Chapter 214: First Confrontation with Uchiha Madara
Along the way, Li Yao first turned the captured Amegakure jonin into a spare clone. Then he retrieved a scroll of Uzumaki clan sealing techniques from the Blackwater Space and handed it to Koyuki.
"Uncle, what does this mean?" Koyuki's face went pale. She sensed something life-threatening was about to happen—otherwise, why would he hand her a sealing scroll?
"Don't worry. It's just a precaution."
Li Yao smiled, then patted her head and reminded her, "Listen. No matter what happens later, even if you see my body die, don't come down."
Koyuki suddenly hugged him tightly, urgently saying, "No, Uncle! I'll go down with you—I'm strong now!"
She guessed that the white monster who once forced Uncle to infiltrate Yahiko's group was now going to turn against him.
That monster must be powerful enough to threaten Uncle's life. Koyuki didn't want to see him take that risk alone.
Li Yao frowned, placing both hands on her shoulders and speaking with rare seriousness: "I'm not joking. As long as you stay up here, I won't die. But if you come down and get caught, then I really will be in danger."
The clone was a spare vessel for Li Yao's soul, in case he had to abandon his body.
Even though he could use the Spirit Transformation Technique to fly a great distance and possess someone else, it was too risky without preparation—who knows what freakish person he might encounter during the process.
Having a clone ready made everything safer.
That's why Koyuki had to stay in the sky—to guard his clone, to make sure that once Madara activated the heart curse, Li Yao could safely escape and take over the spare body.
"You must listen to me. Don't come down, no matter what. Can you do that?" Li Yao's tone was stern and absolute.
"I…" Koyuki looked into his serious eyes. In the end, she could only nod. "I understand. No matter what happens, I won't go down."
Only then did Li Yao smile and pat her head again. "Good girl. Wait here—I'm not going to die."
With that, he leapt down and quickly landed on a rocky plateau.
This time, he didn't need to stomp. White Zetsu surfaced immediately.
"What happened between you and Nagato's group?" White Zetsu demanded.
"You don't know?" Li Yao raised an eyebrow, but then quickly realized.
They'd spoken atop the tower—White Zetsu, hidden underground, wouldn't have heard their conversation, only sensed the conflict through movement.
Thinking this, Li Yao smiled. Lucky—he'd had time to prepare.
"I left Akatsuki…" He explained his reason, then smiled and asked, "So, do I continue protecting Nagato from the shadows, or am I free to move as I wish now?"
If possible, Li Yao still wanted to keep Kimura Yao's body.
"You…" White Zetsu's face flickered. He stared deeply at Li Yao, then said, "Wait here. I'll ask Lord Madara."
White Zetsu relayed the message to another clone and passed the information on to Madara.
In a hidden underground chamber in the Land of Grass—
White Zetsu emerged to awaken Madara from his slumber.
Due to his aging body nearing its limit, Madara could only slow its deterioration by sleeping, hoping to live until Obito was fully molded. Only then would he pass on everything and die.
His waking hours were precious. Being disturbed ahead of schedule soured his mood.
Still, he listened to the report.
"How should we deal with Li Yao?"
"Lord Madara," White Zetsu called.
If possible, he didn't want Li Yao to die. The guy was genuinely useful for their Tailed Beast retrieval plans.
Heh… Madara chuckled coldly and asked, "Do you remember the mission I gave that brat?"
White Zetsu replied, "Yes. You told him to infiltrate Nagato's side and protect him from the shadows. He was not to leave unless ordered."
Madara smiled coldly. "Then would you say he's failed that mission now?"
White Zetsu hesitated, then said, "Yes. He's failed."
Heh…
Madara raised both hands and began forming hand signs. As he did, he sneered, "A loser who can't even handle a simple infiltration mission dares defy my orders?"
The moment he started the hand seals, White Zetsu knew what Madara had decided.
Now that Obito was on track, Madara had no further use for Li Yao.
Madara was absolute. Anyone who disobeyed died.
Back in the Land of Rain—
As White Zetsu went silent, Li Yao focused intently on his chest.
This was likely the only chance he'd have to sense Six Paths–level chakra. Even if it was brief, it was worth observing.
As Madara finished the final hand sign, a quantum-like entanglement instantly activated at Li Yao's heart.
A moment later, a surge of high-quality chakra emerged in his sensory field. It had always been hidden—only now, through active activation, was it perceptible.
Unfortunately, the moment was too brief, and the signal too unclear. He couldn't copy it.
As the jutsu activated, a black sealing formula appeared over Li Yao's heart and rapidly spread through his blood vessels. At the same time, Madara's will attempted to seize control of his chakra.
"Disappear," Li Yao muttered with a smirk.
In that instant, he unleashed Will-Purifying Chakra, erasing the remnants of Madara's and Black Zetsu's will from his soul. Then he used the Spirit Transformation Technique to eject his soul.
The very moment the will traces vanished—
"Hm!!"
Far away, Madara's eyes snapped open in shock, his heart shaken. His face darkened as he accelerated the curse's spread through Li Yao's body.
He had to destroy the body quickly—without it, the soul couldn't last long.
At the same time, he ordered the nearby White Zetsu to attack Li Yao's spiritual form.
But it was already too late.
"Impossible!"
White Zetsu—more accurately, Black Zetsu—was stunned. His pupils shrank.
How had Li Yao erased the imprint of his will from his soul?
He was the child of Kaguya, born from the Six Paths Yin-Yang Technique! His will—
Wait… no, it wasn't his actual will—just a residual echo.
Now it made sense.
If it had been his true will, Li Yao could never have removed it.
Still, for him to erase it so easily was unacceptable.
"Kill!"
Recovering, White Zetsu immediately launched a Wood Release attack at Li Yao's body. The soul was already gone—it was too fast.
But just as the wooden spikes reached Li Yao's body, it exploded in a flood of black ink.
"Damn it—it's the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!"
Li Yao had used his own body as an anchor to cast the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing.
White Zetsu panicked. He hadn't expected Li Yao to abandon his body so decisively and quickly sank into the earth.
Rip!
The ink exploded like a black hole, expanding to a sphere fifty meters wide before violently compressing everything within into a single point.
Bang!
A perfect crater appeared on the ground. Li Yao's body, along with everything nearby, vanished.
White Zetsu popped his head up near the crater's edge. Looking skyward, he could still sense some of Li Yao's chakra—but without his soul's will, he could no longer control it.
This was also why Madara couldn't stop Li Yao from casting the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing.
In the sky—
Koyuki was still frozen, shocked by the scene of Li Yao's body being sealed. Before she could react, Li Yao's spirit appeared, swiftly entering the Amegakure jonin's body on the paper bird.
"Uncle?"
She looked at the jonin's form, quickly realizing that Li Yao was possessing the body.
Since the clone was originally a part of Li Yao, their essence was identical.
Once Li Yao's soul entered, he easily purified the clone's spirit and absorbed it, fully taking over the body.
For a moment, he sensed rejection from the new vessel. But once he adjusted his mental energy waves to match the clone's original frequency, the resistance vanished.
And so, Li Yao successfully possessed a new body—reborn and free from Madara's control.
(END CHAPTER)
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