Uchiha Yoru had not managed to rescue every Uchiha younger brother.
During his charge, he had also picked up six corpses.
A melee fought with blades was the most dangerous kind of battle in any world. No matter what kind of advantage one possessed, casualties could never be avoided.
Uchiha Yoru did not feel too much sorrow. He gathered his subordinates' bodies, checked the entire battlefield once more, and after confirming that not a single Uchiha had been left behind, he threw the kunai in his hand.
This kunai was engraved with a Flying Thunder God mark unique to him.
It was not a yin-yang diagram.
Nor was it a trigram diagram.
Naturally, it was not the Uchiha clan crest either.
It was four characters—
The Dao follows nature.
This was a rather wondrous result. In Uchiha Yoru's research into the Flying Thunder God seal mark, the finalized seal array pattern had ultimately become a long, one-to-four-shaped design.
There was simply no way to modify it into a trigram diagram or a yin-yang diagram. After looking at it from every angle, he discovered that as long as he added a few strokes, it happened to form the four cursive characters for "The Dao follows nature."
It was too obvious.
This was the Heavenly Dao giving him a hint.
Don't talk to me about superstition. I'm already cultivating immortality. Gods and whatnot don't need to be worshipped anymore—but the Great Dao still has to be acknowledged.
Thus, "The Dao follows nature" became his Flying Thunder God mark.
The kunai shot out like lightning. Miwa Masayo vanished with the help of a flame jump. On the battlefield, he was the only Uchiha left.
Only then did Uchiha Yoru completely relax, finally in the mood to appreciate the ice-crystal giant beast Hotaru had created by wringing dry all of his chakra.
The freezing on the surface of the sea was still continuing.
As more and more seawater condensed, layers of ice crystals piled upward. The ice crystals around Hotaru's body materialized into a savage and terrifying monster head.
The abstract head, formed entirely from icicles and ice spikes, was thick and bristling like a porcupine. Its hollow, indifferent eyes radiated endless cold light.
The violent fluctuations of chakra suddenly became calm.
One of the giant monster's claws stretched out from beneath the sea and slammed heavily onto the surface. Immediately afterward came another enormous claw.
As the monster continued struggling and exerting force, clusters of sword-like dorsal spines emerged from the sea, followed by a long dragon tail and heavy, solid hind legs.
When this ferocious beast, nearly fifty meters long, fully stood atop the sea, endless icy mist surged from both sides of its body, eventually condensing into a pair of ice-crystal wings with a wingspan exceeding a hundred meters.
Its body was formed from crystal-clear ice. Every inch of its surface was layered with sharp, pointed icicle spikes.
Beneath the transparent ice crystals, there were no organs or bones—only icicles branching outward from the body's spine. Just looking at it made one's scalp tingle.
This thing was definitely the natural enemy of anyone with trypophobia.
The Kirigakure shinobi stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the crystalline beast. They could not help doubting their entire shinobi careers.
Had they really chosen the right path?
Even the Yuki clan shinobi were similarly unable to utter a single word. They had never imagined that their clan head actually possessed such power and such ninjutsu.
In the hearts of these long, straight black-haired shinobi, seeds of pride were planted.
Perhaps one day, those seeds would sprout, grow strong, and guide them into becoming a new generation of powerful shinobi.
The giant monster spread its wings, blotting out the sky, and gently swung its tail. Endless violent wind rose, mixed with countless frost blades, pouring out in every direction like a tsunami.
The brilliant ice-blue light was dazzling enough that no one could look directly at it.
Yet the sharp frost blades silently softened into round hailstones.
The Kirigakure shinobi and Yuki clan shinobi were caught off guard. With nowhere to dodge, they were battered until lumps rose across their heads, blown into the air by the violent wind, then dropped heavily into the sea.
Some clever shinobi understood.
Hotaru was helping them leave the battlefield, preventing them from being dragged into the fight and unfortunately becoming cannon fodder.
Thus, they began shouting loudly, calling for their companions to flee the battlefield and make space for Lord Hotaru to fight.
The sea was the Kirigakure shinobi's home ground, and their methods of escape were varied and strange.
Some shinobi transformed into various giant fish and plunged into the seawater, rapidly swimming away.
Some shinobi plunged straight beneath the sea, relying on ninjutsu to maintain underwater breathing, then used both hands to swim down to the deep seabed before moving in whatever direction they considered safe.
Most of the Kirigakure shinobi cooperated to cast the Hidden Mist Jutsu, creating a vast expanse of thick mist across the sea before rushing into it and fleeing at full speed.
Uchiha Yoru did not stop these people from escaping.
There were simply too many of them. With him alone trying to kill them, it was fundamentally impossible.
Besides, his goal was only to ensure that one person died here.
Why create excessive slaughter?
The Ice-Crystal White Dragon madly spewed snow and freezing wind. The sea beneath Uchiha Yoru's feet was gradually freezing. Without realizing it, the thought of immediately slipping away began to waver in his heart.
I really want to kill this guy head-on.
Such a huge ice-crystal creation… fighting it should feel amazing, right?
He shook his head and sighed.
"I knew it. If you don't kill a genius in one strike, things become very dangerous. He's really stirred up my competitive spirit."
"With the Heart Ape this lively, dealing with it after I go back will be a real headache."
Uchiha Yoru was not especially worried about this genius strengthening Kirigakure.
That was because Hotaru did not have enough time, nor had he accumulated enough battle achievements and prestige to persuade Kirigakure to follow his ideas.
But Yoru believed that when a genius like this acted alone, he could create a truly huge commotion.
And now, sure enough, he had created a huge commotion.
Uchiha Yoru once again examined the ice-crystal giant beast and praised it.
"This thing looks much better than a clay dragon."
"To create such a magnificent Ice Release construct with so little chakra… I have to admit, you are a true genius."
Hotaru controlled the giant dragon and lowered its head, coldly staring at Uchiha Yoru. He was utterly unmoved by the praise. Within the dragon's cold, hollow eyes, there was only endless rage and killing intent.
Hotaru had completely sealed himself off.
Right now, he could no longer hear the outside world at all, nor could he speak.
Uchiha Yoru did not know his condition, but he could feel the killing intent from him, as well as the determination of someone burning his boats and smashing his cauldrons.
Finally, he followed his heart and gave up the idea of enjoying himself.
The enemy had recklessly squeezed dry the cells of his body in exchange for combat strength. That strength was indeed very powerful, but it also meant that he was not far from death.
Why fight a genius who had broken through his own limits and reached the peak of his combat strength?
When a genius was willing to risk his life just to drag you down with him, the best response was not to fight with everything you had.
It was to ignore him and stay far, far away.
Once that desperate genius's ferocity was exhausted and his life was exhausted as well, then one could come back and loot the corpse.
No matter how much of a genius he had been while alive, once he was dead, would he not still be a corpse?
The Ice-Crystal White Dragon opened its mouth, which was filled with icicles. Chakra from its entire body gathered toward its mouth. A blue ice sphere formed, radiating terrifying chakra fluctuations and extreme cold that made one's blood feel as though it would freeze solid.
Uchiha Yoru no longer hesitated.
He activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished from in front of Hotaru with a whoosh.
Hotaru suddenly lost his attack target.
Was the enemy's sudden disappearance a trick of the eye?
A genjutsu?
Or was it the Clone Jutsu, Body Flicker Technique, Shadow Clone Technique?
There was no longer a target, but the ninjutsu whose chakra had accumulated to its peak could not be stopped. He had to release the technique, even if he could only fire it at the empty sea.
Fortunately, this ninjutsu did not require aiming.
Its attack range was extremely vast. As long as the enemy was within it, they would certainly be killed by this technique.
Hotaru did not hesitate for long and immediately activated his strongest ninjutsu.
Ice Release: Frozen Polar Region.
The ice-crystal radiance emitted by the blue ice sphere in the giant dragon's mouth abruptly dimmed. Bone-piercing cold suddenly erupted, and a dazzling beam of light shot straight toward the surface of the sea.
Along the beam's trajectory, a beautiful ice path appeared in the air. Amid crisp sounds of cracking ice, stardust-like ice particles fell like flowing mist.
The blue beam appeared to move slowly, but in truth, it struck the sea in an instant.
At the point where the beam hit the sea, the seawater seemed to have been struck by a meteorite. A towering forest of waves erupted upward, unleashing ferocious air currents. A terrifying shockwave stirred raging waves across the ocean.
But accompanying the shockwave was terrifying extreme cold.
The wave forest stirred up by the shockwave had no time to fall before it was directly frozen, forming one vivid, three-dimensional image after another of raging waves and towering water.
A few hundred meters away, the shockwave turned into a roaring gale.
The extremely cold gale let out a mournful howl. Everything it passed was frozen.
After this violent wind passed, everything changed.
The sea froze.
The clouds in the sky froze.
The moisture in the air froze as well.
Even the wind suddenly vanished.
Within the limits of sight, the sea had transformed into an icefield. Everything had frozen. All things were coated in a layer of ice-blue, reflecting crystalline light beneath the sun.
At this moment, ice fragments formed from condensed moisture in the air were drifting down in a flurry.
Even the white clouds in the sky were visibly falling because of condensation.
Across the vast sea, a circular man-made icefield with a radius of twelve hundred meters had appeared.
Its scale was so immense that it left people speechless.
This was a true man-made natural disaster.
Uchiha Yoru held his own kunai and stood at the edge of the frozen area, lightly knocking apart the ice on his legs.
He looked at the icefield before him and sighed.
"Good grief. What an incredible guy. The attack range of this ninjutsu exceeds most Tailed Beast Balls."
"If the One-Tail and Two-Tails saw a scene created by a human shinobi, they really should feel ashamed."
"Unfortunately, this is also a genius's fatal strike."
Miwa Masayo, who had been summoned over, heard his words and asked in confusion, "You said he's dead, nya?"
Uchiha Yoru pointed toward the distant Ice-Crystal White Dragon and said, "He's dead. All chakra fluctuations have disappeared. Look, that gigantic ice-crystal construct is collapsing and disintegrating."
Miwa Masayo raised a paw over her eyes like a canopy and looked carefully into the distance. Just in time, she saw the enormous dragon head fall, smashing countless clouds of ice dust across the icefield.
The tabby cat said in surprise, "He really is dead, nya."
"Why did he make such a huge ice-crystal construct, nya? It was so big, but then he used another ninjutsu to attack once and it fell apart. Isn't that a waste, nya?"
Uchiha Yoru rejected Miwa Masayo's conclusion.
"He didn't waste anything. Or rather, all the chakra that looked wasted was necessary, and it had meaning."
"To me, his line of thinking has great reference value."
As everyone knew, shinobi extracted chakra from their cells.
But life itself possessed many limiting locks. It was impossible to squeeze every bit of chakra out of the cells all at once like a machine.
Even if one wanted to risk their life and destructively squeeze the cells, directly wringing them to death, that still required a process. It required a considerable amount of time.
Thus, Hotaru adopted a clever method.
He first extracted chakra and used it to create a giant shaped ninjutsu, forming a massive chakra construct with a loose structure.
The function of this Ice-Crystal White Dragon was not to serve as a combat puppet.
It was a chakra reservoir.
It stored the chakra Hotaru continuously extracted.
When the chakra in his body was completely squeezed dry, and even the cells of his body had begun dying, he decomposed the ice-crystal dragon and poured all the accumulated chakra into the final ninjutsu.
Hotaru had succeeded.
He successfully unleashed a giant ninjutsu far beyond his own shinobi level, creating an icefield upon the sea.
This was a true icefield that had even frozen the seabed forty meters below. It was not a rootless iceberg drifting with the waves. It was a wonder that might not completely melt away even through the entire summer.
Uchiha Yoru brought Miwa Masayo onto the icefield, walking toward the giant beast's remains at the center.
Looking at the terrifying frozen scenes along the way and feeling the increasingly horrifying low temperature, the two sages' evaluation of Hotaru continued to rise.
When they approached within five hundred meters, Uchiha Yoru could no longer endure the cold beneath his feet. He had no choice but to take out thick pieces of wood and bind them under his feet to block the low temperature's invasion.
After tying on the thick wooden boards, Uchiha Yoru sighed.
"If I hadn't run far enough back then, and I'd been frozen by that ninjutsu at this position, I really might have been in danger of dying."
Miwa Masayo breathed out a cloud of white mist, then swatted it apart with her paw, having the time of her life.
Hearing Uchiha Yoru's sigh, she looked at her litter-scooper with eyes full of suspicion and asked, "Are you sure this temperature could actually kill you?"
Uchiha Yoru thought for a moment and answered, "It's still possible. At such a low temperature, there's at least a one percent chance of inducing cardiopulmonary embolism. That's a real fatal threat."
The tabby cat: "..."
She was already used to it and was too lazy to argue with this guy.
Forget whether the probability of inducing cardiopulmonary embolism was really one percent or not—even if it did happen, so what?
Uchiha Yoru was not an ordinary person.
His body's self-healing ability was already terrifying to the point that even cutting open his heart would not count as a fatal injury.
With such an inhuman physique, what kind of damned vascular embolism could take his life?
At most, it would be a cerebral embolism that caused him to lose function for a short time.
However, when Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo reached Hotaru's corpse, they both sucked in a breath of cold air together.
Then their teeth chattered from the freezing air at the same time.
They saw dry ice.
Dry ice that was continuously condensing and growing larger, climbing upward from the ice surface like frost flowers on a window.
This meant the temperature was below minus seventy-eight point five degrees.
Uchiha Yoru quietly reminded Miwa Masayo, "Absolutely do not touch the ice with your skin. Even your fur should avoid it as much as possible. You might be frozen to it directly."
The tabby cat nodded repeatedly, fearfully tucking her paws beneath her body.
Suddenly, she asked, "Yoru, why is there still water here, nya?"
Following the tabby cat's indication, Uchiha Yoru looked over and immediately froze in fright. Pointing at a small puddle on the ice, he stammered, "T-this, this is… liquefied air?"
The clear liquid in the shallow puddle was filled with tiny bubbles.
It was… boiling?
Wind-aspected natural energy activated. Uchiha Yoru gently captured the gas released from a ruptured bubble and sent it to the tip of his nose for a sniff.
There was no smell at all.
But Uchiha Yoru felt his nasal cavity itch, and very quickly, he felt his mind become refreshed, shaking off the continuous grogginess from just now.
"As expected, it's pure oxygen. No wonder I felt like it was hard to breathe here. So the oxygen has already liquefied, and the oxygen content in the air has dropped low enough to cause hypoxia."
Slightly boiling liquid oxygen represented an environmental temperature of minus one hundred eighty-three degrees.
Uchiha Yoru sighed.
"In the end, I still underestimated how powerful this ninjutsu was. If I had been directly hit by this technique, I truly would have been in danger of dying."
Miwa Masayo asked, "Can a Kage-level shinobi use a technique like this, nya?"
Uchiha Yoru shook his head.
"Impossible. This has already surpassed the scope of Kage level."
Hotaru's final ninjutsu was, in today's shinobi world, the undisputed strongest.
This included the aged and dying Uchiha Madara, Nagato whose body was weakened and still slowly recovering, and the so-called perfect jinchuriki, Blue B. For various reasons, none of them could currently display power at this level.
Uchiha Yoru even felt that Nagato at his peak twenty years later, if directly hit by this technique, would die without any room to struggle.
"Fortunately, I mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique and jumped out of this technique's attack range in one go."
Uchiha Yoru smiled and said, "This genius shinobi of the Yuki clan failed to accomplish his goal. Instead, he accidentally killed quite a few Kirigakure shinobi."
Although Hotaru had warned the Kirigakure shinobi to retreat, there would always be people who relied on luck. They sneakily hid beneath the mud, sand, and reefs of the seabed, or concealed themselves in the dense underwater forests of seaweed.
These clever people were now frozen inside the sea ice. The low temperature had sent them into unconsciousness, and they were slowly moving toward death from suffocation.
No one could save them.
The positions where these Kirigakure shinobi had been frozen were too close to the seabed. Before they died, no one could dig through forty meters of solid ice.
"I'll go collect some of this guy's flesh and blood. Then we'll regroup with the Tiger Unit and see what surprises there are at the enemy's starting point."
"What do you need his flesh and blood for, nya?"
"When I master the Impure World Reincarnation in the future, I'll conscript this guy to serve me. A genius this rare shouldn't be left wasting away in the Pure Land."
"I remember you said that if you want to obtain true wisdom through the Impure World Reincarnation, you have to grant enough authority and give the revived soul full freedom. This is an enemy you forced to death. Will reviving him really be useful, nya?"
"How could it not be useful?"
"As long as someone is human, they have desires and needs. Even the dead are no exception."
Uchiha Yoru thought of the future where the Yuki clan would be completely exterminated, then thought of his own future where he would control the Uchiha clan and become very, very rich.
He said smugly, "Money can make ghosts turn millstones. Without money, they become the ghosts turning the millstone. He'll obediently serve me."
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