Talking Nonsense with Eyes Wide Open

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Shizuki had not expected Houka to be so candid, and he hurriedly nodded. "Lord Houka, I shouldn't have asked, but last night, I saw scorch marks left by a powerful Fire Release ninjutsu on the cliff face north of the Sacred Tree..."

"Oh, those were left behind when I was testing ninjutsu." Houka nodded in admission. "I didn't expect it to alarm you."

Shizuki sighed deeply and said weakly, "It has something to do with the Sacred Tree, doesn't it?"

Houka nodded.

"So that's how it is." Shizuki's expression turned grim.

Houka looked at him strangely. "Do you have some kind of misunderstanding?"

Shizuki froze, then his eyes suddenly lit up. "Lord Houka, what exactly is the ninjutsu you were cultivating on the Sacred Tree?"

Houka thought about it and felt that he should not tell the truth and provoke him at a time like this. So he blatantly made something up. "In fact, I was absorbing Hero's Water."

"What?" Shizuki looked completely bewildered. "Hero's Water?"

Hero's Water was a powerful substance that the Sacred Tree condensed only once every hundred years. It could greatly increase the amount of Chakra in a person's body, but it also caused immense harm to the body!

Houka continued spouting nonsense. "Hero's Water is condensed by the Sacred Tree, so I wanted to absorb it directly through the Sacred Tree. Heaven took pity on me—after years of effort, I finally succeeded!"

Shizuki said incredulously, "But Lord Houka, didn't you already know about the dangers of Hero's Water?"

Houka nodded. "That's true. After absorbing Hero's Water through the Sacred Tree, my body nearly underwent petrification. It also has a time limit—after enough time passes, the effects of Hero's Water disappear. But for a short period, it can greatly