Salamander Spirit Beast

The Land of Swamps is a unique nation; it possesses a government institution in the form of a Daimyo's court, yet lacks a hidden village to serve as its military force.

Under normal circumstances, a country like this would have been annexed by neighboring great powers during the Warring States period.

However, the independent regime of the Land of Swamps has managed to persist to this day, and its population even shows a trend of gradual expansion. The fundamental reason for this lies in the country's unique natural environment.

The Land of Swamps is named for its "swamps," as the vast majority of its territory is covered by marshland. Arable land and mineral resources are pitifully scarce; if not for the fact that it can nurture certain special medicinal and poisonous herbs, the population of this country would likely have long since dwindled away.

At the same time, because the complex natural environment is extremely suitable for hiding rogue ninja or those guilty of heinous crimes, the Land of Swamps gradually developed the trade of a black market as these villains gathered in increasing numbers.

Whether it is illegal ninja tool trading, prohibited drug trafficking, or even special medicinal and poisonous herbs restricted for export by various countries, one can basically find them within the Land of Swamps.

The Five Great Nations once wanted to wipe this place out and swallow the underground trading network held by the Land of Swamps. However, after repeatedly sending ninja squads to infiltrate, they always returned empty-handed.

These ninja squads could not even find the people behind the underground business in the Land of Swamps, let alone seize their channels.

In most cases, they were discovered the moment they snuck into the Land of Swamps, after which the locals would respectfully escort the ninja squads out of the border. They couldn't even find an opportunity to make an issue of it, as if the entire Land of Swamps were under the surveillance of the Daimyo's court.

The high-ranking officials of the Five Great Nations have speculated that it is highly likely that the descendants of the Emperor of the Land of Ancestors, having mastered some of the power left behind by the Emperor, created this Land of Swamps.

It is a pity, however, that no matter how the Five Great Nations sent people to stake out and scout the ruins of the capital of the Land of Ancestors, they saw no movement.

It is worth mentioning that the original capital of the Land of Ancestors was located where the Land of Rain is today. Before the Warring States period, when the power of the Land of Ancestors had not yet waned, the weather in the capital was not like the current Land of Rain, where it rains incessantly without a single clear day.

In the early Warring States period, there was a rumor that the reason the environment of the Land of Rain became like this was because the heavens wept bitterly for the state funeral of the Land of Ancestors.

Of course, according to the research of modern ninja world meteorologists, the special climate of the Land of Rain is a cold and warm front alternation phenomenon formed by the accidental convergence of dry, hot air from the Land of Wind and moist, cold air from the Land of Earth, which brings heavy precipitation.

Under the heavy rainfall of the Land of Rain, the precipitation that should have been distributed to the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth was directly drained away, directly leading to a severe shortage of water resources in both countries today.

Naturally, the Land of Wind is definitely more water-deprived than the Land of Earth, because the Land of Wind is coastal and lacks vegetation. Sea and land winds rapidly erode the barren land, quickly causing desertification. To this day, the area of oases within the Land of Wind has dropped to one-twentieth of the country's total area.

This is also why the Land of Wind has never stopped its wars with its neighbors; it is because they are extremely short of water and need to snatch it from other countries.

In fact, when the Five Great Ninja Villages were first established, the First Hokage proposed helping the Land of Wind build shelterbelts and digging trenches and canals from the directions of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Mountains to guide two abundant water veins over.

Such work was not difficult for ninjas, not to mention the existence of Senju Hashirama, the strongest Wood Style user in the ninja world; for him, a shelterbelt was just a matter of clapping his hands.

However, this suggestion he proposed was not only rejected by his younger brother Senju Tobirama and the Daimyo's court of the Land of Fire, but was also considered to have ulterior motives by the Daimyo of the Land of Wind and the First Kazekage.

To be honest, with Senju Hashirama's thick-headed personality, it is very possible that he made the suggestion purely for the sake of bilateral friendship between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire.

Later, it is said that after the First Kazekage passed away and the Second Kazekage Shamon took office, he tried to communicate with Senju Hashirama. Unfortunately, by that time, Senju Hashirama was already suffering from a serious illness, and even his Sage Body could not turn the tide; he simply had no extra energy to help the Land of Wind build any shelterbelts.

Returning to the subject, the reason the Land of Rain has been able to survive for so long sandwiched between three great powers is that someone once proposed that the current Daimyo family of the Land of Rain, the Lin Clan, has a very high probability of being the descendants of the Emperor of the Land of Ancestors.

The three great powers were wary that the Lin Clan might be hiding some means left behind by the Land of Ancestors, so they hesitated to send large-scale troops to annex this small country with its excessively abundant rainfall.

Especially after Hanzo of the Rain, a "demigod" from a branch family of the Lin Clan, rose to prominence, the three great powers became even more cautious and stopped targeting the Land of Rain. Aside from routine intelligence operations, even the border frictions they used to initiate actively became rare.

Now that Touma had just accepted the secret mission to escort the three little ones of the Lin Clan, he was pursued by someone hot on his heels. He changed his disguise several times along the way but could not shake off the pursuers, which only confirmed the relationship between the Land of Swamps, the Land of Rain, and the Land of Ancestors.

Touma knew that the Onmyoji of the Land of Ancestors back then had specific methods for tracking bloodlines, because Orochimaru was currently using similar methods to track the traces of bloodline ninjas.

Yes, Orochimaru had started collecting bloodline samples very early on. Of course, what he was collecting now were not living samples, but biological clippings taken from living subjects.

It is estimated that it will not be until Danzo lures Orochimaru into conducting human experiments in Root that Orochimaru's original awe of life will turn into fanatical curiosity!

However, Touma had no time to prepare now. He had already followed the "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" into the territory of the Land of Swamps, and in his perception, he had already triggered the sensory barrier on the outskirts of the Land of Swamps.

Fortunately, he had entered the Land of Swamps in the form of a Kestrel. The pursuers of the Land of Swamps might not be able to pinpoint his actual presence for a while, giving him enough time to find the three little ones.

Sure enough, after flying for another dozen minutes, the "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" in front began to rapidly decrease its flight altitude. Touma also saw from high above the wooden boat sailing in the swamp, and the people tied up on the bow deck were exactly those merchants from the Heavenly Fire Cult caravan!

He quickly resumed his human form, entered the state of "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance," and hid in the mist drifting above the swamp, slowly approaching the boat.

Just as he was about to touch the side of the boat, a screech suddenly exploded in his ears, almost knocking him out of his elemental state.

Fortunately, he had been using "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance" more and more frequently lately, and he had become increasingly stable in his elemental state. Unless there was a Sage Art attack, ordinary means could not cause him harm; even ordinary Lightning Style ninjutsu with elemental suppression could not do anything to him.

This screech did not come from inside the cabin, but from the bottom of the boat submerged in the swamp. Touma probed his chakra under the boat and discovered that the reason this boat could sail in the swamp without any power was that it was being dragged by a giant beast beneath it.

And this giant beast was none other than a Salamander summon of the same species as the one belonging to the demigod Hanzo of the Rain.

Hanzo's Salamander summon, named "Ibuse," had yellowish-brown skin, while this Salamander had purple-red skin and was more than three times the size of that one; after all, if its size were insufficient, it could not carry a large boat through the swamp.

However, the problem at hand was that while the ninjas on the boat had not discovered Touma, this Salamander had, and he had no choice but to strike first!