Chapter 489: Another Evolution

As Zilaiye took on the mission.

Regarding Dong Shilang's proposal, the village's senior officials held another discussion on some of its clauses.

But he himself turned his attention to something else.

In a valley surrounded by mountains with trees lining the path, Dong Shilang looked down at a simple thatched hut and turned his gaze to the frail boy beside him.

"It's confirmed, Lao Zi is hiding here!"

Holding a kunai bearing special symbols, Itachi glanced at the Hokage beside him, his tone remaining calm.

"Very good!" Looking at this genius boy, Dong Shilang continued, "You don't need to handle the rest!"

After saying that, Dong Shilang narrowed his eyes and began sensing the situation within about ten kilometers around.

"As expected!"

After a slight sense, he detected a familiar chakra underground not far from the thatched hut.

Without wasting words, he leapt a few times to near the thatched hut, a cyan-blue light flashing in his hand.

A straight blade extended directly from Dong Shilang's hand down to a depth of about ten meters underground.

"You... you... how did you find me?"

As chakra surged beneath Dong Shilang's feet, a straight rock pillar rose from the ground where he stood.

At the middle of the rock pillar, a pallid-skinned White Absolute lowered his head to look at the wound on his chest, then lifted his head to gaze at the indifferent Dong Shilang.

With difficulty he voiced his inner doubt, then twitched twice and lost all signs of life.

"Who?"

Dong Shilang's blatant actions could not escape the notice of the thatched hut's owner.

In fact, as soon as Dong Shilang appeared, he had already noticed.

He originally thought it was the covert unit of the Rock Ninja Village, so he didn't act rashly.

But after seeing Dong Shilang's actions clearly, he breathed a sigh of relief while also feeling doubtful about the other's identity.

Especially after seeing Dong Shilang's actions, he was full of questions.

However, he knew he was being watched.

"What is that white thing?"

Looking at the already-deceased White Absolute, Lao Zi concealed his surprise, directing his gaze at Dong Shilang, while his hand had already reached into his ninja tool pouch behind him.

"He's really vigilant!"

Upon hearing Lao Zi's words, Dong Shilang then turned his head to look at his target.

"You are..."

Lao Zi only felt a scarlet light flash before his eyes, then his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

However, before losing consciousness, he recognized that the comer was a ninja of the Uchiha clan.

But it was already too late.

Gurgle!

As Lao Zi fell, waves of red chakra burst forth from his body.

"Behave!"

He gave a soft shout, ignoring the changes on Lao Zi's body, and took a few steps to his side.

As Dong Shilang approached, the previously somewhat unstable chakra that occasionally bubbled up quickly receded back into Lao Zi's abdomen like a retreating tide.

Time slowly passed until the sun was about to set.

"What... what happened to me?"

Just after opening his eyes, Lao Zi felt completely dazed.

After flipping over and getting up from the ground, Lao Zi immediately pulled out the kunai on his person and began to survey the surroundings.

"Who... who did this?"

After scanning the surroundings, Lao Zi fixed his gaze not far from the thatched hut.

Looking at the earth-release traces left on the spot, he again confirmed that there was no one else around and that he himself felt nothing unusual.

Lao Zi began to grow suspicious and paranoid.

"Could it be... the Rock Ninja Village's covert unit came after me and somehow got me without my knowing?"

"Or was I finally driven out by the Four-Tails inside me?"

Lao Zi, having no relevant memories, after several failed attempts to communicate with the Four-Tails, finally glanced lingeringly at the surrounding environment.

Helplessly, he walked off into the distance.

"This place should be exposed; I can't stay here any longer."

As Lao Zi's figure slowly disappeared, in the distance out of his sight, a small-statured ninja put away his telescope.

"Looks like... I overthought it!"

Itachi Uchiha feared that his own Hokage had done something bad, and he had been silently observing Lao Zi from afar.

After seeing that the other was indeed fine, he then relaxed.

Meanwhile, Dong Shilang, who had already returned to the Leaf Village, paid no attention to the still-lit Hokage building.

Arriving at his own basement, he looked at the scroll in his hand and the eight strange containers before him, his face full of a satisfied smile as his wish had been fulfilled.

In this basement as bright as daylight, the scattered experimental equipment had been completely cleared away by Dong Shilang.

Moreover, the high ceiling made the entire basement feel unusually spacious.

Except for the center, the nine altars arranged in a circle were empty.

On each of these nine altars lay a container covered in sealing symbols.

Nine altars, nine containers, with eight of the containers each holding a mass of chakra.

These chakra varied in color; some resembled a constantly flowing mass of sand and gravel, accompanied by the howling of wind, turning into swirling mini sandstorms.

Others looked like a mass of deep blue flame, burning silently in these sealing containers, emitting a chilling flame light.

Among them there was even a beam emitting seven-colored phosphorescent light; as the angle changed, it gave off a captivating rainbow-like glow, and so on—varied without end.

He opened the seal scroll in his hand, placing a mass of scorching, crimson chakra into the sealing container.

Dong Shilang looked at the finally collected Nine-Tails chakra, looked at these chakra of varying sizes, and began to ponder.

Of these nine masses of chakra, the Nine-Tails chakra he had obtained first had expanded to nearly three times its original volume since he first began collecting it.

Even the Three-Tails chakra he had only recently collected, after being placed in the sealing container, increased in volume by nearly one-tenth.

"Can I study how tailed beasts possess a body?"

This tailed beast thing was originally a mass of special chakra; it had gained consciousness, and also possessed a body.

How is their chakra transformed into flesh?

"Yin Release from nothing?"

"And combined with Yang Release?"

From Orochimaru's Reanimation Jutsu, he already roughly knew the method of letting chakra carry his consciousness, or rather his soul.

"If he could also obtain the method to turn chakra into flesh, could he try combining the two and then attempt to become an immortal?"

"Isn't that better than world peace, heroes and beauties?"

"Moreover, this tailed beast chakra will unknowingly begin to swell and increase; is it absorbing the natural energy that floats freely between heaven and earth around it?"

"Hmm! Could these chakra be another manifestation of natural energy?"

The Ten-Tails itself can directly absorb natural energy, and in the original work, when Naruto begins to sense the Ten-Tails upon entering Immortal Devil, what he senses is also the essence of nature.

"Could this be understood as the chakra of the Nine Great Tailed Beasts being separated from natural energy?"

"Is it simply a lower-grade natural energy itself?"

"No, it shouldn't be a low-grade natural energy; it should be said to be an attribute of natural energy!"

"Being able to separate from the Ten-Tails' chakra these attributes containing wind and sand, water and fire, lava, etc., shows that natural energy itself inherently contains this kind of energy."

"It's just that these energies are all mixed together."

"That's why I can't distinguish them myself."

"Susanoo!"

Having realized this, Dong Shilang hesitated no further and directly summoned Susanoo.

"Swish!"

This red chakra giant manifested a chakra longsword in its hand and slashed downward at the chakra on the altar with one strike.

"Roar!"

With one strike, from these chakra he severed a mass belonging to each of the Nine Great Tailed Beasts' chakra.

Susanoo let out an angry roar, then opened its huge mouth and swallowed these nine masses of chakra one after another.

First the One-Tail, then the Two-, Three-, Four-…

All the way up to the Nine-Tails' chakra, which was swallowed in turn by Susanoo.

Dong Shilang suddenly felt a throbbing sensation coming from his eyes, or rather deep within his soul, slowly spreading from his eyes throughout his body.

"This feeling…"

Inside Susanoo, Dong Shilang's mouth corners split open; a unrestrained smile slowly crept from his lips to cover his entire face.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"This… really succeeded!"

He could feel this throbbing; it was a signal that his Sharingan was beginning to evolve again.

"How could he not laugh heartily?"

"It turns out that synthesizing Ten-Tails chakra is actually this simple—just need to fuse the chakra of the Nine Great Tailed Beasts together!"

During this experiment, Dong Shilang, fearing any mishap, specially gave himself an Izanagi.

But looking back now, it was completely unnecessary.

"Who would have thought there'd be no issue with chakra ratios or the like—this is really surprising!"

He originally thought that to synthesize Ten-Tails chakra, he would still need to test the chakra ratios within it.

For this, he had been troubled for a while.

From one to nine, all those different ratios that needed testing were simply too many; even with Shadow Clone Jutsu's help, one person could hardly keep up.

Just a flash of inspiration, and yet he could directly synthesize it—this is really surprising.

"This is really… hahaha~"

Another burst of wild laughter.

"Ugh~"

Laughing and laughing, Dong Shilang felt as if someone had choked his neck, standing there stunned~

"Me… am I perhaps too excited?"

"No way!"

After retracting his Susanoo, Dong Shilang closed his eyes and sensed for a while.

Then his whole face turned pitch black.

"Mental fluctuations… are becoming active again!"

He rubbed his forehead, letting out a near-powerless groan.

He never imagined that his mental energy, which had only just stabilized a few years ago, would once again become unstable.

"The path of the Sharingan's evolution… really is… madness~"