Chapter 939

At the same time, far away in Loulan, Young Yuanzi was touring every Dragon Vein energy generator along the track built on the city's edge together with Xiaomei, because the branches of the Divine Tree had been deliberately guided by them.

So now the greening throughout the entire city of Loulan had been done extremely well; after all, unlike before, the Divine Tree no longer relied on water sources to grow.

Young Yuanzi suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest, and her advancing footsteps slowed at once; this strange sensation did not last long, and she quickly returned to normal, as if everything just now had been nothing but her own illusion.

"Is something the matter, Young Yuanzi?" Xiaomei, who had been accompanying her all along, asked in confusion, but the only response she got was a shake of the head, after which she once again set foot upon the road ahead.

At the center of the Dragon Vein, two little dragons that had been rolling about in a tangle and biting each other's tails suddenly stopped moving and shifted their gaze to their feet.

Submerged in the liquid Dragon Vein power at the root of the Divine Tree, a short section of hollow trunk had created a deliberately emptied space, and inside it was a certain someone who had long since fallen into slumber after being crafted into a "key" by 403.

"According to protocol, the energy pipeline has been rerouted to Area C11; the line is normal."

In this empty underground space, Sakura's voice rang out and echoed; although it was still that same soft, sweet tone as before, it sounded utterly mechanical, devoid of any emotion, as it reported a series of operations it had just performed before falling silent once more.

Watching a portion of the purple Dragon Vein power switch its flow direction, the two little Azure Dragons wobbled their heads and slid down along the Divine Tree's trunk to the side of the formation's eye, beginning to check the records on the instruments.

"Mm, it's a normal route conversion; the formation is operating perfectly fine." After staring at it for a while, the two little Azure Dragons found nothing unusual and so stopped paying it any mind; after all, basically every so often the "key" would adjust the energy flow's route, and since the values hadn't changed, that meant this time too was nothing more than an ordinary shift.

"In summary, Orochimaru is not the one who kidnapped Uchiha Fujiang." In order to clear up the misunderstanding, Minato had already told Uchiha Fugaku many of the facts that had been covered up from the Nine-Tails attack incident, including the existence of the masked man suspected to be "Uchiha Madara."

"That's impossible—Uchiha Madara is already dead…." If it had been anyone else who carried out the attack, Uchiha Fugaku would not have found it strange, but the moment he heard it was that man, he refused to believe it the instant Minato finished speaking.

"After so many years, he couldn't possibly still be aliv…." Suddenly thinking of certain people, he became uncertain again, and unwilling to give up, he asked in a low voice:

"How great is the possibility that it's him?"

"Using the Sharingan to control a Tailed Beast—how many people in your clan could do that?"

"Besides him, there shouldn't be a second."

Silence spread between the two of them; as for what it actually took to evolve into the Mangekyo Sharingan, even the Uchiha clan themselves could not say for certain.

Since the founding of Konoha, the number of Uchiha clan members who awakened the Sharingan had declined in a stepwise fashion, let alone anyone among them who had trained their Sharingan to the level of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Although one could barely force a portion of high-potential clan members to awaken their eyes through various stimulation experiments, that was no different from pulling on seedlings to make them grow; Uchiha Fugaku had long ago forbidden such behavior.

Over all these years, there were truly only four people in the clan who had reached the Three Tomoe—Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Fugaku, and Uchiha Itachi.

"Indeed, there couldn't be any more."

Uchiha Fugaku's eyes instantly transformed into Three Tomoe, and his body almost simultaneously Body-Flickered away from the kneeling tatami; meanwhile, Namikaze Minato turned into a golden streak of light and left the spot beside the table that had in an instant been sliced into dozens of pieces by invisible wind blades—there was a third person in this room.

The surrounding space was being twisted and compressed around a black circular hole as its center; of course Minato would not forget this scene.

With a flip of his hands, two inscribed kunai were gripped in his grasp.

"Fourth, my lord, is this—?"

"Mm, that man!"

These things aren't even human!

Uchiha Itachi once again dodged the opponent's attack; he had no choice but to choose a temporary retreat, and glanced over subconsciously.

Shisui too was locked in a bitter fight; about the only person here who could still handle things with such ease was probably Big Brother Shisui.

Mm!

Showing no regard for the Leaf Anbu short blade in Uchiha Itachi's hand, the black shadow drew close once more, and the serrated daggers in its hands carved a dark trajectory under the blood-colored moonlight.

A crisp sound of breaking came from the short blade; the Leaf Anbu short blade, painstakingly forged by the Artisan Ninja Village, was easily sliced in two by the opponent, and Uchiha Itachi felt pressure the likes of which he had never known before.

"Stay away from her! It's poison… ah!" These clan members were by no means without fighting ability; anyone who could appear tonight in the courtyard of Uchiha Fugaku's residence was basically entirely a Sharingan-awakened member of the Uchiha clan.

Within the village, they were either resident ninja or members of the Konoha Police Force, and on average they were all at the level of Chunin and Jonin.

"Ugh, cough, mm-ah!"

"No, how could it be?"