Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1512 - 727

He was wearing a pure-white tactical bodysuit.

The flexible fabric clung tightly to his torso, putting the full, fluid lines of muscle beneath on stark display.

Across his broad back, a slender katana in a black scabbard hung diagonally.

A blast of high-altitude wind swept past.

He straightened against the wind, the soles of his leather boots grinding over the cylindrical steel pipe with a faint rasp.

His face was completely sealed behind a pure-white full-coverage mask, with only a narrow strip of black goggles left at the eyes.

The smooth metallic curve caught the city’s neon and refracted distorted specks of red and blue.

He tilted his head slightly, overlooking the ceaseless stream of headlights below his feet.

The voice transmitter at the mask’s jaw lit up, crackling briefly with static.

Then, carried along the wind, came a hoarse, electronically synthesized voice:

"Heh, my stupid cousin actually got himself killed?"

The earpiece hissed with a few faint currents of static, then a relatively steady voice came through:

"Captain, according to reliable information from within the Iga Clan, Hattori Kyuzo went to Yong’an Island in Xia Country five days ago, taking along an Upper-level Ninja from the Hachijima family. They encountered an accident there; both were killed on the spot."

The speaker was Night Owl of the Black Shark Organization.

And the man now standing on the Skyscraper’s roof, taking in the view, was their leader, White Ghost.

"Yong’an Island?"

White Ghost gazed down at the end-to-end stream of traffic and asked blandly, "What was he doing on that godforsaken, nowhere little island?"

"Apparently to avenge his father, that is... Captain, your uncle."

On the other end of the comms channel, Night Owl carefully offered the explanation.

"Hmph, I’d almost forgotten."

White Ghost let out a short, cold snort:

"That failure Hattori Kenji got humiliated in Xia Country thirty years ago, had both legs broken clean. Because of that, he was completely ruined, even lost the perfectly good Shadow Leader position he held."

"Yes, I’ve also heard reports from the men below about this old grudge of the Iga Clan."

Seeing that the other side showed no sign of anger or rage, that his mood was relatively steady, Night Owl immediately picked up the thread:

"This time Hattori Kyuzo went to Yong’an Island to settle accounts with the True Thought Society that crippled his father back then."

White Ghost’s leather boots ground lightly on the steel pipe, his tone laced with unvarnished mockery:

"So the guy barely squeezed into S-Class and suddenly feels proud of himself, actually dare to take on a major Xia Country organization single-handed?"

"You have to understand, the True Thought Society isn’t some soft persimmon you can casually squeeze. As I recall, that President Su was capable of trading a few direct blows with Lord Claude—an out-and-out powerhouse."

"Yes."

Night Owl echoed, then corrected:

"However, Captain, according to the Black Shark internal intelligence files, President Su of the True Thought Society disappeared as early as three years ago."

"The society’s talent has withered and its vitality is in tatters. The only one left who can step up and hold the stage is an aged vice chairman.

"Oh?"

A trace of surprise flickered in White Ghost’s eyes; he was clearly a bit taken aback:

"So Kyuzo went there just to loot a burning house? That doesn’t add up. He may be an idiot, but he’s got an S-Class foundation at least, plus an Upper-level Ninja from the Hachijima family backing him. Don’t tell me he couldn’t even wipe out a bunch of old, weak, sick and disabled?"

"If that’s the case, he’s disgraced the Hattori family completely—dying is the least he deserves."

"He didn’t fall to those old, weak, sick and disabled."

Night Owl denied it, his voice dropping low: "According to the intel we’ve gathered, Hattori Kyuzo died at the hands of the True Thought Society’s new Chairman."

"New Chairman?"

"Right. This person seems to have appeared out of thin air; there wasn’t the slightest prior rumor."

Night Owl paused, his pace of speech unconsciously quickening a notch:

"Even many Elite members of the True Thought Society don’t know his precise background or origins. They only know he holds the legacy token of former President Su, so he went straight to the top seat."

"More importantly..."

Night Owl drew a deep breath and dropped a bombshell of a conjecture:

"This man is highly likely to be the White Owl we’ve been tracking all along."

The comms channel went silent for two seconds; only the wind howled over the Roof Terrace.

White Ghost straightened, the metallic mask glinting coldly in the chill wind.

"White Owl? What proof do you have?"

"To explain that, we have to go back to a covert operation the Noah Organization carried out on Yong’an Island this January."

Night Owl sorted through the clues, explaining with crisp clarity:

"On that mission, Noah was almost wiped out. Only the squad leader Luo Lie and a local station chief managed to escape by sheer luck."

"Luo Lie? A Noah board member?"

White Ghost recalled the name, then nodded: "His strength counts as mid-tier within S-Class—quite a bit stronger than that waste Kyuzo."

"Exactly. What Luo Lie ran into was actually very similar to Hattori Kyuzo’s situation."

Night Owl said in a low voice:

"If that man hadn’t intervened halfway, he would have taken down the True Thought Society in one sweep. It was that lethal variable that made Noah end up choking on defeat."

White Ghost raised his gloved right hand, fingers hooking into the wire mesh along the edge of the Roof Terrace:

"You’re saying the man who caused the Noah Organization’s rout and the one who killed Hattori Kyuzo are the same person—and both are White Owl?"

"Yes."

Night Owl sounded utterly certain, hastily adding details:

"That lucky survivor of the station is named Tang Dayuan. On the battlefield he used a special feigned-death ability to slip through the slaughter, and personally witnessed that man killing his comrades one by one."