The Struggle

Mo Jingxian waited until nightfall, when the iron door of his cell was opened again.

His guess had been right. He didn't need to cause much of a disturbance; he only needed to catch the attention of those hidden eyes.

In Long Yunzhi's plan, he probably wasn't an important piece.

He might even have been tossed out as a decoy to draw fire.

So they both had their own agendas. In the end, it all came down to who could achieve their goal.

The escort was unusually large: two full combat squads of ninja.

The ninja escorting him breathed evenly and walked with firm steps, each one falling precisely into a steady rhythm.

Unlike the ninja on patrol, these were the elite of the Grass Ninja.

After passing through two cell blocks, Mo Jingxian was led into an inconspicuous room.

One of the ninja went to the wall and fiddled with something.

The wall slid apart, revealing a flight of stairs leading down.

"Get down there."

Mo Jingxian made no unnecessary moves. Obediently, he walked down the steps.

At the bottom, a passage stretched out before him.

Before he could take a proper look, someone shoved him hard in the back.

He stumbled forward, regained his balance, and continued down the passage.

It was long, with an oil lamp mounted on either wall every twenty meters or so.

The air was heavy with the smell of dirt and mildew.

After passing the 102nd lamp and rounding another corner, Mo Jingxian finally saw something different ahead.

A double stone door came into view.

It stood over three meters tall and two meters wide, with a carved demon face taking up a third of its surface.

The two doors had been opened just enough to let one person through.

"Keep going."

Another low command—or perhaps a threat—came from behind him.

The sealing handcuffs on his wrists were useless against him. That was one of the reasons he dared to put himself in danger.

Without hesitation,

he passed through the stone doors and entered the hall buried deep underground.

The hall was over fifty meters long and wide, and about ten meters high. Its walls, made of blue-gray stone slabs, reached all the way to the ceiling.

The entire floor was covered in a huge, unidentified pattern that looked like some kind of mysterious runes.

Bronze torches stood at its five corners. Their flames danced, occasionally spitting sparks that crackled.

In short, everything here felt eerie, giving the place a mysterious, sinister air.

Mo Jingxian wasn't the first to arrive. Four prisoners were already crouched and trembling in an iron cage in the corner, making five with him.

He joined the prisoners and crouched down, fitting right in.

No one spoke, as though making a sound would invite some nameless horror to take them away.

The ninja who had escorted Mo Jingxian in seemed to be waiting for someone. He stared toward the center of the hall, his eyes alight with fervor.

There was nothing there.

They waited for two hours.

As the old day gave way to the new, the sound of machinery turning suddenly rang through the hall.

It echoed around the enclosed space as a pyramid-shaped platform slowly rose from the floor at its center.

It stopped five meters up. Standing there, it looked like a temple awaiting its sacrifice.

The platform had three levels, and a small square pedestal sat at the top, just large enough to hold a pure-black box.

Its material was impossible to identify, but each of its four sides bore a wide-open mouth. It was deeply unsettling.

"Marui!"

"Yes, sir."

If the man hadn't suddenly spoken, Mo Jingxian wouldn't have noticed someone hiding in the shadows.

The man's presence was so faint that it was easy to overlook him.

Of course, Mo Jingxian hadn't used the Mist of Vitality to sense his surroundings. He didn't want to reveal himself too soon.

"Are the sacrifices ready?"

"Reporting to Lord Mui, they're ready."

From their conversation, Mo Jingxian learned that this man was Mui, the lord of Hozuki Castle.

Given Mui's mysterious manner, a major secret was sure to be revealed next.

Mo Jingxian weighed things over in silence, waiting for the show to begin.

"Bring the prisoners forward."

"Yes!"

Several elite Grass Ninja brought Mo Jingxian and the other prisoners before the altar. Any resistance was immediately crushed by force.

Mui finally stepped out of the shadows. He looked to be in his twenties, with ordinary features, and wore the armor of a Warring States-era samurai.

There was no proper ceremony or sacrificial chant. Mui simply waved his hand.

The Grass Ninja named Marui skillfully restrained a prisoner and led him to the mouth of the Black Box at the top.

The good news was that Mo Jingxian wasn't chosen first.

The bad news... was that the prisoner who had been chosen vanished.

It wasn't exactly that he vanished. He suddenly shrank and was swallowed whole by one of the mouths on the box.

Mo Jingxian had seen the whole thing clearly. Perhaps it involved some principles of Space-Time Ninjutsu, he reasoned.

He now had two choices: wait to be swallowed, or...

There was no first choice. Mo Jingxian had already quietly damaged the Sealing Jutsu in his handcuffs and was ready to fight back at any moment.

Just then, something unexpected happened.

One of the prisoners being held suddenly began to struggle.

The moment everyone's attention was drawn to him, Marui suddenly sprang into action.

The others were caught completely off guard, and Marui moved with incredible speed.

He easily took the lives of the two comrades beside him.

His blade cut across their throats. As his teammates stared in disbelief, he even had time to stick an Explosive Tag onto a prisoner's back.

Mui was about thirty meters from the altar. By the time he could act, it was already too late.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Marui tossed down three Explosive Tags in one go. The blasts echoed through the enclosed space for a long time.

The instant danger struck, Mo Jingxian immediately moved away.

When the smoke cleared, the area beneath the altar was a mess. Several prisoners had been blown apart, their limbs scattered everywhere.

Of the three elite Grass Ninja left, only one survived, and he was gravely wounded.

Mui used the Body Flicker Technique to rush over, but he was still a step too late. Marui had already escaped to the stone doors.

The lord of Hozuki Castle's expression darkened, all his earlier composure gone.

Staring at the traitor who had reached the doorway, he shouted furiously:

"Marui, how dare you betray me!"

To his surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, a leisurely voice drifted in from outside the stone doors:

"How could it be betrayal? Marui has always been my man."

As the last word faded, Long Yunzhi walked into the hall with two subordinates.

He glanced at the altar first, then shifted his gaze to Mui.

"Lord of the castle, so you really did secretly hide the Box of Ultimate Bliss."

Seeing that his secret was exposed, Mui no longer bothered to conceal it.

"What? You, the one who's always spouting righteousness, are interested in this demonic artifact too?"

The two men faced off, their words bristling with hostility.

Neither noticed that the blood beside the altar was slowly gathering into a stream, flowing along the altar and into the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

As it absorbed more and more blood, the mouth on the Box of Ultimate Bliss became increasingly lifelike.

Long Yunzhi didn't rush to deny it. He seemed to glance casually in Mo Jingxian's direction.

"We can put the Box of Ultimate Bliss aside for now. Before that, shouldn't we get rid of the outsiders? It would be a joke if someone else reaped the benefits in the end."

Mo Jingxian wasn't surprised by Long Yunzhi's words. At the same time, he prepared to break out.

He had planned to take advantage of the chaos, but he hadn't expected Long Yunzhi to arrive so quickly.

"Long Yunzhi!" Mui suddenly cut in.

"Drop that disgusting act. We all know what kind of person you are. I never thought your ambitions were even greater than mine."

"Hmph! You refused to take the easy way, so now you'll take the hard way."

Long Yunzhi dropped the act. Since Muku refused to cooperate, he couldn't be bothered to keep pretending.

"Bring him in."

Soon, Long Yunzhi's subordinates brought in a child under guard.

The moment the child saw Mui, he cried out for help. "Father, save me!"

"You!" Mui hadn't expected Long Yunzhi to be so despicable. He was so furious that his pointing finger trembled.

"Fine. Very well!"

Mui took two steps toward his son, then stopped.

He drew a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"Looks like you've made all the preparations. Fine—I admit defeat.

"Let my son go, and Hozuki Castle is yours from now on. This place too."

"Lord of the castle, don't be so naive."

Long Yunzhi was delighted. His longtime rival had bowed his head and admitted defeat. Could anything be more satisfying?

Without thinking, he stepped forward and said with a victorious smile,

"I'll let you leave, but Muku will stay at my estate. I'll raise him to become the new lord of the castle."

"You're utterly shameless..."

"Save it. You have no other choice, Lord of the castle."

Long Yunzhi put heavy emphasis on the words "Lord of the castle," making no effort to hide his threat.

Mui's expression shifted several times in quick succession, showing his reluctance and hatred, along with a jumble of other emotions.

In the end, it all gave way to a sigh. "Sigh..."

Long Yunzhi's satisfaction reached its peak.

As the sigh faded, Mui vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was only an arm's length from Long Yunzhi.

"You!"

Now it was Long Yunzhi's turn to be shocked.

Mui moved without hesitation, his fist wreathed in flames as he slammed it into Long Yunzhi's chest.

A figure flew backward.

"Bang!"

His back slammed into the blue-gray stone wall, sending dust pattering down.

A breath later, the figure slid to the ground.

Long Yunzhi was in a sorry state. Half of his tied-up hair had come loose, and blood stained the corner of his mouth.

The sleeve of his pale green robe had been blasted to shreds by the flaming fist.

With hands covered in black-blue scales, Long Yunzhi gently wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

His Body Ninjutsu, Black Dragon Imperial, had saved his life once again.

He fixed Mui, standing on the altar, with a gaze fit for a dead man.

After blasting Long Yunzhi away, Mui immediately climbed onto the altar and pressed his palm against the grotesque mouth.

"Hahaha..."

"If you won't let us live, then none of you will leave here today!"

The stone doors suddenly shut, sealing off the only way out.

Mui released his Chakra and let the Box of Ultimate Bliss devour it. A fierce wind suddenly swept through the underground chamber.

The mouth of the Box of Ultimate Bliss opened wide, and vortexes formed one after another, sucking in every living thing in the space.

Mo Jingxian hadn't expected that watching the show could put his life in danger. He couldn't help wondering whether this risky venture had been worth it.

One of Long Yunzhi's subordinates couldn't withstand the pull and was swallowed whole, just like the prisoner before him.

Space seemed to twist as one person after another was eaten by the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Strangely, the pull didn't affect anything that wasn't alive.

When the last person vanished, the hall returned to silence.