Zongyan stayed on the tatami in excitement for a long while before getting up to wash.
Once he stood in the courtyard, he bit his thumb and drew a streak across his palm, then began forming hand seals with both hands.
Boar, dog, rooster, monkey, ram.
Chakra gathered in his palm, and he pressed it against the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
White smoke burst out, filling almost half the courtyard.
When the smoke cleared, a black-and-white cat stood there on his hind legs, his tail raised high and his front paws on his hips, wearing an expression that said, "You finally remembered me, kid."
"Zongyan, meow! You finally remembered me!"
The cat's voice was loud, with an adorable quality to it.
"But even if you missed me, I'm busy these days, meow! Cat Granny is teaching us how to make money, meow!"
Zongyan looked at the cat before him, the corner of his mouth twitching.
This was his summon, Hachi. He was rather boisterous and usually handled messages and the occasional scouting mission.
"Make money?" Zongyan crouched and scooped him into his arms. "What kind of money is Cat Granny telling you to make?"
"Cat Granny said the Shinobi World is peaceful for now, so our Ninja Cat Clan needs to learn to support itself too, meow!" Hachi spoke with perfect seriousness, the tip of his tail twitching along with his words.
"She's started an information-selling business on the side, and she said we'll charge for delivering messages from now on too. The price depends on the distance, meow!"
After hearing that, Zongyan silently gave Cat Granny a thumbs-up.
With business sense like that, she really was a shrewd old cat.
"Sure, I'll pay you the next time I need you," Zongyan said. "I called you here today because I need your help with something."
Hachi tilted his head, looking especially adorable. "What is it, meow?"
"I want to go to the Land of Rice Fields now, but I don't intend to let anyone else in the village know." Zongyan lowered his voice. "Does Cat Granny have any way to send me there?"
Hachi thought for a moment. "Cat Granny doesn't have a base in the Land of Rice Fields, meow. But she has some old ties with the Fuma Clan, and they're based there. They've declined over the years, but there should still be some old teleportation arrays used for summoning contracts left there, meow!"
Zongyan's eyes brightened slightly. "Will they work?"
"I'll have to go look first, meow." Hachi flicked his tail.
"Then head over there this evening." Holding him excitedly, Zongyan spoke quickly.
Hachi nodded. "Wait here, meow."
White smoke burst out, and Hachi vanished from the courtyard.
Zongyan waited there for a while before summoning markings suddenly appeared beneath his feet.
He felt a tug rise from beneath his feet, and the scene before him blurred before coming together again.
By the time he regained his footing, he was standing on an old wooden floor covered in dust.
Hachi crouched on a nearby windowsill and patted the dust beside him with a paw. "Zongyan, this used to be a Fuma Clan base, meow!"
Zongyan surveyed his surroundings, then walked to the window and glanced outside.
Beyond it lay rolling mountains and dense forests. He felt this was a very good spot.
"Hachi, you can head back! I need to stay here for a while."
"All right, meow. I'll be off."
Hachi jumped down from the windowsill, flicked his tail, and disappeared in a puff of white smoke.
After watching Hachi disappear, Zongyan first explored the abandoned base inside and out.
Only after confirming that there were no signs of anyone else nearby did he return to the room.
He took a deep breath and called up the System Panel in his mind, his gaze settling on the inky halo in the inventory.
He silently said, System, materialize the Multiverse Portal.
A soft, inky glow appeared out of thin air and slowly spread across the empty space before him.
The glow took shape, and within a few breaths, a door a little taller than a person appeared before his eyes.
Its frame was made of dark wood, with no unnecessary carvings on its surface. Only the center of the door held a flowing, inky sheen that rippled gently like water.
If not for the ripples at its center, it would have looked like an ordinary old wooden door.
Zongyan walked around it and reached out to touch the frame.
It felt cool, and the wood was solid, no different from an ordinary wooden door.
He then touched the inky sheen at the center of the door. The instant his fingertips met that flowing surface, warmth suddenly seeped through them.
Immediately afterward, a piece of information flowed straight into his mind through his consciousness, as though something were identifying his chakra, or carving a mark onto his soul.
The entire process took less than a breath, ending before he could even react.
Zongyan froze for a moment, looked down at his hand, then looked back at the door before him.
The inky sheen at the center flashed once before settling again, as though saying, "All right, I remember you now."
"That's it? It's bound to me?"
He murmured, sounding a little surprised and a little bewildered.
Before he could do anything, the Multiverse Portal began to change.
The inky sheen at the center of the door suddenly began to churn, as though something were stirring the surface of water.
The ripples grew more and more violent, and then-a slightly smaller door slowly emerged from that inky surface.
Zongyan looked at the smaller door, then turned to look at the original Multiverse Portal.
The main door's inky sheen was noticeably dimmer than before, as though it had split off some of its energy.
He examined the smaller door and touched its frame. It felt just as cool as the main door.
He thought for a moment, piecing things together along his earlier line of reasoning:
"Effect 2 said, 'After refreshing the world, the Multiverse Portal can split off and establish a portal dedicated to that world'-so this smaller one is reserved for the first other world?"
Zongyan did not rush to touch it. Instead, he stepped half a pace back and rubbed his chin with one hand as he pondered. "Is there really another world on the other side?"
He scratched the back of his head and muttered, "What if I open the door and walk straight into a wall? What if there's nothing but a void outside? What if..."
He paused, then tried to reassure himself. "Forget it. Something from the system wouldn't screw me over that badly."
He drew a deep breath, let it out, then stood before the door with his hands on his hips for quite a while.
His nerves were stretched taut, but a voice quietly urged him on from beneath them:
Anything the system makes has to be top quality!
"All right, I'm already here." He murmured the words, then stepped through the door.
The instant Zongyan stepped inside, he felt as though he had stepped onto rippling water. There was nothing solid beneath his feet, and everything before him was gray and hazy.
After a few breaths, the ground beneath his feet suddenly felt solid, and the scene before him began to clear.
He was now deep in the mountains.
Overhead, the canopy blocked out the sky and sun, while the layer of fallen leaves beneath his feet felt soft and yielding.
The air was damp and chilly, carrying the scent of soil and decaying vegetation.
He took a deep breath, his mind now full of questions.
"What world is this? Spiritual energy? Or something else? Can I still use chakra?"
He instinctively stirred the chakra in his body. It was fine, flowing smoothly, no different from when he was in the Shinobi World.
Then he took a few steps forward and realized there was not even a single birdcall around him.
It was not ordinary quiet. It was more as though something had sucked every sound out of the entire forest.
"This kind of silence isn't quite normal..." he muttered, drawing Murasame from his waist.
After he walked a little farther, the layer of fallen leaves beneath his feet gradually thinned, and the soil became somewhat harder. Then he caught a sweet fragrance:
It smelled like the flowers of some kind of vine, drifting faintly on the mountain breeze.
He followed the fragrance for a stretch, and after pushing aside a patch of low shrubs, he was utterly stunned.
Before you continue