Conditions for Slaughter Mode

"I never expected you to become this strong. I thought the gap between the three of us and you had narrowed, but I didn't expect it to keep growing," Yahiko said bitterly.

There was no need to put themselves down. The three of them had already improved far faster than ordinary ninja. But if they wanted to surpass nearly ten years of his training in just three or four years, they were being far too unrealistic—and underestimating him far too much.

"You have a point. Haotian, your talent is exceptional, and you have the backing of the greatest ninja village. It isn't too strange for you to possess such strength. But one day, we'll definitely surpass you," Yahiko said after thinking it over, his fighting spirit rekindled.

"Is that so? Then I'll be waiting. I look forward to fighting you, and I hope that by then, you'll be able to make me draw my blade," Beichen Haotian said meaningfully.

Hmph, not only will we force you to draw your blade, we'll defeat you.

"Ha ha ha, admirable courage," Beichen Haotian laughed.

As they spoke, the ninja lying on the ground gradually climbed back to their feet. Beichen Haotian had not struck too heavily and had avoided their vital points. They were merely in too much pain to move for the moment.

"How about it? Konan, would you like to discuss it with me? I think I can give you some useful advice. Those two don't have the opportunity to receive my guidance," Beichen Haotian said with a smiling face.

"Okay." A voice so soft it was nearly inaudible sounded out. If Beichen Haotian had not possessed such good hearing, he truly would not have heard it.

After sharing a meal with Konan and the others, giving the three of them some edible gifts, and staying for an afternoon, Beichen Haotian left. He came and went like the wind, staying when he wished and leaving when he wished—free and unrestrained, without the slightest hesitation.

Romance could be set aside for now, but it absolutely could not hinder his steps toward the peak of the Sword Dao. For that reason, Beichen Haotian generally would not interfere excessively with the original plot unless the relationship was close enough for him to abandon the advantage of his foreknowledge.

On the road toward the peak of the Sword Dao, he needed far too many opponents. Only such powerful foes could hone the blade in Beichen Haotian's hand into something sharper even faster.

After leaving Konan and the others, Beichen Haotian did not return to Konoha. There was still one matter he had yet to complete—a matter that would take quite a bit of time.

When Beichen Haotian's Sin Forged Blade Technique entered its third realm, Slay All Life, it produced a special ability. Most of this ability was the same as one he had possessed in his previous life, though there were slight differences in the details.

This special ability was called Slaughter Mode, a unique combat state. In his previous life, Beichen Haotian had created Slaughter Mode by integrating killing intent into Observation Haki and Armament Haki. In this life, due to the existence of Chakra, he needed to fuse not only killing intent and Haki, but Chakra as well.

Fusing it with Haki was simple; Beichen Haotian had already known how to do that in his previous life. The difficult part was fusing it with Chakra. Moreover, activating Slaughter Mode required a prerequisite: sufficient killing intent. Put simply, he needed to kill enough people.

The number of people Beichen Haotian had killed was still far from enough to activate Slaughter Mode. The difference between a little over a thousand people and 9,999 people was indeed enormous. Killing 9,999 people was the most basic condition for activating Slaughter Mode, and the more people he killed, the stronger Slaughter Mode would become.

Therefore, Beichen Haotian would not return to Konoha until he fulfilled the requirements for Slaughter Mode. He also had to use the gaps between killings to study how to fuse killing intent with Chakra.

With so many people required, if he walked the demonic path or the evil path, all he had to do was harden his heart and massacre a few small towns to make up the numbers. But Beichen Haotian did not cultivate a demonic path, much less an evil one. He could not do something as deliberate as taking other people's lives.

Therefore, Beichen Haotian planned to enter the Black Market, become a mercenary, and take part in ninja wars between small nations, even wars between ordinary people.

There was no right or wrong in war, only differing positions. For Beichen Haotian, that counted as finding himself an excuse. After all, when one took someone's money, one helped them deal with their troubles. Even without him, others would join.

Beichen Haotian had already decided that, as a strong man, he should possess the dignity and pride of a strong man. When fighting ninja, he would use Chakra.

When fighting ordinary people, he would not use Chakra, nor would he use Haki or Air Slashes formed by compressed air. He would simply engage in close-quarters combat like an ordinary person and decide life and death with cold weapons. Of course, he could not use Wen Dao. With Wen Dao's sharpness, ordinary weapons would break the moment they touched it. That would be bullying them too much.

The Black Market was an extremely mysterious organization in the world of Naruto. It belonged to no ninja village, yet possessed immense wealth and influence. It had been jointly established by several mysterious and powerful forces within the Ninja World. Beichen Haotian even suspected that the Five Great Nations had a hand in it.

Beichen Haotian was unfamiliar with the Black Market, but someone in Root was familiar with it. Due to Root's special nature, the matters it handled were even darker than those handled by the Anbu. Thus, they sometimes needed not only to act themselves, but also to borrow the Black Market's strength. Many Root members were therefore familiar with the locations of Black Markets. All he had to do was go to a Root stronghold and wait a while to learn the nearest Black Market's location.

Early the next morning, after eating breakfast in a small town on the border of the Land of Rain, Beichen Haotian headed alone to a ginkgo forest outside the town.

After finding a ginkgo tree marked in a special way, he pressed a small protrusion on its trunk. The ground began to tremble, revealing a somewhat dim entrance lined with stairs. Beichen Haotian walked down the steps.

The first several dozen meters were somewhat dark, but the deeper he went, the brighter it became. By the time he reached the bottom, it was as bright as day. Beichen Haotian estimated that he was about 120 meters below ground.

This Black Market was neither particularly large nor particularly small, roughly the size of three football fields. Inside were quite a few high-end taverns, brothels, restaurants, Ninja Tools shops, and more. Walking from the outermost edge to the innermost area brought one to the Black Market's core: the Gold Exchange. This was where missions were posted and accepted, and where rewards were collected.

Beichen Haotian had already put on a specially made Root mask before entering. Ordinary methods could not discern his appearance. He was neither tall nor short, and as long as he did not speak, no one could guess even a trace of his identity.

The Gold Exchange's decor was ordinary. The attendants and guards all wore various masks as well, and their tones were stiff, as though everyone owed them money.

Beichen Haotian did not care. He first registered an identity under the code name Extermination. Then he entered the mission hall and accepted every small-scale war commission whose schedule did not overlap.

Seeing Beichen Haotian accept so many low-level missions at once, quite a few Black Market ninja in the mission hall laughed at him. They mocked his low intelligence for accepting missions that could not improve his strength and offered such meager rewards.

Beichen Haotian could not be bothered with them. Was he supposed to explain why he was accepting these missions? As long as they did not go too far, he would let them talk. There was no need to take it too seriously.

And so, Beichen Haotian plunged into a busy period. It could be said that since coming to this world, this was the busiest he had ever been.

Every day, he rushed from one place to another to join wars, often traveling between battlefields hundreds of kilometers apart in a single day. Fortunately, he had Hawk Eyes and could manage, though it cost him some roasted meat.

During his free time at night, Beichen Haotian spent night after night studying how to fuse killing intent with Chakra. The process was not only tedious but also extremely draining. He had to concentrate completely during the fusion, and his research often continued until midnight. Usually, only the hours from one in the morning to seven in the morning were his time to rest.

After completing the war commission missions at one Black Market, Beichen Haotian went to another Black Market and again took part in war commissions. Over the course of a month, he completed ninety percent of the war commission missions from the two Black Markets. The remaining ten percent all overlapped in time.

His extensive participation in war missions and involvement in wars had already earned Beichen Haotian a modest reputation in the Black Market. Many Black Market ninja called him a war maniac. Whether it was a war involving dozens or hundreds of ninja, or a war involving tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers, Beichen Haotian accepted them all.

In one month, more than a thousand opponents had died by Beichen Haotian's hand. He would soon surpass the number of people he had killed over nearly ten years. Beichen Haotian was nearly killing himself into a Red Eye, but fortunately, his experience was abundant, his mentality stable, and his adjustments appropriate. He had not lost his reason and started killing everyone he saw.

It was also worth mentioning that during this process, Beichen Haotian drew inferences from one instance to another and thought of another way to speed up his progress. Whenever he passed through a relatively large town, he would sneak into the place where criminals were held—the prison—and kill the death-row prisoners inside!

Beichen Haotian felt no guilt over killing death-row prisoners who had already committed capital crimes. In truth, his temperament was not extreme. On Earth, although he had held no favorable impression of certain countries, he had not irrationally and fanatically hated every person from those countries. Someone with an extreme temperament might consider slaughtering cities and destroying nations as gentle as a breeze brushing past their face or the rising sun shining upon them. Perhaps they would not only feel no guilt, but would instead feel immensely satisfied.

That day, when Beichen Haotian went to the Gold Exchange to accept missions, he saw an interesting one: assassinate Yagura Ai, the son of the Third Raikage.

Beichen Haotian had long known that the Third Raikage had exhausted himself to death after fighting ten thousand ninja from Iwagakure. This was no longer a secret in the Ninja World. It might be excessive to say Kumogakure was in a period of decline, but it was certainly at one of its weakest points.

Someone in the Black Market had posted a mission to assassinate Yagura Ai, the future Fourth Raikage. That was quite interesting. There was a strong chance it had been posted by Iwagakure. Of course, the other ninja villages, including Konoha, were also possible, though less likely. As for the other small nations, the likelihood was too low. Such an enormous reward was not something an ordinary force could offer.

Interesting. Once I complete Slaughter Mode, I'll make a trip there. Not for anything else, but simply for a satisfying battle! Nintaijutsu? Lightning Armor? What will it be like when they collide with my Armament Haki? I'm truly both expectant and excited. Strong battle intent shone from Beichen Haotian's eyes beneath his mask.

Thanks to Zhuhán Wàndāndàn and reader 121004 for the recommendation votes!