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

Chapter 35: One in the Mountain

Having just arrived at the camp, he had already obtained a contract with Ryuchi Cave, which could be considered a great start for Uchiha Touyu.

After leaving the command center, Uchiha Hiyu randomly found an open space and began summoning giant snakes. He started by summoning snakes as thick as a wrist, then snakes as thick as buckets, and finally a giant python that was twenty or thirty meters long and two or three meters in diameter.

Ultimately, Uchiha Hiyu discovered that, including those giant pythons that were twenty or thirty meters long, these snakes were not particularly intelligent. They were slightly stronger than ordinary chakra beasts, but the strongest among them would not exceed the intelligence of a ten-year-old child.

Clearly, this kind of low-intelligence giant snake should be nothing more than cannon fodder in Ryuchi Cave. Unless it dies in large numbers in a short period of time, it probably won't attract the attention of the intelligent giant snakes in Ryuchi Cave at all.

Subsequently, Uchiha Hiyu summoned ordinary poisonous snakes and a giant python, killing them and absorbing their souls.

Despite the vast difference in physical strength, the soul of a large python was actually only one or two times stronger than that of a venomous snake as thick as a wrist. Considering that large pythons should occupy a relatively high position in the food chain in Ryuchi Cave and their numbers could not be countless, Uchiha Touyu ultimately decided to just absorb the souls of ordinary pythons every day.

The ability of the Spirit Binding General to subdue spirits also has its limits. After each soul is devoured, some resentment will linger around him. Uchiha Touyu can use the power of the Sharingan to dissipate and transform this resentment, but that takes time.

This is because the resentment of animal souls absorbed is far less powerful than that of real humans; otherwise, the resentment might overwhelm the brain, turning the person into a complete lunatic.

Uchiha Touyu tried it out, and he could digest up to a hundred snake souls a day. This number was a drop in the ocean for Ryuchi Cave. The number of snakes devouring each other was probably dozens of times higher than the number he could digest each day.

Moreover, although the soul was absorbed, the python's body would still return to Ryuchi Cave and become food for the snakes there. In the end, Ryuchi Cave suffered no loss.

The souls of hundreds of Dragon Cave Pythons were enough to significantly improve Uchiha Tou's physique and spirit.

As long as he persists in absorbing these souls every day, Uchiha Touyu is confident that in two or three months his chakra will increase several times over, he will definitely have Kage-level chakra in a year, and he will have chakra close to the level of a tailed beast in ten years.

In fact, the increase in chakra is secondary. The improvement in physical strength and mental strength may have a greater impact on Uchiha Tou in the later stages. This fundamental improvement is enough to allow Uchiha Tou's life level to gradually surpass that of ordinary ninjas.

Unfortunately, Uchiha Touyu didn't have time to kill and absorb the souls of these pythons, because he had to go on a mission the next day.

"Captain Tou, I have brought Lord Orochimaru's order. From today onwards, I am your subordinate."

The tent door was opened, and the one who spoke was a ninja in his early twenties with blond hair who looked quite composed.

Uchiha Touyu accepted the warrant handed to him by the ninja. Inside was a topographical map. Uchiha Touyu's mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare at the location on the map and kill the four-man Sand Ninja squad.

This is also the norm in battles between major ninja villages. Ninjas are highly agile and have great destructive power, but their defensive capabilities are still at the level where they can be killed by kunai, making them unsuitable for large-scale battles.

As for positional battles involving hundreds of ninjas, these only occurred in the early stages and near the end of a war because the casualties were too heavy.

Most of the time, all the ninjas were divided into small teams and engaged in flexible combat such as raids, infiltrations, intelligence gathering, and guerrilla warfare, constantly eliminating enemy strongholds and killing enemy team members until one side could not hold on any longer, at which point the final battle would begin.

The White Fang of Konoha was famous throughout the ninja world for his incredibly high lethality against these squads. The Yellow Flash will surpass him in this regard. High-speed ninjas have a huge advantage in squad battles.

Tell me your name, your special abilities, and your ninjutsu.

Uchiha Touyu led the blond youth behind him out of the tent, asking questions as they walked. The blond youth remained calm, showing no sign of underestimating the young Touyu:

"My name is Yamanaka Seiichi. I am a Chunin of the Yamanaka clan. I am skilled in sensory ninjutsu and also have a certain ability to communicate over long distances. However, my mental ninjutsu is not very good, so I don't have much combat power."

A sensory ninja who can also act as a liaison ninja is an extremely rare talent among ninjas. If it weren't for the fact that Yamanaka Seiichi's own combat strength was not even as good as that of an ordinary Chunin, he would have become a special Jonin by now.

This Yamanaka clan ninja's expertise in mind-body ninjutsu is almost entirely supportive; he's not even very good at the Yamanaka clan's most basic offensive ninjutsu, the Mind Transfer Technique. However, when paired with Uchiha Hiu, they are a perfect match.

After leaving the main camp, Uchiha Hiyu led Yamanaka Seiichi directly into the jungle of the Land of Rivers, slowly making their way to the location of the Sand Village camp on the map.

He certainly didn't have the guts to directly attack the Sand Ninja camp, but the closer he got to the Sand Ninja, the greater the chance of encountering an enemy squad. Staying near the Konoha Ninja camp meant he wouldn't run into any Sand Ninja.

As the two moved forward, Uchiha Hiyu was also talking to Yamanaka Seiichi. This Yamanaka clan ninja was calm and composed, and did not care about Uchiha Hiyu's age, answering all his questions.

"The Sand Village's offensive has slowed down considerably. In the first two months of the war, there were battles involving hundreds of ninjas almost every few days. In those two months, nearly two thousand ninjas were killed or wounded on both sides."

After listening to the description of the battlefield by Yamanaka Seido, Uchiha Touyu seemed to be deep in thought:

"It seems that the Sand Village can't hold on any longer. As the saying goes, 'One should strike while the iron is hot, but the momentum will weaken and eventually be exhausted.' Since the attackers didn't gain the upper hand at the beginning, the casualties on the other side will probably be heavier."

"The captain is right. At first, the Sand Village blamed the Third Kazekage's disappearance on our Konoha and launched an extremely fierce attack, resulting in heavy casualties. Of the more than 2000 ninjas who died or were injured in those two months, 60% were from the Sand Village."

Yamanaka nodded slightly, confirming Uchiha Tou's guess:

"However... because the war happened rather suddenly, the Land of Rivers has not yet undergone a scorched-earth policy, so the Sand Village can hold out for a while longer."

"It seems that... the Sand Village can only maintain its morale and logistics by plundering the Land of Rivers."

Uchiha Touyu glanced at the map in his hand, a thoughtful expression on his face.

(End of this chapter)