Crushing the Entire Field

In an instant, everyone fighting in the surrounding melee froze.

Deathly silence fell over the entire field. Every gaze locked on Sasuke, hearts filled with horror and disbelief.

Was this still Sasuke Uchiha, the Konoha prodigy renowned for his elegant ninjutsu and exquisite coordination?

At that moment, he was savage, cold, and bloodthirsty. The darkness swirling around him was far more terrifying than that of ninja who slaughtered on battlefields, like an Asura emerging from the abyss.

Naruto stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded, an inexplicable chill rising in his heart.

Sakura trembled slightly, her eyes filled with panic and helplessness.

She could clearly sense that something had vanished from Sasuke completely.

The gentle, proud yet awkward, forbearing Sasuke Uchiha who cherished his bonds was truly gone.

In a shadowy corner, Orochimaru concealed himself, staring through a gap at Sasuke's erupting dark power, his green snake eyes brimming with feverish amusement.

"Perfect... absolutely perfect."

"Abandoning the light completely and embracing the forbidden-this is the Uchiha's true gift. This is the power that can break free of fate..."

"Lin Chen, you forced the most perfect dark pawn into being with your own hands."

Orochimaru murmured, his voice excited and chilling.

The only person in the entire field unmoved by this was Lin Chen.

He glanced indifferently over the dark cursed energy rampaging around Sasuke, his eyes calm and unruffled, without so much as a ripple.

The power of the Cursed Seal, Orochimaru's forbidden chakra, the mutation of the Uchiha bloodline...

Before the absolute power of the Heavenly Rules, they were still nothing but an ant's struggles, unworthy of mention.

He saw it clearly.

Sasuke's descent into darkness, his obsession, his willingness to use any means-ultimately, he was merely struggling madly on the Shinobi World's chessboard.

From the very beginning, this path had been destined never to catch up with him.

After the brief silence, Lin Chen raised his eyes, swept his gaze across the panicked, wary contenders, and spoke softly:

"Boring."

The wind abruptly fell silent, and the smoke froze.

That single word sounded softly across the arena, yet it was like a verdict from the Heavenly Dao, bearing down on everyone until no one dared move.

Since this was a farce of ants fighting, he would end it himself.

Lin Chen did not take a step, form hand seals, or even change the indifference in his eyes in the slightest.

Only an extraordinarily restrained rule-based Devouring Domain spread silently outward, instantly enveloping the entire examination battlefield of several thousand square meters.

There was no thunderous, explosive might, no dazzling, overbearing light. It was precisely this silent coverage that brought the most extreme, terrifying suppression.

All the surging chakra within the field instantly stagnated.

Kumogakure's lingering Lightning Release sparks froze in midair, Sunagakure's whirling sand blades hung suspended in the sky, Kirigakure's gathered water bullets stopped dead, and Iwagakure's hardened bodies could not move an inch.

Every erupting ninjutsu, every attack gathering strength, and every charging figure was locked down by invisible rules, like a painting put on pause.

Dimensional Imprisonment. Absolute stillness.

The next moment, a gentle devouring force silently stirred.

The chakra countless prodigies had refined through years, even more than a decade, of bitter training drifted uncontrollably out of their bodies, becoming tiny streams of energy that flowed ceaselessly into the domain in the void before ultimately entering Lin Chen's body.

It was not the tearing sensation of violent plunder, but the complete deprivation and invalidation of lower-order energy by higher-order rules.

"My chakra... it's disappearing!"

"I can't move! I can't move at all!"

"Impossible! What kind of ability is this?!"

Cries of alarm had barely begun rising across the field before an invisible pressure forced them back down everyone's throats.

Every participating Genin turned deathly pale and went limp, the reserves of power they took pride in draining rapidly away as extreme weakness and terror flooded every limb and bone. They struggled, strained their chakra pathways, and activated their bloodline powers, yet could not muster even a trace of chakra.

Beneath this domain of rules, all their training, all their talent, and all their secret techniques ceased to function.

This was no longer an overwhelming disparity in strength, but absolute dominion that stripped the opposition of the very right to fight.

Gaara of Sunagakure's pupils contracted violently. The Sand Armor surrounding him instantly collapsed, and Shukaku's savage presence within him was pinned down so firmly that it could not stir in the slightest. For the first time, he experienced a helplessness more terrifying than a Tailed Beast running wild-the complete erasure of even his right to struggle.

The cold, sinister auras surrounding the members of the Otogakure team dispersed completely. Their hidden killing moves, forbidden techniques, and trump cards were instantly drained away, all the reserves behind their schemes vanishing without a trace. Each stood frozen in place, with nothing but a bone-deep chill left in their hearts.

In the shadows, Orochimaru's smile instantly froze. His snake pupils contracted sharply as he stared at the invisible domain covering the entire field, the fervor in his heart turning entirely to wariness.

"Domain-wide deprivation through rules... silently emptying out all lower-order energy..."

"This isn't ninjutsu at all. This is true Plane Authority!"

He finally understood completely that the forbidden technique research, bodily modifications, and dark powers he took pride in were insignificant before such Heavenly Rules.

At the center of the battlefield, Naruto stood frozen in a daze. The embryonic Rasengan in his hand slowly dissipated, even its air currents breaking apart completely. He looked blankly at the contenders around him, all suppressed, then at the impassive Lin Chen. At last, he understood that the battle he had fought with everything he had was nothing but a boring children's game in the other boy's eyes.

Sakura clenched her fists, her state of mind settling completely. All tactics, predictions, and countermeasures were meaningless before absolute rules.

Yet the person who felt it most clearly, and most despairingly, was still Sasuke Uchiha.

He was still holding the pose in which he had crushed his opponent's bones. The moment the domain enveloped him, the dark cursed energy rampaging around him was suppressed layer by layer, locked down, and forced inward.

The dark power he took pride in and regarded as his only shortcut could not even stir before Lin Chen's domain of rules. It could only lie obediently within him, trembling.

The confidence darkness had just given him, his obsession with using any means necessary, was brutally crushed at that moment.

The forbidden power he had sacrificed everything to embrace was an ant's power that the other boy could casually suppress, strip away, and ignore.

The gap... was still a gap that inspired despair.

Even if he abandoned the light, plunged into the abyss, bore the Cursed Seal, and stopped at nothing, he still could not so much as touch the hem of the other boy's clothes.

A bone-piercing cold spread from his limbs into his heart, while deeper obsession and madness grew wildly in the fertile soil of despair.

He stared fixedly at the white-clad boy's back, the darkness in his scarlet eyes thick as ink, with not a trace of light remaining.

Within moments, all the thousands of competing prodigies in the field had been drained of their fighting strength and immobilized. No one stood, no one contested him, and no one dared harbor even the slightest will to fight.

With a single thought, Lin Chen had reduced the noisy, brutal Preliminary Exam battlefield to nothing.

Lin Chen slowly raised his eyes, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the limp contenders, filled with terror and awe, and softly delivered his closing words:

"This farce should end."

As his words fell, the invisible domain silently withdrew, returning entirely into his body without leaving the slightest trace.

Yet the atmosphere of the entire examination field had already been utterly rewritten.

From this day onward, an unshakable name would be engraved in the hearts of the Shinobi World's entire younger generation-Lin Chen.

A true god who stood above all the heavens, held the Shinobi World in check alone, and reigned supreme and invincible.

That single word sounded softly across the arena, yet it was like a thunderclap, bearing down on everyone until no one dared move.