"Roar!"
Not long after, Tanjiro, suppressed by layers of 'Gracious Deity Gates', let out a heart-rending roar.
This sound penetrated the 'Four Violet Flames Formation', striking directly at the hearts of everyone present, making people inexplicably feel a burst of fear.
And this sound didn't sound like a human roar, but more like the roar of a dying wild beast before death!
Whether the Hokages inside the barrier or Orochimaru and others outside the barrier were all very clear at this time.
The 'Upper Rank One' at this moment was a truly terrifying and unsolvable monster.
If not here, if facing someone other than the First Hokage, it was estimated that even tens of thousands of ninja troops couldn't stop Tanjiro in his craziest state.
The Second Hokage lying on the ground sighed with emotion: "Truly a monster capable of threatening the Ninja World!"
Because his body was being corroded by the black smoke emanating from Tanjiro, the Second Hokage hadn't fully recovered even until now and could only lie on the ground.
The Third Hokage couldn't help but feel lingering fear: "If he escaped, the Ninja World would really be plunged into misery and suffering!"
The Fourth Hokage nodded.
Whether the opponent's recovery ability, attack ability, or weirdness, were all things he had only seen in his life.
Thanks to the First Hokage being present. Otherwise, he really wasn't confident he could deal with this monster.
At this time, the First Hokage shouted a warning loudly: "Everyone be careful!"
Perhaps knowing that continuing this consumption, even if his body dissolved, he couldn't break free from the suppression of 'Gracious Deity Gates', so Tanjiro held nothing back, burning some more things, including his experience, memory, and even his soul!
Boom...
As Tanjiro sacrificed everything of himself, the black smoke around his body swelled instantly. In an instant, it corroded four 'Gracious Deity Gates' in a row, only one 'Gracious Deity Gate' away from breaking free.
Seeing this, the First Hokage shouted: "Sage Art: Gracious Deity Gates!"
Instantly, 'Gracious Deity Gates' descended from the sky again one by one, pressing on Tanjiro layer by layer like building blocks.
Only this time, no matter how many layers of 'Gracious Deity Gates' accumulated, they couldn't completely crush Tanjiro.
Resisting the 'Gracious Deity Gates', Tanjiro, who sacrificed everything, stood in place, his waist not even bending a bit.
But similarly, carrying so many 'Gracious Deity Gates', he couldn't take a step forward and was forced to stand still!
Black smoke was still constantly corroding the 'Gracious Deity Gates'. Whenever a 'Gracious Deity Gate' was corroded and decayed by black smoke, a new one would fall from the sky, as if endless.
In this helpless consumption, Tanjiro's dissolving body became smaller and smaller, soon remaining less than half of its original size.
And the First Hokage's 'Reanimated' body also began to make chichi sounds. The originally vivid body gradually began to turn gray and white.
Undoubtedly, the First Hokage's 'Reanimated' body also couldn't bear such consumption.
Unlike in the original timeline where Orochimaru used a special White Zetsu clone residing in Sasuke as a sacrifice to reanimate the First Hokage, the sacrifice used for the 'Reanimated' First Hokage at this time was just an ordinary White Zetsu clone, clearly inferior in strength to the special White Zetsu clone.
And suppressing the Hegemon's power was far less easy than it looked to bystanders.
The First Hokage looked down and said: "This body can't hold on much longer!"
The Second Hokage looked speechless.
He felt the sacrifice Orochimaru used for their 'Reanimated' bodies this time was very good, already close to his level when alive.
Not only him, but the Third and Fourth Hokages were also the same.
Even the most ordinary White Zetsu clone was a sacrifice containing Hashirama cells and God Tree factors. For ordinary ninjas, it was perfect enough.
Speechless as they were, the three Hokages dared not be careless at all at this time, each starting to form hand seals.
They knew very well that even if driven to a desperate situation by the First Hokage and about to reach the final limit, the Demon in front of them was still terrifying, allowing no carelessness.
Pfft...
Suddenly, the First Hokage's body began to disintegrate.
The burden of powerful senjutsu chakra on the 'Reanimated' body was too high.
As the First Hokage's 'Reanimated' body began to collapse, the 'Gracious Deity Gates' naturally couldn't continue. One less gate remained after one was corroded by black smoke.
At this time, the Second, Third, and Fourth Hokages completed hand seals simultaneously, shouting: "Four Symbols Seal, Seal!"
The 'Four Symbols Seal' activated by three Hokages simultaneously naturally had extraordinary might.
Ink-colored sealing formulas danced wildly inside the 'Four Violet Flames Formation', covering Tanjiro's whole body in the blink of an eye.
Making Tanjiro, who had struggled to break free from the 'Gracious Deity Gates', still tightly bound, difficult to move.
And at this time, Tanjiro's body had dissolved to only one-third of the original. The power obtained by sacrificing everything of himself also began to decline rapidly.
This directly led to although the sealing formulas of 'Four Symbols Seal' were not as domineering as the First Hokage's 'Gracious Deity Gates', they still barely entangled Tanjiro, confining him in place.
Boom...
At the last moment, Tanjiro's body exploded directly, turning into sky-filling black smoke!
"Solved?!"
Several people outside the barrier stared at the black smoke inside the barrier, faces full of uncertainty.
Watching the gradually thinning black smoke, Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief.
Yakushi Kabuto smiled at Orochimaru: "Orochimaru-sama, do we count as having saved the Ninja World like this?"
The tight nerves of Jugo, Guren, and Tayuya also relaxed.
Just then, the black smoke drifting inside the barrier suddenly condensed into a ball, rushed out of the barrier abruptly, heading straight for Orochimaru.
The 'Four Violet Flames Formation', which could block all ninjutsu, seemed non-existent at this time, easily penetrated by the black smoke.
"!?"
Orochimaru maintained vigilance all along, but because the black smoke came too fast and too suddenly, he was still caught off guard, passed through by the black smoke!
And after passing through Orochimaru's body, the black smoke completely dissipated without a trace.
Yakushi Kabuto and others hurriedly abandoned maintaining the 'Four Violet Flames Formation', swarmed to Orochimaru's side, and asked with concern: "Orochimaru-sama, are you okay?"
Orochimaru shook his head with a weird expression.
At the moment the black smoke passed through his body just now, he didn't feel any abnormality in his body. If he had to say something was wrong, it was that at the instant the black smoke passed through, he recalled the time he was insta-killed by Itachi Uchiha with Genjutsu!
That was the moment he had always suppressed in his heart, the most unwilling, and also the most fearful!
Obviously.
At the last moment when the Hegemon's power penetrating into the Ninja World was about to dissipate, based on Tanjiro's judgment before death, it determined that Orochimaru was the 'Lampbearer' guarding the Ninja World. So it used the last power to project the fear in Orochimaru's heart!
This was the Hegemon's customary method of dealing with 'Lampbearers'.
Although 'Fear Projection' could only be used once in each world, it worked every time. The 'Lampbearers' of those worlds swallowed by the Hegemon before almost all died at the hands of their own 'Fear Projection'!