You Call These Forbidden Techniques? I Eat Them for Breakfast

This space, located three hundred meters beneath the volcanic belt of the Land of Lightning, was Hidden Cloud Village's strongest fortress and its deepest forbidden ground.

Scorching magma flowed slowly through the earth's veins, radiating the stench of sulfur and blistering heat, baking the entire library like a massive furnace.

The air warped from the intense heat. Only the withered old man sitting motionless on the central platform remained as steady as a boulder, his aura fused with the violent Lightning Release barrier surrounding him.

His name was Dodai, the former advisor to the Raikage of Hidden Cloud Village and the current guardian of the Thunder Library.

He had sat here for sixty years. Over those sixty years, he had witnessed countless alarms sound, and countless intruders turn to charcoal before the first layer of the Lightning Release sensory barrier.

His skin had long been scorched black like burnt bark by the leaking Lightning Release chakra. His eyes were cloudy, yet he could instantly perceive the flow of any chakra.

"For a hundred years, no one has dared truly set foot in this place..." Dodai's cracked lips moved slightly, his voice as raspy as sandpaper scraping together. "Even that unruly Eight-Tails jinchuriki only tested the entrance back then before being forced back by the might of this lightning purgatory."

There was a faint, nearly imperceptible pride and aloofness in his words.

Guarding this place was both his duty and his honor.

Within this Ninefold Sealing Box was hidden the Lightning Release: Nine Heavens, a supreme theory that pushed the nature transformation of Lightning Release chakra to the level of atomic vibration. It was a forbidden art that only the Raikage was qualified to touch.

Yet the tranquility he had maintained for sixty years was utterly torn apart in this very second.

Before his words had even faded, without warning—

Boom—!!!

A deafening crash came from overhead. It was not the roar of a ninjutsu bombardment, but a dull, cracking sound of material structures collapsing from within.

The volcanic rock ceiling, harder than refined steel, instantly crumbled into dust. Then, endless black iron sand poured down like a breached waterfall, mixed with scorching fragments of rock!

Dodai's cloudy eyes snapped wide open. His calm state of mind, undisturbed for sixty years, was suddenly engulfed by monstrous waves.

How is that possible?!

The rock layer above the library was a hundred meters thick, and it was covered by a Lightning Release repulsion field. Any physical or ninjutsu attack should have been instantly neutralized or reflected!

This was... destruction generated directly from inside the rock!

Within the iron sand waterfall, a slender figure descended through the air. His black cloak patterned with red clouds snapped wildly amid the swirling dust.

When he landed, he made not the slightest sound, as though his weight had been completely canceled out.

The newcomer was Xuan.

Xuan's right eye, that strange and profound Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye, rotated gently. His gaze pierced directly through the dust curtain and locked onto the ancient Ninefold Sealing Box atop the platform.

In an instant, the complex sealing formulas, the flowing chakra lock frequencies, the nested barrier logic... everything was broken down in his vision into the most primitive streams of data.

Each of the nine seals corresponded to a unique unsealing method and chakra frequency. They were linked layer upon layer; one wrong move would trigger a chain self-destruction mechanism and completely burn the manuscripts inside.

According to Hidden Cloud Village's design, even a sealing master would need at least three hours in an absolutely quiet environment to carefully unravel them layer by layer.

But Xuan had no intention of unraveling them at all.

Analysis begins. Reverse deduction.

He muttered inwardly, driving the power of his right eye to its limit.

The ability of Ninjutsu Reverse Analysis activated. What he saw was no longer a "lock," but the shape of a "key."

He was not considering how to unlock it. Instead, he instantly deduced how the person who created this lock had sealed it step by step.

The process was like playing a movie in reverse; every complex step became simple and clear.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Dodai finally recovered from his shock and began forming hand seals at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

He had seen the strangeness of that eye. He absolutely could not let Xuan touch the sealing box!

He would activate the final self-destruction procedure and perish alongside this library and its forbidden knowledge!

"Don't even think—"

He roared, but his voice abruptly cut off.

Seven seconds.

Xuan completed the entire reverse deduction. The opening sequence of the nine seals flashed through his mind like lightning.

At that very instant, he did not even turn around. He merely raised his right hand casually and flicked a finger toward Dodai.

A wisp of iron sand, so tiny it was nearly invisible, shot into Dodai's open mouth at a terrifying speed beyond the sound barrier, piercing through the back of his head.

Dodai's hand seals froze abruptly. The last light in his eyes quickly faded, and the obsession he had guarded for sixty years, along with his life, was completely ended by that casual strike.

His body slowly toppled backward and smashed against the platform with a dull thud, becoming the final wail of this forbidden ground.

Xuan slowly walked onto the platform, ignoring the corpse at his feet. He extended his slender fingers and tapped across the Ninefold Sealing Box with effortless fluidity.

Every touch precisely severed a chakra lock, and every hand seal perfectly replicated the opening sequence.

The layered boxes gave off soft clicks and sprang open one by one like intricate machinery.

In only a few seconds, the innermost lid opened, revealing an ancient manuscript made from special chakra fibers.

Lightning Release: Nine Heavens.

Xuan picked up the manuscript and slowly unfolded it.

When his gaze fell upon the living, pulsing runes on the first page, the crystal nerves deep within the right side of his brain activated instantly, releasing a humming resonance.

A vast torrent of knowledge, mixed with thunderous explosions and vibrations, surged madly into the depths of his consciousness!

Lightning Release: Heavenly Starfall, compressing lightning into an ultra-high-density energy sphere and dropping it from the sky with power comparable to a meteor.

Lightning Cutter: Gigaton Slash, the ultimate form of Chidori. Its striking range was expanded a thousandfold, and a single slash could sever mountains.

Lightning Flash: Zero-Time Movement, stimulating every cell in the body with Lightning Release to achieve ultra-high-speed movement infinitely close to stopping time.

One Lightning Release forbidden technique after another, long lost or existing only in theory, was analyzed, absorbed, and digested one by one by Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye.

The system's cold notification sounded repeatedly in his mind:

"Notice: Forbidden ninjutsu Lightning Release: Heavenly Starfall acquired."

"Notice: Forbidden ninjutsu Lightning Cutter: Gigaton Slash acquired."

"Notice: Total forbidden ninjutsu acquired ×13."

"Notice: Host's Lightning Release chakra compression efficiency increased by 22%."

"Notice: 5 new ninjutsu fusion paths available."

Xuan closed his eyes and quietly felt the Lightning Release chakra coursing through his body become denser and more violent.

Right there, he began trying to put the knowledge he had just absorbed into practice.

He drew upon the compression principles of the Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere he had already mastered, then combined them with the wide-area destructive properties of Lightning Release: False Darkness. Two utterly different powers began to collide and merge in his palm.

The prototype of an entirely new technique instantly took shape in his mind!

At that moment, the entire Thunder Library's alarm system was finally fully activated.

Dodai's life signs had vanished, and the Ninefold Sealing Box had been opened. The double trigger mechanism transformed this slumbering fortress into an awakened lightning beast!

Bzzzz—!

Countless hidden runes across the walls, floor, and ceiling lit up instantly, weaving together into a giant electrical net that covered the entire space.

Currents of thousands of volts crackled with terrifying sounds, turning into a blue-violet sea of death that swept toward Xuan at its center!

This current contained not only pure physical destructive force, but also the "fear" infused into it by generations of Hidden Cloud Village's strongest—enough to instantly crush an invader's spirit and will!

"Perfect timing."

Xuan opened his eyes, the corner of his mouth curving into a cold smile.

The Mangekyō pattern in his right eye spun rapidly as the ability of Soul Devourer activated!

The intangible "fear" was crazily devoured by his eye power the moment it touched him, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea. It was converted into the purest chakra and, in turn, amplified his strength!

At the same time, he formed hand seals with one hand and released the newly formed technique in his palm!

"New Technique: Thunder Dust Explosion!"

A fist-sized lightning sphere, black as ink, was gently pushed forward by him.

It did not fly quickly. It was even somewhat sluggish. Yet wherever it passed, the air was annihilated, and even the light was twisted.

When it reached the center of the electrical net, it abruptly expanded!

Rumble!!!

There was no earth-shaking explosion, only an incomparably muffled boom.

The black lightning sphere instantly unleashed a ring-shaped electromagnetic pulse, like a supernova erupting in the cosmos.

The Lightning Release electrical net, powerful enough to reduce even Kage-level experts to ashes, shattered and dissipated instantly before that pulse like fragile spider silk.

The library's entire power system and every sensory barrier were completely paralyzed by this single strike!

The entrance to the library was violently broken open. Saori led her puppet forces inside and began efficiently clearing out the remaining automated defense devices.

Baba Tesshin carried a specially made insulated case and swept every remaining scroll of information from the shelves, regardless of value.

Xuan stood amid the chaotic ruins, his gaze falling upon the final fragment of the Lightning Release: Ultimate Art manuscript.

The handwriting there had already blurred, but several wild lines could still be made out:

"If someone can break the ninefold seal within a single day and understand the full profundity of this work, then they are no longer a ninja. They are one who has stepped beyond the laws, looking down upon all living beings—a 'lawbreaker.'"

Xuan let out a soft laugh, carrying a hint of disdain and utter inevitability.

"Law? In this ninja world, I am the source of law."

He casually put away the scroll, then abruptly swept out his hand.

Countless iron sand charges that had long been buried throughout the library's structure detonated simultaneously under his will!

Amid violent tremors, this underground fortress that had guarded Hidden Cloud Village's secrets for a century collapsed together with its foundation, slowly sinking into the roaring magma fissures below and being erased forever.

During their retreat, atop a precipitous mountain peak, Xuan sat cross-legged and began "devouring" all the ninjutsu knowledge seized during this operation in bulk.

As vast streams of data flooded in, the Mangekyō pattern in his right eye underwent another subtle change—the bone-spike patterns that had originally extended outward from three tomoe now slowly began to curve inward, faintly forming the prototype of a loop with neither beginning nor end, symbolizing the Eternal Cycle.

The system notification resounded in his mind like a great bell:

"Warning: Knowledge-based devouring has reached the second-stage threshold!"

"Opening Level 2 branch ability of the 'Cognitive Dimension'..."

"Congratulations, Host. New ability acquired: [Law Simulation]!"

[Law Simulation]: Temporarily replicates and simulates the underlying logic of any analyzed S-rank or higher ninjutsu, ignoring bloodline limit and chakra nature restrictions.

Xuan slowly opened his eyes. Deep within them, it seemed as though stars were being born and dying.

He raised his head, his gaze crossing thousands of mountains and rivers toward Hidden Leaf Village in the Fire Country.

There, something he had once treasured most had been reduced to ashes by a man named Danzo Shimura.

He muttered softly. His voice was scattered by the fierce winds atop the mountain, yet it carried a chill cold enough to freeze souls.

"Every book Danzō burned... I've eaten every last one of them."

A hundred meters behind him, hidden in the shadows, an inconspicuous crow silently watched everything.

Inside its eye socket was not an ordinary bird's eye, but a... Rinnegan covered in purple ripple patterns.

It stared deeply at Xuan's back, as though it wanted to burn his existence into its memory. Then it silently flapped its wings, transformed into a black shadow, and shot into the sky toward the cold, lonely moon hanging high in the night.