The fire was still spreading through the village.
The sound of flames burning, the rush of water, and the distant commotion and shouting had all become insignificant background noise in the night.
Time seemed to have come to a standstill. The Tsugawa Ninja around them momentarily forgot to resist, as though the war itself had suddenly become unimportant.
Because these Tsugawa Ninja had witnessed a tragedy with their own eyes. The intensely shocking scene had even caused their brains to short-circuit, leaving them unable to comprehend what it meant.
Tsugawa Taishi was still making an incoherent "cough, cough" sound. He looked like a fish prepared in a kitchen: although his mouth kept opening and closing in a desperate attempt to cling to life, the outcome would not change because of its "subjective efforts."
A massive amount of blood gushed from the oval wound beneath Tsugawa Taishi's torso, staining the water below a bleak, dark red.
In just a dozen or twenty seconds, he had lost most of his blood.
The small amount remaining was slowly seeping from his body, gathering beneath his lower abdomen into a thin line of blood that dripped without pause.
Drip, drip, drip.
Bang.
Yuzhen knew the man was dead, so he released his grip and let the upper half of his body crash onto the water.
The sudden noise jolted the stunned Tsugawa Ninja awake. Once they finally realized what had just happened, their gazes instinctively turned toward the half of Tsugawa Taishi's body that was steadily sinking beneath the water.
The Clan Leader was dead. It was a simple fact, yet one exceptionally difficult to accept.
Something that had always supported the Tsugawa Ninja in their hearts seemed to have been effortlessly knocked down in an instant.
The fear that had accumulated through their