Yauma was a cultist of the Yashin [Evil Deity], but that didn't mean he was stupid.
Everything that had happened since falling under the Genjutsu just now indicated someone had witnessed his murder firsthand.
Realizing he had no chance of winning, he bolted for his life.
However,
Orochimaru had already thought of that.
Behind Yauma, a snake had been tracking him continuously, ensuring they wouldn't lose his location coordinates.
Akaba muttered to himself, lost in thought while tracking. "After all those recent experiments, did you notice anything unusual?"
"It appears to be implanted hetero-chakra [foreign chakra]. We'll need to monitor it further."
Orochimaru murmured with a calculating tone.
Hetero-chakra?
Immortality couldn't be achieved through chakra alone. Looks like this heretic group [Cult] still has a long way to go.
"What are you thinking about?"
Though Orochimaru's mind was filled with thoughts, he could still multitask and pay attention to Akaba's expression.
"This power must have a cost. If the heretics could solve the side effects, their followers would already be everywhere."
Akaba replied casually.
At this moment, he smelled blood again. After walking a few more steps, he saw a blood-red sand dune.
Atop the dune were three corpses clearly visible.
"If this continues, things will get complicated. If you want to preserve your test materials, you'd better stop now."
Akaba frowned.
Unfortunately, these three were again from Sunagakure Village.
"It looks like it."
Orochimaru squatted down. These three bodies were riddled with holes, exactly like the previous one.
Obviously, they had also died during the ritual.
Sunagakure wouldn't retaliate unless they found proof of foul play, but such a gruesome scene clearly signaled that something unnatural had broken into the exam grounds.
They might not necessarily take action against Yauma's killer, but they would definitely increase vigilance.
Once that happened, Orochimaru's continued search would raise suspicions.
Time to wrap this up!
Akaba and Orochimaru picked up speed, following the trail ahead.
Desert climates are unpredictable. Soon, the bloody path was buried beneath windblown sands, making tracking by blood impossible.
However, with summoning beasts monitoring the location, it wasn't long before Akaba and Orochimaru found Yauma.
"Run! This guy is crazy, he's a monster!"
"Help! Someone save us!"
"Kill him together, otherwise none of us will escape!"
Panic-filled screams and desperate cries for help pierced the air.
From afar, both Akaba and Orochimaru heard the piercing screams.
Drawing closer, they witnessed a shocking scene—Yauma's entire body was covered in black incantations. Encircled by seven or eight attackers, Yauma stood unshaken—his fists lashed out with brutal precision.
"Getting swarmed by seven enemies at once—who can handle that?!"
Seven against one, yet he was completely dominating them. Guess believing in the Yashin really grants eternal life.
Akaba was startled.
This Yashin power was quite strong. Yauma looked as if he'd gone at it seven times straight, yet his combat effectiveness remained formidable.
"He can't control this ability. Hurry and save them, or they'll all die."
Orochimaru discerned Yauma's condition.
He couldn't take hits this severe, and his regeneration was going haywire.
Even if they won, Yauma wouldn't survive in the end.
But Yauma Orochimaru really couldn't handle this fight, so it was time for Akaba to step in.
"It's called a blessing from Jashin-sama, but honestly, it feels more like a curse."
Akaba stood up.
Below were ninja from Kusa and Taki villages. There had originally been three squads, but two were already lying on the ground lifeless.
It was time to act—if he waited any longer, everyone would die for nothing.
"You guys are calling for help?"
He altered his appearance and crossed the sand dune, reaching the edge of the battlefield.
By now Yauma had completely lost his senses. Upon seeing Akaba appear, he immediately charged forward, roaring wildly.
"Save us! Hurry and save us!"
Exhausted from prolonged combat and facing enemies who seemed totally fearless of injuries and death, their morale had crumbled.
Of course,
these people might not be good fighters, but they were experts at scheming.
If Akaba entered the fight and wore down Yauma until both were weakened, then they could kill Akaba and reap the final victory—that would undoubtedly be the perfect outcome.
Akaba smiled kindly as he squatted down, saying, "I can help you, or I can help him too. It all depends on whose offer is better."
Yauma didn't respond. Roaring loudly, he launched another barrage of wild punches.
The person standing at the front was struck directly by the flurry of fists, collapsing to the ground motionless.
"For Jashin-sama!"
After shouting fervently in devotion, his strength and speed noticeably increased.
"What do you want? We'll give you whatever you want—please, just save us!"
The people below panicked. If nobody helped them now, they'd all die here uselessly. They no longer cared about any benefits or exams at this point.
Nothing mattered more than survival!
"Very well."
Akaba stood up.
While squatting earlier, he had already completed his genjutsu.
As he rose and released it, he simultaneously vanished using Earth Release.
In the next moment, he appeared beneath Yauma.
Caught within the illusion, Yauma offered no resistance and was directly pulled underground.
Then Akaba emerged from the earth.
What the hell was going on?!
The six surviving individuals exchanged glances, stunned into silence.
Others lying on the ground had also tried pulling him down before, only for that guy to end up with a broken leg from one kick by Yauma. Yet now, he obeyed like a tame kitten.
"Do you have a Scroll?"
Akaba looked toward them. After coming all this way to work, he certainly shouldn't leave empty-handed.
These three teams seemed to have gained something—it was likely they had scrolls.
"Yes, on him."
A ninja from Taki pointed at the corpse on the ground.
The body also belonged to Taki—an original squad leader perhaps—but his hands were shattered, blood pouring from wounds across his body; he looked pitifully gruesome.
"Pick it up and wipe it off."
Cheerfully smiling, Akaba directed them, "Anything else?"
"Our team has one too, though we're not sure if it's authentic."
Scared under Akaba's gaze, the Kusa ninja hurriedly emptied everything from their pockets onto the ground like spilling beans, laying the items out one by one as if inviting Akaba to pick through them.
Picking up two scrolls, Akaba called out toward the back: "Time to come out and work."
Work?
[Transformation Technique]
From the shadows, Maki emerged wearing a topcoat over his disguise.
The six turned around and upon seeing the heavily scarred face of Orochimaru, fell to their knees with a thud.
Then, in unison, they begged desperately: "Mercy! Mercy! Just spare me, and I'll agree to anything you ask!"
Orochimaru ignored them entirely.
He walked over to Yauma, yanked him out of the ground, and proceeded to stab and poke him repeatedly with a kunai.
The six ninja were filled with despair, their entire bodies trembling.
How terrifyingly ruthless Yauma had been before!
Now, facing these two monsters, he had become completely unresponsive—like a lifeless puppet. His body was cut open repeatedly by Orochimaru, yet he showed no reaction at all.
Running would only mean a quicker death. Glancing left and right, kneeling seemed like the wisest choice after all.
After a while, Yauma finally let out a scream of pain.
"What's going on?"
Orochimaru paused slightly, puzzled. He knew that unless the person inside Akaba's genjutsu fell unconscious, there was no way they could awaken from it.
Yauma definitely didn't have the mind for that.
"He's dead."
Akaba glanced over and replied unkindly.
Yauma had already been on his last legs. With Orochimaru carving into him like a lab rat during dissection, how could he possibly survive?
"What a shame."
Orochimaru sighed. Now that this man was dead, the whereabouts of the cult's main base would become impossible to uncover.
Otherwise, such an unusual genjutsu would've truly been worth researching.
The conversation between the two terrified the six ninja from minor villages, making them too scared to move.
They'd run into some genuinely ruthless people!
Orochimaru stood up, looked toward the six of them, and curled his lips into a cold smirk. "You want to survive, don't you?"
"Yes! Yes!"
They responded immediately.
"You definitely don't have any Kekkei Genkai. Jot down every secret technique from your villages."
As Orochimaru spoke, he threw paper and pen toward them.
"Sure thing! I'll write right away!"
None of them dared resist because watching Orochimaru perform surgery on Yauma had been just too horrifying. One of them, unable to withstand the horror, had even soiled himself.
Akaba watched for a moment, then quickly lost interest.
They were all mere genin, incapable of mastering high-level ninja techniques. All they wrote were some relatively common jutsu from Taki village and Kusa village.
The stench here was strong. He grabbed the scroll and moved a few steps away, sitting down to rest on a patch of sandy rock upwind.
After a long while, he observed Orochimaru speaking to them again. The six shook their heads with pale faces.
Then, each of them left behind a vial of blood before departing.
[End of Novel] – This book has been accurately categorized on Shenzhan. Please share it with your friends if you enjoyed it!
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