Where Is Spring?

The purpose of Hand Seals was to set the Chakra inside the body vibrating and flowing. A sequence of seals formed a specific Chakra circuit, allowing the user to release Ninjutsu.

Since the goal was to move energy through the meridians, pressing the corresponding acupoints should work too.

The acupoints of the twelve primary meridians were all on the fingers.

Based on the Chakra circuit for the Substitution Technique, Lu Zeming only needed to press Lesser Shang and Lesser Marsh.

He tried it at once. The next second, he appeared five meters away, leaving only a broken stone where he had stood.

Using the method in the book, he would have needed five seals—Chou, Hai, Wei, Yin, Mao, and Si—and both hands to complete the technique.

Lu Zeming only had to press two acupoints on his fingers. He could do it with one hand, and faster at that.

After a few more tries, Lu Zeming thought his one-handed acupoint presses looked remarkably like a Taoist forming a hand gesture.

Lu Zeming remembered that, early in Naruto, the speed of forming Hand Seals was crucial in fights between opponents of similar strength, alongside combat instincts and the amount of Chakra they had.

Whoever formed seals faster could release a technique first and seize the advantage.

Hand gestures were great: faster and harder to spot. With the same Ninjutsu, I'd definitely release it faster than anyone else!

No contest!

In one night, Lu Zeming had not only learned the Three Body Technique but also Spiritual Power Object Manipulation, the starter skill of every cultivator.

For now, he could only control light objects like leaves and pebbles, and only within three meters. But Lu Zeming believed that as his cultivation advanced, flying on a sword was within reach.

"I've entered Qi Refining now, haven't I?"

Looking around again, Lu Zeming found he could clearly sense how dense the Spirit Energy was in different places.

I'll need to find somewhere richer in Spirit Energy to cultivate. With that thought, Lu Zeming got up to head back to the village.

Unlike on the way there, the children were lively now. They crowded around Lu Zeming, chattering nonstop.

"Zeming, you're amazing! You knocked those three bad guys down in just two or three moves!"

"Don't make things up! You had your head covered and were too scared to look!"

"I really saw it! Zeming is amazing. He saved us all and avenged Shota. He's my hero!"

Shota was the boy who had been thrown to his death.

At the mention of Shota, the children fell silent.

Rin tipped up her little face and asked earnestly, "Brother, can you teach me? I want to protect you too!"

Lu Zeming smiled and patted Rin's head. "Of course. I'll teach you when we get back to the village!"

Children were always resilient. Before long, they were making a racket again.

They picked pretty flowers when they saw them and caught little bugs to scare each other. Lu Zeming even taught them a song.

Where is spring? Oh, where is spring?

Spring is in those lush green woods.

There are red flowers here, and green grass too.

And little yellow orioles singing their songs.

The children sang as they walked, like a flock of happy birds without a care in the world.

Suddenly, a rustling came from the woods beside the main road.

Lu Zeming's senses and eyesight were far sharper than before. He could already make out several Konoha Ninja leaping through the forest as they hurried along.

The Ninja were in a rush and had no intention of bothering travelers. Lu Zeming had no desire to invite trouble either.

Then a yellow figure flashed through the trees, and Lu Zeming couldn't help crying out.

"Yondaime!"

The figure stopped abruptly, then flashed to a halt right in front of Lu Zeming.

"Do you know me?" the yellow-clad man asked, puzzled.

Green jacket, black vest, blue eyes, blond hair. It was Minato Namikaze.

"Even better-looking than in the manga!"

Lu Zeming looked Minato Namikaze up and down.

Minato Namikaze looked even more confused. "What manga?"

"Ahem, nothing. I just think you're handsome!"

Minato Namikaze smiled faintly. "You still haven't answered my question."

"The Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze. You made your name in the Third Shinobi World War. Is it strange that I know you?" Lu Zeming replied.

"I don't sense any Chakra from you, and we've never met. But something about you feels familiar. Hmm, a little like Master Jiraiya."

At that, Lu Zeming cursed inwardly. Of course it does! The energy behind his Sage Mode is essentially the same energy I use!

Minato Namikaze went on. "You're a war orphan, aren't you? Would you like to come back to Konoha with me? I'd like to introduce you to Master Jiraiya. He'd be delighted to meet you!"

Like hell I'm going back to Konoha with you. That fine student of yours is about to set off the Nine-Tails' Attack. I'd have to want to die to go there.

Lu Zeming refused firmly and without hesitation.

Minato Namikaze was disappointed, but he respected Lu Zeming's choice.

Before leaving, Minato Namikaze gave Lu Zeming a Kunai bearing a Flying Thunder God Mark as a token.

"If you decide to come to Konoha, show this and ask for me!"

With that, Minato Namikaze vanished.

Watching the direction Minato Namikaze had gone, Lu Zeming sighed.

"What a shame!"

Rin asked curiously, "What's a shame?"

"It's a shame good people die young."

On the way there, Takeda and the others had taken side paths. After all, their business was hardly respectable. Lu Zeming took the main road back, so the journey was much faster.

The group returned to the village in just a day and a half.

Their happiness vanished when they reached the village entrance. They could hardly believe their eyes.

Their village had become a ruin. Some houses had been reduced to ash.

A few villagers wandered through the wreckage in a daze, searching for anything they could still use.

Heart-wrenching sobs rose from the ruins. It was like the end of the world.

"Dad? Mom? Where are you?"

"Grandma, Mayuko's back! Where are you?"

Several of the children who had returned with Lu Zeming ran crying toward their homes.

Lu Zeming and Rin reached their house and found that it, too, had burned to the ground.

Uncle Kisuke's house next door was still standing, but its doors and windows had been smashed. Aunt Akiko held Uncle Kisuke's body in her arms. Beside them lay the body of their baby, barely a month old.

Aunt Akiko's eyes were vacant. She kept muttering to herself.

"I was so foolish, so foolish. I knew the bandits had come and told you to hold the door. I didn't know they'd climb in through the window. I should've told you to run with the baby. I was so foolish, so foolish..."

Listening to Aunt Akiko repeat those words, Lu Zeming couldn't help thinking of Xianglin Sao.

Akiko had done nothing wrong, yet this was what had become of her.

Her home was gone. Her family was dead.

Lu Zeming stared at the scene before him, lost. Why had this happened? In truth, he knew the reason better than anyone.

Where was spring? There was no spring here at all!

This world was rotten to the core. Nobles, Ninja, and bandits loomed over ordinary people like mountains, crushing any chance they had to rise.

Was he supposed to join a Ninja village and become one of them?

Lu Zeming knew all too well what lay beneath their fine words: they devoured people.

Ordinary Ninja without connections or bloodlines were no different from Explosive Tags or Shuriken. They were tools. Expendable supplies!

A bold idea kept rising in Lu Zeming's mind...

Bandits, huh? Then I'll start with you!

On a dark, windy night, a winding mountain path led to a stronghold halfway up the slope.

The stronghold's gate barred the path completely. Two men leaned against its wall, chatting.

"The boss has no decency. He went down the mountain, brought back wine, meat, and women, then stuck the two of us on night watch."

"Just put up with it. We didn't go along this time."

"Damn it. Next time, I'm going down with the boss for a big score!"

A gust of wind made the torchlight on the wall flicker. Both men felt a sudden itch at their necks.

Thinking mosquitoes had bitten them, they raised their hands to scratch. Halfway there, their arms froze.

Then they toppled stiffly to the ground like puppets. They tried to shout for help, only to discover in horror that they couldn't even move their tongues.

As terror gripped them, they saw a small figure standing on the stronghold wall. Neither knew when it had appeared. It was like a ghost...