"Don't even think about running! You bastard!"
The powerless, enraged roar didn't affect Luo Ning at all.
Hidden within the thick mist, Luo Ning immediately cast the Transformation Jutsu. His refined features and short blonde hair vanished in an instant, replaced by the appearance of a pot-bellied, middle-aged man. His footsteps became frantic and disorganized, perfectly mimicking the panic of the others trapped in the fog.
Luo Ning was well aware that his mastery of Nen was not yet delicate enough to allow him to suppress his aura and blend in as a normal person at will. Therefore, the Transformation Jutsu was his best option. Under the guise of the jutsu, he looked like any other ordinary person, with a faint trace of life energy naturally leaking out into the surroundings.
The current situation was simple. Unless the members of the Phantom Troupe decided to slaughter every single person at the airship terminal, they would never find him. Even if they did start a massacre, he could use the cover of the heavy mist and the Headhunter Jutsu to rapidly relocate underground.
From the moment he spotted the person controlled by Shalnark, his escape plan had been foolproof.
As he neared the entrance of the airship terminal hall, the mist began to thin. Finally, Luo Ning spotted a familiar figure. The man stood right at the entrance, possessing a slender build and dressed like a ronin. A katana hung at his waist, and his dead-fish eyes scanned every person approaching the entrance, as if searching for someone specific.
It was Nobunaga, Uvogin's best partner.
Luo Ning acted just like the panicked civilians around him. However, before he could even get close to the man, he saw several people running past Nobunaga suddenly get sliced in half at the waist.
'As expected of the Phantom Troupe. They really are a bunch of lawless madmen!'
There were at least forty or fifty people frantically trying to flee the terminal, yet Nobunaga was able to slaughter them with an utterly indifferent expression. This was the behavior of a subhuman beast with a total antisocial personality.
As the mist thinned here, the pungent smell of blood and the agonizing screams of those cut in two—but not yet dead—triggered an even greater wave of hysteria.
In that moment, Luo Ning felt as though he had been locked onto by a wild beast.
'Is it because my expression was slightly different from the panicked crowd? Sharp guy!'
Luo Ning rapidly wove hand seals and took a deep breath. In the next second, a massive fireball erupted from his mouth.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!
Simultaneously, his Sharingan reflected the image of Nobunaga charging toward him at high speed. The giant fireball was sliced clean down the middle, yet Nobunaga's speed didn't falter in the slightest. His drawing motion transitioned smoothly back into a sheathing stance.
But as he passed through the flames, Luo Ning was nowhere to be seen.
Nobunaga's intuition flared. He surged his Nen into his legs and slammed his foot down violently against the ground.
A disheveled figure struggled out from the earth not far away. A cold, mocking smile played on Nobunaga's lips as his body blurred, charging straight for the struggling man. His drawing slash exploded the moment he closed the distance.
However, he didn't cut through flesh and bone, but rather a sudden burst of water.
'A clone?'
With that thought, Nobunaga snapped his body to the side. Several coins had already reached his flank. Amidst a series of sharp clinks, all the coins were sliced in half mid-air.
Yet, Nobunaga only caught a glimpse of a figure rapidly vanishing into the thinning mist. The direction the person had disappeared toward was the entrance to the terminal hall.
Nobunaga raised an eyebrow and pursued without hesitation. But when he burst into the hall, all he saw were groups of armed police officers rushing in from the outside and a crowd of terrified people surging out.
Luo Ning's figure had long since vanished.
He didn't know if the target had hidden himself among the crowd or was lurking in the shadows waiting for another chance to strike. However, after that brief exchange, the sheer versatility of the boy's abilities caused a flicker of caution to rise in his heart.
His katana was returned to its scabbard. Nobunaga weighed the possibility of slaughtering everyone in the hall to flush Luo Ning out.
But before he could act, a blonde youth appeared behind him.
"Forget it, Nobunaga." The newcomer was Shalnark, who had been hiding himself while waiting for an opportunity to ambush Luo Ning.
He had rushed toward the area where Luo Ning disappeared while the mist was still thick, but he was a step too late. He didn't know how the boy had detected the anomaly with the police officers, but the target's methods were proving to be truly troublesome.
It was an ability on the level of an escape expert.
Nobunaga looked toward the exit with lingering resentment in his dead-fish eyes. "How is Uvogin?"
"He's fine. Let's head out for now," Shalnark said, turning and walking directly out of the terminal hall.
Outside, the mist had almost entirely dissipated. As it cleared, it revealed that there were almost no living souls left on the terminal grounds. Some were riddled with bullet holes, while many others had been sliced in half.
Uvogin had already stood up. He walked toward the two with large strides, his face still flushed with obvious killing intent and fury. But looking at the state of things, he also knew it would be difficult to catch Luo Ning now, so he didn't rush off in pursuit.
The police officers from the hall were already running toward them. Without another word, the three of them quickly departed from the other side of the terminal.
By now, Luo Ning had already blended into the crowd. His face was somewhat pale, and one of his arms hung at an unnatural angle.
It was broken.
Nobunaga's guess had been correct. When he used the Great Fireball to obscure the man's vision, he had used the Headhunter Jutsu to dive underground. Nobunaga's sudden burst of power had been beyond his expectations. The powerful surge of Nen forced into the earth had posed a direct threat to him while submerged. The price he paid for escaping the ground was a broken arm, crushed by the shifting soil.
However, he knew that the moment he emerged, he would become Nobunaga's target. Therefore, the instant he came out of the ground, he used Water Clone!
This was a more lifelike technique than the basic Clone Jutsu, a C-rank jutsu that surpassed the D-rank variant. The mist created by the Hidden Mist Jutsu made casting the Water Clone even easier. Using the clone and the mist as a distraction, his real body had quickly hidden itself and run toward the hall.
Nobunaga's speed was incredible; the Water Clone was destroyed in a single strike before it could even react. But Luo Ning had anticipated this. As the clone shattered, he threw the coins in his pocket as if they were shuriken.
He used the split second Nobunaga took to deflect the coins to slip into the hall. After that, blending into the crowd was simple.
He had been worried that Nobunaga might go on a mad killing spree. But when he saw Shalnark appear and stop him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Following the crowd out of the terminal hall, he breathed in the outside air, which wasn't particularly fresh, yet he felt as if he had just survived a disaster.
Not daring to linger, Luo Ning crossed the street, hailed a taxi, and quickly left the terminal area.
He first went to a small clinic to treat his broken arm and the injuries on his waist and abdomen. Only then did he use the Transformation Jutsu to find a hotel and check in.
He planned to wait. He didn't believe the Phantom Troupe would stay here forever just to intercept him. Moreover, his injuries truly required some time to recover.