Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

As he gazed at the gradually forming golden specks of light, he suddenly recalled what the First Generation had said deep in his consciousness: "What is destined to come will come." Madara's cold laughter sounded particularly grating at that moment.

The golden-black flowers outside the cave were still devouring chakra. The screams of the patrolmen finally reached the cave, mixed with Chiyo's rapid breathing and Juzo's increasingly manic laughter, creating a chaotic echo between the rock walls.

Amidst this chaos, the phantom of the first generation raised its hand deep within Bai Ye's consciousness, and the previously suspended golden light spots suddenly began to gather, vaguely forming a semi-transparent barrier at the crack in the earth's veins at the top of the cave—resembling countless butterflies spreading their wings, enveloping the entire cave in a golden glow.

The phantom of the first generation trembled slightly at its fingertips. As the last golden butterfly flapped its wings and disappeared into the crack in the earth's veins, the entire cave was suddenly enveloped in a flowing golden light.

The butterflies formed from chakra linked together, creating a semi-transparent barrier on the cave ceiling, even isolating the wildly growing golden-black flowers outside the cave from the light membrane.

"The true sacrifice of puppetry..." The phantom's voice, mingled with the scent of thousand-year-old wood, pierced through the buzzing eardrums of the white night, "is the free will of the manipulator."

Before he could finish speaking, a charred crack suddenly appeared in the rock wall.

The sound waves from Ban, wrapped in dark purple lightning patterns, pierced through the barrier, like an invisible awl stabbing straight into Chiyo's throat—the girl's body, pinned in mid-air, suddenly convulsed, and the puppet silk that had been wrapped around her shoulder blades instantly glowed with an eerie light. The gold and black interwoven threads melted into liquid the moment they came into contact with the sound waves, flowing back into her blood vessels through the wound.

"No!" Bai Ye's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He could clearly sense that Chiyo's chakra circulation was collapsing: the Wood Release Root system was corroded into a burnt brown by the black liquid, while the viral embryo had doubled in size, with spiral patterns resembling Sharingan appearing on its surface.

Just as he was about to form another hand seal, he caught a glimpse of Juzo's Adam's apple bobbing violently—the puppet emblem of the Sound Village leader had covered his entire face, the metallic patterns protruding beneath his skin, twisting his features into eerie arcs.

Chapter 741 The Price of the Hidden Sound Village

"The price of Otogakure..." Juzo's chin creaked, a sound that made your teeth ache, and with each word he uttered, more black blood seeped from his chest, "...to become the final vessel!"

He suddenly ripped open his shirt.

Inside the chest cavity soaked in black blood, a pulsating embryo was bursting out of the flesh—it was the puppet heart that had just been ripped from Chiyo's body. At this moment, its surface was wrapped with bluish-black earth chakra, which resonated violently with the viscous fluid seeping from the girl's wound.

The moment the two collided, the air made a crisp sound like shattering glass, and a pitch-black vortex formed in the center of the cave. Wherever it passed, the rock walls crumbled into dust, and even the original butterfly barrier was torn with spiderweb-like cracks.

“Chakra Devourer…” Hiashi Hyuga staggered and grabbed the rock wall for support, veins bulging on his forehead.

His Byakugan gleamed with a bluish-white light, revealing countless remnant souls churning deep within the vortex—ninjas from the Hidden Sound Village who had been devoured by puppet techniques throughout history, now uttering silent screams with their mouths agape.

Bai Ye's fingertips dug deeply into her palm.

He could feel the phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara frantically vying for dominance within his body: wooden vines entangled his heart, attempting to drain his life force to reinforce the barrier; while black flames scorched his meridians, urging him to approach the vortex.

Even more horrifying, the puppet threads on Chiyo's granddaughter suddenly snapped—in the instant metal fragments flew, spiderweb-like patterns cracked on the surface of his mask, and two materialized figures were reflected on the mirror-like metal:

An elderly man with white hair wearing a coarse linen shirt and a red-haired man wearing a fire-patterned cloak stood facing each other. The former had green vines wrapped around his feet, while the latter had three-tomoe Sharingan eyes floating behind him.

The First Hokage's gaze fell on Chiyo, but Madara's eyes were fixed on the black hole that was devouring chakra.

"You..." Bai Ye's voice was hoarse, "Were you planning this from the very beginning?"

The First Hokage did not answer, but Madara scoffed: "Otherwise, why do you think Wood Release and Sharingan can coexist within you?"

A muffled rumble, like thunder, suddenly came from underground.

A vibration came from the sole of Bai Ye's boots, the sound like some kind of seal being forcibly torn apart—he thought of the sealing stone tablet in the forbidden area of ​​Konoha, which was probably already shattered into dust.

Suddenly, she felt a weight in her arms. Chiyo's granddaughter's body was gradually becoming transparent, and thin streams of gold and black flowed through the blood vessels beneath her skin, like two intertwined daggers, cutting her soul into pieces.

"Bai...ye..." Her voice was as soft as a whisper, but her right hand suddenly grabbed Bai Ye's wrist.

The girl's right eye socket split open completely, revealing the surging golden Wood Release Root system inside—at the deepest part of the root system, the face of the First Hokage statue on the Konoha Hokage Rock was reflected.

The once solemn stone statue now grinned, the curve of its lips mirroring that of Ban.

"Don't...believe them..."

Before she could finish speaking, Chiyo's body suddenly turned into a shower of quicksand.

Bai Ye instinctively reached out to grab it, but fine gold dust slipped through her fingers, mingling with her last tear, and fell deep into the crack in the earth's veins.

The black hole's suction suddenly increased dramatically, even causing the original butterfly barrier to collapse. The golden butterfly fluttered and crashed into the vortex, only to be torn into specks of light in the blink of an eye.

"Lord Hyuga!" Byakuya grabbed Hyuga Hiashi's arm, "Use the Byakugan to lock the earth's ley lines!"

Cold sweat beaded on Hiashi Hyuga's forehead.

His white eyes suddenly turned a strange dark blue, and a black line appeared in the center of his pupils—like some kind of wood-style pattern, slowly spreading along the whites of his eyes.

When Byakuya's fingertips touched his wrist, he was surprised to find that the other's chakra had become sticky and cold, no longer the clear and cool one that the Hyuga clan always had.

"White...night..." Hiashi Hyuga's voice suddenly became hoarse, "My eyes...seem..."

An even more violent explosion came from outside the cave.

The patrolmen's screams completely disappeared, replaced by the rustling sound of golden and black flowers blooming.

Ban's phantom suddenly transformed into black flames and burrowed into the black hole, while the first generation's wooden vines entangled Bai Ye's heart, dragging him toward the leyline fissure.

The cracks on the mask grew larger and larger, and the two figures reflected in it were approaching. Their lips moved, but they spoke not human language, but some kind of ancient incantation.

"It's time to wake up."

"It's time to sleep."

The moment the two voices overlapped, Bai Ye's consciousness suddenly plunged into darkness.

Finally, what came into view was that Hiashi Hyuga's Byakugan was completely covered by black markings. Those markings crawled across his face like living things, condensing into a spiral mark between his eyebrows—exactly the same as the markings on the embryo inside Chiyo's body.

Chapter 742 Struggle for Control

Bai Ye was pulled back to reality by a sharp, piercing pain.

His neck pressed against the damp rock wall, a metallic taste rising in his throat—his heart, which had been constricted by the first generation of Kito before his consciousness faded into darkness, still felt like it was being repeatedly twisted by tongs.

The tremors were more intense than before, and loose rocks kept falling from the cave ceiling, hitting his shoulder armor with a dull thud.

"The source of the Puppet Virus... is the 'Symbiotic Altar' that the First Hokage buried in the root system of Konoha!"

A hoarse male voice, mixed with the metallic smell of blood, entered my ears.

Byakuya suddenly opened his eyes and was met with Hyuga Hiashi's lowered face.

The head of the Zong family had bluish-black veins bulging on his neck, his originally pure white eyes were completely swallowed by the dark patterns, and the spiral mark between his eyebrows was emitting a ghostly blue fluorescence, like some kind of living thing wriggling under his skin.

The forbidden chain of the Hyuga main family pierced his left chest, and golden bloodline power mixed with black viscous fluid dripped down the chain, weaving into a twisted sealing array at their feet.

"Hyuga-sama!" Byakuya tried to sit up, but found his right hand was wrapped in something sticky—it was the gold dust left by Chiyo.

The fine sand that should have dissipated was now glowing with an eerie warm light, seeping into his palm through his fingers, as if searching for something to cling to.

"Don't come any closer..." Hiashi Hyuga gritted his teeth, the sound of chains twisting inside his body sending chills down Byakuya's spine. "This is... a taboo that the main family has guarded for generations."

When the First Hokage used the Wood Release: Root System to connect with the earth's ley lines, he buried... buried a seed that would coexist with the Sharingan in the altar.

Madara's concept of symbiosis... refers to Wood Release absorbing other bloodlines, making them... becoming his vessel!

A sharp, metallic whistling sound suddenly came from deep within the earth's veins.

Bai Ye looked up and saw countless dark gray puppets emerging from the cracks in the cave ceiling. Their joints were inlaid with scarlet gems, and the emblems dancing in their eye sockets were exactly the same as the marks under his mask.

The lead puppet lifted its mask, revealing the deathly pale face of Juzo Inoku, the leader of the Sound Village—the puppet emblem on his face had spread to his neck, and even his vocal cords had been replaced with metal. "Activate the resonance field with the vocal cords of a living person!"

Before the words were even finished, all the puppets opened their mouths at the same time.

Bai Ye's eardrums were instantly pierced by the tearing sound waves, and blood flowed down her earlobes.

Even more terrifying was the sound waves mixed with the screams of living people—the patrol team members who had just gone missing!

Their voices were swallowed into the puppet's abdomen and squeezed out from countless holes, weaving an invisible net in the cave that was pressing down on Byakuya and Hyuga Hiashi.

"Ban's methods." Bai Ye gritted his teeth and wiped away the blood from his nose, suddenly noticing that thousands of golden butterflies had appeared on the cave ceiling at some point.

The patterns on those butterfly wings were exactly the same as the First Hokage's Wood Release technique, but now they formed a cage, firmly trapping the sound wave net within.

But dark green liquid was seeping from the bottom of the cage, and the first generation of wooden vines had emerged from the cracks in the earth's veins, gnawing at the butterfly's wings in reverse.

"They're fighting...fighting for control of this resonance field." Hiashi Hyuga suddenly coughed violently, spraying black phlegm mixed with golden blood onto the sealing array. The spiral mark at the array's core suddenly swelled by three inches. "Byakuya!"

Using Chiyo's puppet silk... and my Byakugan markings!

That's the bloodline seal of Sunagakure and Hyuga, capable of severing the connection between the altar and the earth's veins!

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He recalled the Wood Release: Root system in Chiyo's right eye before she disappeared, and the smile that was exactly the same as Madara's—it turned out that the First Hokage and Madara had been plotting from the very beginning, using the guise of symbiosis to make the various bloodlines provide nutrients for the virus.

Chapter 743 The Loss of Puppetry

Chiyo's gold dust and Hyuga's Byakugan are the keys to breaking the deadlock.

"Excuse me." Bai Ye tore off the bandage around his waist, and with chakra gathered at his fingertips, he ripped open his chest.

As blood gushed out, he pressed the gold dust in his palm into the wound—the fine sand seemed to come alive, drilling into his heart along the blood vessels, and the burning pain wherever it passed almost made him faint.

At the same time, he grasped the spiral mark between Hyuga Hiashi's eyebrows, and the black lines climbed up his fingertips, intertwining with the gold dust on his heart to form a new golden emblem.

"Using the bloodline of the first generation as a guide... use the Sand Village's quicksand to isolate the resonance!"

The moment Bai Ye roared, the golden emblem suddenly burst forth from his heart, leaping up the cave wall like a living thing and spreading wildly along the First Hokage's Wood Release root system.

A muffled tremor, like thunder, came from deep within the earth's veins, even causing the sonic puppet to shake—the viral embryo that had been developing for twenty years had finally sensed the threat.

Suddenly, the butterfly cage in the spot shook violently, and countless golden butterflies crashed against the cage walls and shattered into points of light.

The first generation of vines grew wildly at this time, completely filling the gap in the cage.

The outlines of the two phantoms suddenly became clear, Madara's magatama slowly rotated in his pupils, and the First Hokage's Wood Release: Root system spread out from his back to form a cloak.

Their gazes fell on Bai Ye at the same time, and the curves of their lips were exactly the same.

The tremors of the earth veins reached their peak, and rubble fell from the cave ceiling like a torrential rain.

Bai Ye's vision gradually blurred, but he could clearly see blood seeping from the fingertips of the two phantoms—not chakra, but real, warm blood.

"It's time to wake up."

"It's time to sleep."

Amidst the overlapping sounds, what Bai Ye saw last was the phantoms of the First Hokage and Madara raising their hands simultaneously, the chakra gathering at their fingertips solidifying into a tangible form at a visible speed.

The moment the chakra at the fingertips of the First Hokage and Madara solidified, the air in the cave seemed to be sucked out.

Bai Ye could hear his own heart pounding so hard it hurt his eardrums—those two figures, who should have only existed in legends, were now stepping out of the void, treading on the blue light seeping from the cracks in the earth's veins.

The First Hokage's Wood Release Root system spread out beneath his feet, forming a thorny throne. Madara's magatama swirled crimson vortexes in his pupils. Their robes fluttered without wind, and even the falling pebbles from the cave ceiling turned to dust before touching the two figures.

"This is impossible..." Hiashi Hyuga's chains were taut like golden strings in his palms, the black lines on his neck had climbed up to his jaw, and the black blood that spilled from the corner of his mouth as he spoke was mixed with tiny wood fibers. "They...they are absorbing the life force of the earth's ley lines!"

Bai Ye's wound was still bleeding, and the golden vortex formed by the gold dust and the white eye emblem on his heart suddenly became hot.

He could clearly sense that the two materialized figures were using some kind of secret connection to extract the puppet virus, Hyuga bloodline, and Sunagakure gold sand—all the power that had previously been used as "nourishment"—from his body in reverse.

The pain spread from his heart to every part of his body, his fingertips began to twitch uncontrollably, and even his mask developed spiderweb-like cracks due to the disordered chakra.

"The end of puppetry... requires the complete annihilation of the vessel!"

A hoarse roar rang out, accompanied by the sound of metal scraping against metal.

Bai Ye looked up and saw fragments of his shattered mask suddenly detach from his cheek and float above their heads.

The rubies that were originally embedded reflected an eerie golden light in the morning light—each fragment reflecting the scene at the edge of Konoha: golden flowers covering the mountains and fields were withering at a visible speed, their petals falling softly as if crushed in the wind by an invisible hand.

Chapter 744 They Want to Destroy the Entire Land of Fire

"It's the backlash from the resonance field!" Hiashi Hyuga suddenly staggered half a step, the chains tearing open a deeper wound on his chest. "Madara used the voice of a living person as a lure, and the First Hokage used the Wood Release: Root system as a net. What they wanted was not symbiosis at all... but to turn the life force of the entire Land of Fire into a breeding ground for the virus!"

Before the words were finished, a muffled thunderous roar came from the depths of the earth.

The puppet group of Xu Juzang suddenly trembled collectively, and dazzling sparks burst from the joints inlaid with rubies.

The lead puppet raised its arms, and the screams of the living people inside its chest instantly rose eight octaves—the final lament of the patrolmen.

The next second, the abdominal cavities of all the puppets exploded simultaneously, and the sound waves and wood-style energy swirled into a dark vortex in the center of the cave. The suction was so strong that even Bai Ye's hair was pulled upside down.

"Now... it's time to activate the ultimate seal with a living sacrifice!"

Hiashi Hyuga's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.

He suddenly roared, pinched the spiral mark between his eyebrows with his left hand, and the chain in his right hand pierced through his palm, gouging out the whites of his eyes from their sockets.

The once pure white eyeball was now covered with black lines, like a pearl coated in ink, spinning in the palm of the hand.

Before Byakuya could react, Hiashi Hyuga had already closed in, his Byakugan piercing precisely into the top of Byakugan at his fingertips.