Several kilometers away from the battlefield where Qingshui and the Senju brothers were fighting, the Konoha ninja led by Orochimaru had already engaged in close combat with the Sand Hidden ninja.
However, the expected scenario — Sand Hidden being leaderless and routed by the Konoha ninja led by Orochimaru — did not materialize.
"Third Generation!"
A Konoha Jonin watched a figure moving with a stiff, almost mechanical quality, yet incredibly swift, and his expression drastically changed.
"*Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!*"
A hint of wicked pleasure played on Sasori's face as he extended a finger, manipulating the Third Hokage Human Puppet to spew Fire Release towards a giant purple snake in the distance.
"*Water Release: Water Formation Wall!*"
A pillar of water appeared, colliding with the fire dragon and evaporating.
Orochimaru's expression darkened. He leaped from Manda's head, and countless vipers shot out from his right sleeve, targeting Sasori's face.
Sasori's act of turning the Third Hokage into a Human Puppet was a resounding slap in the face to all Konoha ninja.
And even more so for Orochimaru, the current Hokage of Konoha.
He had to do everything in his power to recover the Third Hokage's body.
But as things stood, it was proving very difficult.
Hidden Shadow Many Snake Hands was cut into countless serpent corpse fragments by Black Ant beside Sasori, and Manda was entangled by Silver Ox and Hiruko, two top-tier Puppets.
As for Sasori himself, under the dual protection of Black Ant and Salamander, he continuously manipulated the Third Hokage Human Puppet, frantically attacking Orochimaru and any Konoha ninja within reach.
Black Ant and Salamander were creations that Sasori developed not long after he first met Qingshui.
At that time, the power of these two Puppets was naturally not very strong, but Sasori was a top-tier noble scion of the Sand Village. Even during his Chunin/Genin days, the materials used to build his Puppets were never substandard, allowing them to be used all the way up to Jonin-level.
As Sasori's strength grew, and after subsequent modifications integrating both old and new Puppetry techniques, the power of these two Puppets had become quite formidable, enough to fully protect Sasori.
Black Ant was one thing, but Salamander, the Puppet Sasori initially created by imitating Qingshui specifically for his own protection, had a significant amount of effort put into it.
In fact, after receiving Qingshui's teachings on the relevant techniques of Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements, a substantial part of this Puppet had already been transformed into a Magic Tool. It was the strongest Puppet in Sasori's possession, aside from the Third Hokage Human Puppet.
At the very least, Orochimaru had no way whatsoever to deal with Sasori, who was sitting atop Salamander.
Neither Myriad Snake Net nor any other powerful Ninjutsu could break through Sasori's defenses.
Orochimaru's life-saving abilities and overall combat strength were quite good among Kage-level powerhouses, and his offensive techniques were sufficient in most situations.
His base stats were actually decent, but he was half a tier below his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and he wasn't a prodigy like Minato Namikaze, nor did he possess Sage Mode as a means of short-term power burst.
While he could certainly maintain more initiative in the fight against Sasori, Sasori wasn't entirely passive either. When two high-level combatants reached a stalemate, the tide of battle depended on the lower-ranking ninja.
A portion of the Sand Hidden forces had been led away by Rasa and Pakura, leaving only about half of their main strength, but Konoha was in a similar situation.
To stop Rasa and Pakura, Jiraiya and Minato Namikaze had also taken away a considerable number of Konoha's elite.
Sand Hidden still held the upper hand.
Even though Orochimaru had devised many countermeasures, he still couldn't completely restrict most of Sand Hidden's techniques.
The initial samples of Fear Toxin were sent to Konoha Headquarters and analyzed and deciphered by Tsunade. Sand Hidden quickly produced new versions, so Konoha, like Rain Hidden, simply wore gas masks during battles.
However, Sand Hidden could still inject liquefied Fear Toxin into Konoha ninja using weapons like Senbon.
As for other methods, such as Ice Bomb and integrated new-model Puppet armies, Konoha ninja still had no effective way to counter them.
After a grueling battle, the Konoha ninja, who had initiated the attack, not only failed to achieve their objective but were gradually losing strength.
Their confidence in attacking stemmed from the fact that Rasa and Pakura, two top-tier experts, were currently absent, and Qingshui was entangled with the First Hokage and Second Hokage. They believed there was no one capable of stopping Orochimaru, which made them feel certain of victory.
Even with Qingshui's inventions, the role of Kage-level powerhouses on the battlefield remained unchanged. They were still the kind of strong individuals at the top of the Ninja World pyramid who could fight a thousand, capable of single-handedly altering the course of a local war.
Unfortunately, they encountered Sasori, who had just turned the Third Hokage into a Human Puppet, and Orochimaru's original battle plan failed.
Therefore, upon realizing that they couldn't achieve their goal and that Konoha's losses were greater than Sand Hidden's, Orochimaru proactively led his troops in retreat.
He wasn't in a hurry.
Snakes are among the most patient animals.
He had experienced even worse situations before. Nearly a quarter of the Land of Fire's territory had been lost, and Sand Hidden had advanced to within a single mountain of Konoha, threatening to besiege the village at any moment.
Now, with the First Hokage and Second Hokage present, at least stabilizing the situation was a tremendous blessing.
Currently, Hanzo was tied up by Cloud Hidden Village, and Mist Hidden had suffered several major defeats at the hands of Uchiha Fugaku. As long as one of these parties could free up strength afterward, the situation could still change.
Orochimaru felt that everything was moving in a good direction, and the course of the war was shifting towards what Konoha excelled at.
In the first two Great Ninja Wars, Konoha also faced crises in the early stages, but after enduring, they wore down their enemies through their immense reserves, regenerative capacity, and the abundant resources of the Land of Fire.
The Second Great Ninja War was a prime example.
Konoha survived the Second Great Ninja War by relying on its exceptionally long "health bar" and abundant talent, resources, and inherited legacy, eventually producing Konoha's White Fang and the Sannin—four Kage-level powerhouses.
...
...
The battle between Qingshui and the Senju brothers ended when Orochimaru led his team in retreat.
He agreed to Senju Hashirama's request for negotiations, but not to end the war.
What can be achieved at the negotiating table depends on what you can achieve on the battlefield.
The greater the advantage on the battlefield, the more leverage one has at the negotiating table.
Qingshui felt that negotiating now was acceptable.
The Senju brothers could currently stop him, and there was also Might Duy, who for some reason hadn't appeared in this battle.
He was also wary of the Eight Gates Formation's Gate of Death.
That thing might actually be able to kick him to death.
Things like Impure World Reincarnation and Eight Gates Formation were never used by Konoha in conventional warfare, but they could be trump cards at critical moments.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Konoha also had to accept that nearly a quarter of their territory would be ceded to Sand Hidden.
Qingshui would absolutely not give up the gains he had made; at worst, they could just maintain the stalemate.
Sand Hidden hadn't exhausted its reserves from the past few years and could easily sustain another year or two of fighting with Konoha. In fact, due to the development of its military industrial system, which boosted related industries, its economy had been stimulated and became slightly more prosperous in the short term.
Within one to two years, Sand Hidden's internal development wouldn't be significantly impacted.
Moreover, since Sand Hidden now controlled vast wealth and administrative power obtained from the Daimyo, extending this period several times over wouldn't be an issue.
Whether it was continuing the stalemate with Konoha for another year or two, or achieving a period of stable development through peace talks for the same duration, Qingshui was confident that he could advance his strength during this time.
Then, flattening Konoha later would be just as effective.
As for the Land of Fire Daimyo, Qingshui believed that after this war, all forces in the Ninja World would imitate Sand Hidden and make changes.
This was because Sand Hidden had already demonstrated immense strength after its reforms, and in this war, it had proven with its absolute power the superiority of its new post-reform system over the old ninja village-Daimyo system.
Now, if other ninja villages didn't want to be eliminated, they would be forced to imitate Sand Hidden, acquiring vast resources, wealth, and administrative power from the existing ruling class—the Daimyo and nobles—to expand their military and enhance their ninja strength.
This was similar to how, after the first ninja village was established, the various ninja clans in other countries, facing the collective power of multiple combined ninja clans, proactively banded together and successively formed multiple ninja villages within a year.
Because they felt threatened.
Furthermore, after this war, those ninja villages would certainly use a series of other methods to probe for all information related to the new Puppetry and other related technologies that contributed to Sand Hidden's strength, while also trying their best to engage in an arms race and strengthen themselves.
The reason was simple: Sand Hidden was too strong, and Konoha, which had brought out Impure World Reincarnation and also possessed multiple Kage-level powerhouses, was also too strong.
Both of these had the power to single-handedly overwhelm other individual major ninja villages. If other ninja villages didn't want to be left behind in the future, they would definitely strive for development.
Even Konoha would.
Because their hegemonic status had been challenged, Konoha's reforms would likely be very radical for the future.
Others might hesitate to act against the Daimyo, but Orochimaru was definitely not that kind of person.
Qingshui believed that this snake would absolutely be the first Kage to revolutionize the Daimyo's position after Sand Hidden.
…
…
One-Person World.
September 30th, night.
Peking University, Zhuo Qingshui Scientific Research Center.
At this very moment, a grand celebration banquet was underway.
An hour ago, as a hydrogen-saturated palladium metal rod was inserted into a basin-sized Arc Reactor, causing it to glow with a brilliant ghostly blue light, the news of the miniaturized cold fusion reactor's creation was officially announced.
Whether it was relevant personnel from the scientific community, high-ranking officials from the military, political, and business sectors who had arrived early after receiving the news, or even news reporters from Central TV, all participated in the banquet.
However, the atmosphere at the celebration banquet was somewhat tense. Outside, armed police had even been called in to cordon off the area. Everyone present was ordered to remain in position, not to move, and all communication devices were confiscated for inspection.
This was because the great scientist, the inventor of cold fusion, Zhuo Qingshui, had been poisoned by an foreign spy.
Fortunately, Qingshui's perception abilities were strong enough that he detected it beforehand.
And it was also fortunate that there was no live broadcast, so the relevant information wasn't immediately leaked, otherwise, it would have caused an uproar by now.
That thing isn't ordinary poison; it contains Qi. It's Qi poison. After testing by state security, it's a demon similar to a Northeast Shaman, with roughly over three hundred years of cultivation, and it's suspected of having undergone genetic modification. We've already contacted Anomalous Human experts from Tangmen of Shu, Liu Family of Xiangxi, Qinghe Village of Miaojiang, and Tengshan of Minzhong, who specialize in poisons and Gu arts, to assist with the investigation.
Yue Qian, dressed in military uniform, walked over to Qingshui, who was sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, resting.
"Have you found that person?"
"Master Zeng and Master Wong, along with Mr. Zhuge Gong of the Wuhou Sect, entered the inner realm for deduction, found clues, and with the cooperation of state security, caught the person."
"Who is it?"
"A reporter who infiltrated. He studied abroad years ago, and his real identity was replaced by a Japan Anomalous Human with shapeshifting and disguise abilities. He's been arrested for questioning."
A Japanese?
Yue Qian replied to Qingshui.
"Elder Lu."
Qingshui opened his eyes, stood up from the chair, and spoke to an old man sitting at the table.
Immediately, everyone's gaze converged on Lu Ci.
"Could we perhaps borrow the Lu Family's assistance again? Senior Ping, who is most skilled in the Soul-Illumination Technique, is also here."
Yue Qian glanced at Lu Ci and Lu Ping, intending to lean in and whisper something to Qingshui.
But Qingshui stopped him.
"After all, among everyone present, you, sir, are the least likely to be colluding with the Japanese. I believe you are completely trustworthy."
Lu Ci paused, then suddenly stood up from his seat, his eyes gleaming.
"Professor Zhuo, you're absolutely right. Heh, those little devils, it's been decades since I've had a go at them. Ping'er, let's lend a hand!"
With that, Lu Ci and Lu Ping followed a National Security officer and left.
"Let's go take a look too. A three-hundred-year-old Gu worm, and it's even undergone genetic modification. Heh, that's truly impressive. It would make a good research subject."
Qingshui also clapped his hands, signaling Yue Qian to take him along.
Another National Security officer then stepped forward with a few people and announced:
"Everyone, the suspect has been apprehended. For now, we can confirm that this incident is not related to any of you. Next, please follow the relevant personnel to give a statement and retrieve your returned communication devices, after which you may return to your respective residences. Furthermore, until further instructions from higher up, please do not leave the Capital City, and ensure your communication remains open during this period so we can contact you at any time."
"We will definitely cooperate. We'll stay in the hotel and won't go anywhere. If you need any assistance, please don't hesitate to ask, official personnel. I believe everyone here, including my Feng family, will offer their full support."
Feng Zhenghao, dressed in a suit, stood up from his seat, holding Feng Xingtong's hand, and spoke earnestly.
Other important figures and researchers present also made similar assurances before leaving the scene with the National Security staff.
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