Unexpected News

Ling stared wide-eyed at the Kubikiribōchō, which had been stopped by a single finger, his eyes filled with disbelief.

How was this possible?!

This was one of the Seven Ninja Swords!

With his jōnin-level strength, its attack could cleave even an ordinary mech in two!

And yet…

And yet the other man had completely stopped it with a single finger!

Golden-red nested polygonal force fields flickered continuously where the finger met the blade. The next moment, Xu Yue smiled as he curled his finger, completely pinching the Kubikiribōchō in place.

Clang~

The Kubikiribōchō, one of the Seven Ninja Swords, was instantly severed into two smooth, clean halves at the point where it met his fingers.

Having suddenly lost his point of leverage, Ling stumbled as he maintained his slashing posture.

The next instant, a cold glint flashed.

The entire arm holding the sword was severed, falling into the sea along with the remaining half of the Kubikiribōchō.

Before him was still that smiling face, unchanged in the slightest.

"The small fry I ran into last time really didn’t make me want to act. But a jōnin-level Reincarnator is at least fairly high up in the command structure. If you cooperate and tell me some intelligence, you can spare yourself a lot of suffering."

Xu Yue’s casual words left Ling and the other useless onlookers, who could only shout 666, shocked to the core.

The other party was actually a Reincarnator?!

How was that possible?!

Even a Reincarnator who had climbed to such a position could not possibly possess the strength to subdue Lord Ling in practically a single move, could they?

Was he some big shot who had entered solo?!

What terrible luck!

"Hmph, so you’re a Reincarnator. I won’t tell you anything."

Ling clutched his severed arm, his face filled with hatred. Then he craned his neck, looking as though he were saying, Use whatever methods you want. If I say a word, I lose.

The other party had come straight at them without even trying to conceal himself, exposing such terrifying, heaven-defying strength. He could only be a big shot who had entered solo!

Unless they were willing to sign a harsh spatial contract, he definitely would not leave any survivors.

Since death was inevitable either way, he might as well die with some backbone. At worst, he would endure some torture. He just had to grit his teeth and get through it.

"What spirit. I admire you."

Xu Yue’s face was full of admiration. Then his eyes turned scarlet, transforming into distinct symbols that began to spin…

"We are members of Power of the Era. We came to obtain the Taketori Clan’s Kekkei Genkai and planned to intervene in the coming Massacre Night. Right now, we were preparing to capture two members of the Taketori Clan so Lord Curse Sacrifice could use their bloodline as a medium to cast a curse and weaken the enemy as much as possible…"

Ling’s eyes were vacant, and his body occasionally twitched as he spilled every piece of information he knew like beans pouring from a bag.

What a joke. Even Utakata had fallen for the Tsukuyomi space after being strengthened by C World. There was no way ordinary trash like this could withstand the torment.

As one of the most outstanding Elite Reincarnators, he indeed held a sufficiently high position and possessed abundant intelligence. He even knew a thing or two about other legions.

It happened to fill in many of Xu Yue’s gaps in knowledge.

Aside from intelligence available for sale, he had no stable source of information in the France region.

First was the method of obtaining the Taketori Clan’s Kekkei Genkai. This was extremely rare intelligence they had bought from Japan Reincarnators.

They needed to complete a series of steps, ultimately participate in the Taketori Clan’s massacre, and achieve over thirty percent of the effective kills before the space would directly reward them with the Dead Bone Pulse Kekkei Genkai Serum.

Because the conditions were so harsh, requiring them to inflict thirty percent of the casualties upon a powerful ninja clan, they had prepared to place a curse upon the entire clan.

That way, even when other ninjas scored kills, a small portion of the points would still be credited to their team.

In fact, their main purpose in coming here was still those Taketori Clan ninjas.

Xu Yue could not help feeling indescribably strange.

Why was he getting dragged in as an afterthought again?

Still, he had obtained some useful intelligence along the way. From the steps required to complete their mission, Xu Yue once again caught traces of the methods and principles the space used to arrange missions.

This would be of some help for things he needed to do next.

When the time came, if he had time, he could still come participate.

Besides that, Xu Yue also gained some understanding of the other legions he had asked about.

Power of the Era itself ranked sixth among France’s legions, and this time, they also had a big shot who had entered solo.

That was Lord Curse Sacrifice, whose methods were strange and unfathomable.

Besides their legion, Holy Saints of Heaven, ranked fifth, were also grinding missions in Konoha because of intelligence from Japan Reincarnators.

Rothschild France Bank, ranked seventh, was doing something secretive and mysterious in the Land of Earth. They had probably also obtained news of some hidden mission…

After they had lost their value, the entire Reincarnator squad before him was fed to the sharks.

Since he had appeared before them without even concealing his true face, Xu Yue had never intended to let them go.

No matter what, they had attacked him first, so there was no question of him having any excuse to spare them.

After more or less settling matters here, Xu Yue vanished into the dense fog once more and rapidly formed hand seals amid the thick white mist.

Boil Release: Clever Mist Technique…

Ding~

After exchanging another blow with the two Taketori Clan ninjas, Zabuza sensed that something was wrong with the surrounding environment.

He plucked several hairs from his head and saw the corroded curls at their tips, immediately realizing the danger.

Without the slightest hesitation, he retreated out of the dense fog, no longer bothering with anything else.

The two Taketori Clan jōnin exchanged bewildered looks, but they soon discovered the fog’s corrosive nature as well.

The corrosiveness even seemed to be steadily increasing!

The weaker ninjas had already begun crying out in agony within the dense fog.

"All squads, return to the ships, take shelter in the cabins, and accelerate out of this fog zone!"

When the Wood Clone dispelled itself, Xu Yue, who had remained in the room all this time, received its memories and was not particularly surprised.

This hijacking had seemed suspicious from the start. It was perfectly normal for Reincarnators to be stirring things up behind the scenes.

His original intention had merely been to use the Clever Mist Technique to divide the battlefield and make both sides stop fighting.

He had kept the power and concentration tightly under control, only intending to force a ceasefire. Otherwise, in an enclosed environment, the Clever Mist Technique could even melt away Susanoo.

Although its power was limited in such a wide-open environment, dealing with anyone below jōnin level was still easy. Even jōnin could not withstand it for long.

With its power restricted, the ships merely had many pitted marks across their surfaces after breaking out of the fog, without suffering structural damage…

Though they had encountered an attack, this trip had still been rather profitable overall. He had gained quite a bit of useful intelligence from that Power of the Era group for free.

Both the advancement of plot-related side missions and intelligence on several France Reincarnator legions were of some use.

The main reason so many France Reincarnator legions had entered this era seemed to be that Japan Reincarnators had put some closely guarded plot secrets up for sale…

Clearly, some under-the-table deal had taken place…

It was stated earlier that this was normal mode. There were no drop bonuses and no kill penalties.

Also, the Taketori Clan is the Kaguya Clan. Kaguya is the BOSS, but calling them that now feels a little strange, so I used another name.