Kage-level foundations

The long winds in the valley died away, leaving devastation everywhere.

The shriveled bodies of four immensely powerful high-tier Sea King Beasts lay strewn among the rubble. Their scales, as hard as seastone, had lost all their luster and become ordinary dried husks; the two seemingly unstoppable Cursed Spirit Mutant Beasts had not even left ashes behind, devoured completely; three elite One Piece pirates who had rampaged across the East Blue lay limp on the ground, all signs of life extinguished, the essence of their armament haki and the physical foundations they had cultivated for decades utterly gone.

In mere breaths, the Level Two Rift crisis that could have wiped out an elite Konoha squad had been completely eliminated.

The long-oppressed air throughout the valley slowly began to circulate. The seastone aura that had tightly restricted chakra and the black cursed energy mist that corroded life had all been absorbed by Lin Chen. The chaotic otherworldly energies settled into calm. Only the twisted Level Two Spatial Rift suspended in the air continued to writhe slowly, exuding unfathomable strangeness and uncertainty.

The four surviving Anbu Ninjas slowly straightened. Their wounds still stung, but their physical exhaustion paled beside the shock in their hearts. They exchanged glances, each seeing incredulous horror in the others' eyes.

They had just held their ground in a desperate situation, exhausting their chakra and fighting bloodied and wounded. Even delaying the enemies had been extremely difficult, and they had already prepared to die in the valley. Yet after this twelve-year-old boy arrived, he had formed no hand seals and unleashed no techniques. With a single thought, he had crushed every powerful otherworldly enemy, overturning their decades of understanding as ninja.

"So this is... the true strength behind Special Grade Collaboration Authority?" one ANBU murmured, his voice filled with reverence.

Kakashi slowly stepped forward, his Sharingan closing, the gravity in his eyes lingering. He crouched and lightly touched the Sea King Beast's shriveled body with his fingertips. It felt rotten and soft. Its once-indestructible seastone resistance, savage physical strength, and bizarre, corrosive cursed energy had completely vanished.

"It wasn't a counter," Kakashi murmured, utterly shaken. "It was pure deprivation of essence. Domination through rules."

For a thousand years, every battle, contest, and system of power in the Shinobi World had revolved around chakra, ninjutsu, kekkei genkai, and the body. But Lin Chen's power lay completely outside that system, above the rules of both the Shinobi World and other planes.

The One Piece pirates' armament haki, the Sea Kings' bloodlines, the Cursed Spirits' spiritual energy, seastone's power of suppression-every alien power in existence was nourishment before him.

This was no longer within the realm of genius. This was a true Otherworldly God.

At that moment, Lin Chen stood in the center of the valley, his aura drawn inward and unified.

His newly achieved Kage-level foundations showed no ostentation. He seemed utterly ordinary, yet concealed mountains and seas within. His flesh, sinews, and bones had been reshaped by a pure Sea Kings bloodline, his organs and meridians were incomparably resilient, and Advanced Armament Haki was condensed within his body. Without deliberate activation, it formed a barrier impervious to all techniques. Intermediate cursed energy flowed at his will, and he was completely immune to seastone suppression.

He lightly waved a hand. A strand of dark cursed energy wound around his fingertips, instantly changing into a dense, pitch-black coating of armament haki. With another thought, it faded into pure, gentle chakra. Three entirely different power systems that should have rejected one another blended perfectly within him, flowing freely without the slightest obstruction.

[Ding! Full-area harvesting of the Level Two Rift complete!]

[Tenfold critical multiplier settlement!]

[Advanced Armament Haki perfected, pureblood Sea Kings physique at major accomplishment, intermediate cursed technique domain unlocked, absolute immunity to seastone across the entire domain achieved!]

[Host's combat power firmly stabilized at initial Kage level. Physical strength, energy adaptability, and rule resistance comprehensively exceed those of the same level!]

[Heavenly Dao's corrective backlash has intensified. Host marked as the plane's greatest variable. Subsequent rift levels and the caliber of otherworldly powerhouses will receive targeted increases!]

As the system notifications ended, a faint, cold smile flickered in Lin Chen's eyes.

So what if the Heavenly Dao deliberately intensified the danger?

The greater the danger, the greater the opportunity. Now that he had reached Kage level, he needed high-tier otherworldly opponents to hone his foundations and break through his limits.

"The rift is still expanding." Kakashi's voice brought him back from his thoughts. He looked up at the black tear in the air, his expression tense. "What came out just now were only advance fodder. Stronger beings are still lurking deep inside."

As soon as he finished, the pitch-black rift shuddered violently. Spatial patterns twisted fiercely, and a savage aura far surpassing every previous enemy surged toward them, its pressure almost solidifying the air throughout the valley.

Deep, brutal roars bearing an ancient, primeval aura rolled out from the depths of the rift, making their eardrums ache.

The four Anbu Ninjas turned deathly pale. Their bodies trembled involuntarily as overwhelming fear instinctively rose within them.

"That's the aura of mature Sea Kings... and there's more than one!" Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply. His Sharingan activated again, locking onto the depths of the rift. "And... the chilling fluctuations of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit!"

Only now had the Level Two Rift begun to reveal its true reserves of power.

"No need to rush."

Lin Chen spoke calmly, his voice utterly level, not the slightest bit intimidated by that terrifying aura. "It can't get out yet. The Level Two Rift's spatial barrier hasn't completely shattered. High-tier otherworldly beings are bound by the rules. They can only lurk in its depths and won't be able to emerge for a while."

His Spirit Vision had already penetrated the twisted spatial barrier and revealed the situation inside the rift.

Several mature Sea Kings more than a dozen zhang long and a fully formed Special Grade Cursed Spirit occupied the depths of the space between planes. Confined by the unbroken planar barrier, they could only roar restlessly, unable to cross the boundary and descend upon the Shinobi World.

But this was only temporary.

Myriad Worlds Fusion continued to accelerate. Every rift that opened and every surge of otherworldly energy that spilled out steadily wore down the world's barriers. Before long, high-tier otherworldly beings would break through completely.

At the very instant his words ended!

The rift in the air suddenly expanded violently. Pitch-black spatial patterns burst apart wildly, and the air pressure throughout the valley was instantly compressed to its limit!

Boom-!

A spatial explosion shook the wilderness, its thunder resounding through heaven and earth!

The high-tier beings originally confined deep between planes by planar rules had actually seized the opening created when that vast amount of essence was devoured. They forcibly tore open a narrow passage across the boundary and descended upon the Shinobi World ahead of time!

A mature mutated Sea Kings, nearly twenty zhang long, crashed into the valley!

It was several times more terrifying than the previous high-tier exotic beasts. Its entire body was covered in heavy armor of dark, supreme-grade seastone, each scale gleaming with a deathly luster that suppressed chakra throughout the surroundings. Its enormous body blotted out the sky, its thick fins were covered in vicious bone spikes, and torrents of black mist laden with special-grade cursed energy constantly streamed from its mouth and nostrils.

More deadly still, a mass of churning black fog hovered above the beast's head. A pair of scarlet vertical pupils faintly appeared within it-it was a Special Grade Cursed Spirit core that had crossed halfway through the boundary!

With physical strength surpassing Kage level, area-wide seastone suppression, and special-grade cursed energy corrosion stacked together, this single monster was enough to overpower two ordinary Kage-level fighters head-on and sweep through every garrison along the Land of Fire's border.

"This is bad! It forced its way through!" Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply. His chakra instantly tensed throughout his body, his Sharingan spinning rapidly as towering waves surged through his heart. "This is a true disaster-class exotic beast! It far exceeds all the previous enemies combined!"

The four Anbu Ninjas instantly went cold all over, their legs weakening as they instinctively wanted to retreat and flee. This pressure had long surpassed anything ninja could contend with. This was a true world-destroying monstrosity.

The giant Sea Kings lowered its hideous head, its scarlet eyes locking onto everyone present. Its savage roar sent rubble flying. Without the slightest hesitation, it slammed its enormous, bone-spiked fin toward the ground with mountain-like force while spewing a towering tide of cursed mist from its mouth. Wherever the black mist passed, rocks instantly weathered and crumbled, and even the air hissed with white smoke as it was corroded.

Chakra was completely sealed throughout the area, the cursed energy's corrosion destroyed everything, and the impact of its brute strength was enough to flatten the valley.

A hopeless situation formed in an instant.

Yet Lin Chen, standing at the center of the storm, remained impassive throughout. He did not even raise his eyelids.

The world-destroying assault that seemed impossible to counter in everyone else's eyes was, in his Spirit Vision, merely a mass of exceptionally pure, high-tier essence waiting to be harvested.

"Noisy."

He uttered the word softly, and the wind stopped, the mist froze.

The Omnidirectional Devouring Domain instantly spread around Lin Chen. Invisible power of rules enveloped the entire valley, forcibly locking down every rampaging strand of otherworldly energy.

The supreme-grade seastone aura, powerful enough to seal Kage-level chakra, rapidly melted and disintegrated like snow meeting boiling water the instant it struck the domain's boundary. The all-destroying black mist of special-grade cursed energy was instantly immobilized, suspended in midair without the slightest ability to move.

The charging giant Sea Kings' enormous body abruptly froze in midair.

Its terrifying momentum of millions of jin, its mountain-crushing brute strength, and its cursed energy that corroded all things were completely cut off by invisible rules.

It struggled wildly, its roars shaking the sky as sparks constantly burst from its armored scales. The seastone essence and Cursed Spirit essence within it rampaged violently, trying to break free of its confinement. But Lin Chen's devouring domain stood above every otherworldly rule. The harder it struggled, the faster its essence drained away.

Hiss, hiss, hiss-!

Visible black currents were continuously stripped and drawn from the beast's enormous body, flowing into Lin Chen through the domain's vortex.

Its incomparably hard seastone armor rapidly dimmed, softened, and peeled away, gradually degrading from a miraculous material that countered the Shinobi World into ordinary useless scales. The savage brute strength of its Sea Kings bloodline was drawn out layer by layer, its enormous body visibly shriveling and shrinking. Above its head, the Special Grade Cursed Spirit core's black mist rapidly collapsed, its scarlet eyes swiftly dimming as it gave a shrill, silent wail that could not escape.

The entire process took less than three breaths.

The disaster-class exotic beast, whose terrifying might had just been enough to overturn a nation's territory, had every trace of its power's essence drained away.

Its enormous body crashed to the ground, caving it into a massive pit. Its heavy armor shattered, its sinews and bones broke, and its life was extinguished. It was reduced to a pile of decayed remains that posed no threat whatsoever.

The last strand of black mist from the Special Grade Cursed Spirit core suspended in midair was devoured completely. It vanished from the world without leaving even a trace of residue.

The entire valley fell deathly silent in an instant.

The raging wind abruptly stopped, the black mist dispersed, and all suppression vanished.

Kakashi stood frozen, his Sharingan fixed on the giant beast's remains on the ground. His mind went completely blank, and he utterly lost the ability to think.

That had been a peak Kage-level exotic beast with a supreme-grade seastone body, bolstered by a Special Grade Cursed Spirit-an otherworldly disaster capable of shaking the leadership of the Five Great Nations.

There had been no exchange of ninjutsu, no clash of taijutsu, not the slightest stalemate.

Only a thought, an instant, a domain.

The high-tier disaster that had forcibly crossed the boundary had been utterly annihilated, all its essence devoured.

The four Anbu Ninjas were completely stupefied, their bodies rigid, even forgetting to breathe. The low-tier enemies they had barely held back through desperate fighting and heavy casualties were like ants compared to this disaster. Yet even such a terrifying being had been casually crushed by the boy.

This was no longer a disparity in combat power. It was absolute domination on a dimensional level.

Even Kage-level fighters in the Shinobi World still needed to trade attacks and defenses, pit techniques against one another, and expend chakra in bloody battles.

Lin Chen, however, directly stripped away the very foundations of his enemies' existence.

Whether it was seastone's rule-based suppression, the intangible spiritual bodies of Cursed Spirits, or the primeval brute strength of Sea Kings, every otherworldly advantage and every seemingly unanswerable ability failed before him, all becoming nourishment for his own growth.

Lin Chen gently raised a hand. His restrained aura stirred slightly, and the high-tier essence he had just devoured instantly integrated completely.

His physical defenses thickened once more, his Advanced Armament Haki condensed to its utmost limit, allowing him to withstand a Kage-level fighter's full-force strike head-on. His intermediate cursed energy domain reached complete perfection, even gaining a trace of special-grade cursed energy's oppressive might. His seastone immunity was permanently solidified into a rule of his own; from then on, no power in the world could suppress his physique or energy.

His gaze swept calmly over the still-writhing Level Two Rift. There was not a ripple in his eyes, only complete control.

"Forcing your way across the boundary only makes you nourishment delivered to my door."

Lin Chen murmured to himself, his tone flat, without the slightest pride-only the indifference of someone looking down upon ants.

Only then did Kakashi abruptly recover. His back was already soaked in cold sweat, the shock and reverence in his heart reaching deep into his bones. He finally understood completely that the boy before him had long since stepped beyond the Shinobi World's framework of combat power. Amid the upheaval of the myriad worlds, he was a unique sovereign of rules.

Even if Level Three and Level Four Rifts opened fully in the future and countless high-tier otherworldly powerhouses invaded, as long as Lin Chen remained in Konoha, the Shinobi World would always retain a chance of survival.

Kakashi quickly suppressed the turmoil in his heart and said gravely, "I'll report to the Hokage immediately, seal off this valley, establish a special-grade restricted zone, and dispatch the Disaster Response Squad to maintain a permanent garrison."

With that, he immediately formed hand seals and activated the Encrypted Transmission Formula, sending the astonishing intelligence back to Konoha at full speed: a high-tier exotic beast had crossed through the Level Two Rift, and Lin Chen had crushed a disaster-class enemy with a single thought, fully stabilizing his Kage-level combat power.

Within the valley, the Anbu Ninjas quickly collected themselves and began clearing the battlefield, sealing the giant beast's remains and restraining the unconscious One Piece pirate prisoners. Their movements were exceedingly respectful, and their gazes toward Lin Chen already held the absolute reverence reserved for a god.

Hearing this, Kakashi relaxed slightly, then quickly collected himself and said gravely, "I'll report to the Hokage immediately, seal off this valley, establish a special-grade restricted zone, and dispatch the Disaster Response Squad to maintain a permanent garrison."

With that, he immediately formed hand seals and activated the Encrypted Transmission Formula, sending all the intelligence back to Konoha at full speed: the Level Two Rift crisis, the high-tier otherworldly beings lurking within, and Lin Chen single-handedly crushing every enemy and successfully breaking through to Kage level.

Within the valley, the Anbu Ninjas quickly collected themselves and began clearing the battlefield, sealing the exotic beasts' remains and restraining the unconscious One Piece pirate prisoners.

Their movements were efficient, but their eyes occasionally strayed toward Lin Chen, who stood quietly nearby. Their reverence had already taken deep root. This boy had become the greatest trump card of the entire Land of Fire border-and even all of Konoha.