The Deadlock Returns

Ye Yuexin had no desire to listen to any more of his nonsense. With a loud shout, he charged straight at him.

His fighting style was all about being fast, precise, and ruthless.

He pushed his footwork to its limit, arriving in front of Tugang in an instant, as if carried by a gust of wind.

There was a huge difference in their builds. Ye Yuexin only came up to Tugang's waist.

So Ye Yuexin didn't waste time leaping up to attack Tugang's throat or chest.

Instead, he swung straight at Tugang's thigh.

Unexpectedly, things went much more smoothly than he'd anticipated.

Ye Yuexin's blade had nearly reached Tugang's skin.

After learning how strong Tugang was, Ye Yuexin had grown deeply wary of him.

The more smoothly things went now, the more Ye Yuexin felt that something was wrong—that this might be a trap.

But under Ye Yuexin's Flying Dagger Mode, Tugang really did seem unable to react.

The next moment, he realized what was happening.

Tugang's upper body hadn't moved at all, but the leg Ye Yuexin was attacking suddenly kicked toward him with tremendous force.

That meant Ye Yuexin's blade would collide with Tugang's leg even sooner.

Ye Yuexin couldn't make sense of it. He knew of ninjutsu that could withstand blades, but he'd never seen a body that could withstand a blade infused with wind-natured chakra.

What's more, this wasn't ordinary chakra infusion. He'd used nature transformation.

Clang!

Tugang's leg and Ye Yuexin's short blade, brimming with wind-natured chakra, rang out like metal striking metal.

It was almost unbelievable.

Ye Yuexin's blade could cut even steel in half.

And yet it couldn't get through the other man's bare leg.

He was shocked, but at such close range, dodging had already become difficult.

So Ye Yuexin hurriedly enveloped himself in wind-natured chakra and used his short blade to block Tugang's powerful kick.

Thud!

Tugang's kick sent Ye Yuexin flying.

An Elite Jonin's kick wasn't something that could be blocked so easily.

Fortunately, after mastering his footwork, Ye Yuexin had become much more adept at controlling wind-natured chakra.

The wind in the air gathered around him, absorbing most of the impact.

Even so, Ye Yuexin felt a tightness in his chest.

He tightened his grip on the short blade, his expression growing even more serious.

He hadn't expected Tugang to be so skilled at Earth Release nature transformation, either.

In an instant, he had condensed a layer of brown chakra armor on his leg.

That was why Ye Yuexin's short blade couldn't cut through it.

Tugang was an important figure in Iwagakure, a pillar of the village much like Kakashi would be in the future.

The number of people in Iwagakure's Earth Style Group had dwindled during the Second Shinobi World War. Now, with the Third Shinobi World War nearing its end,

only five members remained in Iwagakure's Earth Style Group.

Survival of the fittest. These five could be said to represent the Earth Release shinobi.

Normally, they wouldn't have been sent to the border.

But because of Taiyuan Zeng, Tugang had been specially assigned there to keep him in line.

Iwagakure had only one Elite Jonin stationed at its main base, the one Kakashi and the others had taken care of.

Ever since Taiyuan Zeng arrived at the border, he had refused to follow orders and done whatever he pleased.

The former squad leader couldn't keep him under control, so after the matter was reported, Tugang was sent over.

There was another important reason: Iwagakure had probably guessed that Konoha might use the same tactics against them that they had used against Konoha.

That was why they had sent a powerful fighter like Tugang.

To be honest, this meant that Iwagakure's main base was now defended by three Elite Jonin.

During wartime, the village would be short on personnel, especially Konoha, which was fighting three major powers at once.

So if Konoha wanted to break through here again, they would probably have to pull people back from the battlefield. That was exactly what Iwagakure wanted.

Ye Yuexin looked at Tugang ahead of him and felt he should try again.

After just one exchange, he had already fallen behind. Ye Yuexin couldn't accept that.

Besides, with his footwork now fully mastered and his Wind Transformation perfected, even if he failed, he could retreat immediately.

After checking how much chakra he had left, Ye Yuexin condensed nearly half of his wind-natured chakra through nature transformation.

Then he began compressing it into his short blade.

Yes, Ye Yuexin planned to cut right through Tugang's defenses.

He was quite confident in his ability to compress wind-natured chakra after nature transformation.

After all, he had practiced countless times with his flying daggers.

But now that he was a Chunin, this was the most chakra he had ever used in a compression.

The wind flowing along the blade no longer formed a visible shape. Instead, it condensed around the edge like a translucent halo.

Watching Ye Yuexin, Tugang's small eyes gradually grew serious.

He hadn't expected Ye Yuexin to compress nature-transformed chakra to that degree.

Even Tugang, who had spent more than twenty years studying Earth Release chakra, couldn't do that.

Just how incredible did one's control have to be to pull it off?

But what Tugang couldn't do didn't mean Ye Yuexin couldn't do it with Flying Dagger Mode activated.

Once he had gathered the chakra, Ye Yuexin burst forward at tremendous speed and vanished.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Tugang.

This was the fastest Ye Yuexin could move at present.

But no one should underestimate a powerful fighter like Tugang. The moment Ye Yuexin prepared to attack, Tugang had already enveloped his entire body in chakra transformed through Earth Release.

Since his armor wasn't hard enough, Tugang had decided to make up for it with sheer thickness. The thick layer made his whole body look almost dark brown.

"Die!" Tugang roared.

Ye Yuexin drove his short blade deep into Tugang's chest.

Blood immediately began to flow.

Although Tugang had been injured, the armor formed by his nature-transformed chakra was so thick that Ye Yuexin felt his blade had only pierced about four centimeters.

As Ye Yuexin prepared to attack again, he happened to catch a glimpse of Tugang's face. To his surprise, Tugang was smiling.

Smiling in the middle of a fight to the death like this could mean he was a lunatic, or else...

Something was wrong.

Ye Yuexin's heart lurched with alarm.

He didn't know what was coming, but instinct told him it would be better to retreat first.

He was just about to move away.

But it seemed he was a step too late. More than a dozen densely packed Earth Thorns burst out of the ground.

When Ye Yuexin sensed them, he hadn't expected this. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to transform into wind at the same time.

He could dodge an attack like this.

But he had a feeling Tugang still had something up his sleeve. He needed to get out of range as quickly as possible.

"Ah!"

A sudden, unbearable pain shot through him, and Ye Yuexin cried out.

He quickly looked down. An Earth Thorn had pierced straight through his lower abdomen. "Nature transformation!"