Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 81 Intelligence and Psychological Warfare

"As expected, the enemy can see me even outside of their chakra perception range."

After flying eastward for ten minutes, Li Yaoying's clone looked back and saw that the two Konoha ninjas who had initially chased after him had disappeared from his sight.

Or perhaps it was always in his sight, but he couldn't see it because it was too far away.

"But let's confirm it anyway."

Thinking this, Li Yaoying's clone controlled the Black Iron Giant Eagle to fly over a forest and then landed on the trees.

With a thought, Li Yaoying recalled the Black Iron Giant Eagle, landed, and hid behind a large tree, waiting quietly.

Not long after.

More than twenty ink-wash swallows quickly entered his chakra perception range, followed closely by the two Konoha ninjas standing on the ink-wash birds.

"As expected, their only means of perception is visual perception."

Li Yaoying's clone raised an eyebrow slightly and smiled.

Since he wasn't visible in the sky, the other side had to close the distance and have a flock of ink-wash swallows search for him, clearly indicating that they could only find him visually.

This makes it much easier to hide.

After all, Shui Mo Fei Yan's eyes aren't white; if she finds something to cover them, the other person won't be able to see them.

"Boom!"

With a thought, Li Yao once again summoned the woven black iron giant eagle from the Death Gate acupoint space, mounted it, and flew into the sky, continuing to fly in the previous direction.

He had to lure those two Konoha ninjas far away so they wouldn't have a chance to pursue the main body.

at the same time.

Sitting atop the giant black iron eagle, flying towards the Land of Water, Li Yao's main body finally felt relieved after confirming through his consciousness connection that the two Konoha ninjas were using visual perception to track him.

"In that case, there's no need for the shadow clones in the other direction to continue wasting chakra."

Li Yao's consciousness traveled to the shadow clone in another direction. The shadow clone there immediately retrieved the Black Iron Giant Eagle into the acupoint space within its body and then deactivated the shadow clone.

The chakra condensed from the Black Iron Giant Eagle will return to Li Yao's main body as the shadow clone dissipates.

Then Li Yao controlled the Black Iron Giant Eagle to change direction and fly in the direction from which the two Konoha ninjas had initially chased.

In this way, they can stay as far away from those two Konoha ninjas as possible.

"Boom!"

Li Yao created a shadow clone.

The shadow clone did not enter the belly of the Black Iron Giant Eagle; Li Yao had him stand on the back of the Black Iron Giant Eagle.

"You'll be in charge from now on. I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up if anything happens."

After saying that, Li Yao went inside the Black Iron Giant Eagle's belly to sleep.

Two fist-sized openings were made on either side of the Black Iron Giant Eagle's belly for ventilation, so there's no need to worry about insufficient oxygen inside.

Li Yao lay inside the relatively spacious belly of the Black Iron Giant Eagle, closed his eyes, and after a dozen seconds, his consciousness fell into a deep sleep, and his body also entered a deep sleep state, completely shutting out his perception of the outside world.

Just as Li Yao's shadow clone in another direction dissipated and disappeared, while his main body changed direction again.

At the center of the eastern perception barrier, Wu Jia of the mountain sensed the disappearance of the chakra fluctuations of the Black Iron Giant Eagle under Li Yaoying's clone, as well as the information that the Black Iron Giant Eagle, where Li Yaoying's main body was located, had turned and flown.

"Lord Tianzhu..."

Shan Wujia immediately informed Sarutobi Tenjuro of these two pieces of intelligence.

"Disappeared?"

Sarutobi Tenjuro, who was following Li Yao at a distance again, frowned upon hearing this. He glanced at the small black dot ahead and wondered, "Is it a shadow clone or...?"

As Sarutobi Tenjuro suddenly stopped speaking, he realized that he couldn't sense whether the shadow clone had disappeared at the center of the barrier.

"I don't know." Shanwu Jia understood what Sarutobi Tenju meant and answered honestly and concisely.

"Okay, I understand," Sarutobi Tensuke thought to himself.

"What's wrong, Tenju?" Sarutobi Ayase looked at her husband. The call from Shanwu Jia was only directed at her husband, so she couldn't hear it.

"News has come from the center of the eastern barrier: Li Yao, who flew towards Konoha... the giant chakra eagle he formed beneath him has disappeared."

"At the same time," Sarutobi Tenjuro frowned, "Li Yao, who was heading towards the Land of Water, changed course and flew north."

"Disappeared? Changed direction? Could it be..." Thinking of these two pieces of information, Sarutobi Ayase's eyes suddenly lit up, and she had a guess in her mind. She looked at her husband and said, "Li Yao who turned over there should be the real body."

"It should be."

Sarutobi Tenjuro nodded, then his eyes flashed as he looked at his wife and said, "Just now, Li Yao deliberately landed on the ground to hide. He must have sensed your sensory abilities and also wanted to confirm whether we were still following him."

Sarutobi Ayase continued her husband's words, saying, "Once we were sure we were still following him, Li Yao immediately had the other shadow clone disappear, and his main body also immediately changed direction and flew away to prevent us from possibly notifying Sika and the others to intercept him."

Only this explanation can make sense of why Li Yao on this side suddenly landed, forcing them to get close, and then immediately flew into the sky, while Li Yao on the other side disappeared, and Li Yao from the direction of the Land of Water turned north at the same time.

Everything was Li Yao's way of testing their tracking methods and determining their location.

"However..." Sarutobi Ayase suddenly frowned and asked in confusion, "How did Li Yao manage to contact his shadow clone over such a long distance?"

Only when the shadow clone disappears and returns to the original body carrying its memories will the original body know everything the shadow clone has experienced.

Now that Li Yaoying's clone is still there, how did Li Yao's main body obtain this information?

Sarutobi Ayase looked at her husband and asked, "Can shadow clones communicate telepathically over long distances, like sending you a message from the center of a barrier?"

Sarutobi Tenjuro shook his head with a look of apprehension and explained, "Shadow clones don't have this ability; it must be that guy's special ability."

"My father said that Li Yao's spiritification technique was improved, and his soul is much stronger than that of ordinary people. Perhaps that's why he has the ability to connect with shadow clones."

"However..." Sarutobi Tenjuro paused for a moment, then suddenly laughed, "It seems that because of this, Li Yao's soul perception range is very small, or even non-existent."

At first, he was openly following Li Yao, never thinking he could fool Li Yao, who possessed the ability to sense souls.

Because ninjas who use the Spirit Transformation Technique possess a wide range of soul perception abilities.

However, after several encounters, he suddenly discovered that whether it was the shadow clone or the main body, Li Yao's perception range seemed to be only within a range of four or five kilometers at most. Beyond this distance, he could not perceive them.

Sarutobi Tenjuchi didn't know the specific reason either.

However, it was fortunate that Li Yao's soul perception range was very small, otherwise it would have been impossible for them to secretly follow Li Yao.

"So..." Sarutobi Ayase asked, "Should we continue chasing Li Yao ahead?"

At this moment, they did not immediately turn to chase after Li Yao's main body.

Sarutobi Tenju looked troubled. Combining the information from the center of the barrier, it was highly likely that Li Yao, who was turning north on the other side, was the real Li Yao.

However, he was certain that the shadow clone could not maintain real-time contact with the main body before disappearing.

Whether Li Yao truly possesses special abilities and can connect with shadow clones remains purely speculative.

Therefore, Sarutobi Tenjuro was also unsure whether the Li Yao in front of him was the real body.

If the Li Yao mentioned earlier was the real body, then he would realize that his own real body was the one being tracked.

Then deliberately make one of the shadow clones disappear.

The other shadow clone simply changed direction based on its own judgment, in order to mislead their judgment.

They were misled into believing that the other side was Li Yaoying's clone, causing them to abandon the real Li Yaoying and turn back to chase after the clone in the north.

In this way, Li Yao's main body can easily escape their pursuit.

This possibility cannot be ruled out.

Thinking about all this, Sarutobi Tenjuro felt a headache coming on, and finally cursed inwardly, "Damn shadow clones."

"Go after that Li Yao from the North."

Just as Sarutobi Tenjuro was hesitating, his wife Sarutobi Ayase suddenly said confidently, "Li Yao fled north from the beginning, and now Li Yao's main body will definitely subconsciously follow the initial choice. I think the Li Yao who went north is the main body, and the Li Yao who went south in the opposite direction before us must be a shadow clone."

Sarutobi Tenjuro pondered for a moment upon hearing this, then realized that his wife was right.

People do indeed subconsciously choose to repeat what they previously chose.

Li Yao, who turned north, is very likely the real Li Yao.

"Alright, let's go after Li Yao in the north," Sarutobi Tenju said.

However, before they went to chase after Li Yao in the north, they had to lure Li Yao here a little.

The couple deliberately controlled the flight speed of the ink-wash bird slowly until it returned to the original distance of seven kilometers, making sure it was out of Li Yao's sight.

Then the couple followed Li Yao for a few more minutes.

Li Yao wasn't worried about not being able to see Sarutobi Tensuke and his wife ahead, assuming they were still with him, so he continued flying in the sky.

Now that they saw that Li Yao did not descend again to confirm their presence, Sarutobi Tenjuro and his wife were even more certain that the Li Yao on this side was a shadow clone.

Three minutes later, seeing that Li Yao still showed no sign of descending, Sarutobi Ayase immediately controlled the ink-wash bird to turn around and fly north.

(End of this chapter)