"Who the hell are you?"
Muliujin panted heavily, coughing up blood from time to time. Yet he paid it no mind and kept his vicious gaze fixed on Nagato.
"I refuse to believe a ninja as powerful as you could be completely unknown in the Ninja World."
"I once thought hatred would disappear if everyone experienced the same pain. But that was only wishful thinking on my part," Nagato said. "This ends here, Muliujin. Stop following this misguided path."
Over all these years, the pain Yahiko's death had left in Nagato's heart had not diminished in the slightest.
If anything, his longing had made it even worse.
But after seeing the Ninja World's current state, Nagato had realized that his method of ending war by making the world feel pain was wrong.
This world could become better without pain.
Uchiha Gentō had done an excellent job of proving that.
"Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to talk down to me like that?" Muliujin raised his voice further. "How could ninja from great nations like you possibly understand our misery?"
"You have no idea what we carry on our shoulders."
"Do you know the agony of going out with swords and blades, knowing your entire family will die if you come back empty-handed? How many years did I live like that...? Didn't I get this far precisely because I believed I could change everything?"
"All you do is lecture us with that lofty, arrogant tone. It makes me sick!"
Muliujin worked his joints, propped himself up, and formed hand seals. Blue-green chakra appeared in his palms.
At that moment, the anger he had suppressed for so long erupted in full.
"Earth Release: Crustal Fissure Surge!"
Under the impact of an immense volume of chakra, the ground