bookbashuk Chapter 371 Grayish-white mist
Chapter 371 Grayish-white mist
Chapter 371 Grayish-white mist
"It's in my hands." Helian took out a talisman from his sleeve, covered with dense sealing patterns. "When you went to see Fuji Syusuke, he agreed. He did make a teleportation array for you. But he didn't know I was watching him while he was making it. My people stayed in his workshop for three days, and after he finished, they replaced the trigger talisman on the teleportation array with this one."
Helian held the talisman up to his eyes, looked at it, then folded it in half and threw it on the ground.
"Your retreat point no longer exists."
Chi Quan looked at the fragments of talisman paper he had thrown on the ground, then raised his eyes.
"You know I'm here."
"I know."
"You know that the Earth Release technique will be activated today."
"I know."
"You know the main force of the coalition will enter the basin."
"I know." Helian's smile widened slightly. "Because I arranged all of this."
Chi Quan's thumb pressed against the knife.
Helian continued, speaking slowly, as if giving Chi Quan a lesson.
"Those guys in the Allied Forces think they're attacking Konoha. Actually, they're paving the way for me. I need you to be injured, I need you to be isolated and helpless, I need you to be in a place with no way out. Rain Rift Basin—you chose this location, I admit, it was a good choice. The Earth Release plan was also your design, very ingenious. But you forgot one thing."
He took a step forward.
"All your plans were based on the premise that someone in Konoha was helping you. Shikamaru's intelligence, Kiba's patrols, Hyuga's Byakugan, Kagura's sealing techniques, Hisai's Water Release, and Shiro's sensory insects—you used Konoha's best resources to create an elaborate trap. But did you ever consider what if someone among those resources had told me every single step of the way?"
Chi Quan's finger stopped on the knife.
"The mole isn't the kind you can find out about." Helian tilted his head. "He wasn't bribed, coerced, or brainwashed. He's been one of my men from the very beginning. He's been infiltrating Konoha for eleven years, longer than you've known him."
Chi Quan's voice lowered.
"Who?"
Helian did not answer. He looked at the expanding red mark on Chi Quan's side bandage, at the angle of Chi Quan's left arm hanging slightly, and at the white knuckles of Chi Quan's fingers gripping the knife, even though the knife was still unsheathed.
"Your injuries are more serious than you think," Helian said. "Your left arm tendon was injured on the wet slope, and then you strained it again after you came back. The tear in your abdomen required fourteen stitches, and today it tore open at least three more times. The residual toxins in your lungs haven't been cleared yet, and you cough every time you take a deep breath. You're standing here with these injuries in a basin surrounded by earth and rocks, with no way out, no reinforcements, and someone you're not confident you can defeat."
He stretched out his hand, palm facing up.
"Come with me. I'll let you live."
Chi Quan looked at his outstretched hand.
Then he drew his knife.
The sound of the blade being drawn was exceptionally crisp in the dust and mist, like a thin line cracking in ice. There was no light on the blade—the dust and mist were too thick for sunlight to penetrate. But Helian saw an extremely thin, almost invisible film of water on the blade. It wasn't water, it was chakra. Chi Quan had attached chakra to the blade, as thin as a cicada's wing, as bright as morning frost.
Helian withdrew his hand and sighed.
"I originally wanted to be more polite."
He was also drawing his sword. His sword was longer and narrower than Chi Quan's, and the blade was grayish-white, as if it had been ground from bone.
There was no handguard on the hilt; instead, a ring of withered vines of some unknown plant was wrapped between the hilt and the blade.
Chi Quan did not wait.
He charged forward, his blade slashing upwards. It wasn't a test; it was a killing move. The blade sliced through the dust and mist with a sharp, piercing sound.
Helian sidestepped, his gray-white blade held horizontally in front of him, blocking the blow. The two blades clashed, producing not a crisp metallic clang, but a muffled sound, like striking damp wood.
Chi Quan immediately changed his move, his blade flashing past Helian's sword and aimed for his left ribs. Helian stepped back, his grey-white sword slashing downwards. Chi Quan neither blocked nor retreated, but instead stepped forward, his shoulder slamming into Helian's chest.
Helian was forced to retreat again. He took three steps back, and Chi Quan followed with three steps.
The two never separated.
Helian's expression changed slightly. Not because Chi Quan was fast—he had anticipated Chi Quan's speed. It was because there was no hesitation in Chi Quan's movements. A man with four wounds, standing in a basin with no way out, facing an opponent who had schemed against him for a long time, didn't hesitate when he drew his sword.
"Interesting," Helian said in a low voice.
Chi Quan did not answer. He slashed horizontally from right to left, and Helian parried with his vertical blade. The blade slid along the gray-white blade, scattering sparks. Chi Quan twisted his wrist, the tip of his blade touching the gray-white blade, using the force to rebound, and thrust at Helian's face with a backhand.
Helian tilted his head, the tip of the knife grazing his left cheekbone, cutting a gash. Blood seeped from the wound, trickling down his pale cheek.
Helian touched the blood on his face, looked at the red on his fingertips, and smiled.
You hurt me.
Chi Quan had already sheathed his knife, the tip pointing downwards, held horizontally in front of him. His breathing was heavier than before, and the blood seeped from his abdomen faster, leaving a wet patch on his dark clothes.
Helian smeared the blood from his fingertip onto the gray-white blade. The moment the blood touched the blade, it seemed to be absorbed, disappearing into the gray-white metal without leaving a trace.
"I have your blood too," Helian said. "It wasn't from a test tube. When you were little, someone took your blood and gave it to me. Do you know who that person was?"
Chi Quan did not respond.
Helian said to himself, "It's your mother."
Chi Quan paused for a moment, less than half a second, but Helian saw it.
"She wasn't from Konoha. She came from a branch family of the Hamura clan, married into the Land of Fire, and gave birth to you. The Hamura bloodline in your body comes from her. The other half of your bloodline comes from your father. She never told anyone who your father was until her death."
Chi Quan slightly raised the tip of his knife.
"How did she die?"
"She died of illness," Helian said. "No one killed her. Her health had always been poor, and it got worse after she gave birth to you. When you were six, she coughed up blood in front of you for three months. On her last day, she called your name, but she passed away before she could finish calling it."
Chi Quan's hand holding the knife didn't tremble. But his breathing changed—not faster, but deeper. Each breath felt like he was drawing in all the air from the basin into his lungs.
Helian looked at him, his gray eyes reflecting the image of the pool.
"Before your mother died, she wrote me a letter. She said—this child has two bloodlines, one from the Hamura family and the other from the Suigetsu family. The Suigetsu bloodline will awaken around the age of ten, and after that, he will go out of control. Please come and take him away before then."
Chi Quan's face was as white as paper.
"The Shuiyue family?" He repeated the three words, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
"The Suigetsu family bloodline," Helian said. "You thought your other half of your bloodline was nameless? It has a name. Suigetsu. The Suigetsu family bloodline of one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. You are not a mixture of two bloodlines; you are the descendant of Hamura and Suigetsu. Hamura's Water Manifestation and Suigetsu's Liquefaction. One controls water, the other becomes water. Combined—you are a natural, needless, perfect fluid warrior."
Chi Quan stood still.
The dust and mist flowed slowly between him and Helian, like a silent, slow vortex. Occasionally, a rock or two would roll down from the distant mountainside, crashing onto the pile of earth and rocks with a dull thud.
"Your mother wants you to come with me," Helian said, "but she doesn't know one thing: I don't just want to take you with me. I want both of your bloodlines to awaken simultaneously. You already have Yu Cun's Water Transformation, although it's sealed and suppressed, but Luo has already activated it. You haven't awakened Shui Yue's Liquefaction yet. So you're not fully formed yet."
He took a step forward.
"I need you to awaken. So I need to push you to the brink. The brink is the fastest way to awaken. Your mother asked me to take you away, but she didn't know that on the day she wrote that letter, she had already sent her child down the path I had laid out for her."
Chi Quan suddenly laughed.
It wasn't a happy laugh, nor a mocking laugh; it was a very short laugh, like a knife slicing through stone.
"Are you finished speaking?"
Helian stopped.
Chi Quan held the sword up to his eyes, the chakra membrane on the blade glowing faintly in the dim light.
"I believe half of what you said. I believe the letter my mother wrote. I believe the story about the Shuiyue family. But you said you came to take me away—"
'
He pointed the knife at Helian's throat.
"You're here to die."
He rushed forward.
The blade sliced through the dust and mist, heading straight for Helian's throat.
Helian did not retreat. The gray-white blade flicked upwards, its tip precisely striking the side of Chi Quan's blade, deflecting the direction of the edge. Chi Quan's blade grazed past Helian's ear, shaving off a few strands of hair. Taking advantage of Chi Quan's momentum, Helian slid the gray-white blade down his side, aiming for the fingers holding the sword.
Chi Quan let go.
The knife didn't fall. He switched hands—his right hand loosened while his left caught the hilt. The bandage on his left arm tightened at the moment of the hand switch, and the wound on his abdomen tore open wider, blood seeping from his clothes and dripping onto the muddy ground beneath his feet.
Helian's eyes lit up.
"Left hand? Your left shoulder is still injured."
Chi Quan didn't answer. His left-hand sword thrust upwards at a more cunning angle than his right, with no less speed. Helian dodged, his grey-white blade slashing back at Chi Quan's waist. Chi Quan didn't retreat; his left-hand sword changed direction in mid-air, the tip touching the ground, using the ground's reaction force to launch himself into a half-circle, his right knee striking Helian's chest.
Helian parried with his arm, his knee striking Chi Quan's forearm with a dull thud. Chi Quan took half a step back, and Chi Quan landed on the ground, the knife in his left hand already back in his right in less than half a second.
The distance between the two widened again.
Helian glanced down at his forearm. There was a gash on his gray sleeve, cut by a blade, from which blood seeped. It wasn't deep, but it was definitely a wound.
"Your left arm isn't that useless." Helian's tone changed, from nonchalant to serious. "You're faking it."
"Hmm," Chi Quan said, "I pretended for three days."
He moved.
This wasn't a test, a switch of hands, or a feint. He was like a fully drawn bow suddenly released, going from stillness to full speed in a single step. His sword slashed horizontally from right to left, Helian parried with his own sword. The instant the two swords collided, Chi Quan's sword suddenly softened—no, it didn't soften, but the chakra membrane on the blade changed shape, transforming from solid to fluid. The blade, like water, bypassed Helian's gray-white sword, aiming straight for his wrist.
Helian's expression changed, and he withdrew his hand and leaned back. The blade grazed half an inch above his wrist, not injuring his flesh, but severing three silk threads from his sleeve.
"The liquefaction of the Shuiyue family," Helian said in a low voice, "you're already using it."
11
Chi Quan looked at him.
"That was the first time. I don't know how I did it. Maybe when you're about to die, your body will find a way to cope."
"You're not about to die," Helian said. "You're about to awaken."
Chi Quan glanced down at his sword. The chakra membrane on the blade was still there, but it was thinner than before, and the edges were no longer neat, but undulated slightly like water ripples. He didn't know how the membrane had become like that. With that last strike, he was only trying to bypass Helian's block, and the thought in his mind was "water," and the sword changed.
Perhaps Helian is telling the truth. The Shuiyue family's bloodline resides within him, waiting for a desperate situation.
Helian didn't give him any more time to think.
The greyish-white blade suddenly vanished from Helian's hand. It wasn't hidden; it truly disappeared—transforming into a cloud of greyish-white mist that rushed towards Chi Quan's face. Chi Quan closed his eyes and tilted his head, holding the blade horizontally in front of him to parry. The mist hissed as it touched the blade, like water droplets falling on red-hot iron.
Chi Quan's right cheek was touched by the mist, and a fine layer of red rashes immediately appeared on his skin, itchy and painful. It wasn't poison, but rather the mist that Helian had atomized, which would seep into the skin through the pores.
Chi Quan took three steps back, wiped the mist off his face with his left hand. His palm was covered with a layer of grayish-white water stains, which smelled faintly salty and fishy, like seawater.
"Yan Shui isn't just for tracking," Helian's voice came from behind the mist, which gathered and dispersed around him. "It can take any form. Gas, liquid, solid. Did your mother teach you that?"
Chi Quan did not answer.
He was six years old when his mother died. What can a six-year-old remember? He can remember the way she coughed up blood, the way she called his name, and the way her hand slid off the edge of the bed. She never taught him anything about Yanshui.
"She didn't," Chi Quan said.
Helian was silent for a moment. Grayish-white mist swirled slowly around him, like a snake coiled at his feet.
"Then I'll teach you," he said.
The fog suddenly spread. Not towards the pool, but in all directions simultaneously, like a gray flower suddenly blooming in the center of the basin. Visibility around the pool dropped from ten meters to less than one meter. He could see nothing but the grayish-white fog, boundless, clinging to his skin, carrying a salty, fishy smell.
Chi Quan closed his eyes.