It was time to hunt for the Gelel Ore Vein.
The Empire of Gelel that first discovered the ore vein and mined it for what came to be called Stones of Gelel was a civilization that preceded the arrival of Otsutsuki Isshiki and Kaguya.
Shiki's own Ruyumon ancestors had similarly ancient roots and watched both the rise and fall of this empire.
It was the power of the Stones of Gelel that allowed that empire to rise and it was their power that eventually brought about their fall.
Namely, a massive war that pitted factions from both inside and outside of the empire, all fighting for control of the Gelel Ore Vein where all the Stones originated from.
In the end, the royals of the empire who possessed this status due to their innate ability to extract and forge the ore into Stones of Gelel and imbue them into other people or items, decided to seal the being and forever hide its location.
The conflicts smouldered to an end after this but without the means to acquire more Stones of Gelel, the empire could no longer maintain itself and vanished into the annals of history.
In the present day, while Shiki knew a lot more info on the Empire of Gelel than shown on the original series' movie, most of the information relevant to locating the ore vein and acquiring its power still came from there.
There were a few remaining stones, royal descendants and a book containing a lot of relevant information that all eventually landed into the hands of a man named Haido, the antagonist of the movie, however, all these things and personnel were far away in another continent.
But in the shinobi continent somewhere in the southeastern parts of the Land of Wind, somewhat close to the border, the Gelel Ore Vein lay sealed in a temple hidden in a deep canyon within a forested rocky region.
That said, this still signified a large trek of land so Shiki wanted more accurate information which he was certain to find in a caravan of nomads formed by descendants of the guardians of the sealed Ore Vein.
The boy had already investigated their existence and itinerary.
All that was left to do, was to find them and extract the exact location from the Caravan Elder who was certain to possess it.
There should also be a small Gelel Fragment in the caravan pet named Nerugui, a ferret-like creature existing since the days of the empire, sustained by the power of Gelel but Shiki did not need it.
His goal was to extract all the info he required and leave without leaving any trace that someone was even there.
It was one of the reasons he wanted Benihime to come along, with her now much better trained Shuigan, diving into a civilian's mind, extracting their secrets and wiping any and all memory of intrusion ought to be a simple task.
The nomad group never strayed too far from the temple's area as they are its guardians but since they do have occasional contact with several settlements and travelling merchants, they were not hard to track at all.
As such, it only took a few days for Shiki and Benihime to find them . . .
*
"Okay Beni-chan, that old man named Kahito should have what we want his son Kahiko should also have inherited the secrets passed down through the generations but the old man is a surer bet." Shiki declared.
Kahiko, the son, was the actual leader in the time of the original series but it looked like his father Kahito was still alive and the man in charge at the current time.
"How do you want to play this?" Beni inquired.
"We'll wait for the deep night when everyone except the lookouts are asleep, I'll use the Temple of Nirvana to then ensure all of them are neutralized. There are no shinobi in the caravan so resistance is unlikely." Shiki explained with a serious expression.
"Then I go in, extract the info from the old man and nudge the memories of everyone to ensure nothing strange is detected." Beni deduced the rest.
"Exactly." The boy smiled and with a nod of complicity, the pair got into a waiting position.
The hours rolled by until the caravan finally set up a camp and began to rest but they remained on standby holding until the night deepened.
And then finally, Shiki moved in.
'Genjutsu: Temple of Nirvana'
Illusory white feathers descended from the sky and all the lookouts quickly fell asleep without being able to sound off any kind of alarm or give out any warning.
The boy signaled Beni to move in but suddenly a red eyed flash of beige was targeted at his face.
With his Kukyo - Seven Senses on lock and his supreme reaction time, Shiki caught the flying object.
A tan furred ferret, squirming and wailing as it attempted to scratch and bite its way out of the boy's hand clamped around its small body.
"Shh." Shiki whispered and his soft, enlightened aura, now boosted by one of his new techniques, Nirvana Art: Emanation of Ecstasy, actually succeeded in calming the small animal that somehow completely resisted his genjutsu.
"Is this the power of Gelel? Eh? Nerugui-san." The boy casually spoke with the deceptively smart small animal, causing it to squirm a bit more and emit a few cute noises of complaint as well as suspicion.
"Don't worry. No one is going to get hurt here." Shiki assured while scratching Nerugui's soft fur, setting the cute creature down after it became slightly more obedient.
Meanwhile, Beni was already hard at work handling her part of the job.
In the end, while the girl did the hard part, Shiki spent the majority of the time playing with Nerugui while keeping watch with his sensory abilities.
It went surprisingly quickly. In the original series, Ranmaru used that dojutsu to pretty much figure out the entirety of Raiga's life in a couple of minutes.
Benihime was better than him but was looking for very specific information and needed complete detail so she took a little while longer but still, in under an hour, the girl had everything they needed.
She proceeded to quickly blur the last few memories of the lookouts before Shiki's genjutsu took effect so they subconsciously ignored their sudden sleep as well as its possible cause and, after a quick goodbye to the rather combative ferret, the pair left onwards to their new destination.
"Got what we wanted?" The boy inquired.
"Yes. More than what you expected in fact." Beni replied.
"That's what I like to hear." Shiki responded.
"Lead the way to the ore vein and brief me during the trek." He added.
And so, the pair dashed from rock to rock, tree to tree, heading towards the hidden temple where the prize Shiki seeked awaited the both of them.
Additionally, according to Beni, the old man from the caravan was far better informed about the Stones of Gelel, its secrets and the Gelel Vein than Shiki originally believed.
"There is a lot of historical info but I assume we can skip that." The girl started.
"You can tell me later over some snacks. Important info first." Shiki replied.
Satisfied with the proposal, Benihime revealed what she had learned.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -