Chapter 163: The Main Battlefield is About to Decide the Outcome

Three massive toads from Myoboku Mountain: Gamabunta, Gamaken, and Gamahiro, held their gleaming weapons high, their Senjutsu Chakra filling the sky.

Giant venomous snakes over a hundred meters long: Manda, Ao, and Chiya, coiled like city walls, their scales shimmering with the radiance of Senjutsu Chakra, their slit pupils filled with cold, predatory hunger.

Snakes overcoming frogs is a natural law of the species, innate and impossible to reverse.

The summoning snakes of Ryuchi Cave are likewise natural predators of the Myoboku Mountain toads, with the triple-stacked effects of bloodline suppression, elemental advantage, and Ninjutsu crushing.

Even with weapons in hand, the Toad Army remained firmly suppressed.

What was even more terrifying was that the giant snakes of Ryuchi Cave had mutated.

Manda had grown six horns, Ao had gained an extra pair of curved horns, and while Chiya only had one single horn, he had grown an extra pair of three-fingered claws.

The three Gamabunta brothers were completely bewildered; this was not the Ryuchi Cave they knew.

Wait, wasn't this the dream of Ryuchi Cave?

To become dragons!

This realization caused the toads' morale to plummet, and they were suppressed even more ruthlessly by the giant snakes of Ryuchi Cave.

The giant snakes took turns attacking with venomous fangs, tails, and poison mist, each surprise assault tearing through the toads' formations and inflicting heavy casualties on the large groups of toads.

Fortunately, the Myoboku Mountain Toad Army had a large number of powerful individuals and sufficient combat strength, allowing them to stubbornly withstand the Snake Army's violent onslaught despite being at a severe disadvantage.

But the battle was undoubtedly leaning in the enemy's favor, and with the toads suffering heavy losses, a collapse was inevitable.

At this critical moment, the slug transformed into a sky full of small slugs, its blue-and-white Clones covering the battlefield and attaching themselves to the bodies of the toads and the giant snakes.

For the toads, the slug provided medical support, capable of rapidly healing wounds, neutralizing snake venom, and repairing damaged limbs.

For the giant snakes, the slug was a close-range source of corrosion, constantly damaging their scales and attacking them by injecting digestive fluids.

The slug's intervention pulled the Toad Army, which had been on the verge of defeat, back from the brink of annihilation.

However, the slug had a gentle nature; while it could perfectly neutralize the Ryuchi Cave Poison, it refused to directly deal lethal blows to the giant snakes.

The situation thus fell into a stalemate.

The three top-tier summoning beasts—frog, snake, and slug—engaged in a war of attrition.

Roars shook the heavens and earth, the collisions of their massive bodies triggered gales, and Ninjutsu followed one after another; water vapor, poison mist, raging flames, and Senjutsu intertwined, turning the battlefield into a place of darkness where the sun and moon lost their light.

Neither side could completely crush the other, and they fell into an endless, grueling battle, maintaining a fragile stalemate.

They all understood that they could not break the deadlock on their own and could only wait for the other two battlefields to decide the outcome.

However, the breakthrough came very quickly.

On the outermost main battlefield, from the very start of the fighting, it had been a one-sided crushing victory.

This was the home turf of Yamanaka Chujiu, his Killing Domain where he alone controlled the entire situation.

Victory came so easily, almost within reach.

Countless fine Thought Threads wove into a spiderweb, covering the entire Valley of the End, silently and imperceptibly infiltrating everyone's minds.

Not only the Wandering Ninja, Konoha Ninja, and Land of Iron Samurai, but even the Konohagakure ninja and Kirigakure ninja were under the control of Yamanaka Chujiu.

Everyone's movements, hand seals, emotional shifts, and chakra fluctuations were clearly projected into his mind, transforming into a three-dimensional holographic war map.

This was Yamanaka Chujiu's Full-Area Perception.

Absolute battlefield control, combined with superior cognitive calculation abilities, formed a god-like absolute command.

"Group 64, Kirigakure Water Style Squadron, use Water Style: Water Bullet at the 11 o'clock direction!"

Thirty water bullets were fired, perfectly covering a group of samurai and leaving more than half of the unprepared samurai dead or wounded.

"Uchiha Squad 18, prepare Fire Release, direction 2:10, attack!"

Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu and Fire Arrow pierced through the battlefield smoke, striking an empty space, "Booming" as they shattered a Genjutsu illusion, incidentally killing or wounding over a dozen Konoha Rogue Ninja.

"Squads 19, 20, and 24, prepare Doton: Doryuheki, direction 10 o'clock, distance 140 meters, rise!"

Walls of earth rose from the ground, perfectly blocking the Akatsuki's Kirigakure Rogue Ninja, forcing them to remain exposed for an extra four minutes under the coverage of the Konoha Ninja Army's Ninjutsu.

The time was short, but it was enough for these rogue ninja to be completely shredded by Ninjutsu.

Yamanaka Chujiu issued orders calmly; every instruction was extremely precise, and those being commanded did not need to think too much—they only needed to execute the orders to achieve the best combat results.

Three years of professional training had not been in vain; the Konoha Ninja had extremely high obedience toward Yamanaka Chujiu, acting the instant they heard an order, their attacks flowing like clouds and water.

Both sides coordinated with tacit understanding, fully displaying the absolute quality of elites.

The Kirigakure ninja acting in coordination with Konoha were all stunned at this moment.

They finally understood why, back when the Fourth Mizukage was still in power, the Kirigakure village—despite being strong and well-equipped—had been defeated by the less numerous Konoha Ninja.

It turned out it wasn't that they, the Kirigakure ninja, were weak, but that the opponent's commander was too heaven-defying.

The Konoha Ninja were all-rounders, proficient in the five major elemental Ninjutsu, and under Yamanaka Chujiu's command, they played them with endless variety.

The Great Waterfall Technique surged and swept through, turning into monstrous waves that crushed the valley floor and scattered the samurai's formations.

The Great Fireball Continuous Barrage fell from the sky, raging flames burning in all directions and swallowing the figures of the Konoha Rogue Ninja.

The Wind Style: Hurricane tore through the air, slicing through all obstacles and enemy defenses.

The Earth Style mountain collapse technique pressed down layer by layer, dividing the enemies into individual small squads.

Then, targeting a small number of enemies, they implemented saturated Ninjutsu strikes, decisively annihilating them in small batches.

Just like a person eating one small bite at a time.

This was not a gap in the quality or combat power of the ninja, but an absolute crushing of the Ninjutsu system and organizational discipline.

The samurai of Land of Iron, after mastering Chakra Refining, focused on the honing of their bodies and sword techniques; their bodies were formidable, their swordplay sharp, and their wills resilient, enough to contend with ninja.

The Kirigakure Rogue Ninja were once elites of Kirigakure, and were originally top-tier ninja among the five great nations.

The Konoha Rogue Ninja were even more so, being ninja from Konohagakure, with no difference in individual strength from the Konoha Ninja Army.

In one-on-one duels, they were not at all intimidated by Konoha Ninja, and many were confident they could win.

Even when scaled up to squad-level confrontations, they had a win rate of over fifty percent.

But today's war was twenty thousand against ten thousand; although the Konoha and Kirigakure allied forces were only twice as numerous as the Anti-Snake Alliance, whenever a battle broke out, they were able to achieve a five-to-one, or even ten-to-one, numerical ratio.

Whatever toughness of body, exquisite swordsmanship, or iron-blooded will, all were so pale and powerless before the fully disciplined Konoha Ninja Army.

No matter how sharp a samurai sword is, it cannot block the Fire Release flames falling from the sky.

No matter how tyrannical a physical body is, it cannot withstand the saturated Ninjutsu bombardment layered in waves.

No matter how firm the will of a Konoha Rogue Ninja is, it cannot resist the crushing numerical advantage of several times as many ninja from the same village.

The Land of Iron Samurai clad in heavy armor were instantly swallowed and crushed in the torrent of Ninjutsu; the tragic casualties left the samurai legion terrified and shattered.

The Kirigakure Rogue Ninja had it even worse; they didn't even have the chance to feel fear before they were forcefully surrounded and slaughtered to the last man.

The Konoha Rogue Ninja fared slightly better; as long as they laid down their weapons in time and raised their hands to surrender, they could receive the mercy of their former comrades and be taken prisoner under guard.

The outcome of the main battlefield was about to be decided.