The passage sloped downward, slick and narrow, with room for only one person to pass. The dragging of chains and the faint, intermittent sobbing echoed through the enclosed space, sounding unusually clear and eerily unsettling.
Ling kept his breathing to a minimum and took every step with extreme care. In the darkness, his Jōgan scanned everything ahead like the keenest radar. Blurred carvings began to appear on the rocky walls. They were not natural formations, but looked more like ancient runes, their style unlike any Ninshu school he had ever seen, carrying a primitive, mysterious air. The resonance from the Fragment grew stronger the deeper he went, until the Fragment against his chest even began to grow slightly hot.
After he had traveled several hundred meters, a faint light appeared at the end of the passage. Holding his breath, Ling silently edged up to the exit and peered inside.
Before him lay an enormous natural cavern, with a small, raised stone platform at its center. Six thick stone pillars covered in intricate runes stood around it, linked by chakra chains that glimmered with an eerie light, forming a sturdy barrier. At the center of the barrier, a figure sat on the platform.
It was a woman who looked about twenty, dressed in white Miko robes that had long since faded, though traces of their former splendor remained. She had rare, flame-red hair, long but now dull and disheveled. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound by thick chakra chains of the same origin as the barrier, their other ends connected to the six stone pillars.
Her head hung low, her shoulders trembling slightly. The intermittent sobbing came from her. What alarmed Ling was that his Jōgan could clearly "see" a vast, pure flow of yin release energy being slowly drawn from her body. It shared the origin of the Fragment in his hand, but was older and more tranquil. Through the six pillars and chains, it poured into the earth beneath them, flowing toward that enormous structure farther below!
She was a "battery"! A living sacrifice imprisoned here to supply energy to that ancient underground structure!
Seemingly sensing a stranger's presence, she abruptly stopped sobbing. The woman jerked her head up, revealing a pale face whose original delicate beauty was still apparent. Her eyes were an unusual dark red, now filled with terror, exhaustion, and a trace of numbness from prolonged imprisonment.
"Who?!" Her voice was hoarse, weak, and trembling.
Ling did not answer immediately. His Jōgan swept swiftly across the entire cavern. Aside from the imprisoning barrier and the woman at its center, he found no other guards or traps. Only then did he slowly step out of the shadows, still keeping his guard up.
"A Konoha Ninja," Ling said quietly and succinctly. He noticed an extremely faint, almost imperceptible glimmer flash through her eyes when he said "Konoha," only to fade again immediately.
"Konoha... heh..." The woman gave a low, bitter laugh. "It's no use... they... the power of 'God'... is everywhere... are you trapped here too?"
"God?" Ling frowned, thinking of Deva Path Pain.
"The man with the Rinnegan... they call him 'God'..." Fear tinged her voice. "He imprisoned me here, using my bloodline and contract... to keep the 'Abyssal Corridor' running..."
The Abyssal Corridor? Something stirred in Ling's mind. That must be the name of the enormous underground structure.
"Your bloodline? Your contract?" Ling pressed. He felt he was about to reach the heart of the matter.
The woman looked at Ling. Perhaps she sensed no direct malice from him, or perhaps her long solitude had left her yearning to speak. She said breathlessly, "I... am Xi, the last Miko of the Uzumaki Clan... since ancient times, our clan has held a contract with the 'Ryūmyaku' beneath this land, protecting and channeling its power to prevent it from running wild... but that man found a dormant Ryūmyaku node and forcibly twisted the contract. He imprisoned me here, using my bloodline and the power of the Ryūmyaku to sustain his 'Rain Tiger at Will Technique,' while trying to... gain complete control over the Ryūmyaku..."
The Uzumaki Clan! The Ryūmyaku! A storm surged through Ling's mind. He had never expected to encounter a survivor from the same clan as Naruto's mother here! And the Akatsuki-no, Pain-was actually trying to control a legendary torrent of natural energy like the Ryūmyaku! This was far more terrifying and uncontrollable than the Tailed Beasts!
"He needs your bloodline to control the Ryūmyaku completely?" Ling seized on the key point.
Xi shook her head, profound despair showing in her dark red eyes. "Not exactly... what he needs is a living Uzumaki bloodline bound by the ancient contract with the Ryūmyaku, to serve as a 'key' and a 'stabilizer'... he's trying to overwrite the ancient contract with his own power... it's a very slow process, but... it has never stopped... I can feel the contract being corrupted, and the power of the Ryūmyaku is becoming... more and more violent..."
She raised her chained hands and pointed at the six stone pillars around her. "These 'Six Binding Pillars' don't just drain my power. They also bind my soul to the Ryūmyaku's core... if I die or am forcibly taken away, without the contract to channel it and my bloodline to stabilize it, the Ryūmyaku will very likely run wild in an instant... when that happens, never mind the Land of Rain, even the entire continent might..."
She did not finish, but Ling already understood the gravity of the consequences. Pain had taken the entire Land of Rain, and even the wider region, hostage! No wonder he dared call himself "God"!
Just then, the Fragment against Ling's chest suddenly grew fiercely hot, its resonance stronger than ever before! It even began emitting a faint, pitch-black light on its own!
At almost the same moment, the runes on the six stone pillars binding Xi abruptly lit up! The entire cavern began to tremble slightly, and an even more turbulent roar from the Ryūmyaku rose from deep underground! A vast, chaotic surge of energy began churning through the cavern!
"This is bad!" Xi's expression changed drastically. "'God' is accelerating his erosion of the contract! The Ryūmyaku is becoming unstable! He must have noticed something wrong!"
Ling also felt a powerful, icy consciousness sweep through the cavern like a scan! It was Pain's perception! He had been exposed!
I have to decide now! Escape alone, or...
He looked at the Uzumaki Miko on the stone platform, her face deathly pale but a trace of defiance still shining in her eyes. Feeling the Fragment against his chest faintly resonating with the Ryūmyaku and the Six Binding Pillars, an extraordinarily bold, even insane idea took shape in his mind.
Since this Fragment can resonate with the Ryūmyaku, could it... disrupt this energy-draining barrier? Or even... temporarily sever Pain's control over this place?
"Listen." Ling strode to the edge of the barrier and fixed Xi with a sharp gaze. "I have a method that might temporarily disrupt this barrier, but I need your help! Tell me, where are its energy nodes? Which pillar is its weakest point?"
Xi froze. Looking into Ling's eyes, which seemed to burn with an eerie light in the darkness-the effect of his Jōgan operating at full power-she felt as though a pebble had been cast into the deathly still lake of her heart.
"The east... the one in the southeast corner... there are three damaged spots in its runes, left back then... when my clan's elders tried to resist..." Almost instinctively, she pointed out the location.
"Good!" Without hesitation, Ling endured the severe pain in his left arm and the weakness of his body, gathering all the little chakra he had recovered, the power of his Jōgan, and the restless energy of the Fragment against his chest into his right hand!
He did not know whether this would work, but it might be his only chance!
He charged at the stone pillar in the southeast corner and slammed his right hand, blazing with chaotic light, against the damaged Runes Xi had indicated!
"Purifying Erosion: Barrier Break!"
Before you continue