The duration of the piercing thunder light tearing through the darkness was suffocatingly long.
When that intense light, which was powerful enough to burn retinas, finally receded like a tide, Takuno's vision refocused.
Before his eyes, the puppet army that had been surging like a torrent just moments ago no longer existed, replaced by a scorched earth thoroughly baptized by the violent lightning.
The ground was cracked, emitting wisps of green smoke; the air was permeated with a pungent smell of ozone and scorching, with twisted and deformed metal limbs and shattered wooden trunks of puppets scattered everywhere in a complete mess.
He hovered in the air above the towering palace and looked around; except for himself, there was not a second figure in the sky.
Even those puppets fortunate enough not to be completely pulverized in the doomsday-like thunderstorm just now were pinned dead to the ground at this moment.
Upon their ruined bodies, restless electrical arcs were still jumping frantically, crackling and popping.
These remnant puppets struggled in vain, attempting to reassemble or move, but every minor movement was ruthlessly interrupted by the power of lightning wrapped around them, appearing exceptionally stiff and clumsy.
Takuno's gaze did not linger too long on these dying, struggling remnants; his eyes locked firmly onto that faint, almost imperceptible barrier enclosing the palace.
That invisible force field radiated a heart-palpitating sense of oppression, and its energy level was so high that it far exceeded any defense he had encountered before.
"Is this... the majesty of the legendary golden Tenseigan?"
He whispered aloud, his voice carrying a trace of unsuppressible burning and desire.
Power—this was precisely one of the goals he pursued across countless obstacles.
However, a trace of imperceptible gloom followed and flitted across his heart.
Even if he could later fuse Toneri's power with himself, the path leading to the Tenseigan still had a key threshold blockading it: he needed a pair of the purest Byakugan from the Hyūga clan's main house on the ninja continent to serve as a "seed" to nurture it.
"...Is the purity of the main house bloodline enough?" His brow furrowed slightly as the face of that Hyūga main house member who was controlled by him flashed through his mind.
If that pair of eyes was not qualified...
Takuno's fingertips unconsciously rubbed gently across his own eye sockets.
Perhaps, he should consider noiselessly "replacing" a pair of eyes for the future Hyūga main house princess.
Whether it was Hinata or her younger sister Hanabi, the purity of their Byakugan was undoubtedly top-tier.
But this in turn brought out a deeper dilemma of choice.
Even if he successfully nurtured a Tenseigan belonging to himself, was he to just give up this pair of Mangekyō Sharingan that had been opened through countless life-and-death grindings?
Furthermore, this pair of eyes harbored the potential to lead to a higher level—the Rinnegan!
The future him would perhaps face a dilemma of selection.
With his current realm of power, forcibly fusing two completely distinct supreme ocular arts was no different from an idiot talking about dreams.
Tracing back history, even the Chakra Ancestor Ōtsutsuki Kaguya herself had failed to truly fuse her Rinne Sharingan and her own Byakugan into one.
Thinking of this, the heat in Takuno's eyes cooled slightly, replaced by a deeper consideration.
"Therefore..."
He had a plan fixed in his mind.
The Tenseigan nurturing plan could continue to advance, holding it in his hand as a trump card.
But whether to ultimately activate this pair of eyes would require assessing the timing and situation.
In the balance of power, the scale within his heart always tilted toward that supreme ocular power originating from the source of the Ten-Tails.
The Rinnegan, as the manifestation of the Ten-Tails' power, held a root and potential that in his mind undoubtedly surpassed the Tenseigan evolved from the primitive Byakugan of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
The decision having been made, Takuno's gaze swept across the battlefield below.
Those puppets lingering on on their last breaths—if the lightning were allowed to completely dissipate, then they would probably still be able to move.
Take advantage of their weakness to claim their lives!
Without a shred of hesitation, Takuno's figure abruptly vanished from his original spot, appearing upon this scorched and messy earth within a fraction of a second.
The seal formation was also completed, pressed onto the ground.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!"
The silent earth beneath his feet suddenly emitted an earth-shaking roar!
The solid ground surface churned and ruptured violently.
In the next instant, countless giant trees of astonishing thickness broke through the soil, growing and spreading frantically!
They twisted and coiled together, their branches and trunks resilient as steel, instantly covering the entire scorched earth that had been ravaged by the lightning.
These giant trees catalyzed by Senjutsu lunged toward those puppets that were completely paralyzed from enduring the "Heavenly Judgement Thunder Hell."
The thick branches and trunks acted like activated giant pythons, ruthlessly wrapping, squeezing, and piercing!
Accompanied by the sounds of metal twisting, wood bursting, and the harsh wailing of energy cores being crushed.
The puppets remaining upon the earth or those already completely unable to move were all easily and thoroughly pulverized before Takuno's "Wood Release" like paper toys!
In just a few minutes, this piece of battlefield returned completely to a dead silence.
The puppet army of thousands upon thousands had actually failed to hold out for even a moment under Takuno's power!
The dust having settled, Takuno scanned this "forest" he had personally created with an indifferent expression.
Confirming the clearing of the field was complete, he stopped staying, walking straight toward the palace gates.
Right at the moment he was about to step into that open area before the palace, a terrifying throb originating from the depths of the earth erupted fiercely!
BOOM!!!
Behind the palace, a colossal monolithic object abruptly rose from the ground!
Shattered stones burst and flew, and smoke and dust permeated.
That was impressively a gargantuan stone statue supporting heaven and earth, its countenance actually bearing a striking resemblance to the legendary Ōtsutsuki Hamura.
"This is...?" Takuno's pupils contracted slightly, his mind instantly understanding, "It seems this is the final clan-protecting trump card of this branch of Ōtsutsuki!"
Just as the thought arose, the mountain-like giant fist of the stone statue had already carried an momentum of crushing everything as it smashed down, breaking through the air!
The air was compressed to the point of emitting exploding roars.
Takuno's figure blurred abruptly at the critical juncture, vanishing completely from the spot.
BANG!!!
The stone fist smashed fiercely onto the place where Takuno had been standing just a moment ago.
The earth ruptured inch by inch, deep and bottomless ravines spreading out instantly; the violent vibration accompanied by the painful groaning of the land spread everywhere, kicking up sky-blotting dust.
Takuno's figure had already appeared in mid-air, his brow tightly furrowed.
The level of trouble this stone statue presented far exceeded the ordinary.
He knew well that it not only possessed astonishing defense, but what was more terrifying was that near-immortal capability; even if it were pulverized, it could recover to its original state within a fraction of a second.
Even more heart-palpitating was that the terrifying power it contained could even head-on suppress the complete Nine-Tails!
Not allowing him to think in detail, the colossal arm of the stone statue came attacking again with the momentum of sweeping away an army of thousands, the massive shadow completely enveloping him.
Strong wind pressed against his face, blowing his robes into a hunting rustle.
"Tsk!"
Takuno's eyes turned sharp, his hands forming seals.
A stream of power that was still visibly unpracticed yet contained ultimate destructiveness gathered rapidly between his palms!
Buzz!
At the 0.01 second before that giant fist of the stone statue which was sufficient to destroy mountains and shatter rocks was about to crush him, Takuno's figure vanished out of thin air once more!
Spatial Reversion!
In the next instant, he appeared as if teleporting precisely at the side of the stone statue's colossal head.
At this moment, upon his palm, a sphere of piercing white light had already taken shape, while on the outer perimeter of the light, layer upon layer of semi-transparent white cubic light walls were stably constructing, radiating a heart-palpitating aura of stripping and decomposition.
"Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
Takuno gave a low shout, pushing out the power containing the laws of destruction within his hand without any hesitation!
Whish!
That semi-transparent cubic barrier expanded instantly, completely enveloping its colossal body before the stone statue could even manage to make a reaction!
In an instant, within the cubic barrier, pure white light that could not be looked at directly bloomed with a crash!
The piercing brilliance drowned the outline of the stone statue, and the space inside the barrier seemed to be fluctuating violently.
This was a power capable of decomposing all matter down to the atomic level!
The light came fast and went fast as well.
When the white light dissipated, the cubic barrier slowly faded into nothingness.
Takuno focused his gaze to look.
The place where the stone statue had originally stood was completely empty!
Succeeded? Before a sliver of joy could climb onto Takuno's face, his gaze suddenly froze.
No! It had not completely disappeared! Relying on his sharp perception, he clearly "saw" countless dust particles so minute they were nearly impossible to detect currently being drawn by some invisible force, gathering and reorganizing frantically within the void!
The outline of that colossal stone statue, although unable to instantly recover this time, was also recombining from the atomic level with an unswerving speed!
"To think... that even Dust Release cannot thoroughly annihilate it?!" Takuno also furrowed his brow.
A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
"Perhaps... it is inherently neither alive nor dead? If the hidden summoner is not found and defeated to cut off the root of its power, this stone statue... can never truly be cleared!"
Deafening roars tore through the air, and that Ōtsutsuki stone statue recombined into shape once more, its colossal body carrying the momentum of crushing everything as it crashed toward Takuno like a mountain range!
Benefiting from the capability of "Spatial Reversion," Takuno's physical form turned into uncatchable phantom images under the wild attacks of the stone statue, every seemingly guaranteed giant fist or energy impact bizarrely penetrating through the residual images he left behind.
However, Takuno's heart sank.
'Going on like this is not a long-term plan...'
His brow furrowed tightly as he weighed things rapidly in his mind.
Deploy "Susanoo"?
The thought flashed past and was immediately vetoed by him.
Susanoo possessed peerless power, yet it had a short board: it was unable to detach from the body to fight independently.
If he used it to head-on combat this stone statue, the outcome would inevitably be being dead-locked and entangled by it, falling into a ceaseless war of attrition; not only would it fail to truly destroy this giant of stubborn stone, but it would instead completely forfeit the initiative of action, pinning him dead to this battlefield.
This was absolutely not what he desired.
In the flash of flint and spark, Takuno's mind was made up!
His hands formed seals, the chakra inside his body surging stormily, drawing the surrounding airflow into a turbulent agitation.
"Kujaku Myōhō: Dragon God!"
In an instant, a dazzling and magnificent purple-golden light exploded behind him, the vast chakra condensing into shape to turn into a majestic and sacred giant dragon with soaring scales and claws!
The Dragon God raised its head and chanted long, the sound waves rolling with an aura of looking down upon the world as it tore through the air without hesitation, pouncing fiercely toward that charging Ōtsutsuki stone statue!
The current Takuno was already highly practiced at executing this supreme secret art of Star Village, no longer having half a point of pressure.
Even for this final form of "Dragon God," he could also move it as he pleased.
The sole limitation was that this Dragon God directly supplied by his chakra was unable to be too far from his main body.
However, the gravity on Takuno's face did not dissipate due to the appearance of the Dragon God.
With a confrontation of merely a few breaths, his brow knitted tightly together, a trace of gravity flashing in his eyes.
BOOM! CLANG!
The energy torrent spewed by the purple-golden giant dragon collided against the stone statue's body, exploding with an earth-shaking roar; shattered stones flew, and smoke and dust permeated.
But the stone statue's movements merely lagged for a fraction of a second; that terrifying attack sufficient to break mountains and split rocks actually only left shallow indentations upon its rock body covered in profound patterns!
It even ignored the biting and entangling of the Dragon God, its colossal body forcibly smashing open the interception of the Dragon God, its target still locked dead onto Takuno, accelerating its charge with a suffocating sense of oppression!
"As expected... is it a futile effort?" Takuno's heart turned solemn.
This stone statue guard left behind by the Ōtsutsuki clan was a terrifying existence that had once suppressed the complete Nine-Tails; its level of power far exceeded the ordinary!
Even though he based it upon his own robust chakra and even deployed the power of Senjutsu to perform amplification, pushing the power of "Kujaku Myōhō: Dragon God" to the limit, before this level of ancient creation, it still appeared lacking in capability, difficult to shake its foundation.
"Tsk, truly a troublesome monster..."
Takuno's gaze pierced through the chaotic battlefield, casting toward that ancient palace enveloped in a mysterious glow in the distance.
His perception told him clearly that the core source currently driving this stone statue and controlling that power of the "golden Tenseigan" was precisely lurking in the depths of that palace!
To catch the bandits, catch the king first; if the controller can be dealt with...
But right now, that giant fist of the stone statue which ignored the obstruction of the Dragon God and was wrapped in destructive colossally heavy force was already close at hand, interrupting his train of thought.
The piercing sound of breaking air and the heavy sense of oppression came pressing against his face, causing even his breathing to hitch for it.
Once the edge was grazed by this giant fist containing the force of a thousand tons, even someone strong as him would inevitably suffer heavy trauma, the consequences being too dreadful to imagine!
Takuno's figure dissipated from his original spot once more, evading that fatal strike.
The giant fist of the stone statue slammed into the ground, instantly leaving a massive deep pit, shattered stones shooting in all directions like cannonballs.
He hovered not far away, his eyes gravely scanning the stone statue that had locked onto him again, as well as that purple-golden Dragon God that was still struggling to entangle but yielding meager results.
This Ōtsutsuki stone statue towering before him was absolutely not an existence that could be easily ignored.
Even if he went to find Toneri's father, he would also need to constantly guard against the opponent's attacks.
Furthermore, once Toneri's father deployed the power of the golden Tenseigan, the strength he displayed would absolutely be extraordinary!
At that time, he would fall into a double pincer attack from the stone statue and Toneri's father, facing enemies from both front and back!
Suddenly, Takuno's tightly furrowed brow twitched slightly, a strong sense of violation surging onto his heart.
Incorrect... if the situation was truly so clear-cut and appeared so disadvantageous to me on the surface, why has Toneri's father remained completely unmoved until now?
Why hasn't the other party personally revealed himself to join forces with this stone statue of infinite power to thoroughly crush him in one fell swoop?