Chapter 408: Changes in the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan

Chapter 408: Chapter 408: Changes in the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan

At this point, Shisui was already incapable of suppressing the First Hokage’s cells from devouring his body.

The trees bursting out from his body were, in fact, the manifestation of the First Hokage’s cells running rampant within him.

With things having reached this stage, there wasn’t much Hyuga Kagami could do anymore.

Right now, by pouring Tenseigan chakra into Shisui’s body, Kagami was essentially using his own chakra as a substitute for Shisui’s, providing the First Hokage’s cells with something else to devour.

This way, although the First Hokage’s cells inside Shisui were still running rampant, what they were consuming was Hyuga Kagami’s Tenseigan chakra.

And the only reason Kagami had yet to give up was because he had noticed that the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in Shisui’s eye sockets were still active!

Shisui was still holding on!

At this moment, Kagami also calmed down. While steadily pouring Tenseigan chakra into Shisui, he began thinking of a solution.

The rampaging First Hokage’s cells inside Shisui were like a bottomless abyss that could never be filled. Even with the support of the Dragon Vein’s chakra, Kagami wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long.

And this was despite the fact that Kagami’s Tenseigan chakra had a certain suppressive effect on the First Hokage’s cells. If it had been anyone else, they probably would have been devoured along with Shisui’s body by the First Hokage’s cells in mere moments.

"The key still lies in the ocular power!"

Kagami’s expression darkened as his gaze shifted toward Shisui’s eyes.

The only thing capable of counterbalancing the Yang-nature chakra contained within the First Hokage’s cells was the ocular power of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which represented spiritual energy and contained Yin-nature chakra.

Only by merging Yin Release and Yang Release could the rampaging First Hokage’s cells be pacified and the loss of control brought to a halt.

"Looks like we can’t fight against it. We have to actively fuse with it instead!"

The Yin Release Shisui possessed was clearly weaker than the Yang Release flooding into his body along with the First Hokage’s cells. Trying to use the weaker Yin Release to directly contend against the overwhelmingly powerful Yang Release could only end one way.

Realizing that confrontation was a dead end, Hyuga Kagami immediately shouted at the barely conscious Shisui on the operating table, "Shisui, we were wrong before! You can’t fight against it—you have to actively fuse with it! Use your ocular power to fuse with the First Hokage’s cells!"

Shisui gave no response whatsoever. His consciousness remained hazy, and his unfocused eyes stared blankly ahead.

Kagami wasn’t even sure whether Shisui had heard him, but right now, all he could do was place his faith in Shisui.

Rustle... rustle...

The trees erupting from Shisui’s body continued to grow wildly, throwing the entire operating room into complete chaos.

Meanwhile, near the ceiling of the operating room, a pitch-black Truth-Seeking Ball continuously circled through the air, smashing apart every tree that attempted to break out of the operating room and reach the surface.

Soon, another five or six minutes passed.

While supplying chakra to the rampaging First Hokage’s cells and simultaneously maintaining a Truth-Seeking Ball to destroy the wildly growing trees, even with the Dragon Vein supporting him, Kagami began to feel dizzy.

"I can’t keep this up much longer..."

Kagami understood his situation clearly, because he had already noticed that the First Hokage’s cells inside Shisui were beginning to invade his own body through the right hand he was using to pour chakra into Shisui.

If his own chakra became too severely depleted, he might no longer be able to resist the First Hokage’s cells invading him and end up in exactly the same predicament as Shisui.

"Four minutes!"

After estimating how much longer he could hold out, Hyuga Kagami instead became calm.

Time passed little by little. Though it was only a few short minutes, to Kagami, they somehow felt unbearably long.

Standing beside the operating table, a trace of sadness appeared in his eyes.

Just as Kagami was about to give up and accept that the surgery had failed, all of the wildly growing trees suddenly withered and vanished in an instant, crumbling into ash!

At the same time, the swollen veins covering Shisui’s body gradually subsided and returned to normal.

"Huh!?"

Kagami was startled.

Such a change could only mean one thing—Shisui had subdued the First Hokage’s cells inside his body and suppressed their rampage!

Suppressing the joy rising in his heart, Kagami hurriedly checked the instruments surrounding the operating table.

Because of the trees’ rampant growth just now, many of the instruments had been knocked over. Only the device monitoring cellular activity, which Kagami had deliberately protected, was still functioning normally.

"Cellular activity is decreasing... It’s beginning to return to normal levels..."

The readings displayed on the instrument further confirmed that Shisui had successfully suppressed the First Hokage’s cells.

Kagami immediately stopped pouring chakra into Shisui and withdrew the Truth-Seeking Ball hovering near the ceiling of the operating room. Then, activating his Tenseigan to its fullest, he focused intently on the changes occurring within the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in Shisui’s eyes.

Before long, he noticed that Shisui’s Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan were beginning to undergo subtle changes.

The first change was in the pattern itself.

The originally straight lines forming the triangles and diamonds had begun to distort slightly. Although the changes were extremely subtle, they could not escape the perception of Kagami’s Tenseigan.

And as those lines began to distort, Kagami also noticed that they seemed to be growing thicker.

What was more, there were signs that they were continuing to thicken...

"Are they beginning to evolve?"

Once the pattern of a Mangekyō Sharingan stabilized, it essentially never changed again. If a change did occur, it meant that the eyes had entered the process of evolution.

That had been the case when the three-tomoe Sharingan evolved into the Mangekyō Sharingan, and it was also the case when the Mangekyō Sharingan evolved into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan!

Soon, Hyuga Kagami noticed something else.

The chakra within Shisui’s body was involuntarily converging toward his brain, and as more chakra gathered there, the changes occurring within his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan became increasingly obvious.

The distinct lines that had originally intertwined within his pupils gradually thickened until they began overlapping one another. By now, it was already difficult to distinguish which lines belonged to the triangles and which belonged to the diamonds.

Yet for some reason, the distortion of those lines had become extremely slow, as though something was obstructing them, preventing them from making the final breakthrough.

And somehow, Kagami had a faint intuition that the thickening of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan’s pattern held no qualitative significance.

The distortion of those lines was the true key to advancing toward the Rinnegan!

"Senpai... did I succeed?"

At that moment, Shisui weakly spoke from the operating table.

Kagami smiled and nodded. "Mm. You succeeded!"

Breathing wearily, Shisui said, "If it weren’t for you, I almost would’ve given up."

"No, it was my mistake." Kagami shook his head before continuing, "Fusion was the key. Blindly resisting it would only have wasted your ocular power for nothing!"

Suddenly, Shisui clutched his eyes in pain.

"Senpai, my eyes..."

Kagami hurriedly asked, "What’s wrong?"

Shisui said, "There seems to be something different about my eyes. My ocular power has increased significantly, but... they somehow feel unfamiliar to me..."