Behind the Otsutsuki's Black Palace, two figures landed quietly.
Shun's Rinnegan turned quietly in his sockets, scanning the surroundings like a searchlight.
This was the core of the Ōtsutsuki clan's nest, surrounded by various sophisticated Space-Time Reconnaissance Sealing Barriers.
The space here had been precisely configured, sometimes overlapping and intertwining, sometimes tearing and separating. Every ripple of spatial fluctuation hid a killing intent. One careless move would lead to being sucked into spatial turbulence and instantly torn to pieces.
Fortunately, both Shun and Kaguya possessed very powerful sensing abilities, and since both carried the Ōtsutsuki bloodline, the scrutiny of the barriers was much weaker.
Shun enveloped himself and Kaguya in a barrier, cutting off external spatial interference.
"Kaguya, there's a barrier ahead."
Kaguya stopped immediately, her silver-gray Byakugan shining startlingly bright in the dim light.
Having grown up in this palace, she naturally knew what it meant to trigger the warning barriers. Once triggered, it would not only draw countless guards but also activate the sealing barriers within the palace, making escape impossible.
She quietly turned sideways, scanning the corridor behind her with her peripheral vision, a look of gravity flashing in her eyes.
Not far away, a disguised speck of dust was covered in fine black runes.
This was the "Space-Time Warning Barrier" unique to the Ōtsutsuki clan. Even if this dust were gently moved by the wind, it would instantly trigger the alarms of the entire palace.
Before setting out, he had used Ten Directions to backtrack through future trajectories hundreds of times, so he was very familiar with the barriers and guards here.
With a slight turn of his wrist, golden Chakra threads silently pierced into the energy center of the dust barrier.
In an instant, the pale purple barrier shuddered violently, its surface runes flashing intensely twice before collapsing inward like a punctured bubble.
"It's done, let's go."
Shun smoothly put his arm around Kaguya's waist, letting her tense body relax slightly.
Passing through the barrier, the corridor ahead could be described as fraught with danger, yet Shun was as composed as if he were in his own courtyard.
Soon, as the two drew closer to the core of the palace, a hint of panic gradually rose in Kaguya's heart.
She knew the terror of the ten core Otsutsuki Upper Echelon. They controlled powerful Shinjutsu, and their names were lingering nightmares across countless civilizations.
Tokiyomi, who wielded time Shinjutsu, and hid the flowing river of time and space in his pupils. He could manipulate the flow of time at will, making an opponent's movements as slow as a crawling turtle, or compress his attacks into a single instant. He once froze the time of a star single-handedly, plunging an entire galaxy into eternal darkness.
Kenshin, who sensed the trajectories of Karma, was surrounded by invisible threads of causality. With just a glance, he could see through a predetermined future and even tamper with the causal chain to rewrite what had already happened. The rise and fall of countless civilizations had been toyed with by him. Planets had turned to dust because of his single thought.
Mugen, an expert in secret curse techniques, could manifest malice as black shadows of curses. Once they touched someone, they would consume their vitality until the soul dissipated, and even Chakra could not purify it.
Yojin, who controlled the life origin, could condense the fire of life in his palm, either plundering others' vitality for his own use or reshaping a broken physical body.
....
The terrifying deeds of every upper echelon member circulated throughout the Universe, becoming a nightmare for countless lives.
And the goal of their trip was to first remove the two most troublesome nails.
Shun sensed Kaguya's emotional fluctuations and instantly expanded a transparent barrier, blocking external Chakra detection.
"We'll deal with Tokiyomi first. His time techniques would disrupt all our plans, so we must settle this quickly. Don't worry, I'm also skilled in time-related laws. Just play your part well with me."
Shun gently patted the back of Kaguya's hand, signaling her to relax.
Kaguya nodded slightly, her silver-gray eyes full of trust. "Don't worry, I understand."
The two looked at each other, a flash of mutual understanding in their eyes.
Immediately, their figures vanished into the shadows of the corridor, flying silently toward the palace where Tokiyomi was located.
The doors of the Hall of Time were crafted from solid Space-Time Crystal, with complex time runes carved on the surface.
The moment the doors were pushed open, a dense wave of time distortion rushed toward them, causing both of their figures to pause slightly.
Countless tiny fragments of time floated in the air of the hall, like flowing mirrors reflecting scenes of the hall from different time periods.
Sometimes it was Tokiyomi sitting in meditation, sometimes it was him practicing time Shinjutsu and freezing objects in the hall into ice, and other times it was his ferocious form tearing through time and space to extract energy from other planets.
The stone throne in the center of the hall was carved from a single piece of Space-Time Crystal, surrounded by six circular time arrays.
Tokiyomi sat atop it, a Rinnegan at his brow emitting strong space-time fluctuations.
Shun raised his hand to press on Kaguya's shoulder as golden Chakra condensed beneath his feet, silently penetrating the foundation of the palace to set up a "Time Shielding Anchor."
This anchor acted like a hidden shielding device, capable of intercepting or creating fake future time images, thereby blocking Tokiyomi's foresight of the future.
Time passed minute by minute, with only the sound of time fragments colliding in the hall.
Soon, the time was ripe. The light of the time mark on Tokiyomi's brow dimmed slightly. This was because he was observing the future, resulting in a brief "Instant Delay."
At that moment, Shun lunged out like a streak of golden light, stabbing toward the fake trajectory he had pre-set, heading straight for Tokiyomi's throat.
Simultaneously, his Shadow Clone, which he had hidden in the most chaotic part of the time fragments, retracted all its aura at the same instant, even synchronizing its time flow with the surrounding fragments, like dust blending in.
This was a disguise Shun made using time rules, letting the Shadow Clone completely detach from the normal timeline and become a "non-existence" in Tokiyomi's river of time.
This Shadow Clone would wait like a hidden assassin, quietly waiting for the moment to strike a fatal blow.
Just as the blade was about to touch him, Tokiyomi snapped his eyes open.
In the Rinnegan at his brow, a flowing river of space-time appeared, clearly reflecting the assassination trajectory and even showing the "subsequent" scene of the opponent being trapped by his time Shinjutsu and struggling in despair.
"Hmph, a clumsy assassination. Every step of your trajectory is within my control."
He thought he saw through everything, filled with a sense of superiority from controlling the whole situation, unaware that the "future" in his eyes was merely a trap meticulously woven by Shun.
Tokiyomi carried the arrogance of one who controlled everything, like a god looking down at an ant on the ground. He didn't even attack immediately, but deliberately slowed his movements, wanting to enjoy the sight of his opponent falling into despair.
This was an absolute confidence in his own abilities, which was precisely the weakness Shun exploited.
Instantly, an invisible space-time barrier suddenly expanded, centered on Tokiyomi, covering the entire Hall of Time like a ripple and instantly trapping Shun along with Kaguya, who was about to step into the hall.
Shun deliberately put on a struggling posture, attacking the space-time barrier with all his might, but it was as useless as being stuck in a quagmire.
Seeing this, Tokiyomi's arrogance grew even more, failing to notice that Shun had already activated "Time Shielding Anchor."
The anchor exploded instantly, briefly disrupting the time flow within the barrier and forming a "Time Fault" of one-thousandth of a second. This thousandth of a second was enough for his Shadow Clone to complete the fatal strike.
"Struggling is futile. In my space-time, I control everything."
Tokiyomi sneered, his eyes full of mockery as he raised his hand toward Shun, condensing a Blade of Time and slowly slashing down.
He deliberately slowed the speed of his attack, wanting the two to feel the approach of death in despair and enjoy the pleasure of controlling others' lives.
But just as the Blade of Time was about to touch Shun, the Shadow Clone disguised by time rules suddenly lunged out from the time fragments.
The Shadow Clone was unaffected by the space-time barrier. Its movements were as fast as lightning as it attacked from behind Tokiyomi, slashing at his neck.
At this moment, all of Tokiyomi's attention was focused on Shun, and combined with the interference of the Time Fault, his consciousness experienced a brief blank, leaving him no time to react.
Slash!
The golden Chakra severed Tokiyomi's neck and golden blood gushed out, splashing onto the stone throne with a "sizzling" sound.
The space-time barrier collapsed immediately, scattering into countless points of light and vanishing into the air.
Tokiyomi's head spun through the air. He looked at his falling body in disbelief, the arrogance in his eyes instantly replaced by terror. His mouth opened, wanting to say something, but only a mouthful of golden blood flowed out.
Seeing the shock in his eyes, Shun's expression remained calm and indifferent, as if he had only done something insignificant.
"The future you just saw was only what I wanted you to see. From the moment you saw those fake future images, your death was already determined."
Tokiyomi was the hardest to kill, yet also the easiest to kill among the Otsutsuki Upper Echelon.
Because he possessed the power of time, he could notify his past self, so he never feared being ambushed or killed. He even had the ability to summon other Otsutsuki Upper Echelon members from past timelines to his side to surround and kill a target.
Unfortunately, the person he met was Shun, who possessed Ten Directions and could view countless future possibilities to analyze the best combat plan.
He had even specifically created weapons that could cut through timelines, rendering the backup plans Tokiyomi had prepared ineffective.
Hearing this, Tokiyomi felt his vision growing darker. "Am I going to die? I'm so unwilling..."