"This is my mental world."
Nagato stared into the void all around him.
"Now that you're inside, don't expect to leave."
"Your mental world?"
Lie Yang's voice came from the depths of the darkness.
"It's nothing more than a boundary you drew for yourself."
A black serpent's tail emerged behind Nagato.
The serpent twisted silently, then suddenly became an arrow and pierced straight through Nagato's chest.
Nagato's body shuddered violently.
The black tail had no flesh or blood, yet its penetrating force felt utterly real as it drove straight into his will.
Agony instantly swept through his consciousness.
Nagato gritted his teeth and clamped all five fingers around the serpent.
"Deva Path, Banshō Ten'in!"
An immense repulsive force erupted from within him.
An invisible force wrenched the black serpent around, bending its body in midair as its tail struggled frantically.
At the same time, Nagato raised his other hand.
A black rod formed in his palm, its tip gleaming with a cold light.
The Asura Path's combat techniques unfolded fully within the mental space.
Without wasting a moment, Nagato swung the black rod and drove it into the serpent's vital point.
Squish!
The black serpent's body was pierced.
Pitch-black liquid splattered in every direction.
Rather than falling to the ground, the droplets became a fine black mist that swiftly seeped into the mental space.
Nagato's expression changed instantly.
This was no ordinary illusion.
The splattered black chakra was eroding his mental world.
"Damn it!"
Nagato released the black rod and rushed into the serpent through the wound in its body.
A passage made of Yin Release chakra appeared ahead.
Both sides were covered in writhing black patterns, like countless blood vessels, or fissures leading into the depths of the soul.
Nagato dared not linger. He became a streak of black