Chapter 235: Assassination, Schemes, and the World of Ninjas (3k)

【Main Mission 1: Prevent the leakage of Konoha's top-secret Intelligence, prevent the outbreak of war】

The woman codenamed 【Catherine】 kept up a defensive stance while continuously pointing out the coordinates of the ninjas who were trying to use the darkness to conceal their figures.

【Luan】 was firing crazily; this formation also caused the two's position to quickly become the primary target for the enemy's attacks.

But Catherine had no reaction to the attacks of thrown Shuriken and Kunai. She considered herself a 【Rank B/Upper】 Reincarnator; although she lacked the confidence to fight monsters like Tao Baibai, facing these Plot Characters who didn't even have names, she was still...

"Easy pickings!"

Catherine suddenly turned around, the optical telescope floating in front of her automatically, and she pushed her freed left hand toward the outside of the room.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave erupted instantly, the wooden walls burst apart in a flash, turning into thousands of fine wood splinters that shot out into the darkness.

Two ninjas who had silently crept up were blown away in an instant; the one in front was pierced through by wood splinters in a heartbeat, while the one behind turned into a puff of smoke instantly.

But Catherine's eyelids drooped, and she said coldly,

"11 o'clock direction."

Bang bang bang bang...

A terrifying mechanical storm swept over instantly. Because 【Luan】 kept his finger pressed on the trigger, crazily pouring out bullets, the adrenaline-surging thrill made his expression management lose control; his mouth hung open, his pupils dilated, and he laughed unconsciously.

"Die, die, die! The era has changed, you ninjas!"

The ninja wearing dark ninja garb used 【Body Replacement Technique】 to dodge the wood splinters, not expecting that a torrent of steel-like ammunition had already poured down. He instinctively formed hand seals, and his body hardened in an instant.

【Earth Release: Hardening Jutsu】!

Bang bang bang, pfft pfft pfft...

The first few shots were indeed blocked, but this super firepower, capable of firing nearly a hundred bullets per second, was simply not something that a Ninja Art that turned the body as hard as rock could withstand. Soon, his defense was broken, and his body was shredded in mid-air.

【Luan】 saw the kill notification and turned his firepower back toward the street block.

But the next moment, the ground began to shake violently, and the street surface began to crack over a large area. Catherine put away the optical telescope, maintained the defense outside the window with one hand, and quickly walked behind 【Luan】, patting the latter's head hard.

"Someone is using a high-level Ninja Art, let's retreat first!"

Following that, the two used force under their feet to fly backward; the wall behind them had already been smashed by the two.

The other Reincarnators in the rooms also used their own methods. As a team-cooperation mission, all of them knew that these ninjas in the darkness were highly likely sent by the other four great Ninja Villages.

And they, the Reincarnators, were arranged on the side of 【Konoha】 to retrieve the stolen Intelligence, and that stolen Intelligence would trigger a new war.

A Reincarnator with a golden ponytail jumped down lightly before the house collapsed. He turned in mid-air, and blue light from the 【Transmutation Circle】 continuously radiated from the white gloves on his hands.

The next moment, he pressed his palms together, and a huge Transmutation Circle appeared.

Hum!

A terrifying wind pressure erupted with a roar. The stone slabs of the ground, which had cracked due to the Earth Style Ninja Art, instantly flew up like paper scraps. The man stood in the gale, his expression unrestrained. He raised one hand, and the gale carried those stone slabs, house debris, and corpses, dancing wildly in the wind.

In just a moment, he locked onto his target: thirty meters away, the Earth Style ninja who had one hand pressed to the ground. That was clearly a high-level ninja; he had single-handedly launched a Ninja Art that shook dozens of meters of the street block.

The man pointed his right hand toward that direction.

Boom!

A cyan-white tornado, carrying bricks, wood chips, and flesh and blood, plowed a huge trench nearly a hundred meters long through the street block.

At the end of the trench, only a mangled corpse remained.

The man landed on the ground, air currents still swirling around his hands.

And Catherine and Luan, who had just walked out from behind the street, also recognized the other party's identity through this move.

"It's that 【Feng Bo】, huh. Tsk, our side is really full of talent for this mission. I'm getting more and more curious: what kind of Intelligence could it be that, in the space's perspective, requires us Reincarnators to all stand on Konoha's side..."

Seeing 【Feng Bo】 make his move, Catherine pulled back 【Luan】, who wanted to approach the Plot Character. She sensed something was wrong and would rather give up some Reputation benefits to leave the "first dibs" to 【Feng Bo】.

【Luan】 sniffed his nose, looked toward the other side, and frowned.

"A Reincarnator is dead."

He had a special sense of smell, or rather, a special perceptual ability. In his perception, everyone had a special scent—strong ones, weak ones, and even more detailed, their combat styles could be "smelled" out.

Just like that Tao Baibai; just by taking one look, just by smelling a bit of his aura, he had almost been choked by the thick, bloody stench until his internal organs churned.

And at this moment, that guy who was emitting an aura of decay and death had the smell of gunpowder flowing on him.

He was probably a Reincarnator with Shooting Mastery who had died under that collapsed house.

Catherine followed the direction 【Luan】 pointed, focused her perception, and nodded.

"Mm, the heart and throat were both pierced; he was probably assassinated by a ninja."

Luan hadn't expected that in the first step of the Main Mission, their side would already have a casualty.

"How disappointing. We clearly have so much talent on our side, yet someone is already dead."

He spoke with a flippant tone, but his expression turned serious. Catherine was the same; both of them were veteran, senior Reincarnators who had been through over a dozen missions. To survive until now, both their complementary personalities and the caution in their bones were indispensable.

Without saying a word, the two already stood back-to-back.

Catherine spread her hands, and an invisible Barrier had already unfolded.

【Luan】's expression became serious, and the fine hair on his skin began to grow visibly to the naked eye.

Unlike 【Luan】 and 【Catherine】, 【Feng Bo】 was composed; the wind could tell him the location of all enemies.

He was a total Lucky One. His initial Trial World was the 【Fullmetal Alchemist Derivative World】. As the world easiest to acquire abilities in, and having encountered a world with systematic paths for learning abilities, he had successfully acquired the corresponding specializations and skills.

And he had invested resources step by step, successfully becoming a powerful Alchemist. By his own estimation, if he were in the Fullmetal Alchemist world, perhaps being rated as a National Alchemist wouldn't be impossible.

Moreover, compared to 【Roy Mustang】, the 【Flame Alchemist】, he felt that the 【Storm Alchemy】 he controlled was even more excellent.

"Hey, it's fine now. I was sent by Konoha to rendezvous with you."

He scanned the area casually and found that following his strike just now, the nearest enemies had already retreated to over a hundred meters away. In this dead-silent small town, it was highly likely that no one could rival him in this state.

Well, except for that madman Tao Baibai.

As Feng Bo spoke, he had already arrived by that wooden house, but he suddenly discovered something strange at this moment.

Before they had made their move, so many people had died in this town. The Rock Hidden Village ninja who had just attacked was clearly capable of using high-level Ninja Arts that caused large-scale terrain destruction; how could he have been kept in a room for so long by a ninja carrying a woman?

He suddenly felt a sense of chilling cold, and at this very moment, he saw that woman looking through the window, casting a terrified gaze and shaking her head to warn him.

Damn it, the enemy is...

The ninja wearing black night-garb, who had been guarding outside the window, had just been shielded behind Feng Bo, and at this moment, had already aimed a Kunai at Feng Bo's back and stabbed down with force.

Crack!

His force was immense, yet it was still blocked by an invisible barrier; Feng Bo escaped death by a hair's breadth, and as his heart pounded violently, he let out a roar and pressed his palms together.

A violent hurricane erupted between himself and this ninja.

Boom!

"Ah!"

The woman's terrified scream rang out; Feng Bo, with his back to the rear window, leaped backward instantly. The series of events left him no time to care for anything else, and he was already prepared to take this woman and retreat first.

Bang!

The black-clad ninja swept up by the hurricane turned into smoke and burst apart; at the same time, a cold sneer appeared behind Feng Bo.

This Reincarnator, who possessed decent enhancement abilities, only then realized the truth of the matter. He only had time to barely turn his head and try to press his palms together again, but the crackling lightning behind him pierced through his body in an instant.

Sizzle!

【Lightning Release: False Darkness】

The lightning, resembling a great spear, pierced through Feng Bo's body and swept toward Catherine and Luan in the distance, but those two were very alert; the moment the attack erupted, they had already increased the distance and retreated toward the house that had just collapsed.

Rumble!

Huge smoke accompanied the explosion. As the dust settled, a tall, dark-skinned Cloud Ninja stood in the street, holding a charred corpse in his hand.

"Be careful, three more people escaped."

In the darkness on the other side, someone replied.

"Rest assured, they can't leave. We have surrounded this place; whether it is that woman or these Konoha fellows, none of them can get away."

The Cloud Ninja Jonin ignored these words. Although people from different Ninja Villages could temporarily join forces when facing Konoha reinforcements, that Intelligence rumored to be able to shake the foundations of Konoha must absolutely not fall into the hands of others.

He immediately performed the Body Flicker Technique and arrived on the roof of a merchant building that was still intact. They had almost killed everyone in this small town, and the Konoha squad had also been wiped out; this mysterious support unit had also been lured out and surrounded by them under the guidance of that Intelligence.

But that woman had mysteriously disappeared.

His eyes scanned the surroundings constantly, and suddenly, his eyelids twitched.

In the battlefield that should have been deathly silent, a very tall man was picking up a female corpse from a pile of bodies and shaking it, causing the woman to let out a painful groan.

At this moment, Ayayi also understood where that woman had been hiding; she had actually disguised herself as a corpse and, taking advantage of the darkness, had been lying among the bodies the whole time.

Because too many people had died and the situation was chaotic, they indeed had not had time to confirm the identity and physical signs of each corpse one by one.

This woman...

No, now is not the time to care about such problems. That guy should be one of the Konoha reinforcements who was just attacked by the Explosive Tag; why would the other party do such a thing...

To actually find that woman himself...

Bai Cangshu picked up the woman, confirmed that she had not suffered any fatal injuries, and then put her back down.

The reason he wanted to find her was naturally because he was worried that this woman would be caught in the crossfire of the Reincarnators or those ninjas while playing dead. His Special Trial mission was not necessarily exactly the same as the Main Mission of those Reincarnators.

If the trial failed because of such a thing, it would be somewhat ridiculous.

Therefore, after using the 【Transparent World】 to find the woman, he immediately confirmed her condition. If necessary, he would even stick his last page of 【Jun Shi Gei Wu】 onto this Plot Character.

"Alright, continue lying there."

Ping Zhonghua glared at Bai Cangshu, feeling that these ninjas sent by Konoha were foolish beyond compare.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

The sound of breaking air rang out in succession; two figures appeared instantly at Bai Cangshu's side, and two more Kunai were shot simultaneously at Bai Cangshu's heart and throat.

Bai Cangshu seemed completely unresponsive, standing in place without reacting. Ayayi, who had already prepared for the other party to dodge, looked on in astonishment as the two Kunai hit accurately; he and his clone also stabbed their Kunai toward the other party's vital points.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing rang out. As the webbing between Ayayi's thumb and index finger split, his figure instantly turned into smoke and burst apart; he instantly used the 【Body Replacement Technique】 to pull away again.

But the other party was still standing in place, motionless.

Bai Cangshu shook his neck, feeling somewhat disappointed.

"Ninja, don't just charge over like this; continue to bring out those devious calculations of yours."

"Come, try your best to kill me."

(End of this chapter)