If it were possible, the Third Raikage wouldn't have wanted to continue sending his men into the fight.
But if he stopped now, wouldn't the deaths of all the subordinates Li Anshi had already killed have been for nothing?
"I'm still too weak!"
The Third Raikage lowered his head, the sorrow in his eyes overflowing.
"If I could withstand Li Anshi's flying daggers, I would be the one leading the charge!"
"You can't, Lord Raikage!"
Hearing the Third Raikage's words, Dodai and the other Jonin surrounding him grew frantic.
"Lord Raikage, you are the pillar of our Cloud Village! It is because of you that we can face our enemies with one heart."
"We believe that under your leadership, we will surely achieve victory."
"If you were to lead the charge and something were to happen to you, we would lose our backbone. We would become nothing more than helpless lambs to be slaughtered by Konoha's Li Anshi…"
"I know. That's why I'm still standing here."
The Third Raikage raised a hand, silencing the other Jonin.
"Everyone, although we still haven't figured out how many flying daggers Li Anshi is carrying, I imagine his reserves can't be that large."
"Furthermore, the sealing scroll on his back is most likely where he stores his daggers."
"From now on, have everyone focus their attacks on that sealing scroll."
"I want to see what he's truly made of when he has no more daggers!"
"Yes, Lord Raikage!"
After receiving the Third Raikage's command, the figures of several Jonin vanished in an instant.
Next, it was their turn.
…
Swish, swish, swish…
Li Anshi's hands bloomed like flower petals, streams of white light flying from them.
Every single stream of white light claimed the life of a Cloud ninja.
The moment Li Anshi had noticed the Cloud ninjas trying to destroy the sealing scroll on his back, he had unleashed his full power.
Within a fifty-meter radius around him, not a single Cloud ninja remained.
These Cloud ninjas would face his attacks as soon as they entered his hundred-meter range.
Even if some of the faster Jonin managed to slip past a round or two of his daggers, they still couldn't breach the fifty-meter perimeter around him.
And how many of those ninjas possessed ninjutsu with a range greater than fifty meters?
Thus, after Li Anshi unleashed his full power, the area around him was clear, and no ninjutsu could touch him.
However, this also meant that the flying daggers on his person were being consumed at a much faster rate.
In less than thirty seconds, the number of Cloud ninjas who had died by his hand had surpassed one hundred.
"Time to find a place to restock my daggers!"
Li Anshi observed his surroundings as he threw his daggers, searching for a place where he could open the sealing scroll and replenish his supply.
Otherwise, in another minute at most, he would be completely out of daggers.
And the Cloud ninja side still looked to have at least three thousand men.
Li Anshi knew that with so many people invested, the Cloud Village would not willingly end the war unless he killed them until they were terrified.
The sunk cost was simply too great.
Over three thousand ninjas represented at least half of the Cloud Village's total force.
This wasn't the Fourth Great Shinobi World War decades later, where every village had ninja forces numbering over ten thousand.
It had only been a little over a decade since the end of the Warring States period.
Even with the peace enforced by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, which allowed the ninja villages to rest and recover, none of the great villages had more than eight thousand ninjas.
"Kill!"
The Cloud Village commanders quickly noticed Li Anshi's movements.
They naturally understood his intentions.
To be honest, the number of flying daggers Li Anshi carried had far exceeded the Cloud ninjas' estimations.
Because of this, their casualties were several times higher than anticipated.
Now that Li Anshi was finally about to run out of daggers, how could they possibly let this opportunity slip by?
If they didn't press their forces forward now, were they supposed to wait for Li Anshi to unseal his scroll, restock his daggers, and inflict even greater damage on them?
And so, at that moment, the Cloud ninjas surrounding Li Anshi roared as they charged toward him.
Their sheer numbers allowed them to break through his "absolute domain," pushing to within forty meters.
In response, Li Anshi had no choice but to increase the speed of his throws, killing even more Cloud ninjas.
Of course, this meant the daggers on his person were being consumed even faster.
"They don't want me to restock!"
Li Anshi quickly understood the purpose behind their suicidal charges.
His greatest threat to the Cloud ninjas was his flying daggers.
A dagger thrown meant a life taken.
Every white flash that shot from his hand claimed the life of a Cloud ninja.
If Li Anshi ran out of daggers, then with just Revolving Heaven and the Rasengan, he wouldn't be able to inflict significant casualties on them.
His current chakra reserves were not enough to support a massacre using the Rasengan.
Worse, without the deterrent of his daggers, what would he use to stop the Third Raikage if he charged directly onto the battlefield?
At this point, the battle between Li Anshi and the Cloud Village had become a battle over the daggers.
If Li Anshi could successfully unseal the scroll on his back and retrieve more daggers, the Cloud ninjas would undoubtedly suffer even greater losses.
If the Cloud ninjas could stop Li Anshi from unsealing the scroll, then once he ran out of daggers, he would inevitably be defeated by their overwhelming numbers.
"Twenty-seven left!"
Sensing the number of daggers on his body, Li Anshi made his decision.
Judging by the Cloud ninjas' actions, it was impossible for him to find a safe place to unseal the scroll.
They wanted to trap and kill him right here.
"If that's the case, then I'll unseal it right here!"
Glancing at the Cloud ninjas who were gradually closing in, now within fifty meters, Li Anshi delayed no longer.
Swish, swish, swish
With a flick of his left hand, four white lights flew out in an instant. The four ninjas closest to him were thrown backward, falling to the ground, never to get up again.
With his right hand, he took out the sealing scroll, unrolling it before him, and then formed a hand seal with that same single hand.
Poof!
White smoke exploded from the sealing scroll. The next moment, thousands of neatly stacked flying daggers appeared upon it.
Li Anshi waved his long sleeve, and a chakra thread wrapped around the daggers, pulling them from his sleeve and onto his body, where he secured them with the Concealed Dagger Technique.
While his right hand was concealing daggers, his left was not idle. He drew directly from the pile, and a rain of daggers, guided by his perception along invisible trajectories, slaughtered every Cloud ninja who had dared to approach within thirty meters of him.