Chapter 201 What is Peace?

"I can't help it. I feel so confused and can't sleep..." Ling drank the wine in the glass and turned to Xuanwo Yi, "Talk to me for a while."

Xuanwo Yi smelled the aroma of wine and looked around for something. However, his voice remained calm and he said in a relaxed tone, "Hey, so it's my fault if you say so?"

Ling just chuckled, "I guess I was just feeling a bit depressed and wanted to talk to someone about it, and you just happened to meet me."

"Then you have found the right person. I have read countless books since I was a child. I have accumulated a lot of knowledge. Not to mention people of the same age, even those who are older than me may not know as much as I do if they are not from the same tribe."

Uzumaki Yi showed a smug smile, "Don't even mention solving your doubts. If you just want to hear gossip about the tailed beasts, I can tell you five or six things - tell me, what do you want to ask?"

Ling poured himself another glass of sake in silence, then turned to face the courtyard. "...In Yi's cognition, what does peace look like?"

"…Is the topic so serious right at the beginning?"

Ling laughed a little, "Why else would a war madman like me be depressed?"

"Well, that's true, but... peace--" Uzumaki Yi crossed his arms, frowning as if he had been given a difficult question, "I haven't thought about this kind of thing, but I think that if we want peace, we should at least be able to achieve the level of the Kingdom of Hot Springs, right?"

"Oh? How do you say this?"

"You also feel the excitement of this festival, right? Ninjas and civilians are no different, and they are all enjoying this joyful atmosphere." Uzumaki Yi retracted his searching gaze and looked towards the courtyard. "Obviously in the outside world, ninjas would rely on their powerful strength to oppress civilians, and civilians would be alienated and afraid of ninjas because of this, but in this country, no matter what the reason, they all need and respect each other...

I am just like you, a fighter who has been taught to kill since childhood. I have neither the time nor the energy to delve into anything other than improving my strength. But the best vision I can imagine will not be half a point better than the current situation of the Kingdom of Hot Springs. "

"Well, the boundary between ninjas and civilians..." Ling spoke again after a long silence, "It is indeed an insurmountable gap."

"Why do you ask such a question? Is it really okay for a killer on the battlefield to be so sentimental in private?"

"...I can't help it." Ling lowered his head and gently shook the cup in his hand, "After all, you brought it up - our clan is very sensitive."

“Oh——?” Uzumaki Yi stretched out his voice, “I see, I see——it’s the girl who changed you.”

"Well, yes, it was that girl who changed me a lot. She was bright and generous, bold and a little stubborn... Sometimes even I feel inferior to her." Ling drank the wine in the glass, then raised his head and leaned against the pillar, saying with a melancholy tone, "...Yi, have you ever experienced this?"

"Ok?"

"You were unable to do anything when your companion, the one you trusted with life and death, was killed by a powerful enemy right in front of you. Even your parting words seemed particularly pale..." Ling turned to the direction of Xuwo Yi with a calm expression, "Do you know what she said to me in the end?"

Although he was not being watched, Uzumaki Yi felt a sense of crisis as if he was surrounded by a pack of wolves. He raised his eyebrows slightly, restrained the chakra fluctuations in his hands, and leaned against the pillar. "What did you say?"

"She told me that she wanted to be an ordinary person. She hated fighting. She... wanted to go home." Ling let out a long breath and turned towards the courtyard. "Although it's a little late, I still want to do something... At least I hope that when she reincarnates again, she will have a chance to choose her life."

Xuwo Yi crossed his arms and sighed, "I didn't realize you were quite romantic. You must have a lot of suitors in and outside the tribe, right?"

"Those outside the clan are called pursuers..."

Uzumaki Yi laughed immediately, but he kept his voice down. "At least they are sincere to you, right?"

Ling laughed when he heard this, "There really is no one more sincere than them."

"I've said so much, isn't it your turn to speak? What kind of peace do you imagine?"

"The peace I imagined..." Ling tilted his head slightly, "Well - although a person cannot imagine something he has never desired, it would be good if the world is not as turbulent as I expected, right?"

"Ah... you are such a jerk." Uzumaki Yi's expression became complicated. "You asked me what peace is, but you said you were looking forward to conflict. And your peace is pursued for others? What do you want?"

"Haha... who knows?" Ling drank another glass of wine. "Although I don't know what peace will look like, at least I know one thing for sure: it is difficult for a profession like ninja to coexist with peace."

"Oh--?"

"Peace is fragile. If we want peace to come and be maintained, then at least dirty professions like ninjas that satisfy the selfish desires of others should be weakened or even eliminated."

Ling's thumb and index finger gently turned the empty wine cup, and his voice was gentle, "Of course, enough power can also bring peace, but that can only be the will of a certain person or a group of people. When the person with power dies, all these false things will turn into bubbles. After repression, worse times will come...

"Yi should have encountered this before, right? Children in the tribe expressed their admiration for you, saying that they wanted to become someone like you, or a great ninja or something like that?"

Xuanwo Yi raised his eyebrows again and made a nasal sound to signal Ling to continue.

"The children say this because their elders always praise the goodness of ninjas, so they subconsciously want to become ninjas and subconsciously admire ninjas, but..."

Ling put down the wine cup, picked up the wine pot again and tilted it slightly, letting the clear and mellow wine fall into it again with the silver light, "Do the children really understand what kind of profession [Ninja] is?"