Chapter 102: Evolution Brought by Hashirama Cells

In the most secret underground laboratory of Root, soft footsteps suddenly echoed.

Uchiha Feiyu gently pushed open the door to the underground laboratory, looking at the busy researchers inside, and walked in quietly like a ghost.

Although the researchers of Root were also ninja, the vast majority undoubtedly belonged to the type of clerical ninja with little practical combat experience; geniuses like Orochimaru or the Second Hokage, who excelled in both practical combat and research, were not so easy to come by.

With Uchiha Feiyu's Five Senses Manipulation Genjutsu, he could easily control twenty or thirty ordinary researchers, and in the entire laboratory, there were only five researchers in total, plus two Root guard ninja.

In fact, not just the laboratory, but by now there were few places in the entire Root that Uchiha Feiyu had not visited; it could be said that in Uchiha Feiyu's eyes, Root had almost no secrets.

Even the plans of the Konoha High Command were roughly clear to Uchiha Feiyu; now that Root was already providing members of the Uchiha Clan to Orochimaru for research, what no one knew was that the corpses of those Uchiha Clan members, once the research was finished, were ultimately collected by Uchiha Feiyu.

The Uchiha targeted by Root and Orochimaru were naturally all Three-Tomoe Sharingan users; even if their Sharingan had been removed after the experiments, their corpses alone were of absolute value.

Moreover, these corpses had been injected with a certain amount of Hashirama Cell, and after Uchiha Feiyu cast these corpses into the Blood Pool, it allowed his own bloodline to make significant progress.

The fact that he could fuse Susanoo with the Lightning Release Chakra Mode was largely because his own bloodline had improved quite a bit; he could already manifest Susanoo to the muscle mode, which was to say, he was only one step away from the Mangekyo level of ocular power.

It was just that Uchiha Feiyu's eyes seemed truly fixed at the Three-Tomoe level; even though his ocular power far exceeded the level of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, there was no trend toward evolution.

However, this was also fine; if he were to reveal a Mangekyo, it was estimated that both the Uchiha Clan and the Konoha High Command would have more ideas.

The Uchiha Clan was full of worship for the Mangekyo; even though Uchiha Feiyu's strength now far exceeded that of an average Mangekyo owner, they still stubbornly believed in the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan. It could be said that within the Uchiha Clan, the Mangekyo Sharingan was a banner.

As for the Konoha High Command, because they understood the process of the Uchiha Clan awakening their eyes, in their eyes, all Mangekyo Sharingan owners were basically a bunch of lunatics, and lunatics holding weapons of mass destruction at that.

"Tsk... no Uchiha Clan test subjects today either? That guy Danzō is not pulling his weight! The Uchiha Clan has nearly a thousand ninja, and over 200 of them have awakened their eyes, with more than half of those being Three-Tomoe, yet as of now, he has only brought over four test subjects."

After looking over the laboratory, Uchiha Feiyu sighed softly; why was it so difficult for him to get his hands on some Uchiha corpses?

If Danzō and the Third Hokage knew of Uchiha Feiyu's current thoughts, they would certainly no longer think of using this method to sow discord between him and Orochimaru.

Regarding his cheap clansmen, Uchiha Feiyu not only lacked the slightest affection, but was even more greedy than Orochimaru, completely coveting the other party's bloodline, wishing he could keep the Uchiha Clan in captivity and harvest them every once in a while.

"But fortunately, although there are no Uchiha Clan test subjects, quite a few Hashirama Cells have been cultivated. Tsk, looks like it's time for another harvest."

Walking a few steps in the laboratory, Uchiha Feiyu soon arrived before a massive culture tank; this tank was about three meters square, and inside was a giant lump of flesh over two meters in diameter.

The strangest thing was that on that bizarre lump of flesh, one face after another of the First Hokage appeared; despite the dense faces having their eyes closed, it still made one's sanity plummet just looking at it.

"I wonder what kind of expression the First Hokage would have if he saw the research of his descendants... Heh, I imagine his mood at that time would be about the same as seeing his best friend put his own face on his chest!"

After making a slight joke, Uchiha Feiyu drew his sword and cut the massive piece of Hashirama Cell in two with one strike, with one half accounting for ninety percent and the other half only ten percent.

Then Uchiha Feiyu collected ninety percent of the Hashirama Cell, leaving only ten percent in the giant culture dish.

"The cell culture device is malfunctioning again, the Wood Release cells are starting to die off in large numbers!"

"Quickly inject high-concentration nutrient solution, and also inject Agent No. 13, find two ninja to input Earth Release and Water Release chakra!"

"Damn it, why do these cells have problems every so often? This didn't happen before!"

"Stop the chatter and hurry up and get it re-cultivated!"

"It's fortunate that these Wood Release cells have incomparably tenacious vitality and powerful corrosiveness; as long as the nutrition is sufficient, they are easy to cultivate, otherwise we would suffer heavy losses every time we cultivated them."

A group of researchers discussed there, as if the Wood Release cells and the culture tank had truly malfunctioned on their own, completely failing to notice Uchiha Feiyu standing to the side holding a large chunk of giant Wood Release cells.

Uchiha Feiyu unhurriedly stored the Wood Release cells into a Sealing Scroll; this was his 30th harvest in the past half year.

Ever since he discovered the laboratory where Root cultivated Wood Release cells, he had basically come to harvest them every week. Fortunately, as long as Wood Release cells had sufficient nutrition, they grew extremely rapidly, otherwise, he would have likely picked the entire laboratory bald.

30 harvests had left Uchiha Feiyu with nearly 20 tons of Wood Release cells on hand. The reason he had obtained so many Wood Release cells was actually because Uchiha Feiyu intended to borrow the power of the Blood Pool to absorb them.

It could be said that Hashirama Cells were the best bloodline evolution material Uchiha Feiyu had on hand, because of the powerful vitality and corrosiveness of the Hashirama Cells themselves; even a piece of Hashirama Cell as small as a fingernail could proliferate into a giant meatball several meters in diameter in a very short time.

And although the bloodline power within them was far inferior to the living Senju Hashirama, it would not lead to a decline in quality due to massive proliferation; as long as the quantity was sufficient, the effect was actually much better than sacrificing a large number of ordinary ninja.

"Although the Blood Pool's tracing of bloodlines is comprehensive, different materials will still have different effects. I wonder if putting so many Hashirama Cells into the Blood Pool will allow me to directly awaken the Sage Body?"

Feeling that the quantity of Hashirama Cells he had on hand was sufficient, and that his training during this period had come to an end, it was impossible to have any rapid progress in the short term.

Uchiha Feiyu prepared to go to the Blood Pool next to continue evolving his bloodline, and he would just happen to test the effect of the Hashirama Cells this time.

That same night, Uchiha Feiyu left Konoha directly, arrived at the underground cavern where the Blood Pool was located, and threw all the Hashirama Cells in.

A moment later, the Blood Pool had completely refined all the Hashirama Cells, and some bright red liquid surfaced once again; although the amount of refined essence blood was not large, it gave one the feeling of being as brilliant as a ruby, filled with vitality.

Uchiha Feiyu jumped into the Blood Pool and began to operate the Soul-Swallowing Blood-Refining Method, draining the energy in the Blood Pool dry in just over ten minutes.

Tearing open the flesh cocoon and emerging once again, Uchiha Feiyu clenched his fists; he could feel his vitality had nearly increased five or six-fold, and his chakra had surged several times stronger than an average Shadow-level ninja.

What was especially unique was that his chakra seemed filled with a certain kind of vitality; this vitality was the result of his attainments in Yang Release chakra being so powerful that they exceeded a certain boundary.

Walking out of the underground cavern, Uchiha Feiyu casually stroked a large tree, and as the chakra filled with vitality was input into it, the entire tree shook slightly and sprouted a few new buds.

"Tsk... I suppose this counts as Wood Release... but this level is probably only comparable to Yamato, who does landscaping."

Seeing this scene, Uchiha Feiyu shook his head with some disdain and gave up the idea of using Wood Release.

Because it was inherited from the God Tree and possessed the ability to absorb chakra, the power of Wood Release was indeed a notch stronger than the average Bloodline Limit, but to say it was invincible in the world was still far from the truth.

Senju Hashirama was able to fight his way across the world with Wood Release because of the vast and boundless chakra of his Sage Body, coupled with the bonus of Sage Mode; for an ordinary ninja, Wood Release was just a Bloodline Limit with decent power.

The amount of chakra in Uchiha Feiyu's body was not small, and even with the help of Hashirama Cells, he had stimulated a remnant Sage Body, but even so, he had just experimented and could be certain that the power of his Wood Release definitely could not be considered strong.

"However, as long as I continuously refine Hashirama Cells, my Sage Body will also continuously improve, and one day I will truly reach the level of Senju Hashirama..."

"It seems I should go to Root and see if there are any Wood Release ninjutsu scrolls."

After operating the Soul-Swallowing Blood-Refining Method so many times, Uchiha Feiyu had gradually understood the principle of this technique for refining bloodlines.

The genes within any ninja who possessed chakra had undergone a slight change because of chakra, and the source of that change lay with the Otsutsuki Clan.

Through the refining of the Blood Pool, one could extract the trace of bloodline within these ninja that was closest to the Otsutsuki, or perhaps things like gene fragments, and then absorb them through the Soul-Swallowing Blood-Refining Method.

Naturally, this kind of extraction had its own upper limit, which was that it could not exceed the source of the bloodline.

All chakra in this world traced its source back to Otsutsuki Kaguya; theoretically, by harvesting batch after batch, it was indeed possible to reach the bloodline of Otsutsuki Kaguya.

However, in reality, the one who truly spread chakra was the Sage of Six Paths; although his younger brother also left behind a bloodline, if one wanted to trace that bloodline, one would likely have to harvest the Hyuga Clan for hundreds or thousands of years.

In other words, even if Uchiha Feiyu's Soul-Swallowing Blood-Refining Method were cultivated to the limit, it could only infinitely approach the Sage of Six Paths.

These things aside, speaking only of Hashirama Cells, because the source came from Senju Hashirama, no matter how much Hashirama Cell was provided, the limit of refining was to obtain Senju Hashirama's Sage Body; it was impossible to exceed Senju Hashirama, the source.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't need to go collect corpses in the future; as long as I continuously absorb Hashirama Cells, I could continuously refine my bloodline and become the next Otsutsuki."

Cutting off this impossible delusion in his heart, he felt the surging chakra within his body; even the ocular power in his eyes seemed to have improved quite a bit, and vaguely, it seemed as if two special ninjutsu were gestating within them.

Gently stroking his eyes, Uchiha Feiyu revealed a smile at the corners of his mouth:

"The ocular power is approaching the level of a true Mangekyo... no, is it possible it's already an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?"

"I never thought Hashirama Cell would also have an effect on the Bloodline Evolution of the Uchiha; come to think of it, it makes sense, after all, they share the same ancestor."

"Just like how the chakra within the Uchiha Clan is much stronger than that of ordinary ninja, that should also be a small, lingering gift of the Sage Body; likewise, the Senju Clan likely also has a small, lingering gene for the Sage Eye, it's just too incomplete to ever be developed."

This tiny bit of incomplete gene cannot allow the Senju Clan to possess the Sharingan, but it is still capable of slightly supplementing the Sage Eye gene of the Uchiha Clan.

After returning to Konoha, Uchiha Feiyu felt a sense of having nothing to do for a moment; practicing in the short term would not lead to rapid progress in strength, and relying on Root missions made it difficult to accumulate progress in Demonic Path cultivation.

"I might as well go to the battlefield... forget it, let's go to Root and see what missions there are!"

Having made the decision in his heart, just as he arrived at the entrance of Root, two Root ninja were already waiting for Uchiha Feiyu:

"Uchiha Feiyu, Lord Danzō requests your presence!"

"Tsk, another mission? I hope I don't have to travel too far this time."

Uchiha Feiyu said with a hint of disdain; the two Root ninja acted as if they heard nothing and led Uchiha Feiyu to find Danzō.

"Feiyu, you've arrived."

In the dim office, Danzō, with his face wrapped in bandages, looked gloomy and cold; his expression didn't look like that of a good person, yet upon seeing Uchiha Feiyu enter, this leader of Root forced a smile onto his face.

Looking at Danzō's insincere smile, Uchiha Feiyu really wanted to retort that he shouldn't smile, as it was truly too creepy, but fortunately, he held that sentence back in the end. Instead, he asked about the mission:

"Who am I killing? Where is it? How many people?"

(End of this chapter)