182: A glimpse into the sea of stars, a warning from fellow tribesmen

A glimpse from the Star Sea, an alarm from kin.

The entire world was wailing.

This was not an illusion.

The moment the nine gigantic pillars of the [Gaia Engine · Mark I] inserted their energy extraction pipelines into the earth's core, every life form on this planet clearly perceived the deepest lament from the world itself.

The earth was withering, the air was thinning, and even the wind blowing across their faces carried a hint of deathly coldness.

The planet's life force was being forcibly extracted by that steel divine kingdom floating in the sky, in an unstoppable, most brutal manner.

“It’s over…”

A Sand Ninja's knees buckled, and he fell to the ground, the kunai in his hand clattering as it dropped.

There was no fear on his face, only a numbness that came from completely giving up thought when facing a natural disaster.

They won the war, and then what?

Then they watched helplessly as their homeland was treated like an orange by a higher-dimensional existence, a straw inserted, and its contents sucked dry in one gulp.

This despair was even greater than facing the Ten-Tails.

Because the Ten-Tails, they could at least understand, and they could resist.

But this man calling himself Tang Yan, and his mechanical creation that covered the entire sky, had already exceeded their cognitive scope of an “enemy.”

That was… a law.

An unchangeable, new world law.

Tsunade clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms, but the blood flowing out did not make her feel any pain.

She looked at the nine gigantic pillars piercing through heaven and earth in the distance, at the blue energy light paths flowing wildly like blood vessels on the pillars, and an unprecedented sense of powerlessness drowned her entire will.

The Village, protected by generations of Hokage until now, the homeland defended by Ninja with their lives, was as fragile as a joke in the face of this absolute “industrial violence.”

Just as this silence and despair, enough to freeze the soul, settled, another anomaly descended.

Everyone's gaze was drawn in the same direction.

At the end of the horizon, the dark void left by Kaguya's death—the “Scar of the World.”

Buzz!

That absolute “nothingness,” that scar that even the world's rules could not heal, suddenly rippled.

As if a stone had been thrown into a calm lake.

Immediately after, a highly discordant, crimson data stream, like a glowing venomous snake in the deep sea, suddenly stretched out from that profound darkness, then instantly retracted.

It was a fleeting glimpse.

But everyone present saw it.

What was that?

No one could understand.

But a premonition, more ominous and colder than before, seized everyone's hearts.

The next second.

An indescribable, extremely cold will, transcended the endless Star Sea, using the “Scar of the World” as a beacon, and descended!

It was not sound, not light, nor Chakra.

It was a pure, supremely arrogant torrent of will, directly washing over the brains of everyone present!

“Noi…se…”

A cold, emotionless thought echoed in everyone's mind.

“Hmm? A contaminated nursery… Kaguya, that fool's aura… gone?”

This will swept across the entire planet with a hint of scrutiny.

Among the Ninja Allied Forces, thousands of Ninja with weak wills immediately foamed at the mouth and fainted.

The remaining people also felt as if their souls were immersed in liquid nitrogen, and even their thoughts were about to freeze.

So cold!

So strong!

What… is this?!

That will quickly discovered the root of the problem.

“Unauthorized… harvesters?”

“Stealing the ‘Divine Tree’s’ fruit… polluting the world's origin… interesting natives…”

The word “natives” was like a red-hot branding iron, deeply seared into the depths of everyone's soul, bringing a sense of humiliation worse than death.

In the eyes of the other party, these so-called Ninja, Kage-level powerhouses, were not even considered “people.”

Just… natives.

They were bugs growing in a nursery, to be disposed of at will.

After a brief scrutiny, that cold and arrogant will issued the final judgment.

This judgment transformed into an incomparably clear, irresistible “mandate of heaven,” resounding in the minds of all survivors.

“Coordinates… locked.”

“Dispatching… ‘Cleanup Squad’.”

“Recover the Divine Tree, judge the natives.”

As the words fell, that domineering torrent of will receded like a tide.

The “Scar of the World” returned to its deathly, bottomless darkness.

As if nothing had happened.

But the entire battlefield plunged into an even deeper, more complete despair than before.

“Clean… Cleanup Squad?”

Fourth Raikage A's voice was trembling; his proud Lightning Release Chakra Armor didn't even have the courage to activate in the face of this will.

“Are we… are we… garbage to be ‘cleaned up’?”

Nara Shikaku's brain had completely stopped functioning; for the first time, he realized how ridiculous and powerless his wisdom, his strategies, were in the face of an absolute dimensional gap.

They had just seen off one god.

No, they had just been declared owned by a god.

As a result, people from the god's home came.

And judging by their tone, they were not friendly, and… they were stronger and more unreasonable than the previous one!

What kind of situation was this?

They had just left the beginner's Village and immediately stumbled into a battle among gods? No, they weren't even the battleground; they were the patch of grass about to be razed to the ground!

Everyone's gaze instinctively converged on the man who had remained standing in the center, silent.

Tang Yan.

This man who had just declared himself the sole natural disaster and order of this realm.

This demon who was extracting the life force of the entire planet.

How would he react?

Under the gaze of tens of thousands of eyes, mixed with fear, despair, and even a hint of absurd expectation, Tang Yan slowly raised his head.

He did not look at the “Scar of the World” which had returned to calm, but rather looked at the sky with interest.

As if he was looking at a newly popped up, virtual system prompt box.

“Oh?”

He let out a soft murmur, tinged with a hint of curiosity.

“Just finished the final BOSS, and immediately triggered a hidden expansion pack?”

“‘Ōtsutsuki’s Revenge’? This DLC updates pretty fast.”

His lazy self-talk, as if he were talking to the air, clearly reached everyone's ears.

Everyone was stunned.

DLC?

Expansion pack?

What time was it?! An enemy from outside was about to attack! And you're still telling us a monologue we don't understand?

However, Tang Yan's next action made everyone's heart skip a beat.

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers at the mechanical divine kingdom in the sky that was frantically devouring the planet's energy.

“【Gaia Engine】.”

A cold, mechanical synthetic voice immediately came from the sky, responding to his summons.

【I am here, Administrator.】

The corner of Tang Yan's mouth curved into a playful arc.

“Adjust energy output protocol.”

“Phase one objective, temporarily suspended.”

“Transfer all the energy just extracted into the anti-star weapon system.”

His voice was not loud, but it exploded in everyone's mind like bolts of thunder from the nine heavens!

Anti… anti-star weapon system?!

【Command confirmed.】

【Energy path switching…】

【‘Spear of Gaia’ charging sequence, initiated.】

Above the sky, the blue light paths on the surface of the nine gigantic pillars piercing through heaven and earth instantly reversed!

No longer extraction, but… output!

The structure of the entire sky factory underwent another earth-shattering change. Countless alloy armors bloomed like petals, and from the very center of the factory, a… indescribably gigantic… cannon barrel slowly extended!

Its muzzle was precisely and steadily aimed at the “Scar of the World” at the end of the horizon, that passage to the Star Sea.

Tang Yan looked at the giant cannon, which was rapidly charging and whose muzzle was beginning to condense light capable of destroying stars, and nodded with satisfaction.

He turned around and looked at the Ninja Allied Forces behind him, who were completely petrified and whose brains could not process the current information, and spread his hands.

“Guests are coming from afar, so we should prepare some local specialties and fire a salute to welcome them, right?”