Summoning

Compared with most ninjas, Yuzhen could be considered a perfectly normal person.

As an outsider to this world, one could say that his ideas were quite divorced from the common sense of the ninja world. One could also say that, having been "all alone" in his thoughts and understanding, he carried no heavy burdens on his back.

With the entire ninja world in chaos, he could neither be blindly optimistic nor so embittered that he became despondent and world-weary.

He had never viewed himself as the "protagonist" who could determine the direction of the world. In fact, as far as he was concerned, his only goal in life was to survive this chaotic era in a relatively normal way.

Therefore, he truly had no desire to kill everyone he saw. That was far too extreme.

Although someone had been blown to death, it was by no means intentional. It was merely an accident caused by a natural disaster.

Every swamp had buried people before, right?

This conflict should never have happened in the first place. From beginning to end, Yuzhen had only wanted to ask a few questions.

Now that the other side had lost a companion, there was even less chance of settling things peacefully.

The remaining ninja crouched on the back of the Giant Eagle Summoning Beast and looked down at Yuzhen from midair.

Once his head had presumably cleared and his senses were no longer affected by the explosion, he unhesitatingly ordered the Giant Eagle to dive at Yuzhen.

Yuzhen's ringing ears gradually faded, and a shrill eagle cry reached him.

A Summoning Beast of this size had to be taken seriously. Yuzhen knew that his physical body was not strong enough to fight such a chakra beast head-on, so he decided not to give it any chance to approach.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between them had closed to twenty meters.

At this distance, of all the techniques Yuzhen knew, only one could guarantee a one-hundred-percent hit—Water Style: Water Severing Wave.

He rapidly formed hand seals. Immediately afterward, a thin blade of water shot toward the sky.

The high-speed, high-density stream of water carried an unimaginably high-frequency vibration. Its power was enough to split metal and shatter stone. Against flesh and blood, a technique like this was practically unstoppable.

The water blade slashed diagonally into the sky. Then, a white line that looked soft but was actually indestructible descended from midair. The slender water blade cut precisely into the Giant Eagle's body and passed straight through without the slightest pause.

Blood sprayed everywhere in an instant, and one of the Giant Eagle's wings was cleanly severed.

Even in the air, large targets were always easier to hit than small ones.

For some reason, this eagle's reactions were also not very agile.

Against an enemy of this level, Yuzhen using such a high-level Water Style technique was somewhat like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

But there was no helping it. When dealing with distant targets, only Water Severing Wave had a reliable range.

Water Dragon Bullet's attack power and range might barely have been sufficient, but against a target in the sky, gravity would severely restrict its impact. Its killing power would certainly be inferior to Water Severing Wave.

That raised another question: why did ninjas all like throwing shuriken? The answer was simple. Shuriken had an effective attack range exceeding that of more than ninety percent of ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu with a range beyond twenty meters was not something an ordinary ninja could master.

The crippled Giant Eagle and the ninja on its back fell from midair. Then, like a slaughtered bird, it began flapping on the ground in a dying struggle.

The ninja could no longer control the Summoning Beast, which was ruled by pain. While dodging the Giant Eagle's wild attacks, he summoned another Summoning Beast.

Another enormous lion-shaped monster suddenly appeared on the battlefield. Its sharp fangs protruded from its mouth, and its claws extended from its feet. It looked like something that was not to be trifled with.

Yuzhen found it somewhat baffling. Large Summoning Beasts were supposed to be scarce resources, so how could an ordinary ninja pull out two of them so casually?

What surprised him even more came next. After being summoned, the lion-shaped Summoning Beast immediately assumed an attacking stance.

Yuzhen lowered his body, preparing to counterattack at any moment.

Yet at that moment, the Summoning Beast that seemed about to charge suddenly turned sideways. With a bizarre movement and speed, it thrust out its neck and opened its enormous jaws, biting its master beside it in one snap.

The Summoning Beast's bite force was terrifying. Half the ninja's body was crushed instantly, and in the blink of an eye, blood dyed half of the beast's body red.

This death was far more horrible than being blown up. At least the fellow who had been blown to death had not screamed in agony before he died.

The ninja whose body had been crushed soon had more air going out than coming in. Then the Summoning Beast shook its head, snapping its neck as though spitting out trash, and casually flung the remaining half of the body aside.

Next, the Summoning Beast walked over to the still-struggling Giant Eagle and bit through its neck in a single bite.

Only after finishing all this did it turn its gaze toward Yuzhen.

When Yuzhen saw that look, he suddenly froze a little. Could a Summoning Beast really reveal such a complicated expression?

It was almost... human.

From that look, he saw a certain resolve to die.

The Summoning Beast let out a roar and charged toward Yuzhen.

Yuzhen seemed to understand something. He formed hand seals, and the water blade shot out again.

The charging Summoning Beast was split in two in an instant. It had died as cleanly and painlessly as possible.

In truth, Yuzhen felt that these two Summoning Beasts were all appearance and no substance. Although they were huge, he always felt that they had not displayed the combat power one would expect from them.

After the battle ended, he stood there in a daze for a while.

This battle had begun inexplicably and ended just as inexplicably.

He briefly searched the battlefield and scavenged some ninja tools and currency from the two ninjas. Aside from that, there was nothing else of value.

Instead, while inspecting the two Summoning Beasts, some marks on their bodies caught Yuzhen's attention.

The two Summoning Beasts concealed quite a few scars—or, more precisely, traces of modification. Some talismans that Yuzhen could not understand had also been embedded inside their bodies.

After seeing these things and recalling the Summoning Beast's behavior before death, Yuzhen's thoughts immediately drifted toward "Big brother, come play with me."

Could it really be true that there was nothing new under the sun?

This was not because Yuzhen had a twisted mind. It was because no one could guarantee just how low the bottom line of the ninjas in this era could sink.

Having found no valuable clues from the two ninjas, Yuzhen could only return to the small town and investigate that building.

The battle just now had not affected this area much. Everything in the small town remained as usual.

Yuzhen was not sure whether the commotion from the swamp had reached here. Judging by the distance, though, the town should have noticed something... An explosion of that scale would have made an incredibly loud noise.

Yet judging from the townspeople's reactions, they seemed completely unaware of anything.

"There really is something strange going on."

Following his earlier memories, Yuzhen found the building hidden in an alley. He paused at the entrance to think, then chose to push the door open and walk straight inside.

Beyond the door was an ordinary-looking courtyard. Yet perhaps it was only his imagination, but Yuzhen seemed to catch a faint smell of blood.

Once he entered the courtyard, the door he had pushed open automatically closed behind him.

"An unfamiliar face, an outsider ninja. You have been here for several days. What is your purpose? Or perhaps... who introduced you?"

Without anyone else appearing, a voice suddenly rang out in the courtyard.

Sure enough, after arriving here, Yuzhen had been under the other party's surveillance.

Hiding his head and showing no face, playing tricks and pretending to be mysterious. Yuzhen grumbled inwardly as he spoke:

"I was merely passing by, and I happened to notice ninjas frequently entering and leaving this place, so I became a little curious."

"I see..."

The other party seemed to believe Yuzhen's explanation that easily, and then "sincerely" explained:

"It's nothing. Those people are merely my clients."

"If you want, you can become a new client of mine, just like them."

Clients?

Yuzhen was already dressed in rags, and he had gotten himself covered in mud, water, and stench in the swamp. He looked as miserable as a person could possibly look. If even someone like him could become a client, then he had to be the VIP of VIPs.