Chapter 481: Death and Grief

The power of genjutsu… truly fascinating.

In the blood-red world, Ye Zi slightly raised his eyes toward the hundreds of blades hovering in the air. With just that motion, the blades moved, all shooting toward Fugaku on the torture rack.

Shing! Shing!

A thousand blades pierced through Fugaku, who let out a harrowing scream that was abruptly cut short as his body disintegrated into a mess of flesh and bone on the ground.

One second later, the scene reset.

The torture rack remained, as did the hundreds of floating blades. Fugaku's expression now bore visible pain. His face had grown pale, and sweat was pouring from his body.

Ye Zi watched the scene unfold, expressionless. Uchiha Fuqiu's current state revealed the true terror of this technique. Without Tenjin, even Ye Zi would have been tortured to death.

The torment continued… a perpetual hell of pain, looping every second.

Outside, on the main street of the Uchiha compound, Ye Zi and Fugaku stood facing each other. Itachi had retreated to a safe distance, observing the impending battle between his father and Ye Zi.

Itachi believed the fight was about to begin, unaware that it had already ended within a single second.

Tsukuyomi concluded.

In an instant, Fugaku's chakra was completely drained. The blood drained from his face as he collapsed to one knee, his chest heaving violently.

Itachi, watching this unfold, was struck with confusion. What had happened? How had his father ended up in this state in just an instant?

As the question formed in his mind, Ye Zi moved. In a flash, he appeared before the kneeling Fugaku, holding a long blade. With a cold expression, he raised the blade, his eyes half-closed.

Fugaku struggled to lift his head. His Mangekyō Sharingan flickered and reverted to its ordinary black eyes. In those eyes, he saw the reflection of Ye Zi's raised blade. Knowing that failure meant death, his face twisted into a bitter expression.

"Father!" Itachi's heart seemed to skip a beat. His eyes trembled violently, and just as he began to move, Ye Zi's blade had already descended.

At that moment, the moonlight was almost completely swallowed by dark clouds. On the main street, only three figures remained: Ye Zi, Fugaku, and Itachi.

The victorious blade struck with an unstoppable force.

Slash!

The blade fell, blood splattered, and droplets flew toward Ye Zi, only to be evaporated by the lightning coursing through his weapon.

The head of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku, fell silently to the ground, lifeless, as blood pooled beneath him.

Ye Zi's execution was precise. It was one strike that left no room for reaction, delivering instant death.

The Uchiha clan was powerful, but on this moonlit night, their leader met his end under Ye Zi's blade.

Itachi stood frozen, staring at his father's lifeless body on the ground. His Sharingan, marked by three tomoe, trembled subtly as if they were spinning uncontrollably.

Ye Zi paid no attention to Itachi. Reversing his grip on the blade, he used two fingers to lift Fugaku's corpse. His left hand moved in a flash, swiftly removing both of Fugaku's eyes with practiced precision.

Shick! Blood splattered as Ye Zi's skilled hands extracted the Mangekyō Sharingan in a single motion.

"All done." Ye Zi discarded Fugaku's corpse, carefully placing the eyes into a glass container. Within his sensing range, the other members of the Uchiha clan were already on their way.

Ye Zi had the strength to wreak further havoc in Konoha before leaving, but there was no need. He still intended for Nagato to clash with Konoha in the future and planned to sit back and watch the ensuing chaos. Weakening Konoha now would undermine that plan.

Moreover, he needed to evaluate the balance of power between Konoha and Nagato. If necessary, he would even leak some of Nagato's abilities to Konoha to trip him up.

Although he had no intention of causing additional trouble for Konoha now, there was one thing to take care of before leaving, this little brat.

Ye Zi swung his blade and cut a piece of flesh from Fugaku's body, then stashed it away.

At that moment, the focus in Itachi's eyes slowly diffused, leaving him in a daze. What he had just witnessed was something he could not process. The grief in his heart felt like it was crushing his chest, so painful that he momentarily forgot how to breathe.

How could this happen? Father… Father was killed.

And Ye Zi even took his father's eyes?

A surge of overwhelming grief and fury flooded Itachi's mind. His dazed expression twisted into one of seething anger.

Unforgivable!

The mix of sorrow and rage didn't lead Itachi to scream or lash out. Instead, he made a decision. No matter how insurmountable Ye Zi seemed, like a towering mountain, Itachi resolved to break through it with his own strength.

Hiss!

Without warning, the tomoe in Itachi's Sharingan began to rotate. The black tomoe fused into his pupils, twisting and reshaping themselves into a new form, it was the sign of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Ye Zi, who had planned to kill Itachi before leaving, noticed the change and was surprised. He instantly recognized the phenomenon.

"At such a young age, he's already…"

Ye Zi's face was filled with a fierce killing intent. His chakra surged explosively as he crossed a hundred meters in an instant. Within seconds, he appeared before Itachi, who had just awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, and mercilessly swung his blade.

The cold, murderous blade was about to claim Itachi's life when a spatial distortion rippled through the air. Suddenly, Tobi appeared beside the unresponsive Itachi and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Shu!

The Flying Thunder God Technique activated, and Tobi vanished from the spot with Itachi in tow.

The blade struck empty air, creating a shockwave that carved a deep scar into the ground. Several buildings in front of it split cleanly in two from the impact.

"So, it's that guy with space-time abilities again, huh? If I recall correctly, his name is Tobi," Ye Zi muttered, narrowing his eyes as he retracted his blade. At the moment he launched his attack on Itachi, the other Uchiha clan members rushing toward the scene were still some distance away.

Confident that no one would intervene, Ye Zi had been certain he could finish Itachi with that strike. However, he had overlooked the presence of another Mangekyō Sharingan wielder within the Uchiha clan...Tobi, who possessed space-time abilities.

Only Tobi could have used his Mangekyō dojutsu in conjunction with the Flying Thunder God Technique to rescue Itachi in this dire moment.

Whether it was the Flying Thunder God Technique or space-time dojutsu, if the user focused solely on escape, even Ye Zi could do nothing to stop them.

What was supposed to be a simple task of eliminating an insignificant brat before leaving ended with Itachi being saved, and worse, he had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.

"No matter. The others are almost here. It's about time I left," Ye Zi thought, turning his gaze toward a nearby building where White Zetsu was lurking.

With over thirty Sharingan already collected, including a pair of Mangekyō, there was no need to linger any longer.

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