Hefeng remembered that the location of Lou Lan was near an Oasis, and an Oasis must have a water vein, and the location of the water vein was only in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain, where they bordered the Land of Wind.
There were many of these water veins, all extending from the Land of Rivers, the Land of Birds, and the Land of Rain into the Land of Wind before disappearing. The Land of Wind was somewhat similar to the Tarim Basin in his previous life.
Konoha only had a rough location for Lou Lan. The Lou Lan Kingdom had been closed off for many years and had no interaction with the Land of Wind.
"Miss Ye Cang, do you know the exact location of Lou Lan?"
Hefeng controlled the Super Beast Imitating Drawing birds to fly along the shortest path to Lou Lan. This ancient Lou Lan Kingdom only had one city left, making it quite difficult to find.
The map in Minato's hand was drawn many years ago, during the period from the First to the Second Ninja World War. At that time, Lou Lan was still an Oasis; now, it was practically a name without substance.
"I don't know." Pakura had never received a mission regarding Lou Lan, and it seemed no missions were ever issued externally. Besides the older generation, probably not many people knew Lou Lan's exact location.
However, Lou Lan did not issue missions to Sunagakure but to Konoha, indicating that its location should not be far from the Land of Fire, probably near the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain.
So, Hefeng didn't need to patrol a large area. The Lou Lan territory recorded on the map was larger than a small country. Times had changed too much; the former Oasis had also become a desert.
In the Land of Wind, Ebizo, who had fled back to the border garrison, immediately reported the heavy losses caused by Konoha's surprise attack to Rasa.
Upon receiving the intelligence, Rasa was furious. He immediately convened a meeting to remove Ebizo from his command position and planned to gather all available forces for a personal expedition.
However, Konoha's momentum was fierce, and it was too late to redeploy other garrisons. To block Konoha's large army, he decided to have the Jinchuriki Bunpuku lead the thousand-man defense force at the Land of Rivers border to hold them off for a while.
As for the captured Pakura, he did not mention her at all. Other elders wanted to bring it up, but Rasa's single glare intimidated them.
When Chiyo and Ebizo held great power, Rasa would not have been so overbearing; his decrees might not have been passed at all.
But after Chiyo's retirement and Ebizo's departure to the border, the Village elders could no longer suppress the ambitious Rasa. He urgently wanted Sunagakure to have only one voice.
He had indeed succeeded, so Pakura could never return, otherwise his position as Kazekage and the power in his hands might be usurped.
Pakura's capture was also a good piece of bad news for him. No one dared to object when he decided to deploy the Jinchuriki with a single word.
Rasa had Baki inform Bunpuku to go to the border first, while he issued orders to gather the Ninja army, simultaneously preparing supplies to begin a full-scale operation.
Bunpuku did not live within the Village. He lived alone in a small Oasis temple dozens of miles outside Sunagakure. Besides Shukaku, no one chatted with him.
Upon receiving Rasa's order, Bunpuku simply lowered his eyes, chanting Amitabha, but was mocked by Shukaku, who said that he was about to commit a killing sin, so what was the use of chanting Amitabha.
"This poor monk's journey will create much killing karma, violating the precepts of my Buddha and my own true heart. After this journey, I fear I will be troubled day and night, unable to rest, perhaps my spirit will wane, and I will soon pass away."
Bunpuku put his palms together. He was ordered to seal the Tailed Beast as a Jinchuriki, attempting to cleanse Shukaku's fierce nature with a Buddhist heart. Unfortunately, although he had somewhat reconciled with Shukaku, now he had to shatter his own Buddhist heart and create unnecessary killing karma.
"Hee hee hahaha! Bunpuku, you humans are all the same! No matter what kind of slaughter you cause, you can always use some reason to cover up the evil in your hearts!"
Shukaku could sense Bunpuku's inner pain. Over the years, he had accepted Bunpuku, this kind monk, as a friend.
Seeing Bunpuku in such pain, Shukaku did not feel empathy; instead, he felt a deep-seated desire for slaughter.
"Namo Amitabha, Tathagata..."
Chanting the Pure Land Rebirth Mantra, Bunpuku seemed to be performing a ritual for himself, walking towards the Land of Fire direction alone, dressed in a thin, worn monk's robe, with his palms pressed together.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru still didn't know that the One-Tail Jinchuriki Bunpuku was about to arrive. At this moment, he was still advancing his base and defensive line to the Land of Wind border.
While sending people to scout Sunagakure's stationed troops, he also set up traps and occupied advantageous terrain. Once he had more detailed intelligence, Orochimaru would certainly make a move.
Ebizo deployed the few remaining garrison troops, fully cutting off Orochimaru's extending feelers, trying his best not to let Orochimaru figure out their true strength.
Both were cunning types. Orochimaru didn't care about human lives, and with the snakes from Ryūchi Cave gathering intelligence, he quickly analyzed Sunagakure's specific situation on the sand table.
He quickly devised a battle plan. Orochimaru's goal this time was to eliminate Sunagakure's garrison troops, which would give him a significant advantage against Sunagakure's reinforcements later on.
Hidden Cloud Village and Iwagakure were also paying attention to the conflict between the two countries. Many spies had gathered some intelligence and learned about the defeat of Sunagakure's vanguard forces.
While cursing Sunagakure as incompetent, they also strengthened their garrisons at the Land of Fire border, and the Ninja World became turbulent.
The Third Hokage knew more detailed intelligence, so he dispatched a thousand Ninja army reinforcements to assist Orochimaru, while also increasing garrisons at the borders of other countries to deal with potential surprise attacks.
As for Hefeng's side, the desert during the day was not only hot but also only allowed them to determine direction by the sun. The unchanging desert scenery made everyone somewhat aesthetically fatigued.
They were only searching along the edge of the desert, where there was still some moisture. They couldn't imagine how unbearable it would be deep in the desert, but Pakura seemed at ease.
Currently, Minato Namikaze was calculating the possible location of Lou Lan on the map. They had already ruled out several Oasis areas extending from water veins.
Hefeng, with nothing to do, was researching the nature changes of Fire Release and Lightning Release in the desert. He had mastered burning and explosion for Fire Release nature change, but had not yet comprehended high temperature.
For Lightning Release nature change, he had comprehended paralysis and penetration, with conduction still being comprehended. Fire Release nature change was more urgent.
Because Hefeng wanted to develop Scorch Release by studying Pakura's Scorch Release Chakra. Hefeng planned to combine Scorch Release with Rasengan and even Wind Release: Rasengan Compression Shuriken after developing it.
Scorch Release was easier to control than Fire Release and caused more damage. Developing Rasengan-derived Ninjutsu related to Scorch Release would definitely increase its power again.
Pakura's Fire Release was also very powerful. When faced with Hefeng's requests for guidance, she could only reluctantly teach him, otherwise she would understand what pain was.
Despite Pakura's reluctance to teach, Hefeng's talent was undeniable, and he quickly gained a sufficient understanding of Fire Release's high temperature.
He also had to thank the thermodynamics he learned in his previous life. High temperature, wasn't it just high-frequency movement of particles? That's not difficult, so Hefeng quickly got the hang of it, understanding the high-temperature nature change of Fire Release more thoroughly than Pakura.
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