After freeing the two unfortunate men from pain and sending them to eternal slumber, Seimei, Touma, and Haneda continued searching the goblin lord's lair with heavy hearts.
The scene of tortured humans, who were probably alive when the goblin lord ripped their flesh and bones to eat them, was indeed gruesome.
After all, the trio was still very young, not even twelve years old.
Although the lives of the ninjas are filled with blood and fire, at the end of the day, they were still humans.
Even during the Warring States Era, many people from ninja clans with decent talent, enough to become ninjas with the strength of an Elite Chunin or full-fledged Jonin, gave up on becoming a Shinobi because they couldn't cope with the blood and slaughter.
Many young talents ended up with deep traumas.
The picture of a battleground filled with the broken bodies of their clansmen, the sight of their comrades being killed and eaten alive by the chakra beasts—these tragedies often left mental wounds so deep that they lost the courage to hold a weapon again.
Such things were not uncommon.
Don't just look at how the clans and the hidden villages churn out countless ninjas every year.
For every ten successful ninjas, there was at least one or two people who gave up being a Shinobi because their minds could not withstand the brutality, the blood, the gore, and the tragedies that plagued the lives of this ancient profession of licensed killers.
After all, the profession of Shinobi is not for people with weak, fragile minds.
Fortunately, Seimei, Touma, and Haneda were not weak-willed.
Their mental fortitude was strong enough to withstand tragedies that were a hundred times as horrible as the one they had just witnessed.
They felt deep sorrow and grief for a few moments. But that was it.
They bounced back soon. Now, even though they were a bit heavy-hearted, they wouldn't dwell on the past and keep walking forward with a hardened will.
No time to slow down. No time to dilly-dally.
After all, they had a mission to fulfill.
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"Damn it. These goblins indeed hoarded a lot of stuff."
Haneda clicked his tongue as he gazed upon the pile of precious metals, minerals, gold, silver, jewels, and other shiny and expensive things the goblin lord had stored in its treasure room.
"Indeed. Without even counting, I can tell that the value of the things here will easily exceed several hundred million Ryo."
Seimei nodded as he looked around. Then, he walked over to a poorly made cabinet, crouched down, and opened it.
His eyes twinkled with an ocean-blue glow for a moment.
"And this place over here has a lot of herbs. Most are common; perhaps these herbs were harvested from the vicinity of the forest. But there are quite a few rare herbs."
"Crimson blood root—perfect for creating top-grade healing potions, potent enough to heal damage to internal organs as long as you don't die outright."
"Terror mushroom—one of the best ingredients for making high-grade antidotes that are capable of detoxifying poisons below a certain grade."
"Coldbone grass—an essential ingredient for creating potions for strengthening bones and solidifying foundation during the early stage of growth."
"Moonflower, emerald strawberries, nethervine, bloodfire bark—they are all good stuff."
"Haneda, Touma. I am taking all these herbs. They will just rot in your hands anyway."
Seimei didn't waste any time. He took several specially made containers from his storage seal, organized the herbs, and put them inside the boxes, then swiftly packed them back into his storage seal.
His hands moved so fast that Haneda and Touma didn't even have the time to question his decisions.
Then again, those herbs would truly be wasted in their hands.
Seimei was the one who was the potioneer anyway. At most, they would sneak some high-grade potions from his stash for free later.
He shouldn't mind, right?
They just shrugged and shifted their attention to other things.
Touma walked forward and picked up a glossy metal that was sensitive to chakra.
He channeled chakra through them, making them glow slightly.
He nodded with a satisfied expression on his face and turned to look at Seimei and Haneda.
"We have quite a few blocks of chakra metal here. I reckon some unfortunate merchant was probably trading them before they were captured and killed by the goblins."
Hearing this, Seimei and Haneda looked at him with some interest.
Haneda demanded, "Hey, share some of that chakra metal with me, will you? I would love some weapons made of chakra metal, too."
Touma nodded, "No worries. But let me handle the weapon crafting. Our Uchiha clan is quite close to the ninja cat tribe, who are experts in crafting top-class weapons. The weapons they sell us are pretty good."
"I still don't know how they do that with their little paws. Perhaps they know some top-tier human craftsmen from some obscure place that we have no clue about. Nevertheless, their stuff is good. You will never regret it."
"Just know that the commission they charge can be pretty steep."
Haneda tilted his head with a thoughtful expression before replying, "I have some savings. Plus, with all the good stuff here, we are rich anyway. I will leave the forging to you."
Touma agreed, "No problem. Just give me the details of the weapon you want once we return to Konoha."
With that, they began to clean up the place.
Herbs, gold, silver, chakra metal, artifacts, weapons—they pocketed everything they found without even leaving a single penny.
They took them all and put them inside their storage scrolls.
If the soul of the goblin lord could see how its treasures were all looted by its killers, then it would probably break out of the Pure Land in sheer rage and haunt the trio until their death.
Anyway…
The merchants were dead. The goblin lord was also dead.
And since the pitiful treasures no longer had any owner, it was better to provide them with the warmth of a new home.
And the warm home?
Of course, it was the trio's coffers.
After they finished grabbing everything valuable and inspected every single room of the goblin lord's lair, which was, honestly, filled with the nasty stench of rotten corpses, dried feces, and other waste materials, they finally came outside of the hellhole.
The trio, now standing outside, was looking at the goblin lord's lair that they had completely explored and ransacked.
Now, they just wanted to do one final thing before they could get the hell out of this place.
Seimei patted the right shoulder of Touma with his left hand. "Alright. Let's burn this place down. Let the corpses of the people who died there turn into ashes and become a part of this world."
Touma nodded, and he formed a few hand seals.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique
Touma released a 3-meter-wide, blazing fireball, which detonated upon contacting the goblin lord's lair and set the place on fire.
Fire burned furiously with an orange and crimson glow, slowly burning every corner of the goblin lord's house.
The structure crumbled. The bodies inside were also incinerated, slowly turning into ashes.
Seimei took a deep breath. Finally, the mission was over.
He had to admit, this investigation mission was one hell of an adventure.
Nothing too dangerous, but packed with trouble at every step.
Bounty hunters, goblins, ancient forest, goblin hideout—one thing came after another.
But none of them mattered now.
Now, he could finally be at ease. No more suspense. No more surprises.
At least, that was what he thought.
Unfortunately, fate was a fickle lady.
Just as he was about to speak about getting away from this blasted place, he suddenly paused.
Something just entered his Tenseigan's perception range.
Something horrifying, something tremendously powerful, with a monstrous amount of chakra.
And whatever that thing was, it was approaching them fast.
Seimei turned his head toward the direction of the incoming creature. With Tenseigan's farsight ability, he could see a giant, wolf-like chakra beast rushing toward their location.
It was only nine kilometers away.
Judging by its speed, it wouldn't take the beast more than a handful of minutes to arrive at their location.
And the worst of all, the beast was making every single cell in his body scream danger.
His instincts were screaming at him to run away. Otherwise, he would die. His friends would die.
Even chakra beasts with AA+ danger rating could not shake him this hard.
It could only mean one thing.
Whatever that thing was, its danger rating was at least S-rank, something only true Kage-level ninjas should handle.
Could his luck be any worse?
"Fuck…holy mother of devil…"
Now, Seimei could only curse and run as fast as possible, along with his friends.
Seriously, he had enough excitement for one mission.
It was time to grab his friends and make a run for it. Otherwise, this beautiful forest would really turn into their graves.
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