Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 72 The Three Idiots of the Far North

Several days later, in the far north, in the land of snow.

The cold wind was like a knife, sweeping across the boundless snowfield.

Three travelers trudged through knee-deep snow, each step requiring immense effort.

The leader was a middle-aged man. He stopped and looked back at the young man and boy behind him. Both of them had blue faces from the cold, but they gritted their teeth and remained silent.

"There's a cave up ahead; let's rest there tonight."

The middle-aged man's voice was broken by the wind, but the two men heard it clearly. They nodded and continued walking forward.

The cave wasn't large, but it was enough to shelter them from the wind. The three of them crawled into the cave. The middle-aged man skillfully started a fire, while the young man took out some frozen dry rations from his pocket and put them on the fire to roast.

The boy huddled in the corner, staring at the flickering flames, and suddenly spoke: "Can...we really survive?"

The middle-aged man did not answer.

The young man glanced at the boy and said calmly, "The adults said to live, so we must live."

The boy remained silent for a long time before nodding vigorously.

At first, they thought this infiltration mission would be easy, since there were no reports of powerful ninjas in the Land of Snow. But they soon realized they were very wrong.

Due to the terrain and weather, they initially found it difficult to adapt to the cold, high-pressure environment. Coupled with their weak foundation, this greatly reduced their strength.

Soon after, others saw through the disguise—because they didn't look like businessmen at all.

In addition, the political system of the Land of Snow is different. The Snow Village and the Daimyo live together, and they have political marriages. The Daimyo's younger brother is a powerful ninja.

Therefore, even though they are weak and belong to neutral countries in remote and peripheral areas, they are exceptionally united in their dealings with foreign powers.

This was their first time acting as spies, so they had little experience. They were selected based on merit, and there was no training in this area in Takigakure Village.

Having discovered the flaw, they prepared to take them to the Ming Dynasty for questioning.

They naturally couldn't just surrender, so they took action.

Unexpectedly, although the opponent's foundation was also not good, he was wearing special armor and could use unique ice-style ninjutsu according to the terrain.

The three were beaten so badly they fled in panic, even losing the goods they had brought with them. In the end, they escaped the encirclement thanks to their solid foundation—which was actually only slightly stronger than that of the Snow Ninja.

But they soon developed snow blindness and got lost in the vast snow-covered mountains.

The firelight rising from inside the cave cast flickering shadows on the faces of the three people.

"This can't go on. The lord sent us here to gather intelligence and information. We are Jonin from Takigakure!"

Although their Jonin status was somewhat questionable, their fundamentals were solid. Furthermore, they undoubtedly had ways to continuously improve their strength; it's just a pity these insects went into hibernation after entering the far north.

Their inability to withstand the cold and their drowsiness are partly due to the presence of parasites. However, once the parasites survive their juvenile stage, they should be able to adapt.

"Brother Chengche, please use the cocoon technique on me to help the insects grow. I feel like I can't hold on much longer."

"But what about your foundation?"

"It doesn't matter, we were just completing a mission anyway." The young man shook his head. "Now I understand why the master taught us this secret technique before he left. There's a reason for everything. It's just a pity that our knowledge is limited, and we didn't learn it at all."

Looking at the vast expanse of white snow, the middle-aged man was ultimately helpless. After he finished forming the hand seals, the worms inside the young man's body were awakened and began to grow into adult worms.

"My chakra has recovered somewhat. Take out the insect gourds from your bodies, and let's establish our base here."

"Right here? But there's nobody here!"

"I think it's pretty good. Actually, we've already suffered a partial defeat, especially since our rations are almost gone. If we don't find a village or hunt any more prey, we'll starve to death soon. The best thing to do now is to build an insect hive. By feeding on insects, we might be able to hold out for a while longer."

The young man formed hand seals and opened all the seals on the three gourds containing the insects.

A large number of insects hidden inside the gourd began to emerge, but half of them quickly froze to death due to the unsuitable environment. Then they began to eat the soil and ice, and another half of them froze to death.

Especially the most numerous earthworms, the frozen soil contains no mineral nutrients for them, so they must eat a lot to survive. However, the soil is also very moist, and they cannot consume the solid ice. As a result, they die in large numbers until they are all eliminated a day later.

Upon witnessing this scene, the three could already foresee the mission's failure, the death of all the insects due to their inability to adapt to the environment, and their own starvation and freezing to death in the cave.

Until the most ferocious, fewest, and lowest-survival-rate corrosive insects mutated within their population within a single day, differentiating into insects capable of sucking up solid ice.

It gave them a glimmer of hope to survive.

Several days later, they successfully survived the cold wind and heavy snow by eating insects.

One of the boys accidentally used a water-based ninjutsu and discovered that the water would turn into solid ice.

At that moment, he finally understood why all three of them were water-type ninjas.

"Captain, the snowstorm outside has stopped! Can we go look for food now?"

"Don't call me captain anymore. I'm much older than you, so from now on you should call me father and him brother."

At this moment, he finally understood that his rash escape was a mistake. Even if the Snow Village captured them, they might not necessarily be executed outright.

As long as they stubbornly deny being spies, they are likely to be recruited and become Snow Ninja.

"From this day forward, we are no longer the ninjas of Takigakure. We are merely wanderers who fled to the far north to survive. Remember, no matter what, we will never let go."

-

Deep within the underground palace of Takigaku Village.

Naoto stood in front of Shisei Aburame, his brows slightly furrowed.

"You want me to go out and get a mission?"

"Um."

Aburame Zhicheng sat cross-legged on the stone platform, nodded slightly, and said in a calm tone, "The village is stable for the time being. With Shemu Xiaolang around, your departure won't cause any major trouble. You need to go out and explore."

The straightforward person was puzzled: "What are you going to do?"

"Reputation".

Aburame Shisei looked up at him: "You're the top ninja in Takigakure now, but that title only matters in this small village. Once you step outside, who's going to know who you, Naoto, really are?"

Upon hearing this, Naoto fell silent.

He knew that Yu Nu Zhicheng was right.

Takigakure is too small, so small that it only occupies a tiny area on the map. As for the population, if we don't count the underground palace, it can only accommodate 12,000 to 15,000 people; any more than that would exceed the limit.