“Even if I don’t know what kind of business you have with Frost, the principle of an assassin is absolute—once a contract is accepted, no matter the circumstances, the mission must be completed.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Hit’s right hand—still tucked inside his pants pocket—moved.

At a speed completely imperceptible to the human eye, his fist shot straight toward Tachibana Kyūjō’s heart.

The sheer speed of Hit’s attack made Kyūjō genuinely startled. He could feel it clearly—the strike had nearly reached his own level of speed.

By his estimation, Hit’s current combat power hovered around five hundred billion in power level.

But that speed…

It was frighteningly close to Kyūjō’s own movement speed in his normal state, a realm that reached into the trillions.

With a slight twist of his body, Tachibana Kyūjō narrowly avoided the blow.

He turned his gaze toward Hit, curiosity flickering in his eyes, and asked calmly,

“How did you do that? That just now… was that what you call Flash Fist Crush—Time-Skip?”

Hit froze for a brief moment.

It had been a long time since anyone had managed to evade his attack.

Ever since he mastered Time-Skip, almost no opponent had been able to react. Most of them fell after a single strike, their battles ending before they truly began.

Yet the man standing before him had not only dodged effortlessly, but had even identified the name of his technique.

That alone was enough to spark genuine interest within Hit.

“What is your name?” Hit asked slowly, his hands still resting inside his pockets.

“The attack just now was only an advanced application of Time-Skip. It doesn’t even reflect the technique’s true form. Do you want to see what it can really do?”

Tachibana Kyūjō gave a faint smile.

“My name is Tachibana Kyūjō. Go ahead, Hit. Attack me. Show me your greatest strength.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Kyūjō closed his eyes.

He drew in all the power of the Infinity Perception System—his limitless sensory ability—and compressed it inward, sealing it completely within his body.

This time, he had no intention of relying on it in battle.

He wanted to use this fight as a trial.

A crucible to temper his Ultra Instinct until it reached true perfection.

By all logic, with his talent and the sheer amount of time he had devoted to training, he should have already reached the peak of Ultra Instinct.

And yet…

Despite having mastered Ultra Ego—the signature power of the Gods of Destruction—why did Perfected Ultra Instinct, the pure ability of the Angels, always remain just one step beyond his grasp?

After years of contemplation, Kyūjō finally realized the answer.

His own ability, the Infinity Perception System, fundamentally contradicted the core principle of Ultra Instinct.

Infinity Perception was driven entirely by conscious awareness and mental processing.

Ultra Instinct, on the other hand, was the opposite—movement born from the body’s pure instincts, reactions without thought, without deliberation.

His mind drifted back to his time in the One Piece world, when he trained to master Kenbunshoku Haki.

Back then, because he already possessed Kenshin Tomei, his body had been unable to awaken true Kenbunshoku Haki.

It was only after receiving advice from his mentor, Koshiro, that he finally disabled Kenshin Tomei.

Within a single month, his Kenbunshoku Haki awakened completely.

After that, he even managed to fuse the two abilities together—giving birth to the very first generation of what would become the Infinity Perception System.

— — —

The moment Kyūjō shut down his sensory ability, Hit attacked again from afar.

A series of violent impacts echoed through the air.

In a span of time that felt almost frozen to the outside world, Hit activated Time-Skip, leaping 0.1 seconds into the future and creating a temporal gap between himself and his opponent.

Unless an enemy could predict his movements—or had mastered true Ultra Instinct, where the body reacted without commands from the brain—no one could defeat him in a pure battle of technique.

Even Jiren of Universe 11 had only managed to defeat Hit because his raw energy far surpassed him, not because he was superior in technique.

The Gods of Destruction were the same.

They dominated through overwhelming power, not mastery over temporal speed.

Now, with Tachibana Kyūjō having sealed his system, he was nothing more than a perfect target.

Within that mere 0.1-second interval, Hit unleashed hundreds of consecutive strikes upon Kyūjō’s body.

Every single blow landed cleanly.

And yet, Kyūjō’s body endured.

The reason lay in the Divine Energy flowing through him—the lingering remnant of Ultra Ego.

— — —

The concepts of Ultra Ego, Natural Instinct, and Ultra Instinct all shared one fundamental similarity.

They transformed Ki into Divine Power.

Through that transformation, a mortal body began its ascent toward a divine existence.

Each path possessed a different affinity.

Ultra Ego reflected the Destruction power of the Gods of Destruction.

Natural Instinct resonated with the Creation power of the Kaioshin.

Ultra Instinct manifested the power of Order, the defining trait of the Angels.

The energy within Kyūjō had now evolved toward pure Destruction Energy.

That was why Hit’s attacks caused damage—but not fatal injury.

— — —

Hit halted.

He stared at his opponent, who had just endured hundreds of devastating blows and yet still floated upright in the air, disbelief flickering across his normally stoic face.

Tachibana Kyūjō’s body was covered in bruises. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

And yet, he was smiling faintly.

“Are you finished, Hit?” Kyūjō asked calmly. “If so… then it’s my turn.”

In an instant, relying solely on his body’s natural sense of Ki, Kyūjō threw a straight punch—one powerful enough to shake the planet’s atmosphere itself.

Sensing the overwhelming surge of energy, Hit immediately retreated. He knew the difference in raw power between them was vast, and Time-Skip was ill-suited for close-range exchanges against an opponent like this.

A true assassin exploited advantages and struck at weaknesses.

Only fools—or anime protagonists—chose to clash head-on in contests of brute strength.

Hit activated Time-Skip once more.

Again, within that frozen 0.1-second interval, a relentless barrage of strikes slammed into Kyūjō’s body. The sound of flesh and energy colliding rang out in rapid succession, blow after blow landing without pause.

Kyūjō’s body was sent flying once more, tossed around like a training dummy.

In that brief moment, his bones cracked, muscles tore, and most of his internal organs suffered severe damage. Only the divine energy coating his body kept him alive.

The instant Time-Skip ended—its natural cooldown kicking in—Kyūjō moved.

From the back belt of his battle uniform, he pulled out a single Senzu Bean and swallowed it without hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, every wound and ounce of fatigue vanished. His energy returned to its peak, as if nothing had happened.

Seeing this sudden change, Hit frowned. He was about to activate Time-Skip again to snatch the mysterious object from Kyūjō’s waist—

—but instead, Kyūjō pulled out a handful of the same beans and tossed them toward him.

Around ten small green beans landed neatly in Hit’s palm.

He stared at them in confusion.

“What are these?” he asked flatly.

Tachibana Kyūjō smiled.

“They’re called Senzu Beans. A miraculous item—no matter how severe your injuries are, just one is enough to fully restore your body and recover all your energy.”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not giving these out of mercy. I just want to fight you without holding anything back. That Time-Skip technique of yours must consume a lot of energy, right? With these, you won’t need to restrain yourself anymore.”

Kyūjō clenched his fist, his aura blazing to life.

“Use your full power, Hit! Show me everything you’ve got!”

His voice echoed across the darkened sky of the planet, awakening a long-buried fighting spirit within Hit.

How long had it been… since he last felt this rush?

Since mastering Time-Skip, within Universe 6, no one had been able to stand against him.

Aside from the God of Destruction and his accompanying Angel, he stood at the apex of existence.

Like Saitama in another world, every battle had become dull—his opponents always fell in a single strike.

But this time was different.

The man before him—a warrior from another universe, Tachibana Kyūjō—had endured his attacks.

More than that, he had invited him to fight without limits.

The flames of battle within Hit, extinguished for hundreds of years, roared back to life.

“If 0.1 seconds still isn’t enough to bring you down…” Hit said slowly, his eyes gleaming with razor-sharp intensity.

“…then I’ll break past that limit—0.2 seconds… 0.3 seconds…!”

“I, Hit—will never lose to anyone!”

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep