Clues

Mo Jingxian had not expected things to go so smoothly.

Looking at the Grass Ninja easily subdued before him, he finally understood the true value of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

It was not just the difference in ninjutsu; the other talents that a ninja should possess were clearly lacking in these two.

Without wasting more time on them, he hurried toward the room where the prisoner was being held.

The door opened, and the scene inside made him shudder.

The man had been tortured beyond recognition, with three of his limbs broken.

If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, he would have mistaken him for a corpse.

"Kangfu."

Mo Jingxian called out softly.

After a moment, Kangfu lifted his head; his eye sockets were nothing but two dark, hollow pits, and streaks of blood stained his face.

"You finally came."

The voice was faint, mixed with ragged gasps, making the words reach Mo Jingxian's ears in broken fragments.

He took a few steps to Kangfu's side and slowly helped him up.

"How did you end up like this?"

Perhaps experiencing a final burst of energy, Kangfu gripped his wrist with excitement.

"Bang!"

A sudden change occurred.

In the blink of an eye, a fist like a stone spear punched through Mo Jingxian's chest.

Looking at Kangfu again, there was no sign of injury; it was actually a Rock Ninja who had used a Transformation Technique to disguise himself.

Mo Jingxian's body dissolved into a burst of water.

He transformed into a Water Flood Dragon on the spot, coiling around and sealing the opponent the moment his guard dropped.

Kameyama Ganto had not reacted at all, his spirits plummeting from a high to the very bottom in an instant.

"Impossible, how did you discover it?"

Mo Jingxian had long since learned his lesson regarding the treacherous schemers of the Ninja World.

He barely slept with both eyes closed these days, so how could he be fooled so easily?

From the moment he stepped into this small building, he had sensed something was wrong, and seeing Kameyama Ganto only confirmed his suspicions.

It was too smooth; the Grass Ninja had no reason to leave a captive alive.

He did not believe the Grass Ninja had gone mad enough to attack a Konoha operative unless they had found a backer.

Therefore, the presence of a Rock Ninja here made far more sense.

"Your performance was too heavy-handed; it wasn't natural enough."

Mo Jingxian struck at his pride.

Next, he separated the three into different rooms and interrogated them in turns.

With a bit of psychological suggestion, the two Grass Ninja confessed.

However, a ninja from a Great Nation was different; Kameyama Ganto refused to break.

To show his respect, he ended the Rock Ninja with a single blade strike, without inflicting excessive torture.

It was somewhat ridiculous; Kangfu had fallen into this mess for no reason.

The two Grass Ninja had been bored stationed here and wanted a transfer back to Hozuki Castle, so they cooked up a scheme to kill an innocent person and claim it as a merit.

Hoping to scrape together some profit, they had chosen Kangfu by sheer bad luck.

During the capture, Kangfu thought he had been exposed and had hidden the secret documents in advance.

Kangfu was captured, and as a mere mortal, he could not withstand the torture; after he confessed, they had intended to silence him.

The good news was that the secret documents were hidden among the goods of the merchant Kashima Chuwa, and the caravan was already heading toward Hozuki Castle.

The two Grass Ninja had conspired to hide this lead, planning to make a fortune once they returned.

In truth, the Land of Grass had secretly defected to Iwagakure, and Kameyama Ganto had tracked the documents here only to find the trail had gone cold.

He had no choice but to wait for the rabbit to hit the tree, setting a trap to wait for the contact to take the bait.

Unexpectedly, Mo Jingxian was one step ahead and flipped the table entirely.

He had not expected that the greed of two Grass Ninja would cause so much trouble.

What to do next? Should he continue the pursuit...

Actually, this was not a difficult choice; if he moved fast enough, he might be able to retrieve the documents without alerting anyone.

Under the pleading gazes of the two Grass Ninja, he delivered the finishing blows with professional efficiency.

Mo Jingxian set off through the night, traveling rapidly toward Hozuki Castle under the starlight.

After traveling through the night, he finally arrived at Hozuki Castle at noon the next day.

The city was not large, and two squads of Sand Ninja guarded the gates; blending into the crowd, he successfully entered the city.

The city was divided into two districts: the north was the residential area, where most commoners made their living.

The south was where the nobility gathered, with the Lord's manor occupying about a third of the area; it was heavily screened and difficult to infiltrate.

Fortunately, the intelligence he had gathered indicated that a merchant named Kashima Chuwa lived in the north district.

This made his subsequent actions much more convenient.

When night fell, Mo Jingxian crept to the exterior of Kashima Chuwa's courtyard and silently activated the Mist of Vitality.

In his perception, no one was paying attention to this area, so he nimbly vaulted over the wall.

He landed without a sound; in the shadows, he moved like a civet cat, weaving through the buildings with a light gait.

The merchant's estate was vast, filled with rockeries and pavilions, and it took him quite some effort to reach the main reception hall.

Ever since he had slipped into the courtyard, he had sensed that something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

He hadn't encountered a single soul along the way, and logically, a courtyard this large should require many servants to maintain.

This was highly abnormal.

Since he was already here, he certainly couldn't return empty-handed, and whether there was danger remained uncertain.

Outside the living room door, candlelight spilled out from the windows, casting long, stretched shadows of the trees.

Mo Jingxian hid in a tree, relying on the Mist of Vitality to slowly sense the situation inside.

Water elements passed through the walls, permeating the room.

Tables, chairs, candlesticks, famous paintings...

Hm?

A person sat in the main seat, sipping tea; his movements were so light, it was as if he were naturally meant to be there.

The water elements possessed a sense of emotion, and the information transmitted back carried a sense of joy, similar to the feeling of encountering one of their own.

"Friend outside, since you have arrived, why not come in for a cup of tea?"

The night was very still.

The voice was not loud, yet every word was clearly transmitted to his ears.

Mo Jingxian became interested; this was the first time someone had been able to detect his probing.

He had to know that for the sake of safety, he had voluntarily refrained from infusing chakra into the Mist of Vitality, relying solely on water elements to perceive the surrounding movements.

The range of the technique had shrunk, but it had become much more concealed.

Now that he had been called out, it meant that this person also mastered similar methods, or at least had been exposed to elemental phenomena.

Mo Jingxian jumped down from the tree and strolled into the room.

The large courtyard was somewhat desolate, but the candlelight inside radiated a dim, warm glow.

A young man in his twenties sat on a high-backed chair, his long hair pinned atop his head, wearing a pale green kimono that exuded elegance.

Beside him, on a square table, a teapot was kept warm, with one cup already poured.

As soon as Mo Jingxian entered the room, he smelled a tea fragrance that drifted through his nostrils and moistened his lungs.

Though he knew nothing of tea, he could guess that this was no ordinary brew.

While he sized up the other party, the other party was also sizing him up.

Perhaps not having guessed that the visitor would be a youth, the man showed a momentary flash of surprise, which he quickly masked.

"Please!"

The man's gesture to offer tea was archaic, his every action revealing a deep family heritage.

Mo Jingxian did not stand on ceremony; he picked up the teacup, downed it in one gulp, and then plopped himself onto the high-backed chair on the other side of the square table.

"Enough with the theatrics. Speak... who are you? And why did you want me to come here?"

He was a novice when it came to etiquette and decorum, but he knew one thing: he could not follow someone else's rhythm.

The atmosphere the man had painstakingly cultivated was completely shattered by him.

The man did not get angry, but smiled and said:

"This Humble One is Long Yunzhi, Minister of Finance for the Land of Grass. I welcome you to my humble abode."

Hm?

He wasn't Kashima Chuwa, and why did this name sound so strange?

It sounded a bit like the naming conventions from the East.

Mo Jingxian's thoughts flashed through his mind rapidly, and he immediately pulled his focus back to the present.

"I came looking for Kashima Chuwa."

"I know."

"Do you know me?"

"I do not."

Mo Jingxian suppressed the urge to draw his blade and poured himself a cup of tea.

Talking to this person was exhausting.

Perhaps sensing his frustration, Long Yunzhi adjusted his tone.

"You are here for that secret document, aren't you?"

It was not a question; the other party was entirely certain.

Sure enough, Long Yunzhi's next words confirmed it.

"Kashima Chuwa is the captain of my caravan. He is clever; after discovering the secret document, he hid it in a secret location."

Mo Jingxian raised his teacup to take a sip, waiting for the rest.

Long Yunzhi gently brushed aside the tea foam and continued:

"He treated the document as his trump card and showed it to no one.

But he was too careless, and I had him thrown into the dungeon."

At this point, Long Yunzhi looked up at Mo Jingxian.

"Right now, only Kashima Chuwa knows the whereabouts of the document. If you want to obtain it, you must go to the dungeon and find him."

Things were becoming increasingly complicated. He certainly did not believe Long Yunzhi was being this kind-hearted; there had to be a reason he was unaware of.

Mo Jingxian stood up abruptly and walked out without looking back.

"Wait!"

Long Yunzhi's voice was urgent, lacking his previous composure.

"What is it? Are you planning to use force to keep me here?"

Mo Jingxian turned back, an eager expression on his face.

The other party shook his head with a bitter smile, stood up, and bowed deeply to him.

"It is my fault. How about this... I have a business proposition I would like to trade with you."

"Why choose me?"

"Because of that chakra trait."

Long Yunzhi gathered a ball of chakra in his hand, within which flickered tiny specks of elements.

If Mo Jingxian did not have a deep understanding of the water element, he might not have discovered the mystery within.

Those specks of elements were too sparse, and they possessed no attributes whatsoever.

Mo Jingxian sat back down.

"Speak. What do you want me to do, and what are you prepared to offer as a stake?"

This is a long story...

Long Yunzhi began from his ancestors, rambling on until he reached the political landscape of Hozuki Castle, before finally stating his request:

"Enter the Hozuki Castle prison, and you will be able to find Kashima Chuwa and ask for the location of the document. As long as you create a disturbance in the prison, leave the rest to me."

Mo Jingxian weighed the situation in his mind.

According to Long Yunzhi, his ancestors obtained a legacy that, when cultivated, could extend one's lifespan, and integrating it into chakra could also yield many miraculous effects.

Unfortunately, the previous generation had vanished into the Hozuki Castle prison along with the legacy.

Because of this, the peace faction led by Long Yunzhi and the radical faction led by Mui had completely broken ties.

This had formed the current situation where the two major political forces of Hozuki Castle stood in opposition.

Now that the radicals had complete control over the prison, it was impossible for Long Yunzhi to enter their territory, which was why this deal existed today.

Mo Jingxian could not easily judge whether the other party was telling the truth.

But the feedback from the water element could not be faked, so there was a high probability that this legacy was real.

He turned the matter over in his mind, calculating the gains and losses.

Secret document, mysterious legacy, increased lifespan.

These words repeated in his mind.

Mo Jingxian admitted that he was tempted.

However, business is business; there is nothing wrong with striving to maximize one's interests.

Thinking of this, Mo Jingxian looked at the other party with a faint smile.

"That place is a den of tigers and wolves, so—you'll have to pay more!"