Myriad Worlds Mall

Looking at his home, which had barely changed since he left, Kazuhiko Uchiha felt that everything was unreal, almost illusory. If not for the Blood Orchids piled in his storage space, he would have thought it had all been a dream.

He checked the clock on the wall and discovered that only a few seconds had passed. In other words, time in the Naruto World stood still while he carried out missions in other spacetime worlds.

"Good. That means I won't have to explain why I disappeared whenever I go on a system mission."

Kazuhiko Uchiha was very pleased with this. He opened the system's Myriad Worlds Mall to see what items he could buy with the six system gold coins he had earned from this mission.

The moment he opened the Myriad Worlds Mall interface, however, the hundreds of millions of items inside left him utterly stunned.

At the low end were the Crocodile Tail Scissors, the Windfire Hook, the Iron Sand Divine Palm, and the Pure Yang Art;

at the high end were the Pangu Axe, the Eastern Emperor Bell, the Three Pure Ones Immortal Arts, and Rahū's Eye.

In short, whether he recognized something or not, the Myriad Worlds Mall had it all.

The dazzling array of merchandise left Kazuhiko Uchiha overwhelmed. Only after following the system's suggestion to use the filter did he drastically reduce the number of items, leaving a selection suited to his current strength.

[White Yang True Exposition]: Black iron, middle tier, lower grade. A basic immortal cultivation method with low efficiency. Price: 19 gold coins.

[Superpower Awakening]: Black iron, lower tier, upper grade. Provides one chance to awaken a superpower. The type of superpower awakened is random and depends on the individual. Success rate: 50%. Price: 8 gold coins.

[Wild Ox Great Strength Art (First 5 Levels)]: Black iron, lower tier, middle grade. Nine levels in total. Reaching the fifth level grants the strength to lift ten thousand jin. Price: 5 gold coins.

[Low-Level Meditation Technique]: Black iron, lower tier, middle grade. Can improve mental strength and arcane perception. Price: 4 gold coins.

[Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method]: Black iron, lower tier, middle grade. Can absorb free-floating cosmic energy with low efficiency. Price: 4 gold coins.

[B-Rank Fire Release: Searing Migraine]: Black iron, lower tier, lower grade. A fire-element offensive skill. Price: 1 gold coin.

[Water-Cold Sword]: Black iron, lower tier, lower grade. An ice-attribute weapon. Included move: Yi Shui Han. Price: 1 gold coin.

[Snow Shadow]: Black iron, lower tier, lower grade. One of the Twenty-One Great Grade Swords. Price: 1 gold coin.

[Laba Congee]: Black iron, lower tier, lower grade. Can slightly increase total Primal Energy. Price: 1 gold coin.

[Nine-Flower Jade Dew Pills - 3 Pills]: Black iron, lower tier, lower grade. Low-quality healing pills. Price: 1 gold coin.

The long list of items in the Myriad Worlds Mall filled Kazuhiko Uchiha with longing. He wanted to take them all, but unfortunately, he only had six system gold coins and could afford just a few of the cheaper items.

When he saw Blood Orchids priced at one gold coin, Kazuhiko Uchiha remembered the ones he had gathered and stored in the system space. He opened the recycling interface to check their value.

[Stone Spider]: 0.01

[Mutant Snake Gallbladder]: 0.01

[Mature Blood Orchid]: 0.1 gold coins

[Blood Orchid Plant]: 0.3 gold coins

The system's storage space held the extra spoils Kazuhiko Uchiha had collected in the previous spacetime world: three highly venomous Stone Spiders, twenty-four gallbladders from Mutant Giant Pythons, 184 Blood Orchid blossoms, and fourteen Blood Orchid plants.

After a little thought, Kazuhiko Uchiha recycled one hundred of the Blood Orchid blossoms. After the 20% handling fee was deducted, he received eight gold coins.

With great reluctance, Kazuhiko Uchiha spent thirteen gold coins to purchase [Superpower Awakening], [Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method], and [Nine-Flower Jade Dew Pills].

As for the remaining gold coin, Kazuhiko Uchiha had another use for it.

Opening the [Publish Mission] option in the mission interface, Kazuhiko Uchiha spent his last gold coin to post a mission across the myriad worlds.

[Refine Medicinal Ingredients]: Refine the Blood Orchids and snake gallbladders into pills or potions that maximize their medicinal effects as much as possible. Materials supplied: 80 Blood Orchid blossoms, 20 snake gallbladders.

Posted by: Kazuhiko Uchiha

Mission reward: 1 gold coin, 4 Blood Orchid blossoms, 4 snake gallbladders.

After posting the mission, Kazuhiko Uchiha exited the system and began using the superpower awakening opportunity he had just purchased.

Once he confirmed its use, Kazuhiko Uchiha found his consciousness entering a dark space without a trace of light.

A faint, ethereal voice echoed softly through the space.

"Self," "illusion," "reality," "awakening," "transcendence"...

The barely audible voice repeated those few simple words over and over.

The relentless impact of the voice left Kazuhiko Uchiha's consciousness increasingly groggy, until he finally lost awareness altogether.

At that moment, the pitch-black space suddenly erupted in brilliant colors. They continued to intertwine and shift as time passed, finally settling into a sea of blood-red.

Once the blood-red color stabilized, the entire space shattered like a bursting bubble, turning into motes of blood-colored light that merged into Kazuhiko Uchiha's consciousness.

His consciousness returned to his body, and Kazuhiko Uchiha woke up. As he sensed the superpower he had gained, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes. Clearly, he had not expected to acquire that particular kind of power.

With his Chunin-level mental strength, Kazuhiko Uchiha spent half an hour familiarizing himself with his superpower, raising it to LV3, the Strong Ability User level. Drawing inspiration from characters in the novels and films of his previous life, he also developed several practical skills.

Setting his superpower aside for the moment, Kazuhiko Uchiha took out the manual for the Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method and began trying to absorb cosmic energy.

Kazuhiko Uchiha's mental strength was far greater than Luo Feng's in the original story. He soon sensed the presence of cosmic energy and, guided by the cultivation method, absorbed it into his body.

Once the invisible, colorless cosmic energy entered Kazuhiko Uchiha's body, the mitochondria in his cells devoured it, then fed a strange energy back into the cells.

As they continued devouring cosmic energy, every cell in Kazuhiko Uchiha's body underwent constant, fundamental improvement-or rather, evolved toward a higher form of life.

Although the Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method was ranked at black iron, lower tier, lower grade, placing it among the system's lowest-ranked offerings, its ability to improve one's level of life was countless times more sophisticated than the Uchiha Clan's chakra extraction method.

Time ticked by. Only after three hours, when all of Kazuhiko Uchiha's cells were saturated, did he stop absorbing cosmic energy.

Kazuhiko Uchiha opened his eyes, a faint smile appearing on his face. "The Swallowed Star spacetime really does live up to its status as a high-level world. Its cosmic energy is even higher-grade than the nature energy in the Naruto spacetime. With this, the quality of my Primal Energy has gone up another notch."

He got up and went out into the courtyard to do some simple exercises to adjust to the changes. Kazuhiko Uchiha discovered that his physical capabilities had surpassed the limits of a Genin and reached the level of a Chunin.

Given the ninjutsu and Taijutsu he currently knew, his overall strength was roughly on par with an ordinary Chunin. With his higher-grade Primal Energy and unique superpower, however, he could put up a fight against a Special Jōnin.

Once he acquired higher-level ninjutsu and Taijutsu, he would naturally reach the level of an Elite Chunin, or even a Special Jōnin.

It was getting late, so Kazuhiko Uchiha prepared to rest, awaiting tomorrow's Ninja Academy graduation and team assignments, as well as the possible survival exercise.