They had thought they still had a chance to rescue old Heyan and stop the Akatsuki from finding the Gelel Stone vein. Yet unexpectedly, the place where the Akatsuki had rendezvoused with those foreigners was the very canyon concealing the Gelel Stone vein.
"This is bad!"
Neji silently cried out in alarm.
The enemy's swift movements had completely exceeded his expectations, catching him off guard for a moment.
Rock Lee and Tenten also looked anxiously toward Guy, waiting for his orders.
Guy calmly weighed the situation before saying, "There won't be time to wait for reinforcements from the village. We can only act on our own!"
Even if the village had dispatched reinforcements immediately after receiving the intelligence they had sent back earlier, it would still take at least two or three days, perhaps even longer, for them to arrive. The Akatsuki and the foreigners were already on their way to the Gelel Stone vein, so waiting for reinforcements was clearly impossible.
Fortunately, only two Akatsuki members were involved in this incident, and they were not among the organization's most dangerous or troublesome members. Guy felt that his team was not completely incapable of contending with them.
Having made up his mind, Guy left markers for any reinforcements who might arrive later, just as he had before, then led his team into the canyon.
Inside the canyon.
What appeared to be an ordinary canyon concealed a world of its own. After turning into a cave, the foreigners and the Akatsuki group finally entered the ruins of the legendary ancient empire.
Judging by the scale of the ruins, that legendary ancient empire must truly have possessed a glorious civilization. This only made everyone even more interested in the Gelel Stone vein.
Taking advantage of the chance to inspect the surrounding ruins,