Chapter 185: The Culling
The Otsutsuki scouts observing from Earth's periphery quickly focused their attention on Konoha village.
One perception-specialized observer suddenly trembled—he'd clearly captured a trace of Otsutsuki presence, the unique energy signature belonging to clan members who'd successfully consumed God Tree fruits and completed evolution.
This discovery shocked him deeply.
Were the rumors true? Did a monster who hunted fellow clan members truly exist on this planet?
He forcibly suppressed his fear, quickly recording this critical intelligence.
But thinking further, such information wasn't specific enough.
His superior had personally promised that bringing back concrete evidence to lock down the target's identity would earn him a precious God Tree seed.
Temptation spread like wildfire through his heart.
"From this distance... even if detected, I'll have time to activate spatial jump and escape."
He thought privately, quite confident in his concealment abilities and escape methods.
Greed ultimately overcame caution.
He took a deep breath, gathering all his energy into his eyes. Carefully bypassing Konoha's ordinary perimeter areas, he extended his perception's tendrils again toward the core location where he'd sensed that presence—this time, he wouldn't settle for distant observation but would attempt penetrating architectural barriers to glimpse more specific scenes within that area.
He focused his mind. His perceptive power, like invisible tendrils, quietly probed toward that region's center—a seemingly tranquil courtyard.
However, just as his "vision" was about to touch the courtyard scenery, the entire world suddenly plunged into pure darkness.
Not his sight being blocked—rather, the perception he'd extended was instantly "severed" by some power.
Immediately after, an icy male voice detonated directly within his mind's depths:
"Who gave you permission... to spy on my home?"
The scout's entire body trembled. Endless terror instantly overwhelmed him!
"Who, who's speaking?"
Almost driven by instinct, he frantically activated his spatial abilities, attempting to tear space and flee thousands of miles away.
But the next moment, deeper despair surged—he couldn't sense any spatial coordinates.
The cosmic pathways once familiar as palm lines now showed complete emptiness.
He could still "feel" himself hovering at Earth's edge, yet his very existence seemed to have been completely erased from the universe's coordinate system.
"How is this possible... I'm clearly still..."
He tried to scream yet couldn't produce any sound. Even mental fluctuations couldn't transmit.
Simultaneously, he clearly sensed an incomprehensible, irresistible will browsing through his memories in a way he couldn't resist.
The clan council's decisions, the elder's secret orders, other scouts' precise locations, their respective specialized techniques... everything he knew and remembered, like an unrolled scroll, was casually perused by that will.
"No... can't..."
Floating in space, Yu coldly watched the Otsutsuki shell in his palm crumble inch by inch, ultimately transforming into drifting ash.
His expression was unprecedentedly cold.
The fish seemed to be biting more frequently.
The next moment, his figure vanished.
Somewhere at the atmospheric edge, an Otsutsuki scout maintaining observation techniques suddenly froze.
Before he could react, a slender hand lightly pressed his nape.
Accompanied by faint bone-cracking sounds, the light surrounding him dispersed completely as he drifted like a severed puppet toward deep space.
Almost the same instant, tens of thousands of kilometers away in another direction, Yu's figure materialized ghost-like.
The scout focused on sensing Earth whipped his head around, pure white pupils reflecting the newcomer's pitch-black eyes.
He didn't even have time to raise his hands in resistance before consciousness sank into eternal darkness.
Yu's figure flickered in and out around Earth.
Each flash accompanied the complete annihilation of an Otsutsuki presence.
He was like a harvester walking through wheat fields, precisely and calmly clearing these uninvited pale aliens.
When all other coordinates returned to silence, only the remaining female Otsutsuki suddenly awoke from her focused state.
Too quiet.
This silence came too abruptly.
She tried sending mental waves to her nearest companion. "Raishiki, report status."
No response.
She increased perception intensity, calling again. "Kyoshiki? Respond if you hear me."
Still only deathly silence.
She called each predetermined coordinate in turn, heartbeat accelerating with each empty echo. All contacts went unanswered. Even the most basic spatial beacons lost their signals.
Cold sweat seeped from her forehead. She suddenly expanded full perception, discovering with horror—companions who should be scattered throughout nearby star sectors had all vanished.
Bone-deep chill crept up her spine.
She unhesitatingly channeled all her energy, attempting to forcibly open spatial jump. But just as the technique neared completion, a calm voice sounded behind her:
"Looking for your companions?"
The female figure completely froze.
The instant that voice sounded, the female Otsutsuki unhesitatingly poured all her chakra into her right elbow, swinging backward with space-shattering force!
Yet that slender hand simply gripped lightly.
"Crack..."
The sensation of shattered arm bones arrived before pain. Her full-power strike's energy crashed against an invisible wall, instantly rebounding to backfire.
Before she could even groan, an irresistible force heavily struck her back.
"Pfft—"
Blood mixed with organ fragments gushed from her mouth, congealing into beautiful crimson pearls in vacuum.
But survival instinct overwhelmed everything. She actually borrowed that impact's momentum to forcibly activate her final life-saving secret technique.
Space violently twisted around her as her figure disintegrated in dimensional cracks.
Uchiha Yu stood calmly amid the starry sea, indifferently watching that wretched figure twist and vanish into the cosmos.
---
At the distant star sector's other end, the gravely injured female Otsutsuki tumbled from the twisted spatial passage.
"...I succeeded?"
She could hardly believe she still lived. Though bones throughout her body were shattered, she'd truly escaped that monster's grasp.
Recalling her recent experience, wild joy surged through her.
That monster's appearance, the abilities he'd displayed in every gesture, even that chilling aura when he struck... all this critical information was deeply branded in her memory.
This intelligence was enough to exchange for a genuine God Tree fruit! Enough to completely escape her servant status and join the nobility!
Now, she only needed to hurry back...
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