On the official road at the border of the Land of Fire, the rain suddenly intensified.
The Agarwood carriage's wheels crushed through the mud with dull, heavy sounds.
Inside the carriage, the cloying, alluring atmosphere had yet to fully dissipate when Ye Tian's half-lidded eyes suddenly snapped open. A dark golden gleam flashed deep within his pupils.
"Tsk, Admin's 'system cleanup' came fast. It didn't even give me time for an intermission."
Ye Tian casually flicked the crushed purple "Karmic Pearl" from his fingertips into the spittoon beside him, then pulled back a corner of the heavy sable cloak.
"Ye Tian, what is it?" Tsunade sensed the change in Ye Tian's aura, and killing intent immediately surged in her amber eyes.
She wore only a close-fitting black underlayer, its sweat-soaked fabric from their earlier "qi conduction" clinging even more tightly to her body and outlining curves taut as a drawn bow—enough to shatter the Dao Heart of any Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"We have guests." Ye Tian pointed toward the forest in the northwest. "Three of them. That bloody stench of rot makes my lungs ache even from five kilometers away."
"Did that butterfly lead them here?" Tsunade instinctively clenched her delicate fist, and the Nine-Colored Spirit Lotus on her forehead faintly flickered.
"No. They're Blood Slaves refined by that old bastard Blood Fiend." Ye Tian sneered. "Simply put, they're three corpses forcibly inflated with high-dimensional energy. Their level... barely counts as Peak Quasi-Kage in this world."
"Boom!!!"
Outside the carriage, an earth-shaking explosion rang out.
The six-horse carriage, which had been moving steadily, seemed to slam into an invisible wall of blood. The cabin shook violently. Several Konoha ANBU assigned to escort them were sent flying, masks and all, by three crimson afterimages that flashed past before they could