Hidden Sound Perimeter

The forest along the border of the Land of Rice Paddies looked especially bleak beneath the morning mist.

Hyuga Xiao stood on the branch of an ancient tree, his Byakugan maintaining a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree surveillance state with no blind spots. In his field of vision, chakra flowed in dense webs—three kilometers ahead, the outer defensive barrier of Hidden Sound Village emitted dark-purple ripples of energy, breathing like some living thing.

"Split into three teams to scout."

Elder Xiao's voice came from below. The Main House elder stood at the very front of the group, his hands behind his back, his tone as calm as if he were arranging an ordinary patrol.

"The eastern route will be handled by Tetsu Hyuga and Hyuga Qing."

"The northern route, Lan Hyuga and Tuo Hyuga."

"The western route—" Elder Xiao's gaze swept over Xiao. "Hyuga Xiao, you will scout alone."

Xiao lowered his eyes and assumed a respectful posture. "Yes."

The western route.

It was exactly what he wanted.

The ancient scroll he had found in the abandoned shrine last night, coupled with the intelligence Anko had provided, had pinpointed the entrance to Hidden Sound Village's underground laboratory in the western valley—there was a passage disguised as a natural cave, leading directly to Orochimaru's core research facility.

"Remember," Elder Xiao said with unquestionable authority, "scouting is the priority. Retreat immediately if you discover anything unusual. Hidden Sound Village may be a small ninja village, but Orochimaru is not someone to provoke."

It sounded perfectly righteous.

But Xiao's Byakugan saw everything clearly—when Elder Xiao said those words, the chakra flow within his body did not fluctuate in the slightest. This Main House elder did not care at all whether the Branch House members lived or died. He was merely carrying out some predetermined "attrition" procedure.

Just like Shu Hyuga, who had died yesterday.

Just like the Temporary Enhancement Curse Seals inside the other three teammates, which were slowly eroding their lives.

"Move out."

At Elder Xiao's command, five figures scattered and vanished into the dense forest.

The terrain along the western route was more complicated than expected.

Xiao moved swiftly through the treetops, his Byakugan fixed on the path ahead. Within his vision, the chakra flow of the forest began to show abnormalities—energy in certain areas twisted unnaturally, as if forcibly altered by some external force.

The closer he got to Hidden Sound Village's perimeter, the more apparent those abnormalities became.

Thirty minutes later, Xiao stopped at the edge of a cliff.

Below lay a bottomless valley, its floor shrouded in grayish-white mist. Yet in the Byakugan's view, the mist could not conceal the truth at all—deep within the valley, a massive opening over ten meters wide was hidden behind the rock wall, its surroundings covered in dense Curse Mark runes.

The runes emitted a dark-red chakra glow, spreading across the rock face like blood vessels.

"Found it."

Xiao lowered his breathing, his pupils contracting slightly.

The entrance to the underground laboratory Anko had mentioned lay deep within that cave at the valley floor, wrapped layer upon layer in Curse Mark traps. According to her description, Orochimaru conducted mass Curse Mark production, bloodline transplants, and even research related to the "God Tree" there.

God Tree.

The term made Xiao frown.

The ancient scroll had mentioned that the Caged Bird Seal was an inferior version of the Karma Seal, and that the origin of the Karma Seal appeared to be connected to something even more ancient, called the "God Tree Seed." If Orochimaru was researching the God Tree as well...

"System."

Xiao silently called out in his mind.

[Fate-Breaking System activated]

[Current main mission: Investigate Hidden Sound Village's underground laboratory]

[Mission reward: Byakugan purity +5%, Destiny Points +200]

[Warning: High-concentration Curse Mark energy field detected. Host is advised to proceed with caution.]

Caution?

A cold smile curled across Xiao's lips.

He had never been a cautious person—at least, not after gaining sufficient strength. So-called caution was merely a mask the weak had no choice but to wear in desperate circumstances.

And now, it was time to take off the mask.

He leaped from the cliff, adjusting his posture in midair. With several light taps of his toes against the rock wall, he descended soundlessly toward the valley floor. Throughout the fall, his Byakugan remained fixed on the energy nodes of those Curse Mark traps.

Thirty meters.

Twenty meters.

Ten meters—

Just as he was about to land, Xiao's pupils suddenly contracted.

Something was wrong.

Amid the mist at the valley floor, besides the dark-red Curse Mark energy, there were several other lingering traces of chakra. Those traces were fresh, no more than two hours old, and...

"Signs of battle."

Xiao made no sound as he landed, curling behind a boulder like a cat.

In his Byakugan's vision, more than a dozen shuriken littered the valley floor. The rock walls bore charred marks from Fire Release, while several shallow craters had been blasted into the ground by Lightning Release. More importantly, a faint scent of blood hung in the air.

Someone had gotten here before him.

And they had fought the guards.

Xiao held his breath and slowly approached the cave entrance. The closer he got, the clearer the battle traces became—the four guards who should have been stationed at the entrance had now become four corpses.

The bodies had been carelessly tossed into a corner against the rock wall. Every one of them bore a cutting wound across the neck, deep enough to expose bone, with edges so smooth they seemed to have been severed instantly by an extremely thin blade.

"A fast blade."

Xiao crouched and carefully examined one of the corpses.

The dead man was a Chunin from Hidden Sound Village, dressed in the standard Hidden Sound uniform. Yet there was a special emblem on his chest—three snakes entwined around a sword. Anko had mentioned this emblem before. It was the mark of Orochimaru's Direct ANBU.

To kill four members of Orochimaru's Direct ANBU in an instant, the intruder had to be at least Elite Ninja level.

And...

Xiao's gaze fell on the wound across the corpse's neck.

The cross-section of the wound was unnaturally charred, as if scorched by high heat, but there were no broad destructive traces characteristic of Fire Release. He had only seen such a feature in one place—

"Kumogakure."

Records from the intelligence scroll flashed through Xiao's mind.

Kumogakure's Lightning Release Body Technique, especially the "Lightning Release: Lariat" series, could concentrate Lightning Release chakra into a hand blade or weapon during high-speed charges, inflicting both cutting and burning damage.

The wound characteristics matched perfectly.

But why would people from Kumogakure appear here? The Land of Fire lay between the Land of Rice Paddies and the Land of Lightning. Hidden Cloud's reach was stretching far too far.

Unless...

Xiao rose to his feet, his Byakugan operating at full force. His gaze pierced through the layers of Curse Mark traps at the cave entrance and extended deeper inside.

Within the cave was a downward-sloping passage, its rock walls covered in dense Curse Mark runes. The runes formed a massive defensive barrier. Any unauthorized intruder would trigger the alarm, or even suffer direct backlash from the Curse Marks.

But now, the barrier had been damaged.

It had not been broken through by brute force. Instead, someone had used an exceptionally precise method to cut several tiny gaps at critical nodes in the barrier's energy flow. It was like cutting a few man-sized openings into an airtight net, each cut perfectly measured so that no alarm was triggered.

"An expert."

Xiao raised his assessment another level.

Someone who could instantly kill four ANBU and silently damage the Curse Mark barrier Orochimaru had personally set up was likely far more than an Elite Ninja.

An elite from Kumogakure?

Or...

A name flashed through Xiao's mind.

"Killer B?"

No. If it had been that Eight-Tails jinchuriki, the battle traces would not have been so "clean." Jinchuriki fought with greater savagery and destruction over a wider area, while the battle before him had clearly been a precise assassination.

Then who was it?

Xiao stopped guessing.

He took a deep breath, and a faint chakra glow emerged over his body—this was the rudimentary form of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist Technique, Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven. He deliberately suppressed it until it was nearly invisible, using it only to prevent his own chakra from leaking out.

Then he stepped through the cut-open gap in the barrier.

The cave was deeper than expected.

The passage continued downward, growing steeper and colder. The Curse Mark runes on the rock walls gave off a dark-red glow, making the corridor resemble the throat of some monster.

Xiao moved very slowly.

Every ten meters, he stopped and used his Byakugan to carefully scan ahead. It was not because he feared traps—those traps had already been destroyed by the earlier intruder—but because he did not want to run into that person.

Judging by the freshness of the battle traces, the earlier intruder had entered the cave at most half an hour before him. Half an hour was enough for an Elite High Ninja to travel deep inside, but that person might also have been delayed somewhere for some reason.

He did not want a direct confrontation with them.

At least, not yet.

The primary goal of this infiltration was to investigate the underground laboratory, especially the portion concerning God Tree research. If possible, he also wanted to find more clues about the Karma Seal and the origin of the Caged Bird Seal.

As for the intruder who had arrived first...

As long as they did not get in his way, Xiao did not mind letting them serve as a free pathfinder.

He continued deeper.

After extending downward for roughly two hundred meters, the passage began to branch. The main tunnel continued down, while several side passages appeared on both sides, leading in different directions.

Xiao stopped at the intersection, sweeping each branch with his Byakugan.

At the end of the left branch was a vast space filled with experimental equipment and cultivation tanks. The chakra reactions were as dense as a beehive—that was likely the Curse Mark mass-production area.

At the end of the right branch was a comparatively smaller space, but the chakra reactions inside were exceedingly strange, as if multiple energies of different attributes had been forcibly fused together, constantly colliding and annihilating one another—the bloodline transplant laboratory.

And the main passage continued downward, leading to...

Xiao's pupils widened slightly.

At the end of the main passage was a space he could not completely see through.

It was not because it was too far away, but because the space was enveloped by a more advanced barrier. Its energy density was astonishingly high. Even the Byakugan's penetrating vision had been greatly weakened, allowing him to see only a massive object within that emitted a dark-golden glow.

That object's chakra reaction...

"God Tree?"

Xiao's heart abruptly skipped a beat.

Although he had never seen a true God Tree, the chakra emitted by that object was completely consistent with a certain "resonance" that had gradually awakened within him as his Byakugan purity increased.

It was energy belonging to the Ōtsutsuki Clan.

Energy belonging to the Tenseigan.

Just as Xiao was preparing to go deeper, a sudden change occurred—

"BOOM!!!"

A muffled explosion came from deep within the main passage.

It was not the explosion of a ninjutsu, but more like the sound of some energy container rupturing. Immediately afterward, a violent chakra shockwave swept through the passage. Wherever it passed, the Curse Mark runes on the rock walls exploded one after another, dark-red shards of energy scattering like a torrential downpour.

Xiao instantly retreated, pressing himself against the rock wall as he raised the chakra barrier of Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven to its maximum.

"Crack—"

Fine fractures appeared across the barrier's surface.

Merely being brushed by the aftershock had almost broken through his defense. If he had been at the center of the explosion...

Xiao's expression darkened.

The intruder who had arrived first had likely triggered something they should not have.

And worse still—

"The alarm has been triggered."

In the Byakugan's vision, the chakra flow throughout the entire underground laboratory began to shift violently. Defensive mechanisms that had been dormant were fully activated. Countless Curse Mark runes emerged from deep within the rock walls, dark-red energy surging toward the main passage like a tide.

At the same time, more than a dozen powerful chakra signatures rose from throughout the laboratory and rushed toward this location at great speed.

Orochimaru's guard force.

He had been discovered.

Xiao clenched his teeth.

There was still time to retreat—taking advantage of the chaos and returning along the original path, he should be able to escape the cave before the guards completed their encirclement.

But...

His gaze turned toward the depths of the main passage.

That dark-golden object was there. Research on the God Tree, the truth of the Caged Bird Seal, perhaps even secrets hidden behind the system...

"Let's gamble."

Xiao made his decision.

Rather than retreating, he charged toward the depths of the main passage, straight into the chakra shockwave that had yet to dissipate.

He raced through the tunnel, his Byakugan operating at full force as he avoided the Curse Mark traps that were activating one after another. Some could not be avoided, so he used Gentle Fist to directly strike their energy nodes—the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist Technique was itself the ultimate skill for controlling chakra flow, making it even more effective against these Curse Mark traps than ordinary ninjutsu.

Thirty seconds.

He passed through the final stretch of passage, and the view before him suddenly opened up.

It was a circular chamber more than fifty meters in diameter. At its center stood a transparent cultivation tank over ten meters tall. The tank was filled with dark-green nutrient fluid, and at the center of that fluid—

"This is..."

Xiao's breathing stopped.

Floating within the cultivation tank was neither plant nor animal.

It was a human.

A naked young girl curled into a fetal position.

She looked only twelve or thirteen years old. Her silver-white hair drifted slowly in the nutrient fluid, while her skin was so pale it was nearly translucent. Most bizarrely, dozens of dark-golden, root-like tendrils grew from her back. They connected to the inner walls of the cultivation tank, pulsing slowly as they transferred some kind of energy from the tank into her body.

And her chakra...

Xiao's Byakugan could clearly see that the quality and density of that chakra had surpassed the realm of ordinary ninja, even surpassing Shadow Level.

It was energy approaching the level of a Tailed Beasts.

No.

It was purer than a Tailed Beasts.

That was...

"An artificial jinchuriki?"

The thought flashed through Xiao's mind.

But the next second, he dismissed the thought.

Because the girl opened her eyes.

They were a pair of pure white eyes, without pupils.

They resembled the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan, yet were completely different—their gaze held no emotion, only pure, icy indifference, like the void of the cosmos.

She looked at Xiao.

Then her lips moved slightly.

No sound came out.

But Xiao understood what she was saying.

She said—

"Save... me..."