Evil God

Tar-like tentacles suddenly stretched out from the stone coffin. Neji slammed both palms into the ground, heaving up slabs of rock. "Wandering Dragon: Twin Breaker!" Dragon-shaped force shredded the tentacles and shot toward the coffin, only to be completely swallowed the moment it touched the black mist.

"How dare insects offend a god!"

The Great Elder rose from the coffin, every inch of his aged shell covered in tiny faces.

Seeing the anguished little faces packed across his skin, everyone's eyes split with fury as immense rage instantly gnawed at their hearts.

"You... deserve to die!" Neji said coldly. Chakra surged around him, and the force gathering in his palms began to radiate a terrifying aura.

"Deserve to die? Hehehe... Hahahaha... Those who offend a god's majesty are the ones who deserve to die!" A piercing, hoarse voice emerged from the billowing black mist, which gradually solidified and wrapped around the Great Elder's gaunt, evil body.

The stone coffin silently shattered. Cloaked in black, the Great Elder slowly stepped out. His shuffling gait steadily firmed, and his body seemed to stretch, becoming abnormally tall.

"Come! Insects, the Evil God requires you to offer up your flesh and blood. Die!"

With the Great Elder's shout, a massive serpent formed from black mist lunged from behind him. Its crimson vertical pupils, condensed from blood mist, flickered like sharp swords, chilling everyone's skin. Its gaping jaws opened, swordlike fangs bared as it pounced.

"Yin Seal: Release!"

The diamond mark on Tsunade's forehead blossomed with violet light, and the chakra cloak of the Strength of a Hundred Technique shattered the altar's foundation. The Great Elder's aura had already brushed against Shadow Rank, so Tsunade did not dare underestimate him. She opened with her strongest move.

Her Monster Strength Fist struck its fangs, and the shockwave made the cave rumble. Rubble rained down in torrents as dust swirled and blinded the eye.

"Mountain Breaker: Ninefold Waves."

A lifelike dragon-shaped force burst from between Neji's clasped palms as he thrust them forward, its roaring cry echoing through the cavern.

The Great Elder's head smashed against the stone wall and burst apart, but the splattered brains transformed into pitch-black slime. The writhing liquid gathered like living creatures, quickly piecing together another gaunt body covered in curse markings. Foul-smelling blood seeped from the cavern walls and condensed into thousands of bloody little snakes, their scales scraping together with a tooth-grating sound.

"Hahaha... Hahahahaha... See? This is the power of a god! A god—is impossible to kill!"

The Great Elder laughed madly, abandoning all defense. His displayed immortality made Neji's heart sink sharply.

"Damn it. I thought this would be an easy mission, but it turned into hell difficulty. This bastard's immortality is even more absurd than Hidan's. His mind seems to have fallen into madness, though, and he can't properly control this power. Also, he doesn't seem to have the abilities of Curse Ritual: Death Controlling by Blood!"

Neji watched the Great Elder reform once again, breathing heavily as calculations flashed through his mind. The animal blood slurry he had deliberately sprayed out during their previous clash had been ignored by the Great Elder. In this state, the Great Elder seemed to want nothing more than to tear them apart and devour them alive.

Using Eight Trigrams Steps, Neji dodged three incoming tentacles. Twisted human faces emerged within the blood mist shredded by his Wandering Dragon force. Some were old, some young—they were clearly all villagers who had been sacrificed.

"Soul-Stitched Monster?"

Through his Byakugan, Neji saw densely packed spirits crammed within the Great Elder's body. Noticing the flowing runes on that body and the faint blood energy continuously connecting to it from the altar, he came to an understanding.

The Great Elder—no, he could no longer be called the Great Elder. There had been a problem with his blood sacrifice ritual after all. His consciousness had long been shattered by the impact of the immense number of souls absorbed during the ritual. What now sustained this soul power was a broken ancient will.

"The Evil God?"

Neji looked at the Great Elder, who was madly devouring blood energy, and could not help feeling speechless. Restricted by blood energy to the vicinity of the altar and surrounded by deep mountains and ancient forests, his chaotic souls would inevitably weaken over time once their supply of blood energy ran out.

The weak consciousness stitched together from them would also vanish. Only that broken ancient will would continue returning to chaos, awaiting the next unforeseen change.

Neji's group had happened to stumble upon this monster at the height of its power. It truly was fate's cruel joke.

If Neji and the others had not intervened, this so-called Evil God would eventually have fallen into oblivion.

"Senior Sister, Sister Xiao Xi, Misaki, destroy the altar aboveground with everything you have. Move all the villagers out, and find a way to clear away the blood energy stored in the altar!"

Seeing the Great Elder recover yet again after Neji and Tsunade had smashed him apart together, Neji figured out the altar's operational nodes and gave orders to those still treating the villagers outside the battle zone.

"Yes, Young Master!"

"Understood!"

"Fire Release: Blazing Flame Bloom!"

The scorching stream of fire Shizune spewed after forming hand seals burned away all the filthy blood flowing beneath the altar. Flames raced through the altar's cracks and slithered along its base like fiery serpents, clearing the blood energy while making the altar crackle and pop.

"Awakening Insects: Spring Thunder!"

Xiao Xi formed an array with Awakening Insects sword energy. A thick bolt of lightning suddenly took shape, and with a thunderous boom, several formation nodes marked by Neji instantly shattered. The broken stones continued to smoke.

"Let's see what tricks you have left now!"

Neji drove back the Great Elder's tentacles once more. An ochre-yellow Wandering Dragon protected his body, deflecting every attack.

Suddenly, the increasingly crazed old man let out an inhuman shriek. The entire cavern began to collapse inward as countless stones reassembled in midair into the skeletal framework of an eight-headed giant serpent.

"Watch out for genjutsu!" Tsunade bit through her tongue to stay awake, only to find real wounds left on her arm by the rock serpent's bite. "A domain that transforms illusion into reality?"

"It's not genjutsu." The veins around Neji's Byakugan bulged as he saw chakra rewriting the rules of matter. "These rocks' atomic arrangements are being reconstructed by spiritual power!"

The giant serpent's bony tail swept toward them, and Neji and Tsunade both retreated.

"Heaven-Guarding Kick!"

Tsunade leaped onto the giant serpent's head. With several rapid jumps, she instantly shattered several of its heads.

"Wandering Dragon: Star Shatter!"

Neji stood on the ground some distance away, evading the serpent's sweeping tail. The next instant, with Neji's shout, a solid azure pillar of light shot from his palms, blasting apart one serpent head in a single strike.

This was a long-range technique Neji had created by combining the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist technique, Eight Trigrams Air Palm, with the explosive power of Wandering Dragon: Mountain Breaker. Compared to the chakra-intensive Eight Trigrams Air Palm, it used qi as its core to command chakra, consuming less while achieving greater explosive power and speed.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

In the blink of an eye, Neji and Tsunade destroyed all the remaining serpent heads. The blood-colored rock serpent wailed as it fell into nothingness.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The Great Elder sank into unconscious muttering, and the souls on his body gradually became transparent.

"Blood! I need blood! Hahaha... You forced me! Open!"

A bloody maw suddenly split open in the Great Elder's chest, spewing forth thousands of resentful spirit tentacles.

Tsunade's Monster Strength Fist struck empty air as it tried to block them, and the recoil jolted her arm bones with a cracking sound.

"Teacher! Damn it! How does he still have such tremendous power? Just how many people did this thing slaughter?!"

Neji gritted his teeth and rushed forward, blasting apart the tentacles lunging at Tsunade and covering her retreat from their attack range.

"Neji, withdraw first. This state of his cannot last long. Avoid this wave of attacks!"

"Yes, Teacher!"

At her words, Neji supported Tsunade and prepared to leave the altar's range, but an unusual palpitation suddenly rose from the depths of his heart.

"What is this?"