"How's this armor? The Fūma Clan's craftsmanship is truly exquisite."
While Gorō Fūma was receiving his unlucky customer, Uchiha Shichimi came to Yūshin wearing a full set of armor.
Due to the high intensity and frequency of warfare in this era, ninja basically all wore armor, and most of it was metal armor... Previously, Yūshin and his group had been in an unprotected state simply because they were poor and lacked resources.
Now they had skilled blacksmiths and no longer lacked resources with Kikyō Castle's support, so naturally they upgraded their equipment level.
Yūshin took the metal armor and felt its heavy weight, nodding involuntarily.
"Very good, except for the color."
"What's wrong with the color?"
Yūshin just shook his head but didn't say more.
This armor was custom-made specifically for Yūshin, so the size was naturally perfect. However, the only flaw was that it was blue—even using a baked enamel process on the surface, making it reflectively blue.
This made it look less like practical protective gear and more like an exquisite work of art.
If possible, Yūshin would have preferred a more low-key color, like black, gray, or natural metal color. This blue didn't feel low-key enough—too conspicuous on the battlefield.
However, since it was already made and its practicality was unquestionable, he couldn't demand rework just for the color. Custom armor wasn't easy to make—how could he waste work time just for personal preference?
Next, Yūshin began disassembling the complete armor set.
Leg armor and skirt armor weren't very necessary—increasing protection couldn't come at the cost of sacrificing flexibility.
Shoulder armor wasn't needed either. For Yūshin, upper limb injuries weren't fatal anyway.
When he also removed the back plate, Uchiha Shichimi finally couldn't help saying:
"You don't need back armor either? If there's penetrating damage from behind, that could be very fatal."
Yūshin considered briefly but still insisted on removing the back armor.
"Cough, under normal circumstances, I'm usually the one ambushing others from behind. Others basically have no chance to ambush me from behind."
"..."
Uchiha Shichimi felt something seemed wrong somewhere, but thinking carefully, it seemed fine.
So what remained in Yūshin's hands was just one complete chest plate extending from his waist to below his neck. This thing had a certain curvature and was blue all over—at first glance, it looked very much like a turtle shell.
Using straps to secure the chest plate, Yūshin tried moving his limbs and found that indeed there was no impact. His movements remained very flexible.
The Fūma Clan's craftsmanship was truly excellent.
Moreover, there was one point that made Yūshin quite satisfied—the chest plate had no messy symbols on it. This way, if he encountered enemies, they couldn't determine his origins from appearance alone.
But just as he was thinking this, Uchiha Shichimi suddenly reached out and produced a forehead protector with a special symbol drawn in the center.
"The organization symbol I designed—everyone thinks it's very good. What do you think?"
Shichimi asked Yūshin with expectation.
Honestly, Yūshin had never thought about creating any unified symbol before, because he had always followed the combat philosophy of "sneak into the village quietly, don't make noise when shooting"—how could he actively expose his identity for no reason?
However, everyone else had symbols. Without a clan crest, wouldn't you just be a wandering ninja?
Yūshin looked at that forehead protector, his expression somewhat strange.
"It looks good, just..."
"Is there any problem?"
Uchiha Shichimi's design had half showing leaf veins and the other half showing flame shapes... It was indeed very good, fitting the organization's renaming journey from "Ashes" to "The Fireflies," and also fitting the organization's current development direction.
But this way, Yūshin felt he needed to create a slogan for The Fireflies organization—something like "Where leaves fall, fire burns eternally"—how about that?
"No, nothing, very good, no problem, not a single issue."
Yūshin smiled awkwardly, then said:
"But I think under normal circumstances, there's no need to wear forehead protectors with identity markers. We're not some traditional, honorable ninja clan. On the battlefield, it's best to hide our identity and origins if possible."
"That's right. In fact, only when conducting external communications with ninja clans of clear identity do we need to wear such forehead protectors."
Uchiha Shichimi thought briefly and accepted Yūshin's idea.
This made Yūshin breathe a sigh of relief—fortunately, he hadn't dampened her enthusiasm.
Shichimi had just joined the organization and was considering making contributions. Yūshin definitely couldn't directly reject such small matters.
While Yūshin packed up the other parts of the armor, he felt that the organization's situation was indeed different from before—now they actually had the mood to consider such flashy superficial matters.
...
Gorō Fūma brought that ninja to a secret room. After the other party sat down, he began his professional sales pitch.
"The secret technique we're currently selling is called 'Cursed Grudge Fear.'"
Given that what Yūshin had created should be considered pirated goods, plus the psychological trauma he suffered while cultivating Earth Grudge Fear tendrils, he simply renamed the secret technique for sale "Cursed Grudge Fear."
As he spoke, he handed the other party a small booklet that explained the power of the "Cursed Grudge Fear" secret technique with illustrations and text.
Vitality, damage-bearing capacity, attack power, five hearts, five nature transformations...
This secret technique was so overpowered that it made the ninja feel like he was hallucinating.
If someone possessed such a powerful secret technique, how could he possibly sell it? Anyone with intelligence greater than or equal to a maggot wouldn't do such a thing.
However, the clan leader before him had indeed done exactly that.
Although it might just be a trap, this ninja still involuntarily gripped the booklet in his hand tightly.
"If I want to obtain this secret technique, what kind of price do I need to pay?"
Gorō Fūma didn't yet know that in the other party's eyes, he was already equivalent to a fly larva. He continued:
"The transaction method is simple. First, we need 360 Garden City mint coins."
"Second, you also need to provide us with a valuable ninjutsu—either medical ninjutsu, high-level nature transformation, or other secret techniques... In any case, it must have certain value."
360 coins—about five and a half kilograms of gold. Honestly, this price was quite painful, but the value of such a powerful secret technique simply couldn't be measured by money.
This wasn't overpriced—it was too cheap.
Precisely because of this, the subsequent requirement for ninjutsu or secret technique exchange seemed very reasonable.
"That's all?"
If the secret technique was real and the exchange conditions were only these, this ninja felt he had encountered a fool and picked up a bargain.
"That's all... Oh, and also lives."
"Lives?"
"Simply put, what we're selling isn't the cultivation method for Cursed Grudge Fear secret technique, but living samples of this secret technique..."
"As long as you transplant this sample into other ninja, and that ninja can withstand the backlash, then he will become a top-tier powerhouse."
"What's the success rate?"
The other party grasped the key issue.
"Probably very low..." Gorō Fūma thought for a moment and very honestly changed his phrasing: "You'll need to pile up lives."
Indeed, there were no fools in the world, and no free lunches fell from the sky. This ninja felt he had been baited and immediately stood up, placing the booklet on the table, preparing to take his leave.
How much money and how many secret techniques would it take to pile up one powerhouse? Probability theory didn't exist!
But he heard Gorō Fūma continue:
"Our transaction principle is this... Success means payment, failure means refund; but once sold, we take no responsibility for lives lost."
Eh, that ninja's footsteps, which had just started moving, stopped again.
Tomorrow at noon, this will go premium.
Due to the rush, I need to heavily edit and delete slow-paced content unsuitable for premium release, so my small stockpile advantage is gone. I can only try to update as much as possible that day.
About bonus chapters—besides the basic two updates: 1. If first-day subscriptions exceed 2000, I'll add one chapter for every additional 200 subscriptions. 2. This month and next month, one bonus chapter for every 200 monthly votes.
Hope everyone supports with subscriptions and votes to see more updates.
🔥 Want to read the next 50+ chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]