17: No Misses

A huge, round earthen lid suddenly appeared above Ye Yuexin, its chakra-filled surface faintly tinged with blue. It looked incredibly sturdy.

It came crashing down toward Ye Yuexin. The lid was about five meters in diameter—far too large to evade.

And with the distance so short, there was no way to dodge it.

The real problem was how perfectly the earthen walls on either side worked with the lid overhead.

It was like a guaranteed death sentence.

Time was running out. His potential was being forced out of him.

Ye Yuexin used the wind to propel himself sideways as he began forming hand seals.

"Boom!!" The two Earth Release techniques collided.

Smoke instantly filled the entire area. The sound alone made it clear how powerful the impact had been.

Anyone caught in it would be utterly pulverized.

Dust swirled through the air.

Ye Yuexin crouched on the ground beside the dust cloud, gasping for breath.

A piece of his clothing was missing from his back. That had been far too close.

Ye Yuexin felt he'd come within a hair's breadth of dying.

The distance was too great for him to use the Substitution Technique.

So he'd used his footwork to shift sideways while simultaneously performing the Substitution Technique.

Lin Mu's ninjutsu had been incredibly fast—or rather, the two techniques had worked together too seamlessly.

Even at Ye Yuexin's top speed, he'd barely managed to dodge. He'd escaped by the skin of his teeth.

He hadn't been able to avoid losing a piece of his clothing, which was torn apart by three powerful forces.

After so many consecutive, high-intensity techniques, Ye Yuexin's legs were starting to go numb again.

A dull ache kept spreading through them.

He was now covered in dust and dirt from the blast, looking utterly miserable.

But he couldn't let his guard down—not for a second. Lin Mu was attacking again.

Feeling the chakra moving beneath his feet, Ye Yuexin tensed and immediately leaped to one side.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!" The spot where he'd just landed was instantly riddled with spikes. "I knew you wouldn't go down that easily." Seeing Ye Yuexin burst out of the smoke, Lin Mu grew even more excited.

But the beads of sweat at his temples suggested he wasn't having an easy time either. He'd already used five ninjutsu techniques since the fight began. And judging by the power of Earth Collapse and Earth Rock Lid, they seemed to be high-level techniques.

Without saying a word to Lin Mu, Ye Yuexin charged at him again.

Now, Ye Yuexin had become completely absorbed in the battle.

He'd delved deeper into Flying Dagger Mode. In this state, his senses had become incredibly sharp.

He could even faintly sense the flow of Lin Mu's chakra.

Seeing Ye Yuexin charge at him once more, Lin Mu sneered again, as though Ye Yuexin could attack him a hundred times and still meet the same fate.

"Kid, is this all you've got? You're a real disappointment. Do you think you can beat me just by using Wind Release?"

"You're underestimating an elite jonin! I'll finish you off right now." He completed the hand seals as he spoke. Ye Yuexin was still two meters away.

"Earth Release—Earth Ground Spikes!" In an instant, a jumble of spikes erupted from the ground within a ten-meter radius around Lin Mu.

It was a wide-area attack. Lin Mu certainly had a sharp eye.

Ye Yuexin hadn't yet fully merged with the wind. He could only use it to propel himself over short distances.

So, for Ye Yuexin, this attack was impossible to dodge.

In Lin Mu's eyes, the only thing about Ye Yuexin that required caution was his strange wind-based ability. His Taijutsu was nothing to worry about.

Earth Release had plenty of techniques that countered Taijutsu.

This was the most damaging wide-area Earth Release technique he knew. He truly intended to finish Ye Yuexin off with it.

As soon as Ye Yuexin, still in midair, sensed danger, he twisted his body and changed direction.

But with such a wide area, avoiding the attack completely was nearly impossible.

In a split second,

Lin Mu's technique proved faster. Just as Ye Yuexin was about to escape, more than a dozen scattered spikes pierced him.

He hung limply from the earthen spikes, looking wretched.

"Ha ha..."

But the next moment, before Lin Mu's delighted eyes, Ye Yuexin turned into smoke with a "Poof!"

"Damn brat!" Lin Mu suddenly felt as if he'd been made a fool of.

That technique had cost him nearly a third of his chakra, yet all he'd taken out was a shadow clone!

"Doesn't something feel strange to you?" a voice asked. At that moment, Ye Yuexin walked out from Lin Mu's side.

He limped slightly. With his torn clothes, dust-covered face, and disheveled hair, he looked like a beggar.

Ye Yuexin had run out of chakra. He was trembling just from standing.

But he'd already won this battle.

That was when Lin Mu realized something was wrong.

He touched his shirt and saw that his hand was covered in blood. His eyes widened. When had a flying dagger appeared in his neck?

No one had noticed when the dagger had suddenly appeared in Lin Mu's neck.

It had appeared so seamlessly, as if it had been there all along.

It proved the saying: by the time you saw the flying dagger, you were already dead.

"I... really... underestimated you..." Those were Lin Mu's last words. After he spoke, his body went lifeless.

It was true. He'd underestimated Ye Yuexin far too much. And given the state Ye Yuexin was in now, Ye Yuexin had underestimated an elite jonin too.

Fortunately, Ye Yuexin had won.

During the smoke-filled chaos, Ye Yuexin had used half of his remaining chakra to create a shadow clone, which escaped to the side.

Meanwhile, the real Ye Yuexin had used the Transformation Technique to hide behind them. When Lin Mu used his technique, Ye Yuexin threw his flying dagger.

In that special state of mind, Ye Yuexin's flying dagger seemed to disappear. Little Li's Flying Dagger—no throw ever missed. When it appeared again, it was already at Lin Mu's neck.

A thunderstorm suddenly broke out. Lin Mu's body slowly fell backward. Rain washed the blood from his body, and soon the ground turned red.

Ye Yuexin slowly walked over. He pulled out the flying dagger and put it back in its sheath. Then he gently closed Lin Mu's eyes. "You're the first person I've ever truly fought. I'll bury you in a little while."

[New book out now... Recommend saving it to your library and letting chapters build up before reading. Your support is appreciated. Thank you, everyone!]