Chapter 216

Hearing Boss Cat's statement, Mizunuki Ryosuke was somewhat surprised.

He originally thought that the so-called "Mizukage Secret Scroll" was just a smoke screen thrown out by the Hidden Mist Village to select the Mizukage; could it be that this thing really existed?

And when he asked in detail, Boss Cat finally gave a negative answer.

Ryosuke could hear that it was not that Boss Cat didn't want to tell him, but that it really didn't know either.

According to Boss Cat, only the Cat King knew about the matters related to the final assessment.

However, Ryosuke was already satisfied with the information Boss Cat could give.

At the same time, Boss Cat also indicated.

Ryosuke did not need to continue to participate in the first and second levels of the assessment, and he would directly lead Ryosuke to the Land of Cats.

If everything was treated as a game.

At this moment, Ryosuke had triggered a hidden mission in the "novice village" and skipped the level directly.

"637" Regarding this, Ryosuke did not express refusal.

In this way, although it resulted in Ryosuke's squad not making much of a performance, skipping the level directly was more beneficial than harmful.

Plus Terumi Mei's injury was not light, so Ryosuke's squad continued to recuperate.

Mizunuki Ryosuke continued to chat with Boss Cat, and Boss Cat told Mizunuki Ryosuke about the customs and practices of the Land of Cats.

Soon, Boss Cat had already led everyone from the steep shortcut to the mountainside of the mountain peak; such a steep "shortcut" was clearly only passable by members of the cat clan.

Here, they had already arrived at the territory of the Land of Cats.

Subsequently, everyone got off Boss Cat's back one after another, and Boss Cat also turned back to the size of a calf, leading everyone to walk toward the depths of the Land of Cats.

Along the way, cats of different colors cast interested gazes at Ryosuke and his party; in the Land of Cats, where people were rarely seen.

"Humans" were naturally a scarce species that could not be rarer.

But when the ninja cats saw Boss Cat beside Ryosuke, they all had to suppress the curiosity in their hearts and avoided them one after another.

Especially when seeing a "cat strip" held by Boss Cat, the cats all cast pitying gazes at the "cat strip."

It could be seen that as an Elder of the Land of Cats, Boss Cat still had a lot of prestige within the clan.

Before long, Boss Cat led Ryosuke's squad to a residence.

"Respected guests, please stay here temporarily."

"I still need to report the matter of the mist area to my King."

When Boss Cat treated Mizunuki Ryosuke, he appeared very polite and very respectful.

Regarding this, Ryosuke naturally had no objections.

After arranging for Ryosuke and the others, Boss Cat did not stay too long and left with the "cat strip" in his hand.

The experiences of the past few days made Ryosuke and the others exhausted; under Ryosuke's arrangement, everyone rested on their own.

At dinner time, Boss Cat sent a few ninja cats of the cat clan, bringing the top delicacies of the Land of Cats to everyone—jumping raw fish!

Fortunately, as ninjas, handling ingredients casually was a common occurrence for everyone.

Before long, the fresh raw fish became grilled fish.

The aroma of the grilled fish also attracted the cats with keen sense of smell from all directions.

Thus, a strange scene appeared.

Beside Ryosuke and the others who were sitting around the campfire eating grilled fish, dozens of ninja cats were all lying on the eaves and roofs, drooling while looking at the grilled fish.

But whenever the ninja cats looked at the burning campfire, a trace of fear inevitably flashed in their eyes.

For fur animals, fear of fire was clearly a nature.

Although fluffy fur could provide excellent defense and warmth, the disadvantage it brought was that it would catch fire at the slightest touch.

Therefore, fear of fire was a major weakness of ninja cats.

And Ryosuke on the side also keenly discovered this weakness.

At this very moment.

The Hozuki Mangetsu squad and the Mizunuki Eiro squad, who were still trapped in the maze, clearly did not know that the Mizunuki Ryosuke squad, which they thought they had left behind, had already run ahead of them.

Relying on their own powerful strength, the dangers in the Cat Maze clearly could not endanger the Hozuki squad, but the special terrain still made the Hozuki squad inevitably lost in it; it seemed that the Hozuki squad still needed some time to break through the maze level.

Looking at the Mizunuki Eiro squad, at this moment, they had actually already arrived at the edge of the maze and would soon completely break away from the first level.

Mizunuki Eiro took out a piece of parchment that looked extremely ancient from his arms, and on the parchment, one could clearly see the full picture of this maze.

This was actually a maze map!

It turned out that the reason why Mizunuki Eiro could get ahead of Hozuki Mangetsu was actually because he used "cheating" means...

Hidden Mist Village, Mizukage Building.

The Jonin looked at Mizunuki Eiro, who walked out of the maze without encountering any resistance according to the map, and frowned one after another.

A Jonin was even more blunt.

"Squad Leader Maeda, why does Mizunuki Eiro have the maze map?"

"Did he cheat by some means in advance?"

The Jonin's questioning voice toward Mizunuki Eiro immediately triggered a resonance.

"Just having a map, how can it be considered cheating?"

"Being able to obtain the map can also be considered Eiro's own ability."

A Mizunuki Jonin immediately retorted, but there was inevitably some lack of confidence in his tone.

Indeed, using a map was also a means of clearing the level; although it was not known where Mizunuki Eiro got the map, this behavior was indeed on the fuzzy boundary of "whether it was cheating."

Seeing this, Maeda Yuanshi's face was also somewhat ugly.

The current Mizukage assessment plan was not formulated by Maeda Yuanshi alone; clearly, he did not have such power yet.

In the special period of the village, this assessment plan was decided by Maeda Yuanshi and the village's "Elder Group" after discussion.