Golden Body, Zhonya's Hourglass!

The Bringer-of-Darkness Technique was lifted, and the veil that had robbed the light dissipated.

Sode no Shirayuki pierced his heart, and extreme cold permeated his entire body. Ma Ying, Elite Jonin Sand Ninja Ma Ying, died.

It wasn't Genjutsu or any other Stand ability, nor did it involve any deception.

With the Sharingan's power and the Mind's Eye's perception, it's impossible for someone to pull off a ridiculous scheme like "faking death to trick Shunren into dispelling the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique and then launching a powerful counterattack."

The author has already devoted enough space to describing Ma Ying, a minor character who wasn't even mentioned in the original novel. If he were to stage another dramatic comeback, do you think that Ma Ying would actually be the protagonist?

Shunren stirred the knife tip, which was plunged into the other man's heart, haphazardly inside his body, and the blood that gushed out like a spring was instantly frozen.

"His heart is destroyed, and all his cells are frozen. There is no possibility of him coming back to life." Shunren was now absolutely certain of Ma Ying's death. Whether it was just his overthinking or something else, he had this strange feeling that the enemy wouldn't be so easy to deal with.

Even if Ma Ying, who was standing right in front of him, suddenly came back to life and attacked him in the next second, Shunren would not be surprised.

However, the truth is that Ma Ying had already been completely killed by him.

But this is not the final result!

Shunren underestimated Ma Ying, an Elite Jonin, even though he considered him to be just an "unknown" extra.

A barely audible hissing sound.

Hidden inside his clothes, Ma Ying's body was covered with a dozen or so Explosive Tag, pre-programmed with a time-limited spell that would activate "once the host dies".

"Huh?!" Without warning, a sudden and immense sense of crisis overwhelmed Shunren, causing his pupils to constrict sharply. He immediately withdrew and retreated swiftly!

"BOOM!!!"

It exploded violently, centered on Ma Ying's body, destroying everything within a radius of dozens of feet!

"Chirp~" Something flew out from the explosion, it was the Sode no Shirayuki in Shunren's hand. It flew more than a hundred meters away and stuck in the ground, then quickly turned into smoke and dust and disappeared.

From the dissipation of the darkness to the massive explosion, it all happened almost simultaneously. As a result, the Konoha and Sand Ninja forces, who were still engaged in battle, stopped fighting and stared in disbelief at everything.

"What... what happened?" The Konoha Ninja looked completely bewildered.

However, the Sand Ninja on the other side were not completely unaware. Their expressions were quite grim and unpleasant. "This explosion... it seems that Senior Ma Ying has died in battle, and it seems he perished along with the enemy."

"Retreat!"

With their leader killed in action, the remaining Sand Ninja had completely lost their will to fight and decisively turned and fled.

On the Konoha side, because Shunren's fate was unknown, they dared not pursue the Sand Ninja and could only watch helplessly as they retreated.

"Shunren!"

The Konoha members rushed to the site of the explosion, where a massive crater tens of meters deep lay, demonstrating the sheer terror of the blast. So, what became of Shunren, who was almost at the epicenter of the explosion?

"Wh... what?!" However, what they saw shocked the Konoha members. In their view, being hit by dozens of Explosive Tag stacked together at such close range would be a death sentence, or at least a gruesome death.

But what they saw was a flash of brilliant golden light, and Shunren stood there unharmed, a stark contrast to the surrounding wrecked crater.

"That was a close call..." Suddenly, a golden hourglass appeared in Shunren's palm.

Zhonya's Hourglass, unique active skill: Stasis. Grants Shunren immunity to all physical damage for 2.5 seconds.

In other words, the Golden Body! At the crucial moment, Shunren projected the Zhonya's Hourglass and activated the Golden Body, so that he suffered zero damage from Ma Ying's self-destruction.

"Crack!" The golden hourglass shattered in his hand, and just as Shunren had expected, it could not be projected again for a period of time.

If Ma Ying were alive today, and saw that his selfless attack had failed to harm Shunren in the slightest, he would probably be furious.

However, Shunren felt no sense of complacency at this moment. This was because the Zhonya's Hourglass was one of the few pieces of equipment that Shunren could currently project that could provide him with a means of survival.

Shunren originally thought that he should use the Golden Body as a life-saving trump card when fighting against Kage Level powerhouses. However, he never expected that an Elite Jonin from the Sand Ninja Village would force him to use the Golden Body due to his momentary carelessness! This made the prestige of the divine equipment drop.

Despite Shunren's somewhat frustrated mood, the defensive line he was responsible for successfully withstood the Sand Ninja's attack.

Then, as time went by, the second battle between the Sand Ninja and Konoha at Kikyo Mountain came to an end as night fell.

The losses on both sides in the second battle were as follows:

Konoha Ninja casualties: 784

Major losses: 60% of the Mountain-Suppressing Barrier was destroyed; two or more companies of medical-nin were sniped and assassinated.

Sand Ninja casualties: 1426

Heavy losses: The siege ballistae and the remaining puppeteers were completely wiped out; the elite Anbu participating in the special operations also suffered more than half casualties.

Battle result: Draw. Konoha successfully repelled the Sand Ninja's attack.

After the two major battles at Kikyo Mountain, both Konoha and Sand Ninja suffered heavy losses, but it was clear to everyone that Sand Ninja was at a disadvantage.

Rasa, Chiyo, and Pakura, among other Sand Ninja leaders, were the first to engage in battle. Meanwhile, Kyosho, Fugaku, and Yashiro launched a counterattack, successfully overwhelming the enemy in terms of momentum. Ultimately, Rasa was forced to order a retreat.

The following day, the Sand Ninja sent a request to Konoha for a ceasefire.

Since the main force of the Konoha side consisted of the Uchiha Clan, and the Uchiha wanted to preserve their strength, they were unwilling to fight the Sand Ninja to the death. They preferred to stop while they were ahead, lest they end up being wiped out as well.

Therefore, it was announced that the ceasefire request from the Sand Ninja was accepted, and the leaders of the two armies were scheduled to hold high-level talks three days later.

And so, the Sand Ninja and Konoha gradually moved toward a peaceful ceasefire.

Lurking beneath Kikyo Mountain, White Zetsu monitored everything on the battlefield.

"A ceasefire? That won't do! You have to follow Lord Madara's script!"