Your Defense Line? I'll Use It as a Staircase

Dead silence—the eerie calm of wind and snow being pushed aside by an invisible force field.

Fresh blood seeped through Darui's bandages, sweat and blood soaking through his clothes.

He stared fixedly at the send button, flashing with its last glimmer of light. This was the Land of Lightning's last shred of dignity, and the last drop of blood he, as the commander of the Seventh Outpost, could shed for Hidden Cloud Village.

The Third Thunder Gate had been breached, the Lightning Prison Cage had been reverse-engineered, and now even the Cipher Tower with the highest authority had fallen.

Like phantoms, the enemy had silently torn through the Thunder Spine Defense Line that Hidden Cloud Village had been so proud of, every step landing precisely on the most vulnerable node of their defensive system.

This was no longer a war. It was a one-sided dismantling.

He could wait no longer!

Darui clenched his teeth until they ground together, his bloodshot eyes brimming with desperate madness.

He raised a trembling hand, exhausted every ounce of his strength, and slammed it toward the crimson button!

Lightning-Fire Linkage Protocol, activate!

At the cost of every core across the Thunder Spine Defense Line, it would detonate the chakra reserves within a hundred-mile radius, creating a permanent thunderstorm dead zone that even gods would avoid!

Even if he died, he would bury this terrifying enemy beneath this scorched earth!

Yet, one-thousandth of a second before his fingertip touched the button, every communications screen in the outpost suddenly lit up after a shrill burst of electrical static.

There was no complicated stream of data on the screens, no snowy interference. There was only a face so calm it made one's heart tremble.

"Are you looking for this frequency?"

Xuan's indifferent voice came through the speakers, carrying a trace of all-knowing mockery, as though a god high above the heavens were looking down upon ants struggling in their death throes.

The instant his words fell, the entire outpost seemed to come alive—but in a self-destructive manner!

The chakra lamps on the ceiling burst one after another. Every ninja tool waiting to be deployed—kunai, senbon, shuriken—shook madly on their racks, their surface temperatures rapidly rising until they glowed red-hot.

The defensive barrier runes inscribed on the walls seemed to have been injected with poison. Their light flickered in reverse as they let out overloaded wails!

Darui was utterly horrified. He tried to forcibly cut off the main power supply, only to discover in terror that the chakra within him seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, forcibly drawn out of his meridians beyond his control. He could not gather even a trace of it, much less form hand seals!

Th-This... what kind of power is this?!

The outpost's alloy gates slid open without a sound, and Xuan slowly walked inside.

He wore a black cloak patterned with red clouds, fluttering violently amid the chaotic energy currents. The pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan in his right eye slowly revolved with a cold, profound rhythm.

He did not even spare Darui a glance. His gaze swept over the equipment that was collapsing around them, and his tone was as calm as if he were simply stating a fact. "Your defensive logic is too linear."

He raised a finger and traced lightly through the air, as if instructing a foolish student. "On means on, off means off, life means life, death means death... Unfortunately, this world has never been made of binary code consisting only of 'yes' and 'no.'"

Before his words had faded, he raised his hand and lightly pressed his index finger against the cold metal floor.

[Rule Overwrite: Cycle Stasis]!

In an instant, the violent torrent of chakra that was about to blow up the entire defense line seemed like a tamed wild horse, immediately losing its target.

The command originally set to "detonate" was forcibly altered. The immense energy, enough to destroy everything, was directed into circuits that had long since been overwritten underground, cycling meaninglessly until it finally fell silent.

The entire self-destruct system, which embodied Hidden Cloud Village's finest technology and seal techniques, was completely crippled with such casual ease.

"Bang!"

The doors were smashed fully open as Baba Tesshin led a squad of fully armed ninja charging inside. With practiced movements, they rushed toward each key node and swiftly, professionally dismantled the explosive devices that had become duds.

Everything seemed as though it had been rehearsed countless times.

Darui slumped in his chair, drenched in cold sweat. Looking at the man who had controlled everything before him, he used the last of his strength to roar, "What the hell do you want?!"

Xuan finally turned his gaze toward him. There was no pity in those eyes, no mockery—only bottomless indifference.

He slowly walked to the enormous strategic map on the wall and looked down at every military fortress marked upon it.

"I want you to understand one thing." His voice was soft, yet it struck Darui's heart like a heavy hammer. "The Thunder Spine Defense Line you take such pride in, the one you call an 'impenetrable net,' is, in my eyes, nothing more than scaffolding built and waiting to be dismantled."

His fingertip slid across the map before finally stopping at a core area marked top secret—"Heart of the Thunder Spine."

"For example, here. The Heart of the Thunder Spine energy core, the hub that supplies chakra to the entire defense line. To prevent lightning vein overload, there is a full nine-second power vacuum every twelve hours for system cooling and circuit resetting." He tilted his head slightly, his Mangekyō gaze piercing through space as though staring directly into Darui's soul. "Did you think no one knew this S-rank secret?"

Standing behind Xuan, Saori added at the right moment, her voice cool and clear. "Before coming here, Lord Xuan used [Law Simulation] to deduce seventeen complete plans for entering the Heart of the Thunder Spine without triggering a single alarm."

Darui's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.

That night, at midnight.

Outside the Heart of the Thunder Spine, the wind and snow were more violent than ever.

Just as Xuan had predicted, at the instant the guard forces changed shifts, the massive energy system emitted a low hum and entered that brief dormancy period, so short it was almost negligible.

Xuan's group appeared like phantoms before the gates of the core base. He did not even have Baba Tesshin make a move.

He simply stood there quietly as the Mangekyō pattern in his right eye spun rapidly.

[Myriad Phenomena Return to the Eye: Analysis]!

The alloy gates, several meters thick, along with the identification runes of over three hundred layers of defensive barriers behind them, were completely scanned and analyzed within a single second.

Then, he raised his hand.

[Rule Overwrite: Privilege Alteration]!

The next second, the final defense line that countless Hidden Cloud ninja considered impregnable emitted a pleasant electronic chime.

"Authentication approved."

Amid a steady mechanical hum, the heavy alloy doors silently slid apart.

The red alarm lights flashing throughout the passage beyond the doors even switched on their own to green safety indicators, representing the passage of a high-ranking allied inspection team.

Watching this unbelievable scene from behind, Baba Tesshin could not help but mutter, "Boss, this... feels less like we're breaking into a forbidden zone and more like we're going home."

Xuan did not respond and walked directly into the base's main control room.

At its center, a massive blue master-control crystal emitted a gentle radiance. Within it flowed every operational record from the Thunder Spine Defense Line over the past three years, its energy distribution models, emergency response procedures... It was the crystallized lifework of generations of Hidden Cloud Village.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xuan placed his right hand directly on the master-control crystal.

[Myriad Phenomena Devouring]!

Boom—!

A vast, boundless flood of information transformed into a visible waterfall of data, surging wildly through his arm and into his mind.

Cold system notifications exploded one after another deep within his consciousness!

"Captured Large-Scale Military Management System ×1. Core rule analysis progress: 97%!"

"Skill [Rule Overwrite] proficiency greatly increased. Authority level upgraded to: Intermediate!"

"Warning! Unknown high-dimensional information detected... Analyzing... Hidden route discovered: the 'Ultra-High-Pressure Lightning Vein Transmission Channel' leading underground beneath Hidden Cloud Main City!"

When Xuan withdrew his hand, the brilliant master-control crystal had already dimmed, reduced to a useless stone.

He had obtained everything he wanted, and even more.

He turned and walked out of the base. At the entrance, he gave Darui one final look as his subordinates dragged him out, his eyes vacant and his mind already broken.

"Next time we meet," Xuan said, his voice like the cold wind of a snowy night, clearly reaching Darui's ears, "I'll crawl out from beneath the throne in your Raikage's office."

With that, he vanished into the wind and snow without looking back.

On the empty snowfield, a pitch-black Crow silently descended. Its eyes bore the eerie purple pattern of the Rinnegan.

It lightly pecked at the ground, picking up a communications chip Xuan had "accidentally" left behind. Then it spread its wings and flew into the endless night sky.

The world returned to silence, as though nothing had ever happened.

Yet beneath this frozen land, hundreds of meters deep in the dark underground, lightning veins like the blood vessels of giant dragons ran through the rock strata. Following the command that had just been overwritten, they began to emit a low, dangerous hum utterly unlike before.