Encounter Battle in the Desert

The search mission was tedious and long, like trying to fish a lost needle out of an endless sea of sand. Shaye's team had been moving through the designated B-7 area for days, finding nothing but weathered rocks and eternal dunes. Fatigue and a sense of hopelessness had begun to quietly take root within the team.

That day, they were searching along a dried-up ancient riverbed. Shaye's three "spider" puppets were spread across the front and the rock walls on either side like the most loyal sentries. Xu worked hard to expand her sensory range, while Lukado vigilantly watched the surrounding terrain. Team captain Jing Liang's brows were tightly furrowed, a faint unease lingering in his heart. As an experienced Special Jonin, he possessed a beastlike instinct for danger.

Suddenly!

Shaye and Jing Liang's expressions changed almost simultaneously!

"Enemy attack! Northeast! Approaching at high speed!" Shaye was the first to issue a warning through the spiders' vision, his voice urgent.

"Everyone, prepare for battle! Maximum alert!" Jing Liang instantly drew the twin blades from his back and shouted sharply as wind-nature chakra began to surge.

Before his words had faded, four figures clad in Hidden Rock Village shinobi attire burst out from behind the rocky hills on the flank like ghosts. Without any warning, they immediately unleashed killing moves!

The lead Rock shinobi was tall and broad, with a hard, cold face and eyes as sharp as a hawk's. The chakra fluctuations radiating from his body were heavy and vast, carrying a suffocating pressure!

"An Elite Jonin!" Jing Liang's pupils shrank sharply, and his heart sank to the bottom. An opponent of that level was far beyond what a Special Jonin like him could confront head-on!

"Kill them! Leave none alive!" the Hidden Rock Jonin ordered coldly, his hands flashing through seals.

"Earth Release: Rock Fist Technique!"

His arms were instantly covered in hard stone, and with the force to smash apart anything in his path, he drove them straight at Jing Liang!

"You three deal with the others!" Jing Liang roared at Shaye and the other two. Not daring to be the slightest bit careless, he coated his twin blades in wind-nature chakra and charged forward as a streak of green gale!

"Wind Release: Gale Slash!"

Clang! Clang! The sound of a direct collision instantly exploded! Jing Liang was driven back again and again by the opponent's immense strength, his palms numb. He was completely at a disadvantage and could only rely on his speed to desperately hold on, teetering on the edge of disaster!

At the same time, the other three Hidden Rock Chunin charged in. One immediately formed hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth Spear!" Sharp stone spears stabbed up from beneath Lukado's feet! Another brandished a kunai and rushed at Xu, who appeared to be the weakest. The last tried to bypass the front line and attack Jing Liang from the flank as he struggled to hold back the Elite Jonin.

The situation became critical in an instant!

Once Jing Liang fell, the entire team would face annihilation!

"Lukado! Defend!" Shaye's voice was calm beyond what one would expect from a boy. His hands moved in tandem as one "spider" abruptly sprang down from the rock wall, precisely disrupting the hand seals of the Rock shinobi using Earth Spear.

Lukado reacted at once and formed hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" A wall of earth rose up, blocking the kunai aimed at Xu, but another Rock shinobi entangled him in a bitter fight.

Xu's face turned pale with fright, but she still tried her best to throw shuriken to keep the enemy pinned down.

Shaye's mind raced, his gaze locked tightly onto the Hidden Rock Elite Jonin who was crushing Jing Liang. He had to help him! Otherwise, they would all die!

While controlling two "spiders" to nimbly harass and restrain the other two Hidden Rock Chunin, easing the pressure on Lukado and Xu, he searched for that fleeting opportunity.

Jing Liang's condition worsened by the moment. His Wind Release attacks could not break through the opponent's stone defense, while every blow from the enemy carried immense force, shaking his internal organs. Blood was already seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Now!

A sharp glint flashed in Shaye's eyes! He noticed that, in order to fully suppress Jing Liang, the Hidden Rock Jonin had exposed an extremely brief opening at his rear flank!

Without the slightest hesitation, Shaye acted with a thought!

A "spider" puppet that had been lurking beneath the sand in a dormant state, tiny in size and identical in color to the grains of sand, sprang up like a venomous scorpion! Its abdomen opened, revealing a tiny poison needle gleaming with a dark blue light—his trump card, specially prepared with the potent paralytic toxin Elder Chiyo had given him!

Whoosh!

The poison needle shot out without a sound, accurately flying toward the gap in the Hidden Rock Jonin's calf muscles! That was a weak point where the stone armor could not fully cover!

The Hidden Rock Jonin truly deserved his Elite rank. At the last moment, he sensed the danger and sharply twisted aside! But in the end, he was a fraction too slow!

The poison needle grazed his calf, leaving behind a thin streak of blood!

"Hrngh?!" The Hidden Rock Jonin let out a muffled groan. An intense numbness instantly spread from the wound, and the movements of his entire leg became sluggish! Though he immediately tried to suppress the toxin with chakra, his movements inevitably stiffened and warped slightly!

For Jing Liang, locked in a high-speed duel, this was undoubtedly a heaven-sent opportunity!

"Perfect!" Though Jing Liang did not know what had happened, his battle instincts made him seize that fatal opening!

He poured all his chakra into his twin blades, his body surging forward like a whirlwind!

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

Several highly compressed wind blades, like the scythes of death, went wild in the instant his opponent's movements stiffened, slashing relentlessly at the stone armor whose defenses had faltered under the toxin's effects!

Crack! Boom!

The stone armor finally could not bear the strain and exploded apart! The wind blades cut directly into his body!

The Hidden Rock Jonin's eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the blood spraying from his body. Then he crashed to the ground, his life extinguished.

With their leader suddenly dead, the remaining three Hidden Rock Chunin immediately fell into disarray, their morale collapsing.

"Kill!" Jing Liang endured his injuries and launched a counterattack with Shaye, Lukado, and Xu. Having lost their backbone, the remaining Rock shinobi were quickly defeated one by one.

The battle ended, and the desert returned to its deathly silence, leaving behind only several cold corpses and the heavy stench of blood.

Jing Liang leaned on his blades, panting violently as he looked at Shaye. His gaze was extremely complicated, holding lingering fear, shock, and boundless relief. He knew very well that without Shaye's uncanny, perfectly timed sneak attack, their team would have been wiped out today.

"Shaye... you..." He wanted to say something, but in the end, he merely said heavily, "Well done!"

Shaye nodded calmly and walked over to retrieve the poison-needle "spider" that had rendered such great service, yet there was little joy in his heart. This was only one glimpse of war's cruelty. They had survived, but greater dangers still lay ahead.

(End of chapter)