Fukuda Kiyomu had already said it—what else could Ichiraku do? He had no desire to deal with this lunatic.
It was said that a hundred years ago, this man had fought against many sages, completely ignoring any rules. Many powerful figures had died at Fukuda Kiyomu's hands.
Back then, the entire world had been hunting him down. But that was exactly what Fukuda Kiyomu had wanted. In the end, though… he failed, and so did that era.
Once the other sages realized the gap in strength, they gave up trying to kill him. As for what Fukuda Kiyomu wanted to do? They stopped caring.
But the unresolved issues of history had carried over to this era. Fukuda Kiyomu was still the one sage that everyone else wanted to avoid. He was also the strongest sage of this time.
Ichiraku didn't care about him being the strongest. But the part about wanting to avoid him? That, he fully agreed with.
Once Fukuda Kiyomu got attached to someone, it only meant trouble.
"There should already be sages going after Shanks by now. Those guys may be cowards, but they never pass up a chance for easy gains."
"If only there were a few more sages like you in this era. Not too strong, but at least smart enough not to act recklessly."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Ichiraku didn't really care anymore. He couldn't escape anyway, so he might as well enjoy himself.
Besides, with the awakening of the Dragon Vein, the creatures in the ocean were changing, giving him new ingredients to study for cooking.
Seeing Ichiraku's reaction, Fukuda Seimei respected the middle-aged man even more.
He had stayed in the Land for so long, carefully gathering intelligence on Shanks without making any reckless moves.
At the same time, he didn't act overly cautious like other sages. This was how a true sage should be.
Look at the other sages—what had they become?
As the strongest sage of this era, Fukuda Seimei knew far more than most. He even had deep knowledge of things like the Poneglyphs.
Back in the time of the Sage of Six Paths, what were people like? They had the guts to charge at his mother with torches and bows, even managing to kill his father.
If Kaguya hadn't eaten the Chakra Fruit afterward, she would've been killed too.
That's what you call a fierce and fearless people.
Of course, the so-called "ordinary people" recorded in history might not have been truly ordinary. Real common folk wouldn't dare to attack the Sage of Six Paths' mother with just torches and simple weapons.
But no matter who they were, people in that era at least had the courage to do such things.
And what happened next?
Kaguya ate the Chakra Fruit and wiped them all out.
But do you think that was the end? Of course not.
Even after wiping them out, Kaguya never dared to stray too far from the Divine Tree.
No one knew which sage's power had made her so wary, but she always stayed near the tree.
Then came the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
The first thing he did when he appeared? Sealed his own mother on the moon.
The other sages were completely stunned.
By that time, the Sage of Six Paths' power had already reached the level where he could dominate other sages.
After all, sealing his mother away was actually harder than killing her.
Make no mistake—if he had wanted to kill Kaguya, it would've been easy.
Many sages had confirmed this.
This was the period when the Sage of Six Paths traveled the ninja world after sealing Kaguya.
But during his journey, he realized one thing—the people of the ninja world had a rather… strange way of thinking.
Even when they knew they weren't strong enough, they would still try to fight him.
They didn't care about logic at all.
Well, this had basically become a tradition in the ninja world.
After all, that was exactly how his mother had been taken down—she was living peacefully until a group of people ganged up on her.
And so, the true era of the Sage of Six Paths began.
What was the foundation of the ninja sect he established? Bonds. The bonds between people and living in peace.
Without that, given the way the ninja world had always been, peace was impossible.
So, the Sage of Six Paths started preaching.
If people didn't listen? He'd beat them until they did.
Honestly, many so-called saintly teachings weren't spread through "politeness."
Just look at how many people Confucius brought with him when he traveled the various states.
And if you really study who Confucius was, you'll understand the same thing—
The first step to making people listen is making sure they have no choice but to listen.
Let's not talk about the distant past—let's focus on something more recent.
Without the Paris Commune, without Big Brother, could Marxism have become a true ideology?
The path Rikudou Sennin took was no different.
If reasoning doesn't work, then I'll use force.
And in the end, this method—tested many times in another world—actually worked.
With the founding of the ninja order, an unspoken agreement was reached between the ancient nobles of the ninja world and the order itself. Meanwhile, the sages retreated into the shadows.
Thousands of years passed, and aside from the sages of the Three Great Sacred Lands, the others had long since been replaced.
Under the system Rikudou Sennin originally established, the sages of the ninja world lost their former fighting spirit. One by one, they became like caged birds—beautiful but powerless.
That was why Fukuda Seimei used such extreme methods to push the ninja world into producing more powerful warriors. He saw the consequences of Rikudou Sennin's "contract."
The entire ninja world was growing weaker—steadily, and dangerously so.
But Fukuda Seimei failed. He saw the problem, but he wasn't capable of solving it.
Fortunately, this era gave rise to someone even more unbelievable.
As for Shanks, Fukuda Seimei's assessment was simple—even as a madman himself, he couldn't understand what kind of person Shanks really was.
But once you saw him, you'd get it.
Meanwhile, Shanks and his crew had already left Starlight Island.
At this point, Starlight Island had expanded to more than three times its original size—far beyond Amado's expectations.
"The island's dragon vein has been fully activated, but it hasn't affected the surface much. The real changes are happening underwater.
The true Starlight Island might have expanded by four to seven times its original size."
Amado shared his findings.
"Four to seven times? That's a huge gap."
Shisui and Shanks looked at Amado. This result didn't seem like something Amado would come up with—it felt more like a wild guess from Zabuza's half-baked research notes.
"I can't help it. The dragon vein of Starlight Island makes everything around it grow freely—including the island itself. So it's hard to get an accurate estimate."
Amado pointed to a group of people not far away—Zabuza's crew. Each of them looked bizarre.
Their appearances were starting to resemble something straight out of a pirate story. Their upper bodies were massive and muscular, while their lower bodies—though still strong—seemed noticeably smaller in comparison.
"Is this how they're training Seimei Kikan?"
Shanks was at a loss for words. Were these guys only absorbing the dragon vein's energy with their upper bodies?
"Honestly, reaching this level is already impressive. After all, the heart is the body's blood supply center, so it makes sense that the upper body absorbs more energy."
Amado explained, then pulled out a compass—it was time to head to the next dragon vein.
Or rather, the meeting point of two dragon veins.
As for Shanks, he didn't feel anything was off. This had been the most relaxing month in a long time.
"The open sea is the best. No unnecessary trouble, and with the dragon vein's activation, my strength has also improved.
It's been a while since I've felt this kind of progress. Shisui, how about you?"
Shanks turned to Shisui. There was no doubt about Shisui's talent—he had both skill and dedication. Someone like him was bound to improve.
"I'm not like you, Captain. If I want to get stronger, I have to put in the effort and train hard. Besides, our ninja training system is a bit different."
Shisui shook his head with a helpless smile. Even now, he was still a traditional ninja.
But the more this happened, the more Shisui could feel the gap in Taijutsu. Those who followed Shanks' path would only get stronger in Taijutsu.
The second refinement of chakra was that powerful.
It was just like using "multiplying explosive tags"—it wasn't as simple as one plus one equals two.
"Sounds like you've made great progress!"
Hearing Shisui's answer, Shanks understood right away. This guy was just being humble. A ninja's path was never a dead end.
Everything depended on effort.
"Compared to the paths most people take now, my own path seems more like taking shortcuts."
Shisui sighed.
Whether it was Devil Fruit users or pure Taijutsu experts, they all focused on improving their fundamental abilities.
But traditional ninjas? Their path looked like a complete shortcut.
Hearing Shisui's words, Shanks shook his head.
"Chakra is not a shortcut, and neither is Ninjutsu.
Chakra is the combination of a person's physical and spiritual energy—that's the most fundamental aspect of the human body.
As for Ninjutsu, if you see it as a way to manipulate chakra, then you can also reverse the process and break it down into its most basic applications."
Something suddenly crossed Shanks' mind.
"Come to think of it, in the early days of Ninshu, chakra was mainly used in daily life—watering crops, starting fires, things like that.
If you think about it that way, the original use of chakra in Ninshu seems more like…"
"More like controlling natural energy, which is basically Sage Mode.
But even if I want to train in Sage Mode, I have to find my own way first."
Shisui added as he glanced at another ship. Forget it—there wasn't a single ninja there, let alone anyone to discuss Sage Mode training with.
The only person he could talk to about it was Shanks, but as Shanks' right-hand man, Shisui figured it was better to figure things out on his own.
Shanks wasn't the type to keep secrets, but the problem was that his path wasn't something just anyone could follow.
"That's true. But trying to master Sage Mode on your own is pretty risky. I failed back then and had no choice but to train in this reverse Sage Mode instead."
Shanks nodded. Back then, he hadn't succeeded either.
Hearing this, Shisui was speechless.
He had already heard about Shanks' ridiculous training methods from Zabuza. The guy had let natural energy flood into his body—could he have done anything crazier?
To others, it looked like Shanks had put himself in a life-or-death situation and somehow survived.
But after spending enough time with Shanks, Shisui knew the truth—Shanks had simply acted on impulse and trained recklessly.
The only difference between Shanks and other reckless people was that Shanks had the ability to turn his mistakes into successes.
Shisui, on the other hand, didn't have that luxury.
"Forget it. I'm not in a rush for now.
I'm still far from reaching my limit. Training in Sage Mode at this point would be too soon."
Shisui sighed. After setting out to sea, he didn't feel as pressured anymore.
And with the influence of the Dragon Vein's power, Shisui could clearly sense that he hadn't hit his limit yet.
There was still time—he could train in Sage Mode once he reached his peak.
"Hmm, if nothing else works, we could try going to one of the Three Great Sacred Lands and learning their Sage Mode. That should be easier, right?"
"That sounds good in theory, but if we try to go in, the entire ninja world will probably think we're trying to destroy it."
Shisui rolled his eyes. Shanks heard this and felt a wave of frustration.
He knew it—Danzo shouldn't have been killed. If Danzo were alive, all the blame would've fallen on him. But now that he was dead, every problem landed squarely on Shanks' shoulders.
Still, as long as he stayed out of ninja world affairs for a while, things should settle down eventually.
Just as Shanks was thinking this, he suddenly sensed something unusual—a powerful surge of natural energy gathering up ahead.
At the same time, a loud, arrogant laugh echoed from the sky.
"Hahaha!! I thought Fukuda Seimei was lying to us.
I've been watching you for a week, Shanks. I never would've guessed that the so-called strongest ninja in the world is just a worthless fool who can't even master Sage Mode."
"That being the case, you might as well hand over the rest of the Dragon Vein's power to me!!"
As a middle-aged man descended from the sky, the people below looked at him like he was an idiot.
Even Zabuza couldn't figure out what this guy was trying to do. He didn't seem weak, but no matter how you looked at it, he wasn't a match for Shanks.
"And you are…?"
Shanks asked, puzzled. He wasn't the only one—Shisui, standing beside him, shook his head in confusion. There was no record of this person anywhere.
Hearing Shanks' question, the man narrowed his eyes slightly.
It was understandable that people didn't know his name. After all, he was a natural-born sage, unlike these so-called warriors who couldn't even master Sage Mode.
"Listen carefully. I am the Sage of the Land of Earth.
Sandai Tsuchikata!! Shanks, draw your sword—I'll give you a chance!"
Sandai Tsuchikata looked down at Shanks with disdain.
But just then, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. He looked up at the sky.
"Huh? Why did it suddenly get dark? Is it about to rain?"
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