Chapter 338: The Rogue Clone's Dilemma
At this moment, Li Yao was immensely grateful that he had once made a small tweak to the Flying Thunder God contract, allowing him to sign it with his own shadow clones for seamless teleportation between them.
Thanks to this, all of his shadow clones carried his Flying Thunder God marks.
Even now, with the rogue clone out of control, the mark was still present on it.
And thanks to that very mark, Li Yao could still sense the rogue clone's sub-clones that had infiltrated the air and ground.
Otherwise, he could only watch helplessly as the rogue clone returned to Loran with no way to intervene.
It must be known—once a body is liquefied via Permeation Technique and merges with another substance, not even Li Yao's soul-sensing or chakra perception could detect it.
The Flying Thunder God mark was the only anchor.
Without it, the only hope of killing the rogue clone would've been to wait for Kotoamatsukami to recharge.
"…Though things aren't much better even now."
Li Yao's eyes darkened as he stared at the rogue clone encased in a black, turtle-shell-like Black Hole Shield. Considering the all-devouring nature of black hole space…
He suddenly grew tense. Even the Kotoamatsukami genjutsu chakra might not be able to penetrate that shield.
Both the three-tomoe and Mangekyō Sharingan had one thing in common:
If eye contact is made, the genjutsu chakra enters the opponent's chakra system almost instantaneously—just like Flying Thunder God teleportation.
It was an absurdly broken mechanic.
That was precisely how Li Yao's clone had lost control—there was no way to block it.
But if there's no eye contact, the chakra can't enter directly.
That said, this doesn't mean genjutsu can't be cast without eye contact.
Mangekyō genjutsu can still be applied—it just takes more effort, requiring the user to manually guide the chakra into the target's system, like a conventional illusion.
This is why, in the original story, Danzo's Kotoamatsukami eye—covered by a bandage—was still able to affect the leader of the Iron Country.
However, with the rogue clone wrapped in a space-sealing black hole shield, even if Li Yao managed to replicate the Kotoamatsukami chakra, without direct eye contact, its effect would be extremely limited.
Black hole space techniques contained both spatial and sealing properties, making it very hard for genjutsu chakra to breach.
Which meant: unless that shield was broken, taking down the rogue clone was nearly impossible—at least in the short term.
"Damn it!!!"
The more Li Yao thought about it, the more frustrated he became. But he was also helpless—he didn't know what else to do.
Now he understood how his opponents must have felt when fighting him. He also understood why the Five Kage had once joined forces to try to eliminate him.
Because once he matured—even his clone became an unsolvable nightmare.
So troublesome.
Li Yao sighed deeply.
For now, he would focus on destroying the rogue clone's Flying Thunder God marks.
Since he could still use those marks, he immediately sent shadow clones to erase them one by one.
Next, the rogue clone's shadow clones.
Under the pressure of the suicide tactic, all of them—including those underground—had been eliminated.
Only five of the clone's sub-clones had used the same strategy, encasing themselves in black hole shields.
Li Yao couldn't deal with them at the moment…
But they couldn't escape either.
He dispatched a large number of his own shadow clones to surround and continuously attack them with black hole techniques, ensuring they couldn't move.
Once that was settled, Li Yao returned to the base of the Ryūmyaku and created three shadow clones. The main body continued to monitor the chakra.
Zzzzz… One clone's body flickered with Time Reset Chakra, working with the main body's observations to develop even more powerful time-based jutsu.
The second focused on the spatial characteristics within the Ryūmyaku chakra, aiming to combine them with black hole chakra to create stronger space-time techniques.
The third began researching how to merge time and space characteristics—true space-time ninjutsu.
Time, space, and the fusion of the two: space-time.
Each clone had a role, trying to maximize the value of the Ryūmyaku's chakra before it disappeared completely.
That way, even if it vanished, Li Yao wouldn't walk away empty-handed.
And most importantly, the rogue clone was certainly trying to find a way to break free of his control.
Li Yao wouldn't allow it to survive. He had to eliminate it before the Ryūmyaku's power vanished.
…
While Li Yao focused on improving himself—
Inside the black hole barrier, the rogue clone frowned deeply, his mind racing for a way out of this situation.
He knew the original well—and knew his knack for jutsu development was nothing to scoff at. Combined with modern-day knowledge and nearly perfect chakra control, Li Yao had a tremendous advantage in evolving existing techniques.
Even though the black hole shield now seemed invincible, the rogue clone knew the original would eventually find a way to break it.
And when that happened, he would be dead.
His only real chance now was to sever the connection between himself and the original's Flying Thunder God marks.
But to do that, he'd have to use a Contract Seal.
And there was no way the original would ever give him an opening to apply that.
So there was only one path left—develop a sealing jutsu that could remove the mark from himself.
"I have the original's memories, I know all the sealing jutsu he knows, and I understand the Flying Thunder God Technique. I should be able to do it…"
With that thought, the rogue clone split off a shadow clone. Now the two of them were squeezed inside the black hole barrier.
Thankfully, maintaining the shield didn't require any gestures—just continuous chakra flow.
The main body kept the shield active while the clone began developing a new sealing jutsu.
"…What the hell?"
The moment he began manipulating sealing chakra and attempting to modify its nature, he hit a massive wall.
He realized something horrifying: his chakra control wasn't at the same level as the original's.
He could use all sorts of kekkei genkai and elemental combinations because Li Yao had known them first—but when it came to developing something new?
He couldn't do it.
It was like using regular chopsticks all along, then suddenly being handed two-meter-long ones—an exponentially harder challenge.
In short, developing a new jutsu to remove the Flying Thunder God mark was basically impossible for him in the short term.
Without the ability to freely manipulate chakra nature, he couldn't develop any new jutsu—let alone a high-level sealing technique.
"…Why is this happening?"
The rogue clone was momentarily stunned. His consciousness felt like the original's. But then he remembered—
He was still just a shadow clone. Not a Five Elements clone. He didn't have a true soul—his soul was merely a simulation constructed from chakra.
That's why he didn't dare use Perfect Transformation to become someone capable of using Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Because if he transformed into another person, his chakra would simulate that person's soul and body.
And once that happened, Kotoamatsukami would kick in again—and he'd fall back under the original's control.
(END CHAPTER)
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