Prophecy

A plate of colorful insects was placed on the table and pushed in front of Jiraiya.

"The Great Toad Sage has yet to wake, so wait a while longer, little Jiraiya."

Looking at the wriggling, twisted mass of multicolored worms on the plate, the corner of Jiraiya's eye twitched uncontrollably.

"Um... Sage Shima, you go ahead and eat. I'm not hungry yet."

"What's this? Are you looking down on this old lady's cooking?"

"No, how could I? I quite like the dishes you make; it's just that I'm really not hungry."

Sage Shima puffed out her cheeks: "Eat it."

She pushed the plate further toward Jiraiya.

"Eat it up and I'll take you to see the Great Toad Sage. Don't try to be slippery with me."

Jiraiya felt like crying; what kind of decent person eats bugs?

But he had no choice. Sage Shima had a strange quirk: she loved watching others eat her worm feasts.

"Little Jiraiya, Shima's cooking isn't something just anyone gets to taste. You'd better hurry up and eat it."

At the critical moment, the long-whiskered old toad Fukasaku twisted the knife even further.

Jiraiya had no choice. Suppressing the churning in his stomach, he squeezed his eyes shut.

A plate of worms slid down his esophagus into his stomach; he could even feel the insects thrashing and struggling desperately in his gastric acid.

"Urgh—"

He quickly covered his mouth with his hand, under the scrutinizing gazes of the two perverted old toads.

He swallowed back down the contents that had surged up.

Tears of strain welled up in the corners of his eyes.

Before long, his stomach felt as if it were burning, and a surge of heat began to race through his entire body.

The natural energy that usually played hide-and-seek with him was now clearly captured.

Unfortunately, as the heat dissipated, those traces of natural energy vanished once again.

"How is it? Did you capture it?"

Jiraiya nodded, then shook his head.

The two toads sighed and stopped pressing him.

"Let's go. Follow me to see the Great Toad Sage."

The man and the two toads arrived at the deepest part of Myoboku Mountain.

A massive mountain had been hollowed out, arranged into a vast interior space.

A giant toad nearly a hundred meters tall lay sprawled on a stone chair, snoring like thunder.

"Great Toad Sage, little Jiraiya is here!"

The snoring continued; the toad showed no sign of waking up.

Shima and Fukasaku chanted in unison: "Great Toad Sage, wake up!"

The belly of the mountain rumbled, the harmony echoing and repeating throughout the space.

"Hmm!"

The Great Toad Sage lifted his eyelids a crack, his gaze falling upon the man and the two frogs through the narrow slit.

"Oh, it's Jiraiya. You haven't left yet?"

Vertical lines seemed to appear on Jiraiya's forehead: "Great Toad Sage, it has been a full year since I last left."

The Great Toad Sage seemed to become more alert, his vision gradually focusing.

"Oh, time flies so fast. I remember..."

He forgot. The previous events began to blur once again.

"Never mind, let's not talk about the past. What brings you here this time?"

Seizing the Great Toad Sage's rare moment of clarity, Jiraiya hurriedly brought up the doubts that had troubled him for so long.

"Since I last left, I have traveled almost the entire Ninja World, yet I haven't found the savior and destroyer of the world that you spoke of.

I came this time to ask if you have dreamt of any clearer images. Could you give me some more specific hints?"

The Great Toad Sage seemed to fall into deep memory, remaining silent for a full hour.

"Jiraiya!"

"I am here."

"The future in my dreams is very blurry. The savior and the destroyer will both appear in Konoha. The two are born of destiny, representing the two sides of the future. You understand what this means, don't you?"

Jiraiya nodded. The Great Toad Sage's dream was easy to understand... the two futures represented the two possible paths for the world.

As for how he would choose, it went without saying.

His lifelong wish was for peace in the Ninja World, so that people would no longer have to endure the suffering brought by war.

This was also his obsession: to find the person mentioned in the prophecy.

The key was, how to find the two of them?

The two appearing in Konoha simultaneously was merely a blurred vision; it did not necessarily mean the people in the prophecy were Konoha ninjas.

Thinking of this, Jiraiya continued to press, unwilling to give up:

"Great Sage, is there any more detailed hint?"

The Great Toad Sage had fallen asleep again. Jiraiya waited patiently, knowing that every prophecy consumed a significant amount of the Great Sage's energy.

The wait was not long; only ten minutes later, the Great Toad Sage opened its eyes once more.

Before Jiraiya could ask, it took the initiative to speak of a heart-wrenching vision.

"The moon shatters, the earth wails, ninjas slaughter one another..."

The Great Toad caught its breath: "It is finished. The Ninja World is plunged into misery. I see... a monstrous flood, rising to meet the collapsing sky. The destroyer rides a Five-Colored Divine Dragon, and I—I cannot see his face."

Having said this, the Great Toad Sage immediately fell into a deep slumber, impossible to wake.

This time, the Great Sage had revealed a great deal of information.

Jiraiya keenly captured several keywords: moon, great war, flood, and Five-Colored Divine Dragon.

Although there was still no specific description of the two individuals, obtaining this information was enough.

Konoha was still fighting on two fronts, and he could not disappear for too long.

After bidding farewell to Sage Shima and Sage Fukasaku, he released the Reverse Summoning.

As soon as Jiraiya vanished from the cave, the Great Toad Sage immediately woke up.

"Shima, Fukasaku!"

"Great Sage, this is..."

The two veteran toads were startled, but they wisely shut their mouths.

"The dream foretold: the destroyer will raze the Three Great Sage Regions in the near future and banish chakra forever."

"Ah!" Shima cried out in shock.

The Great Sage's prophecy was too terrifying.

One had to know that Myoboku Mountain had existed for over a thousand years, surviving countless tribulations while remaining standing.

The strength of these toads was far from as simple as it appeared.

But the Great Sage's prophecies had never been wrong, which was why Shima was so uncharacteristically rattled.

The Great Toad Sage no longer wore its previous dazed expression, staring at them with a cold, piercing gaze.

It said, word by word: "The destroyer has already descended. Find him and make him disappear forever."

Shima finally recovered from her shock: "Great Sage, why not let Jiraiya..."

The rest of her words were cut off by Sage Fukasaku before she could finish.

He pulled his wife aside and assured the Great Sage: "This subordinate understands. Please rest assured, Great Sage; I will definitely ferret out this demon."

The Great Toad Sage waved its hand in satisfaction. After the two left, the space returned to silence.

A while later.

"I hope there is still time. Things are just fine as they are now; elemental cultivation is too dangerous."

After this fragmented muttering, the sound of snoring echoed through the cave.

It could be said that this meal was the most comfortable one Mo Jingxian and his two companions had eaten in months.

The exotic delicacies were swept away by the three of them like a whirlwind, leaving a table full of debris.

Mo Jingxian patted his distended stomach and shouted: "Refreshing!"

No one laughed at him; the other two had behaved much the same way.

Before becoming a ninja, one envies them, but once you actually become one, you realize how miserable it is.

Not to mention the danger, sometimes even a hot meal becomes a luxury.

After they were wined and dined, a problem arose when Mo Jingxian went to pay the bill.

His paper money was rejected by the shopkeeper, who tossed a handful of crystals at him and told him, "This is money."

There was no exchange rate; the banknotes in his hand had become waste paper.

It was quite magical; it was common knowledge known to every three-year-old that Ninja World currency was universal across all nations.

Yet today, he had hit a wall.

In the end, it even alerted the local soldiers responsible for patrolling.

Mo Jingxian's eyes lit up when he saw a soldier enter the restaurant followed by two puppets.

The two humanoid puppets were far less sophisticated than those held by the Sand Shinobi, but they made up for it with solid construction.

With frames made of ironwood and limbs reinforced with metal, they required only a small amount of chakra to control.

"My lord, these outsiders are trying to dine and dash."

The restaurant owner acted as if he had seen a savior, lodging a complaint against the three of them the moment the soldier entered.

After some explanation, the soldier didn't give the three of them a hard time, but the bill still had to be paid.

Mo Jingxian took out that Pincer Bug Puppet, which he usually treated as a toy.

The three of them escaped smoothly, and he weighed a bag of crystals in his hand, containing over twenty pieces.

He hadn't expected that piece of loot to be so valuable; not only did it cover the bill, but the owner even returned the difference to him.

The wheat aroma of flatbreads and the hot, spicy dances—the place was filled with exotic charm everywhere.

The three of them circled Moon Lake.

Gradually, Mo Jingxian's body and mind relaxed, completely breaking free from that sense of precarious tension.

A gentle breeze blew, carrying a string of crisp wind chime sounds.

A shackle in Mo Jingxian's sea of consciousness was unlocked, and his Wind Element Mastery advanced to the intermediate level.

What he had once longed for had come to fruition so naturally, completed with ease.

Feeling happy, he found everything pleasing to the eye, and the three of them wandered until dark.

In the inn, the squad shared a room, taking turns to rest.

Even in a safe environment, they did not forget their instincts as ninjas.

Once his stamina had recovered to its peak, Mo Jingxian stood up.

"I'm going out for a while."

"Do you need us to accompany you?"

"No need, I should be back very soon."

He didn't say what he was going to do, and the two didn't ask; everything was very natural.

Mo Jingxian wove through the shadows where the moonlight couldn't reach, skillfully dodging two patrols of soldiers.

In the afternoon, when he had approached Moon Lake, he suddenly had a feeling, as if something was calling out to him.

The summons was intermittent, and he wasn't sure if it was just his hallucination.

It wasn't until just now that the voice of the summons rang out from the bottom of his heart again, and it was very clear.

Driven by curiosity, he decided to investigate.

Mo Jingxian passed through the blocks and arrived near Moon Lake.

The noisy crowds of the day had dispersed, and the soft moonlight reflected on the surface of the lake.

A tent glowing with light appeared on the grassy slope by the lake.

That was it; the feeling of being summoned grew stronger and stronger, and Mo Jingxian even took a step forward involuntarily.

He took a deep breath.

Controlling that instinctive impulse, Mo Jingxian hid in the distance to observe for a while.

There was no danger; the tent seemed as if it belonged there, quiet and harmonious.

Since he was already here, he couldn't just stand in front of the door shivering and then go back.

Mo Jingxian steeled his heart, decided to stop hiding, and strode toward the tent.

The tent flap was already lifted, and the firelight from inside spilled out, illuminating a small patch of grass in front of the entrance.

The owner inside seemed to know a guest was coming and had prepared in advance.

Mo Jingxian slipped into the tent and found only one person inside.

The next moment, the mysterious person draped in black gauze spoke suddenly.

"Welcome, you who have been chosen by fate as a rebel!"