Chapter 667 – Sage

Hanwu continued his assault, punching ten times with the Vortex Collapsing Fist. The vortexes didn’t explode on impact but instead penetrated deep into the Assault Giant’s body and tore everything apart.

The Assault Giant’s skeleton shattered. Its regeneration speed simply couldn’t match Hanwu’s pummeling. As things went on, the Assault Giant gradually lost hope and thus its strength, becoming weaker with every hit.

Hanwu willed the Four Guardians Seal open. Chains shot from his body, bound the Assault Giant, and dragged it inside. A new cage appeared inside the Four Guardians Seal.

The Assault Giant sat next to the Maw Giant, the latter cheering at the sight of its old friend.

“Take care of your brother and make sure it learns the rules,” Hanwu ordered the Maw Giant before he left.

Outside his consciousness, Nan was on a killing spree, slaughtering several thirty-meter-tall giants and a myriad of the smaller ones. This showcased Nan’s strength and also satisfied his lust for dissection. While fighting, Nan had observed the battle between Hanwu and the Assault Giant and gained new insight into Hanwu’s strength.

An idea popped into his head, and he approached Hanwu. “Do you know why the boss is called Fusatsu[1] despite being so strong?”

Hanwu was indeed curious. In his match against Fusatsu, the latter had almost killed him in one blow. If not for Undying and the Maw Giant, Hanwu would’ve actually died. How could someone with the power to kill others in a single blow be called Fusatsu?

“Why?”

Nan smiled mysteriously. “That’s because the boss can’t attack first.”

Hanwu was perplexed. What did Nan mean? After pondering this over for some time, he finally understood. “Are you saying that if I don’t attack him, he won’t have the power to attack me?”

Nan just smiled wryly in response.

“Why are you telling me this?” Hanwu asked warily.

This was important information, not something to be revealed in a casual conversation. If Nan’s words were true, then he didn’t actually need to help the Rogue to complete their mission.

He could simply not fight Fusatsu and capture him to interrogate him about the whereabouts of Lord Huangquan. But was Nan telling the truth? As he mulled this over, he suddenly realized that he had accumulated 36 upgrade points.

It was a staggering number, enough for him to upgrade his parameters. After allocating the points, he managed to upgrade all of his parameters to 10, completely maxing them out.

At the same time, he entered a profound state, as if having an epiphany. He abruptly noticed an abundance of free-floating energy in the natural world. Moreover, it appeared that he could use this energy as well.

He gave it a slight test, and to his surprise, he could use Black Water Clone with said energy instead of chakra. Normally, a clone could only inherit a tenth of his parameters and had the corrosive property of the black water.

However, the clone formed from the surrounding energy inherited half of his parameters, and could even use Black Water Bullet! This was a massive revelation. Hanwu felt as though he had ascended past the realm of a ninja.

He could now comprehend more rules of the world, and the strength of his soul meant he could learn a lot. After absorbing everything that entered his body, he learned that he had stepped past the rank of Shadow to become a Sage of this world.

After becoming a Sage, he could use the free-floating energy in the natural world to substitute his chakra and enhance his jutsu. He dubbed these enhanced jutsu as Sage Jutsu.

Hanwu decided to experiment with his Black Water Clone and upgraded it to a Sage Jutsu. The original jutsu was only C-rated, but after turning into a Sage Jutsu, it became comparable to a regular A-rated jutsu.

What if I turn all my other jutsu into Sage Jutsu as well? How strong will I become?

He absorbed the free-floating energy and tried to change his other jutsu, only to realize that doing so required enormous amounts of energy under normal circumstances.

While not in the profound state he had entered before, his absorption rate of the energy was abysmal. It would take him five days to upgrade even a B-rated jutsu. Turning an S-rated jutsu like Flesh Ascendant into a Sage Jutsu would take him an entire year.

Becoming a Sage is already an unexpected reward. I shouldn’t rush. He consoled himself.

After completing his ascension, he woke to see Nan standing before him with the four-meter scalpel in his hand and a cryptic smile on his face.

Hanwu gave himself a panicked once-over and only relaxed after finding no evidence of wounds. He had truly feared that Nan had stolen his kidney while he was vulnerable. He wouldn’t put it past the man.

“It seems that you’ve obtained a lot from that fight with the Assault Giant.”

“Somewhat.”

“Have you considered my proposal?” Nan asked excitedly. “I want to dissect the boss. With your help, we can both get what we want.”

Hanwu was having a headache when he realized that Nan had admitted to wanting to kill the boss. Nevertheless, Hanwu was aware of his own strength. Even if he was a Sage, one step above Shadow, he had no means to suppress Fusatsu without attacking.

“I understand your concern. I have a powerful sealing jutsu, but I need you to exhaust his chakra first. Only then can I seal him. Fusatsu would be ours,” Nan explained excitedly.

Hanwu stared at him with cautious curiosity. “What did Fusatsu do to make you want to kill him so badly?”

“Nothing,” Nan replied with a discomforting smile. “I just want to dissect him. I like dissecting powerful foes. That’s all. I would do the same with you too if I had a method to defeat you.”

Evidently, Nan was more deranged than Hanwu had previously thought, but he didn’t mind cooperating with a maniac if it meant achieving his goals.

1. His name means “doesn’t kill” ☜

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