Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 102 Evolution Brought About by Hashirama Cells

In the most secluded underground laboratory at the root, soft footsteps suddenly came.

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

Although the researchers at Root were also ninjas, the vast majority of them were undoubtedly clerical ninjas with little practical combat experience. Geniuses like Orochimaru and the Second Hokage, who excelled in both practical combat and research, were not so easy to come by.

With Uchiha Tou's five senses manipulation genjutsu, an ordinary researcher could easily control twenty or thirty people, while the entire laboratory only had five researchers plus two Root guard ninjas.

In fact, it's not just the laboratory; there are very few places in the entire Root organization that Uchiha Touyu hasn't visited. It can be said that in Uchiha Touyu's eyes, the Root organization has almost no secrets.

Even the plans of Konoha's higher-ups were roughly clear to Uchiha Touyu. Root had already provided Orochimaru with the Uchiha clan for research, but what no one knew was that the corpses of those Uchiha clan members who had been researched were ultimately taken away by Uchiha Touyu.

The Uchiha who were targeted by Root and Orochimaru naturally all had three-tomoe Sharingan. Even though their Sharingan had been removed after the experiments, their corpses were still very valuable.

Moreover, these corpses were injected with a certain amount of Hashirama cells. After Uchiha Hiyu threw these corpses into the blood pool, his bloodline was greatly improved.

His ability to fuse Susanoo and Lightning Release Chakra Mode is largely due to the significant improvement in his bloodline. Susanoo has now reached Muscle Mode, which means he is only one step away from Mangekyou Sharingan-level eye power.

However, it seems that Uchiha Tou's eyes are really stuck at the level of three tomoe. Even though his eye power far exceeds the level of the three-tomoe Sharingan, there is no trend of evolution.

However, this is for the best. If he were to reveal the Mangekyou Sharingan, both the Uchiha clan and the Konoha leadership would likely have more ideas.

The Uchiha clan deeply reveres the Mangekyou Sharingan. Even though Uchiha Tou's strength far surpasses that of ordinary Mangekyou Sharingan users, they still stubbornly believe in its power. It can be said that within the Uchiha clan, the Mangekyou Sharingan is a symbol of power.

As for the Konoha leadership, having learned about the process of the Uchiha clan awakening their Sharingan, they viewed all Mangekyou Sharingan users as essentially a group of mentally ill individuals, and even more so, mentally ill individuals wielding devastating weapons.

"Tsk... No Uchiha clan test subjects today? Danzo is so unhelpful! The Uchiha clan has nearly a thousand ninjas, more than 200 of whom have awakened their Sharingan, and more than half of them have the three-tomoe Sharingan. Yet, all we've managed to get are four test subjects."

After looking at the laboratory, Uchiha Tou sighed softly. Why was it so difficult for him to get his hands on some Uchiha corpses?

If Danzo and the Third Hokage knew what Uchiha Tou was thinking now, they certainly wouldn't try to sow discord between him and Orochimaru in this way.

Touya Uchiha felt no affection whatsoever for his cheap relatives; on the contrary, he was even more greedy than Orochimaru, coveting their bloodline and wishing he could keep the Uchiha clan under his control and harvest them every now and then.

"Fortunately, although we didn't get any Uchiha clan test subjects, we did manage to cultivate quite a few Hashirama cells. Tsk, looks like we can harvest them again."

After walking a few steps in the laboratory, Uchiha Hiyu quickly arrived in front of a huge culture tank, which was about three meters square and contained a huge lump of flesh with a diameter of more than two meters.

The strangest thing was that on that bizarre mass of flesh, there were also the faces of the First Hokage. Although the eyes of the faces were closed, the densely packed faces still made people lose their senses.

"I wonder what kind of expression the First Hokage would have if he saw this research... Heh, I imagine his feelings would be similar to when his best friend puts his face against his heart!"

After making a lighthearted joke, Uchiha Tou drew his sword and sliced ​​the massive Hashirama cell in two with a single stroke. One half comprised 90% of the cell, while the other half comprised only 10%.

Then Uchiha Hiyu collected 90% of the Hashirama cells, leaving only 10% of the Hashirama cells in the huge culture dish.

"The cell culture device is malfunctioning again; the Wood Release cells are dying in large numbers again!"

"Quickly inject the high-concentration nutrient solution, and also inject drug number 13. Find two ninjas to transfer Earth Release and Water Release chakra!"

"Damn it, why do these cells keep having problems every now and then? This has never happened before!"

"Enough with the nonsense, let's get it back in good health!"

"Fortunately, these wood-element cells are incredibly resilient and highly corrosive. As long as there is enough nutrition, they are easy to cultivate. Otherwise, each cultivation would result in heavy losses."

A group of researchers were discussing something as if the Wood Release cells and the culture tank themselves were malfunctioning, completely ignoring Uchiha Hiu who was holding a huge piece of Wood Release cell next to him.

Uchiha Hiyu calmly stored the Wood Release cells into the sealing scroll; this was his 30th harvest in the past six months.

Since he discovered the laboratory where Wood Release cells are cultured from roots, he has been coming over to harvest them almost every week. Fortunately, Wood Release cells grow extremely fast as long as they have enough nutrients, otherwise he would probably have plucked the entire laboratory bald.

After 30 harvests, Uchiha Touyu now possesses nearly 20 tons of Wood Release cells. The reason he acquired so many Wood Release cells is that he plans to use the power of the Blood Pool to absorb them.

It can be said that Hashirama cells are the best bloodline evolution material that Uchiha Tou has on hand, because of the powerful vitality and corrosiveness of Hashirama cells themselves. Even a small piece of Hashirama cell the size of a fingernail can multiply into a huge flesh ball with a diameter of several meters in a very short time.

Furthermore, although the bloodline power within is far inferior to that of Hashirama Senju, a living being, it will not decrease in quality due to mass proliferation. In fact, as long as there are enough of them, the effect is much better than sacrificing a large number of ordinary ninjas.

"Although the Blood Pool traces bloodlines comprehensively, different materials still have different effects. I wonder if putting so many Hashirama cells into the Blood Pool will allow me to directly awaken a Sage Body?"

I feel that I have enough Hashirama cells, and my training has come to an end recently, so it is impossible for me to make any more rapid progress in the short term.

Uchiha Touyu planned to go to the Blood Pool next to further evolve his bloodline, and this was also a good opportunity to test the effects of Hashirama's cells.

That very night, Uchiha Hiu left Konoha and went to the underground cave where the blood pool was located, where he threw all of Hashirama's cells into it.

A moment later, the blood pool had finished refining all of Hashirama's cells, and some bright red liquid reappeared. Although the amount of refined blood essence was small, it gave people a feeling of being as dazzling as a ruby, full of vitality.

Uchiha Hiyu jumped into the blood pool and began using the Soul Devouring and Blood Refining Technique. In just over ten minutes, he drained all the energy from the blood pool.

After tearing open the flesh cocoon again and emerging, Uchiha Touyu clenched his fist and could feel that his life force had increased by almost five or six times, and his chakra had surged to several times stronger than that of an ordinary Kage.

What's particularly special is that his chakra seems to be filled with a certain life force, which is the result of his mastery of Yang Release chakra, which has become so powerful that it has exceeded a certain limit.

Stepping out of the cave, Uchiha Hiyu casually stroked a large tree, channeling his life-giving chakra into it. The tree trembled slightly and sprouted several new buds.

"Tsk... This can be considered Wood Release... but its level is probably only comparable to Yamato, who specializes in landscaping."

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

Because it is inherited from the Divine Tree and has the ability to absorb chakra, the power of Wood Release is indeed a notch stronger than that of ordinary bloodline limits, but to say that it is invincible is still a long way off.

Hashirama Senju was able to use Wood Release to defeat everyone because of the vast chakra of his Sage Body, plus the added benefit of Sage Mode. For ordinary ninjas, Wood Release is just a decent bloodline limit.

Uchiha Touyu also possessed a considerable amount of chakra, and with the help of Hashirama's cells, he even managed to activate a partially formed Sage Mode body. However, after just one experiment, he was certain that his Wood Release power was far from strong.

"However, as long as I continue to refine Hashirama's cells, my Sage Body will continue to improve, and one day I will truly reach Hashirama Senju's level..."

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

After repeatedly practicing the Soul Devouring and Blood Refining Technique, Uchiha Touyu gradually understood the principle behind this technique for refining bloodlines.

Every ninja who possesses chakra has their genes altered slightly by the chakra, and the source of this alteration lies with the Otsutsuki clan.

Through the refinement of the blood pool, the bloodline closest to that of the Otsutsuki clan, or perhaps genetic fragments, can be extracted from these ninjas and then absorbed through the Soul Devouring Blood Refining Technique.

Naturally, this kind of refinement has its own upper limit, which is that it cannot exceed the source of the bloodline.

All the chakra in this world can be traced back to Kaguya Otsutsuki. Theoretically, if it is harvested generation after generation, it is indeed possible to reach Kaguya Otsutsuki's bloodline.

However, in reality, it was the Sage of Six Paths who truly spread chakra. Although his brother also left behind bloodlines, tracing those bloodlines would probably require harvesting the Hyuga clan for hundreds or even thousands of years.

In other words, even if Uchiha Touyu cultivated his Soul Devouring and Blood Refining Technique to its limit, he could only come very close to becoming the Sage of Six Paths.

Leaving those aside for now, let's just talk about Hashirama cells. Because they originate from Hashirama Senju, no matter how many Hashirama cells are provided, the limit of refinement, which is obtaining Hashirama Senju's Sage Body, cannot exceed the source of Hashirama Senju.

"Otherwise, I won't need to collect corpses anymore. I can just keep absorbing Hashirama's cells to refine my bloodline and become the next Otsutsuki."

Having severed this impossible delusion from his mind, he felt the surging chakra within his body, and even the power in his eyes seemed to have increased considerably. He could vaguely sense that two special ninjutsu were being conceived within them.

Gently touching his eyes, Uchiha Touyu smiled.

"His eye power is almost at the level of a true kaleidoscope... no, it might even become an eternal kaleidoscope?"

"I never imagined that Hashirama's cells would also have an effect on the evolution of the Uchiha bloodline. But thinking about it, it makes sense, since we all share the same ancestor."

"Just like the chakra within the Uchiha clan is much stronger than that of ordinary ninjas, it should be a small remnant of the Sage Body's gift. Similarly, the Senju clan probably also has a small remnant of the Sage Eye gene, but it is too incomplete to be developed."

This slight genetic defect couldn't give the Senju clan the Sharingan, but it could be achieved by slightly supplementing the Uchiha clan's Sage Eye gene.

After returning to Konoha, Uchiha Hiu felt a sense of emptiness. He couldn't make rapid progress in his strength by training again in a short period of time, and it was also difficult to accumulate demonic cultivation through Root missions.

"I'd rather go to the battlefield... Oh well, let's go back to Root and see what missions they have!"

Having made up his mind, but just as he arrived at the entrance of the Root headquarters, two Root ninjas appeared before Uchiha Touyu:

"Uchiha Touya, Lord Danzo requests your presence!"

"Tsk, another mission? Hopefully, we won't have to go too far this time."

Uchiha Touyu said something with a hint of disdain, but the two Root ninjas completely ignored them and led Uchiha Touyu to Danzo.

"Feiyu, you've arrived."

In the dimly lit office, Danzo, his face wrapped in bandages, had a gloomy and cold expression. He didn't look like a good person at all. However, when he saw Uchiha Hiu enter, the Root leader forced a smile onto his face.

Seeing Danzo's forced smile, Uchiha Touya really wanted to retort, "Stop smiling, it's really creepy!" Fortunately, he held back. Instead, he asked about the mission:

"Who are you going to kill? Where? How many people?"

(End of this chapter)