78: The chessboard overturned, the hand of the devil

The shadow of the boulder completely swallowed Obito.

Time stretched infinitely at this moment.

Kakashi's pupils suddenly constricted, his body's instincts moving faster than his thoughts as he lunged towards Obito.

However, a hand, a blood-stained hand, pushed him away with greater speed and more decisive force.

"Go!" Obito's roar was hoarse and distorted.

Boom—!!!

Heaven and earth collapsed.

The boulder ruthlessly crashed down, instantly crushing half of Obito's body into the ground, the muffled sound of bones shattering obscured by the immense roar.

"Obito!"

Kakashi and Rin's screams were heart-wrenching.

"Don't come over..." Obito's voice was weak, blood continuously gushing from the corner of his mouth, "I... I can't make it..."

His remaining right eye strained to turn towards Kakashi, "I haven't... made up with you yet... haven't made up with Rin yet..."

"Don't say anything! I'll save you right now!" Kakashi's eyes were bloodshot, about to rush forward.

"Listen to me, you idiot Kakashi..." A hint of a smile appeared in Obito's voice, "Just consider it... my Jonin gift to you..."

"Give my Sharingan... to you..."

"Let it... become your eye... and see the future of this world... for me..."

The cave continued to collapse under the aftershocks of the Rockslide, with new boulders constantly falling.

Rin, with tears in her eyes, trembling hands took out medical Ninja tools, and began the most painful transplant surgery amidst the swirling dust.

"Kakashi... protect Rin..."

This was Obito's last voice.

Boom!

The cave ceiling completely collapsed, burying everything.

At the critical moment, Kakashi embraced Rin, scrambling out through a newly appeared crack.

Inside the cave, a profound darkness and silence reigned.

Moments later, a white, plant-like humanoid creature slowly seeped out of the rock wall, a strange arc on its face.

"What a touching script, too bad there was a slight hitch."

White Zetsu walked towards the dying Obito, who was pinned by the boulder, preparing to retrieve this important chess piece. The Uchiha bloodline, especially an awakened Uchiha, could not be wasted like this.

"However, the result is still the same."

Just as its hand was about to touch Obito.

Thump.

A dull tremor came from underground, not an aftershock from unstable rock layers.

White Zetsu's movements paused for a moment, listening intently.

Thump! Thump!

The vibrations became clearer, as if something massive and alive was moving underground.

Boom!

The ground behind it suddenly exploded!

A gigantic rock spider, like a creation from hell, burst out of the earth! Its eight blade-like legs, gleaming with metallic cold light, spread out, filling the entire narrow space, their tips easily piercing the hard rock wall, emitting a grating sound.

Two crimson eyepieces locked onto White Zetsu, their inorganic gaze bringing a pressure far exceeding that of a wild beast.

Shanxiao - Giyan.

"You see, I told you the result wouldn't be the same."

A calm voice came from behind the rock spider.

Tang Yan, accompanied by Zi Luo and Qian, slowly emerged from the broken opening, looking down at White Zetsu and Obito on the ground.

"I've taken a liking to this 'tool'."

White Zetsu's body instantly stiffened, and for the first time, a look resembling gravity appeared on its plant-like face. It could feel that the cold killing intent from the other party was directed at it. These people were not Ninja, or at least not any type of Ninja it knew.

"Who are you...?"

No answer.

Its answer was Zi Luo's fist!

"Nonsense!"

Zi Luo's figure approached like a ghost, all her joints cracking like firecrackers, the Seven Day Breathing Method pushed to its extreme. A nearly invisible layer of crystal powder adhered to her fist.

White Zetsu reacted extremely quickly, its body instantly wood-transformed, its arms turning into several tough wooden strips to block. This was a gift from the First Hokage's cells, providing astonishing defense.

Bang!

The fist collided with the wood-transformed arm, but it sounded like metal striking stone.

White Zetsu looked down in astonishment; its Wood Release cells, on which it relied for survival, not only failed to regenerate but instead transmitted a sense of utter lifelessness.

Its struck arm was petrifying at a visible rate from the point of contact! The grey, withered color spread rapidly, the wooden structure of the arm crumbling inch by inch, turning into grey powder, devoid of all vitality, and falling away.

The Wood Release's regenerative ability was completely ineffective in this area, as if its life force had been utterly annihilated by a higher-level power.

White Zetsu's other intact hand instinctively grabbed its petrified arm; the touch was cold and hard, no different from ordinary stone.

"What kind of poison is this?!" It cried out in shock, its voice full of disbelief. Its body, strictly speaking, was not susceptible to poison.

Countless spores separated from White Zetsu's main body, transforming into dozens of clones that lunged at the three from all directions. These clones had no features, yet their movements exuded an indescribable strangeness.

Tang Yan ignored this, merely raising a finger coldly.

Buzz—!

Shanxiao - Giyan's eight blade-like legs instantly switched to High-Speed Rotating Blade mode, the previously static metal spider legs transforming into an impenetrable, deadly grinding wheel! The sharp whooshing sounds merged into a continuous roar, forming a fatal echo within the confined cave.

Chchchch!

The cutting sounds were so dense they were teeth-grinding.

Those spore clones were shredded into their most basic plant debris before they could even get close, green sap and white powder flying everywhere.

"Hey, you missed one," Zi Luo reminded idly.

One spore clone luckily avoided the shredding, slipping through a gap in the spider's legs, intending to escape through a crack in the cave ceiling to report.

As soon as it poked its head out, a massive shadow enveloped it.

Owl · Stealth had, at some point, silently hovered above the cave. Its owl-like metal body was noiseless, only countless alloy blade-feathers floated detached, forming an exquisite yet despairing cage.

Feather Array - Luo!

The blade-feathers contracted inward, and the clone was instantly sliced into dozens of pieces before it could even scream, as neatly as a work of art.

"Wind," Qian formed a hand seal and uttered a single word.

A fierce wind arose out of nowhere inside the cave, yet it skillfully avoided Tang Yan and Obito's positions, scattering the Soul Leaving Powder - Magnetic Storm residue on Zi Luo's gauntlets, forming a deadly, barely visible field.

White Zetsu's main body was forced to retreat step by step. It tried to root itself to the ground with Wood Release, but found the rocks beneath its feet seemed to be isolated by some force, making them slippery. More and more of its body petrified, and its movements became increasingly sluggish.

It finally realized that it was facing a group of monsters with perfect coordination and extremely bizarre methods. This was not Ninja combat as it understood it.

Tang Yan no longer watched the one-sided slaughter. He slowly walked to the dying Obito, and with a single hand, moved the boulder that was pressing down on him.

He did not save him.

Behind him, the Apothecary - Diligence's casing opened, and several flexible metal arms extended from it. One of them held a palm-sized crystal bottle, which it respectfully handed to Tang Yan.

Inside the bottle was silver powder shimmering with faint electrical light.

Tang Yan's target was not Obito's life, but his eye. Uchiha Madara's "Eye of the Moon Plan" was intricately linked, and this eye was the first fulcrum to leverage everything.

He pinched Obito's chin, forcing him to lift his head.

A drop of special liquid, mixed with Soul Leaving Powder - Magnetic Storm, precisely dripped into Obito's sole remaining right eye.

"Ah ah ah ah ah—!"

Obito let out the last agonizing scream of his life. That crimson Sharingan rotated wildly in extreme pain, its three tomoe seemingly torn and twisted by some invisible force, finally turning into a chaotic mass of blood.

Space, at this moment, experienced an extremely faint, yet irreversible, disturbance. The power of Kamui, before it could even form, was completely corrupted and destroyed at its root.

...

Deep underground, a withered figure connected to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path suddenly opened his eyes.

From those Rinnegan, a towering rage erupted.

"Who! Who dares to touch my chess piece!"

The angry roar echoed in the vast underground. He could feel that the most important part of the chess piece on which he had placed high hopes was being 'scraped clean' right before his eyes, and he was powerless to stop it.

Inside the cave, Obito's final screams were completely absorbed by the rock walls, leaving only a deathly silence.

The half-petrified White Zetsu froze in place, fear making its body structure somewhat unstable. It looked at Tang Yan, then at the unconscious Obito on the ground, and for a moment, dared not make any move.

After completing all this, Tang Yan completely ignored the two people on the ground. He turned, and behind him, Apothecary - Diligence's metal arms had silently retracted all the equipment back into its casing, as if nothing had happened.

"What are you waiting for?" Tang Yan's voice was calm and unruffled, "Take your 'hope' and go back to report to your master."

White Zetsu, as if granted a great pardon, scrambled and crawled underground, dragging Obito's body swiftly away. It didn't even dare to look back.

"Yan, you're just letting it go?" Zi Luo yawned, stretching her wrists, "I thought we could turn it into a stone specimen too, it would look very artistic in the base."

"Just a messenger, killing it is a waste of energy, there are many such things," Tang Yan stepped towards the cave entrance.

Shanxiao - Giyan's eight blade-like legs silently retracted, its massive body deftly following behind him. Owl · Stealth transformed into a streak of light, disappearing into the scroll on his back.

The light from outside the cave pierced their eyes.

Rin and Kakashi's figures were not far away.

Kakashi, who had just completed the eye transplant, was conscious but groggy from the severe pain and exhaustion. He forced his eyes open and saw the three figures emerging from the cave's shadows.

The one leading them had an indifferent expression, followed by a man and a woman, and a... giant, utterly illogical puppet spider.

That suffocating pressure instantly sobered Kakashi.

He instinctively rolled over, shielding Rin Nohara behind him, clutching his kunai tightly, and adopting a defensive stance.

His movements tugged at the wound in his left eye, sending a sharp, piercing pain through him.

Tang Yan stopped, his gaze passing over Kakashi's taut body, precisely landing on his left eye, which was now covered by a bandage.

Kakashi stiffened all over.

That gaze held no killing intent, yet it slowed the flow of his blood.

A feeling of being completely seen through seized him, as if everything about him, from the inside out, including the Sharingan he had just received, had become a clearly priced item in the other's eyes.

His left eye socket even began to twitch uncontrollably under that gaze.

Tang Yan looked at Kakashi, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching his ears.

"Kakashi Hatake."

Kakashi's pupils suddenly constricted.

Tang Yan gestured with his chin towards the direction White Zetsu had disappeared, a puzzling smile appearing on his face.

"That eye, you must protect it well, don't waste it."

"The true war is a game between gods. And some people... have just lost their sharpest spear."

He paused, then his gaze shifted to Rin, his eyes seeming to see through her future destiny, and the curse mark that was about to be etched into her heart.

"Moreover, you should thank me. Without me, that little girl would soon die."

Tang Yan looked at Kakashi, adding word by word.

"Killed by you."

The last sentence was like an invisible heavy hammer, striking Kakashi's heart with full force.