Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The reconstructed puppets lay quietly in the underground palace, their joints still faintly glowing with chakra, like ancient musical scores waiting to be awakened.

The moment Bai Ye's fingertips touched the writhing Wood Release emblem on his heart, a bone-chilling cold suddenly ran down the back of his neck.

As he looked down, he saw the joints of the three reconstructed puppets twisting simultaneously—the left wrist rotated thirty degrees, and the right elbow was raised to shoulder level. That was the starting stance of the Third Kazekage's "Sand Iron Shower".

"They are replicating the trajectories of ninjutsu." His Adam's apple bobbed, his voice muffled by the wind and sand. "Using chakra memories... to replicate the techniques of the Kazekage of the past."

Before he could finish speaking, the crimson-gold sand suddenly wrapped around his waist.

Rasa's phantom had somehow appeared behind him, and fine gold dust seeped from the crack in his left eye—a sign of Magnet Release chakra overload: "Father's puppetry never needed—"

Chapter 687 Magnet Release - Iron Sand

The second half of the sentence was swallowed up by the roar of the sand waterfall.

The magnetic patterns on Luo Sha's palm burst forth with dazzling golden light, and Bai Ye was thrown into the blood-red vortex in the center of the underground palace.

He somersaulted in the air and saw Luo Sha's phantom rapidly becoming transparent, as if the last trace of his soul had been drained away. "No living people are needed as sacrifices!"

A sharp pain exploded in his spine, and Bai Ye crashed heavily into the edge of the vortex.

A crimson aura wrapped around his clothes and pulled him toward the center, and the Wood Release emblem on his skin suddenly lit up, echoing the green light deep within the vortex—that was the core of the First Hokage's Wood Release seal.

He struggled to grab the rocks on the ground, but touched a piece of warm puppet silk.

"Stabilize your chakra!" Chiyo's phantom rose from the bottom of the vortex, her silver hair torn to shreds by the airflow. Her puppet prosthetic eye emitted a ghostly blue light, and a thousand silver-white puppet threads shot out from her sleeves. "These threads connect all my puppets and can locate the sealing rift!" Before she finished speaking, her fingertips had already plunged into the vortex, and the puppet threads, like silver snakes, pierced into the blood-red light, twisting a fist-sized gap in the center.

A low laugh suddenly came from deep within the underground palace, like sandpaper rubbing against bronze.

The voice, tinged with the stench of earth and rust, crashed against the stone wall, sending dust scattering: "The true value of the twin sacrifices is... to let the remnants of the old era witness the collapse of the new world." Bai Ye's pupils constricted sharply—it was Uchiha Madara's voice, carrying his usual cold mockery.

"Spot?" he blurted out, but was pulled even closer by the vortex.

At this moment, he could see clearly into the depths of the vortex: the engravings on the seven coffins were converging towards the center, the wood release pattern of Hashirama Senju was glowing with a ghostly green, the fire fan pattern of Madara Uchiha was tinged with a dark red, and even the rock helmet pattern of the Third Tsuchikage was tinged with an earthy yellow. The seven patterns intertwined into a giant net at the center of the vortex, and at the center of the net was a dark, rhomboid stone—the core of the Puppet Throne.

"Crack in the moon!" Gaara's roar cleaved down from above.

Bai Ye looked up and saw that the golden moon was like gold foil that had been sliced ​​open by a sharp blade, with a hand covered in stitches protruding from the crack.

Obito's face was still half-wrapped in bandages, while the other half of his face was illuminated by the purple light unique to space-time magic in his Sharingan. A twisted smile appeared on his lips: "Faster than expected... It seems that the First Hokage's seal is more fragile than I thought."

Before he finished speaking, the bronze pendant around Bai Ye's neck suddenly became hot.

It was an old object he had picked up from the ruins of the Land of Fire. It was now buzzing, and the cloud patterns on the surface of the pendant were being sucked out and deformed, as if it was trying to break free of the red string and go into the vortex.

He hurriedly reached for it, and the moment his fingertips touched the pendant, a strange memory flashed through his mind: the crying of a baby, blood-soaked swaddling clothes, and the words "live on" spoken by the woman as she placed the bronze pendant in his arms.

"That is..." His breath hitched, but he was pulled staggered by the suction of the vortex.

Just then, all the reconstructed puppets suddenly raised their heads at the same time.

The jaws of the Salamander puppet split open, revealing a dense network of chakra conduits inside; the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand Puppet raised its right arm, and a bean-sized black sand condensed at its fingertips—it was the "Iron Sand Binding Attack" that he was most skilled at in his lifetime.

"Get back!" Gaara's sandstorm wrapped around his waist and pulled him outwards, but Byakuya's Wood Release Crest got closer and closer to the green light at the core of the vortex.

He felt an invisible thread drilling into his consciousness, carrying fragments of the First Generation's memories: "The seal... requires a living sacrifice for balance... but twins..."

"boom!"

A blinding green light suddenly erupted inside the underground palace.

Chapter 688 Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique

Bai Ye was thrown by the blast wave, crashed into the stone wall, and slid to the ground.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and when he looked up, his pupils widened in shock—the scattered puppet limbs were reassembling in mid-air, black and red liquid binding the broken parts together, and finally condensing into a six-armed phantom: a torso wrapped in wood-style patterns, a chest covered with fire fan patterns, legs wrapped in rock helmet patterns, and the head at the top was blurry, with only a diamond-shaped black jade embedded between its eyebrows.

The phantom suddenly raised its right hand, holding a half-rolled, yellowed scroll in its palm.

The sealing incantation on the scroll's surface was peeling away, revealing a line of blood-red words: "When the twin sacrifices resonate, the Puppet Throne will return to the mortal realm."

“That is…” Bai Ye stood up, supporting himself against the stone wall, his throat tight.

"There's movement outside!" Gaara suddenly turned around, the red light of his mechanical eyes sweeping towards the outside of Sunagakure.

Following his gaze, Bai Ye saw a cloud of dust rising from the horizon, obscuring the sky.

As the wind swept the sand away, the outlines of hundreds and thousands of puppets came into view—there were dark puppets wielding kunai, war puppets carrying giant blades, and even the daimyo guard puppets he had seen in the Land of Fire, with their arms severed.

The joints of these puppets glowed with a ghostly blue light, and they were slowly adjusting their formation, centering on the spot where the moon had disappeared.

The puppets in the front row suddenly raised their arms, their fingertips pointing towards the direction of Sunagakure.

Bai Ye's heart skipped a beat.

He saw the shadows of the puppets overlapping on the sand, vaguely outlining the shape of an hourglass—with a narrow neck that was wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, where a dark red liquid was slowly flowing.

The moss on the stone walls of the underground palace was blown away by the shockwave. Bai Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his fingertips were touched by the warm, sweet smell.

His Adam's apple bobbed violently as he looked up—the puppet limbs that should have been scattered as scrap metal were being glued together by a black and red liquid into a six-armed phantom, the head at the top blurred like mist, while the diamond-shaped black jade between his brows burned his pupils.

"There's movement outside!" Gaara's mechanical eyes suddenly flashed with a blinding red light, and Sand Stream pulled Byakuya to the side, wrapping around his waist.

The two crashed into a stone pillar engraved with wind emblems. Bai Ye followed his gaze and instantly got goosebumps on the back of his neck—the sand on the horizon was torn open by the wind, and hundreds of puppets were crawling out of the sand and mist.

The kunai of the Dark Puppet gleamed coldly, and the giant blade of the War Puppet sliced ​​through the air. Even the guard puppet from the Land of Fire, with its two arms severed, was among them. The eerie blue light at the joints merged into a single point, casting an hourglass-shaped shadow on the sand.

"That is..." Before Bai Ye could finish speaking, the puppets in the front row raised their arms at the same time.

When he saw the eye sockets of those puppets, the veins behind his ears throbbed—in the eye sockets of each puppet was a semi-transparent phantom, with red pupils and three tomoe slowly rotating, exactly the same as Obito's Sharingan!

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

A clear, cool breeze suddenly swept over, carrying with it the smell of rust.

Mei Terumi leaped from mid-air, her long crimson hair whipped about by chakra. Her right hand, still in the Tiger hand seal, unleashed a water dragon of chakra, its sharp teeth bared, as it slammed into the central puppet wearing a straw hat. "They're mimicking the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan!" her voice boomed, mingling with the roar of the water. "The chakra circuits of these puppets... are controlled by the Sharingan!"

The water dragon precisely smashed the head of the straw hat puppet, and metal fragments rained down on it.

Byakuya grabbed Gaara and rolled him aside, but froze the instant he touched Gaara's arm—Gaara's skin was turning to sand, golden dust dripping from between his fingers, even the red light in his mechanical eyes was flickering. "Gaara?" He gripped Gaara's wrist, but felt a burning pain in his palm. "Your chakra... is splitting?"

Chapter 689 Cursed Seal Limited Gaara

“The cursed seal... requires the chakra resonance of twin hosts.” Gaara’s voice suddenly became hoarse, as if two souls were tearing at his throat.

His sandstorm suddenly exploded into two balls; one half shot towards the puppet horde like steel needles, while the other half solidified into a sharp cone, piercing Bai Ye's heart without warning! "I'm sorry... but they said... only this way can they awaken..."

"Snapped!"

Two puppet fingers wrapped in scarlet threads suddenly pierced through the sand cone and precisely wrapped around Byakuya and Gaara's wrists.

Chiyo's afterimage emerged from the sand and mist. Her face was half wrinkled like an old woman and half carved with the patterns of a puppet. "Back then, I used puppet threads to bind Kankuro and Sasori. Today, I can bind you two little brats as well." Her voice was hoarse and strained, like the friction of gravel. "The 'Twin Sacrifices' in that scroll... are you two?"

"Back off!"

Luo Sha's angry roar mingled with the explosion of sand.

The figure of the former Kazekage emerged from behind the wind god statue on the central axis of the underground palace. His long hair was lifted by the quicksand, and the Yin-Mao seal formed by his hands brought up a sky full of golden sand. "Sandstorm Burial!" A sand wall that covered the sky and the earth instantly rose up, separating the puppet group from Sunagakure Village in two.

But the next second, the moment the gold dust touched the puppet, it melted away like ice and snow—the grains of sand first shone with golden light, then shattered into fine powder, which was absorbed cleanly by the eerie blue light from the puppet's joints.

“They… devoured the souls of the Kazekage of each generation.” Rasa’s lips trembled violently as he stared at his increasingly transparent palm, finally understanding why he had felt a void in his chakra when forming hand seals earlier. “Starting from the Third Kazekage, each puppet has sealed… our souls.”

Bai Ye's neck suddenly felt burning hot.

The bronze pendant, having somehow broken free of its red string, was floating above his chest, its surface adorned with cloud patterns that seemed to move as if alive.

The sand grains were sucked into the air, following the pendant's pull to wrap around his arms and chest, finally condensing into a dark golden puppet armor.

He could clearly hear the baby crying from the pendant, and the woman's voice etched deepest in his memory: "Live on...you and him, one of you must live."

"Click——"

A sharp, shattering sound came from above.

When Byakuya looked up, a thin crack appeared in the shadow of the moon, and dark red chakra emerged like a snake's tongue, outlining the Sharingan in mid-air.

As he gazed at the gradually clearing phantom, he suddenly recalled the blood-red words on the scroll—when the twin sacrifices resonate, the puppet throne will return to the mortal realm.

At this moment, Gaara's sand spikes were pressed against his throat, Chiyo's puppet threads were tightening, and the chakra fluctuations in the crescent moon crack were so close that they could burn the tip of his nose.

The dark red chakra within the crescent moon suddenly surged violently, and Obito's phantom was squeezed out from it.

His right eye was no longer an empty darkness, but instead contained a spinning gear, which collided with the scarlet six-tomoe Sharingan in his left eye to produce a dazzling golden light, eventually merging into a golden vortex, with even the edges of the pupil seeping out a lava-like stream of light.

"The puppeteer's 'eternity' requires the blood of the ninja world!" His voice, like rusty gears grinding against steel plates, made the wind-patterned stone pillars in the underground palace hum.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He could clearly see the hollow in Obito's phantom chest—there floated translucent Sharingan eyes, just like those in the puppet's eye sockets, each one absorbing the chakra of the puppet horde on the sand below.

Chapter 690 Seven-Attribute Chakra Puppet

What made his blood freeze even more was that the puppet group separated by the sandstorm suddenly emitted a sharp metallic whistling sound, and the steel joints twisted and split into seven branches. The puppets at the front of the line were respectively topped with the emblems of the seven countries of wind, fire, water, thunder, earth, cloud and fog, like seven sharp blades piercing straight into the borders of each country.

"Gaara!" Mei Terumi's water-style kunai pierced through Byakuya's ear, causing Gaara's hand holding the sand to tremble slightly.

Her fingertips held a water mirror, reflecting the image of seven puppet legions tearing through the clouds: "The defenses of Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning have been breached!"

The Tsuchikage's rock pillar was shredded into rubble by the golem's giant blade—they were precisely targeting the weakest point in the defenses of the various nations during the Five Kage Summit!

“This is… a pre-calculated map of the ninja world.” Rasa’s golden sand completely dispersed into fine powder, and his figure became so transparent that the patterns of the wind god statue behind him could be seen. “Before the Third Kazekage disappeared, he said that someone used the Sharingan to read military secrets from various countries… So those intelligences were the prelude to today’s massacre.”

"Cough—" Bai Ye suddenly groaned as Chiyo's puppet threads were burrowing into his heart along his wrist.

The old woman's half-puppet face was pressed against his neck, and as her carved wooden lips opened and closed, he smelled the decaying sandalwood scent: "The First Hokage's Wood Release can suppress the earth's veins, and the Sand Village's quicksand can envelop chakra!"

I tried it with living puppets back then... the blood of twin sacrifices can be used as a catalyst!

A sharp pain exploded in my heart.

Bai Ye looked down and saw three puppet fingers wrapped in scarlet threads piercing through his chest, blood flowing back into Chiyo's puppet arm along the threads.

He then realized that the other half of the old woman's face had been completely woodenized, and even her eyeballs had turned into two pieces of ebony inlaid with runes—this was not an afterimage at all, but rather her using forbidden magic to nail her soul into the puppet, burning her last bit of life force.

"Grandma!" Gaara's sand cone suddenly fell to the ground.

His mechanical eyes glowed red, and golden dust poured out from every pore on his body, as if trying to crush and recast his body. "The cursed seal... is absorbing your chakra!"

You will be like a scorpion...

“That boy Sasori never understood the true essence of puppetry until his death.” Chiyo’s puppet finger went in a little deeper, and Byakuya could hear the crisp sound of ribs breaking. “True eternity is nourishing the puppet’s soul with the blood of the living.”

I didn't stop Sasori back then, but today... I absolutely cannot let these man-eating monsters wreak havoc on the ninja world again!

A muffled rumble, like thunder, suddenly came from underground.

The remains of the straw hat puppet in the center, which had been shattered by Mei Terumi, began to writhe. Black and red liquid adhered to the metal fragments and reformed, eventually condensing into a floating bronze throne in mid-air.

On the throne, Madara's phantom stood with his hands behind his back, the cloud patterns on his crimson armor glowing with blood; opposite him, the phantom of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, held a Wood Release kunai, while the phantom of the myriad phenomena of the universe behind him was drawing out vines to entangle the bronze legs of the throne.

"You sealed my Rinnegan with Wood Release back then, and you think you can seal this thing in the same way today?" Madara's voice was laced with sneer. "But look at the current state of ninjas, even Hashirama's cells are almost extinct—what will they use as a sealing medium?"

“That’s why twin sacrifices are needed.” The First Hokage’s gaze suddenly swept over Hakuyo, his pupils reflecting the cloud patterns on the bronze pendant. “Back then, Kaguya Otsutsuki sealed the Divine Tree with her blood relatives. Today… perhaps we need to borrow the same karma.”

Bai Ye's breathing suddenly stopped.

Chapter 691 Older Than Ancient

He finally understood the origin of the baby's crying in the pendant—it was the resonance of his and Gaara's chakra that awakened the ancient contract sealed in their bloodlines.

At this moment, the puppet thread that Chiyo had pierced into his heart was amplifying this resonance into a tangible chakra wave, which was traveling along the earth's veins towards the puppet horde on the border of the Seven Kingdoms.

"Sealing technique... activate!" Bai Ye bit his tongue, blood splattering onto the bronze pendant.

Suddenly, the pendant burst forth with a dark golden light, enveloping him and Gaara in a cocoon of light.

He could feel his chakra flowing into Chiyo's puppet body through the puppet threads, and then being injected into the ground through her techniques—there were remnants of the First Hokage's Wood Release, the cursed seal of the Sand Village's quicksand, and the life essence of him and Gaara as twin sacrifices.

"boom!"

The moon disc shattered with a deafening roar.

Golden gears rained down like a storm, each one engraved with the patterns of the Sharingan, crashing onto the sand and scattering dazzling sparks.

The movements of the seven puppet legions froze simultaneously, golden quicksand seeping from their steel joints, like soulless shells slowly collapsing into sand dunes, seeping into the ground and disappearing.

The phantom of the first generation raised its hand.