The ruins of the beacon tower were still burning, the last wisp of smoke being pulverized by the heat of the black sun. Tian Uguisu knelt on the ground, leaning on the Earth Spirit Spear, blood dripping down the shaft and forming small puddles at her feet.
When she looked up, the blood clots on her eyelashes almost stuck to her eyelids. The black sun was dyed crimson by the Kakkō from all directions, like a red-hot iron ball hanging overhead, and the cries of the Golden Crow made her eardrums ache.
The purple flame beasts to the west were gnawing at the broken walls and ruins with their fangs. Their burning manes brushed against the stones, and even the hardest granite in Iwagakure was sizzling and melting.
The ghostly fire to the north is even more terrifying. The eerie blue flames are filled with translucent phantoms, and wherever they drift by, even corpses are sucked dry.
The cursed warriors in the south climbed up the mountain of corpses, their blood dripping from their black armor, eroding the soil and creating pits.
" Iwagakure... is it going to perish today?" Tian Uguisu's voice was hoarse, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. She tried to raise her Chakra, but the wound on her left shoulder was tearing with pain—the new arm where the earth's power had been gathered was not yet used to it.
A woman's cold laugh, both alluring and venomous, swept in from the north wind. " The Tsuchikage is defeated, destined to be buried in the Kitsuchi, becoming part of the Ghost Clan." It was Lady Youtan, the woman who could control the Netherfire. Her voice seemed to brush against the city wall, " Madara Uchiha is about to breathe his last, isn't he? The old snake of Ryūchi Cave is cowering in his cave, too afraid to come out. Who do you think can save you? Konoha?"
Tian Uguisu gripped the gun barrel tightly, her knuckles turning white. Yes, who else? Her master leaned against the Tsuchikage Building, half-conscious, the fire poison in his chest unable to be suppressed even by the White Snake Sage's Senjutsu; the Yamata White Snake Sage, though awake, was entangled by the suddenly appearing Moryo Puppet Legion from the east. These puppets, made of the resentment of the dead and rocks, were inexhaustible, indestructible, and were steadily surging towards the center of the village.
Despair crept up her spine. She could even hear her teeth chattering, not out of fear, but out of hatred—hatred for her own incompetence, hatred for the many strange phenomena in the world, no wonder no one dared to touch the nobles of a thousand years ago.
Just then, a beam of bluish-white light suddenly burst open in the southeastern sky, piercing straight into the clouds. The wind followed, initially a gentle breeze, but in the blink of an eye it turned into a howling gale, whipping sand that stung the face. Tian Uguisu squinted and saw a bluish-green Kageko wrapped in the sandstorm, like a deity walking from ancient times.
" Fujin Domain - Ten Thousand Miles of Sand Burial!"
The man's voice was low, yet carried an undeniable authority, as if it had crashed down from the heavens, causing the entire Iwagakure to tremble. Before Tian Uguisu could react, the sky above her head suddenly darkened—a massive sandstorm vortex, hundreds of miles in diameter, had appeared over the plains, the yellow sand shredded by the gale into countless sharp blades, densely covering the sky.
"My God..." Tian Uguisu subconsciously raised her hand to shield her eyes, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Purple Flame Beast Horde to the west suddenly erupt in chaos. Those beasts that even Ninjutsu couldn't burn through normally were now like paper in front of the sand blades. The feather blades collided with the sand blades, bursting out blinding waves of light, but only for a moment, a piece of the Purple Flame Beast Horde was gouged out, and countless beast corpses fell from mid-air, hitting the ground with a thud.
The screams of the Star Ninja were mixed with the sound of the wind. Tian Uguisu saw a man wearing Star Ninja uniform who was about to Hand Seals when he was pinned to the broken wall by three sand blades. Blood flowed down the brick seams and was dried by the wind and sand in the blink of an eye.
In the center of the sandstorm, the azure figure stood with his hands behind his back, the wide corners of his cloak fluttering in the gale. A faint blue wind pattern rippled between his brows with each breath, and when his gaze swept across the battlefield, even the black flames of the Golden Crow seemed to shrink back.
" Wind God Saku, I was sent by my master and I am a step late. Please forgive me." His gaze fell on Tian Uguisu, and he nodded slightly. His tone did not reveal any apology, but rather sounded like he was stating a fact.
Tian Uguisu opened her mouth, but before she could speak, she saw Wind God Saku raise his hand, his five fingers spread wide.
"Second Layer: Wind Erosion Firmament."
As soon as he finished speaking, the sandstorm suddenly contracted, and the yellow sand instantly condensed into 100,000 azure wind cones, each one gleaming with a cold light and carrying a shrill whistling sound that could Sky Splitter, piercing straight into the ground from the sky!
The cursed warrior legion from the south bore the brunt of the attack. Those armored giants who advanced over mountains of corpses couldn't even withstand the wind spikes for a second—the wind spikes pierced their armor, shredded their bones, and ground the mountains of corpses beneath their feet into blood-red dust by the wind pressure. Tian Uguisu watched helplessly as the dark mass of the legion thinned at a visible speed. In just a few breaths, eighty percent of the millions of cursed warriors were gone, and the rest were swept away by the sandstorm, tumbling and crawling backward.
"This... this is..." Tian Uguisu stared in disbelief. She had never seen such power before, as if the power of heaven and earth was held in the palm of this person's hand.
Wind God Saku didn't turn around, but only gazed at the eastern horizon. "My master said that members of the Ten Family cannot die in a place like this."
No sooner had he finished speaking than three beams of light Space Break from the southeast and landed behind Wind God Saku.
At the forefront was a woman dressed in a moon-white hunting robe, her red hair cascading down to her waist like a waterfall. In her left hand she held a scroll of glowing runes, and in her right, a vermilion brush. Her toes touched the air, and her robes fluttered as if she had stepped out of a painting. She smiled at Tian Uguisu, the vermilion mark at the corner of her eye twitching slightly. "Sister Tian Uguisu, I've finally found you."
It was Tian Yueqing. Tian Uguisu's eyes instantly welled up with tears. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Tian Yueqing raise her hand and wave her vermilion brush. Several vermilion talismans flew out of thin air and stuck to her wound as if they were alive. With a soft hissing sound, the bleeding wound instantly scabbed over, the burning pain in her left shoulder disappeared, and even the cracks in the Earth Spirit Set were slowly healing.
"As the Tsuchikage, this Land of Earth cannot perish." Tian Yueqing's voice was gentle yet firm. " The Ten Family has never been one that anyone can bully, not even a god."
Behind her, the woman in the Ice Set had already nocked her bow. The ice-blue longbow gleamed with a chilling aura, and the ice arrows in her quiver shimmered with a cold light. A pair of frost wings unfurled from her back, and the coldness in her eyes was even greater than the ice arrows. " Ice Arrow Rain," Tian Muyan murmured. The moment the ice arrows left the bowstring, snowflakes suddenly began to fall from the sky. Countless ice arrows, carrying a chilling aura, shot towards the black sun, colliding with the Golden Crow's black flames and emitting a hissing sound. They actually managed to force the black sun back by half an inch.
The last to land was a woman in a crimson outfit, her wrists wrapped in lightning-patterned arm guards. The stone slab beneath her feet crackled and split into Spiderweb upon impact. She flexed her wrists, and the lightning patterns on her arm guards instantly lit up, crackling and sparking as they splattered on the ground, creating small black craters. " Taijutsu: Eight Gates Released Formation!" Tian Zhiyun shouted, golden Chakra suddenly erupting from her body, her aura surging. She raised her chin at Tian Uguisu and grinned, "What are you standing there for? Get up and fight!"
Wind God Saku his head to the side, the wind pattern between his brows flashing. "The four of you, please form ranks to meet the enemy."
Tian Uguisu stood up, twirling the Earth Spirit Spear in her hand, the cold glint of its tip reflecting the rekindled flame in her eyes. She looked at the four people beside her, then suddenly laughed, a laugh that almost brought tears to her eyes, "Alright, form ranks!"
Meanwhile, on the battlefield east of Iwagakure, an even more bizarre battle was unfolding.
The body of the Yamata White Snake Sage coiled atop the ruins, its eight giant serpent heads flicking their tongues, their pale gold vertical pupils filled with greed. Its scales were stained with a blackish-red slime—the remains of Moryo —those puppets pieced together from resentment and rocks. After it had bitten them to pieces, the remains were seeping into its scales, as if assimilated by its Senjutsu power.
"Hiss... It's been so long since I've tasted such intense resentment..." The White Snake Sage's voice sounded like countless snakes hissing, each head attacking frantically, some spitting corrosive venom, some tearing with their fangs, and some directly crushing the puppet with their bodies. "If I devour you, perhaps I can break free from the shackles of this Ryūchi Cave..."
But those Moryo also exuded an eeriness. The torn remains wriggled on the ground, quickly piecing themselves together into new puppets, even stronger than before. Dark green flames burned in their eye sockets, and they let out unintelligible roars. Countless stone claws clawed at the scales of the White Snake Sage, as if they also wanted to tear this thousand-year-old immortal serpent apart and devour it.
"Roar!" A giant golem made up of hundreds of stone golems suddenly pounced, its stone claws grabbing one of the White Snake Sage's tails. Dark green flames climbed up the scales, actually corroding the immortal snake's skin.
The White Snake Sage cried out in pain, and its other snake head suddenly turned around, biting off the giant puppet's head. But the puppet's body continued to move, its bone claws digging into the wound on the snake's tail, and dark green resentment power burrowed into the immortal serpent's body like vines.
"You're courting death!" The White Snake Sage roared in fury, unleashing a burst of pale gold Senjutsu Chakra from all eight of his snake heads, creating a massive vortex. The puppet caught in the vortex was instantly pulverized, but the fragments coalesced in mid-air, transforming into a gigantic demon mask that opened its mouth to bite at the White Snake Sage's head.
"Trying to turn against me?" The White Snake Sage's vertical pupils narrowed to slits. "Then let's see if you, this pile of rubbish, will devour me, or if I will refine your filth into an immortal elixir!"
The pale gold Senjutsu and the dark green resentment intertwined and collided above the ruins, forming a strange band of light. The scales of the White Snake Sage were constantly peeling off under the erosion of the resentment, but new ones quickly grew back; the Moryo Puppet was torn apart by Senjutsu time and time again, but it could always reassemble even faster, and even become stronger.
In this battle of devouring and counter-devouring, neither side gained an advantage, but it acted as an invisible barrier, temporarily halting the puppet army's advance towards the center of Iwagakure.
In the Yin Shadow of the Tsuchikage Building, Madara Uchiha slowly opened his eyes. His Rinnegan gazed at the strange band of light to the east, then at the direction where Tian Uguisu and the others were arrayed, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.
" The Ten Family family... they arrived earlier than expected," he murmured, coughing up blood. "At this rate... perhaps we can hold out until dawn."
Tian Uguisu stood at the front of the formation, her Earth Spirit Spear pointing directly at the black sun. Beside her, Tian Yueqing's talismans swirled in mid-air, Tian Muyan's ice arrows were poised to be released, Tian Zhiyun's fists crackled, and Wind God Saku's sandstorm condensed once more.
A furious cry of the Golden Crow echoed through the darkness, and Lady Youtan from the north snorted coldly, her ghostly flames rising once more. But this time, Tian Uguisu felt no despair. She took a deep breath, pointed her spear forward, and cried out, "Come on! Let's see who buries whom today!"
The wind whipped her hair, and with it, the last hope of the ruined city of Iwagakure was rekindled.