Chapter 125: Chunin Rewards

“Summoning Art: Fivefold Rashomon!”

At the critical moment, five enormous stone gates exuding a sinister aura appeared above the surface of the sea. Each gate bore the snarling face of something resembling a demon, its gaping maw like the entrance to a living hell, a passage between life and death.

Every one of the Fivefold Rashomon Gates was incomparably sturdy. These colossal portals, said to have existed since antiquity, were beyond even Shumingsyuan’s current ability to fully summon. He could only call forth five projections to serve as a defense.

The crimson sword arc came far too quickly. Almost in an instant, the first three Rashomon Gates were cleaved in half, as effortlessly as tofu beneath a knife.

Shumingsyuan’s face paled in horror. Was this the true strength of a Great Swordsman? He had originally thought that, with his skills at the peak of a Swordsman, he could at least exchange a few blows with his opponent before making a grand exit. But now it seemed he had truly overestimated himself.

The gap between a Great Swordsman and an ordinary Swordsman was as vast as a heavenly chasm—impossible to cross.

Taking advantage of the brief obstruction provided by the Rashomon Gates, Shumingsyuan shifted dozens of meters sideways. Then, to his utter shock, he saw the sea split apart for more than ten thousand meters. Even from dozens of meters away, he could still feel the razor-sharp sword intent contained within that strike.

In the depths of the sea, a massive Sea King that happened to be swimming past was severed in two by a single slash. Its blood dyed the surrounding waters crimson.

Hiss...

The might of that one sword was terrifying beyond words.

It was not only Shumingsyuan. Everyone present was so horrified that they could scarcely describe what they felt.

“Brat, you still have time to pay attention to others?” Rain Shiryu’s sinister voice rang out. Scarlet blood-tinged energy swirled around him as he left a crimson afterimage in the air. With a tap of his toe against the sea’s surface, he closed the distance between them.

The demonic blade Kiwametsu was already drawn. It shimmered with an eerie bloody light, and as the long blade danced, it dragged along a string of illusory blood-colored shadows.

“One-Sword Style: Asura!”

If Iaido was a quick-draw slash, a mere test of strength, then this sword was a genuine killing technique!

An image of an evil god seemed to emerge behind Rain Shiryu. He stood atop countless corpses, with only a pair of blood-red pupils remaining visible. The indifference in his gaze treated all living beings as no more than ants.

The evil god slowly raised its blood-dripping sword, then brought it down in a single slash!

That crimson sword arc seemed to surge forth from another world. The clouds in the sky were cleaved apart, then dyed scarlet. From a distance, it looked as though Rain Shiryu had split the heavens open with one stroke of his sword!

“A Great Swordsman...”

Bitterness filled Shumingsyuan’s eyes. Rain Shiryu had unleashed the full strength of a Great Swordsman, and he now understood that this time he could no longer afford to fool around. Otherwise, he would truly lose his life here.

After all, Magellan, whose strength was not inferior to Rain Shiryu’s, was also watching him from the sidelines like a predator waiting to strike.

Shumingsyuan tightened his grip on Raikiri, which seemed to sense the extremely dangerous crimson sword arc. Countless brilliant bolts of lightning erupted from the blade, crackling and leaping through the air. He, too, swung his sword down with all his strength.

Clang!

The two swords collided. The surface of the sea was carved into countless fragments by the sword energy bursting in every direction, while the lingering force of the blades prevented the water from closing together again.

Shumingsyuan was sent flying by the blow, his body skimming more than a thousand meters across the sea. Raikiri was also one of the Supreme Grade Blades, and thus it withstood the devastating impact without breaking.

Yet the tremendous force behind Rain Shiryu’s strike passed through Raikiri and into Shumingsyuan. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his spirit growing listless. Even though he had covered his entire body with Haki, he had still suffered a severe injury from that single blow.

“He hit him! Is that fellow... dead?”

“As expected of Lord Warden. The moment he strikes, the whole world is shaken. What sort of great evil could possibly survive a single slash?”

Everyone exchanged glances, each harboring a different guess.

But when they saw the Ghost Hunter, Shumingsyuan, once again use his sword for support and rise from the surface of the sea, an uproar erupted among them.

“Cough, cough... A Great Swordsman truly has some skill. But if you want my life, I’m afraid that still isn’t enough.”

Shumingsyuan’s face was somewhat pale, yet his pupils remained deep and steady.

“I can unleash attacks like that three more times. Tell me—how many can you withstand?”

Rain Shiryu sneered disdainfully before charging forward once more. Shumingsyuan’s blood stained the blade of the demonic sword Kiwametsu, but instead of remaining on its surface, it seeped into the weapon like water into a sponge. The blood-red glow around the blade became even more vivid.

“My next strike will take your life!”

“One-Sword Style: Demon Slash!”

Rain Shiryu’s third sword descended. This time, the evil god’s phantom completely merged into Kiwametsu, and the force of the strike was several times greater than that of the previous two.

An evil god came surging across the air at terrifying speed, as though nothing in heaven or earth could stand in its way. With his current eyesight, Shumingsyuan could see only a fleeting afterimage.

His dark eyes narrowed slightly before suddenly opening wide. The demonic crimson three-tomoe Sharingan began to revolve.

A message suddenly emerged from the deepest reaches of his consciousness.

“Uchiha... Mangekyo... Chunin reward...”

Shumingsyuan’s initial astonishment transformed into wild delight. No wonder the system had said that it had already granted him the Chunin reward. He had never imagined that it was the ultimate form of the Sharingan—the Mangekyo Sharingan!

Ever since his battle with Enel, he had never activated the Sharingan again. It turned out that this message had been concealed within the eyes themselves, and only when their owner opened them again would he become aware of it.

The Mangekyo Sharingan evolved when the Sharingan was repeatedly stimulated by intense emotion, causing the brain to produce a unique hormonal energy that ultimately triggered its transformation.

Time seemed to come to a standstill. Shumingsyuan felt a cool sensation surge through his mind and flow into both of his eyes.

The three black tomoe gradually stretched until their ends connected, forming a strange spiral pattern. The pattern intertwined as it joined with the pupils, resembling a black sun blazing with flames.

At that moment, Shumingsyuan’s spiritual power surged explosively. His Observation Haki exceeded a range of one thousand meters in an instant.

He could clearly feel himself growing stronger. The overwhelming power made his blood boil.

“I wonder what ability my Mangekyo has granted me...”

Shumingsyuan murmured to himself. His left eye activated, and the space before him immediately began to warp. At the same time, his spiritual power touched another unimaginable realm.

“This is... Kamui?”

Shumingsyuan even trembled with excitement. This ocular technique, regarded as one of the most broken abilities in the world of Naruto, had actually fallen into his hands.

Although Mangekyo: Kamui did not display any direct offensive power, its true strength lay in its invincible auxiliary abilities.

Through Kamui, he could enter a special space-time dimension, teleport objects he touched—or surrounding objects—into that dimension for storage, or send parts of his own body into it, allowing attacks to pass harmlessly through him.

A confident smile spread across Shumingsyuan’s face. As he watched the sword of the enraged demon god descend upon him, he actually spread both arms wide and welcomed death with open arms.

P.S. The Chunin reward you all asked for has finally appeared. Kamui can serve not only as a spatial storage ring, but also grant him the properties of an elemental body. Are you satisfied?

Adorable Little One asks readers who have reading lists to consider adding this book to them. It would count as a form of publicity. Many thanks.