Unknown Fragment

The brief respite did not dispel the gloom hanging over the team. Instead, it made the helplessness born from the Third Kazekage's disappearance and the desolation of this barren land feel even more profound. After replenishing a small amount of water and food, the Sandstorm team once again plunged into the vast sea of sand, continuing their search with little hope.

Following the map markings and the villagers' vague directions, they arrived in an extremely remote region. This place lay far from any known trade route or oasis. Everywhere they looked were bizarre, heavily weathered stone pillars and bottomless ravines, like a corner forgotten by the world. The air was deathly still; even the wind and sand seemed to detour around it, leaving behind only an ancient desolation.

"Will there really be any clues in a hellhole like this...?" Lukado grumbled, tapping the iron-hard rock wall beside him with a kunai.

"Carry out your orders. Less talk," Captain Jing Liang rebuked him, though his own brow was tightly furrowed. The environment here was exceptionally harsh, making the search extremely difficult.

"Let me handle it." Shaye stepped forward voluntarily. In this kind of complex terrain, his Spider puppets were far more efficient than a manpower search. He formed hand seals and summoned three Spiders, controlling them like agile mountain goats as they swiftly slipped into crisscrossing crevices and deep caves, transmitting real-time images from within.

The search was long and tedious. Most of the caves were empty, containing only accumulated dust and the occasional animal skeleton. Just as even Shaye began to feel that this was a waste of energy, one of the Spiders that had ventured deepest into a narrow rock crevice suddenly sent back an extremely abnormal signal!

It was not an image, but feedback from an intense energy fluctuation! It was pure and ancient, yet carried an indescribable oppressive force—completely unlike the chakra he knew!

Shaye's mind jolted, and he immediately focused all his senses in that direction. Through the Spider's frail sensory system, he "saw" a small, irregular piece of material half-buried in the sand at the end of the crevice. Its composition was unknown, neither metal nor wood. Its color was dull, yet its surface bore naturally inscribed patterns of incomparable complexity, as though they contained the ultimate truths of heaven and earth. That strange energy fluctuation was emanating from it!

"Did you find something?" Jing Liang noticed Shaye's unusual reaction and immediately asked.

Shaye made his decision in an instant. The aura this thing emitted was too extraordinary, and too unknown. Before he understood what it was, he absolutely could not expose it carelessly. He forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart, his face returning to calm as he shook his head. "Nothing. The crevice ends there. There are only some strange rock formations, and the Spider can't get through."

Jing Liang gave him a scrutinizing look, seeming to sense a trace of concealment, but he ultimately chose to trust him and nodded. "Continue searching the other areas."

Secretly controlling that Spider, Shaye carefully used its slender forelegs to dig the fragment out of the sand, then firmly secured it to its abdomen and silently began its return.

Throughout the process, his heart pounded wildly. An intuition told him that he had discovered something extraordinary.

That night, the team camped in a sheltered cave. Xu and Lukado soon fell into a deep sleep from exhaustion, while Captain Jing Liang kept watch at the cave entrance. Using the excuse that he needed to repair his puppets, Shaye went alone to a corner deep within the cave.

He summoned that Spider again and removed the fragment. When he held it in his hand, the strange sensation of energy became even clearer. It was not violent, yet it was unfathomably deep, as though connected to some vast, boundless source. Simply holding it made Shaye feel as if his affinity for natural energy had risen slightly.

What exactly is this?

Suddenly, Shukaku's resentful mutterings flashed through his mind like lightning:

"It was all that damned woman... the woman who came from beyond the heavens! Kaguya Otsutsuki!"

"She planted a damned tree in this land! That tree crazily absorbed the energy of the entire world!"

"And later... there were her two 'wonderful sons'... the Sage of Six Paths... They fought their mother so fiercely that heaven and earth were overturned! That was true world-destroying devastation!"

Ancient secrets! The God Tree! The energy that devoured the world! The apocalyptic battle between the Sage of Six Paths and Kaguya!

Could this fragment in his hand, which emitted pure yet incomparably vast energy fluctuations... be connected to that distant era? Or perhaps... a relic of the Sage of Six Paths? Or even... a fragment of the God Tree that devoured the world's energy?

The thought made Shaye's hand tremble slightly. If that was truly the case, then the value of this fragment would be beyond estimation! The "natural energy" contained within it might be the key to unlocking a higher level of power, perhaps even realizing those grand ambitions of his!

He carefully wrapped the fragment layer by layer in a specially made sealing scroll, isolating its energy fluctuations, then concealed it close to his body. No second person could be allowed to learn of this. He understood the saying that a man could be punished for possessing a treasure. Until he possessed enough strength to protect it, this had to remain a secret guarded by him alone.

He gazed at the boundless starry sky beyond the cave, waves surging in his heart. The mission to find the Kazekage had seemed futile, yet it had unexpectedly brought him a key that might originate from the very source of the world.

The road ahead seemed to have gained another unknown and powerful possibility.

(End of Chapter)