Hiruko's voice was hoarse, and his body trembled slightly from the pain, but his right hand had already slipped toward the kunai at his waist.
Lin Ze seemed not to notice his little movement and said calmly:
"Just someone passing through. I saw your experiment fail and saved you while I was at it."
"While you were at it?"
Hiruko sneered and struggled to sit up. "How could anyone be 'passing through' a place like this? You're here for the Chimera Technique too, aren't you?"
Lin Ze did not deny it, saying evenly:
"I do have some interest in this technique, but from the looks of things, your experiment has serious problems."
Hiruko's expression darkened.
He secretly sensed Lin Ze's chakra, and his heart immediately tightened.
Unfathomable.
Though Lin Ze stood right before him, he seemed to have merged with the surrounding earth. His chakra fluctuations were obscure and dense, far beyond those of an ordinary Kage-level fighter.
At least mid-to-upper Kage level... perhaps even stronger.
Hiruko instantly judged that he was no match for him and quietly released his kunai.
He drew a deep breath, suppressed his resentment, and asked:
"You said there were problems with my experiment... what problems?"
Lin Ze pointed at the Red Eye ninja's corpse on the stone platform.
"The Red Eye is too weak."
"Although it can perceive chakra, it's fundamentally a kekkei genkai produced by organ mutation. It falls far short of true Dōjutsu kekkei genkai like the Sharingan and Byakugan."
"Using the Red Eye in place of the Sharingan is like replacing steel bars with wooden sticks to build a house. The structure is inherently unstable. Failure is inevitable."
"Besides, this technique requires the right timing!"
Hiruko fell silent.
How could he not know that?
Three years ago, he had originally planned