Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 371 Heroes Appear

"Sorry, I understand."

Konan bowed her head in remorse. After being reminded by the Animal Path of Pain, she realized that her previous choice would expose Nagato's true location and bring danger to him.

However, Konan is still worried about why Pain suddenly lost control.

"Are you alright?" Xiao Nan asked.

"It's alright," Pain said, then added, "Naruto isn't in Konoha. I need to use that next. You can go now."

After saying this, the chakra of the five Six Paths of Pain was drained, and they collapsed.

Seeing this, Xiao Nan was very worried, but Li Yao, who played the role of Changmen, was determined, so Xiao Nan had no choice but to retreat.

Thousands of meters in the air.

Li Yaotian stopped Pain and looked down at Konoha Village. Although it was called a village, it was actually a city. Based on the souls Li Yaotian sensed, there were at least 200,000 people living in Konoha.

This is close to the total population of some small cities in my previous life.

So many people, five or six thousand had already died in the previous battles between Nagato, Pain, and the summoned beasts, and with Li Yao's attack just now, only six or seven thousand had actually died.

Unlike other towns in the Land of Fire, everyone in Konoha, even commoners, possesses chakra, though their chakra is so weak that it's insufficient to become a ninja.

However, their physical condition was quite good, so although Konoha appeared to be in ruins, the number of dead was not actually that high.

At least in Li Yao's opinion, it wasn't much.

"The real slaughter begins now!"

Li Yaotian said that Payne clenched his fist and raised it, with terrifying force surrounding the fist, as if compressing force.

The reality is pretty much the same.

Li Yaotian said that Pain compressed the endless repulsive force into his fist, preventing it from spreading out.

This is a level of control that only Li Yao can achieve.

Even Madara couldn't do that, because he didn't have Li Yao's absolute control over chakra.

With absolute control over chakra, he wielded both the gravitational and repulsive powers of the Deva Path, unleashing terrifying force.

The slash that sliced ​​through a plane of Konoha in one blow was a deep development and application of Li Yao's repulsive force of the Heavenly Dao.

The principle is the same as the Wind Release slash: compress endless repulsive force into a thin line, and then spread it outwards.

In this way, a thin circular slash is formed, cutting everything in its path.

The same principle was used to sever Kakashi's gravitational threads, only gravity was used instead.

The same principle applies to compressing endless repulsive force.

This compression is more like creating a pressure air cannon, compressing endless repulsive force like air, and then throwing it out like a bomb to explode and destroy everything around it.

Li Yao hadn't tested its power.

However, it's unlikely to be weaker than Nagato's attack using Shinra Tensei in the original work.

"stop!"

"Pain!"

Below, Tsunade saw Li Yao raise his fist. Although she didn't know what Li Yao was going to do, Tsunade's combat intuition told her that she absolutely could not let Li Yao make a move, otherwise the consequences would be severe.

"Stop!"

"hateful!"

In the mezzanine space, Jiraiya stood below, also roaring at Li Yao.

"Oh no! Protect yourself!"

"Quickly, use Earth Release ninjutsu to defend!"

"Run!"

Upon noticing Li Yao, the Konoha ninjas all felt a jolt in their hearts, realizing that a terrifying, wide-range ninjutsu attack was about to strike, and each took their own countermeasures.

Konoha was plunged into extreme panic.

On the eastern wall of Konoha, Gamashima looked at the chaotic Konoha and then at Pain in the sky. Needless to say, he understood what was happening in Konoha.

Just then, a toad came up behind her.

"Summon Naruto and the others, right? I understand."

Gamashima's expression hardened. Without needing to say more, she knew what the message from Mount Myōboku was. She immediately formed hand seals.

At the same time, Li Yaotian, high in the sky, said that Pain swung his fist and threw a powerful punch at Konoha below.

In an instant, heaven and earth shattered!

"Shinra Tenken!"

Bang!

The entire Hidden Leaf Village was like a balloon filled with air, suddenly bursting open, the earth churned, the air surge exploded, and debris flew everywhere.

Boom!

The rubble surged outwards like a tsunami, and the tens of meters high walls of Konoha were blown apart. The rubble, along with the blood, flesh, and corpses, surged outwards from Konoha.

"What was that sound?"

Ten kilometers outside Konoha, the Kaiban team, who had just returned from a mission and were preparing to rest, heard a loud bang in the air and felt a tremor on the ground, which startled them.

"That's...oh no, something's happened in the village!"

"Go back quickly!"

Matt Kai looked toward the village. Already uneasy about the constant stream of birds flying in from that direction, he could no longer remain calm upon hearing this noise.

Neji, Tenten, and the other two instantly realized that something had happened in the village.

The four of them rushed towards Konoha with all their might.

"Not bad!"

High in the sky, Li Yaotian asked Payne to look down.

Compared to the original story where Nagato's attack on Pain didn't even destroy the walls, this time Konoha's walls collapsed completely, with waves of rubble dozens of meters high piling up hundreds of meters outside Konoha.

With just one strike, almost all of Konoha's survivors, except for the tens of thousands hiding deep within the Hokage Rock shelter, were killed, including those in underground shelters within the attack's range.

This was only because the slug used its split bodies to shield some people from the attack at a critical moment; otherwise, even more people would have died.

Even with the slugs, Li Yaotian said that after Pain's attack, no more than 70,000 of Konoha's more than 200,000 people would remain.

Fortunately, thanks to the slug's protection, most of those who survived were ninjas, and Konoha's strength was somewhat preserved.

The casualties were so enormous that they hardly needed to be tallied. When Tsunade woke up and saw the huge crater in front of her, which looked like it had been created by a meteorite falling from the sky, she broke down.

"Unforgivable!!!"

"Unforgivable!!!"

Sakura was also devastated.

"What is this?!"

"How did it turn out like this?"

Sakura stared blankly ahead. The old Konoha was gone, replaced by a huge, empty crater.

Despair instantly filled Sakura's heart, and at that moment, the first person she thought of was not Sasuke but Naruto.

"Naruto, hurry up and come here!"

"Please, Naruto!"

Sakura knelt on the ground, tears of despair and grief streaming down her face. She cried out, begging Naruto to come back quickly.

As if in response to Sakura's call, a plume of white smoke rose from the eastern part of the pit.

"Is it really just a coincidence?"

"Hehe, no, I did that on purpose!"

As Sakura called out, Naruto appeared like a hero, fulfilling the expectations of people in their despair, as if it were a destiny's arrangement.

It's just a pity!

Seeing this from high above, Li Yaotian smiled slightly at Payne. This was not fate's arrangement; it was his arrangement.

Without his arrangement, Naruto would never have heard Sakura's call.

"But now that the main character has appeared, it's time for me to make my entrance too!"

"Sage Chakra, I've been waiting for this for so long!"

On the other side, atop the mountain, Li Yao used an illusion technique to control Xiao Nan, and then created a shadow clone to watch over his main body.

He then used the Spirit Transformation Technique to enter the interlayered space and fly towards Naruto.

(End of this chapter)