The wind fell silent, and the setting sun froze.
The Training Ground was terrifyingly still.
Not one of the hundreds of students spoke. All of them stared wide-eyed at Sasuke Uchiha, who swayed in the center of the grounds.
What had just happened overturned everything they had known for more than a decade.
The Uchiha's kekkei genkai, the legendary pinnacle of ninja talent-the Sharingan.
It had vanished into thin air.
Sasuke's legs trembled slightly. His face was pale as paper, and his hollow eyes held no light.
He could clearly feel that something vital had been forcibly torn out of his body.
His bloodline no longer burned, his chakra no longer stirred, and even the aloof pride and sharpness etched into the bones of the Uchiha had weakened until they almost dissipated.
The brilliance of a genius who had forcibly broken through his limits and briefly blossomed had been completely plundered.
He had lost.
He had not only lost the match, but also his future potential and the foundation of his innate talent.
"Wh... why..."
A hoarse, broken murmur spilled from Sasuke's throat, his voice trembling with utter devastation and incomprehension.
He had desperately squeezed his bloodline, overdrawn his body, and forced his eyes to awaken through excruciating pain. How could the trump card he had gained to crush his opponent vanish in an instant?
Lin Chen stood where he was, his posture straight and his expression calm.
He offered no further mockery.
To Sasuke at that moment, being crushed in silence cut far deeper than any verbal humiliation.
Just then, the sky overhead abruptly darkened.
The warm afterglow of the setting sun turned bone-chillingly cold in an instant.
The air across the entire Training Ground suddenly stagnated. An invisible, vast, utterly cold pressure crashed down over it.
It was not chakra, nor the aura of ninjutsu.
It was rules!
The Heavenly Dao rules belonging to this world!
[Ding! Major warning!] [The Will of the World is enraged! Host detected repeatedly plundering the origin of Heavenly Fate and altering the core plot!] [Heavenly Dao Correction Mechanism fully activated!] [Heretic Sanction countdown initiated! Initial punishment descending!]
The bone-chilling system alarms erupted wildly in the depths of Lin Chen's mind.
The next instant, countless tiny gray-white motes coalesced in the void, becoming barely perceptible chains of rules that locked onto every limb and bone in Lin Chen's body.
An oppressive weight swept through him, as though all of heaven and earth were deliberately targeting and suppressing him.
Every student at the sidelines instantly felt cold all over, their scalps tingling. They instinctively huddled in on themselves, not daring to breathe.
"So cold... what is this aura?"
"There's no wind, so why does it feel like the whole world is pressing down on us?"
Ordinary people could not perceive the Heavenly Dao rules. They could only feel overwhelming oppression and fear.
Only Lin Chen could clearly sense the hostility and killing intent originating from the world's very origin.
Plundering Heavenly Fate, cutting off the protagonist's opportunities, erasing Sasuke's breakthrough.
After repeatedly altering the plot, he had thoroughly enraged this world's will.
This was the Heavenly Dao's first formal punishment!
[Ding! Suppression by Heavenly Dao Punishment detected!] [Heaven-Defying Plunder System has triggered its ultimate passive: Heretic Immunity!] [Can devour Heavenly Dao Punishment Power and convert it into your own foundational reserves!] [Critical hit triggered! Heavenly Dao suppression backfires, fully converted into the host's strength!]
The moment the system notifications ended, a deep black gleam abruptly lit up in Lin Chen's eyes.
The Heavenly Dao Punishment others feared was actually nourishment that his system could devour and refine!
An invisible devouring force instantly spread out, tightly enveloping the chains of Heavenly Dao rules around him.
The heavy, bone-chilling suppression was instantly dismantled and absorbed. An endless stream of pure rule energy poured into Lin Chen's body.
Hum-
His aura surged slightly. His physique, chakra purity, and eye power potential all improved a little at the same time!
The Heavenly Dao had wanted to suppress him, but instead, it had indirectly helped him grow stronger!
The cold pressure between heaven and earth fluctuated violently, as though filled with boundless fury, yet powerless to do anything.
This backlash that defied the world's common laws completely disrupted the Heavenly Dao's rhythm of correction.
A few seconds later, the gloomy pressure in the void slowly receded, and heaven and earth returned to normal.
But Lin Chen knew this was only the beginning.
The Heavenly Dao's punishments would only grow more vicious each time.
"What was that power..."
A cool voice, slightly languid and tinged with surprise, suddenly came from the entrance to the Training Ground.
Everyone turned toward the voice and saw a silver-haired boy leaning against a tree trunk.
He wore a white headband and a mask over his face. The scarlet Sharingan in his right eye rotated slightly.
Konoha's Copy Ninja-Kakashi Hatake!
He had only been passing by, but had keenly caught that brief, bizarre fluctuation in the rules of heaven and earth.
It was not ninjutsu, not a kekkei genkai, and not a secret technique.
It was the power of heaven and earth, far beyond mortal understanding!
For the first time, Kakashi's usually languid, indifferent eyes revealed profound gravity and curiosity.
His Sharingan could see through illusions. Just now, he had clearly seen that terrifying Heavenly Dao pressure envelop the entire grounds, only to be absorbed in its entirety by Lin Chen alone.
A Ninja Academy student could devour heaven and earth pressure?
"Interesting kid."
Kakashi's gaze remained fixed on Lin Chen in the grounds as towering waves surged in his heart.
When Teacher Watanabe had previously reported an exceptional genius, he had taken him for an ordinary young prodigy.
But from what he had seen today, this boy's strangeness and mystery far surpassed every ninja of the new generation.
On the grounds, Sasuke also noticed Kakashi's arrival. His remaining pride forced him to steady himself, but he still could not stop his body from trembling.
His Sharingan had completely vanished, and his bloodline potential had plummeted. The talent he had taken such pride in was already mostly ruined.
In today's battle, he had not only lost to Lin Chen, but also to a strange, unfathomable fate at work beyond his understanding.
"I won't admit defeat."
Sasuke abruptly gritted his teeth and stared fixedly at Lin Chen, dark flames of obsession kindling in his eyes.
"I'll repay today's humiliation with my own hands."
"I, Sasuke Uchiha, will never lose to you!"
After delivering that oath filled with endless unwillingness, Sasuke turned and staggered off the grounds in a sorry state.
His retreating figure was desolate, without a trace of a genius's aloof pride.
The watching students spontaneously cleared a path. None dared mock him; their hearts held only tangled feelings.
The once lofty Uchiha genius had fallen completely from his pedestal.
Naruto looked at Sasuke's retreating figure, then at Lin Chen standing calmly, his face full of bewilderment and helplessness.
He could not understand this bizarre victory and defeat, much less the abnormalities between heaven and earth today.
At the same time, the system notifications refreshed once more in Lin Chen's mind.
[Ding! Heaven-defying reversal completed: crushed the fated Sasuke and shattered the Uchiha genius's halo!] [Obtained massive amounts of system experience and potential points!] [Heavenly Dao plot correction failed. Host's heretic value has increased significantly!] [New permission unlocked: can passively sense changes to Heavenly Fate plot points!] [Warning: due to the severe weakening of Sasuke's foundation, the future Valley of the End plot and Itachi's return plot will undergo unknown deviations!]
Lin Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.
Plot deviations?
Good.
What he wanted most was to tear the predetermined script of Heavenly Fate to pieces.
Predetermined endings, the shackles of destiny, the Heavenly Dao's arrangements-he rejected them all!
Kakashi slowly walked into the Training Ground, his gaze settling on Lin Chen. His tone was probing and serious.
"Boy, were you the one who caused that power just now?"
Lin Chen raised his eyes and met his gaze openly, neither dodging nor avoiding it, and said calmly:
"I don't know anything about any power. I only know-the victor is king."
Kakashi froze slightly, then the faintest curve rose at the corner of his mouth.
Bold, calm, mysterious, and unfathomably strong.
It seemed Konoha's new generation truly had produced a monster who broke every rule.
Meanwhile, in the shadows among the distant treetops, an aged gaze silently watched everything on the Training Ground.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, gently rubbed his pipe with his fingertips, his expression grave.
"A bizarre reversal of fortune, unknown fluctuations of power..."
"Just where did this child named Lin Chen come from?"
From that moment on, the attention of Konoha High Command focused completely on this boy who had once ranked at the bottom.
Under the Heavenly Dao's fury and the gaze of the entire village, Lin Chen's Path of Defying Fate Across the Heavens formally opened a brand-new chapter.
Before you continue