Arrangement

"Lord Yizhe!" Seeing Yizhe deal with the intruder, Qing Shi hurried over on his short little legs.

"What is it?" Yizhe stared fixedly at the corpse lying in the pit and asked coldly.

His battle with Furukawa Muchi, a ninja rich in real combat experience, had taught him a great deal. He had been an enemy worthy of respect.

"The person lying in this pit, could he be...?" Qing Shi asked cautiously.

The corpse at the bottom of the pit was covered in dirt and snow, making its face impossible to see clearly.

"Yes. He was Furukawa Muchi, the deputy leader of the Red Ant Bandit Group!" Yizhe answered flatly, as if the man in the pit had been entirely insignificant.

"Hiss..." Qing Shi drew a sharp breath.

"Then... he snuck in so late at night in order to..." Though he had some guesses, he still did not dare confirm them.

"Yes—he came for you!"

Yizhe answered casually, then dropped down onto the ground.

He was truly exhausted. Because of one momentary mistake, Furukawa Muchi had seized the chance and overwhelmed him with a relentless barrage, leaving him unable to catch his breath.

He had nearly suffered a devastating loss!

The entire battle had been almost completely one-sided! Had Furukawa Muchi not exhausted his chakra, the outcome would have been impossible to predict.

Especially the danger of being treated as a living target in midair—it was something outsiders could never understand!

"My lord, what is wrong?" Seeing Yizhe suddenly sit down, Qing Shi asked with concern.

Yizhe was now the guardian deity of the entire caravan. If he had not displayed such overwhelming might, the caravan would likely have long since fallen to the bandits.

Therefore, Qing Shi could not help but care about Yizhe's condition. After all, Yizhe's state was directly tied to the safety of the entire caravan.

"It's nothing, just a little tired." Yizhe waved a hand, indicating that there was no need to worry.

"Then... how should we deal with this corpse?"

Qing Shi stared at the rag-like corpse in the pit, a strange gleam flashing through his eyes.

"What do you have in mind?" Yizhe turned back and saw that Qing Shi's chubby face was full of excitement.

Could he have a corpse fetish? And it was a male corpse! A chill ran through Yizhe's heart!

"Brother, both his brother and son died by our hands. This grudge probably cannot be settled! The last remaining Red Ant leader definitely will not let us off easily!"

"Once we cross Cold Wind Bridge ahead, we'll reach the Land of Iron. It's easy to defend and hard to attack, and it is also the road we must take. The Red Ant Bandit Group surely will not let this final chance slip away, so why don't we..." Qing Shi stopped halfway through, seemingly hesitant, and swallowed the rest of his words.

"Why don't we what?" Yizhe frowned and asked impatiently.

"Why don't we use this corpse as leverage when the time comes and make him let us pass?" Qing Shi cautiously voiced his idea.

"The dead deserve respect. Aren't you afraid of inviting misfortune by desecrating someone's corpse like that?"

"Besides, his son and brother are both dead. Why would he care about a corpse? All you would do is provoke him into a slaughter! By then, even if I take him out, there probably won't be many people left in your caravan!"

Yizhe shook his head, disapproving of Qing Shi's idea.

"His brother and son both died by my hand, so his hatred for me must be the deepest! When the time comes, I'll lure him away. You can take the opportunity to charge through!"

"Once I shake him off, I'll come back for you!" Yizhe revealed his plan.

A direct clash with the Red Ant Bandit Group was ultimately unavoidable. He decided to use a diversionary tactic to reduce the damage the ninja could inflict on the caravan, then look for an opportunity to escape.

With the lives of his brother and son in Yizhe's hands, the blood feud between Yizhe and the Red Ant leader ran too deep. A battle between them was inevitable!

Yizhe was not afraid of losing to him. What he feared was that the man might be bent on dying and fight with his life on the line, refusing to rest until one of them was dead!

"Do you need all of us to help?" Qing Shi asked tentatively.

Hearing that Yizhe intended to lure away the Red Ant leader alone, Qing Shi sighed in relief. But on second thought, if Yizhe were defeated and killed, the Red Ant leader certainly would not spare the caravan.

To ensure nothing went wrong, the final Red Ant leader had to become a dead man!

So he wanted to ask whether there was anything he could do to help. If they could exploit an opening and take down the enemy, that would be even better!

"No need. He's waiting to fight to the death! However many of you go, that many will die!" Yizhe rejected him without the slightest courtesy.

"But..."

"No buts! Go down!" Yizhe impatiently cut Qing Shi off and dismissed him.

Light snow began falling from the sky, gradually covering Furukawa Muchi's body.

His eyes remained wide open, filled with unwillingness, but their owner no longer had any breath left.

This was the first time Yizhe had truly killed someone. Though he had previously beaten Furukawa He Feng into a near-fatal state, he had still left him with his final breath.

He had not watched him stop breathing before his eyes.

But Furukawa Muchi's life had been ended by Yizhe's own hand, and Yizhe had witnessed it with his own eyes.

In his previous life, he had not even killed a chicken. Yet now, he had already learned to take human lives.

His heart felt stifled, filled with an indescribable melancholy.

"Sigh..."

Yizhe sat beside the pit and pondered for a long time, but still could not let it go. In the end, he could only sigh, rise to his feet, press his palms together, and pray sincerely.

"Dust to dust, earth to earth, all things return to nothingness!"

After speaking, he climbed down into the pit and closed Furukawa Muchi's eyes.

Only then did he feel somewhat better.

At the same time, he finally understood why people held funerals after someone died.

It was not to save some so-called departed soul, but to comfort the hearts of the living.

"If I have offended you, please forgive me." Yizhe bowed to Furukawa Muchi's corpse.

He planned to examine Furukawa Muchi's body and see the extent of his injuries.

At the spot on the corpse's chest where the Rasengan had struck, not even scraps of cloth remained. Everything had been torn to shreds by the twisting force. On the surface of the flesh was a clearly visible inward spiraling wound.

The wound was a fold formed as the Rasengan's twisting force forcibly tore and pulled at the flesh!

"Byakugan."

With a thought, Yizhe activated the Byakugan and looked beneath the flesh.

There, he saw that the corpse's ribs had been completely shattered and intertwined with the flesh. The two lungs inside the chest had also been twisted into a pulp by the spiraling force.

It was truly too horrible to look at!

When Jiraiya had taught him the Rasengan, he had said that it was the ultimate technique of chakra shape transformation, possessing immense destructive power.

Although Yizhe had easily used it to shatter stones and break wood during practice, giving him a rough estimate of its power.

This time, however, he had landed it squarely on a person and witnessed with his own eyes the terrifying result it caused. It still left him utterly shocked.

"The Rasengan is indeed incredibly destructive, but its flaw is far too obvious! It can only work if I make close contact with the opponent!"

"As the saying goes, an inch longer means an inch stronger; an inch shorter means an inch more danger! Once you get close, the danger to most people increases severalfold! If the opponent is skilled in taijutsu, this technique becomes even harder to use!"

"For me, close combat is already my specialty, so there are not many opportunities to use this technique! It really is somewhat impractical!"

Yizhe sighed inwardly, cleared his thoughts, and slowly walked out of the pit. Then, with a casual motion, he buried Furukawa Muchi's body where it lay.

That night, word of Furukawa Muchi's death in battle was quietly delivered into the Red Ant Bandit Group.