Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Rasa was being helped to sit up by Chiyo, whose fingers were pressed against his chest, and pale green medical chakra was seeping into the wound beneath his clothes.

Crow knelt beside him, using his short sword to cut the last few chakra threads wrapped around his subordinate's body. The bloodstains on his armor gleamed dark purple in the moonlight.

"It's over," Bai Ye said softly.

He turned and walked toward Ebizo, his wooden clogs crunching over the blood droplets on the ground.

The twelve puppets simultaneously retracted their arm blades and obediently retreated to the four corners of the courtyard. The eerie green light at their joints completely extinguished—they had finally returned to their original purpose when they were created: to protect, not to kill.

Ebizo lay sprawled on the ground, the blood foam that had spilled from his throat congealing into a dark red scab on his chin.

He gazed at Bai Ye's gradually clearer face and suddenly laughed: "You thought...you won?" His left hand stealthily reached for the short blade at his waist, where the last explosive tag was hidden. "Wait until I'm dead..."

"I know." Bai Ye gently stepped on his wrist with her toe.

Dark golden chakra seeped from the soles of his feet, climbing up his arms along his veins, melting the short blade and the explosive tag into a lump of scrap metal. "You planted self-destruct seals in the core of every puppet, trying to drag the entire Kazekage Mansion down with you."

But now, their programs have been rewritten.

Ebizo's pupils suddenly contracted.

He finally understood why the puppets he had controlled with forbidden techniques for twenty years had turned against him—Bai Ye hadn't destroyed them, but instead awakened their most primal "guardian instinct."

Chapter 853 Eye of Blood Pact

Like a mirror covered in dust, you only need to wipe away the dirt to see your true reflection.

A sharp, intense pain suddenly exploded from my heart.

Bai Ye swayed and reached out to steady himself against a nearby pillar.

He could feel the power of the "Blood Pact Eye" gnawing at his meridians. The power of the first generation bloodline was being drained from his limbs and bones like the receding tide, leaving only an empty shell.

"White Night!" Chiyo's exclamation came through the wind.

He waved his hands to indicate that he was fine.

Moonlight streamed through the cracks in the eaves, falling on Ebizo's face. His eyes were completely vacant, and only his throat remained unconsciously gurgling: "The...the one who defies fate..."

Bai Ye looked down at him, dark golden sweat sliding down his forehead and dripping onto Ebizo's pale face.

His right hand was pressed against his chest, and he could clearly feel his heart pounding violently—his blood was protesting, warning him that he could no longer use this forbidden power.

But his gaze was more resolute than the moonlight.

“Those who defy fate,” he said softly, “are never fighting against God, but against a wrong fate.”

Ebizo's fingers finally fell to the ground.

Bai Ye straightened up and looked at the gradually brightening sky in the east.

Smoke still drifted from the Land of Fire, and thunderclouds churned on the horizon of the Land of Lightning, but at this moment his gaze was fixed only on his feet—Ebizo's right palm still clutched half of a melted detonation tag.

He crouched down and gently pried open the stiff hand.

On the fragments of the detonating tag, the four blood-red characters "Destruction of Sand Village" could still be barely discerned.

"No, it won't happen." Bai Ye put the fragment into his pocket, and as he stood up, a blackout flashed before his eyes.

He steadied himself against a pillar, took a deep breath, and turned to walk toward the main hall—where Rasa was looking at him with a complicated expression, Chiyo's medical ninjutsu was still ongoing, and Crow had begun organizing his subordinates to clean up the battlefield.

But he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A chill ran down my spine and up my neck.

He turned around abruptly and saw Ebizo's left hand twitch on the ground, a blood-stained strand of hair slipping from between his fingers—it wasn't an ordinary strand of hair, but a puppet string wrapped with chakra.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted into slits again.

He crouched down and used his chakra to sense the thread—the other end of the thread led to a secret room beneath the Kazekage's residence.

Inside the secret room, something was moving.

The moonlight faded to grayish-white on the tiles, and as the eastern sky began to lighten with the first light of dawn, a sharp pain suddenly shot through Bai Ye's fingertips.

He crouched beside Haibuzang, and his hand, which had been pressing on Haibuzang's wrist, was becoming translucent at a visible speed, like a thin veil soaked in morning mist.

“Defiant…” Ebizo’s throat was still gurgling, but his turbid eyes suddenly turned to Byakuya’s right hand, and a twisted smile appeared on his lips.

That smile was like a fine needle, piercing Bai Ye's taut nerves—he finally realized, belatedly, that the puppet battle with Ebizo had not only consumed his chakra, but also torn cracks in his body by the First Generation bloodline and the Blood Pact Eye.

"Cough..." Bai Ye stood up, leaning on a pillar. The warmth of the Wood Release chakra in his palm had not yet dissipated, but a layer of cold sweat seeped out on the back of his neck.

He could hear the sounds in his veins, like countless tiny snakes gnawing at his meridians, and each heartbeat brought a piercing pain.

What's even more terrifying is the blurring of consciousness, as if someone is holding an eraser and is wiping away at the edges of memory.

Chapter 854 What do you want to do?

"You won." Luo Sha's voice came from behind, with a slightly hoarse breath.

The Fourth Kazekage's robes still bore scorch marks from the puppet's explosion, yet he forced himself to stand straight. "But you don't seem happy."

Bai Ye turned his head and saw that Luo Sha's wound on his forehead was still bleeding.

The Kazekage, who always talked about "controlling the overall situation," had complex emotions surging in his eyes at this moment—a sense of relief at the victory, a fear of the unknown, and above all, a desire to investigate the mysterious ninja before him.

"Happy?" Bai Ye twitched the corners of his mouth, but he didn't have the strength to laugh.

His right hand was completely transparent, and even the veins were blurred. "When you see your heart being ripped out, you won't be happy."

"Your chakra... is draining!" Chiyo's exclamation cut off the conversation.

The old advisor from Sunagakure had somehow circled around to his side, her wrinkled fingers hovering three inches above his chest, the light of chakra sensing flickering at her fingertips. "The life force of Wood Release is dissipating, the curse of the blood pact..." She suddenly gripped the medical scroll at her waist, "I have an antidote talisman!"

The cyan light of the talisman had just touched Bai Ye's clothes when he gently pushed it away.

The moment their palms touched, Chiyo's fingers trembled violently—that was hardly human body temperature.

It was clearly a piece of jade immersed in ice water, chilling to the bone.

“It’s no use.” Bai Ye stared at his left arm, which was gradually becoming transparent, as if he were looking at someone else’s limbs. “I have developed a rift with time.” His gaze passed over the haphazardly scattered puppet remains in the courtyard and landed on the horizon at the edge of the desert, where the shadows of camel caravans were faintly visible in the morning mist. “I must complete one last thing before I disappear completely.”

"One last thing?" Luo Sha's pupils contracted sharply, and he subconsciously pressed his hand on the short sword at his waist.

But when he met Bai Ye's calm gaze, he awkwardly let go of her hand—this man can't even stand up straight, what kind of trouble can he cause?

The sound of crows' footsteps rang out at just the right moment.

The captain of the Sand Village puppet force escorted the unconscious Ebizo closer. The old advisor, bound by magic, looked like a plucked vulture, his gray hair scattered across his face.

The crow lowered its voice and reported, "You have damaged his chakra circuits, so he can't control the puppet for the time being, but he still retains a little consciousness."

"Lock him in the deepest dungeon of Sunagakure." Byakuya's voice suddenly turned cold, his transparent finger pressing on a pressure point on the back of Ebizo's neck. "Seal the door with iron golems and don't allow anyone to approach." He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing twice, as if he were swallowing some kind of excruciating pain. "If... I fail, just pretend none of this ever happened."

"Where are you going?" the crow asked urgently.

This soldier, who always obeyed only the Kazekage, now showed concern for Byakuya—after all, it was the person in front of him who had pulled out the poisonous thorn that had been buried in Sunagakure for twenty years, in a way that was almost like burning his life.

Bai Ye did not answer.

He turned and walked toward the Shadow Rock behind the main hall, where the steps were bluish-gray in the morning mist.

With each step he took, his figure faded a little more, as if he were about to melt into the mist.

Chiyo caught up, her withered hand grabbing his semi-transparent sleeve: "What do you want to do?"

The wind swept in from the direction of the desert, carrying the smell of gunpowder from the distant Land of Fire.

Bai Ye stopped and turned his head to the side. Half of his face had become transparent, revealing the carvings on the shadow rock behind him.

He gazed at Chiyo's graying temples and suddenly smiled: "When you taught me puppetry, you said that a true puppeteer must learn to tie all the strings back to their proper places before they break."

Chapter 855 Now... it's time to wrap up.

As the morning mist drifted over the top of Shadow Rock, his voice was ripped apart by the wind: "Now... it's time to reel in the line."

Chiyo watched his receding figure, her throat feeling like it was stuffed with a wad of water-soaked cotton.

The bronze bells on the eaves of the main hall suddenly rang, and she was startled to realize that she hadn't noticed that when Bai Ye took his last step up the stairs, a drop of dark red blood had fallen on the bluestone slab beneath his feet.

The blood droplets spread out in the morning dew, like a red spider lily blooming before dawn.

“He…” Luo Sha walked to her side, staring at the empty staircase, his voice weak, “Will he really disappear?”

Chiyo did not answer.

She stared at the drop of blood and suddenly remembered the little beggar who, despite being covered in wounds, clung to a broken puppet in the puppet graveyard thirty years ago.

He said at the time, "I want these old buddies to take one more knife for someone."

Now, he's probably going to take one last hit for the entire ninja world, right?

The copper bell rang again.

Chiyo looked up following the sound and saw a semi-transparent figure in the morning mist at the top of Shadow Rock, raising its hand and pressing it against the rock wall.

A certain cyan-gold chakra spread along his fingertips, carving twisted patterns on the stone surface—the opening technique for the secret underground chamber of Sunagakure, known only to the successive Kazekage.

"Lady Chiyo?" A raven's call came from behind. "The dungeon is ready."

As Chiyo turned around, tears suddenly fell from the corners of her eyes.

She wiped her face and whispered to the air, "Don't keep us waiting too long."

At the top of Shadow Rock, Bai Ye's palm had completely merged into the stone surface.

He could clearly sense something moving deep within the secret chamber—it was Ebi's "ultimate puppet," hidden for twenty years; it was a matrix of explosive tags powerful enough to turn Sunagakure into scorched earth overnight; it was...

Consciousness began to peel away in pieces.

The last thing he saw was the gradually forming patterns on the stone surface, which looked exactly like the vine patterns his mother had embroidered on his swaddling clothes when he was a baby.

"I'm sorry, Mother." His lips moved, but his voice faded into the wind. "This time, I may not be able to come home."

When Chiyo looked up again, the morning mist on the top of Shadow Rock had dissipated.

There was only a bluestone slab left there, with fresh carvings on its surface—resembling some ancient covenant, slowly awakening in the morning light.

As the morning light spilled over the Shadow Rock, Chiyo's fingertips still lingered in mid-air—the last trace of coolness from the white night's sleeves before they vanished remained.

She stared at the newly carved patterns on the stone, a metallic taste rising in her throat, before realizing she had bitten too hard, blood seeping from the corner of her lips.

"Chiyo-sama!"

The sound of hurried footsteps tore through the morning mist.

Shuiyue's figure crashed into the courtyard, the ninja tool pouch at his waist shaking violently as he ran. In his palm was a fragment covered with talismans, a pale golden light seeping out from the gaps, pulsating like a living thing.

Chiyo's pupils constricted sharply—it was the fragment of the "Blood Pact Eye" that she had found three days ago in the ruins of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, which should have been sealed so tightly that not even a trace of chakra could be seen through it.

"It...it's burning hot!" Shuiyue ran up to him, sweat dripping from his forehead onto the fragments. "Just now, when we passed Shadow Rock, the talisman suddenly broke into three pieces!" On the back of his outstretched hand, three red marks were slowly rising, the marks of burns from the fragments.

Chiyo's fingers clenched tightly, her nails almost digging into her palms.

She recalled Bai Ye's words: "The backlash of the Blood Pact Eye is not poison, but the gnawing of time itself." Gazing at that flickering light, she finally understood why he insisted on walking alone onto Shadow Rock—some cracks can only be filled with life.

Chapter 856 Spore Golem

"Bai!" she suddenly raised her voice, shouting towards the empty top of Shadow Rock, "Are you still there?"

Her response was the mournful sound of the wind sweeping across the puppet's remains.

But the next second, the bluestone slab in the center of the courtyard suddenly began to tremble.

Bai Ye's figure emerged from the crack in the rock, its translucent outline resembling a dandelion seed scattered by the wind, its left hand still tightly clutching a spore puppet the size of a walnut.

His right shoulder was completely transparent, revealing the toppled cherry blossom tree behind him. Even his voice was crackling with broken noise: "It's not too late..."

Shuiyue's pupils contracted as if in an earthquake.

He had seen Bai Ye's ruthlessness in fighting against a hundred men in the puppet war, and he had seen him laughing maniacally even after being pierced in the shoulder by Ebizo's poisoned needle, but he had never seen him like this before—like a lamp about to burn out, even his shadow was swaying.

"What are you going to do?" Chiyo rushed over, her withered hand hovering three inches from his heart, afraid to touch him, lest she crush him with the slightest force. "That's the First Hokage's Wood Release Spore Puppet!"

You promised me...

"You promised not to trade your life for puppetry techniques again?" Half of Bai Ye's face was transparent, revealing the engravings of the Shadow Rock beneath. "But now, it's not puppetry techniques I'm trading, it's the lives of the entire ninja world." He staggered towards the underground stone pillar of the Kazekage's residence, each step leaving a pale green glow of Wood Release on the ground. "Ebizo's ultimate puppet contains a thousand explosive tags; the fluctuations of the Blood Pact Eye will trigger them." He pressed the spore puppet against a crack in the pillar, and as the incantation spilled from between his teeth, the entire building emitted a hollow hum. "The First Hokage's sealing technique can lock down the fluctuations, but it requires..."

"I need you as the medium!" Shuiyue suddenly roared, the shards burning his palm with scorch marks. "You're basically trying to use yourself as the key!"