In fact, this was indeed the case. After being caught off guard by such a tactic, Qingming dared not lower his altitude casually to approach the Mist Hidden fleet again.
However, this did not mean he had given up.
Glancing at the female ninja standing next to Da Ze You Tree in the center of the fleet, Qingming flapped his wings and immediately flew toward the rear of the fleet. Since Da Ze You Tree had just given the order and the Mist Hidden ships had not completely stopped yet, they were not yet close to each other. Therefore, when Qingming appeared on this side, he was already quite far from the female ninja.
At this point, even if she used the soundwave Genjutsu again, Qingming could easily resist it.
Without hesitation, Qingming dove down toward the last Mist Hidden warship.
However, before he could act, a dense barrage of wind projectiles came flying at him.
Qingming focused his gaze and saw that three Mist Hidden ninjas had appeared on the deck below. Judging by their chakra and the aura emanating from them, two of them were special Jonin, and one was a genuine Jonin.
The one who had just attacked him with Wind Release was the genuine Jonin.
Qingming kept flapping his wings in midair, skillfully dodging the incoming wind projectiles. At the same time, the other two special Jonin also made their move.
One of them used Water Release, spewing a stream of water directly at Qingming's chest. The other threw several shuriken, blocking Qingming's escape routes.
If it had been in the past, Qingming might have had to temporarily avoid such an attack.
To be sure, after his physical attributes had increased to 19, his body's defense and self-healing abilities had been significantly enhanced. Additionally, with the level 8 "Mastery of Immortality" technique, his ability to withstand damage was far superior to an ordinary fragile ninja.
However, he was still just a human body and could not simply endure such a bombardment of attacks.
But now, things were different.
Qingming's eyes gleamed as he locked onto the incoming attacks. While flapping his wings to dodge, he raised his hand and quickly formed seals, casting a jutsu—Earth Release: Hardening Technique.
In an instant, his skin turned to a rock-like grey-black, greatly enhancing his defensive capabilities.
Now, Qingming no longer avoided the shuriken or kunai, which were purely physical attacks. These strikes merely caused some pain but could not break through his defenses.
As a result, the pressure on Qingming greatly reduced.
In contrast, the Mist Hidden ninjas were caught off guard by this move.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qingming closed the distance to the Mist Hidden warship.
The next moment, Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique was unleashed. Three giant fire dragons appeared, each heading toward different directions, attacking the warship.
One fire dragon charged toward the deck, attacking the Mist Hidden ninjas, while the other two collided with the ship itself.
Although the Mist Hidden Jonin reacted quickly—dodging the fire dragon aimed at the deck and casting Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique, summoning a giant water dragon to counter one of the fire dragons—ultimately, one fire dragon still struck the ship.
In an instant, the ship was blasted open, creating a large hole, and fierce flames spread rapidly, engulfing a large area.
Seeing this, the Mist Hidden ninjas jumped off the ship to avoid the flames.
Qingming flew around the warship in a half-circle, then, seizing the opportunity, once again unleashed Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique and Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
Three fire dragons and one fireball appeared in succession, all of which landed on the Mist Hidden warship.
The flames on the ship grew fiercer.
Though this attack did not kill many Mist Hidden ninjas, it undoubtedly destroyed one of their warships.
And that was enough.
Rising to a higher altitude, Qingming soared through the sky, looking down at the ship burning below and the Mist Hidden ninjas on the surrounding sea, feeling quite satisfied.
It was only then that his skin returned to its original fair complexion, and the first actual use of Earth Release: Hardening Technique had been quite effective.
One had to admit that the Mist Hidden forces had done a good job of protecting their fleet.
This could be seen from the sudden appearance of three Mist Hidden Jonin, and how despite the sabotage teams sent by Sano Nobuhisa suffering heavy casualties, the fleet had not been significantly harmed.
Unfortunately for them, they had run into someone like Qingming, who was not easily intimidated and simply withstood their attacks to destroy their warship.
As for Qingming, he could only say that they had bad luck.
Had he not developed an interest and decided to come over, they might indeed have reached the outskirts of the Black Stone stronghold first and launched the attack.
But sadly, in this world, there are no "what ifs."
Since he had arrived, there was no way he would let that happen.
With a thought, Qingming decided not to linger any longer. He immediately accelerated and, in just a few breaths, arrived at the other end of the fleet, where the first Mist Hidden warship was located.
Initially, he had planned to catch them off guard during the chaos.
However, to his surprise, it seemed that they had anticipated his move.
Not only did three Jonin stationed on that warship appear, but two other Jonin from the rear ships had also been dispatched for support.
In other words, now there were five Jonin concentrated on just one Mist Hidden warship. While most of them were special Jonin with only one specialized skill, their strength was not weak.
Moreover, since his Earth Release: Hardening Technique had just been revealed, it was unlikely he would be able to surprise them again.
In that case, continuing to approach would be dangerous.
As for the ships in the middle of the fleet, Qingming glanced at them.
He could see that the Mist Hidden ninjas were on high alert. Some had even left the ships early and were guarding the ships from all sides, waiting for him to approach.
Furthermore, the Jonin scattered across the various ships were all keeping a close eye on him, prepared to provide support at any moment.
This made Qingming hesitant to make a rash move.
However, the Mist Hidden ninjas were equally reluctant to initiate an attack.
Thus, the situation stagnated.
Qingming hovered high in the sky, constantly flying over the various Mist Hidden warships. As he observed them slowly closing in on each other, he knew he could not continue to wait.
Once they concentrated their forces and were able to provide mutual support at close range, it would be much more difficult for him to take action.
With this thought, Qingming suddenly lowered his altitude.
Seeing this move, the Mist Hidden ninjas below immediately became more vigilant.
Especially those stationed on the ship directly beneath him and those scattered around it, they were all extremely tense, their hearts nearly in their throats.
However, to their surprise, Qingming did not launch an immediate attack. Instead, he stopped descending after reaching the limit of what they could reach.
Then, a large amount of white mist began pouring out from his body, quickly spreading in all directions. In the blink of an eye, it enveloped an area of several dozen meters.
And this was just the beginning.
As time passed, the white mist continued to expand.
During this, some Mist Hidden ninjas tried to counter it with various techniques, using Wind Release or Fire Release to disperse the mist, but they were unsuccessful. The best they could do was slow its spread, but eventually, they were all engulfed by it.
Ten seconds later, looking down from above, the entire Mist Hidden fleet had vanished.
A huge mass of white mist covered the sea, resembling cotton candy, enveloping an area of nearly two hundred meters.
This mist was not ordinary fog but was the result of Qingming's Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique, containing a vast amount of chakra.
And the reason Qingming did this was not out of goodwill to hide the Mist Hidden fleet's movements, but to prevent them from coming together.
As is well known, when sailing on the sea, one must always be cautious of reefs, but thick fog is also a dangerous situation.
At such a time, a fleet sailing could easily lose its way, and there was also the risk of ships colliding with one another.
While ninja abilities were far superior to ordinary people's and they would not easily face such risks, one should not forget that the white mist created by Qingming was not ordinary fog. Its chakra content was enough to affect a ninja's perception.
Moreover, what Qingming wanted was not to completely destroy them but to delay them for enough time.
With this, all he needed to do was maintain the white mist and occasionally launch attacks to put pressure on them, and that would be sufficient.
As expected, the situation unfolded just as Qingming had anticipated.
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