Ying looked at the blood sphere in his hand, which had been activated by a sealing technique. From the direction indicated by the raised tip of the sphere, he sensed the familiar chakra fluctuations of the Fourth Mizukage.
Of course, the other party had probably also sensed his chakra fluctuations.
After all, although this body was extremely powerful, it had considerable problems with control. The chakra fluctuations it emitted were far from subtle.
Under Uchiha Yoru's lead, Ying carried the blood sphere formed from the fingertip blood of all the children and ran for several hours. At last, they drew the enemy to the vicinity of the River Capital, eliminating any further risk of the children being caught.
Here, they didn't even need to worry about the threat posed by the Fourth Mizukage.
Nearly thirty thousand Konoha and Sunagakure ninja were gathered nearby, so Yagura Karatachi couldn't act without reservations.
If either village's ninja army managed to hold him down, even the Fourth Mizukage would find it difficult to escape death beneath the siege of more than ten thousand ninja.
However, Uchiha Yoru remained perfectly composed on the beach, which made Ying somewhat hesitant.
After struggling with himself for quite a while, he finally gathered the courage to ask, "Lord Zhurong, are you planning to confront the Fourth Mizukage by the sea?"
Instead of answering the question, Uchiha Yoru said, "That form of address is excellent. Keep using it."
Ying didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he simply smiled and replied, "Thank you for the praise, Lord Zhurong."
"Hahaha, very good."
Uchiha Yoru smiled and said, "There's no need to worry about my Fire Release. Although Water Release restrains Fire Release, everything has its limits."
"Ying, do you think a mere mountain spring can extinguish a wildfire spanning hundreds of li?"
Ying's beautiful eyes immediately lit up. Then they curved into crescents as he smiled.
"Lord Zhurong, a stream possesses limited water, while a forest fire can blaze into the heavens. Naturally, it couldn't extinguish the flames. Instead, it would be completely evaporated."
Uchiha Yoru chuckled and sighed.
"Unfortunately, my flames still aren't powerful enough to sever the stream at its source. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't let Yagura Karatachi escape today."
"At the very least, it would count as avenging you."
Ying recalled the hundreds of women and children who had tragically died during their escape.
A flame of hatred flashed through his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
"There's no need to rush. With Lord Zhurong here, there will eventually be an opportunity for revenge."
Uchiha Yoru glanced at him and became even more satisfied.
He nodded.
"There will be a chance. Perhaps one of the children you brought out will awaken Ice Release and avenge the Yuki Clan."
Ying nodded heavily.
Then he suddenly turned toward the sea and said hatefully, "The Fourth Mizukage has arrived."
"Lord Zhurong, allow me to greet them first."
At that moment, the distant horizon over the sea bulged slightly upward.
The white crests of waves could faintly be seen.
A towering tsunami was surging toward the beach.
Ying took a deep breath and recalled the Ice Release ninjutsu Uchiha Yoru had envisioned.
He stirred the chakra within his Edo Tensei body to the greatest extent possible while slowly forming hand seals, silently calculating the distance as he watched the approaching tsunami.
Suddenly, he exhaled a stream of white air.
That current of extreme cold emitted fluctuations of senjutsu chakra. Like a long sword, it struck the golden beach with tremendous force.
A vast layer of white frost instantly spread across the sand.
Ying shouted in a low voice, "Sage Art: Ice Release: Glacier!"
He slammed both hands onto the sand.
Bone-chilling cold erupted from his palms.
An invisible freezing wave spread violently along the beach, and the golden sand was instantly covered in white frost.
As the cold wave expanded, the moisture in the air also condensed in an instant, falling with soft rustling sounds onto the frozen beach.
White frost completely concealed the golden sand, transforming the beach into a snowy world of ice.
The frozen area created by the cold wave expanded at astonishing speed.
It soon reached the surface of the sea.
Even seawater saturated with salt was unable to resist such cold and instantly froze solid.
Because the temperature drop wasn't caused by the cooling of the air but by the spread of senjutsu chakra, the sea froze simultaneously from the surface all the way to the seabed.
The seawater that had been pulled backward by the tsunami froze into a solid layer of ice almost instantly.
The sudden freezing created violent thermal expansion and contraction.
Powerful stress within the ice continuously produced cracks and tears.
It even caused explosive bursts of ice, launching snow-white ice powder several meters—and sometimes more than ten meters—into the air.
The crystalline ice powder reflected dazzling light beneath the sun, resembling the most magnificent fountains.
The frozen layer rapidly expanded and rushed directly toward the oncoming tsunami.
The two forces collided almost immediately.
The seawater was frozen by Ice Release, while the ice was shattered by the violently surging waves.
The fierce collision between the ice sheet and the waves produced deafening thunderous roars.
The aggressively advancing Kirigakure ninja were so frightened that they scattered in every direction and could no longer maintain their formation.
Once they dispersed, the force propelling the seawater weakened greatly.
The freezing instantly gained the advantage.
A white line swept past the position of the Kirigakure ninja, and the raging tsunami abruptly became still.
Without the enemy's resistance hindering it, the fierce cold continued spreading deeper into the sea and quickly vanished beyond the edge of sight.
The thunderous roar of the waves within the tsunami stopped abruptly.
The entire world instantly became quiet.
Only the frequent booming of ice explosions and the clear, tinkling sounds of cracking ice continued ringing without pause, making the silence feel even deeper.
The enormous tsunami that had surged forward with overwhelming momentum only a moment earlier was frozen into a gigantic wall of ice in the blink of an eye.
Behind it stretched an immense frozen plain with no visible end.
Clashes between gigantic ninjutsu were no longer rare in the current shinobi world.
However, an environmental transformation that instantly turned the sea into an ice plain hadn't been seen for decades.
For the Kirigakure ninja experiencing it firsthand, the impact was unprecedented.
They stood dazed upon the frozen plain, their mouths hanging open as though they were trapped in a dream.
As the moisture in the air froze, the ice powder descending from the sky emitted a terrifying chill that made everyone instinctively wish to avoid it.
However, the ice powder drifted everywhere, leaving the Kirigakure ninja with nowhere to hide.
The white mist exhaled by the ninja rapidly condensed over their mouths, noses, eyebrows, and eyes.
Every one of them had hair and beards turned white with frost.
Even their eyelashes froze like rime-covered branches.
The frost clinging directly to their faces intensified their experience of the cold, allowing the Kirigakure ninja to deeply understand the terror of freezing temperatures.
The ice plain was boundless.
Ice powder continued falling from the sky.
The surface of the ice was quickly covered in pure white, creating a wondrous scene where heaven and earth shared the same color.
Such a sight could normally only be seen in the northwestern Land of Snow.
Not even the Land of Iron in winter could display such absolute purity.
Whether in the Land of Snow or the wintertime Land of Iron, those landscapes were created through the combination of the world's natural might and geographical climate.
They were formed through the accumulation of countless days and years.
Yet today, a ninjutsu wielded by a single person had changed the geographical environment through human power alone.
For the Kirigakure ninja of the present era, this was something they had absolutely never witnessed.
However, several veteran ninja over the age of forty felt that they had once heard their predecessors speak of similar legends—stories of people capable of altering maps in an instant.
But those hadn't been miracles of Ice Release.
They had been wonders that instantly transformed plains into forests, as well as terrifying feats that sliced mountaintops into platforms and plowed the earth into vast ravines.
As the older Kirigakure ninja recalled those terrifying legends, their entire bodies began trembling uncontrollably.
Fortunately, although the sight of the sea transforming into an ice plain was horrifying, most of the Kirigakure ninja had escaped the center of the clash in time.
They weren't injured by the intense cold or the erupting ice explosions.
Only a few unlucky individuals hidden beneath the seawater failed to understand the struggle between the ice and the sea.
After hesitating for just a moment, they were unfortunately frozen within the water.
At this point, those ninja had completely stopped breathing.
A ring of orange flame surrounded Uchiha Yoru's body, resisting the endless cold wave.
As a result, the sand beneath his feet remained golden.
After witnessing the effects of Ying's senjutsu, he clapped in satisfaction and praised him.
"Ying, you truly are a genius."
"I merely described the principles of senjutsu to you, yet you completed such an extraordinary technique in so little time."
In truth, Ying himself had also been terrified by the senjutsu he had unleashed.
He stood there blankly, staring at the frozen plain, no one knowing what thoughts were running through his mind.
Upon hearing Uchiha Yoru's praise, he immediately responded modestly.
"This is all Lord Zhurong's achievement."
"You gave me an Edo Tensei body capable of absorbing and storing natural energy, and you explained the essentials of senjutsu chakra."
"I merely combined those conditions and completed the final step of its development."
Uchiha Yoru shook his head.
"Next time, be careful not to say the name of your technique aloud."
"Doing so will damage your luck and accumulate misfortune, which may eventually become a fatal hidden danger."
Ying was briefly stunned.
However, by now, he had complete faith in Uchiha Yoru.
He immediately agreed and promised never to shout the names of his techniques during battle again.
Uchiha Yoru nodded in satisfaction.
He stepped forward, slowly brought his hands together, and said softly, "Since the Kirigakure ninja have properly experienced the freezing cold of a glacier, allow me to let those fellows experience scorching warmth."
"The interweaving of ice and fire will certainly leave them with a profound experience."
Sage Art: Fire Release: Heavenly Fire Scorches the Plains.
No fireball shot from between his hands.
Nor did rolling flames surge forward.
However, the brightness between heaven and earth rapidly increased.
The entire world was even faintly dyed with a nearly imperceptible orange hue.
At that moment, Yagura Karatachi finally recovered from his shock.
Grinding his teeth, he cursed, "Damn that Ying! He actually hid a technique like this?"
"He refused to use it to attack Konoha even when he died, yet he uses it against me?"
"All of you, wake up! Prepare for battle!"
"Although the frozen plain isn't Kirigakure's home ground, it isn't a death trap for us either!"
"Follow me and charge forward! Eliminate Kirigakure's traitor!"
Under his shouts, the Kirigakure ninja finally recovered.
They focused their minds, drew their weapons, and followed the Fourth Mizukage as he leaped down from the wall of ice and charged toward the two figures standing on the white beach.
However, they hadn't advanced far before they discovered that their vision had become blurry.
Someone cried out, "My vision is blurred! Is this a genjutsu?"
The Kirigakure ninja circulated their chakra and shouted in low voices.
"Release!"
"Release!"
"Release!"
"No, this genjutsu can't be dispelled! What's happening?"
When the Kirigakure ninja realized something was wrong, someone finally shouted, "Look at the sky! Quickly, look at the sky!"
"This isn't a genjutsu! The air itself is being distorted!"
Hearing the terrified shouts, all the Kirigakure ninja raised their heads.
To their horror, they discovered that the sky had somehow become covered in burning clouds.
The "burning clouds" in their minds weren't a metaphor.
They were literal crimson clouds formed from countless fireballs.
Orange, gold, yellow, red, and even black fireballs numbered in the tens of thousands.
They rolled and churned together in a dense mass, covering the entire sky like clouds.
As the burning clouds continued expanding and slowly descended, the density of the fireballs increased, and their distance from the frozen plain steadily shrank.
Their light transformed the formerly snow-white ice field into a golden world.
The ice powder drifting through the air melted into raindrops, only to evaporate completely before reaching the ground.
Under the illumination of the flames, the ice surface didn't even have time to melt.
It rapidly sublimated beneath the golden light, only to be condensed again by the cold seeping upward from beneath the frozen plain.
This created strands of white mist that alternately rose and fell.
The extreme changes in water vapor and temperature bent the light, distorting everything within sight.
The Kirigakure ninja understood that disaster was about to descend upon them.
As expected, a fireball suddenly shot from the burning clouds and crashed toward the ground.
Following the descent of the first fireball, countless others were ejected from the clouds.
They formed a dense rain of fire that covered the entire frozen plain.
Was this another ninjutsu capable of altering the terrain?
No.
This wasn't ninjutsu.
Flames rolled across the sky, yet there wasn't the slightest chakra fluctuation.
Nor was there any trace of the terrifying, heart-palpitating disturbance that had accompanied the formation of the frozen plain.
The complete absence of chakra fluctuations proved that it wasn't ninjutsu.
However, the scorching heat and fierce momentum of the fireballs were undeniably real.
Yagura Karatachi roared, "Charge!"
"Maintain your greatest possible speed!"
"Once you reach the enemy, the fireballs won't be able to attack you!"
The Kirigakure ninja immediately understood that the Fourth Mizukage had identified their only chance of survival.
They abandoned their cumbersome large weapons and ran at full speed, racing for their lives.
Ying stared at the fireballs filling the sky, utterly dumbfounded.
He also couldn't sense any chakra fluctuations.
However, he could feel an immense concentration of natural energy.
Moreover, according to Uchiha Yoru's classifications, the natural energy in the sky didn't consist solely of fire-spirit natural energy.
It also contained a dense concentration of earth-spirit natural energy.
It was almost as though an active volcano had been overturned in the sky and was now venting the fury of the earth.
Ying pointed toward the heavens and guessed, "Lord Zhurong, is... is that a volcano?"
Uchiha Yoru laughed loudly.
"You guessed correctly."
"This is natural energy I extracted from a nearby underwater volcano. It truly is the power of a volcano."
"Although I possess enough natural energy of my own, I am currently at a critical moment in my cultivation of the Immortal Dao."
"The battle before us is merely the beginning of the tribulation. More terrifying calamities will certainly follow."
"I must conserve every bit of my strength."
"Since there happens to be an active volcano nearby and I can intercept sufficient power from it, there's naturally no reason to consume my own strength."
Boom!
The first fireball struck the ice and exploded violently.
It created an enormous but shallow circular hole in the frozen surface.
At the same time, an even larger white mushroom cloud rose above it.
Once the first fireball fell, countless others followed and exploded with thunderous force.
The dense explosions merged into one continuous roar, becoming completely indistinguishable from one another.
White mushrooms of steam continuously erupted from the ground.
They stood densely packed like a forest of mushrooms, obstructing the view across the sea.
Before Ying, they even merged into a solid white wall, concealing the Kirigakure ninja who had already charged quite close.
They could no longer be seen.
Ying discovered that although he could still see the steam mushrooms constantly erupting and rising higher, he could no longer hear the dense explosions.
He only felt his entire body trembling slightly.
The beach beneath his feet was also shaking.
The frozen sand was rapidly shattering.
A sense of panic rose within him.
Unable to stop himself, he looked toward Uchiha Yoru and opened his mouth.
"..."
Ying was shocked to discover that although he had clearly opened his mouth, it seemed as though he hadn't said anything at all.
No.
He placed his right hand on his throat and tried speaking again.
He could feel his throat vibrating, but he couldn't hear any sound whatsoever.
That was why he had mistakenly believed he hadn't spoken.
He continued raising his volume until he was shouting at the top of his lungs, yet he still couldn't hear anything.
Ying finally understood.
The thunderous roar of the exploding fireballs hadn't disappeared.
It was simply so loud that it exceeded the range his ears could perceive, leaving him unable to hear it at all.
At the same time, the explosions drowned out every other sound, trapping him within a false silence.
Uchiha Yoru finally noticed his movements.
He turned his head to look, then gently waved one hand.
Four characters formed from flame appeared upon the frost-covered sand:
The greatest sound is rarely heard.
After seeing those words, Ying suddenly felt as though he had gained some insight.
He stared blankly at the four characters, even forgetting to nod in acknowledgment to Uchiha Yoru.
Suddenly, a ninja charged through the wall of white mist.
It was the short, youthful-faced Yagura Karatachi.
Even within such a dense barrage, Yagura Karatachi had somehow kept his entire body perfectly clean.
It appeared that the circular water mirror floating above his head had blocked the fireballs descending from the sky.
Uchiha Yoru couldn't help clicking his tongue.
This was the weakness of borrowed power.
Although the total quantity of natural energy was extraordinarily vast and the scale of the attack was sufficiently magnificent, the energy had only been temporarily intercepted.
Uchiha Yoru lacked the control necessary to refine and condense that natural energy.
As a result, the attack's actual destructive power was clearly insufficient.
It was similar to a typhoon.
The total energy released by a typhoon was equivalent to dozens or even hundreds of mushroom bombs.
However, because the rate at which a typhoon released energy was twelve orders of magnitude lower than that of a mushroom bomb, the destruction caused by the two couldn't be compared at all.
For example, a mushroom bomb could destroy a skyscraper in an instant, while a typhoon couldn't even scratch it.
As long as one remained calm and wasn't frightened by the terrifying display of nature's might, they could calmly use ninjutsu to respond and rely on Water Release to resist the damage caused by the fireballs.
Completely unharmed, Yagura Karatachi tightly gripped his coral staff.
Using the hook to catch the edge of the water mirror, he pulled down fiercely, causing the figures of Uchiha Yoru and Ying to appear within its surface.
As the water mirror rotated again, Water Release copies of Uchiha Yoru and Ying rushed out from the mirror.
However, in the very next instant, Ying's copy disappeared with a miserable scream.
A copy of an Edo Tensei body wasn't tolerated by the laws of the shinobi world.
The remaining copy of Uchiha Yoru only managed to charge forward a few more steps.
Then its body twisted unnaturally before exploding into a splash of water.
The copy was unable to reproduce the natural energy within his meridians.
Without natural energy to restrain it, the dispersed chakra structure was nothing more than a natural bomb.
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