Fear

Humanity's oldest and strongest emotion was fear. Its most primal fear was the fear of the unknown.

Sasori of the Red Sands had created that kind of fear.

Just how many people had he secretly manipulated into infiltrating Sunagakure?

No one knew.

Could the spectator sitting beside you have been manipulated by Sasori of the Red Sands long ago, waiting for the moment when you were most afraid or most pleased with yourself to pull out a blade and stab you?

Or perhaps they would suddenly produce a powdery poison and scatter it into the air, killing a huge number of people outright?

Fear of the unknown spread through the venue, a chain of suspicion forming between everyone. Fear was written across every face: fear of Sasori, fear of the people beside them, fear of the unknown...

Rasa's expression darkened abruptly. He had already guessed what Sasori of the Red Sands intended to do.

Neither the "Werewolves" attacking the wells nor those lurking in the venue were Sasori of the Red Sands' killing move. Not even the poison he was best at using was his killing move.

The ultimate killing move he had been building toward was fear.

Terror would make people lose their reason and flee on instinct, desperate to survive.

There were tens of thousands of spectators in the venue. If order collapsed and everyone fled in fear, the resulting panic would be devastating.

By then, even if Sasori did nothing and the people he had planted did nothing, the deaths caused by chaos, crowding, and trampling would still reach a terrifying number.

"Everyone, please remain in your seats for now. Don't panic or move around. Trust Sunagakure's ability to organize and its security forces. We'll arrange for people to help you evacuate in an orderly fashion as soon as possible..."

Standing atop a cloud, Rasa called out to the spectators, urging them to stay calm and avoid causing a panic.

Chiyo and the other elders had also seen through Sasori of the Red Sands' scheme. They quickly dispatched people to maintain order and organize an orderly evacuation.

"Stay in our seats? Are you asking us to wait here and die?"

"Who knows if the person beside me is going to suddenly try to kill me!?"

"Let us out!"

"If we can't tell whether the people around us are killers, then we should strike first and kill them! The dead can't kill anyone. If we kill everyone around us, we'll be safe!"

The tens of thousands of spectators' screams, shouts, and angry complaints mingled into a deafening din, giving Rasa a splitting headache. What made it even harder to bear was that some of them were "Werewolves" Sasori of the Red Sands had planted in advance to stir up trouble and sway the crowd.

What could he do?

There was nothing he could do.

A disaster on the scale of a mass stampede seemed unavoidable. Even if the Sunagakure ninja reacted quickly and had the organization to manage it, people manipulated by Sasori were still causing trouble in secret...

It was always far easier to destroy order than to maintain it.

"Hahahahaha..."

Admiring his handiwork in the venue, Sasori of the Red Sands laughed maniacally. They wanted to hunt him down? Then he would destroy Sunagakure first.

How could Sunagakure survive after losing the trust of its financial backers?

And how could a Sunagakure struggling to survive spare the effort to hunt him down?

"Uchiha Jiang Feng!"

Seeing Rasa floundering, at a loss for what to do, Sasori turned to look at the other person who had threatened to hunt him down and taunted him with a crazed laugh.

"Come on, kill me!

"Hahahaha! So what if you can kill me? After today, your reputation will be in tatters. If you and Rasa hadn't threatened to hunt me down, I wouldn't have come here today at all.

"Those fools will blame you and Rasa for causing this disaster..."

Konan's face turned deathly pale. She knew Sasori of the Red Sands was absolutely right.

If only a few people—or even dozens—died, that would be one thing. But if there was a mass-casualty incident, there would surely be self-righteous people who would jump in and pin the blame on Jiang Feng.

Why hadn't you protected everyone?

Why did you provoke Sasori of the Red Sands?

If it weren't for you, those people wouldn't have died. This disaster wouldn't have happened.

Even if Sasori of the Red Sands caused the disaster, weren't you at least one percent responsible?

As long as you accepted that one percent of the blame, the remaining ninety-nine percent would be pinned on you, too.

"Disaster? I don't see one."

Jiang Feng's expression didn't change as he used the Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique to observe the shifting qi of Heaven, Earth, and Man within the venue, searching for and marking those who were taking advantage of the chaos.

You don't see it? Have you gone mad?

Sasori of the Red Sands was about to keep taunting him when he saw Jiang Feng raise a hand and tap the air with his index finger. Streams of finger force shot out without pause, splitting into hundreds of attacks that fell across the spectator stands like spring rain.

One after another, spectators whose emotions were clearly out of control—or who had guilty consciences to begin with—were struck. They slumped in their seats, unable to move. In an instant, hundreds of people had been restrained.

Sasori of the Red Sands was so startled that his face went pale. How was this possible?

Restraining hundreds of people in an instant wasn't all that difficult. To successfully blend into the venue, the "Werewolves" Sasori had planted there were all ordinary people.

The real difficulty was identifying the one percent who were "Werewolves" among tens of thousands of spectators.

So far, few "Werewolves" had openly stirred up trouble; the point was to create as much fear of the unknown as possible. It would have been one thing if Jiang Feng had only restrained those who had already revealed themselves, but he had even identified the "Werewolves" who hadn't been exposed.

Not one too many, not one too few—though he'd even found more than a hundred extras: irrational spectators who had unwittingly fueled the panic.

"Even if you—"

Sasori of the Red Sands gritted his teeth, about to keep blustering, when he saw Jiang Feng raise his hand and create a misty Illusionary Realm that enveloped the entire venue.

Then the spectators throughout the venue gradually regained their senses, quickly realizing that all the "Werewolves" Sasori had planted had been restrained.

The source of the fear had been cut off, its spread brought under control, and the chain of suspicion between people broken. Order slowly began to return.

"What kind of Illusion Technique is this?" Sasori of the Red Sands exclaimed in shock.

It was just an ordinary Illusion Technique, so ordinary it could only produce a special effect.

What had truly helped tens of thousands of spectators regain their senses so quickly was the Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique.

The Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique could reveal not only the qi and momentum of Heaven, Earth, and Man, but also manipulate and make use of those mysterious forces. It had countless applications, whether to empower oneself or attack others.

What Jiang Feng had done was to regulate the chaotic Three Realms Qi Energy of Heaven, Earth, and Man throughout the venue, indirectly influencing the temperament of tens of thousands of spectators. He had made them more rational and helped them realize more quickly that the source of the fear had been eliminated.

Once most people were no longer afraid, order naturally returned.

"Now, what other tricks do you have?" Jiang Feng looked down at Sasori of the Red Sands with a mocking expression.

"Uchiha Jiang Feng!"

Sasori of the Red Sands roared hysterically. Clearly, he had no tricks left.