Although he looked miserable, Uchiha Yoru endured it through his self-healing ability. His enormous ocular power successfully connected to the source of that mysterious power through a miraculous link in the void.
Under the influence of that mysterious power, the nature of his ocular power changed.
His ocular power transformed from a void-transparent special chakra into chakra possessing tangible physical properties, and it was given a bright golden color.
The golden ocular power followed a mysterious template and automatically condensed into sections of bone, forming a pair of enormous skeletal hands.
Susanoo.
This ultimate power dwelling within the Mangekyō Sharingan manifested enormous chakra into a gigantic warrior god for battle, an ultimate dojutsu integrating both offense and defense.
Yet it had actually been successfully used by Uchiha Yoru while he was still at the three-tomoe Sharingan stage.
Although the golden Susanoo only possessed the skeletal structures of two hands, these two bone claws were still genuine Susanoo!
Uchiha Yoru had created a miracle of the Uchiha clan. Even if Uchiha Madara saw this scene, he would be shocked by Uchiha Yoru's genius.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, had already forgotten the pain in its eye socket.
After sensing Uchiha Yoru's ocular power, uncontrollable fear surged from the depths of its heart.
This was because the Three-Tails, Isobu, was under the control of a Mangekyō genjutsu. When it sensed ocular power close to the Mangekyō, that genjutsu stirred up fear in its heart.
This was a mechanism Uchiha Madara had set inside the genjutsu he cast in order to further strengthen its control.
And the appearance of the golden bone hands awakened the Three-Tails' memories.
Those were painful memories of being beaten violently until it had no choice but to submit to a shinobi.
Uchiha Yoru did not know why the Three-Tails had fallen into a daze, but that did not stop him from rapidly approaching. Susanoo's two hands seized the Three-Tails' neck without hesitation, firmly pinning its head against the surface of the sea.
The Three-Tails immediately snapped awake and began struggling desperately, trying to break free from this extremely dangerous posture. But its strength was unable to shake off Susanoo's restraint.
Isobu's fear reached a new peak. It let out a deafening roar, and all the chakra in its body madly surged toward its slightly opened mouth.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, was beginning to fight with its life.
Disregarding its own safety, it forcefully condensed a Tailed Beast Ball, preparing to use the Tailed Beast's strongest power to resist the Uchiha clan's strongest power.
At this moment, Uchiha Yoru's pain was no lighter than the Three-Tails'. Isobu's desperate struggle could not shake Susanoo, but the ocular power consumption caused by it doubled.
The suddenly increased flow of ocular power far exceeded the endurance limit of the three-tomoe Sharingan. Uchiha Yoru's vision suddenly went black.
He had gone blind.
Fortunately, the sensations of intense pain and unbearable itching told him that his body's self-healing ability was functioning normally. His blindness was only temporary.
Even if he was blind, it did not matter.
Uchiha Yoru could sense that the Three-Tails was frantically gathering chakra. He could sense the kunai engraved with "The Dao follows nature" that he had given to Miwa Masayo, as well as the other kunai engraved with "The Dao follows nature" beneath the distant sea.
What is the success rate of this risk?
There's no time to calculate. Maybe only fifty percent.
Heavenly Dao above, fifty percent. How is that any different from suicide? If not for my intuition telling me this is the only chance, how could I possibly take this risk?
Is this a natural disaster, or a man-made calamity?
Uchiha Yoru patted Miwa Masayo, who was tightly hugging his neck.
The adorable tabby cat seemed to have discovered something through intuition. No matter how Uchiha Yoru persuaded her, she refused to leave. No matter what, she insisted on staying with her litter-scooper.
The tabby cat even said, "Just this once. After this, I'll never accompany you on another risk again!"
Because Uchiha Yoru was blind, he failed to cover the tabby cat's mouth in time, allowing her to plant a huge flag.
He smiled bitterly and silently questioned her.
Why are you raising a flag for me?
Uchiha Yoru even felt a little like giving up.
So what if his intuition said this was the only chance?
If he did not take the risk, he could at least live another two hundred years.
That was better than going to his death now.
But in the end, Uchiha Yoru still made up his mind.
He would fight for his immortal path.
That was right.
Go against the current and become immortal. Follow the current and remain human.
From the very beginning, immortal cultivators rowed against the current. Giving up absolutely did not mean remaining where one stood. Instead, under the impact of heaven and earth's opposing current, one would lose everything in a single plunge.
No.
How could it be that cheap?
How could the immortal path allow cultivators to retreat?
Perhaps there would be no decline or regression at all. Under the impact of the opposing current, those who gave up would only face one outcome—
The boat overturns, and the person dies.
Advancing and fighting with one's life might lead to death.
But retreating and giving up was certain death.
Since that's the case, then I'll risk it!
Uchiha Yoru tightly held Miwa Masayo with his left hand, extended his right hand toward the position of the nearest "The Dao follows nature" kunai, and grasped at the air.
The Flying Thunder God Technique activated.
He landed directly in front of the Three-Tails' right eye socket. He raised his right hand and groped a few times, then touched the springy and soft giant eye.
Without the slightest hesitation, Uchiha Yoru pulled out a kunai and stabbed it down viciously.
His current physical qualities were extremely exaggerated. In particular, the strength of both hands was astonishing, and his speed was equally astonishing. A full-force strike with a kunai in hand was enough to stab the kunai into a thick metal plate.
But Uchiha Yoru's full-force stab did not pierce the Three-Tails' eye.
From the feedback in his hand, what blocked the kunai was precisely that soft and springy membrane.
The cornea of the eye.
Although this cornea looked soft and lacked hardness, the toughness of the Three-Tails' cornea was absolutely beyond imagination.
One had to know that the Three-Tails' eye was extremely enormous. The diameter of its vitreous body had reached an astonishing three meters. To maintain such a huge eyeball in a relatively perfect spherical shape relied entirely on the restraining toughness of the cornea.
Therefore, piercing this thin layer of defense was not so easy.
Uchiha Yoru nervously calculated in his mind the speed at which his ocular power was draining, his own remaining chakra, the time required for the Three-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball to condense, and the consumption of his next two techniques.
Chakra and ocular power are critical. I can't use any more ninjutsu. I need to leave enough for one final Flying Thunder God Technique.
Senjutsu. What senjutsu do I have that can break through the Three-Tails' eye defense?
Only the divine ability: Lightning Method!
Lightning-aspected natural energy from his meridians poured out through the Baihui acupoint, shooting straight several thousand meters into the sky and attracting lightning-aspected energy in nature to gather.
What surprised Uchiha Yoru deeply was that the Three-Tails' previous battle actions had already gathered a massive amount of lightning-aspected natural energy in advance. The electric charges between heaven and earth had already formed a static force field strong enough to make hair stand upright.
This caused Uchiha Yoru to involuntarily develop an illusion.
It was as though somewhere in the unseen, some great will existed, carefully and cleverly weaving different fates.
It was precisely because he did not fear the danger of death and firmly chose to fight the Three-Tails, Isobu, that he could discover fate's reward for the brave.
Since he had received fate's favor, what else was there to hesitate about?
Uchiha Yoru pointed one hand toward the sky. Using his own lightning-aspected natural energy as material, he wove a lightning channel connecting heaven and earth.
In an instant, an ultra-powerful bolt of lightning directly struck the Three-Tails' right eyeball. The tough cornea could not stop the lightning from piercing through.
Accompanied by a tearing sound, the Three-Tails' cornea split. Then came the sound of rushing water, followed by gurgling boiling sounds. The Three-Tails' scream rang through the clouds, not at all weaker than the fleeting lightning.
The pain of losing an eye drove the Three-Tails mad.
Now, it no longer considered escape. Its entire mind was fixed on killing the shinobi standing in its right eye socket.
It no longer cared about pain, nor did it consider the possibility of death. It went all out to condense the Tailed Beast Ball. Even if it could only kill this hateful shinobi one second earlier, that would be excellent.
Uchiha Yoru's current appearance was extremely wretched.
Just now, he had first been swept by the aftermath of the lightning, turning his entire body into a charred-black mass of curled hair. Immediately afterward, he had nearly been drenched by the scalding vitreous fluid that leaked out.
But he neither washed his body nor changed his clothes.
He no longer had any thought to spare for anything else.
As the eyeball ruptured, a powerful and pure Water Release chakra leaked out, and with it spread incomparably pure, vibrant water-aspected natural energy.
Uchiha Yoru's instincts screamed.
Every cell usurped control, madly creating a hunger that came from the soul.
His body urged Uchiha Yoru.
He had to obtain this water-aspected product immediately.
Then eat it at the first moment and complete his final Foundation Establishment breakthrough.
Uchiha Yoru did not hesitate at all. He burrowed into the Three-Tails' right eye socket and followed his senses with both hands, groping through all kinds of sticky substances inside the eye socket.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, did not go berserk because its eye was injured.
On the contrary, it endured the severe pain in its eye with all its strength and accelerated the gathering of chakra with everything it had.
As Yin Release and Yang Release chakra merged in a two-to-eight ratio, a fist-sized black energy sphere condensed inside Isobu's mouth.
The chakra already gathered in its mouth poured in madly. The pitch-black energy sphere rapidly expanded, and Isobu's mouth opened wider and wider.
But its head slowly lowered, aiming its mouth at the sea directly before it.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, actually planned to detonate the Tailed Beast Ball directly beneath its own feet!
Uchiha Yoru was inside the Three-Tails' eye socket. After sensing the movement of its head, he immediately guessed the Tailed Beast's intention to perish together with him.
Of course, the Three-Tails' plan certainly was not true mutual destruction. No Tailed Beast was fragile enough to be killed by its own Tailed Beast Ball. Naturally, the Tailed Beast Ball would hurt it greatly.
But it especially, especially wanted the human who tried to dig out its eye to die. In order to prevent this human from escaping, it would rather endure the damage of its own Tailed Beast Ball.
Uchiha Yoru's heart pounded wildly.
Now, there was no need for intuition or danger perception. Every cell in his body knew danger had arrived. But he gritted his teeth and continued searching, even controlling the speed of his hands so that he would not miss the supreme treasure in his panic.
Just as the Tailed Beast Ball rapidly expanded to its limit, the Three-Tails, enduring its neck being torn bloody by the skeletal hands, suddenly exerted force and broke free from Susanoo's restraint.
It flung its head violently downward, throwing Uchiha Yoru and everything inside its eye socket out.
Then, without hesitation, it spat out the Tailed Beast Ball in its mouth.
Uchiha Yoru was thrown into the air. Despair over failure continuously surged up, but those thoughts were all skillfully destroyed at the first moment.
He held Miwa Masayo with his left hand, while stretching out his right hand and both feet as much as possible to maintain balance, trying to fight for just one more chance in this final moment.
Suddenly, Miwa Masayo widened her eyes, stretched out one paw toward the air, and shouted, "Yoru, two o'clock! Six meters away! Three and a half meters high!"
The blinded Uchiha Yoru stretched out his right hand without hesitation, spreading his five fingers and reaching out like a cat's claw.
Wind-aspected natural energy seeped out from his hand. Cyan wind formed the shape of a palm, suddenly extending several meters and sweeping fiercely through the range Miwa Masayo had described.
In that instant, Uchiha Yoru smiled.
He could feel that the wind hand had grabbed a section of something soft.
Through the hand formed from wind-aspected natural energy, he had already sensed dense water-aspected natural energy radiating from that soft object.
Finally found it.
Uchiha Yoru no longer hesitated in the slightest. He immediately activated the Flying Thunder God Technique. Just as the enormous Tailed Beast Ball passed him and rushed toward the sea, he left this dangerous battlefield.
The next moment, Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo appeared in the deep, dark seabed.
The sudden change in environment, especially going from the sea surface to the seabed dozens of meters deep, from one atmosphere of pressure to several atmospheres in an instant, caused Uchiha Yoru severe discomfort.
But before he could react further, he felt his chest tighten. A large number of tiny bubbles suddenly appeared in the seawater around him, striking and bursting against his skin, bringing dense stinging pain.
Uchiha Yoru understood.
A powerful shockwave had swept past, causing a violent change in the pressure of the seawater.
Affected by this sudden pressure change, the gas-dissolving properties of the seawater changed drastically. A large amount of air separated out, forming dense bubbles.
Uchiha Yoru's lungs were fiercely compressed and then suddenly expanded, tearing the respiratory muscles between his ribs.
But his self-healing ability was currently activating powerfully. Such a small injury could be said to appear and vanish at once. Thus, what he felt was only chest tightness.
Miwa Masayo was different.
The pressure change had very little effect on her tiny body, and her body, soft as water, could directly dissolve the pressure change into nothingness.
After the shockwave passed, Uchiha Yoru quickly judged that this was the lateral shockwave formed underwater after the Tailed Beast Ball struck the sea surface and exploded.
And the intensity of this shockwave proved that his current distance was safe.
Just as Uchiha Yoru carefully sensed the distant situation of the Three-Tails, Miwa Masayo's natural energy wrapped around Uchiha Yoru's body, and her voice sounded in his mind.
[Yoru, did you get the thing, nya?]
[I got it. But my vision still hasn't recovered. Rika-chan, tell me what exactly this thing is.]
[I can't really explain it, nya. It's soft, long, and a little like the beef tendon you bought before, nya.]
[Strange. There's actually something like beef tendon inside the Three-Tails' eye. How did it grow?]
[I don't know, nya. I'll look more carefully.]
Miwa Masayo paddled through the water and swam to Uchiha Yoru's right hand. She opened her claws and lit blue-white flames, using the illumination of the fire to observe carefully.
[Yoru, this thing is hollow, nya. It's a tube, nya.]
Hearing Miwa Masayo's description, Uchiha Yoru could not help touching it with his left hand. Then he squeezed hard with his right hand. Only then did he discover that it was indeed a tube.
[This is getting stranger and stranger. Is it a blood vessel?]
[No, it's not a blood vessel. There's something else inside this tube. Mm… strands of it. Looks like fibers.]
[There really is something inside, nya.]
Little claws scratched and scratched.
[It's soft, nya. It breaks when touched, nya. But the natural energy is so pure, nya.]
As the tabby cat scratched, a large number of fragments appeared from the fibers inside the tube. In the seawater, they quickly shattered and dissolved, releasing extremely intense natural energy that merged into the surrounding seawater without the slightest sense of incompatibility.
Suddenly, familiar hunger and thirst surged from deep within Uchiha Yoru's body, like—
He laughed silently.
He had finally found it.
So it was not this tube, but the soft fibers curled up inside the tube. No wonder his body had not displayed the desire it should have after he grabbed the object.
Thus, Uchiha Yoru did not hesitate at all.
With practiced familiarity, he raised his right hand, aimed it at his mouth, and squeezed hard, forcing all the fibers inside the tube into his mouth.
There was no need to chew.
The moment these fibers touched saliva in his mouth, they directly melted into a viscous gel-like substance, flowing down his throat into his stomach.
Uchiha Yoru even had a strong illusion that this gelatinous substance had actively crawled into his stomach.
As all the gel was swallowed, Uchiha Yoru felt a cool liquid travel down his throat and all the way into his stomach, like drinking a cup of chilled mint-flavored ice wine. The refreshing sensation shot straight up to the crown of his head.
He involuntarily opened his mouth and sighed, "Ah, so comf—glug glug…"
Miwa Masayo stared blankly as her litter-scooper lifted his head and swallowed the thing inside the tube.
Then she saw her litter-scooper open his mouth to speak with an intoxicated expression. After spitting out a large number of bubbles, he was forced to swallow a bellyful of seawater.
The tabby cat was stunned.
Only after quite a while did she react. Then she was amused by her litter-scooper's pathetic appearance.
Fortunately, Miwa Masayo remembered how Uchiha Yoru had drunk seawater. She tightly closed her mouth and used heart-speech to mock her litter-scooper:
[Hahaha, nya nya nya.]
[Rika-chan, stop laughing. Hurry and move farther away.]
[Nya?]
[I'm going to break through right now. I feel that what I cause next definitely won't be small.]
[Will there be danger, nya?]
[Mm. This should be the final breakthrough. Perhaps for me, it will be a transformation like feathering into immortality. Danger is unavoidable.]
[But if you stay beside me, I'm worried this danger will affect you. Go quickly. And stay as far away as possible.]
[I understand, nya. I'll leave right now.]
[Yoru, do you need me to help you float up to the sea surface?]
[No need. My intuition tells me that being at the seabed is fine. Hurry and go. I'm about to lose control.]
[Nya!]
Uchiha Yoru suddenly felt his entire body tighten, and the mental link with Miwa Masayo disconnected.
He understood clearly in his heart.
The breakthrough had begun.
But why did he feel panic?
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