Chapter 1025

Suddenly reappearing, the troubled Chiyo also heard the nervousness in this puppeteer's tone, and had no choice but to focus her attention on the wreckage the other had mentioned.

It was a severed arm of "Crow." With just one glance, Chiyo recognized that this damaged part belonged to that puppet. "Crow" was the most representative work that Scorpion ultimately abandoned after personally crafting the first batch of orthodox mechanical puppets.

After finishing the other two puppets meant to be paired with it, Scorpion set about making puppets from animal corpses — one could say this was the beginning of Scorpion gradually going astray.

This was so Scorpion could find weaknesses and easily destroy his own works.

And Chiyo also believed that her puppeteer subordinate, who possessed the strength of a jōnin, had stopped her because there was a meaningful clue. Sure enough, at the key point — the spherical joints, that black substance — a mystery that had long troubled the Sand Village seemed to have an answer, even though Chiyo was unwilling to believe it.

It was the Scarlet Sand Scorpion who had completely transformed into the appearance of "Uzumaki Young Yuanzi," and even used the exact same power.

A thunderbolt exploded in her mind. Chiyo suddenly felt that memories she had never had before were unfolding before her eyes.

"Turning companions from your own village into puppets… Scorpion, you've done wrong! A terrible wrong!"

"He should be thanking me instead. What's so good about that body on the verge of death?" Such a matter-of-fact reply, even one that sounded like seeking credit.

That should have been the first time she realized her grandson had already become abnormal, that he possessed a way of thinking completely different from a normal person's.

But she had forgotten.

"Scorpion, do you know what you're doing!?"

"Of course, Granny. Look… Father and Mother have once again returned to my side."

Already twisted, already broken — where did it go wrong? Why had she forgotten again?

"Granny, in these brief dozen or so years, I've understood one thing: the more I pursue spiritual elevation and artistic perfection, the more I can understand my own ugliness. This is the sorrow that belongs to humans, and the unattainable that has existed from the very beginning."

Facing the Scorpion she had personally arranged to be captured, his expression was, for the first time in all these years, so much like a child's.

"What exactly are you trying to say!?" Chiyo stared tensely. She watched Scorpion standing there beside the puppet-making table, on which lay a corpse identical to Young Yuanzi — or rather, a completed human puppet. It existed in exactly the same way as the other several hundred "Young Yuanzi" hanging from the rafters.

"I'm not going to be human anymore, Granny!" Scorpion's face bore a smile of exhilaration, relief, and liberation as he drove the scalpel in his hand viciously into his own chest.

The clearly pre-modified heart, the hollow peculiarity of the chest, the "Young Yuanzi" puppet and the black silhouette after that, the nightmare in which no one survived but herself — these circumstances she should have recalled long ago.

"Scorpion, so from that time onward, you've used puppet memories on me more than once?"

Young Yuanzi was in a very bad mood, not because she had already played the bit part for many chapters, but because someone had actually stolen the power of the Azure Dragon and the dragon vein of Lou Lan without her noticing. Worst of all, Xixi didn't know what had happened either, which made them both feel it was strange. After all, one was currently the only Azure Dragon contractor, and the other was the Azure Dragon of the Divine Dragon Realm. For someone to directly evade both their eyes — logically, such a thing shouldn't exist.......

"Young Yuanzi, until just now, I haven't detected a single abnormality here." Clearly both of them were here, but the familiar power, the residual energy that had just been used, was sensed at a place very far from Lou Lan. This definitely wasn't an illusion.

To use Azure Dragon Sage Arts, the first requirement is to have a contract with the Azure Dragon. This can be said to be the most basic condition among all summoning arts. Xixi directly took out the contract scroll, unrolled it to inspect, and didn't see any strange name appear on it. Therefore, the other party must have exploited some loophole to achieve this.

"I think it's necessary to go see for myself…" Young Yuanzi could already confirm the direction. Although she wasn't sure whether that fellow was still there, traces could definitely be found. In fact, she had a premonition that she likely knew the other party, and that it would be a very troublesome person.

Xixi had originally wanted to set out together with Young Yuanzi, but Young Yuanzi said it wasn't necessary.

Next, she still had to take that group of little ones to handle matters. Lady Xinjianai also had merchant caravan activities to attend to. Among the others, apart from Xixi, her own summoning beast, no one else possessed strength comparable to the Kage level. The newly established Moon Village couldn't do without an absolutely powerful expert to hold the fort, so she had no choice but to leave Xixi behind.

"This matter, I'll go alone… It's been too long since I've been active. They probably haven't forgotten."

Combined with the latest technology, the power of the dragon vein, and a more stable integration with the Azure Dragon's power, at this moment, Young Yuanzi's North Wind had already surpassed the level of a 'ninja tool' and risen another tier. To call it a true divine artifact would not be an exaggeration.