Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Then he took a deep breath and followed the direction indicated by the roots toward a dark crevice in the shadows of the mountain.

The sound of flowing water came from the depths of the dark crevice, mixed with some ancient, heart-beat-like vibration.

Byakuya took out a tinderbox and lit it. The firelight illuminated the engravings on the rock wall—the spiral patterns unique to the First Generation Wood Release, extending along the dark crevice into the ground.

He gripped the kunai tightly and took the first step.

Behind him, the blood-red patterns on the nine coffin nails lit up, making the Northern Mausoleum in the twilight look like a burning blood tower.

The crevice in the belly of Beiling Mountain was deeper than imagined. With each step Bai Ye took, more beads of cold sweat seeped from the damp rock walls.

The roots wrapped around his wrist, trembling like living things, and led him around the third stone beam. Suddenly, the light from the tinderbox illuminated the mottled carvings on the wall—hidden in those moss-covered indentations were original inscriptions that had not been weathered.

He stopped in his tracks, his Adam's apple bobbing.

His fingertips traced the beginning of the oath of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and damp stone dust fell into his palm. "No idols, no hereditary succession, no shadow of dictatorship..." he murmured, his voice hoarse, "The Shadow of the Nation is meant to be a tool of oversight..."

The rock face suddenly trembled, and water droplets fell in strings.

Chapter 939 Next, it's up to Onoki.

Bai Ye suddenly looked up and found that the engravings were glowing with a bluish light as he recited, like an activated seal.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end—it turned out that the so-called "Will of Fire" had been tampered with from the very beginning, the original teachings of the first generation were buried deep inside, and what was circulating on the surface was nothing more than a "savior mold" sculpted by the finance ministers.

"Well done, Shi Ge." He gripped the kunai tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Using the name of Shadow to keep puppets."

The roots suddenly tightened, leaving red marks on his wrist.

Following the guidance, Bai Ye looked ahead and saw nine human figures faintly visible in the mist at the end of the stone path.

He extinguished the tinderbox, took out the poisoned kunai from his waist, and slowly approached the rock wall.

As the musty smell mixed with the metallic rust wafted towards him, he saw clearly—nine puppets sat upright on the circular altar, their faces identical to the five Kage and four previous Kage.

A hair-thin chakra conduit was inserted into his brain, absorbing the energy seeping from the earth's veins.

“The Shadow Replacement Project…” he chuckled, his voice laced with icy coldness, “to replace the existing Shadows with perfect replicas, allowing the Grand Secretary to directly control the five nations.”

When the fingertip touched the cheek of one of the Wind Shadow puppets, the puppet suddenly opened its white eyes.

Bai Ye suddenly retreated, holding the kunai horizontally in front of his chest.

But the white eye only rotated mechanically twice before closing again—it was nothing more than a dead object with a pre-programmed basic response.

A muffled thunderous roar came from deep within the mountain, and the roots tugged at his wrist once more.

Byakuya wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, pulled out a section of the cannula from the puppet's ear, and put it into his ninja tool pouch—this was evidence for Nanaho.

Meanwhile, in a secret passage in the capital of the Land of Fire, Nanaho was sealing the last drop of wax onto a secret letter.

Her fingertips cast swaying shadows in the candlelight, and the words "If the seal of Beiling is broken, the shadow puppet will be activated" on the "Secret Order of Shige" spread out on the table stung her eyes.

“That guy Bai Ye…” She grabbed a hollow kunai from the table, her nails digging deep into her palm. “He’s probably already reached the altar.”

The hooting of an owl came from outside the window; it was a coded signal from Onoki's secret envoy.

Nana pushed open the dark window and pointed the kunai toward the Land of Earth.

Chakra condensed at his fingertips, and the kunai shot through the night sky like an arrow.

But just as it flew over the city wall, purple runes suddenly exploded in the air, and the kunai was knocked down to the side of the moat.

Qi Sui smiled knowingly.

She took out the medicine pouch from her waist and gave it a gentle shake—the spores hidden inside the kunai had seeped into the earth's veins with the rainwater and spread to the five countries along the roots of the memory tree.

"Now it's up to Onoki." She blew out the candle, turned, and disappeared into the shadows of the secret passage.

The stone path in the belly of Beiling Mountain became narrower and narrower, forcing Bai Ye to bend over as he walked.

When the damp wind suddenly turned warm, he looked up—before him was a huge underground cavern, with a blue-gold crystal coffin suspended in the center. The chakra pool glowed with an eerie light, illuminating the face of the person inside the coffin clearly.

A face exactly like the First Hokage.

But the pitch-black "memory nail" inserted into his chest made Bai Ye's breathing suddenly stop.

Just as he was about to approach, nine semi-transparent phantoms suddenly appeared outside the crystal coffin—all of them were the appearances of the finance ministers of past dynasties, the gold threads on their robes gleaming coldly in the chakra light.

“You are not the savior, but a sacrifice.” When the phantom in the front row spoke, nine voices overlapped, like countless hands tickling his eardrums. “The replacement of the shadow is about to begin, and the old shadow shall perish.”

Bai Ye took out a fragment of the "Shadow Needle" from his pocket. It was a weapon that Chiyo had forged using the core of the Third Kazekage Puppet.

He bit his fingertip, and his blood dripped onto the needle. Pale green chakra spread all over his body like vines.

Chapter 940 You think you're the only advisor in Sunagakure who can devise strategies?

"A sacrifice?" He sneered, and miniature roots of Wood Release: Advent of a World of Trees sprouted from his palm, entangling the nearest phantom. "I'd like to see who will be the sacrifice for whom."

The phantom let out a piercing scream as it was pulled toward the chakra pool by the roots.

Bai Ye closed his eyes, his consciousness following the roots into the illusory remnants—countless images flooded his mind: how Shi Ge tampered with the first generation's will, how he used memory nails to extract the will of past Shadows, and how he replaced them with puppet clones.

"I see." When he opened his eyes, the light of the dissipating phantom was reflected in his pupils. "The so-called perfect shadow was nothing more than a puppet of the first generation of consciousness."

The chakra pool suddenly boiled, and the First Hokage's finger twitched inside the crystal coffin.

Bai Ye gripped the Shadow Needle tightly, about to step forward, when a faint sound of mechanisms turning suddenly came from afar—like the sound of the Thousand Machine Lock Array, unique to Sunagakure, being activated.

He paused slightly, his gaze falling on the ventilation opening at the top of the cave.

A familiar scent of agarwood seemed to drift on the wind there, the scent of incense that Chiyo often used.

“Sunagakure…” he murmured, the Shadow Needle burning in his palm. “It seems that Shige is not the only one making moves.” Just as the ley line monitoring stone in the Sunagakure ancestral home suddenly emitted a blinding red light, Chiyo was trimming the silk threads on the puppet’s joints with silver scissors.

The scissors clicked to the ground, causing the ash from the agarwood incense on the table to fall onto the "Puppet Mastery Manual"—a warning from the Thousand Machine Lock Array that she and Ebizo jointly managed.

"Old man, you've been hiding it well." Her withered fingers pressed on the raised patterns on the stone surface, and her chakra flowed along the patterns in her palm, immediately sensing an unusual fluctuation.

The chakra of the Locking Array, which should have been as calm as a stream, was now surging into an undercurrent, carrying with it the coordinates of the puppet workshop in the southwest of Sunagakure. "Mobilize three hundred mechanical puppets?"

The target is the Wind Shadow Tower? "Her fingernails dug deeply into the stone, stone chips mixed with drops of blood falling into the incense ash," she said. "What benefits did Shi Ge give you?"

The poplar forest outside the window rustled, and Chiyo suddenly stood up, the puppet scroll at her waist dragging on the ground with a sizzling sound.

She staggered towards the bronze lamp tree in the corner, plucked the third gilded lamp, and as she turned it upside down, a talisman engraved with "Yanlong" floated to the ground.

This is her most treasured secret technique—"Dream Weaving," a forbidden art that can directly implant images into other people's dreams.

"The scene of Luo Sha being replaced..." She bit her fingertip, the blood dripping onto the talisman and blooming into a red plum blossom. "I have to make those three old bastards believe it." Her hand seals moved so fast that they left afterimages, and the talisman transformed into three pale purple streams of light that burrowed into the swallow's nest between the beams.

As the last streak of light disappeared, she leaned against the wall, panting heavily, her white hair at her temples stuck to her forehead with cold sweat: "Ebizo, Ebizo, do you think you're the only advisor in Sunagakure who can devise strategies?"

At the same moment, the chakra pool in Beiling Cave suddenly boiled into a golden vortex.

Bai Ye's palm was bleeding from the Shadow Needle, but he was completely unaware of it—he was staring at the "First Generation's" suddenly trembling fingers in the crystal coffin.

Those fragments of consciousness suppressed by the memory nails are now flowing upstream along his bloodline, surging like waves in his sea of ​​consciousness: how the finance ministers altered the inscriptions, how they forged the mold for "Shadow" in the name of the First Generation, how...

"Wait." He suddenly stopped, his pupils shrinking sharply.

In the deepest part of his consciousness, a puppet face that looked exactly like his flashed by. The four characters "Shadow Double Number One" on his forehead were like a red-hot iron branding him, making his temples throb. "They even included me?"

The crystal coffin resonated with a "hum," and the phantoms of the nine finance ministers reappeared. This time, however, they did not scream, but instead let out a sinister chuckle: "You think you're the game-changer?"

Chapter 941 Mold?

It's just a more perfect mold.

Bai Ye gritted her teeth, making a grinding sound.

He abruptly ripped open his shirt, revealing the pale blue Thousand Hands family crest on his chest—the mark of the first generation's bloodline, now burning hot with the earth's tremors. "A mold?" He plunged the fragment of the Shadow Needle into the Memory Nail, blood dripping from the needle's handle onto the coffin lid. "I'll be the hammer that smashes the mold!"

A strong gust of wind suddenly rushed into the ventilation opening at the top of the cave, carrying the scent of agarwood that hit the back of his neck.

Byakuya's movements faltered slightly—this was Chiyo's usual incense burning, indicating that Sunagakure's plan had already begun.

He looked down at the gradually clearing afterimage of the first generation in the coffin. The semi-transparent figure was slowly raising its hand, its fingertips pointing towards the depths of the altar.

Following the directions, Bai Ye's breathing almost stopped.

At the very center of the nine shadow puppets, a tenth puppet had appeared out of nowhere.

His pale face was exactly the same as his, and beneath his closed eyes, the vascular chakra ducts were glowing with an eerie blue light. The "Shadow Substitute No. 1" on his forehead shimmered with a strange luster in the pool light.

"They even copied my face." His voice was as low as a snake's tongue as his fingers slowly moved towards the explosive tags at his waist. "Are they worried that the existing shadow puppets aren't obedient enough?"

The lips of the original afterimage moved, and shattered sound waves drilled into his mind: "No... to destroy the mold."

"Destroy the mold?" Bai Ye suddenly laughed, his laughter tinged with madness. "Fine, I'll destroy it for you." He thrust the Shadow Needle deeper into the Memory Nail with his other hand, and placed it on the coffin lid. "Use your bloodline and my chakra, and see who gives up first."

Suddenly, the earth's veins roared, and all the carvings on the walls of the cave lit up with a bluish light.

The nine coffin nails simultaneously emitted golden light and snapped into fragments with a "crack".

The figure of the first afterimage gradually solidified, and its voice became clearer: "The Will of Fire... resides in the people, not in the shadows."

These words were like a thunderclap splitting the clouds, and far away in the high-ranking residences of Konoha, the "Inspector General" was picking up his teacup.

His hand suddenly stopped, and the teacup cracked on the table. "The mold..." He removed his mask, revealing a face that bore a striking resemblance to Finance Minister Utara, his knuckles white from gripping the mask. "It's time to wake up."

Suddenly, the chakra pool in the Beiling Cave exploded, and golden light rained down upon it.

Bai Ye was thrown against the rock wall by the shockwave, but still held onto the Shadow Needle tightly.

When he looked up, the lid of the crystal coffin had already cracked open, and the hand of the first generation's afterimage pierced through the coffin wall, stuffing a yellowed manuscript into his palm—it was the original copy of the "Oath of the Shadow of the Nationality" written by the first generation himself.

"Go!" The voice of the first generation's afterimage began to dissipate, "The earth's veins are about to collapse."

Bai Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and glanced at the puppet that looked just like him.

Its eyes are slowly opening, and the "Shadow Substitute No. 1" on its forehead is glowing red.

He gritted his teeth, stuffed the edict and the fragments of the memory nail into his bosom, and turned to rush towards the cave exit.

A violent roar came from behind, and the rock wall began to crumble and fall.

Bai Ye ran even faster, the wind rushing into his collar, but he couldn't stop his heart from pounding—he knew that when he broke out of Beiling, an even more turbulent storm awaited him: the warning from Sunagakure, the awakening of the shadow puppet, Shige's last move... But at this moment, the edict in his palm still carried warmth; it was the true will of the First Hokage.

"A mold?" He chuckled and leaped onto the stone beam during a gap in the falling rubble. "I'll see whose hammer is harder."

A final muffled sound came from the depths of the cave, and the nine shadow puppets simultaneously opened their white eyes.

The puppet, which resembled Byakuya, raised its hand, and jet-black chakra gathered at its fingertips—behind it, the earth's veins in the belly of Beiling Mountain were cracking open like a spiderweb, and a collapse that could overturn the balance of power among the five kingdoms had only just begun.

Chapter 942 This...this eye has no warmth

While the rubble was still falling from the belly of Beiling Mountain, Bai Ye had already broken through the last layer of rock wall.

His back was covered in damp, cold rock fragments, and the human skin scroll in his arms was burning hot from his body heat—it was the "Oath of the Shadow of the Nation" that the First Hokage had sealed with chakra for a thousand years, and it was now burning his heart through the fabric.

"It's time to lift the lid." He wiped the blood from his lips and looked up at the sky that had been shattered by the ley lines.

A crack appeared in the clouds, and sunlight streamed down, shattering into golden spots in his pupils.

His left hand unconsciously clenched the fragment of the memory nail, the metal edge digging into his palm, making him laugh out loud in pain: "The First Generation said he wanted to destroy the mold, but it turns out he didn't want to destroy the puppet, he wanted to destroy the 'Shadow' word that they worshipped as a god."

He coughed lightly, his knuckles pressed against his lips, the sound making his chest feel tight.

He quickly untied his ninja tool pouch from his waist and took out nine emerald-colored spore capsules.

Each capsule was wrapped with fine, gossamer-like puppet threads, which were the "True Word Seeds" that he had nurtured with his own chakra over three days and three nights.

“One for each of the Five Kage Villages, one for each of the Three Hidden Countries of Fire, Wind, and Lightning…” He examined the pattern on the last capsule against the sunlight. “The last one… for Shigeo of Konoha.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he thought of the puppet in the cave that looked just like him. “Let them see whose flesh and blood was used to forge this sacred object.”

Chakra surged at his fingertips, and nine green rays shot into the air.

The capsule exploded in mid-air, and a rain of pale green spores, carrying fragments of the human skin paper roll, scattered like stars in the directions of the five countries.

When the first spore landed in the cactus bushes outside Sunagakure, Chiyo was squatting in front of the puppet workshop adjusting the mechanisms.

Her pet red sand scorpion puppet suddenly raised its stinger, pointing southeast. "Chakra fluctuations..." The old woman squinted, seeing the green light floating in mid-air, "It's Byakuya's technique."

The moment the spores touched the ground, they burst into vines, and the bluish-gray branches climbed at a speed visible to the naked eye, casting a line of blood-red words on the earthen wall of the puppet workshop: "Shadows are not gods, the people are the foundation."

"First Generation Master..." Chiyo pressed her hand to her chest, her cloudy eyes welling up with tears.

She heard the exclamations of the boys in the distance, and when she turned around, she saw the children of the school chasing after the vines with bamboo sticks in hand, writing "Teacher!" on the sticks.

The words move!