The Vow of Death

Lin Feng was at the most crucial phase of assimilating the nine-tails.

His entire mindscape was vibrating with the force of the struggles of the tailed-beast.

As he absorbed the power of the Kyuubi's soul bit by bit, his soul grew stronger and denser until, it crossed a critical threshold, triggering what was known as a Myriad Tribulation.

Kaguya as a cultivator with deep insight into the Principle of Souls was extremely knowledgeable about soul cultivation and she had shared some of that know-how as a part of their partnership.

The thing about soul cultivation was that beyond a point, when the soul grew past a certain limit, it began to fuse with the mindscape and the mindscape began to truly take form.

As of now, Lin Feng's mindscape was a blank white space that stretched to infinity.

Sure, he could make up anything he desired within it, conjuring whatever caught his fancy, but, after he stopped concentrating, the construct would dissipate.

But now, after the start of the Myriad Tribulation, this began to change.

His soul sutra revolved independently and the blank white mindscape began to change.

The ground started to become rocky due to his willpower with occasional veins of metal running through the earth. Resolution Earth.

The waters of memory flooded the newly formed land, cutting deep channels into it forming rivers of memories and sometimes they stagnated to form lakes and as the process went on, seas.

The wind picked up as his thoughts enlivened, blowing this way and that as part of his Aeolian thoughts.

In places, from the depths of the mountains, rose red flames spouted as volcanoes, burning with enthusiasm fire, his emotions given form.

The entire world of his mind was finally taking shape.

Suddenly, deep black thunder clouds began to form on the top of Lin Feng's head in the sky of his mindscape and dangerous purple lightnings flashed within the clouds.

This was the beginning of the myriad tribulation.

It was a reaction against his soul's density crossing a limit causing the natural laws to want to destroy it.

If he couldn't withstand his tribulation, his soul would vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving a soulless corpse behind.

Lin Feng concentrated fully, blowing away the thunderclouds with the winds of his thoughts, preventing them from fermenting the fatal strike they wanted to deliver.

Although he managed to block the strongest attacks, some of the branch lightnings still fell on his mindscape, tearing deep gulfs in the earth.

Whenever his earth was harmed, he could feel his willpower weaken and he felt like resistance was futile.

He wanted to give up.

Yet he clenched his teeth and fought on.

Due to the Kyuubi's last ditch efforts, it had merged with the myriad tribulation and now it had gained a modicum of sentience.

It always managed to aim at his weakness, increasing the difficulty several fold.

Lin Feng continuously used Nine Turns on a Riverboat in order to refine the will of the Kyuubi while paying dual attention to blocking the damage of the myriad tribulation and reducing its effect to a minimum.

Seeing that attacking the earth was not effective, the tribulation began to aim at the volcanoes… at the enthusiasm fire.

Although he tried his best, one sturdy pillar of lightning still hit a volcano, causing it to erupt violently.

Suddenly Lin Feng felt irrationally angry.

He wanted to destroy something… break stuff… kill people.

His eyes were red.

Forcefully suppressing the impulsions, he concentrated on refining the Kyuubi.

He was getting the winning side and the Kyuubi was getting feebler.

He would be done soon.

…

…

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hanzo, the salamander, Danzo, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were making their way within the desert.

A few days ago, they had gotten an anonymous tip that Lin Feng was sealing the Kyuubi in the middle of the desert.

Even an approximate location was given.

Orochimaru and Danzo had verified it and seen that it wasn't a trap.

They knew that it would mean their end if Lin Feng succeeded… specially as there were reports of the three other nations building up their troops waiting for Lin Feng to finish his sealing to attack.

Thus, even if the motive of the anonymous informer were unclear, they had no choice but to attack.

Soon, Hanzo suddenly stopped and put his ear to the ground.

Among the lot of them he and Orochimaru were the best sensory ninja if you didn't count Jiraiya's sage mode.

Due to his partial fusion with a salamander, he had much stronger senses much like the Inuzuka clan of Konoha. Just to a greater degree.

Soon, Hanzo pointed out a direction and after a few miles in that direction, Orochimaru confirmed that there was a strong chakra fluctuation… although it had been masked with some sort of seal.

The five of them sped up and within minutes, they were standing on the outskirts of Lin Feng's 3-D formation.

In the middle of the formation was a huge dome shaped barrier of sand.

From this close, even masked by the formation, they could feel the huge chakra fluctuation inside the dome.

Lin Feng had no control over his soul right now and the strong soul pressure oppressed the 5 ninja.

They had no idea what it was since they were unfamiliar with the soul… except Orochimaru who was studying it independently to devise his infinite rebirth method. But, even he wasn't sure.

But, they instinctively knew that whatever was in there was transforming and evolving.

It was at it's weakest… once this opportunity passed, they would forever not be its match.

The five kage level ninja looked at each other and nodded with tacit understanding.

Jiraiya summoned Gamabunta, Hanzo summoned his salamander, Hiruzen summoned Monkey King Enma, Orochimaru summoned Manda and Danzo summoned his Evil Tapir.

As soon as they came out in puffs of smoke their attention was drawn to the sandy dome.

Even Manda forgot to ask for his usual human sacrifices when faced with the soul-crushing pressure.

Without another word, all ten of them attacked.

…

…

Lin Feng had obviously put a sensory array as an alarm against approaching threats but as focused as he was on the tribulation, he had no chance to pay attention to the outside.

So, he was totally unprepared when the dome of sand vibrated and cracked from the force of 10 kage level jutsu.

He had to divert his attention to check the outside situation and when he saw the lineup outside, he couldn't help but curse.

"Damn!"

In this brief lapse of attention, the tribulation transformed its direction and a thick pillar of violet lightning hit a lake of memories which Lin Feng had been specially attentive in protecting.

It contained memories of his master from his home plane.

"NOOO!" screamed Lin Feng but it was no use.

The memories started playing back in reverse.

His master's funeral.

His master sending him to Kunlun.

His master teaching him his knowledge of architecture.

Serving his master tea as they spent a quiet evening together.

His master scolding him for being lazy.

His master accepting him as his final disciple.

Lin Feng's eyes were bloodshot as the anger he had been suppressing ran rampant as his precious memories were evaporated, leaving him with a profound sense of loss and grief.

The worst thing was that he had no idea what exactly he had lost.

Just that it was precious.

Very, very precious.

"SARUTOBI HIRUZEN…. IF I DON'T KILL YOU TODAY, I VOW I AM NOT A PERSON!!!!"

His enraged voice rang across the desert, causing even the 10 kage level ninja to shiver.

After a brief pause, they resumed their attacks with renewed vigour.

They knew that now, there was no turning back.