The wind and sand were instantly pushed away by the invisible force field, and Xuan Jing stood still, letting the alchemical creation named "Silver Crow" rest on his shoulder.
That drop of black liquid that stubbornly penetrated was not a malfunction, but the last data stream from the depths of Land of Lightning, risking its life to be transmitted back by the reverse beacon.
The liquid is refracted and reconstructed on the lens of the Silver Crow mechanical pupil, and finally reflects an intricate three-dimensional structure like a spider web.
Xuan's gaze was as deep as an abyss, and the vague but precise map reflected in his pupils - it was the complete underground structure map of Land of Lightning's most stringent border fortress, "Thunder Prison Corridor".
Every ventilation duct, every energy node, and even every abandoned secret passage are clearly visible in this miniature darkness.
"They thought I was running away." Xuan's whisper was torn into pieces by the wind, but it carried a coldness that controlled the overall situation, "But I was just choosing the most suitable entrance."
He slowly opened his palms, and in his palms lay several pieces of material as thin as cicada wings, which were fragments of intelligence forcibly stripped from the nerve endings of a White Zetsu Clone.
The information recorded on it was fragmented, but in Xuan's eyes, it could be perfectly spliced with another piece of information.
That was the key information he deciphered from the diary left by Amemiya Hayato through the exclusive password of Akatsuki - an old-era transportation channel that had been abandoned by Kumogakure as early as the Second Shinobi World War period.
This passage was once used to secretly transport strategic materials and Tailed Beast human pillars. Its end point points directly to the outer edge of the altar in the deepest part of the Hidden Cloud Village ground.
In the temporary tent next to it, Saori's dexterous fingers are busy working quickly.
She reassembled a bunch of cold puppet parts and finally adjusted them into a thin metal mask.
On the surface of the mask, complex lines flowed under the dim light, making it look like a living thing.
"This is the common identification pattern of 'Raikage's Direct Science Corps' that I imitated based on the intercepted signal." Saori handed the mask to Xuan with a serious expression, "But it is only a shallow simulation. The energy core cannot be copied and can only last for three hours at most. Once it enters the high-level chakra scanning area, it will be exposed immediately."
Xuan took the mask, and a cold touch came from his fingertips.
He did not put it on immediately, but gently stroked the lines on the mask's surface with his fingertips.
At this moment, an imperceptible light flashed deep in his right eye.
[Myriad Phenomena Devouring System] Silent startup.
A memory fragment sealed deep in the system was instantly extracted and analyzed.
That was the remnant soul of a Hidden Cloud Village scientific ninja who was killed by Impure World Reincarnation on the battlefield not long ago.
That ninja was responsible for the maintenance of the barrier of "Thunder Prison Corridor" during his lifetime.
All the details of his behavioral patterns, voiceprint frequency, and even the habitual slight limp when walking were extracted by the system, turned into a torrent of information, and accurately injected into Xuan's nervous system.
Xuan's temperament changed subtly in an instant, it was a kind of slightly neurotic rigor belonging to a researcher.
"I don't need to be like them," he put on the mask, and his voice came out through the voice changer, already indistinguishable from the dead ninja, "I just need to... let them think that I am."
Late at night, in the hinterland of Land of Lightning, the moonlight was obscured by thick clouds.
Xuan's figure was like a wisp of smoke, quietly blending into the huge and cold ventilation duct system of "Thunder Prison Corridor".
He traveled quickly along the intricate pipelines, his body so agile that it was inhuman.
The infrared sensors and chakra barrier nodes along the way were accurately predicted by the system one second before he passed by, allowing him to avoid them perfectly with just a hair's breadth.
He stopped behind a secret door marked "Seventh Maintenance Cabin".
Inside the cabin, two members of the scientific force wearing white uniforms were handing over tasks, and their muffled voices reached Xuan's ears clearly.
One of the young women, Sakura Megumi, was grabbing her hair irritably and complaining in a low voice. "Master Lei Yan is simply crazy! He insisted on forcibly starting the ceremony at Zishi, but Eight-Tails Jinchuriki's vital signs have fallen below the warning line! This is not to save Master Bi at all, this is a complete sacrifice!"
The other person quickly made a silent gesture. "Keep your voice down! Do you want to be sent to be used as 'materials'? Lei Yan Master's order, we will just carry it out."
Xuan's body was pressed against the cold metal bulkhead, and he accurately recorded the rhythm of Sakura Megumi's voice, her anxious expression, and even her unconscious habitual pauses when speaking.
He moved his fingertips slightly, and a trace of [Void Devour·Return to Ruins] mist, which was finer than dust, quietly overflowed from his fingers, passed through the crack of the door silently, and accurately attached to the data scroll that Sakura Megumi carried with him.
Now, she will be his ears deep into the enemy's nest.
Continuing forward and approaching the altar outpost, Xuan accurately grasped Sakura Megumi's action route through remote monitoring.
He did not choose to seize it violently, but waited for her arrival in a surveillance blind corner.
When Sakura Megumi swiped her card thoughtfully and entered a gate, Xuan's system instantly simulated the frequency of her hand's slight trembling caused by the huge mental pressure.
The moment she closed the door, Xuan appeared in front of the access control system like a ghost. His fingers distributed pressure with exactly the same frequency and fingerprint, covering the sensor.
"Dip--Permission confirmation, Researcher Sakura Megumi."
The record left by the access control system is a "normal passage" without any flaws.
Xuan calmly put on the uniform he had already prepared, put on the special mask, and strode Earth Flow into the heavily guarded core area.
Dazzling white light illuminated everything in front of him. In a huge and suffocating underground space, a huge and complex sealing array had been laid out.
The runes of the magic circle flowed on the ground, exuding heart-stopping chakra fluctuations.
In the giant cage in the center of the magic circle, Killer B was tightly bound by dozens of chains engraved with runes, and the Gyūki in his body was being forcibly stripped away.
Huge octopus tentacles were pulled out of his body one after another and connected to various nodes of the sealing array. Each peel was accompanied by surging black smoke and the suppressed roar of Killer B. The sound hit the four walls and made the entire space tremble slightly.
Xuan stood calmly in the shadow of a towering observation tower, blending himself perfectly into the background.
His right eye, the eye modified by [Myriad Phenomena Devouring System], slowly turned on the visual mode of [Void Devour·Return to Ruins].
In an instant, the colors of the entire world faded away, leaving only black and white.
The huge and complex sealing array was no longer mysterious in his eyes. The flow of chakra, the nodes of energy, and the weak links of the array were all as clear as veins in the palm of his hand.
He remained motionless, as if he were just a statue.
But his fingertips tapped the air beside him three times with a strange rhythm.
Three invisible black mists that cannot be caught by the naked eye or even perception, followed the cracks in the ground, seeped into the sealing array like mercury, and accurately attached to the three most critical array eye nodes.
This is the devouring anchor point he implanted in advance, a trap before hunting.
At this moment, Lei Yan, a middle-aged man with a stern face, stood in front of the main console and announced loudly, "The ceremony has entered the third stage! Start the regeneration suppression program and extract active samples!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a Eight-Tails tentacle that had just been peeled off suddenly twitched violently.
At its broken cross section, the flesh and blood squirmed crazily at a speed visible to the naked eye, and actually healed on its own!
A majestic life energy burst out at that moment.
That's it now!
Xuan's pupils suddenly shrank.
The three black mists lurking in the eyes of the formation, at the moment when the regenerative energy exploded, were like poisonous snakes that had been dormant for a long time, and suddenly started to devour them!
The black mist disappeared in a flash, not even a fraction of a second.
It did not greedily absorb the huge energy, but like the most brilliant thief, it accurately stole only the core active cells and a residual stream of memory from the surging torrent.
The whole process was as fast as lightning and silent. None of the Hidden Cloud Village ninjas present, including Lei Yan who presided over the ceremony, noticed anything unusual.
In Xuan's mind, a cold system prompt sounded on time.
"Capture Eight-Tails tissue regeneration source code..."
"Parsing... parsing completed..."
"Unlock new function: [Tissue Regeneration Acceleration] (Passive effect: Wound healing speed tripled)"
The goal has been achieved. Xuan suppressed a slight fluctuation in his heart and prepared to quietly evacuate along the original route.
However, the moment he turned around, a patrolling ninja seemed to notice the incongruity in the shadows. Instead of shouting a warning, he threw the Kunai in his hand without hesitation!
The poison-quenched blade tore through the air, with a sharp whistling sound, and accurately stabbed Xuan's back and vitals!
Poof!
The sound of the blade penetrating into the flesh is clearly audible.
But the strange thing is that the silhouette of Xuan who was hit by the knife instantly merged into the shadow under his feet as if ink was dissolved in the water.
Just a few seconds later, he slowly walked out of the shadows on the other side. The white uniform on his body was intact, not even a wrinkle appeared, and his breath was even and smooth without any disorder.
The pupils of the ninja who threw Kunai shrank sharply, and he was so shocked that he opened his mouth and was about to issue a shrill alarm.
But he never got another chance.
Xuan raised his hand, pointed at him in the distance, and uttered a cold word.
"Shut up."
The sound was not loud, but it seemed to have some kind of magic power.
Its frequency actually resonated strangely with the roar of Gyūki in the distant cage!
Buzz--!
A low and terrifying roar spread instantly, and the reinforced glass containers used to store experimental materials on both sides of the entire corridor shattered at the same time!
Countless pieces of culture fluid and experimental subjects splashed all over the place!
Further away, in a special cell, the Gyuki projection composed of Eight-Tails chakra, which was used as a backup energy source, suddenly raised its huge head, its scarlet eyes were instantly ignited, two sharp corners ignited with blazing fire, and it raised its head to the sky and let out a roar that shook the ground!
In an instant, the piercing siren sounded throughout the underground fortress, and the blood-red emergency lights flashed crazily, making every horrified face look like a ghost from hell.
Heavy and rapid footsteps came from all directions and were gathering crazily towards the center of the commotion.