With the power of the Twelve Talismans returned to his body and his strength restored to its peak, Shendu couldn't have cared less about Uchiha Madara's challenge.
In his view, there were only two people in the chat group worthy of his attention now.
One was the Left Wing of the Holy Guard, Angel Yan. Backed by an entire civilization, who knew how far she'd already climbed.
The other was the Child of Nature, Brandon White—the one who had once faced malice from virtually the entire world. Even now, that still made Shendu wary.
As for the others?
Heh.
Shendu was about to boast when a certain "dog" named Thor came to mind.
Hiss… fine. There were three the chat group forced him to take seriously.
Ding! Group member Shendu has entered the Virtual Battle space.
Ding! Group member Uchiha Dance King has entered the Virtual Battle space.
Richest Man: "Feels like Shendu's gotten a bit full of himself lately."
Railgun: "Has he? He's a demon—shouldn't a demon act like that?"
Richest Man: "…"
Richest Man: "Unexpectedly hard to refute."
After all, Shendu was a demon.
Ordinary Group Owner: "I really want to try that Enhancement feature. Has anyone actually succeeded with it?"
The Enhancement feature didn't just power up abilities. It could strengthen bloodlines, talents, physiques, even your rank of being. The problem was that nobody knew what the success rate was.
The key point, though, was the cost: only one thousand points. If it worked, that was pure profit!
The group's mall did let you buy things from other worlds, but no matter which world's power system you chose, there was always an upper limit—or at least a bottleneck you'd eventually hit.
Whether technology or the occult, it was the same.
The Enhancement feature, however, let you smash straight through that bottleneck into a new realm.
One thousand points wasn't exactly expensive, but with zero success stories so far, it was hard for her to take the plunge.
Richest Man: "The odds on that feature have to be tiny."
Richest Man: "I tried enhancing my Iron armor three times—every single one failed!"
Richest Man: "Three thousand points! That's three thousand points!"
Tony Stark was practically in tears.
If he could roll back time, he would never have burned three thousand points on that feature.
He wasn't like the others, with piles of things to trade in.
Three thousand points wasn't cheap for him!
Dump them all into the sea in one go—who could stand that?
The Most Evil Elf: "I haven't used it yet. But judging by Mr. Tony's face, I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon."
Tokisaki Kurumi didn't lack points, but gambling on a feature with unknown probabilities felt unreliable. By comparison, she preferred to spend points on things she could see.
Like the group mall.
Come Be My Son: "This old man wanted to enhance his Gura Gura no Mi. Failed as well."
Boil Daigo into Soup: "I wanted to enhance my Spark Lens, but—"
Compared to others, he'd spent the most—ten thousand points.
Ten attempts. Every last one failed.
His mood was complicated, to say the least.
It felt unlikely anyone would touch that feature again until a success finally appeared.
Yellow Flash: "I tried once too—enhancing the Flying Thunder God Technique. Also failed."
Himouto Umaru: "I'm jealous of you guys having points to enhance with. I've got none."
Himouto Umaru: "Crying.jpg"
Of course, even if she had a thousand points she wouldn't use them on Enhancement. She'd definitely buy some kind of mystical power from the mall.
Like a Chakra seed, spiritual energy, cheap martial arts manuals—those sorts of things.
Even simple mystic systems could bolster her physical fitness.
What she really wanted, though, was a Pokémon.
Uu-uuu… why were there such cute little creatures in the world, and why couldn't she afford one!
Invincible East: "The lower the grade of the item, the higher the chance of a successful enhancement."
Invincible East: "I failed last time enhancing my Glint-Glint Fruit, but this time I succeeded."
Ordinary Group Owner: "Sister Dongfang, you succeeded?"
Ordinary Group Owner: "What did you enhance? Curious.jpg"
Invincible East: "Ren Woxing's Absorbing Star Great Technique."
Richest Man: "Absorbing Star Great Technique?"
Richest Man: "Why didn't you enhance your Sunflower Manual?"
Tony Stark was puzzled. If you're going to enhance something, shouldn't you enhance your own art? Why strengthen a martial manual you hadn't cultivated?
Invincible East: "I'd like to know why I didn't enhance the Sunflower Manual, too…"
Dongfang Bai stared at the newly evolved Absorbing Star Great Technique, feelings complicated.
What was she supposed to say?
That a whim struck her?
For someone from a wuxia world, points were far harder to earn than for most members. Where would she get the nerve to gamble them casually?
And yet that was exactly what happened.
In that single instant she suddenly wanted to try enhancing the Absorbing Star Great Technique—and it worked.
And once enhanced, the technique left her a little heartsick.
If only the Sunflower Manual had been the one to succeed.
[Absorbing Star Great Technique · Enhancement +1]
[Effect: May plunder the enemy's essence, energy, and spirit—the Three Souls—to nourish the self, and seize all martial arts under heaven, converting them for one's own use.]
[Remark: No negative side effects.]
Originally, the technique could only absorb inner strength, with various limitations and even sequelae. Enhanced, it was more than doubled.
Nourishing the self with essence, energy, and spirit meant not only inner strength, but also mental power and physique. Even in Daoist cultivation, the triad of essence-qi-spirit was paramount; true masters could ride a formidable spirit to leave the body.
As for "seizing all martial arts under heaven," there was nothing more to say. While draining an opponent's essence-qi-spirit, she could strip their martial attainments as well. Whatever martial art the opponent had cultivated would convert perfectly into her own skill.
For example, if she were to kill Feng Qingyang of Mount Hua, those decades of sword cultivation would all become hers.
Whether the Nine Swords of Dugu or the Huashan sword forms, she could wield them all—and wield them with the same effect as Feng Qingyang.
Given time, she could push the path of martial arts to a height neither ancients nor those to come could surpass.
At first she worried that such a frightening technique might come with hidden flaws, harming her in some way. But the chat group's final remark neatly dispelled her concerns:
No negative side effects.
Nothing was more reassuring than that.
And precisely because of it, she could all the more feel just how terrifying the enhanced Absorbing Star Great Technique truly was.
An un-enhanced version would already incite the covetousness of countless figures in the martial world. Enhanced like this, it would tempt the entire world. There would be almost no one able to resist it.
Meanwhile, inside the Virtual Battle space, Shendu and Uchiha Madara faced each other across a field the chat group had woven from rules and light. Outside, only seconds ticked by; inside, the arena expanded to hold storms and mountains.
Shendu's eight-horned silhouette towered, dragon head held high, molten fire seething beneath his scales. Around him, heat shimmered, the world itself seeming to ripple with each slow breath.
Madara's cloak stirred in a wind that had not been there a heartbeat before. The three-tomoe Sharingan spun and tightened—and then changed. Scarlet petals extended into shuriken-like points, the Eternal Mangekyō blooming with a cold, uncanny radiance. The warlord's calm was almost regal, a stillness honed on battlefields that had devoured clans whole.
Neither spoke. The arena's light-band sky flickered—once, twice—and then broke like a drum.
Fire leapt.
Susanoo roared.
And beyond the viewing eyes of the chat group, a duel began that would be condensed by the system to a bare sliver of real time, and to silence.
Back in the chat, nobody could see it. They could only wait for the result.
Richest Man: "This 'no streaming' policy is barbaric."
Railgun: "Says the guy who just failed three enhancements in a row."
Richest Man: "That's uncalled for."
Ordinary Group Owner: "Enhancement really is too random. If only the system published the success rates."
The Most Evil Elf: "If it did, would you trust them?"
Himouto Umaru: "I'd still roll if the banner's cute…"
Boil Daigo into Soup: "…"
Yellow Flash: "I recommend patience. Preparation precedes victory."
Invincible East: "Even with success, you pay in another way. Now that this technique is mine, I have to live up to it."
Ordinary Group Owner: "By the way, Dongfang-jie, does your enhanced technique ignore meridian compatibility?"
Invincible East: "Yes. It converts what it takes. No backlash. That's the most frightening part."
The chat fell quiet for a beat, the implications rippling outward. A technique that erased incompatibility, that digested every pillaged art into mastery, and that fed on essence, energy, and spirit with no hidden fangs—placed in any world, it would be a calamity.
Come Be My Son: "Gurararara… In this sea, there are fruits men would kill for. In your rivers and lakes, there is a technique the world would go mad for."
Invincible East: "Which is why this will not be circulated."
Richest Man: "Good call. One leak and it's open season."
The Most Evil Elf: "If it leaked, entire worlds would have to adjust their balance overnight."
Railgun: "And then there's me, still saving for a Chakra seed…"
Ding.
A crisp, mechanical chime cut through the scrolling lines.
Ding! Virtual Battle complete. Results recorded.
Two more pings followed in rapid succession—private summaries dropping into two inboxes.
The general channel remained empty of details.
Silence.
Ordinary Group Owner: "Well?"
Uchiha Dance King: "."
Shendu: "Not bad."
Uchiha Dance King: "You can still stand after dancing with me. For a demon, that's not shameful."
Shendu: "You managed not to die. For a human, that's not shameful either."
No one else needed the system's private data to understand: neither had crushed the other. If anything, both had found what they came for—measure.
Richest Man: "So… who won?"
Uchiha Dance King: "I was not defeated."
Shendu: "I was not defeated."
Himouto Umaru: "Translation: draw!"
Yellow Flash: "A tie is itself a kind of information."
Boil Daigo into Soup: "I wanted explosions."
Railgun: "Same."
Invincible East: "A clash of peaks rarely ends with fireworks. It ends with a realignment."
The moment passed. The chat drifted back toward its usual simmer of trades, boasts, and side-eyes. But in the worlds behind the screens, lines had moved—by inches, by unseen degrees.
In one world, a demon tested his flames against a warrior's godlike avatar.
In another, a warlord tallied the price of a demon's immortality and a talisman's healing.
And in a third, a single page—rewritten by an upgrade—made every martial art under heaven into prey.
(End of this chapter)