Chapter 136: Loulan

Through the sacrifice of Monk Bunpuku, the group finally landed before the Kingdom of Loulan. The old monk’s body had completely dissolved into stardust, his soul ascending to the heavens, leaving behind only a radiant, golden sarira that Kakuzu tucked away.

"Loulan... Loulan... How could this possibly be Loulan..."

Baki stared at the towering skyscrapers that reached for the clouds. Even the daimyo’s palace in the Land of Wind could not boast such magnificent structures. How could this desolate, dilapidated tribe have achieved such a thing? Yet, the ubiquitous Loulan totems were undeniable proof of its identity.

"Are you certain this was Loulan when you were younger? How could it have transformed like this in just over a decade?" Yugito asked, looking up in sheer disbelief.

"Shouldn't you know perfectly well whether this is Loulan or not?" Shiroki replied with an air of composure that made one suspect he had known all along.

"You’ve been here before, haven't you!" Baki turned to glare at him.

"I told you, the Desert Emperor is waking. I have merely glimpsed this place beneath the Eye of God." Shiroki stroked his Yellow Scripture with a look of utter devotion.

The others were speechless. If a god truly existed, it must be blind to choose such an eccentric priest as its spokesperson.

"Can we stop with this talk? Let's just find something to eat... We can’t let Master Bunpuku’s sacrifice go in vain," Nonou suggested in a hoarse voice.

"Wura, ahhhhh!" Driven by some unknown surge of strength, Shiroki charged into the city like a madman. He looked as though he would tear into and devour the first person he bumped into. The others, squeezing out their final reserves of energy, stumbled into the city after him. They looked less like elite ninjas and more like ragged beggars.

"Heh, heh, heh...! Water, water, water..." Seeing a canal encircling the city, Shiroki lunged toward it recklessly, indifferent to the depth or the risk of drowning, desperate for a single drop.

Ten seconds later...

"Blegh... Don't come down! Whatever you do, don't come down!!!" Shiroki’s wail stopped the others from jumping in.

It was a sewer. The entire canal was stained black with industrial waste, filled with floating debris, rotting meat, and even human corpses.

"This... how could it be like this?" Baki’s face turned ghastly as he looked at the pitch-black trench.

"Here, pull me up..." Shiroki crawled out, filthy from head to toe, and immediately began running into the city without pausing for breath. "Rapidly developing cities are always built on the cost of environmental pollution. It’s understandable... hurry inside, there must be food."

The vast city was as quiet as a graveyard. The towering buildings stood like tombstones, creating an eerie atmosphere that made their skin crawl. But they were past caring; they only wanted food.

[Jiji’s Steamed Bun Shop]

Passing through several high-rises, they found a conspicuous bun shop on the street. Pedestrians walked by in a steady stream, and large, white, steaming buns sat in the baskets. A man wearing a headscarf was busy greeting customers.

Shiroki lunged forward, ignoring the need to pay. He grabbed a bun from the steamer and took a savage, desperate bite!

Oh, the juicy, tender... wait, no!!!!

*Crack.*

The sound nearly shattered Shiroki’s teeth. This wasn't a bun; it was a stone shaped like a bun! It thudded onto the ground, leaving a dent in the pavement.

"Who the hell sells stones as food?!" Shiroki grabbed the vendor by the collar.

The next second, everyone froze.

*Click, clack, click, clack...*

The vendor’s limbs twitched as he continued his programmed movements, his mouth emitting the rhythmic clacking of wood against wood.

It was a puppet.

Baki, refusing to believe it, grabbed a passerby and twisted the figure's head around. It was another puppet, its limbs jerking in a mechanical dance.

"This place... it’s all puppets," Yugito whispered, her mouth half-open. The massive market held not a single living soul.

"Then who is controlling them?"

Being ninjas from the Hidden Sand, they knew that where there was puppetry, there was a puppeteer nearby.

"I am Baki of the Hidden Sand. We come to see the Queen of Loulan. Which master puppeteer is playing these games? Show yourself."

Baki’s voice echoed through the silent high-rises, but there was no response. The puppets continued their programmed lives as if nothing had happened. He called out three more times, but the silence remained, making him feel foolish.

Shiroki finally remembered. His memory of this spin-off, filled with melodramatic tropes, had been hazy, but seeing the puppets brought it all back.

Anrokuzan, the minister of Loulan, was actually the rogue puppet master Sasori of the Red Sand from the Hidden Sand Village. He had discovered the Leyline of Loulan and become obsessed with its vast, infinite chakra. He intended to build a kingdom run entirely by puppets and eventually make the entire ninja world tremble before his puppet army.

He was a bit of a deviant, and a bit of a naive madman. By now, he must have seized power completely, becoming the true ruler of Loulan. All the citizens were likely imprisoned as forced labor, with only a few survivors hiding in the dark corners of the underground, evading the puppet army's search.

"Puppet threads... they seem to be extending from those pipes," Yugito said, grabbing a puppet and tracing the chakra nodes backward.

The city was crisscrossed with intricate pipes—more numerous than the power lines in Konoha—projecting countless chakra threads to animate the puppets throughout the city.

"What in the world is going on here?" Nonou stepped back in alarm.

"Forget that. Finding food is more important. Eat up, and get ready to fight," Shiroki urged.

"Let's go..." Baki agreed, but it was already too late.

[Survivors detected...]
[Capture... initiated.]
[Please follow me to receive your blessings...]

A cold, synthesized voice rang out.

A three-meter-tall puppet soldier hovered through the air. It was made of yellowish-brown steel, its bloated body looking almost comical, but every puppeteer knew: a bloated puppet meant more hidden weapons, and more danger.

[Capture...]

*Boom!*

A projectile fired from the puppet’s mouth, exploding into a massive fishing net in mid-air. It seemed this unit was designed to capture survivors, not kill them.

"Damn it... are they attacking us directly?" Baki gritted his teeth, drawing his Wind Blade. Channeling a tiny bit of chakra, he unleashed a three-foot-long cyan blade of wind, shredding the net in two.

[Danger level increased...]
[Mission updated...]
[Eliminate...]

The puppet soldier’s eyes glowed with a menacing red light.