"How interesting! This gelel stone actually possesses energy with characteristics very similar to Chakra?" Ino felt that the civilization that extracted energy from this stone was most likely the native civilization of the planet before Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's arrival. Such a thing, with just a little thought, was clearly of immense value.
She had been troubled by the lack of an energy source for the "back support" style armor she brought back from the Land of Snow. If it were simply driven by Chakra points like the Eight Gates, it would cause significant damage to the body. Now, it seemed like an opportunity.
Among the three figures rushing from afar, the woman in the green knight armor let out a roar, and her body underwent a bizarre transformation. Her neck elongated, her legs curled up, and her arms flapped twice, quickly transforming into a pair of fleshy wings. A living person, right before her eyes, turned into a large, dark-skinned bat with fierce eyes.
Ino couldn't help but take a second look. At first glance, she thought it was a Transformation Technique, but a closer look revealed it wasn't. This was some kind of physical mutation caused by Chakra.
Seeing that her two companions didn't seem to care, this thing should be a normalized transformation ability.
What she originally thought was just a D-rank mission was now becoming more and more interesting to her.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!" A silver line of water cut towards the large bat screeching in mid-air.
A layer of white light appeared on the opponent's armor, seemingly providing some defensive effect, but it was no different from tofu under the cutting of the Water Severing Wave.
From left rib to right shoulder, the silver water line swiftly cut across. The large bat's face still held the pleasure of slaughtering civilians, as its body was sliced in two. Blood rained down, splattering everywhere, and the two halves of its corpse fell heavily into the mud.
The armor was completely destroyed, but the transformation did not end. The head reverted to human form, while the arms, torso, and feet remained bat-shaped.
Ino used the Body Flicker Technique to arrive beside the corpse, looked down for a moment, then, holding a small branch, playfully prodded the corpse.
"No life support, no self-destruct, no other functions. It seems this guy also doesn't have Chakra; can it only use the energy provided by this armor?"
"Carmilla?!" The remaining two women in armor exclaimed in unison. They couldn't imagine that their companion had been instantly killed by a "civilian" from the convoy.
"I'll kill you!" The woman in blue armor grew taller, her arms and jaw protruding, transforming into a werewolf-like monster. Then, she pushed off the ground with force, galloping like a horse, and charged fiercely at Ino.
This thing was very fast, but in Ino's eyes, it was just average. Leaving a Body Flicker Technique clone illusion in place, she leaped up as the opponent pounced, and her sharp blade pierced the female werewolf's back.
The female knight who transformed into a werewolf had strong vitality. After stabbing her twice and then crushing her head with a Rasengan, the werewolf was finally completely killed.
The last female knight turned into an ape-like creature, fleeing on all fours, but Ino caught up and riddled her with the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
The three of them only had the Chakra level of a Chunin, posing no threat to her.
Ino stripped off the armor of all three and found that inside their armor were probe-like devices that could inject trace amounts of metal powder into the body, which then used some unique bloodline for energy transformation.
The amount of the so-called gelel stone was too small, so she asked the old man, "They came to capture you, right? How much do you know about them? Where is these guys' lair?"
The old man was overjoyed but remained calm on the surface: "I only know that their camp seems to be in the southwest direction. They've gathered many villagers, bandits, and mountain brigands as subordinates. They are numerous and powerful. I suggest you find two companions and go together."
The next evening, Ino, following the old man's guidance, searched alone in three valleys to the southwest and finally found the enemy's lair.
"Oh my god!"
Seeing this man-made structure, nearly five hundred meters tall, Ino was truly stunned.
The current scientific technology of the Ninja World absolutely could not build such a thing.
The main body of this structure was over four hundred meters tall, entirely white, and its overall shape resembled a giant gate, somewhat like a triumphal arch. Below it were extremely crude-looking, crab-leg-like steam propulsion devices. It was these devices that allowed the main structure, over four hundred meters tall, to move through the forest.
Ino observed for more than ten minutes. There was nothing remarkable about the propulsion devices below; they were simply clunky, and if she had to add another adjective, it would be crude.
But the main structure was truly astonishing.
The mast-like metal pillars at the top of the gate-like structure resembled some kind of docking bridge, seemingly for connecting with other structures.
The pipes on both sides of the gate and in the central area looked like the pulse energy supply pipes often seen in sci-fi novels. Starting from the top of the gate, the semi-circular bunker-like structure appearing one-third of the way down looked somewhat like an energy reactor.
No matter how Ino looked at it, this thing did not resemble a product of humanity's cold weapon era. She was still using short swords forged from Chakra metal, the Daimyō traveled in ox carts, and his soldiers still used bows and arrows!
This thing in front of her, what the hell, was it a spaceship!?
Given its long, vertical spaceship design, it was most likely a spaceship capable of long-distance warp jumps.
A thousand words were in her heart, but ultimately, they only condensed into a single "Holy crap."
Ino's interest in this matter was growing. She wanted to sneak in and investigate personally to see if her conjectures were correct.
"Die!" A Rasengan struck a heavily armored grunt holding a hammer.
The grunt spun and slammed against the wall with a dull thud, his neck twisted, and he died instantly.
Ino's infiltration was very successful; no one who saw her was left alive.
In less than two hundred meters, corpses piled up like mountains, and a thick layer of blood covered the ground. The strong smell of blood could be detected from far away.
Heavy "thud-thud-thud" footsteps sounded, and more soldiers in thick armor, wielding hammers, appeared on both sides of the road.
These guys' armor was several grades inferior to that of the three female knights from before. They also lacked transformation abilities, were slow in movement, and had intelligence issues.
Each wore a heavy helmet and could only make sounds like "hmm" and "ah."
Ino didn't waste any words. She drew Akisui and, using her high taijutsu of 8 points, moved freely among the grunts, killing them one by one.
"Forget it, no more stealth! Let's just kill them!" She abandoned her "stealth" principle, no longer wasting time with these grunts, and charged inward against the direction they were coming from.
After breaking through more than ten checkpoints, the grunts seemed to know no fear and continued to surround and intercept her. She, too, paid no attention, killing everyone she saw, and quickly carved a bloody path.
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