High Temperature Flames and Light

These ghost fires were not some supernatural phenomenon, but a specialized Fire Style ninjutsu unique to the Land of Demons, known as "Fire Style: Ghost Poison Jade."

The activation principle of "Ghost Poison Jade" is quite similar to the will-o'-the-wisps seen in graveyards, both being generated by the spontaneous combustion of phosphine gas produced by decaying corpses.

However, in the hands of the ninjas from the Land of Demons, they use chakra to simulate this special ghost fire and imbue it with virulent corpse poison.

Once a ninja is struck by "Ghost Poison Jade," while it may not cause severe burns, the corpse poison entering the body is extremely difficult to resolve.

Touma is well aware that for the ninjas in the village's Corpse Disposal Unit, if they do not take proper protective measures and undergo regular medical checkups, even using the "Delicate Illness Extraction Technique" to purge toxins, they cannot fully clear the accumulated corpse poison from their systems.

Nevertheless, the occupational injury rate for the Corpse Disposal Unit remains high, almost rivaling the mortality rate of the border defense squads.

Orochimaru has also researched corpse poison, but its composition is incredibly complex. It is basically impossible to develop a broad-spectrum antidote, so one can only create specific antidotes based on the different mechanisms of each type of corpse poison.

This is why ninjas who use corpse poison to coat their weapons are rarely seen on large-scale battlefields; it is a rare unspoken agreement among the Five Great Nations.

Because once corpse poison spreads on a large scale, no single village or nation can remain unscathed. After all, except for the Land of Water and a few small island nations overseas, all other countries are adjacent; if you deploy corpse poison on a large scale, it will easily affect your own people.

Once the corpse poison spreads further and more variants emerge, even if all the medical ninjas in the ninja world were gathered, it would be impossible to formulate enough antidotes, and the final result would likely be the extinction of humanity.

Therefore, since the Land of Demons dares to use "Ghost Poison Jade," an uncontrollable corpse poison ninjutsu, within the borders of the Land of Fire, the Land of Fire has every reason to carry out a humanitarian annihilation against them.

Even if Onizuka Kenichi had long since gone into exile overseas due to a failed power struggle, he could not completely escape his culpability.

"Ghost Poison Jade" cannot be treated like ordinary fire ninjutsu and countered with Water Style. If one were to do that, the corpse poison within the "Ghost Poison Jade" would likely spread through the evaporating water vapor.

The best method is to fight fire with fire. Fortunately, the Fire Style ninjutsu Touma has mastered is the oil-flame series developed by the Third Hokage, which can refine chakra into oil and then ignite it, reaching a very high temperature limit.

Touma has also developed higher-temperature versions by refining the chakra-to-oil process, namely the C-rank "Golden Flash" and "Azure Lotus Drop," as well as the B-rank "Orchid Ghost Burn" and A-rank "Purple Jade Slash."

"Golden Flash" and "Azure Lotus Drop" only increase chakra density; as long as one has sufficient chakra control, they can be performed, depending mostly on the amount of chakra input.

"Golden Flash" can reach about 1200 degrees Celsius, while "Azure Lotus Drop" can reach about 1400 degrees Celsius.

However, the higher-temperature "Orchid Ghost Burn" and "Purple Jade Slash" are completely different. Simply increasing chakra density can no longer stack the temperature; one must impart new motion models to the oil refined from chakra.

The chakra oil motion model for "Orchid Ghost Burn" is somewhat similar to the second stage of the Rasengan—a central rotation and compression—which can be constructed outside the body without any danger.

"Purple Jade Slash" is entirely different; not only can its motion model not be constructed outside the body, but it also requires sufficient charging time, making it highly dangerous for the user.

Of course, risk and reward are directly proportional. Although "Purple Jade Slash" is A-rank in learning difficulty, its danger level and scale of power could be considered that of a forbidden jutsu.

Previously, when Touma had just completed this jutsu, he experimented in the forest outside the capital. He felt he was already far enough away, but he was still caught by the shockwave generated by the "Purple Jade Slash" explosion and was almost sucked back into the center of the blast.

One must know that the center of the explosion was infinitely close to 2000 degrees Celsius at the time. Not only were the plants, trees, and small animals at the center vaporized, but even the rocks beneath the soil's humus were burned into a glass-like state.

In fact, because it couldn't be determined who was responsible, the media in the capital speculated whether a meteorite had fallen in the middle of the night, leaving such terrifying traces in that green forest.

Therefore, facing "Ghost Poison Jade" now, Touma dared not go straight for "Purple Jade Slash"; using "Golden Flash" was already sufficient.

He quickly formed hand seals, then pressed his palms together. A flash of light erupted from between his hands. This golden flash, like a slash, cut through the direction from which the "Ghost Poison Jade" was flying, instantly neutralizing a dozen of them.

Shinku Yuhi could not let his disciple steal the spotlight. He immediately activated his sensory jutsu, tracing back to the direction from which the "Ghost Poison Jade" originated. Before long, he discovered the Yomi Sect members hiding behind several Buddha statues in the main hall.

Once their location was detected, Shinku Yuhi's genjutsu was transmitted along the path of his sensory jutsu, instantly controlling these Yomi Sect members.

In less than half a minute, Shinku Yuhi used a crude genjutsu effect to interrogate the information from the minds of these Yomi Sect members.

Of course, standard interrogation would never use a highly traumatic genjutsu like "Demonic Illusion: Evil Fall Technique," but on the battlefield, there is a requirement for the immediacy of information, and the "Evil Fall Technique" is considered the fastest jutsu to destroy a target's will.

In any case, these Yomi Sect members were mostly bandits and outlaws converted by Onizuka Kenichi; in Shinku Yuhi's eyes, they had no value worth saving!

According to the information in their minds, this Great Heroic Hall was itself a shelter that integrated barriers and mechanisms, built by the Sugiyama Clan at a great cost.

After Onizuka Kenichi seized control of the Sugiyama Clan's upper echelons, he naturally treated this shelter as his private property and carried out personalized modifications, making the activation method completely different from before.

If one were to talk about how to construct barriers and mechanisms, perhaps neither Shinku Yuhi nor his disciple Touma had much experience, but when it came to how to destroy them, a genjutsu-type ninja like Shinku Yuhi, who had performed numerous behind-enemy-lines infiltration missions, could be said to be very experienced.

He reinforced his hearing with chakra and leaned against the floor, carefully listening to the movements coming from below, while having Touma tap the ground with varying degrees of force.

Soon, a rough image of the underground mechanism city appeared in Shinku Yuhi's mind, and he found the point where the mechanism core was closest to the ground.

Of course, because of the protection of the external barrier, ninjutsu effects could not directly attack the mechanism core, but just because ninjutsu wouldn't work didn't mean ninja tools wouldn't. This was also the first time Touma had seen Shinku Yuhi's own specialized ninja tool.

Shinku Yuhi's ninja tool was a small bronze mirror. According to him, it was an antique from the early Warring States period, an heirloom of a genjutsu ninja clan named Kagami, created specifically to counter ocular jutsu like the Sharingan and Byakugan.

The bronze mirror can not only project genjutsu effects but also absorb and store sufficient sunlight, and when attacked by ocular jutsu, it can autonomously activate, allowing the concentrated high-energy sunlight to blind the user of the ocular jutsu.

However, there is no record in ancient texts of exactly how many Sharingan and Byakugan were ruined by this mirror; perhaps only the Uchiha and Hyuga clans could find such information. Therefore, to avoid making these two great clans too agitated, Shinku Yuhi generally does not use this bronze mirror.

He activated the bronze mirror and shone it toward the location of the mechanism core. After about three to five minutes, the high-energy light emitted by the mirror completely melted the mechanism core. Immediately afterward, Touma felt the entire Great Heroic Hall trembling!