What the Sunagakure and Konoha ninja didn't know was that whenever Uchiha Yoru went all out, his senses could extend across an unbelievable range through the spread of natural energy.
Therefore, he heard the discussions on both sides and felt deeply disappointed.
The Sunagakure ninja were far too cautious.
Even after falling into complete despair, they still didn't rush forward and fight with their lives on the line.
Did they really intend to wait until he became weak before launching a sneak attack?
The corner of Uchiha Yoru's mouth curled upward beneath his mask.
This volcanic eruption would last for quite a while. Once he was exhausted and pushed close to his limit, perhaps the Sunagakure ninja really would charge forward and ambush him.
Then he could kill every last one of them and settle this karmic connection.
As the tribulation progressed and time passed, Uchiha Yoru's perception of karma became increasingly distinct.
He could already distinguish the origins of his most important karmic ties.
Unexpectedly, whenever he wore the identity of Zhurong, the karmic threads differed from the tangled and complicated ones connected to his original identity.
His karma with Sunagakure would rise to become his primary karmic connection.
Next came his karma with the Fourth Mizukage, followed by his karma with Konoha.
Meanwhile, all his other karmic threads entered a frozen state.
They became translucent or even disappeared entirely from sight.
Because of the earlier volcano and his recent actions, Zhurong had established a new karmic connection with the River Capital.
In addition, many scattered and fragmented karmic threads were slowly forming.
The manifestations of karma were truly fascinating.
Since the karmic relationships tied to the Zhurong identity were simple and clearly defined, Uchiha Yoru wanted to try severing the most important karmic thread among them and see what new changes would appear.
Unfortunately, the Sunagakure ninja seemed completely terrified and showed no intention of attacking.
Therefore, Uchiha Yoru focused his attention on the battle against the tsunami.
The second tsunami truly wasn't much.
After being struck by two formations of Chariots of Kagutsuchi, it was easily dealt with.
However, Uchiha Yoru had used the minimum amount of strength.
Unlike with the first wave, he hadn't completely erased the enormous surge.
As a result, waves roughly two meters high still rushed into the harbor.
The seawater flooded the low-lying areas of the River Capital and flowed backward into the river channel.
Many houses, docks, and ships along both banks were damaged.
Farmland beside the river was also submerged by seawater, causing considerable property losses.
Just as many people began to think Uchiha Yoru might be running out of strength, the distant volcano underwent another change.
After the volcano erupted, the column of smoke was red.
It quickly dimmed into pure black, then gradually continued turning white.
Many experienced residents and ship captains understood what this meant.
It was an underwater volcanic eruption, and the crater was located beneath the surface of the sea.
When the volcano's eruptive force weakened, the seawater would once again flood the crater.
The seawater would absorb magma, volcanic rock, and other materials, while the evaporated steam became the primary component of the smoke column.
Then a dazzling burst of light illuminated the shadows beneath the volcanic cloud.
The volcanic smoke column was replaced by a brilliant crimson fountain of lava.
An even more violent eruption of the underwater volcano had begun.
Magma and fiery rain shot into the sky at high speed.
The dense rain of fire dyed the volcanic cloud a terrifying dark red.
Then the dazzling drops of lava began falling, and the world suddenly resembled hell.
Even more destructive were the volcanic bombs dragging black smoke behind them.
Carrying an aura of annihilation, they descended from the sky in swarms.
Standing upon the surface of the sea, Uchiha Yoru smiled helplessly.
"I knew this task would be challenging."
"But this level of difficulty is genuinely troublesome."
After speaking, he brought his hands together.
The Ring of Zhurong abruptly expanded to its absolute limit.
Countless runes danced across the sky, completely enveloping him.
As one golden ring of light after another appeared and golden runes rose brilliantly into the air, the light surrounding Uchiha Yoru became increasingly spherical.
In the end, it resembled a golden sun that had fallen onto the sea.
Dazzling and soul-stirring.
At this moment, Uchiha Yoru's Sage Art had also finished accumulating power and could finally unleash its greatest might.
Sage Art: Fire Spirit: Blazing Sun Swords.
Countless beams of golden light erupted from the sun and pierced into the volcanic clouds.
They struck the magma and volcanic bombs flying through the sky one after another, detonating them into masses of fire.
The golden swords of light and dense explosions transformed the dark-red volcanic cloud above Uchiha Yoru into gold.
It reflected the sun upon the sea, creating an atmosphere of absolute holiness.
Light and gold were objects of humanity's most primal worship.
Amid this hellish disaster, ordinary people had completely lost any possibility of escaping.
After struggling desperately and finally abandoning all hope, they witnessed a golden miracle.
Naturally, they placed their hopes upon the sun floating over the sea.
And thus, faith was born.
Uchiha Yoru, who was fully focused on intercepting magma and volcanic bombs, suddenly felt his mind become sharper.
His will also became firmer and more concentrated.
Because of this inexplicable enhancement, the difficulty of intercepting the volcanic debris decreased drastically.
His accuracy approached one hundred percent, while the amount of power he consumed was greatly reduced.
Yet Uchiha Yoru felt no joy.
Instead, he was utterly horrified.
An inexplicable power had appeared at such a crucial moment and actively strengthened him.
It would undoubtedly alter his condition at a decisive point and might even influence the path he chose in the future.
How could he not feel alarmed and suspicious when faced with an unknown change carrying such serious consequences?
However, Uchiha Yoru had no choice.
Now that he was confronting the volcanic eruption directly, he was already riding a tiger and couldn't dismount.
He absolutely couldn't abandon everything and retreat, because the consequences would be even more severe.
The greatest effort he could make was to divide off a portion of his mind and carefully sense and investigate this power.
He needed to determine its source, where it came from, and how it produced its strengthening effect.
This wasn't difficult.
He soon discovered even more wondrous and fragile golden threads appearing beside his karmic connections.
They surrounded him and transmitted a unique form of spiritual energy.
This spiritual energy could merge into his Purple Mansion world without the slightest obstruction.
He could also command it effortlessly.
Controlling it was even more convenient than controlling his own spiritual power.
Curious, Uchiha Yoru traced one of the golden threads backward.
After the connection broke and reformed several times, he saw a person.
The man wore standard clothing from the Land of Wind and lay upon the roof of a damaged house.
With both hands clasped together, he muttered continuously.
"God, please bless me and allow me to survive this disaster safely."
Uchiha Yoru froze briefly.
He continued exploring another thread and found a second person.
This one was a sailor.
He stood aboard a grounded ship with both fists clenched, gazing intoxicatedly at the golden sun and golden swords of light.
His heart was filled with reverence toward a god and hope for survival.
Uchiha Yoru became increasingly skilled at exploring the threads, and his speed grew faster and faster.
He saw one person after another.
In the end, he confirmed that these golden threads were lines of faith, while the strange spiritual energy they transmitted was the power of faith.
The people of the River Capital were worshiping and relying upon him as a god!
Uchiha Yoru immediately realized that faith represented a major crisis for him.
It contained enormous dangers and unimaginable opportunities.
At the same time, it was also a major choice.
Should he abandon faith and follow the path of the Natural Immortal Dao?
Or should he accept faith, shoulder its responsibilities, and walk the divine path of heaven and earth?
In the shinobi world, neither option seemed particularly good.
The sages of the Immortal Dao were ignorant and confused, with an uncertain road ahead.
The gods of the divine path had been massacred and met miserable ends.
Faced with two options that both seemed less than ideal, Uchiha Yoru made his decision without the slightest hesitation.
Hah.
Only children make choices.
I want them both.
The power of faith was chaotic and dangerous, but what did that have to do with Uchiha Yoru?
The benefits and risks of faith all belonged to the Natural Sage Zhurong!
However, the dangers still had to be reduced as much as possible.
The danger of faith probably originated from its disorder.
As a special type of spiritual energy, the power of faith could merge seamlessly into the Purple Mansion world—in other words, Uchiha Yoru's spiritual world—and become part of it.
But the information carried within it wasn't unified.
Some people prayed for him to protect their lives.
Some begged him to protect their property.
Others simply believed he was great and worshiped him.
These countless different prayers would naturally produce irreconcilable chaos.
If they could be unified at the source, things would certainly improve greatly.
Uchiha Yoru began attempting more operations.
Since he could follow the threads of faith and obtain information from the believers, then he should also be able to transmit information back to them.
At this moment, the thought process confronting the natural disaster had completely transformed into that of the Natural Sage Zhurong.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Yoru's own consciousness withdrew and began considering how to use the power of faith on Zhurong's behalf.
After the eruption of fiery rain subsided, another tsunami came rolling forward.
This wave was even more violent and ferocious.
From far away, it had already formed white surging breakers that scattered spray under the sea wind.
The waves were illuminated by golden firelight, as though their crests had been edged in gold.
The spray resembled rising flames.
The tsunami surged across the dark sea.
With the crimson smoke column behind it, it advanced amid roaring thunder, majestic and terrifying.
At this point, even the Sunagakure and Konoha ninja sensed the danger.
Aside from several Kage-level ninja, no one dared remain on the sea or even near the shore.
They retreated with all their strength.
Once the ninja withdrew, the surface of the sea became empty.
The three Kage-level Sunagakure ninja finally noticed her.
A green coat marked with the character for "gamble" fluttered in the wind, making her magnificent chest appear even more imposing.
Chiyo and Pakura immediately confirmed her identity.
"Tsunade is actually in the River Capital!"
"What conspiracy is Konoha plotting?"
Ebizō looked somewhat doubtful and asked uncertainly, "Is that really Tsunade?"
"Could she be a disguised Konoha ninja?"
Chiyo snorted coldly.
"Hmph. That's definitely her."
"Even if someone wanted to disguise themselves as her, no one would make it so... so enormous."
"How shameless!"
Pakura clicked her tongue twice and agreed.
"Senior Chiyo is right."
"That's truly excessive!"
Tsunade naturally sensed the gazes of the three people.
However, she ignored them and continued staring at the sun ahead.
She merely pushed her chest forward slightly in a subtle motion, making her posture appear even more upright.
Her movement was concealed with perfect subtlety.
It immediately enraged Sunagakure's two top female ninja.
Their eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
Had the situation been more appropriate, they would absolutely have taught that shameless woman a vicious lesson.
Although Tsunade hadn't returned to Konoha for many years, the medical system she had established continued functioning.
At every moment, it accumulated enormous prestige for her.
As long as Tsunade changed her mind, she could immediately return to Konoha.
At that time, not only would no one hold her responsible for leaving the village, she might instantly become the next Hokage—and the first female Kage in the shinobi world.
Pakura became eager to try.
She bit her pink lower lip with her pearly teeth and asked Chiyo, "Senior Chiyo, can the three of us kill that cow if we work together?"
"If we can kill her here, that would be ideal."
Chiyo was tempted.
Unfortunately, her experience from the previous war and her rational judgment immediately told her it was impossible.
She shook her head regretfully.
"No."
"We can't do it."
"The three of us together could certainly defeat her, but killing her would be impossible."
Then she explained to the unconvinced Pakura.
"She is unquestionably the greatest medical ninja."
Pakura didn't understand what being the greatest medical ninja truly meant.
She retorted stubbornly, "So what if she's a medical ninja?"
"Could she survive even after being steamed into a dried corpse?"
Chiyo couldn't help chuckling.
Even Ebizō, despite his gloomy mood, smiled faintly.
"As the first medical ninja capable of fighting on the front lines, she survived the previous war through her unstoppable monstrous strength and a healing speed that made her nearly impossible to kill."
"Pakura, you cannot steam Tsunade into a dried corpse."
"The speed at which you evaporate her body's moisture is simply slower than the speed at which she restores herself to health."
Chiyo said regretfully, "The only thing capable of slowing Tsunade's recovery is powerful poison."
"But she is an expert in antidotes."
"There is fundamentally no toxin capable of harming her."
Pakura was completely stunned.
"Such a monster actually exists?"
"Senior Chiyo, how did you fight a monster like that in the past?"
Chiyo sighed deeply.
"We used enough puppets to delay the rate at which she destroyed them."
"We also used enough varieties of poison to force her to constantly detoxify herself, exhausting her chakra and the medicine she carried."
Chiyo stopped speaking.
Pakura couldn't help asking, "And then?"
"Then?"
Chiyo replied helplessly, "Then we could only force her to retreat."
"We could never kill her."
At that moment, the surface of the sea suddenly became brilliantly illuminated.
Golden light shone upon everyone.
Countless flaming chariots charged out of the sun and pierced through the enormous tsunami like long arrows, blasting open a gigantic gap in its center.
Unlike the previous head-on collision, this time the flaming chariots chose a strategy of breaking through the center before expanding toward both sides.
Once the massive gap appeared in the middle of the tsunami, the flaming chariots split into two groups.
They entered the still-intact waves on both sides and destroyed the tsunami section by section, breaking the seawater apart.
This miracle-like scene entered the eyes of countless people throughout the River Capital.
The power of faith immediately surged.
Within Uchiha Yoru's perception, it formed another kind of tsunami.
When the tide of spiritual energy became powerful enough, he actually sensed chakra within it.
Although the proportion was extremely small, it had become a form of contamination that could no longer be ignored.
Uchiha Yoru understood that he couldn't delay any longer.
He had to make a change.
Otherwise, the faith created by the Earth Tribulation would become the root cause of his complete failure.
Uchiha Yoru extended a spiritual hand and gathered all the threads of faith converging within his Purple Mansion.
Then he used spiritual energy to simulate an illusory figure and spoke through the threads.
"I am... the righteous deity of the southern fire spirit. My name is Zhurong. All who receive my protection must chant my true name."
"All who believe in my name shall receive supreme courage and face disaster without retreating even half a step."
Uchiha Yoru was dumbfounded.
He had only spoken the first two words.
Everything that followed had been said by the Heart Ape that surfaced within the Purple Mansion.
The earliest heart-form to appear had actually gained partially independent intelligence after being nourished by the power of faith.
It seized control of the threads from Uchiha Yoru and smoothly addressed the believers throughout the River Capital.
As the Heart Ape's words spread outward, the threads of faith suddenly became much clearer.
The spiritual energy related to courage and perseverance increased explosively.
In a certain sense, its purity improved greatly.
However, to Uchiha Yoru, this nearly pure spirit of courage and determination was highly poisonous.
He absolutely couldn't absorb it.
Otherwise, it would inevitably cause a spiritual deviation, making his entire personality increasingly inclined toward taking risks and willingly paying enormous costs.
In other words, he would become reckless.
That was unacceptable.
Uchiha Yoru had no choice.
He brought the threads of faith into the Purple Mansion world and threw all of them at the Heart Ape occupying the southern volcano.
After obtaining the threads, the monkey greedily devoured the power of faith.
It rapidly grew stronger.
In almost the blink of an eye, its body doubled in size.
The Heart Ape scratched its ears and cheeks in delight.
It even rolled around on the ground to express its excitement.
Meanwhile, the other four heart-forms faintly united against the continuously growing Heart Ape, maintaining a basic balance.
Ultimately, the Heart Ape was still part of Uchiha Yoru.
As long as the balance wasn't broken, its growth was equivalent to the growth of Uchiha Yoru's own spirit.
He discovered that as his spiritual power increased, his control over his body, chakra, and natural energy improved enormously.
Dealing with the tsunami became increasingly effortless.
Even the explosive power of the Chariots of Kagutsuchi increased greatly under his control.
Uchiha Yoru couldn't help taking a deep breath.
The divine path truly had some substance to it.
...
Pakura stared blankly for a long time.
Only after the tsunami directly ahead had completely collapsed and the flaming chariots stopped appearing did she finally recover.
After taking a deep breath, Pakura said to Chiyo, "Senior Chiyo, this person's strength is continuing to increase."
"I think we should retreat."
Chiyo silently nodded.
"You're right."
"Remaining here won't provide us with any more intelligence."
"It will only increase our risk for no reason."
"Let's go, little brother."
At this moment, Ebizō's entire body radiated dejection.
His confidence had been destroyed.
He said nothing and merely nodded in silence.
Sunagakure's three Kage-level ninja withdrew.
The other Sunagakure ninja followed them and left as well.
They didn't even leave behind a single three-man squad.
Sunagakure had established an outpost in the River Capital.
Naturally, the people there would gather and report all subsequent information regarding the incident.
There was no bonus chapter because it hasn't been finished yet.
The bonus chapter will be released early tomorrow morning.
Although I'm a little embarrassed, I'll shamelessly ask for votes in advance.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)