72: The Puppet Show in the Weird Forest, Killed by the Cursed Ninja

Guiku Gorge was filled with dust.

The Otogakure elites, who had been grinning menacingly just a second before, collectively plunged into a meticulously laid death trap the next.

“Pfft!”

A Cursed Seal Ninja, who had been charging at the front, froze. He looked down and saw an extremely thin line of blood appear across his chest and abdomen.

He didn't even feel pain, only a sense of disconnection in his body.

His upper body was still rushing forward, but his lower body had already knelt. Organs and blood gushed out from the smooth incision, staining the ground beneath him into a warm, muddy mess.

“Careful! Something’s here!”

His companion beside him shrieked in alarm, but before his voice faded, large patches of eerie black-purple patterns rapidly appeared on his skin. The patterns moved across his body like living things, and wherever they went, life force was completely drained. A vibrant Ninja transformed into a shriveled, purple-black corpse within three seconds, his terrified expression forever frozen on his face.

“Is it steel wire? Invisible threads!”

“Poison! The threads are highly poisonous! My Chakra… it’s solidifying!”

Panic erupted within the ranks.

Kidōmaru’s six eyes widened, his pupils trembling violently.

His proud sensory net was completely useless at this moment. The “Shadowless Threads,” almost merged with the air, were everywhere, tearing through the air and also tearing through the lives of his teammates.

They charged forward, retreated, and dodged, but always ran into these deadly traps from the most unexpected angles. Limbs were easily dismembered, and screams were instantly cut short.

This was no gorge; it was a precise meat grinder.

“You bastards!”

Kidōmaru roared, unleashing the full power of his Cursed Seal’s second stage without reservation. Black patterns instantly engulfed his entire body, his skin turned grayish-white, his bones emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound, his six arms spread out, and vicious bone spikes protruded from his back.

He no longer relied on his sluggish senses, but instead used the pure brute force granted by the Cursed Seal, exerting it fiercely.

“Boom!”

The invisible threads wrapped around his ankle snapped in response. The price was a bone-deep wound on his calf, black blood gushing out, and the muscles around the wound completely numb and necrotic.

However, this was merely the prelude to the slaughter.

The steep rock walls on both sides of the gorge suddenly “came alive.”

One inconspicuous rock, its color and texture visibly changing, then slowly “peeled away” from the rock wall.

It wasn’t a rock at all, but a massive, rock-textured spider-shaped puppet!

It moved silently on the vertical rock wall, the tips of its eight segmented limbs gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light—those were Tang Clan hand-stab-shaped limbs, laced with potent poison.

Tang Yan’s brand-new creation—Shanxiao - Giyan!

Shanxiao - Giyan

Appearance Design: Modeled after a giant desert rock spider

Height: 1.7 meters

Width: 2.3 meters (calculating spider’s eight limbs)

Weight: 86.5 kilograms

Main Structure: Torso forged from Tang Yan’s specially made “Obsidian Steel,” its surface covered with wind-eroded patterns. Joints are inlaid with “Chakra-absorbing Amber.” The outer shell uses a “Mimetic Sandstone Coating,” which can automatically change color and block perception based on the battlefield environment (desert, rocky terrain, ruins).

Eight-Legged Blades: Each leg can be disassembled into three telescopic scythe sections, with poisonous sand-iron barbs at the ends. When crawling, it can leave corrosive viscous liquid trails on the ground. The ends of the legs are equipped with “Sand-Iron Energy Absorbers,” which, when inserted into the ground, can slowly absorb minerals from the earth veins to automatically repair damage. The eight legs have built-in “Silencing Shock Absorbers,” allowing for silent movement. During nighttime operations, only two crimson eye lenses flicker, like wandering desert specters. In close combat, the eight legs switch to “High-Speed Rotating Blade” mode, forming a meat-grinder-like death domain.

Core Energy: “Dragon Vein Extraction Device” (requires Pharmacist Qin to regularly inject Chakra), capable of continuous combat for 72 hours without resupply.

Core Mechanism: The hump-like protrusion on its back conceals a “Thousand Mechanism Pouch,” capable of firing poisoned senbon, hidden weapons, explosive clay spiders, or releasing paralyzing sand mist.

Combat Characteristics:

Earth Vein Infiltration: Detects underground cavities through vibration sensors at the tips of its legs, capable of instantly burrowing to set ambushes, combined with Sunagakure Earth Release Ninjutsu to achieve elusive assassinations.

Spider Web Death Array: Sprays “Adamantine Sand Silk” mixed with Chakra metal from its abdomen, weaving an electrically conductive/explosive three-dimensional trap net.

Puppet Sacrifice Mode: When the puppet is severely damaged, a mechanism is automatically triggered, and the remaining limbs will combine to form three “Rock Spider Sentinels” to continue fighting. These “Rock Spider Sentinels” then self-destruct, releasing corrosive acid rain.

After Shanxiao - Giyan appeared.

A Cursed Seal Ninja was rapidly forming hand seals, attempting to use Earth Release Ninjutsu to change the terrain and destroy the foundation of the traps.

He suddenly felt a shadow overhead, and looking up in horror, he saw the giant rock spider descending from the sky, its eight sharp segmented limbs like eight deadly spears.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

His hand seals came to an abrupt halt. The Ninja was firmly pinned to the ground by the eight segmented limbs, unable to even let out a complete scream.

The battle had completely spiraled out of control.

High in the sky, Owl · Stealth silently circled. Any enemy attempting to leap onto the rock wall to escape would be precisely hit in the knee or elbow joint by its spinning “Swallow-Tail Shurikens.”

A second layer of neurotoxin injected into the body caused the victim’s body to instantly stiffen, falling helplessly from mid-air.

On the ground, Armor · Fortification had transformed into a spherical shape, hurtling through the narrow gorge. A Cursed Seal Ninja had just narrowly dodged a volley of poisoned senbon, and before he could catch his breath, he was struck head-on by this high-speed rolling “iron ball.” His sternum instantly collapsed, and he was sent flying backward, smashing against the rock wall and becoming a bloody mess.

Morra - Thousand Unbinding was even more insidious.

The swirling yellow sand didn’t directly kill anyone, but it would accurately burrow into your eyes, nostrils, and ears, blinding you at crucial moments of forming hand seals, and entangling your ankles when you tried to dodge.

One unlucky Otogakure Ninja, blinded by sand, stumbled, and inadvertently offered his neck to a deadly “invisible thread.”

“Damn it! Damn it all!”

Kidōmaru was in an unprecedented predicament.

He was like a rabbit caught in a snare, no matter which way he struggled, he would trigger new mechanisms.

His companions were almost all dead or wounded; he was the only living thing left in the entire gorge.

He no longer cared about the mission. He suddenly shot a tough rope from his hand, sticking it to the top of the gorge, attempting to swing into the air and escape this slaughterhouse.

Just as his body ascended, a dark shadow swooped down faster than he did.

Owl · Stealth’s metal wings cut a cold arc in the air. The hidden weapon compartment on its underside silently opened, and a sharp-edged “Swallow-Tail Shuriken” spun out, precisely pinning Kidōmaru’s wrist joint of the hand holding the rope!

“Ugh!”

Excruciating pain and numbness instantly spread through his entire arm. Kidōmaru’s arm went limp, he could no longer hold onto the spider silk, and he fell heavily from mid-air, kicking up a cloud of dust.

In the dust, a figure appeared silently, as if he had been standing there all along.

His steps were profound and unpredictable, each one landing in a position that was most difficult for Kidōmaru to bear or exert force, a true Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

The person was, of course, Tang Yan. He looked down at Kidōmaru, who was convulsing on the ground, with no expression on his face.

“Welcome to my hunting ground.”

The voice was soft, yet it clearly overpowered the last few faint groans in the gorge.

“You…!” Kidōmaru’s pupils constricted violently. Draining the last bit of power from his Cursed Seal, his six arms intertwined, two of his bone-spiked arms transforming into final blades, one above and one below, sealing off all escape routes, aiming directly for Tang Yan’s heart and throat.

Tang Yan didn’t even move his feet.

Clang!

With a soft clang, a slender Tang Dao was in his hand at some unknown moment, its blade flashing and disappearing in the dim gorge.

Kidōmaru’s attack came to an abrupt halt. He felt an overwhelming twisting force come from his wrist, followed by the crisp sound of a dislocated joint.

Tang Yan’s blade moved along his arm, and with a flick and pull of his wrist, that fierce force was completely neutralized.

The next instant, a palm covered his crown.

The palm seemed to be wearing a crystal-clear glove, cold to the touch, as if it were not of this world.

Snap.

A soft click.

A cold, domineering, and special Chakra, imbued with the principle of petrification, precisely surged into Kidōmaru’s brain.

His proud mental power, incredibly resilient under the Cursed Seal’s enhancement, was now effortlessly torn open by this external force, offering no resistance.

Deep within Tang Yan’s pupils, a deep purple electric light flashed.

Taking advantage of Kidōmaru’s spiritual world being wide open, a massive amount of information was forcibly read.

Countless fragmented images rapidly flowed through Tang Yan’s mind: a dark, damp underground laboratory, distorted experimental subjects immersed in green liquid, Orochimaru’s pale, fanatical face, and his undisguised covetousness for his own body and soul.

“Eternal life… petrification…”

The temperature in Tang Yan’s eyes suddenly dropped to freezing point.

It turned out that he, himself, was the true prey in this hunt.

What chilled him even more was that in the deepest part of Kidōmaru’s memory, he saw a vague deduction.

That fellow Orochimaru, with scattered clues and extraordinary intuition, had sensed that he had a divine artifact assisting him. Although his guess wasn’t precise, he had already touched the edge of his greatest secret.

“Interesting,” Tang Yan mused to himself.

Since you want to play, I’ll play a little bigger with you.

He withdrew his palm, not directly delivering a killing blow, but instead snapped his fingers at the shadow behind him.

A completely black, rigidly lined puppet, exuding an aura of deathly stillness, silently emerged. It was Hades.

“Don’t… don’t kill me…” Kidōmaru’s throat made rasping sounds, terrified, but he found he couldn’t even move a finger.

Tang Yan’s gaze bypassed him, falling upon several Cursed Seal Ninjas still writhing on the ground nearby, clinging to life.

“Do it.”

Hades extended its cold metal hands, placing them respectively on the limbs of Kidōmaru and those few Ninjas.

There were no screams, no struggles, only a chilling, silent transformation.

Grayish-white stony textures rapidly spread from the parts where they made contact with the puppet.

Flesh, sinew, bone, and internal organs, while their consciousnesses were absolutely clear, transformed inch by inch into cold rock.

They could clearly feel the loss of life force and the stiffening of their bodies. Extreme pain and fear were forever locked within this brand-new shell.

Several “living statues,” retaining their most terrified expressions from before death, were thus born.

Zi Luo led a squad of Sunagakure Ninjas from the other end of the gorge. They stopped far away, looking at the bizarre scene before them. Even a straightforward man like him felt chills running down the back of his neck.

He cautiously crept forward, nudged the base of one of the “statues” with his toe, and then quickly recoiled.

“My… Yan, your methods are too ruthless,” Zi Luo rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. “This is much worse than just killing them. Who would dare to provoke Sunagakure after this?”

Tang Yan ignored his jesting and calmly ordered, “Throw these ‘things’ in front of the Konoha defense line.

Let their general commander, who also enjoys research, properly appreciate my return gift.”

…

Meanwhile, in the underground laboratory of the Konoha frontline command post.

Orochimaru was sharing vision through the ‘Cursed Seal’ on Kidōmaru’s neck.

He had completely “seen” the entire process of Kidōmaru and the others being petrified, and had also “heard” Tang Yan’s calm message.

There was no anger on his pale face.

On the contrary, a pathological, intensely excited flush crept up his cheeks. His body trembled slightly, and his narrow, golden vertical pupils suddenly lit up, sparkling with obsession and ecstasy.

He extended his long tongue, slowly licking his lips.

“It’s so beautiful… truly beautiful! To freeze life and consciousness at the most painful, most desperate moment, transforming it into eternal, immortal art!”

His hoarse whisper echoed in the empty laboratory, filled with the joy of finding a kindred spirit.

“Tang Yan-kun, you truly are someone who can understand me! I can feel it, we are the same kind of person!”

He suddenly turned, walking quickly to the large sand table, his gaze fixed on “Kikyo Mountain,” a strategically important location that had been highlighted.

“Since that’s the case, the game should escalate. I think Kikyo Mountain will be the best stage for our ‘meeting,’ wouldn’t you agree?”

Orochimaru spread his arms, facing the empty laboratory, as if embracing an invisible lover, his voice filled with uncontrollable anticipation.

“As long as I firmly nail this ‘nail’ there, Sunagakure will not advance another step! Come, let me see what you can do!”