Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

"boom--"

A deafening explosion came from the direction of Otogakure.

Bai Ye suddenly turned his head and saw a dark mushroom cloud rising in the distance, with dark red flames wrapped in black smoke, like some kind of monster devouring the air.

At the very center of the explosion, the afterimage of Huajiao Chi hovered in the flames, her indigo hair now completely white, and the black mucus in her throat forming a giant net. "The final form of the puppet virus... is about to be born!"

Before he could finish speaking, the afterimage was torn to shreds by the blast wave.

Bai Ye's fingertips dug deeply into his palm, golden blood mixed with cold sweat dripping down and creating small craters in the ground.

He could feel the black membrane inside the ley lines crawling faster, and the wailing from the direction of Iwagakure had turned into desperate screams—the living ore vein wouldn't last much longer.

"We must go to Iwagakure." Byakuya tore off the last half of his mask, the bronze fragments burning hot in his palm. "But... what is this gaze?"

He paused suddenly.

A cold, sharp pain came from his heart, as if something had pierced through his flesh and blood, directly into the depths of his soul.

That's... the white eye?

The Hyuga clan's eye techniques?

Bai Ye suddenly looked up at the sky. The morning light was bright, but a dark cloud was always hanging over his head.

The sound of clothes fluttering came from the clouds, as if someone was looking down at him.

His golden blood condensed into ice crystals at his fingertips, and the outline of a human face emerged on the surface of the ice crystals; this time, it was the eyebrows and eyes of Hyuga Hiashi.

"Hyuga...?" Bai Ye murmured softly, the lapis lazuli core starting to spin again within his body, this time with a hint of wariness in its trajectory.

He tucked the embryo into his arms, turned, and rushed toward the exit of the lava pipe—the crisis in Iwagakure was urgent, but that gaze from the clouds might become the next, even more troublesome problem.

Chapter 727 The Guide

The walls of the lava pipe were scorching hot from the earth's heat. Just as Bai Ye's boots touched the edge of the exit, a sharp, icy pain suddenly shot through the back of his neck—the gaze that pierced his soul had finally appeared.

A gap was torn open in the clouds by some kind of chakra, and Hyuga Hiashi stepped on the broken clouds and fell straight down.

His white hair gleamed a cold silver in the morning light, and the patterns on his Konoha headband resembled a sharp scar. The whites of his eyes had completely disappeared, and his pure, pale purple pupils swirled with starlight-like chakra, precisely locking onto Byakuya's heart.

“Your chakra… is being devoured by the source of Wood Release.” Hiashi Hyuga’s voice was like iron tempered with ice. His right hand formed the “Soul Locking Seal,” a secret technique of the Hyuga main family. The Byakugan chakra gathered at his fingertips transformed into a tangible blade of light. “If this body continues to be connected to the earth’s veins, it will become nourishment for Wood Release in less than three breaths.”

Before he could finish speaking, Bai Ye suddenly staggered and knelt down.

He clearly saw his chakra twisting into spirals in his meridians, the ice crystals formed from his golden blood melting from his fingertips, and the lapis lazuli core that had been protecting his heart cracking with spiderweb-like fine lines—the cracks that oozed out were not blood, but a greenish-blue viscous liquid with wood-style patterns.

“How could this be…” A hoarse groan escaped Bai Ye’s throat. The bronze mask fragment in his palm suddenly became hot, so hot that he could barely hold it.

What terrified him even more was that the pain from the heart pierced by the Hyuga Blade was not the pain, but a greedy "sucking sensation," as if countless hair-thin Wood Release roots were drawing power from the depths of his soul.

"Forbidden Technique: Amaterasu Binding!" Hyuga Hiashi pressed his left hand to the ground, and countless glowing runes suddenly burst forth from the earth's veins, binding Byakuya's right hand like living things and nailing it directly into the rock crevice below his palm.

Those incantations were the secret runes used by the Hyuga clan to seal the tailed beasts for generations. At this moment, they shone with a ghostly blue light, locking Byakuya's wrist tightly to the roots of the earth vein tree. "You think you can master Wood Release by absorbing golden blood in the lava pipe? The First Hokage's Wood Release is alive; it's devouring your life force!"

"Cough... You've been spying on me all along?" Bai Ye gritted his teeth and looked up, veins bulging on his forehead.

He could feel golden blood seeping from his nailed right hand. The blood dripped onto the roots of the ley lines, making the veins of the roots even clearer—faint human faces floated on the surface of each root, like the remnants of ninja souls devoured by Wood Release.

“From the moment you caused the bloodshed with your puppetry at the Daimyo’s residence in the Land of Fire, the main family began tracking your chakra.” Hiashi Hyuga’s Byakugan suddenly narrowed. “But no one expected… that the Wood Release would be revived through your body.” His fingertips trembled slightly, a rare emotional fluctuation from the head of the Hyuga main family. “The First Hokage’s Wood Release needed nourishment, and you… became its guide.”

"A guide?" Bai Ye suddenly chuckled, his laughter carrying a hint of madness.

His left leg ached from the heat surging from the earth's veins, but even hotter was the embryo in his arms—the once-cool golden blood was now scorching his skin. "Perhaps I should thank you, Hyuga clan head. At least you've shown me why Madara's remnant soul can control the puppet virus…"

Before he finished speaking, a soft, rustling sound came from the ground.

Chiyo's old, fading puppet had somehow rolled to Byakuya's feet, and the grains of sand at the puppet's joints suddenly came to life, like countless silver snakes burrowing into the rock crevices.

Rasa's remnant soul rose from the hollow of the puppet's head. His face was even more blurred than he remembered, but his voice was sharp like a sandstorm: "Stop talking nonsense! Use the Sand Village's puppet threads to entangle the Wood Release: Root system! It's absorbing the chakra of living people through the earth's ley lines. If we're any later, Iwagakure will be finished!"

Bai Ye looked down and saw that his legs had been wrapped in quicksand without him noticing.

The sand grains were peeling away from the rock face at a visible speed, revealing a network of golden veins spreading below—each vein connected to the depths of the earth's veins, and at the ends of the veins came increasingly faint cries coming from the direction of Iwagakure (Hidden Rock Village).

Chapter 728 The Tree of the End Takes Shape

"This is... the root system of Wood Release?" Byakuya's pupils shrank suddenly.

He finally saw clearly that the so-called ley lines and lava channels were nothing more than a breeding ground for the growth of the Wood Release root system.

Those living people captured by the daimyo of various countries were not being mined for chakra, but were being used as "fertilizer" by Wood Release, their life force being used to nourish this monster that has continued since the Battle of the Valley of the End.

"The Tree of the End... is finally taking shape."

A cold voice boomed from above.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up and saw that the phantoms of the First Generation and Madara had overlapped at some point. Madara's red hair pierced through the First Generation's body, and his fingertips were pointing at the embryo in his arms.

The fragments of the embryos shattered by the Sichuan peppercorn explosion suddenly began to reassemble. The golden blood and the wood-elemental emblem fused together, condensing in mid-air into a twisted tree—its trunk covered with human faces, and each leaf a broken puppet heart.

"Is this the First Hokage's repentance?" Madara's phantom grinned. "Using his own Wood Release as a vessel, letting all the ninjas' chakra become nourishment, to atone for his mistake of killing me at the Valley of the End?" His fingertips traced the tree trunk, and the faces suddenly opened their eyes. "Ridiculous, Hashirama Senju, do you think you can purify the ninja world of slaughter in this way?"

The bronze mask in Bai Ye's arms suddenly trembled.

He hurriedly pulled out his mask, and saw that the face of the first generation had appeared on the bronze surface that was originally engraved with puppet patterns—a face full of sorrow, with the corners of his mouth pursed into a line, and his eyes full of resentment and helplessness.

"So... the golden blood is the blood of the First Hokage, and the wood release crest is his will." Bai Ye murmured to himself, as the embryo in his arms suddenly became scalding hot, so hot that he almost let go of it.

He finally understood why the golden blood condensed into the eyes and brows of the First Hokage, and why Madara's remnant soul could control the puppet virus—during the battle at the Valley of the End, the First Hokage fused his Wood Release essence with Madara's chakra and sealed it deep within the earth's veins.

And he, Byakuya, the ninja who accidentally awakened the resonance between puppetry and wood release, became the key to awakening all of this.

"Let go!" Hiashi Hyuga suddenly shouted.

His eyes were bloodshot, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "That embryo is the core of Wood Release. If you keep holding it, the entire lava pipe will be sucked into bones!"

Bai Ye's fingers trembled slightly on the surface of the embryo.

He could sense two wills emanating from the embryo: the First Hokage's sorrow and Madara's arrogance, vying for control of Wood Release.

His chakra, his life force, and even his soul were being repeatedly pulled and stretched like dough by these two wills.

“Senior Rasa!” Byakuya suddenly turned to look at the remnant soul floating in the air. “Use the Sand Village’s puppet threads to bind my wrists! The Hyuga clan head’s sealing technique can temporarily lock down Wood Release. We need time to sever the earth ley lines!”

Luo Sha's remnant soul froze for a moment, then turned into countless grains of sand.

The sand grains wrapped around Byakuya's wrist, intertwining with Hyuga Hiashi's incantation, making a sizzling sound.

Bai Ye gritted his teeth and stood up. The sound of bones breaking came from his right hand, which was nailed down, but he couldn't care less about the pain. The wailing from Iwagakure had disappeared, replaced by a crackling sound from deep within the earth's veins, similar to the sound of trees growing.

"The Tree of the End that Madara spoke of... is about to take shape." Byakuya gazed at the twisted tree in mid-air, his voice suddenly becoming very soft. "First Hokage, what were you thinking back then? Can atoning for your sins in this way really bring peace to the ninja world?"

The original face on the mask suddenly contorted, as if shaking its head in pain.

Hiashi Hyuga's breathing suddenly stopped.

A trace of black, sticky fluid had somehow seeped out from the lines around his eyes.

The sticky fluid slid down the corner of his eye and dripped onto his headband, corroding a small hole.

He abruptly raised his hand to wipe away the slime, but dared not meet Bai Ye's gaze—something even more dangerous was awakening deep within the earth's veins.

Bai Ye was staring at the embryo in his arms, at the Tree of the End in mid-air, and at the golden veins spreading beneath his feet.

He knew that he had already stood at the center of this game that had lasted for thousands of years.

The next step, whether to let go or to clench, will change the fate of the entire ninja world.

When the black liquid from Hiashi Hyuga's eye dripped onto his headband, Byakuya heard a very faint tremor in his throat—a flaw that only a head of the main family who had cultivated his inner strength for many years could produce.

The viscous fluid seeping from the white markings of his eyes reeked of rotting flesh, dripping down the chin of the Hyuga clan head and into his collar, spreading into dark patterns on his plain white robes.

Chapter 729 The Price of a Guide

"The puppet virus has infected the Konoha Elders." Hiashi Hyuga's voice suddenly became hoarse, as if there was a blood-soaked cotton ball stuck in his throat.

His right hand was a beat too slow in forming the hand seals, and the edge of the condensed light blade began to crumble into tiny chakra fragments. "Only your heart can purify the essence of Wood Release—"

Before he finished speaking, his left hand had already transformed into a claw, its nails gleaming with a cold, metallic light under the influence of chakra, aiming straight for Bai Ye's skull.

This attack left no room for retreat; the whistling sound of his fingertips cutting through the air made Bai Ye's ears ache.

He was then startled to realize that the Hyuga clan head's pupils were covered with spiderweb-like black lines, which were spreading along the whites of his eyes, much like the puppet virus that he had seen in the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, which was eroding living people.

"The head of the Hyuga family has been infected?" The thought had barely crossed his mind when Byakuya suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck—Rasa's remnant soul, wrapped in threads of sand, emerged from the crevice in the rock behind him.

The puppet threads, shimmering with the unique glow of gold dust, suddenly sprang up the moment they touched Hyuga Hiashi's back, piercing his heart like steel needles.

"Using the Sand Village's puppet technique..." Rasa's voice was accompanied by the sharp sound of sand rubbing together, and the face of his remnant soul flickered in and out of focus as the sand grains reformed, "Temporarily seal Wood Release!"

Hiashi Hyuga's attack came to an abrupt halt just three inches from Byakuya's forehead.

He looked down at the golden sand thread piercing his chest, his Byakugan contracting violently from the pain, while the black markings flowed back into the sand along the thread. "You... knew that this would cause us to be swallowed by Wood Release?"

"It's better than turning the entire Hidden Stone Village into fertilizer!" Rasa's remnant soul suddenly scattered into a cloud of sand, which wrapped around Hiashi Hyuga's body, pinning the two to the rock wall.

Byakuya saw that the Hyuga clan head's fingertips were still trembling slightly, and black liquid was gushing out from his pierced heart, forming strange black veins among the sand grains.

The excruciating pain exploded at that moment.

The embryo in Bai Ye's arms suddenly became scalding hot, and the golden blood and wood release patterns surged wildly within his body, as if two hands were tearing at his soul—the First Hokage's sorrow permeated every inch of his meridians like a drizzle, while Madara's arrogance burned his sea of ​​consciousness like lava.

His right hand was simultaneously bound by the sealing incantation of the Hyuga clan head and Rasa's puppet silk. Golden blood dripped from between his fingers, pooling on the ground to form a small pond that reflected his distorted face.

"Is this... the price of being a guide?" Bai Ye gritted his teeth, tasting the blood in his mouth.

His scar suddenly burned, and the old wound that stretched from his left shoulder to his heart cracked open with tiny bloody gashes. The blood that seeped out actually condensed in the air into phantom images of the First Hokage and Madara. The First Hokage's Wood Release chakra glowed with a vibrant emerald green, while Madara's Susanoo chakra was an eerie crimson-purple. The two intertwined above his head to form a spiral of light.

A muffled rumble, like thunder, came from deep within the earth's veins.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted amidst the tremors. He saw the golden blood vessels beneath his feet suddenly begin to disintegrate, and the remnants of ninja souls devoured by Wood Release broke free from the blood vessels, transforming into eerie blue specks of light that floated into the air.

The branches of the Tree of the End are breaking, and the human faces that were originally wrapped around the tree are emitting sharp cries. Leaves are falling one after another, and each leaf bursts out a fragment of the puppet core as it shatters.

"So... the will of the First Hokage and Madara balanced the Wood Release within me." Bai Ye suddenly laughed, his laughter carrying a hint of relief.

He could feel the energy vortex within his body expanding, with gold, green, and crimson chakra intertwining to form a mushroom cloud-shaped ball of light that enveloped his entire being.

Hiashi Hyuga's sealing incantation shattered inch by inch under the impact of the light, while Rasa's puppet threads tightened even more, completely severing the connection between the two and the earth's ley lines.

But even more violent tremors came from underground.

Bai Ye's smile suddenly froze—he heard the sound of gears turning, like some kind of sophisticated machinery awakening underground.

The originally spreading golden veins were pushed to the sides, revealing the cold-looking metal shell underneath.

The mechanical puppet that was the main body of the Rock Shadow was crawling out from the depths of the earth veins. The gaps in the armor on its chest were seeping out eerie green wood release chakra, which resonated with the core of the sonic puppet that it had seen in the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, and emitted a buzzing vibration.

“That is…” Bai Ye’s voice caught in his throat.

He saw a ball of light, larger than the embryo in his arms, embedded in the center of the mechanical puppet's chest cavity—it was the ultimate form of the fusion of the Wood Release origin and the core of the Sound Wave Puppet, and the patterns flowing on its surface were exactly the same as the phantom images of the First Hokage and Madara in his scar.

The tremors of the earth's veins grew more and more intense, and the magma seeping from the cracks in the rocks hissed against the metal shell of the mechanical golem.

Bai Ye's fingers unconsciously tightened around the embryo in his arms, and he could clearly feel that the struggle between the two wills was nearing its end—the sadness of the first generation was gradually fading, while the arrogance of Ban was becoming clearer, as if waiting for a key moment.

Meanwhile, a faint "clicking" sound was emanating from the chest cavity of the Rock Shadow mechanical golem.

Chapter 730 The Eye of the Earth's Veins

The tremors of the earth veins made Bai Ye's eardrums ache. The eerie green chakra seeping from the gaps in the armor of the Rock Shadow Mechanical Puppet's chest cavity suddenly condensed into ice crystals. With a crisp "crack", the metal plate covered with magma scorch marks flipped outward like flower petals.

Black slime, wrapped in golden patterns, gushed out. Those patterns were exactly the same as the phantom images of the First Generation and Madara in his scars. It churned in the slime and condensed into a fist-sized embryo-like crystal.

The slime dripped onto the ground, corroding and producing a sizzling blue smoke, while the crystalline surface flowed with the unique vitality of Wood Release and the humming of sound waves—it was a living thing where two forces coexisted.

The embryo in Bai Ye's arms suddenly became intensely hot, and golden blood dripped through his fingers, splashing onto the crystal.

Like a stone thrown into a deep pool, the resonance explodes from the point of contact.

A tremor like the ringing of bells and chimes came from the depths of the earth. He could clearly feel the golden blood vessels beneath his feet vibrating in resonance. The broken ninja remnants, their ghostly blue light spots, suddenly changed direction and plunged into the crystal like moths to a flame.

“This is not a puppet…” Bai Ye’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his voice hoarse with shock, “It is a symbiosis of Wood Release’s essence and sound wave resonance!” He finally understood why the Rock Shadow could control the ley lines—this crystal was simply the living key connecting the Eye of the Ley Lines, merging the life energy of Wood Release with the resonance field of the sound wave puppet, turning the ley lines into a furnace that devours souls.

A hoarse sonic vibration emanated from the ground, like metal scraping against glass: "Activate the resonance field with the vocal cords of a living person, and the Eye of the Earth Vein will devour the souls of all ninjas!" Juzo's voice came from the abdominal cavity of the Iwakage mechanical puppet. Suddenly, a hundred puppets emerged from the hidden compartments on the back of the mechanical body, their red eyes flashing with golden emblems of the same origin as Byakuya, and sonic resonators extending from their joints were oozing a ghostly blue chakra.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

The puppets' facial features were identical to those of the missing Jonin from Otogakure, and their throats were embedded with torn vocal cords—it turned out that Juzo Inu had been collecting vocal cords from living people all these years, using puppetry techniques to seal their pain in resonators.