Chapter 272: Everything is a Choice of the Perfect Timeline

"Ugh~"

The Fourth Raikage spat out a mouthful of blood. Even with the protection of the Strongest Lightning Release Armor, the impact was so violent that his internal organs were displaced, his vision went black, and his left hand had lost all sensation, the arm completely twisted.

He had never imagined that one day he would be beaten to the brink of death by pure strength. No Chakra, no Bloodline Limit, nothing at all; this Tao Baibai simply possessed strength that had reached an unfathomable level.

Even a Tailed Beast could not possibly have such terrifying strength.

He slashed with his right hand, snapping his twisted left arm, and took the opportunity to use Lightning Body Flicker to create distance. But he hadn't gone more than a few steps before he spat out another mouthful of blood and collapsed, dejected.

Bai Cangshu ignored the Fourth Raikage; he was almost nauseated by the benevolence in Ping Zhongshi's eyes.

"I'm asking you, do you really think of yourself as Marika, huh?!"

Bai Cangshu had no interest in debating what was Most Benevolent and Most Virtuous. That was a matter with no objective standard, depending entirely on each person's moral level and biological nature; debating it was a complete waste of time.

But the fact that Ping Zhongshi was now so stubbornly immersed in a beautiful dream of making the world better, even while on the verge of losing his very 【Self】, truly made Bai Cangshu feel unpleasant.

Ping Zhongshi didn't know who Marika was at all, and he didn't care. He could feel Tao Baibai's killing intent toward him, but he didn't care about that either.

On the contrary, the overwhelming power Tao Baibai displayed, instantly crushing the Fourth Raikage, made him truly see the dawn of the arrival of the Golden Tree Era.

Miss Tianyi had once told him that to make the Golden Tree Era arrive, one would inevitably encounter great resistance, and that the entire world's order and power system would launch an attack against him.

That was a power that even the Hokage could not protect him from.

But the Hokage couldn't... Tao Baibai could!

Tsk.

Bai Cangshu felt bored. There was no possibility of communication with a guy immersed in a "martyr" mentality. Bai Cangshu applied force to his hand, preparing to kill Ping Zhongshi first, abandon this trial mission, and then find that woman and chop her down along with the Golden Tree.

At this moment, a golden light suddenly appeared from far away. Ping Zhongshi, held in Bai Cangshu's hand, produced a burst of strength out of thin air. He turned his head and saw that in the southern sky in the distance, a golden light lit up a corner of the sky.

"That is..."

Bai Cangshu carried Ping Zhongshi and walked in front of the Fourth Raikage. He raised his foot and stepped down ruthlessly.

Hum!

The air suddenly twisted, and the Fourth Raikage's body twisted and disappeared.

Bai Cangshu looked down at Uchiha Obito, who had appeared before him in a twist of space, killing intent permeating his voice.

"Uchiha Obito, have you retrieved your other eye?"

He dropped Ping Zhongshi and spread his hands. The moment that stance appeared, Uchiha Obito felt a cold, murderous intent completely envelop him.

Tao Baibai had already formed the intent to kill; he had to escape!

But Uchiha Obito tried several times and could not move at all. A will countless times stronger had appeared within his body.

He could only watch helplessly as his body remained in place.

"Young man, before you kill these people, could you listen to my benevolence..."

Extremely intense Chakra condensed in front of Uchiha Obito. The Yin Attribute Chakra representing Spirit energy and the Yang Attribute Chakra representing physical and life energy began to fuse.

Finally, a pitch-black ball appeared.

This pitch-black ball did not emit the intense gravitational pull that Pain displayed when using 【Chibaku Tensei】, but it made Bai Cangshu stop his movements.

Just by seeing this thing, he felt a strong sense of crisis. His cells, his body, were rejecting this thing.

That thing possessed terrifying lethality toward any living creature.

Yin-Yang Release: Truth-Seeking Ball...

This was one of the top forms of power manifestation in this world that almost touched upon energy control; it was a power that truly transcended the level of human ninjas.

Bai Cangshu stared at Uchiha Obito at this moment; the calmness in those Sharingan was completely different from Obito.

"Are you... the Sage of Six Paths?!"

——

Outside Konoha Village, the giant Golden Tree continued to grow, its height already approaching a thousand meters. The golden radiance shed by the tree covered almost several hundred kilometers in radius and continued to drift further away with the wind.

The ninjas and ordinary people of Konoha Hidden Village were all looking up, stunned at the scene that could be called a miracle.

Many who previously did not believe in the so-called Golden Order were now wavering.

Jiraiya stood at the village entrance, watching the golden radiance drift down. In a daze, he realized that this was no longer the scenery of Konoha.

Under this Golden Tree, there were no more embers, nor were there any new seedlings.

No matter how beautiful the Golden Tree Era depicted by that woman was, he could only see a pool of stagnant water.

Without 【Death】, and everything returning to the order of the 【Golden Order】, would the world really be better?

But he turned his head; a large number of ninjas in the village, including the Uchiha Clan, already had a golden luster radiating from their eyes.

This war had left Konoha in a state from which it was difficult to recover.

Perhaps that guy Orochimaru would like this so-called world without death... He gave a self-deprecating smile and returned to the village, feeling somewhat bored.

He had to hurry to find Minato Namikaze's son. Uchiha Shisui said that Uzumaki Naruto and their clan's Uchiha Sasuke had gone missing at the same time, and hinted that this most likely involved Tao Baibai and Tianyi.

At this moment, Uchiha Shisui had already left the village to track Tao Baibai, so he, naturally, had to go find Tianyi.

Jiraiya was quite swift. Ten kilometers outside the back mountain of Konoha, he saw the two people standing at the roots of the Golden Tree.

The red-haired 【Leren】 looked back at Jiraiya, while the woman further ahead ignored him completely. She just spoke to 【Leren】 on her own.

"Run, Mr. Leren."

Leren lowered his head, his face unable to hide his confusion and anger.

Clearly, their mission progress was very impressive; they had successfully used the Akatsuki organization's act of destroying Konoha to trigger a war, and in the war, they had absorbed many supplies for the Golden Tree.

At the same time, because of Tao Baibai's existence, a terrible commotion was caused, drawing the attention of the Ninja World away.

Furthermore, since the person bearing the Golden Order was a Plot Character related to Tao Baibai, the punishment for the divergence of the world line would not affect the two of them.

In his view, this was a miraculous strategy.

It was proof that Miss 【Tianyi】 was far stronger than those famous people in the space.

But such a Miss Tianyi had just told him that she had already trapped Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke inside the Golden Tree.

And eventually, they will use shackles to break the chains, spending a huge price to take one of them away from this world.

He completely does not understand what the purpose of doing this is; is it just because they want the half of the Nine-Tails inside Naruto, or is it that they want the fate that the two of them carry?

But everyone knows that once such a thing is done and the Child of the World suffers, the World Will will directly trigger a terrifying disaster.

At this very moment, this giant Golden Tree, which seems like a Miracle to the people of Konoha, is a death warrant for Heaven and Leren.

This represents that the Golden Order is very likely absorbing the power of those two Children of the World.

"Why, Miss Heaven, is it just because you don't want to offend that Tao Baibai?!"

"If we don't worry about him, he will very likely be killed by those Six Paths Level guys anyway..."

Leren has always acted as if he is very carefree and does not care much about benefits.

But at this very moment, he has lost his composure.

Heaven just lifts her head, looking at the Golden Tree that towers into the clouds, and sighs,

"So beautiful..."

She will not explain to Leren that all the decisions she makes contain absolutely no personal feelings; everything is a choice for the perfect timeline.

It is only because Mortals are too insignificant to see such distant and complex changes that there are always people who sigh—since ancient times, Heaven is high and difficult to question.

Heaven is actually not high, nor is it difficult; Heaven always flows amidst countless choices.

You must discard greed and make every choice well; only then can you reach the end.

It seems as if countless images appear before her eyes, and in every one of those images, there is a terrifying Monster cruelly smiling as it tears her to pieces.

Tao Baibai... what on earth are you, how could you be... so abnormal.

(End of this chapter)