Chapter 1186 Descendants

The Gobi Desert at the border of the Wind Kingdom was littered with the fragments of arrow feathers, each one coated in a green, soul-devouring slime. When they landed on the sand, they burned tiny, smoking holes—these were the newly refined "reflection arrows" from Myōboku Mountain. Embedded within their shafts weren't the remnants of ninja souls, but fragments of a holy bow tainted by a contract, specifically designed to target my newly unlocked descendant power. I half-knelt in the sand, a bronze chain emerging from my palm, barely blocking the incoming reflective arrows. The sunburst pattern on the links was dimming, like a flame submerged by the tide.

"They're absorbing the Holy Bow's power!" Qing's voice was breathless. Her water shield was already covered with cracks, and the snake scales on her right hand were glowing an abnormal green light - that was the aftereffect of the soul-devouring mucus stuck to them, and chakra was seeping out through the scales. "Your solar pattern is about to collapse! Isn't the remnant soul of your descendant reacting?"

My Mangekyo suddenly prickled. The anti-erosion arrows in my sight transformed into syringes from the mental hospital, the slime on the sand became green tranquilizer, the green face transformed into a nurse's, and the water shield in my hand became a tray filled with injections. "Number 701, stop resisting," the nurse's voice was like the hissing of a snake. The syringes on the tray were labeled "Anti-Erosion." "These 'medicines' will calm your Holy Bow and stop causing you trouble."

"Nawaki! Look ahead!" Otsutsuki Toneri's Samsara Eye suddenly blazed with silvery light, yanking me from my reverie. I looked up, seeing the sky at the end of the Gobi Desert dyed dark green. A sea of ​​countless anti-erosion arrows pressed down on us, the fragments of the holy bow gleaming eerily, like countless pairs of eyes staring at their prey. "Myoboku-san has recaptured the remaining souls you rescued! They've infused the Anti-Erosion Curse into their arrows!"

The Hero Pool suddenly shook violently. The recently rescued souls madly hurled themselves against the walls, especially the soul of the Cloud Hidden Archer, its body eroded by the green curse, like white paper stained black by ink. I heard the descendant's voice, faint in my mind: "Don't use the Holy Bow... The Reflection Arrow will follow the bowstring... and sink into your pool..."

The sea of ​​erosion arrows suddenly accelerated, the foremost arrows already in front of me. I subconsciously tried to condense the splitting arrows, but the bronze chain suddenly froze—the sun pattern darkened completely, and the remnant souls on the links began to scream in pain. Some even shattered, turning into green points of light and merging into the sea of ​​arrows. "No!" I reached out to grab them, but felt a burning sensation in my palm. The slime from the erosion arrows had already clung to the chain and was crawling up my arm along the links.

"Use the reincarnation technique!" Qing's water escape technique suddenly splashed onto my arm, and the light blue light temporarily blocked the slime. "Pour the snake-like chakra into the chain to temporarily suppress the reverse seal! Toneri, use the reincarnation eye to help him protect the hero pool!"

Toneri's silver-white light enveloped my chest, but it trembled violently when it came into contact with the anti-corrosion curse seal: "No! The curse seal and the fragment of the Holy Bow are of the same origin! My light will accelerate their erosion!" He suddenly grabbed my wrist and stuffed a fragment of the Samsara Eye into my hand. "This is the 'Purification Fragment' given by Hinata. It can temporarily suppress the curse seal, but the price is... Your Holy Bow's power will temporarily disappear!"

My consciousness wavered again. The fragments of the Samsara Eye before me transformed into pills from the mental hospital. Toneri's face transformed into that of a doctor, holding a bottle labeled "Purification." "Number 701, take this." The doctor's voice was filled with undeniable authority. "While it will deprive you of your 'special abilities,' at least it will allow you to live a 'normal' life."

"Normal?" I suddenly laughed. The bronze chain slammed Sheren's hand away. The anti-erosion arrow had already pierced my shoulder, and green slime flowed from the wound into the hero pool. "I am no longer normal! My 'ability' is not a burden, it is used to protect these residual souls!"

The remnant soul of the descendant in the pool suddenly erupted. A golden light burst from my chest. Though faint, it temporarily repelled the slime from the Reflection Arrow. I heard his clear voice, no longer hoarse as before, but filled with resolute determination: "If you want to protect the remnant soul, you must learn to 'feed the arrow with the arrow'! Use the remnant soul in the Reflection Arrow as a guide, and your own frenzied chakra as fire, to burn the Reflection Seal into new arrow feathers!"

"Using arrows to feed arrows?"

I froze. The anti-corrosion arrow had already pierced my other shoulder. Green slime began to spread in the hero pool, and the screams of the remaining souls grew weaker and weaker. "How do I raise them?"