The visitors from the Uzumaki Clan stood at the entrance to the Senju Clan's Clan Grounds.
They stared ahead in bewilderment at the unforgettable, magnificent complex of buildings protected and concealed by giant hogweed.
"Ah... wh-what..."
This time, Uzumaki Ashina, the leader of the Uzumaki Clan, had come in person.
The strange flowers and plants here had already astonished him.
Then he saw the buildings behind the giant hogweed and was utterly dumbfounded.
The Senju Clan's Clan Grounds were nothing like they had been before. They no longer even resembled this world's traditional architecture.
Using Wood Release and Earth Release, they had hollowed out the rocky mountains, taking advantage of the terrain to build palaces along the slopes, carve images into the rock faces, and embed houses within the mountains themselves.
Outside the rooms within the mountains had originally been sheer cliffs. Wood Release had then been used again to create ornate balconies connected to the rooms inside.
Pavilions and towers rose with sweeping eaves and upturned corners.
From the highest floors, one could gaze up at windswept clouds and down over an endless sea of trees. With white mist lingering year-round, the place seemed like an immortal realm, the entire mountaintop covered in dreamy, mysterious buildings of an ancient style.
White bricks made from neatly cut ordinary stone lined the artificial lake at the center of the Clan Grounds.
Along the lake's edge, tiers of steps had also been built, descending all the way to the bottom.
As Yanbai grew older and more beautiful, the Senju Clan no longer dared let him roam outside as he pleased.
Bored out of his mind, Yanbai could only tinker with the Clan Grounds. Drawing on his memories of other virtual worlds and adapting them to the mountainous terrain of the Senju Clan's