Though it was a newly formed lake, the water had already cleared.
Half the deep valley had been submerged. The lake was dark and still, reflecting blue sky, white clouds, and the distant mountain peaks, creating a breathtaking scene where heaven and earth seemed turned upside down within the water.
"Beautiful." x2
"I suddenly don't want to destroy this lake anymore."
"I don't want to either, meow."
"Fresh air isn't unusual. What's unusual is the concentration of natural energy here…"
Uchiha Yoru closed his eyes and carefully sensed the surrounding environment.
A few minutes later, he opened them again, delight flashing across his face.
"That's right. The concentration is still slowly increasing. You can already feel the difference after just a few minutes. The potential of this place is no small thing."
"I feel it too. If this keeps up for another ten days, it should surpass the Cat Castle's concentration. That's very rare, meow. We should take this place."
"I agree. If we mobilize the ninja cats of the Cat Castle to control this location, it'll be of great benefit to the Cat Castle's future. We can also set up an eternal flame here and use it as a mobile node for the two of us."
"Then what do we do about this lake, meow?"
"We have to preserve it. The appearance of the lake and the increase in natural energy probably aren't directly related, but I'm only a newcomer to the immortal path. I can't say for certain."
"If I guess wrong and draining the lake causes the natural energy to disappear too, then we'll have lost terribly."
"Besides…"
Yoru looked out at the scenery again.
"With scenery like this, it deserves to be preserved."
He pointed at the natural dam piled high with rocks and trees.
"Come on. Let's go examine the barrier dam and see what we can do to preserve this beautiful new lake."
The barrier dam was obviously formed when the entire western slope had collapsed.
The amount of rock and earth was enormous. The thickness of the accumulated dam body was more than six times its height, making it quite stable.
The situation was much better than expected.
Which also meant—
The danger was greater than expected.
With a dam this thick, as long as water did not begin flowing over the top, it would be impossible for ordinary water pressure to push it down and cause a collapse.
But the material making up the dam was still broken rock and debris.
Though massive enough to endure pressure, it could not withstand prolonged erosion by flowing water.
Once the lake rose high enough to overtop the dam, the current would hollow it out in at most a month.
After that, collapse would be inevitable.
And by then, even more water would have accumulated, which naturally meant even greater destructive force.
Standing atop this naturally formed dam, Miwa Masayo looked left and right, but no matter how she looked at it, it was just a mountain of broken stone. She simply couldn't imagine how something this huge could possibly be afraid of water.
Yoru pointed south.
"Look at the valleys here. Such deep ravines were all carved out by flowing water. That's solid rock, and even it couldn't withstand the erosion."
"Water is a very magical thing. When it's still, it only has weight."
"But once it starts moving…"
"It has endless power."
"Then how do we fix it, meow?"
"Very simple. Dig a tunnel under the dam. Make a channel that can withstand water erosion and release the water in advance. That way, we preserve the dam and complete the mission at the same time."
"Moving a mountain is absolutely beyond me."
"But tunneling through a dam made of loose material…"
"I think I can do that."
Miwa Masayo ran all over the dam, and the more she looked, the bigger it seemed. She couldn't help becoming suspicious of her contractor's bold claim.
But this time, the clever calico cat said nothing.
She remembered very clearly that Uchiha Yoru had once said:
Before something has even begun, never say anything questioning whether it can be done.
Even if those unlucky words turn out to be correct, you'll still get beaten up by everyone and end up miserable.
What's more—
Ever since she had known Uchiha Yoru, he had never done anything he wasn't sure of.
He always planned repeatedly, prepared thoroughly, and then obtained success in a plain, almost casual way.
Miwa Masayo had absolute confidence in her contractor.
It was a trust beyond reason.
Compared to that trust, her own judgment wasn't worth mentioning.
Since succeeding in Foundation Establishment, Yoru's mental capacity had greatly increased. The earth-aspected techniques granted by earth natural energy let him move underground like a fish in water. Very quickly, he figured out the internal structure of the barrier dam and rapidly formulated a construction plan.
The drainage channel couldn't be straight.
If water flowed through a straight line, its speed would become too fast and the impact too great. The end of the tunnel would be easily damaged.
So Yoru chose a bent pipeline structure, forcing the water to go through one rise and fall within the channel, controlling its maximum speed.
Once the plan was complete, Yoru came to a point slightly above the current water level.
Mobilizing earth-aspected natural energy, he sank into the rock and soil as if diving into water.
Soon, the broken rock and mud began to soften and spin, turning into something like slurry.
It even formed a vortex.
As the vortex spun faster and faster, centrifugal force created an empty hollow at its center, which rapidly widened. Once the diameter reached three meters, the rotation abruptly stopped, and the slurry instantly hardened into white stone.
Immortal Art: Grouted Cement.
This was an earth-aspected senjutsu Yoru had comprehended while building the altar at the Cat Castle.
Its effect combined the functions of turning stone into mud and mud into stone, allowing him to soften and harden rock, earth, and sand at will.
The hardened result resembled silicate cement.
It was quite sturdy.
Yoru moved quickly.
The massive cement tunnel rapidly extended forward.
After advancing forty meters, it turned downward, plunging directly into the mountain's original stone foundation so it could withstand eighty meters of water pressure.
After moving forward through stone for over one hundred and sixty meters, the tunnel curved upward again, rising forty-five meters before making a sharp bend and descending once more.
In the end, the outlet emerged in the original river channel, dark and cavernous, enough to make anyone instinctively wary.
After Foundation Establishment, natural energy flowed into Yoru's body in an endless stream, sustaining his circulation without cease and strengthening his physique at every moment.
Today—
For the first time—
He truly experienced what it meant to feel "hollowed out."
His stamina was still abundant, yet mentally he couldn't summon any energy at all. He lay lazily atop the dam's drainage outlet, not wanting to move even a finger.
In a weak voice, Yoru pleaded, "Miwa Masayo, I really can't stand up anymore. Please go up there and move the boulder sealing the entrance so the water can start flowing."
"Okay, meow."
The calico cat leapt lightly among the stones.
Soon she crossed over the dam and jumped into the water on the other side.
Miwa Masayo was a ninja cat who could swim and dive.
She disliked baths because of her personality, not because she was afraid of water.
But the giant boulder blocking the tunnel entrance was now completely submerged.
Though the buoyancy of the water reduced its weight, it was also held firmly in place by the pressure of the lake.
Miwa Masayo's Sage abilities were not based on brute strength.
With her small body, she simply couldn't resist the tremendous pressure and move the stone aside.
But the calico cat was no fool.
Just because her physical strength couldn't move it didn't mean senjutsu couldn't.
Blue flames poured from Miwa Masayo's mouth.
Even underwater, those flames burned fiercely. They could even use water itself as fuel, releasing intense light and heat.
"Meowu, meowu, so hot, so hot!"
Using her adorable little paws, the calico cat gathered the blue flames into a fireball, aimed it at the massive rock sealing the drainage tunnel entrance—
Then immediately turned and fled backward.
The blue fireball touched the rock without a sound.
It sank into the center of the stone just as silently, forming web-like traces of blue flame.
Those flame marks spread deeper and deeper into the rock.
At last, they burned all the way through it, splitting the entire boulder into eight large sections.
In the next instant, water pressure crushed the fractured stone to pieces.
The emerald-green lake water surged violently into the channel.
The water level of the barrier lake began to fall.
The crisis—
Was resolved.
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