Chapter 930

The other's indifferent attitude naturally allowed Young Yuanzi to finally relax for a moment and begin probing cautiously about certain matters.

"What we're most lacking right now is time…" Young Yuanzi told the story vividly.

Some of the hardships were clearly brushed aside with her casual words, then she moved on to other points—her gaze settled on the divine tree beside her; in the world of night, cultivating such trees was not difficult, though the people of night did not plant them for environmental protection—they sought the fruit produced once every thousand years after a human formed a pact with the tree.

Of course, even without a human pact, these trees would continue growing, but they would never bloom or bear fruit.

Yet this claim had its flaws—on her final moment a thousand years ago, Yagen had clearly reached the base of the divine tree, and she herself had indeed seen Yagen receive the crystal falling from the tree's summit.

There was another method by which Yagen and her people could rapidly obtain fruit, without enduring long waits.

Young Yuanzi pieced together all the fragments—no need to guess; the "accelerated ripening" method was to fill it with human lives!

But Young Yuanzi did not wish to propose something so repulsive even to hear of, yet she could not deny that the divine tree she had planted was growing far too slowly.

Meanwhile, for various reasons, the plan had been forced into prolonged stagnation—indeed, human plans are no match for heaven's design.

The pressure was like a cheetah, while she herself was clutching emergency cough syrup in her arms.

Now she only wanted to make up for lost time in the plan; originally intended for five years, she now hoped to complete it in three.

After all, if the monster that had driven Yagen and her kin to such extremes appeared here, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The construction of Rakan proceeded orderly, much as Young Yuanzi had anticipated, except that the divine tree's growth lagged behind schedule.

But this matter was not urgent; from Yagen's homeland, she had brought back some "local specialties," so there were other ways to compensate for the divine tree's slow growth.

On the Konoha side, as Young Yuanzi returned, Yagen-hime, who had been observing Naruto and Sanae, suddenly stiffened—then, without a word, Xiao Jue rose from the shadows beside her.

"I sense her return—go notify Orochimaru to prepare swiftly. I hope she can get along well with the others." Yagen-hime suppressed the impulse to teleport directly before Young Yuanzi—it was not yet the time.

She was not yet strong enough to prevent others from snatching her beloved from her sight again—endure!

Xiao Jue knew perfectly well who Yagen-hime meant by "others"; recalling something amusing, she nearly laughed out loud, then stifled her smile and nodded obediently, sinking into the ground.

"Ambush! You stabbed my heart with that dog's paw gripping the sickle blade, didn't you? You think you can run? You think you can teleport? I'll break your dog legs!"

A flood of snakes, overwhelming and vast.

This was the scene Xiao Jue saw upon returning to the underground base she had previously arranged—the snake horde hissed with chilling sounds, yet unmistakably mixed within was a human voice—undoubtedly Orochimaru, who had come here directly from Konoha with Kuro Jue.

Wearing a mask and a black robe nearly identical to the one from that night, he constantly dodged snakes attacking from all directions. Such a scene, even for a trained ninja, would instinctively repel the psyche—let alone someone emotionally fragile.

The moment Orochimaru appeared before her, carried by Kuro Jue, she recognized him instantly—the Nine-Tails' chaos was his doing!

At the time, she had been directly removed from the battlefield from the very start and had not walked again until everything had settled.

Never having faced the man who nearly destroyed Konoha that night had become a hidden wound Orochimaru never spoke of to anyone since.

Now was the perfect chance to prove herself—without surprise, one dodged and retreated without pause, while the other drew the Kusanagi blade and chased relentlessly with her summoned beasts, every slash lethal.

"Strange… where has everyone gone?"

That morning, Sanae dressed neatly as always, gathered her belongings, and headed to school—the atmosphere around her felt unusual; shops that should have been open were all empty.

"Calm down—this news hasn't been confirmed as true, and even if it is, the clan chief will handle it."

"Fugaku? Pfft—he's a coward! Don't stop me—I'm going to teach that bastard a lesson!"

The arguing voices reached Sanae's ears from the Zudi Sect's main gate; hearing her father's name mentioned—and in such an insult—little Sanae's anger surged, and her steps toward the gate quickened; she would see exactly which scoundrel dared speak so of her father.

"Target is suppressed—what next?"