Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The girl suddenly remembered the puppet blueprints her grandfather had given her before his death. On the back, written in cinnabar, was the words "Binding is Redemption"—it turned out that the puppetry technique improved by the Chiyo family was never for controlling living things, but for putting the rampaging power under the final shackles.

"No!" She lunged forward, pulling on the puppet's silk, her bandaged wrists bleeding as they scraped against the stone wall. "You have no idea what's sealed inside the ley lines..."

The sound of the earth cracking was shattered.

Suddenly, a wooden root system as thick as a bowl pierced through the stone bricks at her feet, and black sand mixed with rotten soil gushed out.

Bai Ye walked towards the tree roots, his golden-patterned hand pressing down on the thickest root—those barbs that had once gnawed at the corpses of previous Kazekage now curled up as if they had met their master, oozing pale green sap.

“I know.” His voice was as soft as a sigh, and as the golden veins spread across his collarbone, the golden scar on his throat suddenly trembled in unison with the First Hokage’s chakra. “Sealed within the ley lines is the First Hokage’s guilt, forcibly prolonged using Wood Release.”

Chapter 711 Madara's Curse

The tree roots suddenly grew rapidly, wrapping around his waist and dragging him to the ground.

Bai Ye laughed, grabbed the root with his other hand, and the golden veins climbed up the root along the point of contact, turning the black bark into a gilded color.

He could clearly hear the First Hokage's voice echoing in his veins, and fragments of memories sealed for a thousand years surged forth like a tide: the blood of the Valley of the End, Madara's curse, Hashirama kneeling before the puppet that had exhausted its chakra, and the tears he shed as he nurtured the vessel with his heart.

"So this time, I'll make the choice."

He tore off his breastplate, revealing the golden skin around his chest.

The thickest root tip condensed into a sharp thorn, piercing his palm and drilling into his heart along the blood vessels.

Bai Ye took the initiative to meet him, and golden patterns exploded at the wound, turning the roots transparent—that was not Wood Release, but a cage woven by the First Hokage with chakra threads to trap him.

"I am both a sacrifice..." his voice mingled with the roar of tearing tree roots, "and the First Generation's final repentance!"

The moment the thorn pierced the heart, the entire dungeon shook violently.

Chiyo's puppet threads suddenly emitted a buzzing sound, and the blood-stained parts glowed with a light that matched the golden patterns.

Looking at the faintly visible Chiyo family totem on her wrist, she finally understood her grandfather's dying words: "True puppetry is about using one's own blood to find a home for rampaging power."

“Grandpa’s puppetry…” She bit her tongue, blood dripping onto the puppet threads, “was always for restraint, not control!”

Blood droplets spurted along the threads toward the out-of-control puppet horde.

The bronze puppets suddenly froze, and the sparks at their joints turned into golden light.

The front row of puppets split open in the chest, revealing the Wood Release seeds wrapped in chakra threads inside—those seeds that should have been eroding the hearts of living people were now being wrapped layer by layer by the golden-red puppet threads, as if they were locked in a golden cage.

"Lock it up!" The girl tightened the silk threads, and the blood seeping from under her fingernails resonated with the golden patterns, causing the hearts of all the puppets to explode at the same time, transforming into millions of golden butterflies.

The wind stirred up by the butterfly's flapping wings swept away the black sand, revealing the bronze altar at the core of the ley line lock—engraved with a relief depicting the duel between the First Hokage and Madara, with undried blood still clinging to Madara's eyes.

Bai Ye's body slowly sank, and the tree roots supported him as he landed in the center of the altar.

Golden patterns covered his entire body, casting a huge shadow behind him—a phantom of the First Hashirama, wielding a Wood Release rapier, confronting the phantom of Madara rising from the quicksand.

Madara's crimson eyes burned with a thousand years of fury, but Hashirama's gaze remained calm as ever, the chakra threads at his fingertips severing the roots of the earth vein lock one by one.

"The real end..." Bai Ye coughed up golden blood, but his laughter grew even more unrestrained, "...is only just beginning..."

The golden butterflies suddenly coalesced into a vortex, enveloping his sinking body.

Chiyo's granddaughter stumbled to the edge of the altar and reached out to grab his drooping fingertips.

The wind swirled sand into the dungeon, and she heard Mei Terumi's screams from afar. She saw the fragments of the water mirror reform into a mirror, reflecting the shocked faces of the Five Kage.

But none of that matters anymore.

Looking at the puppet threads resonating with the golden patterns in her palm, the girl finally understood the secret her grandfather had hidden in the blueprints: the Chiyo family's puppetry was always meant to lock in the last glimmer of life for the out-of-control "container" in the darkest of times.

As Bai Ye's body completely disappeared into the altar, the golden emblem suddenly contracted at the golden scar on his neck, condensing into a tiny vortex.

The illusory figure between the pillars leaned down, its lips moving but no sound coming out—until all the light faded and the dungeon plunged back into darkness, the figure's whisper, like the soft sound of sand falling to the ground, seeped into the fading consciousness of the white night:

"Remember... the curse of Madara has never truly disappeared..."

Chapter 712 Barrier Forest

When Bai Ye's consciousness was pulled out of the chaos, the first thing she felt was the burning sensation of the golden scar on her neck.

The scar that had followed him for years now felt like it had been doused with hot oil; the stinging pain shot up his spine and into his brain, forcing him to open his eyes abruptly.

In the darkness, the phantom of the First Hashirama reappeared, his voice clearer than before: "The sealing stele of the forbidden area... needs to be activated with a fragment of the puppet's heart."

“The sealing stone tablet…” Bai Ye licked his bitter lips, the sweet, metallic taste of golden blood still lingering in his throat.

He remembered how Chiyo's puppet threads restrained the rampaging Wood Release Seed, and the golden light when Hashirama's phantom confronted Madara, but now these memories were washed away by a new command—the First Hokage was guiding him to the deepest barrier forest in Konoha, where the First Hokage's forbidden area was hidden, a place even the Hokage might not know about.

The fog in the barrier forest was thicker than he remembered.

Byakuya moved close to the gnarled roots of the ancient tree, each step landing on decaying leaves, the damp earthy scent mixed with the unique grassy fragrance of Wood Release filling his nostrils.

He could feel the earth's veins trembling, like some sleeping behemoth turning over—a frequency only a puppeteer could detect. The puppet cores he had fused with were resonating with the earth's veins, creating tiny vibrations in his chest.

Stop.

A cold drink came from the left.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted slightly, and as he turned around, his right hand pressed against the puppet spool at his waist.

Moonlight pierced through the mist, illuminating the head of the Hyuga clan beneath the shadows of the trees.

The man's white eyes gleamed with a faint blue light, and the veins in his pupils spread out like a spider web, tightly locking onto the tree roots entwined at Bai Ye's feet.

“Wood Release patterns.” The Hyuga clan head slowly raised his finger, pointing to the tree roots at Byakuya’s feet. “They’re mimicking the flow of blood vessels in a living person.” His voice was filled with barely suppressed panic. “Konoha’s barrier forest has been corrupted by Wood Release?”

Bai Ye followed his gaze.

Sure enough, the surface of the tree roots, which should have been a natural brown, was covered with fine, hair-like green veins, each vein rhythmically "pulsating"—just like the flow of blood in human veins.

His heart sank: Had Madara's curse already seeped into Konoha's ley lines?

"Who are you?" The head of the Hyuga clan suddenly drew his sword, the blade flashing coldly in the mist. "Daring to trespass into the barrier forest, and carrying a cursed Wood Release technique..."

Before the words were even finished, the blade was already flashing.

Bai Ye spun around to dodge, but the puppet silk on his wrist was suddenly entangled by the blade.

He instinctively tugged at the silk thread, but heard a crisp "crack"—the sound of the puppet thread breaking.

To his even greater shock, a drop of golden-red blood seeped from the end of the severed thread, dripping down the blade onto the decaying leaves and instantly scorching a black hole in the withered leaves.

"Golden Blood..." The Hyuga clan head's Byakugan contracted sharply, and the blade pressed against Byakuya's throat. "This is the blood mark of the First Hokage! Just who are you?"

Bai Ye did not answer.

His attention was drawn to the sudden sonic boom above his head—it was the unique chakra vibration of the Hidden Sound Village, like countless fine needles piercing his eardrums at the same time.

He looked up and saw a figure leaping down from the treetops, red hair and black skirt, it was none other than Huajiao Chi, disguised as Konoha's ANBU.

Silver chakra threads were wrapped around her fingertips, and in the air between her and Byakuya, three bronze fragments were floating and rotating, which were the puppet heart fragments that had been blown up by Chiyo's granddaughter earlier.

"Tell Madara for me." A cold smile curled at the corner of Huajiaochi's lips. Her voice reverberated through the air, causing the surrounding leaves to rustle and fall. "The Puppet Resonance Technique of the Hidden Sound Village... has evolved to control the souls of living beings."

Chapter 713 Soul Manipulation

Before she finished speaking, the kunai she threw pierced through the mist and headed straight for Bai Ye's throat.

Byakuya instinctively raised his hand to block, but the kunai suddenly disintegrated the moment it touched his skin—not shattered, but turned into splinters of wood, as if all his chakra had been drained.

"Soul manipulation?" Bai Ye looked at his intact hand and then at the floating puppet fragments.

Tiny runes appeared on the surface of the fragments, resonating with the golden scar on his neck. "So you want these fragments..."

"It's to make them a medium." The figure of Huajiao Chi had already landed in front of him, chakra threads binding a fragment. "Madara's curse needs a container, and I will make this container..."

A dull whirring sound of gears turning suddenly came from underground, as if some mechanism that had been dormant for thousands of years had been awakened.

Bai Ye suddenly turned his head, and through the mist, he saw that the surface of the First Hokage statue, a hundred meters away, was cracked with spiderweb-like fine lines, and bronze light seeped out from the cracks, making the surrounding mist glow with a golden-red hue.

The Hyuga clan head's blade trembled slightly as he stared at the cracked statue, his voice strained: "That's... the statue of the First Hokage?"

Huajiao Chi's chakra threads suddenly snapped. She stared in the direction of the statue, a hint of panic flashing in her pupils: "Impossible... the seal should still be there..."

Bai Ye didn't say anything.

He could feel the stinging pain at the golden scar intensifying, and the voice of the original phantom echoed in his mind again, this time with a sense of urgency: "The sealing stele... is inside the statue..."

The sound of gears turning became clearer and clearer, as if countless bronze gears were meshing underground.

From the cracks in the original statue, a deeper bronze hue is faintly visible—a material older than the statue itself, as if telling the story of a forgotten era.

Huajiao Chi suddenly turned around, her chakra threads wrapping around the last puppet fragment: "Next time we meet, I'll show you with your own eyes what true puppet resonance technique is." Before she finished speaking, her figure had already merged into the mist, leaving only a few withered leaves shaken off by the sound waves.

The Hyuga clan head's sword was still pointed at Byakuya, but his gaze had been drawn to the statue.

Bai Ye took the opportunity to step back two steps and touched the golden scar on his neck—the stinging pain there rose and fell with the rhythm of the gears, as if responding to some kind of call from underground.

"Who exactly are you?" The Hyuga clan head's voice held less hostility and more confusion. "And the bloodline of the First Hokage..."

"Who I am is not important." Bai Ye stared at the gradually cracking statue, a slightly manic smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "What is important is... the real end is only just beginning."

The sound of gears underground suddenly rose, as if a key gear had finally locked into its slot.

From the cracks in the original statue, wisps of golden mist seeped out, condensing into ancient runes in the air—sealing incantations that only puppeteers could decipher.

The runes were reflected in Bai Ye's pupils, and the stinging pain from the golden scar turned into a scorching electric current.

He knew he was one step closer to the truth about the original forbidden area.

Deep within the statue, the outline of the bronze altar slowly emerges from the darkness as the gears turn…

The sound of gears turning underground rose to a sharp hum, making Bai Ye's eardrums ache.

Through the cracks in the first statue, the bronze altar was finally fully revealed—a circular pedestal supported by nine dragon pillars, its surface covered with incantations that perfectly matched the patterns on his gold scars.

He could clearly hear the resonance between his heartbeat and the earth's tremors. The burning sensation on the golden scar had transformed into a stinging pain that was almost ecstatic, as if something alive was hiding under his skin, eager to break free of its cocoon.

"Go." The voice of the first phantom resounded in the deepest part of his consciousness.

Bai Ye's Adam's apple bobbed as his fingertips traced the half-melted puppet mask at his waist—the core of twenty ancient puppets he had spent three years fusing together, now slightly warming with the resonance of the altar's incantation.

He took a step forward, the decaying leaves crackling damply beneath his feet. The Hyuga clan head's blade still hung at his side, but it was no longer pointed at him—the Byakugan of the old clan was staring intently at the altar, the veins in its pupils bloodshot from overuse.

The moment the mask fragments touched the altar's recess, the mist in the entire forest suddenly swirled back.

A burning sensation came from Bai Ye's fingertips, and the curse mark on the bronze pedestal seemed to burrow into his veins like a living thing, crawling along the golden scar all the way to his neck.

He heard a soft "click" from his bones, and a mist of blood rose at the edge of his vision, until a hoarse laugh pierced through all the noise.

"The fourth one."

Chapter 714 The Soul of the Ninja

When the phantom of the spotted figure rose from the bottom of the altar, it resembled a lingering soul enveloped in black flames.

His right eye still held the crimson Sharingan, but his left cheek was covered in cracks, revealing grayish-white bone fragments underneath: "That Senju guy always said that the seal needed a sacrifice. It turns out he wasn't talking about blood, but about you fools who walked right into his trap."

Bai Ye's pupils contracted sharply.

He could sense the shrieks of countless vengeful spirits mixed in with Madara's chakra—the lingering resentments of the first three sacrifices, drilling into his body along the altar's curse seal.

Suddenly, a small, bloody gash appeared on the golden scar, and the phantom of the First Generation roared in his consciousness: "Use the puppet's heart!"

Almost instinctively, Bai Ye pulled out the puppet heart fragment hidden in his sleeve—a remnant of the explosion shattered by Chiyo's granddaughter using an explosive tag, its surface still bearing the lingering heat of the explosion.

He used all his strength to stab the fragment into the center of the altar, and the bronze pedestal immediately burst forth with dazzling golden light.

"You think this is Senju's backup plan?" Madara's phantom was torn open by the golden light, yet he still laughed. "No matter how exquisite his puppetry is, it can't protect you... cursed vessels—"

Before he finished speaking, the golden emblem had already spread along the cracks in the spot.

Bai Ye saw that those lines were extensions of his golden scar; with each inch it crawled over, the illusory image of the scar faded a little.

The tremors of the earth veins suddenly became violent, and a muffled thunderous roar came from beneath the altar, as if some power that had been suppressed for thousands of years was awakening.

“He had already planted a backlash in the puppetry technique.” Bai Ye panted, sweat dripping from his chin onto the bronze pedestal with a hissing sound. “Every puppet core you devoured was a seed of the First Hokage’s chakra.”

The phantom image of Ban finally began to disintegrate.

His Sharingan turned for the last time, reflecting the cold light in Byakuya's eyes: "You will...regret it..." As his voice faded, the entire altar suddenly fell into deathly silence, and even the tremors of the earth's veins stopped abruptly.

As the morning light pierced through the tree canopy, Bai Ye heard a soft "click".

A thin crack appeared in the center of the altar, from which half a charred diary slowly rose.