Prejudice Is Like a Mountain That No Amount of Effort Can Ever Move

"…You old piece of trash, what kind of nonsensical gibberish are you spouting?"

Kosaka was startled for a moment, then burst out laughing, which looked even more ferocious against the stained blood on his face.

He seemed to want to use this to intimidate the old man before him.

Yet his eyes were still restlessly darting around, taking in the layout of the room while also spotting the torture instruments.

Barbed whips, flesh-drilling hooks, branding irons, braziers…

"Hah!" Looking at those things, Kosaka let out a breath instead, staring fixedly at the old man before him with a bone-chilling tone. "That brat actually thinks he can pry open my mouth with you and these old antiques?"

The Kirigakure Anbu’s anti-interrogation special training could be said to be extremely cruel, and he had long since experienced these common torture instruments countless times before; holding onto a determination to die, he could easily hold out for ten days to half a month.

However, aside from those common torture instruments, there was also a "Bronze Bull" roughly the size of a live cow, and an iron-cast humanoid iron barrel.

Kosaka could not figure out the purpose of these two things, and at least on the surface, they did not carry much deterrent power.

Yet Baiyu still did not answer his question, merely flipping open the ninja tool pouch on the wooden table to search through Kosaka’s personal belongings.

Kunai, shuriken, Soldier Pills, some portable tools, and two bottles of medicine.

Baiyu sniffed the scent of one of the bottles, immediately distinguishing several medicinal herbs with anesthetic effects, though there were still many ingredients he could not identify, clearly special anesthetics formulated by the Kirigakure Anbu.

Aside from that, in the other bottle of medicine, he also caught the scent of Coca Leaves, a medicinal herb with functions such as stimulating the central nervous system, suppressing appetite, and relieving fatigue.

"Are these specially made external and internal trauma medicines?" Baiyu turned to look at Kosaka, looking as though he were gazing at a priceless treasure, and smiled. "It seems you are a ninja of no small rank in Kirigakure."

A barely perceptible twitch crossed Kosaka’s face as he said, "What on earth are you people? And that brat, why couldn’t I sense his Chakra…"

Baiyu had been observing him all along, and seeing his face twitch, he secretly nodded to himself.

This unconscious, subtle movement proved that he truly dreaded Lord Yun Chuan, and that dread was laced with fear of the unknown.

As long as he could still feel fear, things would be manageable; he feared those types who were utterly fearless of death and pain the most, remaining tight-lipped even when tortured to the point of losing their minds.

At this thought, Baiyu walked up in front of Kosaka and spoke in a muffled voice, "I’m just an old man who doesn’t have many days left to live, lacks the talent to become a ninja, and wants to burn away what’s left of himself before I die."

"As for why you couldn’t sense Lord Yun Chuan’s Chakra…"

At this, he paused abruptly, then smiled. "Because, just like us, he is one of those people you so-called elites call completely devoid of ‘ninja talent’."

Devoid of… ninja talent?

At those words, Kosaka froze, as if pondering what kind of person was "completely devoid of ‘ninja talent’".

Gradually, he slowly pried open eyes blurred by blood crusts, and all he saw before him was a sea of red.

Kosaka finally understood why his Hidden Mist Technique had failed to detect the brat’s presence from start to finish.

Even though the "solution" to the problem was so unbelievable to him, looking back now, there was only that single possible conclusion.

That brat isn’t a ninja at all?! He doesn’t know any ninjutsu at all?!

That was right! Exactly this!

The "Hidden Mist Technique" was not a special ninjutsu that sensed enemies through physical form, but rather detected their positions through the fluctuations of "foreign Chakra".

Yet Yun Chuan had not used ninjutsu at all, nor had he even kneaded Chakra in the first place; there had been no Chakra fluctuations from beginning to finish!

Coupled with the other party’s speed, which was indistinguishable from the Body Flicker Technique and perhaps even somewhat surpassed it.

That special method where not a trace of presence could be perceived, and that bizarre assassination art pushed to the extreme…

It would have been fine if he hadn’t used the Hidden Mist Technique; perhaps he could have managed to maneuver with other ninjutsu.

Yet he had clever-cleverly chosen the Hidden Mist Technique, inadvertently providing the opponent with the absolute best environment for an assassination.

"Damn it! Damn it!! I actually lost to a brat who doesn’t know any ninjutsu at all!!" Kosaka let out a low roar, infuriated to the absolute limit.

Yet even as anger boiled in his heart, he felt a genuine, bone-deep panic.

Without using ninjutsu, one could actually reach that kind of level?

Truly…

"Inconceivable, is it?"

Baiyu nodded, laughing heartily. "Thinking it’s inconceivable is right; I find it inconceivable myself."

Even without learning those ninjutsu, one could still capture a powerful ninja alive—what a truly inconceivable thing.

Yet that lord was precisely such a miracle-working, inconceivable person!

"Tch!"

Looking at Baiyu’s "petty villain who has gotten his way" expression, Kosaka gritted his teeth, his expression turning gloomy.

Yet soon, a trace of a smile gradually crept onto his face.

"Hahahaha, do you think you’ve won?"

The corners of Kosaka’s mouth slowly curled up in mockery. "Those antiquated torture instruments are useless against me."

"I know," Baiyu smiled.

"Don’t even think about getting any intelligence out of my mouth; if you’ve got the guts, just kill me outright!"

"I know," Baiyu continued to smile.

"What do you know?!" Veins popped out on Kosaka’s forehead as he roared, "You don’t know a damn thing!"

"You shouldn’t shout so loudly. This interrogation room is specially made; no matter how loudly you shout, not a sound escapes to the outside."

Baiyu shook his head, then added with a hearty laugh, "I mentioned it before, didn’t I? Compared to you ninjas, I’m just an ordinary person with no talent whatsoever."

"Before I met Lord Yun Chuan, making my living as a traveling herbalist and physician, I saw far too much suffering, and I nearly got killed myself by an Amegakure ninja who mistook me for a spy."

"So, in order to be of help to Lord Yun Chuan, I studied the methods of ordinary people."

As he spoke, the expression on his honest face shifted bit by bit.

His eyes grew brighter and brighter, as if shimmering with light, gradually turning somewhat unhinged.

"When they suspect you’re a spy, you’d better truly be one! So, drug merchant, intelligence gathering—that is the path I chose."

"And death by a thousand cuts is a technique I only recently learned from Lord Yun Chuan."

Baiyu picked up a scalpel from the nearby table, sterilizing it as he lowered his head to explain. "I’ve heard the pinnacle of death by a thousand cuts is a thousand slices, but I really can’t claim to have much talent, so at most I can manage one hundred and twenty-four cuts."

As he spoke, he squinted one eye, pinching the scalpel and aiming it at Kosaka.

"First cut the eyebrows, second cut the shoulders, third cut the chest, fourth cut the arms, fifth cut the elbows, sixth cut the flesh of both legs, seventh cut the calves, eighth cut…"

Watching the old man before him measure out cuts on his body with a knife, an unstoppable wave of terror began to well up in Kosaka’s heart.

From the eyebrows to the shoulders, from the chest to the arms, from the elbows to the legs, and finally…

"The hands."

Baiyu’s words paused abruptly, halting the sharp blade right above Kosaka’s hands, and he said apologetically, "My apologies, I forgot you don’t have hands anymore."

"Ah, what a pity. I won’t be able to break my personal record."

Hearing his increasingly soft voice, which sounded like nothing more than a delirious murmur, Kosaka trembled violently, gradually failing to hold his ground.

"You, you bastard, you’re just an ordinary person, a creature as weak as a pig or a dog…"

Kosaka’s face twitched uncontrollably, his body shivering of its own accord. His expression hovered somewhere between rage and utter terror as he muttered, "You’re just trying to bluff me, you just want intelligence, it has to be that…"

"Hahaha, you don’t believe it? No matter, no matter."

Baiyu gave a loud laugh, then narrowed his eyes, his smile gradually fading. "Just as Lord Yun Chuan said, the prejudices in people’s hearts are like a great mountain; no matter how hard you try, you can never move them."

"Don’t worry, you’ve prepared the medicines for me that will keep you from passing out."

With that, he picked up the medicine bottle at his side and smiled, "To show my gratitude, I have plenty of time to keep you company and play."

...

"Ah!!"

Amidst the ear-splitting screams and wails, the candlelight throughout the entire room flickered and grew dim.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent guest room.

"…This story tells us that what hinders us from discovering and creating are merely the psychological barriers and stubborn stones within our own minds."

Yun Chuan lay on the bed, his gentle voice sounding like a lullaby beside a crib as he looked down at Shigure, who had just fallen asleep in his arms.

Seeming to hear something, he suddenly smiled, speaking softly, "Have a good dream."

With that, he slowly closed his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.