Chapter 59

After a while, the monster finished roaring and turned around, allowing everyone to witness its terrifying form.

To it, humans were as insignificant and powerless as ants.

Its body was extremely bloated, resembling a huge, fat raccoon, covered with irregularly arranged lavender curse marks.

"You damned human insects, you dare to seal me for so long! All of you, die!"

The monster, known as 'Shukaku' among the Sand ninjas, had a very loud voice with a distinctive sharpness that pierced the ears, causing intense pain.

"Wind Release: Air Bullet!"

It began to gather a large amount of chakra in its mouth, and massive wind spheres were spat out in a fan-shaped area, sweeping up trees and enemies along the way.

The air was filled with a heavy explosion sound.

In terms of both power and range, it was incomparable to regular ninja techniques.

At this moment, the Sand ninjas and Bai Shi and others stopped fighting in unison. They only wanted to find cover to avoid the terrifying wind spheres.

"Phew... Phew... Are you two okay?"

Bai Shi clutched his shoulder, where his clothes had been accidentally cut by the wind blades from the wind spheres, leaving a shocking wound that was bleeding.

To be honest, this situation was really a headache.

Unexpected events kept happening one after another.

What was supposed to be a routine mission to destroy a supply point had to be interrupted and a hasty retreat made due to incorrect intelligence.

Now, encountering such a rampaging monster left Bai Shi speechless.

At this moment, more important than the Sand ninjas was how to avoid being caught in the monster's large-scale attacks.

"Fortunately, the chakra of this monster feels quite bad. It's the strongest chakra I've ever seen. It's hard to imagine that such an existence exists in the ninja world."

Ayane took a breath. Because of her Byakugan, she could directly observe how terrifying the chakra of this monster named 'Shukaku' was.

Ruri, among the people she knew, was already a very powerful ninja in terms of chakra quantity.

However, compared to this monster, the chakra quantities were not even in the same league.

"Of course, it's the tailed beast weapon of the Hidden Sand Village. I didn't expect the Sand Village to prepare such a thing for the battlefield. We need to escape as soon as possible."

Ruri seemed to know something, and a hint of seriousness flashed in her eyes.

"Tailed beast?"

Bai Shi raised an eyebrow. He had seen such beings in some documents, but this was the first time he had seen one in person.

They were said to be nine ancient monsters passed down from ancient times, now known as tailed beasts by the current ninjas.

Their origins were unknown, but they had existed since ancient times and had extremely long lifespans.

Each tailed beast possessed a chakra quantity that ninjas could not match, and even a slight movement could cause the earth to shake. Dealing with such monsters, even using sealing techniques, would come with great sacrifices.

Such terrifying monsters were even more intimidating than what Bai Shi had read about in books.

Bai Shi and the others hid behind a rock, bracing against the storm, which had left numerous marks like countless blades had scraped over it.

Feeling the heavy atmosphere in the air and the ongoing storm, Bai Shi rubbed his aching forehead.

It wasn't that the situation was more dangerous than before; the monster's rampage had caused the Sand ninjas to stop pursuing them, as their attention was drawn to Shukaku.

However, the problem was that Shukaku's large-scale attacks had also caught them in the crossfire.

"Wait!"

Ayane suddenly saw something with her Byakugan.

"What is it?"

"Quick, let's go!"

Ayane didn't have time to explain, only urging Bai Shi and Ruri to quickly follow her.

Bai Shi and Ruri didn't dare to linger; Ayane must have discovered something, otherwise she wouldn't be so panicked.

Indeed, the chakra in the air was becoming even heavier.

The whites of its eyes were pitch black, and its pupils were sandy yellow, the gaze of Shukaku.

Its gaze was as sharp as a blade, and its mouth was exaggeratedly wide, revealing a dangerous and cunning grin.

It opened its blood-red mouth, and small chakra spheres began to gather in front of its face.

The small chakra spheres merged into a large black chakra sphere.

A pale purple aura enveloped the outer layer of the black chakra sphere.

It looked like a huge, purple-glowing black gem, a perfect sphere.

The surrounding air stagnated, and a bone-chilling cold seeped into the skin, causing a sense of horror.

As it aimed and fired, the heavy impact made its bloated body stagger, and the black, purple-glowing sphere was launched into the sky in a parabolic trajectory.

Even in a parabolic trajectory, the black sphere moved very fast, like a gust of wind.

Bai Shi and the others, who were running in the opposite direction of the camp, couldn't help but look up and see the huge black sphere suddenly streak across the sky, flying into the distance.

Light illuminated everything.

All human figures, trees, and the ground disappeared from sight.

Bai Shi and the others involuntarily closed their eyes due to the intense light from the explosion.

The silence in their ears lasted for a few seconds before the rumbling sound of the explosion began.

The forest shook, and the riverbed collapsed, forming a cliff directly in front.

Dust rolled in like a tsunami.

A large area of land, several kilometers wide, became a huge crater, devoid of any vegetation.

"Cough, cough!"

Bai Shi awkwardly emerged from the dirt, covered in dust.

He saw Ayane and Ruri also emerge from the dirt, looking very disheveled, with their clothes on their arms and thighs worn and showing numerous blood marks, indicating quite severe injuries.

These injuries were caused just outside the explosion's range.

If the chakra sphere had landed directly on them, they would have been vaporized.

Bai Shi tilted his head and shook his ears, trying to dislodge the dirt.

Is this still a battle between ninjas?

Seeing the completely devastated land before them, Bai Shi and the others couldn't help but think.

To instantly cause such a large area of land to collapse was too exaggerated.

If such chakra spheres were to come a few more times, even the strongest ninja units wouldn't be enough to withstand this monster.

"Right ahead!"

"Stop them, don't let them leave here!"

Footsteps and shadows approached from behind.

"Quick, let's go!"

There was no time to be shocked by Shukaku's destructive power. The Sand ninjas were relentless and didn't plan to let them go even at this point.

They didn't want the information here to be exposed, did they?

That makes sense. Such a powerful monster weapon indeed couldn't be prematurely revealed to the enemy, to catch them off guard.

In fact, because Shukaku's rampage had been discovered, the Sand ninjas would be even less likely to let them go. If the information leaked, it could ruin their carefully planned strategy.

Since the Sand ninjas were coming very quickly, Bai Shi and the others could only run in a straight line, trying to escape the battlefield as quickly as possible.

Shukaku had fallen silent, either resealed or in another situation, but Bai Shi didn't know.

What was most important now was to escape the pursuit of the Sand Village ninjas.

Passing through the barren land destroyed by Shukaku, they saw clusters of pale black chakra gas with a purple glow visibly floating in the air.

Seeing this, Bai Shi had an idea.

He had a very direct feeling about Shukaku's power.

This power was enough to make anyone's heart race.

So, he immediately took out a glass bottle from his ninja tool bag, opened the cap, and while running, collected the residual chakra that hadn't completely dissipated along the way.

In no time, the chakra collection was complete, and Bai Shi put the glass bottle back into his ninja tool bag, smiling contentedly.

It seemed this time wasn't entirely fruitless.

If the conditions allowed, he really wanted to find a place to thoroughly study this unique chakra, which might provide significant insights.