Golden Light Dispels Evil

Disagreements between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo were commonplace, but this was the first time they had faced each other in such a drawn-out, hostile standoff.

Not only were the surrounding ANBU tense, but Danzo's heart was far from calm as well.

Things had reached this point. Clearly, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not joking with him—he truly intended to strip him of his authority.

But hadn't everything concerning Root been something the two of them tacitly understood?

It seemed that, in Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, he was nothing more than a political sacrifice.

Danzo pondered in secret. Something must have happened that had made Hiruzen Sarutobi choose to sacrifice him and Root.

But Danzo had no intention of compromising. As long as he could leave this place and return to Root, he would still have a chance to turn things around.

After all these years of management, he had built Root into an iron fortress. He had even placed Curse Marks on every Root member; their lives and deaths depended on a single thought from him.

How could he possibly hand over such a force, one so loyal to him, without a fight?

"Hiruzen, don't be so naïve. I will never compromise."

Danzo placed a hand on the bandages around his arm.

He had transplanted First Hokage Cells, but the Uchiha Clan had not yet been exterminated, so he had only implanted a single Sharingan.

To use Izanagi, one needed a Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Moreover, transplantation was not guaranteed to succeed and could result in rejection.

Even after all of Danzo's painstaking efforts, he had only managed to transplant one.

Yet that single Blood Wheel Eye granted him an entire minute of invincibility. This practically unbeatable ability made Danzo even more wary of and covetous toward the power of the Uchiha Clan.

Clashing with Hiruzen Sarutobi inside the Hokage Building was clearly unwise. For now, the only thing he could rely on was that single Blood Wheel Eye.

Hiruzen Sarutobi knew Danzo's trump card, but he was not worried in the slightest.

Yesterday, he had absorbed spiritual energy for an entire night. Though he had not even reached the first level of Qi Refining, he could still use a simple Golden Light Spell.

The Golden Light Spell used spiritual energy to commune with the righteous energy of heaven and earth, then borrowed power from enlightened immortals to drive out evil spirits.

The Golden Light Spell did not originally require mana. Its effects would only be better when driven by spiritual power.

It was just that in this world of Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not know whether he could borrow power from those immortals.

The techniques of cultivators naturally suppressed all manner of evil. Without question, everything Danzo had done was crooked and evil.

Hiruzen Sarutobi formed hand seals with both hands. To be honest, the way ninjas formed seals was somewhat similar to Daoist hand gestures.

But it merely resembled them in form. It had not grasped even a trace of the true essence.

When Danzo saw Hiruzen Sarutobi actually forming hand seals, he immediately lost his composure. Fighting here would not only damage the Hokage Building, but also blow the matter out of proportion, leaving no room for reconciliation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi moved swiftly. He recited the name of Jiutian Yingyuan Leisheng Puhua Tianzun, formed a thunder seal, and cast a Golden Light Spell.

In his previous life, though he had been the last cultivator on Blue Planet, his cultivation had not been high. He had only reached Perfected Qi Refinement and had failed to establish his Foundation Establishment.

Although Blue Planet had no spiritual energy, the advancement of society had increased conflicts, and evil spirits appeared quite often.

Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi was highly proficient in all kinds of exorcism spells.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was forming seals with one hand? Danzo could not tell what technique Hiruzen Sarutobi intended to use, but judging by the posture, it should have been some kind of secret technique.

A streak of golden light flashed. Danzo felt an unprecedented sense of danger, as if he had encountered his natural predator. Every hair on his body stood on end, and his survival instincts made him activate Izanagi in an instant.

Everyone present only saw a faint flash of golden light. Danzo's entire body immediately stiffened, then began to curl and hunch over as waves of black smoke rose from him. At the same time, he let out a piercing, miserable howl.

Izanagi was the Uchiha Clan's ultimate ocular technique. It could reverse and alter reality, but once used, the Sharingan would inevitably go blind.

Without question, it was an evil technique. Danzo had also transplanted another person's cells into his body, and there was even a face on his shoulder that strongly resembled the First Hokage.

Such evil techniques that desecrated the flesh were unquestionably within the Golden Light Spell's range of attack.

The two Root members beside Danzo saw his condition and immediately charged forward. They were Danzo's most fanatical loyalists, trained by him until they had no independent thoughts. They wanted to create chaos, then seize the chance to rescue Danzo.

Unfortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi's ANBU subdued them after only two exchanges.

The black smoke around Danzo dissipated. Drained of all strength, he dropped to his knees. In that brief span of time, his right arm had completely decayed, turning into a mass of rotten flesh that fell to the floor.

Danzo then began vomiting violently, spewing out large amounts of black blood before passing out.

The Golden Light Spell's effects were remarkable. It directly destroyed all the First Hokage Cells inside Danzo's body, and Izanagi failed as well.

The sight reminded Hiruzen Sarutobi of his previous life, when he had expelled a gu parasite from a man. The scene had been very similar to this.

"What?"

Several ANBU agents stood stunned. Ninjas were incredibly powerful; it would not have been an exaggeration to say they could fly through the skies and burrow through the earth. Yet when they saw this scene, they instinctively felt fear. Danzo looked as though he had been possessed by an evil ghost from legend.

"Arrest him. Send him to the hospital for treatment, but seal his chakra first."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe and gave the order.

That jolted the ANBU back to their senses, and they immediately began carrying out his command.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had not expected such a simple Golden Light Spell to produce such a powerful effect.

But that was also because Danzo was too weak. He lacked both the strength and the bloodline of the Senju and Uchiha Clan, yet had turned himself into neither man nor ghost.

Aside from Izanagi, after transplanting the Sharingan, his strength had actually been restricted somewhat, just like Kakashi's.

Although transplanting First Hokage Cells allowed him to use Wood Release, this Wood Release was nowhere near the First Hokage's. What had been powerful was never Wood Release itself, but the First Hokage as a person.

He had tried to draw a tiger and ended up with a dog.

The Golden Light Spell was useful, but it probably would not have much effect against members of the Uchiha Clan. Against things like White Zetsu and Black Zetsu, however, it would likely be devastatingly effective.

As Hiruzen Sarutobi calculated in his heart, deep beneath Konoha, Black Zetsu was nearly scared to death.

He could sense that if the secret technique Hiruzen Sarutobi had just used on Danzo were used on him, he would probably end up like Danzo's right arm, turned into a pile of rotten flesh.

There was no time to think. He immediately used the Mayfly Technique and rapidly fled Konoha.

As a monster that had lived from the Warring States Era until now, and the incarnation of Kaguya Otsutsuki's will, he was both the least afraid of death and the most afraid of death.

Normal methods could not destroy him. Even Madara Uchiha had been deceived by him; he was the true mastermind manipulating the Shinobi World from the shadows.

But after witnessing Hiruzen Sarutobi's secret technique, he was genuinely terrified. He had been here on Obito Uchiha's orders, monitoring Danzo as preparation for the destruction of the Uchiha Clan. He had never expected to witness something like this.