Chapter 169: Big Iron Chains, Give Him a Warm Welcome
"Grandpa, I don't want to go. Please save me!" Uchiha Menwei knew very well that once he went, he might not even come back alive…
Uchiha Jiangshu gritted his teeth and hadn't yet spoken when Menwei dropped to his knees, begging the Octopus Anbu for mercy. "I was blind and foolish. I'm begging you—please let me off!"
What a complete disgrace…
Even within the Uchiha clan, there were such cowards. But thinking about it, that made sense—if he had even a shred of courage, he wouldn't have been assigned to guard the gate in the first place.
Seeing this, Uchiha Jiangshu's eyes turned red with fury. He slapped Menwei across the face. "Wretch! As a descendant of the Uchiha clan, you would rather die standing than live on your knees!"
After taking the slap, Menwei sobbed and clutched Jiangshu's leg. "But Grandpa, I don't want to die…"
Hearing that, Jiangshu couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache for his grandson. Gritting his teeth, he roared, "The Uchiha never make mistakes. Since that brat Li Jiexuan wants to play, then I'll play with him to the very end!"
As he spoke, Jiangshu held Menwei and sneered. "It's fine. Grandpa will go with you to complete this mission. Let's see what tricks that Li Jiexuan can still pull!"
Only then did Menwei calm down slightly…
The pride of being an Uchiha finally steadied him. That's right—he had his grandfather backing him, and behind them stood the entire Uchiha clan.
What was there to fear?
Seeing his objective achieved, the Octopus Anbu left with a cold smile. "At dawn tomorrow, outside Konoha. The details of the mission will be given to you then."
Once Uchiha Jiangshu backed down, the Octopus Anbu knew the grandfather and grandson were no match for Li Jiexuan. To this day, the methods Li Jiexuan used to break the arm of the Mantis Anbu sub-captain were still deeply etched in his memory…
As soon as the Octopus Anbu left, Jiangshu began moving through the clan, making arrangements. With his status, gathering a group of skilled fighters was no problem at all.
"Heh, Li Jiexuan, you'll pay the price!" Jiangshu was brimming with confidence. He refused to believe that, as an elder of the Uchiha clan, he would lose to a three-year-old child!
Challenge Mission: Defeat an Uchiha clan elder.
Mission Details: In a direct confrontation, completely crush Uchiha Jiangshu in terms of strength, influence, intelligence, and emotional intelligence, and utterly destroy him.
Mission Reward: One Kage-level treasure chest, 1,000 points.
"I didn't expect that old man to be worth a Kage-level chest." Li Jiexuan, who was currently spending time bonding with Tsunade, curled his lip in disdain. "Trash like that probably only gets that rating because of his clan's bonus."
After so many missions, Li Jiexuan had more or less figured out some of the system's rules. The rewards were directly tied to difficulty—but that difficulty was complex. It wasn't determined by the mission alone…
Take the previous investigation of the Deadlands Gorge, for example. If not for the presence of those Sand ninja, even if Li Jiexuan had turned the entire canyon upside down, it likely wouldn't have been worth a Kage-level chest.
It was precisely because of those Sand ninja that the reward for investigating Deadlands Gorge had been so high…
As for Uchiha Jiangshu—Li Jiexuan wasn't looking down on him. Remove the name "Uchiha," and even a mid-level treasure chest would be overestimating him. As for Uchiha Menwei, he was even more insignificant…
However, the difficulty of this matter didn't lie in killing them.
It lay in killing the two of them while completely clearing himself of any suspicion. Betraying Konoha over those two wasn't worth it.
This had to be executed flawlessly.
For some reason, Li Jiexuan felt that the Tanuki Anbu had been giving him even stranger looks these past few days… When he had time, he should find the Panda Anbu and greet him properly—with a big iron chain.
Chapter 170: The Confident Uchiha Elder Jiangshu
Morning. Dew shimmered outside Konoha Village…
"Hmph. We're here. So what now?" Uchiha Jiangshu stood with Menwei at his side, his face full of disdain. "Go on—use whatever tricks you've got!"
"Mind your tone. We are here to pursue the S-rank wanted criminal—Kakuzu—not to engage in pointless quarrels." The Octopus Anbu treated this entirely as a routine mission. Of course, that was also Li Jiexuan's instruction…
"Heh…" Jiangshu didn't believe a word of it. He sneered. "Then where exactly is this Kakuzu?"
"The Land of Water." The Octopus Anbu unfolded a map and circled a spot along its border. "According to intelligence reports, Kakuzu was last seen here."
The mission appeared to proceed as usual…
Yet the more normal everything seemed, the more uneasy Jiangshu felt. "Just what is that brat Li Jiexuan plotting? You'd better hope I don't catch you!"
The five-man squad set off toward the Land of Water, while the Li Jiexuan Jiangshu loathed was calmly seated before the Uchiha clan leader, Uchiha Zhenxiong, sipping tea and finalizing a series of cooperative agreements amid pleasant conversation…
At that moment, a small snake suddenly slithered out from Li Jiexuan's sleeve and spat out a slip of paper: Ready!
Li Jiexuan smiled and nodded, burning the note to ashes. He raised his teacup. "Brother Zhenxiong truly lives up to being the Uchiha clan head—even your tea is this fragrant."
"If you like it, I'll have my wife prepare some for you to take home later."
"Hahaha, in that case, I won't stand on ceremony!"
The two chatted amiably…
Time passed slowly, and the Octopus Anbu's team had already reached the border of the Land of Water. It was an ordinary small town called Xuanlord Town. Not large—its population seemed to be only two or three thousand. After a brief investigation, the Octopus Anbu confirmed that Kakuzu had indeed stayed here.
In fact, the entire town claimed to have seen him. The strange part was that every single person gave a different direction for where they had last seen him.
Which meant—north, south, east, or west were all possibilities!
"In that case, we'll split up and investigate separately for now." The Octopus Anbu nodded matter-of-factly. "Remember, if you find Kakuzu, do not engage. We don't want to alert him."
Hearing this, Jiangshu was thoroughly unimpressed. Did Li Jiexuan think that separating him from the Anbu would make it easy to deal with him? They'd better not underestimate the influence of an Uchiha elder!
Jiangshu was brimming with confidence!
But the Land of Water was a nation of scattered islands. No matter which direction one chose, travel by boat was required.
"Our Konoha Anbu have friendly contacts with a shipping company here. If you need, we can arrange a vessel for you."
Faced with the Octopus Anbu's offer, Jiangshu flatly refused, secretly scoffing, "Don't think I don't know what you're planning. Those boats are all your pawns. You want to lure my grandson and me out to sea and eliminate us? I was playing tricks like that when you were still in the mud!"
"That's your decision. I have no authority to interfere." The Octopus Anbu shook his head and left, looking at him as if he were already a dead man…
"Grandpa, shouldn't we take the Anbu's boat?" Menwei trembled in fear. He had an inexplicable feeling that that boat might have been his last chance.
However—
"That Octopus Anbu is clearly Li Jiexuan's dog. Step onto his boat and you might as well close your eyes and wait for death! I've eaten more salt than that brat Li Jiexuan has eaten rice. Do you think I can't see through his tricks?" Jiangshu grinned coldly. "There are plenty of boats in this town. We'll rent one at random, sail around for a bit, then come back. Let's see what they can do then!"
Hearing this, Menwei could only nod meekly.
"Come on. Let's find a boat!"
Jiangshu refused to believe that every single boat in this town bore the surname Li.