Konoha: From Immortalization

Chapter 169: Secrets to add points, key areas for development (8,000 words) (Please subscribe and vote)

There are seven powerful ninjutsu that Kirito has mastered in front of him. They are the sealing technique: Four Elephants Seal, the sealing technique: zombie sealing, the sealing technique: Four Red Yang Formation, the sealing technique: Yin seal, the sealing technique: King Kong seal (

Change), the art of spiritual transformation and the immortal mode.

Among them, this person has an outstanding talent for sealing arts. He has successfully upgraded the levels of five powerful sealing arts without relying on strengthening points.

Among them, the Four Red Yang Formation, the Zombie Seal and the Four Elephant Seals are level 2, and the King Kong Seal (modified) and Yin Seal are level 3.

Kirito naturally did not dare to slack off for a day with the ninjutsu taught by his teacher. When he was in Konoha, he would create a shadow clone every day and go to work in the sealing class, but in fact, he continued to study the sealing technique there.

.

The five sealing techniques, without exception, are all S-level sealing techniques with extremely high gold content. They are extremely difficult to learn. With Kirito's current sealing technique ability, it is impossible to release it instantaneously without sealing like other ninjutsu. He must

It takes a little time to prepare.

As for improving them and raising their level, it is even more difficult.

For more than a year, he has basically been focusing on studying the improved sealing technique, King Kong Sealing (revised) and Yin Seal, and finally raised their levels to level 3.

Therefore, in Kirito's opinion, the upgrade of these five S-level sealing techniques will definitely require a lot of strengthening points.

But the result was not what he imagined.

Nowadays, these five S-level sealing techniques have a "+" sign behind them, which shows that they can all be strengthened with one strengthening point.

5 points of intelligence is definitely among the top wise men among humans. 3 points of intelligence originally made him a sealing arts genius favored by Mito. Now, to what extent will 5 points of intelligence make him talented in learning sealing arts?

He can completely integrate several different combat modes from what he has learned.

As for the Four Red Sun Formation, it is a super powerful defensive sealing technique. Its defensive power is enough to withstand the attack of the Ten-Tailed Beast Jade, and it is a perfect life-saving magic technique.

After Kirito understood his path of strength, he decided to make some small changes from the original basis.

"What!"

The earth wall created by the Earth Release Chakra was cut in half almost instantly by the Chakra Light Blade formed by the Thunder Release Chakra.

Kirito naturally wants a good thing like chakra, the more the better. It is best to have chakra that allows him to turn on the sage mode for a day and a night.

Therefore, he now thinks that the Thunder God puppet in front of him should also be a Konoha ninja.

If we continue to upgrade it and reduce the extent of chakra consumption, the release speed and the confinement effect will definitely be improved, maybe it can be turned into a regular skill that can be used in daily battles.

Therefore, when the Thunder God puppet created the sealing barrier, Jiraiya had already taken action.

Especially when the zombies are sealed, by sacrificing one's own life, one can almost stably achieve a one-for-one exchange with the enemy's limit.

The other party actually forced him to resort to immortal mode just by controlling a puppet that looked like a real person.

Many times, his lust is just a disguise.

"So, what is the real purpose of you looking for me?"

The Thor puppet smiled and said nothing, and another chakra chain suddenly appeared on his body.

Seeing this, Kirito smiled slightly.

The terrifying high-temperature fireball struck, and a flash of purple lightning flashed through the Thor puppet's purple eyes. A blue chakra chain the size of an arm suddenly shot out from its body, instantly hitting the incoming fireball.

To be honest, the things he studied were a bit complicated. He was involved in sealing techniques, ninjutsu, medical ninjutsu, taijutsu, illusions, senjutsu and even puppetry, and he learned them all very well, especially in some fields.

Reach the top level of the ninja world.

Kirito manipulated the Thunder God puppet without conscience and nodded.

The next moment, Kirito's voice came out of the Thor puppet's mouth.

Kirito came to this conclusion.

Both attacks were aimed at Naoki, and Naoki was Tsunade's biological brother. If Naoki died, Tsunade would definitely be very sad.

What level does level 8 puppetry belong to?

Earth Escape·Earth Flow Wall!

Thunder escape restrains earth escape.

His level of puppetry has reached level 8, along with the puppet making and puppet mechanism skills, both of which have been raised to level 6.

This is a storage-style psychic scroll with multiple sealing techniques engraved with the word "puppet" in the middle.

In an instant, many ideas for improving the King Kong Blockade flashed through Kirito's mind. His brain started spinning rapidly, and then he closed his eyes and began to deduce improvements to the sealing technique of King Kong Blockade.

In terms of chakra amount, the Nine-Tails' chakra should be as much as the other eight tailed beasts combined, making it a super-tailed beast level chakra.

Then, he controlled the Thor puppet and clapped his hands, and a large number of sealing spells quickly flew out from it and landed on the ground. Within a radius of fifty meters, a simple shielding sealing barrier began to form quickly.

Kirito thought about it for a long time, and finally fixed his sights on the sealing technique: King Kong Seal.

Jiraiya quickly dodged, not wanting to be hit by this weird chakra chain.

When Maotu saw Haizhu refuse without hesitation, he laughed and gave up tracking.

However, for Kirito, the three S-level sealing techniques of the Four Elephants Seal, the Four Red Sun Formation and the Zombie Seal are usually difficult to use in battle, and the Four Red Sun Formation is especially useful when he needs to activate the Yin Seal.

A life-saving magical skill that can only be used alone.

The Thor puppet nodded.

All fear comes from lack of firepower.

After he had fought with the Thor puppet, he could see that the other party had no killing intention towards him, and seemed to just want to fight with him.

If it weren't for taking care of the rope tree, he would actually prefer to act alone.

When Jiraiya saw his Fire Release Ninjutsu being broken like this, his eyes widened with an expression of disbelief.

If the level of the Yin Seal is raised again, a new chakra pool may be opened up again, further increasing his chakra reserves.

A second passed, and all that remained in his eyes were the sealing technique, Vajra Sealing, and the sealing technique, Yin Seal.

Therefore, in normal battles, the only sealing techniques that can be very useful are Yin Seal and King Kong Seal.

"But everything must have a priority. Since I am so talented in learning sealing techniques and puppet techniques, in the future I will focus on practicing sealing techniques, puppet techniques and fairy techniques, supplemented by other ninjutsu, etc.

If these three areas are improved, my combat effectiveness will be greatly improved, and I can feed back into other areas."

He relied on natural energy perception to discover that there was a chakra line on the Thor puppet.

After the sealing technique·King Kong Blockade reached level 4, the effect was as he expected, the chakra consumption was reduced to nearly half of the original, and he could release it without a seal, and his confinement ability was further improved.

In an instant, the fire chakra contained in the fire ball was imprisoned and could no longer generate flames, and the fire ball was extinguished.

The speed of the chakra light blade was very fast, and its flight trajectory happened to land on the position where Jiraiya landed after avoiding the chakra chain again. This was a pre-judged attack.

Kirito thought about it carefully in his mind, his brain CPU with 5 points of intelligence was spinning at high speed, and he gradually found some similar patterns.

The next second, he told everything that happened to the White Fang team after they left Konoha.

For example, a girl from the Uzumaki clan, such as Koryosu, used the Wood Release Senju Magical Power once to repel the enhanced Yamato possessed by Abi during the Fourth Ninja War, and then she succumbed.

Kirito looked at the two S-level sealing techniques on the attribute panel, which had reached level 3, and felt very confused.

"The talent of learning a certain ninjutsu makes it less difficult to learn a certain ninjutsu, which in turn reduces the number of strengthening points that the system needs to consume. There is nothing wrong with this logic."

Jiraiya finally realized the true identity of the Thunder God puppet, and was shocked inside, saying in shock.

At least Kirito should let him use puppetry to play with this female puppet.

Then, Jiraiya jumped out of the ground, holding a kunai in his hand, constantly colliding with the chakra chains coming towards him.

However, under Kirito's control, the chakra chain was as flexible as his own arm, and it immediately turned around in the air and continued to shoot towards Jiraiya.

Although Jiraiya is a pervert, he is a considerate person and never loses control at critical moments.

These five humanoid puppets are the best products from his training before making the holy beast puppets. Although the materials are far less precious than the two holy beast puppets, in terms of quality, they are definitely among the best among the many puppets of Sunagakure.

A happy smile suddenly appeared on Jiraiya's face, and the unhappiness and thoughts of playing with female puppets disappeared instantly. Then he coughed and said, "Okay, for Tsunade's sake, I won't care about you this time."

You were rash and if you want to compete, just tell me directly and don't be as rash as you were just now."

At this thought, Jiraiya couldn't help but feel a little angry, and was ready to use the sage mode to teach the other party a lesson later, but when he seriously sensed the natural energy and began to gather the natural energy from the outside world, he suddenly discovered something abnormal about the Thor puppet.

"So, you are being targeted now. Do you need my help? Just ask, I will do my best."

"You are actually a puppet!"

Kirito put his hands on these sealing techniques, injected chakra, and used the sealing and releasing techniques.

A stream of oil spurted out of his mouth and quickly turned into a huge fireball.

A cloud of white smoke appeared, and five humanoid puppets appeared in front of Kirito.

Then, his eyes fell on the five S-level sealing techniques again.

If Kirito didn't give him a satisfactory explanation today, he would never let Kirito off easily.

"He is indeed a thoughtful person."

There are five humanoid puppets, both male and female, with exquisite shapes, wearing beautiful clothes, and holding various weapons. They are just like large and exquisite figures. If you don’t look carefully at some inconspicuous seams on the surface, you will not be able to see them from a distance.

Looking at it from a distance, you would definitely mistake it for a real person.

Kirito played with some five chakra chains, put them away, then took out a scroll from his body and opened it.

But he didn't have time to continue to be shocked, because after the chakra chain broke through the fireball, it continued to shoot straight at him.

"Um?"

Jiraiya has a very good memory. He immediately recognized that it was Kirito's voice and couldn't help but said in shock: "You, you are Tohsaka Kirito, Mito-sama's disciple."

When Kirito heard what Jiraiya said, he secretly praised it.

The expression on Jiraiya's face suddenly became serious and he asked.

During the process, he did not forget to counterattack, throwing two kunai with igniting detonating charms wrapped around the back at the Thor puppet.

After saying that, he removed the sealing barrier in the room, and then one of the female puppets named Thor by Kirito immediately took action.

Kirito controlled a puppet to close the window, then closed his eyes and allowed his visual nerve to complete the connection with the Thor puppet.

The King Kong sealing technique is also good. This sealing technique, which originally belonged to the people with special physiques of the Uzumaki clan, is a super offensive sealing technique. It not only has the powerful effect of confining the chakra of the tailed beasts, but is also suitable for dealing with ninjas.

Jiraiya had to quickly perform seals to create an earth wall for defense.

"Which one should I choose?"

Not surprisingly, even if the opponent falls under her illusion, he can break it instantly.

When the Thor puppet came out of the hotel, it immediately attracted the attention of some ninjas from other countries hiding nearby, and they sent some people to follow it from a distance.

She has learned about the ability of spiritual transformation. As long as those who master this technique have a strong enough memory, they can remember the soul breath of others to distinguish them, and can even use it to find people from a distance.

Who is the person behind it?

The next moment, he clapped his hands, and five arm-sized blue chakra chains shot out from his body, and then made various movements in mid-air according to his thoughts.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve this level of chakra unless he can become the perfect Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki.

The only drawback is that this move consumes a lot of chakra.

After Jiraiya discovered that the Thunder God puppet was a puppet, Kirito decisively stopped using Jiraiya to test the effect of the level 4 King Kong blockade. He controlled the Thunder God puppet and nodded to Jiraiya, and then took the initiative to disperse the chakra chain.

.

It's all for some great plan.

Then, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

"I'm really sorry. I just made a breakthrough in my sealing technique, King Kong Blockade. I happened to find you, Jiraiya-sama, coming over. I felt itchy, so I planned to compete with you, Jiraiya-sama. Sister Tsunade said,

Laiya-sama is an outstanding ninja, and today's battle proved to be so."

And now, this level of puppetry has reached level 8, and it also has a "+" sign on the back of its butt.

"Using the Puppet Technique combined with the Sealing Technique will definitely catch the enemy off guard. It just so happens that a good training target has just arrived here, so let's use him to practice."

The visitor was none other than Jiraiya.

He didn't say anything about this. He came to Jiraiya this time just to test the effect of the King Kong Blockade he had just mastered, not to catch up with Jiraiya.

As for the Four Elephants Seal, the Zombie Seal, and the King Kong Seal, these three are all offensive sealing techniques, and their sealing effects are very good.

He was not a fool. If it was just a competition, there was no need for Kirito to set up such a large shielding sealing barrier. Kirito in front of him must have other matters to come to him.

Although he felt sorry for Jiraiya for taking action without saying anything, he couldn't help but bump into him.

"No, I am different from others. I have enough time and energy to learn these things, and I have good talents. Those powerful ninjas who are proficient in a certain field can certainly achieve great achievements in a short period of time.

But their achievements are just that. Film level is their ceiling, and they generally have fatal shortcomings.

The next moment, the bird in the painting actually flew out of the scroll and flew outside.

When his heart was slightly shaken, Kirito immediately shook his head and reaffirmed his current choice of the path to improve his strength.

This chakra line is very thin and obscure, and the chakra fluctuations it emits are weak and almost non-existent. If he hadn't carefully sensed natural energy now, he would not be able to detect its existence at all.

"What's going on? Even the level 3 King Kong Blockade and Yin Seal can be strengthened with one strengthening point. Are these two S-level sealing techniques so worthless?"

At this time, his eyes were shining.

The next moment, his eyes glanced at the puppet technique on the attribute panel.

At the same time, in the tavern opposite the hotel, the man in black wearing a rabbit mask asked.

The third eye.

Through this ninjutsu, Kirito can control the Thor puppet through chakra lines from a long distance.

Jiraiya was forced to have no choice but to prepare to activate the ultimate sage mode to fight, and said loudly.

Now it seems that the reason why spiritual transformation is so easy to improve is actually closely related to my talent in practicing spiritual transformation. At the beginning, my teacher said that my soul is naturally extremely powerful and I am very good at practicing spiritual transformation.

talent."

Kirito said gratefully.

Jiraiya saw the Thunder God Puppet suddenly appearing across the river. His eyes widened immediately, and then he stared at the breasts of the Thunder God Puppet who was wearing an off-shoulder purple slim-fitting kimono. He said with a smile on his face: "This

Beautiful young lady, what are you doing for me? I am Toad Sage Jiraiya."

What he has learned is a bit complicated, and he has not formed a very systematic attack method, that is, a fixed fighting style. However, his methods are diverse. To a certain extent, he can use a variety of methods, and his fighting style tends to be ever-changing.

Among the five S-level sealing techniques, in terms of value content, each one is actually not much different.

"Maybe this is really the case. This attribute panel corresponds to my body, not other clones. Now think about it, it should be very difficult to improve a super powerful S-level soul ninjutsu like the Spiritual Transformation Technique.

But I upgraded two levels in a row and successfully completed it with only 2 strengthening points.

I am different. I am involved in various fields. Although I am not the strongest in every field, I have no shortcomings. I can use effective methods in other fields to deal with enemies. Moreover, my upper limit is also higher. According to rough calculation,

, I now have the potential to become a super shadow. It’s hard to say whether I am a six-level master, but as long as I follow the current path of improving my strength, I may not have no chance."

The pig masked man opposite said coldly.

At this time, a white-haired ninja was crossing the river quickly.

This is a ninjutsu with very good detection ability in the Sand Hidden Village. The sand created by Earth Release Chakra is used to form eyes, and then it is allowed to complete some kind of magical connection with one's own visual nerve.

In fact, what he lacks now is rich practical experience. In the previous battles, he basically used Bai Jue clones and Lei Dun clones to fight. Because he didn't want to expose his identity, many methods were not used and he was at a loss.

"An unknown female ninja came out of Tohsaka Kirito's room. He is probably a guy delivering information. Haizhu, do you want me to follow him?"

After 1 strengthening point, the sealing technique and King Kong sealing level will immediately become level 4.

Kirito improved this sealing technique so that it could be used by ordinary people. Later, he continued to research it and raised the level of this sealing technique by 3. The effect is to reduce the chakra consumption by one-third, reducing

The number of seals has increased, the release speed has been accelerated, and the ability to imprison chakra has also been greatly strengthened.

Tohsaka Kirito masters the art of spiritual transformation, which means that he is very accomplished in Yin Escape and has extremely high resistance to illusions. In addition, the opponent is a sealing art genius and a medical ninja, so he must have great control over chakra.

amazing.

Fire Release·Fire Bullet!

Kirito thought about the reason why Jiraiya suddenly appeared here, and sighed to himself.

"This guy must have sensed an abnormality in the natural energy in the town, so he rushed here from nearby. It seems that the magic of Miaomu Mountain is really not simple. At least he is very good at sensing natural energy, but

Yes, the other party has thousands of years of celestial magic inheritance. Unlike me, the Yeluzi Immortal, he probably has in-depth research on the use of natural energy perception."

"As a tool for capturing tailed beasts, the stronger the King Kong Blockade is, the better."

The chakra chain on the Thor puppet immediately pierced the ground behind him.

Suddenly, Kirito thought of a possibility, that is, the reason why these two S-level sealing techniques only require one strengthening point was probably related to his talent in learning sealing techniques.

Ever since he discovered that he was very advantageous in learning the puppet technique, he had created a shadow clone every day to learn the puppet technique. Not to mention, he had a lot of puppet materials to practice with, and his learning of the puppet technique was progressing at a rapid pace.

Jiraiya had to continue to dodge.

Kirito explained honestly, not forgetting to move Tsunade out in the end.

As soon as he finished speaking, he took out a scroll from the words, opened it, and a painting of flying birds appeared.

Kirito has excellent perception ability, and the place where Jiraiya is now is also within Kirito's perception range. He naturally knows clearly where Jiraiya is now.

The Thor puppet flew over the walls of the town. It soon left the town and came to a large river in the west of the town.

A ninja who masters this sealing technique can use the created chakra chain as a weapon. Because it has the ability to imprison chakra, it can easily break various ninjutsu released by the ninja. If it can hit the enemy, the enemy will be temporarily

Unable to mobilize chakra within the body.

At worst, the other party seemed to regard him as a testing tool.

Kirito had a serious expression on his face.

The two chakra chains, one on the left and the other on the right, kept attacking Jiraiya like a long snake biting, making it increasingly difficult for Jiraiya to dodge.

Until now, Jiraiya finally recognized what kind of ninjutsu the chakra chain controlled by the Thunder God Puppet was. It was the sealing technique, King Kong Blockade, used by Kirito and Orochimaru when he participated in the Nine-Tails Inheritance Operation.

The value of Yin Seal, a purely auxiliary sealing technique, is self-evident. It can store chakra that is not usually used and use it at critical moments. It can also enhance the user's power and speed attributes, making the user stay youthful forever.

, it keeps the body's functions in optimal condition, which is simply amazing.

Kirito actually didn't know much about it, but he found that he had no problem relying on his ability to open chakra points all over his body with Soft Fist, creating 20 chakra lines from his body at once, and then controlling 20 puppets at the same time to fight.

The Thor puppet was designed by him based on a character from a certain game in his previous life. He is a beautiful purple-haired female warrior with two weapons, one is a naginata placed outside, and the other is a katana hidden in the body.

"Haha, forget it. This kid is very powerful. If he catches up, we will both be killed. Let's let Youji, the flying guy, take a look. Anyway, the main task of the two of us is to stay far away.

Just follow them and don't need to confront them head-on."

In the process of evading the attack, Jiraiya tried to counterattack with other ninjutsu including fire escape, but found that all the ninjutsu he released were easily broken by the chakra chain and could not cause harm to the Thunder God puppet at all.

He came to Jiraiya, and it was indeed not just as simple as asking Jiraiya to test the effect of the level 4 King Kong blockade. He also planned to ask Jiraiya, a strong man whose strength was infinitely close to the Kage level, to do a small favor for the White Fang team.

"It seems I have to be serious, be careful, beautiful lady."

Like the Holy Beast Puppet, the Thunder God Puppet also has two sets of chakra meridians, allowing Kirito to use two ninjutsu to attack at the same time.

It's different now. He's on the battlefield, and many methods can be used normally. What he lacks is people to feed him, but this problem is easy to solve. There are plenty of enemies on the battlefield for him to use to feed him.

Seeing this, Jiraiya knew that the other party did not intend to continue fighting, so he stopped concentrating his natural energy and asked again: "Who are you?"

No matter how you look at it, Tohsaka Kirito is the type of enemy that genjutsu-type ninjas are least willing to face.

Kirito did not have a microphone installed on the Thor puppet, but he could understand what Jiraiya was saying by relying on lip reading.

He has already thought about it. In order to continue to improve his strength and allow various chakra properties to break through to level five, he must capture the tailed beast.

"Yes."

Not long ago, she killed Onizou and others to frame the blame on the White Fang team. This matter must not be hidden from Tohsaka Kirito, a person known as the genius of Konoha.

Later, he learned from his teacher that this sealing technique could be learned by ordinary ninjas after being improved by Kirito.

After hearing Kirito's words, Jiraiya's expression became more serious and he continued to ask.

The Thunder God Puppet instantly pulled out the naginata on its back, knocked away the two kunai with one precise sweep, and slashed out a chakra light blade formed by thunder escape chakra.

The things being tested were the two chakra chains that the opponent had been using as their main means of attack.

After a while, Kirito rubbed his eyebrows with his fingers, exhaled a long breath, and opened his eyes again.

He wanted to get up close and fight with the opponent, but found that the opponent was a ninja who was proficient in lightning escape and mastered some powerful thunder escape acceleration secret technique. At his current speed, he couldn't get close at all, and he might even be close to him.

He will be struck by the opponent's naginata.

"If you want to go, go by yourself. Don't drag me along. It's not like you don't know. The two of us should have been on that powerful brat's blacklist. If we go after him now, he might also follow."

Kirito knew very well how useful the ability of the Yin Seal was. A level three Yin Seal could open up a chakra pool that could accommodate tailed beast-level chakra, and it could also open up a smaller chakra pool.

Otherwise, with the sealing ability and lightning escape ability displayed by the opponent, there is a complete chance of defeating him in his current state.

But just for that alone, these ninjas are already the best in the ninja world.

Seeing Kirito admit his identity, Jiraiya said with a sullen expression.

He remembered that Kirito was only 10 years old now, but just now he was beaten so embarrassingly by Kirito with such a beautiful female puppet, and he felt really uncomfortable.

When Kirito mentioned Tsunade, Jiraiya's attention immediately shifted and he said happily: "Tsunade really said that?"

Now it seems that if he devoted his time to studying a certain field of expertise, he might have reached the pinnacle in a certain field, such as sealing.

However, since his intelligence in the sage attribute was raised to 5, his speed in researching and improving these two S-level sealing techniques has increased a lot.

Next, under Kirito's control, they all clapped their hands, and a blue chakra chain immediately shot out from their bodies.

Check the ton-pulling stone hammer.

Although his puppetry skills are not top-notch, he can still control the puppets' movements without any problem.

It opened the window, jumped outside, and started flying over the walls.

Kirito injected the puppet strings into the five humanoid puppets. The five humanoid puppets immediately opened their bionic eyes. Their originally dim eyes quickly lit up, and then they stood up from the ground one after another.

She is indeed quite confident in her illusion ability, but she is not arrogant enough to easily defeat a strong man who masters the art of spiritual transformation.

"Jiraiya-sama, I haven't seen you for a long time. I have offended you a moment ago, so please forgive me."

"Then what did you mean just now, and why did you attack me suddenly?"

Generally speaking, other ninjas do not cover as many fields as he does. They usually only specialize in a certain field and then practice it to the pinnacle.

At the same time, he said: "Who are you? Why do you use the sealing technique of King Kong to seal? Is there any misunderstanding between us? In fact, I am also a Konoha ninja. We should be our own people."

But Jiraiya was no longer in his original position.

"Thank you for your forgiveness."

He knew how difficult it was to improve these two S-level sealing techniques. The memories fed back by the shadow clones who specialized in sealing techniques every day gave him a headache, and it would take some time to digest them.

Kirito was very confused at this moment.

Now that he knew about the White Fang team, he couldn't just sit back and watch.

The reason he came here this time was because he recently received a message from Fukasaku Sage from the contact frog from Mt. Myoboku. He learned about Toad Sage's prophecy, and then unexpectedly discovered that there was an abnormal accumulation of natural energy in a nearby town.

Phenomenon.

So, he came over to take a look at the situation. Unexpectedly, he encountered the female puppet sent by Kirito before entering the town, and then had a confused fight.

When Kirito saw Jiraiya offering to help, he was overjoyed and said, "That's really a big help. Thank you so much. I want Jiraiya-sama to help us."

(End of chapter)