The crimson lightning streaked continuously across the sky, like the filaments of an eternal light source, dyeing the entire night sky red and illuminating it with an unsettling glow.
Ye Zi floated in midair, gazing silently down at nearly ten thousand Kumogakure shinobi. Occasionally, thick bolts of red lightning would lash out behind him, momentarily illuminating his form against the stormy sky. In those brief flashes, his face remained ice-cold and merciless.
From within the dense storm clouds, meteors tore through, each wrapped in flames, measuring over ten meters in diameter. There were hundreds of them, all cascading down toward the Kumogakure forces, yet not a single one came close to touching Ye Zi.
He simply hovered there, like a god overlooking the futile struggles of mere mortals against an unstoppable disaster.
"If this is truly his power… then this must be the power of a god."
A weak-willed Kumogakure shinobi broke down completely, staring blankly at the oncoming meteor shower. He had already given up, standing motionless atop the boiling water, awaiting the inevitable embrace of death.
Thin wisps of steam curled up from his feet. The water beneath emitted a deep red glow, and the scorching heat was rapidly rising toward the surface. The surrounding water was boiling furiously, sending up increasingly dense clouds of superheated steam.
"Scatter! Get away from here!"
"Don't just stand there, move!"
"Run! Run for your damn lives!"
Though some had succumbed to despair, there were still those whose will to survive burned fiercely.
The crackling lightning above, the countless meteors plummeting from the sky, none of it mattered anymore. Even the very ground beneath them had become a death trap.
At any moment, superheated steam could erupt from below, instantly reducing flesh and bone to nothing. In just a few short seconds, dozens of Kumogakure shinobi had already been reduced to piles of white bone.
But those who refused to surrender screamed at the top of their lungs, their voices raw with desperation, jolting their frozen comrades back to their senses.
Even if the waters below threatened to erupt into lava, even if crimson lightning dragons coiled above, even if hundreds of meteors rained down upon them, only those who refused to give up had a chance to survive.
Boom!
The first meteor struck the water.
The already scalding waters surged even higher in temperature. The impact was like dozens of explosive tags detonating simultaneously, sending a towering column of steam and waves radiating outward.
Several Kumogakure shinobi who had been running nearby were caught in the surging heatwave. In an instant, the boiling sea swallowed them whole, and they disappeared without a trace.
The water was no longer merely hot, it had become a cauldron of death, hot enough to strip flesh from bone in an instant. A single wave was enough to erase a life before the victim could even scream.
The first meteor had sounded the call of doom.
More meteors followed, as if guided by an unseen force, striking down precisely within the confines of the valley.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The thunderous impacts never ceased.
Each meteor that crashed down into the retreating Kumogakure forces created gaping voids in their ranks.
A single meteor could wipe out a dozen, or even dozens, of shinobi at once.
There were simply too many meteors, too many deaths to count.
At this moment, the air was filled with endless screams of terror.
There were no displays of heroism here. Even the mighty Third Raikage could do nothing to halt the rain of destruction. He could only lead his people in a desperate escape from the gorge.
The time for aiding one another was over.
If one wished to survive, they had to run, run without stopping.
Even if a comrade stumbled beside them, there was no time to help them up. Any hesitation meant certain death.
With the meteor storm reaching its peak, no one had the luxury to wonder whether Ye Zi was truly responsible for this calamity.
All that mattered now was survival.
Boom!
And as if fate itself had conspired against them, another catastrophe unfolded.
Even before the last of the meteors had landed, the crimson lightning that had been brewing within the storm clouds finally descended upon them.
A deafening thunderclap exploded through the sky.
Blinding arcs of red lightning illuminated the battlefield, turning the world into a hellish red daylight for a brief moment.
One after another, massive bolts of crimson lightning, faster than thought itself, came crashing down.
The water conducts electricity.
In an instant, dozens of lightning bolts struck the surface of the water, sending deadly currents coursing through it. Thousands of Kumogakure shinobi were electrocuted in an instant, their bodies reduced to charred husks.
Just like that, within mere seconds, thousands were gone.
The sight was beyond comprehension. It was as if a colossal hammer of fate had mercilessly struck down upon them.
Those skilled in Lightning Release could barely defend themselves against the natural lightning, but watching thousands of their comrades' corpses drifting along the turbulent waters, even the strongest among them felt their legs go weak.
The meteors and crimson lightning had joined forces, pushing the Kumogakure shinobi further into the abyss.
Despair crept into their hearts, suffocating any last remnants of resistance.
And yet, the will to survive remained.
Some had given up, resigning themselves to their fate.
But for others, the fight for life continued.
At this moment, time was life.
There was no room to persuade those who had lost hope.
All that mattered was escaping.
This was a disaster beyond human control.
Powerless against it, all they could do was struggle within the narrow gap between life and death.
The Third Raikage and A were the fastest among them.
But despite their unmatched speed, they did not immediately flee the gorge. Instead, they stayed just beyond the danger zone, working desperately to help as many comrades as possible escape.
The two of them had already destroyed three meteors, saving countless lives in the process.
However, when the crimson lightning rained down, even they, masters of Lightning Release, were powerless to stop it.
A distance of less than one kilometer.
Yet it might as well have been an unbridgeable chasm of death.
The last of the meteors had finally fallen.
The water level had dropped significantly, not because it had drained away, but because it had been vaporized into steam.
The platform formed by Wood Release roots, once a battlefield, was now nothing more than shattered debris. Not even a trace of plant life remained, only blackened ash.
The meteors were gone.
But the red lightning still struck intermittently, each bolt claiming dozens more lives.
They were almost free of this catastrophe, just over a hundred meters to safety.
And yet, despair consumed them once more.
From beneath their very feet, without warning, it erupted.
Lava.
A scorching tide of molten rock burst forth, engulfing all of the valley.
The mountains collapsed into the surging magma, and all the Kumogakure shinobi were engulfed by the molten lava that erupted skyward like a scorching hot spring. Their agonized, short-lived screams echoed through the heavens.
One by one, Kumogakure shinobi were instantly melted into nothing by the extreme heat of the magma.
In their final moments, the last sight that filled their vision was Ye Zi, his Mangekyō Sharingan gleaming coldly, his face utterly devoid of emotion.
It was an odd sensation. The moment they looked at Ye Zi, his face, his eyes, seemed to magnify in their vision as if the distance between them had suddenly shrunk, allowing them to see him with absolute clarity.
And then… the darkness swallowed them whole.
The Third Raikage and A, their bodies enveloped in lightning-charged chakra, struggled desperately to resist the searing heat of the molten lava. Yet, as they gazed up at Ye Zi floating in the sky, an undeniable sense of helplessness filled their hearts.
"Despair, is it…?"
For the first time, Ye Zi spoke.
At that moment, the world seemed to lose all other sound.
Only those three words remained, Ye Zi's voice overpowering even the roaring storm, the crashing meteors, and the raging lava.
The Third Raikage and A had no time to respond. They had no chance to speak.
Before they could act, the molten waves surged up and swallowed them whole, encasing their bodies in oval-shaped cocoons of lava.
The magma tides then crashed down, sending these two "eggs" sinking into the fiery abyss.
Once submerged, there was no escape.
Lightning chakra armor could resist for a time, but not forever.
In the end, even the most formidable defense would succumb to the all-consuming heat of the lava.
Above, red lightning raged through the storm clouds, staining the sky a hellish blood-red. Below, the molten lake of fire churned, glowing ominously in the darkness.
The two forces merged into a single apocalyptic vision, as if doomsday itself had descended upon the world…!
And Ye Zi, standing alone, was the sole survivor.
As he sensed the Third Raikage and A being consumed by the magma, the corner of his lips curved into a faint smirk.
The nightmarish scene shattered like an image on broken glass, dissolving into countless fragments.
Above, the sky was once again filled with countless stars. The moon, full and luminous, hanging high in the heavens.
Its silvery glow bathed the earth, reflecting upon the water's surface in delicate, shimmering ripples.
A gentle mountain breeze swept through, whispering through the valley, the only sound in an otherwise silent world.
At this moment, the valley stood in absolute stillness.
Everyone present remained motionless, their eyes tightly shut, their expressions frozen in terror, despair, unwillingness, and agony. Most of the Kumogakure shinobi looked deathly pale, their faces drained of all color.
All except two.
Two figures stood untouched by fear, standing apart like cranes among a flock of chickens.
Those two were: Ye Zi, his face as calm as still water and Killer Bee, staring in utter confusion.
"Was that... a genjutsu?" Killer Bee's voice was dazed.
Even though he already knew the answer, he still asked anyway.
Because he simply couldn't believe it.
How could Ye Zi possibly trap nearly ten thousand shinobi in a genjutsu at once?!
Such a thing… how could it even be possible?
"This…"
Ye Zi suddenly let out a cold laugh, his entire body radiating an overwhelming killing intent.
"…is no ordinary genjutsu."
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Currently on Chapter 563 - The Harvest of Genjutsu