Chapter 203: Dragon Sage Mode

At this moment, the three Snake Princesses inside the cave also realized something was off.

Was the White Snake Sage really this sort of personality? How had they never known?

Or was there some problem with that human standing before the White Snake Sage?

All sorts of doubts filled their minds, but the White Snake Sage clearly had no time to bother with them right now.

"Dragon Spring Country's Sage Art differs from Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest; the more perfect the snake transformation, the higher the completion rate of Sage Mode."

Hearing this, an image of Obito activating Sage Mode flashed through Li Ang's mind.

"Sage Mode is, in essence, mixing natural energy with chakra, then refining out senjutsu chakra."

"If you are ready, I can inject natural energy into you right now."

With that, the White Snake Sage quietly waited.

Hearing this, Li Ang drew a light breath, briefly steadied his emotions, and said, "Go ahead."

With Mianbande Gang's help, he was confident he could master this so-called Sage Mode.

As for mixing natural energy with chakra—

Li Ang was still confident in his current level of energy control.

The moment his words fell, a vast, unfamiliar energy suddenly surged into his body.

It was the White Snake Sage.

This was her test.

If what she had just seen was real, then the man before her would absolutely not fail from just this much natural energy.

At this moment, Li Ang was carefully sensing that unfamiliar energy within his body.

He discovered that, in the process of mingling with his energy, the other party was attempting to slowly transform him into a snake body.

'Snakes are too ugly.'

As that thought flashed through Li Ang's mind, a mysterious power suddenly began interfering with the mixing of the two energies.

The source was—

Bloodline.

The dignity of Long Wang could not be violated; mere snakes were simply too laughable.

Under the gaze of the four snakes, Li Ang's half-completed snake transformation abruptly halted, then rapidly regressed back into human form.

'Did it fail?'

A flicker of disappointment crossed the White Snake Sage's eyes, and she gradually began to suspect whether everything that had just happened had been an illusion.

But the moment this thought arose in her mind, she realized something seemed off.

Under the shocked gazes of the four snakes, Li Ang's appearance began undergoing a change different from that of a snake.

Red-and-cyan energy gradually seeped from his body, and small energy-formed scales began appearing across him.

Not snake scales, but something far greater.

A terrifying aura emanated from Li Ang, gradually stirring a sense of dread in the four snakes' hearts.

Did this mean it had succeeded?

【General Skill Acquired: Sage Mode - Dragon (Beginner 0/100)】.

【Sage Mode - Dragon: In this Sage Mode, your body's durability will be greatly enhanced, and the attack power of techniques containing Fire, Wind, or Lightning elements will be greatly enhanced.】

Li Ang opened his eyes, looked at the content that had popped up on the panel, and let out a long breath; the faintly scorching airflow immediately stirred up a light breeze inside the cave.

As expected, with the panel's effect, even if other worlds lacked natural energy, he could still continue using Sage Mode.

Of course, more importantly, Li Ang could now, just like Senju Hashirama, clap his hands together and call forth whatever he wanted.

Only, Li Ang had originally expected it to trigger a new class advancement, but instead it had unexpectedly generated a general skill.

'This is fine too.'

Without a doubt, even though he had not yet broken through to the third energy level, his combat power had been greatly strengthened.

Coupled with his own stats and mechanics, he could now be considered as barely having some ability to protect himself in the Naruto world.

Of course, he was still far from enough to fight opponents on the Six Paths level.

But this was only Li Ang's starting point; he was still far from touching his upper limit.

Feeling the enormous boost brought by the beginner-level Sage Mode, the corners of his mouth curved up slightly.

'Is the boost's magnitude related to my own strength? Excellent.'

This was important, because if it added a fixed value, it would only be useful in the early stage, but if it added a percentage value—

The power of the new multiplier, kid!

After briefly experiencing it, Li Ang exited Sage Mode.

The reason was simple: the beginner-level Sage Mode consumed too much, and he could not maintain it for long.

Of course, later increasing proficiency and breaking through to the third energy level to add energy stats should both solve this problem.

At this moment, the White Snake Sage spoke up in admiration: "Your talent is truly terrifying."

Sage Mode training certainly could not be achieved overnight; in the original work, Naruto had spent at least half a month learning Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode.

Yet Li Ang had spent less than an hour.

This was, of course, the credit of the panel (crossed out) his world-shaking wisdom, and also the result of the influence of multiple classes.

Going forward, as the number of classes increased, all sorts of strange linkages would only keep multiplying.

At this moment, the White Snake Sage asked, "Since you have already mastered Sage Mode, do you still need to pick a summoning beast in Dragon Spring Country?"

"No, the summoning beasts in your Dragon Spring Country are all rather disobedient."

High EQ: Disobedient.

Low EQ: Bites the hand that feeds it.

From the fact that Orochimaru's Mantis Snake always demands a fee just to appear, you can tell how hard-to-deal-with these snakes of Dragon Hollow are.

Upon hearing this, the White Snake Immortal's massive serpent head showed rare signs of embarrassment: "Hmm, if you don't mind, Tianxin and the others can serve as your Summoning Beasts."

?

The three Snake Maidens beside him hadn't expected they'd be involved too.

Besides, their White Snake Immortal's attitude had been strange since earlier, but with outsiders present, they couldn't ask right away.

Then again, who exactly counts as an outsider in this situation isn't clear.

"Is that acceptable?"

Li Ang was taken aback.

Though in his view, the three Snake Maidens beside him were inferior to himself, they were still far stronger than Orochimaru's Mantis Snake.

The White Snake Immortal nodded, then summoned the three Snake Maidens over: "Tianxin, Shichu, Ruijin, from now on, treat this Li Ang as you would treat me."

Since Li Ang had signed the contract with Dragon Hollow, the White Snake Immortal naturally knew his name.

Hearing this, the three Snake Maidens nodded and turned to Li Ang: "Lord Li Ang, we look forward to your guidance."

"Alright, I'll summon you when I need you."

Though Li Ang didn't think summoning three Snake Maidens would help against opponents he couldn't handle himself, they could still serve as a show of force sometimes.

After all, even in the later arcs of the manga, Naruto and Sasuke still needed to summon.

After mastering the Sage Mode, Li Ang didn't linger—he immediately reversed the Summoning Technique and vanished.

Seeing him gone, the White Snake Immortal reverted to her old crone form.

It was then that Tianxin, the Divine Snake Maiden, could no longer hold back and asked: "Immortal, why treat that human so differently just now?"

"Heh." The White Snake Immortal wore an inscrutable smile. "You have no idea what I just saw."

Dragon Hollow, though it carries the word "dragon," is merely a snake den.

And that man just now…

"Old Toad, keep playing your fate game—I'm done with it."

As a white-scaled serpent who had survived since the era of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, the White Snake Immortal knew exactly what had transpired on this planet.

She also knew that ninja were never the real issue.

These ninja never realized what kind of enemy they were facing.

The enemy from beyond the heavens wasn't just empty words.

On the other side.

After leaving Dragon Hollow, Li Ang returned to Orochimaru's secret base.

At this moment, Orochimaru was organizing documents and materials.

Upon seeing Li Ang appear suddenly, he first froze, then forced a false smile: "What a pity, Long Jun—it seems the White Snake Immortal refused your request to learn Sage Arts."

The reason this Sannin said so was simple: after all, Jiraiya, another of the Three Sannin, had spent countless years mastering the Toad Sage Arts at Mount Myōboku.

Of course, it couldn't have been a failure—given Dragon Hollow's nature, if it had failed, this man wouldn't be standing here.

So the only possibility was that the White Snake Immortal had refused to help Li Ang learn Sage Arts.

"No, I succeeded."

Li Ang looked at Orochimaru, who seemed unable to comprehend his words, and let out a quiet laugh.

Then—

Sage Mode, activate!

Bluish-red energy began to radiate; Li Ang's aura surged dramatically.

To ensure Orochimaru would think less of scheming during their future cooperation, he decided it was better to let the man see his progress.

Upon seeing Li Ang's current state, even Orochimaru, with all his composure, was momentarily stunned.

Could someone really master Sage Mode in such a short time?

Then what did Jiraiya's years of training amount to?

Moreover, judging by this man's appearance, his completion level was clearly far higher than Jiraiya's.

But was this even Dragon Hollow's Sage Art? Why did it differ so much from his memories?

Orochimaru fell silent.