Chapter 177: The Crushing Defeat of the False Child of Prophecy

Feeling the pitch-black blade aura already upon his head, Nagato's spirit at this moment condensed to the limit; two pitch-black chakra rods appeared in his hands once more, directly propping them up above his head.

With a crack, the chakra rods were directly pressed until cracks appeared; Nagato only felt as if a great mountain was pressing down on his hands, his hand bones even emitted creaking sounds, his legs went soft, and his entire person suddenly knelt on one knee on the ground, directly knocking a huge depression into the ground, with cracks spreading out from his knees as the center, permeating ten-plus meters away.

"So strong... truly too strong! This is the crushing of pure power, speed, neural reaction, and physical quality!"

This was the first time Nagato and Uchiha Feiyu had collided head-on, unlike just before, where most of it was dodging, and even attacks were for the sake of gaining a chance to catch a breath.

But it was precisely this one collision that directly made Nagato understand the gap between himself and Uchiha Feiyu; even in a state where Sage Mode had no issues, if he fought Uchiha Feiyu head-on, he would not be his match for ten moves.

As for now... if he still dared to foolishly come at him head-on, he reckoned that after two moves, he would die very miserably!

Thinking of this, Uzumaki Nagato once again condensed chakra, opened his mouth, and a laser from the Asura Path instantly sprayed out from his mouth.

A violent bright light instantly blasted onto Uchiha Feiyu's head, only that laser did not have any pause and directly rushed out from Uchiha Feiyu's head; at the same time, Nagato felt his hands lighten—it turned out that Uchiha Feiyu's entire person had become intangible.

Not good!

His heart trembled; Nagato did not have the slightest hesitation and wanted to pull away and retreat again, however, at this time Uchiha Feiyu had already turned from intangible to tangible, similarly gently opening his mouth to spit out a thin beam of light.

Sage Art—Storm Release: Light Fang!

The tiny beam of light brushed past Nagato's ear; Nagato's body shook slightly, and turning his head, he saw that Immortal Shima, who was sitting on his shoulder, had a round hole in the center of her brow.

With a 'boom', white smoke rose; before that, Uchiha Feiyu had extended his hand, extremely quickly executing the ability of Spirit-Binding and Soul-Commanding, and grabbed a small Toad Soul Orb.

"Right, Immortal Fukasaku... we have returned, but what about Master Jiraiya, Yahiko, and Konan?"

Hearing Jiraiya's shout, Immortal Fukasaku's tears finally could not help but flow down, and he choked out:

"It was that damn Uchiha who did it; his strength far exceeded our imagination! Even Nagato, who developed Sage Mode, is far from being his opponent!"

Fukasaku nodded slightly and said:

"That is true; it is meaningless to go and scout for information now. I will Reverse Summon them over right now!"

After speaking, Immortal Fukasaku put his hands together, and amidst 'bang, bang, bang' sounds, the three of Jiraiya appeared on Mount Myoboku in a burst of white smoke.

"What?!"

However, very quickly, Jiraiya saw the corpse of Immortal Shima and immediately widened his eyes:

"Big Sister... how is this possible!"

When the white smoke dissipated, whether it was the Toad Immortal, or Nagato, or White Zetsu, all had already disappeared without a trace.

Jiraiya's expression changed drastically, and his whole person was stunned:

Following a 'bang' sound, Nagato only felt the scene before his eyes shift for a moment, and afterwards, he had already appeared on Mount Myoboku.

Nagato opened his mouth, looking at the grief-stricken Immortal Fukasaku, and could not say any complaints; although he had abandoned the Akatsuki base, what Immortal Fukasaku said was indeed reasonable—he was simply not Uchiha Feiyu's opponent.

"Shima!"

"Sorry... Nagato, under those circumstances, there really was no hope of victory; we could only retreat first to preserve our strength."

"Shima... was sacrificed precisely because of that guy!"

Looking at the soul orb in his hand, Uchiha Feiyu chuckled slightly, and not caring about much else, directly pressed it against his own forehead and began to read the memories of this toad.

A moment ago, the three of Jiraiya were still in Sunagakure gathering information, and the next second, the three of them appeared on Mount Myoboku together, immediately causing the three of them to have a look of confusion on their faces.

Immortal Fukasaku sighed deeply, ended the Two-Life Technique, jumped over from Nagato's shoulder, and hugged the corpse of Immortal Shima.

"That Uchiha... actually beat Nagato... and Nagato has the Rinnegan and Sage Art!"

……

The other toad immortal, Fukasaku, shouted loudly, a look of grief appearing on his face, as if he had made up his mind, and a pair of toad hands once again formed a seal.

"Was I Reverse Summoned to Mount Myoboku? But it doesn't matter; with this toad's soul, I will soon be able to find the location of Mount Myoboku!"

"No, how did that guy find the Akatsuki organization! Where did his information come from?"

"Perhaps there is a traitor in the Akatsuki organization... however, his strength indeed far exceeds mine; even with the help of Afei and the two immortals, I am simply not his opponent... now that Immortal Shima has been sacrificed, I fear it will be even harder to resist."

Nagato said with a dejected expression; ever since learning from Jiraiya and developing a bit of the power of the Rinnegan, Nagato had never lost as miserably as he did today, and his whole person looked very shaken.

After all, although the current Nagato had not developed to the point of considering himself a god like in the original work, at the beginning he also felt that he had destiny upon him, and even believed that he was the legendary Child of Prophecy.

As a result, first, the massive bombshell exploded that the Rinnegan was not his own and he was merely a product of a conspiracy, and subsequently, he was beaten black and blue by Uchiha Feiyu, who taught him a lesson; for a time, he naturally felt the confusion of his self-positioning collapsing.

"I am going to see the Great Toad Immortal; Shima's funeral arrangements still need to be handled. Little Nagato, you don't need to be too anxious either; rest and recover on Mount Myoboku first!"

Immortal Fukasaku felt grief in his heart, and after barely comforting Nagato with a few words, he took the corpse of Immortal Shima and headed toward the palace where the Great Toad Immortal resided.

"It seems that that Uchiha knows us very deeply, but we know nothing about that Uchiha Feiyu; until now, I still don't know how he intends to destroy this world?"

Jiraiya sighed long and hard; the information they gathered in Sunagakure could not be called useless, but it could only be said to have no great significance.

Besides knowing clearly that Uchiha Feiyu did indeed exist in Sunagakure as an Anbu member pulling strings from behind the scenes, knowing that the other party did indeed possess the Reanimation Jutsu, and also knowing that the other party had once used Wood Release ninjutsu to bury tens of thousands of the Wind Daimyo's army, the news they could obtain was pitifully little.

These pieces of news were not useless, but the two most important points—Uchiha Feiyu's strength and his purpose—had never been clearly scouted out; for Jiraiya, this could only count as a failed intelligence exploration.

After Jiraiya, Nagato, and the others were dejected for a moment, they quickly adjusted their moods and began to exchange information.

Jiraiya's information goes without saying, but after hearing the process of the battle with Nagato, this Mount Myoboku toad immortal fell into astonishment again.

"Space-Time Ninjutsu... Sage Mode... Rinnegan... is this guy really an Uchiha?"

"And when fighting, he relied entirely on taijutsu... uh... I just feel it doesn't fit his abilities at all!"

What Space-Time Ninjutsu, Sage Mode, Rinnegan—aren't these all moves his disciples are good at? It feels like an upgraded version of his two disciples!

It was just that what he used at the end was taijutsu, or rather, ninja body technique, which made this toad immortal somewhat unable to handle it; although Jiraiya was not like those ordinary ninjas who looked down on taijutsu and worshipped ninjutsu, whether it was Sage Mode, the Rinnegan, or Space-Time Ninjutsu, they undoubtedly did not match the style of taijutsu.

"Perhaps it is because I simply wasn't qualified to force out his stronger power! But his ninja body technique is indeed very terrifying; once pure speed and power reach a certain level, it can almost be called invincible and flawless!"

"Is that so... that is true; when Uchiha Feiyu was in Konoha, he was not known for the power of the Sharingan, but rather inherited Hatake Sakumo's White Fang sword style, and was good at that kind of simple, direct, yet flawless ninja body technique and sword technique."

In ninja battles, this type that relies on crushing through basic quality can be said to be the rarest and also the most difficult opponent to deal with, just like the successive Raikage; even if the information is completely leaked, so what? They are different from ordinary ninjas; they simply have no so-called weaknesses!

Just as Jiraiya, Nagato, and the group were racking their brains thinking about how to deal with Uchiha Feiyu, a messenger toad came hopping over:

"Master Jiraiya, Master Nagato, the Great Toad Immortal has something to discuss with you!"

"Oh? Does the Great Toad Immortal have another prophecy?"

Jiraiya was slightly stunned and asked; the messenger toad shook its head:

"I don't know either, Lord Jiraiya, you had better go ask the Great Toad Immortal yourself!"

Jiraiya nodded slightly, led Nagato toward the Great Toad Immortal's palace, and saw the Great Toad Immortal sitting on the throne in the center of the palace.

Unlike the usual Great Toad Immortal who always looked half-asleep, sitting on the throne with eyes half-closed, this time the Great Toad Immortal's eyes were open and full of spirit; the moment Nagato and Jiraiya walked through the gate, he looked at the two of them.

"It's little Nagato and little Jiraiya! You have finally come."

The Great Toad Immortal spoke with clear articulation, which surprised both Jiraiya and Nagato; one had to know that the Great Toad Immortal's usual behavior—whether one called it unfathomable or senile—was never this direct, and without repeated reminders, he simply wouldn't recognize the two.

This current state of clear-headedness and bright eyes was, in fact, a very rare occurrence.

However, Nagato and Jiraiya did not harbor much suspicion, and Jiraiya spoke first:

"Great Toad Immortal, have you seen fragments of the future again, and thus summoned us once more?"

The Great Toad Immortal shook his head and said indifferently:

"Apologies, Jiraiya, foreseeing the future through dreams is entirely a matter of luck; as for now, I have not had any dreams regarding the future... I estimate I won't have such prophetic dreams in the future either."

"Ah?! Why is that? Great Toad Immortal?"

"Hehe, after all, dead toads don't dream... perhaps once I reach the Pure Land, it might be possible to have new dreams?"

"What!! Could it be that your lifespan... has come to an end, Great Toad Immortal?"

"Ah... it is about to end. Although I am called an Immortal, I have only lived longer than ordinary toads; it is impossible to truly be immortal."

The Great Toad Immortal nodded slightly and rambled on:

"Speaking of lifespan, I still envy that snake and that slug a little... the Slug Immortal's lifespan is almost infinite, and that old hag, the White Snake Immortal, has a racial talent for constant reincarnation; although she cannot be immortal either, her lifespan is still much higher than mine..."

Jiraiya looked at the rambling Great Toad Immortal, thinking he had entered the stage of a final burst of energy before death, and could not help but feel a surge of sorrow:

"Great Toad Immortal, rest assured, even if you die, I will inherit your will and absolutely will not let that guy Uchiha Feiyu destroy the Ninja World!"

"Immortal, you may go in peace!"

Hearing Jiraiya's words, the Great Toad Immortal was slightly stunned, and a strange expression appeared on his face:

"There is no need to be so hasty; wait until I have finished my instructions. In any case, I can still live for another thirty or forty years; it is not yet time to go to the Pure Land so soon."

Jiraiya was stunned for a moment, looked up at the Great Toad Immortal, his expression blank and his voice stiff:

"Thirty... thirty or forty years? Great Toad Immortal, aren't you about to die?"

"Yes, there are only thirty or forty years left... I am an old toad who has lived for thousands of years; thirty or forty years to me is no different from a month or two, isn't that about to die?"

"Ah... hehe... well, Immortal, I might not be able to inherit your will... I think I will probably die before you, Immortal!"

Jiraiya is already over 40 years old now, and the lifespan of a ninja has always been short, even shorter than that of an ordinary person.

Madara Uchiha, who clung to life in his later years, actually only lived to be eighty or ninety; if not for the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path extending his life, he might have kicked the bucket at 70.

In another thirty or forty years, Jiraiya will be seventy or eighty; he does not think he can really live to that age.

"Rest assured, you will not die before me."

The Great Toad Immortal chuckled and turned his gaze to Nagato:

"Little Nagato... you are also Jiraiya's disciple and were once a part of the Child of Prophecy... but now the prophecy has long since become very chaotic, and I cannot guarantee that you will be able to defeat that Uchiha."

"As of now, you have already pushed the power of the Rinnegan to the limit, and even the Uzumaki Clan's Sage Body, Sage Art, and the external force created by Hashirama Cell have all been utilized... to put it bluntly, you have already reached or even exceeded your potential limit."

(End of this chapter)