"This is the feeling of power!" Kingpin waved his fist casually, a fanatical look on his face. "Incredible... I thought I had trained to the limit of human capability."
As expected, Kingpin's desire for power outweighed even his regard for his own lifespan. Upon learning the effect of the white sphere, he accepted it without hesitation.
Shin had mixed a pulp made from the artificial Human-Human Fruit into the white sphere. After Kingpin consumed it, his body underwent massive changes. In the world of One Piece, the physical limit of an ordinary person is far greater than in the Marvel world.
For someone like Kingpin, who had already trained to the very edge of human capacity, even the slightest increase in power was instantly noticeable. But now, it felt like his former ceiling had shattered. His body, which had plateaued, was growing by leaps and bounds.
Because of this, he did not doubt Shin's words. He fully believed Shin had converted the dragon bone's lifespan into raw potential.
After absorbing the dragon bone himself, Shin's interest in Kunlun grew significantly. Naturally, the ones who knew Kunlun best were the Five Fingers of the Hand.
With Kingpin as the local kingpin of New York, the Five Fingers of the Hand could hardly hide from Shin. He quickly tracked down Madame Gao, the New York head of the Hand.
Madame Gao wasn't weak. In the context of a martial arts world, she would be a grandmaster. Her advanced age had only slightly weakened her ability to channel power.
More intriguingly, she carried a faint yet high-quality aura of malevolence. This, Shin assumed, came from the creature the Hand worshipped, the Black Sky.
Thanks to her centuries of mental cultivation, and more importantly, the presence of Black Sky within her, it would've been easy for Shin to break her mind using illusions or even kill her outright. But controlling her was another matter entirely. To some degree, Madame Gao already had a master. If she were killed, her soul would likely fall directly into Black Sky's possession.
However, she was no fool. Having lived this long, she knew when to submit. After Shin eliminated all the Hand ninjas in a single strike and slapped the supposedly well-defended Madame Gao into a wall, she divulged everything she knew.
Unfortunately, the result disappointed Shin. Kunlun wasn't even on Earth, it resided in a separate dimension that only aligned with Earth at rare intervals. The last alignment had occurred just a few months ago.
It would be another ten years before Kunlun reappeared on Earth. By then, Thanos, Dormammu, the Dark Elves, Galactus, Apocalypse, and the Dark Phoenix would have likely turned the planet inside out, and Shin would still be searching for a dragon.
Though Madame Gao feigned cooperation, Shin didn't kill her. Doing so would've been pointless. If she died, she'd only be resurrected, this time fully corrupted by Black Sky.
In Shin's estimation, the so-called Black Sky was most likely a Hell Lord, or at the very least, a high-ranking demon. How it first contacted the Hand remained unclear.
As for its goal? Most likely, it was cultivating a perfect host to incarnate on Earth.
Because of the presence of the Sorcerer Supreme, no dimensional lord dared to descend directly. If they did, they'd be swiftly beaten back.
The most powerful dimensional lords all understood Earth was the Heart of Eternity. None dared provoke misunderstandings with Eternity itself.
However, ignorant or reckless ones still tried. They sensed Earth's vast energy reserves and a human soul was often worth hundreds, sometimes thousands of alien ones. This made Earth an irresistible target.
Using a human as a host was a common workaround. Even if caught by the Sorcerer Supreme, a dimensional entity could simply abandon the host and retreat to its realm.
The Sorcerer Supreme had Eternity's backing. Against such force, any hell lord or dimensional demon could be physically overpowered. But once they returned to their own domain, even the weakest lord could fight evenly with the Sorcerer Supreme. If the Sorcerers pursued them? Then they'd be doomed.
Shin had no foolproof way of neutralizing these lords unless he wiped out the entire Hand and destroyed every object connected to Black Sky, including those used to resurrect the ninjas. Otherwise, Black Sky would always find a way to return.
That said, Shin wasn't particularly concerned. He had already given Kingpin the contact number for the New York Sanctum. If Black Sky did reappear, Kingpin would report it instantly.
Kingpin wasn't the type to care about pride or heroism, he'd sell someone out without hesitation if it meant staying alive.
With the matters of the dragon bone and the Hand settled, at least in his opinion, Shin considered the affair closed. If superheroes wanted to make trouble for Kingpin over his dealings with the Hand, that was Kingpin's problem.
Incidentally, with Bruce Banner absent, Dr. Connors had been struggling with his workload and recently hired two new lab assistants: Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy.
Clearly, Kingpin would soon face new adversaries.
Still, Shin wasn't too worried. With Kingpin's cunning and his newly enhanced strength, fledgling Spider-Man didn't pose much of a threat. Shin's thoughts were already elsewhere.
'Should I visit Kamar-Taj?' he wondered. While he wasn't interested in becoming a sorcerer, Marvel's spells, especially those related to space, were filled with valuable insights. Their spatial techniques were far more creative than those in Naruto.
Shin wasn't obsessed with studying ninjutsu or magic himself. Instead, he preferred to transport those systems into the Naruto world, where native shinobi could analyze and adapt them. After all, his improved version of the Flying Thunder God Technique had been enhanced by Naruto world researchers.
It wasn't that the Marvel world lacked good things. On the contrary, there were too many good things and too many potential plotlines. Shin wasn't sure which thread to pull. For now, spending some time at Kamar-Taj seemed like the best move.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In the comics, most heroes didn't fly around casually, so Shin asked Kingpin to arrange a car for him.
He didn't have a driver's license, but that hardly mattered. With Shin's reflexes, driving felt easier than operating a toy car. There was no danger at all.
Halfway through his journey, however, Shin was forced to stop. A multinational summit was being held ahead, and the roads were closed off by police and military personnel.
Shin rolled his eyes in annoyance, then heard a loud rumble from the sky.
A sleek, advanced fighter jet plummeted from the clouds and crash-landed in the nearby forest.