They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 168 Obstacles to the Normalization of Immortal Mode Cultivation

"...Are there any other conditions?"

Seeing that Black Zetsu was speechless after his questioning, Hozuki Shingetsu shook his head with satisfaction, indicating that he had no other conditions.

After all, you can't just fleece one person relentlessly. According to what Hozuki Shingetsu told Black Zetsu, even if all the conditions were perfect, it would still take at least ten years to develop this chakra cannon.

There will be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of Blackbeard's profits in the future; the key is to make a steady, long-term profit!

What if this incident traumatizes the kid so badly that he'll avoid him like the plague from now on?

Seeing that Hozuki Shingetsu had finally stopped making any demands, Black Zetsu breathed a sigh of relief.

Tonight's extreme tug-of-war has arguably exhausted its millennia-long reserves of wisdom.

Over the past thousand years, there have been times when it has had to step in and deceive people one-on-one. However, as long as Black Zetsu makes good use of the information gap and demonstrates its Six Paths level defense, it can basically fool every single one of them.

Even those with sharp minds might have some doubts, but they wouldn't do what Hozuki Shingetsu did, making things difficult for it at every turn and leaving it choking half to death.

"...Fortunately, all of that is in the past now."

Black Zetsu sighed inwardly again. As long as he could persuade this guy to continue researching that chakra cannon and blast the moon to rescue his mother, he could just accept this small loss.

Unaware that Hozuki Shingetsu was merely using this half-finished chakra cannon to fish, it was still dreaming of rescuing its mother soon. Little did it know that being an angel investor wasn't so easy.

Transferring funds, shifting assets, moving money from one hand to the other... all sorts of techniques from his past life will probably open Black Zetsu's eyes wide.

The key to investing lies in investing in people—this statement is absolutely true.

To encounter such a treasure as Hozuki Shingetsu in the vast ninja world is truly a stroke of luck for it.

Hozuki Shingetsu felt no shame whatsoever for deceiving Black Zetsu, this thousand-year-old orphan.

After all, compared to those PPT investments, he at least had a physical asset for investors to refer to. In this case, if investors did not recognize the risks behind it, can you blame him?

"In that case, I will go and gather all the conditions you mentioned before, and you can start this research and development project! The sooner we develop that weapon, the sooner we can resolve the crisis in the ninja world."

Seeing that the deal was settled, Black Zetsu, fearing that Hozuki Shingetsu might have other demands, didn't want to stay there any longer. He immediately turned and disappeared into the warehouse.

"Huh? The seal has been broken?"

Seeing the missing piece of the sealing array beneath Black Zetsu's feet, and sensing a strange object rapidly escaping from underground in Sage Mode, Hozuki Shingetsu was clearly taken aback.

"It seems that while the Uzumaki clan's sealing array is effective against Black Zetsu, we still need to act quickly if we want to capture it!"

Although he didn't know how Black Zetsu broke the seal, Hozuki Shingetsu kept this information firmly in mind to prevent any mishaps when he tried to capture Black Zetsu next time.

"However, as things stand, after years of preparation, we have largely achieved what we wanted, and this peace and truce meeting has finally come to a perfect close."

Reflecting on the past few days, Hozuki Shingetsu, despite having prepared numerous contingency plans and rehearsed the events multiple times, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after the meeting finally concluded smoothly.

The successful convening of the peace and truce conference not only greatly enhanced the international reputation of Kirigakure and Hozuki Shingetsu, but also showcased Kirigakure's strength with the chakra cannon, and allowed Tsunade to stay and improve Kirigakure's medical ninjutsu level.

By establishing an international ninja alliance and secretly instigating the five great nations to divide up the ninja world, ensuring that there would be no other unforeseen circumstances, he not only won himself and Kirigakure a precious period of recuperation but also opened up new markets.

Making a deal with Danzo Shimura to disrupt Konoha and incite internal strife within the village is just around the corner;

And finally, using the chakra cannon as bait to lure Black Zetsu. This would not only avenge Black Zetsu's interference during the "Blood Mist Rebellion," but also allow him to use Black Zetsu to obtain what Hozuki Shingetsu had longed for but had never gotten.

All of the above may seem complicated, but in reality, it all happened in a series of events within just a few days.

In short, this peace and truce meeting was a win-win situation for Kirigakure, and Hozuki Shingetsu won more than just a victory.

In particular, the benefits gained from deceiving Black Zetsu have given Kirigakure a huge space for development.

Leaving aside the 20 billion yen, with it, Hozuki Shingetsu had the confidence to carry out sweeping reforms in Kirigakure.

The Grell Stone alone is the key to activating the aerial fortress and then flying across the ocean to colonize the eastern continent.

In this era of warring states, the significance of having a stable rear area and a vast market is self-evident and needs no further explanation.

The Impure World Reincarnation technique that Hozuki Shingetsu specifically had Black Zetsu steal was naturally not as simple as just reviving a skilled craftsman and cracking the key technology of the Chakra Cannon.

Hozuki Shingetsu's core idea, of course, is to use the Impure World Reincarnation technique to conduct regular Sage Mode training!

Over the past few years, through continuous strengthening of his body with Lightning Release chakra and Tailed Beast chakra, Hozuki Shingetsu's physical attributes have undergone a dramatic transformation compared to before.

According to Hozuki Shingetsu's own estimation, under normal circumstances, even if his physical abilities are not as good as the current Third Raikage, they are probably not far off.

With such powerful physical abilities, it was only natural that he could complete the regular training of Water Release Chakra Mode after several failures.

This is the real reason why Hozuki Shingetsu now appears with red hair—the continuously accelerating blood circulation and metabolism have made his originally white hair increasingly resemble that of the Uzumaki clan.

This made Hozuki Zangetsu extremely jealous, believing that after getting engaged, Hozuki Shingetsu was becoming more and more like the Uzumaki clan in terms of both body and other aspects.

However, while the regular training of Water Release Chakra Mode was relatively easy, the regular training of Hozuki New Moon Sage Mode had reached a bottleneck.

The two key points to normalized cultivation in the Immortal Mode are: firstly, the practitioner's mind must always maintain a state of "movement and stillness," perceiving the natural energy in nature on the one hand, and maintaining a 1:1:1 ratio of physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy under any conditions.

Through years of working together with the Six-Tailed Rhino, he has gradually come up with a solution using his cheat-like abilities.

The key lies in the second point, which is the continuous and constant integration of a vast amount of chakra with natural energy and a rapid chakra recovery rate.

Even though Hozuki Shingetsu has become a perfect Jinchūriki, this still doesn't work.

According to Hozuki Shingetsu's observation, the fundamental reason is that the tailed beast's chakra is not entirely equivalent to his own chakra.

As is well known, chakra is a mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy.

Even if the physical energy of a tailed beast's chakra is similar to that of its own, the spiritual energy is definitely different.

The essence of Sage Mode lies in the word "balance." These subtle differences are the key reason why Hozuki Shingetsu has been unable to complete his normalized training in Sage Mode.

In response to this problem, Hozuki Shingetsu thought long and hard and could only come up with one solution: to work hard to increase his own chakra reserves.

When it came to increasing his chakra reserves, Hozuki Shingetsu thought of the story in the original manga where the Third Raikage fought against thousands of enemies for three days and three nights.

The fact that the Third Raikage could fight so many people for three days and three nights while activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode speaks volumes about the sheer size of his chakra reserves and the speed at which he could recover.

These two characteristics of his are absolutely related to the stimulation of cell activity by the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

It was from this perspective that Hozuki Shingetsu got his inspiration and tried every means to improve his cell activity, thereby increasing his chakra reserves.

Shennong happened to possess the "Forbidden Medical Technique: Body Activation," a ninjutsu that could effectively enhance his cellular activity. After learning this ninjutsu, Hozuki Shingetsu confirmed his conjecture—his chakra reserves and chakra recovery rate did indeed increase.

However, his current state is still far from being able to achieve normalized training in Sage Mode, so Hozuki Shingetsu set his sights on the Lightning Release Chakra Mode of Kumogakure.

Hozuki Shingetsu learned his Lightning Release Chakra Mode from Modibi. Although Modibi was the Third Raikage's adopted brother, he definitely did not learn the full essence of this Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

In this era before the Third Raikage's sudden death, the only way for Hozuki Shingetsu to truly learn the essence of this Lightning Release Chakra Mode is to use the Impure World Reincarnation technique to "revive" the Second Raikage and learn the essence of this ninjutsu from him.

This is precisely why he was determined to obtain the Impure World Reincarnation technique from Black Zetsu.

(End of this chapter)