Fierce Battle! Burn!

"Hey, mister, you're way too ugly."

The echo of those words still drifted through the empty forest.

Orochimaru did not grow angry over the insult. Instead, his smile became even more sinister, and a chilling gleam flickered in his golden vertical pupils.

"Hehehe... Young people these days really do have sharp tongues."

Just then, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from deep within the distant woods.

"Give Sasuke... back to me!!"

A storm of red Chakra shot into the sky. The blond boy who had been swallowed by the giant snake—Naruto Uzumaki—actually tore open its belly by force. Wrapped in violent Nine-Tails Chakra, he charged out like a crazed little beast.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

In an instant, hundreds upon thousands of Narutos filled the forest, every one of them lunging at Orochimaru with murderous intent.

"So this is the Nine-Tails' power? Such nostalgically restless energy." Orochimaru merely glanced at them, not even moving his feet.

He raised a hand, gathering five points of purple Chakra flame at his fingertips.

"Lively as you are, you're in my way now, Nine-Tails brat."

Orochimaru's figure darted through the Shadow Clones like a ghost. Everywhere he passed, Naruto's clones burst apart and vanished. In the blink of an eye, he appeared before Naruto's true body.

"Five Elements Seal!"

His five fingers, wreathed in purple flames, slammed heavily into Naruto's abdomen—the location of the Nine-Tails' seal.

"Ahhhhh!"

Naruto let out a pained scream. The violent red Chakra around him instantly dispersed, and he fell from the air with white eyes like a kite with its string cut.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out.

Just as Naruto was about to smash face-first into the ground, an invisible force suddenly caught him.

Behind a tree trunk not far away, Ye Tian slightly hooked a finger.

[Low-Grade Spell Manipulation Technique]

Naruto's body made a strange turn in midair, then landed steadily draped over the branch of a nearby tree. He swayed gently in the wind like a salted fish hung out to dry.

"Whew... Good thing I caught him." Ye Tian wiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead. "He's the future 'Savior' and 'Grandmaster of Talk no Jutsu.' If he got brain damage from a fall now, the timeline would change way too much."

After dealing with Naruto, Orochimaru turned his attention back to Sasuke.

"Alright, the nuisances are gone. Sasuke-kun, let me see what you're made of."

Perhaps Naruto's reckless courage had affected him, or perhaps the warm current Ye Tian had injected into him had worked. The fear remained in Sasuke's eyes, but the despair that had pinned him helplessly in place was gone.

"I'm from the Uchiha Clan... How could I lose to someone like you?!"

Sasuke roared, his two-tomoe Sharingan spinning madly as he burst into motion.

Shuriken and Kunai poured down like a rainstorm, each one expertly controlled by steel wires. He moved at high speed between the tree trunks, and with the Sharingan's insight, he actually managed to hold Orochimaru at bay.

"Fire Release Fire Technique!"

Seizing an opening, Sasuke sharply pulled the steel wire in his mouth, binding Orochimaru tightly to a large tree. Then raging flames rushed along the wire, instantly swallowing Orochimaru.

The towering firelight illuminated half the forest.

"D-Did he get him?" Sakura clenched her hands nervously.

Sasuke, too, panted heavily as he stared fixedly at the still-burning flames.

Then, in the next second, something nauseating happened.

The "Orochimaru" that had been burned into charcoal suddenly split open. A slime-covered hand stretched out through the crack, followed by an uninjured Orochimaru, even younger and slicker than before, crawling out of the scorched shell.

"Molting..."

Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply, and a profound sense of powerlessness surged into his heart again.

He had come out unscathed from a ninjutsu of that level?

"Not bad. Truly not bad." Orochimaru licked the slime from his face with an intoxicated expression. "These eyes... this talent... Too perfect, Sasuke-kun. I want you more and more."

Just as Orochimaru prepared to step forward and plant the Cursed Seal of Heaven on Sasuke—

"Whoosh—"

Several seemingly ordinary yellow paper talismans drifted over from his blind side without warning.

Their flight paths were strange. They floated lightly, without the sound of shuriken cutting through the air and without even the faintest Chakra fluctuation, like fallen leaves carried by the wind.

Orochimaru's sharp senses made him stop instinctively.

"What are these? Explosive Tags? No, there's no Chakra response..."

At the instant Orochimaru hesitated—

Behind a tree, Ye Tian curled his lips into a wicked grin and lightly snapped his fingers.

"Explode."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Those fluttering yellow papers instantly erupted with astonishing fire and shockwaves!

Unlike Chakra-made Explosive Tags, these explosions were purer, carrying scorching heat and violent Spiritual Energy fluctuations.

Their power was not enough to injure someone as strong as Orochimaru, but they had the advantage of being sudden, numerous, and dusty!

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Caught off guard, Orochimaru was blasted into a sorry state. Several strands of his smooth long hair were singed, and his originally pale face was covered in soot.

"It's not over yet! Mister, look over here!"

At some point, Ye Tian had already changed positions. He held a large stack of yellow talismans in his hand and scattered them across the sky like throwing money around.

"Low-Grade Flame Talismans! Chain Explosion!"

These were the stockpile he had spent the past year drawing in his dorm whenever he had nothing to do. A Cultivator's talismans only needed Spiritual Energy to activate. No hand seals were required—they exploded as soon as they were thrown. The key was sheer quantity.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Dozens of talismans flew toward Orochimaru from every tricky angle as though they had eyes.

Under his crotch, beneath his armpits, at the back of his head... They specifically targeted the most awkward places to explode.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

A rapid series of explosions rang through the forest. Flames soared skyward, and smoke and dust billowed everywhere.

Though Orochimaru was nimble, even he could not withstand such shameless carpet bombing. He had no choice but to repeatedly use the Substitution Technique and Body Flicker Technique to evade. His originally impressive rhythm was completely disrupted.

"Damn it... What the hell are these things?!"

Orochimaru was getting irritated.

He casually slapped away a talisman, only to find that it exploded again the instant it touched his skin. Though it merely made his palm go slightly numb, this attack method, unlike anything he had ever seen, made him feel a trace of unease.

No hand seals, no Chakra, controllable power, and remote detonation?

It completely overturned his understanding of ninjutsu!

The smoke and dust cleared.

Orochimaru stood where he was, his Grass Ninja outfit blasted into tatters. His face was mottled with black soot and pale patches, leaving him looking rather disheveled.

Yet he was not angry. Instead, he revealed a smile even more excited and fanatical than before.

His snake-like eyes stared fixedly at Ye Tian, who was leaning against a tree and panting—not for real—while still pinching several talismans between his fingers.

"Paper that can explode without Chakra... and that strange energy fluctuation from earlier..."

Orochimaru stuck out his tongue. It was even longer than before, trembling excitedly in the air.

"I thought you were merely an interesting extra. I never expected you to be a treasure."

"I've changed my mind."

Orochimaru's figure instantly vanished from where he stood, becoming a blur as he charged straight at Ye Tian.

"Compared to Sasuke, I'm much more interested in you now, brat!"

"I'm going to cut you open and thoroughly study the secrets inside your body!"

Facing one of the Sannin charging directly at him—

Ye Tian did not panic. Instead, he put away all the remaining talismans in his hand and sighed helplessly.

"Sigh, I knew it. People who are too outstanding always attract perverts."

He coughed and leaned his body back slightly, seeming to have given up resisting.

But inside his sleeve, several special jade stones covered in miniature formations, prepared long ago, had already slipped into his palm.

"You want to slice me up and study me? That depends on whether your teeth are hard enough, Old Snake Skin."

A cold gleam flashed through Ye Tian's eyes.

[Formation Five-Element Maze Formation, activate!]