Chapter 5: Make Money, Ninja
"Hoo~~"
Early morning. In a quiet park, Li Jie Xuan stood among the tall trees and slowly exhaled a long breath. A matte-black kunai flickered faintly from within the sleeve of his clothes.
"Go!"
With a light flick of his wrist, the sharp kunai shot out of Li Jie Xuan's sleeve like lightning.
With a loud bang, the kunai plunged viciously into the tree trunk like a venomous snake, more than half of the blade buried deep inside. This was solid wood—and it already showed such destructive power. If this were soft flesh…
Li Jie Xuan casually waved his hand. The matte-black kunai abruptly vanished from the tree trunk and reappeared in his hand. Even as the lowest-tier treasure, the mystical properties belonging to a treasure item suffered no reduction whatsoever.
Time flowed like water. It had already been a full year since Li Jie Xuan came to this world…
Smiling, Li Jie Xuan tucked the space-time kunai back into his sleeve and turned to walk toward Might Guy's house. "That's enough training for today. Might Guy should be back soon too…"
Ten minutes later, Li Jie Xuan returned to the shabby house.
"Jie Xuan, you're back?"
Might Guy was squatting on the ground, carefully sorting the various medicinal herbs from his basket.
Li Jie Xuan nodded, but inwardly he began to think. After these past few days of living here, he had noticed that Might Guy left the village every morning and every night to gather herbs. Although Might Guy was a ninja, his poverty was precisely because of these herbs.
Aside from gathering medicinal plants and training his taijutsu, he simply had no time to take on ninja missions.
Otherwise, even if he were only a genin, with a ninja's high pay, there was no way his life would be this hard…
"Uncle Might Guy, what are these herbs used for?"
Li Jie Xuan narrowed his eyes. If his guess was correct, these herbs were likely one of the key reasons the Might family's taijutsu could reach such heights.
"These are for soaking in baths!" Might Guy showed no intention of hiding anything. He smiled and raised his arm, flexing his muscles. "After training, the body gets extremely fatigued. That's when you absolutely have to soak in a medicinal bath made from special herbs!"
Hearing this, Li Jie Xuan nodded inwardly. Just as he thought—although the Might family's taijutsu strength mainly came from hard work, without this unique formula, relying on effort alone would be nothing more than an empty castle in the air.
The body simply wouldn't be able to endure it…
"What? Does little Jie Xuan want to soak too?"
After sorting the herbs, Might Guy smiled and picked Li Jie Xuan up. "It's a bit early, but if you want to train taijutsu, you can soak together with Little Duy and me in the future!"
Hearing this, even Li Jie Xuan couldn't help but feel moved. As the saying goes, scholarship thrives in poverty, martial arts in wealth. Even in the Naruto world, this saying still held true. Training taijutsu clearly consumed far more resources than training ninjutsu.
This was also one of the reasons Might Guy was so poor…
They weren't related by blood at all, yet Might Guy was willing to let him enjoy expensive medicinal baths for free, sharing and diluting the effects of his own herbs.
"I want to learn taijutsu!"
Li Jie Xuan nodded, but soon shook his head again. "But I'll handle the herbs myself!"
This wasn't Li Jie Xuan trying to show off or be stubborn. Bathing alone would naturally be more effective than three people sharing one bath. Perhaps this was also the reason the Might family grew stronger with each generation…
Hearing this, Might Duy didn't say anything, only scratching his head in confusion. "Little Jie Xuan, if you buy these herbs instead of gathering them, they're not cheap at all…"
"How much do they cost?"
"One hundred thousand ryō!"
Hearing that number, Li Jie Xuan nodded slightly. It was indeed a huge sum. Completing a single B-rank mission might only earn around one hundred thousand ryō.
However, Li Jie Xuan smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry. I'll handle it myself…"
Before the words had fully fallen, a line of text suddenly popped up in Li Jie Xuan's mind:
Survival Mission: Make money, ninja!
Mission content: Even a hero can be brought low by a lack of money. A real man can live without a wife, but not without money for even a single day. Earn ten million ryō as quickly as possible.
Mission reward: Unknown (will change as time passes).
Mission time limit: Unlimited.
A new mission had appeared!
Li Jie Xuan shrugged with a smile. "The system really thinks highly of me…"
Ten million ryō—
That was truly no small amount.
(Show your support and read more chapters on my Patreon: [email protected]/psychopet. Thank you for your support!)