The capital of the Land of Demons lay shrouded in twilight.
Hyuga Xiao stood on a hill outside the city, gazing into the distance at the ancient city wrapped in three layers of barriers. Its walls were built from blue-gray boulders, their surfaces etched with faded incantations that glimmered dimly beneath the last rays of the setting sun. The capital was built against the mountains, and the vermilion shrine at its highest point flickered in and out of view through the evening haze. Wind chimes beneath its eaves tinkled softly in the breeze, their sound remaining clear even from miles away.
"Three layers of barriers..."
Xiao's Tenseigan glowed faintly, and the world in his vision was instantly overlaid with the paths of flowing chakra.
The outermost layer was a pale-blue sensory barrier; any unauthorized chakra intrusion would trigger an alarm. The middle layer was a crimson defensive barrier capable of rebounding ninjutsu attacks below B-rank. The innermost layer was a ring of strange purple energy that writhed slowly like a living creature—it was the sealing power unique to the miko lineage, and its nature was seventy percent similar to Covenant Stone Fragments.
Hong had two and a half days left.
Xiao took out the simple map he had bought in Tanzaku Street and ran a finger between "Capital of the Land of Demons" and "Miko Shrine." The intelligence broker The Lame Fox had been right. The barriers here were far stronger than those of ordinary ninja villages; forcing his way in would be tantamount to suicide.
But Xiao had never been a reckless brute who only knew how to charge in headfirst.
He closed his eyes and rapidly worked through infiltration plans in his mind. The Tenseigan's ability to perceive causality allowed him to see the tiniest flaws in a