The Secret You Guard, I'll Use as a Stepping Stone

The screech of lightning was like the death wail of an ancient beast, piercing through layers of snow and wind to stab straight into the depths of the soul.

Xuan and his two companions braved the biting wind and stepped into this domain of lightning.

The ground beneath their feet was hard as iron, every inch tempered countless times by thunder, giving it an eerie glasslike texture.

"These patterns... are even older than the stele at Naka River Shrine." Saori crouched down, her fingertips brushing over the deep grooves in the ground. Her voice carried a trace of awe. "This isn't any sealing technique from the modern ninjutsu system. It's more primitive, more... savage. It's like directly seizing lightning from heaven and earth, then using chakra to forcibly twist its rules."

Xuan nodded. The crimson Mangekyō Sharingan pattern in his right eye spun eerily in the snowy night.

He pushed his ocular power to its limit, fully activating the analytical ability of [Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye]. Those scalp-numbing rune structures were swiftly dismantled, reconstructed, and deduced before his eyes.

Every node and every flow of energy became a vast torrent of data flooding into his mind.

He saw it. Beneath this land lay a massive energy cycle woven from natural lightning veins and artificial chakra nodes.

It was dormant, but even the slightest disturbance from outside chakra would be enough to awaken it.

Just as Xuan was about to complete his analysis, a sudden change erupted!

As if a sleeping beast had been startled awake, every rune on the ground lit up at once. Blinding pale lightning burst through the snow, transforming into nine immensely thick pillars of lightning that shot into the sky!

Arcs of electricity leaped madly between the pillars, forming an impenetrable cage of lightning that completely sealed off the core area of the sanctuary.

The nine lightning pillars resembled spears of divine punishment holding up heaven and earth, radiating an absolute will that rejected the presence of all living beings.

"We've been discovered!" Baba Tesshin's expression changed. He instinctively took half a step back, every muscle in his body tensing.

Yet there was not the slightest hint of retreat in Xuan's eyes. Instead, a blazing fighting spirit flashed within them.

Rather than retreating, he advanced. At the instant the lightning barrier was about to close completely, he darted forward like a ghost.

His right hand formed no complicated seals. He simply pressed it against the ground as though casually.

"System, activate [Rule Overwrite]."

Buzz—!

An invisible yet overwhelmingly tyrannical wave spread outward from the center of his palm.

The "Absolute Expulsion Law" embedded in the laws of the land, which targeted foreign chakra, was like fragile ice crystals before this force, forcibly twisted and altered!

A new rule was instantly written: "Same-Frequency Acceptance."

The next second, the thin Lightning Release chakra armor covering Xuan's body reached a bizarre resonance with the violent lightning-pillar barrier.

The lightning energy, enough to vaporize a jonin in an instant, did not harm him upon touching his body. Instead, it flowed naturally around him like gentle water.

Xuan did not pause in the slightest. In one step, he entered the ring of death formed from lightning.

"Follow me!" he barked.

Baba Tesshin did not dare delay and immediately activated his chakra to follow closely behind.

However, the purity of his chakra and his control over lightning were ultimately nowhere near Xuan's.

The instant half his body entered the barrier, the altered rules produced a momentary rejection response.

The alarm was triggered!

Crackle!

A lightning serpent thicker than an arm violently split off from a lightning pillar, carrying a destructive aura as it shot straight for Baba Tesshin's back!

It was so fast that even the Mangekyō Sharingan struggled to capture its full trajectory.

At the critical moment, a black shadow tore through the air and blocked the lightning serpent with a bang.

It was the puppet decoy Saori had thrown in an instant!

The specially made puppet was blown into pieces the moment it touched the lightning serpent, splinters scattering everywhere.

But that brief obstruction had already bought Xuan precious time.

He did not even turn around. He merely swept one hand backward, and the ocular power in his right eye erupted once more!

"[Soul Devourer]!"

An even stranger force of attraction burst from his palm. The lightning serpent, which had scattered slightly after destroying the puppet, was swallowed as if by an invisible giant maw. Its violent energy was forcibly stripped away and absorbed, surging into Xuan's body through his arm.

A cold smile curled across Xuan's lips. Rather than converting that energy for his own use, he controlled it with even greater precision and injected it in reverse into an energy node of a nearby lightning pillar!

Crackle... boom!

Like a precise circuit flooded with the wrong current, that node suddenly erupted in a blinding flash before dimming.

The energy circulation of the entire lightning barrier suffered a full second of short-circuiting and stagnation.

Now!

The three seized the opportunity and instantly crossed the first ring of lightning storms.

As they ventured deeper into the forbidden area, the wind and snow weakened, but the thunder grew increasingly deafening.

A massive bronze altar, half-buried within the rock strata, appeared before them.

The altar had weathered countless years. Its surface was covered in marks like axe cuts, and at its center was a peculiar groove that appeared to be a base for holding some kind of weapon.

Without hesitation, Xuan slowly extended his right hand and touched the cold groove.

The instant his fingertips contacted the altar, the system in his mind roared to life.

"Ancient law remnants detected. Activating [Law Simulation]."

In an instant, a fragmented image surfaced in Xuan's consciousness like a branded mark.

Within the image, two towering figures stood side by side. One was burly and domineering—the First Raikage. The other was leaner and sharp-eyed—the Second Raikage in his youth.

The First Raikage gripped a massive hammer wrapped in endless lightning. With an enraged roar, the hammer drew down rolling heavenly thunder from above and smashed fiercely toward the ground!

Their target was an enormous, ominous tailed-beast-level White Zetsu!

Yet the image abruptly ended at the instant the hammer struck.

Although the vision was incomplete, through the deep analysis of [Law Simulation], Xuan had already extracted the most crucial core information.

The true principle of Thunder God's Hammer was not merely Lightning Release enhancement. Rather, it used the wielder's immense chakra to create ultra-high-frequency resonance with the weapon's special internal structure.

Once the resonance reached a certain threshold, it could briefly tear open the surface layer of reality itself. Like opening a window, it could directly "borrow" power from the most primal ocean of thunderstorm energy in nature and unleash a world-destroying blow!

"So that's how it is... You thought you were forging a weapon." Enlightenment gleamed in Xuan's eyes, while an icy curve rose at his lips. "In truth, you were unconsciously... trying to open a 'door.'"

The mysterious crystalline nerves in the right side of his brain extended countless strands of light again, forcibly dragging, devouring, and incorporating this newly acquired stream of ancient knowledge into [Cognitive Dimension]!

The system interface refreshed madly in his mind:

"Warning: Ancient Lightning Release application theory beyond the current era detected ×1"
"Analysis complete... [Spatial Resonance] basic application model unlocked"
"New fusion path added: Lightning Release + Yin Release = Pseudo-Spatial Rift Technique"

Xuan slowly raised his hand. Without forming seals, he merely brought his five fingers together, imitating the First Raikage's hammer-swinging motion from the vision as he put the theory he had just grasped into practice.

A mass of distorted lightning rapidly condensed in his palm. It was not an ordinary Lightning Blade or Chidori, but a profound bolt of lightning that seemed capable of swallowing even light itself!

He slammed his palm down at the ground!

Boom—!

There was no earthshaking explosion, only a muffled detonation.

The enormous boulder beneath his palm did not shatter or turn to charcoal. Instead, a huge portion of it simply vanished into thin air!

In its place was a spatial fissure no thicker than a strand of hair, yet black to the extreme.

A chilling suction force came from within the fissure, warping even the air around it.

It lasted less than a second before rapidly closing under the world's self-repairing laws.

Yet that fleeting display of destructive power made both Saori and Baba Tesshin gasp.

That was vaporization. Annihilation. A strike from a higher dimension!

Meanwhile, at a blind corner of a cliff a hundred meters away, a figure lurked amid the snowstorm.

Using Hidden Cloud Village's specially modified sensory ninjutsu, Darui stared intently at the center of the forbidden area.

Just moments ago, he had detected an abnormal spatial fluctuation that made even his soul tremble.

"That kind of rift... that isn't ninjutsu! What is it? The 'rules' themselves have been damaged!" Cold sweat streamed down Darui's forehead. He finally realized that these intruders had long since transcended the realm of conventional combat.

This was not a battle between shinobi. This was... a challenge to the very foundation of the world!

Without hesitation, he bit his finger and prepared to activate the highest-level emergency distress beacon.

However, just as he began to move, he suddenly froze.

Three slender black needles, as fine as ox hairs, had silently pierced through the wind and snow at some unknown moment and precisely pinned the beacon device hidden in his sleeve.

The black needles, formed from iron sand, instantly released disruptive chakra and completely destroyed the device.

Darui raised his head in horror. A hundred meters away, the figure standing before the altar slowly turned to look in his direction.

Though they were separated by such distance and the howling snowstorm, those crimson eyes felt close enough to be within reach, clearly reflecting his terrified face.

A cold voice seemed to echo directly inside his mind:

"You can keep watching. But remember—next time I open a door, it won't close again."

Xuan withdrew his gaze and no longer paid attention to that useless "spectator."

He turned around. Due to the earlier law simulation and spatial rift, the remaining lightning-vein energy beneath the bronze altar had completely lost control and began to run rampant. The entire altar shook violently, about to sink underground.

Faced with an energy storm powerful enough to flatten several miles of land, Xuan merely calmly raised his right eye.

The Mangekyō pattern spun madly, and a terrifying suction force capable of devouring heaven and earth erupted!

"[Myriad Phenomena Devouring]!"

The rampaging lightning-vein energy seemed to find an outlet, transforming into visible torrents of lightning that were all absorbed into the other space within his right eye.

System prompts sounded in rapid succession:

"Absorbed high-purity natural Lightning Release chakra × massive quantity"
"Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan evolution progress +12%"

When the final trace of lightning had been devoured, the massive bronze altar gave an unwilling wail and slowly sank into the depths of the earth, leaving behind only devastation.

Xuan slowly turned, ready to leave.

At that moment, the lingering memory of the old storehouse guard shinobi he had devoured surfaced uncontrollably in the depths of his mind once more.

The old man's wrinkled face carried sorrow and fear as he murmured:

"You... will ultimately become the kind of person they fear most..."

Xuan stopped. Amid the wind and snow, a faint icy curve lifted at his lips.

"Then let them... fear me forever."

With those words, he did not linger. His figure became an afterimage and vanished into the boundless snowy night.

The lights of Hidden Cloud Village flickered faintly along the distant horizon. The darkness before dawn was the deepest darkness of the day.

Xuan's gaze pierced through the endless night and snowstorm, landing on the rolling mountain range ahead.

There, a natural gorge that looked as if it had been cleaved open by a giant axe cut across the land. It was the final natural barrier leading out, as well as one of Hidden Cloud Village's most vital strategic chokepoints.

Within the gorge, the wind wailed like mourning ghosts, while thunder rumbled faintly.

That sole passage was no longer merely a route of escape in Xuan's eyes. It was the perfect touchstone for testing the new power he had gained.

Tonight, he would not merely break through. He would use the most shocking method to tear apart the darkness before dawn completely.