Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

He felt something flowing into his body through the threads—was it Akashi Rei's chakra?

Or is it the energy of the puppet's heart?

The heat of the lava hit us, and Wujuro's laughter still echoed above.

Byakuya gripped Akasarei's hand tightly, watching the black mucus seep more and more from the depths of her eyes. He suddenly recalled how she looked three days ago when she was flipping through ancient scrolls—her eyes were shining like stars then, and she said she wanted to uncover the secrets of Iwagakure.

"I'll take you out of here," Bai Ye said in a low voice, as the power of the Azure Gold Core surged back through the puppet threads.

Akasane's puppet heart suddenly hummed, and the metallic patterns on its surface began to crack.

From above came Wu Shilang's exclamation: "What's going on? That thread..."

A cold smile curved Bai Ye's lips.

He could feel that the puppet threads of the Crimson Sand Spirit were absorbing the power of his core, and the puppet threads that had originally bound him were now beginning to loosen.

Two hands clasped tightly together amidst the heat of the lava.

Above them, Wujuro's mechanical prosthetic eye glowed red, clearly indicating that he had realized something.

But at this moment, Bai Ye's gaze was fixed on the puppet heart in Chi Sha Ling's chest cavity—there, a small crack was slowly spreading in the blue-gold light.

As cracks spread like a spiderweb across the puppet heart in Akazare's chest cavity, beads of charred blood oozed from her fingertips.

The metal wires that were originally used to connect the ore veins now buzzed as they absorbed the power of the White Night Azure Gold core, weaving a semi-transparent cocoon of light between the two people's clasped wrists.

"Your chakra... is burning me." Akashi's voice was hoarse, as if molten lava was searing her throat, but the black liquid at the corner of her eyes suddenly froze—she could feel the nerve-corroding viruses surging into Byakuya's body along the threads. "Quick! Before the cracks close—"

Bai Ye's pupils contracted to thin slits due to the excruciating pain.

He could clearly sense that the chakra of the Red Sand Spirit was a mixture of the scorching heat of lava and the sharpness of wind release, like a blunt knife churning in his meridians.

But what shocked him even more was that as the virus invaded, the light pink scar on his left cheek began to glow with a golden light, resonating with the patterns on Akashi's heart.

"So you were marked all along." Wujuro's mechanical eye suddenly burst forth with a blinding blue light, the puppet strings on his wrist snapped taut, and the gears wrapped around the white night began to rotate in reverse. "The original vessel really does attract its own kind—look behind you!"

Chapter 723 Puppet Virus

Bai Ye suddenly turned his head.

Dark golden liquid seeped from the rock strata at the top of the lava pipe, condensing in the void into the shape of a translucent spine.

Between the joints, cyan-gold wood-style runes were slowly unfolding, like ancient talismans being awakened.

"You're a vessel too?!" Bai Ye's voice was filled with the sounds of wind and thunder. He finally saw that the dark gold liquid was gushing out from the wound on Wu Julang's neck—the skin there had long since ulcerated, revealing the Wood Release emblem embedded in his spine, which was exactly the same as the scar on his face.

"Ha...ha..." Wujuro suddenly let out a maniacal laugh, the red light from his mechanical prosthetic eye almost burning his retina. "The First Generation used living people to preserve their will, and we will use living people to cultivate the new god! Once the embryo devours all the containers—" He plunged his finger into his forehead, "then it will be your turn to sacrifice yourself to the new god!"

A rumbling sound of metal cracking came from underground.

The puppet strings that were originally wrapped around Bai Ye suddenly swelled into a ferocious mechanical centipede, with green venom seeping from the gaps in its carapace.

The puppet strings on Wujuro's wrist snapped one by one, but the centipedes' mouthparts were simultaneously pointed at him—this was a self-destruct program designed to take everyone down with them.

"Watch out!" Akaza Rei's puppet threads suddenly tightened, pulling Byakuya towards the side wall of the lava pipe.

The next second, all the mechanical centipedes exploded simultaneously, and scorching waves carrying metal fragments poured down like a torrential rain.

Bai Ye's mask cracked upon impact, and the bronze armor plate on the right side of his face broke off, revealing the golden skin underneath—the pale pink scar had now turned into a golden line, running from the corner of his eye straight down to his jaw.

"This is... the blood of the First Generation?" The puppet heart of Akazare suddenly trembled violently. She watched as the golden blood beads seeped from Byakuya's face and fell into the molten lava, and was shocked to realize that the embryos scorched by the lava had begun to writhe wildly. "They are absorbing your blood!"

The rumbling from underground suddenly intensified.

Countless golden butterflies burst forth from the lava, each wing imprinted with the cloud patterns of Iwagakure (Hidden Rock Village).

The swarm of butterflies coalesced in the void into a gigantic phantom—it was the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki!

But his eyes glowed with the same eerie red light as an embryo, and the voice that came from his throat was colder than molten lava: "The living mine needs more sacrifices...like your heart."

Golden butterflies shot out like arrows.

Byakuya drew his kunai with a backhand, only to see that where his blood had fallen, the rock strata were growing blue-gold roots at a visible speed—it was Wood Release!

The roots that entangled the butterfly were corroded and charred into holes the moment they came into contact.

“So the First Hokage’s blood can awaken Wood Release, but it can’t suppress the Puppet Virus…” Akashi Rei’s puppet threads suddenly became scalding hot. She looked at her gradually transparent arm and finally smiled. “This way… this way you can find the source of the virus.”

"What are you going to do?" Bai Ye's breathing suddenly became rapid.

He sensed that Akashi Rei's chakra was rapidly dissipating, and that her other hand had somehow grasped the puppet heart in his chest.

"Use my heart to temporarily seal the virus!" Akazare screamed as she plunged her heart into Byakuya's left chest.

The moment the metal tip pierced his muscle, Bai Ye nearly fainted from the pain, but then he saw the viruses that had been surging towards him suddenly reverse course and be swallowed by Chi Sha Ling's heart into the metal patterns.

"I'm sorry... I didn't get to find out the truth..." Akashi's body began to turn to sand, from her fingertips to her shoulders, gradually merging into the surrounding magma. "But the golden lines on your face... will guide you to the First Generation's secret... Remember... help me look at the stars..."

As the last grain of sand fell into the earth's veins, Bai Ye heard a crisp sound of bones shattering above his head.

He looked up and saw the real Onoki standing atop the lava pipe—this frail, aged earth spirit was now radiant, with a still-wriggling embryo inserted in his forehead. "The new god needs a vessel, and you are the perfect sacrifice."

"The vessel of the first generation? A sacrifice to the new god?" Bai Ye wiped the golden blood from the corner of his mouth, the lapis lazuli core spinning wildly within his body.

He could feel the wood-based roots penetrating the rock layers along his blood droplets, while a subtle tremor suddenly emanated from the distant tree canopy—like some kind of sound wave, penetrating layers of rock and approaching the blood-red vein.

Chapter 724 The Puppet Technique of the Hidden Sound Village

The magma deep within the earth's veins surged and boiled. The moment the last grain of red sand spirit fell into the magma, a metallic sweetness suddenly welled up in Bai Ye's throat and onto the tip of his tongue.

He gripped the still-warm metal heart in his chest with his left hand. On the right side of his face, where the bronze armor plate had broken off, golden blood seeped from the thread-like scar with each heartbeat. Each drop condensed into tiny golden crystals upon contact with the air, tinkling as it fell to the ground.

"The puppet virus needs the resonance of living people... Your heartbeat is the best sacrifice."

The female voice, with its metallic tremor, came from the rock formations overhead, like countless silver needles piercing the eardrums at the same time.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up, and Onoki at the top of the lava pipe suddenly twisted—the "Earth Shadow" with the embryo inserted grinned from ear to ear, and his turbid eyes churned with the same red light as the virus embryo, while the real source of the sound waves was a few strands of indigo hair hanging down from the cracks in the rock above.

Zanthoxylum bungeanum is red.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He remembered the disguise technique of this Sound Village rogue ninja, and he also remembered that three days ago in the ruins of Amegakure, she used a sonic puppet to shatter half of the shrine.

At this moment, her right hand was pressed against the rock wall, and the chakra seeping from her fingertips formed pale blue ripples that spread along the rock layers into the depths of the earth's veins—that was the trajectory of sound wave transmission.

"Your blood is freezing." Onoki's voice suddenly turned sharp. A crack appeared on the embryo in his forehead, and black liquid dripped onto the lava. The rising black mist reflected the First Hokage's cold smile.

Only then did Bai Ye realize that the golden blood he had spilled on the ground had condensed into ice crystals at some point. Each ice crystal had a blurry human face outline floating on its surface, and the largest one clearly resembled the eyebrows and eyes of Senju Hashirama.

"The remnant soul of the First Hokage?" Bai Ye gritted his teeth and tore off a few pieces of the broken mask armor. The cyan-gold Wood Release core spun wildly within his body, trying to crush the invading virus.

But the ice crystals were absorbing his chakra, and the cold smile on Jin Jing's face became clearer and clearer. "What exactly are you looking for?"

The sound of bones grinding together came from underground.

When Yi Mei crawled out of the lava, Bai Ye almost didn't recognize this former Sound Concealment Puppet Master.

His arms had been replaced with bronze mechanical arms, and half of the First Hokage's Wood Release emblem was inserted into the back of his neck. Instead of chakra, his eyes glowed with the same golden light as the golden lines on Byakuya's face: "We are all vessels... but you are closer to the truth than we are."

Before he finished speaking, a hundred sonic puppets emerged from the rock crevice behind Yi Mei.

These puppets had chains with barbs wrapped around their joints, their mouths filled with resonant metal plates, and their once empty eye sockets were now filled with the same golden light as Yi Mei.

What sent chills down Bai Ye's spine was that all the puppets' necks turned towards Iwagakure Village at the same time, and the sound of their metal joints grinding together formed a fragmented sacrificial song.

"They're locating it." Bai Ye suddenly realized something, and the metal heart in his left hand suddenly became hot, with the residual chakra of the Red Sand Spirit burning red marks on his palm.

He recalled the "Secret of the First Hokage" that Akashi had mentioned before disappearing, the Wood Release Root system that had been awakened by the golden blood, and the information about the deal between Otogakure and Madara's remnant soul—living mineral veins, viral resonance, containers... These fragments exploded in his mind.

“The puppetry techniques of the Hidden Sound Village require the vocal cords of a living person as a resonance chamber.” Bai Ye suddenly tore open the collar of his left chest. The wound from the metal heart piercing through him was still bleeding. Ignoring the pain, he pried out the fragments of his heart, and blood droplets splattered on the bronze surface. “And your sound waves require the vibration of a real living thing.”

Hua Jiaochi's pupils contracted violently.

She wanted to retreat, but the swarm of butterflies outside the crevice blocked her way out.

Chapter 725 The Resonance Chamber of the Virus

As Bai Ye placed the fragment of his heart, still stained with his golden blood, into her palm, she suddenly heard a tearing sound in her throat—as if something alive was struggling inside her throat.

"No...impossible..." Huajiao Chi's fingers began to tremble. A thin crack appeared in her throat, and black mucous membranes surged out from the crack. The mucous membranes were covered with tiny barbs, each of which was absorbing her chakra.

Even more terrifying, the cries of an infant came from deep within the mucous membrane, a sound that resonated perfectly with the wriggling of an embryo within the earth's veins, causing the entire lava pipe to shake.

“This is…the resonance chamber of the virus.” Bai Ye took two steps back, looking at Hua Jiao Chi’s face, which was contorted with pain.

Her indigo hair began to turn white, black blood seeped from the corners of her eyes, and the black mucus that crawled out of her throat was spreading towards Iwagakure Village along the trajectory of the sound waves.

Ohnoki suddenly let out a shrill laugh.

The embryo in his forehead split open completely, revealing a curled-up black figure inside—the remnant soul of Ban?

Or is it the original obsession?

Before Bai Ye could think further, he saw the golden butterflies that were originally bound by the Wood Release root system suddenly break free of their restraints, and the cloud patterns of Iwagakure on their wings were being reassembled.

“The new god needs a resonance field.” Countless overlapping voices were mixed in with Onoki’s voice. The moment he raised his hand, all the golden butterflies fluttered their wings and flew up, drawing golden light trails in the void.

As Bai Ye gazed at the patterns formed by the interwoven light trails, he suddenly recalled what Akasuna Rei had said: "Golden threads guide the truth"—at this moment, the golden threads on his face were emitting a scorching light, and the endpoint of the butterfly light trails was precisely in the direction of Iwagakure.

Amidst the roar of the lava, Bai Ye heard even clearer sound waves.

That's the frequency of a butterfly's flapping wings, the rhythm of an embryo's wriggling, and the code hidden in the first generation's cold laughter.

He wiped the golden blood from the corner of his mouth, and the lapis lazuli core spun even faster within his body—this time, he would follow the golden thread to find the source of all the secrets.

Meanwhile, in the direction of Iwagakure, which he could not see, the light trails formed by golden butterflies were gradually taking shape.

It was a huge resonance field, and in the center of the field, the phantom of the Third Tsuchikage was slowly opening his eyes, the red light in his eyes was more intense than lava.

Fine gold spots suddenly seeped from the walls of the lava pipe, as if some force had forcibly stripped away the covering of the rock layers.

The phantom of the Third Tsuchikage raised his right hand, and the light trails composed of golden butterflies suddenly contracted, twisting into a spiral-shaped resonance field in the void. From the depths of the field came thousands of indistinct cries—the chakra of the imprisoned ninjas in the living mine was being drawn into thin streams and merged into that pulsating red light.

"Ban's consciousness is devouring the living mineral vein." Bai Ye's Adam's apple bobbed, and golden blood dripped down his chin onto the edge of the lava, instantly evaporating into golden mist due to the high temperature.

He could clearly sense the malice surging within the earth's veins, a greed more ancient than the puppet virus, coiling around the soul of every living person like a giant python.

His left hand unconsciously touched the metal heart on his chest, where the remaining peppercorn-red chakra suddenly burned, as if reminding him that the black mucus that had crawled out of the woman's throat was now climbing along the earth's veins towards Iwagakure.

"Ding--"

A crisp metallic vibration tore through the wailing.

When Bai Ye looked up, half a fragment of the collapsed bronze mask was rising from his feet. The golden lines on its surface glowed with an eerie light, resonating with the First Generation Wood Release emblem on the back of his neck.

Gold and green patterns intertwined in the air, creating a spiderweb-like pattern of light. Suddenly, a glimmer of clarity flashed in Yi Mei's previously empty golden pupils. The chains on his bronze mechanical arm snapped with a "crack," and he staggered and crashed into the rock wall.

"The Hidden Sound Village has betrayed the contract!" One-Eyebrow's voice was no longer a mechanical repetition, but carried the hoarseness unique to a living person.

The Wood Release emblem on the back of his neck suddenly cracked open, and the oozing emerald green liquid contained half a charred scroll fragment—the blood pact signed between Otogakure and Madara's remnant soul.

Chapter 726 Fusion Reaction

The puppet threads shot out from his fingertips, piercing precisely between the eyebrows of the illusory rock shadow. "They want to turn everyone into a virus container, including me!"

The illusory rock figure emitted a piercing shriek, and red light surged wildly at the pierced spot, attempting to melt the thin puppet thread.

But suddenly, Yi Mei's chest cavity exploded, and an embryo wrapped in a black membrane sprang out—it was the same one that was in Onoki's forehead earlier.

When the black membrane on the surface of the embryo came into contact with the golden blood dripping from Bai Ye, it was like a lit fuse, and with a "sizzle" it burst open with countless golden and red tentacles, instantly wrapping around Bai Ye's wrist.

"This is... a fusion reaction?" Bai Ye gasped. Golden blood flowed back into the embryo along the tentacles. He could feel the azure core inside his body suddenly stop rotating, as if some ancient force had pressed the pause button.

The moment those tentacles pierced his skin, the last words of Akashira flashed through his memory: "Golden threads guide the truth"—at this moment, the golden threads on his face perfectly overlapped with the patterns on the surface of the embryo, as if piecing together a fragmented map.

The morning light pierces through the clouds at this time.

The first ray of golden light shone through a crevice at the top of the lava pipe, illuminating the spot where the embryo and golden blood fused together.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted to slits—in that ball of light, he saw two translucent phantoms facing each other.

On the left is a black-haired man dressed in a coarse cloth short coat, his brows and eyes exuding an undeniable majesty; on the right is a man with loose red hair and a red robe, a wild smile playing on his lips.

Their chakra fluctuations resonated with the embryo, the gold blood, and the wood release emblem, and even the magma in the earth's veins began to rise and fall with their movements.

"First Generation... Madara..." Byakuya's voice was so soft it sounded like a sigh.

He finally understood why the golden blood condensed into Hashirama Senju's eyebrows and eyes, and why Madara's remnant soul could control the puppet virus—all of this was the aftermath of the battle at the Valley of the End, the will of the two ninja gods still influencing the present world.