Chapter 35: Becoming One in the Mountains

Having just arrived at the camp, obtaining a contract with Ryuchi Cave could be considered a good start for Uchiha Feiyu.

After leaving the command room, Uchiha Feiyu found a random open space and began summoning large snakes, starting with those as thick as a wrist, then moving on to those as thick as a water barrel, and finally summoning a giant python twenty to thirty meters long and two to three meters in diameter.

Ultimately, Uchiha Feiyu discovered that, including those twenty to thirty-meter-long giant pythons, the intelligence of these snakes was not very high; they were slightly stronger than ordinary chakra beasts, but at their peak, they would not exceed that of a ten-year-old child.

Clearly, these giant snakes with low intelligence must be absolute cannon fodder in Ryuchi Cave; as long as they do not die in large numbers within a short period, it is estimated that they would not attract the attention of the intelligent giant snakes in Ryuchi Cave at all.

Subsequently, Uchiha Feiyu successively summoned ordinary venomous snakes and large giant pythons, killing them one by one to absorb their souls.

Although there was a huge difference in their physical bodies, in reality, the soul of a large giant python was only about one or two times stronger than that of a wrist-thick venomous snake; considering that large giant pythons should occupy a relatively high position in the ecological chain of Ryuchi Cave and their numbers could not be countless, Uchiha Feiyu ultimately decided to just absorb the souls of ordinary pythons every day.

The soul-serving ability of the Spirit-Restraining General-Commanding has certain limits; every time a soul is devoured, some resentment will linger on the body, and Uchiha Feiyu can use the power of the Sharingan to wear down and transform this resentment, but that also requires a process.

This is only because the resentment of the absorbed animal souls is far less powerful than that of real humans; otherwise, he might have had his mind overwhelmed by resentment and become a complete lunatic.

Uchiha Feiyu tested it and found that he could digest the souls of at most one hundred pythons per day; this quantity is a mere drop in the bucket for Ryuchi Cave, and the number of these pythons devouring each other is likely dozens of times higher than the amount he digests daily.

Moreover, although the souls were absorbed, the physical bodies of the pythons would return to Ryuchi Cave to become food for the snakes there; all in all, Ryuchi Cave suffered no loss.

The souls of over a hundred Ryuchi Cave pythons were enough to bring about a relatively obvious improvement in Uchiha Feiyu's physique and spirit.

As long as he persists in absorbing these souls every day, Uchiha Feiyu is confident that in another two or three months, his chakra will increase several times over; one year later, he will definitely possess Shadow-level chakra, and ten years later, he will possess chakra approaching the Tailed Beast level.

In fact, the increase in chakra is secondary; the improvement in physical strength and his own spirit may provide an even greater bonus to Uchiha Feiyu in the later stages, and this essential improvement is enough to gradually elevate Uchiha Feiyu's life level beyond that of ordinary ninja.

Unfortunately, Uchiha Feiyu had no time to continue killing and absorbing the souls of these pythons, because the next day, he had to go execute a mission.

"Captain Feiyu, I have brought the order from Lord Orochimaru; from today on, I am your subordinate."

The tent flap was opened, and the person speaking was a ninja in his twenties with blonde hair who looked quite steady.

Uchiha Feiyu took the order handed over by this ninja; inside was a topographical map, and Uchiha Feiyu's mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare at the location on the map to kill a four-man Sand Ninja squad.

This is also the norm for battles between major ninja villages; the flexibility and lethality of ninjas are high, yet their defense remains at a level where they can be stabbed to death by a kunai, making them completely unsuitable for large-scale army operations.

As for those positional battles where hundreds of ninjas gather, because the resulting casualties are truly too heavy, they only occur at the beginning and near the end of a war.

For most of the other time, all ninjas are divided into small squads, engaging in flexible combat such as raids, infiltration, intelligence gathering, and guerrilla warfare, constantly eliminating enemy strongholds and killing enemy squad members until one side can no longer hold out and initiates a final decisive battle.

The White Fang of the Leaf of that era was famous throughout the Ninja World precisely because his lethality against these squads was extremely high, and the Yellow Flash of the future would even surpass him; high-speed ninjas truly have every advantage in squad battles.

"Tell me your name, your specialized abilities, and your ninjutsu."

Uchiha Feiyu led the blonde youth behind him out of the tent, asking as they walked; the blonde youth had a calm expression and did not look down on the young Feiyu in the slightest:

"My name is Yamanaka Cheng, a Chunin of the Yamanaka Clan. I specialize in Sensory Ninjutsu and also possess a certain degree of long-distance Telepathy, but my level of Mind Ninjutsu is poor, and I do not have very strong combat power."

A sensory ninja who is also a communication ninja is a rare talent among ninjas; if it weren't for the fact that Yamanaka Cheng's own combat power is not even as good as an ordinary Chunin, he should have already become a Special Jonin by now.

The Mind Ninjutsu that this Yamanaka Clan ninja specializes in is almost entirely focused on support, and he hasn't even practiced the Yamanaka Clan's most basic attack ninjutsu, the Mind Transfer Jutsu, very well, but when working with Uchiha Feiyu, it can be described as just right.

After leaving the main camp, Uchiha Feiyu led Yamanaka Cheng directly into the forests of the Land of Rivers, slowly feeling their way toward the location of the Sand Ninja camp on the map.

Of course, he did not have the guts to directly attack the Sand Ninja camp, but the closer he got to the Sand Ninja, the greater the possibility of encountering an enemy squad; staying near the Konoha camp would never lead to encountering Sand Ninja.

As the two moved forward, Uchiha Feiyu was also conversing with Yamanaka Cheng; this Yamanaka Clan ninja had a calm and steady personality, did not mind Uchiha Feiyu's age, and answered every question asked of him.

"The current offensive of Sunagakure has slowed down a lot. In the first two months when the war just started, there were battles involving hundreds of ninjas almost every few days; in those two months, both sides suffered nearly two thousand ninja casualties."

Hearing Yamanaka Cheng's introduction to the battlefield, Uchiha Feiyu was thoughtful:

"It seems that Sunagakure cannot hold on anymore. As the saying goes, 'at the first drum, the spirit is high; at the second, it wanes; at the third, it is exhausted.' Since the attacking side did not gain an advantage at the beginning, I fear the casualties on their side are even more severe."

"The Captain is right. At the beginning, Sunagakure blamed the disappearance of the Third Kazekage on our Konoha, and their offensive was extremely fierce, so their casualties were also very heavy; of the more than 2,000 ninjas who died or were injured in those two months, 60 percent were Sand Ninja."

Yamanaka Cheng nodded, confirming Uchiha Feiyu's guess:

"However... because the war happened quite suddenly, the current Land of Rivers has not undergone a 'scorched earth' policy, so Sunagakure can still hold on for a while longer."

"It seems... Sunagakure is relying on plundering the current Land of Rivers to maintain their morale and logistics."

Uchiha Feiyu glanced at the map in his hand, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.

(End of chapter)