Gathering X False News X Open Ground

The pounding on the door grew frantic and heavy.

Iron Wall pulled the door open. A small, thin man in a short gray-cloth jacket stumbled inside, braced himself against the doorframe, and caught his breath before straightening up.

He was one of Shattered Eye's informants.

He was the fastest runner and the sharpest observer on Shattered Eye's team.

Sweat ran from his forehead down his temples and into his collar, and his Adam's apple was still bobbing.

"Boss...!"

He swallowed, speaking as fast as a knife chopping vegetables.

"The Shattered Iron Group and the Gray Rat Squad are gathering their men."

"I saw them gathering people outside their headquarters with my own eyes. Tie Liao was shouting from the top of a shipping container, and Shu Mu's side was mobilizing too."

Iron Wall's expression grew noticeably uglier.

"How many?"

"At least seventy or eighty, all armed."

The atmosphere in the room tensed in an instant.

The three men had known the Gray Rat Squad and the Shattered Iron Group would make a move, but they hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

Jiang Ye stood where he was, his face expressionless.

After hearing the report, he didn't move or even blink an extra time.

After a moment of silence, he asked the question everyone was asking but no one had dared voice first.

"When exactly?"

The informant nodded hard.

"They said they'd strike in a week."

One week.

Only upon hearing that did the three men's taut nerves ease a little.

Whatever the case, it was better than having them come tomorrow.

But Jiang Ye didn't breathe that sigh of relief.

He looked at the informant, his gaze never leaving the man's face.

"The one passing the word said a week?"

"He did."

"Tie Liao shouted it from the container. Several informants nearby heard him."

Jiang Ye didn't press further.

He turned and walked back to the window, looking out at the hazy gray sky.

Gray-white light fell across the side of his face, his twelve-year-old features as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

His mind raced.

One week.

Tie Liao had stood atop a container and announced publicly that he planned to strike in a week.

Jiang Ye tapped his fingertips twice against the windowsill.

Then he turned his head. His voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear him clearly.

"It's false information."

The three men looked at him at once.

"Tie Liao wants the Rust Bone Gang to let its guard down."

Jiang Ye's voice was steady.

"He deliberately said they'd strike in a week to make us think we still have time to prepare."

"In reality..."

He turned around, his tone indifferent.

"They might move within four days."

"Or even sooner."

He glanced at Iron Wall.

"Iron Wall, have logistics speed up weapon production."

"Sheet-metal shields, Molotov cocktails, traps-make as many as you can, the more the better."

"And..."

He paused, narrowing his eyes.

"Those thirty vassals."

"Don't forget to give them some special attention."

"Make sure they know the Rust Bone Gang's meat doesn't come free."

"When the fighting starts, I can tell who's standing and who's sitting."

Iron Wall nodded and agreed at once.

"Understood."

"Gray Beak, go find the kind of place I mentioned before, right now."

"Open, hard ground, with no bodies of water or narrow gaps."

"The sooner the better."

Gray Beak didn't ask why. He answered with a single word.

"Yes."

Then he turned and hurried out.

"Shattered Eye."

Shattered Eye had already straightened up, ready to receive his orders.

"Send all your people out."

"The Shattered Iron Group, the Gray Rat Squad, Grey Elder's side."

"If people gather, if people mobilize, if anyone goes somewhere they shouldn't... I want to know."

Shattered Eye nodded briskly, then turned and followed Gray Beak out.

After watching Iron Wall leave as well, Jiang Ye didn't rest.

He went to a corner of the room and crouched down, bringing his right hand close to the floor and gently stirring the edge of the shadow beneath him with his fingertips.

As his Aura surged, several dark threads, as fine as gossamer, extended from the shadow and spread silently along the walls, doorframe, and windowsill like a spiderweb.

The shadow threads were specifically for keeping watch.

Soon, the shadow threads covered every entrance and exit of the farm and the passages around its perimeter.

Seeing that he had accomplished his goal, Jiang Ye straightened up and quickly formed a shadow puppet with his overlapping hands.

First came the wolf-head shadow puppet.

Divine Dog: Totality leaped out of the shadow, its massive body landing silently before it crouched beneath the window. Its intermingled black and white fur gave off a faint, dark sheen in the dim light.

Next came the rabbit shadow puppet.

The original Rabbit Escape leaped down from his shoulder and, as soon as it touched the ground, split into dozens of translucent black phantoms that spread outward along the paths laid by the shadow threads.

They were like streams of ink flowing silently into the gaps between the scrap heaps and ruins.

Large-scale battles depended on more than manpower and weapons. Intelligence was also indispensable.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles.

Jiang Ye stayed in the room for a moment, making sure the shadow threads and Shikigami spread out along their designated paths before opening the door and walking out.

By now, under his orders, the entire Rust Bone Gang headquarters was in motion.

Before Gray Beak left with his men, Jiang Ye had already assigned the rescued children to logistics.

The figures, in their teens or even younger, darted between the shipping containers and scrap iron, stacking the cut sheets of metal one by one, then threading wire through holes to bind them in place.

Dozens of empty liquor bottles were piled nearby, their necks stuffed with strips of cloth soaked in waste oil.

In just a few hours, they had hurriedly produced more than a dozen sheet-metal shields and over twenty Molotov cocktails.

The shield faces were rough, with burrs still on their edges and corners, and there hadn't even been time to scrape all the rust off the metal, but they were more than adequate for blocking attacks in the front line.

The Molotov cocktails were filled with waste oil and scraps of cloth, and their necks were wrapped in rags to prevent leaks. They were ready to be lit and thrown at any time.

Jiang Ye looked around and said little, merely nodding.

Just then, Gray Beak came running from a distance.

His steps were a little faster than usual, and he was slightly out of breath, but his expression was excited rather than tense.

"Boss."

He stopped and reported.

"I found it."

"North of the scrap zone, there's a stretch of level, hard ground. No standing water and no gaps."

"It's open on all sides, with room to run."

Jiang Ye's gaze rested on his face for a moment, and a ripple of excitement stirred in his heart.

After so long, there was finally some good news.

"Lead the way."

Gray Beak turned and set off. Jiang Ye followed him between two rows of stacked metal shipping containers and across a rocky stretch littered with broken rubble and rusty springs.

After about five minutes of walking, the view suddenly opened up.

A stretch of gray-white hard ground came into view.

It was nearly the size of five or six basketball courts, its surface a dry, level mixture of compacted gravel and waste soil.

There were no piled-up scrap-metal frames, narrow passageways, or sunken hollows around it.

Only a hundred meters away did the view reach the half-collapsed scrap heaps and toppled concrete pillars.

Jiang Ye stood at the edge of the flat ground and glanced down at the firm surface beneath his feet, then raised his head and surveyed the open space around him.

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

When he opened them again, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

This place was good.

Toad excelled at jumping and pulling with its tongue. In narrow terrain, its ability to block paths with its long tongue and evade attacks by jumping would be amplified to the utmost.

But on open ground, there were no gaps or pillars it could use for leverage. Its tongue couldn't reach a sufficiently distant anchor point, and its jumping would also be weakened by the open space.

And there was no water here.

Toad was an excellent swimmer, and an aquatic environment would greatly increase its mobility.

But on hard ground, the advantages of its moist skin and slick body were greatly diminished.

He turned and said to Gray Beak,

"Go back first."

"Iron Wall needs manpower."

"Also, post some people around the area. Absolutely no one is to be allowed near."

"Anyone who disobeys... kill them!"

Gray Beak nodded.

"Yes."

He turned and hurried away, his footsteps making faint, crisp rustling sounds on the gray-white hard ground.

Jiang Ye watched his figure disappear among the scrap heaps.

Then he stood alone in the very center of the open ground and began circulating Ten, covering his body with a thin film of light.

With the next step, the application of Zetsu, his entire presence fell completely silent, and the Aura within him regenerated and filled up again at the fastest possible rate.

Jiang Ye didn't stop there. He recalled Divine Dog: Totality and Rabbit Escape from afar, and the two black shadows merged into the shadow beneath his feet one after the other.

Finally, standing on the open gray-white ground, he slowly raised both hands.

He opened both hands with his palms facing outward, bringing his thumbs, index fingers, middle fingers, and ring fingers together to mimic the outline of a toad's tightly closed mouth.

His little fingers curved outward like a pair of protruding frog eyes.

The hand shadow fell on the ground, stretching the outline of a crouching toad wide and large across the gray-white surface.

The Aura filling his body surged down both arms toward his fingertips, gathering into a layer of warm current around the edges of his palms.

Jiang Ye took a deep breath and called out at once.

"Toad!"