Chapter 542 Arrival at the Central Tower

The moment Ling crushed the amulet, the puppets that had been hovering in the air for a long time swooped down and surrounded Ling, trying to capture him. However, when they realized that they could not subdue Ling with their skills and Ling had no intention of escaping, they stopped their actions and just surrounded Ling.

But as the silence between the two sides prolonged, Ling clearly felt that the natural energy around him began to become restless, and even the nearby houses were cracked by this extremely restless natural energy.

Ling let out a long breath, suppressed the uneasiness in his heart, and walked to a puppet. "I want to see you - if you can understand what I mean, then let this puppet take me there."

The restlessness around him stopped instantly. Only the puppet Ling was facing leaned slightly towards Ling and stretched out its hands.

But Ling avoided the puppet's hands and instead concentrated chakra on his hands and feet, grabbing the puppet's head and half stepping on it, ready to break away immediately if anything went wrong, "... Let's go."

Xuanwo Yi looked at Ling who was surrounded by puppets and then lifted into the air with nervousness, and couldn't help but let out a laughing sound. He stepped onto the roof with a few steps and made a "how funny" gesture to Ling. After Ling glared at him and raised his staff and knife to warn him, he grinned completely, but still kept quiet and hung near the group of puppets.

Ling retracted his gaze and pressed the handle of his staff sword against his temple. [Although I can usually get emotional feedback from others using perception ninjutsu, the impact is far less than directly seeing other people's expressions... and being so easily aroused - really, it seems that my mind is not mature enough.]

Perhaps because of Ling's presence, the puppets did not fly too high. The grand momentum attracted a lot of discussion from the local people of Loulan, and the noise that was not deliberately suppressed naturally could not avoid Namikaze Minato and his companions.

Aburame Shihui lowered her eyes to look at the tiny parasite on her fingertips, interrupting Minato Namikaze who was trying to persuade Naruto and the Queen of Loulan to retreat first, "Minato, I understand your concerns, but I must report the situation to you first - those two people just now seem to have made some kind of deal with the puppets, and are being protected by the puppets as they head to the central tower."

"It's the dragon vein! Their goal is the same as An Lushan's!"

Hearing this, Namikaze Minato, who was about to ask for details, was stunned. He looked at Sarah, whose eyes were filled with resentment, and asked, "Does Her Majesty know anything?"

Sarah bit her lower lip and spoke after a brief silence. "Before bringing me to you, the black-haired kid had asked me about the method of communicating with and controlling the dragon veins. Perhaps they had already established contact with An Lushan. It was precisely because of these ninjas behind the scenes that An Lushan was able to become the actual controller of Loulan so smoothly! They came here this time because An Lushan was definitely planning to get out of their control, and they needed the power of the dragon veins... these hateful outsiders!"

Namikaze Minato recalled the information the two had revealed and their habit of always being on guard, and raised his hand to scratch his hair, "Perhaps those two did have some ideas about the dragon veins, but I think you may have some misunderstandings about them in collusion with An Lushan..."

"Misunderstanding? Haha... I don't believe that so many coincidences are just a misunderstanding--" Sarah smiled bitterly, "My mother was killed because she discovered An Lushan's conspiracy. It's ridiculous that my father and I still trusted him very much after that. Even after I lost my father, I still trusted An Lushan and believed that he was a loyal minister of Loulan!

However, such a person whom we trusted, attacked me without hesitation when I just found out that both my parents were murdered and there was even only slight evidence pointing to him!

People who have been with me for many years will betray me. How can I believe that those two outsiders plotting against the dragon vein is just a coincidence! I am going to the central tower. Now I am the only one who can compete with them for the dominance of the dragon vein. I must protect my country! I must also avenge my father, the king, and my mother!"

Looking at the emotional client in front of him, Minato Namikaze suddenly felt a headache - accepting a commission temporarily was already a violation of the ninja code, and fighting with a fragile client would be simply hell.

As a result, before Minato Namikaze could think of words to refuse, Uzumaki Naruto started arguing with others because Sarah questioned Uzumaki Yi's actions, and another farce suddenly occurred.

However, this farce obviously did not affect Ling and Xuanwo Yi's itinerary. Thanks to the puppet group, the two of them arrived at the central tower smoothly. Even though the princess fell from the building just now, the celebration here was still held as scheduled, and the cheers were like waves, one higher than the other.

But Ling and Uzumaki Yi both looked serious because of this. After all, in their perception, the cheering people did not convey any breath of life. As the group of puppets approached the entrance in the middle of the tower, Ling also relied on his vision enhanced by the Sharingan to see those cheering [people] clearly - exquisite puppets dressed in ordinary people's clothes.

Ling, who saw all this, just raised his eyebrows slightly and did not comment. Instead, Xuanwo Yi looked a little unfriendly after finding out the situation - for Xuanwo, who had been dealing with non-human aliens for a long time, this kind of thing that was specially made into a human form and imitated human behavior was not so popular.

After entering the passage in the middle of the tower, Ling jumped off the puppet and followed the puppet into the tower side by side with Xuanwo Yi, while constantly communicating through short universal gestures.

But before the two could exchange a few words, a whistling sound of breaking through the air came from behind them. Ling and Xuanwo Yi had both grown up in wars, so they would naturally not be hit by such an obvious attack. They each retreated to the side, but the puppets leading the way were not so lucky, and were all smashed to pieces by the sudden attack.

Ling raised his hand to block the flying puppet fragments, and finally had enough space to see the attacker clearly. But it was not entirely accurate to say it was an attacker, because the attacking object was a huge fist, and it was obviously only a part of it.

"Wow! What a huge puppet! The creativity of future generations is truly amazing!"

"I really don't understand what you're so excited about..." Ling replied in a low voice, then raised his eyes and followed the huge fist to look at the main body of the puppet, or more precisely, at the person standing on the huge puppet. He slightly curved his eyebrows and drew his sword. "But it's great that I can vent my anxiety by using the minions that block the road before I see the dragon vein."