Chapter 290: Lighthouse

Chapter 290: Chapter 290: Lighthouse

Yomi was already disgusting enough to begin with. After being sliced apart by the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, he had undoubtedly become even more revolting.

Hyuga Kagami couldn’t even be bothered to give him a proper glance. He immediately prepared to unleash the Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and physically tear this neither-human-nor-ghost monster to pieces once and for all.

Kagami had absolutely no intention of letting Yomi come back from the dead yet again, only to suddenly crawl out of some corner and disgust him all over again.

But just as Kagami was about to make his move, Yomi seemed to sense what was coming and roared,

"Then we’ll die together!"

Kagami’s expression darkened.

He immediately felt that something was wrong.

Boom...

Boom...

Boom...

The instant Yomi’s words fell, the entire palace was engulfed in an endless chain of explosions!

Because the palace was surrounded on all sides by an extraordinarily sturdy barrier, the entire structure had effectively become one enormous sealed space. With nowhere for the raging flames and shockwaves from the explosions to escape, they could only surge back and forth through the palace, repeatedly crashing against everything within!

This undoubtedly amplified the power of the explosions severalfold—perhaps even dozens of times over!

It was a long while before the earth finally stopped trembling.

With a large number of sealing formulas destroyed in the explosions, the barrier surrounding the palace began to slowly fade, until it eventually vanished altogether.

And as the barrier disappeared, the smoke and dust trapped around the palace were finally released. Carried by the gentle breeze, they spread outward in every direction, seemingly shrouding even the night sky itself.

Only after another long while did the smoke and dust gradually disperse.

The palace finally came back into view.

Except by now, it no longer bore any resemblance to what it had been before. Everywhere the eye could see were shattered walls and ruins, with hardly a single intact building remaining.

Crack...

At that moment, a crisp cracking sound came from the center of the earlier explosion.

At the bottom of the crater, which was more than ten meters deep, sat a pitch-black sphere. A clearly visible crack had appeared across its smooth surface, and the sound just now seemed to have come from that very crack.

Crack...

Another crisp sound rang out.

More and more cracks spread across the black sphere until, at last, the entire thing crumbled into dust and vanished into thin air.

As the black sphere disappeared, Hyuga Kagami’s figure was revealed within.

"Phew..."

Hyuga Kagami lightly panted as he surveyed his surroundings.

There was no doubt that the black sphere that had protected Kagami earlier had been formed from three Truth-Seeking Balls. Without them, ordinary ninjutsu might truly have been unable to withstand the explosion just now.

After all, the Priestess’s palace had been covered in all kinds of sealing formulas, making it extraordinarily sturdy. Yet even such a heavily fortified palace had been reduced to ruins in an instant.

That alone showed just how violent the explosion had been!

"There really was a trap. Good thing I was cautious enough to sneak in at night. Otherwise, if I’d alerted Yomi the moment I arrived, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet the Priestess’s spirit!"

Under an explosion of that magnitude, if the Priestess’s spirit hadn’t entered the gourd artifact at Kagami’s waist in time, it would undoubtedly have been torn apart and dispersed by the blast.

After sweeping his Tenseigan across the surroundings, Kagami let out a soft sigh.

This palace had symbolized the Priestess lineage’s thousand-year legacy in the Land of Demons. He hadn’t expected it to be destroyed just like that at the hands of Yomi’s cult.

After confirming that there were no survivors nearby, Kagami wasted no more time. His figure flickered and vanished from the ruins of the palace.

Even if the Priestess’s treasury hadn’t been destroyed in the explosion just now, it had most likely already been looted clean by Hiruko and Shinno.

After all, no researcher would ever complain about having too much money. And the reason Hiruko had agreed to accompany Shinno to the Land of Demons was most likely the Priestess’s treasury in the first place.

So there was basically no value in searching the palace ruins.

Besides, Kagami had an even bigger problem to deal with right now.

From the information he’d coaxed out of Yomi earlier, Kagami now knew that Hiruko and Shinno had gone to Konoha.

And there was a very real possibility that they had already reached the village.

The moment Kagami thought of Rei and Shion both being at his home—and that Shinno might very well make a move against them—he found himself gripped by a rare sense of anxiety.

Racing onward without stopping, Hyuga Kagami eventually landed in an uninhabited forest somewhere within the Land of Demons. After briefly surveying his surroundings, he thought,

"This should do."

The Land of Demons was simply too far from the Land of Fire. Even flying in Tenseigan Chakra Mode, once he factored in the detours necessary to avoid towns and trade routes, the journey would still take at least three or four days.

By the time Kagami spent three or four days rushing back to Konoha, everything would already be too late.

Therefore, Kagami had no choice but to make a bold attempt.

He was going to use the Tenseigan secret technique, Soul Descent, here in the Land of Demons and return to Konoha in spirit form.

Because a spirit had no physical body, its flying speed was even greater than that of Tenseigan Chakra Mode. Moreover, ordinary people couldn’t see him while he was in spirit form, so there would be no need to avoid the towns and trade routes along the way.

He could simply fly in a straight line and return to Konoha at the fastest possible speed!

But doing so created one extremely dangerous problem.

His Yin Release main body, which would be left behind in the Land of Demons, would be completely defenseless.

Forget being discovered by another ninja—even if some wild beast happened to stumble upon it, Kagami might inexplicably end up becoming the beast’s dinner.

After pondering for a moment, Kagami rapidly formed a series of hand seals before slamming one hand onto the ground.

"Summoning Technique!"

Poof...

Amid a burst of white smoke, an enormous figure appeared before him.

"How... how did you get this huge!?"

Staring at the massive wild boar before him—five or six meters tall, practically the size of a one- or two-story building—Kagami was utterly stunned!

The enormous wild boar Kagami had summoned, meanwhile, looked completely bewildered. It swung its massive head from side to side, seemingly trying to figure out how it had suddenly ended up here.

"Stupid pig!" Kagami shouted with a darkened expression. "Where are you looking? I’m down here!"

Hearing his voice, the enormous boar lowered its head and finally spotted Kagami.

It seemed confused as to why its master had suddenly become so small and hesitated, not daring to approach him.

Kagami curled his lips.

"Don’t tell me this stupid pig doesn’t recognize me anymore..."

At that moment, the enormous boar circled Kagami once and carefully sniffed his scent. Only after confirming his identity did it snort repeatedly and move closer.

Kagami carved out a hollow in a large tree spacious enough to accommodate his body. He then placed sealing formulas around the hollow that could conceal his chakra signature.

Finally, he instructed the enormous boar,

"Guard me around here. Don’t let any wild animals approach this tree!"

The enormous boar nodded, seemingly understanding only half of what he’d said.

Looking at the clueless creature, Kagami helplessly entered the tree hollow and activated Soul Descent.

In an instant, Kagami’s spirit shot out from his Yin Release main body and floated into the air.

Closing his eyes, he carefully sensed his surroundings.

Aside from the Tenseigan chakra signatures coming from his nearby Yin Release main body and the enormous boar, he detected another familiar Tenseigan chakra signature from an incredibly distant location.

That Tenseigan chakra belonged to the Third Kazekage Human Puppet stored within his secret laboratory.

And for Kagami’s spirit...

It was the lighthouse that would guide him home.