Ch.78 Fake Wood Release

"Ahhh!!!"

In an instant, black flames engulfed Kibutsuji Muzan's entire body, and agonized screams echoed throughout the forest.

Seeing Muzan, who had survived multiple explosive clay attacks, barely resist the black flames before his presence started to fade, Deidara's curiosity was piqued, and he moved closer to observe.

But before he could get too close, his instincts stopped him. The carefree expression on his face slowly turned serious. "What kind of Fire Release is this?"

At that moment, Uchiha Shinji was also observing Muzan under the effects of Amaterasu.

If Muzan still possessed the power of the Demon King, then even Amaterasu shouldn't be able to kill him so easily. On the other hand, if he died quickly, it would mean that Muzan had indeed lost his Demon King abilities.

So, killing him would be justified.

Soon enough, Muzan's agonized cries weakened.

Under the relentless black flames of Amaterasu, his body began to turn to ash, eventually crumbling into dust that was washed into the soil by the rain.

Shinji felt a sense of relief.

At least now, he wouldn't have to wrestle with the temptation of missing out on immortality.

Deidara, meanwhile, stared at the still-burning black flames in the mud. "This isn't an ordinary Fire Release, is it? Some kind of nature transformation? Hmm!"

Shinji extinguished the Amaterasu flames and deactivated his Susanoo. His gaze then shifted slowly toward Deidara.

Recently, Shinji had been meaning to seek out Deidara, and the demon invasion had conveniently brought him to the Land of Rain, where he ran into Deidara, who had been sent out to chase the demons.

As for why the demon had appeared here in such a weakened state, it didn't take Shinji long to figure it out.

Clearly, his earlier strategy had worked. Disguising himself as a member of the Akatsuki to eliminate demons had led them to mistakenly believe that the 'Lampbearer' of the shinobi world was part of the Akatsuki.

At the same time, this confirmed his previous suspicion: during the last encounter, a demon had escaped his pursuit, which meant that crucial information about the shinobi world might have been leaked on a large scale.

Understanding this, Shinji didn't mention anything about the demons and instead asked Deidara directly, "How's it going with those members from the Outer Ring?"

Deidara thought for a moment. "Not bad, they're quite an interesting bunch! Hmm!"

That was a rather high compliment coming from Deidara.

Shinji carefully observed Deidara's expression.

Seeing that Deidara was acting naturally, not probing or testing him, Shinji assumed that Deidara hadn't revealed his presence to the Akatsuki members.

After a brief pause, Shinji casually asked, "You've met Zetsu, right?"

"The guy with two leaves on his head?" Deidara confirmed, then shook his head. "I don't know him well. He's sneaky, not as easy to talk to as Sasori. Hmm!"

Shinji gave an order, "Get me a sample of White Zetsu's cells. Make sure to do it discreetly, without him noticing."

Deidara was puzzled. "Cells? What do you need that for?"

"I need to verify something," Shinji didn't go into detail and simply added, "I'll tell you more later."

With that, Shinji activated Jikibi, marking Deidara's spirit.

Before this encounter, Shinji had adjusted the Mangekyō Sharingan he was using for battle.

Instead of wielding Fugaku's pair of Mangekyō Sharingan, he chose to use one that contained Amaterasu and another from his grandmother, Uchiha Naori, which held Jikibi.

This combination, though it resulted in lower ocular power due to using mismatched Mangekyō Sharingan, allowed him to utilize both Amaterasu and Jikibi simultaneously.

Deidara, finding the task of secretly obtaining some cells to be easy enough, nodded after thinking it over. "Once I've got them, how do I get them to you?"

Shinji pulled out a map and pointed to a small town. "Once you've got it, stay here for a day, and I'll contact you."

The town he pointed to was a transportation hub in the Land of Fire, conveniently 80 kilometers from Hidden Leaf Village, within the sensing range of Jikibi.

"Hmm!"

Deidara had no objections.

Still concerned about Haku and Karin, who were tracking down another demon, Shinji turned to leave.

But Deidara suddenly called out, "Wait. That guy you just took down—who was he? Why did he attack us? And why were they so hard to kill, like that guy Hidan who Kakuzu just recruited?"

Looking at Deidara, Shinji let out a small sigh.

Now that his Lamp could detect demons, it meant that the mysterious Lampbearer's protective influence over the demons had disappeared.

The Lampbearer's protective veil not only interfered with Shinji's Lamp's sensing abilities but also shielded the demons from spreading their corruption.

So when the Lampbearer's protection vanished, the demons instantly became sources of corruption.

This meant that all the Akatsuki members who had fought the demons, as well as the villagers of Hidden Rain Village who had seen the demons, were now contaminated by the demon's information—including Deidara, standing right in front of him.

While the contamination might be minimal, it still existed. And aside from the Lampbearer, those affected wouldn't even realize they had become anchors linking two different worlds.

Deidara, unnerved by Shinji's stare, asked, "Hey, why are you looking at me like that?"

Shinji asked, "How many of them were there?"

"Four. They all had something inscribed in their eyes—something about being 'Lower Moons,' I think." Deidara paused, then continued, "They walked straight into the village and immediately demanded the leader's life. Hmm, I'm talking about the leader of the Outer Ring."

Shinji withdrew his gaze and casually remarked, "Probably some rogue shinobi group. Don't worry about it."

Deidara, skeptical of Shinji's explanation, questioned, "Rogue shinobi? One of them could use Wood Release, but it wasn't as strong as the legends say. It couldn't even block Itachi's Fire Release! Hmm!"

"Wood Release!?" Shinji froze for a moment, then thought to himself, "Does one of the Lower Moon demons have a blood demon art related to trees?"

He quickly remembered the Upper Moon demon Hantengu, who could control trees with his blood demon art.

However, the tree manipulation from the blood demon art was obviously different from the legendary Wood Release of the First Hokage.

The First Hokage's Wood Release was essentially a derivative of the Divine Tree's power and a part of Bloodline Encompassing, far beyond what a mere blood demon art could imitate.

But at a glance, this tree-manipulating blood demon art could easily be mistaken for Wood Release.

"I wonder if I'll get a blood demon art as spoils of battle later..."

After this thought, Shinji reminded Deidara not to reveal his presence to the Outer Ring members and then hurried in the direction of Haku and Karin.

[Invasion successfully repelled]

[Rift closed.]

Suddenly, the Lamp's voice echoed in Shinji's ear, announcing that the invasion had been thwarted.