Quincy

[Race imprint available for integration: Quincy]

[Integrating a race imprint grants its talents and skills]

[Integrating race imprint]

[0.3%...0.8%...1.2%...]

An indescribable agony and surge of power exploded through his body at the same time! His bones groaned, his meridians burned!

Countless unfamiliar fragments of memories about drawing a bow and firing arrows flooded into his mind like instinct, as though he had been born a master archer!

[Race imprint integration complete]

[Race imprint integrated: Quincy (Ordinary, current Fusion Rate: 10.02%)]

[You have obtained the talent: Spirit Particle Affinity]

[You have obtained the talent skill: Spirit Particle Gathering—A basic Quincy ability that gathers Reishi from the surrounding air to your side, converting it into your own power]

[You have obtained the racial skill: Sacred Arrow—Through Spirit Particle Gathering, spiritual power is used to solidify atmospheric Reishi into the form of arrows, which can be fired through a bowstring to attack enemies]

[You have obtained the item: Quincy Cross—A symbol of the Quincy that strengthens Reishi gathering. Novice Quincy often use it to assist in condensing a Spirit Bow and arrows]

[The Quincy Cross has changed from a physical object into a spirit pattern and has been inscribed on the back of your right hand]

[You have obtained information: Quincy archery knowledge]

[Please establish yourself in this world and acquire more Energy Crystals to increase your Fusion Rate, gain more skills, and improve your control]

[Please accumulate more Energy Crystals to open the Stone Gate and gain support from new powers]

[Current Energy Crystals: 0]

The back of his right hand suddenly turned scorching hot, and a mysterious cross-shaped spirit pattern instantly took form!

In an instant, the near-fatal agony receded like the tide, replaced by an unprecedented feeling of power filling his body!

But Hyuga Seisen immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Wait... there was no so-called "Reishi" in the air at all!

What he could clearly sense was Natural Energy, incredibly active and warmly swirling around him!

And what drove that power into the shape of arrows was not spiritual power, but the chakra that had already existed within his body...

Had this cheat been localized?

Or was it because he could not sense Reishi or spiritual power?

And how was he supposed to obtain the Energy Crystals needed to raise his Fusion Rate?

Hyuga Seisen had many questions, but he had no time to dwell on them.

He still lay sprawled on the ground like a corpse, yet his mind was frantically calculating the distance, angle, and time required to imitate Sacred Arrow with chakra!

The sky gradually darkened, and the light inside the wooden house grew increasingly dim.

"Rip—!"

With great interest, the burly man tore the woman's already tattered kimono into even more ragged strips.

Licking his lips, he admired the pale skin faintly visible beneath the ruined clothing, a perverse gleam flashing in his eyes.

He loved this kind of scenery most.

Though he looked rough, he played with finesse and cared greatly about atmosphere.

The woman's eyes were hollow, but the last glimmer of light in them was still fixed on the motionless figure on the floor.

That was her final, and only, hope.

Yet that figure still lay there as lifeless as death itself.

"Don't count on that trash!"

Noticing her gaze, the burly man planted a foot beside Hyuga Seisen and sneered. "Let me tell you a secret. I was also the one who beat him into a dying dog last time!"

"Those four pieces of trash ganged up on me, and I slaughtered every last one of them like dogs! He was the most useless one among them!"

"If someone in the black market hadn't suddenly put out a bounty for breaking that bird-brained cursed seal of theirs, and the branch family could trade him in for a reward..."

"The first thing I would've done after entering was twist his head off!"

She suddenly looked at the burly man and begged in a trembling voice, "I'll do anything you want... Please let us go, all right?"

"Let you go?"

"Let you go?"

The burly man raised an eyebrow, then suddenly grinned.

"Come to think of it, I should thank you."

"If you hadn't saved this brat, I wouldn't have discovered he was still alive when I passed by again."

"You deserve some credit for helping me get this bounty."

Seeing a shred of absurd hope reignite in the woman's eyes, he suddenly leaned closer.

With a savage grin, he said, "So I've decided to treat you well, then leave you both with intact corpses."

"Beast!"

The woman suddenly erupted with the last of her strength. She struggled wildly, jerked her head aside, and viciously bit into the burly man's neck.

"Fuck!"

"You crazy bitch!"

The burly man winced in pain and furiously shoved her away.

His palm-like hand tightly clamped around her arms.

He roughly dragged her toward the pillar in the center of the room as though she were cargo.

"Eri, run! Don't worry about Mommy!" the woman cried hoarsely at her daughter.

"Waaah... Mommy... I'm not leaving..."

"Bad man! Let Mommy go!"

Amid the chaos.

The "unconscious" figure on the floor.

Moved!

Hyuga Seisen abruptly rolled to his feet. With a flick of his wrist, several Shuriken were already pinched between his fingers and shot forth like lightning!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Shuriken tore through the air with piercing shrieks, flying straight toward the burly man's face and heart!

"Lord Ninja!"

Wild joy at surviving the disaster instantly burst from the woman's despairing eyes!

The burly man was also scared out of his wits by the ambush. He instinctively released the woman and desperately raised a Kunai to block.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Even so, a bloody gash deep enough to expose bone was cut across his arm!

"You little bastard! You're courting death!"

The burly man's face twisted with rage as he roared and lunged forward, ready to tear Hyuga Seisen to pieces!

However!

The next second!

That figure, who had been brimming with such momentum just moments ago, did not even look at the result!

He suddenly turned around and threw a punch!

Boom—!

He smashed a huge hole through the already cracked wooden wall!

Without hesitation, he leaped out, his figure instantly vanishing into the night beyond the wall!

He ran?

He actually... ran?!

The room fell into deathly silence.

The ecstatic smile on the woman's face instantly froze.

The receding footsteps were like heavy hammers, shattering her final illusion blow by blow.

She suddenly turned her head like a trapped mother beast and let out a heart-rending wail toward the dark hole in the wall:

"Take Eri with you!!"

"Please! Just take her away!!"

"Lord Ninja! Come back!"

"Come back—!"

Her cries were hoarse and desperate, but the only response was the empty echo of the mountains and forest, and those... ever more distant footsteps.