Chapter 1000

At this hour, not at home—where on earth had she gone?

Two days ago, the third match.

"Next match: Xiang Lincheng versus Jiliang Miye."

As the randomly generated one-on-one list appeared on the big screen, Jiliang Miye's slightly regretful gaze drifted toward the distant Hyuga Neji, who seemed to share her feelings, but she immediately pulled herself together. Her opponent was a clansman of Hyuga Neji, and even the future "next head of the main family"—Miye had no reason to let her guard down. Perhaps this girl, several years younger than the Neji she had already crossed fists with once, might actually be stronger.

At the instant she leapt down from the stands and entered the arena, Miye instinctively glanced in Tsukuyomi Xiaomeng's direction, but unfortunately this time even Xiaomeng could only give her a helpless little shake of the head—seemed they had zero intel.

What was worth noting was Teacher Young Yuanzi. Miye's observation was sharp—she actually spotted an opening on Young Yuanzi, something absolutely impossible under normal circumstances. Why was she paying such close attention to her own opponent?

Does this girl called Xiang Lincheng have something special about her?

Or does the opponent have something worth Teacher Young Yuanzi's attention like that?

In the depths of Miye's unknown heart, she actually felt a touch of jealousy—the unhappiness of having her teacher's attention stolen away.

"I'm Jiliang Miye, from the Moon Ninja Village of Loulan." Using the self-introduction as a window, Miye began searching her opponent for a breakthrough point—this was what she did best.

"Xiang Lincheng, pleased to make your acquaintance." A simple reply, a great-clan-style ceremonial bow. In Miye's eyes, the other girl looked like a sheltered young lady of noble birth—no matter how elegant her bearing.

But for a ninja heading to the battlefield, it was all openings. Miye could even assert that on a real life-or-death battlefield, she could kill such an opponent sixty times in one minute.

"Are both sides ready? This is today's eighth match, and also the battle to decide the last person in the winners' bracket. The winner gets a precious day of rest, while the loser must continue with the elimination rounds tomorrow."

This match had someone from her own village, and someone with a very special status at that. Being a ninja born and raised in Konoha, the referee kindly reminded them.

Lin Cheng—or rather, Kaguya—merely nodded slightly. Her eyes were the Byakugan in its permanently activated state, an even higher evolved version, so Miye's strength and hidden cards had been seen through clearly by her from the very start. Young Yuanzi had put quite a bit of work into this little one—actually managing to lend the power of the Azure Dragon to another person. Her future growth might well be worth looking forward to, but for now—

"Then, the match begins!"

"Duang!"

The very instant the referee finished saying that, Miye, who had planned to strike first and take the enemy out within the first second to eliminate all surprises, felt an inexplicable pressure the moment she took her first step forward, as if a mountain had suddenly been pressed down on her.

She couldn't move—she couldn't even twitch a single finger!

How could this be?

Miye couldn't help but widen her eyes. Right now she was as if bound in place by nothing, the surrounding air having transformed into invisible chains.

Was this pressure coming from Xiang Lincheng?

She simply couldn't believe it!

"Gentle Fist·Eight Trigrams—Vacant Palm!"

Casually raising her hand, Kaguya only had to employ a tiny bit of her own Authority. To defeat Miye afterward, she only needed to use the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist.

Not wanting to make contact with anyone, she chose the "Vacant Palm," which had a relatively longer attack range among Gentle Fist techniques.

"What kind of joke is this—stop looking down on me!" The air ripples were visible to the naked eye, the trajectory of the eight palms perfectly clear. If she weren't bound, Miye believed a technique like this couldn't threaten her at all.

According to publicly available information, within the Hyuga clan, those who could use "Eight Trigrams Vacant Palm"—a technique demanding pinpoint precision in chakra output and control, along with abundant stamina—

were only the clan head Hyuga Hiashi and his twin brother Hyuga Neji's father Hizashi. The fact that Xiang Lincheng, still only at the level of a genin, could already employ Gentle Fist of this caliber was enough to demonstrate the opponent's talent.

Deep down, Miye already understood—this alone proved there was a gap between herself and her opponent.

But she simply refused to accept it!

She had clearly already escaped her former fate, clearly already undergone grueling training under my lord Young Yuanzi—so why, of all times, did it have to be now?!

"Dragon Pattern" Release!

Even though her body was bound, even though the palm wind that would finish her was already within arm's reach, Miye still refused to admit defeat. Accompanied by purple patterns bright enough to show through her clothing, in a single thought Miye fully unleashed the dragon patterns across her entire body—this was an act of deliberately stimulating the dragon-vein power within her, without restraint.

Just like the surging, violent source deep beneath Loulan, at this moment, centered on Miye, astonishing chakra erupted forth, and Kaguya's Eight Trigrams Vacant Palm vanished into it in an instant.

Her body regained movement. Twin blades, like twins, materialized from solid energy and were gripped in Miye's hands. Not only were the tattoos coursing with violent power, even her eyes had turned into purple pupils.