Clash

"Ah, Lord Yizhe, why are you in such a hurry?" Furukawa Kazekaze dodged one of Yizhe's attacks, never stopping his taunts.

His goal was simple. As long as he kept Yizhe tied down and prevented him from leaving the battlefield, the situation would be easily resolved once the two Red Ant leaders trapped beneath the snow broke free.

Yizhe was anxious. Time was passing second by second. With every second that passed, the two Red Ant leaders came closer to escaping, and his danger increased by another degree.

The problem now was not that he could not defeat the boy named Furukawa Kazekaze. On the contrary, Yizhe was confident that if he caught the boy, he could kill him in a single blow. But the other side simply refused to fight him directly, retreating the instant they made contact.

He was not given even the slightest chance!

Yizhe stopped attacking and did not continue his pursuit. He did not want to keep up such pointless chasing, since it would only waste his strength without yielding any results.

Even if he was lucky enough to seize an opening caused by his opponent's fatigue, he would likely be heavily drained by then and unable to deal with what came next.

So he had to find a way to deal with this enemy as quickly as possible and with the least expenditure.

"What? Not chasing anymore?" Furukawa Kazekaze probed.

Yizhe rapidly formed a series of hand seals, his cheeks swelling wide.

"Wind Release: Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

The Gale reappeared, sweeping up snow that filled the sky and carrying countless ice crystals as it howled toward Furukawa Kazekaze.

"Not good!" Furukawa Kazekaze cried out.

Although this ninjutsu was not especially lethal, its strength lay in disrupting the enemy. If he was thrown off balance by this Gale technique, Yizhe might seize the chance to take him down in one stroke.

With that thought, he retreated again and again while swiftly forming hand seals.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style: Earth-Style Wall!"

A three-meter-wide earthen wall mixed with snowflakes surged up from the ground before Furukawa Kazekaze, blocking the howling Gale.

Kazekaze's strength was limited, and the earthen wall he summoned could not compare to the one Yizhe had seen Jiraiya summon at the bathhouse.

But it was more than enough to block Yizhe's Gale.

When the Gale struck the earthen wall, it could only scatter a little dirt and could not budge it in the slightest!

"Lord Yizhe, that alone won't work!" Kazekaze mocked from behind the earthen wall.

The instant his words fell, a white figure appeared above the wall and rapidly descended.

"I knew you'd try a sneak attack!" Furukawa Kazekaze sneered.

It was as if he had already guessed that Yizhe would use the snow-laden Gale to obscure his vision and launch a surprise attack. He immediately threw the Shuriken he had prepared at the figure overhead.

Pfft—

All three Shuriken struck their target, but the white figure turned into a wisp of smoke.

Not only that, behind the dispersed Shadow Clone was another white figure, holding a pale-blue sphere of light.

"Hiding behind a Shadow Clone? A double attack?" Furukawa Kazekaze was greatly shocked, but it was too late for him to dodge.

Yizhe pressed the pale-blue sphere in one hand onto Furukawa Kazekaze's head!

The sphere's powerful twisting force directly warped Furukawa Kazekaze's skull. This was the seal-less ninjutsu Yizhe had learned from Jiraiya—the Rasengan.

Pfft—

Furukawa Kazekaze's body turned into a wisp of white smoke!

"A Shadow Clone too?" Yizhe was startled.

"Then where is his real body?"

As Furukawa Kazekaze's Shadow Clone vanished, the standing earthen wall collapsed with it. The Gale had already stopped, and the surroundings were visible at a glance.

Yet Furukawa Kazekaze was nowhere to be seen!

Where was he hiding? Yizhe's heart filled with doubt.

"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Prison!"

"Not good!" Yizhe sensed Chakra fluctuations around him.

Unfortunately, it was already too late!

Several stone pillars as thick as thighs rose from the snow beneath Yizhe's feet, trapping him tightly inside. He could barely move his limbs.

"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spear!"

Immediately afterward, Yizhe felt another wave of Chakra beneath his feet.

A grayish-brown stone pillar with a pointed tip rose directly beneath Yizhe. With nowhere to evade, he was skewered from below by the Rock Pillar Spear like meat on a skewer.

Pfft—

Yizhe, impaled on the stone pillar spear, turned into a wisp of smoke. That had been a Shadow Clone too!

"What?!" A startled cry came from underground.

Furukawa Kazekaze's figure slowly emerged from the ground. He had thought his certain killing blow would land, yet it had missed!

He had long guessed that Yizhe would use a Shadow Clone as a feint, so he had left one in place to lure the enemy. He himself had slipped underground, waiting for an opportunity.

But he had never expected that even after Yizhe's Shadow Clone feint, the attack would still come from a Shadow Clone!

Then where was Yizhe? Where had his real body gone?

This time, it was Furukawa Kazekaze's turn to search for Yizhe.

Yet no matter how he searched the area, there was no sign of Yizhe.

Suddenly, he spotted a line of faint footprints at the spot where Yizhe had previously unleashed the Gale technique. They led away from the caravan, outward into the distance.

Following them with his gaze, Furukawa Kazekaze finally discovered a figure moving rapidly through the snow not far away.

Fortunately, he had lived on the snowfields year-round, and his eyesight was sharper than that of ordinary people. Otherwise, Yizhe's white figure would have blended into the snow, impossible to distinguish.

"Trying to run? Does he think the mission is too difficult to complete, and that he's more afraid of our retaliation, so he's fleeing for his life?"

"That must be it! He can't take me down anytime soon, and Father and Uncle are about to break free. He knows he can't withstand the combined attack of the three of us!"

"So if he wants to live, he has to run!" The more Furukawa Kazekaze analyzed it, the more certain he became of his guess.

"No, I can't let you get away like this! You buried so many of our brothers! I will make you die!" Furukawa Kazekaze roared at Yizhe's figure.

Watching him gradually pull away, Furukawa Kazekaze was so furious that he lost his reason. Without hesitation, he followed the figure and gave chase!

"Don't think you can escape!" Kazekaze roared as he chased after him.

Suddenly, an arm burst from the snow and grabbed his foot.

"Who said I was running?" A cold voice sent a chill straight through Furukawa Kazekaze.

Only then did he finally understand that this had all been Yizhe's plan to lure the enemy.

From the very beginning, Furukawa Kazekaze had only defended and never attacked. After Yizhe failed to break through for a long time, he began to scheme.

He knew that even with the Gale as cover, it would be difficult to take Furukawa Kazekaze down, so he had laid this trap within a trap.

First, using the Gale for cover, he created three Shadow Clones. Two pretended to launch feint attacks, while the third pretended to flee the battlefield. His real body hid underground.

He had anticipated that the two Shadow Clones could not possibly succeed in their sneak attack. Once Kazekaze discovered that the attack was false but the escape was real, he would surely pursue without mercy.

Once Furukawa Kazekaze anxiously gave chase, he would inevitably let down his guard. Yizhe only needed to lie in wait along his path and strike at the right moment to take him down in one blow.

Sure enough, he had finally waited for his chance to decide the battle!

Yizhe gripped Furukawa Kazekaze's foot tightly and sent a burst of Gentle Fist force through it, disrupting his Chakra flow and stalling his movements. Then he yanked hard, dragging the stunned Furukawa Kazekaze down into the snow with him.

"Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

A field of Eight Trigrams immediately spread outward with Furukawa Kazekaze at its center, firmly locking onto his presence.