Chapter 927

This was still the first time Jiraiya had seen a dragon vein, and he was utterly stunned by the violent energy beneath his feet—so dense it had taken on a tangible form—and by the divine tree that could thrive in such a place.

"What exactly is this place?"

Loulan—a "nation within a nation," set within a barren desert and embedded inside the Land of Wind.

Although Jiraiya knew perfectly well that this small country, a city-state, bore the nickname "Crown of the Desert," and that the city itself offered an extremely high standard of living—completely as if it were independent from the death-desert just one wall away—

he had never heard that beneath this city, such a tremendous force was being drawn out!

"It really opened my eyes, and it also added a lot of questions for me." Jiraiya instinctively glanced at Young Yuanzi beside him.

He clearly remembered that pale-purple power Young Yuanzi had carried on her body when they encountered Kisame—exactly the same as the "dragon-vein power" here, endlessly streaming upward along the treetop toward the city.

Unfortunately, whether for Young Yuanzi or for Qianqian, letting Jiraiya know more was not a good thing.

So Qianqian deliberately did not answer Jiraiya's question, but stepped forward directly and led Young Yuanzi away.

"Thank you for taking care of her during this period. Now it's time for Yuanzi to come back."

Seeing the way Young Yuanzi was looking around this way and that, Jiraiya, as if possessed, asked a question.

"What will happen to her after my lord returns?" Although he had known from the very beginning that Young Yuanzi was nothing but a "prop," and that her human appearance was entirely a kind of disguise, after spending no short amount of time together, he still, in the end….

"Does that even need asking? She is simply my lord Yuanzi's 'coordinate.' Well, to put it in a way you can understand, it's like the spatial kunai Minato uses for positioning—a single inscription, that's all." Qianqian gave it a moment's thought and offered a very precise answer.

Even though he knew the answer would be exactly this, hearing Qianqian admit it in her own words stirred an inexplicable guilt toward Young Yuanzi in Jiraiya's heart; he could hardly bring himself to look at her.

What a foolish question—why did he have to ask it out loud?

"It's okay!"

In Jiraiya's downcast line of sight, a pair of small feet suddenly appeared, and a familiar voice reached his ears. He looked up in surprise—Young Yuanzi had, at some unknown moment, already stood before him, while Qianqian, not far away, waited quietly.