"Can I draw a CD?"
Logan decided to change his approach.
"No," the white snake replied. "Its will and body are tightly connected. Unless you can beat it until it's incapable of recovering—or give me enough uninterrupted time to draw the disc—it won't work."
Logan nodded slightly.
The white snake was only effective in sneak attacks or against defeated enemies. For someone like the White Snake Sage—who could spy on everything in the ninja world and manipulate nature's power freely—sneak attacks or surprise blows were nearly useless. Even if the White Snake Immortal were smashed to bits, it could still retaliate and escape.
A snake head rolled on the ground.
Logan stared at it for a moment, then suddenly called out, "Sasuke, listen to me carefully. When I give the signal, nullify its ninjutsu."
Sasuke's eyes widened. "Brother Logan, do you have a way to kill that stinking snake?"
"Just consider it an attempt. Be ready—"
As he spoke, Star Platinum emerged behind him. It grabbed Sasuke by the collar and lifted him high into the air.
"Huh?!"
Before Sasuke could react, Star Platinum hurled him skyward.
"Ahhhhh—!"
Sasuke cried out as he flew.
At the same time, Logan surged forward toward the White Snake Immortal, wielding the Destruction Sword.
The White Snake Immortal sneered. "It's useless! Try a thousand times or ten thousand—you'll fail just the same!"
It raised the ground beneath Logan, shaping it into massive fists that punched toward him.
But Logan slipped between the earth fists, leaping off their tops to gain momentum. As the distance between man and snake shrank to a hundred meters—
"Stop—TIME!"
The world froze, bathed in gray.
Logan bolted forward. Each footstep shattered the ground, and debris solidified midair due to the time stop.
Gripping the Destruction Sword with both hands—
Chi—!
A golden flame erupted from the hole at the back of the blade. The dragon-snake orb absorbed natural energy from the surrounding kilometers, and the blade extended to a hundred meters in length.
"GIVE ME—!"
With a tremendous sweep, the sword cleaved the earth beneath the White Snake Immortal.
Every ounce of Logan's strength surged into his arms. His sleeves burst as the force tore through his muscles like a tsunami. With the motion of a chef flipping a wok—
"FLY!"
The enormous body of the White Snake Immortal was hurled into the sky.
Logan followed, sword in hand.
The long blade became a makeshift baseball bat, and together with Star Platinum's flurry of fists, he pounded the White Snake Immortal's body repeatedly.
In mere seconds, it was launched several hundred meters high.
This was Logan's strategy.
The White Snake Immortal's power was deeply rooted in the earth. The jutsu Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation couldn't extend to an altitude of a thousand meters. If Logan hurled the snake high enough, it would be cut off from its power source.
Of course, the White Snake Immortal still possessed millennia of cultivated natural energy. But as long as it was individual power, it would eventually run out.
Time resumed.
A gust of wind rushed past the White Snake Immortal. It blinked, looking down at the shrinking earth below.
Ever since mastering Sage Art and merging with the land, it hadn't left the ground—not for centuries.
At first, it was surprised.
Then came panic.
Its life force was draining!
It stared at Logan, who continued to slash upward.
"In vain! You're wasting your time!"
The White Snake Immortal cast a spell from midair. The ground below rose as a massive stone pillar.
If it could just touch it, even for a second, it could heal and restore itself.
But—
Boom!
The stone pillar collapsed.
The White Snake Immortal couldn't sense any trace of Sage Art from it.
Its ninjutsu had been nullified.
It turned toward Sasuke, who was still plummeting from the opposite side of the sky.
The effect of nullification was fleeting—but enough.
By the time the snake tried to perform Inorganic Reincarnation again, it was too late.
Logan had already activated Time Stop once more.
By the time time resumed, the White Snake Immortal found itself a thousand meters in the air.
Beyond the reach of Inorganic Reincarnation.
"From now on, you're not the immortal lord of the earth…"
Logan's voice was cold as he stared into its massive eyes.
"You're just my little snack."
It wasn't a threat.
The White Snake Immortal truly saw hunger—real hunger—in Logan's eyes.
Xinya alone had given Logan 800 soul fragments.
How much would the White Snake Immortal yield?
Logan wanted to find out.
And he wanted the White Snake Immortal to know:
What does it feel like… to be prey?
Star Platinum and Logan became relentless executioners. Flesh, blood, and bone from the White Snake Immortal rained down like blossoms.
The life force accumulated over thousands of years erupted like a dam breaking.
Death approached.
Its pupils contracted. Its flawless scales quivered. Rivulets of blood streaked over its body, dyeing its jade-white armor with a hideous crimson hue.
Chi!
A sharp claw tore out from the White Snake Immortal's abdomen.
Then another. Then a third...
Finally, a fourth claw emerged—shriveled and malformed, like a malnourished infant's limb.
"I… am the white snake that turned into a dragon!" the beast roared.
Its body surged with light, and with a thunderous bang, its scales exploded into countless blades, shooting toward Logan.
Star Platinum punched them away.
But in that brief gap, the White Snake Immortal twisted and fled—plummeting back toward the earth.
Logan chased after it, sword ready.
It became a sky-high tug-of-war, life and death hanging by a thread.
Blood splattered the clouds. Scales shattered like glass. The White Snake Immortal's pained roars echoed through the air.
Its vitality was draining faster than it could regenerate.
It couldn't understand—how could one man and his strange stand inflict so much damage?
The ground was only five hundred meters away now.
So close.
Just a few seconds more, and it could return to the soil.
There, everything would be reversed.
It didn't matter if it had to abandon seclusion and show itself to the world.
If it couldn't kill Logan in the sky, then it would descend... and kill everyone Logan cared about.
With its eyes and reach, it could find them all. One by one.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Time stopped again.
The White Snake Immortal was pulled back to seven hundred meters, drenched in blood. Its life force was nearly gone.
But—
A stone pillar shot toward it.
It had successfully cast Inorganic Reincarnation moments ago.
Only fifty meters remained between it and salvation.
The White Snake Immortal grinned. It knew Logan needed a short cooldown between activations of Time Stop. Before Logan could interfere again, it would make contact with the stone.
That would be the end of Logan's efforts.
It would burrow into the earth and never be thrown skyward again.
It laughed wildly. "Logan! I am the final victor!"
It crashed headfirst into the pillar.
And then—
The stone turned into a white candle.
"What?!"
It gasped.
"An illusion?!"
The white snake reappeared, hands on her waist. "Did you know?" she said coolly. "When two identical beings from parallel worlds meet, one must vanish. Only one can remain."
The White Snake Immortal blinked. "What?"
She lifted her chin and pointed. "In this world, there's only room for one 'White Snake.' That's me."
Magic erupted as the White Snake Immortal forcibly dispelled the illusion.
The moment passed. The pillar vanished.
No—it never existed.
Everything had been an illusion.
The White Snake Immortal re-cast Inorganic Reincarnation.
Everything happened just like before—but this time, it was one second too slow.
A single second.
To a thousand-year-old being, it was absurdly brief.
But it was enough.
The White Snake Immortal heard it—the change in Logan's breathing.
From fast and strained to slow and calm.
It turned around and screamed.
"LOGAN—!"
「Star Platinum: The World!」
The world froze again.
Logan walked slowly through the air, sword raised.
Star Platinum mirrored him on the other side, fists clenched.
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
Time resumed.
The White Snake Immortal hovered in the air, frozen for half a second.
Then, every scale exploded.
Flesh turned to dust.
An avalanche of slashes erupted from inside, turning the body into confetti.
Only one thing remained: its head, protected by a special force.
Logan reached out and caught it with one hand.
The system chimed softly in his ear:
"Killed the White Snake Immortal. Obtained 3,000 soul fragments."
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