Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The power of the stone slab has long been ingrained in your bones; those black threads are not a backlash, but the awakening of the evil within you.

Bai Ye felt something tearing at his consciousness.

His bone wings began to disintegrate, and black threads seeped in through the cracks in his wings, twisting into a knot in his heart.

He recalled the trembling he felt when he killed for the first time, the deliberate cynicism he displayed after becoming a "spoiled brat," and the voice that suddenly flooded his mind when he touched the stone slab before the altar: "True power is seeing clearly what you want to protect."

Chapter 598 Losing Something Important

"What I want to protect..." Bai Ye's consciousness suddenly brightened, and a ghostly blue light burst forth from his heart like a spark being ignited. "It's to ensure that no child in the ninja world loses their parents in war, no village is reduced to ashes by the daimyo's greed, no one..." His voice choked up, and the memories swallowed by the black silk suddenly surged up: the little ninja frozen stiff in the snow, the old samurai clutching his broken sword, and when he was in the Anbu, he witnessed his master being killed by a traitor, and his master's last words were, "Don't become like me."

"Enough!" A crack appeared in the Messenger's voice. He raised his hand, and black silk threads surged towards Bai Ye like venomous snakes. "You can't win. Your will..."

"Shut up!" Bai Ye shouted, and a burst of dark blue light erupted.

He could feel the black threads retreating, the connection between his consciousness and body being restored, and Chiyo's hand on the stone bed covering the back of his hand. Ebizo's chakra flowed into his meridians like a warm current.

"His fingers moved!" Ebizo's voice was filled with ecstasy.

Chiyo's sand mirror reflected Byakuya's pupils—the previously scattered focus was now sharpening, and a deep blue light shone from the depths of her eyes, like two small flames.

Her medical chakra followed the grains of sand into his body. This time, it wasn't swallowed by the black threads. Instead, it followed the trajectory of the dark blue light, forcing the purplish-black threads back into his blood vessels little by little.

"Initiate the technique!" Ebizo's last bronze needle pierced the coccyx acupoint of Byakuya.

His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and life force flowed continuously into Bai Ye's body through the needle's tail.

The array in the secret chamber glowed with golden light, enveloping the two of them.

Bai Ye's eyelashes trembled violently.

He heard Chiyo calling his name, heard Ebizo's heavy breathing, and heard his own heartbeat growing clearer and clearer—like a war drum, like a spring tide, like the first dawn bird song he heard during his training in the Dark Division.

“I…” His throat felt like it had been rubbed with sandpaper, “I’m back.”

Chiyo's hand suddenly tightened.

She could feel Bai Ye's body temperature rising, but at the same time, something was rapidly flowing away from his body—a power more primal than chakra, like sand in an hourglass, flowing out along the cracks in his black silk.

Ebizo's fingers pressed against Byakuya's wrist, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw that the black threads that had been forced back had not disappeared, but were lurking deep in the blood vessels, like venomous snakes waiting for their prey.

What alarmed him even more was that while Byakuya's life force was recovering, his chakra was decreasing at a visible rate.

"Grandma Chiyo..." Bai Ye opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the two of them, a very faint smile appearing on his lips.

His voice was as soft as a sigh, "I think... I've lost something important."

The sand in the sealed room suddenly moved on its own without any wind.

Chiyo gazed at the gradually dimming deep blue in his eyes and suddenly remembered the last line of words on the altar stone tablet: "When light devours darkness, light will also burn itself out."

She opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

The hooting of an owl came from outside the stone window, sounding particularly jarring in the silent, secret room.

Ebizo's hand was still resting on Shiroya's wrist, and he could clearly feel the fading power—like the receding tide, like a candle flame about to go out, like...

"What will tomorrow bring?" Bai Ye asked softly, his gaze fixed on the ventilation opening at the top of the secret room.

A faint starlight peeked in and fell on his pale face.

Chiyo suddenly grabbed his hand.

Her palms were still stained with the blood from the medical procedure, yet they were warm like a fire: "Tomorrow, we'll see together."

What she didn't say was that, in her perception, those dormant black threads were slowly stretching out as the life force of the white night faded.

Chapter 599 The Ninja of Unknown Origin

The oil lamp on the stone wall of the secret room swayed in the draft, and the wick popped a small flame.

Bai Ye's fingertips twitched.

He felt as if he were submerged in a deep pool, his eardrums aching from the pressure of the water, yet he could clearly hear Granny Chiyo's voice drifting from a great distance.

The voice, enveloped in warm chakra, was like a thin rope, trying to pull him towards the surface of the water.

"Is this...enough?" He heard his own voice, like sandpaper being filtered through his throat, each word sharp and barbed.

Chiyo placed her hand on his forehead, the warmth of her palm seeping through his skin.

He forced his eyes open and saw tears welling up in the wrinkles at the corners of the old woman's eyes, like old pine branches glistening with morning dew. "You did it, child." Her thumb gently brushed his sweat-dampened temples. "But this is just the beginning... The future of the ninja world needs more people like you."

Before the words were even finished, a sudden undercurrent arose in the deep pool.

The ball of light in front of Byakuya's eyes began to distort, and Chiyo's face looked like crumpled paper.

He felt as if an ice pick pierced straight from his tailbone into the top of his head—it was the trail of black threads moving through his blood vessels.

The last time he felt this pain was at the altar, when he was carving the last rune in reverse. The backlash from the stone slab felt like a dull knife, scraping his meridians inch by inch.

"Wait..." He tried to grab Chiyo's wrist, but his fingers, like cotton wool soaked in water, drooped as soon as they touched the old man's hand.

Before darkness enveloped him, the last thing he saw was Ebizo's suddenly taller figure.

The old ninja's mouth was moving, as if he was shouting something, but the sound was torn to pieces by the tinnitus.

When I woke up again, the aroma of burning pine resin lingered around my nose.

Bai Ye's eyelashes, damp with cold sweat, slowly fluttered open.

The view is of an uneven stone roof, with clumps of moss peeking out from the cracks in the rocks, gleaming a dark green in the light of the campfire.

He tried to move, but found that his whole body felt like it had been paralyzed, and even turning his head required great effort.

"woke up?"

Chiyo's voice came from the right.

Bai Ye turned his head and saw the old man squatting in front of the stone stove, stirring the medicine in the earthenware pot with a wooden spoon.

The steam carrying the bitter scent of herbs wafted onto her face, softening the wrinkles around her eyes.

“This is…” His throat tightened, and he was interrupted by a cough.

"A hidden cave on the border of the Land of Wind." Ebizo's voice came from the left.

Only then did Bai Ye notice that another advisor from Sunagakure was sitting at the cave entrance, with his back to them, twirling a bronze needle in his hand.

Moonlight streamed in from his side, casting a long, thin shadow on the ground. "The secret chamber has been marked by the messenger of destiny's magic. If we stay any longer, we'll be caught in less than half a day."

Byakuya tried to sense the chakra within his body.

This exploration caused his breath to catch in his throat—the sea of ​​chakra that had been surging in his dantian was now only a shallow layer, not even enough to moisten his fingertips.

What made him even more uneasy was that the lurking black threads were crawling along his blood vessels, and with each movement, a subtle pain would rise from his limbs to his heart.

"The backlash has begun." Chiyo walked over with the medicine bowl and helped him sit up.

The heat of the medicine hit his lips, carrying a sour, bitter, earthy taste. "The power of the stone slab is a double-edged sword. When you reversed the engraving of the runes, you drained its aggressiveness, but you also allowed its essence to merge into your meridians."

Ebizo suddenly turned his face.

His bronze needles gleamed coldly in the moonlight: "Sister, do you really believe this kid can save the ninja world?"

He was just a ninja of unknown origin.

Chapter 600 Dead Trees Come Back to Life

The medicine bowl paused in Chiyo's hands.

She gazed at Bai Ye's pale face, as if looking at the inscription buried by sand on the altar years ago: "He may not be the perfect candidate." She scooped up a spoonful of medicine, blew on it, and then brought it to Bai Ye's lips. "But when he inscribed the third rune in reverse on the altar, I sensed..." Her knuckles gently pressed against Bai Ye's heart. "There is a fire here."

It's not chakra, it's not a bloodline limit, it's the will of a living person.

Bai Ye held the medicine in her mouth, the bitterness making her tongue numb.

He recalled the twisted runes on the altar stone, and how the stone slab suddenly trembled and emitted golden light when the last stroke was carved in reverse—it wasn't power, it was resonance.

"So he chose to burn himself?" One of Ebizo's bronze needles snapped off with a "crack." "Using his life force as fuel to exchange for the docility of the stone slab?"

Chiyo put down the medicine bowl and took out a blood-stained cloth from her bosom.

When it was unfolded, Bai Ye saw that it was decorated with complex spells and that the edges were stained with dark red blood: "This is the forbidden Sand Village technique, 'Dead Tree Rejuvenates'."

It requires the caster's life force as a catalyst to forcibly activate the target's cells. "Her fingertips traced the spiral pattern at the center of the spell," but his current condition...

“It’s better than waiting to die.” Ebizo suddenly stood up, the moonlight slicing his face into sharp angles. “I’m going to prepare the array’s core.” He turned and walked toward the cave wall, his boot heels striking the stone floor with a crisp sound like tearing silk.

Bai Ye watched his retreating figure and suddenly felt a tightness in her throat.

He recalled that during his training in the Anbu, the captain always said, "A ninja's life is a tool." But now, in the cave, one old man was brewing medicine, and the other was carving a formation. Their shadows overlapped on the stone wall, like two old trees with intertwined roots.

"Get some sleep." Qian tucked the animal skin around his body for him. "The spell needs three hours to prepare, so you should rest and recover."

Bai Ye closed his eyes. But just as he was about to sink into darkness, his consciousness was suddenly pulled back by something.

It was a chaotic space, with tiny particles of light floating around it, like crushed stars.

The sound came from behind, as sharp as ice shards.

Bai Ye turned around and saw a man wearing a black robe with cloud patterns.

His face was blurry, but it reminded Bai Ye of the Second Hokage on the altar mural—the same cold, hard brow bone, the same eyes, like a poisoned knife.

“The Messenger of Heaven…” Bai Ye’s consciousness clenched his fist.

He could feel every ray of light in this space drilling into his body through the man's fingertips. "Weren't you already crushed by the stone slab?"

The man laughed, a laugh like the scraping of metal: "The stone slab crushed my flesh." He raised his hand, and a beam of light pierced Bai Ye's brow, causing him to stagger half a step in pain. "But my will has long since merged into your bloodline along with the power of the stone slab."

When you reversed the runes, did you think you were saving the ninja world?

No, you're building me a new container.

Bai Ye suddenly remembered the power he had lost before falling into a coma—it wasn't his life force, but rather the man who was draining his consciousness.

"You think the will of the living can defy fate?" The man's figure began to swell, particles of light coalescing into enormous runes behind him. "Look at you now, chakra depleted, life force drained, unable even to stand." His fingertips pressed against Bai Ye's chest. "Once you're completely dead, I'll use this body to rebuild the altar, making all the ninjas kneel before the stone slab..."

"shut up!"

Bai Ye roared.

He remembered the little girl who had been poisoned and cried, clutching his clothes in the daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire; he remembered the old woman who gave him the last half of a cake in a war-torn village on the border of the Land of Lightning; he remembered the bulging veins on the back of Granny Chiyo's hand when she was scooping medicine.

Chapter 601 Holding on until the spell is complete

Those images suddenly turned into fire, burning from the depths of his consciousness.

The light particles sizzled when they touched the flame, and the man's figure began to distort.

“This is…” Bai Ye gasped for breath, feeling warm liquid flowing from his nose—it was real blood, “the will of a living person.”

He raised his hand, and a ghostly blue flame ignited at the fingertips of his consciousness.

That was the residual Tailed Beast Chakra he forcibly activated to protect his comrades when he was in the Anbu; that was the stubbornness that did not die out when he was pierced in the shoulder by a kunai while saving orphans in the Land of Rain; that was the determination that he would rather burn himself up than let the stone slab tremble when he was carving runes backwards on the altar.

The man's figure began to shatter.

He glared at Bai Ye one last time, the light in his eyes like stardust scattered by the wind: "You can't win... This is just the beginning..."

"boom--"

The space of consciousness suddenly collapsed.

Bai Ye suddenly opened his eyes, his forehead soaked with sweat that had soaked through the animal hide.

He saw Chiyo pinching his philtrum, while Ebizo stood beside him holding a bronze needle; both of them had expressions of shock on their faces.

"What happened?" Chiyo's hands trembled. "Your chakra suddenly surged, and then..."

“The Messenger of Destiny.” Bai Ye wiped the blood from his nose and found tiny particles of light clinging to his fingertips—the battle just now was not a dream. “He is still inside me.”

The cave suddenly fell silent.

The campfire crackled and popped, sending sparks flying and casting swaying shadows on the stone roof.

Ebizo's bronze needle clattered to the ground.