Chapter 269: Everything is a Choice of the Perfect Timeline
"Ugh~"
The Fourth Raikage vomited a large mouthful of blood. Even with the protection of the strongest [Lightning Release Armor], his internal organs were still displaced by the overly violent impact. His vision went black, his left hand had completely lost sensation, and his arm was grotesquely twisted.
He had never imagined that one day he would be beaten to the brink of death by pure strength. No chakra, no Kekkei Genkai, nothing. This Mercenary Tao simply had strength that reached an inconceivable level.
Even Tailed Beasts couldn't possibly have that kind of terrifying strength.
When his right hand-knife slashed through, his twisted left arm snapped instantly. He took the opportunity to use the Body Flicker Technique to distance himself, but after only a few steps, he spat out blood again and collapsed to the ground dejectedly.
Kaito Shirogane ignored the Fourth Raikage. He was almost disgusted to the point of vomiting by the benevolence in Minoru Hiranaka's eyes.
"I say, do you really think of yourself as Marika, huh?!"
Kaito Shirogane had no interest in debating what constituted ultimate benevolence. Debating something with absolutely no objective standard, varying completely based on each individual's moral level and biological subjectivity, was a complete waste of time.
But Minoru Hiranaka's current state, clearly about to lose even his [Self] yet still stubbornly immersed in the dream of making the world better, truly displeased Kaito Shirogane.
Minoru Hiranaka didn't know who Marika was, nor did he care. He could feel Mercenary Tao's killing intent towards him, but he didn't care at all.
On the contrary, the overwhelming power displayed by Mercenary Tao, instantly crushing the Fourth Raikage, made him truly see the dawn of the Age of the Erdtree.
Miss Providence had once told him that for the Age of the Erdtree to descend, it would inevitably encounter immense resistance. Now, the entire world's order and power system would attack him.
That was a force even the Hokage couldn't protect him from.
But if the Hokage couldn't... Mercenary Tao could!
Tch.
Kaito Shirogane found it dull. There was no possibility of communicating with a guy immersed in a "martyr" mentality. Kaito Shirogane applied force with his hand, preparing to kill Minoru Hiranaka first, abandon this trial mission, and then find that woman and chop her down along with the Golden Erdtree.
At this moment, a golden light suddenly appeared from extremely far away. Minoru Hiranaka, in Kaito Shirogane's grip, suddenly generated a burst of strength out of nowhere. He turned his head and saw that in the distant southern sky, golden light illuminated a corner of the heavens.
"That is..."
Holding Minoru Hiranaka, Kaito Shirogane walked up to the Fourth Raikage and raised his foot to stomp down brazenly.
Vmm!
The air suddenly distorted, and the Fourth Raikage's body twisted and vanished.
Kaito Shirogane looked down at Uchiha Obito, who had warped into existence in front of him, his voice filled with killing intent.
"Uchiha Obito, did you find your other eye?"
He dropped Minoru Hiranaka and spread his hands. The moment he assumed that stance, Uchiha Obito felt a chilling murderous aura completely engulf him.
Mercenary Tao had murderous intent; he had to flee!
But Uchiha Obito tried several times and couldn't move at all. A will countless times more powerful had appeared within his body.
He could only watch helplessly as his body remained rooted to the spot.
"Young man, before you kill these people, could you listen to my benevolence..."
Extremely intense chakra condensed in front of Uchiha Obito. Yin Release chakra, representing spiritual energy, and Yang Release chakra, representing physical and life energy, began to fuse.
Finally, a pitch-black sphere appeared.
This pitch-black sphere didn't emit the intense gravitational pull seen when Pain used [Chibaku Tensei], but it made Kaito Shirogane stop his movements.
Just seeing this thing made him sense an intense crisis. His cells, his body, were rejecting this object.
That thing possessed terrifying lethality towards any living being.
Yin-Yang Release: Truth-Seeking Ball...
This was one of the top-tier manifestations of power in this world, almost touching upon energy control. It was a power truly transcending the level of human ninjas.
Kaito Shirogane stared at Uchiha Obito as he was now. The calmness in those Sharingan eyes was completely different from Obito's.
"You are... the Sage of Six Paths?!"
Outside Konoha Village, a huge Golden Erdtree grew continuously, its height already approaching a thousand meters. The golden glow scattering from the tree almost enveloped a radius of hundreds of kilometers and drifted further with the wind.
The ninjas and ordinary people of Konoha all looked up blankly at this spectacular scene.
Many who hadn't believed in the so-called Golden Order before were now wavering.
Jiraiya stood at the village entrance, watching the golden glow fall. In a trance, he realized that this was no longer the scenery of Konoha.
Under this Golden Erdtree, there were no more embers, nor were there new seedlings.
No matter how beautiful the Age of the Erdtree depicted by that woman was, he could only see a pool of stagnant water.
Without [Death], and with everything returned to the order of the [Golden Order], would the world really be better?
But he turned his head; a large number of ninjas in the village, including the Uchiha clan, already had golden luster emanating from their eyes.
This war had burdened Konoha beyond recovery.
Perhaps that guy Orochimaru would like this so-called world without death... He smiled self-deprecatingly and returned to the village somewhat dispiritedly.
He had to hurry and find Minato's son. Uchiha Shisui said that Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke of their clan had disappeared simultaneously, hinting that Mercenary Tao and Providence were likely involved.
At this moment, Uchiha Shisui had already left the village to pursue Mercenary Tao, so naturally, he had to go find Providence.
Jiraiya was quite swift. Ten kilometers outside the back mountain of Konoha, he saw the two people standing at the base of the Golden Erdtree.
The red-haired [Le Ren] looked back at Jiraiya, while the woman further ahead paid no attention. She simply spoke to [Le Ren] on her own accord:
"Run, Mr. Le Ren."
Le Ren lowered his head, unable to hide the confusion and anger on his face.
Their mission progress was clearly very impressive. They had successfully used the Akatsuki organization's disruption of Konoha to trigger a war, and absorbed a lot of sustenance for the Golden Erdtree during the war.
At the same time, because of Mercenary Tao's existence, a terrifying commotion was caused, diverting the ninja world's attention.
Combined with the fact that the person bearing the Golden Order was a plot character related to Mercenary Tao, the penalty for world line divergence wouldn't affect the two of them.
In his view, this was a miraculous strategy.
It was proof that Miss [Providence] was far stronger than those famous figures in the Nexus.
But such a Miss Providence had just told him that she had trapped Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke inside the Golden Erdtree.
And eventually, she would use shackles to break the chains and spend a huge price to take one of them away from this world.
He completely didn't understand the purpose of doing this. Was it just because she wanted half of the Nine-Tails inside Naruto, or did she want the destiny the two carried?
But everyone knew that once such a thing was done, if the Child of Prophecy suffered a calamity, the World Will would directly trigger a terrible disaster.
Right now, this huge Golden Erdtree, which looked like a miracle to everyone in Konoha, was a death warrant for Providence and Le Ren.
It meant that the Golden Order was likely absorbing the power of those two Children of Prophecy.
"Why, Miss Providence? Is it just because you don't want to offend that Mercenary Tao?!"
"If we ignore him, he's very likely to be killed by those Six Paths-level guys too, right..."
Le Ren had always acted very carefree, not caring much about benefits.
But at this moment, he lost his composure.
Providence just looked up at the Golden Erdtree towering into the clouds and sighed:
"So beautiful..."
She wouldn't explain to Le Ren that all the decisions she made contained absolutely no personal feelings; everything was a choice of the perfect timeline.
It was only because mortals were too insignificant to see such distant and complex changes that someone always sighed—since ancient times, the will of heaven is high and hard to ask.
Providence (Heaven's Will) was actually not high, nor was it hard. Providence always flowed among countless choices.
You must discard greed and make every choice well to reach the end.
Countless images seemed to appear before her eyes. In every single one of them, there was a terrifying monster, smiling cruelly as it tore her apart.
Mercenary Tao... what exactly are you? How can you be... so anomalous?
(End of Chapter)
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