Luo Ning reappeared on the roof of a residential building.
Lightning crackled and shattered across his body with a sharp pop before vanishing, leaving Luo Ning gasping for breath, his respiration heavy and strained.
That guy Omokage had certainly laid a massive number of traps. However, from their brief contact, Luo Ning hadn't spotted any traces of the other Phantom Troupe members.
'Could it be that he's acting alone?'
Luo Ning pulled a jar used for storing Scarlet Eyes from his backpack. He then extracted the Scarlet Eyes held by the Nobunaga puppet. He felt a distinct sensation of energy that could be absorbed, confirming these weren't fakes created by Kortopi's ability.
Casting the Transformation Jutsu, Luo Ning secured the Scarlet Eyes on his back and headed downstairs to return to the hotel. Only then did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
He reported his findings to Kurapika and brought out the recovered Scarlet Eyes.
Upon seeing the pair of eyes preserved in the jar, Kurapika froze. His own eyes instantly bled into a crimson hue that matched the pair inside the glass.
Luo Ning sighed. He didn't immediately absorb the Scarlet Eyes, choosing instead to give Kurapika some time alone with the remains of his kin. Luo Ning entered a state of Zetsu to quickly recover his spent energy while contemplating the situation at the church.
Kurapika didn't stay alone in the room for long. Not long after Luo Ning had closed his eyes, Kurapika emerged carrying the jar. His eyes were still slightly red—not the supernatural crimson of the Scarlet Eyes, but the natural redness that follows a bout of crying.
"Here, Big Brother Luo Ning!" Kurapika solemnly handed the Scarlet Eyes back to him. "We have more important things to do next. You need to increase your strength as quickly as possible so we have a better chance at our revenge!"
Luo Ning took the jar. He didn't plan to absorb them in private; instead, he held the jar in front of Kurapika and began injecting his Nen into it.
The moment the Scarlet Eyes inside the jar were touched by Luo Ning's Nen, they seemed to be stimulated or summoned. They slowly melted into a vivid red current of warmth that even Kurapika, who hadn't opened his nodes yet, could clearly see.
Guided by Luo Ning's Nen, the warm current flowed into his body and converged toward his eyes.
The Nen surrounding Luo Ning's body slowly receded, but the crimson warmth continued to circulate within him. His pitch-black eyes had already begun to transform without him realizing it. They turned blood-red, featuring two tomoe that differed from the pattern of the Scarlet Eyes.
Under Kurapika's watchful gaze, the tomoe began to spin. Gradually, a third tomoe slowly materialized in Luo Ning's eyes.
By the time the red current vanished, Luo Ning's eyes had fully evolved into the three-tomoe state.
Kurapika watched the entire process. 'Big Brother Luo Ning truly didn't lie to me. Perhaps because he was also there during the massacre, our clansmen have placed all their hopes on him!'
Kurapika didn't cry this time, though his gaze toward Luo Ning grew more complex.
His aura capacity didn't double this time. However, based on the calculation method provided by Milia, Luo Ning estimated that the fusion of these Scarlet Eyes had increased his aura by over 5,000.
It seemed this value was the maximum benefit the Scarlet Eyes could provide him. In the future, even if he continued to fuse more Scarlet Eyes, it would likely be difficult for his total aura to double again.
Excluding the eyes held by Luo Ning and Kurapika, there were 32 pairs of Scarlet Eyes remaining. If each provided 5,000, then fusing them all would give him an additional 160,000 in aura capacity.
And that was only what the Scarlet Eyes could provide.
He would still be training on his own during this time. Since he was currently in a period of rapid growth, Luo Ning couldn't help but look forward to seeing just how high his aura could reach in the future.
For now, after fusing the new pair of eyes, his aura had reached nearly 15,000.
B-rank ninjutsu could now be performed with much more ease. As for A-rank...
Luo Ning did not deactivate his Sharingan. Instead, he raised his hand and formed a seal. Immediately, green chakra gathered rapidly in his palm.
This was the Mystical Palm Technique.
An A-rank medical ninjutsu. It had a high consumption rate and high difficulty, but its healing power was immense, capable of treating both internal and external injuries.
An A-rank jutsu like this could now be performed so easily just by fusing a third pair of Scarlet Eyes. The ease of it gave Luo Ning a fleeting sense of unreality.
If the third pair unlocked A-rank, would the fourth pair unlock S-rank? But what lay beyond S-rank?
Luo Ning couldn't imagine it yet, but as long as he continued to fuse them, he would eventually find out.
Now he needed to consider which A-rank ninjutsu to learn. The most useful one for their current situation was likely the sensory type he had thought about before.
The Telescope Technique used by the Third Hokage to monitor Naruto.
However, before using it, he needed a crystal ball. Such things were sold in department stores. As for the other requirement—mastering the target's chakra signature in advance—Luo Ning had fortunately come into contact with Omokage's Nen when he took the head of the Nobunaga puppet.
Luo Ning gave Kurapika a quick heads-up before using the Transformation Jutsu again and leaving the hotel.
As the difficulty of training for combat-type ninjutsu increased, so did the consumption. Even though Luo Ning had unlocked the permission to use many A-rank jutsu, actually performing them remained difficult. It was even possible that the results wouldn't live up to the technique's true potential.
Aura. It always came back to aura.
'If only I could unlock S-rank ninjutsu, I could get Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred Seal—the Yin Seal.'
That technique, which could store chakra and release it when necessary, would truly be a god-tier ability for him. Especially since Tsunade had perfected and developed the Strength of a Hundred Technique and Mitotic Regeneration. Those were S-rank forbidden jutsu that paired perfectly with the Yin Seal.
After purchasing a crystal ball from a department store, Luo Ning rushed back to the hotel.
Once he performed the Telescope Technique, images of the surrounding area quickly appeared on the crystal ball. Luo Ning manipulated the display, moving the viewpoint bit by bit. He soon spotted traces of a puppet near the location of their previous battle.
However, while trying to track the puppet's movement, Luo Ning discovered that his current mastery of the Telescope Technique only allowed the crystal ball to show a one-kilometer radius.
The church was approximately three kilometers away from their hotel.
"Looks like we need to move," Luo Ning said, putting away the crystal ball.
Kurapika went to get Neon, who had just woken up and still looked utterly confused.
The three of them went downstairs and got into a used car Luo Ning had bought. The car slowly drove toward the direction of the church.
Neon stared out the window. She had long since abandoned the idea of escaping from Luo Ning and Kurapika.
Earlier that morning, she had seen a news report concerning herself. It covered the incident where Luo Ning had forcibly kidnapped her. Her father, Light, hadn't treated her kidnapping as a serious matter at all and was still busy with various social engagements.
The newspaper even included a photo of Light entering and leaving high-end establishments, laughing and talking with a woman not much older than Neon herself.
It was glaringly obvious that her father had discarded her as a burden.
In that case, she might as well stay with Luo Ning and the others. If they really died because of her prophecy poems, then leaving this world along with them wouldn't be so bad.
After all, they had even given her a decent collectible.
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