Chapter Forty-Three: Mu Qianrou's Strength

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Hot on the heels of that groan came a tremendous force. Unfortunately, the opponent had chosen Feng Xue as their first target. Thus, this kick, powerful enough to break a giant log, couldn't even make Feng Xue take a single step back.

"This sensation..." Rock Lee seemed to realize something, his expression turning grim as he fixed his gaze on Feng Xue.

"Why are you here?" Sakura's voice was laced with a tumult of emotions—excitement, joy, relief, and a tangle of others that were hard to name, but above all, there was confusion.

"I'll always show up when you're in danger!" With his thick eyebrows and bowl-cut hair, Rock Lee delivered what should have been a dashing line, but his appearance made it impossible for anyone to truly see him as cool. It had to be said: this really was a world where looks mattered.

"If you're done showing off, stop talking. All we want is Sasuke Uchiha. Step aside, and we'll let you live." Feng Xue spoke with a calm indifference, exuding the air of a final boss. Yet, in this story, he was nothing more than a bit player.

"Um..." Sakura tried to speak, but Lee cut her off—

"I told you, I would protect you with my life, so—"

Before he could finish, Lee's figure had already flashed in front of Feng Xue. Unfortunately, the powerful kick he launched was no more than child's play before the AT Field, which could even stop missiles.

"Your taijutsu is certainly impressive, but there are those in this world who are its natural enemies." Feng Xue stared at Lee. "If you opened six or more of the Eight Gates, I might be a little wary. But as it is, your ordinary taijutsu, which can't even cause damage beyond kinetic force, is nothing more than a tickle to me."

True to the rule that villains die from talking too much, Feng Xue—who was here to throw himself into the fray—made every effort to put on airs.

"Leave this to me. I've always wanted to see what makes Konoha's taijutsu different." Mu Qianrou suddenly spoke up. As a martial artist, hot-bloodedness seemed to come with the territory.

"Are you serious?" Feng Xue looked at Mu Qianrou in surprise. As a student admitted for her specialization in anime studies, she should understand the significance of the Eight Gates in taijutsu.

Mu Qianrou didn't answer. She simply nodded slightly, and a surge of overwhelming momentum erupted from her. It was a fierce, dominating, indescribable force, as if she alone stood for an entire army.

"Fate Armament, is it?" Xia Mi's eyes flashed with sharp light. As a "veteran" student who had repeated years, he had taken nearly every elective available to the extraordinary rank, and his ability to identify skills was unmatched. In an instant, he had confirmed Mu Qianrou’s ability.

"Fate? Not Haki?" Feng Xue was momentarily stunned. He had thought Mu Qianrou had chosen some kind of soul technique, but now it seemed this might be a reward for passing the academy's entrance exam with flying colors. In that case, the name of this Fate Armament was self-evident: Aura Pattern—An Army of Thousands!

"Tsk, tsk, an army of thousands! If this girl ever evolves it to the Conqueror’s Domain..." Feng Xue couldn’t help but think—the image was too dazzling to even imagine!

Rock Lee, standing right in the path of this aura, had a very different reaction. As a passionate fool, he barely knew the meaning of fear. Instead, this overwhelming presence, like an army of thousands, only made his blood boil with excitement, and he eagerly awaited the coming fight.

Facing an opponent like this was far more motivating than dealing with someone like Feng Xue and his bizarre abilities!

Feng Xue, for his part, had no awareness of being seen as a weirdo. He simply watched Mu Qianrou with curiosity. She had already proved herself invincible among the sound ninja's genin, but when she brought out her trump card, it was a whole different feeling.

"This Army of Thousands fate, combined with her fighting spirit concept, really is a perfect match!" Feng Xue muttered inwardly, but then Mu Qianrou’s aura underwent another change. A translucent, larger-than-life projection of herself enveloped her, much like a human-shaped tailed beast cloak.

"Martial Will?!" Xia Mi was clearly shocked. It was his first time seeing a woman choose this soul technique—not that Martial Will was weak, quite the opposite. Any technique that could hone martial arts to the point where they rivaled magic in its essence was bound to be formidable. Legend had it that when mastered to the extreme, distance meant nothing: just thinking of the practitioner would trigger a full-force attack from them! But this technique could only be honed through countless, bone-jarring battles. For her to have formed even the embryonic stage of this will after only a single semi-independent world—what kind of terrifying world had she chosen for her first challenge?

Though countless thoughts flashed through Feng Xue and Xia Mi’s minds, in reality only a moment had passed. Meanwhile, Mu Qianrou's aura surged for the third time!

This was Mu Qianrou’s own concept—Fighting Spirit!

Feng Xue glanced over at Rock Lee and realized the other was entirely unaffected, wearing a rather awkward expression.

The Fighting Spirit concept didn’t just boost the user's own morale; it could sap the enemy's as well. In a world like Heroes of Might and Magic, it would be a godlike skill to lower the enemy’s morale and raise your own. Yet Lee seemed completely impervious—Feng Xue couldn’t help but marvel: these pure martial artists really were monsters!

It seemed Mu Qianrou was finally ready. Her aura abruptly retracted, not fading, but condensing—her tailed beast-like willpower compressing along with her fighting spirit until it was fully absorbed into her body. The transformation made her seem to vibrate with vitality. For a brief instant, Feng Xue felt the urge to look up to her as a true powerhouse, but the feeling quickly faded.

With a powerful push off the ground, Mu Qianrou vanished in a blur. Feng Xue saw only an afterimage left behind—she had already leapt above Lee’s head.

Mu Qianrou moved with elegance, as if strolling through a garden. Yet her limbs crackled with immense power, that keen pressure hinting at something akin to battle aura. (Here, "battle aura" is not the same as in certain other stories, where it’s just a named energy. The term here refers to power born from the burning of fighting spirit and will—like the force knights cultivate in some systems, or the "Haki" in pirate tales, which truly belongs to the battle aura lineage.)

As a taijutsu expert with keen instincts, Lee might not quite be able to sense a cicada before the autumn wind, but his battle-hardened eyes would never underestimate such a clean, unfettered attack. A surge of energy exploded from him—he had clearly opened the first of the Eight Gates: the Gate of Opening!