Fire Baby vs. Might Duy

At that moment, the thousand-zhang fire dragon formed from the wall of flames coiled its body around Ling Tian, while its enormous head reached toward Dai.

With six gates open, Dai was strong.

With his physical conditioning and six gates, he could rival the Sannin, who had only just reached Kage Level at this point. Throw in some advanced taijutsu, and even the Sannin would go down.

But strong as he was, his strength still had limits.

Like right now.

Looking up at the lifelike fire dragon looming overhead, Dai felt insignificant for the first time.

The fire dragon was simply too enormous. His entire body was smaller than one of its eyes.

Despite its size, the fire dragon was far from slow. Before Might Duy could recover his wits, its head was already about to reach him.

Feeling that scorching heat, he knew he absolutely could not let it touch him, or serious injury would be inevitable.

Might Duy instinctively tried to dodge. He was fast, but the dragon's head, a hundred times larger than him, was even faster.

The entire head plunged straight into the spot where he stood.

Boom!

The dragon's head struck the ground with a deafening crash, sending dust billowing and sparks flying.

After that single strike, its head circled back above Ling Tian, its flickering eyes fixed on the spot it had just attacked.

There was no misunderstanding here: the fire dragon had no intelligence. It stared at that spot because Ling Tian was staring there too.

Looking at the dust obscuring his view, Ling Tian said gravely, "Senior Dai, your turn. If this is all six gates can do, what was the point of training day in and day out for twenty years?"

Ling Tian knew full well that the first six gates did more than boost speed, strength, offense, and defense.

Each gate enhanced those abilities again while also granting other capabilities.

Gate of Opening: enhanced the brain so the body's speed could keep up with the eyes. When using a technique like Front Lotus, most people's movements could not keep pace with their vision because their brains could not react fast enough.

Gate of Healing: relieved physical exhaustion, allowing the user to push beyond their limits and squeeze out bodily energy to restore stamina, offsetting the fatigue caused by the Gate of Opening's rapid energy consumption.

Gate of Life: allowed the user to anticipate and evade others' attacks while further enhancing strength and speed.

Gate of Pain: built upon the first three gates to strengthen the body another notch. But if the body was not tough enough, burning flesh was the least of the consequences. In worse cases, blood vessels would burst outright.

Gate of Limit: granted enough speed to stir the air and tear up the ground while moving. At this point, the user had already surpassed the speed of sound.

Gate of View: entered a partially opened buffer state, allowing full combat power to be unleashed instantly when needed. At this point, chakra turned blue, but the strain and damage also grew more severe. It also allowed the use of advanced taijutsu: Morning Peacock.

As for the Gate of Wonder, that was no longer chakra. It evaporated the body's own moisture to produce blue steam that enveloped the entire body.

And the Gate of Death... it evaporated even your blood.

There was no need to ask how strong it was. The title Might Guy said it all.

Kakashi's lifelong rival?

Give me a break!

Beating Fifty-Fifty would take just one slap.

The dust still hung in the air, and with his vision blocked, Ling Tian did not press the attack.

This was not a fight to the death. He only wanted to test his abilities and see how strong Dai was with six gates open.

Ling Tian focused for a moment and sensed violent energy fluctuations coming from within the dust.

Before long, Might Duy leaped out, completely unscathed.

Clearly, he had escaped that last attack.

The instant Dai emerged, he unleashed his finishing move with lightning speed.

Before Ling Tian could react, he had already flown onto the dragon's head.

Pale blue chakra radiated from his entire body as his aura surged further. His hands moved rapidly, generating red flames through friction with the air as he hammered punch after punch into the dragon's head.

Morning Peacock, the finishing move of the Sixth Gate, the Gate of View.

In the future, Guy had used this move to instantly kill a Water Clone possessing thirty percent of Kisame's chakra.

That meant even someone who had just reached Kage Level would die without a trump card to save their life.

It had been an instant kill, after all. Later on, Kisame had been just short of Super Kage strength. Thirty percent of his chakra really was no weaker than an ordinary Kage Level fighter.

So Ling Tian took this very seriously. His eyes narrowed as he watched tens of thousands of red fists descend. With a thought, he rapidly shrank the thousand-zhang fire dragon, compressing it into a more solid form.

Not only that, he controlled the fire dragon to spit several smaller, even more solid fire dragons from its mouth. They flew toward Dai with claws bared and jaws snapping.

Boom!

Their attacks collided. The smaller fire dragons exploded, scattering flames as a wave of heat rapidly spread outward, forming a terrifying storm.

Every tree within a hundred meters in the dense forest, no matter how deep its roots ran, was uprooted and blown into the distance.

On top of that, the shattered fire dragons became masses of flame beyond Ling Tian's control, carried even farther away by the storm.

The incredibly hot flames were not extinguished by the storm. Instead, the wind fanned them, and raging fires sprang up everywhere.

Neither of them paid any attention to the flames. Ling Tian stood inside the dragon's body, while Dai had just landed and closed his six gates, panting slightly.

After a while, Ling Tian glanced at the fires around them and asked calmly, "Senior, would opening the Seventh Gate put much strain on your body as it is now?"

Dai, who had been frowning at Ling Tian, grew solemn at the question. After considering it for a moment, he said, "Five years ago, I opened the Seventh Gate, the Gate of Wonder. Just ten seconds left me bedridden for three days. I had to recuperate for over a year before I was strong enough to kill Kuma."

Ling Tian understood. At that time, Guy had still been in his mother's womb. No wonder Dai was so grateful to him. It was guilt!

After thinking it over, he asked directly, "Then what about now?"

"Opening it for a few seconds wouldn't be a problem now."

Dai replied, "But I can't control the Seventh Gate's power."

Although only five years had passed-four, to be precise, since he had spent one year recovering-his physical conditioning had improved considerably.

After all, he had been twenty-four five years ago and was twenty-nine now. These were his peak years for improvement.

"In that case, why not give it a try, Senior? If you feel your body can't handle it, it won't be too late to stop."

Ling Tian was eager to try.

He had beaten Dai with six gates open. Now he wanted to test the Seventh Gate.

However, after a moment's consideration, Dai refused outright. "As you are now, you can't withstand an attack from my Seventh Gate."

"Senior, I haven't used my full strength yet."

Dai asked, "Can you become ten times stronger than you are now?"

"..."

"If not, I'm afraid you won't survive even one attack."

"..."

Ling Tian was speechless. After a long while, he finally said, "What if I could become ten times stronger than I was just now..."

He could not do it, but that did not stop him from setting a goal, right?

Dai thought briefly. "If you didn't die, you'd probably have to recuperate for a long time, just like I did."

"..."

There was no keeping this conversation going.

Ling Tian promptly declared, "Once my Fire Baby grows up, I'll kill you with a single spit."

As for now...

The revolution was not yet complete. He still had to keep himself alive to cut down the Konoha F4!