At such a close distance, Su Xiao almost instantly dashed in front of Onogi.

In mid-air, Onogi’s expression was calm as his hands suddenly clasped together.

With a rumbling sound, a series of stone spikes emerged from the ceiling and underground, attacking Su Xiao from above and below. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Su Xiao immediately jumped, his body arcing in mid-air, swinging his knife at the stone spikes above his head. These spikes gave him a dangerous feeling, yet strangely, they were neither sharp nor particularly sturdy.

As the long knife slashed through, several of the stone spikes above Su Xiao’s head snapped with a sound. As for the spikes below his feet, he had already formed an energy shield on the soles of his feet, allowing him to stand on the spikes without getting pierced.

"Nice reaction, kid."

Just as Onogi finished speaking, a large number of stone spikes emerged all around Su Xiao, front, back, left, right, and above, filling his field of vision with spikes.

This left Su Xiao puzzled; he hadn’t seen Onogi form any seals, the opponent had merely clasped his hands.

Clang, clang, clang...

The blade aura flickered within the underground prison; Su Xiao leaped into the air, surrounded by shattered stone spikes, piercing a broken spike with his Dragon Slashing Thrust and quickly noticing something abnormal.

Su Xiao landed and placed his hand on the ground, looking somewhat upset.

The entire underground prison was made of stone, and within these stones, Su Xiao sensed the oscillation of Chakra. These stone spikes were a Ninjutsu set up by Onogi beforehand, or perhaps a kind of secret technique.

Onogi must have consumed a lot of Chakra. Did he go through all this trouble just to set up these stone spikes? Even with the advantage of quantity, at most they’d injure Su Xiao, severely damaging him was impossible.

At least hundreds of stone spikes separated Su Xiao and Onogi; intuition warned Su Xiao not to touch these spikes directly, which is why he hadn’t rushed towards Onogi.

As Su Xiao dodged spikes from all directions, Onogi began forming seals, his single hand tapping on the ground, eyes fixed on Su Xiao, nose wrinkled, he didn’t immediately activate the Ninjutsu.

Just as Su Xiao severed a few spikes growing from the ceiling, Onogi’s eyes lit up.

"Earth Jutsu: Ground Core."

A square stone block rose from beneath Su Xiao’s feet; following the force, he leaped back, his windbreaker’s hem flapping audibly.

But just then, a black stone spike abruptly drilled out from the ground, aimed directly at Su Xiao’s back.

With a mass of stone spikes ahead, helplessly, Su Xiao could only raise his arm to swing back, striking at the black stone spike behind him.

Just as Su Xiao assumed the arm-swinging posture, Onogi quickly formed seals, a black stone spike emerged at his feet, Onogi placing his hand on the spike, waiting for Su Xiao’s elbow strike to hit another black stone spike.

Su Xiao’s gaze always focused on Onogi, dodging attacks relying on his intuition ability. As Sha once said, using intuition to evade attacks, your line of sight must always focus on the enemy’s movements, while your brain thinks about their intentions.

Just as Su Xiao’s elbow was about to touch the black stone spike, he suddenly stopped, a series of Counter Shields appeared around him.

Boom!

Encased within Counter Shields, Su Xiao collided with the black stone spike, Onogi not far away frowned.

"Pretty smart, kid, but the older the ginger, the spicier."

Onogi’s forehead veins bulged, his Chakra massively consumed.

At this moment, Su Xiao was just sent flying by several stone spikes, seemingly any place in the underground prison could sprout spikes.

Su Xiao landed steadily, and as soon as he landed, he sensed something amiss: several fingernail-sized stones floated before him.

Swoosh~

Several thin black stone spikes emerged from the rubble, Su Xiao hadn’t paid attention to these stones before. Now there wasn’t much else in the underground prison, just many rubble and spikes.

Several needle-thick black stone spikes shot towards Su Xiao’s face, the spikes were incredibly close, no more than 20 centimeters away.

Su Xiao immediately turned his head, a stone spike grazing his cheek, drawing blood.

As the black stone spike touched Su Xiao, Onogi not far away roared.

"Earth Jutsu: Super Weighted Rock Technique."

With a rumbling sound, the stone slab beneath Su Xiao shattered, a seemingly invisible ’armor’ appeared around his body, the weight of this ’armor’ incredibly terrifying.

In this moment, stone spikes no longer emerged within the underground prison, Onogi floated a meter above the ground, his hands forming seals fast enough they nearly created afterimages.

Buzz~

An indistinct white light appeared between Onogi’s hands, a transparent square energy frame.

Meanwhile, a square ’Barrier’ appeared around Su Xiao, enclosing him completely.

"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique."

White light expanded around Su Xiao; at this moment, his body felt as heavy as ten thousand pounds, making escape from the Dust Release Barrier impossible.

Su Xiao took a deep breath, putting all his strength into a forward slash of his knife.

Clang!

A knife aura five meters in diameter appeared; this aura, unlike his previous ones, was clearly more solid and much faster.

Onogi faced two choices: abandon the Dust Shield, float upwards to evade the knife aura, or perish together with Su Xiao.

"Heh."

Onogi’s mouth curled, his eyes never glanced at the knife aura, continuing to trigger the Dust Release.

Swish, the knife aura slashed through, white light emitted from the Dust Release filled the entire prison.

Debris fell, several bent stone spikes fixed Onogi to the ceiling. As Su Xiao unleashed the knife aura, Onogi controlled the spikes to wrap himself up, thereby dodging the aura.

"That was close."

Onogi touched his chin, where only half of his goatee remained, previously strapped by spikes across his abdomen, causing his head to lean forward, slicing off his goatee with the knife aura.

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of stone cracking echoed, Su Xiao emerged from a square hole, beside him were remnants of a Counter Shield.

With a crunch, the shattered Counter Shield disintegrated into energy, vanishing into the air.

Did the Counter Shield withstand Dust Release? Certainly not; though its defensive power was excellent, it wasn’t enough against Dust Release’s monstrous attack power.

What protected Su Xiao from the Dust Shield was the ability attached to the Divine Spirit Afterglow’s Scabbard, Holy Spirit’s Blessing.

Special Effect: Holy Spirit’s Blessing (Active), when activated, creates a Secondary Invincible Shield lasting 1 second, with a cooldown of 72 hours.

...

In truth, even the Secondary Invincible Shield didn’t completely block the Dust Release; it’s not truly invincible, only lasted 0.7 seconds before detaching the Dust Release. Fortunately, the Dust Release in barrier state only lasted a moment.

Secondary Invincible Shield + Counter Shield + two layers of energy shield totaling 400 strength resisted the Dust Release.

Su Xiao endured Dust Release’s attack, leaving Onogi somewhat stunned; in decades of mastering Dust Release, many evaded it, but never before did anyone withstand it.

Onogi quickly accepted the situation, and a hazy white light appeared again between his hands, this time not a barrier-shaped Dust Release, but a diamond-shaped spike. Its attack range wasn’t a single point but cylindrical, like a thick laser, decomposing anything it touched.

Previously Onogi used ’Original’ World Detachment Technique, now it’s ’Limited’ World Detachment Technique, the latter an upgraded version of the former, larger range, increased power, and possessing continuity.

"Kid, let’s see you take this."

Although he said this, Onogi didn’t immediately use Dust Release to attack but adjusted the angle, above the underground prison was Shuyan Village, the Detachment of the Primitive World Technique had too vast an attack range.

Su Xiao ignored Onogi, the weight on his body noticeably lightened; as time passed, the effects of the Super Weighted Rock Technique weakened further.

Su Xiao turned and dashed to the underground prison’s entrance; Onogi, contemplating instantly killing Su Xiao, was taken aback, then thought of something and looked towards Deidara’s cell.

The cell was empty, the ground bore a string of hastily carved words, made with some kind of ’sharp tool.’

The ground read: ’The dog has been here!’