Boom-!
After a flash of white light, a massive mushroom cloud rose from the temple ruins.
A column of smoke climbed from the center of the explosion, rolling and spreading at the top into an umbrella-shaped cloud of mingled gray-white and dark brown, its edges outlined in pale light beneath the sun.
The shock wave spread outward with a blast of scorching air, driving the dust across the ground into an ever-expanding ring that toppled or hurled away the remaining trees and rocks around the temple.
A thick blanket of dust covered the entire area. Nothing remained in sight but churning gray-white dust and the outline of the rising mushroom cloud.
Everyone on the hill watched that direction as the aftershocks continued spreading outward.
Shisui stood a little farther back, his Mangekyō Sharingan active, his gaze fixed on the expanding mushroom cloud in the distance.
There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"Clan head... an attack like that should have finished him off, right?"
Fugaku did not answer immediately. His gaze remained locked on the dust cloud, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Keep watching. An enemy Tianyi takes so seriously that he assembled this lineup to deal with him shouldn't be that easy to defeat."
Before he had finished speaking, the distant mushroom cloud began to change.
Without any warning, the rolling, expanding cloud of dust began to contract.
As though some force were squeezing it inward from the outside, the entire mushroom cloud visibly collapsed in on itself, like paint on a sheet of paper being erased by an invisible force.
Gradually, nothing remained but the empty blast crater.
A figure appeared at its center.
Jigen stood at the bottom of the crater left by the explosion. The edges of his robes were torn in several places,