At this very moment, inside the Blood Pool's inn.
The woman called "Meiya" tilted her head unnaturally, her footsteps erratic as she approached, suddenly swinging her arm.
Whoosh!
A rusted kitchen knife slashed horizontally through the air. Uchiha Naori flipped backward like a swallowtail butterfly dancing in the wind, effortlessly dodging the attack while simultaneously drawing her blade in a fluid motion to slit the woman's throat.
Yet her opponent showed no reaction. Despite the gushing wound at her throat, the woman remained unfazed, her glowing red eyes dull and vacant.
Naori kicked her away, using the momentary distance to sigh in frustration.
She turned her head and asked, "Still not awake yet?"
No.
Uchiha Nian's voice came from behind her as he carried the unconscious Uchiha Kirito on his back, panting heavily. "He's still trapped in the genjutsu."
Earlier, the moment the three of them stepped into the room, they had fallen into that shop assistant's illusion technique.
Naori instantly realized what was happening and immediately activated her three-tomoe Sharingan. In that moment, she discovered with shock that her mental world was being dominated by a pair of blood-red eyes.
Those were eyes brimming with bloody aura - black sclera with horizontal pupils, hanging high in her mental sky like a sun, gazing down upon the land like a deity.
Feeling her heart tighten, Naori immediately broke free using the formidable ocular power of her three-tomoe Sharingan, regaining control over the chakra flow within her body.
The moment her consciousness returned, several zombie-like figures closed in around her. She immediately attempted to retreat, only to find the entire room enveloped in a blood-red barrier, transforming the situation into a complete trap for cornered prey.
These people have been completely manipulated by genjutsu, becoming mere puppets. Their previous independent actions were merely mechanical executions of the caster's commands.
They fear no death, unable to perceive pain even when struck in vital areas. With Naori needing to protect her younger brothers behind her, she found herself constrained at every turn, inevitably feeling somewhat restricted.
Fortunately, Uchiha Nian actually broke free from the genjutsu through sheer willpower, which pleasantly surprised her.
She very much wanted to ask how he had accomplished this, as it was the most advanced type of restrictive genjutsu - one that enhanced its power through established rules. Breaking free through ability rather than ocular power indeed presented considerable difficulty.
Nian pursed his lips slightly. In truth, his ability to break the genjutsu wasn't entirely his own doing. After all, that reassuring voice in his mind was the real reason he'd remained so composed throughout.
"These so-called five rules are both killing techniques and loopholes. This is a genjutsu that manipulates reality by controlling the mind. If you truly follow all the rules completely, your real-world self would become nothing more than a puppet, completely at the caster's mercy."
"The solution is to both obey the rules... and not obey them at the same time..."
Following this guidance, Nian immediately gained enlightenment.
In the world of illusion, he appeared to speak, yet uttered not a single word;
He seemed to eat as promised, yet spat it all out;
He appeared to rise, yet fell from his seat;
He seemed to follow the rules, yet broke every single one...
Sure enough, the moment he tumbled down, he suddenly jolted awake, breaking free from the illusionary world.
"This genjutsu is indeed exquisitely designed, though its only flaw is the insufficient ocular power." The voice continued, as if savoring the experience.
Nian silently nodded. Long before entering the valley, a spiritual entity had drifted in with the wind, effortlessly entering his mind and sitting cross-legged within his "mental realm."
For Nian, who had already trained in the "Spiritual Transformation Technique," he naturally recognized what this was and instantly guessed the identity of the visitor.
Under the heavens, who else could be practicing this secret technique alongside him but that senior!
Therefore, even when trapped in confinement, he didn't feel the slightest panic.
He knew the senior wouldn't harm him. Though this person claimed to be just visiting for leisure, merely looking around casually, Nian understood clearly - beneath that carefree appearance, the senior was secretly protecting all three of them.
"Senior, is there any way to break this deadlock?" Nian asked in his mind, his tone probing.
In the spiritual world, Kamihane's astral form spread his hands. "Simple—just find and kill the caster."
"I meant, how do we wake Kirito up too."
"Well..." Kamihane pondered. "Normally, ocular genjutsu can only be broken by someone else disrupting the target's chakra flow. But this Blood Dragon Eye genjutsu is special—it requires direct eye contact with a Sharingan to forcibly break through with superior visual prowess. Those with greater skill can even overwrite or reflect the illusion back..."
"Thank you, senior!" Nian politely expressed her gratitude, then called out to Naori's retreating figure: "Sister Naori, if you make eye contact with Kirito and channel your pupil power, you can forcibly break the genjutsu!"
"Is that so... Huh? How did you know that?"
"No time to worry about that now—I'll hold off these people!"
Nian's hands flashed in rapid succession as countless shuriken tore through the air. With a series of "thud-thud-thud" impacts, the projectiles struck the puppet bodies, sparks flying in all directions. The shuriken ricocheted and spun midair before embedding themselves into walls, floors, and ceiling beams, scattering in every conceivable direction.
Naori didn't dare delay, swiftly switching positions with Nian to support her younger brother.
"Be careful, these people feel no pain..."
She was about to warn them when she looked up and realized it wasn't necessary. Crystalline glints suddenly flashed through the air as Nian pulled both hands, revealing densely packed threads that wove into a net, completely entangling and tightly binding all five puppets.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
Nian meticulously formed hand seals without the slightest error, concluding with the "Tiger" seal. A surge of intense Fire Release chakra gathered in his throat as he inhaled, spreading outward along the threads.
Flames erupted in a brilliant flash as over a dozen thick pillars of fire raced along the threads. All puppets were instantly engulfed in a sea of fire, their bodies blackening inch by inch.
Seizing this opportunity, Naori swiftly pried open her younger brother's eyelids, revealing his vacant, bewildered eyes. Her beautiful gaze sharpened as she imprinted the three tomoe pattern onto Kirito's pupils.
With a burst of ocular power, Kirito's body shuddered, and the light returned to his eyes.
"I... I'm still alive?"
Breaking free from the genjutsu felt like suddenly waking from a dream. The intense dissonance between reality and illusion made him instantly realize he'd been trapped in a dreamscape.
"Now that you're awake, you'll be fine." Naori gave him an encouraging smile before her gaze abruptly sharpened, ready to fight alongside Nian.
Though the puppets were dealt with, two figures remained upstairs - and one of them was the true caster of that technique!
However, at this very moment, Nian suddenly widened his eyes. Reflected in his pupils were five charred, swollen flesh spheres, with crimson blood proliferating across their surfaces, layer upon layer enveloping them, while terrifying energy brewed at their cores.
"Not good, run—"
At the critical moment, Naori yanked Nian into her embrace, then swiftly turned around, shielding both younger brothers with her own body.
"No!!" Kirito shouted, tears overflowing from his eyes.
Nian's eyes were illuminated by the flames, and in that moment, only one thought remained in his mind:
I must protect both of them!
In his desperation, he spread open his arms and unleashed a strange, unfamiliar power all at once.
With a deafening "BOOM," all five human bombs exploded simultaneously. The powerful shockwave rippled outward, and even the barrier couldn't withstand such an explosion. The entire inn was instantly blown apart, with wooden splinters and shattered tiles scattering in all directions amidst the violent wind.
Footsteps echoed through the dissipating black smoke as the shop assistant emerged, patting his clothes to brush off the charred blood scabs bit by bit.
Just before the explosion hit, he had refined the last puppet beside him into a blood shield, using its body to block the impact.
Suddenly, he froze—because he didn't see the shattered corpses of the three Uchiha members as expected.
What met his eyes instead were countless splintered wooden fragments, with countless vines converging and closing to form a massive wooden shield that had firmly blocked the explosion beyond its barrier.
At this moment, the trees began to crumble and shatter, revealing the unharmed figures of the three individuals.
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