Chapter 155: Success
"Forget it."
"If he noticed, then so be it."
Since the Third Raikage wasn't making a move, there was no need to waste time on him. Li Yao immediately ran in the opposite direction of Sarutobi Getsuishi.
Once the Eight Gates Formation was opened, it couldn't last long. As long as he held out until it ended, the threat would disappear, and Li Yao was confident he could survive this battle.
But a power said to be dozens of times greater than the Five Kage wasn't so easy to evade.
The real issue was that the enemy had someone capable of identifying his real body. The shadow clones couldn't fool them. Getsuishi never lost track of his target and rushed directly at Li Yao's true form.
"This won't do—I have to stop him."
Sensing Getsuishi rapidly closing in, Li Yao stopped. He released one chakra-filled clone from Kushi 's side, refilling his chakra reserves.
"Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Li Yao slammed his hands together. Keeping only his Lightning Chakra Mode active, he poured all remaining chakra into Wood Release.
Screech screech screech… In an instant, countless towering trees burst forth from the ground.
Blocking Getsuishi's path, the trees surged like a dense wave of giant serpents, giving him no room to advance.
Tap tap tap… Getsuishi walked in midair like he was using Geppo from One Piece, stepping over the treetops and dodging the entangling branches.
"You're not getting through that easily!"
Li Yao roared internally, manipulating the endless trees to rise up and block Getsuishi.
"Evening Elephant!"
Getsuishi struck out with a punch, sending a white shockwave tearing through everything in its path. A massive hole opened through the dense forest.
Getsuishi dashed through it, still headed straight for Li Yao.
Crack... Suddenly, Getsuishi winced in pain and stopped. His right leg had developed numerous fractures.
"Now's my chance!"
"Now's my chance!"
Li Yao and the observing Third Raikage had the same thought, their eyes lighting up at once.
Li Yao immediately manipulated the trees to bind Getsuishi.
The Third Raikage flared his lightning wings, muscles bulging, and shot forward with a piercing Kongōken aimed at Li Yao's neck to decapitate him.
"Crap, I can't dodge that!"
The Third Raikage's full-powered strike was lightning-fast, slicing through trees like paper, arriving before Li Yao in an instant.
Li Yao had spent nearly all his chakra on the Wood Release. Only his Lightning Chakra Armor remained, and luckily, that preserved his reflexes. At the last moment, he twisted his body.
Slash!
The Kongōken didn't strike his neck but pierced his right shoulder instead. His entire right arm was severed, and most of his shoulder disappeared.
He didn't even have time to react.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle... The Third Raikage unleashed a terrifying black lightning strike.
This time, Li Yao responded quickly. Black lightning sparked over his body, countering the incoming attack.
Boom!
Another chakra-filled clone from Kushi 's side dispersed. With his chakra restored again, Li Yao gave the Raikage no chance to follow up—countless black iron chains shot out from his body.
The Third Raikage vanished instantly, unwilling to engage head-on.
This attack hadn't killed Li Yao, but it had heavily injured him. If he couldn't recover quickly, he'd be doomed.
And with one arm gone, Li Yao's ability to perform certain jutsu would definitely suffer.
The Third Raikage was pleased.
Boom!
Li Yao released another shadow clone from Kushi 's side, immediately converting the incoming chakra into Wood Release energy to regenerate.
In an instant, his wounds bubbled and surged—cells rapidly multiplied. A new arm… didn't grow as he'd hoped. Only his shoulder was restored, the arm was still missing.
Li Yao's face darkened slightly, but it wasn't a disaster. It was just one arm. He could figure something out later. He didn't need hand signs to cast jutsu anyway.
Clang clang... To avoid another surprise attack from the Raikage, Li Yao layered himself in countless black iron chains.
Compared to Wood Release, the black iron chains offered stronger defense.
Even if the now-enhanced Third Raikage could break through them, he wouldn't be able to instantly reach Li Yao as before.
Meanwhile, because of the Raikage's ambush, Li Yao had failed to restrain Getsuishi with the trees. Breaking free, Getsuishi continued charging toward him.
"Ayase-senpai, Li Yao's shadow clone over there is continuously drawing chakra from a giant scroll and transmitting it to his real body. We should eliminate that clone first to effectively surround and kill him."
Dan Katō, sensing the strange chakra activity from Li Yao's repeated chakra replenishment through clones, advised Ayase to take action.
Ayase's eyes flashed slightly. She nodded and changed direction, flying toward Kushi and her daughter.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Surge."
The Third Kazekage arrived and immediately unleashed a vast wave of iron sand that poured down like a crashing galaxy.
"Wood Style: Wood Formation Wall!"
At Li Yao's command, five-meter-thick wooden slabs rose from the earth, surrounding him in a fifty-meter-wide wooden dome.
The endless iron sand crashed harmlessly against the seamless walls.
Inside, Li Yao continued using Wood Release to obstruct Getsuishi.
As of now, only Getsuishi with the Eight Gates open and Ōnoki's Dust Release could break through his defense and kill him. The others were not a serious threat.
If he could stall those two, he could manage the rest.
"Damn it!"
Getsuishi was trapped in the unending forest and couldn't approach. His body had reached its limit, and he could no longer use Evening Elephant to clear a path.
Even if he did reach Li Yao, he'd have no energy left to finish the job.
The Third Raikage also couldn't penetrate Li Yao's fortress.
He even began to suspect… Li Yao had already learned his Lightning Chakra Armor.
If that was true, then trapping Li Yao here would be the best strategy.
The Kazekage's iron sand was the same—it couldn't break through Li Yao's Wood Formation Wall.
For a moment, the Five Kage's siege against Li Yao had entered a stalemate.
"This is bad."
After a while, the Third Raikage noticed that Li Yao's Wood Release wasn't weakening at all, and his expression darkened.
"This guy… can control and cast jutsu so easily even without both hands!"
"Damn it!"
Cursing inwardly, the Third Raikage accelerated toward the distant sky where Ōnoki was still tangled with one of Li Yao's clones.
Li Yao could afford to stall—but they couldn't.
Right now, with Li Yao's position fixed, the only way to break through his defenses and kill him was with Ōnoki's Dust Release.
Though reluctant, the Raikage was willing to help Ōnoki escape Li Yao's clone in order to kill Li Yao.
"As expected—they can see through the black iron chains!"
Back at Kushi 's side, inside the Black Iron Giant Eagle, Li Yao's clone sensed Ayase flying toward them and knew the enemy's sensor ninja could see through the eagle's body and observe his chakra transfer via shadow clones and scrolls.
"You two… pray for luck."
Quickly storing the scroll back in the Black Water space, the clone looked at the nervous mother and daughter and opened his mouth to say something—then just sighed.
He only said, "Pray for luck."
Not giving them a chance to respond, the clone dismissed the Black Iron Eagle. The five shadow clones quickly formed new ink eagles and flew off in different directions.
Kushi and her daughter fell from the sky. Yuzu clutched her mother tightly. Before hitting the ground, Kushi used a Vajra Sealing Barrier to cushion them, landing safely.
"Ink Iron Rain!"
One of the five clones flew toward Ayase and immediately launched an Ink Iron Rain attack from afar.
Ayase easily blocked it with her Ink Release techniques.
At a distance of 500 meters, Li Yao's clone cast genjutsu.
"It bounced off!"
Li Yao's clone narrowed his eyes. Ayase had blocked his genjutsu—not surprising, since she clearly had a countermeasure.
But her method of resisting the genjutsu was identical to the Third Hokage's, and that wasn't normal.
"Could it be…"
Li Yao sensed a faint chakra outside the barrier in one corner—a man with almost no chakra, who hadn't moved at all. Earlier, he had even been carried forward by others.
Thinking back on how both the Third and Ayase had resisted his genjutsu the exact same way…
Li Yao suddenly had a theory.
That immobile Konoha ninja must be the one with the special sensory ability to locate his real body.
And he was also the reason Ayase could block his genjutsu.
With this realization, Li Yao's clone fully engaged Ayase with Ink Release.
Against identical techniques, Ayase found herself unable to gain the upper hand.
(END CHAPTER)
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