[Whoosh!]
Just as Jigen hovered in the air, scanning all around in suspicion and unease—
A white silhouette instantly appeared about a hundred meters away.
Sensing it, Jigen snapped his gaze over and locked tightly onto Imu, clad in a white robe trimmed with gold, a crimson-gold long blade hanging at the waist.
Neither spoke first; only sharp, profound eyes clashed across the distance.
At this moment—
As two invisible auras were released and collided, heaven and earth fell utterly silent.
An extremely oppressive atmosphere spread through every corner of the air.
"Who are you?"
Unable to hold back, Jigen was the first to speak, though his tone was ice-cold.
Yet Imu's reply made his face change in shock.
"Ōtsutsuki Isshiki—millennia ago you descended upon the shinobi world with Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, but were betrayed by her, gravely wounded, and forced to seize the monk Jigen's body, clinging to life until now."
After a pause, I stared directly at Jigen's stunned expression and said: "I had thought to wait until you were captured. If you were willing to submit and obey, I could have given you a chance to join the Star God Hall. But you actually tried to seize the body of an army general—truly seeking your own death, an unforgivable crime!"
"Who the hell are you? How could you know these things!"
"Answer me!"
"Could it be you don't even dare to give your own name!"
Jigen, shaken between fury and shock, could no longer maintain his earlier composure.
Imu's earlier words gave him the feeling that his secrets had been laid completely bare, leaving him extremely ill at ease.
The next instant, he heard Imu's cold voice reply: "I am Imu, ruler of the World Government."
Jigen froze.
He had only been secretly trying to seize someone for rebirth—how had he run straight into the BOSS of the other side's power?
No, it didn't seem like coincidence. From the fact that the other knew his identity and past, it was obvious he had come prepared.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki within Jigen's body quickly made a decision: since the 'Black Kāma' had already been embedded in Aramaki's body—
Once the data fully thawed, he could find him later.
There was no need to fight a battle here with no benefit.
All the more so since this vessel's 'second state' seemed no match—he absolutely could not fight.
"Very pleased to meet you, ruler of the World Government. Though there are still many doubts, let's leave the rest for another time."
Jigen's expression returned to its usual calm.
As he summoned a mass of black-red energy behind him, he fixed his gaze on Imu in the near distance.
Yet—
Just as he prepared to use space transfer to escape—
The vortex of energy behind him suddenly exploded with a thunderous boom.
A violent gale surged forth, whipping Jigen's white haori into a loud flapping.
This stunned him—he turned his head in disbelief.
He saw only the black-red energy that had yet to form a portal, scattering away with the wind.
At the same time, Imu's cold voice rang out again: "If I do not allow you to leave, you cannot leave. In mastery of spatial ability, you are still far behind me."
As the words fell—
Behind Imu began to form blade after blade of transparent Haki, each wreathed in golden lightning.
If not for the arcs of light flashing constantly, they would have been invisible to the naked eye.
In the blink of an eye, a dense forest of golden lightning blades filled Jigen's entire sight.
[Whoosh!]
The instant the first Haki lightning turned into golden electric light and shot toward Jigen—
His pupils suddenly contracted to needlepoints, and he immediately raised a hand to counter.
The next second, there came a resounding boom.
The incoming golden electric light was blocked by a black rod that appeared out of thin air.
The two clashed together in midair.
The black rod was blasted away by the golden lightning, yet the lightning itself could no longer advance toward Jigen.
[Bang, bang, bang, bang.]
In an instant, countless streaks of golden electric light and countless chakra black rods—
Like two roaring surging tides, they crashed against each other.
But it wasn't long before Jigen's face gradually turned ashen.
Because the chakra rods he sent out were retreating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, Jigen noticed Haki lightning appearing in other directions as well.
This forced him to face encirclement from all sides.
Jigen no longer held back. He spread his arms wide and at once unleashed his dōjutsu—
Sukunahikona!
The next instant, Imu saw his Haki lightning, before it could even approach—
After a moment, the golden lightning gradually subsided.
Jigen had just let out a breath when a violent sense of crisis surged within him, every hair on his body standing on end.
Imu had appeared before him at some unknown point.
Seika flashed from its sheath like lightning, becoming a blazing golden-red blade light like fire.
At that critical instant, in Jigen's perception, everything slowed down.
He had no choice left, only to fight to the death.
[BOOM————]
The next moment, a surging wave of invisible air exploded out of nothingness, slamming head-on into the blazing blade light.
At once...
A dazzling fireball shimmering with golden light erupted in the desert sky like a miniature nuclear blast.
The violent force turned into terrifying gales venting in all directions.
[Whoosh————]
With a casual swing of his blade, Imu generated winds that blew away all the mist and vapor.
His eyes locked directly onto Jigen, who had transformed once more.
No—it was already Ōtsutsuki Isshiki!
He wore an elegant, form-fitting long-sleeved white tailcoat, paired with loose black trousers that concealed his feet.
Pale skin, gray short hair, eyebrows and beard along his chin.
And the curved horn protruding from the right side of his head gave off the air of an alien middle-aged man.
But what drew the most attention were his eyes.
His left was a pale-gray Byakugan; his right, a golden pupil divided by four black lines into eight wedge-shaped sections.
"Ruler of the World Government, you will regret your provocation."
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's killing intent was chilling; now, at most, he had only three days of life left.
The only way to survive was to defeat Imu, then find Aramaki and possess him, eking out a continued existence.
"Witness the terror of the Ōtsutsuki."
As Isshiki's words fell—
One giant cube after another appeared out of nothingness above Imu's head.
[BOOM!]
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki erupted at once, deafening sonic booms bursting as his whole body turned into a white streak of light rushing straight at Imu.
Without the slightest hesitation, Imu met Ōtsutsuki Isshiki head-on with blade in hand.
[BOOM!]
No different from before, the massive sonic boom churned up mist.
From it shot a streak of golden-red lightning, colliding with the incoming white meteor.
At the same time, the giant cubes that had been falling were being swallowed one after another by space portals that appeared out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, in the separate space where Aramaki, little Kaguya, and Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo were, the cubes simply reappeared not far away.
"Lord Imu confiscated them!"
Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, who had just explained the situation to Aramaki, was filled with awe.
Noticing this same scene, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's face grew terribly grim.
He had lost the cubes, and now he could no longer summon them back.
This made Isshiki no longer dare to summon more giant cubes.
He could only rely on sheer strength to engage Imu in an earth-shaking battle.
As far as the eye could see, the earth crumbled, the ground split open, and sand surged in wild torrents.
Above, the atmosphere too was thrown into chaos by the violent aftermath of the battle.
A colossal storm, visible to the naked eye, was quickly taking shape, yet it could do nothing to affect the clash of those two streaks of light.
Even the residents of Rōran and Sunagakure hundreds of kilometers away could clearly hear the rumbling from the heavens, along with flashes of white and red streaking across the sky.
Now the entire former Land of Wind had become the battlefield of Imu and Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
After a while, following the collision, Isshiki shot forth like a white laser streaking diagonally at supersonic speed, tearing through the void with thunderous sonic booms at breakneck pace.
At last it slammed heavily into the distant stretch of desert.
[Rumble—!]
In an instant, towering waves of sand rose like a tsunami.
It simultaneously triggered an immense, violent earthquake, yellow sand billowing outwards in every direction.
Inside a circular pit nearly a kilometer across.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, his clothes in tatters, propped one hand against the ground beneath him, scorched into glass and steaming, while clutching his bleeding chest with the other, laboriously pushing himself upright.
"Pu—"
Yet just as he was about to rise, he began to vomit blood on the spot, as if he had stepped straight out of a Xianxia novel, his already pale face turning ghastly white.
His weakened body could only kneel on one knee, chest heaving violently, gasping desperately for air.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki could scarcely believe his condition.
"No choice, I can only summon you ahead of time."
Under Imu's interested gaze, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki suddenly threw back his head and roared in fury.
"Come forth, Ten Tails!"
"Unleash your wrath to the fullest, and destroy everything in this world!"
At the same time...
Behind Ōtsutsuki Isshiki burst forth massive amounts of black-red energy, spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Yet Imu's next words made Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's face change drastically.
"So you finally released the Ten Tails? I've been waiting a long time for this."
"What?!"
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