Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 28 Humanoid Flame

In the void and darkness, five humanoid flames appeared vividly, just like real people.

One of the humanoid flames, which was moving away, was much brighter and hotter than the other four.

"That must be the third generation!"

"Only he possesses such a powerful and concentrated amount of chakra!"

In the void and darkness, Li Yao's whispered voice echoed.

At this moment, Li Yao was in a very peculiar state of being.

It is formless and intangible; one can feel oneself alive, but has no physical body.

The past six months of torment had truly made him wish he were dead.

It was thought that as the torture continued, his body would develop greater endurance, or he would gradually lose the sensation of pain and other external injuries and become numb, no longer suffering from the torment of pain and other sensations.

But perhaps because his consciousness mutated and merged closely with his physical body after the transmigration, his physical body was not paralyzed, and no matter how much the third generation tortured him, his senses remained sharp.

His pain tolerance has indeed increased considerably.

However, this enhancement is far from enough to make him immune to various pain sensations.

So in the end, Li Yao's mental will gradually collapsed and fell silent under the long-term torment. Finally, in a situation that Li Yao did not expect, he completely abandoned his physical body and entered into chakra.

His soul and chakra merged to form a special chakra energy life form.

He can no longer perceive the existence of his physical body.

There is no sight, no pain, no smell, and none of the senses that the body provides.

In a sense, Li Yao was freed from endless torment.

At first, Li Yao thought that his soul, spirit and will would remain silent and he would not be aware of death.

However, the chakra energy life form endowed him with a perceptual ability that was different from physical sensations.

"Chakra perception!"

Li Yao was able to accurately sense the chakra within a 20-meter radius around his physical body.

If it is a ninja, it will take the form of a human-shaped flame.

Those humanoid flames were the chakra states he sensed in others.

The intensity and clarity of a flame represent the amount of chakra a person possesses.

The degree of heat represents the intensity or quality of that person's chakra.

While all ninjas' chakra may appear the same, their quality and strength actually differ.

The same fire-style ninjutsu will produce flames with much higher temperature and greater ferocity when released by a ninja with high-quality chakra.

Conversely, ninjas with low chakra quality and intensity will release fire-style ninjutsu with much lower flame temperatures.

This is the difference in the mass and intensity of chakra.

By comparing the flames, Li Yao could roughly determine that the humanoid flames moving away from him were from the Third Generation.

Because the Third Hokage's chakra, in terms of both quality and quantity, was far superior to that of the four Anbu ninjas who had been guarding him.

Not long after the Third Generation left, Ran came in to check on Li Yao's physical condition and treat the wounds left by the Third Generation when he tested Li Yao's body.

Afterwards, they randomly inserted an IV drip of nutrient solution into Li Yao to ensure that Li Yao's body would remain alive.

Throughout the entire process, Li Yao "watched" from within the void and darkness of the chakra perception space. He couldn't see the IV drip or his own body, but he could tell what Luan was doing to him from the movements of the chaotic chakra humanoid flame.

"Oh, so you weren't planning to kill me!"

"hehe!"

Li Yao made a judgment instantly, and then his consciousness fluctuated as he laughed—a cold laugh, a ruthless laugh.

Li Yao's mind was racing. In his current state, he was not afraid of any physical torture, and it would be useless to attack his soul and consciousness.

All genjutsu targeting chakra had no effect on him.

Therefore, as long as you can't break through the chakra's defenses, you can't harm his soul.

Unless the Third Hokage is willing to use a sealing technique like the Reaper Death Seal to deal with him, it is impossible to harm his soul and kill him.

But if you want to kill him, there's absolutely no need to use the Corpse Demon Sealing Technique, which trades one life for another.

After all, a sealing ninjutsu as powerful as the Reaper Death Seal can only be mastered by ninjas at the Jonin level or higher.

The Third Hokage couldn't bear to use a Jonin to perish together with Li Yao.

Because killing Li Yao is very simple; just kill his current physical body.

Although Li Yao's soul and consciousness are now completely integrated into the chakra, making him a special chakra energy life form.

However, his chakra originates from this physical body.

His current chakra energy body and physical body are still connected.

It's somewhat similar to the symbiotic relationship between a Jinchuriki and a Tailed Beast.

With his physical body dead and no chakra source input, his chakra energy body exposed to the environment wouldn't last long either.

As for whether he could possess another's body like the possession ability that the Third Hokage had always wanted to learn from him, Li Yao was uncertain.

But if this physical body dies in the end, he will try.

Because he wanted to live, not just to live for the sake of living, but simply to take revenge on three generations.

He died just like that, allowing the Third Hokage to live as long as in the original story, with a house full of children and grandchildren, and creating a legion of ninjas for his Sarutobi clan.

Li Yao wouldn't allow this beautiful scene to happen; he wanted to destroy it ruthlessly.

Therefore, if he can live, he absolutely must live.

Judging from his chaotic movements, Li Yao could now confirm that he was not going to die anytime soon.

So all that's left is figuring out how to keep living.

And, to escape alive.

As Li Yao pondered, he also explored some of the abilities he possessed in his current chakra energy body state.

He could no longer sense his physical body.

However, he can still sense the body energy that naturally emanates from the cells of his body.

The same applies to spiritual energy; the soul consciousness integrated into chakra will naturally radiate spiritual energy.

Then he can still condense chakra.

Having been tormented by the Third Hokage for the past six months, Li Yao had no energy to gather new chakra.

Now that he's in a vegetative state, he can focus on gathering chakra.

As I said before, no matter what he wants to do, in this world of ninjas, without a certain amount of chakra, he can't do anything and can only be a lamb to the slaughter.

"Um!"

As soon as he gathered chakra, a shadow fell over Li Yao's heart.

The chakra sealing technique on his physical body was still intact, and any new chakra that was condensed would also be sealed, just like solidified cement, which Li Yao could not mobilize at all.

If he can't control his chakra, he's just an ordinary person, and having more chakra won't help him.

"We need to find a way to remove the seal on my body."

"And it has to be done in a way that the Third Hokage and the Anbu ninjas can't detect it."

"How do you do that?"

Li Yao pondered, realizing that relying on "Kimura Yao's" memories would obviously not provide the answer. He could only find some knowledge and wild guesses about sealing techniques from his past life's memories, hoping to find information that would be helpful to him.

At the same time, Li Yao used his special chakra perception ability to sense the chakra in the sealing technique.

That's right.

Li Yao was able to sense the chakra within the sealing technique.

The chakra in the sealing technique is different from his own chakra, and also different from the chakra of the four ANBU ninjas currently surrounding him.

This gave Li Yao a few more thoughts.

(End of this chapter)