Chapter 28: Humanoid Flames
In a void of darkness, five humanoid flames flickered vividly, lifelike as if they were real people.
One of them was moving away, and both its brightness and heat far surpassed the other four humanoid flames.
"That must be the Third Hokage!"
"He's the only one who could possess such immense and refined chakra!"
In the void-like space, Li Yao's murmuring voice echoed.
At this moment, Li Yao existed in a very peculiar state of life.
Dispersed and formless—he could feel that he was alive, but no longer had a physical body.
The past half year of torture had truly left him wishing for death.
He had once thought that as the torment continued, his body would develop greater tolerance, or perhaps gradually lose pain perception and become numb, no longer suffering from such sensory agony.
But whether it was due to his transmigrated consciousness mutating or merging too tightly with his body, his flesh never grew numb—no matter how much the Third tortured him, his perception remained sharp.
His pain tolerance had indeed increased quite a bit.
But that was nowhere near enough to immunize him against all pain sensations.
So in the end, Li Yao's spiritual will, after prolonged torment, gradually collapsed into silence. Finally, in a way even he hadn't expected, he completely abandoned his body and entered his chakra.
His soul fused with the chakra, becoming a special chakra-energy lifeform.
Now, he could no longer sense his physical body at all.
No sight, no pain, no smell—none of the senses the physical body once provided.
In a way, Li Yao was free. No longer would he endure endless torture.
At first, Li Yao thought that his soul and spiritual will would just remain dormant like this, senseless, until death.
But his chakra-energy lifeform state gave him a different kind of perception—distinct from the physical.
"Chakra perception!"
Li Yao could precisely sense chakra within a twenty-meter radius around his physical body.
If the source was a ninja, it would manifest as a humanoid flame.
Those flames were the forms of chakra he perceived from others.
The brightness and clarity of a flame represented how much chakra someone had.
Its heat represented the intensity—or quality—of that chakra.
Although ninja chakra might seem the same on the surface, their quality and strength varied greatly.
The same Fire Style jutsu, when cast by someone with high-quality chakra, would produce flames that were far hotter and more violent.
Conversely, if the chakra quality was low, the jutsu would produce much cooler flames.
That was the difference in chakra quality and strength.
By comparing, Li Yao was almost certain that the humanoid flame moving away was the Third Hokage.
Because the chakra on the Third, both in quantity and quality, was vastly superior to that of the four ANBU guarding him.
Not long after the Third left, Ran came in to examine Li Yao's physical condition and treated the wounds left from the Third's earlier probing.
Afterward, Ran attached an IV bottle filled with nutrient fluid to ensure Li Yao's physical body stayed alive.
Through the whole process, Li Yao "watched" from within his void-like chakra-perception space. He couldn't see the IV or his own body, but he could tell what Ran was doing based on the movements of Ran's chakra-flame.
"Oh, not planning to kill me."
"Heh."
Li Yao instantly made that judgment, and then his consciousness stirred with a sneer—cold and sharp.
Li Yao's thoughts were active. In his current state, he wasn't afraid of any physical torture. Even attempts to attack his soul and spirit were useless.
Any genjutsu that targeted chakra was ineffective on him.
So as long as his chakra defenses weren't breached, his soul couldn't be harmed.
Unless the Third was willing to use something like the Reaper Death Seal—only then could his soul be damaged or destroyed.
But if the goal was to kill him, there was no need to trade lives with a jutsu like that.
After all, a jutsu like the Reaper Death Seal was something only Jonin-level ninja could even hope to learn.
The Third would never sacrifice a Jonin just to take Li Yao down with him.
Because killing Li Yao was simple—just destroy his body.
Even though his soul had fully merged with his chakra, becoming a special chakra-energy lifeform—
His chakra still originated from his physical body.
His current state was still tied to his body, somewhat like the symbiotic relationship between a Jinchūriki and a Tailed Beast.
If his body died and the chakra supply ceased, then his chakra-energy lifeform exposed to the environment wouldn't last long.
As for whether he could possess someone else's body like the technique the Third kept wanting to extract from him—Li Yao wasn't sure.
But if his body did die, he would try.
Because he wanted to survive—not just for the sake of living, but purely to take revenge on the Third.
To die now and let the Third go on living like in the original story, long-lived, surrounded by children and grandchildren, building a literal ninja army from his Sarutobi clan—
That kind of beautiful future? Li Yao would never allow it. He wanted to ruin it completely.
So, if he had a chance to live, he absolutely would live.
From Ran's movements, Li Yao could confirm that he wasn't going to die anytime soon.
That left the question of how to continue surviving.
And how to escape.
As Li Yao contemplated, he also explored some of the abilities he possessed in this chakra-energy lifeform state.
He could no longer sense his body.
But he could still perceive the energy naturally emitted from his body's cells.
The same with mental energy—his spirit, merged with the chakra, still leaked mental energy.
That meant he could still refine chakra.
During the previous six months of torment, Li Yao had no mental capacity to form new chakra.
Now, in his vegetative state, he could finally concentrate on doing so.
And just like before—whatever he planned to do, in the ninja world, nothing was possible without a certain amount of chakra. Without it, he was just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"Hmm!"
As soon as he formed some chakra, a shadow passed through Li Yao's mind.
The chakra sealing formula on his body was still active. The newly formed chakra was sealed just like before—like solidified cement. He couldn't use any of it.
If he couldn't control his chakra, he was no different from a regular person. No matter how much chakra he had, it was useless.
"I need to figure out a way to break the seal."
"And I have to do it without the Third or the ANBU noticing."
"But how?"
Li Yao thought deeply. "Kimura Yao's" memories had no answers. He could only dig through knowledge and speculation from his previous life about sealing techniques—hoping to find something useful.
At the same time, Li Yao used his current, special chakra-perception ability to sense the chakra in the sealing formula.
That's right.
He could sense the chakra within the sealing jutsu.
The chakra embedded in the seal was different from his own, and also different from the chakra on the four ANBU around him.
This sparked some new ideas in Li Yao's mind.
(END CHAPTER)
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