The Shadow Crawling Out of the Ashes

As his words fell, the ground beneath his feet began to show faint cracks, whether from the tremors of the distant battlefield or the aura he could no longer suppress. They spread soundlessly toward the blood-red horizon.

Xuan slowly raised his head. His scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan reflected the setting sun, its light seeming to be sucked into the vortex deep within his pupils, leaving behind not a trace of warmth.

He had crossed the threshold of Kage level. The chakra that had once run dry now surged through him like an endless underground river, deep and vast.

Yet this power brought him no peace of mind. Instead, it made him even more vigilant.

He knew full well that merely reaching Kage level, merely possessing three tomoe, still left him as fragile as a guttering candle before Madara Uchiha and Obito, who called himself "Madara."

He needed greater power and faster growth—fast enough to catch up to, or even surpass, the death game those two monsters had laid out.

A faint blue screen unfolded before him out of thin air, its cold system text as sharp as a blade:

[Notice: 500 energy points may be consumed to mature the Mangekyō Sharingan (left eye).]

[Current energy reserves: 298/500.]

Only 202 points short.

Xuan lowered his eyelids slightly, concealing his urgency.

Those 202 points of energy were the distance between life and death.

He had to hunt again—and he had to be more efficient, more discreet.

His thoughts sank into the depths of memory, and a neatly folded anonymous letter surfaced in his mind.

It was the report he had guided Oda Kaori into writing, detailing her terrifying encounter with the "Underground Devourer."

Just as he had expected, the letter had been sent to the Allied Forces' psychological evaluation department.

"...Subject Oda Kaori displays a severe combat stress response. The report contains a great deal of subjective speculation and logical fallacies. Preliminary assessment: 'stress-induced hallucinations.' Psychological counseling is recommended, along with temporary removal from the front lines..."

The evaluation team's conclusion was exactly what Xuan wanted.

He did not need them to believe it. What he needed was precisely their disbelief and contempt.

The more isolated Oda Kaori became, the more her existence resembled a deeply buried seed, waiting to take root at the critical moment and tear apart the soil of trust from within.

And the more the Allied Forces' leadership attributed these strange incidents to mental pollution or enemy psychological tactics, the more they would lower their guard against a physical threat.

That gave him a perfect hunting ground—a stage upon which reality could be disguised as hallucination.

What he needed to do was direct a grand "collective misjudgment," making everyone believe that the Earth Eater was nothing more than a phantom born from the pressure of war, a nightmare that did not exist.

Only then could he continue his feast in broad daylight.

With a flicker, Xuan's body became a nearly invisible wisp of black mist, gliding silently along the cracked earth.

He did not choose the heavily patrolled routes. Instead, he circled toward a supply station that had long been abandoned.

It had once been a logistics hub for the Allied Forces. Now, all that remained were sheet-metal warehouses with half their roofs blown away by artillery fire and mountains of empty cans.

The air was thick with the rusty tang of metal and the sour stench of rotting food, a dead zone no living person wanted to approach.

But to Xuan, an appetizer lay buried here.

He stopped at a corner where the ground had sunk slightly. His Sharingan pierced through the loose soil, clearly seeing a body three meters below, wrapped in several yellow talismans.

It was not a real corpse, but an Impure World Reincarnation body.

According to the memory fragments Xuan had consumed, this man had been a rogue ninja from the former Hidden Rock Village, codenamed "C." During a mission, he had gone berserk after the Impure World Reincarnation technique became unstable. In the end, his own side had joined forces to seal and suppress him here, with no time to recover him.

His soul had been bound inside a body formed of dust and then tightly suppressed by sealing talismans. Unlike the souls of other fallen soldiers, C's soul had not immediately returned to the Pure Land. It remained imprisoned in this filthy place, filled with resentment, rage, and fear.

Such highly concentrated negative emotions were Xuan's most perfect nourishment.

Several strands of black mist, thinner than hairs, extended from Xuan's fingertips. Like living vines, they precisely avoided the sealing formulas on the talismans and silently pierced into the gaps between the paper seals and the Impure World Reincarnation body.

[Soul Extraction: Slow-Release Mode, activated.]

Unlike the brutal devouring from before, this extraction was more like a precise surgery.

The black mist tendrils did not directly pull out the soul. Instead, they simulated a slow corrosion, gradually separating and absorbing the most intense and pure fear and obsession from the sealed soul.

This process would not trigger intense chakra fluctuations, nor would it cause the sealing talismans on the surface to react in the slightest.

C's remaining consciousness howled soundlessly. The scene of being betrayed and hunted down by his companions before death, his hatred for Hidden Stone Village, and his overwhelming fear of death all transformed into the purest energy, flowing endlessly into Xuan's body.

[Devouring complete.]

[Chakra acquired: +62.]

[Target secret technique extracted: Earth Style: Earthquake Core (incomplete model).]

[New permission unlocked: Mental Pollution Simulation.]

A warm current flowed through his body, and the dark river of chakra within him widened further.

More importantly, the two new lines on the system panel curled Xuan's lips into a cold smile.

Mental Pollution Simulation meant that he could edit and reorganize the dying wails, fear, and obsessions of the souls he had devoured, then release them as genjutsu-like waves to create whatever supernatural phenomena he desired.

He sat cross-legged and, without hesitation, poured the energy he had just obtained along with his remaining reserves into the system.

[Ninjutsu Simulation: Reconstruction, activated.]

Three utterly different ninjutsu models emerged in the depths of his consciousness, colliding and merging.

One was Wind Style from a Hidden Rain Village jonin, renowned for cutting and penetration. Another was the Fire Style imprint left behind by Ganjiu's Mangekyō Sharingan, filled with destructive explosive properties. The last was the incomplete model of Earth Style: Earthquake Core that had just been extracted from C. Its core principle was to instantly alter the density and structure of matter within a small area, causing violent tremors.

Xuan's goal was not simple splicing. Using the Sharingan's insight as a scalpel, he reverse-engineered the chakra circulation logic of the three techniques, dismantled their core circuits, stripped away every redundant step, then forcibly compressed and reorganized them into a short-range burst ninjutsu designed specifically for assassination.

Chakra spun and compressed at high speed in his palm. Wind fed the flames, and earth served as the vessel.

In the end, what erupted from his palm was no longer fire in the conventional sense, but a gray current laced with high-temperature particles, more like the ash flow spewed out by a volcanic eruption.

Silent and lightless, yet the instant it touched organic matter, it would completely evaporate the moisture within and carbonize it at the molecular level.

[New ninjutsu generated: Fire Style: Ash Explosion Stream.]

[Characteristics: Highly concealed, instantaneous burst, effective killing range of five meters.]

Perfect.

Its power might not compare to Majestic Destroyer Flame, and its range was not even worth mentioning, but its strengths lay in its extreme concealment and lethality.

In a densely populated area, it was enough to kill without leaving a trace.

Night descended silently. Cold moonlight spilled over the ruins, staining everything in lifeless silver-gray.

Soft footsteps approached from afar. A four-man search team led by two jonin cautiously entered the abandoned supply station.

Their orders were clear yet vague: "Investigate the source of the 'Underground Whisper' within the area. Preliminary judgment suggests a new enemy mental interference device. Locate and destroy it at all costs."

Xuan had already concealed his presence to the utmost. Like a rock, he blended into the shadows of an underground ventilation duct, observing these "prey" about to enter his jaws through a narrow gap with his scarlet eyes.

A tall Hidden Stone Village jonin walked at the front. He formed hand seals, sensing the flow of chakra around him, his brow tightly furrowed. "Strange. Other than residual battlefield chakra, there's nothing here. That whispering has disappeared too."

His companion, a Hidden Leaf Village jonin, was even more wary. He swept his gaze across the half-collapsed metal walls and said quietly, "Don't let your guard down. The report said the sound can appear without warning, and... it rings directly inside your head."

Just as the Hidden Stone Village jonin approached a rust-covered metal wall, Xuan moved.

He did not reveal himself. He did not even shift an inch.

His right hand, hidden inside the duct, suddenly opened, his palm aimed at a crack in the wall.

[Fire Style: Ash Explosion Stream]!

A gray current nearly invisible to the naked eye shot silently from the crack like a venomous snake.

There was no blaze, no deafening bang, not even an obvious change in the air's temperature.

"Pfft."

A muffled sound, as faint as cloth tearing.

The Hidden Stone Village jonin's body suddenly stiffened. He lowered his head, staring at his chest in disbelief.

A fist-sized hole had appeared there. Its edges were charred black, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out. All the flesh had been carbonized in an instant.

He opened his mouth, trying to say something, but only a puff of black smoke came out. Then he fell straight backward.

At the exact moment he hit the ground, Xuan activated the newly unlocked Mental Pollution Simulation permission.

A twisted soul wave, filled with despair and venomous hatred, precisely locked onto the remaining three.

"...Return... my flesh..."

"...Give... my eyes back..."

The voices carried the exact same frequency as Naka-gawa Mamoru's dying whispers described in Oda Kaori's earlier report.

"It's here! That voice!" The other Hidden Leaf Village jonin's face instantly turned pale. The two chunin beside him trembled so violently that they could barely hold their kunai.

Fear was magnified without limit in that moment.

The Hidden Leaf Village jonin was experienced after all. He forcibly suppressed his shock and formed hand seals at high speed, preparing to release a signal flare.

But the earth beneath his feet suddenly softened like a swamp.

Xuan burst from the ground. Claws condensed from black mist clamped around his throat like iron pincers, while Xuan's other hand pressed against the top of his head.

"Not a bad reaction. Too bad... you were too late."

Cold words sounded beside his ear, followed by the agony of a soul being forcibly torn from its shell.

[Devouring complete. Chakra: +78.]

[Energy reserves: 438/500.]

The remaining two chunin had been utterly shattered by fear. Screaming incoherently, they turned and fled.

Xuan did not pursue them. His goal was not to kill them all, but to spread panic.

Dragging the two still-warm corpses, he slowly sank underground.

Wood Style surged forth. Countless tiny roots emerged from below like ravenous maggots, wrapping around the corpses layer by layer and dragging them deeper underground, leaving not even a trace of blood behind.

Only 62 energy points remained before the Mangekyō.

Several kilometers away, in the Allied Forces' temporary camp, the two chunin who had escaped by sheer luck clutched their heads and screamed madly at anyone who tried to approach them. "The voice! It's back! That monster came out of the ground! Black... it's a black monster!"

Their howls were like stones thrown into a still lake, stirring new ripples of panic through a camp already unsettled by the Underground Whisper.

Deep within the ruins, Xuan closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, thoroughly merging the newly acquired chakra into his own dark river.

He could clearly feel the aura of fear spreading through the distant camp.

He muttered softly, as if declaring it to unseen enemies, or simply stating a fact to himself. "What you fear has never been me... What you fear is the unknown. And the unknown is precisely my sharpest weapon."

Without warning, the wind became violent, whipping up sand and gravel from the ground with a mournful howl.

In the distance, heavy clouds had gathered at some point, swallowing even the last trace of moonlight. The whole world sank into absolute darkness, where one could not see a hand before one's face.

The next meal was already on its way.