Kusagakure looked like nothing more than a second-tier minor village, but after listening to the two ninja, Uchiha Feiyu was left with only one impression:
Chaos.
Originally, Feiyu had assumed the Land of Grass had at most three to four thousand ninja. Now he realized he was wrong. Kusagakure's numbers were double what he'd estimated—around six to seven thousand.
That was nearly the same as Sunagakure back then. Logically, the Land of Grass was only a small country—under normal circumstances, it shouldn't have been able to support that many ninja.
But the Land of Grass operated differently from the Five Great Countries. This country had no daimyō. The ninja village replaced that function entirely, directly controlling the nation's economy and tax revenue.
Under that system, most of the nation's money naturally poured into the village's development. Having an overstuffed ninja roster was hardly surprising.
Of course, while the quantity was there… the quality was another matter.
Feiyu looked at the two ninja he had just controlled. In a major hidden village, their level would be about the same as newly graduated academy students. Yet here, they were considered seasoned genin.
And among those six to seven thousand ninja, at least five thousand were around the same level as these two. No wonder the great villages couldn't be bothered with the Land of Grass.
Worse still, the ninja were split into countless factions—something like the Flower Faction, Grass Faction, Leaf Faction, and then "Twelve Zodiac Leaders"… It left Feiyu completely baffled.
Such a tiny country, yet so many ninja, and so many factions—a small temple, but the demons are wild; a shallow pond, but the turtles are countless.
Even after all that, Feiyu still didn't hear anything about the Uzumaki clan. Clearly, either the captured Uzumaki woman was being held by the upper ranks, or these two ninja were simply too low-level to know.
In Feiyu's eyes, it was definitely the latter.
He didn't bother questioning them further. Raising a hand, he formed a Great Dao Bottle hand seal. Chakra surged out of his body, condensing into the rough, illusory outline of a bottle—and then it erupted with a terrifying suction force.
The two Grass ninja screamed. Under that pull, they exploded into a cloud of blood mist and were sucked straight into it.
A moment later, the chakra-formed bottle vanished, leaving behind only ash-like residue drifting down through the air.
An invisible current of blood-qi seeped into Feiyu's body, raising his bodily origin a little more.
"The effect keeps getting worse… Ordinary people's origin isn't just small and low-quality—it's full of impurities too. I have to refine it slowly before it can truly merge into my own origin."
"No wonder Devouring Heaven cultivators always target geniuses with special constitutions. Ordinary cultivators only help at the beginning. Later on, instead of wasting time devouring commoners, it's faster to cultivate the secret art and evolve your physique directly."
Besides, increases to one's origin had a ceiling. Once he reached that ceiling, to break through further he would need new constitutional origins to merge and stimulate change. By that point, ordinary physiques would be completely useless.
"It's a pity that almost all constitutions in the ninja world trace back to the Ōtsutsuki. Even if I fused every physique in this world, I'd only end up with an enhanced Ōtsutsuki at best…"
That was only because the Devouring Heaven secret art was so absurdly effective. Otherwise, a technique that devoured constitutions could never rise above its original source.
After casually consuming the two ninja, Feiyu didn't waste more time. He left the town and headed straight for Kusagakure.
Even the Five Great Villages had no defense against Feiyu's five-senses manipulation genjutsu—they couldn't detect his comings and goings. Kusagakure stood even less of a chance.
Even if Feiyu swaggered through the village gates, no one would notice anything at all.
After a brief look around the village, Feiyu soon spotted a ninja who seemed to hold a fairly high position.
Without hesitation, he walked up and threw a Mangekyō genjutsu straight at him.
The man was a Kusagakure tokubetsu jōnin—a Special Jōnin. Of course, in Feiyu's eyes, this guy's strength was only slightly above chunin. Against the Mangekyō, he immediately spilled information like beans from a bamboo tube.
Kusagakure had indeed captured an Uzumaki woman, and they had discovered her special Vitality Healing bloodline trait. But the higher-ups were divided on how to use this "gift from the heavens."
One faction wanted to turn her into a blood bag.
Another faction had bigger ambitions—they wanted to offer her as a sacrifice to the Box of Ultimate Bliss, using the Uzumaki's enormous chakra to open it and make a wish to conquer the ninja world.
"What kind of idiots… The Box of Ultimate Bliss too? I forgot to check. So this movie plot element actually exists here."
Unfortunately, that so-called Box didn't seem to be worth much. It only produced a monster called Satori, and since it offered Feiyu no benefits, he'd never bothered paying attention to it.
But now that Feiyu was here, that Uzumaki woman wouldn't need to become a blood bag or a sacrifice.
On the contrary, Kusagakure's people were far more likely to become sacrifices for the Demonic Path Grimoire.
Soon, with the Special Jōnin leading the way, Feiyu arrived at Kusagakure's prison.
"The Uzumaki woman we captured is being held in the prison. Once the upper ranks finish arguing, they'll decide whether to send her to the medical division… or to Hōzuki Castle."
"Tch… locking her in a prison right away. What an ugly way to do things. But Kusagakure really doesn't have the ability to cultivate an Uzumaki—let alone risk being bitten back by an Uzumaki ninja."
"So from the start, they planned to use her until she died."
Just as an Uchiha who awakened a three-tomoe Sharingan was basically guaranteed to become a jōnin—often a particularly troublesome one—
Within the Uzumaki clan, anyone who awakened a bloodline trait would at least reach jōnin level, and might even be stronger than an Uchiha.
After all, the sheer chakra volume alone made them terrifying. Even as a mindless ninjutsu turret, they could blast ordinary jōnin into a mess.
Did Kusagakure not understand what kind of genius a bloodline-awakened Uzumaki was?
Of course they did.
But these Grass ninja believed they couldn't control such a talent, so they chose not to. They treated her like an object—use it up, then discard it.
Their plan was neat. Unfortunately, Feiyu had arrived.
Now their plan meant nothing.
Since he'd already located his target, Feiyu stopped bothering to hide himself. With a flick of his wrist, he casually threw a kunai—killing the Grass ninja who had guided him—then began walking toward the prison.
The moment Feiyu's five-senses manipulation genjutsu dropped, Kusagakure suddenly noticed a stranger had appeared inside their village.
And the instant Feiyu killed the guide ninja with a kunai, it was like he'd kicked over an ant nest. The Grass ninja became frantic.
"Who are you?! Someone's invading the village!!"
"Careful!! His target is the prison! Don't let him free the dangerous criminals inside!"
Feiyu, listening to them scream, sighed and casually dug a finger into his ear.
"So noisy."
The next instant, an unimaginable amount of chakra erupted from his body. The sheer burst of chakra shook the ground, sending thin cracks spidering across the earth.
The Grass ninja who had been full of vigilance now trembled as if facing a natural disaster. Some even dropped their weapons and fled on the spot.
"This kind of fighting spirit… So you really do deserve the 'fence-sitter' reputation."
This was the first time Feiyu had ever seen ninja who ran purely from chakra pressure.
Ninja in this world had all kinds of flaws—violent, cold, insane, brainless—you name it.
But cowardice to the point of refusing to fight at all?
That was rare.
Feiyu had spent so long in Konoha, and he'd never once seen ninja who fled before battle even began. He'd always thought only he could do that.
Most ninja—no matter how badly they shook on the battlefield—still wouldn't turn around and run at the very start.
But…
"Trying to run now is a bit too late…"
Feiyu formed the Great Dao Bottle seal again. Above his head, massive chakra gathered into a huge, illusory bottle, radiating a terrifying suction force.
Under its pull, every Grass ninja found their steps growing heavy—then their bodies began to weaken rapidly.
That suction wasn't pulling matter.
It was pulling the chakra inside every ninja—甚至 even their pure bodily origin.
In only a moment, the weakened ninja could no longer hold themselves together. They were sucked into the bottle and reduced to ash.
"The stronger the ninja, the larger and purer the origin… Looks like in the future, this Great Dao Bottle is only worth using on experts."
After draining the origin of the Grass ninja in front of him, Feiyu sensed it—and sighed again.
In his perception, extracting origin from genin and chunin now gave him almost no nourishment. Worse, cleansing and dissolving those impurities wasted time.
Only at the jōnin level did it truly become useful—pushing his physique toward something stronger.
"But… soon even jōnin will probably stop being useful to me. The stronger the physique, the closer the bloodline gets to Ōtsutsuki, the more powerful an origin I'll need to keep progressing."
Lowering his hands, Feiyu continued toward the prison.
The two ninja guarding the prison entrance had already been killed. As for the sealing array on the prison gate, Feiyu simply lifted a hand—and it vanished into nothing.
The Myriad Transformations Sacred Art could turn the miraculous into the mundane. Through research, Feiyu had ultimately modified it into a chakra-absorption skill.
Beyond merely absorbing chakra, it could also dissolve barriers and seals directly. As long as something belonged to the realm of chakra, it was suppressed by this art.
Unlike the Rinnegan's Preta Path, Myriad Transformations didn't only affect chakra.
Strictly speaking, all energy fell within what it could dissolve. So in theory, even senjutsu or Kekkei Mōra could be restrained by it.
And if Myriad Transformations were cultivated to a high enough level, even natural weather phenomena or physical forces would fall within the scope of "turning to mundane."
Of course, Feiyu didn't have that level of mastery. And while the technique had an incredible upper limit, it didn't possess the absolute, overwhelming suppression that Six Paths or Ōtsutsuki power had over ordinary chakra.
If ordinary chakra quantities became enormous enough, Myriad Transformations would also fail to dissolve it.
But that "enormous enough" was at least tailed-beast scale.
Once Kusagakure's prison seals turned to dust, Feiyu pushed the gate casually. It swung open, and a foul stench poured out from within.
Frowning, Feiyu walked in and glanced around. Seeing that the newcomer wasn't a Grass ninja, the prisoners immediately began shouting.
"Let me out! Let me out!!"
"What village are you from? If you want to kill your way out of Kusagakure, you'll need our strength, won't you?!"
Pretty lively.
Feiyu swept his eyes across them, but didn't respond. Anyone captured by Kusagakure was mostly genin and chunin—worthless to him.
In his perception, deep in the prison there truly was an aura brimming with vitality.
That had to be the Uzumaki woman.
When the prisoners saw Feiyu ignoring them and walking deeper inside, they shouted even louder, and some started spewing obscenities.
Seeing they wouldn't shut up, Feiyu let out a soft, cold chuckle and stomped lightly on the ground.
Crack—crack—
In an instant, earth spikes erupted inside every cell, impaling the screaming prisoners like skewers.
No hand signs were needed. This was another gain Feiyu had obtained from comprehending the Devouring Heaven secret methods.
He didn't even need the motion of bringing his hands together anymore—any ninjutsu below A-rank could be launched with a thought.
The shouting turned into screams.
Thick blood stench seeped from every cell.
Feiyu's expression didn't change as he shattered another layer of seals—finally reaching the deepest cell, where a red-haired woman was held.
"You… who are you?"
The red-haired woman stared at Feiyu as he approached, her voice trembling.
She couldn't not be afraid.
Behind him were the moans of the dying, the smell of blood, and prisoners impaled and bleeding—an unbearable backdrop of horror.
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