The Fourth Great Ninja War began with the annihilation of Stone Hidden.
This was an unexpected turn of events for everyone.
The way the war was pushed to its climax was equally surprising.
While Hanzo led four thousand Rain Hidden ninjas, and the Third Kazekage brought fifteen hundred against Cloud Hidden Village, Nagato, the Rain Kage candidate, along with Elder Kakuzu and over two hundred elites, traveled thousands of miles. They stormed the undermanned Cloud Hidden Village, successfully capturing the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki and the Two-Tails Jinchuriki.
With intelligence provided by Uchiha Fugaku and White Zetsu, Nagato and Kakuzu found Killer B and Yugito Nii, the young Two-Tails Jinchuriki who had just recently become one, in the Cloud-Thunder Gorge with little difficulty.
At this time, Killer B had largely mastered the Eight-Tails' power. However, he was no match for Nagato, who was in good health, possessed the Rinnegan, and was also the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki. After a brief and difficult resistance, he was immediately captured by the Preta Path, which drained his chakra.
Yugito Nii was even less of a factor. Before she had even graduated from the Ninja Academy, Kakuzu killed her escorts and knocked her unconscious before capturing her.
Shortly after the war began, Cloud Hidden Village had two Tailed Beasts captured.
This news once again shocked the Ninja World.
They were shocked by Rain Hidden's strength, which exceeded their estimations, and by Rain Hidden's actions.
By doing this, Rain Hidden was attacking the very foundation of Cloud Hidden, forcing them to fight to the death.
The fate of Stone Hidden, after losing their Tailed Beast, was already on display for the entire Ninja World to see. Without their Tailed Beast, they couldn't even defend their own village. If Cloud Hidden Village didn't want to suffer the same fate, they had to retrieve their Tailed Beasts.
Their actions had completely alienated Cloud Hidden. Without the return of the Tailed Beasts, there was no possibility of peace.
From the perspective of most factions, Rain Hidden was choosing to go down the same path as Sand Hidden, leaving no room for retreat.
Meanwhile, Konoha, under the guise of mediating the war, deployed troops to Sand Hidden, aiming to reclaim territories lost during the Third Great Ninja War and force Sand Hidden to halt their hostilities.
They believed that with Sand Hidden's main forces tied up and needing to divert some energy to defend against the Mist Hidden army attacking from the sea, Konoha would surely prevail, even without the intervention of the Impure World Reincarnation of Senju Hashirama.
However, reality delivered a harsh blow.
Sasori, along with Rasa, Karura, and over a dozen Elite Jonin equipped with enhanced Puppet Armor and possessing Kage-level strength, led an army of five thousand Sand Hidden soldiers and nearly crushed Konoha's forces in a single battle.
The scene was utterly devastating!
Even with Senju Hashirama's timely intervention, he couldn't stop Sasori piloting the Sasori of the Red Sand. After taking a hit from the Scorching Core, his Impure World Reincarnation body was heavily damaged, and he was nearly sealed by Sasori during his recovery time.
If not for the timely intervention of Kushina Uzumaki, who had fully mastered Nine-Tails chakra and could perform Tailed Beast Transformation, Senju Hashirama would have been sealed.
Although she hadn't, like her son Uzumaki Naruto in the original timeline, managed to pacify the Nine-Tails and achieve perfect Jinchuriki status to enter Sage Mode, Kushina's mastery of Sealing Jutsu was exceptionally high. She could forcefully extract Nine-Tails chakra using Adamantine Chains. Her combat power was even greater than the Eight-Tails mode that could fight Pain toe-to-toe in her berserk state in the original timeline, making her a true Super Kage-level combatant.
Her raw power was slightly greater than Senju Hashirama's, who was only at just over forty percent of his strength.
As Sand Village grew stronger, other ninja villages were also trying their best to improve their strength to counter Sand Hidden.
Compared to other villages, Konoha possessed incredibly deep foundations to draw upon.
In fact, in both reality and the original timeline, for decades leading up to the Fourth Great Ninja War, Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had never once participated in a battle.
Hashirama through Impure World Reincarnation, and Kushina as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, one with an immortal body that could recover indefinitely, and the other a Jinchuriki with powerful recovery abilities and incredible stamina after Tailed Beast Transformation, their combined efforts actually managed to hold off Sasori, who wielded the Scorching Core.
In their normal states, Sasori could suppress either one of them individually. However, when facing the two of them together, he was the one being suppressed.
Once Sasori activated the Scorching Core, these two were no match for him and were crushed, fighting precariously. However, both of them had long health bars, strong recovery, and thick hides. As long as they weren't instantly killed, they could continue fighting for twenty seconds.
Thus, the battle reached a stalemate.
With their Super Kage-level combatants tied up, it was up to the Kage-level combatants to decide the outcome. If the Sand Hidden side only had Rasa and Karura, they would have certainly lost. But with the addition of over a dozen powerhouses nearing Kage-level, the two sides were locked in a fierce struggle.
In this way, Konoha, which had gathered its entire main force, was firmly held at the border by Sasori and his subordinates.
...
...
In the One-Punch Man world.
In the training ground, Qingshui was still sweating profusely.
With powerful Medical Ninjutsu, this avatar's speed in breaking through the limiter was not much slower than his main body's. It had also broken through the fourth limiter early on.
In fact, due to the head start, the training and improvement effects had significantly decreased, and it was difficult to make any further progress.
This indicated that he was approaching the bottleneck of the fifth limiter.
"Hoo... My current physical fitness should be comparable to a high-level Dragon-class monster. In terms of pure physicality, only Superalloy Darkshine among the S-Class could possibly surpass me."
Qingshui put down the training equipment he had forged into magic tools and removed the high-gravity field he had set up using Reversal of Eight Directions. He looked at the strength data displayed on the instrument and nodded with satisfaction.
Reversal of Eight Directions was the recent cultivation achievement of his avatar in the Yi Ren World.
This ultimate technique, which Li Muxuan used to contend with Lu Jin, had been mastered by Qingshui.
Reversal of Eight Directions was both offensive and defensive. If considered purely as an offensive ability, it wouldn't rank highly for Qingshui, but its auxiliary capabilities were commendable.
This ability was a true all-rounder, even more useful than the Psychic Aura he had previously created.
It could be used to strengthen attacks with the field, or for defense, blocking or deflecting enemy attacks.
It could even be used, as Qingshui was doing now, to strengthen gravity, suppress himself for training, or suppress enemies during combat.
"It's a pity that when I broke through the fourth limiter, I already felt some pressure. The difficulty of the fifth one will only be higher. No matter how much I push my body, there's almost no progress. It seems that training alone is no longer enough to break through like the previous four times. The accumulated resources from my main body and several avatars are almost depleted.
Perhaps, for me to break through in the short term, I would have to risk my life challenging beings stronger than myself, like Garou. Otherwise, I can only rely on time to slowly refine my foundation to break through this layer of limitation."
Qingshui panted a few times, sat to the side, and drank some medicinal tea to replenish his energy and recover his body. He used medical ninjutsu to heal the muscle damage from over-exertion, thinking silently in his mind.
Feeling that his stamina had recovered sufficiently, Qingshui stood up to continue his training.
This time, Qingshui didn't use the equipment anymore. Instead, he opened a teleportation halo and transported himself to an uninhabited sea area.
The reason Qingshui had to travel this far to test it was naturally because he felt the power of this move was too great.
Testing the power of his move in a place so far from the mainland should not affect anyone else.
It wasn't the Scorching Core. Although Kusuno had already completed the development of derivatives like the Thunderlight Core and Dragon Roar Core based on the G3 Machine God's core and shared the technology with Qingshui, allowing Qingshui to fully unlock the Scorching Core's upper limit, Qingshui wasn't here to test these this time.
Instead, it was a new martial art that combined the Fist of Flowing Water, Crushing Rock and the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist.
These two martial arts merged into one, a more powerful martial art.
If the Fist of Flowing Water, Crushing Rock was the main focus, it would evolve into the Sky-Rending Air-Splitting Fist, and if the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist was the main focus, it would evolve into the Sky-Rending Air-Splitting Fist. The essence of the two martial arts was the same, considered one set of techniques, but they changed due to the different emphasis during their use.
His current physical fitness was similar to Bang and Bomb's, but he was still a bit lacking compared to the two of them in their prime. Logically, he shouldn't be able to fuse and use the two martial arts simultaneously. If he forced it, his body would suffer backlash and severe damage before he could even execute the move.
However, Qingshui was not a pure martial artist like Bang and Bomb.
He was a ninja, and an Anomalous Human.
A layer of milky white Qi rose from Qingshui's skin surface, his flowing black medium-length hair also turned white at this moment, and his eyes glowed with a deep blue light.
Reverse Life Triple, activate!
The accumulation of this avatar was not as profound as his main body. Even with medical ninjutsu, Qingshui had only recently broken through the third level of Reverse Life, allowing his entire body to be vaporized by Qi, leaving no weaknesses.
As long as he had enough energy, even if his entire body was scattered, he could still reassemble it within a few breaths, making him nearly immortal.
In this state, what was there to fear from backlash?
"Hoo... breathe..."
He inhaled the salty sea breeze into his lungs. Qingshui moved his hands, and instantly, a powerful force that seemed to tear everything apart was born within him, causing the white Qi emanating from Qingshui's body to accelerate, repairing the damage within.
Qingshui's movements didn't stop. He gathered chakra under his feet and stomped heavily on the water's surface.
The center of the surging sea instantly caved in, then exploded.
Qingshui swung his fists, carrying a powerful airflow, and blasted towards the sky with earth-shattering momentum.
Even though Qingshui had directed his attack towards the sky, the sea still paused. Under the influence of the aftershock, seawater was pushed outwards in all directions.
At the same time, about half of Qingshui's right arm disappeared, rapidly recovering under the repair of the white Qi.
"Hiss... it really hurts, but this power..."
Qingshui looked at his repaired palm and then at the cloudless sky caused by his punch, feeling quite invigorated.
The power of this move was somewhat beyond his imagination.
The destructive power was not much different when he had pushed the Scorching Core to seventy percent to kill the Asura Rhino Beetle last time.
In his memory, when Bang and Bomb jointly used this move against the Elder Centipede, although they broke through its defenses and shattered its outer shell, they did not damage its core. Instead, it caused the Elder Centipede to molt and regenerate.
Unfortunately, the physical conditions of the two old men were still lacking, and due to their age, after using the move, Bang's waist and Bomb's knees couldn't take it, making them unable to continue using it.
If they could continuously use this set of martial arts, they would have been able to attack its internal body while shattering the Elder Centipede's outer shell.
Qingshui did not know the precise defense of the Elder Centipede, but he was sure that ordinary peak Dragon-level monsters, unless they had regenerative and defensive capabilities like the Elder Centipede, would definitely be severely wounded and their lives endangered by his punch.
Most importantly, as long as there was enough energy in his body, Qingshui's body could recover indefinitely.
Although he couldn't use this set of martial arts continuously, its endurance was definitely much longer than that of the Bang brothers, and the power was more concentrated.
No matter how well Bang and Bomb cooperated, they were still two people. No matter how strong the combined attack was, it was ultimately delivered by four fists.
"It's a pity that although this move is very strong, it can threaten the life of even a peak Dragon-level monster in one move, it consumes too much stamina and energy. If I were to maintain that intensity throughout, even I would have trouble lasting more than a minute."
Feeling the massive amount of stamina consumed within his body, Qingshui deactivated Reverse Life Triple, shook off his seawater-drenched clothes, opened another teleportation halo, and returned home.
He needed to rest first, and then study the Thunderlight Core and Dragon Roar Core newly developed by Kusuno.
These two newly developed energy cores had the same output upper limit as the Scorching Core, but due to the energy conversion method, they could reach the upper limit more easily than the Scorching Core, and could be combined with the Thunderlight Core.
Kusuno explained in the email that after Genos linked these two energy cores with the Scorching Core internally and changed the energy output method, he could now exert nearly seventy percent of the energy limit, and also extended the endurance time, reducing the charging time of the Arc Reactor.
The original three-minute charging time had been shortened to just over forty seconds.
According to Qingshui's estimation, if he could unlock his full potential, the charging time would not exceed one minute, and he could output at full power for thirty seconds.
This was undoubtedly a huge improvement, and when he unleashed the Sky-Rending Air-Splitting Fist with all his might, it would also compensate for the one-minute cooldown time.
However, relying solely on this body, the thirty seconds of output from the three energy cores, although he could barely recover, his own energy was not infinite. It still needed to be replenished from external sources. No matter how much he squeezed, after a certain number of times, he would still not be able to recover.
But it was still a powerful burst method.
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