Chapter Summaries

After a year of training, Wang Hao accepted the Kurosawa Sword and became the eighteenth sword lord, pledging to revive the declining Ancient Sword Dao. He then asked about the Battle of Swords, leaving Kurosawa Shichirō shocked by what he intended to do.

• Wang Hao explained that he had trained at the Kurosawa Sword Dojo for one year and one month, reaching the peak of a high-rank Swordsman.
• Kurosawa Shichirō asked whether Wang Hao would inherit the Ancient Sword Dao, and Wang Hao challenged him to compare its achievements with those of the New Sword Dao.
• Kurosawa Shichirō lamented that the Ancient Sword Dao was declining as samurai cultivation grew more difficult, while Wang Hao identified the spread of Chakra and the depletion of natural energy as causes.
• Wang Hao declared that he would defy the times and restore the Ancient Sword Dao, so Kurosawa Shichirō bestowed the Kurosawa Sword and named him the eighteenth sword lord.
• Wang Hao admired the Kurosawa Sword, then asked when the Battle of Swords would begin; when Kurosawa Shichirō said it was six months away, he realized Wang Hao had something audacious in mind and asked if he was mad.

Wang Hao asked Kurosawa Shichirō to nominate him for the Battle of Swords, and Shichirō agreed on the condition that he pass a test. Shichirō’s estranged son Kurosawa Juhachiro then returned seeking a nomination and the Kurosawa Sword, but mistook Wang Hao for his father’s new son and started a family quarrel.

• Wang Hao insisted on entering the Battle of Swords, and Kurosawa Shichirō agreed to nominate him if he passed a test.
• Kurosawa Juhachiro returned after twenty-eight years and asked Shichirō for a nomination and the Kurosawa Sword.
• Shichirō revealed that he had given the sword and nomination to Wang Hao, angering Juhachiro.
• Juhachiro mistook Wang Hao for his younger half-brother and accused Shichirō of betraying his late mother.
• Shichirō and Juhachiro prepared to fight until Wang Hao called Juhachiro his senior brother, revealing the misunderstanding.

Wang Hao defeated Kurosawa Juhachiro, secured the Kurosawa Divine Sword, and planned to study the Land of Iron’s ancient sword schools. Meanwhile, Tsunade uncovered Dan Kato’s crimes, while Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura discussed their belief that Dan would take the blame, though he had been missing for a year.

• Kurosawa Juhachiro challenged Wang Hao for the Kurosawa Divine Sword and the Battle of Swords nomination, but Wang Hao broke his blade with an unseen Iaido Slash and won.
• Kurosawa Juhachiro accepted defeat and gave up his hopes of entering the Battle of Swords, while Wang Hao questioned the strength of the New Sword Dao.
• Wang Hao asked Kurosawa Shichirō to arrange visits to the ancient sword schools so he could study their inheritances, and Shichirō agreed.
• Tsunade investigated Dan Kato’s past and discovered his suspected involvement in the destruction of the Senju Clan and the disappearance of its members, deepening her hatred of Wang Hao.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi questioned Danzō Shimura’s confidence that Dan would shoulder the blame, and Danzō insisted Dan remained loyal to the Leaf despite being missing for a year.

Wang Hao studied the Kurosawa Sword Dao and decided to adapt the Twelve True Demon Force into the samurai cultivation system while creating a Qi Refinement method suited to this world. After awakening Innate Qi, he discovered his bloodline rejected his attempts to advance, traced the hidden lineage to his predecessor’s Hyuga Clan mother, and resolved to investigate the Hyuga Clan.

• Wang Hao comprehended the Kurosawa Sword Dao and judged its Sword Qi cultivation method crude and dangerous to the body.
• Wang Hao decided to use the Twelve True Demon Force as a foundation for body tempering and to create a new Qi Refinement method for this world.
• Wang Hao developed a Qi Refinement method, incorporated it into the Nine Revolutions Qi Refining Instruction, and awakened Innate Qi.
• Wang Hao’s attempt to fuse five-element Bloodline Divine Abilities failed when his innate bloodline rejected them, forcing him to abolish his Bloodline Power to stabilize his body.
• Wang Hao recalled that Dan Kato’s mother had belonged to the Hyuga Clan’s branch family and suspected her bloodline was causing the crisis.
• Wang Hao decided to study Hyuga Clan members and planned to visit his old superior, Lord Pot King.

Wang Hao forced his way into Danzō’s hideout and offered him a half-finished body-seizing technique while urging him to rethink his rivalry with Hiruzen. He left Danzō intrigued by the technique and increasingly persuaded by Wang Hao’s vision of unifying the ninja world.

• Wang Hao broke into Danzō’s hideout, injuring more than a hundred Root Organization ninja, then said he had come to make another deal.
• Wang Hao gave Danzō a scroll containing the Body Seizure and Rebirth Method and claimed the Kato Lineage needed funding to finish it.
• Wang Hao pitched the technique as a way for Danzō to preserve his strength and improve his future chances of becoming Hokage.
• Wang Hao argued that Hiruzen had used Danzō to shoulder the Leaf’s dirty work and reminded him that Hiruzen had outread him during the Second Hokage’s test.
• Danzō recognized Wang Hao’s attempt to sow discord but reconsidered his own past choices and admitted Hiruzen had been quicker to understand their teacher.
• Wang Hao praised Danzō as the right leader to pursue unification and peace, and Danzō grew excited by the proposal.

Wang Hao challenged Danzō’s methods and used Ding Si’s exposure as a spy to argue that the Third Hokage’s Will of Fire weakened the Leaf. He cited the village’s declining jōnin numbers, but Ding Si blamed Dan Kato for the losses on the Land of Whirlpools battlefield, leaving Wang Hao to answer for his predecessor’s actions.

• Wang Hao criticized Danzō’s embezzlement and schemes, then pointed out that Ding Si was a spy loyal to the Third Hokage.
• Ding Si admitted her allegiance, and Wang Hao persuaded Danzō to hear her out rather than kill her immediately.
• Ding Si revealed herself as a woman, and Wang Hao teased her before arguing that the Third Hokage had weakened the Leaf.
• Danzō stated that the Leaf had 1,127 jōnin, down from 1,835 under the Second Hokage, and Wang Hao compared the village’s wars to dispute Ding Si’s defense of the Third.
• Ding Si accused Wang Hao of causing the defeat on the Land of Whirlpools battlefield, while Danzō watched to see how he would respond.

Wang Hao defended Danzō’s ruthless plan to unify the ninja world, claiming that the Third Hokage had helped destroy the Senju Clan’s forces during the Land of Whirlpools war. Ding Si rejected Danzō’s ideals but was left unable to answer Wang Hao’s argument that unification could bring centuries of peace.

• Wang Hao claimed that the Third Hokage and Danzō had agreed to wipe out the Senju Clan’s main forces to secure the Leaf’s rule, and Danzō confirmed it.
• Ding Si’s faith in the Third Hokage collapsed, though she still opposed Danzō becoming Hokage because she feared his ruthlessness would cause more war.
• Wang Hao argued that harsh rule and bloodshed could end the cycle of wars, while Danzō and the Root ninja were impressed by his case.
• Ding Si argued that unification could not create permanent peace, but Wang Hao said it could preserve peace for centuries and give future generations time to find a lasting solution.
• Danzō praised Wang Hao’s argument, and Ding Si fell silent, unable to refute it.

Wang Hao urged Danzō to reform the Root Organization around a shared ideal and supplied him with a vast collection of writings and training materials. He admitted that he wanted Danzō to build up forces that Wang Hao could inherit as the next leader of Root, even if that meant killing Danzō later.

• Wang Hao told Danzō that Root needed a core ideal to inspire loyalty and admitted he wanted cannon fodder to help unify the ninja world.
• Wang Hao asked Danzō to give Ding Si a chance, and Danzō agreed because she had potential.
• Ding Si brought tea, but Wang Hao swapped his plain-water cup with Danzō's tea and mocked him about enjoying the village's wealth.
• Wang Hao handed the Aburame ninja a sealing scroll, which released over a thousand scrolls into the room; Danzō read them and asked whether Wang Hao had written them.
• Danzō questioned Wang Hao's motives, and Wang Hao confessed that he wanted Danzō to build forces for him to inherit Root, threatening to kill Danzō if he remained in the way.

Wang Hao searched Root’s records for Hyuga bloodline secrets and discussed the potential of the Byakugan and Sharingan with Danzō and Orochimaru. He proposed that Madara Uchiha’s power came from an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and asked Danzō to obtain Kagami Uchiha’s damaged eyes for him.

• Danzō sent Torune Aburame to accompany Wang Hao, who asked for Root’s Hyuga records and spent three days studying the organization’s intelligence.
• Wang Hao examined a Byakugan in Root’s laboratory, where Danzō explained that Tobirama had taken it from a Hyuga elder during the Warring States period.
• Wang Hao argued that the Byakugan had greater potential than Danzō believed and described the Mangekyō and Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to Danzō and Orochimaru.
• Danzō explained that Mangekyō use gradually destroyed its user’s sight, and Wang Hao claimed he had learned secrets through Tsunade and his Spirit Transformation Technique.
• Wang Hao asked Danzō to retrieve Kagami Uchiha’s ruined Mangekyō eyes, and Danzō agreed to bring them in three days.

Wang Hao learned that the Second Hokage had helped the Hyuga Clan force his father to surrender the Spirit Transformation Technique, and he asked Orochimaru to obtain the Caged Bird Cursed Seal for him. Orochimaru revealed that the seal appeared after the Hyuga Clan sacrificed thousands of members to gain a god’s power, leaving Wang Hao to suspect what that power had been.

• Orochimaru gave Wang Hao his parents’ remains and an intelligence scroll revealing the Hyuga Clan and the Second Hokage’s roles in their deaths.
• Orochimaru explained that the Second Hokage had worked with the Hyuga Clan to obtain Wang Hao’s father’s Spirit Transformation Technique for developing Impure World Reincarnation.
• Wang Hao described how Impure World Reincarnation worked and suggested it had been created to bring Hashirama Senju back to fight Madara Uchiha.
• Wang Hao asked Orochimaru to acquire the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird Cursed Seal, offering an earth-shattering secret or an above-S-rank Ninjutsu in exchange.
• Orochimaru revealed that the Hyuga Clan’s ancestors had sacrificed several thousand members to obtain a god’s power, after which the Caged Bird Cursed Seal appeared.
• Wang Hao wondered whether the Hyuga Clan’s ancient sacrifice referred to something he recognized.

Wang Hao investigated the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird seal after learning about the Giant Tenseigan and warned Orochimaru about a red-haired Uzumaki boy with unusual eyes. His examination of twelve Hyuga branch-family ninja confirmed that the seal affected their bloodline, and he ordered Root to obtain the Impure World Reincarnation Technique so he could investigate his own condition.

• Wang Hao explained that the Sharingan might have an evolution beyond the Eternal Mangekyō and told Orochimaru about Jiraiya’s red-haired Uzumaki disciple, warning him not to attract the attention of the powerful figure behind the boy’s eyes.
• A Root ninja delivered a list and mask for twelve Hyuga branch-family members, and Wang Hao asked Orochimaru whether he was interested in human cloning technology.
• Wang Hao examined the twelve Hyuga ninja, secretly studying their Caged Bird seals and collecting blood samples while presenting the visit as a free physical examination.
• After the examinations, Wang Hao concluded that the Caged Bird seal could affect bloodline inheritance and might have caused the hidden danger in his own bloodline.
• Wang Hao ordered Torune Aburame to tell Danzō to obtain the Impure World Reincarnation Technique so he could resurrect people and question them about his condition.

Wang Hao summoned his deceased parents with Impure World Reincarnation and learned that the Hyuga Clan had damaged his bloodline before his birth as part of a scheme to obtain the Kato Clan’s Spirit Transformation Technique. After his parents passed on, he prepared to investigate the Hyuga’s secrets and planned to leave the Leaf in three days.

• Wang Hao summoned Zhan Kato and Yuxiu Hyuga, who recognized him as their son and reunited before he could question them.
• Wang Hao asked what had happened during his mother’s pregnancy, and Zhan Kato explained that the Hyuga Clan activated her Caged Bird Cursed Seal, causing her death during childbirth and damaging Wang Hao’s bloodline.
• Zhan Kato and Yuxiu Hyuga declined Wang Hao’s offer of another life, then vanished when the Impure World Reincarnation formula collapsed.
• Wang Hao told Orochimaru that the Hyuga Clan’s actions had weakened his bloodline and endangered his descendants, while Danzō suspected Tobirama had orchestrated the scheme to seize the Kato Clan’s secret technique.
• Wang Hao asked Danzō for access to Root Organization’s ninjutsu inheritances, and Danzō agreed; Wang Hao then told Orochimaru to obtain the Caged Bird Cursed Seal before he left the Leaf in three days.
• Orochimaru asked about Wang Hao’s resurrection method, and Wang Hao advised him to develop cloning technology instead.

Wang Hao triggered five difficult side quests after learning Princess Tsunade’s wishes, then prepared to leave the Leaf after trading techniques with Orochimaru. Before departing, he warned Danzō that Hiruzen might be trying to provoke him into targeting Sakumo Hatake, and Orochimaru asked whether he could become the Fourth Hokage.

• Wang Hao reviewed the five side quests he had triggered by using a disguised Shadow Clone to coax Princess Tsunade’s wishes from her, and lamented how difficult they were.
• Orochimaru objected to Wang Hao using his appearance to approach Tsunade, then exchanged scrolls with him and received the powerful Lightning of Destruction technique.
• Wang Hao examined Orochimaru’s scroll, confirmed his theory about the Caged Bird Cursed Seal, and decided he still needed to find what the Hyuga Clan had hidden.
• Wang Hao announced that he was leaving the Leaf, gave Liuyue Ying a scroll, and warned Danzō that Hiruzen might be trying to lure him into moving against Sakumo Hatake.
• Danzō admitted he had considered targeting Sakumo, and Wang Hao advised him not to become Hiruzen’s weapon; Orochimaru then asked whether he had a chance of becoming Fourth Hokage.

Wang Hao speculated that Hiruzen Sarutobi would favor Jiraiya and eventually make Minato Namikaze the Fourth Hokage, then persuaded Danzō and Orochimaru that Hiruzen’s weakness and political maneuvering endangered the Leaf. The chapter left them convinced that the Uchiha Clan might be targeted as a future scapegoat.

• Wang Hao told Orochimaru that Jiraiya, not Orochimaru or Tsunade, best fit Hiruzen’s preferences, and explained why Hiruzen could control either potential successor.
• Wang Hao suggested that Minato Namikaze would become the Fourth Hokage after the Third Shinobi World War, and Danzō and Orochimaru interpreted Hiruzen’s choice of Jiraiya as Minato’s teacher as evidence of his trust in Jiraiya.
• Wang Hao blamed Hiruzen’s limited strength for his reliance on political schemes and argued that his rule would suppress the Leaf’s strongest people.
• Danzō concluded that the Uchiha Clan could be Hiruzen’s future target, and Wang Hao described how the clan might be isolated and eliminated while other clans benefited.

Wang Hao argued that the Uchiha could be destroyed by turning Shisui against the clan, then blamed the Third Hokage for the Senju Clan’s downfall and left Danzō suspicious of Hiruzen. Outside the Leaf, Wang Hao met Sakumo Hatake, warned him that the Third might betray him, and disappeared after giving him a kunai for protection.

• Wang Hao proposed dividing the Uchiha by winning over Shisui, and claimed Fugaku and Shisui could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.
• Wang Hao compared himself to a monster who had destroyed his own kin, then blamed the Third Hokage and the Will of Fire for his role in the Senju Clan’s destruction.
• Danzō concluded that Hiruzen had kept Tobirama’s Mangekyō research from him and resolved to win in the future, while Orochimaru and Liuyue Ying reacted to Wang Hao’s departure.
• Wang Hao reached a mountaintop outside the Leaf and revealed that Sakumo Hatake had followed him.
• Wang Hao warned Sakumo that the Third Hokage might move against him and gave him a formula-marked kunai, mentioning his son Kakashi.
• Wang Hao vanished without Sakumo sensing his departure, and Sakumo kept the kunai and chose not to report Wang Hao’s return.

Wang Hao found the Hyuga Clan’s hidden Giant Tenseigan in a sealed dimension and discovered that some of its Chakra was pure, inherited from Hamura Otsutsuki. He began analyzing the eye’s power, leaving his bloodline problem unresolved.

• Wang Hao used his Flying Thunder God Technique to reach the remote location identified by the Root Organization’s records and Xiao Mengmeng’s guidance.
• Wang Hao pierced a spatial rift with the Kusanagi Sword and entered a desolate dimension littered with enormous beast bones.
• Wang Hao climbed the altar, where his Hyuga bloodline resonated with the Giant Tenseigan’s Chakra and let him bypass its safeguards.
• Wang Hao removed the seal covering the Giant Tenseigan and was nearly blown away by the power it released.
• Wang Hao analyzed the eye’s Chakra and confirmed that some of it was pure Hamura Otsutsuki Chakra without Kaguya Otsutsuki’s or the Sage of Six Paths’ will imprint.

Wang Hao met Hamura Otsutsuki while struggling to separate enough pure Chakra from the Giant Tenseigan to repair his damaged bloodline, and deceived him into believing the Sage of Six Paths had endangered the world. Hamura offered to help after discovering Wang Hao’s bloodline was nearly collapsing.

• Wang Hao lamented that extracting the tiny amount of pure Chakra needed to repair his bloodline could take ten years, then met Hamura Otsutsuki’s Chakra phantom.
• Wang Hao claimed Black Zetsu was Hamura’s younger brother and persuaded Hamura that Kaguya had acted to protect the world from the Otsutsuki home planet.
• Wang Hao showed Hamura memories of the Sage of Six Paths’ will within Chakra and accused him of draining natural energy and destroying the world’s cultivation paths.
• Wang Hao told Hamura that Madara Uchiha had been revived to help restore Kaguya, while the strongest leader among the five ninja village factions was only equivalent to a mid-level Swordmaster.
• Hamura asked whether Wang Hao needed help, then sensed that Wang Hao’s bloodline was near collapse and became furious on his behalf.

Wang Hao deceived Hamura Otsutsuki into giving him his Tenseigan, which repaired his bloodline and left him with the original Tenseigan Cursed Seal. After learning about his inherited powers and the dangers of fusing bloodlines, Wang Hao decided to postpone seeking Hamura’s other Tenseigan on the moon and return to the Land of Iron.

• Wang Hao told Hamura Otsutsuki that the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird Cursed Seal damaged his bloodline and asked him to help.
• Hamura Otsutsuki gave Wang Hao his golden Tenseigan and Tenseigan Chakra, then passed on his cultivation knowledge before his projection vanished.
• Wang Hao realized Hamura’s seal would strengthen his descendants’ bloodlines and that the Sage of Six Paths had maliciously altered it into the Hyuga Clan’s Caged Bird Cursed Seal.
• Wang Hao learned that Hamura’s other Tenseigan and the Ōtsutsuki Clan’s Sage Body were on the moon, and considered them necessary for future bloodline fusion.
• Wang Hao set aside his plans to reach the moon for now and decided to return to the Land of Iron.

Wang Hao returned to the Kurosawa Sword Dao Hall after killing bandits and began training Kurosawa Jukuro before accepting a challenge from the Yagyu Sword Dao Hall. His first Iaido Slash split a cloud high above them, leaving the sword masters stunned and Wang Hao newly wary of the power held by this world’s legendary weapons and masters.

• Wang Hao returned to the Kurosawa Sword Dao Hall, and Kurosawa Shichirō announced that Yagyu Sōichi would receive him at noon the next day.
• Wang Hao punished Kurosawa Jukuro with a wooden-sword training session and treated his injuries with medicinal liquid.
• Wang Hao arrived at the Yagyu Sword Dao Hall, where his killing aura terrified the disciples and let him pass their challenge without fighting.
• Wang Hao and Yagyu Sōichi exchanged formal introductions of the Kurosawa Divine Sword and Benimaru before taking Iaido Slash stances.
• Yagyu Sōichi attacked first, but Wang Hao’s strike overwhelmed his Sword Qi and split a cloud thousands of meters above them.
• Wang Hao realized the Kurosawa Divine Sword’s remaining divine might had amplified his slash and considered the strength of the world’s Great Swordmasters and Sword Saints.

Wang Hao spent four months defeating the Ancient Sword Dao schools of the Land of Iron and trading his sword techniques for their core inheritances, which revealed the origins of the Sharingan and the Byakugan’s greater potential. After returning to Kurosawa Sword Dao Hall, he accepted Kurosawa Shichirō’s challenge to reach High-Dan Swordmaster before facing General Amane, and believed he could break through within a month.

• Wang Hao defeated the Ancient Sword Dao schools across the Land of Iron, shared his techniques with their sword masters, and received their core inheritances in return.
• Wang Hao studied ancient texts that described immortal gods and monsters slaughtered to nourish the God Tree, and concluded that the Mangekyō Sharingan’s dōjutsu came from those devoured beings.
• Wang Hao judged the Sharingan’s potential limited and the Byakugan’s greater, while his own Byakugan began taking shape after four months of repairing his bloodline with Tenseigan Chakra.
• Wang Hao returned to Kurosawa Sword Dao Hall and asked Kurosawa Shichirō to give him the test required for nomination to the Battle of Swords.
• Kurosawa Shichirō told Wang Hao to reach High-Dan Swordmaster before facing General Amane, who had trained in seclusion and prepared the Land of Iron’s secret medicine.
• Wang Hao confidently accepted and expected to stabilize his foundation and break through within a month.