Mysterious City

"Did you shake off the pursuers?"

"I did."

Mo Jingxian had run all night, finally reaching the rendezvous point before dawn.

It was a weathered stone pillar, the same place where the squad had first rested after entering the Land of Wind.

The moment Ayako Hyuuga saw him, the heart that had been hanging in her throat finally settled.

"Shinju Ishikawa's poison has been neutralized, but his body will likely need a few days to recover."

Mo Jingxian glanced at the unconscious Shinju Ishikawa; his complexion was no longer so pale, and his breathing had become steady.

He was resting on a bed of Ayako's clothes, and the furrowed brow he had worn in his sleep was visibly smoothing out.

Though he had yet to wake, he was clearly on the mend.

He felt that the night of slaughter had been worth it; the struggle hadn't been in vain.

"Let's go. The sooner we enter the desert, the safer we'll be."

"Mm," Ayako Hyuuga stood up and went to Shinju's side. "I'll carry him. Your injuries..."

"My injuries are fine."

That was the one downside of facing the Byakugan; there were no secrets. The moment he appeared before her, his wounds had been laid bare.

"I set up some decoys, hoping to lure the pursuers toward the border."

The direction they were heading was the exact opposite of the border, and those simple decoys would likely be seen through by the pursuing Sunagakure ninja soon enough.

Still, it was better than nothing; every moment of delay counted.

That was what Mo Jingxian thought.

From this moment on, the three of them had completely escaped the net woven by the Sunagakure ninja.

What followed was a race against time: to charge into the desolate, uninhabited desert before the Sunagakure forces could react.

Mo Jingxian and Ayako Hyuuga took turns carrying Shinju, while the cries of hawks echoed from the sky above.

They didn't fear exposure; as long as they were faster than the Sunagakure interception teams, the enemy wouldn't be able to catch them.

Perhaps their chosen path had caught the Sunagakure ninja off guard, or perhaps the manpower sent to this sector was simply insufficient.

It took Mo Jingxian and his companions only a single day to shake off their pursuers.

They traveled through the desert for three more days after that, never seeing a shadow of the Sunagakure ninja again.

The desert weather was characterized by extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night.

After being scorched by the brutal sun all day, the temperature plummeted as soon as darkness fell.

The three of them hid in a windbreak, huddled around a small campfire.

Mo Jingxian tossed the last of the dried vegetation into the fire, causing the flames to flare up sharply.

"Cough! Cough."

After several days of recovery, Shinju Ishikawa was back to normal, save for the occasional cough.

"Do you think..."

Ayako Hyuuga sat by the fire with her arms wrapped around her knees, her chin resting upon them.

It was half a question, half a murmur to herself.

"How could the Sunagakure ninja have ambushed us in advance, and how did they manage to deceive my Byakugan?"

Her voice was soft, but to Shinju Ishikawa, it rang out like a thunderclap.

Shinju looked up at Ayako in shock, then turned his gaze of disbelief toward Mo Jingxian.

Ever since the attack began, they had been hunted relentlessly.

He hadn't even had the chance to think before he was wounded and fell unconscious.

After waking, he had been too groggy to dwell on the details.

He had simply assumed the mission had failed.

With Ayako's reminder, he realized a suffocating possibility, and his entire body felt as if it had been plunged into an ice cellar.

Was the Byakugan powerful?

Undoubtedly.

There were ways to obstruct the Byakugan, but those methods required tedious, advance preparation.

Thinking of this, he dared not let his mind wander any further.

Mo Jingxian naturally understood what Ayako was implying; the thread of the conspiracy was already quite clear.

"How many supply transport teams do you think the Sunagakure ninja have?"

He poked at the flames, and the firelight brightened for a fleeting moment.

The firelight reflected on their faces, flickering between light and shadow.

"I don't know how many convoys there are, but I imagine it shouldn't just be this one trip."

Xin Shu answered casually, already understanding what Mo Jingxian meant to express.

"That's right. If you're going to put on a show, you have to do it properly. We'll know the answer once we return to the main camp."

Reality is cruel; once you eliminate all impossibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

For a time, the group lost interest in conversation, watching that faint glimmer gradually extinguish.

Mo Jingxian took the first watch of the night, while his two teammates were already resting.

He diverted a portion of his attention to carefully sense the two fractured ribs in his chest.

The sharp, stabbing pain had vanished two days ago, replaced by a dull, lingering ache.

In the past, an injury like a fracture would have taken at least half a month to heal.

Now, it had mended completely in just three days.

It wasn't just the recovery; the healed bones were tougher than before, and their efficiency in absorbing elements had also increased.

Quietly, Water Scale Armor covered his entire body. This was a ninjutsu he had created by imitating Long Yunzhi's transformation, utilizing water and wind elements.

It possessed the sustained properties of water, the fluid nature of wind, and the solid durability of ice.

This was his strongest defensive measure to date.

Previously, the Water Scale Garment merely covered the surface of his skin, and if it shattered, it had to be re-condensed.

But things were different now; where the ninjutsu adhered to his chest, those two recovered ribs were providing a constant stream of elemental support.

In other words, a bridge had formed between this technique and his body.

Of course, with Mo Jingxian's current strength, he could not yet control it with total ease, but the growth potential of this technique was fully apparent.

Mo Jingxian's focus was not on the technique itself, but on the sudden changes in his body.

Recalling the process after his injury in detail and ruling out various possibilities, he finally locked his focus onto the Breathing Method.

Ever since he obtained the Breathing Method, he had practiced it daily without fail, yet he hadn't noticed anything amiss.

Through this experience, Mo Jingxian finally discovered its extraordinary nature.

First, Long Yunzhi's transformation skill originated from this method, and it was distinctly different from ninjutsu.

Secondly... during their escape the day before yesterday, he had suddenly received 20 points of reputation from Orochimaru.

The only connection between the two of them was that single transaction.

Given Orochimaru's aloof personality, he must have discovered something of value on Long Yunzhi's body.

This further proved the uniqueness of the method.

Combined with his own sensations over the past few days, he reached a conclusion.

Distinct from ninjutsu, the Breathing Method was slowly remodeling his body.

It wasn't that his strength had become significantly greater, but that his body's coordination and recovery were both enhancing.

Mo Jingxian remembered Long Yunzhi once saying that this inheritance could extend one's lifespan.

Although he hadn't yet perceived an increase in his longevity, all signs indicated that Long Yunzhi's words were by no means groundless.

The direction of the bodily transformation was clear: it was becoming more attuned to the fundamental elements of heaven and earth.

The Breathing Method was continuously altering his body, making it better adapted to these underlying, fundamental elements.

Slowly, Mo Jingxian arrived at a bold hypothesis.

Perhaps the source of power in this world was the fundamental elements themselves.

One had to remember that chakra was an external addition, something converted from local energy absorbed by the God Tree.

Before chakra appeared, those transcendent energies had already existed.

So, what was the nature of this state where the two fused, yet maintained such clear boundaries?

A flash of inspiration crossed his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

He scratched his head.

Forget it. As long as he persisted on this path, he would eventually discover the truth one day.

Come to think of it, he actually felt a sense of anticipation.

It was as if a deeply hidden secret was being revealed to him, bit by bit.

"You should rest for a while; I'll take the watch."

Ayako Hyuuga sat down beside Mo Jingxian and draped a garment over him.

"Alright. I'll rest for two hours, then we'll continue our journey."

The long night passed, and a red sun rose over the horizon of the sea of sand.

The swirling air currents distorted the silhouette of the red sun into the shape of water ripples.

Across the vast expanse of yellow sand, three black dots were moving; they were none other than Mo Jingxian and his two companions.

"Aside from sand, there really is nothing here. I have no idea how the Sand Shinobi even manage to survive."

Shinju Ishikawa had managed to save his own life, and he was recovering quite well.

At this moment, he even had the mood to complain about the barrenness of the Land of Wind.

"Nonsense. If the Sand Shinobi weren't poor, would they even start a war? They'd have to be bored out of their minds."

The journey was too monotonous, and bickering with Shinju had become Mo Jingxian's only pastime for the time being.

"Look, there's a city over there!"

Ayako Hyuuga's surprised shout interrupted the two men, and they both looked over in unison.

"Holy crap, it really is!"

"Am I seeing things? How could there possibly be a city in the middle of the desert?"

Shinju Ishikawa seriously suspected that the toxins hadn't been fully purged from his body; otherwise, why would he be hallucinating?

"Could it be a mirage?"

He thought about it, but it didn't seem right. The city looked strange, and he had never heard of any country having that style of architecture.

"Are you two idiots? Let's just go and see for ourselves!"

"Ah—right, right!"

As the saying goes, looking at a mountain while riding a horse will run the horse to death.

The city clearly didn't look far away, but the three of them ran for half a day straight before finally reaching the foot of the city gates just before noon.

The city walls were not particularly high, built from a mixture of stone and gravel, and the gate was wide enough for two rows of carriages to pass through side by side.

The lintel of the gate was inscribed with several strange characters, winding and twisting like symbols, none of which the trio recognized.

The attire of the pedestrians entering and exiting was also distinctly different from the mainstream world.

The women wore thin, flimsy clothing, mostly made of sheer gauze fabrics, with veils covering their faces and gemstone ornaments hanging from their ears and noses.

The men, on the other hand, wore long robes, and many were barefoot.

The three exchanged glances; since they were already here, they naturally had to enter the city to rest and recuperate.

Passing through the gate, a bustling scene appeared before their eyes.

The city was built on an oasis, extending around a crescent-shaped lake.

Residents wove through the streets like a shuttle, and vendors hawked their wares along the roadside.

Mo Jingxian walked along with the crowd, and at the top of the crescent lake, he discovered a tall building.

Unlike the other low-rise structures, this building was nearly twenty meters high and divided into four levels.

"What are you looking at?"

Ayako Hyuuga followed his gaze.

On the terrace of the fourth floor of the high-rise, a young woman in her twenties was standing.

Although her face was obscured by a green veil, one could tell she was a beauty just by looking at her graceful figure.

Ayako looked down at her own chest and pouted.

"So what? What's so great about her!"

It had to be said that the young girl was still at a disadvantage due to her age.

Mo Jingxian couldn't immediately recall such a place in the Ninja World, and he searched his memories without finding any clues.

As they approached the high building, they heard a shout from the crowd:

"The Queen..."

Hm? A city ruled by a woman.

This was quite rare; among the various countries of the Ninja World, most had men controlling the economic and military power of the nation.

Yet this place felt strange everywhere, as if it were completely out of sync with the rest of the world.

Wait!

Mo Jingxian remembered something; he had once seen some discussions about it online.

Because he hadn't paid much attention at the time, he didn't have much of an impression.

He turned his head and scanned the area, and a name gradually surfaced in his mind.

—Rōran.