Sacred Arrow

The sudden turn of events stunned the burly man as well.

Then an even more wanton, mocking laugh burst across his face.

"You're hoping this kind of trash will come save you and your daughter? Hahahahaha!"

"I know these ninja from the great nations better than you do."

"They look righteous on the surface, but they're filthy and rotten inside."

He roughly pinched the woman's chin and forced her to raise her head.

"Just accept your fate. Serve me well, and maybe I'll grant you a quick death and leave you an intact corpse."

The woman did not respond. She merely kept murmuring, "Come back," over and over.

She stared blankly at the hole in the wall where that figure had vanished, a trace of regret flashing through her eyes.

She had spent her life practicing medicine and saving people. She had never murdered or committed evil deeds, yet misfortune had struck her again and again lately.

And now, a moment of softheartedness had brought this vicious monster upon her.

Heaven truly wasn't leaving her any way to survive...

The burly man still refused to stop. His face remained full of mockery as he continued provoking her.

"As for your daughter, I've already found her a good place."

"Don't you like ninja from the great nations? How about selling her to one?"

The woman, who had been somewhat despondent, went mad again upon hearing that.

"Beast... Even if I die, I'll curse you! Even as a ghost, I won't let you go!"

She bared her teeth and stretched her head toward him, trying to bite him.

But all she received was the man's booming laughter.

"If that's what you say, then I really want to find out what a ghost tastes like..."

At the same time.

The moment Hyuga Seisen left the house and escaped the burly man's sight, he immediately sprinted toward the slope at the side.

The house was too cramped.

There simply wasn't enough distance!

His current fusion rate was low, and his control over Quincy abilities was weak.

He had never used Sacred Arrow before, so there was no way he could instantly form an arrow powerful enough to kill the burly man.

Within seven steps, the man could kill him before he finished condensing the arrow.

Besides, once he showed any intention to attack, the man would surely be on full alert. Whether the arrow could hit him at all was unknown.

Therefore, he could only go outside.

He was a Hyuga who relied on close-range taijutsu, and the burly man had cut him down as easily as slaughtering a chicken.

After he left the house, the burly man would not take him too seriously.

And that was indeed the case.

Inside the house, lust had gone to the burly man's head, and he had completely ignored him.

His Byakugan vision pierced through the trees and wooden walls, firmly locking onto the man's movements inside.

At the same time, he continuously calculated the distance at which the arrow could achieve its maximum speed.

Soon, he stopped beneath the shadow of a large tree on the slope.

He extended his right hand and poured chakra into the back of it.

The blue Quincy cross spirit pattern suddenly lit up, faint light flowing over it.

An exquisite spirit bow formed from blue-white particles of light instantly materialized in his hand!

He took a deep breath, looked toward the wooden house again, and suppressed the uncertainty in his heart.

This was his first real battle. Life and death rested on this arrow!

He steeled himself and continued pouring chakra into it frantically.

The spirit bow's form abruptly changed, rapidly expanding and transforming.

In the end, it became a massive bow of light nearly as tall as a person, its body rippling with pure, powerful energy.

He drew back the bowstring with his left hand, and an arrow made entirely of highly condensed blue-white light slowly took shape with his movement!

To ensure a one-shot kill, he spared no effort in squeezing out the small amount of chakra his body had just recovered.

He wildly pried at the incomparably active natural energy around him, gathering, compressing, and solidifying it!

This distance would allow the arrow to reach its greatest speed and reduce the burly man's reaction time.

But once the arrow left his control range, it would gradually dissipate. The farther it traveled, the worse the dissipation became.

He had to ensure that the arrow still retained a certain degree of power when it struck the man.

Blue-white light particles gathered around him under an unseen pull.

The arrow grew thicker and more dazzling, while the surrounding light particles spiraled together as if summoned, emitting a faint hum.

His Byakugan fixed tightly on the burly man. His gaze sharpened, and he released the bowstring!

Boom!!

The blue-white Sacred Arrow tore through the night like lightning and shot from the string in an instant!

The immense kinetic force and energy it carried directly blasted through the wooden wall in its path, shooting precisely into the house at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow!

Inside the house.

After smugly tying the woman's hands to a pillar, the burly man turned her exhausted body over.

His rough hands fiercely groped the glimpses of her snowy-white skin, and pleasure immediately surged through him.

Just as he was about to continue enjoying himself.

Suddenly!

An inexplicable palpitation struck him, and an utterly terrifying sense of danger exploded within him!

The overwhelming terror even made Steel Pillar lose all desire to fight.

Run!!

It was an instinct forged through countless battles.

Almost subconsciously, he tried to form a one-handed seal and activate the Body Flicker Technique.

But it was too late!

The next moment!

A violent explosion rang out.

The old wooden wall before him, as flimsy as paper, suddenly burst open with a huge hole.

A blue-white arrow of light emerged from it and instantly pierced through him.

"Wha—?!" The burly man's mind had not even processed what had happened.

He only felt his chest seize violently as an indescribably horrifying force passed straight through his body!

He did not even feel the pain immediately before the massive impact lifted his feet off the ground and hurled him violently backward!

Bang!! Crash!

His body slammed heavily onto the floor inside the house, then continued sliding across it.

It left behind a horrifyingly broad trail of blood.

He stared blankly with wide eyes and unfocused pupils, instinctively lowering his head to look at his chest.

A hole the size of a bowl had replaced the spot where his sturdy chest had been, piercing straight through from front to back.

Dazed, he shifted his gaze toward the hole that had just been blasted through the wall.

On the slope, that brat he had disdained was slowly lowering the enormous spirit bow in his hand.

"Brat..."

His teeth clenched as rage surged straight to his head.

"You're... dead."

The burly man pressed both hands against the floor, his knuckles whitening as he struggled to rise.

But the moment he exerted himself, his internal organs churned violently.

A scorching heat surged upward, and bright red blood mixed with air gurgled out of his mouth.

The woman beside him was terrified out of her wits by the sudden change.

She moved around the pillar binding her, struggling to get farther away from the burly man with her legs while shielding her daughter behind her body.

At the same time, she stared at him with wide eyes full of terror.

In the blink of an eye, that beast who had slaughtered countless people and driven her into despair—

had been pierced through and left sprawled on the floor like a dead pig, blood pouring from his body.

She kept turning her head, straining to look outside the hole, trying to see the fate that she did not know would bring salvation or disaster.

Through her tear-blurred vision.

The figure she had watched vanish in despair had returned!

Like a god of vengeance, he suddenly charged into the house!

Hyuga Seisen's gaze was icy, and his movements did not hesitate in the slightest.

He crossed the distance in several strides, then drove one knee down hard onto the burly man's immobile neck.

His left hand clamped tightly around the massive head like iron pincers.

Holding a kunai in a reverse grip, his right hand stabbed down with precise, ruthless force without the slightest hesitation!

Squelch!

The tip of the kunai easily sank into the eye socket and pierced straight into the brain!

The wail came to an abrupt stop.

Hyuga Seisen looked down at the burly man coldly.

The nausea and urge to vomit he had expected never came.

Even though this body belonged only to an academy student,

it was still frighteningly adept at adapting to bloodshed—calm, as though it were accustomed to it.

Is this the ninja world?

It really is worlds apart from my previous life!

When he came back to himself, the burly man's body had long since stopped its final twitch.

Looking at the man's dead-eyed expression, Hyuga Seisen slowly pulled out the kunai without expression.

He tore off a piece of the man's clothing and carefully wiped the red and white matter from the kunai.

Only then did he turn to look at the mother and daughter, their faces filled with disbelief.

Crimson blood slowly slid down his face, adding a trace of ruthlessness to his handsome features.

He slowly rose to his feet.

Then he walked toward them, one step at a time...