Rasgado patted his chest armor, dust falling in a shower. He looked up, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Haha, truly exhilarating power! Next, I'm going to get serious!"
Bang!
Setsuna didn't even see Rasgado's movement. He only felt his vision suddenly distort, then an overwhelming, unstoppable force descended upon him.
Cough!
Blood trickled from Setsuna's mouth. His body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through several stone walls before crashing into the rock face at the edge of the arena.
"So fast!" Dohko's eyes widened.
"No, not just fast!" A watching Candidate Saint exclaimed excitedly. "Rasgado-sama didn't even use speed. He directly used 'power' to twist space!"
Setsuna stood up from the rubble, wiping the blood from his mouth, his fighting spirit burning even brighter.
"Again!"
He instantly erupted with Chakra. The ground beneath his feet exploded as he shot towards Rasgado like lightning.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Their fists collided hundreds of times in an instant. Each impact caused the air to roar. Yet, bizarrely, aside from the moment their fists met, the surrounding ground, stone pillars, even the air, remained completely unaffected.
'My power is completely restrained… is this the Gold Saints' control over power?' Setsuna was inwardly shocked.
After the hundreds of exchanges, Rasgado stood in place, merely swaying slightly. Setsuna, however, was kneeling on one knee, his breathing slightly labored.
Rasgado laughed heartily. "Exhilarating! It's been a long time since I encountered an opponent who could make me take it slightly seriously in terms of raw power!"
He looked at Setsuna, his eyes full of appreciation. "Kid, interested in becoming my disciple?"
"Whoa!" The surrounding Candidates instantly erupted.
"Rasgado-sama taking a disciple? This guy is so lucky!"
"If he becomes Rasgado-sama's disciple, he could inherit the Taurus Gold Cloth in the future, right?"
The Candidate Saints were envious. While they still had to fight for the right to a Bronze Cloth, Setsuna could ascend directly, becoming a candidate for a Gold Saint.
Setsuna was also tempted, but shook his head. "My apologies, I have my own path."
Rasgado wasn't angry, instead laughing loudly. "Haha! A true warrior should forge their own path!"
He patted Setsuna's shoulder. "However, during your time in Sanctuary, you can come spar with me anytime!"
Setsuna naturally wouldn't refuse. "Certainly."
Rasgado proceeded to explain the earlier battle. "Your power is indeed good, but the destructive force is too great."
Setsuna raised an eyebrow slightly. "Greater destructive power isn't a good thing?"
"Haha!" Rasgado laughed. "Saints are protectors, not destroyers. If a single battle leaves mountains and rivers shattered, and living beings decimated, then what meaning is there in our protection?"
Rasgado raised his index finger, pointing at a large boulder ten meters away.
"Watch carefully."
Without any warning, a fist-sized hole, its edges smooth as a mirror, appeared in the center of the boulder.
Even more astonishing, the boulder itself didn't move at all. Not even the slightest tremor occurred.
"The reason the fundamental requirement for becoming a Saint is comprehending the Sixth Sense is that only by comprehending the Sixth Sense can one focus power to the microscopic level… smashing atoms. This way, battles don't cause excessive damage to the surroundings."
Setsuna pondered, 'Indeed, without comprehending the Sixth Sense, one couldn't even 'see' atoms, much less talk about smashing them.'
Rasgado continued on his own. "I don't know if you've heard of [Athena Exclamation]. It's a forbidden technique that requires three Gold Saints to perform jointly. The reason Athena forbade it is precisely because this power is excessively great."
He raised his hand. A miniature illusion of a galaxy appeared in his palm. "The slightest deviation would cause unimaginable destruction."
Within the illusion, a planet suddenly shattered, its shockwave sweeping across the entire galaxy.
"Thus, Athena would rather seal this technique than let Saints use it. Moreover, your attacks look spectacular, but in reality, they're wasting power." Rasgado shook his head slightly.
"True masters control their power to the extreme, even achieving a cycle of power. That's why battles between Gold Saints often evolve into Thousand-Day Wars."
Setsuna suddenly understood, 'No wonder battles between Gold Saints could last so long.'
…
After the guidance battle, Setsuna began his Sixth Sense training.
In the Sanctuary's training ground, Setsuna sat cross-legged, five points oriented towards the sky, eyes closed, sensing the hidden power within his body.
The Sixth Sense, this realm beyond common sense, allowed his control over his body to reach the atomic level.
Every inch of muscle, every drop of blood, every cell became incredibly clear under his consciousness.
"The Sixth Sense isn't just enhanced perception, it's mastery over the source of life itself." Setsuna's eyes were deep. Not long after comprehending the Sixth Sense, he smoothly completed the development of the Baryon Mode.
He had obtained the [Baryon Mode] from Kurama years ago but had never successfully trained it.
The principle of this mode was precisely to combine numerous light particles within the body to produce heavy particles, making them burn like stars, unleashing fusion-like explosive power.
For Setsuna, who could now smash atoms, this step was almost a natural progression.
'However, this mode burns life force even more intensely than the Eight Gates. I must never use it lightly unless absolutely necessary.' Setsuna pondered internally. While his incomplete Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki status could exempt him from the cost of the Death Gate, Baryon Mode was even more extreme than the Death Gate.
Setsuna continuously contemplated, increasingly sensing the wonder of Cosmos. The Sixth Sense was the source of life and also the medium for humans to communicate with the universe.
Through the Sixth Sense, his perception of the universe was no longer limited to the superficial information received by the five senses. He could directly touch the deeper flow of energy.
He could feel the breathing of the stars, the pulse of the earth, even detect subtle distortions in space.
Setsuna's thoughts extended. Although he was only at the Sixth Sense realm, it wasn't hard to infer from descriptions from his previous life:
The Seventh Sense, Miraculosity, was the sense of time, the essence of Cosmos. Only by reaching this realm could one truly achieve lightspeed.
The Eighth Sense, Arayashiki, was the sense of consciousness, transcending life and death, the boundary between god and human.
In Setsuna's view, Cosmos was the origin, the foundation. The Sixth and Seventh Senses were realms, applications of power.
Like the future Bronze Saints, the reason they could fight Gold Saints while at the Sixth Sense was because their Cosmos was exceptionally powerful.
Setsuna's current situation was similar. The foundation from multiple worlds made his life source extremely powerful. His Cosmos was almost on par with a Gold Saint's. He merely lagged in terms of realm.
In terms of pure power, he should now be considered a top-tier Silver Saint approaching Gold.
Of course, unless it was a super Silver Saint who had comprehended the Seventh Sense, even the most powerful Silver Saint was separated from a Gold Saint by an insurmountable gulf.
Bronze Saints moved at the speed of sound. Silver Saints spanned from Mach 2 to sub-lightspeed… a nearly million-fold difference.
'I comprehended Observation Haki capable of foreseeing the future in the One Piece World. That counts as early exposure to aspects of the Seventh Sense.' Setsuna contemplated internally. He was confident in his ability to master the Seventh Sense.
After all, foreseeing the future was itself a manifestation of the sense of time.
But the Eighth Sense was different. That realm transcended life and death.
Even the mighty Gold Saints struggled to truly comprehend the Eighth Sense. It was the barrier between god and demigod.
'However…' A bold thought arose in Setsuna's mind. 'If the plan succeeds, I might not only comprehend the Eighth Sense but perhaps temporarily escape the threat of Omega Shenron.'