Linto stood before Shinno's corpse.
It was hard to believe that the shriveled old man before him was the same Shinno who, not long ago, was as strong as a silverback gorilla.
"Kill Shinno: 700, Zero-Tail Void: 1200, Air Ninja Legion: 1500."
Linto calculated his earnings from this battle.
Looking at Shinno's price tag, he felt a bit speechless; it was just too cheap.
He could accept that he wasn't as valuable as a Zero-Tail Void.
But Linto distinctly remembered that Manda from the Ryuchi Cave, whom he had beaten to death with three punches, had yielded 800 soul fragments.
"Just how weak must Shinno be without the Zero-Tail Void?"
Linto shook his head.
This time he had gained 3400 soul fragments, which translated to 340 regular draws. It was indeed a plentiful harvest.
But compared to the soul fragments, Linto had gained two more important things from this battle:
The first was Shinno's memory disc.
The mind of this old man, active since the Second Great Ninja War, contained a wealth of crucial information and techniques.
Linto flipped through the memory disc.
"Body Activation, Body Regeneration – all forbidden jutsu that burn away lifespan."
"Eight Gates doesn't burn lifespan, but it burns maximum HP, and it also requires extremely high talent from the practitioner."
"Only the Zero-Tail Jutsu formula remains. As long as there's enough negative energy, Body Activation, Body Regeneration, and Eight Gates won't drain HP; they will drain Dark Chakra first."
Linto was most interested in this Zero-Tail Jutsu formula.
Negative emotions could be transformed into Dark Chakra, and this power could even become the core energy for Sky Fortress Unit Two.
If this could really be achieved, capturing a bunch of heinous villains, using the White Snake to extract their memories, keeping them in a state of eternal despair and sadness, and using them as power generators in prison – wouldn't that lead to energy independence?
But as Linto carefully examined the memories, he found that things weren't as simple as he imagined.
The so-called "negative emotions" were a person's "mental energy."
Many people, after a day of work that wasn't physically demanding, still felt exhausted when they returned home at night.
This was mental energy depletion.
If mental energy was severely depleted, it would lead to numerous illnesses, affecting a person's life force.
The Zero-Tail Void absorbed the mental and life force from this mental energy.
"This thing's efficiency is too low. It might be useful in war-torn regions, but its existence would negatively impact the outside world.
It would make the cruel even more cruel, the wicked even more evil, and ultimately plunge the world into chaos."
All four seemingly powerful forbidden jutsu, upon closer examination, turned out to be useless.
No wonder they were forbidden jutsu.
It made sense; if they were truly effective, even if the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, refused to use them, Danzo would have brought them out, shouting, "Let Konoha be great again!" while using them on Root members.
If even Danzo wouldn't use something, it was probably genuinely impractical.
Linto glanced at Shinno.
"Relying on four impractical forbidden jutsu to get this far… truly audacious. If the Zero-Tail Jutsu formula had malfunctioned even slightly during operation, his life force would have been rapidly depleted until he died of old age."
For that powerful physique, Shinno had paid the price with his life…
"Bad news from the bodybuilding world: Did Shinno return to the steroid planet?"
Impulsiveness had its drawbacks, but it also had its benefits.
If not for Shinno's adventurous nature, he wouldn't have acted during the Second Great Ninja War, wouldn't have met Orochimaru later, wouldn't have infiltrated Konoha to steal secret techniques, and wouldn't have actively contacted the conglomerate despite knowing Linto's power, choosing to take on this job.
Because of his adventurous spirit, Shinno had fallen to his low points and then risen to his peak.
One could only say, this was his fate.
Linto continued to read through Shinno's memory disc and found the part he was most interested in.
The manufacturing technology for sky fortresses and flying ninja tools.
"Once the research institute masters this technology, combined with Kumogakure's anti-air weaponry, perhaps in no time at all, we could have a truly space-capable battleship that can leave the planet and explore the moon."
Compared to the conglomerate and Shinno, the moon hanging overhead was far more dangerous and was Linto's motivation for establishing the research institute and constantly cultivating himself to become stronger.
Awakening thought trends was important, and defeating the conglomerate and the bureaucratic groups was also important.
But the prerequisite for everything was that humans remained the dominant species on the food chain.
Once humans were defeated, enslaved, or even… annihilated by aliens.
The so-called "awakening" would become meaningless talk.
Linto sighed, "The task is heavy and the road is long."
Kakashi, Sasuke, and Little Momo walked over.
On the other side were Iwakamine Genmasako and others, who had just finished a round of rescue work.
They approached Linto.
"Brother Shou, is there anything we can help with?" Sasuke asked.
The war was over, but the collapse of order and chaos caused by the war wouldn't end easily.
Linto looked around, his gaze settling on Iwakamine Genmasako. He asked, "With your familiarity with this city, if there were no funding from the Land of Wind, could it sustain itself? Could it support the millions of people living in the city?"
The people gathered around looked bewildered, not understanding why Linto would ask such a question.
The city's elder, who had lived and heard so much over his lifetime, had his hand tremble as he was the first to realize.
Kakashi, Sasuke, and Iwakamine Genmasako followed suit.
Their expressions shifted from confusion and astonishment to solemn contemplation.
Linto didn't rush them, waiting silently.
After a long silence, Iwakamine Genmasako slowly nodded.
"Yes."
She pointed upwards, "The prerequisite is that the rules of distribution must be re-established."
Linto nodded. "Then it's decided."
Kakashi swallowed and grabbed Linto's arm.
"What do you mean 'then it's decided'?"
He understood.
Kakashi was shocked that Linto would make such a hasty and decisive decision – a decision that made him feel dizzy just thinking about it.
"I am going to seize the city."
Linto said softly, "Golin City will sever its ties with the Land of Wind starting tonight. I will contact Amber later. The Extinction Army will arrive at Golin City in a week."
This was Linto's second significant gain.
If the battle between Linto and the old world was a boxing match, Shinno was a straight punch thrown by the old world at Linto.
Anyone who understands boxing knows that:
When an opponent swings a punch, their defense is at its most vulnerable.
Linto had crushed Shinno's fist, and taking ownership of Golin City was his counterattack.
The past Linto lacked the ability to seize a city.
Because it was easy to kill people, but difficult to find a group of officials capable of managing the city's peace and development.
It was different now.
One of Oda Ieyasu's tasks was personnel selection and training.
Golin City, this matcha cake delivered to his doorstep by the enemy, was something Linto had no reason to refuse. He would seize it, transform it, and make Golin City a thorn deeply embedded in the Land of Wind.
Slightly shaking the foundations of the desert nation.
Kakashi gripped Linto's hand, his knuckles turning slightly white from the excessive force.
At this moment, he knew he was witnessing history.