Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Iwazo's Adam's apple bobbed: "He said, 'The embers of the Blood Pact War are about to reach the Land of Earth.'"

The teacup made a crisp sound as it hit the stone.

Onoki's pupils suddenly contracted, and the tip of his cane plunged heavily into a crevice in the rock, causing the entire gray cliff to tremble.

Iwakura could see the veins bulging on the old Kage's neck like gnarled tree roots—the Blood Pact War was a taboo in the Land of Water, but also a nightmare for all five Kage.

A hundred years ago, in that frenzied battle where the consciousness of living people was used to drive puppets, even the Second Mizukage was torn to pieces by his own puppets, and his body was sewn into a mechanism as its core.

Chapter 824 The Secret Chamber Underground of the Pavilion of Dark Water

"Send someone to monitor him." Onoki suddenly spoke, a dark undercurrent surging in his cloudy eyes. "If he really finds the location of the 'Hall of Dark Water'..." His thumb rubbed the rock pattern on his cane. "We can't let the remnants of Kirigakure monopolize this power."

Iwazo bowed his head in agreement, and as he turned around, he caught a glimpse of Onoki staring into the abyss below the stone platform, his withered fingers tapping out a gentle rhythm on his knees—a habit he had when he was thinking, as if calculating the weight of each rock.

Meanwhile, raindrops outside the Pavilion of Dark Water were streaming down White Night's eyelashes.

He pressed himself against the damp rock wall, listening to the footsteps of the black-robed guards approaching from afar.

Shuiyue huddled beside him, her silver hair spreading out in an arc that perfectly obscured their shadows. The blue ribbon in her hair was soaked even deeper by the rain, like ink that couldn't be dissolved.

“This place is more dangerous than I thought.” Her voice was as soft as raindrops falling on moss, and her purple eyes reflected the bronze bell hanging at the guard’s waist—every three steps the bell would ring out with a crisp “ding” that was particularly clear in the silent mountain forest.

Bai Ye took out the spore puppet from his palm.

This was a special pupa cultivated using first-generation cells, its surface covered in fuzz the same color as the rock, and it was now trembling gently with his chakra. "Then let them open the door for us." His thumb brushed against the tentacles at the top of the pupa, and the pupa suddenly split open, revealing a translucent larva inside.

Shuiyue stared at the direction the larvae burrowed into the soil, then suddenly sneered, "You should be glad I stole the medical scroll from Kirigakure, otherwise you'd still be lying dead in the forest." Despite saying that, she secretly gathered water chakra at her fingertips—if the spore puppet was exposed, she could use her water clone to distract the guards within three seconds.

The guard twenty paces away suddenly staggered.

He touched the red spot on the back of his neck, muttered "I got bitten by a mosquito," and turned to walk towards the entrance of the museum.

But his steps grew increasingly unsteady, and finally he crashed straight into the blue stone lamppost beside the door. With a "bang," the talisman on the lamppost shattered, followed by the "click-clack" of a spring—a series of traps hidden underground had been triggered.

As the first explosion shook the treetops, Bai Ye had already grabbed Shui Yue's wrist and rushed into the building.

The guards' exclamations, the jingling of bells, and the whirring of gears mingled together as the two hurried along the shadowy corridor, their boots carefully avoiding every creaking flagstone.

Shuiyue's broken sword tapped lightly against her waist. Suddenly, she grabbed Baiye's sleeve and pointed to the ceiling—where dozens of silk threads hung down, gleaming eerily blue in the firelight; they were poisoned puppet threads.

"Zero's methods." Bai Ye's voice was as deep as a stone pressing down at the bottom of a well.

He drew his long staff and swept it towards the silk thread. The moment the blue light of the jade melted the thread, the ground suddenly cracked open, revealing the stone steps below.

The two tumbled down the stone steps, and when they regained their footing before the last step, a damp, musty smell suddenly filled their nostrils—this was the underground chamber of the Ghost Water Mansion.

The torches on the wall suddenly lit up automatically, illuminating the murals on the entire stone wall.

Shuiyue's breath hitched—it was a blood-red scroll, with a ball of flame wrapped in chains in the center, surrounded by five seals, each engraved with a different national totem.

At the bottom, written in the ancient script of the Land of Water, is the "Ring of Contracts," and in the center of the flames, a closed eye is slowly opening.

“Blood Pact Mark…” Bai Ye’s fingers traced the chain patterns on the mural, the touch feeling like touching the veins of a living person.

Chapter 825 Mirror Illusion Technique: Thousand Faces Shattering the Void!

He recalled that Shuiyue's experimental log mentioned that the Blood Soul Puppet needed "the consciousness of living people as fuel," and the core of the puppet that Hai Lao hid in the Wind Kingdom had this chain pattern.

At this moment, all the fragments suddenly came together—the blood pact war a hundred years ago was not out of control at all, but rather someone was deliberately collecting consciousness to prepare for the awakening of this eye.

“They want to be resurrected…” his voice was hoarse, “the culprits of the Blood Pact War.”

Shuiyue gently touched the eyes on the mural with her fingertips.

Suddenly, the entire stone wall trembled, and dark red liquid seeped from the lines of the eyes, as if it were weeping.

Bai Ye suddenly grabbed her and pulled her back, only to see the liquid condense into a line of bloody words on the ground: "Gather the bloodlines of the Five Shadows, and the Eye of the Blood Pact will open."

The sound of rain seeped in through the ventilation openings of the sealed room, mingling with the dripping sound of water seeping from the stone walls.

Bai Ye stood in the center of the secret chamber, gazing at the "Blood Pact Eye" gradually becoming clearer on the mural—the iris of that eye was exactly the same as the crack on the bronze amulet on his chest.

The torches on the stone walls of the secret chamber crackled and popped, sparks splashing into the patterns of the Blood Pact Eye, as if trying to boil the dark red liquid.

Bai Ye's fingertips were still on the mural, the bronze amulet burning against his chest, so hot that the red dot on the back of his neck throbbed—it was a burn mark from the aftershock of the amulet when he hit the lamppost, and now it was oozing very faint beads of blood.

"careful!

Someone's coming! "Shuiyue's fingers suddenly dug into his wrist, with such force that she almost crushed his wrist bones.

Her broken sword had somehow been drawn half an inch from its sheath, and in the reflection of the blade on the wall, the once still shadow was now writhing like a living thing.

Before the words were finished, a rusty, fishy smell suddenly wafted into the damp, musty odor.

Byakuya's pupils contracted slightly—a sign that his chakra was about to go berserk.

He grabbed Shuiyue's wrist and pulled her to his side. The shadow in the corner of the secret room tore open with a "rip" sound, and a man in dark patterned armor stepped out. His expressionless face was bluish-gray in the firelight. It was Wuying, the guardian of Youshui Pavilion.

“You should not have set foot in this forbidden area.” Wuying’s voice was like two millstones grinding. When he raised his hand, half a chain slid out from his sleeve. The incantations on the chain links were exactly the same as those on the chains in the murals.

Bai Ye's nape instantly tensed like a bowstring.

He recalled the "living consciousness fuel" mentioned in the experimental log, and the puppet driven by Ebizo's chain core—it turned out that the methods of the Contract Ring had already taken root in the blood pact war a hundred years ago.

"Mirror Illusion - Thousand Faces Shattering the Void!" Wuying shouted in a low voice.

The next moment, Bai Ye's vision suddenly shattered.

The once complete secret chamber was reduced to millions of mirror fragments, each reflecting a different scene: the moment he threw a kunai at the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, the bloodstains of Suigetsu being chased by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in Kirigakure, and even the image of him squatting in the mass grave as a child, kneading clay figures—all fragments he least wanted to touch upon in his memory.

"Don't let him look you in the eye!" Shuiyue's voice pierced through the illusion, carrying a metallic scraping sound.

Bai Ye was startled to realize that he had unknowingly come face to face with Wu Ying's eyes—those eyes had no whites, only swirling blood patterns, as if they were trying to suck in one's soul.

He suddenly lowered his head, his bangs falling down to obscure his vision, and at the same time bit the tip of his tongue.

The moment the stench of blood exploded in my mouth, my five senses suddenly became clear.

Shuiyue's broken sword clattered at his feet. Blood-stained illusion-breaking runes were drawn on the blade, the runes gleaming faintly. She had bitten her fingertip at some point, and drops of blood dripped from between her fingers onto the hilt of the sword, spreading out in a small bloody pattern on the ground.

"Receive the talisman!" Shuiyue's kick was so precise it was as if the trajectory had been calculated. Baiye flicked his finger, and the tip of the blade picked up the blood talisman and placed it on his forehead.

Chapter 826 Eyes Nurtured by Chakra

The fragments of the illusion shattered in response, and he took the opportunity to bite his left index finger, the fingertip drawing a silver-blue light trail in the air—that was his unique spore technique, tiny chakra spores spreading with his breath, weaving a sensory network in the shattered space.

"There!" Shuiyue suddenly swung her sword at the fragment on the right.

Following the direction of her sword, Bai Ye saw that among countless overlapping reflections, the edge of a fragment was unnaturally distorted—that was the location of the Shadowless True Form.

He let out a low shout and pressed his palm to the ground: "Wood Release: Sea of ​​Trees Thrust!"

Dark green wooden spikes rose from the ground like sharp arrows, piercing through layers of reflections, and finally piercing Wuying's left shoulder in the deepest fragment.

Blood splattered on the mirror like blooming red plum blossoms, and the illusion finally collapsed completely.

The stone walls of the secret chamber returned to their original positions. Wuying staggered backward, covering his wound with his left hand and pointing to the Blood Pact Eye on the mural with his right: "You think you know the truth?"

This eye can see the end of fate, and you…” A soft laugh escaped his throat, “are nothing more than pawns under its gaze.”

Before he finished speaking, the chain on his chest suddenly glowed red.

The chains engraved with incantations began to disintegrate, and the overflowing blood mist condensed into a vortex in mid-air. From the center of the vortex came a shrill scream like the cry of an infant—the power of the blood pact was going berserk.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He remembered what Ebizo had said: once the core of the blood pact goes out of control, it will devour all life within a ten-mile radius.

At this moment, the vortex was expanding at a visible speed, the chakra in the air was being frantically drawn out, and even the torches were being sucked to the center of the vortex, the flames stretching into thin red lines.

"Back off!" He grabbed Shuiyue and ran towards the stone steps, but after only two steps, the ground suddenly cracked open like a spider web, and the blood droplets seeping from the cracks flew against gravity toward the vortex.

Suigetsu's broken sword clattered to the ground, and she staggered, clutching her chest: "My chakra... it's been drained..."

Bai Ye's bronze amulet was so hot it almost burned through his clothes. He reached for the scroll in his arms, his fingertips touching the first-generation cells sealed inside—this was his last trump card.

But before he could take it out, a soft "click" sound suddenly came from the center of the vortex, as if some ancient seal had been broken.

"Gathering the bloodlines of the Five Shadows..." The blood-red characters on the mural suddenly surfaced, drifting into the air with the swirling vortex, "The Eye of the Blood Pact... is about to open..."

Wuying's body began to become transparent, his voice mingling with the blood mist, as if coming from a very distant place: "It's about to awaken... and you..." His gaze finally locked onto the amulet on Bai Ye's chest, "carrying its cracks..."

The moment the voice faded, the vortex suddenly accelerated its rotation, and the sound of shattering glass echoed in the air—the vent of the sealed room had been shattered by the pressure.

Rain mixed with blood mist poured in, wetting Bai Ye's eyelashes.

He stared at the approaching crimson vortex, pressed his left hand to the ground, and spores swarmed out from the wound in his palm, weaving a semi-transparent defensive net around the two of them.

The moment the blood mist touched the defensive net, it emitted a hissing, burning sound.

Cold sweat beaded on Bai Ye's forehead. He could feel the spores frantically consuming his chakra, but what made him even more uneasy was that the Blood Pact Eye on the mural had opened completely at some point, and the cracks on its iris were pulsating at the same frequency as the cracks on his amulet.

Amidst the hissing sound of the blood mist scorching the defensive net, Bai Ye nearly ground his molars to powder.

The pale blue light membrane constructed by the spores was thinning at a visible rate, and he could clearly sense the annihilation of each spore under the erosion of the blood mist—those were his "eyes" that he had nurtured with chakra for three years, and now they were melting like candles in boiling water.

Chapter 827 Mr. Bai, You Know Too Much

"Shuiyue!" He grabbed the girl's trembling wrist and channeled his chakra through her meridians.

Shuiyue's fingertips were incredibly cold. The broken knife slid across her palm twice before she could barely grip it. The blood runes on the hilt had long since lost their color, resembling a faded maple leaf.

When she looked up, fine beads of blood mist clung to her eyelashes, and her voice was hoarse like a broken bellows: "Chakra... can only last ten breaths at most."

Ten breaths.

What can that be done with?

Bai Ye's gaze swept over the rampaging vortex, over the open blood oath eye on the mural, and finally landed on the scroll in his arms.

The seal on the first cell was burning hot; it was the last half he had stolen from the Thousand Hands Ruins—but if he used it now, perhaps it could…

"I'm taking the gamble." He cursed under his breath, biting his thumb and pressing a scarlet fingerprint onto the scroll.

As the bluish-gray cell cluster floated up, enveloped in fluorescence, he suddenly remembered Ebizo's words: "The Eye of Blood Pact needs the pain of living beings as fuel." So, conversely... He quickly formed a hand seal, kneading the cell cluster into the spore cluster in his palm, "Go."

Pale blue spores, wrapped in bluish-gray cells, swarmed into the vortex like a bee.

The blood mist suddenly contracted the moment it touched the cells, like a snake's forked tongue being scalded.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints—the instant the spore swarm exploded at the center of the vortex, a flood of information rushed into his consciousness: the arrangement of the chain incantations, the resonance frequency of the bloodline limit, and even fragments of the memories of the first leader of the Contract Ring from the Blood Pact War a hundred years ago.

“So that’s how it is…” His voice was as soft as a sigh. “The core of puppetry is not the mechanism, but the resonance; the activation of the Blood Pact Eye requires the pain sensation of the Five Shadows as a key.”

"Young man Bai!"

The sound of hurried footsteps broke the oppressive atmosphere of the secret room.

Chiyo appeared at the top of the stone steps, leaning on a cane. Her silver hair was wet with blood mist and stuck to her forehead. Her usually meticulously combed hair was half loose, but she still steadily supported the sealed scroll in her arms as she ran.

Her voice carried the roughness of pebbles swept by the wind in the Sunagakure Desert: "That old fox Ebizo has made contact with Rasa!"

The Wind Shadow Army has surrounded the Wind Palace; the coup will begin within half an hour.

"Let's go." Bai Ye tore off the rubbing from the mural and tapped the stone wall with his fingertips—a secret code unique to puppeteers, used to confirm the location of the main control device.

Shuiyue immediately understood, and used the broken knife to pry open the brickwork at the corner of the wall, revealing a mechanism box with blood jade embedded underneath.

"Destroy it." Bai Ye pressed his thumb on the blood jade, and chakra pierced into it like steel needles.

The moment the blood jade cracked, the entire Netherworld Palace trembled, and stone chips rained down from above, hitting Chiyo's shoulder.

"The exit is blocked!" Shuiyue suddenly raised her sword and pointed it at the main entrance of the secret chamber.

The bronze door, originally engraved with incantations, had been replaced with black iron at some point, and a ghostly blue chakra array floated on its four corners—the "Soul-Locking Array" of the Contract Ring.

The moment the door was slowly pushed open, Kisame Gen's figure crept in like a shadow, followed by three ninjas wrapped in dark-patterned cloaks, each with a bronze ring unique to the Contract Rings at their waist.

“Mr. Haku,” Kisame Gen’s voice was like a knife chilled to the bone, “you know too much.”

Bai Ye's fingers curled slightly at her side.

He could feel the warmth of the mural still lingering on the rubbing in his arms, hear Chiyo adjusting her breathing behind him, and see the tip of Suigetsu's broken sword trembling slightly.

"Sorry." He suddenly smiled, the curve of his lips like the spring moon cutting through the clouds. "I have more important things to do."

Before he could finish speaking, his left hand suddenly slammed onto the ground.

The spores previously implanted at the center of the vortex exploded underground, sending bluish-green smoke carrying wood chips and gravel into the air, instantly filling the entire sealed chamber.