Chapter 282: For the Greater Good

【You have killed White Snake Sage, obtained 2800 Dimension Points】

【You have obtained D-rank Singularity *1】

【White Snake Sage and Ryuchi Cave related faction quests are being partially removed; some quest lines will be unable to close the loop】

A purple Drop Card condensed from beneath the giant white snake's head.

【You have obtained Drop Card (Purple) *1】

【Killing Intent Wave has been upgraded, current: lv3 (1074/1200)】

Pfft~

The purple Killing Intent Wave burned fiercely once again on Bai Cangshu's body surface; the color of that wave was already nearing red.

Bai Cangshu could foresee that when Killing Intent Wave breaks through to lv4, it might be the moment this powerful ability crosses the boundary once more; by then, he would very likely be directly swallowed by the Killing Intent Wave, but at the same time, his power would also break through the current threshold.

At the very least, by then, purely from the perspective of energy mastery, even without leveraging the soul power within his body, just by relying on the Qi of that intensity from a lv4 Killing Intent Wave, it would be entirely sufficient to step into the 【Strong】 tier.

Bai Cangshu pressed the white snake's huge remains into the gap at the base of the Golden Tree; the surroundings were scattered with the curse of Scarlet Rot, and because that woman had bloomed the Scarlet Rot Flower, almost everything within a two-kilometer radius had become barren.

If the Golden Tree hadn't already grown to a height exceeding a thousand meters, with underground roots extending who knows how far, I fear the Golden Tree would also have been killed by this curse of Scarlet Rot at this moment.

Squish!

The white snake's headless, giant remains touched the roots of the Golden Tree, and intense golden radiance began to emanate, because the Greater Will had not yet descended, and the concept of 【Death】 had not yet disappeared.

What the Golden Tree is doing now is almost like snatching "customers" from the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss of this world, absorbing various intense life forces, and then distributing them in the form of Grace.

Everyone who receives the Golden Tree's Grace becomes a subject of the Golden Order; after these people die, they no longer enter the Yellow Springs and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, but instead, in the form of 【Return to the Tree】, they return to the Golden Tree to complete the cycle.

The intense life force was absorbed, and the Golden Tree continued to sprout branches at a speed visible to the naked eye, extending toward the higher reaches of the sky; the radiance of the Golden Order fluttered down in all directions along with the shaking branches.

Bai Cangshu saw out of the corner of his eye that First Hokage·Senju Hashirama's half-body was already entangled by Scarlet Rot at this moment; the most disgusting thing about this "crap technique" is that once contaminated, no matter how powerful the life force, it will only eventually be dragged down.

Aside from actually dying once, only a very small number of powers can suppress it.

Senju Hashirama was in extremely poor condition at this moment; the thousand-meter-tall giant Buddha statue had collapsed, and he himself was clutching his forehead, while the curse of Scarlet Rot on his jaw continuously harassed his mind.

Bai Cangshu smiled wantonly and leisurely crushed the Drop Card.

Purple radiance lingered on his fingertips.

【You have opened Purple Drop Card·White Snake Sage】

【You have obtained 3000 Dimension Points】

【You have obtained Material·Dragon-Transforming Snake Head (Rare and Peerless)】

【You have obtained Ability Scroll·Sage Art Cultivation Method of Ryuchi Cave (Purple)】

Perhaps because Bai Cangshu had just killed the White Snake Sage with 【Instant Prison Murder】, 【Luck's Indeterminate Equation】 was triggered dozens or hundreds of times; at this moment, Bai Cangshu's luck was extremely high.

Opening the Drop Card directly yielded two types of purple rewards, and one was a material, the other a Sage Art cultivation scroll.

Both are very precious hard currency.

The Golden Tree continued to grow, and the wound corroded by the Scarlet Rot was also healing; Bai Cangshu took advantage of the fact that the wound had not yet been completely covered and jumped into it with a light figure.

The moment he entered, he only saw a vast and ancient toad, clutching a youth wearing a Uchiha Clan jacket in its hand; the moment it saw Bai Cangshu appear, the big toad disappeared along with the youth, accompanied by smoke.

However, Bai Cangshu still saw the clear golden luster in the youth's opened eyes.

——

Itachi protected Ping Zhonghua, following behind Ping Zhongshi and Shisui; the group, trailing Tao Baibai by a moment's journey, also rushed back to the Land of Fire.

Itachi's gaze scrutinized Shisui and Ping Zhongshi vaguely, while Ping Zhonghua kept her head lowered, her emotions unreadable.

Except for Orochimaru, who had left the team midway to prepare to install a Sharingan for himself, the atmosphere of the four-person group was quite eerie now, making 【Ran】, who remained in this team, feel very strange.

The two who should have been a married couple no longer spoke to each other, and the two Uchiha who should have been like brothers also had fewer and fewer conversations.

For Reincarnators, there are actually very few times for so-called 【different paths, no common language】; all Reincarnators act based on interests, and even the most ferocious and cruel Reincarnators will occasionally cooperate with those righteous Reincarnators.

But Plot Characters are different; at this moment, Ran clearly felt that this pair of brothers and the married couple had already developed irreconcilable contradictions because of the future of the 【Golden Order】.

He didn't know what had happened, didn't know if Tao Baibai had been hit by Shisui's 【Kotoamatsukami】, but this temporary squad seemed to him to be on the verge of collapse, and he worried that at some point, perhaps these two from the Uchiha Clan would engage in infighting.

Ran secretly placed something into the Team Space shared by himself and Catherine to pass on information.

"Stop!"

Shisui suddenly raised his right hand, speaking to stop the team from moving forward.

Ran hadn't realized what had happened yet, but Itachi had already stepped forward two paces, Three-Tomoe Sharingan activated, also looking toward the human town below the mountain ridge.

That was a town built relying on superior geographical resources beside a huge river.

Judging by the scale, the town's residents should exceed two thousand; it was quite a bit larger than the town where Ping Zhongshi and Ping Zhonghua originally lived.

But at this moment, there was no sign of human life in that town, only a large group of men and women with golden luster radiating from their eyes, silently killing.

This group of people held various things that couldn't even be called weapons: hoes, sickles, stones, wooden sticks, and even wine bottles and various jars and cans.

They silently surrounded another group of terrified people in the center of the town, then continuously brought their weapons down.

A large amount of blood soon flowed out; from the bloodstains in other parts of the town, it could be seen that this was not the first place where the crime had been committed, and a large number of corpses were already lying everywhere.

"This is..."

Ran looked at this scene and quickly realized something; not just him, although they lacked intelligence on the 【Golden Order】, both Shisui and Itachi keenly realized something.

"They are killing... those who have not joined the Golden Order..."

Shisui's pupils trembled; this cruel scene gave him a great shock, especially those who, judging by their attire and appearance, would not fight at all—those old, weak, women, and children—were all holding whatever they could get their hands on that could take a life, silently and cold-bloodedly taking the lives of others.

Shisui trembled slightly, unable to control himself; he was terrified because of the golden luster in those people's eyes.

It was precisely because they were not holding weapons, precisely because they were not trained professionals in taking lives, that made him so terrified.

Perhaps after the Golden Order truly descends, this world can escape the threat of death, but before that, these subjects of the Golden Order are being manipulated by some will, eliminating all subjects who are not of the Golden Order!

"Shisui, is this the world you wanted..."

Itachi watched this scene, terrifyingly calm, while Ping Zhonghua also stared at her husband's eyes with a pale face.

Ping Zhongshi's pupils trembled, but in the end, the golden luster became increasingly dazzling.

"For the sake of the greater good, for the sake of the future, for the sake of a tomorrow where no one will die, perhaps we truly have no choice but to..."

Slap!

Ping Zhongshi turned his face slightly, and he saw that his wife's hand was already dripping with blood; her pale complexion was flushed with an unhealthy red due to her extreme agitation.

Ping Zhonghua found it hard to believe that the person before her eyes was still the warm man who had once held a war orphan who had lost her family amidst the ruins, risking mission failure all the way to bring that little girl back.

"Shi!"

"Here, there is no greater good, no future..."

"There is only death, that is all."

The woman wept uncontrollably.

(End of this chapter)