Not content to die a peaceful death, they still raise their arms like mantises before a chariot (Seeking recommendation tickets, seeking monthly tickets)

"Ah!!"

A bloodcurdling scream filled the entire room.

The scalpel traced across Kosaka's thigh.

Baiyu smiled in satisfaction. "My hand feels especially steady today. Could it be because of that bottle of medicine?"

"Heh heh... you... old bastard... damn you..."

Kosaka hung his head in a daze, his sweat-soaked face pale as a ghost.

His once-proportioned body had been shaved down a layer, the wounds already scabbed over, revealing dark red flesh.

The first sensation when the flesh was sliced away was searing pain, followed by a strange surge of excitement—clearly, the scalpel had been coated with medicine.

It made him grow more and more aroused, his senses sharper, his spirits higher, unable even to pass out.

Every second, every moment, he remained fully conscious, clearly enduring this inhuman torment.

For the first time, Kosaka bitterly hated the blood-restoring medicine he had once praised so highly.

He had truly never imagined that so-called "lingchi" could be such torture.

This was pure "technique"—or rather, an exceptionally masterful "blade art."

It reminded him somewhat of that brat's way with a blade.

Silent, precise, fast, lethal...

No one had ever applied blade arts to this purpose. Even ninja like them used genjutsu or secret techniques to interrogate for information.

Even those nobles who loved tormenting people used whips, candles, branding irons...

So what kind of madman had devised such a cruel punishment?!

"Ah!"

Another slice cut across. Kosaka's eyes were bloodshot, and he growled weakly, "Madman! Madman! You old madman!!"

But only the crushing silence of an isolated island answered his shrill wails and screams.

Baiyu seemed not to hear him at all, merely smiling to himself and muttering, then showing him the sliced-off flesh—almost as if showing off.

"Enough! Enough! Who the hell are you people?!"

Kosaka's cheek twitched as he hung his head weakly. "There's no way you're Water Bandits. Which noble's dogs are you? Or are you Hanzo's men from the Land of Rain?!"

At this, Baiyu's movements paused. He narrowed his eyes at him.

"Hanzo?" As if insulted, Baiyu sneered. "That brainless brute? That selfish, jealous, arrogant, irredeemable lackey of the Lord?"

"...What did you say?"

Kosaka was still hissing in pain, but his eyes went wide as he stared at Baiyu before him.

Even the Third Hokage was wary of Hanzo, calling him a man who could change the course of war—and this old bastard called him a brainless brute?

"It seems you and your superiors think highly of Hanzo."

Baiyu's expression turned cold. He said quietly, "Songs and dances, wine and luxury. Those who speak loyalty are demoted. The rest collude with nobles, profiteering from war, adding fuel to the flames."

"Deceived from above and below, the Lord is incompetent, ninja skill levels are uneven. What does Hanzo's personal strength matter?"

As he spoke, Baiyu's tone grew somewhat manic, but his eyes became more resolute.

There were too many people like him in this country—people who no longer held a shred of hope for those bastards, yet were helpless against everything happening to their nation.

Until they met Lord Yun Chuan.

They saw hope for this country, and for the entire shinobi world.

"Ha, so you're saying you're not nobles, not even ninja?" Kosaka sneered. "Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! No matter how many of your kind gather, nothing will ever change..."

He stopped abruptly, as if something had occurred to him, his eyes gradually brightening.

"Right, that's it! You... you look down on Hanzo, don't you?" Kosaka's spirits rallied again. "Our Mizukage of Kirigakure is very close to the common people!"

"I can help you contact the Mizukage, help that brat... no, help your Lord Yun Chuan take the position of Amegakure's leader!"

At the words "Mizukage" and "position of leader," the barely concealed mockery in Baiyu's eyes was almost impossible to hide.

Fool! A shortsighted fool to the extreme!

Just as Lord Yun Chuan said.

How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan!

Baiyu suddenly lost all interest in anything like "proselytizing."

What truly imprisons a person is often not talent, but the shackles of thought!

The point he had been making all along was clearly the Lord and the nobles, yet this Mist ninja, even when spinning a fantasy, only dared to say "take the position of Amegakure's leader," not even daring to say "overthrow the Lord of the Land of Rain."

Like him—whether samurai or most ninja—they were all trapped in the ideological fortress passed down for millennia in the shinobi world.

"It doesn't matter. Someone like you will never understand."

Baiyu's expression gradually calmed, and he smiled. "Everything I do, I do of my own will. Even if the end result is death, it doesn't matter. Just as Lord Yun Chuan said."

"Rather than starve in peace, you'd flail like a mantis trying to stop a chariot! Hahaha!"

Seeing the fervor in Uncle Plum Rain's eyes, Kosaka's pupils trembled violently. An inexplicable timidity mixed with fear gushed forth like a spring.

It was a fear without reason, crawling over his body like a venomous snake, pressing down with icy coldness inch by inch.

"Madmen! You're all madmen! What kind of spell did that bastard put you under—ah!!"

Uncle Plum Rain swapped out the blunted scalpel and, without pause, continued slicing flesh from the soles of his feet.

The human sole was already exquisitely sensitive. This sensation was sheer agony.

Especially after witnessing the man's frenzy and fanaticism, it directly accelerated the collapse of Kosaka's psychological defenses.

Blood gushed from his already broken nose. His eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging at his temples, his entire body swelling unnaturally, as if about to burst from the inside out.

In the haze of his mind, he clenched his teeth, a flash of death in his eyes, and ground his molars hard.

But then, he suddenly realized.

The thing that should have been hidden in the groove between his teeth and cheek—when had it disappeared?!

"Looking for something?"

Uncle Plum Rain suddenly smiled, pinching a small pill from his pocket, and sneered, "I'm guessing you're looking for this?"

It was the very poison that Kirigakure's Anbu members carried to kill themselves if captured, to avoid torture or leaking secrets.

Kosaka, already unable to endure, had planned to take that secret to the grave by suicide!

Now he couldn't even do that!

"Enough! I'll talk! I'll talk! You old lunatic! Just give me a quick death!!"

The scabs on Kosaka's cracked lips split open again. The dual torment of physical and psychological agony finally drove him to utter despair, and he howled hoarsely, willing to confess.

"No rush." Uncle Plum Rain waved his hand cheerfully. "Let's try out some other instruments first, shall we?"

Watching Kosaka's eyes gradually dim, Uncle Plum Rain narrowed his own and breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Truth be told, of all the people he'd caught, this one had held out the longest.

At least he hadn't let down Lord Yun Chuan's trust.

"What?"

In the guest room, Uncle Plum Rain pointed at his own bewildered face, staring at Yun Chuan, who sat on the bed flipping through intelligence reports. His voice was shocked: "You mean... you don't need me anymore?"

He didn't do things for reward, but he didn't want to be cast aside either!

"Uncle Plum Rain, what are you thinking!" Yun Chuan looked up with some exasperation, emphasizing, "I'm telling you to rest for a while, spend more time with Little Rain. I'll still call on you when I need you. I'm not abandoning you!"

With that, he paused briefly, met Uncle Plum Rain's eyes, and his tone softened: "Besides, you still have some personal matters to deal with, don't you?"

Then, ignoring Uncle Plum Rain's stunned expression, Yun Chuan lowered his head again, focusing on the intelligence extracted from Kosaka's interrogation.

The Third Mizukage's personality had changed drastically. Abandoning his former gentle approach toward the scheming ninja clans, he struck with an iron fist, instantly purging a batch of mid-level ninjas from those clans.

Most who opposed him were killed on the spot during meetings. The sudden shift in temperament was shocking, and the brutality of his methods chilled everyone to the bone.

At the same time, he ordered Kirigakure into lockdown, strictly forbidding personnel from leaving the village without permission, and halted all external trade.

And he had begun secretly assembling ninja forces, their target...

The Land of Whirlpools!

Knock... knock...

Yun Chuan lowered his head slightly, his tapping finger on the table pausing. An unreadable emotion flickered slowly in his eyes.

So, this grand play was finally about to begin?