Chapter Summaries

Isshiki released the First State of his Wedge and overwhelmed Cang, who used Causality to exploit small openings and escape beneath the ice. With Isshiki’s attack now threatening to shatter Cang’s body and Chakra through the ice, Cang’s eyes began to glow dark gold.

• Isshiki activated his Wedge’s First State and used a massive repulsive force to send the ice beneath Cang surging upward.
• Cang wove temporary stability into a chunk of ice, using it as a foothold to escape the rising spikes.
• Isshiki pursued Cang and wounded his right shoulder, but Cang guided a burst of decaying energy from his left-arm wound to disrupt Isshiki’s strike and sink beneath the ice.
• Isshiki praised Cang’s skill at survival, then warned that his body and Chakra could not sustain many more Causality interventions.
• Isshiki tapped the ice and sent a Chakra shockwave through it to disrupt anyone hiding below, while Cang’s eyes began to glow dark gold.

Cang awakened Sage Mode beneath the ice and used his amplified causality powers to survive Isshiki’s attacks before emerging to confront him. Isshiki unleashed a modified Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, and Cang identified weaknesses in its energy network as their battle escalated.

• Cang awakened Sage Mode, healed his wounds, and resonated with the natural energy around him.
• Isshiki attacked Cang with dozens of Yin–Yang Release spikes, but Cang erased the causes of three spikes and dodged the rest.
• Cang broke through the ice and told Isshiki that he would remain on the icefield.
• Isshiki unleashed a modified Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, sending sealing giant hands to strike Cang from every direction.
• Cang activated Sage Art: All Things in Nature: Causality Cycle and perceived weak points in the giant hands’ connection to Isshiki.

Cang used Sage Art and his Rinnegan to twist the causal rules behind Isshiki’s attacks, then narrowly survived Isshiki’s concentrated three-fist assault by triggering a flaw in one fist’s energy control. He escaped badly injured, with his Sage Art nearly spent and his left arm crippled, while Isshiki remained standing.

• Cang activated a rotating causal wheel and redirected, disrupted, and weakened Isshiki’s giant-hand attacks, though their impacts still injured him.
• Isshiki abandoned the giant hands’ complex effects and condensed them into three colossal fists that sealed off Cang’s escape routes.
• Cang traced the fists’ energy connection to Isshiki and forced an overload-related control error to occur in one fist at the moment of impact.
• The three fists devastated the ice peak, but a slight shift in the lower-left fist left Cang a narrow gap to escape through.
• Cang flew out of the destruction and struck a distant ice cliff, alive but gravely wounded and nearly out of Chakra.

Cang used a hidden blood formation to summon the Dragon Vein, interrupting Isshiki’s attempt to place the Wedge and transform him. The Dragon Vein healed Cang and fused with his Sage Art power, leaving the two poised to resume their battle on an entirely new level.

• Isshiki approached the gravely injured Cang and prepared to plant the Wedge, intending to subdue and transform him.
• Cang tapped a concealed formation into the ice with his blood and remaining Sage Art energy, and Isshiki recognized its spatial resonance too late to stop it.
• The formation summoned the Dragon Vein, whose immense energy blasted Isshiki away and enveloped Cang.
• Dragon Vein energy healed Cang and fused with his Sage Art Chakra, restoring his strength and creating a new dark-gold and pale-violet power.
• Cang declared that his performance was entering its climax as the Dragon Vein’s energy flowed into him, and he faced Isshiki across the ice field.

Cang used the Dragon Vein, the shrine maiden’s spiritual power, Mōryō’s chakra, and his sealing knowledge to complete the initial form of All Things in Nature Sage Mode. Isshiki responded by forcing his Wedge vessel into a higher synchronization rate, and the two prepared to clash again.

• Cang balanced the Dragon Vein’s energy with the shrine maiden’s yang and Mōryō’s yin through sealing principles, transforming into All Things in Nature Sage Mode.
• Isshiki recognized the conflicting powers within Cang and questioned how his body and soul could withstand their union.
• Cang explained that his body and soul served as a sealing vessel connected to the Dragon Vein, and contrasted his path with the Otsutsuki’s pursuit of power.
• Isshiki grew enraged, spread the Wedge’s markings across his body, and unleashed a greater surge of chakra by increasing his synchronization with the vessel.
• Cang’s Rinnegan sensed the change in Isshiki’s power, and Cang challenged him to reveal the limits of a god’s vessel.

Isshiki unleashed the Wedge’s second stage and injured Cang despite Cang’s precise sealing techniques and All Things in Nature Sage Mode. Cang activated the Earth Vein Sealing Array against Isshiki’s twin black cubes, beginning a more brutal clash.

• Isshiki transformed into the Wedge’s second stage and launched a spatial-folding thrust at Cang.
• Cang used a miniature sealing array to guide and disperse most of Isshiki’s attack, then deflected Isshiki’s follow-up punch.
• A thread of annihilating energy pierced Cang’s defenses, wounded his palm, and knocked him backward.
• Isshiki summoned two black cubes with Sukunahikona: Twin Star Annihilation and challenged Cang to withstand his power.
• Cang confronted Isshiki over the growing discord between him and Jigen, then activated the Earth Vein Sealing Array.

Cang and Isshiki clashed with their strongest spatial and sealing techniques, and both were left injured as the battle’s strain mounted. Cang exposed the worsening incompatibility between Isshiki’s Wedge and Jigen’s vessel, provoking Isshiki into a furious final charge as Cang prepared to meet him.

• Isshiki’s Sukunahikona cubes collided with Cang’s Earth Vein Sealing Array, and Isshiki detonated them to trigger a spatial collapse.
• Cang dispersed the array and escaped the collapse, but the spatial storm wounded his left side while Isshiki showed signs of strain.
• Cang identified the vessel’s rejection symptoms and explained that Isshiki’s attacks were accelerating the Wedge’s incompatibility with Jigen’s body.
• Isshiki rejected Cang’s warning and claimed the vessel had enough strength to kill him before it failed.
• Isshiki charged Cang with a final attack, and Cang gathered Dragon Vein, yin, and yang energy to face him.

Cang created an unstable Yin–Yang orb to blunt Isshiki’s killing charge, damaging Isshiki’s horn and worsening the strain on Jigen’s vessel. Both fighters reached their limits, and as Isshiki prepared a final attack, Cang called on the Rōran Dragon Vein for the coming confrontation.

• Cang forcibly fused his powers and sealing arts into an unstable pseudo orb, suffering severe backlash as he formed it.
• Cang’s pseudo orb clashed with Isshiki’s black horn, weakening the attack and cracking the horn before the orb shattered.
• The collision badly injured Cang and exposed further damage and backlash in Isshiki’s vessel, but Cang rose and taunted Isshiki about its limits.
• Isshiki resolved to unleash a final attack even if it destroyed Jigen’s vessel, while black cracks spread through the frozen hidden realm.
• Cang traced a rune with his remaining Dragon Vein energy and called toward the Rōran Dragon Vein’s source as Isshiki’s power surged.

Cang used the Dragon Vein’s power to resist Isshiki’s Return to Nothingness, but both were left badly injured. As Isshiki tried to brand him with a Wedge, Cang used his final Causality Dojutsu Power to divert the branding to a distant connection and escape to Angkor Fortress, where he arrived near death as the alarm crystals lit up.

• Isshiki unleashed Return to Nothingness, and Cang drew on a dark-purple torrent of Dragon Vein energy to counter it with a murky stream of light.
• The clash crippled both fighters, but Isshiki approached Cang and prepared to brand him with a Wedge, intending to make him a new vessel.
• Cang used his final Causality Interference to shift the Wedge’s target point toward his fortress anchor in the Land of Sound.
• Cang vanished from the collapsing secret realm, leaving Isshiki with a weak, unstable Wedge connection and forcing him to retreat to recover.
• Cang reappeared on a rune-carved platform in Angkor Fortress, nearly lifeless, as the chamber’s alarm crystals flashed red.

Cang lay near death after the failed, mutated Wedge implantation, and Zhi Li, White Fang, and the fortress’s medical team fought to keep him alive. After many hours of treatment, Cang began to stir and opened his eyes, though the unstable mark and his injuries remained.

• Zhi Li and White Fang found Cang gravely wounded on the stone platform, with a mutated dark-purple glow flickering on his forehead.
• White Fang ordered the highest-level emergency protocol, while Zhi Li used her Mangekyō Sharingan to stabilize Cang’s mind and Chakra.
• The fortress medical team connected Cang to the Dragon Vein life-support system and treated his injuries while purification Barriers suppressed the Void’s End scar.
• Cang’s life signs improved only slightly, and the mutated glow persisted as traces of purplish-gold energy were swallowed by the dark purple.
• After more than a dozen hours, Cang moved his fingers, breathed more clearly, and slowly opened his eyes to reveal dim Rinnegan with a purplish-gold spark.

Cang briefly regained consciousness after redirecting Isshiki’s Wedge into an unstable, aberrant state, leaving him alive but gravely weakened in the fortress. Isshiki survived the failed implantation and began repairing his damaged vessel, while the Wedge’s strange fluctuations hinted that its effects were still changing.

• Cang recognized that the misplaced Wedge was clashing with his body and the fortress’s energies, and he briefly reassured Zhi Li before losing consciousness again.
• Zhi Li and White Fang stayed beside Cang as his vital signs fluctuated and the aberrant Wedge continued to glow and adapt.
• Isshiki crashed into an abandoned cavern in the northern icefields with Jigen’s vessel and Wedge badly damaged.
• Isshiki deduced that Cang had diverted the Wedge’s causal landing point to the fortress, weakening Isshiki’s control over the connection.
• Isshiki began repairing his vessel and stabilizing the Wedge while vowing to return and claim Cang and the fortress.
• Isshiki sensed a new abnormal fluctuation from the Land of Sound and grew more uneasy about the Wedge’s developing mutation.

While recovering from his injuries, Cang probed the aberrant Wedge and discovered that its flawed connection to Isshiki might offer a chance to resist. He warned Zhi Li and White Fang that a storm was coming, while Isshiki sensed an unexpected disturbance and continued repairing himself.

• Cang briefly awoke and sensed Isshiki through the Wedge, picking up fragments of information about its flaws and their disrupted connection.
• Cang's attempt to probe the Wedge triggered a painful reaction, and Zhi Li and White Fang saw violet-gold patterns spread across its halo as it adapted into an unstable symbiosis with Cang's power and the Dragon Vein.
• Cang detected fragments of Isshiki's plans to find a backup vessel, create chaos, and wait for the aberrant Wedge to stabilize or collapse.
• Cang wrote a warning to hurry preparations because a storm was coming, then fell back into a deep stupor.
• Isshiki sensed a faint disturbance in his connection to Cang, dismissed Cang's resistance, and resumed his repairs while harboring doubt about the aberrant Wedge.

Cang used Dragon Vein energy, remnants of All Things in Nature Power, and Uzumaki sealing arts to create a conceptual barrier that partially obscured his aberrant Wedge from Isshiki. The barrier weakened Isshiki’s perception but worsened Cang’s condition and helped the Wedge adapt, leaving Cang determined to study it before Isshiki acted.

• Cang examined the distorted Wedge and realized Isshiki was using it to analyze and track him.
• Cang built and activated a fluctuating isolation membrane from Dragon Vein energy, All Things in Nature Power, and sealing runes.
• The membrane disrupted Isshiki’s perception and the Wedge’s information gathering, but drained Cang and stimulated the Wedge’s adaptability.
• Cang collapsed into coughing blood as Zhi Li and White Fang helped him recover.
• Isshiki detected the interference, began analyzing its patterns, and resolved to adapt his strategy while keeping Cang under pursuit.
• Cang told himself he needed to study the Wedge and prepare for Isshiki’s next attack.

Cang analyzed the distorted Wedge and discovered its unstable connection to Isshiki could potentially be manipulated. His probing triggered a violent backlash, and Isshiki ordered the Wedge to record Cang’s resistance at any cost, leaving Cang unconscious as the struggle intensified.

• Cang used a shielding layer to examine the Wedge and found its conversion protocol had been warped by his injuries, Dragon Vein energy, and remnants of All Things in Nature Power.
• Cang discovered that the connection between the Wedge and Isshiki carried faint backflow, and considered sending Isshiki false or contaminated information through it.
• The Wedge violently retaliated against Cang’s probing, while Zhi Li and White Fang tried to contain the surge in the secret chamber.
• Isshiki sensed Cang’s analysis, failed to regain precise control through the unstable connection, and ordered the Wedge to record Cang’s resistance and build a host model regardless of cost.
• Cang survived the backlash long enough to recognize the new command and the connection’s distortions as a possible opening, then told Zhi Li and White Fang to continue before losing consciousness.

Cang deceived Isshiki through the mutated Wedge, buying time while both men’s bodies deteriorated. After detecting that Isshiki’s vessel was failing, Cang alerted Zhi Li and White Fang, who began preparing to exploit the enemy’s weakness.

• Cang corrupted the Wedge’s data with fabricated signs of collapse and resistance, making Isshiki hesitate while the deception drained Cang’s life force.
• Zhi Li proposed guiding the Wedge’s mutation into an energy-inert state, and White Fang authorized her to proceed with all available resources.
• Isshiki detected contradictions in Cang’s data but, with Jigen’s body failing, chose to accelerate the adaptation of a backup vessel and sent Cang a disguised probing command.
• Jigen’s Wedge connection developed unstable cracks, and Isshiki’s pain and agitation leaked through the fragile connection to Cang.
• Cang sensed Isshiki’s weakness and signaled Zhi Li, who warned White Fang that the enemy’s condition was worse than expected.
• White Fang activated Emergency Simulation Plan A-3, redirected resources to Zhi Li’s experiment, and raised the fortress’s alert level.

Isshiki, near the limits of Jigen’s failing body, sent Inner Circle operatives to infiltrate Amegakure Fortress while seeking to restore his strength with the miniature Ten-Tails. As the fortress prepared for an attack and Zhi Li worked to alter Cang’s mutated Wedge, Cang planted false information for Isshiki before losing consciousness.

• Isshiki decided to draw Chakra from the miniature Ten-Tails to stabilize Jigen’s vessel and contacted Amado to send Phantom Shadow, Eclipse, and Suppression of the Inner Circle against Amegakure Fortress.
• Cang lay near death in the fortress while Zhi Li experimented with ways to make the mutated Wedge’s energy inert, and White Fang warned that unknown shinobi were infiltrating the Land of Sound.
• Cang faintly warned them to prepare for battle and indicated the northwest, prompting White Fang to mobilize the fortress’s defenses while Zhi Li continued her risky research.
• Cang secretly fed the Wedge false data describing a nonexistent weakness in his power, hoping Isshiki would act on the bait, then sank into unconsciousness.

White Fang and the fortress defenders fought off three Kara infiltrators in Butterfly Nest, but the attackers broke through toward Cang’s core chamber. Zhi Li stopped Youying in the next passage by triggering runes that disrupted his shadow ability.

• Kagami and White Fang prepared Butterfly Nest as a battlefield while Zhi Li remained in the core chamber to protect Cang and monitor the defenses.
• White Fang, Xiyue, Light, and Shisui ambushed Specter, Erosion, and Suppression with coordinated attacks, but none of the infiltrators was decisively defeated.
• Suppression unleashed a heavy-pressure domain and blasted open a passage while Erosion’s corrosion hindered the defenders and Specter led the advance toward Cang.
• White Fang and the others pursued, but Youying slipped past Butterfly Nest and reached a passage leading toward the core chamber.
• Zhi Li activated layered Dragon Vein runes that amplified Youying’s shadow ability, forced him to materialize, and blocked his path.

Zhi Li trapped Erosion with a Dragon Vein resonance barrier and joined White Fang and Kagami in stopping his assault, though his self-destructive explosion sent a faint shadow beacon back to its source. She returned to the core chamber, where the fighting had stirred Cang’s Wedge into a more active response to the distant call of power.

• Zhi Li’s resonance barrier disrupted Erosion’s shadow abilities, and she, White Fang, and Kagami cornered him in the passage.
• Erosion detonated himself and his Shadow Clones in a burst of corrosive shadow fragments, but Zhi Li’s Deflection Filter Barrier and White Fang’s blade shielded the defenders.
• Kagami sensed that Erosion’s core consciousness had dispersed, though a faint shadow beacon escaped toward its source.
• Kagami reported that Xiyue, Shisui, and the Uchiha Hawk Guard were holding Corrosion and Zhen back, while Zhi Li ordered White Fang to join the fight and Kagami to oversee the defenses.
• Zhi Li returned to the core chamber and found that the battle had stirred Cang’s Wedge, so she worked to calm his energy and isolate the Wedge.

White Fang, Shisui, Xiyue, and the Uchiha Eagle Guard defeated Kara’s inner-circle members Zhen and Erosion in the Butterfly Nest, though Erosion was captured alive. With Kara’s outer forces approaching and Isshiki possibly alerted by the battle, White Fang ordered the fortress to prepare for a full assault while Zhi Li guarded Cang in the core chamber.

• The Uchiha Eagle Guard joined Xiyue and Shisui, using coordinated Susanoo defenses and Chakra interference devices to contain Zhen and Erosion.
• White Fang wounded Zhen with a slash that pierced its kinetic-energy absorption, then stopped its attempted self-destruction by striking the energy node in its chest.
• Xiyue and the Eagle Guard overwhelmed Erosion, leaving it severely wounded and unable to fight.
• Zhi Li reported approaching Kara forces and abnormal Wedge activity in the core chamber, suggesting Isshiki might have sensed the inner-circle members’ defeat.
• White Fang ordered the fortress forces to prepare for the assault and assigned Zhi Li to protect Cang in the core chamber.

Kara's forces launched a major assault on the fortress, but Mirror's defenses and coordinated strikes destroyed the enemy's three largest war puppets. As the battle worsened and Kara's purpose appeared tied to the Wedge inside Cang, an ancient Chakra fluctuation rose from the Butterfly Nest beneath the fortress.

• Mirror activated the Mirror Corridor, disrupting Kara's advancing troops until an enemy leader altered the terrain and aircraft dropped Chakra interference bombs.
• Mirror ordered the Sky Ninja, Uzumaki squad, and fortress garrison to counterattack as enemy war puppets battered the energy shield.
• White Fang, Shisui, and the Uchiha Eagle Guard destroyed the three largest war puppets, easing pressure on the fortress's defenses.
• Enemy commanders engaged White Fang and Shisui, spread a corrosive swamp, and used a horn to drive Kara's forces into a berserk assault.
• Mirror strengthened the Mirror Corridor's mental interference, while Zhi Li reinforced the core chamber's defenses as the Wedge on Cang's forehead reacted to the horn.
• As the battle turned into a costly stalemate, ancient Chakra stirred in the Butterfly Nest below the fortress, and Xiyue wondered whether she would intervene.