Harmonious Village

Before him in the Mission Space were only some members of the Laborer Group, but Old Xue patted his chest and guaranteed that they could gather all the Reincarnators from the French Laborer Group.

During World War I, 140,000 laborers had participated in France.

Because of their usual treatment and their numbness and helplessness toward the future, the probability of Reincarnators appearing among the laborers was as high as one in four!

Moreover, as Reincarnators were rapidly eliminated and killed, ordinary laborers were being converted faster and faster, nearly reaching an even rate.

The price of that was that only 40,000 laborers remained, yet more than 10,000 of them were Reincarnators!

Their scale far exceeded that of a mid-sized legion like Mermaid, but in terms of combat strength, they were absolutely at the bottom.

The Promotion Mission for newcomers alone eliminated at least two-thirds of them. Then the endless reincarnations of official Reincarnators weeded them out further, and only a tiny few could become Veteran Reincarnators.

In their daily lives, they often accepted dirty, exhausting jobs.

During the Uchiha Clan massacre, Xu Yue had obtained seventy-two Single Tomoe Sharingan. He also had more than enough Two Tomoe and Three Tomoe to match them.

As long as they paid the enhancement costs, they could mass-produce an army of Three Tomoe Sharingan users.

The insight and Illusion Technique amplification provided by the Three Tomoe Sharingan could already offer Reincarnators considerable help.

Unfortunately, enhancing one to Two Tomoe required B-rank Plot Points, while Three Tomoe required A-rank Plot Points. That was still a huge shortfall for these laborers.

Xu Yue had no problem giving them Sharingan, but asking him to cover all the Plot Points for their enhancements was out of the question. He did not even have enough A-rank Plot Points for himself.

As for the cost of evolving them to Two Tomoe, that would depend on whether this plan worked out. He would find a way to help them farm some this time, but only this once. The rest depended on their own fortunes…

Xu Yue also planned to stuff a little greeting gift to the one they had left behind to get stitched back together and report the news…

Mei Terumi returned much later than expected.

After bringing back two Hidden Mist ninjas, she looked extremely grave. She even shot Xu Yue a vicious glare, leaving him rather baffled.

Something related to him?

Utakata, or the Taketori Clan?

By the timeline, the Taketori Clan should indeed be close to rebelling. While he was here to stock up, he could intervene and see whether he could get his hands on the Shikotsumyaku.

The Shikotsumyaku alone was not particularly useful to Xu Yue, but he possessed a fully developed Sage Body and the Rinnegan. With the assistance of the Longevity Art, all seven types of Chakra were now entirely under his control.

If he obtained the Shikotsumyaku, perhaps he might have a chance to develop something like the All-Killing Ash Bones…

However, after learning what had happened, Xu Yue realized that his guess had been slightly off.

The Taketori Clan was indeed showing dissatisfaction toward the village, but it was still only the usual power struggle between a ninja clan and Kirigakure. The repercussions of the Uchiha Clan massacre had not fully spread yet.

The reason Mei Terumi had glared at him was…

The Six-Tails Jinchuriki, Utakata, had defected.

The fact that Mei Terumi had accepted Utakata’s request and acted in his place showed that they actually had a fairly good relationship.

After all, both of them acted for the village and could be considered centrists.

Yet this time, Utakata had been driven into rebellion!

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

Utakata was bound to defect from the village sooner or later. This really wasn’t my fault. It was all Obito’s fault. Obito controlled the Fourth Mizukage and turned everything into a complete mess. It was all Obito’s fault.

That was why Mei Terumi stopped chatting with Xu Yue for the rest of the journey.

Still, their favorability had not dropped, so she was probably just sulking rather than truly blaming him.

Mei Terumi understood the village’s situation far better than Xu Yue did.

But on the way back, Xu Yue could sense that she seemed to have made some sort of decision deep down…

The Land of Fire was the most stable and prosperous country. Even when goods were sold in the Land of Water, their prices would not be too high, because plenty of people ran the short route.

But Xu Yue’s cargo was simply too valuable. Even a profit of just twenty percent was already astonishing!

When Xu Yue first arrived in the Land of Water, he had already possessed a considerable fortune. After selling everything in the Land of Wind, his wealth instantly multiplied several times. Then, after selling goods from the Land of Wind in the Land of Fire, it increased by another fifty percent.

Now, even a mere twenty percent profit exceeded his entire net worth from when he had first arrived.

That gambler’s mentality of staking his entire fortune on cargo every time.

Succeed, and it was mansions and models. Fail, and it was hard labor at sea.

There were countless gamblers, and there would always be one or two success stories that others held up as classics and idols, swearing to emulate them.

And Xu Yue was undoubtedly the most typical representative among them.

The moment he entered the city this time, he was enthusiastically welcomed by all of Kirigakure.

Both the ninja clans and the village came flocking over.

It even eased much of the originally tense, sword-drawn atmosphere between the village and the ninja clans.

How could they keep fighting and killing with such a huge patron here? What if they scared him away?

If they wanted to fight, they could wait until he left!

But that clearly did not suit Xu Yue’s goals.

I came here precisely so you people would fight. Don’t make me come all this way for nothing.

It seemed that France’s sixth-ranked Power of the Era was here. They had come to farm the Shikotsumyaku.

Last time, it had been from that guy with the Kubikiribōchō…

Just as Xu Yue thought about the Kubikiribōchō in the village, he was rendered speechless to see it again.

Hadn’t he knocked that thing into the sea?

Since it had been ordinary mode and there was no drop bonus, Xu Yue had been too lazy to fish it out. There was a ninety-nine percent chance it was just a worthless white-grade item.

But how had someone fished it up, only for it to end up in Zabuza’s hands?

Was it the Mission Space’s guidance, or merely coincidence?

The former was more likely.

And this time, Zabuza had actually come as a representative of the village to meet him.

This guy had ambushed him only last time, hadn’t he? Ninjas really had no such thing as fixed allegiances.

"Lady Mei, Lord Yue."

After arriving, Zabuza respectfully greeted Mei Terumi and Xu Yue. Nothing about the browless man revealed the viciousness befitting his title of "Demon."

Xu Yue could not help pondering this. Zabuza had become a rogue ninja because he participated in a rebellion.

If that was the case, then his rebellion must have failed. Judging from his attitude toward Mei Terumi, the rebellion definitely had not targeted her. It had still targeted the Fourth Mizukage.

Mei Terumi must have taken office afterward.

At the same time, based on the original plot, if events proceeded normally, Akatsuki should also be making a move against Hidden Mist soon. Originally, Itachi and Juzo Biwa had participated in an assassination mission targeting an important figure in the Land of Water, only to be blocked by the Fourth Mizukage.

Juzo Biwa had been blasted to death by the Three-Tails’ Tailed Beast Bomb, and only then had the Kubikiribōchō returned to Zabuza.

It was also during that operation that the Fourth Mizukage was severely wounded by Itachi’s Amaterasu. At the same time, Itachi discovered the Mangekyo ocular power on the Mizukage.

If nothing unexpected happened, Zabuza should have taken that opportunity to launch his rebellion, only to be suppressed. The Taketori Clan’s rebellion had also occurred around the same time.

Perhaps only after that had Mei Terumi completely lost hope for the village. Taking advantage of how badly both the village and the Mizukage had been weakened, she launched her own coup.

But now…

It seemed Juzo Biwa had been killed by him, and, uh, the Hidden Mist Village before him had suddenly become harmonious because of his appearance as this filthy rich patron.

The whole tone seemed a little off…

Elsewhere

Inside a dark sea cave, the ghostly blue flames beneath the hood of a gaunt figure in black robes flickered with anger upon receiving the news.

"The ritual preparations are complete. Where did this damned merchant come from to ruin my plans?!"

"You five, find a way to finish him off. Then pin it on one another and stir the conflict back up."

As soon as he finished speaking, the five figures kneeling around him responded respectfully.

"Yes!"

"Hmph. Don’t just talk a good game. I only care about results. Don’t be useless trash like Ling."

That’s two chapters done!

The golden body remains unbroken, hahahaha~