Forced Participation and Ice Release Bloodline

Fortunately, because their strength was slightly lacking, Teacher Shinku, Shibi, and Zhao were not permitted by Shimura Danzō to enter the borders of the Land of Swamps and remained outside on guard, which gave them the opportunity to contact Touma.

Touma didn't know what to say when he heard how reckless Danzō was being; when he had entered the Land of Swamps, he had followed the Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug inside, and for fear of being discovered, he had even transformed into a Kestrel to fly in.

Yet this time, Danzō had actually swaggered in with his men, barging directly into the barrier of the Land of Swamps. No matter how foolish the people behind the Land of Swamps might be, they would never let them leave so easily. Getting lost might be the least of their problems; it would be a miracle if they didn't die in those highly toxic swamps.

Touma could only ask Teacher Shinku to communicate with the Third Hokage first, as he himself could not rush over quickly for the time being. When he had just snuck onto a merchant ship, he hadn't realized that he had boarded a slave-trading vessel.

Yes, you read that correctly; there are slave-trading ships in the ninja world.

However, these ships do not capture ordinary slaves, but rather wandering ninjas and those with special bloodline limits from overseas island nations, treating them as battle slaves for the nobles of various countries.

These battle slaves are eventually taken to the arenas in the Land of Lightning to compete. Xueyue City in Hell Valley houses one of the branch venues, specifically used to host the Round of 16 matches.

Touma had snuck in by taking down a patrolling ninja on the slave ship and assuming his identity, but before he could figure out what was going on, the ship docked. The identity he had assumed was registered into the monitoring barrier, so he had no choice but to follow the team and escort the battle slaves to their destination.

Fortunately, no accidents occurred on the way; these battle slaves had likely long since adapted to this life and had no intention of trying to escape.

Once they reached the Xueyue City venue, in order to ensure the safety of the visiting nobles, all internal and external barriers and city gates of Xueyue City were completely sealed. If Touma wanted to break out, he would have to activate "Sage Mode" and fight his way out.

However, if he were to actually do that, his identity would be completely exposed. By then, the accountability demands from the nobles of the Land of Fire would be sent directly to Konoha, and even if Touma had his reasons, he wouldn't be able to explain them clearly.

One must know that the nobles of the Five Great Nations are behind this fighting tournament; these nobles all hold shares, and the annual revenue generated from these shares is no small sum!

If Touma truly dared to disrupt the competition, these nobles would dare to publicly issue a bounty to hunt him down. Even with the former Daimyo of the Land of Fire, Yuan Jiuxiong, and the current Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, backing him, it would be of no use. Under the massive bounties offered by the nobles, it is estimated that even Konoha would no longer be as safe as it once was.

Therefore, the best course of action is to wait for this week-long Round of 16 tournament to end, and when the internal and external barriers are reopened, he will find a way to slip out.

However, human luck can sometimes be so bad that one might break a tooth just by drinking cold water. Among the batch of battle slaves he was responsible for escorting, one of the contestants suddenly suffered from a bloodline disease.

This contestant possessed a dōjutsu bloodline limit called the "Spirit Ghost Eye," which had the ability to extract a target's soul from their body and search the information stored within it.

Purely in terms of the mechanism of the bloodline ability, his "Spirit Ghost Eye" was powerful enough, but the more powerful the bloodline, the more ferocious the bloodline disease it could trigger.

Because he had used his "Spirit Ghost Eye" at high frequency in previous matches without proper rest or maintenance, the average intraocular pressure in both his eyes now exceeded 120mmHg, which is six times the maximum value for a normal person.

Even for eyes with dōjutsu bloodlines, the pressure would not be this high compared to a normal person.

Therefore, if he were to continue using his special dōjutsu chakra, it would be no surprise if his eyeballs were to burst directly, and the resulting massive hemorrhage would be enough to kill him on the spot.

One must know that this battle slave with the "Spirit Ghost Eye" was purchased by the Kishibe Clan of the Land of Water for a significant amount of money, and the subsequent investment in his training was not small. If something were to go wrong, it would certainly leave the Kishibe Clan with a total loss.

Therefore, to ensure that the "Spirit Ghost Eye" slave didn't go to waste, the Kishibe Clan had no choice but to temporarily find another bloodline ninja to take his place. Even if they lost the match, the loss would definitely not be as great as having a slave with championship potential go to waste.

The person the Kishibe Clan temporarily chose was the one Touma had replaced. He had only just learned that the patrolling ninja he had randomly selected was actually a Yuki Clan ninja with Ice Release.

This Ice Release ninja was named Yukie Sakura; although his name and appearance were very feminine, he was indeed a man.

When Yukie Sakura was a child, due to the "Bloody Mist Village" policy, his parents had sent him to live with relatives in the capital of the Land of Water. However, because the influence of his awakened Ice Release was too great, these relatives did not fulfill their promises and directly sold him to the Kishibe Clan as a battle slave for a high price.

At that time, Yukie Sakura was too young to have any value as a battle slave, so he first served as a personal guard and attendant to the young members of the Kishibe Clan.

His gentle personality was well-liked by the young masters and misses of the Kishibe Clan, and after a few years, his slave contract was dissolved, and he became an official employee of the Kishibe Clan.

According to information Touma overheard from others, Yukie Sakura's strength was not weak. At 16 years old, his Ice Release was already developed to a very deep level, and he could hold his own even against a jōnin.

It was only because Touma's "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance" could perfectly enter a state of elemental attribute transformation, making his presence impossible to detect for ninjas lacking sensory talent, that he was able to successfully ambush Yukie Sakura and render him unable to resist.

Touma wasn't worried about exposing his identity by not knowing how to use Ice Release; he had picked up quite a few Ice Release-related entries on the ground when he ambushed Yukie Sakura, including a purple entry for "Ice Release Bloodline Awakening," which was enough for him to develop his own acquired Ice Release ninjutsu as a foundation.

He was just a little worried that he wouldn't be able to gauge his strength properly during the fight. If he went too easy and lost the match, he might invite the resentment of the Kishibe Clan, thereby arousing their suspicion about his identity.

And if he went too hard and won the match, he would likely be kept by the Kishibe Clan and required to continue in the Round of 8 rotation tournament. By then, it would probably be too late if he wanted to run!

Touma found a training room, dismissed the others, and began to hang the "Ice Release Bloodline Awakening" entry on his system status bar.

This was not the first time he had picked up a bloodline-type entry, but it was definitely the first time he had actively uploaded one. After all, his knowledge of the bloodline field was not yet extensive, and he didn't know what changes would occur in his body once a bloodline was born!

Some might ask, haven't you used the "Wood Release Bloodline Creation" entry before? He had indeed used it, but that entry only allowed him to successfully awaken the nature transformation of Yang Release chakra and endowed him with a bias toward Water and Earth Release chakra; it did not grant him the Wood Release bloodline in one step. Therefore, he could say that his body was absolutely "clean"!

Once the entry was activated in the system, the pores on Touma's skin began to continuously emit white steam; this was water mist created by the water vapor in the air being instantly cooled and liquefied.

Unknowingly, the temperature in the training room dropped lower and lower, and the surrounding walls were covered with a thin layer of ice crystals. Even the Umibozu "Kaiyumaru" inside the "Sea-Swallowing Gourd" felt this chill and frantically burrowed into the depths of the gourd's space.

Touma, sitting in place, also slowly changed amidst the encroachment of the cold air; his skin became increasingly transparent, gradually turning into a human-shaped ice sculpture sitting cross-legged!