Heavy Mountain Blade

Li Tong's chakra reserves had doubled outright the last time he used a Spirit Enhancement Card. This time, he used two Spirit Enhancement Cards at once, and his chakra doubled again!

In other words, each Spirit Enhancement Card gave Li Tong the equivalent of a Genin's base chakra reserves. He had already been a Genin, so he'd started with one Genin's worth. Now that he'd used three Spirit Enhancement Cards in total, he had four times the chakra of an ordinary Genin!

"Is four times a Genin's chakra enough to match an average Chunin?" Li Tong wondered aloud. WWWCOM

That was difficult to say, because chakra reserves weren't a measure of a ninja's strength. Take the protagonist of the original story, Naruto Uzumaki. His natural chakra reserves rivaled a Tailed Beast's, yet he still had to train step by step. During his time at the Ninja Academy, he was even known as the dead-last.

Or consider ninjutsu specialists and Taijutsu specialists. Their chakra reserves differed, too. At the same rank, the former had more chakra, but there were exceptions!

Tsunade, for example!

Tsunade was a medical ninja and a Taijutsu specialist, yet her chakra reserves completely outclassed those of others at her rank.

Still, if he really wanted to compare them, it wasn't impossible.

Take the Uchiha Clan, for instance. The chakra reserves of its ninjas were quite consistent. There weren't cases of high-ranking ninjas having little chakra or low-ranking ninjas having a lot.

"I should be able to match a Chunin, maybe even surpass one," Li Tong finally said to himself. He immediately looked at the other cards and thought, Sprite, explain the cards I just got.

"Ding! In response to the host's question: the Basic Mana Recovery Card restores some of the host's chakra when used and can be stacked through repeated use."

"The Specialty Weapon Random Card gives the host a weapon-type ninja tool with a special attribute at random."

"After the host uses a Double Drop Rate Card, they can designate any hostile target for twenty-four hours. If they kill that target within the twenty-four-hour period, the card drop rate will be doubled."

"The Reputation Shop Lock Card locks any purchase in the Reputation Shop for one month."

"The Reputation Shop Refresh Card refreshes the Reputation Shop immediately."

"Double drop rate!" Li Tong's eyes lit up. It really was a card that increased the drop rate. If he'd used it when he killed Uesugi Kama, he would have gotten at least four Spirit Enhancement Cards, not to mention anything else!

I have to choose a target who's strong enough, but whom I can still kill, before using this card! I can't waste it!

Li Tong carefully put away the Double Drop Rate Card. Then he looked at the Specialty Weapon Random Card and hesitated before asking, Do I eat the weapon card too?

"Yes!" the Card Emperor Sprite replied.

Crack!

Li Tong bit down on the weapon enhancement card. A golden light burst forth and entered his mouth, then seeped back out through his skin. The golden specks flowed like water over his shoulder, circled around his right arm, and finally stopped at his right hand.

The golden specks gathered and coalesced before rapidly spreading out, taking the shape of a blade.

"Ding! Congratulations! You've obtained an attribute weapon—the Heavy Mountain Blade!"

A sword appeared in Li Tong's hand. It was a katana with a bluish-gray blade, slightly wider than an ordinary katana, and a longer hilt. It looked quite plain. Li Tong lifted it and weighed it in his hand. It wasn't heavy, and with his current strength, he could wield it with ease.

"Heavy Mountain Blade?" Li Tong wondered. "What exactly does a specialty weapon mean?" He couldn't see what was special about this blade.

"A specialty weapon is a weapon-type ninja tool with a special attribute. Examples include the chakra tanto wielded by Hatake Sakumo, the Gunbai of the Uchiha Clan, Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword, and the seven special ninja blades wielded by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."

"Oh?" Li Tong perked up and quickly asked, "Then what's special about the Heavy Mountain Blade?"

"Its attribute is 'Heavy Mountain.' When the host uses this weapon to slash, the resulting impact will be twice the force of the host's actual swing!"

Li Tong froze. He blinked, then understood what the Card Emperor Sprite meant. The blade's special attribute doubled the force of its impact!

For example, if Li Tong used an ordinary Ninja Blade to deliver a slash with five hundred kilograms of force, then the Heavy Mountain Blade would double the impact, delivering a thousand kilograms of force!

An incredible boost!

Doubling the impact wasn't as simple as one plus one equaling two. Greater force meant greater suppression, and at twice the strength, the difference would be overwhelming!

"A divine blade!" Li Tong held it across his body and gently ran his other hand along its length as though he were touching an invaluable treasure. Then he thought of another question. "Is the blade's power unlimited? For instance, if I become a Kage someday and can swing with ten thousand kilograms of force, would I be able to deliver twenty thousand with this blade?"

"In theory, yes. But I should warn the host that the Heavy Mountain Blade doesn't have an indestructible attribute. Its material is extraordinary, but it has a limit to how much force it can withstand. Force acts both ways. If the host swings harder than the Heavy Mountain Blade can handle, it may be damaged."

"Got it!" Li Tong snapped his fingers, still excited.

The possibility of damage didn't matter. Any weapon could break. For example, White Fang's chakra tanto was destroyed in the original story.

As long as the Heavy Mountain attribute had no limit, the blade would greatly increase Li Tong's combat strength at his current level!

******

By the lakeside, three Anbu Ninjas were still gathered around Uesugi Kama's corpse, examining it in detail.

"Four hundred and sixty-six stabs."

"There's another one here. It overlaps a little, but judging by how the flesh is torn, he stabbed diagonally into it again."

"So that makes four hundred and sixty-seven? That kid's brutal. Does he have some kind of psychological disorder? Torturing a corpse like this isn't something a normal person would do."

"It's not surprising for a kid from Amegakure to be a little twisted." Chen He shook his head with a sigh. Still, he thought Li Tong had taken it too far. He'd seen people torture corpses before, but this was the first time he'd encountered someone patient enough to stab one more than four hundred times.

"I wonder if that kid got hurt. His clothes are in tatters." Uta looked up in the direction of the bathhouse.

"Probably not," Chen He replied with a shake of his head. "His clothes might've gotten torn on something while he was fighting underwater. He probably just has a few scrapes. The blood should belong to the assassin. Given that kid's personality, if he were really hurt, he'd have been yelling for us to treat him already."

"Right!" Uta nodded. After a pause, he added, "In that case, the assassin's strongest rank could only have been Chunin. Otherwise, that kid couldn't have killed him without a scratch!"

"More or less." Chen He nodded in agreement. After thinking it over, he'd come to the same conclusion: the assassin had been a Chunin.

If he'd been a Genin, Li Tong couldn't possibly have ended up in such a sorry state after killing him, given his current strength. But if he'd been a Jonin, Li Tong would have been the one to die. Chunin made the most sense!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

Figures appeared out of nowhere beside the lake. In the space of two breaths, six or seven Anbu Ninjas had appeared. At their head was the Anbu Captain, Hatake Sakumo!

"What happened?" White Fang frowned deeply at the mangled corpse.

"Captain, just now..." Chen He immediately stood and gave White Fang a quiet report.

As Chen He spoke, White Fang's gaze swept over the corpse. When his eyes fell on its face, his pupils contracted sharply!

"Li Tong killed him underwater, then dragged him up here... We counted... four hundred and sixty-seven stabs... Captain! Captain, what's wrong?" Chen He continued, then noticed that White Fang seemed unsettled.

He followed White Fang's gaze to the corpse's face and felt his heart jolt.

Did the captain know him?

"You..." White Fang suddenly spoke, slowly, as though he hadn't yet come to his senses. "Li Tong... killed him?!"

"Yes!" Chen He replied.

"Impossible... That can't be... How could this happen?" White Fang slowly shook his head, seemingly stunned.

Chen He's expression changed, and his eyes darted back and forth. He thought of the two hundred thousand ryo in banknotes they'd found, and of his earlier theory. Putting that together with White Fang's reaction, he blurted out, "You know him, Captain? Was he a Black Market assassin?"

"I know him! His real name was Uesugi Kama. He was a Kirigakure ninja before he betrayed the village five years ago. After operating alone for a while, he began taking jobs on the Black Market. He was an experienced assassin!"

"He was a Jonin?!" Chen He exclaimed in disbelief.

Silence!

The Anbu Ninjas by the lake were stunned. They looked at one another, shock and confusion in their eyes. They knew Li Tong's strength. How could he have survived an assassination attempt by a Jonin from the Black Market? And even killed him?

But White Fang shook his head.

"No! He wasn't a Jonin! He was an Elite Jonin!"