Tracking

Although Yuzhen seemed to have no starting point, as long as he remained patient, he believed he would soon find an opening.

Indeed, this was the case. For three consecutive days, he stayed holed up in the inn, observing the situation outside from his hotel window. On the afternoon of the third day, he discovered that there were ninjas active in the town.

This wasn't a testament to Yuzhen's intelligence-gathering skills; rather, the ninja he saw made no attempt to conceal his identity.

Seeing this, he didn't hesitate. He immediately left the inn and discreetly followed the ninja.

To keep his trump cards hidden, and because his goal in following was to be discovered by his target at the opportune moment, he only used the varying heights of buildings and the complex environment of the town to track him. He did not use the Mayfly Technique right away.

The ninja moved rapidly through the town. Judging solely by his movements, one could tell he wasn't new to this place, as his actions were purposeful.

Subsequently, the ninja entered an inconspicuous alley and then proceeded into a low-rise building at the alley's deepest end.

About forty minutes later, he finally left the building... This location was naturally worth close attention.

At this point, Yuzhen had two options: continue following the ninja or go directly to scout the building.

To be safe, he chose the former.

He wanted to gather as much information as possible from the ninja.

Yuzhen followed him. To his surprise, the ninja then chose to leave the town altogether, heading north. His speed gradually increased without Yuzhen realizing it.

Yuzhen had a rough idea why and therefore heightened his vigilance, continuing to follow closely behind.

Shortly after leaving the town, after passing through a sparse forest, the terrain ahead transformed into a swamp shrouded in miasma.

Stagnant, dead water and decaying vegetation soaked together in the humid, stagnant water. In the thick, grayish-brown puddles, one could occasionally see the partially exposed white bones of large animals.

This place clearly looked like a good spot to bury bodies.

"Come out, I've known you were there for a while."

The ninja stopped and spoke in the direction where Yuzhen was hiding.

This is exactly what I wanted, to be discovered...

Yuzhen chose to reveal himself, walking step by step towards the ninja, who regarded him with a gaze mixed with vigilance and a hint of smugness, stopping about ten meters away.

Once he stood still, he found the decaying smell emanating from the surroundings almost unbearable and instinctively raised his left hand to cover his mouth and nose.

Then, a dramatic scene unfolded. Without a word, the other party launched an attack, with several shuriken flying towards Yuzhen.

The negotiation hadn't even begun, and it seemed to be over.

No one could expect a stranger who was secretly following them to have good intentions. In the ninja's eyes, a strange ninja's "manual" action equated to "hostile intent."

Rounding it up, forming hand seals was a hostile action, and covering one's mouth and nose was also a hostile action. Therefore, he had to strike first.

Ultimately, Yuzhen was not a native and often didn't understand the mindset of the locals... The chaotic Ninja World had already pushed ninjas, who were inherently extreme in personality, to the brink of neurosis.

Although the opponent's attack was unexpected, the distance still gave Yuzhen ample time to react, and he easily dodged the attack.

Just as he was about to speak again, a kunai pierced his chest from behind.

Slightly surprised, he turned his head to look back and saw that another ninja was attacking him from behind.

It's actually a righteous two-on-one. Those who are good at backstabbing will be backstabbed themselves. It's clear there's more than one enemy.

"Heh..."

The enemy responsible for the backstab seemed to want to flash a "cruel" smile, but the Yuzhen who was stabbed transformed into a puddle of water the next moment.

"Water Clone Technique?"

Not far away, Yuzhen voluntarily revealed himself again.

Even though these people had already tried to kill him, he still did not immediately take hostile action.

"I mean no harm. I just want to ask you two a few things."

"No harm? Ninjas always claim to mean no harm before they try to kill you," the ninja said.

With that, the two ninjas exchanged glances and then charged towards Yuzhen from close and far positions, respectively.

Yuzhen had no choice. He decided to subdue these two first before questioning them.

He quickly formed hand seals, almost instinctively using his most proficient ninjutsu:

Fire Style: Great Flame Bullet!

Previously, Yuzhen's starting move was the Flame Bullet, but now that he had excess chakra, he upgraded to the Great Flame Bullet.

It had to be said that the Great Flame Bullet had a certain intimidating quality. When a colossal fireball, over six meters in diameter, carrying waves of heat, hurtled towards the enemy, most ninjas couldn't remain indifferent.

Of course, limited by the fireball's flight speed, unless released at extremely close range, such Fire Style ninjutsu would be difficult to hit enemies accurately, let alone achieve a 100% kill rate.

The ninja in the front dodged the Great Flame Bullet by sidestepping.

In other words, Yuzhen's ninjutsu could at most serve to delay the enemy, but...

Bzzzz... Boom!

A massive explosion suddenly sounded as Yuzhen's Great Flame Bullet triggered a secondary explosion.

An excellent ninja would inevitably consider environmental factors during combat to maximize advantages and minimize disadvantages. From this perspective, Yuzhen was not an excellent ninja.

Because he had used a Fire Style ninjutsu here with hardly any forethought.

The area beneath their feet was less a swamp and more a methane pit.

As the outer flames of the Great Flame Bullet ignited the swamp gas, an invisible wave of air spread outwards like a ripple. Then, the pockets of swamp gas that had been accumulating in the swamp for who knows how long were instantly detonated.

With a deafening BOOM, the immense energy brewing within the swamp erupted, bursting through the muddy surface like a volcanic eruption.

In a daze, the very ground seemed to tremble.

Fortunately, Yuzhen himself was at the very edge of the swamp. Although he had unleashed the Fire Style, he had actually retreated when he realized the danger, leaving himself space to evade.

His escape speed was top-notch; he dove into the ground and was fifty to sixty meters away in the blink of an eye. Yet, even so, he was still left covered in dirt and grime by the explosion's aftershock.

Temporary tinnitus and even a mild concussion were unavoidable.

The other two ninjas weren't so lucky. They were deep within the swamp, effectively trapped within the blast radius.

Yuzhen emerged from the ground, shaking his head vigorously. After struggling for a moment, he managed to get up.

He looked ahead and found the situation in the swamp to be as bad as it could possibly get.

After the violent explosion, sediment buried here for who knows how many years had been churned up. Coupled with the smell of incompletely burned swamp gas, the mixture of various odors was utterly nauseating.

Flames were burning in various parts of the swamp, and then Yuzhen spotted a charcoal-like humanoid figure.

Without a doubt, some unlucky ninja had been blown to death.

This just goes to show that backstabbing Yuzhen comes with consequences.

Only one enemy was dead. Yuzhen subconsciously looked up and saw a Giant Eagle hovering in mid-air, with the surviving ninja riding on its back.

A summoned beast?

That enemy's reaction was quite fast; he had flown into the air using his summoned beast before the explosion.

Of course, this also had to do with him being further from the blast point.

"Madman."

Yuzhen's ears were still ringing. He couldn't hear the other person's voice, but judging by the lip movements, that's what he seemed to say.

"I really meant no harm. What just happened was an accident; it doesn't mean I'm a bad person."

Unfortunately, among the three people present, due to the overwhelming roar of the explosion, none of them could hear this feeble explanation – not Yuzhen himself, nor the enemy who had escaped into the air, nor the ninja who had been reduced to charcoal.