Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

"Thinking of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire?"

Chiyo's voice was like a feather landing on the back of his neck.

An old woman appeared behind him, clutching a piece of blood crystal ore in her hand, the cursed patterns on its surface rising and falling with her chakra.

Bai Ye didn't turn around. He could hear the old man's cane tapping the ground softly, once, twice, in sync with his heartbeat.

“When he died, his eyes were wide open.” Bai Ye dug his fingers into the sand, and fine sand leaked out from between his fingers. “I saw chain patterns crawling out of his heart, exactly the same as those on the ore.”

Chiyo crouched down beside him, the coldness of the ore seeping through her palms to his wrist. "The First Kazekage said that curses are alive." Her nails lightly traced the chain pattern on his wrist. "It needs sacrifices, it needs fear, it needs... war."

Bai Ye suddenly looked up.

A faint horn sound came from behind the distant sand dunes, like thunder muffled in a jar.

He could smell the rust in the wind—the smell of blood, mixed with the leather of the Allied warhorses, and...

“They’ve arrived ahead of schedule.” Chiyo slammed her cane down on the ground, startling a group of gerbils.

Yukino's voice came from inside the village, trembling with sobs yet exceptionally clear: "Grandma!"

The astronomical chart shows that the hour of Zi (11:45 PM) has arrived half an hour earlier!

Bai Ye stood up, and the burning pain from the chain patterns suddenly disappeared.

He reached for the short knife at his waist; the chain pattern on the scabbard overlapped with the lines on his wrist, like two snakes intertwined in a ring.

The distant bugle calls grew clearer, and he counted the rhythm—seven long and three short—the signal for the allied forces' general offensive.

"Go to the secret chamber." Chiyo stuffed the blood crystal into Byakuya's hand, and as she turned around, the hem of her clothes fluttered in the wind. "Yukino is already preparing for the ritual." The tip of her cane drew a line on the sand. "Remember, at three-quarters past midnight, no matter what happens, drip the blood onto the ore."

Bai Ye watched her hunched back disappear at the village entrance, and suddenly smiled.

Chain patterns spread from his dagger to the hilt, then climbed up his arm and neck.

He could hear the sounds coming from the village: the alarm bells began to ring, the wooden feet of the puppet squad stomped on the ground, Mei Terumi's water-style techniques condensed into mist in the air, and Kakashi's Flying Thunder God kunai pierced the sky with a sharp whistle.

The bugle sounded again, this time so close it seemed to be right next to my ear.

Byakuya gazed in the direction of Sunagakure, where the lights were being extinguished one by one—not out of fear, but out of preparation.

He touched the blood crystal ore on his face, the coolness seeping into his bone marrow through his skin.

The game is about to begin.

As the Allied Forces' horns ripped through the silence of the sand dunes, the alarm bells of Sunagakure shattered the last vestiges of twilight.

Chiyo's cane struck the stone platform of the watchtower, sparks flying. Her wrinkled eyelids jerked open, and a glint of light flashed in her cloudy eyes—the sharpness of a warrior commanding thousands in her youth. "Ebizo!" Her voice, crackling with chakra, pierced the battlefield's clamor and thrust forward. "Take the Iwatetsu Squad and press the left flank!"

Have the puppet squad carry the third-level crossbow to the dune ridge!

From the distant, swirling sand and mist, Ebizo's response, mixed with the sound of metal scraping, could be heard.

The puppet strings around his waist left red marks on his palms. Behind him, thirty Sand Village Jonin formed a goose-like formation, each carrying a half-person-high iron golem on their backs, the mithril rivets at their joints gleaming coldly in the setting sun. "Smash those hooves to dust!" he roared, yanking the puppet strings with his left hand. The iron golem in the front row stomped its foot, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly appeared in the sand—the pre-buried explosive tags had been shattered. In the rising dust, three allied warhorses neighed and plunged into the pit.

Chapter 617 Fog Shadow as an Ally

As Bai Ye leaped onto the shoulder armor of a Chunin from the Allied Forces, the short sword had already slit the throat of the second person.

Chain patterns crawled from his wrist to his collarbone, each line like a living snake, glowing with a dark red light as his chakra circulated.

He could hear the sound of his blood boiling in his veins, see Mei Terumi's Water Dragon Bullet tearing through the enemy lines a hundred meters away, and smell the burnt chakra odor of Kakashi's Flying Thunder God Kunai cutting through the air—but none of these could mask the anxiety in his heart.

“At this rate,” he ducked to dodge a thrusting spear, then plunged his short sword into the spearman’s ribs. “In less than half an hour, Sunagakure’s chakra consumption will exceed the critical point.”

The number of allied troops was 30% greater than the scouts reported.

Byakuya's pupils contracted slightly as his gaze swept across the battlefield: on the left, seven of Ebizo's iron golems had shattered, and the sweat on the golems' foreheads evaporated instantly on the sand; on the right, Terumi Mei's Water Mirror Technique had been broken three times by Fire Release, and the light blue ribbon in her hair was stained with blood as she gritted her teeth and formed a water barrier; even the usually calm Kakashi began to frequently form hand seals, and the Flying Thunder God mark connected into starlight at the edge of the battlefield—indicating that his chakra reserves could not sustain three consecutive spatial teleportations.

"Mr. Bai!"

As Yukino's scream pierced through the air, Byakuya kicked a shield-wielding samurai away.

The moment he turned around, he saw the wooden window of the library smashed open, and the girl who always held ancient books and spoke softly was clinging to the window frame, her pale face flushed red in the firelight.

The astrolabe in her arms was vibrating, its bronze pointer spinning wildly. "Their rear guard!" she exclaimed, holding up an unfolded scroll of parchment. "The ancient texts say that the allied supply convoy is hidden in the eye of the sandstorm!"

There are only three hundred guards there!

Chiyo slammed her cane against the watchtower railing, sending splinters flying.

She grabbed the messenger bee handed to her by the ANBU and growled at the crystal ball on the bee's tail: "Notify Kakashi and Mei Terumi to take their respective squads and flank around through the Sand Lizard Path!" Her withered fingers suddenly gripped her wrist, her nails almost digging into her skin—she remembered the Third Shinobi World War thirty years ago, when the Daimyo of the Land of Wind used this tactic to make the supply corps of the Land of Lightning a sitting duck in the eyes of the sandstorm.

"Yukino!" she called out towards the library, her voice trembling unusually, "Engrave the orientation of the star chart into the bee's tail!"

Yukino's fingers trembled on the star chart, the meshing of the bronze gears louder than her heartbeat.

She recalled the blood crystal ore Bai Ye had shown her three days ago, and how the chain patterns on the ore perfectly matched the markings on the astrolabe—it turned out that those "paths of destiny" she had taken for granted could actually predict battlefield weaknesses. "We've arrived!" She suddenly pricked her fingertip, a drop of blood falling onto the center of the astrolabe, the pointer stopping with a "click." "Twenty-three degrees North latitude, three hundred paces east of the eye of the sandstorm!"

The moment the messenger bee flapped its wings, Kakashi's Flying Thunder God kunai was already pinned to Mei Terumi's feet. "Mizukage-sama." His headband slid down to the bridge of his nose, revealing his Sharingan eyes, the three tomoe slowly rotating. "Come with me." Mei Terumi flicked the water blade in her hair, the ribbon fluttering in the wind.

She looked at the Allied Forces flag, charred black by the fire jutsu, and suddenly laughed—a laugh tinged with ice. “Let them see that the Hidden Mist’s Water Prison Technique can also be used as a torch.”

The clamor of the battlefield was momentarily silenced.

As Bai Ye watched the two figures disappear into the sand and mist, the chain pattern suddenly burned in his throat.

He reached for the short sword at his waist; the patterns on the scabbard resonated with the chain patterns beneath his skin—the power of the blood crystal ore was reminding him that the real crisis was yet to come.

Ebizo's roar exploded once more. "Iwatetsu Team!"

Chapter 618 They are awakening the mineral veins

"Form the tortoise shell formation! Three of his puppet strings are broken, and his left hand is covered in blood, but his eyes are brighter than ever." "Once that kid Kakashi burns their supplies, I'll grind all these scum's bones to sand!"

The allied forces' formation indeed began to falter.

Bai Ye saw the cavalrymen in the front row reining in their horses, their heads turning restlessly; the archers in the back row frequently looked back, dropping their arrows all over the ground.

He seized the opportunity to leap to the top of the sand dune, his short sword drawing a silver arc in the setting sun, instantly severing the chakra points of three allied ninjas who were trying to break through.

"Is it over?" He stared at the gradually collapsing enemy formation, but the chain patterns burned even more fiercely.

No, not yet.

The thought had barely formed when a deafening roar, like an earthquake, suddenly came from the ground.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted sharply—it wasn't the sound of horses' hooves, but the vibration of chakra waves traveling underground.

He turned to look at the center of the battlefield, where a dark figure stood, shrouded in a black cloak, with only half of his face visible. His right cheek was covered with strange curse marks, and his left eye glowed with a nauseating crimson.

"Do you think you can win like this?" The voice sounded like rusty chains scraping against stone. "The real battle has only just begun..."

The shadowy figure pressed its palm onto the sand, and endless chakra surged forth like a volcanic eruption.

Bai Ye felt the sand beneath his feet boiling, and the chain-like patterns crawled from the back of his neck to the tips of his ears, the burning sensation turning into a stinging pain.

He saw the ground crack open like a spiderweb, and dark red light seeped out from the cracks, gradually converging into a spinning vortex—the vortex spun faster and faster, growing larger and larger, and from its center came a low groan that seemed to come from hell.

"This is..." Chiyo staggered half a step on the watchtower, almost unable to hold onto her cane, "The power of the Blood Crystal Mine!"

He awakened the mine!

Bai Ye took a deep breath, and the chain pattern on the short sword suddenly emitted a dazzling red light.

He gazed at the gradually forming energy vortex, his eyes shining with a resolve brighter than the glint of a blade.

This time, he will not let anything destroy everything he is protecting.

The tremors from the ground shot up from the soles of his feet into his spine, and Bai Ye could barely hold onto his short sword.

He stared at the figure shrouded in a black cloak, the chain mark on the back of his neck a painful reminder—the curse mark connecting the vein to the blood crystal mine, which he had severed with his own hands three months ago, was now crawling all over the other person's right cheek in an even more distorted form.

"It's him!" The thought had barely formed in his mind when the sand suddenly became incredibly hot, as if someone had buried a furnace underground.

Bai Ye knelt on one knee, his palm pressed against the sand. The scalding touch reminded him of the blood-soaked ore deep in the mine, and the old miner's hand that was finally reaching for him after being swallowed by the power of the mineral vein.

At that time, he thought that burning down the mine would cut off the root of the problem, but it turned out that it was just like cutting off the tail of a poisonous snake.

“Grandma Chiyo!” He looked up at the watchtower on the other side of the sand dune, where the white-haired old woman’s cane was pounding heavily on the railing, making the bell-like wind chimes jingle.

Chiyo's pupils shrank to pinpoints, her wrinkled hands gripping the binoculars tightly, her knuckles turning white: "The blood crystal vein has been awakened!"

They form a network underground, and this vortex is the resonance of the mineral veins—"Before she finished speaking, she suddenly raised her voice, "Rock Iron Team!"

Everyone retreat thirty paces!

Retreat by stepping through the gaps in the tortoise shell formation!

The Ironclad Squad at the front of the battlefield reacted immediately.

The ninjas, clad in iron armor, moved in unison, their metal knee pads scraping against the sand with a sharp, hissing sound.

Ebizo's puppet strings left deep marks on his palms as he yelled, "Squad Three, cover the rear!"

The shields formed a wall! "One of the blood-stained puppet strings suddenly snapped. He groaned, drew his short blade from his waist, and planted it in the sand," he muttered. "You'll all remember this!"

Chapter 619 Let's go to hell together with these eyes!

The tortoise shell formation is broken! I'll use your bones to recast the puppets!

On the other side, in the Kirigakure ninja formation, Mei Terumi's water sleeves were lifted by the hot wind, revealing a new sword wound in the crook of her arm.

She watched the vortex spin faster and faster, then flicked her fingertip lightly on the Water Release scroll. Three streams of water instantly condensed into ice blades around her. "Kakashi, go to the east and burn their reserve provisions." As she turned her head, the blue scale stone on her earring flashed with a cold light. "I'll distract that guy from the west—the Water Prison Technique of Mist Village won't let sand choke me."

"Understood." Kakashi's Sharingan swirled slightly beneath his mask as he removed his headband and tied it around his wrist. "But let me confirm the chakra flow of the vortex first." With that, he formed a hand seal, and three ninja dogs darted out from his shadow, speeding around the vortex's perimeter.

When the black ball at the front suddenly let out a whimper, his pupils contracted sharply. "The chakra is drilling into the ground!"

That guy wasn't releasing power, he was—"

"They're extracting minerals!" Yukino's voice came from the direction of Sunagakure.

Clutching a half-rolled, yellowed ancient book, she stumbled into the battlefield, a wooden hairpin askew behind her ear. "I saw it in 'The Blood Crystal Record'!"

In ancient times, people used human sacrifices to appease mineral veins, allowing the veins to channel their power back to the caster—"When she ran to Bai Ye's side, her fingers were still trembling, and the words circled in cinnabar on the pages of the book were blurred by sweat," it said...to break this spell, one must find the 'root' of the mineral vein, the incantation connecting the caster and the vein!

“Root?” Bai Ye’s chain-like markings suddenly shot from the tips of his ears to the corners of his eyes. In that burning pain, he clearly felt the pulse of the mineral vein—exactly the same pulse he felt in the mine three months ago.

He abruptly turned to look at the figure in the black cloak. The crimson in the other's left eye suddenly surged, and the wide grin on his lips almost reached his ears: "Too late." The hoarse voice mixed with the low murmur of the mineral vein, "The power of the stone slab has long since etched your fates into the sand."

Before the words were finished, a blinding red light exploded at the center of the vortex.

Bai Ye was thrown backward by the shockwave, his short sword slipped from his hand and stuck in the sand. The chain pattern on the hilt and the lines under his skin lit up at the same time, forming a blood-red bridge of light in mid-air.

He crashed into the shield erected by Ebizo, and amidst the dull metallic thud, he heard the old advisor curse "bastard," before being dragged into the shield array.

"Yukino's book!" Chiyo slammed her cane against the edge of the shield. "Does it say how to find the 'Root'?"

Yukino spread the ancient book on her shield, her fingertips quickly tracing the words: "The root of the vein... lies deep within the caster's... runes." When she looked up, her forehead was covered in sand. "But the caster needs to actively expose it, or... draw it out with the power of the same root."

"Same root?" Mei Terumi's ice blade condensed into a spear in her palm. "What does 'same root' mean?"

Bai Ye suddenly pressed his hand against the chain pattern on his throat.

The burning sensation turned into a stinging pain, like countless tiny needles pricking under the skin.

He recalled the first time he saw the blood crystal ore in the mine; the patterns on the surface of the ore were exactly the same as the birthmark on his neck—the old miner said it was the "mark of the mine spirit," saying that he was born with his life connected to the mine.

“It’s me.” His voice was hoarse. “My chain pattern originates from the same vein as the mineral.”

The battlefield fell silent for a moment.

The figure in the black cloak stopped in his tracks, a flicker of panic crossing his left eye.

Bai Ye stared at the twisted curse marks on his right cheek, then suddenly laughed, a laugh sharper than a dagger: "Three months ago I burned down the mine, and now... I'll use these eyes to watch you and the mine go to hell together."

Chapter 620 Secret Technique! Reincarnation

He suddenly drew his short knife, and chain patterns shot out from the tip, solidifying into a blood-red chain in mid-air.

The red light in the vortex suddenly stopped, as if it had been grabbed by the throat by some force.

Blood began to seep from the right cheek of the figure in the black cloak, and the cursed runes twisted even more violently. He screamed hoarsely, "Impossible!"

The stone slab said... said you should have been swallowed by the vein long ago!

"Stone slab?" Bai Ye's chain patterns burned his eyes so much he could barely open them. "I want to see if your stone slab is harder, or my knife."

He leaped up, stepping on the shield array, the whistling of his short sword slicing through the air mingling with the roar of the mine.