ACSP: Chapter 188 Jiang Chen: "Do you think that just because you managed to reach me, you can kill me?"
The battlefield detonated into pure, unadulterated chaos.
Jiang Chen remained rooted to the spot, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression entirely detached. But around him, the three-thousand-strong legion of Shadow Clones moved as a single, devastating tidal wave, surging forward at a speed that left afterimages in the dim forest light.
Hato Yui's tactical logic wasn't entirely wrong—under standard circumstances, the fundamental flaw of the [Shadow Clone Jutsu] is its abysmal defensive threshold. When a user fractures their energy to manifest thousands of copies, the sliced chakra distribution usually leaves each clone fragile enough to pop into smoke at the slightest impact.
But Hato Yui had failed to calculate the absolute anomaly that was Jiang Chen.
Every single clone tearing through the clearing had its [Three-Tomoe Sharingan] fully active. The passive, high-frequency dynamic vision bonus granted by those spinning red eyes completely shattered the standard rules of engagement. The clones didn't need high defense—because they simply weren't getting hit. They read the muscles, the chakra flow, and the trajectory of every incoming strike a fraction of a second before it even launched, pivoting and weaving through the gaps with supernatural grace.
Though the East Island forces were high-level veteran Contractors fully fused with their contracted spirits, they found themselves drowning in total despair against an army of pre-cognitive combatants.
The moment the two torrents collided, it wasn't a tactical exchange; it was a meat grinder. Dozens of East Island Contractors were instantly butchered, collapsing into expanding pools of blood.
Naturally, the chaos of a macro-scale melee claimed some of Jiang Chen's clones as well. When hundreds of high-tier fighters clash in a confined space, there is no such thing as a clean, flawless solo show. The battlefield transforms into a brutal intersection of lethal variables where currents of steel and blood slam into one another. Soldiers on both sides died before they could even register the threat, overwhelmed by the sheer velocity of the meat grinder.
Deep within the shifting crowd, a cluster of elite Dongdao Contractors attempted to form a defensive line, their hands blurring to channel large-scale, wide-radius destructive ninjutsu to clear the field.
But before their hand seals could even lock, three identical clones of Jiang Chen bypassed their guard, their hands engulfed in the high-pitched, screeching lightning of the [Chidori]. The lightning blades pierced cleanly through the casters' chests, killing them instantly. Though those specific clones were immediately targeted and blown apart into smoke by the surrounding reinforcements, the tactical trade was overwhelmingly tilted in Jiang Chen's favor.
The violence grew more savage by the second, but Jiang Chen's numerical and sensory dominance was absolute.
Within a few agonizing minutes, Hato Yui's disciplined vanguard was entirely broken and beaten into a panicked rout. The proud force of over three hundred fused East Island elites had been cut down by more than half. The forest floor was choked with gruesome casualties—their armor shattered, their bodies either charred and pierced by lightning or violently cratered by the twisting kinetic force of the [Rasengan].
"How... how is this nightmare possible?!" Hato Yui gasped, her voice cracking as she watched her elite units get systematically erased. "How can every single one of his clones possess that level of individual combat output?!"
Her eyes flicked across the carnage, finally landing on Jiang Chen's main body. When she saw the faint, indifferent smile playing on his lips, her psychological resolve completely collapsed.
The bastard... he did this on purpose. He's deliberately orchestrating this to humiliate me...
Just moments ago, she had stood atop the ridge, drunk on her numerical advantage, mocking his isolation and threatening to etch her name into history. Now, in the blink of an eye, he had flipped her own paradigm on its head, deploying ten times her numbers to utterly crush her forces under an iron heel. It was naked, unadulterated humiliation.
"Little sister... give me everything you have left," Hato Yui ground out, her expression twisting into a mask of pure desperation as she turned to Aoi Bing. "We form a dual-anchor line right now. We work together, or we die here... We have to kill Jiang Chen!"
"Okay."
Aoi Bing agreed without hesitation.
The two looked at each other and then began to perform hand seals together.
However, at this moment.
Hato Yui's eyes narrowed, and she gathered a large amount of her Chakra under Aoi Bing's feet.
"Little sister, I'm sorry."
"——Crystal Release: Crimson Fruit!"
In an instant.
A crystal sphere resembling a red fruit instantly condensed and formed, trapping Aoi Bing inside.
The shell of this crystal fruit was indestructible, but there was enough air inside the fruit.
Although Aoi Bing was trapped inside, her movements were not restricted.
"Sister Hato, what are you doing? Let me out! Didn't you say we were going to deal with that Jiang Chen together?"
Aoi Bing frantically pounded on the crystal wall with her only remaining arm, wanting Hato Yui to let her out.
But Hato Yui did not listen to her.
"Little sister, this Jiang Chen has beaten the people we brought into such a state with just a Shadow Clone technique. His strength probably far exceeds our imagination."
"I will stay here and hold him off, but you must leave..."
Hato Yui looked down at Aoi Bing, who was now completely encased and sealed within the protective shell of her [Crystal Release: Crystal Sphere Fruit]. Her eyes were brimming with a painful, heavy reluctance as she spoke with deep affection. "Little sister... you are the absolute most important person in my entire life. You must survive this day. Live well, and continue to support His Majesty the Emperor to fulfill the grand cause that our glorious predecessors from the East Island left unfinished."
Her gaze hardened, veering toward the center of the battlefield. "This Jiang Chen must die today. Captain-General Shimura's assessment was flawless; he is an existential scourge to the Empire. I will absolutely not allow him to draw another breath on this earth."
As the words left her lips, Hato Yui's hands blurred, triggering her [Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Mirror]. Several identical, glittering crystal clones materialized out of thin air, taking up defensive guard positions in a tight perimeter around Aoi Bing's protective crystal sphere.
Then, completely ignoring Aoi Bing's frantic, muffled pleas and tearful cries echoing from inside the glass-like shell, Hato Yui turned her back resolutely.
Her fingers snapped into an intricate, high-speed sequence of hand seals. "——Crystal Release: Crystal Imprisonment Dragon Technique!"
——ROAR!
A massive, towering Crimson Lotus Crystal Dragon erupted from the fractured earth, letting out a deafening, metallic roar that shook the forest canopy. Hato Yui leaped high into the air, landing flawlessly atop the head of the crystalline beast.
The dragon coiled and surged through the upper atmosphere of the forest. Standing tall upon its crown, Hato Yui scanned the chaos below until her eyes locked onto her target. Having pinpointed her mark, she guided the massive beast into a steep, high-speed dive, carrying an unstoppable, world-shaking momentum as she charged straight toward Jiang Chen's true body.
However, before she could even cross the halfway threshold to reach him, dozens of Jiang Chen's [Shadow Clones] synchronized their movements below. Moving in perfect, terrifying harmony, the clones unleashed a colossal wave of combined [Fire Release Ninjutsu]. The resulting ocean of high-density flames detonated against the incoming projectile, violently blasting the massive crystal dragon into millions of glittering fragments that scattered across the sky like burning embers.
Yet, at the exact millisecond the crystal dragon shattered, Hato Yui used the explosion as a launching pad. She leaped high into the air, her boots lightly treading upon the falling crystal shards to maintain her forward momentum.
"You arrogant Great Xia brat, do not underestimate the power of the Empire!" she screamed, her face contorting with rage. "I am the Commander of the East Island Raid Unit—a Level 94 Kekkei Genkai Contractor!"
She locked her hands into a powerful seal and violently pushed her palms outward. "——Crystal Release: Hexagonal Shuriken Wild Dance!"
A dense, shimmering cloud of pink Crystal Release Chakra instantaneously gathered around her like a violent storm of cherry blossoms. Under her precise mental guidance, the particles expanded exponentially, transforming into a torrential, razor-sharp rain of crystalline shuriken. The localized barrage tore through the air, completely obliterating and popping the waves of Shadow Clones that were rushing up from the forest floor to intercept her.
The moment her boots hit the ground, Hato Yui didn't waste a single microsecond of her momentum. Her hands instantly blurred into another complex hand seal sequence, unleashing a catastrophic, massive-scale area-of-effect skill: [Crystal Release: Crystal Pentagonal Prison]!
Hummm—!
Out of thin air, a colossal, three-dimensional geometric pentagonal prism manifested over the battlefield, completely sealing all targets caught within its massive parameters. The true terror of this technique lay in its execution—the exact moment the caster shatters the exterior crystal, every single living entity trapped within the prism is instantly pulverized down to the cellular level alongside it.
With a fierce clenching of her fist, Hato Yui detonated the structure, completely wiping out yet another massive wave of Jiang Chen's pressing Shadow Clones.
In her blind fury, a few unfortunate East Island Contractors who had been pushed back by the clones were also caught within the devastating radius of the prison, disintegrating into dust alongside the copies. But at this point, Hato Yui's mind was too far gone to care about collateral damage. As long as she could successfully execute Jiang Chen, what did the accidental sacrifice of a few foot soldiers matter?
War was an enterprise forged in blood and sacrifice. As long as a death carried strategic value, it was entirely acceptable—including her own.
"Next... it is your turn!"
Having forcefully cleared a wide, smoking radius of Shadow Clones around her target, Hato Yui finally breached the inner perimeter, coming a stop directly in front of Jiang Chen's true body.
Yet, as she stood before him, panting and drenched in sweat, a playful, immensely cold smile slowly curled at the corners of Jiang Chen's mouth.
"Do you honestly believe," Jiang Chen murmured, his arms remaining casually crossed as he looked down at her, "that just because you managed to crawl all the way to my face... you actually possess the ability to kill me?"
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