Chapter 280: Scarlet Rot, The Exit of Heaven's Will

Pfft!

Emerald blood sprayed like tree sap; Senju Tobirama, reanimated by Edo Tensei, was completely unmatched. He gripped his long sword tightly with both hands, tearing through space in an instant to pierce through the body of Tianyi.

Seeing that green sap, he turned his head—this was another clone.

This woman's cloning ability was even more bizarre than the wood clones of his elder brother, Senju Hashirama; before shattering them, it was impossible to judge whether it was the real body.

This woman possessed a special Chakra, a presence even purer than the Sage Chakra of Senju Hashirama after he entered Sage Mode.

Senju Tobirama turned indifferently, looking once more toward the back of the Golden Tree.

There, a massive wooden figure stood tall amidst a forest of trees that resembled an ancient, desolate jungle, while opposite him was a giant monster that looked like a mass of black fog, with golden radiance flowing within it.

This monster had a slender build, taller than the wooden figure, and its movements were eerie; every action radiated a terrifying pressure.

Seeing that his elder brother had still not sealed this thing, Senju Tobirama knew that it was likely more troublesome than an ordinary Tailed Beast.

Perhaps he should use that technique to coordinate with his brother to defeat this thing first before going to find the woman's true body.

As he pondered, suddenly, a cold hand abruptly pierced through his chest from behind.

The reanimated body shattered instantly.

Damn it!

Senju Tobirama's pupils trembled as he looked behind him, only to see that the woman he had just pierced through the waist with his blade had not shattered and vanished like the other clones; instead, she was standing behind him, her palms joined like a blade, having run through his body.

The opponent's hands were wrapped in intense natural energy, a power that made it difficult for the reanimated body to repair itself after being shattered.

In an instant, he understood this woman's battle plan.

She had actually disguised her true body as a clone and exploited his habit of seeing green blood whenever he shattered one, making him believe this one was also a clone.

This choice was no different from licking blood off a blade; he was certain that this woman could not track the speed of his Flying Raijin Jutsu.

In other words, if his previous sword strike had hit a vital point like the throat, the opponent might truly have been killed instantly by him!

Tianyi lowered her eyelids and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

She knew very well that her frontal combat ability was insufficient; although it could be considered decent within the 【Bing】 rank, facing these two powerful reanimated Hokage simultaneously was already beyond her limits.

However...

The moment she withdrew her right hand, the intense natural energy instantly caused most of Senju Tobirama's body to collapse.

Tianyi exhaled a breath of turbid air; she rarely put herself in such a situation where she needed to engage in close-quarters combat—this could probably be considered the most disastrous outcome.

But thinking of the hundreds of timelines where she had seen the terrifying posture of Tao Baibai, she was certain that this trajectory was already the most perfect choice.

Although she did not understand where Tao Baibai's uniqueness lay, the fact that he could tear everything apart with brute force in every timeline, regardless of her various choices and operations, was something that could not be explained by simple strength alone.

Bang!

The natural energy exploded. Tianyi dropped a seed, and under the irrigation of the natural energy, it rapidly grew into a four-to-five-meter-tall man-eating flower, swallowing the remains of Senju Tobirama.

She looked at the 【Clow Card: The Mirror】 in her hand; its energy was nearly exhausted. Relying solely on the incomplete Elden Beast she had copied, she could not possibly defeat Senju Hashirama completely.

She watched the battle from afar; at this moment, dragging out the time was to her advantage.

Within the Golden Tree, both Children of the World were being baptized by the Golden Order; as long as she could make at least one of them fully accept the Golden Order, she could then forcibly take the other away using shackles.

Then, the plot line of this world would completely collapse, her losses could be compensated, and at that time, she could naturally withdraw from this world.

Whatever Tao Baibai chose to do afterward would have nothing to do with her.

Boom!

The ground exploded violently as a giant snake nearly a hundred meters long burst from the earth, coiling around the Elden Beast, and Senju Hashirama instantly pressed his hands together.

【Sage Art: Gate of the Great God】!

A massive red torii gate fell from the sky, pinning the Elden Beast beneath it.

And Senju Hashirama did not stop his movements; intense Sage Chakra condensed in an instant.

【True Several Thousand Hands: Top Transformed Buddha】!

A thousand-meter-tall giant Buddha statue began to appear with a roar; its height was already approaching the still-growing Golden Tree.

This was the power of the top-tier ninja who had once suppressed an entire era.

Watching this scene, Tianyi could only tilt her head back; this was the manifestation of absolute individual greatness, a power she absolutely could not contend with in her current normal state.

Bang, bang-bang-bang-bang...

Countless giant fists fell from the sky, attacking the Elden Beast and the roots of the Golden Tree violently; Senju Hashirama seemed to intend to dismantle the Golden Tree directly.

That kind of attack caused the earth to shake continuously; even Konoha, ten kilometers away, felt as if it were at the epicenter.

The copied phantom of the Elden Beast shattered with a crack after only a moment, and Tianyi's Rare and Peerless 【Clow Card: The Mirror】 dissipated from her hand along with it.

At the same time, behind the Golden Tree, an incomparably huge white snake appeared from the underground at a slow pace. On both sides of the white snake's head were long whiskers; although it was a snake, its movements gave no sense of coldness, but were instead very elegant.

This was completely different from the purple-black giant snake coiling around the Elden Beast. This white snake was likely over a thousand meters long, emerging from the ground and winding upward from the back of the Golden Tree.

While Senju Hashirama was bombarding the Golden Tree with terrifying attacks, the golden radiance was concentrated entirely on the front, and barriers lit up one after another, only to shatter one after another.

The white snake, however, silently penetrated all the barriers; its body was wrapped in an aura that felt almost like nature itself.

By the time Tianyi noticed, this giant white snake had already reached the top of the Golden Tree.

The branches and leaves at the top of the Golden Tree spread very far, covering nearly thousands of meters of the sky, and they continued to extend outward. Those golden specks of light drifted toward the distance; that was the Grace of the Golden Tree.

Every creature touched by the golden specks of light would receive that special power's blessing and eventually convert to the Golden Order.

The White Snake Sage felt its scales wriggle, shaking off the golden radiance; it would not accept this power.

The white snake was at the top of the Golden Tree, its mouth opening bit by bit until it seemed as if it were about to swallow the world.

In Tianyi's eyes, this scene seemed to carry a unique metaphorical symbol.

"A great snake gnawing on the Golden Tree—is this a metaphor that my schemes in this world will ultimately fail...?"

In Norse mythology, the World Tree is eventually gnawed upon by the 【Black Dragon Nidhogg】 and countless snakes; Nidhogg is also known as the serpent that devours the world.

Tianyi slowly took off her mask, then threw it away, and began to unfasten the clothes on her chest.

"Facing this kind of power, as expected, I can only head toward this ending."

After Tianyi took off the clothes on her upper body, a bewitching flower was outlined on her jade-like body.

The petals of that flower appeared the color of flesh and blood; the concentric circles of petals were not merely outlined on Tianyi's chest, but rather her own flesh and blood were being corrupted by the erosion, transforming into the shape of those petals.

Surrounding the petals was a circle of mysterious incantations; that was a seal from the Infinite Dimensional Space.

At this very moment, Tianyi pressed her hand against the seal on her chest.

"Seal... release."

The power of Scarlet Rot began to bloom, instantly emptying Tianyi's intense natural energy, and the tree world beneath her feet, along with the field irrigated by her natural energy and plant Magic, also began to wither simultaneously.

All life was being eroded.

Whoosh~

A gale whistled, and a figure emerged from the wind, looking at Tianyi's exposed upper body with a playful smile and keen interest.

Strictly speaking, it was looking at the Scarlet Rot on her chest.

"A nice tattoo, I like it very much~"

A finger, burning hot to the touch, instantly pressed onto the seal pattern of the Scarlet Rot on her chest, and the next moment, amidst Tao Baibai's cruel smile.

A golden Dodon Ray burst out from his body.

Pfft!

Amidst the spraying fresh blood, this time, Tianyi finally bled bright red, scalding blood, but very quickly, that blood also became rotten and foul-smelling.

Bai Cangshu's figure naturally fell backward and dissipated in the wind.

Boom!

The power of Scarlet Rot condensed into a gigantic flower, contracting on the ground.

Senju Hashirama sensed an incomparably evil and terrifying aura appear, and looking down to see that bewitching flower, he extended hundreds of Buddha hands from his thousand-meter Buddha form, each Buddha hand inscribed with the character 【Seat】.

【Kuan-an Entering the Marketplace with Bliss-Bestowing Hands】

He intended to attempt to seal this thing away directly.

But before the Buddha hands could even get close, the Scarlet Rot Flower had already bloomed.

The destructive power of the Scarlet Rot was suddenly released indiscriminately toward everything in the surroundings.

(End of this chapter)