Isshiki's Gift and Qing Si's Transformation

After an unknown amount of time, Kaguya Sugito and Kaguya Shinya, whom Isshiki had knocked unconscious at the village entrance, slowly came to. They looked at each other and gave bitter smiles. Struggling to their feet, they pulled the black rods from their bodies, supported one another, and headed toward where the battle had taken place.

"Who exactly was that monk? How could he defeat both of us in an instant?" Sugito asked in confusion.

The ignorant and arrogant pair had no idea how powerful true experts could be. Under Kaguya Musashi's leadership, the Kaguya Clan had become increasingly thoughtless and arrogant.

They usually showed the Mizukage no respect at all and had even entertained thoughts of challenging him. Unable to understand Isshiki's abilities, they could not imagine where in the ninja world someone so powerful could exist.

When they reached the site of Genji and Jigen's battle, they saw bones and bone fragments scattered all over the ground. As members of the same clan, they recognized their own bloodline limit and knew it was Genji's ability.

They continued toward the second battlefield. Looking at the bone bullets scattered everywhere and the three piles of ashes left on the ground, neither of them could identify anything this time. After all, having never awakened their bloodline limit, they did not understand the Ash Bones Technique, which could be called the ultimate move among the abilities of the Dead Bone Pulse.

As for why there were three piles of ashes, Qing Si had taken a portion from Isshiki's remains before leaving and fabricated the illusion that he too had died from the Ash Bones Technique. He hoped this would deceive Kaguya Musashi, who also possessed the Dead Bone Pulse, and prevent him from investigating further.

After all, although he had a bright future ahead of him, he was not yet a match for Kaguya Musashi.

He still needed time to grow...!

Meanwhile, Qing Si, who had already gone far away, was slowly sensing the changes within himself.

As a boss-like existence, Isshiki Otsutsuki's first kill had produced an enormous haul. Genji had already returned to the Pure Land, so all the gold dropped belonged to Qing Si.

Of course, life was like this. Every path was covered in both flowers and thorns, and once the thorns had passed, flowers should follow...!

Isshiki's death rendered the Kāma mark he had just carved onto Qing Si ineffective. However, the information contained within the Kāma remained in Qing Si's body. Yet because Isshiki had died and only a portion of it had been thawed, it no longer held Isshiki's consciousness, powerful chakra, or strength.

The Kāma, having lost Isshiki's control, was Qing Si's most perfect nourishment. The information it left behind contained all kinds of secret knowledge from the ninja world over the past thousand years, as well as all of Isshiki's memories since arriving on the planet where the ninja world was located. To Qing Si, who had been confined to one small corner of the world, these memories and knowledge were the finest gift.

For Qing Si, who had been born into the Kaguya Clan, the ultimate direction of his current bloodline awakening and evolution was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. His bloodline had already begun reverting to its ancestral state and possessed some traits of the Otsutsuki Clan. Therefore, the ownerless Kāma was like a perfect tonic for Qing Si. Everything Isshiki possessed was slowly being devoured and digested by Qing Si, merging into his bloodline.

Of course, Isshiki's memories had not fused with Qing Si's original memories.

More precisely, Isshiki's memories had become information Qing Si could access in his mind whenever he wished.

Qing Si wandered aimlessly. He had never ventured far from the village where he had been exiled, and the farthest he had ever gone was the lake near the village.

After briefly examining Isshiki's memories, Qing Si discovered irritably that Jigen—or rather, Isshiki—had never visited the borderlands of the Land of Water in the past thousand years.

Thus, an awkward situation arose: Qing Si was lost.

Left with no other choice, Qing Si picked a direction and kept moving forward. Along the way, he casually dealt with several wild beasts that wanted to make a meal of him, carrying one giant bear with him as provisions.

Because he had left in such a hurry, Qing Si had not brought the storage scroll Genji left behind. Thus, he could only pull out his own spine and turn it into a long bone whip, using it to drag the giant bear along.

Shocking! The Dead Bone Pulse, a dignified bloodline limit, was actually being used to carry food!

The Kāma being consumed by his bloodline was continuously and subtly improving every aspect of Qing Si. At the current pace, Qing Si could feel that it would take roughly five years to completely digest the gift Isshiki had left behind.

Soon, three days passed, and Qing Si's body had fully recovered. As his injuries healed, his body began sending signals of hunger.

During the recovery period, his body had obediently postponed the need to replenish energy. Now that it had returned to normal, his bloodline evolution required a massive amount of energy, and the signals from his body continuously urged Qing Si to eat.

Finding a cave, Qing Si cleaned it up a little and built a simple stove from branches. He dragged over the giant bear, drew a bone blade from his body, completely butchered the remaining bear carcass, and placed the meat on a rack set up above the stove. Circulating his chakra, he formed a flame in his palm, lit the stove, and began cooking the bear meat.

After awakening his Otsutsuki bloodline, he naturally possessed all seven attributes: wind, lightning, water, fire, earth, yin, and yang. Although Qing Si had never learned Fire Release, his talent was there, and he could still manipulate chakra into flames.

(PS: Nagato possessed all seven attributes because Uchiha Madara implanted the Rinnegan into him during childhood, which gradually influenced him over time.)

Qing Si quickly ate his fill. More than half of the remaining bear meat went into his stomach, becoming fuel for him to increase his strength. It could only be said that it had been a fine bear!

Inside the cave, Qing Si sat cross-legged on the ground as chakra continuously circulated through the familiar paths within his body. As it flowed, Qing Si repeatedly compressed his chakra according to the method he had obtained from Isshiki's memories, raising the quality of his chakra to an even higher level.