[Current racial imprint available for integration: Quincy]
[Integrating racial imprint grants its talents and skills]
[Integrating racial imprint...]
[0.3%... 0.8%... 1.2%...]
Indescribable pain and a surge of power exploded within him simultaneously! His bones groaned, and his meridians burned!
Countless unfamiliar memories of drawing bows and firing arrows flooded his mind like instinct, as if he were a natural-born sharpshooter!
[Racial imprint integration complete]
[Integrated racial imprint: Quincy (Common, current integration: 10.02%)]
[You have obtained the talent: Reishi Affinity]
[You have obtained the talent skill: Reishi Gathering—The basic ability of a Quincy, gathering reishi from the surrounding air to oneself, converting it into one's own power]
[You have obtained the racial skill: Holy Arrow—Uses Reishi Gathering to fix reishi from the atmosphere into the shape of Chakra Arrows using spiritual power, which can be fired via a Spirit Bow to attack enemies]
[You have obtained the item: Quincy Cross—A symbol of the Quincy, it serves to strengthen Reishi Gathering and is often used by novice Quincies to assist in condensing Spirit Bows and Chakra Arrows]
[Item "Quincy Cross" has been changed from a physical object to a spiritual mark, now inscribed on the back of the right hand]
[You have obtained information: Quincy Archery Knowledge]
[Please establish a foothold in this world and acquire more energy crystals to increase integration and obtain more skills and control abilities]
[Please accumulate more energy crystals to open the Stone Gate and obtain new power support]
[Current energy crystal count: 0]
A searing heat spread across the back of his right hand as a mysterious cross-shaped spiritual mark instantly took shape!
In an instant, the near-death agony receded like a tide, replaced by an unprecedented sense of overflowing power!
But Hyuga Aokawa immediately noticed something was wrong.
Wait... there was no such thing as "reishi" in the air at all!
What he could clearly feel was the incredibly active Natural Energy surrounding him affectionately!
And what drove this power to form Chakra Arrows was not spiritual power, but the... Chakra already existing within his body!
Had this cheat been localized?
Or was it because he couldn't sense reishi or spiritual power?
And how was he supposed to get the energy crystals to increase integration?
Hyuga Aokawa had many questions, but he didn't have time to dwell on them.
He remained lying on the ground like a corpse, but his mind was frantically calculating distances, angles, and the time needed to simulate "Holy Arrow" using Chakra!
...The sky grew dark, and the light inside the wooden hut became increasingly dim.
"Rip—!"
The large man took great interest in tearing the woman's already tattered kimono into shreds once more.
Licking his lips, he admired the snowy-white skin visible beneath the ruined clothing, a perverted glint flashing in his eyes.
He loved this kind of scenery most.
Though he looked coarse, he played delicately, highly pursuing a sense of atmosphere.
The woman's eyes were hollow; her only glimmer of light was cast toward the motionless figure on the floor.
That was her last and only hope.
However, that figure remained lying there as if dead.
"Don't count on it, you waste!"
Noticing her gaze, the man stepped next to Hyuga Aokawa and sneered, "I'll tell you a secret: I was the one who beat him like a dead dog last time!"
"The four of them tried to surround me, and I slaughtered them all like dogs! He was the most useless of the lot!"
"If it weren't for someone on the black market suddenly putting out a bounty to crack that bird-crap Cursed Seal of theirs, even a Branch House member could be traded for a reward."
"I would have twisted his head off the moment I walked in!"
She suddenly looked at the man, her voice trembling as she pleaded, "I'll do anything you want... just let us go, okay?"
"Let you go?"
"Let you go?"
The man raised an eyebrow and suddenly grinned.
"Speaking of which, I should thank you."
"If you hadn't saved this kid, I wouldn't have even noticed he was still alive when I passed by again."
"You deserve some credit for me being able to collect this bounty."
Seeing a flicker of absurd hope ignite in the woman's eyes, he suddenly leaned in.
He sneered, "So I've decided to 'love' you both properly, and then leave you with intact corpses."
"You beast!"
The woman suddenly erupted with her last bit of strength, struggling wildly, then whipped her head around and bit down hard on the man's neck.
"Fuck!"
"Crazy woman!"
In pain, the man shoved the woman away in a rage.
His fan-like hands clamped down on her arms.
He dragged her brutally toward the pillar in the center of the room like a piece of cargo.
"Eri-chan, run! Don't worry about Mama!" the woman screamed at her daughter.
"Waaah... Mama... I'm not leaving..."
"Bad man! Let go of Mama!"
Amidst this chaos.
The "unconscious" figure on the ground.
Moved!
Hyuga Aokawa suddenly flipped up, his wrist flicking as several Shuriken appeared between his fingers, thrown out like lightning!
Swish, swish, swish!
The Shuriken tore through the air with a shrill whistle, heading straight for the man's face and heart!
"Ninja Lord!"
In the woman's desperate eyes, a wild joy of surviving a disaster instantly erupted!
The man was also scared out of his wits by the sneak attack, instinctively letting go of the woman and scrambling to block with a Kunai.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Even so, a deep gash, exposing the bone, was sliced into his arm!
"You little brat! You're dead!"
The man's face twisted as he roared, about to pounce and tear Hyuga Aokawa to pieces!
However!
The next second!
That figure, who had just been so imposing, didn't even look at the result!
He suddenly turned around and threw a punch!
Boom—!
He smashed a large hole right through the already cracked wooden wall!
Without hesitation, he leaped out, his figure instantly vanishing into the night outside!
He ran?
He actually... ran?!
Inside the room, a deathly silence fell.
The ecstatic smile on the woman's face froze instantly.
The sound of retreating footsteps was like a heavy hammer, shattering her final illusions one by one.
She whipped her head around like a trapped beast and let out a heart-wrenching wail toward the dark hole in the wall:
"Take Eri-chan with you!!"
"I beg you! Just take her!!"
"Ninja Lord! Come back!"
"Come back—!!"
Her cries were hoarse and exhausted; the only response was the empty echo of the mountain forest and those... increasingly distant footsteps.