The Dust Settles

"Bai Xiaoqi! Why aren't you attacking! Why!" Xian Yu struggled to kill another bandit blocking his path once more. He didn't know why; he had clearly given it his all, and in these few short minutes, he had killed over thirty bandits, yet they seemed endless, each one fearless and undeterred. Every time he struck one down, another would always leap out to obstruct him.

And this distance of barely twenty meters... why... was it simply impossible to charge through?

The Three-Tailed Fox, Bai Xiaoqi, let a fierce glint flash in his beastly eyes. He slowly turned his head to stare at his master and said, "I've long since had enough of you, always bossing me around all day. Saving people? If you're so capable, go save them yourself. Or, why don't you beg me?"

Hearing this, Xian Yu froze. Gradually, he closed his eyes and whispered, "My little Qi is so spiritual, it's impossible for him to be acting suicidal. Once little Qi starts acting suicidal... there is only one truth! And that is... I, the master, have fallen under a genjutsu."

The fox shed tears of emotion: Acting suicidal is impossible; only by listening well to the master can one survive. The master is super talented, speaks so nicely, I love the master so much...

Since he already knew it was a genjutsu, it was simple.

There are three ways to break a genjutsu.

The first way: have a companion outside input their own chakra into your body to help calm the chaotic chakra within you.

The second way: self-harm. Pain will stimulate your nerves and allow you to break free from the genjutsu.

But while self-harm sounds simple, it has two major difficulties.

First, if your willpower is not firm enough, you might just be controlling your genjutsu-self to commit self-harm. Aside from increasing your own pain, it is completely useless.

The second difficulty is that you might intend to pierce your thigh with a kunai, but once the genjutsu is broken, you find you have pierced your own heart...

The third way tests your technique: attempting to control the chakra within your body yourself.

When caught in a genjutsu, your own chakra is inevitably chaotic.

To use an analogy, it is like an army that has lost its general; your consciousness is the general, and the chakra is the army.

Now that the general has been locked in a dark room, the army has lost its command and naturally falls into disarray.

The person under the jutsu cannot feel that their own chakra is chaotic. It is just like the general being locked in a dark room, where the scouts coming in only deliver false reports.

Therefore, the first step is: chaos upon chaos! Attempt to control the chakra, making the chakra that feels 'calm and obedient' in your perception become chaotic.

The more chaotic, the better. When it becomes so chaotic that you yourself feel uncomfortable, everything within the genjutsu will slip out of the caster's control.

At this moment, the images you see and the sounds you hear in the genjutsu will begin to tremble, and the sounds will begin to distort.

Then, the second step is to start attempting to control the chaotic chakra to calm down. The genjutsu will then be broken.

The reason Itachi Uchiha's genjutsu is so powerful... is because it is impossible to use the third method to break it.

No sooner said than done, student Xian Yu recalled the genjutsu-breaking methods from his past life and combined them with the teachings of his father-figure Danzo in this life, instantly deciding to use a fourth method to break the genjutsu? (?òωó?)?

Xian Yu closed his eyes and began to utilize the Heavenly Thunder Orthodox Method's Yang Five Thunder, converting the chakra within his body into the power of Yang Thunder.

One could see Xian Yu's body gradually enveloped in thunderous light, crackling with "pitter-patter" sounds.

When Xian Yu opened his eyes again, what he saw was the back of Shinozaki Ayumi and her action of reaching out to pull a kunai embedded in her shoulder.

The scene rewound: when Xian Yu had noticed the four bandit leaders quietly approaching Shinozaki Ayumi, his attention was drawn by the four of them, and he hadn't noticed a young man with a ninja tool pouch at his waist approaching him as well.

But Shinozaki Ayumi had seen it!

Xian Yu was constantly concerned for her safety, and she was likewise concerned for him.

When she saw Xian Yu use a Wind Style kunai to slice a bandit in half at the waist, only to stand there motionless while sprayed with blood, Shinozaki Ayumi was terrified and screamed, "Young Master! Watch out!"

However, at that moment, the four bandit leaders attacked her simultaneously!

Gritting her teeth, in order to quickly clear the obstacles, Shinozaki Ayumi retreated rapidly, dodging their combined attack while forming hand seals to unleash a high-chakra-consuming ultimate move: "Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

Heaven have mercy! The four bandit leaders were merely slightly stronger ordinary people! Facing a B-rank Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves head-on?

The next moment, dozens of rotating wind blades instantly shredded the four bandit leaders and everything within a fan-shaped area into powder! Even the ground was plowed by the wind blades, leaving behind terrifying, three-inch-deep trenches!

Shinozaki Ayumi felt her chakra bottoming out and her legs went soft, nearly failing to stand. Gritting her teeth, she channeled her remaining chakra into her feet and used the Body Flicker Technique. Covering the twenty-plus meters took less than two seconds under her burst of speed, just barely allowing her to block in front of Xian Yu before a kunai could strike him, her shoulder being pierced by the incoming projectile.

"A pity, what a pity. Almost took one out." A gray-haired man of about twenty-five or twenty-six with a scar on his face walked out from behind several bandits, a ninja tool pouch hanging at his waist.

Xian Yu's expression was grim and terrifying. He scanned the surroundings; currently, including this black-haired man, only eleven bandits remained on the field. They all began to gather toward this youth, while the rest had already perished.

The twenty-seven able-bodied villagers in the distance seized the opportunity to pursue. Two bandits who ran too slowly were intercepted by a burly villager, and were immediately surrounded by the twenty-seven villagers with bloodshot eyes, who beat them into a pulp with hoes, wood-chopping axes, and other miscellaneous weapons.

"Ayumi, you handle the small fry; leave this guy to me," Xian Yu said softly.

As long as this young ninja was dealt with, the remaining eight ordinary bandits would be unable to stir up any trouble; the fury of the villagers alone would be enough to drown them.

"Understood, Young Master, please be careful. This person is not easy to deal with," Shinozaki Ayumi warned as she slowly retreated.

At this moment, Xian Yu was in no mood to correct Ayumi's form of address. He nodded silently.

"Ruining my plans and killing so many of my brothers. Brat, you're courting death." The black-haired man had a scar extending from the right side of his ear to his lip, looking exceptionally ferocious. Before his voice had even faded, he had already appeared in front of Xian Yu.

"Young Master, watch out!"

Following Ayumi's startled cry, the black-haired man's kunai pierced into Xian Yu's heart. Yet, a strange smile appeared on the face of the Xian Yu whose heart had been pierced.

Shadow Clone!

"Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere." Not far behind the black-haired man, Xian Yu had already taken a deep breath at some point and finished his hand seals. An invisible air rocket was blasted from his mouth.

"Hm? Not good!" The black-haired man's heart gave a violent jolt, and he immediately lunged forward.

"Boom!" Dust flew, and the muddy ground at the center of the explosion formed a circular pit over ten meters in diameter, sunken by more than three inches. The black-haired man lay prone on the edge of the pit, his life or death unknown.

Xian Yu sprinted over, wind blades erupting from the kunai in his hand as he unleashed the Wind Release: Kunai.

Having utilized a B-rank ninjutsu of such potency, Xian Yu's chakra was essentially bottomed out. Closing the distance to the fallen black-haired man in a few strides, he thrust the kunai toward the man's heart.

Just then! The black-haired man lying on the ground suddenly lunged upward, his own kunai stabbing toward Xian Yu's chest! In the critical moment, Xian Yu only had time to shift slightly to the side; with a soft thwip, the kunai pierced into Xian Yu's heart.

The black-haired man looked up, a triumphant smile on his face, but the expression suddenly froze... because Xian Yu, whose heart he had just pierced, was also smiling.

This was the final image the black-haired man would ever see; then, his vision went black, and he knew nothing more.

The system's voice rang out:

"Chunin eliminated, Slaughter Points +100."