This Generation of Villains Won't Do—I'll Have to Teach Them How to Behave Myself

The piercing hum instantly tore through the deathly silence of Nether Eye Reef. Red warning lights flashed madly throughout every metal corridor, staining everything in apocalyptic blood-red.

Inside the ventilation shaft, Xuan moved like a phantom. He held the deeply unconscious Kaguya Chiori in one arm while using his other hand against the narrow duct walls for leverage. Every kick was soundless, yet explosively fast.

Fine bone-like cracks spread outward from the corners of the pale girl's eyes, as if she were a porcelain doll about to shatter.

Behind him, the heavy, dense thud of combat boots drew closer and closer, like a pack of blood-scented hounds refusing to let go of their prey.

Warning! Shadow Flow's "Shadow-Erosion Formation" has been activated. Probability of spatial folding within Nether Eye Reef has risen to 73%!

Warning! Target's vital signs continue to decline. Current level: 12%. Skeletal structure collapsing... Immediate injection of "Regeneration Template" recommended!

The cold system notifications exploded one after another in Xuan's mind.

His gaze sharpened, and without hesitation, he drew upon what little energy remained in the system space.

"Activate [Basic Cellular Regeneration Template]!"

A faint yet incomparably pure stream of Wood Release chakra flowed from his palm and carefully entered the center of Kaguya Chiori's back.

That life-filled energy was like a warm current, temporarily restraining the violent Dead Bone Pulse power within her that was destroying itself.

The spread of the bone cracks across the girl's face slowed, and her breathing steadied slightly.

Yet Xuan's expression grew even grimmer.

This was nothing more than drinking poison to quench thirst. It consumed his precious energy, yet could only keep her barely alive.

But he had to keep that last breath in her!

Because Kaguya Chiori, this seemingly fragile girl, was the only key to finding and unlocking the legendary "Primordial Power."

"Bang!"

Xuan kicked open the rusty vent cover ahead and leaped down from midair with the girl in his arms, landing steadily in a room filled with wreckage.

The air was thick with the pungent stench of disinfectant mixed with rusted metal.

This appeared to be a medical section abandoned for years. Dust-covered equipment lay scattered everywhere, and on the operating table in the center of the room, a brass nameplate was barely visible in the dim light—"Orochimaru Research Institute · Beta-7 Experimental Zone."

Xuan swept his gaze across the room and immediately began searching at lightning speed.

He had no time to waste. Shadow Flow's pursuers could arrive at any moment.

He violently pulled open cabinet after cabinet, drawer after drawer. Finally, in a hidden compartment beneath the bottom drawer of a medical cabinet, he found a thin notebook with yellowed pages.

He quickly flipped it open. Scrawled handwriting met his eyes: "Test Subject 09 successfully activated its ancestral genes. Its mental waves resonated intensely with an ancient character—'Xuan.' It is theorized that deep within its bloodline lies an imprint of absolute obedience and guidance toward this existence... Should the legendary dual eyes return to the world, the Kaguya Clan will no longer be vessels imprisoning 'power,' but bridges welcoming the descent of a 'god.'"

Seeing this, a cold curve lifted at the corner of Xuan's mouth. He muttered, "So you rats hiding in the gutter knew who I was all along. You just... didn't dare say it."

Before his words faded, a deafening boom rang out!

The room's alloy door was blasted apart from outside by a tremendous surge of chakra. Twisted metal fragments shot inward.

Thick black mist surged in like a tide. Three figures stepped through it and appeared silently at the doorway, instantly taking three positions to form a perfect triangular encirclement.

They were Shadow Flow's elite jonin, each radiating suffocating killing intent.

The man on the left twitched his ten fingers, and countless nearly invisible shadow threads had already sealed off every escape route. The man on the right formed seals with one hand as a ring of purple-black poisonous mist rapidly spread, shrouding the entire room. Meanwhile, the leader standing in the center had both hands covered in black keratin armor etched with strange curse patterns. He was clearly a modified ninja implanted with portions of "Curse Mark" tissue!

Yet they merely surrounded him without attacking, their eyes filled with mockery and cruelty as though they were watching a trapped beast in a cage.

"The High Priest commands it," the modified ninja in the middle said in a low voice that grated like metal. "Leave the key behind. You must die here."

Xuan gently leaned Kaguya Chiori against the corner of the wall and slowly straightened up.

Within his scarlet right eye, three tomoe spun rapidly before condensing into a bizarre yet magnificent Mangekyo pattern.

Just as the three jonin erupted with chakra at once, preparing to launch a thunderous combined attack, Xuan did not advance. Instead, he retreated a step backward at an unfathomable angle.

With a hook of his toe, he precisely kicked up a half-meter-wide metal plate, which happened to block the incoming Shadow-Binding Threads, producing a rapid string of slicing hisses.

At the same time, he sharply raised his left hand and scattered a handful of iron sand stripped from abandoned equipment into the air. It was not meant to injure the enemy, but to precisely cut off the poisonous mist barrier's path of expansion, causing a momentary stagnation in its energy flow.

The Sharingan's high-speed perception broke down every subtle movement of the three men into countless slow-motion frames.

But this was not his true killing move.

The instant his Mangekyo opened, a newly awakened ability—[Bone Mirror: Life Severance]—activated passively!

In his vision, translucent, phantom-like "death premonitions" appeared above the heads of the three Shadow Flow jonin. The shadow-thread ninja on the left had his head blown apart from within by an immense force; the poisonous-mist ninja on the right had his heart pierced from behind by an iron spike; and the strongest modified ninja in the middle had his spine brutally snapped!

So that's how it is...

A faint, chilling smile formed on Xuan's lips.

His every action was no longer based on predicting his enemies' movements. Instead, he worked backward entirely from those predetermined "death visions"!

His figure flickered as he feigned an attempt to force his way through the shadow-thread blockade on the left.

Just as in the vision, the modified ninja in the center rushed forward to intercept him, exposing a fatal opening at his waist and abdomen.

Now!

Xuan spread the fingers of his right hand toward the ground. Magnet Release: Iron Sand Spear!

Iron sand and metal shards scattered across the ground instantly gathered, condensing into an incomparably sharp black spear. Without warning, it burst from beneath the modified ninja's feet and pierced through the third vertebra of his lumbar spine at an impossibly tricky angle—the exact starting point of the spinal fracture from the death premonition!

"Aaargh!" The modified ninja let out an inhuman shriek. The upper half of his body, covered in Curse Mark armor, went limp as life rapidly drained from him.

The poisonous-mist ninja on the right was horrified and instinctively tried to retreat.

But Xuan's demonic right eye had already locked onto his body.

"Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye!"

An invisible, overwhelming force of attraction instantly seized the poisonous-mist ninja, forcibly pulling at the chakra leaking from his body.

The hand seals maintaining his barrier immediately fell into disarray. His chakra flowed backward in backlash, and the deadly poisonous mist rolled back upon him, enveloping him instead!

Amid miserable screams, his body corroded and melted away at a visible speed.

In the blink of an eye, only the last shadow-thread ninja remained.

His face was filled with terror, as if he had witnessed the descent of a demon god.

Xuan was already close. He stomped down viciously, crushing the point where the man connected to his shadow on the ground.

"Pfft!"

The shadow-thread ninja trembled all over, losing control of every shadow.

The next second, Xuan's right hand transformed into a sharp iron blade and cleanly pierced through the top of his skull from below.

Scalding blood erupted, splattering across the wall behind him and bizarrely painting a twisted, agonized human face.

The battle ended in a flash.

Xuan's body suddenly swayed, and he dropped to one knee.

A tearing pain surged from his right eye, crimson tears of blood sliding down from its corner.

This was the neural backlash from overusing [Bone Mirror].

He endured the agony without even pausing to catch his breath. He immediately turned and crawled to Kaguya Chiori's side, pressing his still-warm palm against her chest, which continued to radiate a frigid chill.

Target detected in critical condition. Primordial Dead Bone Pulse chakra is explosively releasing within the body... Execute emergency devouring?

"Yes!" Xuan gave the command in his mind without hesitation.

Thick, ink-black mist poured from his palm, instantly engulfing both him and the girl.

Within the black mist, Kaguya Chiori's already slender body began to wither at a visible rate, as though all her life essence had been drained away in an instant.

At the same time, the three tomoe around the unique Mangekyo pattern in Xuan's right eye began to solidify and sharpen. Savage bone-spike patterns even emerged at their tips!

System notification: Advanced genetic template successfully devoured. Mid-stage of System Phase II unlocked.

Genetic template storage limit increased to five types.

New passive trait: [Devouring Rejection Response]—After fusing with an alien bloodline, the host must continuously consume chakra to suppress genetic conflict.

In another monitoring room far away, Nether Eye Reef's supreme commander—Kazama Genichiro—witnessed everything through the screen.

The armrest in his hand was silently crushed into powder.

His entire body trembled. There was no longer anger or fear in his eyes, only near-worshipful fervor and reverence.

"He isn't a harbinger of disaster... He isn't the catastrophe from the prophecy..." he murmured, his voice hoarse and distorted. "He is the end. The end itself."

The black mist in the room gradually dispersed. Xuan slowly rose to his feet. The searing pain in his right eye had subsided, replaced by an unprecedented sense of power.

He lowered his head and glanced at Kaguya Chiori, who had already become a dried corpse. There was not the slightest ripple in his eyes, as though he had merely discarded a used tool.

He raised his head, his gaze piercing through layer upon layer of walls toward the deepest, most central part of the steel island.

That was his true objective this time.

In Nether Eye Reef's core control room, blinding red light pulsed and flashed like a beating heart.

Xuan's figure appeared soundlessly before the enormous central control console. The cold metal reflected his increasingly profound eyes, as though they could devour everything.