Chapter 10: Ninja

At 5:00 PM, a small van carried the two individuals into Canshou District. They first entered an underground garage in a secluded location, then walked through a secret passageway inside for about twenty minutes. When the vehicle finally emerged from the tunnel, a green-painted modified aircraft was already within the passengers' field of vision.

"I know they're fond of biotechs," Gungong Ce said with a dark face, "but was it necessary to paint the airplane green as well?"

"This aircraft is named the Lightning Caterpillar," Shigure Reiichi replied with a deadpan expression. "I heard the designer poured his childhood dreams into it, so he insisted on giving it a special paint job."

Shigure Rei's voice carried one hundred percent emptiness and twice as much conviction.

"Everyone in your Capital of the Firmament has something wrong with your brains."

Uttered without a shred of bias and entirely as a matter of fact, there was simply no room for refutation.

The two investigators stepped out of the car, wearing long trench coats and carrying suitcases. Gongsun Ce looked affectionately at the driver and said, "Bro, if I don't make it back, remember to smash my computer. Pulverize it physically."

"I will." Shigure Reiichi added silently in his heart, *I will make sure to pass those words on to Qin Qianbai.* He watched the two walk toward the nearby airplane and silently activated his ability.

*(Don't worry, Gongsun. What Sister Ling hates most is Zero Island and the Research Institute; the Capital of the Firmament and you are negligible compared to the hatred in her heart.)*

Gongsun Ce was not surprised. Shigure Rei, who valued herself above anyone else, had actually accepted that collar which restricted her freedom. This alone was enough to show how desperately she wanted to settle the past with her own hands.

*(She has never hated me, so what do I have to worry about?)*

Gongsun Ce waved backward, turned his head, and asked, "So now the mission officially begins... Miss Shigure, at least until we return to the Capital of the Firmament, shall we wear our masks and get along properly?"

The blue-haired woman replied with a look of surprise, "What are you talking about, young man? Shigure is clearly the target of this mission. Joking again, this big sister of yours wouldn't make a mistake even on basic intelligence like..."

She acted just like she had on the day they first met, resting one hand on Gongsun Ce's shoulder and saying playfully, "Besides, aren't we great partners who joined hands to stop the dragon disaster back in February?"

I have to admit, your psychological fortitude is superior this time.

"Need you ask? It's a pleasure to join forces with you once again, Miss Hunter."

"Same here, esper~"

·

The boarding stairs retracted, swallowing Alice Idal and Gongsun Ce into the belly of the Lightning Caterpillar. Twenty pairs of landing gear sprouted from the bottom of this uniquely named modified aircraft, crawling rapidly across the runway like a giant green caterpillar and leaving transparent traces in its wake before finally leaping up into the sky and soaring straight into the clouds.

Mr. Shigure gazed up at the caterpillar in the air, deeply feeling the turbulent fate awaiting this mission.

"Well, they're off." A man walked soundlessly to the side of the car. "Zero Island is an interesting place. I haven't been there in a few years."

"Hello, Mr. Traveler," Shigure Reiichi bowed respectfully. "Are you heading out as well?"

The Traveler looked very leisurely. He was carrying a shopping bag containing swimming trunks, swim goggles, and beach shoes.

"I'm thinking of going diving in the Nanyang Islands," the Traveler said cheerfully. "Would you like to come along?"

If his companion had been Caldecia instead of the Traveler, Shigure Reiichi believed he certainly would have been tempted.

"Thank you..." he sighed, "but I have my own mission as well."

·

The turbulence when the Lightning Caterpillar departed was severe enough to force Gongsun Ce to use his psychokinesis to secure them both in their seats.

Neither partner particularly wanted to sit together, so an entire aisle separated his seat from Shigure Rei's. Gongsun Ce inserted the chip given to him by his friend into his phone and muttered, "Now is the time for mission background exposition... and then we can rush in with swords, guns, and clubs to eliminate the enemy."

Shigure Rei pierced him with her words: "Do you even need weapons?"

I was just speaking metaphorically.

The data chip scan was complete, and Gongsun Ce's phone screen was occupied by a UI resembling a live-streaming room. The pink-haired girl in the screen smiled and waved, bringing up a speech bubble: [(*??-)☆ Data reading complete! Do you need a voice briefing?]

He glanced at Shigure Rei beside him and typed a quick reply: [Thanks for the kind offer, I'll just read the text.]

[('·w·`) Oh oh.]

Qiluo hid away at the edge, and the content displayed on the screen changed to a massive wall of text. Gongsun Ce read through it roughly, combined it with the common sense he had learned in high school geography, and formulated a concise summary.

·

Zero Island was an island nation located in the eastern part of the Eternal Light Empire, with a current total area of approximately 400,000 square kilometers. According to statistical data from the beginning of this year, its total population was 173,776,444.

The earliest written records of Zero Island in the world appeared in the chapter "Foreign Islands" from the book *Geography Within the Seas*, which was compiled during the Great Opening Period that began in the 200th year of the Eternal Light Era. Empire sailors from over 1,800 years ago recorded it thus:

"...The land is mountainous and perilous, with few flat fields for agriculture, devoid of rare treasures, and frequently plagued by dragon disasters.

...The barbarians are foolish, uncivilized, speak strange tongues, and worship ghosts and spirits.

...There is nothing of any value here, hence it is called Zero Island."

Expressed in easy-to-understand terms, this record meant that the island had many mountains and few flatlands, rare goods were nowhere to be found, and dragon disasters occurred frequently; the local savages were superstitious and spoke a language different from the Empire's; no matter how one looked at it, it was not a suitable place to live and possessed not a single redeeming feature, so they called it Zero Island.

This record carried a high degree of subjectivity and the limitations of its era. In truth, Zero Island was rich in natural reserves, backed by the ocean with abundant fishery resources, and its deep mountains held various rare minerals. The locals had already formed a civilization and religious worship before the Empire's fleet arrived, and they were by no means more foolish than the people of the distant mainland—mind you, at that time the savages of Morton were still running around in skirts killing each other, and the brutes of Ustus were still trying to figure out how to wrestle grizzly bears.

However, the ancient imperial texts were right about one thing: Zero Island truly was a wretched place.

This place bred dragon disasters, with giant dragons descending every few years. The locals, struggling to survive amidst these giant dragon phenomena, worshipped the dragons as fickle deities, which was why the giant dragon phenomena were called Defiling Gods or Calamity Gods on Zero Island.

The frequently descending giant dragon phenomena caused large-scale reality-destroying impacts, leading to the existence of various extraordinary and wondrous non-human entities on Zero Island since ancient times. These creatures were as elusive as spirits and ghosts, often active in areas far removed from human habitation, and were thus called Concealed Gods.

Legend had it that a tiny fraction of the Concealed Gods held goodwill toward the locals, helping the people of Zero Island through their most difficult times, and they were revered as Direct Gods.

Terrifying Calamity Gods, secretive Concealed Gods, and friendly Direct Gods—these three categories of deities formed an important part of the local beliefs on Zero Island and were collectively known as the Eight Million Gods.

Due to the pervasive presence of primitive beliefs, religious organizations that performed sacrifices to deities and interpreted divine will held immense power on Zero Island, functioning as its de facto ruling class. After the arrival of the Empire, the local religious forces on Zero Island were further strengthened: the Eternal Light Empire brought technology known as the Law of Transience, which genuinely granted shrine maidens and priestesses powers surpassing ordinary mortals.

Zero Island's local practitioners of the Law of Transience were born amidst this intensely mythological atmosphere. They protected the country and slayed dragons, offered sacrifices to the deities, and wielded overwhelming dominance over secular political power. In the early days, all practitioners of the Law of Transience on Zero Island operated under the command of a single organization, which was Zero Island's oldest and once most powerful association of the Law of Transience: the Seven Luminaries Shinto.

The arts of the Seven Luminaries Shinto originated from exchanges with the Empire and received substantial assistance from imperial experts during their development. Therefore, Zero Island under the rule of the Seven Luminaries Shinto maintained an extremely close relationship with the distant mainland, with frequent cultural exchanges and movement of talent between the two nations.

The situation on Zero Island passed through 1,500 years in this stable atmosphere... until the 1709th year of the Eternal Light Era, when the Disaster of Void Light descended upon Zero Island.

This dragon disaster completely altered the appearance of Zero Island and steered this nation toward an unfathomable direction of development.

Before the descent of the Disaster of Void Light, Zero Island was a unified, crescent-shaped island with a total area of approximately 520,000 square kilometers, making it the second-largest island in the world at the time. After the Dragon of Void Light departed from this land, Zero Island lost over one-fifth of its territory, and the complete crescent was severed into three small islands, each transformed by the dragon's power into something utterly unrelated to its original form.

Local religious forces suffered unprecedentedly massive blows during the Disaster of Void Light, and the foundation of the Seven Luminaries Shinto was severely damaged. Meanwhile, another group of overlooked individuals seized this opportunity to step onto Zero Island's stage: they were the samurai who had been suppressed by the Shinto forces for years, the merchants who had never held major power, and the ninjas who served all high-ranking individuals yet hid themselves in the shadows.

Samurai, merchants, ninjas—figures of importance from these three factions forged an alliance during this period, and a new organization born from the old soil emerged.

This was the official organization that still maintained dominance on Zero Island to this day...

The Martial Assembly and Military Vanguard!

·

Having summarized this much on his own, Gongsun Ce felt he needed more details.

"Excuse me, Miss Alice?"

The hunter in the next seat emitted a nasal humpph.

"There's one part I genuinely find hard to understand..." Gongsun Ce pushed up his glasses. "Why would the Empire directly impart the Law of Transience to the people of Zero Island back then? Isn't that a bit too generous?"

The Law of Transience was technology developed specifically to counter giant dragon phenomena. According to conventional thinking, how could such technology be easily handed over to a foreign power? Even if they weren't forced to bow and submit, shouldn't they have had to exchange a massive amount of rare treasures and resources just to secure a spot for study?

Alice rolled her eyes. "To think you're an imperial citizen, yet you've forgotten your Eternal Light Empire's fundamental national policy that's been chanted for two thousand years?"

Gongsun Ce replied without a second thought: "To unite all forces around the Emperor, forge the eternal glory of human civilization, and march toward complete victory in the struggle against giant dragons."

Even kindergarten kids could recite those few lines.

Alice apathetically flipped through the magazine in front of her seat: "Aren't you quite clear on it? The imperial people of ancient times did precisely that. They genuinely believed that dragon-slaying was the enterprise of all humanity, so everywhere they went, they left specialists behind to impart knowledge of the Law of Transience to the indigenous people. The frontline 'Envoys' of the Ritual Hall evolved from this very practice."

The blue-haired woman eagerly launched into a popular science lecture: "Let me tell you, the places ancient Envoys visited weren't limited to Zero Island. The Law of Transience in the Nanyang Islands was imparted by the Empire during the Second Great Opening Period. The most interesting ones are the practitioners of the Law of Transience in Ustus—do you know how they came to be?"

Gongsun Ce's eyelid twitched as he once again recalled an anecdote told by the headmaster in an elective course.

"I recall the Ustus ancient tribe's first contact with the Empire was... a war?"

"That's right. The armies of both sides were fighting halfway when a dragon disaster arrived, and the war was left unfinished. As a result, during the post-war peace talks between both sides, the Eternal Light Emperor declared that the wars among mortals had ended, and now the great Empire would impart mysterious technologies to resist giant dragons to them." Alice beamed with delight. "When I first heard about this, I thought it was completely absurd—they actually went ahead and did it!"

One dared to teach and the other dared to learn, prompting Gongsun Ce to sincerely marvel that the ancients of a thousand years ago were truly simple, honest, and returned kindness for grievance. If this were today's world, let alone the Emperor of the Empire, even the monitor of a key high school class wouldn't be that absent-minded.

"I remember the emperor at that time was Emperor Xingan, Chi Qiuhuang, who is recorded in history books as an enlightened monarch of a generation."

"The history books aren't wrong. Emperor Xingan didn't give it away for free; he set conditions. Unfortunately, the gentlemen of Eternal Light didn't anticipate the savages' tactical maneuvers and got thoroughly scammed by them. The word 'Ustus' was a meme born from that peace talk..."

Halfway through her sentence, seeing Gongsun Ce's expression, Alice suddenly snapped to her senses. She jerked her head away and clicked her tongue: "What am I even telling you this for!"

Aren't you enjoying it yourself quite a bit?

Come to think of it, Alice Idal had always been fond of playing the teacher. A significant portion of his foundational understanding of the Law of Transience had come from her explanations. The gray-haired young man sighed once more: if only Alice could always just be Alice.

"Consider it popular science for your teammate. After all, the two of us are acting together; if I make a fool of myself over common sense, it won't look good on your face either?"

"Hiss... You..."

This remark subtly touched upon Shigure Rei's pain point, causing her to fall into earnest inner conflict.

The esper seized the opportunity to ask: "Tell me a bit more about Zero Island knowledge, will you? Take ninjas, for instance—I always thought that was a profession that only existed in comic books."

The word "ninja" brought an immediate reaction. Alice didn't even have to think before saying, "Ninjas are a bunch of weirdos."

What kind of profession makes even *you* call them weirdos?

Alice said with a headache, "First of all, the way they talk is very strange, and as for their mindset... I don't know how to describe it. You'll understand once you meet a real ninja."

At that moment, a poised male voice echoed from the far end of the aisle.

"—Regarding the introduction to ninjas, please allow this unworthy one to provide it."

The gray-haired young man looked up to see a middle-aged man wearing a white aviation uniform walking out of the cockpit.

"Good evening, you two. I am Takuya Mori, the captain of this flight. The Capital of the Firmament boasts superb technology, and the Lightning Caterpillar has switched to autopilot, so please rest assured."

While introducing himself, the middle-aged captain helpfully offered words of reassurance: "So-called ninjas are practitioners of the Law of Transience unique to Zero Island. Ninjas master countless ways of killing—karate, judo, swordsmanship, hidden weapons, sumo, and poisoning—while also possessing expert-level mastery of the Law of Transience. They are ruthless, iron-masked executioners!"

Gongsun Ce nodded cooperatively: "It sounds like ninjas are very powerful."

"Indeed! Your party will inevitably be at odds with the Martial Assembly and Military Vanguard this time, and ninjas are the strongest combat force under that organization." The captain reached out and unfolded a scroll, pointing at the stick figures on it to introduce them one by one: "The Martial Assembly and Military Vanguard divide ninjas into the following three tiers: Hundred-Refined ninjas of the Spirit-Illuminating and Lucid Realm, Thousand-Forged ninjas of the Penetrating-Divine Realm, and Soul-Severing ninjas who have reached the Manifestation Realm."

Captain Mori glanced at the blue-haired woman and stated with absolute certainty, "As the leader of the ninja forces, a Soul-Severing ninja is evaluated as having an overall danger level even greater than Shigure!"

Alice sneered, offering no comment, while Gongsun Ce smiled and chimed in: "Ninjas are certainly strong!"

"Indeed, ninjas are strong!" Mori replied solemnly. "And life is precious! Because of that, I cannot simply sit by and watch you head to Zero Island in a near-rookie state without even understanding the basics!"

Gongsun Ce unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up in the aisle.

"If you have any advice, please do not hesitate to instruct me."

"With pleasure."

The air beside Captain Mori warped slightly due to fluctuations in energy. The orange-yellow brilliance emerging from the void formed strips of cloth, arm guards, and a face mask under the guidance of inner power... transforming into an orange-yellow ninja uniform embroidered with flame patterns!

Within 0.1st of a second, too fast for the naked eye to catch, the uniformed captain vanished. In his place stood a genuine ninja equipped with Mind-Heart Armament!

The ninja in the orange-yellow outfit pressed his palms together, bowed forward, and offered the sacred pre-battle greeting with etiquette that even a ninja army leader could find no fault with.

"Domo, Demon-san. I am a Thousand-Forged ninja belonging to the former Martial Assembly and Military Vanguard, Blazing Fire!"

Based solely on that greeting, he completely believed Miss Alice's introduction.

...Ninjas truly are a bunch of weirdos.