Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Ebizo suddenly remembered the secret letter he had found in the hidden compartment of his study three days ago—a sample of gold dust sent by Iwagakure Village, along with a hastily written note that read "Earth ley lines need to be locked with a living sacrifice."

"Wait!" he raised his trembling hands. "I can explain..."

"Explain how you used Grandpa's puppet threads to lure him to the Iwagakure mine?" The puppet's voice trembled with a hint of a young girl's sob. "Explain why those miners whose hearts were removed ended up in the Sand Village dungeon."

Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound came from outside the courtyard, accompanied by sand and gravel.

Byakuya clung to the stone wall of the Sand Village dungeon, the chakra on the soles of his boots pressing against the damp moss.

He could hear the burning pain of the golden scar in his throat, and fragments of the first generation's memories pierced his consciousness like shards of glass: "The sacrifices of the ley lines would leave golden sand patterns on the corpses." Just now, on the border of the Land of Fire, the miners he had dug up had this kind of golden sand stuck to their fingernails, and now, in the moonlight shining through the iron bars of the dungeon, he could clearly see the same fine streams of golden sand condensed on the iron bars of the cage in front of him.

"Click."

He crushed something.

Looking down, there was half a puppet heart, its surface engraved with the rock patterns of Iwagakure Village—exactly the same patterns as those of the "Eyes of the Earth Veins" in the Iwagakure Forge.

The stench of rotting flesh wafted from the cage.

Byakuya took out a kunai and lifted the tattered cloth covering the corpses. Five corpses lay side by side on the straw mat, each with a hole the size of a bowl in its chest, the walls of which were covered with dark red scabs.

He used a kunai to poke at one of the heads, revealing half of a Kazekage headband among the gray hair—it was the previous Kazekage!

“Their puppet hearts,” he murmured, his fingertips tracing the rock-patterned ore on the corpse’s chest, “have all been replaced with mineral products from Iwagakure.”

Suddenly, the sound of chains being dragged came from deep within the dungeon.

The white night instantly vanished into the shadows, only to be seen as two Sand Village Chunin approaching carrying oil lamps. In the lamplight, their pupils gleamed with an unnatural, eerie blue, the same color as the "Earth Vein Eyes" in the Stone Village's furnace.

"It's time for a shift change," one of them said hoarsely. "A new batch of human sacrifices is arriving tonight. Lord Kazekage said he'll pick the ten with the cleanest hearts."

Chapter 707 Wood Release Seed

Bai Ye's knuckles turned white from clenching his fists.

He finally understood why the Fifth Kazekage of Iwagakure had planted his flag on the border of the Land of Fire—the Kazekage and advisors of Sunagakure were conspiring with Iwagakure to feed the ley lines with the hearts of the previous Kazekage and miners, paving the way for Iwagakure's expansion.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in the advisor's palace, Ebizo's back was soaked with cold sweat.

The puppet threads of his granddaughter were slowly wrapping around his wrist. The silver threads shimmered with a golden sheen under the moonlight—exactly the same threads that had been on Chiyo's wrist when she died.

"You think I'd actually believe you?" He suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with madness. "The puppetry of Sunagakure... is just a trick to manipulate puppets?"

Before he finished speaking, his toes slammed into the crack between the blue bricks.

A muffled rumble like thunder came from underground, and the bluestone slabs paving the ground suddenly cracked open, with black quicksand surging out like living things, forming a vortex about ten feet in diameter in the center of the courtyard.

At the center of the vortex, a semi-transparent sand puppet slowly emerged, its face identical to that of the old man Chiyo.

"Grandma?" The will-o'-the-wisp of the granddaughter puppet suddenly flickered.

“That’s a phantom puppet.” Ebizo’s voice suddenly turned sinister. “It uses the last vestiges of the living as a trigger. Once the mechanism is activated, it can awaken the remnant soul of the dead.”

Did that old hag Chiyo think her 'Thousand Machine Manipulation' could trap me?

The puppet silk she used before her death had long ago been modified by me into the fuse for the ley line lock!

The quicksand vortex spun faster and faster, and suddenly Chiyo's afterimage puppet's sandy arm shot out, aiming straight for the back of the granddaughter puppet's neck.

The will-o'-the-wisps of the granddaughter puppets flickered violently, and all the puppets raised their arms at the same time. Amidst the clanging of metal, a thread of golden sand shot out from her fingertips—it was the "Golden Silkworm Thread" that only the direct descendants of the Chiyo family could control.

"You really did have a backup plan!" Hai Bizang's pupils contracted to pinpoints.

The golden sand threads accurately wrapped around Chiyo's afterimage's neck, but at the moment of contact, black mucus suddenly seeped from the afterimage's sandy body.

The granddaughter puppet's eye sockets suddenly burned. She saw that among the hundred puppets she controlled, the eye sockets of the front row "herself" were slowly seeping out the same black viscous fluid, dripping onto the bluestone slab like rotting pus, making a "sizzling" corrosive sound.

Black mucus was trickling down the metal lines from the eye sockets of Chiyo's granddaughter puppet, corroding honeycomb-like pores into the bluestone slab.

A burning sensation suddenly came from the fingertips that were controlling the puppet. The originally docile golden silkworms began to pull her chakra in the opposite direction—as if countless tiny roots were drilling into her body along the silk threads.

"Grandpa's puppet strings... contained the First Hokage's Wood Release seed!" Her voice was choked with sobs, yet exceptionally clear.

Three months ago, her grandfather had her try on the silk rings under the pretext of "improving the family's puppetry technique." Now, the rings were making her wrists ache. The silver threads she regarded as her inheritance were actually living things wrapped in Wood Release chakra.

Ebizo's pupils suddenly contracted.

He hadn't expected that his rebellious granddaughter would be able to see through the mechanism the moment she was being corrupted—it was a forbidden technique he had obtained from Iwagakure over three years, a Wood Release seed cultivated with the First Hokage's cells, which was supposed to seep into Chiyo's heart along with the puppet threads when she died, transforming the puppetry techniques of the entire Chiyo lineage into nutrients for Iwagakure's ley lineage lock.

"You're insane!" He lunged at his granddaughter, but was stopped by the metal arms of a hundred puppets that rose simultaneously.

The granddaughter's fingertips were already tightly gripping the heart of the puppet "herself"—a core modified from the first puppet she made when she was twelve years old, with the crooked characters "Chiyo" engraved on it.

Chapter 708 Purifying the Puppet Virus

“This way… I can burn through the roots of Wood Release.” Her teeth were clenched until they turned white as she pointed the tip of the puppet’s heart at her left chest.

The moment the metal tip pierced her clothing, Ebizo heard her suppressed gasp, but her gaze remained fixed on the mucus in the puppet's eye sockets. "They're looking for the chakra of living people as a culture medium... If I die, the seeds will have no host."

"No—!" Ebizo's hoarse cry was drowned out by the sound of metal tearing apart.

The moment the puppet's heart pierced the flesh, the granddaughter's body trembled violently. Blood seeped into the puppet's interior along the metal's grooves, and the black viscous fluid suddenly boiled and receded into its eye sockets, as if forcibly sucked away by some force.

Her puppet silk suddenly became translucent, and the silver threads that were originally wrapped around her wrists broke off one by one, exploding into golden dust in the air.

The sandstorm outside the courtyard suddenly intensified.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up in the dungeon, the golden scar on his throat burning so badly it felt like it was about to burst.

He could clearly sense that familiar Wood Release chakra fluctuation—exactly the same as the one on the corpses of miners on the border of the Land of Fire.

“I see.” His fingers traced the cracks in the mask, and fragments of the First Hokage’s memories flooded back: the Wood Release seed needed the life force of a living person to germinate, and the chakra resonance of the Puppet Technique provided the perfect path for its propagation.

He tore off a fragment of the mask, the sharp edge slicing through his wrist. Golden blood splattered onto the damp ground, immediately evaporating into white mist.

“To purify the puppet virus… we must use the First Hokage’s chakra to reverse the erosion.” He pressed his bleeding wrist against the iron bars of the cage, and gold dust flowed along the rock patterns on the bars. The fine streams containing gold dust suddenly trembled violently, shrinking into particles as if they had been scalded.

From the depths of the dungeon came the crisp sound of breaking chains, and he heard the knuckles of the former Kazekage's corpse scratching at the straw mat—the corpse controlled by Wood Release was awakening.

"Too late."

A sinister male voice came from underground, causing the dungeon's stone chips to fall in a rustling sound.

Looking up, Bai Ye saw the direction of the Sand Village advisor's quarters through the ventilation hole. The sandstorm was condensing into a giant vortex, and a semi-transparent rock shadow appeared at the center of the vortex.

That was the fifth generation Iwakage, wearing a mineral eyepatch over his left eye the same style as the "Eye of the Earth Veins" in the dungeon, a cold smile playing on his lips: "What you destroyed was merely the outermost fuse."

The phantom's palm pressed down on the ground, and the stone bricks beneath Bai Ye's feet suddenly cracked, releasing black quicksand like a swarm of snakes.

He saw countless tiny Wood Release seeds floating in the sand, each wrapped in the puppet silk of the Chiyo family—it turned out that Ebizo's so-called "improvement" was to turn the entire Sunagakure puppetry into a nutrient delivery channel for the ley lines.

"Witness it," the illusory voice of the Rock Shadow said maniacally, "your proud puppets... will become the new sacrifices, infusing the Ley Line Locks of Iwagakure with a thousand years of power!"

The sandstorm suddenly changed direction, retreating northwards with a phantom image in its wake.

Bai Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and golden chakra condensed into a spiral shape in his palm.

He could sense that a powerful water-style chakra was gathering in the Land of Water, thousands of miles away—that was Mei Terumi's sensory technique.

"It's time to put an end to this," he said in a low voice, the gold scar on his throat gleaming faintly with his heartbeat.

The moonlight streaming through the dungeon's ventilation holes was suddenly blocked by something. He looked up and saw a pale blue chakra mirror floating in the air, reflecting a face behind a mask—overlapping with the First Hokage's features, slowly opening its eyes in the mirror.

Chapter 709 The Out-of-Control Puppet Swarm

Stone chips from the dungeon fell into the back of Bai Ye's neck. He looked up at the light blue chakra mirror, the golden scar on his throat burning with each heartbeat.

As the superimposed face in the mirror slowly opened its eyes, he heard Mei Terumi's voice seep out from the mirror, carrying the unique coolness of Water Release: "You are not a sacrifice...you are a 'living vessel' cultivated by the First Hokage using his own heart."

These words struck him like a hammer blow to the temple.

Bai Ye staggered half a step, the iron bars of the prison cage digging painfully into his back.

He suddenly remembered that three days ago at the mine on the border of the Land of Fire, the puppet threads wrapped around the miners' corpses did indeed contain a vibration that resonated with his own Golden Scar—it turned out that those Wood Release seeds were not eroding, but searching for a "container".

"Lord Mizukage?" he blurted out, but before he could finish speaking, the sound of tearing fabric came from the dungeon's ventilation hole.

Chiyo's granddaughter's figure slid down the drooping puppet silk, her hair still covered with lingering sand, and her left wrist wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage—clearly she had just fought a fierce battle with Iwakage's sandstorm.

The puppet box at her waist was swaying, and the mechanical gears made a soft clicking sound.

"Stop looking in the mirror!" The girl's puppet threads suddenly wrapped around his wrist, the blood-stained tips gleaming coldly. "The First Hokage's chakra is rampaging through your veins. If this drags on any longer, the ley lines will drain you dry!" Her pupils narrowed to slits with tension, her fingertips trembling slightly, yet she gripped the puppet threads tightly: "I'll use my puppetry technique to seal it temporarily... You'll have to endure the pain!"

Before Bai Ye could react, a sharp pain exploded from his heart.

The blood-stained puppet silk pierced through his breastplate and penetrated two inches below his collarbone.

He gasped, as golden blood dripped down the silken tail, splashing tiny golden spots on the ground.

The pain, however, cleared his mind—the girl's puppetry technique contained the Chiyo family's unique "living sacrifice curse," which used the caster's blood as a catalyst to temporarily lock down the rampaging chakra.

"Thanks." He twitched the corner of his mouth, but his words were abruptly cut off by a sudden vibration.

The dungeon floor cracked with spiderweb-like patterns, and the stench of rotting wood rose up. Tree roots as thick as bowls, wrapped in black sand, broke through the rocks, and beads of blood that had not yet dried were still congealed on the bark—the very same Wood Release root system that had previously eroded the corpse of the previous Kazekage.

The tree roots brushed against the hair of the granddaughter of a thousand generations, carving deep furrows in the stone wall.

"The core of the ley line lock is underground!" The girl gritted her teeth, gripping the puppet strings, sweat beading on her forehead. "That old bastard Ebizo gave us the blueprints for improving puppetry..."

"No need to guess anymore." A sinister male voice suddenly rang out from all directions.

The phantom of the Fifth Generation Iwakage emerged from the tree roots, his left eye's mineral eyepatch gleaming with an eerie blue light. "You've only destroyed the surface fuse. The true ley line lock..." His voice suddenly rose, "requires the First Generation's 'vessel' to activate it!"

Before he could finish speaking, a series of metallic scraping sounds came from outside the dungeon.

Through the ventilation holes, Bai Ye saw that the puppet army, which had originally obeyed Yan Ying, was convulsing wildly, with sparks flying from its joints.

The bronze golems in the front row suddenly turned, their blades piercing the chests of their companions behind them—they had gone out of control.

Even more terrifying, a translucent crimson phantom emerged from the black quicksand.

It was a man wrapped in bandages, a cold smile playing on his lips. His voice was like a rusty blade scraping against a stone slab: "The First Hokage's puppetry technique is the true forbidden art." He stretched out his hand and pressed it lightly against the out-of-control puppet horde. "He used ninja blood to prolong his life and puppetry to lock the earth's veins... What you perceive as a 'contract' is nothing more than the chains that sustained his life."

"Spots?" Bai Ye's throat tightened.

He had seen fragments of Hashirama's memories; this was the face that had fought the First Hokage in the Valley of the End.

Jinba suddenly felt so hot it was almost burning through his skin. He heard a roaring sound coming from his blood vessels, as if some kind of seal was loosening.

Chapter 710 Guilt from Forcibly Continuing

Chiyo's puppet threads suddenly taut, and the blood-stained parts began to turn black—the First Hokage's chakra was backfiring on her technique.

"I can't hold on any longer..." The girl's nails dug deeply into her palms. "Your chakra... is rejecting my seal..."

Bai Ye gazed at the gradually clearer face of the First Generation in the mirror, then looked at the wildly growing tree roots on the ground, and then at the faintly visible spots in the quicksand.

He suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with madness: "So, from the very beginning, I was just a pawn in this game." His fingers touched the cracks in his mask, feeling a warm, damp sensation on his fingertips—blood was already trickling down his nose through the gaps in the mask.

The illusory image of Ban suddenly vanished, and the laughter of Yan Ying was drowned out by the sound of tree roots breaking.

Chiyo's puppet strings snapped with a "snap," and she stumbled and crashed into the cage.

Bai Ye felt something rising in his throat. He raised his hand to cover his mouth, and tiny Wood Release seeds floated in the golden blood seeping from between his fingers.

“It’s time to end this,” he murmured, his fingers gripping the edge of his mask.

The burning pain from the gold scar had spread to his entire face, and a tearing itch came from the skin beneath the mask—some kind of pattern was moving under the skin, like a living thing trying to break free of its restraints.

The sandstorm outside the dungeon suddenly let out a shrill cry, as if some kind of seal had been completely torn open.

Bai Ye tightened his fingers slightly, and the crack in the mask widened instantly, revealing the golden skin underneath.

He heard Mei Terumi's exclamation from a thousand miles away, transmitted through the water mirror, and saw his own reflection in his granddaughter Chiyo's wide eyes—

The golden emblem started from the golden scar on his throat, spreading down his neck and cheeks towards his entire face.

The water mirror on the dungeon wall suddenly exploded into tiny blue sparks, cutting off Mei Terumi's scream in mid-air.

Bai Ye's fingertips still lingered on the edge of the mask fragments, the golden emblem having climbed over his brow bone and condensed into starlight-like light in his eyes.

He gazed at the Wood Release seed floating in the golden blood seeping from his palm, and suddenly remembered the puppet threads on the miners' corpses in the mine three days ago—those tremors were not erosion, but the First Hokage conveying a warning through his blood.

From the moment he put on this puppet mask, the threads of fate had already tightened: he was the vessel, the key, and the last chance for repentance that the first generation had exchanged for a thousand years of lifespan.

“The ley lines don’t need activation.” He chuckled, his voice carrying a sharp, metallic scraping sound, the golden emblem creeping up his arm to his fingertips. “What’s needed is a willing sacrifice to sever the chains planted by the First Generation.”

Chiyo's pupils contracted sharply, and the blood-stained puppet threads stretched taut like a bowstring in her palm.

She saw the reflection of dark green tree roots churning in Bai Ye's golden eyes—the deepest curse of the ley lines.