Although Neji fought unarmed, his palms radiated with chakra. Facing Yingqiao's tanto blade, he held his ground effortlessly. Neji remained calm and fully in control, while Yingqiao clearly strained her limits. The gap in strength was obvious.
"Soft Fist Technique!"
After dodging Yingqiao's attack, Neji spotted an opening. He immediately struck her abdomen with a palm. Chakra shot through his hand like a needle piercing her body, causing Yingqiao to clutch her stomach and drop to her knees in pain.
"Damn it!"
Yingqiao stood up, still holding her stomach, glaring at Neji as if she could devour him alive.
"Do you still want to keep going?" Neji asked emotionlessly.
"Today, I will definitely kill you!"
With a murderous gleam in her eyes, Yingqiao took several deep breaths to ease the pain before charging forward again, blade raised.
"If that's how you feel, then..."
Neji wasn't one to hold back out of sympathy. Since Yingqiao insisted on fighting for his life, he had no intention of hesitating further. His figure blurred forward as he dashed toward her.
"Clang!"
Yingqiao was struck in the abdomen by another Gentle Fist blow. Already slowed by pain and facing no mercy from Neji, she barely managed to react before Neji deflected her arm aside with a precise motion. Then his hands moved like lightning, striking rapidly across her body.
[Eight Trigrams: Two Palms, Four Palms, Eight Palms, Sixteen Palms, Thirty-Two Palms, Sixty-Four Palms!]
Each strike of the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms landed precisely on Yingqiao. Pain twisted her face until finally, after the last blow, she spat out a mouthful of blood. But then, surprisingly, she grinned triumphantly.
"You fell for it!"
Her body instantly transformed into a flash of lightning, engulfing Neji in a blinding arc. The figure Neji had just struck was not her real body, but a clone infused with Lightning Release chakra. This was exactly what Yingqiao had planned—luring Neji in so he'd use the Gentle Fist at point-blank range. So close, and after finishing his combo, Neji would need a brief moment to react—leaving him vulnerable during that critical instant when his momentum was spent and his next move hadn't yet begun. Seizing this opportunity, Yingqiao detonated the clone, unleashing its Lightning Release chakra directly at Neji. At such proximity, combined with the required reaction time, there was no getting away now.
And indeed, right after completing the Gentle Fist sequence, Neji experienced that inevitable brief hesitation—an instantaneous delay before resuming action. Yingqiao had timed it perfectly; even if Neji tried to retreat, he simply wouldn't have enough time. No escape now.
"Damn Byakugan brat, you'll die obediently for me. I'll offer your corpse to my father's spirit."
Hidden in the shadows, Yingqiao's lips curled into a cruel smirk. Soon, she would finally avenge her father. As for whether this act might provoke conflict between Cloud Village and Konoha, Yingqiao no longer cared about any consequences.
However, seeing Neji in danger, Sakura and the others didn't look particularly panicked. Aside from the fact that Neji's special ability could easily counter Yingqiao's move, even without it, they didn't believe Yingqiao could defeat Neji so easily.
Indeed, right as the lightning was about to engulf Neji's body, Neji gave up on retreating or dodging and instead rushed straight into the lightning, with chakra surging from the pores all over his body.
[Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven]
A sphere formed of chakra instantly annihilated the lightning. When the spinning stopped, the rotating chakra had carved a pit into the ground, with Neji standing unharmed at its center.
"Kid, you're getting ahead of yourself."
The moment the Heavenly Spin ceased, Yingqiao appeared behind Neji and swung her blade at him.
"From what I know, the Hyūga clan's Heavenly Spin can't be used continuously. You just used it not long ago; how are you going to resist my attack now?"
Chapter Two Hundred and Nineteen: Neji's Magic Sealing Domain [Part Four]
At the same time Yingqiao appeared behind Neji and launched an attack, another Yingqiao also appeared at Neji's front-side, effectively cutting off his path forward.
Caught between two blades—if Neji retreated, he would be stabbed by the Yingqiao behind, while dodging forward or sideways meant being hit by the Ninjutsu from the Yingqiao at his front-side. Furthermore, Neji had just used Heavenly Spin and couldn't use it again immediately. At this moment, Yingqiao seemed to already envision Neji dead at her hands, a smug smile on her face.
"Do you really think you've got me cornered?!"
Faced with such a deadly situation, Neji stayed calm and leaped back swiftly. The Lightning Release from Yingqiao in front barely missed his nose. Just as it looked like Neji's body would collide with the blade of the rear attacker, a surge of chakra suddenly burst from his back, sending the sword-wielding Yingqiao flying away.
[Soft Fist Technique - One Strike Body]
The Soft Fist Technique – One Strike Body is originally designed to release chakra from pores around the body to shake off any opponent clinging onto oneself. Now, used by Neji, it precisely flung away the nearby Yingqiao who had gotten too close.
"Thud"
After being thrown by the chakra impact, Yingqiao hit the ground and turned into a puff of white smoke—clearly, this Yingqiao was only a clone.
"Darn it, I didn't expect you'd survive that!"
Standing at Neji's front-side, Yingqiao bore an expression filled with resentment. She had seemingly planned everything perfectly, yet Neji still managed to use a Taijutsu technique to turn the tables. For a moment, Yingqiao was seething inside.
"First, you used a clone laced with Lightning Release chakra to trick me into charging you head-on. Then you detonated the clone the moment I got closest, unleashing that chakra. If I couldn't dodge in time and got hit by the Lightning Release chakra, my body would have gone numb, giving you the chance to appear directly and kill me. But my Heavenly Spin shattered that plan, stopping you from successfully paralyzing me. You were left with no choice but to use my Heavenly Spin's cooldown period to flank me and attack from both sides, hoping to take me down through pressure from two directions. Too bad for you... You barely know anything about me."
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