The Demon About to Break Free

Uchiha Chen stood before Zijing, looking down at her coldly. His voice was icy as he said, "Don't think so highly of yourself. Put those little schemes of yours away, and don't get clever."

Zijing lay on the ground, barely managing to prop herself up with both hands. She looked up at Uchiha Chen, her eyes holding three parts apology and seven parts regret.

Zijing gritted her teeth and gasped for breath. "I'm... sorry. I had no choice. Please forgive me. I really can't hold on any longer. If this continues, the demon will break through the seal any moment now."

Zijing gradually fell silent. In truth, even if the demon tried to break free, it wouldn't happen so soon. At the rate things had been going, it would have taken at least another year or two for the demon to escape the seal.

But Zijing had tried to be clever and wasted too much of her strength, leaving her with hardly any power to suppress the demon.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the demon broke free.

Only now did Zijing realize how much she regretted it. But what good was regret? What had happened could not be undone. She no longer had enough strength to maintain the seal.

If this dragged on any longer, even sacrificing her life might not be enough for Zijing to seal the demon.

In Uchiha Chen's original world, that was exactly what happened. Without Chen there, Zijing sacrificed her life a year later to seal the demon again after it broke free.

But because her power had been depleted, the demon seized the opportunity to tie its own life to the fate of the Miko clan.

That was why, when Naruto and Shion sealed the demon, it had