At the center of the explosion, dust lingered for a long time.
Ninjas who had just fled to the surroundings peeked out from their covers one by one, casting their gazes towards the location of 'Upper Rank One'.
"Must be dead!"
"No one can survive such an explosion, even 'Upper Rank One' shouldn't be possible!"
"But... but why hasn't 'Infinity Castle' disappeared yet?"
Ninjas were whispering.
Unlike other ordinary ninjas, ninjas with pupil techniques like Yakumo and Ranmaru still looked solemn at this moment.
Dust could block others' vision, but couldn't block their sight.
Under the insight of their pupil techniques, they could clearly see 'Upper Rank One' at the center of the explosion, still alive.
Although the explosion just now did cause considerable damage to 'Upper Rank One', with one-third of his body area directly carbonized by the high temperature of the explosion.
But as a 'Demon', his powerful vitality allowed him to recover rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. The flesh under the skin squirmed quickly, and in just a few breaths, he recovered to his original state.
"How is this possible!?"
Whether Yakumo or Ranmaru, seeing this scene, their faces became extremely ugly.
At this time, a breeze blew past, and the dust covering the explosion point finally dissipated, revealing the figure standing in place!
"This..."
"Damn it!"
"What kind of monster is he exactly!"
The watching ninjas' emotions collapsed instantly.
Even Yakumo, Ranmaru, Ryuzetsu, and Chino felt a 'thump' in their hearts, feeling troubled and fearful.
At this time, Deidara peeked his head out from a pile of ruins and said smilingly: "This is simply a perfect bomb tester!"
Kurotsuchi not far away said: "Stop messing around, quickly think of a way to get rid of him!"
Tanjiro, who was sneak-attacked, showed no anger on his face. He just scanned the surroundings indifferently, then searched for Muku's figure. When he saw Muku dragged away by Akatsuki's Ranmaru, he lowered his body, made a posture of drawing his sword, and while exhaling a puff of mist, whispered: "Hinokami Kagura: Sunflower Thrust!"
Swish...
Instantly, Tanjiro rushed in front of Ranmaru.
Ranmaru, who had secretly activated 'Steel Release' and 'Swift Release', first threw Muku towards Deidara's direction, then met Tanjiro head-on.
At the same time, he activated his mutated Red Eye's ability, creating Red Eye clones one by one. Various ninjutsu surged towards Tanjiro from all directions as if free of charge.
As soon as the great battle started, Yakumo, Ryuzetsu, and Chino were not idle either. They each launched ninjutsu attacks on Tanjiro, supporting Ranmaru in disguise...
Outside 'Infinity Castle'.
The clay bomb Deidara just detonated shook the whole ground. Although the spatial power of 'Infinity Castle' isolated part of the explosion shock, a small amount of explosion shock still escaped outside 'Infinity Castle'.
In the distance.
Kurenai, staring firmly at 'Infinity Castle', asked: "Was that an explosion?"
"Mhm!"
Guy nodded.
Kakashi said: "It seems a big battle is breaking out inside!"
Saying that, he immediately looked up at the few Akatsuki members in the air. They also seemed to be hesitating about something.
On the back of the flying fusion beast in the air.
Juzo Biwa said: "Able to break through the shielding of spatial power, the explosion just now can't be wrong, it must be Deidara's doing!"
"Should be!" Nodding, Sasori continued: "Just don't know who exactly he is fighting with?"
"Eh!"
Hiruko suddenly uttered a light exclamation.
The others looked towards the sound and found that the Ninja Village Alliance on the ground had begun to try sending people into 'Infinity Castle'.
Juzo Biwa asked: "What do we do?"
Itachi said: "We have no choice. Unless we abandon Kakuzu, Hidan, Ranmaru, and Deidara, we can only risk entering."
Hiruko said decisively: "Cannot abandon Ranmaru!"
He was so resolute not because of how much friendship he had with Ranmaru, but purely because he had his eyes on Ranmaru's mutated Red Eye.
Sasori also said: "I don't plan to change partners recently!"
Itachi said indifferently: "Then let's go, hopefully still in time!"
After reaching a consensus, the few Akatsuki members acted unusually swiftly. Before the Ninja Village Alliance below noticed, they directly controlled the flying fusion beast to plunge headlong into 'Infinity Castle'.
Seeing all Akatsuki members enter 'Infinity Castle', the Ninja Village Alliance side also acted immediately. Kakashi directly led elites to break into 'Infinity Castle' from the ground.
Inside 'Infinity Castle'.
The fierce battle entered a white-hot stage right from the start.
Tanjiro, using all abilities like 'Sun Breathing', 'Transparent World', 'Crimson Red Nichirin Blade', reached an astonishing level of strength.
Ranmaru, possessing multiple Kekkei Genkai and standing at the top in the Ninja World, was still heavily injured by Tanjiro in a very short time despite this.
If not for the cover of Deidara's clay bombs, Ranmaru might have fallen under Tanjiro's blade inexplicably.
And after losing the powerful combat force of Ranmaru, the situation collapsed immediately.
Yakumo, Ryuzetsu, Chino, combined with Kurotsuchi and Darui playing support, could barely hold on at first. But whether due to excessive self-consumption or other reasons, their resistance became increasingly difficult, gradually showing signs of defeat.
In this situation, the ninjas trapped inside 'Infinity Castle' could no longer care about mutual hostility.
The medical ninjas of the Ninja Village Alliance helped Hidan sew his severed head back onto his body. Kakuzu rummaged through the corpses all over the ground for fresh hearts to replenish himself. Then the two joined the battle cursing under Deidara's cover.
While the front line could still barely resist Tanjiro, Deidara came to Muku with a wicked smile.
At this time, Ryuran of the Grass Ninja Village and the one-armed Mui were guarding Muku.
Seeing Deidara coming, Ryuran looked vigilant: "What do you want to do?"
Deidara grinned: "If you are not blind, you should be able to see that this brat is the opponent's target, right? That monster is already so tricky. If he devours this brat again, I'm afraid even our boss might not be able to deal with him!"
Hearing Deidara's words, Ryuran and Mui were both speechless.
Deidara stopped talking nonsense, squatted directly beside Muku, and in front of Ryuran and Mui, opened Muku's stomach with a kunai, then stuffed a large lump of clay bomb prepared long ago into Muku's body, chuckling: "Later you might be able to see the ultimate art, hm!"
Ryuran and Mui looked at each other in dismay. The development of the situation somewhat exceeded their expectations...