The cold wave pouring down from the northern plateau of the Land of Lightning had mercilessly extended across the entire continent.
The world had once again entered winter.
Hii Kōri had always liked winter, and after coming to this world, he liked it even more. The gloomy blue-white helped calm his increasingly restless soaring thoughts. So even he was happy to pause his footsteps slightly in this silent season.
But this winter, that probably wouldn't be possible.
Among the countless nations of this world, the most habitable and resource-rich was the Land of Fire. Four distinct seasons, favorable weather, and no natural disasters.
The man-made disasters brought by this fertile land were another matter.
The Land of Lightning, located at the northeastern end of this Pangea-like continent, could also be considered a habitable place.
Vegetation flourished in the mountains, while the lowlands were vast meadows. The people of the Land of Lightning could both cultivate fields in the mountains and establish ranches on the meadows. With a long, high-quality coastline, the fishing industry was also well-developed.
Apart from living with plateau wind and snow and overwhelming lightning due to being too close to the sky, there wasn't much to complain about.
On the streets of the Land of Lightning, it was perfectly ordinary to suddenly hear a thunderclap from above and see a bolt of lightning tear through the lead-gray clouds.
Living alongside lightning had cultivated the people's tenacious, combative character—though that was putting it nicely. To foreigners, the people of Lightning were more like stones in a latrine: hard and foul-smelling, and prone to provoking others.
Moreover, because they often heard deafening thunder, their hearing was generally somewhat impaired so they all spoke very loudly.
Combined with their original temper, this made them even more unpleasant.
Naturally, they never saw it that way; they even took pride in it. And Kumogakure's ninjas seemed to be the very crystallization of violence as if the spirit of the Land of Lightning had been boiled down to its essence.
Kumogakure as its name suggests this village built on a high mountain was very close to the clouds.
Clusters of silver-white clouds floated in the wind, seemingly within reach. Looking down, thick fog rose from all directions, drifting at the mountainside, making the village seem like a fairyland... if one ignored that half the inhabitants of that fairyland were muscular, dark-skinned brutes.
Now, these highland ninjas had a new target.
As one of the triggers of the Second Shinobi World War, Kumogakure's presence in that war had been very thin, completely unlike their proper character.
Even losing a Kage, two Kage-level powerhouses, and over twenty elite jōnin wasn't... well, that was indeed a fairly heavy blow.
Especially since the two Kage-level casualties were the Gold and Silver Brothers, and the Six Paths tools that had cost considerable effort to collect were now semi-scrap—after all, not just anyone could use them.
But as to whether Kumogakure could still fight at that time? The answer was still yes.
They could certainly have fought. If they had committed fully to the war, they would have had the ability to change its course.
The diplomatic incident where both Kages were attacked and killed—and Kumogakure declined to intervene in the Second War out of apology—was the kind of surface-level statement one could take with a grain of salt. Anyone who actually believed it might as well ask their neighbor to buy them some melon seeds.
Fools.
Anyone with eyes could see that Kumogakure was simply sitting back to watch the tigers fight, waiting to see how much Konoha would be worn down by the war, while simultaneously building up its own strength and healing its internal wounds.
In terms of results, Konoha's losses were indeed great—greater than Kumogakure had imagined. Even after the war, new losses kept being reported, such as Tsunade's departure and Jiraiya's crippling.
But unfortunately, Iwagakure had hardly suffered at all.
As everyone knew, Kumogakure had long coveted the Land of Fire's abundance. To get their hands on that land, many people had died, both from the village and the country as a whole.
But their inability to win was simply due to their own lack of strength—there was no real enmity with Konoha. That was why the Second Raikage had signed a peace treaty with Tobirama Senju.
But between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth—there was a genuine, irreconcilable feud.
If the Land of Lightning was a stone in a latrine, the Land of Earth was a pure stirring stick. Whenever the former made a move, the latter would certainly come to "support" with a backstab.
From ancient times to the present, this had never failed. Small-scale border conflicts between the two countries had never ceased; raiding each other's merchant caravans and assassinating messengers were common occurrences. This was reflected even more directly in their respective ninja villages.
This was also why Kumogakure hadn't directly slapped Konoha at the time, instead merely secretly sending a few jōnin to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina.
Seeing Iwagakure lurking on the sidelines, putting in minimal effort, everyone knew what they were plotting. If Kumogakure dared to move, Iwagakure would definitely turn around and hit them hard.
But now, with the Third Raikage long since elected, Kumogakure's period of recuperation was probably about to end. This time, however, their target was not Konoha, but the Red Hot Sand.
The thunderstorms the Land of Lightning had grown accustomed to were no longer natural disasters to them—they were another form of blessing.
"We have turned this curse into power."
In the field of energy, the Land of Lightning's technology had always been a full tier ahead of other countries. And this advantage in energy translated into even greater productive capacity.
Just as the primitive civilization of North America, lacking suitable pack animals, had failed to develop wheeled vehicles, resulting in extremely poor transportation capabilities, and ultimately being unable to compete with primitive civilizations from other regions of the same era...
Key technological nodes bring enormous development advantages.
Leveraging its domestic energy advantage, the Land of Lightning had the lowest dependence on the Red Hot Sand Guild of any nation in the world. In fact, before the guild's rise, the Land of Lightning had been the world's largest exporter.
Domestic industry has been impacted, traditional craftsmen have lost their jobs, and noble profits have been squeezed... Under these conditions, no outside fanning the flames was needed—the Land of Lightning would already have strong dissatisfaction toward the Red Hot Sand to seize their market.
So Hii Kōri also planned to throw some sand in the eyes of the Land of Lightning.
At the Land of Lightning's border, the Red Hot Sand Guild's large-scale electrical energy conversion facility.
The facility was located on a relatively gentle plateau. Hundreds of meters-tall lightning rods were scattered across the surrounding plains, pointing toward the lead-gray sky like silent giants amidst the thunder.
Thick cables extended from the bases of the towers, connecting through underground conduits to the central main building.
Even in winter, the workers here remained busy. They wore specially made insulated work uniforms, checking equipment, recording data, and maintaining lines under the engineers' direction. Inside the conversion facility, countless variable frequency arrays converted the captured lightning into usable energy.
At this moment, in the facility's core reactor control room, a pitch-black figure—as if cut from reality—stood there, meticulously observing the reactor core of the energy conversion device. In a gentle, refined yet distinctly unsettling tone, he uttered praise.
"Mm, subarashii~ This system's design is quite excellent."
He wore what looked like a foreign noble's formal attire, but with a subtle functional style—an outfit of pitch black.
The coat-style outer garment, matte black as a base, made it hard to tell whether it was fabric or leather. His forearms, boots, and torso were covered in gunmetal-colored armor plates.
A black helmet, its surface gleaming with an inorganic coldness, perfectly covered all facial features. Its angular outline was filled with a mechanical coolness, leaving no trace of biological features. Only on the central axis of the faceplate—seemingly riveted to the helmet—was there a vertical, purple-glowing luminous structure.
As he spoke, the lavender glowing structure slowly pulsed like breathing.
"...You... you're satisfied, that's good, Consultant Bordore."
The facility director, illuminated by the ominous alternating purple light, answered stutteringly.
Whether due to the other's appearance or his seemingly gentle yet somewhat mechanically stiff tone, simply standing beside him made the director feel an inexplicable fear.
"Ah... no need to be nervous. Everyone's work has been done most perfectly. Even I have no complaints."
The noble-like man turned his head slightly, raised his hand, and tapped the area of the helmet presumably corresponding to his temple, calming the director beside him in a steady tone. "My report on this energy center has already been submitted. I imagine it won't be long before everyone receives a nice bonus. I hope you all can enjoy a pleasant New Year."
"Well then, with your permission, I'll take my leave."
As he disappeared, a young engineer spoke up quietly. "Director... who exactly was that..."
"A special technical consultant sent by headquarters." The director took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice calm. "High rank, directly reporting to the highest level. We just need to cooperate. Don't ask what you shouldn't."
"Mm... oh..."
The person who appeared at the energy centre under the name "Consultant Bordore" was none other than the first self that Hii Kōri had created based on the "Soul Prototype".
After retrieving his second cursed technique and bringing that inspiration to life, it didn't take long for Hii Kōri to achieve results.
This was only natural. The Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Shaka Palm is a cursed technique that provides an absolute chance for "talent that could never be discovered" and "inspiration that could never be realised".
It was a cursed technique that turned the "impossible" into the "possible," allowing unrealistic fantasies to sprout and bloom—a technique that exhausted romance.
And according to principle, the Soul Prototype was hardly "impossible" in this world.
Previously, Hii Kōri had already mastered many of the prerequisite techniques applicable to this technology.
The technique to prepare his own physical data and refine it into marrow fluid. The technique to overlay one's own personality onto another's spirit, transforming them into another version of "oneself."
With these prerequisites, using his own cursed technique to skip the "process" and obtain the "result" naturally wouldn't be too difficult.
As for the matter of preparing a "purely blank human body" free of any extraneous data—while some compromise could be made, it was better to create a completely blank human body if possible.
Because the core concept of this technology was "purity."
Purity of the body. Purity of the self. Purity without any other impurities.
Aozaki Aoko's Soul Prototype was achieved by creating a "humanoid" completely identical to oneself. Not treating the human body as a living organism, but as a "humanoid"—assembling an indistinguishable container from "parts."
This complete identity was a form of symbolism within the technique, and also the reason why methods like "cloning" couldn't be used for this purpose.
But what Hii Kōri wanted to achieve wasn't merely the "Soul Prototype" on the level of reincarnation, but the further step: the simultaneous existence of multiple selves.
Whether on the physical or spiritual level, even the tiniest deviation would be glaringly obvious in perfect synchronization.
However, this theoretically most difficult link was actually the simplest for Hii Kōri.
Ucchuṣma's Hundred Transformations Sealed Method—ever heard of it?
With exactly the same physical information, Hii Kōri's spirit could freely switch and transfer between the two bodies. Naturally, he could also simultaneously manipulate both bodies to act.
But compared to the originally envisioned "simultaneously existing multiple selves," this feeling was more like a computer with an extra secondary screen.
And if the two bodies were too far apart, Hii Kōri could only manipulate one of them—even though he had injected his personality and thoughts into the new body.
This phenomenon was likely due to bias in the authentication of spiritual information. He wasn't without inspiration to solve this, but involving the soul would naturally require some time to verify.
The design of this body's "Lord of Dawn, Bordore"—both to commemorate the source of this inspiration and out of personal preference—was specially crafted to restore that appearance.
And of course, for the next action.
The Land of Lightning wasn't like the Land of Fire today; their internal intelligence work had always been very good. Even if Hii Kōri infiltrated using makeup or other means, if a fight broke out, his identity would still be easily discovered.
But by appearing openly as a highly distinctive figure like "Bordore," no one would connect the two.
In fact, Hii Kōri intended to arrange the "Bordore" identity as the president of the "Technical Coordination Alliance."
Acting as the guild's direct consultant to inspect the development of industries and facilities in the Land of Lightning was a perfectly reasonable cover.
And afterwards, as a consultant, it would also be normal for him to visit some researchers in the Land of Lightning, wouldn't it?
Kumogakure couldn't be taken, but the talent across various industries—that was precious.