Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

He felt as if he were stuffed into a transparent glass cocoon, with tiny shards of light floating in the surrounding darkness, each refracting a memory—his mother's bloodied hand as she pushed him into the cellar in front of the wooden house engulfed in flames; the last smile of his fellow ninja Kojiro before his chest was pierced by a kunai on the battlefield of the Land of Rain; and the fear and resentment that flickered in the old man's pupils as his bone wings pierced his throat in the corridor of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire three days ago.

Does it hurt?

The deep voice seemed to seep from a crack in the ground, rippling through the void.

Bai Ye suddenly turned around, only to see his own shadow stretching endlessly in the darkness. The glimpses of light suddenly became clear, his mother's hand was disappearing from the cellar entrance, Kojiro's blood bloomed into eerie flowers in the rain, and the fear of the daimyo of the Land of Fire solidified into a distorted mask.

Your strength comes from your belief. The voice continues to echo, but is belief alone enough?

When you tear your enemies apart with your bone wings, have you ever thought about how you are essentially different from those great names who fight for power?

Bai Ye's breathing became rapid. He could feel his consciousness being bound by some invisible threads, and every struggle felt like crashing into a glass cocoon.

Memories began to overlap; his mother's hand became the hand of the daimyo of the Land of Fire, Kojiro's smile became the cold laugh of a ninja from Iwagakure wielding a sword, and all the evil he had tried to cut with his strength now turned into sharp thorns piercing his temples.

"Enough!" he roared, his bone wings unfurling in his consciousness space. The pitch-black bone blades slashed through the darkness, but only managed to shatter a few fragments of memory light.

Blood spilled from his nostrils, turning into a red mist in the void. I never intended to kill!

"Then what for?" Her voice became shrill. "To prove that you're not a spoiled brat?"

To fill the void left by the death of his parents?

Or perhaps... a mirror emerges from the darkness, reflecting his own image, the ninja world map mark on his chest glowing with a ghostly blue light, and he is addicted to this feeling of control over everything?

The white night in the mirror suddenly laughed, a laugh like a poisoned blade: Look at what you've done—killing a daimyo, stirring up war, manipulating people's hearts with the stone tablet.

You and those people you despise are nothing more than your kind in different masks.

No! Bai Ye lunged at the mirror, and the moment his bone wings shattered the mirror's surface, his consciousness space suddenly collapsed.

He plunged into deeper darkness, the last moment on the altar echoing in his ears—when the stone slab was inserted, the souls imprisoned by the runes suddenly opened their eyes, their gazes not of fear, but of liberation.

"What I'm releasing is their choice," he murmured to himself, a sentence that shone like a lifeline in the darkness.

A memory suddenly flashed back: three years ago, in the ruins of the Land of Rain, when he was holding the lifeless Kojiro, the boy said: If you could choose... who would be willing to raise a sword?

The constraints in the void suddenly loosened.

In the real cave, Granny Chiyo crushed the last handful of herbs, mixed them with warm water, and applied them to Byakuya's forehead.

The campfire crackled in the stone stove, casting swaying shadows of the puppets on the cave walls.

Ebizo squatted at the cave entrance, his fingers stroking the puppet spool at his waist. Moonlight leaked in from behind his hunched back, casting a long, thin shadow on the ground.

"Sister." He suddenly spoke, his voice like sandpaper scraping against rocks, his chakra as chaotic as a desert washed by a thunderstorm.

Are you sure using the Sand Village's medical techniques won't...?

His soul was struggling. Chiyo didn't turn around; her withered fingers gently pressed against Byakuya's wrist. I could feel him fighting against something. Her gaze swept over Byakuya's pale face—a face too young, with the scar from last week's battle with the Hidden Mist ninja still visible on his brow. Three years ago in the Land of Rain, I saw him kneeling all night, cradling the corpse of his comrade.

Back then, his chakra contained only hatred; now... her fingertips trembled slightly, and now there was light.

Ebizo remained silent for a moment, then took out a wooden box carved with sand scorpion patterns from his pocket.

When the box was opened, a wisp of chakra carrying the smell of rust floated out—it was the puppet core of the Third Kazekage, the most secret medical technique of Sunagakure, which requires the life of a puppet to awaken the dead from the dead.

You know the price. He placed the core in Bai Ye's chest; the technique would drain a third of his life force. An ordinary ninja would have been a dried-up corpse long ago.

Chiyo looked down at the bulging veins on Byakuya's hand, where dirt from the altar still clung. "He's no ordinary person," she whispered. "He's the first person to reverse the runes on the stone tablet."

When Ebizo's finger touched the puppet's core, Byakuya's eyelashes suddenly trembled violently.

He returned to that battlefield.

Chapter 575 Locating the Source of the Stone Slab

The wild grass was soaked in blood, a broken sword was stuck in the scorched earth, and a flag in the distance was half-burnt, with the cloud pattern of Iwagakure Village faintly visible.

But what suffocated him most were the figures standing in the weeds—Kojiro, Aoi, an orphan from the Land of Rain, and even the old man from the Land of Fire whom he had mistakenly killed three years ago.

Their bodies were translucent, and their wounds were still oozing pale golden dust, just like the way the messengers of destiny disappeared from the altar.

Aoi was the first to move.

The little girl who always tugged at his clothes for candy stood on tiptoe and pressed her blood-stained hand against his chest: "Brother, does it hurt?"

Kojiro's voice came from behind: You said you wanted our sacrifice to have meaning... but now, how are you any different from the people who killed us?

The ordinary man still had half a bone blade stuck in his throat; it was Bai Ye's bone blade: My daughter is still waiting for me to come home and cook porridge... How do you expect me to choose?

Bai Ye took a half step back and bumped into a cold body.

That was the daimyo of the Land of Fire. He still had the wound from the bone wing piercing his neck, but he grinned and said: "Look, they're all blaming you."

Do you think that making choices will bring salvation?

They simply don't know how to choose!

Enough! Byakuya's bone wings unfurled once more, this time with dark red chakra wrapped around the bone blades. I don't need their forgiveness!

What I want is... His voice suddenly choked as he watched Aoi's figure gradually disappear. What I want is that the next Aoi won't have to stand here anymore.

The sound of shattering glass came from the darkness.

Suddenly, the puppet's core in reality burst forth with a blinding golden light, causing Ebizo to be thrown backward and fall to his knees, his chakra spools rolling to the corner of the wall.

Chiyo rushed to Byakuya's side and saw beads of sweat on his eyelashes. The once dim ninja world map markings were now shining brightly again, like stars scattered by the wind.

"I'm awake," she said softly.

Bai Ye slowly opened her eyes.

He gazed at the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling, and for a moment he couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion.

He only breathed a sigh of relief when Chiyo's hand covered the back of his hand, its temperature so real it was almost scorching.

The stone slab... His voice was hoarse. Was it still working?

Ebizo got up from the ground and brushed the dirt off his robe: "You reversed the direction of the runes, but the stone slab is connected to the consciousness network of the entire ninja world."

Now, sensory ninjas from various villages are reporting abnormalities—the Raikage says the Jonin of Kumogakure are all having nightmares, and old man Onoki is going even further, saying that the stones of Iwagakure are all crying. He crouched down, his cloudy eyes staring at Byakuya, "What exactly did you do at the altar, kid?"

I released them from their shackles. Bai Ye struggled to sit up, the mark on his chest still burning. The stone slab wasn't a tool of control; it was a mirror.

It revealed the evil in everyone's heart, but it also revealed... He looked at Chiyo, and there was a familiar light in the old man's eyes, the light that the old village chief of the Land of Rain had before his death, which revealed the goodness in their hearts.

Chiyo took out a gourd, poured a glass of warm water and handed it to him: But both evil and good need guidance.

The ninja world's consciousness network is now like a pond into which pebbles have been thrown, and the ripples are still spreading.

If the core source cannot be found...

"The source is in the Land of Fire," Byakuya suddenly said.

He recalled that before he fell into a coma, the light and dust at the place where the messenger of destiny disappeared resembled the sunlight of the Land of Fire. The stone slab was originally a sacrificial object of the Land of Fire, and their daimyo used it to control other countries.

Although things have reversed now, but... he gripped the cup tightly, his knuckles turning white. I could feel that something was still underground in the Land of Fire, like a rotting seed.

Ebizo and Chiyo exchanged a glance.

The old man tapped his fingers on his knees, a habitual gesture among the Sunagakure advisors when discussing confidential matters.

"After dawn, we'll take you somewhere," Chiyo said, her voice suddenly becoming like sandpaper scraping, a sign that she was about to say something important. Sunagakure had a secret meeting place on the border of the Land of Fire, a backup location for the Five Kage Summit three years ago.

There's something there... She paused, glancing at Ebizo, who was staring at the moonlight outside the cave. It could help you pinpoint the source of the stone slab.

Bai Ye handed the empty cup back, his bone wings trembling slightly behind him.

He gazed at the gradually brightening sky outside the cave. The direction of the Land of Fire was already tinged with the pale light of dawn, much like the sky over the Land of Rain when Kojiro smiled at him for the last time that morning.

"Leave now," he said, his voice leaving no room for negotiation.

Chiyo sighed and got up to pack her medicine box.

Ebizo walked to the cave entrance and blew the Leaf Flute to summon the Sand Ninja.

The sound of a flute pierced through the morning mist, startling several mountain sparrows.

They flapped their wings and flew towards the Land of Fire, while in a more distant place, in a forgotten dungeon, a stone slab covered with runes suddenly hummed, and stone chips fell softly onto a sleeping figure.

Chapter 576 The Spokesperson Chosen by the Stone Slab

Before the morning mist had dissipated, the group of four had already crossed the dense forest on the border of the Land of Fire.

Chiyo's medicine chest swayed slightly with each step, the copper lock clinking against the wooden box; Ebizo's leaf flute remained tucked at his waist, its body glistening with the night dew; Byakuya brought up the rear, his bone wings retracting into pale blue patterns hidden on his back, his gaze constantly sweeping over the bushes on either side—where three faint chakra fluctuations could be seen, the ANBU of Sunagakure protecting him.

We've arrived. Ebizo suddenly stopped.

He raised his hand and brushed aside the drooping vines, revealing a crack in the mountain wall that was only wide enough for one person to pass through.

Chiyo stepped forward and pressed the protrusion on the rock wall. Stone chips fell down in a flurry, and the entire mountain wall seemed to come alive as it receded to both sides, revealing stone steps extending downwards.

The chill from underground, carrying the smell of damp earth, rose up.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted slightly—the rock walls on both sides of the stone steps were covered with spiral runes, exactly like the stone slab patterns he had seen in the ruins of the Rain Kingdom.

Three years ago, during the Five Kage Summit, the Land of Fire, fearing an attack on the main venue, had our Sand Village set up this backup location on the border. Chiyo's voice echoed in the empty tunnel. The summit concluded successfully, and this place became a secret base for exchanging intelligence among high-ranking officials below the Kage level from various countries. She paused, then continued, "Until three months ago, the stone slab began to move frequently."

At the end of the tunnel was a bronze door with two intertwined snake heads on the door knocker.

Ebizo bit his fingertip and pressed it against the snake's eye; the sound of machinery turning came from inside the door.

The moment the door opened, warm light poured out.

This is a circular venue with a dome inlaid with luminous pearls, illuminating the long table below.

Twelve people sat around the long table: the first on the left was the Fourth Raikage, A, his muscular arms resting on the table, the cloud-patterned headband of the Land of Lightning casting a shadow on his forehead; the first on the right was the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, his thin fingers stroking his beard, the rock earrings unique to Iwagakure swaying slightly with the movement; in the remaining seats, Ao from Kirigakure, Shizune from Konoha, Killer Bee from Kumogakure... the chakra fluctuations of elite ninjas from various countries intertwined like a net.

"White Night." The Raikage spoke first, his voice booming, "I heard you killed a daimyo in the Land of Fire."

The temperature in the venue dropped sharply.

Shizune's hand rested on the kunai, and Ao's pupils shrank to pinpoints—they both knew that the death of the Fire Country's daimyo had already put the armies of various countries on the verge of war at the border.

He wasn't the murderer. Chiyo placed the medicine box on the table; the real culprit was the power of the stone tablet. She turned to Byakuya. Three days ago, the herders on the border of the Land of Wind went mad, claiming they had seen the face of a deceased daimyo.

We investigated and found that the chakra circuits of those herders contained the same runes as those found at the scene of the Fire Country Daimyo's death.

Onoki's fingers tapped rhythmically on the table: "So you brought this ninja who caused the bloodshed here to make us believe he's a victim?" His cloudy eyes suddenly flashed with a sharp light. "Or are you the chosen representative of the stone tablet?"

The Raikage slammed his fist on the table, sending wood chips flying: Onoki!

Last month, the villagers of Iwagakure Village also experienced a collective hallucination incident at their mine. Now you're questioning others?

Enough! Bai Ye's voice was like a knife chilled to ice, slashing precisely between the two.

All eyes immediately turned to him—he stood at the end of the long table, his bone wings unfurling half an inch behind him, their bluish-gray feathers gleaming coldly. "I'm here to find out what the stone slab really is." He looked at Chiyo. "You said this place could pinpoint the source."

Chiyo opened the medicine box and took out a palm-sized bronze box.

The moment the lid of the box was opened, the runes in the hall suddenly glowed faintly—inside the box lay a stone slab fragment the size of a thumb, its surface patterns flowing with the light from the luminous pearl in the dome.

"This was unearthed from beneath the venue during the Five Kage Summit three years ago," Ebizo whispered. "At the time, we thought it was an ancient relic and didn't pay much attention to it."

Until three months ago, the exact same pattern appeared in the study of the daimyo of the Land of Fire.

Chapter 577 The Entrance to the Consciousness Space

The Raikage moved closer, and just as the Lightning Release chakra gathered in his palm was about to touch the fragment, Onoki suddenly threw out an Earth Release rock spike: Don't touch it!

Last time, a Jonin from Iwagakure touched a similar fragment and went completely insane!

The rock spike stopped half an inch in front of the Raikage.

The Raikage narrowed his eyes, his chakra crackling in his palm: Onoki, just how much do you know?

What I do know is that the so-called will of the living is a complete lie. Onoki's voice was like sandpaper rubbing against rock; the consciousness of those mad villagers had been forcibly ripped away by some force and taken to another place.

The stone slab you speak of is merely a door connecting to that place. He turned to Bai Ye, "The Fire Country Daimyo you killed, his consciousness has long since left his body—he was just a manipulated puppet."

The room fell into dead silence.

Shizune lowered her hand from the kunai, and Ao's pupils returned to normal.

Byakuya stared at the fragment, and memories suddenly surged: the night in the Land of Rain, Kojiro coughed up blood and rushed into his arms, saying that he saw many people, all calling the same name; when the daimyo of the Land of Fire died, he clearly saw a coldness in the other's eyes that did not belong to humanity.

"So you've convened this council to discuss how to shut it down?" Bai Ye asked.

Raikage sat back down in his chair: That's right.

We need to unite and destroy all the stone slab fragments to sever the connection.