Chapter 61: The Price and Gains of Escaping Konoha
"Huh... no one from Konoha is chasing me?"
Li Yao raised an eyebrow, puzzled. With how clearly his black iron chains had left marks on the ground during his escape, anyone pursuing him should have caught up by now.
Yet within the range of his chakra sensing—there was no one.
"Did something happen in Konoha?"
He wondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Forget it. Whatever happened doesn't matter. I need to keep moving, find a town, get some food and clothes first."
He stood up, completely naked, lacking the chakra to form his iron chain cloak. Glancing down at himself—
"Not bad, impressive physique!"
"Just a bit chilly!"
He pressed his legs together. The late autumn air was brisk, but not unbearable. The moon was high, casting a pale frost-like light across the land. Visibility was good, and he wasn't worried about tripping on rocks.
With no particular destination, Li Yao raised his head and began walking in the direction of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's sealed location.
Whoosh whoosh!
Leaping through the treetops, he relied on two trailing black iron chains to catch him whenever he misjudged a branch or slipped.
The trees in the shinobi world were massive, and their wide branches made ideal paths for ninja to traverse quickly—far faster than running on the ground.
But clearly, moving through the trees required a certain level of skill.
A skill Li Yao sorely lacked.
He urgently needed to fix that gap and become a true ninja.
Fortunately, he was a fast learner. After a few mistakes, he rarely needed the chains for correction anymore.
That gave him time to assess the full cost of his escape from Konoha.
"This… was expensive."
Feeling the state of his body closely, Li Yao's brow furrowed—and didn't relax.
He had completely exhausted all the chakra he'd built up over the years. That alone would've been costly enough.
But by opening all his chakra gates—except the Death Gate—he had paid a steeper price: all those acupoint spaces were now destroyed and irreparable.
This was something he never expected.
He had used chakra acupoints before, opening them partially with no issues. He could always close them again afterward, and they never caused any harm.
He hadn't realized that opening them all at once would result in permanent destruction.
Without these acupoints regulating his chakra, his internal chakra flow—huh… actually wasn't out of control?
Despite the loss of the acupoint regulators, his chakra was still stable within his meridians.
Thanks to his absolute control over chakra, even without the acupoint regulators, nothing was overflowing or surging.
If it were anyone else, losing their acupoints would mean the end of their career as a ninja.
The human body has many chakra points.
Within the chakra network, they function like dams on a river.
With the dams in place, the river doesn't flood during the rainy season. Similarly, chakra acupoints limit and control flow, allowing a ninja to safely increase output.
Once destroyed, it's like removing the dams—during a flood, the river will overflow and destroy everything in its path.
The key issue is this: without those points regulating the chakra flow, when performing a jutsu, the chakra bursts uncontrollably through the meridians. It becomes impossible to form the precise nature transformations needed for elemental techniques.
In short, for most people, losing those points would mean never using elemental ninjutsu again.
And that would cripple any ninja's combat strength.
Luckily, Li Yao's absolute chakra control let him bypass that.
Even without acupoints, he could still use any nature transformation jutsu without issue.
Still, the destruction of his acupoint spaces—aside from the Death Gate—had one serious consequence.
He could no longer store large amounts of chakra.
Now, only his dantian and the Death Gate could hold chakra.
Even with his body continuously refined by Wood Release chakra, the most he could ever store—even as an adult—would be on par with an average jōnin.
That might be enough to handle ordinary opponents, but against high-level ninja like the Third Hokage or the Legendary Sannin, it was far from sufficient.
From the perspective of chakra reserves, the cost of escaping Konoha had been immense.
But…
As he tested his control over the black iron chains, his frown finally softened—and he smiled.
As the saying goes, "Blessings often come with misfortune."
Though the destruction of his acupoints severely limited his future chakra pool, it had also drastically enhanced all his physical and mental attributes.
Acupoint destruction worked like releasing the body's genetic locks. Once broken, the physical limitations vanished—and enhancements followed.
When a ninja opens all Eight Gates, they don't just get a massive chakra boost. Their physical and mental limits are also shattered.
Mental focus, physical strength, neural reaction speed—all are drastically improved.
And it makes sense: if you only increase chakra and physical power without enhancing reaction speed and control, it's like giving a child a three-meter-long sword without the strength or height to wield it.
They'd be unable to handle it.
Likewise, a ninja can't control a sudden influx of massive chakra and power unless their brain and nerves are also enhanced.
Only by improving all attributes can a ninja truly wield the power gained from the Eight Gates.
Li Yao now was like someone who had opened all Eight Gates, used up all his chakra—but hadn't closed the gates.
He had no chakra left, but the physical and mental upgrades remained.
The physical boosts weren't obvious yet—but mentally, the improvements were huge.
Before, using his chains was like a child swinging a sharp sword.
The sword was powerful, but the child's strength and speed were lacking.
Now, it was like that child had become a swordmaster with twenty years of experience—his control and force had qualitatively improved.
His current black iron chain manipulation speed was at least five times faster than before.
His neural response time had increased dramatically too.
Previously, he could barely match ANBU-level jōnin in reaction speed. Against the Third Hokage, he lagged behind. Compared to Uzumaki Mito, he was far inferior.
Now? Li Yao estimated his neural speed was nearly on par with Mito.
With this level of reflexes and chain control, he no longer feared close-quarters combat with taijutsu specialists.
What's more, his enhanced mind also drastically expanded his chakra sensing range.
Within five kilometers around him, unless someone was exceptionally skilled at concealing their chakra, he could sense them clearly—down to the shape of their chakra flame.
The closer they came, the clearer his sensing became.
It could be said: unless someone used space-time ninjutsu, it was nearly impossible to ambush him.
"Maybe… I didn't lose that much after all."
Li Yao suddenly laughed.
When he compared everything—the limitation in chakra volume versus all the benefits—
It seemed the gains outweighed the loss.
At least for now, the enhanced chain control and chakra sensing would greatly improve his survival chances as he fled Konoha.
And to Li Yao, surviving was victory.
What he lacked most was time.
Given time, with how fast he learned ninjutsu, and through various sacrificial rituals, he could master anything—so long as he could sense the chakra nature and transformation.
Given time, his power would grow rapidly.
And when that time came, everything he had suffered in Konoha—
He would return tenfold.
A glint of icy hatred flickered in his eyes.
(END CHAPTER)
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