Exotic beasts attack

A low rumble erupted from deep beneath the sea, like a giant beast's growl grinding against their eardrums.

Far out on the sea, a pale-black rift roughly ten feet wide slowly opened. Distorted spatial patterns churned like black silk being forcibly torn apart. A strong, briny wind mixed with a cold, vicious aura gushed out, rustling the trees along the shore and even throwing the chakra in the air into disorder.

Kakashi instantly tensed. His Sharingan opened as wide as it could as he stared fixedly at the rift, his expression grim beneath his mask.

"A spatial rift... how is that possible?"

He murmured to himself, his voice full of disbelief. Every spatial disturbance recorded in the Shinobi World's history had been caused by top-tier Space-Time Ninjutsu or a rampaging Tailed Beast. Yet this rift had neither a chakra signature nor fluctuations from a jutsu formula. It was more like a wound torn into the world itself, completely beyond the scope of known ninjutsu.

Naruto's eyes widened, his mouth hanging open for a long time. "W-what is that thing? A black hole?"

Sasuke pressed his lips together, cold sweat seeping into his palms. He could clearly feel the pressure coming from the rift-unfamiliar, savage, and carrying a heart-pounding fear of the unknown. It was stranger than any ninjutsu he had ever seen. Sakura instinctively hid behind Kakashi, her little face pale, even her breathing growing quieter.

Tazuna's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground. "It's a Sea Demon... a Sea Demon has broken out of the Sea Prison! Everything the old folks said was true!"

In the ancient legends passed down through generations in the fishing village, a gate of evil lay hidden beneath the deep sea. Once it opened, countless monsters would come ashore to devour people. Before, those had seemed like nothing more than stories to entertain children. Now, seeing the spatial rift with their own eyes, all those long-buried fears came surging back.

Lin Chen stood on a reef by the shore, his robes snapping in the sea breeze, yet his expression remained perfectly calm.

[Ding! A level-one spatial rift has been detected opening stably!]

[Current infiltrating planes: Pirate Plane (coastal waters), Jujutsu Plane (Lower-Level Cursed Spirit Realm)]

[The rift is expected to remain open for fifteen minutes. Creatures and items from other planes will spill through in batches!]

[Notice: The rift's level will continue to rise as the fusion progresses. Infiltration from higher-level planes will become available later!]

The system notifications sounded in his mind, and a faint gleam flashed in Lin Chen's eyes.

A level-one rift was only an opening of the lowest grade, leaking nothing but small fry. But this was only the beginning—where there was one, there would be another. If one could open in the Land of Waves today, eight or ten could open in the Land of Fire or the Land of Wind tomorrow. The grand Myriad Worlds Fusion had finally moved from "sporadic infiltration" to "mass spillover."

To others, it was a devastating catastrophe. To him, it was a treasure trove of resources with its doors thrown wide open.

Roar-!

Several savage roars suddenly rang out from deep within the rift.

Immediately afterward, three or four Mutated Sea Beasts, each roughly ten feet long, tumbled through the distorted space and crashed heavily onto the shallows. They were covered in pitch-black scales, with fish heads and beast bodies. Their sharp claws glinted with a cold metallic sheen, and faint black mist wreathed their bodies. They were the mutated products of Sea Kings Younglings possessed by Low-Level Cursed Spirits.

Two men in ragged pirate clothes also tumbled out, still clutching rust-covered cutlasses, and landed on the beach in a daze.

"What... are these monsters?!"

Kakashi barked out the words and immediately stepped in front of everyone.

Before he could form Hand Seals, the foremost Mutated Sea Beast roared and charged ashore, sweeping its claws toward them with a howling gust. As its scales scraped together, fine seastone dust scattered in all directions, making even the air feel heavy.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"

Kakashi swiftly formed Hand Seals. A roaring water dragon shot forth and slammed into the sea beast.

But the expected severe injury never came-most of the water dragon was actually deflected by the scales. As the remaining force passed through the black mist, another layer of it was dissipated, leaving only a few shallow scratches on the beast.

"The ninjutsu's effect has been drastically weakened!" Kakashi's heart sank.

Seastone suppressed chakra, while Cursed Spirits were immune to conventional physical attacks. Combined, these two otherworldly properties perfectly countered the ninja system. An ordinary Jonin encountering such a monster would likely be worn down to death.

"Let me try!"

Sasuke leaped forward, launching shuriken alongside his Fire Release: Great Fireball. Flames wrapped around the blades as they struck the sea beast, but they only scorched a few scales and instead enraged it. The beast roared and swiped its claws at him. Sasuke barely dodged, but a claw still grazed the hem of his clothes, instantly coating it in thin ice-the mutated sea beast even possessed a weak ice-based corrosive effect.

"Damn it!" Sasuke gritted his teeth. His chakra grew increasingly sluggish, making the fight unbearably frustrating.

Naruto wanted to overwhelm it with Shadow Clones, but no sooner had he summoned them than the seastone dust affected them. They wobbled and dissipated outright, leaving him stamping his feet in anger.

Two Mutated Sea Beasts kept Kakashi and Sasuke occupied, while the remaining two skirted the battlefield and charged straight toward Tazuna and the villagers behind them.

"No!" Unable to break away, Kakashi's expression changed drastically.

Just as the claws were about to fall, a slender figure appeared out of thin air in front of the villagers.

Lin Chen raised his hand, and an invisible devouring force surged outward from his palm.

[Ding! Locked onto Mutated Sea Beasts ×2!]

[Available to plunder: Sea Kings Youngling physique, seastone scale resistance, Low-Level Cursed Spirit essence, ice corrosion talent!]

[Critical multiplier: Fivefold! Activating Full-Domain Plunder!]

Two streams of devouring force erupted simultaneously, like two enormous invisible hands gripping the sea beasts.

The charging beasts abruptly froze in midair, their savage roars cutting off. Their black scales dulled at a visible speed, the mist around them rapidly dispersed, and even their massive bodies slowly shriveled.

In just three seconds, the two ferocious Mutated Sea Beasts fell onto the beach with two thuds, utterly lifeless.

Their scales had become ordinary keratin, the Cursed Spirits had been devoured completely, and even the seastone factors inside their bodies had been extracted without a trace.

Kakashi caught the scene out of the corner of his eye and was deeply shaken.

Monsters he could barely injure with all his strength, and Lin Chen had instantly killed two with a raised hand?

Before he could recover, Lin Chen's figure flickered, and he rushed into the battlefield.

The remaining two sea beasts were still locked in combat with Kakashi. Lin Chen flicked his fingertips in succession, and two streams of devouring force struck their targets precisely.

Two more dull thuds sounded.

The two sea beasts fell to the ground one after the other, completely lifeless.

In less than ten seconds, all four mutated Exotic Beasts that had troubled even a Jonin were dealt with.

Dead silence fell over the beach.

The villagers stared wide-eyed at Lin Chen, their gazes filled with reverence, as though they were looking at a god descended to earth. Tazuna's mouth hung open, and he could not speak for a long time. He felt that he had not hired a ninja at all, but an immortal capable of slaying Sea Demons.

Kakashi put away his kunai, his chest rising and falling slightly. The look he gave Lin Chen was complicated beyond measure.

"What kind of jutsu... did you use?"

He searched everything he knew but could not think of a single technique in the Shinobi World that could erase such bizarre creatures so easily. It was neither Sealing Jutsu nor the Spirit Transformation Technique. It was more like the source of the monsters' power had been drawn out of thin air.

"A little family technique for dealing with evil entities," Lin Chen answered offhandedly, turning his gaze toward the two pirates on the other side of the beach.

The two pirates had just recovered from their dizziness. They looked at the sea beast corpses scattered across the ground, then at the ninja attire worn by Lin Chen and the others, their faces blank with confusion.

"Where is this? The Grand Line? No, that's not right... where's our ship?"

"Where's the captain? What are these people wearing? Ninjas? Aren't those just legends?"

The two muttered to each other in heavily foreign-accented speech, using strange and unfamiliar words. Kakashi and the others were bewildered and could only vaguely guess that it was a dialect from overseas.

Seeing Lin Chen look their way, the two instinctively tightened their grips on their cutlasses and shouted with hollow bravado, "Kid, who are you? We're with the Black Cat Pirates. If you know what's good for you..."

Before they could finish, Lin Chen lifted his fingertips slightly.

[Ding! Locked onto pirate grunts ×2!]

[Available to plunder: Basic navigation, beginner swordsmanship, a trace of Armament Haki insight, fragments of general East Blue geography knowledge!]

The devouring force descended. Both men went limp and collapsed directly to the ground, unconscious.

Every bit of their meager pirate foundation was taken by Lin Chen.

Though they were only scraps, they gave him a slightly fuller understanding of the Pirate Plane. The East Blue, the Black Cat Pirates, the Grand Line... these scattered fragments of information were slowly piecing together a complete outline of another world.

The fifteen minutes passed in a flash.

The spatial rift above the sea slowly contracted, finally becoming a thin line before disappearing completely.

The surging waves calmed, as though everything that had just happened had been an illusion.

Only the Exotic Beast corpses on the beach, the unconscious pirates, and the unfamiliar energy lingering in the air proved that this anomaly had truly occurred.

Kakashi crouched and examined the pirates' clothes and cutlasses, his brows knitting tightly.

The fabric styles, the forging methods, and even the skull emblems on the cutlasses were all unlike anything ever seen in the Shinobi World. He also pried apart a sea beast's scales and rubbed a broken edge with his fingertips, his expression growing graver.

"These creatures and these people don't belong to the Shinobi World," Kakashi said solemnly. "Behind that rift is probably another unknown world."

For the first time in his twenty-odd years of life, he felt such intense helplessness. The Shinobi World was vast, and the Five Great Nations covered enormous territories. Yet now, perhaps it was only a small corner of a boundless world.

"I'll immediately send word to Lord Hokage and report exactly what happened here." Kakashi stood, his tone grave. "The mission in the Land of Waves must be wrapped up early. These Exotic Beast corpses and foreign individuals must also be brought back to Konoha for research."

Lin Chen stood to one side without speaking.

He knew perfectly well that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

A level-one rift could only let a few small fry through. Once the rifts leveled up, higher-tier ability users, stronger Cursed Spirits, and even the top powerhouses of other planes might enter the Shinobi World through them.

The Akatsuki, Orochimaru, the Five Great Nations... every faction would soon notice the spatial anomalies.

When that happened, the entire balance of the Shinobi World would be completely rewritten.

What he needed to do was ride this wave of Myriad Worlds Fusion before the various factions could react, frantically plundering every opportunity he could get and building his foundation to a height no one could match.

[Ding! First spatial rift event settlement!]

[Obtained: Sea Kings Physique Fragment, Advanced Seastone Resistance, Cursed Spirit Essence Condensation, Basic Armament Haki Advancement, Navigation Mastery!]

[The host's physical strength has increased substantially, and adaptability to otherworldly energy has improved!]

[Achievement unlocked: First Glimpse of the Myriad Heavens. Plundering permissions slightly increased!]

As the system notifications ended, Lin Chen clenched his fists.

Greater strength surged through his muscles and bones, and beneath his skin was a faint texture like metal and stone. With the physique of Sea Kings combined with his Armament Haki insights, his physical combat strength alone was enough to crush an ordinary Jonin, even without chakra.

The gains were far richer than expected.

The sun sank in the west, its dying light staining the sea red.

No one noticed a figure wearing a bamboo hat quietly withdraw from the depths of the distant forest.

At his waist hung a black Forehead Protector bearing the Akatsuki's auspicious cloud design. He held a Communication Jade Talisman in his palm, his expression grave.

A spatial rift, otherworldly creatures, a young man from Konoha with unfathomable strength...

All of this had to be reported to the leader immediately.

The waters of the Land of Waves had become thoroughly muddied.

And the storm that would sweep across the entire Shinobi World was only just beginning to brew.