The Asura entered the world

Wind swept over the treetops, scattering a corner of the mist.

A breeze drifted gently through the deathly still woods. What should have been an ordinary wind of nature, empowered by the laws surrounding Lin Chen, became the breath of the Heavenly Dao, crushing all falsehood.

There was no thunderous crash, no explosion of light and shadow.

The High-Level Forbidden Barrier that sealed off the outside world and trapped the entire Asura Battlefield began rapidly fading from its edges, turning transparent and dissolving like thin ice melted by a raging fire.

In less than a second, the gray-white screen shrouding the area vanished completely, leaving nothing behind.

The instant the barrier shattered, the fierce slaughter within abruptly stalled.

The Otogakure ninjas froze mid-motion, the chakra throughout their bodies falling into disarray and dispersing in an instant. An overwhelming terror rooted in their souls seized their minds.

Hidden in the shadows, Orochimaru's smile froze instantly. His emerald snake pupils contracted sharply, and genuine wariness and panic appeared in his eyes for the first time.

The exclusive forbidden technique barrier he had personally laid down had consumed vast amounts of chakra and incorporated multiple layers of sealing jutsu formulas-a lethal cage capable of blocking a jonin's perception and trapping an elite squad. Yet it had silently collapsed with a single approaching step from the other man.

Above the clouds, Zetsu's phantom abruptly froze. His fragmented whispers cut off completely, and his silent observation showed violent fluctuations for the first time.

The most shaken, most despairing person was Sasuke, who stood drenched in blood.

Black-purple chakra surged and churned around him, his killing intent still lingering, blood still seeping from the wounds in his split flesh. He had just overwhelmed everyone with the power of the Cursed Seal, but before any sense of superiority at controlling the battle could rise, he was plunged into an icy abyss ten thousand fathoms deep.

He whipped his head around, his scarlet Sharingan locking onto the white-robed figure walking slowly toward him.

Lin Chen approached with unhurried steps, treading through the thick mist. His white robes were spotless, his expression indifferent and unruffled, as though what he had casually erased was not Orochimaru's meticulously arranged lethal barrier, but merely a speck of dust.

He stood quietly a short distance away, his calm gaze sweeping over Sasuke, who was steeped in darkness and overflowing with savage hostility. There was no contempt, no sigh, not even scrutiny.

That was not a gaze directed at an opponent, an aberration, or a fallen one.

It was utter disregard, the indifference reserved for something not worth mentioning.

"You fought so hard to sink into darkness, and this is all the power you gained?"

His clear, quiet voice rang out, neither loud nor soft, yet it resounded distinctly throughout the forest clearing and reached everyone's ears.

That brief sentence carried neither oppressive force nor angry rebuke, yet it struck deeper than any killing blow.

Sasuke shuddered violently. The Dark Dao Heart that had only just stabilized within him cracked in an instant.

He had only just decided that he had chosen the right path.

He had cast aside his bonds, forsaken the light, endured excruciating pain, accepted the Cursed Seal, and used himself as bait to plunge into the abyss, believing he had finally escaped mediocrity and found a shortcut to strength.

Yet in Lin Chen's words, the transformation he had staked everything to obtain amounted to nothing more than "all the power."

Utter humiliation, resentment, despair, and obsession swept through him in an instant, making the dark chakra around him roil violently and spiral into chaos.

"What gives you the right to judge me!"

Sasuke snarled under his breath, his voice hoarse and broken, a frenzied obsession churning in his scarlet eyes. "You follow your Myriad Heavens Great Dao, and I'll follow my Dark Demonic Dao! I'm not asking to stand beside you, only to catch up to you! Is that wrong!"

He refused to admit that the choice he had poured everything into had been a joke from the very beginning.

Lin Chen lowered his eyes, calmly watching him teeter on the brink of losing control, his tone utterly unruffled:

"You were never chasing me."

"You were chasing a shortcut of your own imagining-the self-deception of a weakling unwilling to accept mediocrity."

As his words fell, the invisible laws around Lin Chen rippled slightly.

There was no attack, no suppression.

Yet the Cursed Seal chakra rampaging inside Sasuke instantly trembled violently and rapidly recoiled as though it had encountered its natural enemy. The densely packed dark markings receded at a visible speed, dimming and falling dormant.

The forbidden power he had exhausted himself to tame, the power he took such pride in, did not even have the right to stir before absolute laws.

His near-jonin combat strength, the explosive power that had surged with his descent into darkness, and the ferocity of his bloody slaughter were all locked down by a single thought, reduced entirely to nothing.

Naruto and Sakura stood rooted to the spot, their minds reeling, long since unable to say a word.

For the first time, they truly saw how the power Sasuke had staked everything to obtain was too fragile to withstand a single blow before Lin Chen.

In the shadows, Orochimaru's Adam's apple bobbed. Every scheme in his heart had come to nothing.

He had wanted to fashion a blade of darkness, but only now did he see clearly that no matter how sharp that blade became, it could never pierce a barrier casually laid down by a god of the myriad heavens.

"Your obsession runs too deep, and your vision is too narrow."

Lin Chen spoke softly, delivering his final verdict. "You're trapped within the tiny chessboard of the Shinobi World. Whether light or darkness, both are cages."

With that, he spared Sasuke no further glance and turned, walking slowly into the depths of the forest.

His white-robed back was indifferent and distant. The aura of laws that overwhelmed everything slowly receded, yet it still silenced every trace of killing intent throughout the forest.

Lin Chen walked away, but the words he left behind remained branded in Sasuke's heart like a curse, tearing madly at his Dao heart.

Wind howled through the woods, and mist churned.

Sasuke stood rigidly in place, drenched in blood, his Cursed Seal dim. The scarlet in his eyes faded bit by bit, until only an impenetrable blackness and deathly stillness remained.

Pain, hatred, resentment, despair, and obsession intertwined and tangled together.

At last, he understood.

The light was a cage, and darkness was a cage too.

As long as he remained in Konoha, in the Shinobi World, in this Low-Dimensional World, no matter which path he chose, he could only ever gaze up at that man's back.

"A tiny chessboard... a cage..."

Sasuke murmured, every word weeping blood, every phrase steeped in madness.

Since the Shinobi World was a cage...

Then he would leap clear of the Shinobi World entirely!

Konoha's bonds were not enough, the Cursed Seal's power was not enough, and Orochimaru's forbidden techniques were not enough!

Then he would cast everything aside, plunge into the utmost darkness, and seek the most forbidden origin!

At that moment.

The last warmth of Konoha died completely.

Sasuke Uchiha's resolve to defect was sealed.

The wind of the Forest of Death blew away the boy's innocence and buried the last of the light.

From that moment on, the Shinobi World would no longer have Konoha's prodigy.

Only a Fallen Asura remained, bent on pursuing darkness, defying the Dao in search of godhood.