The moment this light beam appeared, the ambient temperature plummeted. The cold glow shone on Shinno's face, and even before it reached him, he felt his body freeze, becoming sluggish. Furthermore, this freezing beam was extremely fast.
With the combined effect, it struck in the blink of an eye, impossible to dodge.
Chakra surged within Shinno's body, and dark brown flesh erupted, enveloping him.
At that moment, the beam of blue light particles directly slammed into Shinno's body, which had not yet fully transformed into the Zero-Tails.
Shinno's body temperature plummeted, and the bone-chilling pain felt as if countless icy sharp spikes were forming inside him, piercing every part of his limbs and body.
"Ah—!"
White vapor escaped from the Zero-Tails' screaming mouth. The chilling force invaded his body, spreading from the point of impact to his entire body, covering him in white frost.
Crackling, crackling...
Shinno, in his half-Zero-Tails state, tried to twist his body, but it only caused the thin ice on him to flake off. The endless cold felt like chains, tightly binding him and refusing to let go.
If it were just like this, Shinno wouldn't have panicked.
The truly fatal aspect was that this cold could freeze the flow of chakra within him, preventing him from fully transforming into the Tailed Beast.
Shinno was utterly frustrated. He had stronger powers yet to unleash, and yet it was ending this way.
He was unwilling; he still sought revenge!
His throat was completely frozen, unable to make a sound.
As the ice crystals spread throughout his body, leaving only one eye still movable, a fist blocked his vision in his dying moments.
Boil Release: Peerless Strength.
Tōshirō launched a self-sacrificing attack, flying forward with a direct punch, heavily slamming into Shinno's body. Then, quite literally, with one punch, he exploded him, sending shards of ice flying.
The crimson Tailed Beast Cloak on Tōshirō's body gradually receded. He exhaled, the borrowed chakra from the Five-Tails completely depleted.
The power of Ice Release: Aurora Execution wasn't like Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, which had an instantaneous burst that could instantly kill a person.
The true power of this move lay in its ability to freeze the flow of chakra within a person's body. Just now, Shinno was frozen solid into an ice sculpture because the chakra flow in his body was frozen, preventing him from effectively transforming into the Zero-Tails.
As long as one took a direct hit from this move, one would instantly turn into an ice sculpture, becoming extremely fragile.
Tōshirō was able to blow Shinno apart precisely because of this.
Tōshirō had put a lot of effort into developing this technique.
For example, before performing Ice Release: Aurora Execution, he created a tornado around himself using the vortex generated by the rotation, absorbing the surrounding cold air. The inspiration for this came from the tornado that Orochimaru had helped him develop earlier.
Originally, this move was meant to deal with that old man Uchiha Madara. Tōshirō using this move against Shinno was, in a way, showing him considerable respect.
After Shinno's death, a cloud of purple-black mist, emanating an evil aura, surged from his shattered corpse.
Tōshirō cast his gaze upon it, slightly startled.
"This is Moryo's soul..."
The Priestess Shion had approached him unnoticed and spoke, reminding him.
Tōshirō understood.
Moryo's eyes glowed crimson, filled with malice.
Originally, it had intended for Shinno to lure Tōshirō into the shrine, where the special environment would limit him to less than ten percent of his strength, allowing Moryo to deal with him slowly.
However, it hadn't expected the opponent to be so fierce, unleashing a powerful attack directly and instantly killing Shinno, who hadn't even fully transformed into the Zero-Tails.
Having lost the perfect vessel of the Zero-Tails, Moryo was filled with regret.
It should have known better and either had Shinno transform into the Zero-Tails to fight, or hidden for a while and gone to another shrine to retrieve a physical body.
Facing Moryo, Tōshirō was rather uninterested.
It wasn't that he had no ideas, but against a soul-form enemy, his methods were not just lacking, they were practically nonexistent.
Thinking that Uchiha Madara apparently also knew the Impure World Reincarnation, Tōshirō felt it was necessary for him to develop a technique that could directly deal with souls.
Although Madara's personality wouldn't lead him to use such a skill, it was always good to be prepared.
But for now, this matter still needed to be handled by professionals.
The Priestess Shion seemed to have the same intention and proactively said: "Next, I'll take care of Moryo."
Tōshirō left the opponent to Shion, while he himself faced Orochimaru.
At this time, Orochimaru, influenced by Moryo's power, had significantly enhanced physical stats and chakra compared to before, but he was ultimately just a puppet without consciousness, unable to unleash his true power.
After a few moves, Tōshirō bound Orochimaru with ice chains and glanced over.
Shion, having just given birth, was not in good condition. While there were some complications in sealing Moryo, overall, it went smoothly. Moryo was sealed into a ball of light.
With Moryo sealed and its control gone, the red glow in Orochimaru's eyes faded, and he fell to the ground like a broken puppet.
Tōshirō called Tsunade over to give Orochimaru a physical examination.
After a minute of waiting, Tōshirō asked about his condition.
Tsunade smiled: "Don't worry, there's nothing unusual with his body. He should wake up soon."
Tōshirō sighed in relief, walked over to Jiraiya, who was lying on the ground, and lightly nudged him with his foot: "Still alive, are we?"
Jiraiya looked gloomy and vowed: "I'll never casually eat anything given to me by strangers again."
Hearing this, Tōshirō understood how Jiraiya had gotten poisoned for no reason. He shook his head and sighed: "You really owe Orochimaru a big thank you this time. If it weren't for him, you might already be..."
Jiraiya's face was filled with guilt: "I know."
Subsequently, Tōshirō stopped talking and approached Shion: "Are you going to put Moryo back into the shrine now?"
The Priestess Shion nodded in response.
Tōshirō had Tsunade look after Orochimaru and Jiraiya, while he followed Shion into the shrine's interior, into the basement, and remarked: "This place truly has hidden depths. I never imagined such a small shrine could have such a large space underneath."
As he spoke, he followed Shion along a path to its end, where several pillars formed a circle around a large, stone-pressed door.
Earlier, Moryo had burst through the broken fan-shaped door of the seal. Strangely, the original door, which had a large hole, was now restored as good as new.
Shion stroked the door and answered his unspoken question: "This is the Wall of Lamentations, the boundary between the Pure Land and reality."
Tōshirō was stunned: "The Wall of Lamentations?"
"This door separates the Pure Land from reality. Ordinary humans standing near it will be affected, their strength reduced to less than a tenth."
"Such a place exists!"
Tōshirō exclaimed in disbelief, his face showing an incredible expression.
After a second thought, he remembered that in this world, there seemed to be a place connected to the moon.
Naruto had even reached the moon through that entrance to fight with the Otsutsuki for his wife.
Thinking of it that way, such a place existing wasn't so surprising.
Shion smiled: "You don't seem very surprised."
Tōshirō shrugged: "I'm pretty quick to accept things."
Shion began the serious business: "Could you step back a little?"
Tōshirō complied with her request, moving aside.
Shion chanted an incantation, and the Wall of Lamentations before them opened, revealing a pitch-black abyss.
Tōshirō focused his gaze, curiously looking into the abyss.
Shion continued chanting, and the ball of light containing the sealed Moryo floated into it. The Wall of Lamentations closed behind it.
After doing this, Shion's face had lost some color compared to before, looking even more fatigued.
Tōshirō stepped forward, expressing concern: "Are you alright?"
Shion breathed heavily: "I'm fine."
Tōshirō urged her: "Don't overexert yourself."
"The previous Priestesses paid with their lives to seal Moryo," Shion gently shook her head. "And for me to still be alive this time is already very good."
"That's true..."
Tōshirō stopped trying to persuade her.
"Thank you very much this time."
Shion's eyes were clear, and her tone sincere: "Without you, I couldn't have sealed it so smoothly."
Past Priestesses had to deal with Moryo when it had a physical body.
This time, if Tōshirō hadn't directly destroyed Moryo's body.
She only had to deal with Moryo in its soul state, otherwise, the sealing wouldn't have been so easy.
Tōshirō replied casually: "No thanks needed, after all, I was just doing my job."
Shion looked at Tōshirō, recalling something, and opened her mouth, hesitating to speak.
"What's wrong?"
Noticing Shion's meaningful gaze, Tōshirō was slightly puzzled: "Is there something on my face?"
Shion sighed inwardly, her expression showing no trace, and she covered it up with "Nothing."
You will die...
And by self-destruction.
She simply couldn't bring herself to say such words.
Prophecies were absolute.
In the past, Shion had tried to alter others' fates, but no matter how hard she tried, destiny always moved in that direction.
Tōshirō was half-convinced, always feeling that the way she looked at him was strangely indescribable.
Could it be like the original Priestess, who fell in love with him after seeing his excellent performance?
Tōshirō, a little self-conceited, thought jokingly.
Having just finished a battle, he was a bit tired and didn't pay too much attention to the matter.
Tōshirō stretched his body and let out a big yawn: "This battle tired me out. If there's nothing else, I'm going to sleep."
Shion smiled gently: "I'll arrange the best room for you."
Revealing fate would only add to worry, so Shion decided to keep it a secret.
With things settled for now, Tōshirō felt relieved. As he walked down the corridor with Shion, he started a conversation: "Have you thought of a name for your newborn child?"
Regarding the name, Shion had already decided on it before the birth; her name was Miroku.
Out of gratitude for Tōshirō's kindness, Shion denied this, responding: "Not yet, do you have any good suggestions?"
Tōshirō's expression froze: "Me?"
Shion smiled: "In a sense, you are my benefactor. I'd like to hear your suggestion."
This sounded interesting, so Tōshirō gladly agreed. He pondered what name would be good.
Suddenly, a scene flashed through his mind.
Tōshirō's lips curved upward, and he suggested: "Then let's call her Shion."
P.S.: Originally, I wanted to write about the protagonist being lured into the shrine by Moryo, with his power limited to less than a tenth, then imitating Naruto by combining with the Priestess's power to unleash a true "Aurora Execution" to instantly kill Moryo.
But as I wrote, it felt too drawn out, so I just deleted it and made it an instant kill of Shinno instead. Anyway, all the necessary groundwork has been laid.
(End of Chapter)
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