Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

"Grandpa's puppet threads can temporarily isolate the resonance!"

The girl's startled cry mingled with the sound of churning quicksand.

Byakuya barely managed to lift his head and saw her kneeling figure suddenly straighten, her fingertips rapidly forming the "Thousand Hands Manipulating Sand" seal, a secret technique of Sunagakure.

The puppet strings that had been lying flat on her heart suddenly straightened, pulling the yellow sand on the ground to condense into a golden sand wall, which precisely wrapped around Hyuga Hiashi's chains.

The head of the Hyuga family staggered and was pulled to his knees, the chains rattling against the sand wall.

Chapter 737 Guiding the Quicksand

"Let go!" Hiashi Hyuga's neck turned red, and the chakra at the end of the chains suddenly surged, burning charred holes in the sand wall. "His chakra is polluting the entire Land of Fire!"

If this drags on any longer...

"Shut up!" The girl's right eye suddenly stung.

She reached out to cover it, but touched something burning hot—the right eye that had originally sealed away Chiyo's lingering image was now displaying the golden emblem of Madara.

Black slime seeped between her fingers, mingling with the blood splattered on the back of her hand by Bai Ye, creating new lines on her skin.

The patterns writhed and crawled into her cuffs like living creatures; she could even hear the puppet threads pulsating in her veins. "My eyes... have become a relay station for the virus?"

Bai Ye suddenly coughed violently, spraying blood onto the sand wall and staining the golden sand grains a mottled red.

He stared at the writhing lines on the back of the girl's hand and finally understood why the black ley line fluid was flowing back—Chiyo's curse, Madara's black flames, the First Hokage's Wood Release, and his own blood. These forces, which should have been mutually antagonistic, had formed a new resonance circuit within the girl's body.

Like the golden-black flowers in the border forest, like the hearts of puppeteers everywhere, they are all waiting... waiting for this web woven from hatred, obsession, kindness and madness to take full shape.

The rumbling deep within the earth's veins suddenly changed tone.

The originally orderly resonance of the puppet hearts now contained a sticky tremor, like countless threads rubbing against a rock wall.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up and saw countless small dots shimmering with a ghostly blue light floating in the once clear earth vein mirror beneath the shattered stone tablet—those were... chakra wires?

"Be careful..." He had barely opened his mouth when more blood gushed from his throat.

The wooden vines and black flames within his body suddenly froze, and the phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara stared at each other deep within his consciousness.

"They've arrived," the First Generation said.

"Interesting," Ban smiled.

Deep within the earth's veins, the core of a sonic puppet, sealed for centuries, slowly opened its eyes as the new resonance network took shape.

The earth's rock walls emitted a crisp sound like shattering glass, and the last sound of Bai Ye coughing up blood was drowned out by this roar.

He watched as the small blue dots in the ley line mirror grew wildly into clusters, and finally saw that they were puppet skeletons woven from chakra wires—twelve puppets in dark blue armor were squeezing out along the crack, the golden emblems in their eye sockets flashing in sync with the bloodstains on their foreheads, like twelve upright eyes.

"Activate the resonance field using the vocal cords of a living person!"

A mechanical sound exploded from the throat of the first puppet, a sound that overlapped with the one he had heard three days ago in front of the stone tablet.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted sharply—it was his own voice, modulated into a metallic, resonant echo.

The chest cavities of the puppet group simultaneously split open, and twelve dark brown fragments floated up, which were the virus cores that had been extracted from the hearts of puppeteers from various places.

The fragments gathered into a vortex in front of his chest, and the gold and black chakra was frantically drained away. He could hear the soft cracking of his bones as the chakra was drained.

"Master, be careful!" Hiashi Hyuga's chains pierced the air once more, but this time they were caught by the puppet group.

With a flick of his black iron fingertips, he severed the chakra chains and slammed the Hyuga clan head against the rock wall.

Hiashi coughed up blood and looked up to see that the puppet horde's movements were perfectly synchronized with Byakuya's breathing—when he raised his hand, the puppets raised their hands; when he frowned, the puppets' metallic brow bones furrowed. "This is... a resonance entity anchored to him?"

"Come here!" Bai Ye suddenly grabbed Chiyo's granddaughter's wrist.

The girl stumbled as she was pulled, but the moment she touched his palm, she trembled violently—his skin was as hot as a burning iron, and golden-black blood dripped from between his fingers onto the back of her hand, intertwining with the previous lines to form an even more complex pattern. "What are you going to do?" she asked, her voice trembling. The afterimage of Chiyo in her right eye was burning hot, and the mark of Madara was creeping up her tear duct toward her temple.

“The quicksand of Sunagakure can sever resonance!” Byakuya’s nails dug into her wrist bone, while his other hand tore open his own clothes.

Beneath the blood-stained bandages, tangled vines and black flames were gnawing at his heart—the life force of the First Hokage and the destructive power of Madara were torn to shreds here.

He grabbed the puppet silk from her waist, the tip still covered with the grains of sand he had used to stop his bleeding: "Stab it in!"

Use your chakra to guide the quicksand and surge it into the resonance circuit!

"I will kill you!" The girl's puppet threads trembled.

She saw that in the wound on his chest, the wooden vines were trying to entangle the silk thread, while the black flames were scorching the sand at the end of the thread.

Chapter 738 Soul Furnace

The clash of the two forces caused the silk thread to shimmer with a golden-black sheen, like a chain being pulled by two ferocious beasts.

“It’s better than letting the entire Land of Fire perish.” Bai Ye’s voice suddenly softened, as if he had returned to the tone when he was twelve years old and saved that stray dog. “Your grandfather taught you that a puppeteer’s threads should be tied to the most important thing… Now, tie it to me.”

The girl's fingertips were trembling.

She recalled the diary that had fallen from the remains of her grandfather's puppet in the ruins of Sunagakure three days ago: "When quicksand resonates with blood, perhaps it can awaken the cursed goodwill." At this moment, the blood droplets on Bai Ye's chest were dripping into the lines on the back of her hand, and those patterns that were originally curses suddenly turned a warm orange-yellow, much like the sunset in the desert of the Land of Wind.

She bit her lip, and the moment the tip of the puppet thread pressed against his heart, she suddenly saw the reflection in his pupils—the phantom of the First Generation was smiling, and the phantom of Madara was frowning, like two old men discussing something.

"laugh--".

The moment the thread pierced through, Bai Ye's back arched like a bow.

The unique wind-attribute chakra of Sunagakure flowed into his body along the threads. Golden sand grains wrapped around wooden vines, and black sand grains wrapped around black flames, actually tearing a gap in the resonance circuit.

The suspended core fragments of the puppet suddenly trembled violently, and three of them cracked open with a "crack," revealing the little figures curled up inside—the previously missing villagers from the Land of Fire, their vocal cords torn into threads and tied to the core.

"So... they used living people as resonators." Chiyo's granddaughter's voice was hoarse.

Her right eye suddenly cleared for a moment, and Chiyo's afterimage sneered in her consciousness: "What does that stone tablet say about 'Ninja Liberation'?"

It's clearly a 'soul furnace'!

The First Hokage and Madara fought their entire lives, only to end up adding fuel to this broken furnace.

Before he finished speaking, the golden emblem suddenly shot from Bai Ye's forehead to the surface of all the puppets.

The phantom of Ban let out a heart-wrenching roar, and black flames spewed out from the puppet's eye sockets, causing the metal armor to sizzle and steam; the first generation of wooden vines took the opportunity to entangle the core fragment, and tender green shoots pierced through the villagers' chests, re-weaving life veins within their bodies.

The twelve puppets simultaneously raised their heads, and two overlapping voices emanated from their mechanical throats—the cold hardness of the original and the gentle warmth of the first generation—distorting into a third tone through metallic resonance: "It's time to wake up."

"boom!"

The last puppet disintegrated in an explosion, and metal fragments rained down on the ground.

Byakuya was thrown back by the shockwave and crashed into the rock wall that Hyuga Hiashi had just been leaning against.

He wiped his face, the blood mixed with fine gold dust—residues of Madara's chakra.

The silk thread on his chest had somehow turned into a mix of gold and black, and it was trembling gently with his heartbeat.

“Mask…” Hiashi Hyuga suddenly pointed to the air.

Bai Ye looked up and saw fragments of his shattered mask floating in the blood mist. Golden and black light flowed through the cracks, reflecting a new phantom image—neither the First Generation's compassion nor Madara's arrogance, but rather the image of the two merging their features, with a familiar smile on his lips, a smile that belonged to him.

"Border forest..." Chiyo's granddaughter suddenly pointed outside the cave.

Following her finger, Bai Ye looked through the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the earth's veins and saw golden-black flowers growing wildly on the distant border of Konoha.

The central plant suddenly burst open with black stamens, like a gaping mouth, swallowing up all the chakra aura of the passing patrol team.

The patrolman's body instantly withered, his skin wrinkled like old tree bark, but in the blink of an eye, he was dragged into the soil by the roots of the flower, without even having time to scream.

"This is..." Bai Ye's voice caught in her throat.

He felt the wooden vines and black flames within his body finally quiet down, and the phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara stood side by side in the depths of his consciousness, gazing in the direction outside the cave.

Madara chuckled, "Looks like some people can't wait any longer." The First Hokage sighed softly, "What's meant to come will come eventually."

Chiyo's granddaughter unconsciously rubbed the bloodstains at the end of the puppet's silk thread.

The silk thread had turned dark purple at some point, leaving a small red mark on her palm.

She gazed at the still-bleeding wound on Bai Ye's chest, then at the patrol team engulfed by flowers outside the cave, and suddenly remembered the last words her grandfather had given her before he died: "When the puppet threads are stained with the blood of their master... sometimes, it is more useful to stab yourself than to stab the enemy."

Her fingertips tightened slightly, and the blood-stained thread left red marks on her palm.

Chapter 739 The Soul of Symbiosis

The rubble on the rock face was still falling in a rustling sound. Bai Ye wiped the bloodstains mixed with gold powder from his face. Just as his fingertips touched the gold and black intertwined thread on his chest, he heard a barely audible gasp escape from Chiyo's throat.

The moment he turned his head, he saw the girl's blood-stained puppet silk leaving deep purple marks on her palm. Suddenly, the silk thread glowed with a dark red light, as if being pulled by some force, and slowly rose up—Chiyo's eyelashes trembled violently, her pupils reflected the wildly growing golden and black flowers outside the cave, her Adam's apple bobbed twice, and she suddenly pointed the tip of the silk thread at the top of her head.

“Grandpa’s afterimage…” Her voice trembled, yet carried a desperate resolve, “Let me see the truth of the First Generation buried in the quicksand!”

The moment the thread pierced through, Bai Ye's pupils contracted sharply.

Blood bloomed on the girl's forehead, and blackish-red viscous fluid dripped down her temples. Even more horrifying was that her right eye socket was splitting open, revealing a tangled network of golden wood-style roots. The vines even sketched blurry phantoms in the air: an old man with white hair wearing wooden clogs was pressing a dark mass of consciousness into the brow of another red-haired man. The former had a gentle and kind face, while the latter's eyes were blazing with resentment—it was the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha.

"Pfft!" Chiyo's granddaughter spat out a mouthful of black blood, her knees hitting the ground hard.

Her fingers dug deep into the cracks in the rock, her nails cracking and bleeding, yet she still stared at the illusory figure: "So... so the First Hokage didn't want to seal Madara at all, he..."

"It's cultivating a symbiotic organism for the 'Soul Forge'!"

A hoarse male voice rang out.

Xu Juzang had somehow appeared before the ley line fissure. The puppet emblems covering his body had spread all the way to his neck, and the metallic patterns vibrated with his words, resonating with the remaining black flames of Ban.

The leader of Otogakure had an eerie purple glint in his eyes. As he raised his hand, the twelve disintegrated puppet remains suddenly floated up, black viscous fluid seeping from their broken joints, and they were reassembled into a ferocious puppet beast.

"The ultimate form of the Puppet Virus is the 'Symbiotic Soul'!" Juzo's voice was mixed with Madara's cold laughter. "The First Hokage used Wood Release to nourish his soul, and Madara used the Sharingan to refine his soul. Do you think they were fighting for it?"

Wrong, they had already planted a symbiotic pact in the earth's veins—"

"Shut up!" Bai Ye shouted, but it was too late.

The twelve puppet beasts simultaneously turned towards Chiyo's granddaughter, and amidst the shrill screams of their metal claws tearing through the air, the girl was pinned to the center of the Eye of the Earth's Vein.

Six puppet strings pierced through her shoulder blades and waist, suspending her in mid-air. Black mucus seeped into her blood vessels through the wounds, intertwining with the previously overflowing golden Wood Release Root system, weaving together in her abdomen to form a pulsating, translucent embryo.

"Cough...it's so hot..." Chiyo's granddaughter almost bit her lip until it bled. She stared at the embryo beneath her increasingly transparent skin, tears mingling with black blood as they streamed down her face. "So...the virus wasn't trying to kill me, it was trying to turn me into...a vessel..."

"Shut up!" Bai Ye's temples throbbed.

He could feel the phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara stirring within his body, the wooden vines trying to burrow into his arm, while the black flames were scorching his meridians.

His gaze swept over Chiyo, who was entangled in the puppet strings, and then over the golden and black flowers outside the cave that were constantly devouring chakra. Suddenly, he noticed that Hiashi Hyuga was kneeling in the corner, clutching his chest—it was an old wound that had been injured by the shockwave earlier.

"Hyuga-sama!" Byakuya rushed forward, grabbed the other's wrist, and pressed it into his own palm. "Lend me your Byakugan markings!"

Hiashi Hyuga's pupils instantly turned bluish-white. He clearly understood Byakuya's intention and gritted his teeth as he channeled his chakra through the skin that touched his.

Byakuya could clearly feel those tiny chakra lines moving across his palm, like a swarm of glowing ants, crawling up his arm and shoulder, finally coalescing into a pale blue six-pointed star on his right palm.

Chapter 740 The Free Will of the Manipulator

"Catch!" Juzo's puppet beast suddenly let out a piercing scream, and a black sound wave wrapped in Madara's will slammed into Byakuya.

Bai Ye didn't dodge; instead, he turned to meet the attack head-on—the recoil from the sound wave propelled him into the air. He used the momentum to leap up and placed his right palm on Chiyo's granddaughter's chest.

"Use the bloodline of the main family... to temporarily seal the core of the virus!"

The pale blue lines of the white eye seeped into the girl's skin as Bai Ye uttered a low shout. He could feel the burning heat coming from his fingertips, which was the fierce battle between the gold and black forces within Chiyo's body.

A drop of golden blood slid down his wrist and dripped onto the embryo in the girl's abdomen. The Wood Release Root system, which had been growing wildly, suddenly seemed to be doused with cold water and instead wrapped around the puppet heart in the center of the embryo.

"Kaka——"

With a snapping sound, the puppet strings binding Chiyo's granddaughter suddenly loosened slightly.

She seized the opportunity, grabbed one of the threads, and yanked it hard, the broken end splattering black slime.

The girl looked up at Bai Ye, the golden Wood Release roots in her eyes fading, replaced by a clarity born of relief: "Bai... Ye, the... symbiotic contract within the ley lines..."

"Don't speak yet!" Bai Ye's forehead was covered in cold sweat.

He could feel the phantom of the first generation within his body stirring. Tiny golden light points were gathering at the fingertips of that phantom, like a group of startled butterflies fluttering their wings deep within his consciousness.

Meanwhile, Ban's phantom crossed his arms and sneered, his red eyes reflecting the ever-growing golden-black flowers outside the cave.

"Watch out—" Hyuga Hiashi suddenly pointed behind Chiyo's granddaughter.

The moment Bai Ye turned his head, he saw a crack appear in the embryo on the girl's abdomen. From the golden viscous fluid seeping out, half a familiar face emerged: it was the phantom of the First Hokage. More golden light points gathered at his fingertips, and those light points were drifting outward along the crack in the earth's veins, faintly outlining the shape of a butterfly in the sky outside the cave.

"This is..." Bai Ye's voice suddenly stopped.