Chapter 20: Ninja Liu Ming: A Taste of One’s Own Medicine…

A viscous, eerie, and terrifyingly massive tentacle extended from the end of the passage. Carrying the slimy, briny scent of the ocean, it came to a slow halt in front of the three of them.

To be precise, it stopped right in front of Du Shui.

It was weeping.

Du Shui struggled to pull herself away from the sheer impact of the scene. Forcing herself to maintain her will as a Corrector, she began to wonder exactly what had gone wrong.

Why would an Anomaly locked deep within the cliffs of the Haiyue Shrine call her “Sister”?

What kind of international joke was this!

The tentacle looked somewhat aggrieved. Not understanding why its sister was ignoring it, it nudged forward again, only to trigger a stress response from Du Shui as she took a sharp step back.

The tentacle looked even more dejected now. It instantly wilted, the entire dull grey limb flickering with a sorrowful fluorescent blue light. It truly looked like a heartbroken child.

Du Shui: …Suddenly, I’m not that scared anymore.

Yun Zhou was the bravest of the lot. While Du Shui and Ying Huo beside him hadn’t even relaxed their guarded stances, this fellow took a step forward and began to observe the tentacle at close range.

The sight frightened the tentacle so much that it recoiled instantly, and the eye hidden in the darkness squeezed shut.

“Hey, what exactly are you?”

Yun Zhou stood his ground, staring into the darkness. His golden eyes glowed slightly, his overbearing demeanor suggesting he wouldn’t leave until the other party showed its face.

Silence began to spread through the surroundings. Yun Zhou simply stared into the depths of the darkness with a smile, looking more like an Anomaly than the Anomaly itself.

Du Shui and Ying Huo exchanged a look, once again pressing their hands to their foreheads in a collective headache.

As the atmosphere grew tense, the tentacle Anomaly in the darkness finally couldn’t bear the oppressive air. It hopped straight out of the shadows and huffily slapped the ground in front of Yun Zhou.

It was indeed a very strange Anomaly. Overall, it was a dorky little flapjack octopus. The upper half of its body featured two watery, blood-red eyes—the ones they had seen in the dark—while the lower half consisted of several chubby, retractable tentacles. The Anomaly’s actual size was completely different from what they had imagined while it lurked in the shadows; not only was it compact, it was actually somewhat cute.

At this, Du Shui retracted the blade within her umbrella, and Ying Huo lowered his rattan staff. Facing this tiny, harmless thing with weapons felt a bit too aggressive.

The octopus Anomaly seemed even angrier now.

“Don’t be mad, don’t be mad. Why are you here?”

Du Shui couldn’t resist reaching out to pick it up. After all, it was hard to maintain a “correction” mindset when faced with such a harmless, adorable creature.

The flapjack octopus nuzzled against Du Shui, its mood instantly brightening.

Ying Huo pulled a flashlight from his trench coat pocket. In the next second, the beam illuminated the pitch-black passage. The tunnel was deeper than they had imagined, twisting and turning as it delved straight into the heart of the mountain, with no end in sight.

Gusts of cold wind blew from the end of the passage, carrying a bone-chilling frost that fluttered the hem of Du Shui’s shrine maiden outfit and the hidden-wind robes of Yun Zhou, who stood at the front.

Yun Zhou stared deeply toward the end of the black passage before turning back to the little octopus. “So it was you who was crying and calling for help all this time?”

The little octopus didn’t reply. After all, it was just a little octopus.

Yun Zhou wasn’t discouraged by the lack of an answer. He turned his head back toward the depths of the black passage, his sharp wolf ears twitching as if he were listening for something.

“There is the scent of betrayal in this wind.”

Yun Zhou murmured. Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he practically jumped. “Wait!” Yun Zhou grabbed Du Shui and Ying Huo, lunging toward the outer walkway. “Someone’s coming! We have to go, now!”

Just as the words left his mouth, a chaotic din of footsteps echoed from the depths of the darkness. Following the sound was a cold wave of killing intent—the kind that belonged only to Correctors with supernatural abilities!

Du Shui and Ying Huo had always trusted Yun Zhou’s ears and instincts. This cheap captain’s five senses had saved their lives more than a few times on previous missions. Du Shui stuffed the little octopus into her wide shrine maiden sleeve, pulled out her Clear Sky Umbrella, and activated the thrusters.

Faint, wisp-like blue light flickered from the four corners of the paper Clear Sky Umbrella. Du Shui reached out to Yun Zhou and Ying Huo. “There’s no time for the walkway! Let’s go!”

The footsteps drew closer. Even without flashlights, the powerful senses of the three Sentinels allowed them to see shadows flickering deep in the passage—and there was more than one.

Ying Huo and Yun Zhou reacted instantly, each grabbing one of Du Shui’s arms. Using the umbrella’s thrust and her powerful core strength, Du Shui pivoted half a turn in mid-air, throwing her two companions onto a higher section of the cliffside walkway one after the other.

The black shadows that had just burst out of the passage froze in place. The leader looked left and right. “Where are they? They didn’t jump, did they?”

“No! Up there! Dammit, these guys really don’t follow the rules!”

Another black shadow pointed at Du Shui, who was suspended in mid-air.

Du Shui arched an eyebrow. “Sorry, but what kind of Sentinel follows the rules?”

Yun Zhou was even more arrogant, relying on his mental power to control the wind. Having received the initial momentum from Du Shui, he began to walk directly on the air. “Hahaha! Even at Tree Tower Academy, the three of us were the unconventional students who gave the teachers the biggest headaches, okay?!”

Speechless, Ying Huo struck his captain with his staff, sending Yun Zhou lunging forward a large step. “What are you so proud of?!”

“Hey, hey! Don’t push me! It’s dangerous—”

Before Yun Zhou could finish his complaint, a black shadow charged toward them at a terrifying speed. The figure moved across the cliff face as if it were level ground, waving a hand to send several cold blades shimmering with a dangerous aura flying toward them.

Ying Huo’s expression shifted slightly. He used his rattan staff to push off a protruding section of the walkway, propelling himself further upward. He then jammed the staff firmly into a crack in the cliff, swinging his body around the pole to dodge the incoming cold blades.

“Clang, clang, clang!”

The sound of metal sinking into stone rang out. Ying Huo and Du Shui saw it clearly and cried out in unison, “A ninja’s Sleeve Arrow¹?!”

Du Shui’s brow furrowed deeply. “How can it be a Sleeve Arrow?!”

Though she had lost most of her memories, it didn’t stop her from knowing the common knowledge of the Third District. This weapon was a staple hidden tool for ninjas, almost a signature of their kind. In the current Third District, there was only one major clan capable of maintaining a private force of family ninjas.

The Izayoi Family, who held the lifeblood of the entire Third District in their hands.

“Has the Izayoi Family gone mad?”

Even the habitually smiling Ying Huo could no longer maintain his “smiling tiger²” mask. His long staff whirled into a blur of motion. Seeing that their identity had been exposed, the black shadow stopped bothering with pretenses. They unleashed a series of close-combat strikes in the distinct Izayoi style, nearly causing Ying Huo to lose his balance on the cliffside.

“We didn’t do anything, did we?! If we’ve offended District Chief Izayoi, can’t I just apologize?!”

Another black shadow rushed toward Yun Zhou. This one was slightly slower, allowing his appearance to be seen more clearly. He wore a black combat suit styled after the ninjas found in the Third District’s pulp fiction, though his gear looked far more high-tech.

The ninja threw a Sleeve Arrow. Seeing Yun Zhou dodge every shot while screaming, the assassin calmly switched to a dagger.

While parrying a series of vicious, sinister strikes, Ying Huo managed to find humor in their misery. “Is this that ‘scent of betrayal’ you were talking about? I’d say we’ve certainly had a taste.”

Yun Zhou was also struggling. He had been knocked back and was now dangling ten meters down the cliff, barely maintaining his position by relying on the Flowing Wind beneath his feet. He looked ready to cry. “Right now, I wish I’d never said that.”

Even with Du Shui hovering in mid-air using her Clear Sky Umbrella, a ninja had targeted her. All three were completely suppressed at the edge of the cliff, unable to get even an inch closer to the shrine at the summit.

Because his mental power was fire-based, Ying Huo was the first to be targeted by a concentrated attack. Despite his maneuvers, he was eventually overwhelmed. The ninja blades of two attackers struck the arm holding his staff, causing him to lose his footing on the precipice.

Yun Zhou and Du Shui were pinned down by their own opponents and couldn’t spare a hand to help. Ying Huo felt a jolt of terror. Thanks to his quick reflexes, he switched hands the moment his grip faltered, jamming his staff firmly into a crevice to keep from falling.

The ninjas clearly noticed Ying Huo’s dire situation. They charged forward decisively, intending to use their blades to snap the staff wedged in the rock.

“Ying Huo! Burn him!”

Du Shui and Yun Zhou shouted at the same time.

“…You people really do want us dead…”

Ying Huo gritted his teeth. He was just about to summon his flames and gamble on whether his fire was faster than the enemy’s blade when he saw the ninja’s movements suddenly freeze.

It was as if something had restricted his actions, forcing him to stand there, unable to move.

No, something definitely had restricted the movements of all the ninjas.

Ying Huo looked up sharply and saw something that should have been impossible to find here: silver-blue threads.

These silver-blue threads, formed from mental power, appeared out of thin air, pinning all the ninjas firmly in place. The entire scene looked as if someone from a higher dimension had pressed the pause button.

“What are you staring for, you losers? Get up here!”

On the path at the edge of the cliff, Liu Ming stood with his breath coming in short, shallow gasps.

He had only been gone for a moment!

The ninjas quickly reacted and began to struggle violently. Liu Ming reached out and clenched his hand into a fist. The silver threads tightened once more, locking the ninjas in place.

The trio was stunned. None of them had expected Liu Ming to be the one coming to the rescue. However, they didn’t have time to dwell on it. Using their respective abilities, they kicked away the ninjas near them and scrambled onto the shrine path at the top of the cliff.

The ninjas were, after all, highly trained family weapons. They quickly shredded Liu Ming’s threads—which were primarily designed for mental soothing and Mental Landscape repair—and gave chase.

“Just one person?” The lead ninja narrowed his eyes. “The kid from the Liu Family… Fine. We’ll find the Experimental Subject, kill them all, and dump them in the ocean. We can’t let them leave this place, or there will be trouble.”

Yun Zhou and the others instinctively stepped forward to shield Liu Ming, but Liu Ming pulled Yun Zhou and Du Shui aside and stepped forward without a hint of fear.

“…That is truly stupid. Have you ever seen a member of the Liu Family put themselves in danger? I’m sorry…”

Liu Ming clapped his hands. “Who said I was alone?”

As soon as he spoke, several black shadows blurred out from the dense forest behind him. Their markings were just as distinct as the Izayoi ninjas, but these men all wore silver serpent masks.

The Serpent Guards of the Liu Family. Their numbers were even greater than the group of ninjas.

“Kill them all and throw them into the sea. They know you’re in the Third District. We absolutely cannot let these ninjas leave this place, or there will be trouble.”

Liu Ming arrogantly pronounced the ninjas’ doom.

Translator’s Notes