The morning sun, not yet carrying the harshness of midday, gently shone into Granny Chiyo's small courtyard, which always exuded an air of herbs and rustic charm.
With her sleeves rolled up, Shira was diligently sorting and packing the dried medicinal herbs into different earthenware jars.
This was part of his daily routine, and he could also glean some interesting things from Chiyo's occasional snippets of conversation.
Granny Chiyo was nestled in an old rocking chair on the veranda, covered with a thin blanket, slowly turning the pages of a thick book with yellowed pages and curled Kakuzu.
The sunlight shone on her silvery-white hair, revealing a rare serenity.
The only sounds in the courtyard were the rustling of Shira gathering medicinal herbs and the turning of pages in a book.
Suddenly, Chiyo seemed to have seen something interesting, and muttered to herself in her unique, slightly hoarse, and teasing tone, " The Rōran Dragon Vein in the desert? Time travel? Hahaha, it's written like it's the real thing."
She shook her head and chuckled. "The people who made up these stories certainly have rich imaginations."
Rōran?
Shira, who was carrying a heavy medicine jar with two fingers, suddenly stopped upon hearing the word, her heart skipping a beat as if something had gently bumped into her.
Wait, why does this name sound so familiar??
It's so familiar, as if etched into some corner of my memory, yet it's as if shrouded in a thick fog; in my haste, I can't recall the specific details.
Damn it, get your brain working!
At this moment, Shira only vaguely sensed that behind this word was something very, very important, and perhaps even something that could overturn one's understanding.
"Grandma," Shira put down the medicine pot and couldn't help but ask curiously, "What you just mentioned... Rōran? What does the book say about it?"
Granny Chiyo raised her eyelids and glanced at him. "What? You're interested in these mystical legends too?" She tapped a page with her finger.
"Look, there's this ancient kingdom called Rōran deep in the desert, with some kind of ' Dragon Vein ' buried beneath it, supposedly possessing the power to travel through time. Ha, that's pure nonsense. If you could really go back in time, wouldn't the world be in chaos by now?"
Travel through time!
These four words were like a thunderclap, instantly cleaving through the fog in Shira's mind!
He remembered! It was the Dragon Vein from the movie that connected different points in time!
The ruins of Rōran are real! They are located somewhere in the desert of the Land of Wind! They are not just a legend!
Hey, great! I won!
The overwhelming amount of information made Shira's breath catch in his throat for a moment. He forcibly suppressed the shock on his face, pretending to be just curious. "Time travel... that sounds pretty mystical. Does the book mention somewhere in the desert?"
"Who knows?" Chiyo closed the book, took off her reading glasses, and yawned. "It's probably just something the ancients made up to scare people. There are plenty of ancient kingdoms that have disappeared in the desert; which one couldn't make up a story? Maybe it was just something some bored, wandering poet wrote when he was drunk."
She clearly didn't care about it and didn't take it seriously at all.
Only Shira knew that this wasn't a story! It was real! An opportunity that could change everything was hidden beneath this vast desert!
A crazy and alluring thought grew wildly in his mind like weeds: If... if he could find Rōran and control the Dragon Vein, could he go back to the past? Go back to an earlier time and prevent more tragedies from happening?
The thought made his blood run slightly hot. But the next second, a cold rationality washed over him.
Time travel? Easier said than done!
Even if we could find that long-vanished ruin, how would we control the Dragon Vein energy that is said to be able to destroy everything?
What's even more terrifying is that time travel itself is a huge paradox and a peril—what if he not only fails to change the past, but also triggers an even worse chain reaction?
What if... he's trapped at some point in time, or transported to a completely unknown era?
Moreover, with my current Genin strength, even if I were to get incredibly lucky and stand in front of the dragon Dragon Vein, I'd probably be torn to shreds by that immense energy before I even got there, or I'd die in some accident because of my lack of strength as soon as I arrived.
Alas, looking back now, even if we knew the shortcut to changing our fate, it was nothing but a Suigetsu, or even a death warrant.
Shira took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her turbulent emotions, and regained her composure as she continued to tidy up the medicinal herbs, as if she had only asked casually, "Hehehe, that's true, it sounds too incredible."
Chiyo glanced at him suspiciously, feeling that the boy's reaction just now was a bit strange, but she didn't think much of it and lay back down in the rocking chair, humming a tuneless, hoarse tune.
Shira worked silently, but the words " Rōran " and " Dragon Vein " were already deeply imprinted in his mind like a red-hot branding iron.
This was a top-secret hope, a distant, dangerous, but undeniably real possibility.
He carefully kept this idea, as if it were a key that could unlock a treasure or detonate everything.
Now, he still needs to Earth Flow step by step through this harsh reality.