"Conqueror's Haki, huh..." Zi Xu felt the changes in his body. He could clearly sense that awakening Haki had brought about a slight but tangible improvement. He had much finer control over his body.
Zi Xu tried it out, but he couldn't release his Haki at will, let alone use advanced techniques like Conqueror's Haki coating. His Conqueror's Haki was still at the beginner stage, just after awakening. He couldn't control or use it voluntarily; it only activated on its own when his emotions ran high, and he couldn't control its range or targets. It couldn't distinguish friend from foe.
Still, Zi Xu was quite satisfied. Conqueror's Haki was a rare ability that appeared in only one person in several million. The top fighters in One Piece wouldn't dare call themselves top-tier without it. At its peak, Haki was no weaker than a Demon Fruit.
After all, the Pirate King himself had been a man without powers who relied on Haki. And Red-haired Shanks had trained his Conqueror's Haki to such a high level that it had become a passive ability he could keep active at all times. Of course, neither of them relied on Haki alone; they also depended on Taijutsu and swordsmanship.
"System, can I unlock Armament Haki and Observation Haki? Can I spend points to improve Conqueror's Haki, too?"
[Given your current condition, we do not recommend unlocking multiple abilities in quick succession. Doing so will cost more points.] [Conqueror's Haki cannot be trained. It will only grow stronger as your own spirit and strength improve.] [You can improve your spirit by battling powerful enemies, thereby strengthening your Conqueror's Haki.] [Detected: You have completed the second organization mission. Your overall attributes have reached B-. Beginner missions will no longer be issued. To accept missions in the future, you must spend reward points. Please use your reward points wisely.] [You have obtained a Ninjutsu: Adamantine Sealing Chains.]
"Damn, I acted too soon. You should've told me earlier." Seeing the system's message, Zi Xu felt it had come far too late. He had already spent all his reward points unlocking the Haki System. In other words, he didn't even have enough points left to accept a mission.
But when he saw the final message, he was delighted, thinking the system was compensating him. Only after thinking it over did he remember that one of the mission rewards had been a "random A-rank Ninjutsu." It had been so long that he'd nearly forgotten.
An old-fashioned, dark-red scroll appeared in Zi Xu's hand. He unrolled it, and as he read the introduction on the first few pages, his expression gradually grew solemn. If he used this technique well... it might be no weaker than Haki.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains, a Sealing Technique unique to the Uzumaki Clan. When activated, multiple Chakra chains emerge from the user's back. They can serve as powerful weapons, create Barriers, and seal enemies. Combined with the Uzumaki Clan's vast Chakra reserves, this technique can unleash terrifying power." Zi Xu couldn't help marveling at the description. It only made him hate Danzo even more.
"That old bastard must have kept the Ninjutsu left behind by my body's parents—maybe a Sealing Technique like this. It was a technique only the Uzumaki Clan could use, yet he'd rather keep it to himself and let it go to waste than leave it to an outsider like me? Maybe he planned to use those basic Ninjutsu Scrolls to buy my loyalty later..."
The more Zi Xu thought about it, the angrier he got. He decided to stop dwelling on it. After memorizing the training steps and Chakra pathways, he put the scroll away and began working out how to use the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Zi Xu brought up the organization module. Ignoring the long list of people who had died, he clicked on the organization's strength. It showed C+. His current overall strength was B-, which meant he had improved his organization's rating. Chino was probably somewhere between C+ and C, while Hatsumi was between C and C-.
He noticed a small "2/3" beside "Escape Konoha's control" in the organization missions. Only Chino's Caged Bird Cursed Seal remained unresolved. The future looked bright.
"But it's a real blow that I can't accept missions without mission points. So the first two missions were beginner missions after all. The system said before that changing the course of the ninja world could also earn points. In fact, that's probably the proper way to earn them.
"If my strength has reached B-, I should be capable of making some changes." Zi Xu calmed his thoughts and sat on the bed, once again considering how he could change the state of the ninja world.
Awakening Conqueror's Haki hadn't taken Zi Xu long. The afternoon sunlight shone on the leaves beside the window, reflecting a dark-green glow that made him feel strangely languid. Zi Xu pushed the window open, letting the outside breeze cool his somewhat foggy head.
"Technology in the ninja world is developing unevenly. If I used Chakra as an energy source to make mass-produced firearms, I could change the state of the ninja world to a great extent. I could also use various Kekkei Genkai to develop mass-produced test subjects. Multi-nature Chakra nuclear bombs, Earth Release tanks..."
Zi Xu had knowledge from another world. He knew all kinds of modern weapons. It wasn't as if he'd never seen a pig run just because he'd never eaten pork.
"No, no, no! Why was my first instinct to go down the extreme path of making weapons? Given how these ninja villages operate, if I handed them weapons with that much destructive power, the most likely outcome would be an even bigger war. They'd use overwhelming force to crush the other villages and unify the world..."
Don't expect politicians to care about the environment or peace. Zi Xu wouldn't forget all the examples from his previous life. Even if they knew the consequences would be terrible, as long as it served their goals, they would downplay the damage as much as possible. Then they'd bow and apologize. I already said I was sorry. What more do you want from me?
"It seems this place has affected me. I need to keep a clearer head from now on. I want peace; I can't become a terrorist organization or a warmonger. So I'll focus on changing the lives of the civilians." Zi Xu had reached that conclusion after considering the matter from several angles.
First of all, civilians and ninja could practically be considered different species. The former's work mainly served the latter, while the latter had a duty to protect the former. But everyone knew that when disaster struck, ninja had plenty of ways to escape. Civilians had no chance to flee. They could only be slaughtered, with no control over their own fates.
Moreover, the conflict between civilians and ninja ran deep. It simply couldn't surface because the ninja class had such overwhelming military power. Civilians had to make a living, but when it came to farming, they could only rely on the weather. Ninja could clearly use Ninjutsu to help crops grow, but who could afford to hire those lofty ninja to waste their precious Chakra on watering and fertilizing fields? The arrival of ninja had brought farmers not convenience, but even more hardship.
Finally, civilians had no say in the battles between ninja. No matter what, they were the ones who suffered. The ninja villages all claimed to protect their people while persecuting civilians.
"Technology for daily life is already pretty well developed here. What civilians need now is the ability to protect themselves and a stable life. The latter depends on the former, so somehow I've ended up right back where I started." Zi Xu scratched his head in frustration. In the end, the gap in strength between the two sides was simply too large. He wished he had someone skilled in research or science to help him.
"But... who would study science in a world with such a ridiculously high power level? Someone says they believe in Chakra, I believe in gods, and now here I am saying I believe in science. How does that make any sense?" Having given up on finding someone who shared his vision, he decided to start with Chakra-based tools: items that could store Chakra and release it when needed to activate a technique.
"I'm clearly not cut out for research. I'd better focus on training. If I really can't think of a solution, I'll wait until I'm strong enough and then deal with them one by one." With no ideas for the moment, Zi Xu decided to go out and clear his head. Maybe he'd find inspiration.
He couldn't just work things out in isolation; without investigation, he had no right to speak. Zi Xu decided to learn more about the civilians' lives and what they thought.
It was already afternoon, but there was still some time before dark. The evening breeze brushed past the houses, and the swaying trees occasionally shed a few withered leaves. The temperature was just right—not as scorching as at noon, nor as gloomy as at dusk. It was the best time to exercise after morning.
Zi Xu didn't go to the village center. That area mostly belonged to the prominent clans, and the shops there catered to ninja. It wasn't where he wanted to go. He walked along, stopping now and then, and gradually moved farther from the center. The shops around him changed noticeably, from the bustling "Ninja Tool Shops" and "Taijutsu Martial Halls" downtown to more down-to-earth businesses like "Seed Shops" and "Fertilizer Shops."
They served different groups, too. The buildings changed from the grand, tall, painted two-story buildings downtown to simple, practical single-story homes. Zi Xu even saw a few small plots of farmland here, though most of the farmland lay outside the village.
But because of his age and other reasons, Konoha had never let them leave the village over the years, claiming it was to protect them. So Zi Xu didn't know much about the world outside the village.
Zi Xu sat beside a restaurant without going inside. He simply sat by the entrance, watching the passersby and listening to their conversations.
"This year's harvest doesn't look good. A heavy rainstorm came right after we sowed the seeds and washed them all away."
"Some places are dying of drought while others are drowning. It hasn't rained on my field at all, and the crops are nearly scorched. I even borrowed a scroll for storing water this year, but at this rate, I probably won't be able to pay for it."
"I heard it was because those ninja clashed with ninja from another village while setting up a Barrier outside the village. Their fight ended up hurting us instead."
"Ah, what can you do when you live in times like these? Just accept your fate. It's not like we have what it takes to become ninja..."
### Good morning! No holiday for the May Day make-up workday.
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