Chapter 21 – Kill
Crack~
A crisp sound of bone breaking rang out.
Seimei withdrew his hand expressionlessly from the head of a mountain bandit, letting the body fall limply to the ground.
Hoo~
He exhaled lightly.
Turning his head, Seimei looked at Ryouji and Shizuko. "All the overt and covert sentries have been dealt with. Next, we follow the plan. Shizuko?"
"Mm."
Hearing Seimei call her name, Shizuko unconsciously straightened her posture.
"Watch the path down the mountain. You're responsible for dealing with any that slip through," Seimei said.
"Understood."
Though still somewhat nervous, Shizuko nodded seriously to show she understood.
Then, Seimei looked at Ryouji and said, "Ryouji, you're coming up the mountain with me. We'll clear out the rest of the bandits."
"No problem."
Compared to Shizuko, Ryouji was much calmer. Even when assigned a more dangerous task, he showed no hesitation.
How should one put it?
Born in the shinobi world, this kid really did adapt quickly.
Seimei gave him a deep look and said, "Then let's begin."
"Mm."
Both Ryouji and Shizuko nodded in agreement.
Seimei immediately moved up the mountain.
Ryouji followed closely behind.
Shizuko stood in place for a moment, then slipped into the dense forest and concealed herself.
By now, it had been three hours since they entered the Xiaoheishan area. The first two hours were spent resting, and the last hour was used to eliminate the sentries.
Now that the obstacles were cleared, it was time for the final assault.
Well...
"Final assault" might be a bit of an exaggeration.
From interrogating the sentries, Seimei had already learned that there were only around fifty people on the mountain to begin with, and the number still alive likely didn't exceed forty.
With so few enemies, as long as there were no unusually powerful figures among them, it wouldn't be much pressure for them. The only real challenge was overcoming their psychological barrier.
Fortunately, both Seimei and Ryouji were adapting quite well.
······
Under the moonlight.
Seimei and Ryouji stepped lightly on rocks and branches, silently approaching the bandits' camp.
Calling it a "camp" was generous—it was essentially a single wooden building surrounded by twenty or so wooden huts. There wasn't even a wooden fence around the perimeter.
Seeing this crude camp, Seimei finally understood why they had so many sentries stationed around. It was clearly out of fear for their lives.
He shook his head and put the thought aside. He signaled a few hand gestures to Ryouji, and the two of them split up, one going left and the other right, approaching the camp from both sides.
The wooden building was the mountain bandit leader's residence and sat in the center of the camp. To avoid being surrounded, he and Ryouji decided to start the killing from the outskirts.
As long as they moved fast enough, there was no need to worry about alarming the rest.
Squelch~
The sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed.
Inside a wooden hut—
Seimei pressed one hand over a bandit's mouth, while the other drove a kunai into the man's chest.
Struck fatally, the bandit's eyes snapped open. First came confusion, then pain, followed by fear, and finally a lifeless gray.
Seimei kept his gaze locked on the man's eyes the entire time—no flinching, no avoidance. He simply watched silently. He was forcing himself to accept this, to adapt.
Until he gained the power to change the world, he had no choice but to adapt. Only by adjusting to the rules of the shinobi world could he survive.
Hoo~
He exhaled softly. After confirming the target was dead, Seimei left the hut.
This hut was located on the outermost edge, and both its location and condition were among the worst. Naturally, it housed only one occupant.
So Seimei didn't have to worry about alerting anyone else.
Standing outside, after carefully observing for a while, Seimei picked another similar wooden hut and cautiously approached.
Peering through the crack in the door for a moment, and confirming there was only one person inside, Seimei used a kunai to pry the door open and slipped in.
Moments later, Seimei walked back out.
Everything had gone smoothly. The target had still been asleep when Seimei slit his throat in one clean motion.
After that, he repeated the same method. Like a grim reaper, Seimei moved silently from hut to hut, harvesting lives one after another. The entire process was completely silent.
If things could continue like this, it would save them a lot of trouble.
Unfortunately, things rarely go the way one wishes.
Just as he took the life of the tenth person, a terrified scream suddenly pierced through the entire camp.
Seimei paused for a moment, then quickly finished off the man in front of him.
In the next instant, he dashed out of the hut and looked toward the source of the noise.
He saw a mountain bandit clutching his neck as he stumbled out of a hut, running and shouting at the same time, "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
However, after only shouting twice, a figure darted out from the hut behind him—who else but Ryouji?
With a burst of speed, Ryouji reached the fleeing bandit and drove a kunai into his back.
The bandit's voice cut off instantly.
Even so, the entire camp was now in chaos.
Seimei could faintly hear rustling sounds coming from inside the other wooden huts.
After thinking for a moment, Seimei walked up to another hut and kicked hard—the wooden door shattered with a loud crash.
Before the two inside could react, he rushed in and ended their lives in a flash.
Then he burst out again and headed to another hut. Using the same method, he eliminated the bandits inside.
Not only Seimei, but Ryouji also stopped hiding. Their goal now was simply to kill as many as possible in the shortest time.
And so, by the time the chaos began to settle, only twelve bandits remained in the camp.
The mountain bandit leader looked at the eleven men still gathered around him, his expression dark and grim.
Tap tap tap~
Footsteps echoed.
Seimei and Ryouji stepped out of a hut, one on the left and one on the right.
Seeing the forehead protectors they wore, one of the bandits cried out in fear, "Ninjas! We've been targeted by ninjas. It's over, we're done for!"
Clearly, the Shinobi World War had drawn not only the major villages into its storm, but also countless ordinary people.
Perhaps in times of peace, these bandits wouldn't have recognized Seimei and Ryouji as shinobi—but after the war's baptism, they saw it immediately.
Not only that, they now understood the terror that came with shinobi.
Smack~
A crisp slap rang out.
"Bah, nonsense."
The bandit leader slapped the panicked man across the face and spat on the ground. Sweeping his gaze over Seimei and Ryouji, he growled viciously, "What are you afraid of? Just two brats. If we all go at once, I don't believe we can't kill them."
With that, he prepared to lead the charge.
But at that moment, Seimei flipped both hands—six shuriken appeared between his fingers.
In the next second, they were flung out.
The bandit leader tried to dodge, but a Level 2 'Throwing Ninja Tools' skill wasn't something to take lightly.
If it had been a trained shinobi, they might have been able to block or avoid a fatal hit—but a mere bandit leader? He had no such ability.
So, just as he stepped forward, his body stiffened and collapsed straight to the ground.
"Ah! The boss is dead!"
"Run! Everyone run!"
No one knew who shouted it first, but the remaining eleven bandits scattered like frightened animals, fleeing in all directions.
Seimei and Ryouji exchanged a glance, then each chased after a different group of fleeing bandits, leaving only one who had chosen to escape down the mountain path.
[End of Chapter]
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