Chapter 523: A Living Trait

Chapter 523: Chapter 523: A Living Trait

Thinking about the cost of maintaining the Type-A Wind Release clone from now on, Kagami couldn’t help but sigh.

Because the cell samples he had collected from Kimimaro were taken after the latter had already developed his bloodline disease, the clones produced through cell fusion were all afflicted with the disease to varying degrees. The only difference was how severely each clone was affected.

In other words, even if Kagami never developed these clones further, they would still be unable to maintain their bodily functions over the long term, having been born with the bloodline disease.

Using these already diseased clones as blood donors to sustain the Type-A Wind Release clone, which was on the verge of collapse, was essentially treating them as disposable blood banks.

After all, the characteristics of the All-Killing Ash Bones within their blood were also gradually intensifying. Their blood had a limited period of usability and could not be reused indefinitely. Once blood had been drawn from a clone, that clone would essentially lose its value.

Therefore, unless Kagami achieved a fundamental breakthrough in his biotechnology in the near future, he would have to sacrifice an entire clone every three or four months just to maintain the bodily functions of the Type-A Wind Release clone.

Fortunately, when Kagami had rescued the shinobi of the Five Great Shinobi Villages at the cliff, he had casually struck a deal with the Third Hokage.

As long as the Third Hokage didn’t go back on his word, that deal would bring Kagami a considerable sum of money. The generous payment would be enough to support even his full-scale development of a new generation of the Chimera Technique.

As for whether the Third Hokage would honor the agreement, Kagami wasn’t particularly worried.

This time, Nagato had displayed Akatsuki’s overwhelming power before the Five Great Shinobi Villages without the slightest attempt to conceal it.

Even with four Kage joining forces alongside a Konoha advisory elder, they had been unable to inflict so much as a scratch on Nagato.

Although the peculiar nature of the Rinnegan’s dojutsu, Limbo: Border Jail, had played a part in that outcome, there was no denying that Nagato’s strength far surpassed the Kage level.

Therefore, as long as the Third Hokage had his wits about him, he would never jeopardize Konoha’s relationship with Kamigami, an ally fighting on the same side, over a payment that had already been agreed upon.

After all, anyone with eyes could see that Kamigami was currently the only force in the shinobi world capable of keeping Akatsuki in check.

Any competent Kage should understand that strengthening ties with Kamigami was the wisest course of action.

After returning his spirit to his Yin Release true body, Kagami placed the Type-A Wind Release clone into a nutrient tank, then swept his gaze across the remaining tanks.

There were currently six nutrient tanks before him. Three were empty, while the other three contained his Water Release clone, Fire Release clone, and the Type-A Wind Release clone he had just placed inside.

Naturally, Kagami couldn’t use his Yin Release true body to complete the transaction with the Third Hokage, so he had to choose a clone for the task.

Since the Type-A Wind Release clone still required further repairs and couldn’t be used for the time being, his gaze settled on the Water Release and Fire Release clones.

The Water Release clone had been cultivated using Haku’s cellular tissue, which was almost entirely non-invasive. As a result, the Water Release clone’s appearance was eighty to ninety percent identical to Kagami’s true body. Combined with its distinctive Byakugan, it could easily pass itself off as Kagami’s Yin Release true body.

Therefore, using the Water Release clone for a transaction with the village would also be inappropriate.

With that decided, Kagami removed the Fire Release clone from its nutrient tank. On the operating table, he implanted the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan he had previously lent to Shisui into the clone’s eye sockets.

Because this pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan had been obtained through the most orthodox method, their ocular power was exceptionally strong, far surpassing that of ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan.

Furthermore, following Shisui’s First Hokage cell transplantation surgery, the eyes had been stimulated by the high-quality Yang Release chakra contained within the First Hokage’s cells.

As a result, this pair of Sharingan, representing the pinnacle of the Uchiha clan’s ocular power, had inevitably undergone a transformation.

After using the Spirit Descent Technique to enter the Fire Release clone, Kagami slowly sat up on the operating table.

"This feeling..."

Kagami gently shook his head.

At that moment, he felt a faint sense of dizziness. The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in his eye sockets seemed to have come alive, as though they possessed their own pulse and heartbeat, rhythmically throbbing without pause.

This was the first time Kagami had distinctly sensed the characteristic of being alive from this pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Is it because I’m not their original owner, causing them to reject my body?"

The characteristic of being alive was clearly a manifestation of independence and a certain degree of unwillingness to submit completely.

Kagami had only vaguely sensed something similar from the Giant Tenseigan on the Moon. His own Tenseigan, however, had never given him such a feeling.

After carefully examining the sensation for a while longer, Kagami pondered, "As I thought, these eyes contain the soul power of the two brothers, Uchiha Ryota and Uchiha Hideki."

As his strength increased and his research into spirit bodies deepened, the mysterious veil surrounding the Sharingan was gradually being lifted before Kagami’s eyes.

Ultimately, the Sharingan was merely an external manifestation of the Uchiha clan’s spiritual power—a physical organ through which Yin Release chakra was expressed.

Therefore, the essence of the Sharingan lay in the unique soul characteristics of each individual Uchiha and the highly condensed Yin Release chakra within their bodies.

From this, one could deduce that the essence of the Rinnegan was the Power of All Creation, produced through the combination of high-quality Yin Release chakra and high-quality Yang Release chakra.

The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and First Hokage’s cells were merely vessels capable of containing high-quality Yin Release chakra and high-quality Yang Release chakra, respectively.

In theory, neither should be an absolute requirement for evolving the Rinnegan.

This could be verified by examining the Otsutsuki who had traversed the void and arrived in the shinobi world in the original timeline.

After all, those Otsutsuki also possessed the Rinnegan, yet their Rinnegan had clearly not been obtained by combining the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan with First Hokage’s cells.

However, in the current shinobi world, only the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and First Hokage’s cells possessed the capacity to accommodate high-quality Yin Release chakra and high-quality Yang Release chakra.

Therefore, from a certain perspective, they were indeed indispensable for evolving the Rinnegan within the shinobi world.

As for the chakra of Otsutsuki Asura and Otsutsuki Indra, those shouldn’t be absolute requirements either.

After all, when the Sage of Six Paths evolved his Rinnegan, his two sons hadn’t even been born yet.

Thus, the true key lay entirely in the matter of quality.

As for where the high-quality Yin Release chakra and Yang Release chakra originated, that was ultimately irrelevant.

Their source could be the brothers Otsutsuki Asura and Otsutsuki Indra, the Sage of Six Paths himself, or even Kaguya herself...