Angkor Fortress

Looking at the town ahead, Ye Wuji had finally arrived at Zhu Town, bringing him one step closer to Angkor Fortress. It was a fairly prosperous town, too. Ye Wuji first took a stroll around, then found a noodle shop and ordered ramen.

Ye Wuji planned to eat his fill before slowly gathering the information he wanted. But before his ramen arrived, he overheard three men nearby who looked like ordinary civilians talking.

"Hey, is everything all right with you?" one of them, a man in his thirties, asked another man about the same age, whose face looked very pale.

"Yeah, you look like you hurt yourself while diving for pearls last time. I told you not to push yourself so hard, but you wouldn't listen. You had to stay underwater for so long. Look where that got you. Stay home and rest until you're better, then go pearl diving again. If something happened to you, what would your wife and child do in times like these? Ah, this world is to blame. You're doing this for the village, after all. You're the best pearl diver in the whole village." The other man, who looked to be in his fifties, sighed as he spoke.

"Exactly, Dayuan. In times like these, your health comes first. But I heard there's a miracle doctor named Shennong in Yong Village who's cured a lot of people. You should go there and let him take a look. You might recover faster," said the first man.

"I've heard of him, too. Dayuan, you should go see him. I heard that doctor treats poor people for free," the old man added.

"Uncle Sen, I've heard of him, too. When I wasn't feeling well, I went to Yong Village to look for him, but the miracle doctor wasn't there anymore. I heard he travels to other countries every year to treat poor families, and there's no set time for his return. Sometimes he comes back in a few months, sometimes it takes several years. But it's all right. I'll be fine after resting for a while," said Dayuan.

"I see. Then that's all you can do. But if anything feels wrong, tell us right away. If we hadn't noticed something was off this time, you might've already sunk to the bottom of the sea," the old man said.

"I know. I think it's just from spending too much time in the seawater. It shouldn't be anything serious. If the miracle doctor were here, a few doses of his medicine would fix me right up," Dayuan said with a smile.

"Ah, our lives used to be just fine. If those guys hadn't come around demanding protection money, we wouldn't have to dive so desperately. We sent people to the Daimyo Mansion to ask for soldiers, but we still haven't heard back. I have no idea what the Daimyo's soldiers are doing. If this goes on, we'll have no choice but to hire ninja." The old man glanced around and spoke in a low voice.

"Uncle Sen, I think we should go straight to Konoha and hire ninja. We can't count on the Daimyo's soldiers. And lately, a lot of people carrying weapons have come here. I wonder if there's going to be another war."

"Let's see how the Daimyo responds first. We'll wait a while longer. If that doesn't work, we'll hire ninja. We can't let that gang of bandits get away with this." The old man spoke in a low voice, then glanced around again. "Don't say anything more for now. Let's finish eating quickly, sell those pearls, and head back."

After listening closely to the three men, Ye Wuji thought, Things are going smoothly. It seems Shennong often spends time in that place called Yong Village, so it's a likely lead. But from what they said next, it sounded like their village had been taken over by bandits who were forcing the people to dive for pearls to make money. In the Naruto World, ordinary bandits were usually just regular people, perhaps a little stronger than most. The bandit leaders probably knew a little ninjutsu, and even if they didn't, they were still much stronger than ordinary people.

After finishing his ramen, Ye Wuji carefully gathered information about the villages around the town. He hadn't expected there to be so many—at least a dozen. By carefully keeping his inquiries discreet, he managed to get a map of Yong Village. It was still some distance from town.

Ye Wuji also got maps of the other villages, just in case he couldn't find what he was looking for in Yong Village. He would have to search the others as well.

As Ye Wuji was getting ready to leave town, he kept the three men's conversation in mind and paid attention to his surroundings. Sure enough, plenty of people in town were carrying weapons. Most of them were dressed much like him, so he hadn't noticed earlier.

As Ye Wuji headed toward Yong Village, he wondered, Has the Third Shinobi World War really started this soon? That can't be right. Let me think. He did the math. It's only been a little over two years since the Second Shinobi World War ended. Too bad I never paid attention to when the Third Shinobi World War broke out when I watched Naruto. But judging by this, even if it hasn't started yet, it can't be far off.

The thought that the Third Shinobi World War might be about to begin made Ye Wuji anxious. From what he remembered of Naruto, the Third Shinobi World War had been extremely brutal, but it hadn't lasted very long. The countries had only just come through the Second Shinobi World War, so their strength hadn't recovered much. They couldn't fight for decades like they had in the Second War. Also, the Third War had begun with the disappearance of the Third Kazekage, and the countries had gone to war in a rush.

With that in mind, Ye Wuji picked up the pace and hurried toward Yong Village.

"Is this Yong Village?" Ye Wuji stood atop a hill, looking down at the village in the distance. There were around thirty scattered houses, which meant the population was probably no more than a hundred.

To stay hidden, Ye Wuji didn't show himself in Yong Village. Instead, he began searching the surrounding area. Three mountains stood around the village, along with a lake enclosed by the hills and a waterfall, as well as a few small woods. Ye Wuji searched carefully, trying to remember the scene from his previous life when he had watched Angkor Fortress emerge from underground.

Three days later, Ye Wuji stood by the lake, gazing at the waterfall flowing down from above. He had searched the surrounding area for three days without finding anything suspicious. Angkor Fortress was buried underground, but Shennong couldn't have come out of the ground every time he left. Shennong didn't look like someone who could use Earth Release, either. That meant the most likely place was the cliff face beside the waterfall.

Another three days passed before Ye Wuji finally noticed something strange about a stone beside the cliff face. He circled it several times, moving along the rock wall. After nearly two years of training, he had mastered Tree Walking and Water Walking. After a great deal of effort, he finally opened a person-sized entrance beside the stone. Then Ye Wuji went inside.

"Ah!" It turned out to be a sloping passage. Ye Wuji hadn't noticed at first, and only after sliding some distance did he use chakra to steady his feet. He took out the flashlight he had prepared beforehand and made his way down the dark slope. After walking for about a thousand meters, he came to a huge staircase. He slowly descended, unsure how far he had gone, until a passage finally appeared ahead. At the end of it, he saw a gigantic door standing before him.

As Ye Wuji entered through the huge door, the space before him suddenly blazed with light. Only then did he see where he was: he stood at the entrance of a vast hall, whose ceiling was at least ten meters overhead. Ye Wuji then stepped back outside to take in the scene before him.

A gigantic castle stood before Ye Wuji, more than ten meters tall. As for its width, he couldn't tell, since part of it was buried underground.

After exploring for a while, Ye Wuji finally understood how large Angkor Fortress was. The main castle alone was nearly fifty meters wide, and with the smaller castles on all four sides, the whole complex was nearly a hundred meters across. It had five floors and could easily accommodate several thousand people.

The castle was divided into living quarters, a training area, a logistics area, and various other sections. Although Angkor Fortress was underground, it didn't feel dark at all. The entire castle, including its separate sections, was bathed in light. Ye Wuji finally understood why the entrance was in the cliff face beneath the waterfall. Besides making it easy to come and go, the castle also drew in water to generate hydroelectricity. It wasn't enough to make Angkor Fortress fly, but it provided more than enough electricity for daily life. Besides, Ye Wuji was the only one here now. Shennong really didn't trust anyone—there wasn't another soul in a fortress this huge.

Although Ye Wuji was alone, he still turned on every light in the fortress. In a pitch-black underground place, he preferred having the lights on. Besides, lighting didn't use much electricity. Ye Wuji also had to admire the Sky Ninja's ingenuity—or perhaps the ingenuity of people in the Naruto World. Who would've thought a single stream of water could generate so much electricity?

Sure enough, Ye Wuji also found what he had been looking for. One room in the fortress was filled with books. It was probably where the secrets of the Sky Ninja Village were kept. In a few other places, he found a large stockpile of weapons—an armory, most likely. It was full of all kinds of ninja tools, including Explosive Tags. There had to be at least tens of thousands of them. In another room, he found a large supply of medicinal herbs. After checking a few, he saw that most were used to strengthen the body, while some were for treating poison. There were quite a few of those, too.

Judging by the great amount of resources stored in the fortress, the Sky Ninja Village had planned to rise again. Unfortunately, things hadn't gone according to plan. Now everything belonged to Ye Wuji. With all these resources, he could even establish a ninja village of his own one day. It wouldn't be a major village, of course, but if his strength was sufficient, he could build one like Orochimaru's Otogakure.

"Haha!" After inspecting Angkor Fortress, Ye Wuji laughed with delight. With these resources and the Sky Ninja Village's ninjutsu records, he could grow stronger. Although he hadn't found anything about Zero-Tails, he knew he had only checked the obvious areas. Zero-Tails' location would surely be highly classified, not somewhere anyone could wander into. It was probably protected by some kind of seal.

Besides, Ye Wuji had no intention of approaching Zero-Tails just yet. Who knew what state the creature was in? The research might not have succeeded, but if something went wrong, it would still be a problem. It would be better to wait until he was stronger and had mastered the knowledge here before taking any further action.