These ghost flames weren't anything supernatural. They were a special Fire Release Ninjutsu unique to the Land of Demons, called "Fire Style: Ghost Poison Jade."
The principle behind "Ghost Poison Jade" was similar to that of the ghost fires often seen in graveyards. Both were created when phosphine gas, produced by decaying bones, spontaneously ignited.
The only difference was that the ninjas of the Land of Demons used chakra to mimic these ghost flames, then infused them with a potent corpse poison.
If a ninja was struck by "Ghost Poison Jade," they wouldn't necessarily get burned, but the corpse poison entering their body was extremely difficult to deal with.
Touma knew that the ninjas in the village's Corpse Disposal Unit had to take precautions and undergo regular medical examinations. Otherwise, even using the "Delicate Illness Extraction Technique" to purge the poison wouldn't remove all the corpse poison that had accumulated in their bodies.
And yet, the Corpse Disposal Unit's rate of work-related injuries remained high, nearly comparable to the death rate among the border guard units.
Orochimaru had studied corpse poison as well, but its composition was extremely complex. Developing a broad-spectrum antidote was basically impossible; the only option was to make antidotes individually, according to how each type of poison worked.
That was why ninjas rarely used corpse-poison-coated weapons on large battlefields. It was one of the few tacit understandings shared by the Five Great Nations.
If corpse poison began spreading on a large scale, it wouldn't be something one village or nation could escape unscathed. After all, aside from the Land of Water overseas and a few small island nations, the other countries all bordered one another. A large-scale release of corpse poison could easily spread to one's own people.
If the poison continued to spread and mutate, then even if medical ninjas from across the Shinobi World joined forces, they couldn't possibly produce enough antidotes. The end result could well be the extinction of humanity.
Therefore, if the Land of Demons dared to use an uncontrollable corpse-poison technique like "Ghost Poison Jade" within the Land of Fire, the Land of Fire had every reason to destroy it in the name of humanitarianism.
Even though Onizuka Kenichi had fled overseas after losing the struggle for power, he still couldn't completely escape responsibility.
"Ghost Poison Jade" couldn't be treated like an ordinary Fire Release technique and countered with Water Release Ninjutsu. If they did that, the corpse poison in "Ghost Poison Jade" might spread with the rising steam.
The best way was to fight fire with fire. Fortunately, the Fire Release techniques Touma had mastered belonged to the oil-flame style developed by the Third. They refined chakra into oil and then ignited it, allowing them to reach extremely high temperatures.
By refining the process of turning chakra into oil, Touma had developed even hotter versions: the C-rank "Golden Flash" and "Azure Lotus Drop," the B-rank "Orchid Ghost Burn," and the A-rank "Purple Jade Slash."
"Golden Flash" and "Azure Lotus Drop" only increased chakra density. Anyone with sufficient chakra control could perform them; the only real difference was how much chakra they put in.
"Golden Flash" could reach around 1,200 degrees Celsius, while "Azure Lotus Drop" could reach around 1,400.
The hotter "Orchid Ghost Burn" and "Purple Jade Slash" were completely different. Simply increasing chakra density could no longer raise the temperature. Instead, they required assigning a new movement pattern to the oil refined from chakra.
The chakra oil movement pattern of "Orchid Ghost Burn" was somewhat like the second stage of the Rasengan: it rotated and compressed around a central point. It could be formed outside the body and posed little danger.
"Purple Jade Slash" was entirely different. Its movement pattern couldn't be formed outside the body, and it required ample time to build up power, making it extremely dangerous for the user.
Of course, danger and reward went hand in hand. Though "Purple Jade Slash" was A-rank in difficulty, both its danger and destructive power were enough to qualify it as a forbidden technique.
When Touma had first completed the technique, he'd tested it in the forest outside the capital. He'd thought he was far enough away, but the shock wave from "Purple Jade Slash" still reached him. He'd nearly been sucked backward into the center of the blast.
At the time, the explosion's center had been close to 2,000 degrees Celsius. The plants and small animals at its heart had vaporized, and even the rocks beneath the soil's humus layer had melted into glass.
Since no one could figure out who had caused it, the capital's media had even speculated that a meteorite had fallen in the middle of the night, leaving such terrifying marks in Aoki Forest.
So, facing "Ghost Poison Jade," Touma didn't dare jump straight to "Purple Jade Slash." "Golden Flash" was more than enough.
He quickly formed hand seals, then pressed his palms together. A flash of light burst from between them. Like a slash, the golden radiance cut along the path of the incoming "Ghost Poison Jade," instantly countering more than a dozen of them.
Shinku Yuhi couldn't let his student steal all the glory, either. He immediately used a sensing technique, tracing the "Ghost Poison Jade" back to where it had come from. Before long, he detected the Yomi Sect members hiding behind several Buddha statues in the main hall.
Now that he'd found their position, Shinku Yuhi sent his genjutsu along the path of his sensing technique, instantly taking control of the Yomi Sect members.
It took Shinku Yuhi less than half a minute to extract information from their minds using an extremely crude genjutsu.
Normally, interrogators wouldn't use a highly traumatic genjutsu like "Demonic Illusion: Evil Fall Technique." But on a battlefield, information had to be obtained immediately, and "Evil Fall Technique" was one of the fastest genjutsu for destroying a target's will.
Besides, most of these Yomi Sect members had probably been converted from bandits and brigands by Onizuka Kenichi. In Shinku Yuhi's eyes, there was nothing about them worth saving!
The information in their minds revealed that the main hall was itself a shelter, combining a barrier with an elaborate system of mechanisms. The Sugiyama Clan had spent a fortune building it.
After Onizuka Kenichi took control of the Sugiyama Clan's leadership, he naturally claimed the shelter as his own and had it remodeled to suit his tastes. The method for opening it was now completely different from before.
Shinku Yuhi and his student Touma might have little experience building barriers and mechanisms, but when it came to breaking them, Shinku Yuhi was exceptionally experienced. As a genjutsu-type ninja who had carried out countless infiltration missions behind enemy lines, he knew exactly what he was doing.
After using chakra to sharpen his hearing, he crouched and pressed his ear to the floor. While listening carefully to the sounds from below, he had Touma tap the ground with varying degrees of force.
Before long, a rough image of the underground mechanism complex formed in Shinku Yuhi's mind. He found the point where its core lay closest to the surface.
The barrier outside meant that ninjutsu couldn't directly strike the mechanism's core. But that didn't mean ninja tools couldn't. It was the first time Touma had seen Shinku Yuhi's personal ninja tool.
Shinku Yuhi's tool was a small copper mirror. He said it was an antique from the early Warring States period, a family heirloom of the Kagami clan, a genjutsu clan that had made it specifically to counter ocular techniques like the Sharingan and Byakugan.
The mirror could not only project genjutsu, but also absorb and store sunlight. If it was attacked by an ocular technique, it would activate on its own and focus the stored high-energy sunlight into a beam capable of blinding the user.
The ancient records didn't say how many Sharingan and Byakugan had been ruined by this mirror. The Uchiha and Hyuga clans might be the only ones with access to such information. So, to avoid provoking those two powerful clans, Shinku Yuhi generally didn't use it.
He activated the copper mirror and aimed it at the mechanism's core. After about three to five minutes, the high-energy beam it emitted had completely melted the core. Right after that, Touma felt the entire main hall begin to tremble!
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