Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

To survive the Hozuki-ryu assassination technique...that's interesting. "He snapped his fingers, and a ninja wearing a Kirigakure headband emerged from the shadows," he said, "go to the Land of Fire and find the puppet virus mutant he set up."

Remember, you must see the person alive or dead... the spores.

The ninja obeyed and left, unaware of the purplish-black chakra emanating from Hozuki Gengetsu's fingertips—his unique "Poison Mist Tracking Technique."

In his view, no matter how cunning Byakuya was, the elite ninjas of Kirigakure could still bring back intelligence.

But he guessed wrong.

Three days later, in the forest on the border of the Land of Fire, the ninja was squatting by a stream drinking water when he suddenly felt a numbness in the back of his neck.

He touched his neck and felt a purple particle the size of a sesame seed—it was Bai Ye's puppet spore.

Before he could even pull out his kunai, black slime suddenly seeped from the surrounding trees, instantly enveloping his limbs.

"I've been waiting for you." Bai Ye's voice came from behind the tree.

He leaned against a tree trunk, holding a bandaged puppet in his arms. It was a "listening puppet" modified from the corpse of a rogue ninja from Kirigakure. "Hozuki Gengetsu thought he could find out my secrets by sending an elite?"

He should remember how, three years ago in Sunagakure, I used puppet spores to turn his spy network into a mouthpiece.

The ninja's pupils trembled, and just as he was about to bite the poison sac to commit suicide, Bai Ye's puppet silk had already wrapped around his jaw: "Don't be in such a hurry to die."

The spores within you will transmit the movements of Kirigakure to Sunagakure, to Iwagakure... to all the small countries you've bullied. He turned and walked out of the forest, the puppet threads retracted, and the ninja's consciousness was devoured by the spores, becoming a moving intelligence node.

Meanwhile, in the Kazekage's office in the Land of Wind, Rasa held the letter Chiyo had sent him, his knuckles turning white.

The handwriting on the letter was so strong it seemed to penetrate the paper: "The White Night is weaving a net, and on the other side of the net is not war, but the greed of all those in power."

"If you trust this old man, then withdraw the ninjas to the front lines." He looked out the window. In the training grounds of Kazegakure, the ninjas were getting ready to go—it was an order he had given three days ago to surround and eliminate "the assassin who tried to kill the Daimyo of the Land of Fire."

"Father." The door was pushed open, and there stood his son, Gaara.

The boy's dark circles were heavier than usual, and Shukaku's chakra surged beneath his skin. "News has come from the front lines: the Land of Lightning's troops have...withdrawn?"

Luo Sha suddenly looked up.

He grabbed the communication scroll on the table, and his pupils contracted the moment he unfolded it—the garrison markings on the border of the Land of Lightning had indeed changed from "prepared for war" to "withdrawal."

He recalled the scene that Byakuya had projected using the puppet virus in the Land of Fire dungeon three days ago: Ebizo trading weapons with the elders of Iwagakure, Fugaku exchanging information with the Jonin of Kumogakure, and even he himself had received a "gift" from the Minister of Finance of the Land of Fire half a year ago.

"Withdraw the troops." He suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper. "All Kazekage ninjas, withdraw to the border immediately."

Gaara froze: "But...you said Byakuya was..."

“I was wrong.” Rasa interrupted him, pressing the letter to his chest, where the scar from the puppet's stab three years ago still remained. “The real enemy has never been a particular ninja.”

Chapter 779 The Dark Side of Power

At the same time, in the attic of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, Hamura Shinobu crushed the seventh secret report.

The scraps of parchment fell onto his official robes, which were embroidered with gold thread, like a handful of dust.

In the past three days, his spies sent to various countries have either disappeared or sent back garbled information. Even more frightening, this morning he received a message from an informant saying that the troops of the Land of Wind were retreating overnight and that the caravans of the Land of Thunder had suddenly stopped transporting iron ore to the Land of Fire.

"My lord?" A servant's voice came from outside the door. "Granny Chiyo from Sunagakure has sent word that... that the puppet net formation is complete."

Hamura Shinobu's fingers tightened suddenly, his nails digging crescent-shaped marks into his palm.

He gazed at the darkening sky outside the window and suddenly remembered the red light he had seen outside the mine three days ago—like a net, pulling all the secrets into the light.

The ancient puppetry manual he had hidden deep within the national treasury, and the bribery ledgers from various countries hidden in a secret room, were now glowing hot in that red light.

"Prepare the horses," he suddenly said, his voice filled with a desperate resolve. "Let's go to the Thousand Hands Ruins."

I want to see if that kid's net can trap...true power.

Hamura Shinobu's boot heels slammed heavily against the bluestone slab, making the jade pendant at his waist jingle.

The veins on the back of his hand, which was gripping the reins, bulged—just now, in the back alley of Daming Prefecture, he had personally witnessed the body of the last guard being dragged into the shadows, with half a purple spore embedded in his neck.

This reminded him of the crimson net of light outside the mine three days ago, which was now climbing up his spine and making a muffled thud in his temples.

"My lord, the guards of the Thousand Hands Ruins say..." The attendant's voice was crushed by the sound of horses' hooves.

Hamura Shinobu suddenly pulled on the reins, and the black horse reared up, splashing mud onto his embroidered gold official robes.

He stared at the mountains ahead, tinged with a bluish-gray hue by the twilight. Their outlines resembled the brow bone of the statue of Hashirama Senju—the core of the Land of Fire's ley lines was hidden within those mountains.

"Burn down the outpost." He pulled the sword from his waist, slamming the scabbard heavily onto his follower's shoulder. "Let them know that anyone who dares to stop me will die a more gruesome death than those missing spies." The follower trembled, but dared not ask any questions, clutching his shoulder as he ran to the front of the column.

As Hamura Shinobu watched the soldiers light their torches, the firelight gleamed in his eyes like a wolf's—he wanted the entire Land of Fire to see who truly controlled this game.

At the same moment, in the resonance chamber deep inside the mine, Bai Ye's fingertips were pressing against the forehead of the puppet of Sasori of the Red Sand.

Water droplets seeped from the damp stone wall, trickling down the back of his neck, but they couldn't compare to the scorching heat surging within his mind.

The chakra tendrils he planted in the puppet fragments three days ago suddenly taut like strings, forcibly stuffing a long-forgotten memory into his mind.

"Hashirama, are you sure you want to do this?" The hoarse voice, like a rusty sword scraping against an anvil, belonged to Madara.

“This is our last chance.” Another voice, clear and melodious like the wind in the pines, said, “If our war is destined to trap the ninja world in a cycle, at least… we must leave room for a way out.”

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha standing under the blood moon, each holding half of a core that shimmered with golden-red light in their palms—the complete form of the vortex gear in the puppet box at his waist.

Madara's Sharingan burned in the night: "Using puppetry to seal our will until someone can understand both our obsession and regret... Aren't you afraid that future generations will see this as a new shackle?"

“I’m afraid.” Hashirama’s fingers traced the patterns on the core’s surface. “But someone always has to take the gamble.”

Right now, some kid is holding up fragments of ours, trying to use his intelligence network to tear open the veil of power.

Chapter 780 Conferring the Title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households!

Memories suddenly shattered into spots of light.

Bai Ye staggered and grabbed the stone wall for support. The rock surface his palm touched was scalding hot, as if magma was surging underground.

He then noticed that golden liquid was seeping from Sasori's puppet eye sockets—it was the First Hokage's cell activating fluid, mixed with Madara's Sharingan residual blood.

It turns out that before he died, Scorpion used puppetry to seal the secret he had overheard years ago inside his core.

"So your 'Old Testament' is to trap those who come after you in a cycle of eternal life?" Bai Ye chuckled softly at the air, but a bitter taste rose in his throat. "And my 'New Oath'... is to break this cycle in two in my hands."

Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing came from outside the cave.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up, and the puppet threads on the rock wall suddenly trembled like harp strings—that was the warning array he had set up at the entrance of the mine being triggered.

He touched the mask, his fingertips brushing against a crack—during the memory surge, the mask had somehow cracked, revealing a pale pink scar below his left eye, left by Hozuki Gengetsu's kunai three years ago.

"Shinobu Hamura." He uttered the name into the darkness, without any surprise in his voice.

Three days ago, outside the mine, he noticed that the new daimyo's deputy was always peeking at the puppet box at his waist; even earlier, the fingerprints on the cover of the ancient puppetry manual stolen from the Land of Fire's treasury perfectly matched the marks on Hamura Shinobu's inkstone.

The shouts of battle outside the cave grew closer.

Byakuya could hear Hamura Shinobu's roar: "Tear this damn rock apart!"

Whoever gets the core first will be granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households! The soldiers' torches illuminated the area outside the cave as if it were daytime. The firelight shone through the cracks onto Bai Ye's face, revealing the dark undercurrents surging in his eyes—he had waited for this day for far too long, long enough for the echoes of the First Generation and Madara to have raged in his mind for three years, long enough for the greed of the various daimyo to have fermented into poison in the puppet spores.

He took off the puppet box from his waist and pressed the vortex gear against the heart of Sasori's puppet.

Chakra surged forth like a living thing, outlining the same blood-red patterns on the stone wall as it had three days ago.

But this time, golden veins appeared in the array—the life force of the First Generation's cells resonated with Madara's Sharingan chakra.

"It's time to wake up," Bai Ye whispered to the gears.

A muffled thunderous roar suddenly came from deep within the mine.

Hamura Shinobu, who was directing his soldiers to smash the door, suddenly looked up and saw rubble falling from the cave ceiling, as if some enormous creature was awakening underground.

His sword clattered to the ground—this was no ordinary tremor of the earth's veins, but a harbinger of a chakra outburst, just like the commotion when the tailed beasts went berserk back then.

"retreat!

"Retreat—" His shouts were drowned out by the even more violent tremors.

The stone gate at the entrance to the mine suddenly shattered, and a figure emerged from the smoke and dust.

The man's mask was shattered in two, half of his face was hidden in shadow, but his left eye shone brightly, as if two flames were burning in his pupil.

"This time, I won't let you succeed." Bai Ye's voice was a blend of two tones, clear and melancholic, much like the conversation between Hashirama and Madara in his memory.

He raised his hand and pressed it against the stone wall. The blood-red array pattern instantly spread throughout the entire mine, even dyeing the sky outside the cave dark red.

Hamura Shinobu's legs suddenly went weak.

He saw the crimson rays of light drilling into the ground along the soles of the soldiers' boots, while the outlines of the distant mountains distorted in the red light—a sign that the earth's veins were being fully activated.

Even more terrifying, he heard another rhythm mixed in with his own heartbeat, like a thousand troops marching on the ground, or like two ancient souls finally opening their eyes from their slumber.

Bai Ye stood at the entrance of the mine, his gaze piercing beneath his shattered mask.

He could feel the will of the First Hokage and Madara awakening along the veins of the puppet array. The echoes of those arguments that had once raged in his mind were now surprisingly in unison—as if saying: We've finally waited for this moment.

Outside the cave, Hamura Shinobu's army trembled in the red light; inside, Sasori's puppet core emitted a blinding golden light.

Deeper within the earth's veins, the complete core of the Eternal Contract, after slumbering for millennia, is slowly beginning to rotate.

Chapter 781 Controlling Matter with Mind, Carrying Soul with Matter

The shouts of battle outside the cave surged like a tide over the pile of rubble at the mine entrance. Byakuya could clearly hear Hamura Shinobu's voice trembling with fear: "Attack! All of you!"

"Smash this stone wall—" His words were cut short by a muffled thud, probably from a soldier's hammer missing its mark, sparks flying from the rock face.

The crimson patterns crawled along the stone wall to Bai Ye's feet, like red snakes that had come to life.

He could feel the First Hokage's life force burning in his palm, and Madara's Sharingan chakra surging in his veins. The two completely different energies were like old friends reunited after a long separation, drilling into the depths of the earth's veins along the veins of the puppet array.

The two echoes that had been arguing in his mind for three years suddenly fell silent. The First Hokage's voice, with the unique clarity of Wood Release, said, "I can finally see your heart clearly, child." Madara's laughter was low and hoarse, like the clash of metal and stone: "The things we didn't finish back then, it's up to you to finish them."

"The Eternal Life Contract is not for perpetuating hatred," Bai Ye murmured to the air. Beneath the shattered mask, the golden spot in his left eye flickered with his movements as he spoke. "It's to let everyone... see what lies at the end of obsession."

"white night!"

The shout carried the sharp sound of wind blades cutting through the air.

Chiyo burst out of the smoke and dust with the light, leaping steps characteristic of puppetry. Her white hair was dyed golden-red by the firelight outside the cave, and the wrinkles on her forehead were furrowed with panting.

The old woman gripped the scroll at her waist tightly, her knuckles white—it contained her most treasured ten puppet warriors. "Your chakra fluctuations are as chaotic as a crushed beehive!" She staggered to a stop three steps away from Bai Ye, her cloudy eyes swirling with an almost obsessive worry. "I can hold off these idiots for half an hour. Now retreat to the core of the earth's veins!"

When Bai Ye turned his head, the sharp edges of the shattered mask cast shadows on his face.

He stared at Chiyo's trembling fingertips and suddenly remembered that three years ago in the rainy night in Sunagakure, this old woman who always called him a "little brat" had also held the scroll between him and Kankuro, saying, "If you want to catch a puppeteer, you have to step over my bones first."

“This isn’t a battlefield that can be resolved by stalling.” He reached out and pressed Chiyo’s wrist, his chakra seeping into her skin to soothe the old woman’s disordered pulse. “Things that have been buried in the earth’s veins for thousands of years can’t even be broken by a Tailed Beast Ball.” He released her hand and turned to walk towards the totem deep in the mine—it was the one he had carved three days ago with Sasori’s puppet blade, and it was now humming with the vibrations of the earth’s veins. “You taught me that true puppetry is ‘controlling objects with the mind, and carrying souls with objects.’” He bent down and pressed Sasori’s core component into the groove in the center of the totem, the metallic scraping sound piercing the ears. “Now, it’s time for these old things… to hear the heartbeat of a living person.”

Chiyo opened her mouth, but in the end she just clenched the scroll tightly.

She saw fine gold spots seeping from the blood-red array, much like the sun gold powder that Scorpion had inlaid at the joints of the puppets when he made "Father" and "Mother".

The falling pebbles from the cave ceiling intensified, two of them hitting her shoulder, but she felt no pain—she was sensing the tremors of the earth's veins, a frequency that only top-tier puppeteers could detect. "This is... the resonance of the earth's veins?"

“It’s the awakening of the contract.” Bai Ye’s voice suddenly became very soft, as if afraid of waking someone. “What the First Hokage and Madara sealed in the ley lines with Wood Release and Susanoo is not some secret of immortality.” He straightened up, his fingertips tracing the array patterns on the stone wall. “It’s the sound of their last argument…”

From outside the cave came Shinobu Hamura's scream: "That old woman is inside!"

"Shoot!" The sound of arrows piercing the air was mixed with the crisp clang of metal clashing; it must have been Chiyo's puppet, the "Salamander," that deployed its protective shield.

Chapter 782 Illusion! It must be an illusion!

Bai Ye didn't turn around. He could hear Rasa's chakra communication talisman burning in his pocket—it was the one Chiyo had just given him, and it was now transmitting the Kazekage's instructions: "The Sand Village Vanguard Team has set off, carrying a new type of jammer, and will arrive within three quarters of an hour."

When Luo Sha slapped the communication talisman on the table, the sweat from his palms spread across the parchment scroll.

He stared at the map of the Land of Wind on his desk, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the mark of Sunagakure. Three days ago, he was thinking that if he could take advantage of the turmoil in the Land of Fire to obtain the ley line resources, the desert of the Land of Wind might have a few more oases. But now, looking at the array pattern imprint that Chiyo had sent him, he suddenly remembered the night he held Gaara and cried until dawn, and the look in Onoki's eyes when he said at the Five Kage Summit, "Power turns people into monsters."

"Suspend all border troop movements." He roared at the ANBU outside the door. "Have Kankuro take the Fifth Squad to the mine and give the jammer to Byakuya." The ANBU obeyed and was about to leave when he added, "Tell Kankuro... don't let that kid die."

The commotion outside the mine suddenly changed.

Hamura Shinobu's battle cries were now tinged with terror: "Stop!"

"Stop right there!" As Bai Ye reached the cave entrance, he saw the newly appointed daimyo's agent stagger and knock over the torches, sparks flying onto the soldiers' armor and reflecting their distorted faces.

The once gentle hillside had suddenly been punctuated by countless stalagmites, like sharp spikes pushed out of the ground by some immense force, tearing the army's formation to pieces.

The mountain outlines in the distance were distorted and deformed in the red light, as if an unseen hand was kneading the earth.