Himiko and Maruboshi Kosuke's palms were sweaty as they gripped the tokens.
The door to the lower-tier tower was taller than she had imagined. Looking up, the skeletal ghost face on the lintel seemed to be staring at her. Behind her came Captain Tian Yu's voice. "Don't be afraid, I'm here. Follow the formation we practiced at the God Sealing Sect. Signal when you encounter the undead lord."
"Understood, Captain." Himiko a deep breath and followed the crowd into the Undead Realm teleportation tower.
The temperature plummeted the moment I stepped through the door. The once clear sky turned leaden gray, and the soft, decaying earth beneath my feet felt like sinking into a pile of rotting corpses. In the distance, a cacophony of howls rose and fell, and countless ghosts and undead in tattered armor emerged from the thick fog, their empty eye sockets flickering with ghostly fire.
"Form ranks!" shouted Tenmei, the captain in charge of the team. A barrage of Shuriken shot towards the undead horde, felling a large number of skeleton warriors, but only stirring up patches of gray mist for the ghosts in the sky.
Maruboshi Kosuke in his early thirties who had just reached the Kage Level, gripped the sword at his waist. His mission was to protect the sealing masters of Konoha, but when the first undead broke through the defenses and its decaying claws reached for his face, he almost instinctively dodged and slashed—the moment the blade sliced through the undead's neck, the opponent turned into a wisp of green smoke, leaving only a white crystal the size of a grain of rice.
"Put it away!" Tian Yu's voice came from ahead. He was being attacked by more than a dozen undead, their blades flashing in a dense, impenetrable barrage. "This is a soul energy core; it can be exchanged for resources and used for cultivation!"
Maruboshi Kosuke hurriedly stuffed the crystal into his pocket, and as soon as he looked up, he saw an even more terrifying sight: a three-zhang-tall undead lord emerged from the mist, his entire body covered in dark gold armor, and the giant axe in his hand was covered in black flames, and when it chopped down, even the space trembled.
" Super Kage Level!" a Konoha ninja screamed in despair, "Send the signal now!"
A beam of red light shot into the sky, only to be dispersed by a wisp of black energy mid-air. Himiko voice rang out. "The signal flare has been blocked! Form a defensive array, Brother Kosuke, use the Blood Pact Barrier Ninjutsu of the God Sealing Sect!"
Maruboshi Kosuke bit his fingertip and dripped blood onto the token. Setsuna, a layer of red light shone on the surrounding Konoha ninjas, and the attacks of the undead struck the light barrier with dull thuds. But he could feel that the light barrier was being corroded, and the black energy seemed to be alive, drilling into it along the patterns of light.
"There's a gap on the left!" The Tian Yu's roar was filled with caution. Himiko her head and saw that her weapon had been slashed open by the giant axe, and black death energy was creeping up the weapon.
Just then, a series of rapid explosions rang out in the distance. The Wind Faction's Kage Level ninja team used Magnet Release to create a sand wall, temporarily blocking the undead lord. " Yin Faction ninja team, activate your Sharingan and Susanoo and go after them!" shouted Yang Faction defensive ninja. Several scarlet Tomoe lit up in the crowd, illuminating more terrifying figures hidden among the undead horde.
Himiko suddenly understood that this was the life-or-death trial that the Tsubasa Lord had spoken of. There was no room for luck, no way out; one either survived by stepping on the corpses of the undead, or became one of them. She gripped her short sword tightly, watching Maruboshi Kosuke grit his teeth and sever his left arm, which had been corroded by the undead lord, and watching the Tian Yu blast a bloody path with Explosive Tag. Suddenly, she laughed.
" Himiko, Maruboshi Kosuke, follow me and charge up to kill those lords!" Tian Yu recalled the runes on the back of the token, personally engraved by her father, Tsubasa. It was said to be able to sense spatial nodes, the final spatial key to retreat back to the Shinobi World. This time, the four great holy lands and the seven Konoha Ninja factions each sent a team to explore the Undead Realm, led by the Azure Dragon Army Commander Tenmei. Their mission was twofold: first, to explore the Undead Realm and obtain the Soul Crystal, the main ingredient for refining the Soul -Soul Replenishing Pill.
As the undead lord's giant axe slashed down with Sky Splitter, Tian Yu swiftly plunged her Ninja Blade into the ground, her Hand Seals forming a blur. " Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!"
The thick rock wall, barely rising from the ground, was melted by the black fire, leaving a half-foot-deep gash. The Tian Yu used the recoil to flip backward, his boots grinding two deep grooves into the decaying earth. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Himiko applying a sealing talisman to the approaching ghost. In the golden light of the exploding talisman, the gray mist emitted a piercing shriek, scattering into countless points of light—two blue crystals the size of a fingernail rolled to her feet, which she then tucked into her pouch at her waist.
"Don't pick up the small ones!" Tian Yu swung her blade, cleaving aside the Mars lunging at her back; sparks flew as the blade clashed against the bone armor. "Only Kage Level undead beside the lord carry weight!"
Himiko her wrist, stuffing the blue crystal into her sleeve. Her short sword flashed a silver arc, severing the other bone claw. She could feel the token burning hot in her palm; it was the resonance talisman specially made by the God Sealing Sect at work. Whenever a high-level soul crystal appeared nearby, the token would scorch like a branding iron. At this moment, the token was so hot it almost burned through her skin. She looked up and met the empty eye sockets of the Undead Lord, which were turned in her direction. The flickering ghostly flames within them suddenly swelled by half a circle.
Maruboshi Kosuke's left arm was still bleeding, the corroded wound turning bluish-black. He gritted his teeth, tore off his belt, and wrapped it around his arm. The red light of the Blood Pact Barrier dimmed due to blood loss, and a bone claw had already broken through the gap in the light barrier, leaving three bloody scratches on his arm. " Himiko! To the left rear!" he roared, throwing Kunai. The moment the Kunai pierced the ghost, the opponent split into two smaller wisps of mist, which then pounced even more fiercely.
"These bastards are endless!" A newly promoted Kage Level ninja cursed as he fell to the ground, his right leg twisted at an eerie angle, the soul crystals rolling around him still shimmering faintly. The undead's bone blade was already pressed against his throat, but the Tian Yu's Ninja Blade pierced through the skeleton's chest cavity first, black slime dripping down the blade onto the decaying soil, hissing and emitting white smoke.
"Put the crystal away!" Tian Yu kicked away the bone soldier who lunged at him, and tapped the ninja on the forehead with the hilt of his sword. "Even if you die, die somewhere that can earn you military merit!"
Captain Tenmei's figure suddenly exploded in mid-air, a tornado of countless Shuriken sweeping across the entire fog-covered area. Each of the swirling metal shards was covered in Explosive Tag, and the explosions created a sea of fire, incinerating the leading undead into ashes. " Tian Yu, take half the men to the right flank!" Tenmei's voice echoed from within the inferno. He leaped onto a ladder of Shuriken that appeared out of nowhere, his left eye's Mangekyō Sharingan crimson patterns. "I see the Lord's core, in the crack in its left breastplate!"
Suddenly, Ame-no -Tian Yu let out a sharp whistle, and pale golden Chakra flickered on his Ninja Blade: "Whoever charges after me gets a third-class merit!" He crashed into the horde of dead like a golden lightning bolt, black flames scorching the blade and giving it a burnt smell, but he still couldn't break through the Chakra barrier. Maruboshi Kosuke followed closely behind, dragging his injured arm. With each slash, he felt his wound tearing open, blood dripping from his fingertips onto the token, which ironically made the red light of the barrier shine even brighter.
Himiko's short sword had long been dulled, and she was now relying entirely on the sealing talisman for support. Blood mixed with sweat from her fingertips soaked through the talisman paper, and she felt her vision go black every time Hand Seals, but the burning sensation of the talisman was getting stronger and stronger. She could even see the pigeon-egg-sized amethyst pulsating in her chest cavity through the armor of the undead lord.
"Now!" The Tian Yu suddenly sidestepped and rammed into the lord's knee, its giant axe crashing down where the lord had just stood, tearing up more than half a meter of rotten earth. Seizing this fleeting opening, Maruboshi Kosuke, enduring the excruciating pain, formed the final hand seal. "Blood Pact - Bind!"
The crimson light suddenly swelled into a gigantic cocoon, trapping the undead lord in its center. A sharp, shattering sound echoed where the bone armor collided with the crimson light. Taking advantage of the moment, the Tian Yu leaped upwards, using the lord's arm as a spring, its Ninja Blade pointed directly at the crack in its left chest. "Open for me!"
The Setsuna the amethyst left its body, the entire body of the undead lord began to disintegrate. Tian Yu stuffed the crystal into her bosom, only to find that the undead around her not only did not retreat, but instead surged forward like an enraged swarm of bees. Even heavy footsteps could be heard from the thick fog in the distance, as if something even larger was approaching.
"Something's wrong!" Tenmei's voice was unusually grave, and his Chaos Armor Set rune armor instantly covered his entire body. "They're summoning their companions; they're going to ambush us. There's a commander among them!"
Himiko suddenly noticed that the runes on the back of the token were glowing, the twisted lines forming a swirling vortex. Remembering Immortal Venerable Tsubasa's instructions before their departure, she immediately pressed her fingertip against the runes. "Captain! The spatial node is lit!"
The Tian Yu slashed down three skeletons that pounced on him, then turned around and saw that Maruboshi Kosuke was already surrounded by bone soldiers, and the Blood Pact Barrier was about to collapse. " Kosuke! Take the crystal and get out of here!" He suddenly threw his Ninja Blade, the blade grazing Kosuke's ear and pinning down the ghost that was about to launch a sneak attack.
As Maruboshi Kosuke caught the sword hilt, he noticed a heavy cloth bag stuffed inside the scabbard. Opening it, he found over a dozen colorful crystals, each about the size of a pigeon's egg, with one amethyst emitting a soft glow. "Captain, you..."
"Enough nonsense!" Tian Yu kicked him away, but was swallowed up by the surging undead. Only her voice pierced through the bone mass, "Tell my uncle there's a high-level undead lair here..."
Himiko gripped the token tightly, the runes illuminating her face. Maruboshi Kosuke, dragging his injured leg, rushed to her side. The two watched as the figure of the Tian Yu appeared and disappeared in the tide of undead. Occasionally, the blade's light would pierce through the gray mist, only to be quickly engulfed by more bone claws.
"Go! Tian Yu is High Immortal Level, she'll be alright!" Tenmei's voice carried an undeniable authority. Half of his body was already burned by black flames, yet he still stood in front of the spatial node. "Only if you stay alive can you bring more people back!"
The moment the crimson barrier shattered completely, Himiko activated the token. The swirling spatial vortex pulled them in, and the last thing they saw was the back of the Tian Yu surrounded by the dead, and the bulging cloth bag he threw at them—filled with shimmering soul crystals, like Xingchen scattered across the earth under the leaden sky.
The shock of passing through the spatial passage felt like salt being rubbed into his wounds. When Maruboshi Kosuke landed on the grass outside the teleportation tower, he found that the cloth bag in his arms was soaked with blood. Himiko was coughing beside him, her spittle mixed with blood, but she was still tightly protecting the bag at her waist and refused to let go.
People tumbled out of the vortex one after another, all injured, yet instinctively reaching for the container of crystals. A ninja with a severed arm grinned, holding up an orange crystal. "I've struck it rich this time! This one's enough to buy cultivation resources for three generations of my family!"
Maruboshi Kosuke untied the belt wrapped around his left arm; the wound had begun to scab over. He took out the amethyst and placed it in his palm. The crystal refracted a deep luster in the sunlight, as if the roar of the undead lord still lingered within it. Not far away, Captain Tenmei was counting heads. When the count stopped at "thirty-seven," he silently crushed the half of the green crystal in his palm.
Himiko suddenly nudged his arm and handed him a small cloth bag. Opening it, he saw dozens of tiny white crystals, each the size of a grain of rice, mixed with a few tiny blue crystals the size of a fingernail—the very ones she had casually picked up earlier. "The captain said," her voice still trembled slightly, yet carried a strange firmness, "That regardless of size, they were earned with lives."
Maruboshi Kosuke looked at the burn mark visible on her sleeve and suddenly recalled the last scene he saw in the Undead Realm —when the Tian Yu was surrounded by the dead, she was still clutching a white crystal she had picked up from the ground. He put the amethyst into the cloth bag and stuffed the bag into Himiko's hand. "Take this, it's enough for you to get a new set of sealing talismans."
The portal to the teleportation tower was slowly closing, about to completely shut out the screams and bloodshed inside. At that moment, a girl in red rushed out at the last moment. Behind the portal, a blood-red skeleton a thousand feet tall stared at the Tian Yu.
Cheers erupted as the medical-nin began treating the wounded. The golden rays of the setting sun fell upon their injured faces, each person carrying a heavy load of crystals earned with blood and sweat in the Undead Realm, now radiating a faint light that could illuminate their path.