Masses of limp black hair covered Yūshin completely. He struggled to tear them away, scrambling out in a rather undignified manner.
Having endured a direct assault from the Earth Grudge Fear's black threads, when Yūshin finally emerged, his body bristled with deactivated black lines—he looked like a porcupine whose quills had gone soft.
The Earth Grudge Fear's corrosive ability was extraordinary. These black threads had demonstrated their erosive power the instant they pierced Yūshin's flesh, but in the next moment, Yūshin had already drained all their chakra.
Yet even in that brief time, they had "taken root" within Yūshin's body, the black filaments literally growing together with his flesh and blood.
Fortunately, Yūshin was maintaining a high degree of "White Zetsu-ification"—his internal organs were protected by White Zetsu cells, and pain throughout his body was greatly diminished.
Fearing further damage, he ignored the potential secondary injury from violent extraction and immediately tore the black threads from his body by force.
Having taken such enormous risks for this powerful assault, Yūshin reaped the corresponding rewards. After destroying three more hearts and gaining three streams of chakra replenishment, the balance of power between Yūshin and Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear finally reversed.
"You no longer have any chance of victory," Yūshin said to his distant enemy.
He analyzed the current situation and reached this simple conclusion.
"Spare me your words."
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear remained unmoved. How could ninja combat skip the process and jump straight to conclusions?
Yūshin's words were nothing but arrogance.
Ryo showed no wavering whatsoever. The single remaining attribute mask on his body wriggled to his shoulder, black tendrils once again solidifying into an arm... The battle was far from over.
Masses of Earth Grudge Fear tendrils first contracted and compressed within his body, then shot outward at tremendous speed, instantly spreading like a spider's web throughout the entire room.
Ryo knew Yūshin possessed chakra-absorption abilities, but now, in this desperate struggle, such minor details no longer concerned him.
The web-deployed Earth Grudge Fear tendrils carried limited attached chakra. As long as the hearts serving as chakra nodes weren't directly destroyed, Yūshin could steal very little chakra, and Ryo was confident he could sustain this for an extended period.
Yūshin seemed like prey caught in a spider's web.
He drew a deep breath, feeling pain from countless wounds across his battered body, knowing he too couldn't hold out much longer.
Scorching steam surged from within him once more, white veils swirling around his form.
Yūshin stomped the floor violently, the keep shaking again as his body shot forward like a cannonball, carrying irresistible momentum as he charged toward Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear.
During this brief sprint, countless black threads fired toward Yūshin like projectiles.
Flying blades? You really do understand physics?
The battle situation left no room for hesitation. Taut black threads sliced into his body, yet couldn't halt his charge.
Feeling the filaments invading his flesh, Yūshin pressed forward without retreat, his internal chakra boiling even more violently, his body's endurable pressure nearly reaching critical limits.
Yūshin's wounded form was like a fifty-year-old, rust-covered steam engine recklessly stuffed with a furnace full of coal.
Searing heat poured through his body, threatening to burn him alive before it could destroy his enemy.
Under such circumstances, what did a few thread attacks matter?
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear employed flying blade attacks as his trump card technique—extremely sharp, compensating for insufficient individual killing area with ultra-high attack frequency. This single move alone could shred most enemies to death.
However, when the Earth Grudge Fear flying blades cut into Yūshin, they barely penetrated his skin before being blocked by the heat flow. The boiling chakra, almost like materialized liquid energy ion streams, first vaporized the chakra attached to the flying blades, then completely dissolved the weakened threads.
In other words, this attack that could slice ordinary people into fragments couldn't hinder Yūshin whatsoever.
Yūshin, this human cannonball, drew the steam permeating the space into sharp arrow formations, with his fist forming the very tip of the spearhead.
BOOM!
Yūshin's full-strength punch landed directly on Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's body.
Though Ryo's chest had Earth Release enhancement externally and Earth Grudge Fear cushioning internally, he still spewed blood from the impact.
His massive Earth Grudge Fear Mode body immediately spun and flew backward, crashing thunderously into the rear wall, directly deforming the vertical surface into an outward bulge.
Amid creaking and groaning sounds, the keep's upper level began tilting toward this side.
Bang!
Yūshin pressed his advantage, unhesitatingly closing in and stomping on Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's remaining arm.
For a moment, Yūshin seemed to hold complete advantage, yet Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear was far from defenseless.
He opened his mouth alongside the mask on his left shoulder, two lightning bolts crossing like scissors, stabbing fiercely toward Yūshin's neck.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness—Radiant Spear Intersection"
Yūshin had been correct earlier—this enemy was indeed most skilled with Earth Release and Lightning Release.
Brilliant lightning illuminated his pale face. At this life-or-death moment, Yūshin displayed an unwavering ferocity, advancing instead of retreating. He clenched his left fist, coating his entire arm with high-density chakra, then...
He drove his fist directly into the lightning spear!
Lightning spears had form but no substance—techniques supposedly impossible to defend against with flesh. However, the chakra on Yūshin's arm could create energy-based mutual repulsion with the enemy's Lightning Release. Though he couldn't nullify the damage by using chakra to resist the jutsu, he still managed to punch the lightning spear away.
The brilliant lightning spear spun rapidly as it pierced into the rear wall.
Simultaneously, Yūshin's right foot against the wall suddenly exerted force, rapidly lifting his entire body upward.
He struck before the other lightning spear could attack, driving his knee into Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's chin.
The enemy was forced to raise his head, the lightning spear he expelled tracing a powerless parabolic arc through the air.
Yūshin's previously injured knee, having recovered just slightly, was severely damaged once again.
His left arm, having made direct contact with the enemy's high-intensity Lightning Release, was instantly severely burned and carbonized, yet this didn't seem to hinder his seal formation.
At this moment, with the enemy pinned to the wall like a target, it was precisely the time for a killing blow.
Yūshin's hand seals completed in an instant:
Water Release: Water Severing...
However, just as Yūshin was about to release the water blade, his head suddenly received a vicious headbutt.
This brief contact caused Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's chakra to drain rapidly. He seriously doubted whether he could release another jutsu, but death's threat forced the desperate man to give everything he had... even if it was just a headbutt attack.
Yūshin was directly knocked flying by the tremendous force.
But the jutsu he'd completed and brought to his lips couldn't be suppressed, so the Water Severing Wave activated while rotating with his body.
The Water Severing Wave's target changed from enemy to building, its attack effect proving even simpler than a hot knife cutting butter.
The keep received a diagonal ring cut, this massive structure forcibly divided into upper and lower sections that began slowly shifting apart under gravity's influence.
Yūshin, rapidly flying backward through the air, slightly adjusted his posture mid-flight, then lightly landed with both feet on the opposite wall.
Using the recoil, he charged toward Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear once more.
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear struggled to his feet, back against the wall, using his Earth Release-enhanced palm to meet Yūshin's fist, barely managing to block it.
"Cough... This punch isn't as strong as the last one... It seems victory remains uncertain," Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear said.
Limited by their physical conditions, both fighters' combat effectiveness had begun declining, yet their fighting spirit continued escalating.
Yūshin couldn't help frowning. If this were purely about determining victory or defeat with honor, he felt he was already the winning side, but if he wanted to completely eliminate his enemy, it seemed extremely difficult... Those who mastered Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear possessed cockroach-like vitality—simply too hard to kill.
"Perhaps."
At this moment, Yūshin suddenly had a change of heart, recalling another lethal form of Boil Release. Looking up at the now-misaligned building, the current environment could be described as enclosed on all sides with an open top, shaped like a well... an ideal battlefield.
As his thoughts shifted, the ratio of water and fire attribute mixed chakra flowing at high speed through his meridians began changing.
As the water attribute chakra proportion continuously increased, the steam surging from Yūshin's body was no longer so scorching.
Instead, it began acquiring acidic corrosion characteristics of increasing intensity.
This was Yūshin's first time adjusting chakra ratios, yet the process felt as smooth as seamless variable transmission. He even sensed fixed "gear positions" within his body—when the two chakra types reached certain proportional ranges, he instinctively felt this was when the acidic ability's lethality peaked.
Water-fire fusion chakra within Yūshin's body was merely energy, but upon leaving his body, it instantly transformed into lethal jutsu.
Acid mist began filling this space.
Unlike controlled chakra, this acid mist also possessed lethality against Yūshin himself.
But he immediately conceived a solution, granting the acid mist manipulability.
When acid mist surged from his body, Yūshin mixed large amounts of ordinary chakra into it—equivalent to sticking rice grains onto tape or fishing nets. By controlling this chakra, he could manipulate the acid mist's flow direction, preventing it from harming himself.
"Cough... cough cough..."
At such close range, completely unprepared Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear took several deep drags before realizing its potency was excessive.
The acid mist began corroding his lungs.
Acid mist had filled this entire space, corroding everything around except Yūshin.
Massive white smoke poured from the gaps where the keep had split apart, making this building resemble a leaking chimney.
Once acid mist was omnipresent, the vapor emanating from Yūshin became steam once more. He resumed brute force mode, sweeping aside Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's arm and driving a fist into his chest cavity.
The formerly extremely defensive Earth Grudge Fear now transmitted only the sensation of rotten vegetable leaves.
The strong acid had sufficiently corroded Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear, completely stripping away his combat capability.
If Yūshin had employed this type of attack from the beginning, given Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's vigilance, he might not have fallen for it so easily. However, after intense high-level combat, the opponent had long grown accustomed to Yūshin constantly "smoking"—who could have imagined such an insidiously vicious trump card lay hidden within?
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's body, from skin to fat, muscle to bone, began layer-by-layer putrefaction and corrosion.
"Why... not... earlier..."
No longer able to control his own body, Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear uttered extremely unwilling sounds. It wasn't that his fighting methods were flawed, but that his opponent was simply too treacherous.
First silent infiltration attempting ambush, then playing the incompetent ninja, followed by portraying a direct assault warrior, and finally the killing move was still an ambush... Combat styles so varied yet returning to the original starting point—who could defend against this?
Is this something a human could do?
"I told you, I really didn't know how at first."
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear was a formidable opponent, thus he received an extraordinary death... gradually dissolving into white bones within the strong acid.
Fortunately, the keep, already severed in half and further corroded by strong acid, finally lost its load-bearing capacity. Its upper section slid off the main structure and crashed thunderously downward.
Having lost the surrounding walls, night winds quickly diluted and dispersed the acid mist.
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's corpse was thus able to preserve a portion of itself.
🔥 Want to read the next 20 chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]