Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 425 Missed Opportunity

"How is that possible?"

Why did the Six Paths Planetary Devastation attempt fail?

"That's impossible?"

Naruto and Sasuke got up, ignoring their injuries, and stared in horror at Li Yao, who was unharmed high in the sky.

"What happened?"

Why didn't it succeed?

Sasuke's face was blank, and he couldn't maintain his usual calm and cool demeanor. At this moment, he was somewhat... at a loss.

Naruto's mindset was similar to Sasuke's; neither of them could accept the failure of the Six Paths Planetary Devastation Sealing Technique.

After leaving the Pure Land space, the Six Paths Sage bestowed upon them the Six Paths Earth Explosion Star Sealing Technique, which became their greatest source of confidence in defeating Li Yao.

Naruto and Sasuke both knew that Li Yao's space-time ninjutsu was powerful, and only the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei Sealing Technique, which could imprison space, could guarantee a one-hit kill on Li Yao.

Because of this, in the instant when the lightning field caused Li Yao's consciousness to be stunned, Sasuke originally had the opportunity to gather lightning and directly attack Li Yao's head, and Naruto also had the opportunity to attack Li Yao's head with Truth-Seeking Balls before Li Yao regained consciousness.

However, fearing that Li Yao might possess the spatial manipulation ability like Obito to evade the attack and thus lose this hard-won opportunity to kill, and also to ensure that the threat of Li Yao could be completely eliminated, both of them chose the Six Paths Planetary Devastation Sealing Technique, giving Li Yao no chance of anything unexpected.

but now!

Finally, he found an opportunity to unleash the Six Paths Earth Explosion Star Sealing Technique on Li Yao.

But this is the result we see now.

The two could not accept it.

If it hadn't hit Li Yao to unleash the Six Paths Earth Explosion Heavenly Star Sealing Technique, then so be it.

They had clearly hit and released the Six Paths Planetary Devastation Sealing Technique, but Li Yao broke it head-on with some kind of space-time ninjutsu they didn't recognize.

The sheer power of this direct confrontation with the Six Paths Earth Explosion Star Sealing Technique filled the two with despair, making it impossible for them to accept their previous choice.

They kept having fantasies in their minds.

Would it have been better if they had directly condensed lightning or used Truth-Seeking Balls to attack Li Yao's head? Would they have killed Li Yao outright?

Unable to accept the current outcome, both of them felt a deep sense of regret.

In fact, they should regret it.

"call……"

"call……"

High in the sky, dark purple chakra flickered on Li Yao's body. In the illusory figure, he clutched his heart with his right hand and gasped for breath.

"That's dangerous!"

"I almost died!"

A deep sense of lingering fear flashed in Li Yao's eyes as he looked relieved to be alive.

He really escaped with his life this time.

Li Yao was truly fortunate that, in order to maintain a full chakra level during battle, he modified the Time Reset Ninjutsu into a passively triggered one, which would automatically activate every few seconds, allowing his body and mind to return to their peak state.

Just as Li Yao was struck by Sasuke's lightning attack imbued with the power of the Six Paths Yin Release and lost consciousness, the Time Reset Ninjutsu was activated.

Li Yao's body and mind were reset, and his consciousness awoke from a state of dazedness.

The moment Li Yao regained consciousness, he instinctively used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport away. However, the Six Paths Earth Explosion Star Sealing Technique was able to imprison space, instantly sealing off Li Yao's escape route.

In that instant, Li Yao didn't have time to think. He used what he instinctively considered to be the most reliable and strongest defensive ninjutsu.

Space-Time Ninjutsu - Time Mirage!

At that instant, Naruto and Sasuke's palms touched Li Yao's cheeks, and the mark of the Six Paths Planetary Devastation Sealing Technique was already on Li Yao's body.

In that instant, all of Li Yao's chakra entered a state of absolute stillness, as if space itself had frozen into ice. Li Yao's body and chakra were completely immobilized, left only to await their fate of being sealed away.

Ok!

I'd say it's alright!

Fortunately, at that very moment, Li Yao's space-time ninjutsu - Time Mirage - had already been successfully activated.

In an instant.

Having been marked with a spatial gravity node, Li Yao, whose body was about to transform into a star core and be sealed away by the convergence of endless spatial power, was instantly transported to another space-time.

It seems like it's still in the same place, but in reality, it's like the moon in the water or a flower in a mirror—visible but untouchable.

Thus, the spatial gravity nodes that struck Li Yao gathered endless spatial power, but could only spin in place and could not find Li Yao's true body.

Ultimately, without Li Yao's body as a vessel to gather the spatial power, the Six Paths Earth Explosion Heavenly Star Sealing Technique failed.

This can also be seen from this point.

Its spatial abilities are incredibly powerful and virtually unbeatable.

However, the ability to manipulate time and space is even more domineering and unsolvable.

If it weren't for his time-space ninjutsu—Time Mirage—Li Yao would have been completely finished.

However, the key to all of this was that Li Yao's time reset passive triggered a moment, allowing him to activate the Time Mirage at the exact moment the Six Paths Earth Explosion Star Sealing Technique was activated.

Otherwise, if his chakra were sealed and imprisoned, Li Yao would truly be doomed.

Besides being thankful that the time reset ninjutsu was passive, Li Yao also had to thank Sasuke and Naruto for their misjudgment.

Actually, at that time, if Sasuke had chosen to directly condense lightning and pierce Li Yao's head without removing the lightning field...

At the speed of lightning, Li Yao didn't even have time to wait for the time to reset before Sasuke pierced his head and killed him.

Alternatively, Sasuke could maintain the lightning field to prolong the time Li Yao was unconscious, while Naruto could directly control the Truth-Seeking Balls to attack. With the speed of the Truth-Seeking Balls, they could kill Li Yao before he regained consciousness.

pity!

Li Yao could guess that Naruto and Sasuke, just in case and to ensure a 100% kill on him, chose to trust the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei Sealing Technique bestowed by the Sage of Six Paths, thus abandoning the two options mentioned above that seemed invincible but could actually kill Li Yao in one blow.

Fortunately, Li Yao was able to survive.

"Indeed, you should never underestimate anyone!"

"And also... in battles of the same level, ability information is really crucial!"

Having been pulled back from the brink of death, Li Yao learned a lesson.

This time he did not underestimate Sasuke and Naruto. Their abilities were similar to those shown in the anime, but anime is anime after all, and what it shows is ultimately limited.

Real people can think; who would have thought that Sasuke would use a technique like the Lightning Field?

The key issue was that the lightning release, infused with the power of the Six Paths Yin Release, could directly attack the soul, causing Li Yao to lose consciousness.

"Thank goodness, I still have the Mirage of Time technique."

This was both Li Yao's good fortune and his mistake.

Sometimes, knowing too many ninjutsu is not a good thing. During battle, you may subconsciously overlook some seemingly useless but actually very important ninjutsu.

However, this is also related to Li Yao's initial battle strategy.

Facing Naruto and Sasuke, who were at the Six Paths level, he was focused on enhancing his reflexes and combining them with his massive teleportation ability and the invincible defense of the Black Hole Space Cloak. He believed this would make him invincible, so he didn't consider using the Time Mirage.

(End of this chapter)