Orochimaru's Laboratory

Wind Prefecture, late at night.

Unlike the dazzling lights of Star City or the urban vitality along the Nether River, the heartland of Wind Prefecture was an endless expanse of yellow sand.

Moonlight spilled over the ground like mercury, yet it could not warm this desert shrouded in eternal, deathly silence.

The night wind howled, stirring up fine grains of sand that whirled through the air with a sobbing sound, adding still more desolation and killing intent.

Yet deep within this forbidden zone for life, there was a straight, solid two-lane road utterly out of place with its surroundings. It extended from an oasis in the distance, stubbornly stabbing into the desert's heartland.

At the end of the road stood a futuristic complex of silver-gray artificial buildings.

It was not a city or fortress in the traditional sense. There were no towering walls, no intricate fortifications. Instead, countless gigantic geometric structures were tightly and orderly linked together by aerial corridors, underground passages, and dense networks of pipelines, forming a city-like whole with clear functions and a complex structure.

The edges of the buildings reflected a cold, hard sheen under the moonlight, and pinpricks of laboratory light shone from behind the massive glass curtain walls.

There was none of the clamor or human warmth of an ordinary city here, only a silence that was almost absolute in its rationality.

This was the largest comprehensive scientific research city the Land of Stars had built in the desert heartland of Wind Prefecture.

It was far from densely populated areas, its environment sealed off and controllable. It possessed the largest and most advanced research facilities in the entire Land of Stars, the strictest security measures, and the highest level of confidentiality protocols.

Countless heavyweight research projects capable of changing the future course of the