A Great Harvest!

Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!

Li Tong walked onto the grass and had just dropped the corpse when Chen He and three other Anbu ninjas appeared out of thin air, surrounding him.

Chen He looked down at the body, his eyelids twitching unnaturally. It was too gruesome! The body had been stabbed hundreds of times from head to toe, and half the skull had been smashed in. With Chen He's keen eye, he could immediately tell that the vast majority of the wounds had been inflicted after death.

This brat was mutilating corpses again!

"Another one trying to assassinate me. You guys take care of it!" Li Tong said this habitually, wiped his face, and headed toward the bathroom beside the wooden cabin.

It was too filthy!

At this moment, Li Tong's own clothes looked tattered as well. Because the lake water had diluted the bloodstains, Chen He couldn't tell where Li Tong might have been injured, or even if the blood was Li Tong's or the assassin's.

Li Tong had intentionally shredded Uesugi Kama's corpse and ruined his own clothes so that Chen He wouldn't be able to see that Uesugi Kama had died from Shikotsumyaku attacks, nor would he see the fatal wound Li Tong had suffered in his chest!

Those were things that couldn't be explained!

The best solution was naturally to ensure they couldn't see them, so no explanation would be needed.

Li Tong entered the bathroom.

Chen He and the others crouched down to examine the body. Because the state of the corpse was so wretched, the men felt at a loss for where to even begin. They had to steel themselves to perform the inspection, as they needed to confirm certain things, such as whether this ninja was from the village or an outsider.

Chen He removed the tattered mask from the corpse and saw the assassin's face.

Because the head had been damaged, the features were incomplete, but it was still clear that this was a middle-aged ninja of about forty years old. He had gray-blue eyes and a face that wasn't ugly, but certainly couldn't be called handsome—it was just very ordinary.

"Do you recognize him?" Chen He asked.

The other Anbu Jonin all shook their heads.

"He's from outside the village."

"Since he dared to come and assassinate Li Tong, he must have at least the strength of a Chunin."

"Huh? He actually carried so much money!" The Anbu ninja codenamed "Uta" pulled a stack of tattered banknotes from the corpse's chest pocket. They were stained with blood and riddled with holes. He counted them in his hand and added, "Why would an assassin carry so much money on him? There's actually two hundred thousand ryo here!"

Chen He froze. He glanced at the banknotes in Uta's hand, and his expression changed drastically. He stood up abruptly and shouted, "Notify the Captain to come over!"

"Yes!" An Anbu ninja immediately acknowledged the order, performed a hand seal, and vanished.

Normally, if Li Tong killed an assassin, there would be no need to notify White Fang. After all, it wasn't the first time; Li Tong had been killing people every day for a while now, and the Anbu were used to cleaning up the bodies.

But this time was different!

That stack of banknotes reminded Chen He of what White Fang had said earlier!

The Hyuga Clan members who had gone to the black market to carry out a mission were returning to Konoha today, and they were very likely to hire black market assassins to eliminate the trouble that was Li Tong.

This tattered corpse before them was very likely a black market assassin hired by the Hyuga Clan. That was the only way to explain why he had such a large sum of money on him—it was the commission paid to him by the Hyuga Clan!

"Could he be a Jonin?" Chen He muttered, feeling a sense of disbelief!

Li Tong had actually managed to survive an assassination attempt by a Jonin and counter-killed him?! How was that possible?!

One had to know that for the vast majority of elite Chunin, becoming a Jonin was the greatest hurdle on the path of cultivation. It was a barrier, a chasm! To become a Jonin, one needed not only sufficient strength but also rich experience and extraordinary combat awareness.

Compared to Chunin and elite Chunin, a Jonin was a terrifying creature!

Konoha had seen many geniuses who became Chunin in their second or third year as Genin, yet it took them eight, ten, or twenty years to become Jonin... or they never achieved it in their entire lives!

It was precisely because the Jonin level was so difficult to reach that the rank of Special Jonin existed—a middle ground where one's abilities met the standards of a Jonin in some areas but not others.

It could be said that for a Chunin to kill a Jonin, whether by ambush or conspiracy, the chance of success was less than ten percent! And when facing a Jonin's assassination attempt, the probability of a Chunin surviving was less than one percent!

And more importantly!

If Chen He's guess was correct, this wasn't just an ordinary Jonin, but a black market assassin Jonin who had mastered powerful assassination techniques!

So—

How could Li Tong possibly have counter-killed him?!

"No, no, no, I must have guessed wrong. It's absolutely impossible. Half a month ago he was still a Genin, and now he has the strength to counter-kill a black market assassin Jonin? This is absolutely impossible! Absolutely!" Chen He denied his own speculation.

There was a large sum of money on the assassin, but there must be some other special reason; perhaps he was just a Chunin!

"Lord Chen He, what's wrong?" Uta noticed Chen He's eyes flickering and asked in a low voice.

"Hmm?" Chen He looked at Uta and shook his head with a self-deprecating smile. "Nothing. I was just overthinking it. Let's examine the body."

"The condition of the body is too bad. Aside from this face, it's hard for us to get any valuable information," Uta said.

"Hmm, but it's fine. The Captain will be here soon. With the Captain's ability, he should be able to see something, and perhaps even deduce his identity. Let's start by cataloging the blade wounds..." Chen He said.

******

Inside the bathroom, Li Tong soaked in a wooden tub filled with warm water and let out a long, relaxed breath.

"Refreshing!"

Lying back in the tub, Li Tong closed his eyes to rest for a while. Only when the fatigue in his body had completely faded did he open his eyes. With a wave of his hand, a thick stack of cards appeared in his hand.

By killing the elite Jonin Uesugi Kama, Li Tong had not only completed the "Kill" plot for the second time, gaining 1 point of reputation and an A-rank random ninjutsu card, but he had also obtained over thirty cards from the loot drops!

It was a bumper harvest!

First, he would take stock of the dropped cards.

Five D-rank Ninjutsu Cards, including Water Style: Hidden Mist Technique.

A total of fourteen C-rank Ninjutsu Cards, including eight types of Water Style, four types of Wind Style, and two types of Secret Techniques.

Two B-rank Ninjutsu Cards, which are Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu and Wind Style: Vacuum Wave.

One A-rank Ninjutsu Card, which is the Great Waterfall Card.

A total of twenty-two cards in the Ninjutsu category, including the A-rank Ninjutsu Card that Li Tong had been dreaming of. He was certain that Uesugi Kama mastered far more than just one A-rank Ninjutsu, but due to the drop rate, Li Tong had only managed to obtain this one.

There were eleven cards remaining: three Basic Healing Cards, two Basic Mana Recovery Cards, two Spirit Enhancement Cards, one Specialty Weapon Random Card, one Double Drop Rate Card, one Reputation Shop Lock Card, and one Reputation Shop Refresh Card.

"Spirit Enhancement Cards—they can actually drop now, and two of them at that?!" Li Tong's eyes lit up.

Many cards that had never appeared before were dropped this time, some of which Li Tong didn't even know the specific function of, but the ones he cared about most were the Spirit Enhancement Cards!

What he lacked most right now was chakra, and Spirit Enhancement Cards were cards that could directly increase Li Tong's total chakra capacity!

"Ding! Reminding the host: killing targets with a Reputation value over 3,000 has a certain probability of dropping Spirit Enhancement type cards." The Card Emperor Sprite seemed to know what Li Tong was thinking and spoke up proactively.

"Over 3,000? That means a Jonin! So that's how it is." Li Tong muttered, then impatiently popped the two Spirit Enhancement Cards into his mouth and bit down!