Encountering Zabuza!

The forests of the Land of Waves were like an unwrung mop, the air so damp it made people want to puke.

Naruto crouched down and stared at the snow-white rabbit, still pondering the seasonal discrepancy, when Kakashi's voice lashed out like a blade:

"Get down!"

Almost at the same instant, a thick killing intent, as sticky as something freshly dredged out of a slaughterhouse, swept across the area.

Whoosh—boom!

A Broken Blade the size of a door spun out from the depths of the forest, its gale stinging Ye Tian's face. Like a scythe through wheat, it leveled every shrub in its path before embedding itself firmly in an old tree.

The next second, a shirtless man wrapped in bandages drifted lightly onto the blade's hilt.

Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza.

"Yo, Copy Ninja Kakashi." Zabuza's voice was hoarse, carrying a whiff of hell. "You brought this kind of dead weight along to die?"

Ye Tian shrank back at the rear. Unlike Uchiha Sasuke, who was trembling like a sieve, he stared at the Kubikiribōchō and swallowed hard.

What fine iron... he howled inwardly. If I melted this down and forged it into a Flying Sword blank, it would definitely come with a 'Bloodthirsty' effect. I have to take it!

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!"

Zabuza formed hand seals with both hands, and thick fog billowed up from the ground as if it cost nothing.

"Throat, spine, lungs..." Zabuza listed them in the mist as though ordering dishes. With every body part he named, the surrounding air grew a degree colder.

Sasuke's hand clenched around his Kunai so hard it cramped, while Naruto's teeth chattered like a telegraph machine.

"Cultivators don't rely on their eyes."

Ye Tian's Divine Sense stirred slightly, and the perception of the Qi Refining Fourth Level instantly covered the entire battlefield. He "saw" Zabuza repeatedly leaping between tree trunks, and he also "saw" Kakashi being dragged into the water.

"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!"

The battle instantly collapsed. Kakashi was trapped inside a massive sphere of water, while Zabuza's water clone grinned viciously as it approached the three rookies on shore and the drunken old man.

"Kill the bridge builder first." Like a shadow, the water clone instantly appeared behind Tazuna.

The massive blade condensed from the water clone came crashing down at the old man's neck, accompanied by a keening wind.

"No!" Sakura shut her eyes and screamed, her shriek so piercing Ye Tian wanted to stuff a plug in her mouth.

"Tch, what a pain. I still have to put on this act."

Ye Tian's thoughts raced. His left hand flashed into his sleeve and pulled out a Gale Talisman—this was a mid-grade item he had only managed to make last night after ruining dozens of Explosive Tags.

He pressed the talisman to his mouth, cupped his hands around it like a horn, and took a deep breath at the all-encompassing mist and the charging water clone.

This was not blowing. He was activating the wind-attributed Spiritual Power within the talisman.

But to the others, this sickly weakling looked as though he was about to hold every last breath of his life in this one inhale.

"Forbidden Family Technique: Lung Capacity Technique!!!"

Boom—!!!

The talisman instantly ignited, transforming into an incomparably terrifying gale that erupted from Ye Tian's mouth.

That was not a breath. It was a typhoon making landfall!

The water clone that had been about to kill someone did not even understand what was happening before the Spiritual Power gale shredded it into water droplets that filled the sky. The raging wind did not slow, sweeping away all the dense mist within a hundred-meter radius like an enormous vacuum cleaner.

Sunlight streamed down again, shining on everyone's dumbfounded faces.

"Th-this is Wind Release?" Even inside the water prison, Kakashi was stunned. No hand seals? No Chakra? Just one breath?

"Lung Capacity Technique?" Zabuza's true body nearly slipped off the water's surface. He had spent so many years in the Shinobi World and had heard of Wood Release and Ice Release, but never some fucking "Lung Release."

The crisis had passed, but the show could not stop.

A ruthless glint flashed through Ye Tian's eyes. With a slight tremor of Spiritual Power, he directly burst open a small wound on the tip of his tongue.

"Pfft—!"

A mouthful of blood sprayed through the air. Ye Tian's complexion instantly went from pale to nearly translucent, and his body swayed backward like a kite with its string cut.

"This move... cough, cough... damaged my lungs too badly... my bronchial tubes... are broken..."

Rolling his eyes back, he fell with perfect accuracy into Sakura's arms. Sakura was only twelve, but the tight outfit she wore for the exam provided quite decent cushioning.

"Ye Tian!" Sakura burst into tears and clumsily caught him.

"Don't worry about me... I broke the mist... from here on... it's up to you..." Ye Tian weakly raised a hand to point, then let his head loll to one side and "fainted."

"Big Brother Ye Tian!" Naruto was so moved that his snot hung a foot long. "You're my big brother for life! I'll definitely avenge you!"

Sasuke stared at the dark red blood covering the ground—actually stagnant blood mixed with tongue blood—with unprecedented solemnity in his eyes. "For our sake, he actually used a technique that takes him down with the enemy..."

Kakashi seized the chance to break free from the water prison and stood dripping wet before them. His eyes no longer looked dead; they were filled with killing intent.

"Zabuza, my student used his life to create this opportunity. Now, it's time to end this."

Lying amid soft jade and warm fragrance, Ye Tian secretly cracked open one eye.

Phew, I fooled them. Sakura, just stop pressing on my chest. If you keep pressing, I'm really going to cough up blood.