"Is this here?"
In the endless forest, the white-haired man murmured to himself.
Since we are some distance deep into the forest area, there is no human habitation around, only large swathes of lush giant trees and the rustling of leaves blown by the wind.
I don't know if it was due to the heavy rain not long ago. The road was quite bumpy and muddy. Along the way, I could clearly smell the pungent smell of earth, which made the white-haired man frown.
Continuing to move along the deserted road, the white-haired man saw that the surrounding flowers, plants and trees began to grow in size compared to the plants on the road before.
The further you go, the taller the surrounding plants become.
Not just plants, the white-haired man even saw palm-sized ants crawling on the ground, and dark red centipedes that were more than ten meters long, winding and climbing on the towering trees.
The white-haired man has long been accustomed to such gruesome scenes.
Ninja World is too big. Many areas are unexplored primitive jungles, which maintain extremely terrifying vitality and can naturally breed a variety of super large and dangerous animals.
Just when he was deep in thought about which direction to move forward next, boom--
The earthquake trembled violently, throwing up a cloud of smoke and dust. Some kind of heavy, oversized object fell from mid-air and landed on the ground in front of the man.
The white-haired man took a closer look and saw a large red and black spotted snake.
The body is thicker than the waist of an adult man, and its length is similar to the super-large centipede we saw before, at least ten meters long.
"... It turns out that here, I can save some energy."
The white-haired man did not panic. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief and was secretly happy that he could save a lot of time.
The big snake stuck out its tongue, and its dark golden vertical pupils flashed fiercely.
It looked bulky, but its body swung at an extremely fast speed. In the blink of an eye, it was in front of the white-haired man. It raised its head high, several meters high, and stared at the man with its fiercely gleaming vertical pupils.
Its slightly open mouth spurted out a foul smell of blood, and there was blood flowing from the corners of its mouth. It was not its own blood, but the blood of the prey it had just killed.
A faint smile appeared on the white-haired man's mouth, and he quietly held the handle of the Samurai knife at his waist.
As if aware of the man's intention, the big snake continued to stick out its tongue, then suddenly jumped up from the ground, opened its huge mouth and pounced on the white-haired man.
The white-haired man didn't make any special moves. He quickly drew out the Samurai sword and swung out a cold sword light.
The big snake's head rolled to the ground, and blood sprayed out in a steady stream. It seemed that after careful calculation, not a drop of blood fell on the white-haired man.
The body of the big snake without its head twisted and twitched crazily on the ground. It took a while before it stopped struggling and lay quietly in a pool of blood.
The white-haired man shook his head. He didn't know whether he was regretting the loss of life, or sighing that a guy of this level was not worth killing specifically.
--a few hours later.
The white-haired man had already left the forest and came to an izakaya in a small town.
He went to the first floor of the basement and opened a secret door. There was an izakaya inside.
It's just that the environment is much more spacious and cleaner than outside, and it's also highly concealed.
There were not many customers ordering food and drinking here, and there was not much conversation among them. Everyone looked at the people around them with a rather wary and indifferent look.
After all, this is not a real izakaya, but a mission station in the underground Black Market, a place responsible for issuing missions and circulating information to bounty hunters.
"This is Mr. Shinjiro, welcome."
There was only one good-looking female bartender in black formal attire at the counter.
When she saw the white-haired man arriving, a warm business smile appeared on her face.
"Want something to drink?"
"A glass of boiled water. Sorry to trouble you, Miss Heijiang."
Shinjiro spoke in the tone of an acquaintance.
"Wouldn't you like some drinks? There is a new batch of good goods here."
Heijiang asked.
"Sorry, I don't like the taste of alcohol."
Shinjiro declined politely.
Heijiang no longer insists, just pour a glass of boiled water for Shinjiro.
Shinjiro did not drink it immediately, but waited patiently for the boiled water to cool down.
"Mr. Shinjiro, you rarely come over these days. Is there something that delayed you?"
Heijiang wiped the glass and glanced over from the corner of his eye.
"Help a village deal with a man-eating snake and earn some extra money... I really don't understand what those villagers think. They know clearly that there are dangerous man-eating animals near the village, but they still stay there."
Shinjiro made a complaint.
"Perhaps they are reluctant to leave their hometown. Not everyone wants to leave their hometown and live somewhere else. Of course, it may also be financial problems that prevent them from leaving."
Heijiang spoke like this.
"Hometown..."
Shinjiro didn't know what he thought of and sighed.
"By the way, are there any jobs you can recommend recently?"
Shinjiro asked.
If he wants to support himself, it is definitely not enough to just rely on the extra money he earns. He prefers bounty tasks that are challenging and well-rewarded.
"No, you also know that many jobs that originally belonged to Black Market have been taken away by the Ninja Village. Now Black Market basically relies on selling information to make a living."
"..."
Shinjiro looked at the water in the cup in front of him and fell into silence.
Of course he knows about this kind of thing, and not only does he know about it, he is also someone who is deeply involved in it.
As the last Samurai of the declining Samurai family, he originally worked well for Land of Fire Daimyo. However, when the One Country, One Village era came, the proportion of Samurai around Land of Fire Daimyo dropped rapidly, and more than 80% of them were replaced by ninjas.
He and many of his colleagues have reached a low point in their lives.
Although he was not fired, he was inevitably squeezed and suppressed by the ninjas, and his remuneration was reduced again and again.
This made him envious and resentful of ninjas.
Especially damn Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan, why are they building a ninja village? They really have nothing to do.
Although the ninjas were powerful in the past, due to their uncertain stance, the Daimyos were more willing to support the Samurais to maintain their own safety.
Therefore, although the situation of Samurai is worrying, it can still take a breath.
However, as soon as the Ninja Village came out, Daimyo and the Ninja Village reached a deep binding, and the part of the benefits paid to Samurai was naturally transferred to the Ninjas.
He just couldn't get angry at this, so he angrily wrote a letter of resignation and left Land of Fire.
He wants to use practical actions to tell Land of Fire Daimyo that if he loses this Samurai, he will definitely regret it in the future.
Shinjiro even fantasized that Land of Fire Daimyo would send someone specifically to retain him, but this was just an unrealistic fantasy after all.
After he left, Land of Fire Daimyo didn't even stir up a splash. Maybe he turned around and forgot about him Samurai.