The Power of Control

When the person wearing the animal mask turned their gaze toward the ceiling of the cave, Kamizuki, who had been standing there a moment before, was already gone.

Seeing the cave ceiling empty, the masked figure scratched their head in confusion. After exchanging a few glances with their masked companion, they turned and headed back into the cave.

As the two masked figures walked back inside, a protruding stalactite on the cave ceiling suddenly transformed into a puff of smoke. Once the smoke dissipated, Kamizuki's figure appeared in its place.

It turned out that just as the masked figure was about to look up at the ceiling, Kamizuki had used the Transformation Technique to turn his body into that very stalactite.

Now back in his human form, Kamizuki's eyes were no longer in the Tenseigan state, but had reverted to the ordinary Byakugan.

Although the chakra consumption of the Tenseigan was not particularly high, it was still more efficient to use the standard Byakugan, so Kamizuki chose to maintain that state instead.

Kamizuki used his Byakugan to watch the two masked figures walk a fair distance away before he followed them into the cave.

Upon entering, Kamizuki discovered that torches were lit every ten meters or so, illuminating the interior quite brightly.

He followed the two masked figures for about five minutes. Along the way, Kamizuki realized that this cave seemed to be nothing more than a simple passageway, as he found no other people or suspicious items.

The further Kamizuki walked, the more curious he became. He wondered where this cave led, who might be inside, and what kind of business they were conducting in such a hidden location.

Driven by this curiosity, Kamizuki continued to follow the two masked figures while keeping his Byakugan active.

After winding through the path behind the two masked figures for who knows how long, Kamizuki finally spotted the exit of the cave through his Byakugan.

With the keen insight of the Byakugan, Kamizuki surveyed the environment outside the cave exit, and what he saw left him stunned.

Outside the exit, there was no other large cave as he had imagined, but rather an open area resembling a canyon.

Furthermore, in this canyon-like space, there were quite a few people moving about, all of whom possessed varying amounts of chakra. A rough observation suggested there were about a hundred of them.

Kamizuki watched the two masked figures exit the cave before he carefully approached the opening himself.

The valley was not very large and resembled a small village, with scattered houses. It was already night, and sparse torches were dotted throughout the valley.

Kamizuki observed from the cave entrance for a while and noticed that most of the people inside were resting, with only a few sentries remaining at their posts.

Through his Byakugan, Kamizuki detected that these sentries likely possessed some level of sensory ability, though their range was quite limited.

Although their sensory range was short, their spacing was very precise. Kamizuki guessed this was a specific formation; to break it, one would have to neutralize all the sentries in an extremely short amount of time, otherwise, he would be exposed.

After a moment of thought, Kamizuki realized he could not neutralize all the sentries without being detected while using only the Byakugan.

Thus, he activated the Tenseigan once more and looked up at the moon in the night sky. The two black-and-white, fish-shaped magatama in his eyes spun rapidly, forming a Bagua pattern.

An invisible energy flowed from Kamizuki's Tenseigan toward the moon. The moon acted like a mirror, reflecting this energy back down to the ground. As it reached the sky above the valley, the energy suddenly burst, splitting into several fine strands that shot toward the sentries.

As the invisible energy pierced the foreheads of the eight sentries simultaneously, their bodies stiffened. In roughly 0.01 seconds, all eight sentries lost control of their bodies and were unable to move.

This was the first time Kamizuki had used the Tenseigan's control ability on people. He hadn't expected it to be so effective; controlling eight people at once felt surprisingly easy. It was truly worthy of being called a power capable of rivaling Sasori of the Red Sands' Performance of a Hundred Puppets.

Under the control of Kamizuki's mental energy, the eight sentries stepped out from their hidden posts and walked into the cave one by one, lining up before him.

Seeing the eight expressionless sentries standing before him, Kamizuki nodded slightly, feeling very satisfied with his control ability.