Chapter Fifty-Six: The Failed Plan

Taking advantage of the battle between Neji and Naruto, the trio of travelers, who hadn’t seen each other for a month, gathered once more.

“Your opponent is Gaara. Have you figured out how to deal with him?” Xia Mi lounged in a careless posture, his tone edged with sarcasm.

Feng Xue paid no mind to Xia Mi’s attitude and instead spread his hands in resignation. “There’s nothing I can do. I originally planned to concede outright, but yesterday Orochimaru sent a messenger snake, ordering me to fight the little panda. I don’t know if it was a sudden whim or if he wants to use our fight to trigger his plan to destroy the Leaf Village.”

“Well, that settles it. Seems I won’t need to face Temari after all.” Mu Qianrou cast a sympathetic glance but wore an air of detachment as if it didn’t concern her.

“But since we’re sitting here, doesn’t that prove Orochimaru has abandoned the idea of using us as sacrifices for the Impure World Reincarnation?” Mu Qianrou mused aloud, “After all, the jutsu requires sealing the sacrifice in a coffin beforehand—or at least drawing complex seals on the ground. But for ease of use, it’s better to have them sealed in a coffin with pre-drawn seals, then summon them when needed. In the heat of battle, there’s no time to both capture sacrifices and draw seals…”

“Not necessarily. Orochimaru is a master of core technology. Who knows what contingencies he’s left on us? Sure, if we return to the Academy, we can root out anything he’s hidden—even our souls—but here in this world, we have no means to oppose him.” Xia Mi shook his head. “So we absolutely mustn’t assume we’re safe.”

“Actually, I think our real danger doesn’t come from Orochimaru…” Feng Xue stroked his chin, gazing gravely at the Fourth Kazekage (Orochimaru) nearby. “Don’t forget, we’re aligned with the Sound Ninja. In other words, once the Leaf Destruction Plan begins, we’ll be treated as Orochimaru’s allies. We’ll face attacks from all the Leaf ninjas. On top of that, our mission is to survive until the plan succeeds or fails—but we don’t know when failure might occur. Is it when Orochimaru’s hands are sealed, or when he escapes the Leaf? If it’s the latter, he certainly won’t take us with him. That means we’d have to survive the entire Leaf’s assault until Orochimaru leaves the village’s bounds.”

At this, the three fell silent, appearing to onlookers as though intently watching the matches.

“By the way, I don’t really care. You two still need to defeat one of the Twelve Strong, right?” Feng Xue, sensing the heavy mood, quickly changed the subject.

“No worries. Last week I ran into Lee in the back hills and fought him. Passed that stage already.” Mu Qianrou waved her hand, looking carefree, though only she knew how terrifying Lee had become after awakening his martial will. If it had been two weeks later, she might not have been able to defeat him.

“Same here. I just provoked Kiba a bit and he came at me like a madman. Two moves and he was down!” Xia Mi was genuinely relaxed. At this stage, Kiba didn’t even know the Man-Beast Transformation. With only Beast Clone and Fang Over Fang, he couldn’t get close to Xia Mi, who specialized in long-range area attacks.

“So, our next objective is only…”

“Survive!” (Three voices)

…

A cold wind swept by. In the end, Neji fell before Naruto’s “Friendship Facebreaker,” and Feng Xue had no choice but to step onto the stage, facing the smoky, blood-scented, punk-styled Gaara.

“Gaara!” “Gaara!”

Shouts of encouragement echoed from the stands in all manner of accents, merging into a single name. Compared to that, Feng Xue stood alone—even his two teammates showed no sign of support.

If Gaara’s opponent were Sasuke, the scene would be a showdown of equals. But Feng Xue lacked reputation; only those who witnessed the preliminary matches knew how terrifying he truly was.

Gaara didn’t speak, but an aura of murderous intent erupted from him—not something a human could possess, but more akin to a beast. It was the presence of a non-human entity regarding humans as prey.

“Comparing aura? I’ve never seen Gourmet Cells intimidated by anyone!” Feng Xue thought to himself. A visible blue-violet shimmering butterfly appeared around him—predator’s pressure surged like a tidal wave, forcing Gaara’s sand to erupt from his gourd uncontrollably.

“Right, right! That’s it! Kill you! I’ll kill you!” Gaara seemed nearly deranged, muttering “kill you,” “mother,” “existence,” and similar words, his murderous aura intensifying to the point it rivaled the pressure of Gourmet Cells.

Feng Xue’s brows knitted. Under his control, his soul released vast quantities of soul particles, and with the guidance of his two soul aspects, they clung tightly to his skin, forming a layer of rapidly vibrating transfer armor.

After these preparations, Feng Xue finally launched the first punch of the match toward Gaara.

“Sand Coffin!” The grassy field suddenly erupted with sand at Gaara’s command, rushing to envelop Feng Xue.

“Too naïve…” Feng Xue hadn’t finished speaking when a warning flashed in his mind. He stomped hard, quickly escaping the sand’s encirclement, retreating more than twenty meters before he noticed that his sleeve had been torn!

This was no joke. With the AT Field’s coverage, even steel and paper should have equivalent defense. Yet Gaara’s sand tore his sleeve—it meant the sand could ignore the AT Field and tear him apart!

Thinking it through, Feng Xue understood why: the AT Field disperses attacks so they cause no harm, but Gaara’s sand carried immense force in every grain. No matter how it was dispersed, such a large-scale attack retained significant destructive power.

“Damn! This is troublesome!” A flash of purple light appeared in Feng Xue’s eyes as soul particles faded, and his body began to blur.

Only Mu Qianrou and Xia Mi understood what Feng Xue had done—after all, this was the era of grand traversals, and the unique power of the Babel Tower world: the Body-Forging Technique.

Though it sounded ordinary, it was the standard skill for all travelers from the Babel Tower world—a path leading straight to the Fourth Gate of body refinement.

The essence of this technique was to integrate origin or concepts into oneself, granting the ordinary body the unique talents possessed only by fantasy species.

Feng Xue’s imaginary number concept wasn’t outstanding for body forging, only bestowing talents like “extraordinary perception,” “supernatural intuition,” “imaginary affinity,” and the like. But compared to story characters who didn’t even know what body forging was, it was a power bordering on the legendary.

PS: Except for those whose origin wouldn’t affect their personality, most travelers forge bodies with concepts. Elemental concepts are straightforward—once body forging is mastered, they gain abilities akin to Logia-type Devil Fruits. Forging with objects grants animal-like traits; for example, forging with a longsword makes the body sword-like, imbued with sword aura. Abstract concepts, like Feng Xue’s, grant powers that are sometimes practical, sometimes useless. Those with concepts related to time or its branches gain abilities like time stop, timeline insertion, or bullet time. Mischief-related concepts bestow troublesome abilities, like being a creator of chaos, attracting misfortune, or jinxing things—sometimes so useless or even harmful that they backfire on the user.