Thunderfall

Crack! Crack!

Suspended in the low air, Souya continuously summoned vast amounts of gold sand into his hand, condensing and compressing it as a slender golden spear gradually took shape within his loosely clenched palm!

The lightning dragon's body had now been mostly dragged into the sand vortex; its originally azure-blue dragon form appeared somewhat translucent, and the scales on its surface were blurred, barely showing faint patterns. As for the Thunder Blades embedded in the dragon's head, they could no longer output lightning. Raiga Kurosuki's face showed signs of panic—after all, he had poured nearly all his Chakra into the lightning dragon, yet it still couldn't escape this Sand Purgatory.

He could only helplessly remain atop the dragon's head. Without flight ability and with almost no Chakra left, falling into the sand vortex below would mean being buried alive on the spot.

Pfft!

Finally, with a soft sound, the lightning dragon was torn in half by two massive arms formed from condensed gold sand. As the dragon dissipated, a spray of water splashed everywhere, reflecting gorgeous colors under the setting sun, with faint traces of flickering electricity still visible.

After shredding the lightning dragon, the gold sand arms coiled upward and wrapped tightly around Raiga Kurosuki midair.

"Lightning Burial? Lightning Feast!"

Raiga Kurosuki gripped the Thunder Blades, trying to summon one final bolt of lightning to strike himself. Clearly, being captured alive by an enemy was a disgrace to him, and he chose to leave the world in a spectacular manner.

But how could Souya let him have his way? His corpse still had great uses.

Souya raised both hands, and the gold sand arms slapped the Thunder Blades with force, sending them flying. Then, the gold sand adhered to Raiga Kurosuki's palms, spreading across his entire body. In no time, his limbs and torso were tightly bound in gold sand, completely immobilized, unable even to reach for the fallen Thunder Blades.

Souya clearly had no intention of chatting with the enemy. The moment he bound Raiga Kurosuki, the golden spear shimmering with metallic luster in his hand was already thrown.

Pfft!

With a sound of piercing air, the spear plunged into Raiga Kurosuki's head in an instant, like a watermelon suddenly struck by immense force. A thick mixture of red and white liquid sprayed from the back of his skull.

"Huff! Huff!"

Souya's body went limp, and he gasped heavily for air, collapsing onto the Gold Cloud. Against such a formidable foe, his Chakra was nearly depleted.

Fortunately, his cautious nature had led him to stockpile a large amount of gold sand here in advance, saving him the Chakra and time needed to refine it during battle.

Earlier, when he crashed into the earthen mountain, despite the protection of the gold sand, his internal organs had still suffered a fair amount of shock.

After carefully inspecting Raiga Kurosuki's corpse with the gold sand, he used it to transport the body in front of him.

After all, among ninjas, there were often desperadoes who would detonate a large number of Explosive Tags before death or carve some kind of mutual-destruction Sealing Technique into themselves. If they couldn't win, they'd drag the enemy—or at least their bridge—down with them.

Souya naturally needed to check whether Raiga Kurosuki had such hobbies before he could safely proceed with looting the corpse.

Two scrolls, some coins, and two ninja tool pouches containing smoke bombs, Explosive Tags, and the like.

One of the scrolls was a mission scroll detailing their objective and the route map.

The other recorded the location of their contact personnel.

"Hmm. These Secret Ports are somewhat useful. I'll have Sasori take control of them later."

Souya rubbed his chin. He hadn't expected to find any legendary techniques or large sums of money on Raiga Kurosuki.

After all, when ninjas went on missions—especially during wartime—they basically carried their lives on their belts. Money and technique scrolls were rarely brought along.

"This is the most useful thing!" Souya picked up the Thunder Blades from the ground, splitting them into two short swords. As he infused them with Chakra, the twin blades sparked with several silver-white currents of electricity that flickered across the edges.

Among the seven Ninja Swords, Souya had always felt that the most valuable were this Thunder Blades and Samehada. As for the rest, frankly, even if he got his hands on them, he didn't think they'd be of much use to him.

Bang!

A puff of White Smoke rose, and Raiga Kurosuki's corpse along with the Thunder Blades were stored into a Sealing Scroll.

This was also why Souya had been diligently training in Sealing Techniques—only by mastering these Sealing Scrolls could he experience the thrill of a storage ring from a fantasy world.

Putting away the Sealing Scroll, he popped a Military Rations Pill into his mouth, stepped onto a Gold Cloud, and flew toward Sasori's direction.

If Sasori hadn't finished his fight yet, he'd still have to pitch in.

"This..." Souya hovered in the air on his Gold Cloud, mouth slightly agape, staring at the scene below in disbelief.

A massive earthen mountain, as thick as a city wall, stretched across the landscape, standing out starkly even in the surrounding mountainous terrain.

Beneath the earthen mountain, a river about a meter deep flowed slowly. From above, the terrain here was low-lying, so the water released by Suikazan Fuguki hadn't fully drained yet, still seeping into the ground.

But the most peculiar thing was the color of this water—a riot of hues that screamed danger, as if a mischievous child had splashed all sorts of colored markers across white paper, letting their imagination run wild.

If one were to dive to the bottom, they'd find that these strange, colorful liquids weren't just dangerous in appearance—they were actually a highly toxic mixture laced with various poisons.

Even the soil at the riverbed seemed unable to withstand such intense poison erosion, constantly bubbling up with mournful gasps.

On top of this straight-line earthen mountain, the clanging of metal rang out incessantly, drawing Souya's attention.

Sasori was commanding a puppet in fierce combat with Juzō Biwa. The Kubikiribōchō and the puppet's scythes clashed repeatedly, sending sparks of metal flying in all directions.

As for the two Human Puppets from Iwagakure, they were no longer by Sasori's side, having disappeared somewhere.

Souya spotted Suikazan Fuguki's figure behind Juzō Biwa. He was now lying prone on the earthen mountain, his body surface stained with various colors like spilled dye—red, blue, green—his condition unknown.

Meanwhile, Samehada was flopping around not far from Suikazan Fuguki, like a fish stranded onshore.

"Sasori! Get up here!"

Souya flew the Gold Cloud directly beside Sasori. Sasori leaped up, and Souya carried him into the air.

"You alright?" Souya asked.

"What could happen? What about yours? Done yet?" Sasori replied in his usual tone.

"Just kidding—if I hadn't taken him out, would I be here to save you?" Souya teased.

"You think I need you to save me?"

They talked back and forth, but neither turned their head an inch, both keeping their focus on Juzō Biwa.

Sasori's right hand moved lightly, still directing the puppet in its struggle against him.

Meanwhile, Souya pressed his palms together, summoning a stream of Gold Sand from beneath the water—not much in quantity, but enough to serve as a distraction.