Chaotic Situation

"Orochimaru isn’t here…?"

After meeting Danzo, Xu Yue had originally planned to collect rent from Orochimaru. Of the abilities he needed to acquire for his plan, Orochimaru’s side was one of the easier sources.

A trump-card ability like Impure World Reincarnation would probably be difficult to obtain in one go. He would need to lay more groundwork and exchange suitable benefits for it, but getting his name written on Ryūchi Cave’s Summoning Scroll should not be much of a problem.

The three great sacred lands were places where one could learn Sage Mode. With such a solid foundation as a Sage Body, he naturally needed to set his sights on this ability that could greatly increase his attributes.

The ultimate abilities of Wood Style also required Sage Mode to be fully unleashed.

Moreover, Xu Yue still had quite a few Plot Points left, all of which he had planned to use to exchange for skills from Orochimaru.

Although learning skill scrolls obtained from him through favorability still required Reincarnation Points, last time had shown that the cost was not high. Xu Yue had even suspected that it was the price imposed after his favorability had been overdrawn into the negatives. That money-grubbing Space was fully capable of such a thing.

If he learned normally using Plot Points and Reincarnation Points, he could probably skip that step, or have it directly included in the learning fee.

What gave him some hesitation now was that Orochimaru did not have Wood Style scrolls himself. Obtaining them from him would be equivalent to buying from a middleman, so the cost might be higher. He was merely providing a channel.

Furthermore, learning Wood Style from Orochimaru carried another rather serious hidden danger.

Lower-level Wood Style techniques would be fine, but if he managed to learn advanced Wood Style, he feared that this Body Swap maniac would set his sights on him. Though he most likely already had…

Going over the practical Wood Style ninjutsu he needed again, his few Plot Points were nowhere near enough!

And there were also several essential skills outside of Wood Style that he had to acquire. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

The most suitable one for him to use now should be Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence.

Wood Style itself represented enormous Chakra consumption. He might still find even Deep Forest Emergence difficult to use at present and would need to refine more Chakra for a while.

But in terms of effect, this all-purpose ninjutsu combined offense and defense, attack and control, came with the ability to absorb the enemy’s Chakra, and was terrifying in both single-target and group combat. Its effects were undoubtedly the most outstanding.

As for Wood Style: Flower Tree Climbing Technique, Wood Style: Wood Dragon Technique, Wood Style: Wood Golem Technique, and the two even more explosive senjutsu techniques that came later, it was better to give those up for now. No matter how he looked at them, they would require at least several S-rank or higher Plot Points to exchange for.

As for Yamato’s version of Wood Style, such as Wood Style: Great Forest Technique, there was no need to spend too much effort pursuing it. He certainly would not refuse if he could obtain it along the way, but he definitely would not pay much of a price for it.

Since he had not even found such a conspicuous target as Orochimaru, Xu Yue did not bother exhausting himself looking for the still-unfamous Might Guy. It was easier to find news of the future Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Kakashi. They were out on a mission.

At this point, Kakashi should not have been under the Fourth Hokage for very long. He was probably still getting along with Obito.

As for the other few people with whom he had already established preliminary bonds and had a foothold for communication, the time for their arranged gathering was nearly here, so Xu Yue did not make any special effort to seek them out.

Instead, he arrived at the designated meeting place. From the treetops nearby, he saw the contact for this operation. An Anbu wearing an animal mask had arrived before Xu Yue.

"You’re late."

The cold voice confirmed that the other party was a member of Root.

"As long as I’m not past the deadline. What, are we selecting this batch of fresh blood from among them?"

Without a mask or disguise, Xu Yue looked at the large crowd in the clearing and spoke in an equally detached tone.

Judging by their varied attire, they were undoubtedly Reincarnators. They should all be Reincarnators on their first Promotion Mission, while higher-level Reincarnators seemed absent.

"They are all recently graduated orphans. Their quality naturally varies greatly. How to select suitable candidates is your mission. Mine is already complete. I’ll leave the rest to you."

The moment he finished speaking, the Root member turned into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.

Looking at the uneven group of Reincarnators, Xu Yue could not help but feel that they did not have the authority to inherit bonds. There was no age concealment like the kind he had this time. There were even quite a few middle-aged men among them, yet they were supposedly newly graduated "orphans." They had grown up far too quickly.

And besides…

"Hahaha! Hahaha! Making every woman in this village carry my child is the first step toward fulfilling my ambitions!"

"Alice! Alice! Where are you?!"

"Time stop, damn it! Stop for me! Stop!!"

"…"

Quite a few deranged people were muttering incomprehensible things.

Their eyes were bloodshot, and drool hung from the corners of their mouths.

Some of them even grinned foolishly as they reached their grubby hands toward several rather attractive female Reincarnators.

They were then mercilessly beaten up.

This drew many cold stares from the other Reincarnators.

"See that? Those are the trash who wasted all their Reincarnation Points in those final pleasure Spaces."

"They’re beyond saving."

"They’ve gone insane."

"What kind of Spaces did they even experience?"

"The seniors repeatedly warned us not to go in. Who knows what’s inside?"

"I’m really jealous… no, that’s truly disgusting!"

"…"

Most Reincarnators sighed or mocked them, but quite a few secretly swallowed at those scattered snippets before quickly shaking their heads.

Compared to fleeting pleasure, staying alive was more important.

As time slowly passed, factions gradually began to form among the disorderly gathered Reincarnators. Several groups wearing clearly uniform outfits emerged.

Although their numbers were only a small fraction of the enormous crowd of Reincarnators.

The moment those teams appeared, however, they immediately became the center of attention!

"They’re elite squads from the four major legions—the Beiyang Army, Eight Banners Valiant, Imperial Guard, and Shogunate Gate. There are also several smaller legions nearby, such as the Beiping Chamber of Commerce and Richest Under Heaven."

There were some among the independents who liked gathering information. Since none of this was secret, the news quickly spread, allowing most Reincarnators to understand the situation.

Compared to the massive number of independents, these legions had few members. Most had only around ten people, much like the Yanzi Squad from Giant Space. Yet without question, they were the absolute core and the favored candidates who could nearly pass the Promotion Mission without suffering any losses at all!

What they sought was greater rewards and more missions!

"Your Shogunate Gate has operations in the Land of Water as well. You won’t be playing both sides as spies this time, will you?"

"I heard your Yanzi Squad was wiped out to the last man. What a shame. I had wanted to exchange blows with them."

Within the Beiyang Army’s group, a pair of twin brothers were the first to speak, their barbs aimed directly at Shogunate Gate!

The Beiyang Army was, after all, the second-largest legion in the Huaxia Zone. Even though it had once suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Japan’s Reincarnator legions, it was not something a mole planted in the Huaxia Zone like Shogunate Gate could compare to.

For a moment, the Reincarnators on Shogunate Gate’s side turned red with anger.

"Hmph. You could live as decent men, yet you insist on being dogs."

Finally, the older of the twins who had spoken first wrapped it up, revealing another reason why they had provoked them.

Shogunate Gate was a legion affiliated with Japan, but the overwhelming majority of its members were still Chinese.

"What difference is there between being dogs for the Qing Court and being dogs for foreigners? Dogs are dogs. Are there ranks of nobility among them? Or are you perhaps pedigree lapdogs?"

A sharp-tongued, short man stepped out from Shogunate Gate. With a single retort, he choked the twins into silence.

The gathering had only just begun, yet the smell of gunpowder was already overwhelming—and this was within the same faction!

It was hard to imagine just how much bloodshed such a group would cause once placed on a battlefield…

"Enough! At present, we are all on the same side. I do not want internal conflicts among us."

But at that moment, a Reincarnator from another legion directly spoke up to stop the argument.

Whether it was the twins from the Beiyang Army or that fellow from Shogunate Gate, both merely snorted coldly upon seeing who had spoken, seemingly finding themselves a way to back down.

Xu Yue also noticed that the one who had spoken was from Eight Banners Valiant, as someone had pointed out earlier.

A bannerman?

Although Eight Banners Valiant ranked outside the top ten in the Huaxia Zone, even below Shogunate Gate.

It was a legion directly under the Qing Court.

Even the Beiyang Army had to take their advice seriously.

The Beiyang Army possessed China’s strongest military force at present, but its logistics, supplies, and economic matters were firmly controlled by the Qing Court, which feared it. There were even figures within it akin to military supervisors.

It was as if an Iron Chain had been looped around its neck.

If not for the immense pressure from outside, conflict would probably have erupted sooner or later under such circumstances.

Xu Yue’s public identity had also joined the Beiyang Army in reality, so he had naturally looked into these matters more…

Tsk, tsk~

This battlefield mission was truly interesting.

Thinking that, Xu Yue leaped down from the treetops and blended into the independent Reincarnators…

Thanks to Refetaya, Moon of Daytime, Charge Together, Ancient Moon Wood Rain Cloud, Moon-Gazer, Fruity Milk, abcppp, Drunken Kiss Orchid, Fifth Sword Ancestor, and the other readers for their tips~