Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

He finally remembered the strange "plague" that had struck Otogakure three years ago; it was actually a sacrifice prepared by Juzo for today.

"cough!"

A sharp pain suddenly shot through my back.

Rasa's remnant soul controlled Chiyo's afterimage puppet. The bronze puppet's fingertips transformed into sand blades that pierced his shoulder blades, while golden puppet silk coiled around his waist and abdomen like venomous snakes.

The dry chakra unique to Sunagakure entered through the wound, forming a sand wall within his body, temporarily isolating the tremors of the earth's vein resonance.

“The Sand Village’s quicksand can temporarily isolate resonance!” Rasa’s voice carried the hollow echo unique to a remnant soul, “but it can only last for three breaths—grab the crystal and destroy it!”

Bai Ye grabbed the puppet silk with his backhand, but the moment he touched it, his hand was shattered by the shock.

The golden threads that were winding towards the core of the mechanical puppet broke apart inch by inch as soon as they touched the crystal surface, as if they were being cut by a sharp blade. The vibrations of the sonic resonance rushed back along the threads, making his temples throb.

The Rock Shadow mechanical golem's metal jaws suddenly cracked open, revealing a dense array of gears inside. A mechanical voice mixed with an aged human voice rang out: "Foolish boy...you think the Eye of the Leyline is an inanimate object?" The mechanical arm rose, its fingertips pointing magma nozzles at Bai Ye's chest. "This is a symbiotic entity nourished by the lives of successive Rock Shadows; even the ley lines provide it with energy—"

Before the words were finished, all one hundred Sound Concealment Puppets opened their mouths at the same time, and their severed vocal cords vibrated violently in their resonators.

The piercing sound waves created visible ripples that shattered the sand wall maintained by Luo Sha's remnant soul, causing Bai Ye's eardrums to bleed.

The embryo in his arms suddenly burst into flames, the primordial emerald green and the crimson purple of the spotted embryo churning wildly within it, the spotted embryo's phantom even extending a translucent palm as if to tear his chest apart.

Chapter 731 Only Acknowledging Madara's Will

“So that’s why…” Bai Ye gritted his teeth, golden blood dripping down his chin, “You were waiting for the moment when the resonance was fully activated.” He finally saw the truth in the embryo—the First Hokage’s Wood Release was suppressing the earth veins’ devouring, while Madara’s chakra was fueling it, just like the battle at the Valley of the End. The two wills were reenacting within him, just waiting for the resonance to reach the critical point.

The earth's tremors suddenly intensified, and the golden patterns on the crystal surface shone blindingly.

Byakuya felt something disintegrating within his body; the First Hokage's phantom image within his scar began to blur, while Madara's crimson-purple chakra burrowed into his veins like a living thing.

He could hear the roar of his own heart, each beat infusing his limbs with Madara's arrogance.

"I must..." Bai Ye's trembling hand went to her chest, her nails digging deep into her skin, "I must tear this restraint apart..."

The sound of the gears turning on the Rock Shadow mechanical golem drowned out his whisper. The crystal began to absorb all the ghostly blue light spots in the air, and even the golden blood beneath his feet was being drawn away.

Rasa's remnant soul gradually became transparent in the sound waves. Chiyo's puppet's sand blade slid off his back. As the last puppet thread broke, Rasa's sigh came: "Remember... the weakness of the Eye of the Earth's Ley Lines... lies in..."

The sound stopped suddenly.

Bai Ye watched the gradually dissipating remnant soul and suddenly smiled.

He could feel the energy vortex within his body had expanded to its limit, and the wills of the First Hokage and Madara were about to clash and determine a victor.

The old wound that stretched from his left shoulder to his heart was now burning intensely, as if a hand was scratching beneath the wound, trying to tear open his chest and release the sealed power.

An even more violent roar came from the depths of the earth, as if some sleeping behemoth had finally opened its eyes.

Bai Ye's fingers slowly gripped the edge of the scar, and the golden blood seeping from under his fingernails dripped onto the crystal, triggering an even stronger resonance.

He could hear Madara's laughter echoing in his mind, while the First Hokage's sigh grew weaker and weaker.

“Come on,” he said softly, his voice filled with a desperate madness, “Let me see... just how many secrets this body can hold.”

His fingers began to exert force.

The moment his fingertip dug into the scar, Bai Ye heard a crisp sound of a seal breaking down from below his sternum.

The excruciating pain surged through his chest like boiling water, and as golden blood gushed from between his fingers, he could even see the lines of his torn muscle fibers—the old wound that wounded from his left shoulder to his heart was now writhing like a living thing, pulling his hand deeper into the flesh.

“The weakness Rasa mentioned…” He gritted his teeth, his other hand wrapping the broken golden threads of the Chiyo afterimage puppet around his palm. The fragments of the Red Sand Spirit’s heart still carried the dry warmth unique to Sunagakure. “It requires two opposing resonances…”

At the crack in the mechanical puppet, black slime was churning and devouring the golden veins of the earth.

Bai Ye forcefully pressed the blood-stained puppet silk and heart fragments into the slime. The moment the golden blood and black liquid came into contact, a blinding purple light exploded in the air.

The frequency of the earth's tremors suddenly became disordered, like a broken string on a musical instrument—the sluggishness of the sand and the sharpness of the sound waves intertwined in the viscous fluid, actually tearing open a crack of reverse resonance.

"You're insane!" Juzo's voice burst from between the gears of the Iwakage mechanical puppet, dark red blood foam overflowing from its metal throat.

His hundred Sound Village puppets suddenly raised their heads in unison, the golden emblems in their red eyes turning from warm to cold, and the resonators at their joints no longer pointing at Byakuya, but instead turning towards the Iwakage himself! "The contract of Sound Village..." the mechanical puppets' chests trembled violently, "...only acknowledge Madara's will!"

The last few words were almost squeezed out from between his teeth.

Only then did Byakuya realize that the vocal cords in the puppets' throats were oozing crimson-purple chakra—Madara's will had somehow resonated along the earth's veins and invaded the resonance field that Otogakure had nurtured with pain.

The hundred puppets simultaneously emitted a sharp buzzing sound, the sound waves piercing the joint gaps of the Rock Shadow mechanical body like steel needles, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly crawled all over the metal shell.

“It’s split apart…” Bai Ye stared at the embryo at the core of the mechanical puppet, his breath suddenly caught in his throat.

Chapter 732 The Person Who Makes the Last Move

The symbiotic golden patterns and black slime were tearing each other apart like living things being cleaved in two by a knife—one half solidified into a fluttering golden butterfly, each scale brimming with the vitality of Wood Release; the other half collapsed into a thicker black liquid, corroding all the metal it touched, even the golden veins of the earth's veins curled up and retreated before it.

With a crisp clang.

The mask on Bai Ye's face finally succumbed to the impact of the resonance, and fragments fell like flower petals.

He saw his reflection distorted on the fragments—his left eye was the emerald green of the First Hokage, and his right eye was the crimson purple of Madara. The two chakras surged in his eye sockets, turning his pupils into two-colored vortexes.

Even more shocking, two semi-transparent phantoms were rising from behind him.

The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, wore a faded coarse cloth jacket, with bits of grass from the Valley of the End still stuck in his hair. The wood-style kunai in his hand gleamed with a warm green hue. Madara Uchiha wore a scarlet cloak, his lips curled into his usual arrogant smile, and the tip of the black rod in his hand crackled with destructive lightning.

Their gazes pierced through the white night, locking precisely on each other, and a muffled clashing of chakra exploded in the air.

“So…” Bai Ye looked up at the two illusory figures, his throat hoarse from the resonance, “You’ve been trapped inside my body all along…”

The First Hokage's gaze swept over him, a surge of guilt welling up in his eyes; Madara, however, suddenly laughed, crimson-purple chakra licking the edges of the phantom like flames: "Kid, now you know you're nothing but a vessel?" His black rod pointed deep into the earth's veins, "Look at your masterpiece—the Iwakage's mechanical body is reconstructing, that embryo is using your blood as a catalyst to devour our chakra!"

Bai Ye looked in the direction of the black stick.

As expected, a rumbling sound of metal reassembly came from deep within the earth's veins. The remains of the Rock Shadow mechanical puppet were being pulled and fused together by some force, and dense runes appeared on the surface of the embryo on its chest. Each rune was frantically absorbing the Wood Release of the First Hokage and the Fire Release chakra of Madara.

He could even see that the golden butterfly inside the embryo was having its wings corroded by the black liquid, while the black liquid was being decomposed by the life force of Wood Release, and the two forces formed a deadly cycle inside the embryo.

“If this continues…” The First Hokage’s Wood Release kunai glowed faintly, “the embryo will drain our very essence.”

"Then let it absorb!" Ban slammed his black rod heavily onto the ground, instantly creating spiderweb-like cracks in the ley lines. "Back in the Valley of the End, I should have used this brat's body as my battlefield—"

"Enough!" Bai Ye suddenly shouted.

Golden blood gushed from his seven orifices, but was held up in mid-air by two types of chakra, condensing into suspended blood beads.

He staggered toward the embryo, each step shattering the golden veins of the earth. "This body...is my own."

The phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara trembled simultaneously.

Fine ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the earth's veins.

Bai Ye's steps came to a halt.

He stared at his distorted reflection on the water—his two-colored pupils, his shattered mask, and the two ghostly figures confronting him behind him—and suddenly remembered the Mizukage he had seen in Amegakure three days ago.

Mei Terumi's Water Release technique... can condense into a mirror.

The ripples grew larger and larger, as if something was rising from the depths of the earth.

"No matter whose vessel you are..." Madara's phantom suddenly vanished, but his voice boomed in Byakuya's mind, "Let's deal with the immediate trouble first!"

The original phantom also transformed into green light and disappeared into his body, leaving behind only a faint sigh: "Be careful..."

The roar from deep within the earth's veins reached its peak.

The Rock Shadow Mechanical Golem stood up again, the embryo on its chest had swelled into a giant sphere as tall as a person, and the runes on its surface were dazzlingly bright.

Bai Ye gazed at the giant sphere, then at the ripples on the water's surface, and suddenly smiled—a drop of blood slid down the corner of his mouth, splashing tiny water droplets on the surface.

"Come on." He spread his arms, letting the tremors of the earth penetrate his body. "Let me see who will be the last one to make the final move in this game."

The ripples on the water suddenly stopped.

A deep blue curtain of water rose from the depths of the earth, unfolding like a mirror above Bai Ye's head.

Chapter 733 Water Mirror

The ripples on the surface of the ley lines froze into ice crystals the moment they touched the deep blue water curtain. When Mei Terumi's face appeared in the mirror, there were still traces of water clinging to her eyelashes.

Her fingertips touched the edge of the water mirror, and her pupils reflected two faint shadows behind Bai Ye—one wrapped in eerie firelight, and the other entwined with lush greenery, just like two venomous snakes coiled around the incantations on the surface of the embryo.

"The First Hokage's Wood Release repelled Madara's sonic resonance!" Her voice pierced through the water curtain, carrying the unique clarity of Water Release. Her right hand formed hand seals at a speed almost invisible. "Their chakra frequencies clashed, and they actually became nourishment for the embryo!"

Bai Ye's temples throbbed, and golden blood dripped down his chin onto the edge of the mirror, where it was automatically caught by the water-escape technique and suspended into a string of beads.

He could feel the two forces tearing at his body: the First Hokage's Wood Release was repairing his broken meridians, while Madara's Fire Release was scorching every inch of his flesh, as if he wanted to tear this body in two to feed the embryo.

Mei Terumi's fingernails suddenly pierced her palm, blue chakra mixed with golden-red blood seeping into the Water Mirror, instantly causing spiderweb-like cracks to appear on its surface. "Lend me your blood!" Her voice suddenly rose, her left hand forming a claw as she plunged it into her own heart. As blood gushed out mixed with water-style jutsu, a maddening light shone in her eyes. "The Water Mirror needs a living barrier—I bet you won't let me die in vain!"

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw pale golden blood gushing from the wound in Mei Terumi's chest. It was a special bloodline limit resulting from the fusion of Wood Release and Water Release, resonating with the chakra in the water mirror.

Before he could react, the golden blood bead suspended in mid-air was suddenly absorbed by the water mirror and condensed into a semi-transparent light membrane between the two of them—that was the triple barrier formed by Mei Terumi using her life as a guide to lock together the Water Release, Wood Release, and Byakuya's bloodline limit.

"Cough..." Mei Terumi staggered and grabbed the edge of the water mirror, a drop of blood spilling from the corner of her lips creating pale blue ripples on the water's surface. "The embryo's absorption port is now blocked by a barrier... but Madara's phantom is searching for a new source of resonance!"

Suddenly, a dense, tearing sound of metal came from deep within the earth's veins.

When Juzo emerged from the shadows, his left arm was completely covered by the puppet emblem, bronze lines creeping up his neck and face, even his pupils turning a cold, mechanical gray. "Use my sound waves... to materialize Madara's phantom!" His voice crackled with metallic scraping as he shattered the hundred puppets around him—each puppet's chest embedded with a fingernail-sized fragment of a golden heart, vibrating in sync with the golden blood within Byakuya's body.

The runes on the surface of the embryo suddenly spun wildly, and the heart fragments were sucked into golden meteors. The moment they hit the surface of the embryo, the phantom of the spot suddenly solidified by a third.

His Fire Release chakra was no longer a floating mist, but condensed into a crimson flame armor, and even the black rod in his hand had a tangible feel.

"Bastard!" Bai Ye bit his tongue, the sweet and metallic taste of blood exploding in his mouth.

He could feel Ban's consciousness drilling into his sea of ​​consciousness along the fragments of his heart, like countless red-hot silver needles pricking his temples.

Mei Terumi's water-style barrier suddenly glowed blue, and the recoil force slammed into his back. Using this force, he leaped into the air, and with his right hand, he pulled out a wisp of puppet thread covered in sand from his robes—it was formed from Rasa's remnant soul using its last chakra, and it carried the dry temperature unique to Sunagakure.

"The quicksand of the Sand Village can temporarily trap the resonance field!" he roared as he pierced the core of the mechanical puppet with the puppet thread. The moment his fingertip touched the metal, the incantation on the surface of the embryo suddenly stopped.

Rasa's remnant soul let out a hoarse laugh within the puppet silk: "Back then, I used this technique to trap Gaara's tailed beast chakra... Now it's your turn to use it to trap the mad dog of the Uchiha clan!"

Chapter 734 You Can't Confine Me

The golden emblem climbed up the surface of the mechanical body along the puppet threads, and the phantom of Ban suddenly let out a painful roar.

Cracks appeared in his flame armor, the runes on his black rods began to peel off, and even his solid facial features began to distort.

Bai Ye could hear Ban's roar coming from his sea of ​​consciousness: "You brat!"

You think you can trap me with the junk from the first generation?

Back then, I was in the Valley of the End...

"Shut up!" Bai Ye pulled out the First Hokage's Wood Release kunai with a backhand. Wood Release chakra flowed into the mechanical body through the kunai, condensing into vines on the surface of the embryo.

He could feel the First Generation's consciousness tremble slightly within the vines, as if responding to his anger.

The golden butterflies, corroded by the spots, suddenly emerged from the cracks in their embryos, their golden dust falling onto the vines and coating the surface of the wood with a faint glow.

The water mirror on the ley lines suddenly trembled violently, and Mei Terumi's figure began to blur. "The barrier...it can't hold..." her voice grew weaker and weaker, "The embryo is absorbing the puppet fragments...and your blood..."

Juzo's puppet emblem had covered his entire face. He stared at the gradually solidifying phantom of Madara, a maniacal light flashing in his mechanical pupils: "Enough...enough for Lord Madara..."

"Shut up!" Bai Ye's Wood Release kunai suddenly burst out with a dazzling green light, and the golden butterflies that were originally corroded by the black liquid gathered into a swarm, swirling above the embryo in a golden vortex.

He could feel the First Generation's consciousness surging within the swarm of butterflies, as gentle as a spring breeze caressing cracked earth, and as unshakeable as a giant rock during a landslide.

The phantom of Ban suddenly trembled violently, and the fiery armor shattered into sparks and dissipated.

His voice finally carried a hint of panic: "This is... the First Hokage's Wood Release mimicry?"

When will you...?

"Shh." Bai Ye looked at the faint green shadows appearing and disappearing among the butterflies and suddenly smiled.

Golden blood slid down the corner of his mouth, caught by a swarm of butterflies in mid-air, and condensed into tiny golden beads.

He could hear the First Hokage's voice echoing in his mind, tinged with a helpless sigh: "Back in the Valley of the End, I should have told you... the life force of Wood Release is never meant to be destroyed."

Suddenly, the swarm of butterflies flapped their wings, and a shower of golden light rained down on the embryo.

A deafening roar echoed from deep within the earth's veins, signaling the shattering of the mechanical core.

The mechanical roar from deep within the earth's veins had not yet subsided when the swarm of golden butterflies suddenly turned around in mid-air.

The phantom of the First Hokage materialized from the swarm of butterflies, his green robes fluttering, and a Wood Release seed formed from gold dust held in his palm.