Chapter 70: Kid, You've Narrowed Your Own Path

Another brand-new day.

The sky was clear and blue, with a gentle breeze blowing.

In Mount Myoboku, birds sang and flowers bloomed, the air fresh and pure. This land had never experienced war or chaos since ancient times—it was like a heavenly sanctuary untouched by the outside world.

Today marked the seventh day since Heiyan arrived at Mount Myoboku.

His Sage Art training was progressing smoothly and had now reached its final stage.

Atop a sharp mountain peak, Heiyan sat motionless, eyes tightly shut, maintaining a hand seal posture for over ten minutes.

During these days, his meditation skills had become increasingly profound—he barely fell off the peak anymore. The amount of time he could stay still kept increasing, and even without assistance from frog oil, he could sense natural energy and absorb it.

All signs pointed to one fact: Heiyan was about to master Sage Art.

Witnessing this moment were many frogs of Mount Myoboku.

Gamabunta found himself extremely bored lately—each day consisted of nothing but monitoring Heiyan and dozing off.

To relieve boredom, he summoned all his subordinates.

Including his two brothers.

Gamaken and Gamahiro.

Gamaken was a large purple-red frog. There was a "U"-shaped black tattoo on his face. He held a spear covered in spikes and carried a shield shaped like a wok on his back.

Gamahiro was a large turquoise-green frog. Arms crossed, he carried two warrior swords on his back.

At this moment, they stood shoulder to shoulder with Gamabunta—one on each side—gazing at Heiyan's cultivation atop the peak.

"This kid is about to make it."

Gamabunta tilted his head upward, puffing on his pipe, his voice containing seven parts surprise and three parts displeasure.

"Indeed, just about anyone is smarter than clumsy old me," murmured Gamaken. His personality was humble and resilient, often describing himself as foolish.

"Impressive," Gamahiro commented briefly, giving Heiyan his evaluation. He rarely spoke, always quiet and low-key.

These three brothers were the sons of Fukasaku and Shima—undisputed top three figures among the young generation of frogs in Mount Myoboku. Their status in Mount Myoboku paralleled that of Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade in Konoha.

They were known as the Frog Triad.

Behind the trio gathered a large crowd of colorful frogs of various sizes, chattering loudly together.

Among them, a few troublemakers surrounded Heiyan's summoned beast—the Stealth Frog—and began mocking and teasing it.

"Poor guy, is it true you've made a contract with someone near death?"

"You're toast when that brat needs someone to take the fall."

After scaring him a bit, they turned their attention to the Stealth Frog's snacks.

These snacks were specially brought by Heiyan as gifts; the little guy had cherished them dearly, never wanting to eat them.

But now, the snacks were snatched away by the group of frogs.

With tears in its eyes, the Stealth Frog felt deeply wronged, yet powerless to fight back. After all, it wasn't a battle-type summon, and worse yet, the opposing side had both numbers and strength on their side.

"Hahaha!"

A few frogs laughed triumphantly while munching on stolen snacks.

But the next moment, their laughter died in an instant.

Hiss!

A massive water jet as wide as a barrel blasted through the sky from afar, hurling the frogs through the air like ragdolls. They flipped backward over a dozen times before crashing down dazed and battered.

Seeing this, Stealth Frog perked up and turned eagerly toward the source of the water jet. There, they saw Heiyan leap down from the mountain peak and land onto the ground.

He had finally entered Sage Mode.

Gamabunta's eyes narrowed when it saw Heiyan's "Sage facial markings."

In its memory, Jiraiya's nose and eyes would turn froglike even in a relatively well-developed Sage Transformation state.

Yet Heiyan barely changed at all in appearance—only gaining a ring of orange eyeshadow around his eyes.

This indicated that Heiyan's Sage Mode was far more mature than Jiraiya's.

Seven days.

In just seven short days, this brat had mastered sage techniques entirely through self-study.

Reaching full mastery.

If Gamabunta hadn't personally witnessed everything from start to finish, it absolutely wouldn't have believed such a thing could happen.

Just then, Heiyan moved.

[Sage Art: Chidori Shunshin!]

With a Body Flicker Technique, he instantly appeared amidst a large group of frogs. The Lightning Release chakra radiating from his body immediately electrocuted several frogs, causing them to stick out their tongues and roll their eyes upward.

"Any others who dared to bully my summoned beasts—step forward."

Heiyan said indifferently, scanning his gaze over the gathered frogs. These cowardly creatures hastily stepped back, avoiding any direct eye contact entirely.

"Boss, you've got to stand up for us and do the right thing!"

The frogs previously punished by Heiyan stumbled toward Gamabunta with swollen faces, begging pitifully for help.

"Boss, this kid actually dares challenge you openly—quick, beat him up!" Other frogs urged loudly nearby, enjoying the chaos without a care for what might happen.

"Shut up! All of you just shut your mouths!"

Gamabunta roared irritably, and suddenly silence fell around. Then it looked down upon Heiyan coldly, saying, "Kid, you made things difficult for yourself."

As a socially established frog, it naturally needed to stand up for its subordinates in such a situation.

Otherwise, how could it maintain its reputation later?

"Are you protecting them?" Heiyan asked.

"Less talk," Gamabunta replied impatiently, snorting heavily through its nose and shooting out two streams of white vapor.

A staunch believer in the creed "where fists speak louder than words," it decided to take this opportunity to give Heiyan a harsh lesson.

To show him exactly who truly ruled Mount Myoboku.

Then, Gamabunta closed its eyes and formed a hand seal, staying completely still. Immediately, massive quantities of natural energy began rushing rapidly from the surrounding air and earth toward it.

Naive little brat—don't think learning sage techniques makes you special.

So what if it's sage techniques? Who can't do those?

"Oh no! Boss is going all out right away—using sage techniques! Quick, scatter!"

Upon witnessing this scene, the other frogs immediately fled in all directions, clearing a wide space for Gamabunta to freely unleash its powers.

Heiyan didn't interrupt Gamabunta's absorption of natural energy, since he himself was also curious to see how far the other's Sage Art had progressed.

Compared to him, who was stronger?

At this moment, Gamabunta opened his eyes.

The giant frog wasted no words. He immediately formed a hand seal, his mouth visibly puffing up into a large bulge before suddenly opening wide and spitting out a massive water sphere hurtling straight toward Heiyan!

[Sage Art: Water Release: Tetsuhōmaru].

This water sphere was fast-moving and immensely powerful—his signature Water Release ninjutsu.

And now, further empowered by Sage Chakra, its momentum grew even more intense. It kept expanding mid-flight until it became a colossal ball of water dozens of meters across.

Truly suffocating in its overwhelming pressure.

Yet Heiyan didn't flinch in the slightest.

Actually, instead of being scared by Gamabunta's Water Release, he hesitated for a moment.

This frog… actually dared use Water Release in front of him?

If Heiyan's normal Water Release, powered only by Sage Transformation, was already huge and intimidating, then with Sage Mode boosting it further, calling it just "Water Release" hardly seemed accurate anymore.

Perhaps it should be renamed "[Ocean Release]."

Without hesitation, he formed the hand seals and unleashed… [Ocean Release]!

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