Clad in black, he strode mercilessly into this world full of light and hope.
His purpose was murder.
He drew Chijin, the faint red blade gleamed under the lights. Then thin threads of black lightning trembled along its edge, swelling into streams as thick as a pinky finger, sheathing the blade and cutting off the bright illumination around it.
More black lightning surged across Ye Zi's body, covering him entirely. In this white room, he was blindingly jarring.
"My words aren't finished yet."
Konan raised her right hand. The moment Ye Zi used Lightning Style Armor, she triggered the countless explosive tags she had already prepared. Around Ye Zi's position were many more that had been secretly laid down.
"Die!"
One by one, the explosive tags tore free from the floor as if pulled by invisible force, flying toward Ye Zi from all directions.
That genuinely surprised him, he hadn't expected Konan to have rigged this place with explosives.
Ye Zi abandoned his plan to strike first, weaving hand signs and invoking Wood Release. Thick wooden pillars rose and locked together tightly, forming a dome-like hut around him, shielding him inside.
Forty or fifty explosive tags plastered themselves to the wooden dome. Flames ignited, and a violent explosion erupted.
The blazing fire engulfed the wood, while dense black smoke rolled outward with the shockwaves.
This was Yahiko's resting place, with his corpse here, Konan had scruples. She did not unleash her full strength, instead controlling only part of the tags to restrain Ye Zi.
Afterward, she used paper to wrap Yahiko's tranquil body, coffin and all, and sank it beneath the sea of paper flowers.
Once Yahiko was secured, her first thought was to leave immediately.
She had placed many tags here, but out of concern for Yahiko, she hadn't detonated them all otherwise she would have dragged Ye Zi straight into hell.
With a beat of her paper wings, Konan rose into the air, heading for the chamber's side exit.
Suddenly, a cutting sound split the air. A black figure intercepted her mid-flight, it was Ye Zi. Having weathered the blast with Wood Release and dispelled it afterward, he attacked her unscathed.
His blade, cloaked in crackling black lightning, slashed toward her. If it connected, it would cleave her clean in two.
His speed was terrifying, but Konan was a sensory-type ninja. Though her reflexes weren't outstanding, her perception could aid her in reacting, enough to barely keep up.
When the blade came down, she sensed it, but couldn't fully evade. She twisted her body in midair, narrowly avoiding a fatal strike.
Shhh!
The two crossed paths. Paper fragments scattered. Half of Konan's wing was severed, sending her falling at an angle. As Ye Zi passed her, high above, he twisted his body, switched Chijin into his left hand, and with his right hand flung several shuriken.
They flew from his palm already infused with lightning, streaking at Konan's back with deadly speed.
Hearing the sharp whistle behind her, Konan's brows tightened. With her remaining wing she beat the air hard, pushing herself aside just enough to barely dodge the lightning-charged shuriken.
That was the nuisance of sensory ninjas, they could feel chakra in incoming attacks and slip away from ambushes. Konan dodging twice was no accident.
As Ye Zi descended, he extended his right hand, summoning a solid wooden plank in the air beneath him. He planted both feet on it, then kicked off, propelling himself like an arrow straight at Konan.
The unrelenting assault weighed on her like a storm.
When Ye Zi closed in once more, she had already exhausted her strength.
Slash!
He swung coldly, blade falling from above, slicing her from crown to heel in one motion.
Her body split, only to dissolve into countless sheets of paper, fluttering around him.
"A substitution, hm…"
Ye Zi landed smoothly, sensory ability flaring to search her out.
But the scattered papers included many explosive tags.
He saw them, sensed Konan's chakra as well, but ignored the imminent detonations. Lightning around his body surged furiously.
BOOM! BOOM!
Hundreds of explosive tags detonated at once. The shockwaves filled the entire chamber, scattering paper flowers from around the coffin.
Petals whirled, black smoke rolled across the ceiling.
After two massive blasts, the air itself seemed sucked away.
Konan reappeared, now within a hundred meters of the exit.
She looked back at the roiling smoke, certain that Ye Zi hadn't used Wood Release this time. Had the explosion injured him? She couldn't tell.
"I need to get out first…"
She turned away. There was no time to wait for the smoke to clear and confirm his state, she had to escape.
But just as she moved, her body froze. From the blast's center, a surge of powerful chakra burst forth.
She whipped her head back. Through the smoke, a figure cloaked in lightning erupted forth.
Straining her eyes, she barely made out Ye Zi's form. She couldn't tell if he was hurt, but it was clear... Such close-range blasts had not stopped him.
Paper Shuriken!
Konan clenched her teeth. Though she had dodged his strikes multiple times, the pressure was crushing.
Her body split into sheets, forming hundreds of paper shuriken. They swarmed toward Ye Zi from all directions, attempting to pin him down.
The attacks were weaker when spread so wide, but the saturation gave him nowhere to dodge.
Yet Ye Zi had no need to evade.
Just as he had poured chakra to withstand the explosive tags, he would again brute-force his way through. Against a sensory ninja like Konan, landing a decisive strike in one blow was never easy.
He plowed straight through the paper storm, shuriken slicing at him, but his speed never faltered. In moments he was before her again.
"Die in peace!"
In his icy gaze, Konan's helpless form reflected. His black blade came down once more. Could she dodge this time?
If she had any card left, it was self-destruction.
But someone else appeared, faster than her final resolve.
In truth, both Ye Zi and Konan were sensory-types. And it was just as she had unleashed the paper storm that another person appeared, suddenly, without warning.
Yet neither Ye Zi nor Konan halted their movements.
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Currently on Chapter 607 - A Battlefield Set in Motion