There was no helping it.
Ancient Loran had suffered miserably these past few years.
Especially after the Dragon Vein was sealed, the natural environment had grown worse and worse, and even its freshwater resources were nearing total exhaustion.
At the thought of this, the ministers of Loran felt nothing but bitterness and helplessness.
If they had known things would become this terrible, they would never have allowed the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, to seal the Dragon Vein.
Even if the Dragon Vein would have drawn the greed of every force in the world, they still would not have let Minato seal it.
But now—
with the Dragon Vein sealed—
they could only swallow their suffering in silence.
"Sigh…"
Seeing this, the Queen of Loran, seated upon the throne, could only let out a heavy sigh.
Beyond helplessness, there was nothing left in her heart.
More importantly—
the sandstorm was only the fuse.
Ancient Loran had already reached a true crisis of life and death.
If they could not find a solution, then Ancient Loran would gradually weaken, until at last it vanished into the dust of history.
"Mother…"
Standing beside the Queen, Princess Sara's face was filled with grief. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end said nothing.
What could she possibly say?
Faced with Loran's dire situation, it seemed they had no choice but to accept their fate and watch Ancient Loran weaken little by little until it disappeared completely.
That crushing helplessness left even the young Princess Sara feeling powerless.
"…Forget it. Let's deal with the sandstorm first."
After a few seconds, the Queen of Loran took a deep breath and said in a low voice,
"No matter what, we must endure. Even if Ancient Loran is doomed, we cannot let it crush our spirits."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Understood…"
"Hopefully… perhaps Ancient Loran can still be saved."
One weak response after another sounded out.
The ministers inside the palace all wore expressions of defeat and despair.
Clearly, the Queen's words had done nothing to lift their spirits.
"Freeze."
But at that moment—
a calm voice suddenly echoed through the air.
And without any warning, the sandstorm that had seemed ready to destroy everything was abruptly halted in place just before it could engulf Loran.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Faced with such an incomprehensible scene, many of Loran's guards looked as if they had seen a ghost. Some were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground on the spot.
Inside the palace, the Queen, Princess Sara, and many of the ministers all frowned in unison.
That voice had been far too terrifying.
"Come. Let's go outside."
In the next moment, the Queen of Loran seemed to realize something. She rose abruptly and strode toward the palace entrance.
A few seconds later, when the Queen, Princess Sara, and the ministers stepped outside and saw the sight before them, they were all struck dumb.
A storm of shock rose in their hearts, impossible to calm.
Because before their eyes—
that terrifying sandstorm had been frozen in place, suspended right outside Loran, as if restrained by some incomprehensible force.
"How is that possible?"
"The sandstorm… it's been fixed in midair?"
"This… this is far too terrifying! How can something like this happen?"
After a long while, the Queen of Loran, Princess Sara, and the ministers finally came back to themselves and cried out in disbelief.
They could not help it.
What they were witnessing was no different from a miracle.
"So this is Ancient Loran?"
Whoosh!
A sharp sound cut through the air.
Uchiha Ren, clad in the Hokage's white cloak, appeared high above Ancient Loran. His indifferent gaze swept over the Queen and the others as he said calmly,
"To think Loran has fallen this low."
That was right.
It was Ren who had frozen the sandstorm in place.
Following the information Chiyo had provided, he had rushed to Ancient Loran as fast as possible.
But when he arrived, the sight before him left him stunned.
According to Chiyo's report, Loran should have been a prosperous and peaceful place.
And yet—
what Ren found was nothing more than a backward, impoverished city trapped in a brutally harsh environment.
"This is…?"
The Queen of Loran stared blankly at Ren in the sky.
Then, as if something suddenly clicked in her mind, she cried out in alarm,
"The Fifth Hokage! That is the legendary Fifth Hokage—Uchiha Ren!"
"What?!"
"He's the Fifth Hokage?"
"The Fifth Hokage who surpassed even the First Hokage?"
"The God of the shinobi world, Uchiha Ren, has actually come to Ancient Loran?"
The Queen's words struck like thunder.
Princess Sara and the gathered ministers all turned their eyes toward Ren and cried out in shock.
After all—
even a place as isolated from the rest of the world as Ancient Loran had heard of the legendary Fifth Hokage.
And now, that very Fifth Hokage had appeared here in person.
That alone was almost impossible to believe.
When they thought again of the frozen sandstorm overhead, the implications became even more terrifying.
In an instant, joy appeared on the faces of the Queen, Princess Sara, and many of the ministers.
What else was there to say?
At this point, the only person in the world who might be able to save Ancient Loran…
was the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Ren.
In the past, the Queen of Loran had never dared imagine asking Konoha for help.
But now that the Fifth Hokage had come to Loran himself, she naturally had to seize the chance.
"Disperse."
Faced with the dumbstruck Queen and her people, Ren raised his right hand and spoke in that same calm voice.
The moment those words fell—
the sandstorm suspended in the air seemed to be struck by some terrifying force and vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
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