Momochi Zabuza finally dragged his heavily injured body back to Kirigakure; the bandages simply wrapped around his body were already beginning to seep blood, and his pale face was full of a look of weakness.
But at this moment he no longer had time to care about the injuries on his body, whether they would endanger his life.
He also did not, at the first moment, run to Kirigakure Hospital in the village to look for medical-nin to treat himself.
Because...
He was at this moment incomparably shocked as he looked at the scene of devastation in front of him inside Kirigakure!
In Momochi Zabuza's field of vision, under the hazy moonlight shining down... a wooden sphere several hundred meters in diameter, whose surface was covered all over with spiral stripes, was just standing there silently in the village of Kirigakure, and beneath the wooden sphere there seemed to be a large expanse of blood that had not yet dried!
Even separated by a not-so-short distance, the strong stench of blood could still be clearly smelled here by Momochi Zabuza.
Momochi Zabuza could hardly imagine just how many people had died to condense such a strong reek of blood?
A few hundred people? Or over a thousand?
If it were somewhere else, that would still be one thing, but this was Kirigakure!
He did not know how many seconds he stared blankly before Momochi Zabuza finally came back to his senses from that shocked daze; he clenched his teeth, continued dragging his heavily injured body, and hurriedly limped toward the inner part of the village.
Before long....
Momochi Zabuza saw the scattered corpses of a few Kirigakure shinobi lying "scattered all over" on the ground.
The vast majority of the corpses had had their heads cut off, their bodies and heads separated.
At a glance it was obvious they had been killed in a single blow, without even having a chance to resist.
As he walked farther forward, getting closer and closer to that gigantic bizarre wooden sphere, the corpses on the ground became more and more numerous.
But when he suddenly walked into a certain area, everything before his eyes became completely desolate, and there was no longer a single corpse.
But the ground before Momochi Zabuza was also in an extremely wretched state!
The ground looked as if it had been plowed over and over by iron implements, the soil below already churned up, and it was further crisscrossed with bottomless cracks, within which one could still see gurgling blood flowing down.
And at this moment.
Momochi Zabuza finally saw living people as well.
"Biwa... Jūzō..."
His hoarse voice drew the attention of Biwa Jūzō up ahead; when Biwa Jūzō, shouldering the Kubikiribōchō, turned around, he saw Momochi Zabuza, who was dragging his heavily injured body and barely managing to stand there, staggering.
"You actually survived..." Biwa Jūzō did not hide the look of shock on his face. But the shock on his face was not because he saw that Momochi Zabuza was still alive, but because he had been shaken by Uchiha Keizumi's Wood Release, which with a single strike had instantly killed a large number of Kirigakure shinobi!
Momochi Zabuza clenched his teeth, fresh blood still spilling from the corner of his mouth. "What on earth is going on? In the village... what happened?"
When Biwa Jūzō heard this question, his expression became somewhat complicated as he said, "Everything you see before your eyes is what happened in the village. More or less... Uchiha Keizumi wants to cleanse the sins of Kirigakure, and some stubborn and ignorant types tried to oppose absolute justice. As for the outcome of those stubborn and ignorant types..."
Biwa Jūzō turned his head to look at that gigantic wooden sphere and said slowly, "A small portion of them you should have seen on your way here; as for the other large portion, I hope they at least still have their bodies intact. Perhaps they have already become nourishment for the trees."
Momochi Zabuza was stunned.
He also did not know what he should do, and could only woodenly ask a question: "How many shinobi in the village have died?"
Biwa Jūzō shook his head and said: "I don't know, maybe two or three thousand?"
Momochi Zabuza: "..."
Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Sunagakure and Kirigakure were the weakest.
Originally, Kirigakure could still press down on Sunagakure by a head, but as the Blood Mist Policy was continuously implemented, as Kirigakure became more and more down and out, Kirigakure's combat strength had become almost on par with Sunagakure's.
By now, all of Kirigakure's shinobi added together probably only numbered a little over three thousand.
Now Biwa Jūzō was telling him that two or three thousand shinobi in Kirigakure had died?
Then could there still be one thousand shinobi left in the village?
Or was it that there were only several hundred left?
This...
This was already about the same as some of the medium-strength small shinobi villages!
Kirigakure had completely fallen to the bottom among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, right?
Even Momochi Zabuza, who now bore the title of "Demon", also felt in his heart a burst of terror and bone-deep chill. He could not imagine... just how bloodthirsty and cruel a person had to be to be able to kill two or three thousand Kirigakure shinobi in an instant without even blinking?
This was not even a time of war!
Just because of...
That so-called absolute justice?!
At some point, Momochi Zabuza's fists had already clenched tightly, the muscles all over his body, exhausted to the point of almost wanting to howl, were trembling slightly, and his tightly clenched jaw showed that his mood was anything but calm right now.
At this moment, Momochi Zabuza suddenly heard Biwa Jūzō's voice ring out once again: "The Kirigakure shinobi killed by Uchiha Keizumi were all people who chose to support the Blood Mist Policy, who chose to support the Fourth Mizukage."
Momochi Zabuza was stunned for a moment, and his tightly clenched fists seemed to loosen a little.
He only heard Biwa Jūzō continue speaking: "Uchiha Keizumi had actually already given them several chances; they had several chances to make the correct choice. They could very well have openly and aboveboard refused to support the continued implementation of the Blood Mist Policy; they could also have cooperated with Uchiha Keizumi to dismantle Kirigakure's Blood Mist Policy."
"But they did not do that. They were very unyielding, but they were unyielding in the wrong place. In their hearts, Kirigakure was strong because there was the Blood Mist Policy. They believed that only the Blood Mist could let Kirigakure gain a firm foothold among the Five Great Shinobi Villages."
"Uchiha Keizumi only decided to kill all of them after realizing that they were already completely beyond salvation. Otherwise... it would have been enough for only some evildoers who deserved to die to be killed."
As Biwa Jūzō spoke more and more, the shocked expression on his face gradually faded, and his tone also became somewhat calmer. "Since they made their choice and stood on the opposite side of absolute justice."
"Since they ignored Uchiha Keizumi's warning, and also ignored the opportunities Uchiha Keizumi gave them..."
"Then paying the price with their lives was also what they had earned. If such obstinately unrepentant fellows were to live, they would only bring enormous impediments and trouble to the implementation of justice."
"They would only cause Kirigakure to remain stuck in place within the Blood Mist."
The anger on Momochi Zabuza's face had already completely dissipated.
He fell silent.
Because at this moment, he found that he actually very much agreed with that "lava monster's" approach! Those obstinately unrepentant fellows should indeed all be killed one by one!
"So..."
Momochi Zabuza could not help asking: "Have the Fourth Mizukage and the faction who supported him all already been killed?"
Biwa Jūzō answered: "Perhaps there are some who slipped through the net; after all, there are still quite a few shinobi carrying out missions outside. But there are not many left."
Momochi Zabuza slowly took a deep breath.
He suddenly felt that the stench of blood, so thick that it made one involuntarily nauseated, had suddenly become pleasant to smell.