"Ryūmyaku Great Fireball!"
With Mukade's furious shout, a massive purple fireball roared through the air, hurtling straight toward Hoshiyomi.
Hoshiyomi's expression didn't waver in the slightest. Without hesitation, he raised his sword Mikazuki Munechika and slashed downward at the so-called Ryūmyaku Fireball.
A sharp, bluish-green wave of sword energy cut clean through the fireball, shattering it into a thousand fiery embers that scattered across the air. The sword energy didn't stop there—it kept going, slicing straight through the giant puppet body Mukade had formed, cleaving him in two.
"It's useless," Mukade sneered. "As long as I control the power of the Ryūmyaku, I am invincible."
As he spoke, a strange click-click-click sound came from his puppet head, like some kind of signal. In response, every puppet soldier throughout the city of Rōran disassembled into pieces and flew toward Mukade's body.
In seconds, those parts fused together, transforming him into a massive puppet scorpion. Looking down at Hoshiyomi like he was an insect, Mukade clamped his massive pincers together with a menacing ka-ka-ka.
"Give up, Gekko Hoshiyomi. No matter how many times you destroy me, the power of the Ryūmyaku will simply let me be reborn."
Hoshiyomi sighed and shook his head, looking utterly unimpressed.
"To talk about getting your ass kicked like it's some kind of noble act... you really are a genius, huh?"
He tightened his grip on Mikazuki Munechika and slowly drew his other sword — Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade — from his back.
"Any puppet must have a control core, right? Then let me see if you can still boast so shamelessly after your core is destroyed."
"Secret Technique: Moon Shadow Chaos."
The instant his words fell, Hoshiyomi's body split into eleven shadows—this was his technique: Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms.
In the blink of an eye, the eleven Hoshiyomis vanished. Almost simultaneously, countless sword light appeared before the puppet scorpion, each strike powerful enough to pierce its massive body.
Dazzling sword lights streaked through the scorpion's frame again and again. Surrounded by sword shadows, Mukade couldn't even move a claw. In front of Hoshiyomi, he had no power to resist.
At last, the eleven Hoshiyomis reappeared, each halting their motion in unison. Slowly, they sheathed their blades.
Click.
With that soft sound, the countless sword marks across Mukade's puppet body exploded simultaneously. The massive scorpion puppet shattered into countless fragments and crashed to the ground in pieces.
Hoshiyomi stared down at the wreckage, his expression calm — until a faint smile crept onto his lips.
"So that's why you've been acting so confident," he said. "Turns out… your core isn't even here."
"What!?"
Mukade's fragmented head, lying among the debris, twisted weakly toward Hoshiyomi, his voice trembling in disbelief.
"Impossible! How—how did you figure that out!?"
Hoshiyomi didn't bother to answer. His eyes opened and closed once—and he entered Perfect Sage Mode. His vast perception spread outward, covering all of Rōran in an instant.
After scanning the entire city, he deactivated Sage Mode and said softly:
"Found you."
In the next second, his figure vanished completely.
The shattered puppet scorpion twitched, trying in vain to reassemble itself — but being cut into that many pieces made recovery far from easy.
Meanwhile, Hoshiyomi was already darting between Rōran's towering spires, moving like a streak of light. Within a few breaths, he had reached the central garden of the city — the place with several deep, well-like shafts.
Smashing through the glass dome overhead, he didn't hesitate for a moment. He dove straight down — ready to finally end Mukade's life once and for all.
But as soon as he landed in the chamber below, Hoshiyomi froze.
The underground chamber was pitch-black — except for the countless pairs of eyes staring blankly at him from the darkness.
It turned out that the place Sara had chosen as the best shelter…
was the very same place.
Amid the crowd, Sara looked at Hoshiyomi in surprise and asked blankly,
"Why are you here…? Don't tell me you've already defeated Anrokuzan?"
Hoshiyomi pointed helplessly toward the stone door behind her.
"Anrokuzan's real body is inside. I came here to finish this once and for all."
At this point, Sara seemed to finally show a bit of the composure and leadership that the "Queen of Rōran" was said to have in the original story. Hearing Hoshiyomi's words, she motioned for her people to stay back, then gathered her courage and said,
"Then I'll go with you. My family has guarded the Ryūmyaku's power for generations — maybe I can help."
This time, Hoshiyomi didn't refuse her. Once Sara opened the stone door, the two of them entered the underground chamber where the Ryūmyaku was sealed.
As the heavy stone doors closed layer by layer behind them, Hoshiyomi immediately felt the immense chakra filling the room — so dense it was almost terrifying.
This chakra was on par with the Nine-Tails' in sheer quantity.
But what made it truly unusual was the strange, pulsating distortion mixed within it. Hoshiyomi guessed that this distortion was precisely what allowed the Ryūmyaku to manipulate space and time.
Without wasting another second, he activated his sensory ability, took Sara's hand, and led her deeper into the Ryūmyaku's sanctum.
At the very end of the chamber lay a solitary stone bridge.
At its center rested a large circular stone etched with an intricate, eerie sealing pattern — the core of the Ryūmyaku's energy, the very source of its power.
On the cliff wall opposite the bridge was embedded a strange, glowing purple figure — Mukade's puppet core, his true body.
When he saw Hoshiyomi and Sara arrive, Mukade didn't look surprised at all.
Instead, he let out a shrill, sinister laugh.
"Gekko Hoshiyomi, and little Queen Sara… you both came together. How convenient! If I kill you both here, there'll be no one left to steal the Ryūmyaku from me!"
Hoshiyomi looked up at the wall, watching Mukade's body flicker within the stone, but something about it felt… off.
This isn't how it happened in the original story… Why did he choose to hide like this? Could there be something else I don't know about?
The uneasy feeling in his chest grew stronger. Hoshiyomi didn't waste time trading words with him. Instead, he turned to Sara and said quietly,
"I'll deal with him. You try to shut down the Ryūmyaku. Can you handle that?"
Sara glanced at him, then nodded firmly.
Seeing that, Hoshiyomi smiled slightly.
"Good. Then let's move — together."
In the next instant, Hoshiyomi vanished from his spot with a Shunpo, surging ahead of Sara and charging toward the wall where Mukade's core was embedded.
Mukade let out an enraged roar:
"Gekko Hoshiyomi! Don't even think about stopping me! You and Sara will die here today!"
As he spoke, a massive amount of Ryūmyaku chakra rapidly condensed in Mukade's mouth:
"Super Ryūmyaku Great Fireball!"
Hoshiyomi looked at the Great Fireball condensing in Mukade's mouth and was about to use Dance of the Startled Swan to instantly resolve Mukade by traversing space.
But at that moment, Sara's scream suddenly erupted from behind him!
...
Drop some POWERSTONES to push the story forward!
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin