novelraw Chapter 1023 - 25: Bu Bu Wang’s Out-of-the-Box Thinking
Chapter 1023 - 25: Bu Bu Wang’s Out-of-the-Box Thinking
Caw, caw, caw...
A raven soared through the sky, flying amidst the falling snow, its feathers whipped by the biting cold wind. If it were made of flesh and blood, it would have long been frozen stiff by the high-altitude chill.
The pentagram array diagram flickered within the raven’s eyes. Half a kilometer away lay Su Xiao, sitting cross-legged on a large rock in the snow, with A Mu and Bubu Wang by his side.
A Mu had been seriously injured earlier, having single-handedly held off Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. Although the blockage didn’t last long, its whole body was covered with wounds deep enough to reach the bone. After all, Gaara is a shadow, not easily stopped.
Such potentially fatal injuries were only considered minor for A Mu. In addition to that, it was hit by Kankuro’s fierce poison, Sand Village’s poison is well-known. Currently, A Mu lay in the snow, its face turning blue—a side effect of the poisoning that requires time to heal.
Through initial battle testing, Su Xiao discovered that A Mu’s resistance to attacks was beyond his expectations. Even if he wanted to kill A Mu, it couldn’t be done quickly. A Mu’s body is too sturdy; breaking its defense with Dragon Slash was possible, but directly breaking bones seemed unlikely. A Mu’s bones are a pseudo-living material, harder than metal.
On the high grounds of Snow Wind Mountain, the Alchemy Raven landed atop the tower. Su Xiao wasn’t worried about the Alchemy Raven being discovered; perception-type ninjas absolutely couldn’t perceive the Alchemy Raven.
The so-called perception-type ninjas don’t have extraordinarily strong perceptive power for living creatures; they perceive Chakra. Almost every living being in the Naruto World has Chakra.
However, Alchemical Creatures and ninjutsu are two different systems. It doesn’t possess even a hint of Chakra; it’s driven by an alchemic array diagram and life energy.
The Alchemy Raven stood on the tower’s peak, snowflakes settling on its feathers, gradually tinting it white.
Half a kilometer away, Su Xiao’s eyes were closed, observing the situation around the tower through the shared vision of the Alchemy Raven, waiting for the end of the Five Shadow Summit.
Now that Raikage had fallen in battle and Obito had declared war on the Five Great Ninja Villages, the Five Shadow Summit couldn’t continue. The four shadows would merely exchange opinions and form treaties without damaging any parties, mainly discussing arrangements regarding the Eight Tails Jinchuriki and Nine Tails Jinchuriki.
It wouldn’t be long before the Five Shadow Summit disperses.
While Su Xiao was observing the towers via the Alchemy Raven’s vision, Bubu Wang beside him suddenly became alert.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang’s bark made Su Xiao open his eyes.
"Someone approaching?"
"Woof."
Bubu Wang detected an approaching enemy. As for why Bubu Wang noticed first, rather than Su Xiao with his stronger perception abilities, it’s because Su Xiao had stopped using basic perception power and instead was using instinct ability 24/7. His perception range was now a radius of 7 meters, and a diameter of 14 meters, small but within which he could instantly dodge attacks, be it bullets or spells.
Furthermore, while using instinct ability, intuition gradually enhanced.
Su Xiao gave up a massive perception range to ensure he wasn’t ambushed and had superfast reaction during close combat, as seen during the fight with Raikage. Raikage’s kick was too fast for Counter Shield activation, but Su Xiao instinctively bent a knee to block it, which was key to beating Raikage.
The gains outweighed the losses. Expanding instinct’s range to match basic perception power was nearly impossible.
Getting some means losing some; Su Xiao lost a huge perception range but gained stronger close-range perception.
Luckily, Bubu Wang has decent perception abilities; to be exact, Bubu Wang didn’t rely on perception power but rather cleverly used his skills.
Bubu Wang’s Intelligence Attribute is 37 points, meaning his perception power isn’t notably strong. However, one day Bubu Wang had a brainwave, using a healing ability to accomplish perception effects.
Bubu Wang possesses an aura-based recovery ability—Ice and Snow Goddess’s Gift—that restores nearby allies’ Life Value by 1 point per second within 300 meters.
Bubu Wang’s innovation was, during non-combat periods, treating all surrounding creatures as allies. When enemies entered within 300 meters, an automatic ally/enemy judgment occurred. Since all targets were presumed allies, enemies would prompt a notification: Accept ’Ice and Snow Goddess’s Gift (Healing Aura)’?
Whether the enemy accepts the aura effect is irrelevant; the test determining allies or enemies is what matters. Once someone undergoes the test, Bubu Wang can immediately sense it.
Bubu Wang noticed someone approaching, and that person rejected his aura ability—they come with malicious intentions.
After discovering an approacher, Bubu Wang did two things: notify Su Xiao, then vanished into the snow to scout the enemy.
About two minutes later, Bubu Wang returned, reporting the presence of a Second Tier stealth-type contractor ambushing nearby, likely aiming to fish in troubled waters with Su Xiao not being the target.
Su Xiao was preparing to assault Mei Terumī and certainly wouldn’t allow other contractors to interfere. However, strangely fewer contractors showed up, encountering only one worker and one Second Tier contractor.
Most surprising was the situation within the Derived World Contact Platform—no anomalies, mostly intel-gathering or seeking collaborators without much interest in the Five Shadow Summit.
Su Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. This situation was simply a stroke of luck; there were likely no large Adventure groups nor any individual contractors of high power among those entering the Naruto World this time, thus minimal interest in the summit due to extreme danger.
Gathered within Snow Wind Mountain were Five Shadows as well as Obito, Sasuke, and Bai Jue, with Iron Country’s samurai not easy to deal with either. If Su Xiao were still Second Tier, he wouldn’t dare involve himself in the Five Shadow Summit affair—those less strong daring participation would perish without knowing how they died.
"Second-tier...stealth type, Bubu, you and A Mu go."
Such a contractor’s strength, A Mu alone could handle—its 85-point Physical attributes were despair-inducing for Second Tier contractors, posing a challenge even to break its defenses.
A Mu stood up, and through its own recovery plus the Ice and Snow Goddess’s Aura, its wounds had healed seventy percent.
Before long, Bubu Wang and A Mu disappeared into the snowfield, while Su Xiao continued observing the situation around the tower via the Alchemy Raven.
...
A kilometer from Su Xiao lay a contractor clad in white snow clothing, with a frayed cap trudging through the snow—the very contractor trying to approach Su Xiao before, named Spirit, a ghost among shadows.
Spirit’s strength was upper-middle among Second Tier, belonging to assassin class, but he developed dual attributes, specializing in Strength and Agility Attributes, both reaching 60 points, quite decent for mid-level Second Tier contractors.
This type of attribute development awarded him the qualification to use a sniper rifle; combined with his specialized job in the real world, Spirit had become proficient with firearms before entering Reincarnation Paradise.
At this moment, Spirit was lying in the snow with a snow white sniper rifle in hand—the snow white on the gun appeared to be temporary paint still drying.