Regarding the arrangements for Sara.
Motomu didn't have much of a clue.
The Queen of Loulan was dead, so she would be the next queen.
Keeping her around risked the danger of exposing himself, but if he killed her, Motomu wouldn't be able to find a second person capable of undoing the Dragon Vein's seal in such a short time.
Standing on the seal, a thought flashed through Motomu's mind.
That was it.
'Why don't I just learn sealing jutsu?'
If Sara could learn the Dragon Vein sealing technique at her age, why couldn't he?
It was better to rely on oneself than on others.
If someone else controlled the seal and he lacked a method like Kotoamatsukami for total control, he would constantly have to remain on guard.
If he left the heart here to idle...
...he would still end up having to watch it the whole time.
If that was the case, idling would lose its meaning.
'This sealing jutsu doesn't look all that hard!'
He activated a combination of Hypnosis and Dream Eater.
Motomu entered Sara's dreamscape.
The young girl's dream was a void of silence; having just experienced her mother's death, her will was utterly demoralized.
Motomu guided her to recall her past.
Within the dream's memory fragments, he found no specialized theory regarding sealing jutsu; he only saw the simplified, idiot-proof operation of the sealing array.
This Dragon Vein sealing technique had been passed down for countless generations.
By the time it reached Princess Sara, it was practically a lost art.
Still, simple control was good enough.
The expected Uzumaki Sealing Jutsu didn't appear; Motomu only obtained the method to open and close the Dragon Vein seal.
He knocked out the gradually waking Sara.
Motomu stood on the seal and began to operate it himself.
Next, he intended to try a dangerous move: placing his heart into the Dragon Vein.
If it worked, his previous concerns about idling would be resolved.
Besides, if Mukade could use this Dragon Vein chakra, why couldn't he?
It wasn't necessarily impossible for the heart to reside within the Dragon Vein.
If he could tap into the Dragon Vein's allegedly infinite chakra, dealing with the White Snake Sage's pursuit might become much easier.
Without Sara as an unstable variable, Motomu gradually grew bolder.
His hands formed the Ram seal.
Several cracks reopened on the ground, and the Dragon Vein, which had been calm within the seal, suddenly began to boil.
Violent chakra gusts whipped through Motomu's hair and clothes.
The entire underground hall was illuminated in a crimson hue by the turbulent Dragon Vein chakra.
The unconscious, controlled princess, the human corpses, and the mysterious sealing altar formed an evil and gloomy scene.
As he undid the seal, a strange thought bubbled up in Motomu's mind.
'At this point, all that's missing is a hero to charge in shouting slogans of justice.'
Motomu glanced warily at the stone door; after a few seconds passed, the door remained intact and undamaged.
Hmm.
It seemed he was overthinking things.
Motomu withdrew his gaze and used Psychokinesis to guide the flightless heart into the crack that was now wide enough for it to pass through.
As soon as it reached its previous position, a sensation of being overfilled surged through him as system experience notifications began to chime.
Motomu ignored the mental prompts as the heart continued to approach the Dragon Vein.
Ten meters.
Five meters.
One meter.
The searing, scalding turbulence of chakra lashed against the heart's surface like a whip.
Feeling the pain in his chest, Motomu immediately commanded Little Heart to switch to its Fire Elemental Form.
The sensation of pain vanished.
Seeing that it was still bearable, Motomu continued to push downward.
The flames on the surface of the elementalized heart submerged into the Dragon Vein.
A sense of relaxation washed over him, as if he were taking a soak in a hot spring after a full meal.
It was fine!
By the looks of it, he could go even deeper!
After gently brushing against the Dragon Vein...
Motomu's heart fully entered.
Boom!
At that critical moment!
The tightly closed stone door at the entrance exploded inward under immense force.
Debris flew everywhere, clattering as it struck the puppet corpses.
A raspy, elderly voice cut through the dust.
"Kid, you've chosen a rather nice grave for yourself."
And at that very moment...
Massive amounts of Dragon Vein chakra poured from the heart into Motomu's body.
Motomu, who hadn't yet adapted to the surge, turned back with difficulty to look at the newcomer in the direction of the voice.
He saw an elderly woman with yellow hair, wearing a hat adorned with a ruby and leaning on a cane.
Knowing her identity, the title 'White Snake Sage' immediately surfaced in Motomu's mind.
Motomu wasn't surprised that she had found him.
However, he hadn't expected her to find him so quickly.
And of all times to arrive, she chose this exact moment!
Motomu felt a bit overwhelmed.
He had thought he was the lucky oriole stalking Mukade's coup.
But he hadn't realized there was an old hunter behind the oriole!
There was still another master on the board!
The White Snake Sage certainly hadn't come for small talk; she was eager to slaughter him.
Meanwhile, his heart was currently adapting to the impact of the Dragon Vein's chakra, leaving him temporarily immobile.
His only option now was to stall for as much time as possible.
The corner of Motomu's mouth twitched under his mask as he spoke the nonsense following his stray thoughts.
"So, it wasn't a hero after all."
The White Snake Sage was momentarily stunned by his words.
Having cornered Motomu...
...she felt the outcome was already decided.
Not in a hurry to strike, she narrowed her eyes and stared at the masked Motomu, who had nearly turned her Ryuchi Cave upside down.
"What do you mean?"
"It means... I'm the Demon King!"
"Shouldn't there be a hero shouting slogans of justice coming to defeat me?"
Heh.
Had he been driven mad by fear now that he was at death's door?
The White Snake Sage didn't quite understand what Motomu was saying.
But that didn't stop her from noticing that something was wrong with his current state.
Even escape had become a distant dream for him.
She decided to deal with this nuisance sooner rather than later.
The White Snake Sage didn't waste any more words.
A flash of killing intent crossed her kind, elderly face.
She struck her cane against the ground, and Inorganic Reincarnation was instantly activated.
The floor and walls—the entire hall—quietly came to life.
Stone bricks transformed into piercing spears, whistling through the air with terrifying shrieks.
They aimed to riddle Motomu with countless holes.
Motomu's Sharingan fixed onto the tip of a spear pointed directly at the space between his brows, less than half a meter away.
His thoughts raced.
Just one more minute.
No, in five more seconds, he would be able to adapt to the impact of the Dragon Vein.
But whether it was a minute or five seconds...
The White Snake Sage's attack was already inches from his face!
If he waited any longer, death would be his only path!
Faced with the prospect of being completely finished...
Motomu no longer wanted to save that Sharingan evolution opportunity.
At this very moment, he had to use it to save his life.
The White Snake Sage, sensing something just as she was about to succeed...
...widened her snake-like eyes.
Within the eyeholes of the boy's mask, the three black tomoe of his Sharingan slowly connected, tracing out a strange, symmetrical pentagram.
The moment the pattern took shape...
...a gloomy, sinister aura permeated the air.
Having lived through the era of the Sage of Six Paths, the White Snake Sage knew exactly what this was.
"Mangekyo... How... how is this possible!?"
Sinister purple visual power flooded out.
Driven by mortal danger and Motomu's reckless consumption of chakra...
...the Susanoo unleashed by his single Mangekyo manifested as thick, pale-white ribs rising one by one.
A skeletal ribcage instantly enveloped his entire body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks erupted as the stone spears struck.
The Susanoo, with Motomu inside, was thrust upward by the stone spears.
The crisp sound of the skeletal frame cracking under the overwhelming pressure reached Motomu's ears.
The initial stage of Susanoo couldn't hold out either.
A line of bloody tears streamed from the corner of his eye as blood vessels burst within his socket.
Enduring the piercing pain from his eye...
...he squeezed out every drop of visual power, pouring it along with his chakra into the bottomless skeletal frame of the Susanoo.
The Susanoo grew a skull and then a second arm.
It gradually rose into a four-meter-tall purple, semi-bodied giant.
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