Chapter 413: Rift!
In order to rapidly increase his strength and reach the standard the Dimensional Administrator had mentioned—to enter a higher dimension—Uchiha Dali no longer wasted time with the enemy.
As soon as he made his move, he used a sealing technique and began to seal his target.
Hishiki did not expect him to strike back.
Suddenly feeling a powerful sealing force approaching, he immediately dodged—his speed astonishingly fast.
Uchiha Dali's attack missed, and the opponent's strike also failed to hit him.
The two resumed fierce combat.
"Boom, boom, boom…"
It was clear the two were evenly matched now.
In hand-to-hand combat neither could gain the upper hand.
And whenever one tried to use ninjutsu, the other could evade the attack through extreme speed.
For the time being, it seemed very difficult to decide a victor.
"You're strong—I acknowledge you. Now I'm going to absorb your energy! With that, I should at least evolve one level, right?"
Uchiha Dali looked at his opponent excitedly and directly unleashed the Devour-and-Refine technique.
At that moment a prompt sounded in his mind.
[Ding! You have used Devour-and-Refine many times. Your mastery of this divine art has reached a peerless level! You have comprehended Divine Art Supergod: Devour-and-Refine!]
[Divine Art Supergod: Devour-and-Refine: Power beyond god-level; when activated it can instantly plunder multiple targets, converting all forms and properties of the targets' energy into your own power!]
[This technique instantly plunders targets weaker than yourself. Against targets of equal or greater strength, the effect is reduced.]
…
At the same time the prompt delivered a large stream of information to his mind.
Without a word, Uchiha Dali immediately executed the move.
Hishiki on the other side froze.
Clearly, the energy within his body was draining away.
"You bastard… how is this possible!"
Hishiki was full of shock and doubt.
Uchiha Dali smiled slightly. "Looks like I won."
As soon as he finished speaking, the energy on the other's body surged like a mountain torrent and flowed continuously toward him.
Uchiha Dali greedily accepted the power.
However, it was apparent that although Hishiki's strength was no match for his, it wasn't vastly weaker either.
So, although Hishiki's energy was being absorbed by Uchiha Dali, he was not instantly slain.
He was angry and shocked, constantly trying to resist.
But as the saying goes, defeat collapses like a mountain—once beaten, how could Hishiki still resist his fate?
In the divine realm of the Ōtsutsuki clan, watching everything unfold, the Ōtsutsuki King's expression changed.
His illusion suddenly appeared before them and scolded, "Uchiha Dali! Stop this at once!"
"Why should I stop? You came and provoked me first."
Uchiha Dali did not cease.
Although he was a little surprised at the sudden appearance, it was only an illusion—what could an illusion do to him?
Soon Hishiki's body visibly withered, and the Ōtsutsuki King, all bluster and little substance, said, "Uchiha Dali, what do you want?"
"To annihilate all of you."
"Fine! If that's the case, then we will wage full-scale war! We'll grant you that! From this second on, you are an enemy to the Ōtsutsuki clan! Fight to the death! No compromise!!"
The Ōtsutsuki King snapped angrily and vanished.
At this time, Hishiki was left as a barely breathing husk.
He weakly said to Uchiha Dali, "You have no idea what sort of existence you have provoked… Uchiha Dali… Next, Lord Divine King… will… will avenge me."
After he said that, he completely dissipated.
Prompts continued sounding in Uchiha Dali's ears.
Thanks to his extraordinary comprehension and the energy plundered by Devour-and-Refine, he evolved again.
It was as expected.
However, thinking back to Hishiki's last words before dying, Uchiha Dali's smile faded a little.
"Divine King"—the other side wasn't referring only to the Ōtsutsuki King.
The Ōtsutsuki clan, divided into the Celestial (Tenshi) and Proud (Manshi) factions, naturally had two kings.
The enemy from the Proud faction had surely taken notice of the situation here by now.
So the true battle was about to begin.
Within the Ōtsutsuki clan, enforcement squads are numbered so that the larger the number, the stronger the member.
Moreover, they mastered the god-demon fusion technique—an unfathomable art.
So the upcoming battle could not be taken lightly.
…
Proud Divine Realm.
Ōtsutsuki Aoshe had at this moment summoned all enforcement members—ten thousand in total.
These were all the core elite members of the Ōtsutsuki clan's Proud faction.
If calculated by ten members per enforcement squad, there were a thousand enforcement squads here.
Of course this did not include the lower-class clan members sent out to perform missions and harvest chakra fruit.
"You all saw it."
"This man named Uchiha Dali has already become a threat to our existence."
"Although he hasn't come to trouble us yet, it's only a matter of time."
"So we must take the initiative to strike—eliminate him before he fully grows!"
Ōtsutsuki Aoshe addressed all his subordinates.
Hearing this, the subordinates fell silent.
They had just watched the battle; Hishiki, while not an absolute top-tier powerhouse, after fusing ten enforcement members had shown clearly formidable combat strength.
At the very least, he had reached semi-god level.
Yet such a semi-god-level warrior had been easily slain by Uchiha Dali, and his energy had been completely absorbed.
This meant that Uchiha Dali, already terrifyingly powerful, had become even more dreadful.
Sending them to fight such an opponent would be a gamble with their lives.
Moreover, fusion meant many would inevitably lose their lives—which was hard for people to accept.
"What? Don't want to confront this guy?"
Seeing everyone's reaction, Aoshe narrowed his eyes.
"Why can't we coexist peacefully with him? He's come here for chakra fruit energy too, right? Why not cede part of a star system to him, Lord Aoshe?"
Someone asked.
Aoshe's face showed displeasure.
"You need to evolve, and I need to evolve. The competition with the Celestial faction has always been about seizing more chakra fruit."
"Now you want to give part of it away to Uchiha Dali? Do you think that's possible?"
"Besides, do you think that brat looks like someone who will negotiate with us? The reality is, whether we want to fight or not, he will attack!"
"We can only strike back! There's no other choice!"