All of An Lushan's years of effort were completely reduced to nothing by Senju Yukika's blade.
This was the gap brought by sheer strength. No matter how meticulously you plot and plan, in the face of overwhelming power, you are always left vulnerable and powerless.
Senju Yukika looked at An Lushan lying on the ground. His once indestructible puppet body had now gradually turned into decaying wood.
Without the support of the Dragon Vein's energy, An Lushan was no different from an ordinary puppet.
"An Lushan, your mistake was that you knew nothing about me, but I knew everything about you."
"You are a rogue ninja from Sand Hawk. Originally, you aimed to seize the seal left by Minato, but you unexpectedly crossed through time and became known as An Lushan, a minister of Loulan, plotting to use the Dragon Vein's power to destroy the five great powers and rule the Ninja World."
"But with your power alone, how could you ever hope to control the Dragon Vein? From what I've observed, you've only been able to release less than one percent of its true power."
"Am I right?"
An Lushan, half of his body now crumbling into rotten wood, still stared wide-eyed, clutching the crack on his neck in disbelief. "You... who are you?!"
This man, whom he had never met, knew everything about him. Since An Lushan had crossed through time, he had never revealed this secret to anyone. How could this person possibly know?
Senju Yukika shook his head. "You're just a fool. You talk about sweeping across the Five Nations and ruling the world, but you know nothing about what is happening outside. You don't even have the most basic information."
"Be careful in your next life, or you'll die just as clueless."
"I am Senju Yukika, clan leader of the Senju Clan. I, too, came to this world..."
"The Overlord."
An Lushan's consciousness gradually faded away...
Senju Yukika... that name sounded familiar. It seemed like something from long ago, a name from Konoha's Senju Clan. In a short span of time, Yukika had risen to fame in the Shinobi world, becoming the youngest clan leader of the Senju and even ousting the then Hokage of Konoha, declaring the Senju Clan's independence.
It appeared that the ninja villages of the Five Great Nations had all been crushed by this person... all the work of a young man...
But An Lushan had been too engrossed in his research on the Dragon Vein to pay attention to these stories, dismissing them as exaggerated rumors. He had been confident in himself. Once he fully mastered the Dragon Vein, no one would be his equal!
Yet he didn't even manage to leave the Lost Tower alive, dying by Senju Yukika's hand.
In his final moment of consciousness, An Lushan felt deep regret. If only he had paid more attention to the outside world, would things have turned out differently?
Senju Yukika watched as An Lushan's lifeless form crumbled completely into gray-white dust, dispersing into the wind.
This was the price of wielding power beyond your limits—there was nothing left, not even ashes.
At some point, Sara had re-entered the Lost Tower. She stood behind Yukika, her expression calm.
"Is he dead?"
Senju Yukika nodded lightly, as if it were nothing more than a trivial task.
Sara slowly crouched down, burying her head in her knees and hugging herself as she sobbed, as though everything that had been supporting her heart had just collapsed.
The minister she had trusted so deeply, An Lushan, turned out to be a traitor with grand ambitions. He had even killed her mother with his own hands.
If not for the man before her, Loulan would have truly been dragged into the abyss by An Lushan.
An Lushan had not hesitated to commit matricide, and even if the citizens of Loulan were imprisoned, he was determined to pursue his mad dreams—only to be crushed so easily by Yukika.
This was the power of a true strong person.
In the face of such power, all schemes and plots were meaningless.
Sara suddenly fell to her knees, bowing her head to the ground, her eyes red with tears as she said, "Master Yukika, please accept me as your disciple!"
Yukika turned and looked calmly at Sara, who was kneeling. "You are the Queen of Loulan, a symbol of your nation's dignity. How can you kneel and ask to become my disciple?"
Sara raised her tear-streaked face, beautiful and youthful, and said sorrowfully, "I can't even protect my own people. What kind of queen am I?"
"If not for you, not only Loulan but also my people and I would have been destroyed by An Lushan's greed."
"You've shown me that only by becoming truly strong can I be worthy of protecting my country."
Her gaze became increasingly determined as she spoke.
Yukika looked at Sara with a hint of admiration. To come to such a realization at the brink of life and death was no small feat.
"Although I appeared at the beginning claiming to save Loulan, you should know what I really came for."
After a moment of silence, Sara looked at the sealing pattern on the ground and said, "I understand now. Master Yukika also came for the Dragon Vein."
"I will keep my promise. As long as you killed An Lushan and removed Loulan's threat, I will hand over the Dragon Vein to you."
"For hundreds of years, Loulan has guarded the Dragon Vein. Our clan possesses a special ability to sense its power. The Dragon Vein contains a force that could destroy the world. If it falls into the wrong hands, the consequences would be unimaginable."
"That's why the Dragon Vein shouldn't just be guarded—it should be entrusted to someone strong enough to control it."
Sara looked Yukika in the eyes, clearly seeing him as that strong man.
Yukika slowly stepped forward, gazing with interest at the sealing pattern on the ground. He said softly, "Aren't you worried that I have bad intentions too?"
Sara answered firmly, "I trust my judgment. Besides, with your strength, if you really wanted the Dragon Vein, you wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. You could have just taken it from Loulan by force. Wouldn't that have been faster?"
"But you didn't. Even though I haven't confirmed whether you are good or evil, I believe you've always followed your own code—and that code restrains you from doing bad things."
"So I believe that entrusting the Dragon Vein to you is the right choice."
Yukika was a bit dumbfounded. If Granny Chiyo or the Raikage heard this, they'd surely curse her out.
Although Yukika wasn't a bad person by nature, his methods in dealing with enemies were far from gentle. Those who had opposed him wished they could tear him apart.
"But just because I want the Dragon Vein doesn't mean I have to take you as my disciple," Yukika said with a smile, rubbing the seal mark on his left foot a little disappointedly.