Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Chapter 695 Boundary Severing Technique

The moment Bai Ye's fingertips touched the blood-red characters on the inside of the bronze pendant, a burning sensation rose up on the back of his neck.

The heat surged up my spine like a living thing, making my temples throb. Suddenly, countless fragments flashed through my memory—rusted puppet parts, contracts buried by sandstorms, and the cursed seal patterns carved by the First Hokage at the Temple of Fire.

He staggered a step, and the pendant in his palm suddenly emitted a buzzing sound, as if something was about to break free.

"The Puppet Master's curse is not over yet!"

A hoarse yet clear voice came from the quicksand at his feet.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted sharply as he saw the red sand condense into a semi-transparent humanoid shape on the ground—Luo Sha's soul was wrapped in fine gold sand, and the empty holes in his eye sockets glowed with an eerie light. "The pendant contains the first generation's 'Severing Boundary Technique,' which can sever the connection between all puppets and the caster, but..." His fingertips traced the surface of the pendant, and the sand grains outlined twisted runes in the void, "but breaking the curse requires a living sacrifice."

"Hide first!" Chiyo's afterimage suddenly emerged from the fine marks on the back of his hand.

The old woman's soul was even fainter than Luo Sha's; translucent puppet threads wrapped around Bai Ye's wrist, dragging him directly towards the ruined walls of the underground palace.

Amidst the muffled thud of collapsing bricks, Bai Ye smelled a damp, musty odor—the stone door to the secret room had opened sometime earlier, and a crimson projection appeared on the wall, the outlines of past Kazekage overlapping in the light and shadow, the clearest being the face of the Third Kazekage: "Ninjas from various countries set off three days ago; they want to seize the fragments of the Puppet Throne...that thing can control something like the Ten-Tails..."

"Click——"

The hum of the turning metal gears tore through the air.

Bai Ye felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He was all too familiar with that voice—it was the "perpetual motion puppet" unique to Iwagakure, an evil technique that uses the heart of a living person as its core.

Chiyo's afterimage vanished in an instant, Rasa's soul re-merged into the quicksand, and the stone walls of the dark room cracked with spiderweb patterns as they trembled.

"Go!" Bai Ye shouted, his chakra surging like boiling water into the puppet gauge on his lower back.

Black armor fragments sprang from his sleeves and collar, reassembling into a hideous demon face on his body, while sparks flew from the steel blades at his joints.

The moment he burst open the wooden door to the dark room, the morning light was so bright it was blinding, but the sound of gears grew closer, as if countless iron tongues were licking the walls of Sunagakure.

"Kankuro!" Byakuya leaped to the highest point of the underground palace ruins and saw dense black shadows reassembling on the sand dunes outside Sunagakure.

The rusty puppet wore the earthen-yellow armor of Iwagakure, its scarlet eyes flashing behind its mask. Its originally scattered body seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, gradually forming a huge gear-like formation—the Moon Wheel Formation, a killing move used by Iwagakure to annihilate an entire ninja force.

"See with my puppet eyes!" Rasa's voice emerged from the quicksand beneath his feet.

Bai Ye felt warm grains of sand rush into his eyes, and his vision suddenly became eerily clear: each puppet's joints were wrapped with dark green chakra threads, the ends of which were stuck in the heart of the central golden puppet—that was the "eternal core" made of a living person. As long as the core did not die, these puppets could be resurrected indefinitely.

"Boundary Severing Technique..." Bai Ye reached for the bronze pendant on his chest. The moment his fingertips touched the metal, the pendant suddenly trembled violently.

He distinctly heard the First Hokage's voice echoing in his mind: "When the gears begin to turn, the real test has only just begun." The wind lifted the hem of his clothes, and the Wood Release scroll given to him by the First Hokage at his waist suddenly became hot, the patterns on the cover shining brightly.

"Click—" The moment the moon wheel formation was completed, the outermost puppets simultaneously raised the kunai in their hands.

Byakuya's puppet armor emitted an alarm-like buzzing sound. He saw that the kunai were covered with earth-style chakra, capable of causing a landslide if they were to be embedded in the sand.

Chapter 696 Early Planning

Before he could even form a hand seal, the quicksand beneath his feet suddenly erupted—Luo Sha's soul transformed into a crimson-gold sand wall, precisely binding the joints of each puppet. "Break the core first!"

Byakuya bit his tongue, the sweet, metallic taste of blood stimulating a surge of chakra.

He leaped up from the sand wall, and the right arm of the puppet armor split into three kunai, all aimed at the golden puppet in the center.

The wind whistled in his ears, and he could clearly see the living person still struggling at the core—a genin from Iwagakure, whose eyes had been sewn shut and whose mouth was stuffed with talismans.

"I'm sorry," Bai Ye said softly.

The moment the kunai, imbued with wind-style chakra, pierced through the gold paint, the bronze pendant on his chest suddenly detached from his hand.

In the golden glow, the pendant floated in mid-air, its surface patterns beginning to flow, and the faint image of the First Hokage could be seen emerging within it, holding a verdant Wood Release seed in his palm.

"boom!"

The explosion of the golden puppet blew away half of the moon array, and Bai Ye was thrown into the ruins by the shockwave.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up to see the faint light of the bronze pendant piercing through the smoke, casting a blurry wooden emblem in the sky.

The emblem writhed like a living thing, as if waiting for a certain moment to fully awaken.

"Byakuya!" Kankuro's shout echoed across the sand dunes. "Iwagakure has a backup plan. Lady Tsunade said..."

Bai Ye rubbed his eyes and clenched the pendant back into his palm.

The heat of the metal burned through his skin and seared his veins. The Wood Release scroll left by the First Hokage was burning hot at his waist, and the sand grains of Rasa were still flowing in his meridians.

He looked at the group of puppets that were being reassembled in the distance and suddenly laughed—this is probably what the future of ninjas looks like.

There's always trouble to solve, and new troubles are always waiting.

This time, however, he had an even sharper knife.

The moment the bronze pendant hovered in the smoke of gunpowder, Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints.

He could clearly feel the resonance between the pendant and his heart—it wasn't the tremor of chakra, but the stinging sensation of something dormant in his blood being awakened.

The Wood Release emblem, carried by the phantom of the First Hokage, swirled in mid-air, shimmering with a jade-green light, like a drop of morning dew about to fall into the desert.

"Press it down." Luo Sha's voice suddenly exploded in his ears, and reddish-gold sand grains crawled up his fingertips onto the pendant.

Bai Ye then realized that his hand had been raised to chest level without him noticing, and the skin on his palm was red from being burned by the metal.

He did not hesitate—every choice he made since entering the Sunagakure underground palace had been like walking on a knife's edge, and this time, he gambled that the clues left by the First Hokage would not lead him astray.

The moment the emblem touched the ruins of the puppet throne, the earth shook violently.

Bai Ye staggered and knelt on one knee, his knuckles digging deep into the charred cracks in the stone.

Gravel fell from above, and he heard a dull cracking sound from below, like a giant beast tearing open its long-sealed mouth.

Once the dust settled, a crack about the width of a person had appeared in the ground before them, and the dark, secret room reeked of a metallic, metallic smell—not blood, but the putrid stench of rust mixed with chakra.

"Puppet Heart!" Chiyo's afterimage suddenly darted out from his sleeve, his withered fingers almost piercing through the void.

The old woman's soul was fainter than before, yet it carried a piercing sharpness: "Each one is engraved with the Uchiha fire pattern!"

That guy, Madara... he'd been planning this all along!

Bai Ye squinted.

Deep within the secret chamber, layers upon layers of translucent crystals were piled up, each containing a twisted human figure—a ninja whose chakra had been drained, their skin fused with the crystal, the markings on their foreheads clearly the Fire Seal of the Uchiha clan.

The burning pain in the back of his neck surged up again, and fragments of memory flashed back to the image of the First Hokage pressing his handprint on the contract. Before the ink was dry, Madara's cold laugh was as clear as if it were right next to his ear: "The balance of the ninja world."

It's just a shackle you've created out of wishful thinking.

Chapter 697 Perpetual Motion Array

"The core of the formation is at the very innermost part!" Chiyo's afterimage suddenly surged, transforming into a golden blade of light that pierced towards the crystal pile at the deepest part of the secret chamber.

Her voice carried a desperate, resolute edge: "These hearts, when connected together, form a 'perpetual motion machine,' and this is what killed my grandson!"

Bai Ye's breath hitched suddenly.

He remembered Kankuro saying that three years ago, Sunagakure lost seventeen Chunin overnight. Their bodies had no external injuries, but their chakra was completely drained.

It wasn't an accident after all—someone was raising these "hearts" that consume chakra.

At that moment, golden blood rain exploded.

When Chiyo's light blade pierced the central crystal, all the crystals shattered simultaneously.

Crimson liquid floated in the air, condensing into twisted characters: "The twin sacrifices are dead, but eternity still breathes..." Before the bloody words had faded, a low laugh suddenly came from the depths of the secret chamber, like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, creating chilling ripples.

"Long time no see, Bai Ye."

The voice was like being wrapped in rotting leaves, with a familiar hoarseness.

Bai Ye's puppet armor instantly covered his entire body, and the steel spikes on his demon mask headband stood up one by one.

He recognized the voice—Obito, the "Uchiha survivor" who disappeared at Kannabi Bridge, the madman who always talked about the "Eye of the Moon".

"Don't panic." Sand grains suddenly rushed into his nostrils, carrying the scorching heat of the desert at midday. "Seal these hearts first." A wall of crimson-gold sand rose from the ground, precisely enveloping each flying crystal.

Byakuya gritted his teeth, unleashing a torrent of chakra into his palms: "Earth Release: Flowing Sand Prison!"

Yellow chakra condensed into a vortex at his fingertips, and the sand on the floor of the secret room suddenly came to life, like countless snakes crawling into the crystalline crevices.

Just as the last heart was completely encased, the bronze pendant suddenly emitted a piercing buzzing sound.

The sharp sound startled Bai Ye, who looked up.

The pendant had split in two at some point. One half still had a dark bronze hue, while the other half shone with a strange luster—the green of Konoha and the yellow of Sunagakure intertwined to form a vortex, condensing into half a mask in mid-air, with the chakra patterns of Wood Release and Sand Release flowing around the eye holes.

"This is..." Bai Ye reached out to take it, but his fingertips were burned as soon as they touched the edge of the mask and he pulled back.

He saw tiny words engraved on the inside of the mask: "For those who break the balance." It was the First Hokage's handwriting, and the ink still contained the vitality of Wood Release chakra.

"Byakuya!" Kankuro's shout echoed through the entrance to the underground palace, urgent and swift: "The Iwagakure ninja have arrived!"

I counted to seven Jonin, and Onoki's chakra fluctuations were three kilometers away!

Bai Ye suddenly turned his head.

On the crumbling wall at the entrance to the underground palace, seven dark figures were breaking through the wall, their earthen-yellow headbands gleaming coldly in the morning light.

The leading Jonin from Iwagakure held a kunai, the tip of which dripped with dark green poison—Iwagakure's unique "Bone-Corroding Poison," capable of corroding chakra meridians.

"Retreat to the secret chamber!" Luo Sha's sand instantly wrapped around Bai Ye's waist, pulling him towards the crack.

Chiyo's afterimage suddenly vanished, leaving only one sentence echoing in the air: "The mask... is the key."

The moment Bai Ye landed, a dull tremor came from the dome of the secret chamber.

He looked up and saw that the rocks above him were oozing yellowish-brown chakra—a sign of Earth Release: Rock Pillar Descent.

Onoki's chakra was so obvious, like a moving mountain, making it hard to breathe.

Further away, he heard the rumble of metal gears turning, deeper and slower than the previous lunar array, as if some enormous thing was awakening.

He gripped the half-bronze pendant tightly and then touched the newly acquired mask.

The warmth of my palm mingled with the burning pain of the mask, leaving two overlapping marks on my skin.

The footsteps of the Iwagakure Jonin were approaching, Obito's laughter still echoed deep within the secret room, and from the cracks in the dome's rocks, earthen-yellow chakra patterns were spreading out like blood vessels.

This time, the trouble was bigger than he had imagined.

Chapter 698 Reenacting the Battle of the Valley of the End

Suddenly, the rocks on the dome of the underground palace emitted a cracking sound like bones breaking.

As Byakuya looked up, he saw earth-yellow chakra patterns explode between the rocks, and Onoki's chakra pressed down like rolling thunder—that was the Third Tsuchikage's unique "Mountain Collapse" Earth Release technique.

"Retreat!" Just as Luo Sha's sand wall shielded Bai Ye behind him, half of the dome of the entire underground palace was torn away.

The gravel poured down like a torrential rain, crashing against the sand wall and sparking golden and reddish sparks.

The kunai of the Iwagakure Jonin flew towards the edge of the sand wall, and the dark green poisonous mist condensed into a hideous snake shape in the air. One of them grazed the White Night's shoulder armor and corroded a charred hole in the leather.

"Ignore the outside!" Bai Ye gritted his teeth and tore off his shoulder armor. The half of the mask in his palm suddenly became incredibly hot.

He then noticed that the vortex of green from the leaf-covered tree and yellow from the sand-covered village on the mask was spinning, creating an eerie resonance with the roar of the rock-covered puppet horde.

The metal puppets that were originally scattered in the corners had somehow come together, and the sound of gears meshing came from all directions, piecing together a twenty-meter-tall gear-shaped giant statue on the ruins—a bronze body covered with earthy yellow rock patterns, and the ends of its twelve mechanical arms each inlaid with chakra gems of different attributes.

“They…want to use my power to revive the Moon Wheel.” Bai Ye murmured.

The First Generation's inscription on the inside of the mask suddenly came to life. Wood Release chakra surged up his veins and projected an image onto his retina: the Moon Wheel Formation from a hundred years ago was driven by the chakra cores of various countries, and at this moment, the energy tank of the Colossus Gear was facing the mask in his palm.

"white night!"

A hoarse roar slammed into my ears.

The moment Byakuya turned his head, Gaara's figure was disintegrating.

Black curse marks seeped from the originally pure golden chakra, and the patterns of Shukaku appeared on half of his face, while the other half maintained the calmness of the Kazekage.

His grains of sand split into two clumps. One half shot like an arrow toward the mechanical joints of the colossal gear, while the other half wrapped around Byakuya's wrist. The pain of chakra piercing his skin made Byakuya gasp.

"The cursed seal needs... your Wood Release and the 'paradox' of quicksand." Gaara's voice was like two souls tearing at each other, the black sand tinged with blood. "The First Hokage's life and Madara's destruction... they will reenact the Valley of the End within you!"

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He recalled Obito's laughter that he had heard underground, and Chiyo's words that "the mask is the key"—it turned out that all the assassinations, starting from the Daimyo's residence in the Land of Fire, were paving the way for this moment.

The daimyo of various countries did not covet the puppeteer's power; they wanted to use him to fuse the chakra of the First Hokage and Madara in a living person's body!

"My quicksand is not so easily controlled."