Baishi's Physical Transformation and the Daimyo Residence's Final Judgment

Pain!

Like billions of red-hot steel needles, it stabbed fiercely from the ends of every meridian into the depths of his bone marrow, then madly twisted and ground away.

Inside the Hokage's Office, Baishi clung desperately to the back of his chair. The veins at his temples and neck bulged and throbbed beneath his skin like hideous earthworms, as if they would burst apart the next second.

The price of plundering across space was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

That primitive energy from the deepest reaches of the Land of Fire's leyline was wild, violent, and devoid of any will. It possessed only pure, unreasonable destructive and assimilative properties. It was like a surging dragon of molten rock, savagely crashing through Baishi's limbs and organs along the fragile channels formed by the Yin Release Threads.

His body was letting out a wail under the unbearable strain.

Every cell trembled and tore apart, then was forcibly filled to bursting by that earthen-yellow energy.

At the same time, however, the Hashirama Cells hidden within his body were letting out exceedingly greedy cheers.

Like a school of sharks that had caught the scent of blood, they surged crazily from Baishi's flesh, opening invisible maws and gulping down the raging torrent of energy.

On one side was destruction; on the other, devouring.

Baishi's body had become a battlefield where two terrifying forces clashed.

Not enough... Relying solely on the Hashirama Cells' devouring is too slow! It would be like trying to drain a breached flood with a single ladle. Before I'm blown apart, I need a "container," a "dam" capable of bearing this power!

The agony nearly shattered his consciousness, yet Baishi's thoughts became more composed and lucid than ever.

His mind plunged abruptly into his Dantian Qi Sea.

There, the sand-yellow