Surging Strength

After transplanting the Kekkei Genkai of the Iwagakure ninja Shū, Long Ye now possessed all of his power.

His strength had now skyrocketed in a straight line. Even ordinary Jonin would find it difficult to withstand a single move from him.

"I finally have the means to survive in the Shinobi World. Although my current strength is still some distance from a supreme Jonin of Near-Kage Level like Minato Namikaze, at least I now have the power to protect myself."

Suppressing the exhilaration brought by his surging power, he turned his attention to the "Ability Attributes" page in the system.

"Killing this Iwagakure ninja with a Kekkei Genkai really did give me another Demon Point. It seems my previous guess was correct. Only by defeating or killing someone with a Kekkei Genkai can I be rewarded with a Demon Point."

Long Ye muttered to himself.

But then he suddenly remembered that when he defeated Shisui Uchiha during the Chunin Ninja Exams, he had not received a reward.

From this, it seemed that obtaining Demon Points depended not on the person, but on the Kekkei Genkai.

He had previously defeated a member of the Uchiha clan who possessed a two-tomoe Sharingan. Since it was the same Kekkei Genkai, he could not receive a second reward.

He suddenly found himself caught in a dilemma.

He was considering which Devil Fruit ability to use this Demon Point on.

There were at least three abilities he urgently wanted to improve.

The first was naturally Heart Shock, which had already reached the "fourth stage." Before obtaining Explosion Release, it had been his primary means of dealing with enemies.

The second and third were the two Devil Fruit abilities he had only recently awakened: Human Modification and Fatal Injection.

There was no need to say much about Human Modification. It would be his primary means of continuously growing stronger in the future.

As for Fatal Injection, its importance had already been demonstrated. He had been able to turn the tables and kill that man because of the instantaneous speed granted by this ability.

His speed in that instant had surpassed Shisui Uchiha's Body Flicker Technique. Although it was still somewhat inferior to the Flying Thunder God, under circumstances where the enemy was unprepared, it was nearly impossible for him to fail.

All three of these Devil Fruit abilities were indispensable to him.

"Now that I possess Explosion Release, I'm less dependent on Heart Shock for raw power. I'd better put it into Human Modification. If I can awaken Bloodline Transplantation, the stolen power of the Kekkei Genkai will be completely freed from its limitations."

He knew that his current Human Modification had certain flaws.

The problem was that he had merely transplanted the power of the Kekkei Genkai.

In other words, the Iwagakure ninja's power had been completely transplanted into his own body. Because of that, the limit of the Iwagakure ninja's power was also his limit.

Without a bloodline foundation, the power of the Kekkei Genkai naturally could not be improved.

Just as he made his decision, a system notification sounded in his ears:

[The Human Modification Devil Fruit ability requires 2 Demon Points to advance to the second stage. Confirm?]

"Two?"

Hearing the prompt, Long Ye fell into hesitation.

In that case, even if he spent this point, it would not benefit him at present. In terms of strength especially, it would provide no increase at all.

More importantly, the Shinobi World War was currently underway, and he faced danger every day.

Believing that good steel should be used on the blade, Long Ye temporarily abandoned his original decision and chose to use the point on his trump card, Fatal Injection.

But the same prompt sounded again.

This ability also required two points.

To increase his strength as much as possible and improve his chances of surviving the Shinobi World War, he ultimately had no choice but to put the Demon Point into Heart Shock once more.

Afterward, Heart Shock changed again. It had now become:

[Heart Shock: Extreme: The ultimate evolution of high-frequency electricity. It breaks through all ability limits, granting greater speed, deadlier attacks, and stronger chain effects.]

"The ability has reached its extreme!"

Long Ye was overjoyed.

An ability reaching its extreme meant that it could no longer evolve.

"In the past, this ability's attacks mainly caused people to lose their combat ability for a short time. But after reaching its extreme, it truly possesses the lethal effect of making someone suffer instantaneous cardiac arrest."

Long Ye had just wanted to test how powerful the ability had become when, from deep within the forest, a voice reached his ears amid a rush of wind.

"Long Ye! If you're not dead, answer me!"

The voice clearly belonged to Shisui Uchiha.

His voice was filled with anxiety.

Just now, he had used the Body Flicker Technique to catch up with that Iwagakure ninja, only to discover after killing him that he had been a clone.

In his view, Long Ye did not possess his Body Flicker Technique and had faced that man alone. He was undoubtedly in grave danger.

"Shisui, I'm here!"

Long Ye shouted.

The instant he finished speaking, there was a whoosh, and a figure appeared before him as if by teleportation.

Shisui Uchiha was stunned by the sight before him.

"He... you killed him?"

Shisui pointed at the Iwagakure ninja lying on the ground, eyes wide open in death, and asked uncertainly.

Long Ye nodded. "As you can see, I paid quite a price. But I was also able to kill him because he didn't know anything about me. I caught him off guard."

Only after seeing Long Ye covered in blood and looking rather battered did Shisui somewhat accept reality.

"Huh? I remember you possess a Kekkei Genkai that can cut someone in half inside a barrier without killing them. Why didn't you keep him alive? He must have been carrying important information."

Long Ye thought, If I had kept him alive and handed him over to the Anbu, wouldn't he have told them everything about my ability to transplant Kekkei Genkai?

But he gave a different explanation aloud:

"In a life-or-death battle, everything is decided in an instant. How would I have had time to release a barrier?"

"Besides, part of my ability to kill him was luck. If I had known I could defeat him, I obviously would have released the barrier beforehand. Unfortunately, even I didn't believe I could eliminate him before that."

Shisui nodded. He found the explanation reasonable and did not question him further.

"It's a shame. What mission was he carrying out here? Now it's a mystery. But no matter what, we've completed our mission. Right, how bad are your injuries? Why don't you rest for a while? We can continue traveling later."

"No need! These injuries aren't serious. Let's return and report to the Hokage immediately."

The two had been gone for only a little over ten minutes.

At the place where the Iwagakure ninja's corpse lay, four ninjas wearing Iwagakure forehead protectors appeared.

"He's dead! It couldn't have been long—around ten minutes, I'd say."

A ninja crouching beside the corpse and examining the cause of death spoke heavily.

"Can you tell who did it?" a blond-haired man asked.

"It's difficult to determine. He died after someone pierced his heart, but even after all this time, a powerful electric current remains in his body. He was clearly struck by a Lightning Release attack before he died."

The blond-haired man's expression darkened.

"Shū possessed Explosion Release. No one would be foolish enough to engage him in close combat. But strangely, he died at close range. That means his killer was so fast that he had no time to react. On top of that, the killer possessed Lightning Release..."

"Minato Namikaze!"

The others shouted the same name together.

"Other than him, who could instantly kill Shū in close combat?"

"He's only been gone for a little over ten minutes. If he didn't use the Flying Thunder God, we still have a chance to catch him. I've wanted to face Minato Namikaze for a long time. I want to see whether his Flying Thunder God Technique can break through my Clay Giant."

The blond-haired man grinned, then shot into the forest with a whoosh.

His followers hurried after him...