100 Power Stone Goal reached!
Expect 1 Bonus Chapter on Sunday!
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The Ryumon Legacy was always a violent one, an inheritance found within the boundary between life and death . . .
Now, with his body falling apart, hovering near death and sustained only by the life energy within his Nirvana Seal, Shiki was becoming more in tune with it than ever before.
Namely, a part of the legacy that the boy had purposefully neglected.
The part deeply connected to Ryuchi Cave and its mysteries.
Shiki had considered taking a trip there numerous times, he knew there was a lot to be gained, a power within his lineage that had yet to be fully unlocked, namely, the true, perfect form of Sage Transformation.
But the boy had reservations as well.
After over a millennium of silence from the Ryumon clan, how loyal did the notoriously cold blooded snakes remain.
After over a millennium of supremacy with her will being the sole authority, how would the White Snake Sage react if a youngling of the Ryumon suddenly showed up.
Shiki could not be sure.
Neither could he deal with the consequences of being wrong.
However, with that part of his clan legacy awakening under the trigger of injury and death, the boy was now able to approach the situation with a much more informed attitude.
*
With a deep, black, empty void within his own subconscious, Shiki's conscious mind floated.
In exchange for losing awareness of the outside world, the boy gained full access to every corner of his mind . . . almost . . .
"I can feel it . . ." He murmured to himself in that space.
Nature Energy, the Ryumon's source of power before chakra was passed on to humans.
Shiki was feeling it in a way that was far deeper and more intricate than before.
Far beyond anything a mere Sage Mode or Sage Transformation could achieve.
This was the realm only the Dragon God of the Ryumon had previously reached but the boy had the additional benefit of chakra and its associated methods.
Before, while Shiki's Void Chakra used refined Nature Energy filtered by his body, this filtration also weakened the end result, making it weaker than normal Sage Chakra.
However, with his deepening perception, the boy managed to see what hindered the realization of his true power.
While his body was filtering the Nature Energy, Shiki had also been consciously trying to adapt to it.
His intent was to train his body to accept more of this power but while the reasoning was sound, it was still a mistake.
As a Hollow of the Ryumon, he was never supposed to adapt to Nature.
He was supposed to make Nature adapt to him!
In trying to adjust himself to the absorbed Nature Energy, without ever even realizing it, Shiki had actually hampered his body's innate function to transform it.
Now though . . .
'I can take advantage of my current state to fix this.' He thought.
The broken, injured state he was in, a state that somehow had granted him conscious control of his subconscious . . .
By taking advantage of it, Shiki could fix all the bad habits he trained himself into regarding the absorption and refinement of Nature Energy.
Still, floating that void of his subconscious, Shiki's thought form assumed a cross legged meditation posture.
And with this, the boy's focus started deepening further and further.
*
Meanwhile . . .
Benihime and Maiko stared in bewilderment as Shiki's injured body started rising up in the air.
Before they could even gather their wits a "strange energy" began to swirl around his form.
Neither of the girls could actually perceive it.
Not even after activating her Shuigan in worry to check up on the boy, could Beni accurately gauge this "energy".
However, the sheer density of this power as it gathered in progressively larger amounts, affected the surroundings, making its presence known.
Indeed, this was Nature Energy.
As soon as a disturbance arose in Shiki's room, Mito had felt it and, while not skilled in the Sage Arts, "for most of her life", the Uzumaki matriarch was sufficiently trained in them to sense Nature energy since early adulthood.
She was aware that Shiki could use Nature Energy to an extent but this surpassed anything she had previously seen from the boy.
Instantaneously, she flickered into the boy's room and pulled back the two girls that seemed on the verge of doing something rash.
"Calm down. This is a good thing, just one of Shiki's many abilities evolving." Mito spoke to Maiko and Benihime, sounding far more certain that she actually was.
In fact, if one were to say the Uzumaki matriarch was trying to reassure herself as much as she was trying to reassure the girl, they would not be entirely inaccurate.
*
Back to the void of Shiki's subconscious . . .
After an undetermined amount of time, his thought form began changing.
First was his eyes.
The eyeshadow that marked a Perfect Sage appeared, pitch black in color, it did not extend too far beyond his eyes, even less so than Naruto's Sage Eyeshadow.
Next was the Nirvana Seal on his forehead.
It stretched into a vertical slit like a closed eye.
From it, the formulae and markings of the seal spread across Shiki's naked thought form as ornate lines and patterns similar to the way Tsunade's Yin Seal: Release of the Strength of a Hundred Seal looked yet more artistic in its look and feel.
Then things seemed to pause for a while.
On the outside world, the changes in Shiki's thought form also manifested on his physical body, reassuring Mito that her earlier conjecture had been right.
'Troublesome boy, always worrying me! I'll give you an earful once you wake up!' The Uzumaki matriarch inwardly complained even as she sighed in relief.
The reaction would have clued in the two girls on how worried Mito was and how hollow her previous reassurance had been but thankfully, Benihime and Maiko were far too focused on Shiki's unconscious form to notice it.
'Everything will be okay here, I should focus back on the outside. That black creature I captured should not be left unsupervised, even under that much sealing.' Mito thought to herself.
Just to be sure though, she still layered an unnecessarily large number of thick barriers to protect Shiki's room and left the girls with a warning to be more preoccupied with their surroundings since Shiki could not defend himself at that moment.
Alas!
That distraction proved enough.
You see, it was in that gap of vigilance when Mito's full focus turned to Shiki that Black Zetsu found the opening he needed to escape the matriarch's sealing trap, take down Uzushio's Village Barrier and make his escape.
If that gap in attention did not come, the creature would still have managed an escape, even if it meant sacrificing a portion of its physical form but fulfilling its original barrier breaking scheme would have been impossible.
With Shiki stealing away Mito's attention for a precious few minutes though, Black Zetsu had not only managed to achieve his goal, he even succeeded in making a clean getaway afterwards.
Incognizant of all this though, Shiki remained in his deep unconscious trance, his changes still ongoing.
In fact after a full day of unseen changes within, the boy's external self began transforming once again.
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Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -