Chapter 148: Descent of the Soul

Chapter 148: Chapter 148: Descent of the Soul

On the experimental table, the eyes within the sockets of the two clones were indeed pure-white Byakugan. Judging from appearance alone, they were practically indistinguishable from the Byakugan of the Hyuga Clan.

But to Hyuga Kagami, who possessed the Tenseigan, he could clearly sense that both pairs of Byakugan were incomplete products.

This did not surprise him.

With forbidden techniques involving the soul—such as the Reaper Death Seal, Impure World Reincarnation, and others—having successively appeared throughout the shinobi world, the question of whether souls truly existed was no longer something that needed to be debated.

Although souls often manifested in the form of chakra, there was no doubt that a soul was not entirely equivalent to chakra.

In Kagami’s view, chakra was merely a medium capable of carrying the soul. The true core of a soul should instead be a unique spiritual imprint.

And what the clones lying on the experimental table lacked was precisely that one-of-a-kind spiritual imprint.

Thus, without exception, the Byakugan within the eye sockets of both clones were merely incomplete products—masses of cellular tissue that lacked a spiritual imprint and only came close to being genuine Byakugan.

Because of this, the value of these incomplete Byakugan was extremely limited. If he wanted to use them to create a Giant Tenseigan, that was obviously impossible.

After all, what the Giant Tenseigan required were complete, genuine Byakugan.

The eyes on these two clones, however, were merely incomplete products.

They could not truly be considered Byakugan at all.

Actually, this was only to be expected. If cloning alone could perfectly replicate everything, then Orochimaru wouldn’t have needed to constantly scheme after Shisui and Shinichi, the two possessors of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Kagami calmly recorded the results of the experiment, showing little disappointment on his face.

To others, these two clones might not have been particularly useful, but to Kagami, who possessed the Tenseigan, these soulless vessels were precisely what he needed most.

During one of his previous attempts at controlling the Third Kazekage human puppet, Kagami had accidentally discovered that his consciousness could temporarily occupy the Third Kazekage puppet’s body.

That discovery had suddenly made him realize that his Tenseigan possessed an incredibly remarkable ability!

From what he remembered, Toneri seemed to possess this ability as well. He had once temporarily transferred his soul into a puppet and traveled to Earth to extend an invitation to Hinata. After Naruto discovered him, Toneri simply withdrew his soul and abandoned the puppet.

In a certain sense, this ability of the Tenseigan was somewhat similar to Orochimaru’s forbidden technique, Living Corpse Reincarnation.

The difference was that using this ability through the Tenseigan was far easier. Not only could the soul be transferred into other puppets or vessels, it could also be withdrawn at any time, unlike Orochimaru’s Living Corpse Reincarnation, which was restricted by numerous stringent conditions.

It was precisely because of this that Kagami had conceived the idea of cloning six perfect bodies and then using the genius Chimera Technique to fuse them together into one.

Otherwise, without the Tenseigan’s Soul Descent, cloning technology at its current level simply could not create truly perfect bodies that were fully compatible with his soul.

After recording every physical parameter of the two clones one by one, Kagami carefully compared the results and found that their physical indicators were fairly similar.

There was no obvious difference in strength or quality between them.

After giving it some thought, Kagami labeled the two clones Type A and Type B respectively.

Then, he sat down cross-legged beside the experimental table. Facing the two clones, he activated the Tenseigan’s Soul Descent technique and transferred his soul into the Type A clone.

In an instant, the completely naked Type A clone lying on the experimental table opened its eyes.

Propping itself up into a sitting position, the Type A clone opened its mouth as though trying to say something, but all that came out were a series of incoherent babbling sounds.

Only after a while did he finally manage to speak in an awkward, unnatural tone.

"This... this feels so weird!"

There was no doubt that the soul occupying the Type A clone at this moment was already Kagami’s.

Or rather, at this moment, the Type A clone had become Hyuga Kagami.

Climbing down from the experimental table, Kagami stumbled several steps before barely managing to steady himself.

Right now, it felt as though he were wearing clothes that didn’t fit and shoes that were the wrong size. Every single part of his body felt awkward and uncomfortable. Even something as simple as speaking or walking proved difficult.

After spending quite some time adapting to the new body, Kagami draped a robe over himself and muttered,

"As expected, data on paper can’t compare to using Soul Descent and experiencing the body firsthand!"

After putting on the robe, he slowly walked over to the mirror. Opening his eyes wide, he carefully examined their reflection.

From the outside, there didn’t seem to be any noticeable change, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Byakugan in his eye sockets were no longer the incomplete products they had been before.

"Byakugan!"

With a low shout, the veins around Kagami’s eyes immediately bulged, and his field of vision transformed, entering the genuine visual state of the Byakugan.

"Is it because of Soul Descent...?"

Perhaps because Kagami’s soul had descended into the body, the Byakugan within the Type A clone’s eye sockets were no longer in their previous incomplete state.

They had become genuine Byakugan.

To verify his theory, Kagami hurried over to his original body and gently lifted its eyelids.

"This..."

To his astonishment, the Tenseigan within his original body’s eye sockets had actually reverted to the Byakugan!

Yet before using Soul Descent, he had clearly had the Tenseigan activated.

Rubbing his chin, Kagami pondered,

"Even my original body can’t maintain the Tenseigan after losing its soul? Then what exactly is my Tenseigan tied to—my soul, or my eyes?"

To answer this question, he immediately began conducting experiments with the Type A clone.

After repeated attempts, he discovered that while inhabiting the Type A clone, he was unable to activate the Tenseigan.

Nor could he use Wheel of Will.

And he couldn’t enter Tenseigan Chakra Mode, either.

As for ultimate techniques such as Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, which could only be used while in Tenseigan Chakra Mode, there was naturally no need to even mention them.

There seemed to be only one Tenseigan ability he could still use.

Soul Extraction.

Kagami shook his head.

"No wonder Toneri got taken out by Naruto in just a few moves when he descended his soul into that puppet."

By this point, Kagami had confirmed that his soul itself possessed some of the Tenseigan’s abilities. However, to unleash the Tenseigan’s full power, his soul and original body had to be united as one.

In other words, only the combination of soul and body constituted the complete Tenseigan.

When the two were separated, each retained only a portion of the Tenseigan’s abilities.

After understanding this, Kagami’s thoughts wandered even further.

"If my soul is inside my original body and I remove the Tenseigan from my eye sockets... would the Tenseigan still be able to maintain its state?"