know that the so-called price is nothing more than making me clearer about... why I am fighting.

He raised his hand, and a lightning spear, even more dazzling than before, condensed in his palm.

This time, the surface of the lightning spear was wrapped with countless points of light—those were Hiruzen Sarutobi's smile, Kakashi's Sharingan, Asuma's cigarette smoke, and Minato and Kushina's gentleness.

Now, it's my turn to make a move.

The moment the lightning spear pierced the rune array, the entire space trembled violently, like the surface of a lake tossed with a boulder.

Purple, gold, and silver light streams intertwined and exploded, plunging Bai Ye's consciousness into boundless darkness.

Before he completely lost consciousness, he saw a faint ray of lightning shine through the crack, like the first rays of dawn.

Chapter 545 Weaving Resentment and Unwillingness into a Web

When consciousness returned, Bai Ye first felt a warm tremor.

The tremor seeped from his bone marrow, like countless tiny electric currents coursing through his blood vessels, activating his five senses inch by inch.

He slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw was a flowing sea of ​​lightning—purple and silver light streams surged above his head, as if stars had fallen into liquid lightning.

What made his pupils shrink even more was that countless translucent phantoms floated in these streams of light: there were young ninjas wearing headbands, old men leaning on canes, and even several faces he had seen in history books—the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, holding a baby, Tobirama, the Third Raikage, standing atop Mount Kumogakure with a sword in one arm, and even the souls of those who should have long since vanished into the river of time, were now frozen in the air in their most vivid form.

Is it... the lingering echo of will? Bai Ye reached out, his fingertips touching the nearest phantom.

The boy was a Chunin carrying a scroll, with a scar on his forehead that stretched from his left eye to his chin. He was the same boy the Chunin had saved during a mission in Amegakure.

The phantom suddenly became clear the moment it was touched, and the boy's voice was hoarse and somewhat distorted: "That year when you shielded me from the kunai, you said that a ninja's sword should not only be stained with the blood of the enemy."

I later became a medical ninja, but last month... the Sand Village's poisonous fog still couldn't save that child.

Another illusory figure drifted over; it was a Jonin from Iwagakure, an old ninja with a broken leg: "I've guarded the border of the Land of Earth for thirty years. Lord Onoki said he would protect the village, but every time I see the children's bodies being carried back, I always wonder... what exactly are we protecting?"

Bai Ye's Adam's apple bobbed.

He had heard these voices by the campfire during mission breaks, encountered them in hospital corridors, and dreamt of them amidst piles of corpses on the battlefield.

At this moment, they surged in like a tide, each whisper carrying unfinished resentment and unspoken regret, yet reflecting something brighter in the lightning—like a spark dampened by a downpour, charred on the surface but still flickering with embers inside.

"So that's how it is..." he murmured softly, and the lightning patterns on his palm suddenly glowed with golden light.

The illusory images were attracted by the magnet and began to slowly gather towards him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's phantom was the first to pierce the stream of light, the old man's pipe gleaming with a warm yellow light: "You brat, you weren't this serious when you stole from my wine cellar back then." Next was Kakashi, his Sharingan shimmering like jewels in the darkness: "Remember, resonance isn't about plunder, it's about sharing." Minato and Kushina stood hand in hand, their figures clearer than the other phantoms, as if they had never left: "Our children will always be worthy of trusting their choices."

As the last wisp of phantom merged into his body, Bai Ye's bone wings suddenly unfolded.

The pair of bone wings, once soaked in blood, were now covered with fine lightning patterns, and each bone fragment shimmered with a star-like light.

He looked up into the void, where the figure of the Messenger of Destiny had appeared out of nowhere.

The other person was still wearing that plain white robe, but there was a hint of scrutiny in their eyes: Not bad, you have finally touched the threshold of Thunder Resonance.

But do you know why this power chose you alone?

Because I never gave up listening. The voice of the white night was as steady as a rock, and the eyes that looked at me in the darkness were not judgments, but expectations.

The messenger of destiny's fingertips swept across the void, and countless phantoms appeared—Zabuza Momochi wielding his Executioner's Blade, Orochimaru's snake-like eyes gleaming coldly, and even the daimyo of the Land of Fire, whom Byakuya had personally defeated, stood among them. These were the true pawns. His voice was like shattered ice striking a porcelain bowl; their resentment, unwillingness, and greed for power had long been woven into a net by him.

Chapter 546 You're just repeating failures

And you are simply repeating past failures in the same way.

Bai Ye remained silent.

His bony wings suddenly retracted, then burst open again in an instant.

Lightning patterns spread along the bone wings to every phantom, and the faces that had kept him awake all night twisted and shattered in the lightning, but did not let out a painful scream.

Conversely, Zabuza's phantom grinned before dissipating: "I've never submitted to anyone in my life, but you've shown me... even assassins can have things they want to protect." Orochimaru flicked his tongue one last time, his voice carrying a rare sense of relief: "So... what transcends immortality is that someone remembers you were once alive."

The messenger's pupils contracted for the first time.

He watched as the phantoms, which should have been filled with resentment, turned into dust in resonance, and suddenly chuckled: "Interesting, your bone wings can actually simulate the sealing technique of the first generation."

No wonder the Shadow Lords of all time couldn't do anything to you—you're not fighting at all, you're... mending this broken world. Before he finished speaking, a black vortex appeared in his palm, and the entire lightning domain began to tremble violently.

Byakuya felt his chakra draining away like a burst dam, and even the lightning patterns on his bone wings began to crack like a spiderweb.