"That's-!"
Following Minato's instructions, Liumu followed Sara through the pipes, and the two climbed into what looked like a Puppet Factory.
They watched assembly-line facilities put the puppets together one after another.
The green energy pillar at the center of the factory immediately supplied energy, bringing the puppets to life.
"He actually built a Puppet Factory in the Eye of the Ryūmyaku!"
Sara's shocked voice was filled with hatred. Looking at the puppets patrolling below, she turned to Liumu and asked, "Can you get me over there?"
Following the direction of Sara's finger, Liumu spotted a mysterious purplish-red Sealing Jutsu beneath the energy pillar at the center of the factory.
Within it was a sphere that resembled an eye, radiating an eerie, blood-red glow.
"That energy pillar is the center through which the Ryūmyaku supplies power to all of Rōran, and that eye is the key to activating the Ryūmyaku."
As it turned out, Rōran's successive monarchs had built an Energy-Draining Stone Pillar at the very center of the Ryūmyaku to supply Rōran with energy.
After Anrokuzan came to Rōran, he helped Sara's mother rebuild the energy pipelines, allowing Rōran to develop from an impoverished desert town into the magnificent city it was today.
The Ryūmyaku's energy was endless, but now more than half of it was being used to manufacture puppets.
Anrokuzan's ambition was not merely to stand beneath one person in Rōran. On the contrary, he wanted to overthrow the one above him and become the master of this place himself.
"I hear human voices!"
Liumu tilted his head and listened closely. Through the complicated network of pipes beside him, he finally caught sight of Rōran's people through a gap, continuously extracting the Ryūmyaku's energy beneath the energy pillar.
"No wonder the square was full of puppets. All