Shadow clones began to quickly sweep the surrounding area. Meanwhile, Luo Ning's main body did not stay idle either. His mastery of [En] had not yet reached the level where it could effectively assist in scouting his surroundings. Currently, Luo Ning's [En] could only expand to a radius of two or three meters. This was due to the fact that he had not prioritized training [En] in his cultivation.
The size of one's [En] does not necessarily represent the absolute strength of an ability user, but it is certain that any user possessing a sufficiently large [En] is undoubtedly powerful.
However, there are several sensory-type techniques within Ninjutsu. For Luo Ning at his current stage, the most useful one was undoubtedly the Sharingan. Indeed, it was the Sharingan; the other sensory Ninjutsu he knew of required at least an A-rank difficulty to master. For instance, the Third Hokage's Telescope Technique was A-rank. The Akatsuki leader Nagato's Rain Tiger at Will Technique also possessed an A-rank cultivation difficulty.
As for Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura, that was a Kekkei Genkai which Luo Ning could not perform. The Byakugan was likewise a Kekkei Genkai, and Malice Sensing was an ability exclusive to the Nine-Tails. Then there were the insects of the Aburame clan, the dogs and sense of smell of the Inuzuka clan, Gaara's sand, and so on. In short, these were either restricted by high cultivation difficulty or were special secret arts that required various tools and mediums to use.
So, after weighing his options, the tool Luo Ning could actually utilize was his own Sharingan. Nen existed within all the puppets; as long as he activated his Sharingan, the Nen within a certain range could not escape the observation of those eyes. The insight of the Sharingan was only slightly inferior to the Byakugan; compared to an average person, it was already superhuman.
At this moment, the shadow clones were utilizing the Sharingan's insight to search the vicinity for ability users. As expected, Nobunaga was not the only puppet. More puppets were hidden in the shadows. They lacked eyes and appeared unremarkable—even their facial features were entirely uniform, as if they had been mass-produced in a factory.
Luo Ning marked all the locations of the puppets discovered by his shadow clones on the map and recorded Nobunaga's movement route. Kurapika stared intensely at the map. While pondering the intelligence Luo Ning had provided regarding Omokage, he combined it with the markings on the map to analyze Omokage's possible hiding place.
Soon, his gaze locked onto a church in the suburbs.
"Here. The opponent isn't even trying to hide!" Kurapika said solemnly, pointing at the church's location.
"A trap!" Luo Ning was equally solemn, though his tone shifted. "Regardless of whether he has laid a trap in the church, our primary objective now is to retrieve the Scarlet Eyes carried by the Nobunaga puppet!"
"Are you sure?" Kurapika was somewhat worried. The existence of the prophecy poem was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads; no one knew when it might fall.
"Yeah." Luo Ning gave a simple reply and immediately left the room.
The shadow clones' targets were the hidden puppets, while the main body's target was the Nobunaga puppet. In a long alleyway, the tall, thin puppets hidden behind the Nobunaga puppet stood ready for combat at any moment. But as they passed a wall covered in graffiti, a flash of lightning suddenly descended from above!
[Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chiyo Dance]!
It was still one of the Raikage's signature moves. With just one strike, the powerful force severed the puppet's neck before it could even turn its head. The puppet's hollow-eyed head flew off, and before it could even hit the ground, clusters of fireballs followed, incinerating the head in mid-air!
It was [Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique].
However, as the puppet's body collapsed, even more puppets rushed toward the position where Luo Ning's shadow clone had appeared.
Luo Ning, hidden on a rooftop, also entered the Sharingan state. He scanned the surroundings, looked down, and then suddenly stepped out, falling directly from a height of about five stories. A five-story drop no longer posed a threat to him.
Luo Ning landed at the entrance of an alley. Walking slowly within that alley was the Nobunaga puppet, equipped with the Scarlet Eyes. There was no need for unnecessary communication; the moment he landed, arcs of electricity were already flashing across Luo Ning's body.
The number of puppets Omokage could control at once had slightly exceeded Luo Ning's expectations. From the shadow clone's battle with those plain, cookie-cutter puppets, he realized that aside from the special ones—those modeled after members of the Phantom Troupe—the remaining puppets only possessed strength slightly above that of an average person.
However, these puppets shared a common trait: making eye contact at close range would result in the target's eyes being stolen! This was a conclusion the shadow clone had tested with its 'life'!
Specialization-type abilities truly couldn't be judged by common logic. But now that he understood these mechanisms, Luo Ning, leaping down from the heights, had only one thought: as long as he was fast enough, those hidden puppets wouldn't be able to catch him, let alone establish close-range eye contact!
[Lightning Release Chakra Mode]!
The chakra inside Luo Ning's body rapidly transformed into the lightning attribute as he performed the hand seals. This was the secret art passed down through generations in the Hidden Cloud Village. The Third Raikage used this technique to fight the Eight-Tails in hand-to-hand combat to a draw, and when the Fourth Raikage used it, his speed was second only to the Flying Thunder God Technique. Only the Fifth Raikage had failed to learn this technique due to insufficient chakra.
Now that it was in Luo Ning's hands, although he wouldn't be unable to perform it due to chakra volume, he couldn't maintain it for long.
One minute.
This was the optimal duration Luo Ning had calculated after several attempts. After one minute, Luo Ning would exit the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. At that time, he would still retain a certain amount of chakra, and his body wouldn't be overloaded.
And one minute was more than enough for him in the Lightning Release Chakra Mode! After all, this was the ability known as the 'Strongest Lightning Release Armor'!
The moment Luo Ning landed, the Nobunaga puppet sensed the danger. It lowered its body and assumed a draw-sword stance, exactly like the real Nobunaga. But in the next second, the figure shrouded in lightning at the alley entrance vanished.
Without an expanded [En], the Nobunaga puppet—regardless of what Nen abilities it had inherited from Nobunaga—didn't know where the attack was coming from. A Nobunaga without [En] was imperfect!
At this moment, the Nobunaga puppet's movements were incredibly slow in Luo Ning's eyes. Luo Ning's hand, carrying the electric arcs, reached directly for the puppet's head.
With a sharp crackle, the lightning flashed, and the Nobunaga puppet's head was easily torn off by Luo Ning. The powerful Lightning Release Chakra Mode didn't just increase Luo Ning's speed; by stimulating his cells with lightning-attribute chakra, his physical attributes were also enhanced to an extreme degree.
The puppet felt like it was made of paper in his hands!
It wasn't until Luo Ning stopped deep in the alley that the sword in the Nobunaga puppet's hand finally slashed toward the alley entrance.
Thud.
The puppet collapsed. Luo Ning turned and glanced at it, and with another flash of lightning, he disappeared again. On the various rooftops nearby, a large number of puppets quickly appeared, but as they looked at the headless Nobunaga puppet below, they stopped moving, as if they had glitched out.
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