Blood Altar

The mountain ravine glimmered rust-red beneath the moonlight, blood seeping from cracks in the rocks and pooling into a stream.

Neji's Byakugan pierced the cave mist. Black fog seeped from the stone coffin at the center of the altar, condensing into a giant eight-fingered hand that reached toward the women and children in the surrounding cages.

"Move!"

In the early hours of the morning, Neji and the others who had tracked the cultists here launched a surprise assault on the altar in a spearhead formation: Tsunade at the point, Neji behind her, Shizune and Xiao Xi forming the wings, with Misaki in the center.

The instant Tsunade kicked apart the cave's stone doors, a rain of poisoned shuriken shot straight at them. Neji spun and swept out his sleeves, sending the concealed weapons flying back along their original paths with dragon-like force. Dozens of bloody blossoms immediately burst from the shadows along the rock walls. Just as the surviving cultists began forming hand seals, the chakra threads Shizune flung out had already tangled around their ankles.

"Go!"

Xiao Xi lightly tapped the air with her sword fingers, and six streams of sword qi became arrows that nailed their way through the enemies' skulls.

The bronze bell atop the altar suddenly began ringing on its own, its sound waves shaking stalactites loose from the ceiling like a torrential downpour. Tsunade sneered and stamped the ground, spiderweb cracks instantly spreading through the entire cave. "Heaven-Guarding Kick!"

The falling boulders froze in midair for an instant before abruptly changing direction and blasting toward the altar guards like cannonballs. Crisp snaps of shattering bones rang out from the blood mist, like a dozen walnuts being crushed at once.

Two red-robed priests rose from the blood pool and formed hand seals, summoning a savage giant skeleton serpent. Its movements carried the force of collapsing mountains and splitting earth as it whipped up towering waves of blood at the group.

Neji focused his gaze and saw through the illusion concealed behind the serpent's imposing presence. He gave a few quiet instructions, and Shizune and Xiao Xi immediately charged through the illusionary blood wave. Xiao Xi controlled her sword qi to block the venomous fangs lurking beneath it.

Shizune flipped onto the serpent's head, and her Chakra Scalpel pierced precisely into its seventh vertebra. "Nerve Separation Technique."

The instant the giant serpent collapsed with a crash, seventy-two emerald senbon shot from her sleeves. They collided and changed direction in midair, weaving a poisonous net around the priests. The priest on the left had barely formed a blood shield when the senbon suddenly ignited into ghostly flames and entered his internal organs through his pores.

Neji clicked his tongue inwardly. Medical ninja were poison experts as well. Influenced by Neji and Misaki over the past few years, Tsunade had also begun teaching Shizune her most closely guarded techniques.

Shizune stepped on the twitching enemy, her Chakra Scalpel slicing across his carotid artery as skillfully as if she were cutting an umbilical cord during childbirth.

"This girl is completely furious!" Neji's neck went cold at the sight.

On the other side, Xiao Xi's sword qi was locked in battle with the blood whip conjured by the other priest. When the priest regenerated his severed right arm for the twelfth time, the girl's sword stance abruptly changed. "Great Heat: Blazing Flow!"

The fiery dragon formed from sword qi called Great Heat instantly bit down on the priest's throat, while six sword shadows pierced through his body at once. Before the charred remains could fall, the residual sword qi had already swept away the foot soldiers within thirty feet, plowing smoking trenches into the rock walls.

The flaming dragon roared as it wheeled back into the blood pool, instantly evaporating its contents. The air was immediately filled with a nauseating smell of rust.

Neji was very satisfied with the girl's first performance in combat. Of course, such an outstanding showing might have had something to do with the fact that her opponents had left the realm of humanity and become monstrous oddities.

After all, killing one's own kind brought considerable discomfort, but killing monsters naturally put one on the morally righteous side.

"Kill!"

The last six people guarding the stone coffin charged forward together, throwing shuriken and Explosive Tags first, followed by ninjutsu glowing in every color.

"Earth Release: Ground-Spike Spear!"

"Water Release: Water-Flow Whip!"

"Water Release: Water Shockwave!"

"Water Release: Torrent!"

"Blood Mist Boiling Technique!"

In an instant, the ground abruptly bulged forward, jagged stone spears bursting out one after another and spreading rapidly toward them like spikes from the earth;

A huge wave rose up, rolling toward them;

A water whip slithered through the waves like a water snake, waiting for an opportunity to coil around them;

At the same time, streams of blood mist rolled through the cave, and the group suddenly felt scorching heat throughout their bodies. Brutal scenes of slaughter appeared before their eyes, their killing intent on the verge of being provoked. They wanted nothing more than to twist the neck of anything beside them.

"Hah!"

Inner Qi accelerated through his body, instantly dispersing the heat. Neji was the first to regain clarity, and his loud shout awakened the others.

But at that moment, the enemy attacks were already upon them.

Just as the group was about to be swallowed by the ninjutsu, Tsunade was preparing to act when Neji shouted again, "I'll do it!"

With that, he flashed to the very front, bringing his hands together in a sword-finger seal. Inner Qi surged rapidly around him, while chakra instantly roared outside his body.

"Rotation: Mirror Reversal!"

In the blink of an eye, a rapidly spinning chakra sphere formed in front of him, smashing apart the shuriken and Explosive Tags first.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Ripples spread across the chakra sphere as the Explosive Tags detonated against it, but the sphere ultimately held firm.

Then came the overwhelmingly powerful ninjutsu.

"Perfect!"

Neji shouted excitedly, eager to test the power of Rotation: Mirror Reversal in a group battle. A fight against six chunin-level opponents was just right for the current him.

The ground spikes arrived first, only to vanish the instant they touched the Mirror Reversal, their advance halted completely.

Then, like a black hole, the bright blue chakra sphere greedily swallowed the Water Shockwave, the Water-Flow Whip, the blood mist filling the sky, and an unknown, shadowy ninjutsu.

The next moment, the chakra sphere suddenly expanded as though it had overeaten. Beneath the rapidly rotating chakra, Neji's fierce face was faintly visible. Too many attacks had flooded in at once, forcing him to devote all his concentration to controlling it.

"Go!"

In an instant, the chakra sphere faintly revealed a Bagua pattern. Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, and Kan lit up in succession, and every absorbed attack erupted from six directions, crashing toward the stunned enemies.

Two ninja who failed to react in time were struck by the returning towering waves. The next second, sharp stone spears thrust up from underground and pierced through their bodies. They let out two hoarse gasps before their breath ceased.

"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"

The Earth Release ninja who had recovered his senses hurriedly formed hand seals, raising a wall before the massive wave. But how could one person withstand the combined force of several attacks? After only a few breaths of stalemate, the Earth Wall was smashed apart, and the water, carrying mud and sand, surged onward again.

"That's impossible!"

The remaining four revealed looks of horror. Even after using the Substitution Jutsu, they still could not escape the range of the impact and were battered into miserable states.

How could Neji miss such an opportunity? He flashed to the side of the unsteady survivors.

"Dragon Battles in the Wilds!"

Neji shouted, his palms glowing dark gold as they struck the chests of the two on his left. Amid sharp cracks, both their breastbones shattered completely. Bone fragments pierced their lungs, and as they flew backward, bloody foam continuously spilled from their mouths. Their lives ended in an instant as they slammed heavily onto the ground.

A poisoned kunai suddenly stabbed out from the shadows, but Neji seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He struck the assassin's wrist with a Star-Chaos Point, throwing the chakra in half his body into disorder. At the same time, his other hand unleashed a Sea-Covering Palm behind him with mountain-toppling force, sending another ambusher's Fire Release: Flame Bullet hurtling back.

Within the smoke produced by the collision of crimson flames and force waves, Neji spun and followed with a Rotation Kick. His unparalleled strength stamped a perfect circular depression into the assassin's chest. Borrowing the rebound from that monstrous force, he instantly crashed into the chest of the last ninja, and a Mountain-Crushing Strike shattered the enemy's spine. Broken bones and blood mist sprayed from the ninja's back.

In the blink of an eye, all six chunin who had charged them were dead. The rocky cavern returned to dead silence, with only the breeze stirred by Neji's clothing rolling through the lingering sparks of chakra.