Crisis!

Since there was nothing he could do for now, he would just wait and see how things played out.

Having made up his decision, Old Zhou squatted down and parted the grass twice, revealing two gaps.

Within seconds, a girl with pale blue-purple hair came into view.

Are young girls so avant-garde these days? Even dyeing their hair. Then he saw her light orange pupils. Ah? She's a foreigner, too.

However, the person who appeared next made him uneasy. The person following the girl was a man of about twenty. If that were all, it wouldn't have caused Old Zhou's emotions to fluctuate, but the key was his attire: a simple brown kimono, and on top of the kimono were several pouches, which looked like they were used to hold something. Although this outfit was somewhat incongruous and even a bit comical, Old Zhou didn't feel happy at all right now. Instead, his heart sank: This outfit... why does it feel somewhat similar to the ninjas in Naruto? No, it can't be that I've come to the world of Naruto! Wait, calm down, calm down! Maybe the scene in front of me is just someone shooting a movie! Yes, it must be like that.

Yet the words spoken by the young man next and the actions of his hands extinguished the last hope in Old Zhou's heart.

Earth Release, Mud Master! As the man placed his hand on the ground, the blue-haired girl suddenly took a fall. No, she wasn't tripped; rather, the ground she had just been walking on had softened!

"Hehe, girl, still running? Come quickly into ninja-big-brother's embrace," as he said this, he spread his arms and walked step by step toward the blue-haired girl, continuing as he walked, "The girl has a good physique, looks like she's worth a pretty penny!" His expression was extremely joyful, as if he had already seen the cash enter his pocket.

Well, having just slipped away from a "human trafficker," I run into another one after coming to this place. Am I fated to this line of work? Old Zhou thought to himself as he slowly moved aside, putting very little weight on his hands and feet. As for why he didn't play the hero to save the damsel, Old Zhou had actually considered it. But he looked at his own build; if he went up to meddle, nine times out of ten he wouldn't be able to escape the fate of being kidnapped, and at that time the ninja wouldn't know how happy he'd be to get a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

In fact, if he hadn't experienced the bone-changing ordeal earlier, Old Zhou might have let his hot blood surge and gone up there. But right now, he just wanted to live.

Just as he was slowly, slowly moving away from this place, his spine hurt quite unluckily.

Although he had been experiencing this kind of pain for more than a month, its effects were still just as direct, especially at this tense moment. Old Zhou shuddered from the sudden pain: Done for, I've been spotted!

"Who's there?" The young ninja naturally discovered the movement in the bushes beside him. He instinctively grabbed the kunai at his waist and threw it out, his expression looking a bit pained over the loss as he threw it.

A kunai flew toward Old Zhou. Old Zhou could only endure the pain and roll on the ground, narrowly avoiding the attack.

When the girl lying on the ground saw that the one who rolled out was a child even smaller than herself, the hope that had just reignited in her eyes was extinguished once more. She had no other thoughts at the moment; being kind-hearted, she cried out with all her might, "Run!" When she shouted, she also happened to grab the legs of the person she feared most, biting down hard at the same time.

The impact of this scene on Old Zhou was huge. You must know that just a few seconds ago, he had been about to abandon her!

The ninja smiled contemptuously, then with a spit, he spat a glob of phlegm onto the girl's face and said, "If the employer hadn't requested an undamaged child, do you believe you'd be losing at least an arm right now? Alright, stop making a fuss. Can you stop me? No, you can't, so stop doing this pointless stuff. Isn't it good to live properly for a while longer?" As he spoke, the ninja shook the leg that was being bitten. With the huge force, the girl bobbed up and down, but she showed no intention of letting go.

"Hey, brat, me being polite to you just now was already going as far as benevolence and righteousness allowed. If you keep this up, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Facing the ninja's threats, the girl was extremely frightened. Her tears kept falling like pearls, but she still didn't loosen her hands and mouth.

"Then don't blame me for being merciless." Then the ninja bent down, intending to pick up the girl with one hand. Just at this moment, Old Zhou rushed toward this side.

However, the ninja seemed to have sensed Old Zhou's intentions long ago. He had actually been closely monitoring Old Zhou's movements the whole time, and had noticed this trembling brat slowly moving toward this place from the very beginning, seemingly wanting to launch a sneak attack while he was careless.

Therefore, Old Zhou's attack this time was already anticipated by the ninja. Seeing this opportunity, the ninja directly hurled a kunai along his charging trajectory, and then he watched as that charging little fellow stopped as if he had crashed into a car, dropped to his knees with a desolate expression on his face, and then fell over without any movement. As he fell, the ninja saw a kunai stuck in his chest.

The occurrence of this scene directly made the girl, who was holding onto the ninja with all her might, let go. Seemingly unable to imagine that such a young life had vanished right before her eyes, she couldn't handle the blow and went somewhat catatonic.

The ninja also wiped the sweat from his head, as the child's speed just now had seemed to startle him a bit.

My goodness, where did this kid come from? His speed was actually this fast. Fortunately, this brat is a bit slow-witted and doesn't even know how to dodge; otherwise—well, there is no otherwise, it doesn't matter even if he charged over, could he beat me? But then again, my kunai aim was quite accurate today, hitting the bullseye on the first try. Tsk tsk, I didn't know I had this kind of talent. Afterwards, he looked at the statue-like girl at his feet and viciously slapped her a few times: "Hey, don't you go stupid on me. If you're stupid, won't I have to go look for a new person again? Hey, hey." The man spoke as he continuously slapped her, not stopping until the corner of the girl's mouth was drawn out in fresh blood and he saw her hiss.

"Looks like she's better now. It's good to know pain, good to know pain!" Having said that, he slowly walked over toward Old Zhou's side, speaking as he walked, "Damn it, these ninja tools are too expensive. It hurts just to lose one." It looked like he was going to perform ninja tool retrieval.

Walking up to Old Zhou's side, he squatted down and heavily patted the head of Old Zhou, who was already a "dead man": "Damn it, stinky brat, why'd you even think about resisting? Judging by your physical fitness, you're estimated to be worth a lot of money. The employer might have multiplied the commission several times over—sigh, what a waste of all that cold hard cash."

Then he reached out and rolled Old Zhou's body over. However, what he didn't expect was that this "dead man" came back to life.

As Old Zhou was being rolled over, a fierce blade light flashed out from his embrace, causing the ninja—who had been completely unguarded against a corpse—to widen his eyes. Following the blade light was a pair of crazed eyes. These eyes were bloodshot, the pupils trembling violently as if they were about to pop out at any second. Yet to the ninja, these eyes were like the pendulum of the Grim Reaper, every single tremor stripping away another fraction of his life.