Yuto approached the barrier and quickly formed several special hand seals.
As the seals were completed, an opening large enough for a person to pass through suddenly appeared in the barrier.
Yuto casually stepped forward and entered the barrier, and the opening sealed shut behind him.
The moment Yuto stepped inside, a wave of violent, sinister Chakra washed over him.
There, at the very center of the barrier, stood a peculiar piece of dead wood nearly two meters tall, bound tightly by the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
That violent, sinister Chakra was emanating precisely from this dead wood.
This dead wood was the very fragment Yuto had obtained from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path when he took it from Uchiha Madara's hands.
Yuto walked up to the dead wood bound by the Adamantine Sealing Chains and examined it carefully, unable to keep his eyebrows from rising slightly.
"It seems to have grown a bit larger."
Yuto muttered to himself. If he recalled correctly, when he last left, this dead wood had been only a little over one meter long.
And now it had swelled to two meters!
This left Yuto feeling both dumbfounded and intrigued. After all, dead wood was hardly fire—it was a lifeless object, yet it could grow on its own.
Sure enough, anything connected to the Ten-Tails was bound to be abnormal.
"Being merely a fragment, it shouldn't be capable of producing Chakra on its own. Which means it must be absorbing natural energy from the air."
Yuto pondered briefly and arrived at a general understanding of why the dead wood had swelled.
At this thought—
A sharp gleam flashed through Yuto's eyes. It seemed his original speculation hadn't been wrong after all.
As for whether this dead wood might cause any problems, Yuto wasn't particularly worried.
The power of the Adamantine Sealing Chains was nothing to scoff at. In the entire Shinobi World, the few things capable of suppressing Tailed Beasts—
Were likely only Senju Hashirama's Wood Release and the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains.
These two powers not only possessed inherent sealing properties, but could also siphon Chakra from the Tailed Beasts they bound, continuously strengthening the seal itself.
This was the fundamental reason Yuto had no concerns about any unexpected transformations from this fragment of dead wood.
"I only injected six types of Tailed Beast Chakra originally. I wonder if adding two more will produce any different changes?"
Yuto wore an expression of intrigue as he walked beside the dead wood.
In the next moment, Yuto's aura shifted subtly, and a Chakra presence unique to the Tailed Beasts emanated from within him.
Then, Yuto channeled the power converted into Matatabi's Chakra directly through the Adamantine Sealing Chains and into the dead wood.
With the injection of this Chakra, the previously calm dead wood visibly trembled. The already violent Chakra aura grew even more ferocious in that instant.
At the same time, before Yuto's eyes, the entire piece of dead wood swelled at a visible rate.
In mere moments, the dead wood that had been around two meters had expanded to a full three meters.
The Adamantine Sealing Chains binding the dead wood showed no signs of strain from its sudden expansion.
Instead, by absorbing the Chakra within the dead wood, the chains grew larger and thicker in tandem, still binding it firmly.
"The injection of seven different Tailed Beast Chakras—and all it does is grow larger?"
Yuto stepped forward and observed the dead wood, raising an eyebrow slightly.
He had originally thought that after injecting the seventh type of Tailed Beast Chakra, the dead wood would undergo some dramatic transformation. He had even been cautious about it, but it seemed he had been overthinking.
Yuto narrowed his eyes slightly. Without pausing, he directly injected the eighth type of Tailed Beast Chakra into the dead wood.
Aside from the Four-Tails Son Goku's Chakra, which Yuto had yet to acquire—
He had now injected all eight distinct types of Tailed Beast Chakra he possessed into the dead wood.
A moment passed.
Yuto looked at the utterly unchanged dead wood before him and couldn't help but furrow his brows.
That shouldn't be!
Logically, the more Tailed Beast Chakra gathered, the greater the transformation the dead wood should undergo.
Yet the result before him was exactly the opposite!
Yuto silently observed the dead wood for a moment. Then a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes, and he reached out to grab the Adamantine Sealing Chains binding it.
With a casual pull from Yuto, the ordinarily indestructible Adamantine Sealing Chains shattered at his touch.
And with the disappearance of this confinement, the previously motionless dead wood suddenly jolted.
In an instant!
The ten protrusions that had grown on the surface of the dead wood from absorbing Tailed Beast Chakra suddenly split open.
Ten extraordinarily thick branches rapidly extended from these protrusions, transforming into incredibly agile, root-like whips.
These roots surged toward Yuto at lightning speed, threatening to engulf him!
"So that's it. It was because of the Adamantine Sealing Chains."
Yuto looked at the ten thick roots rushing toward him and a smile appeared on his face.
As the words left his mouth—
Yuto took a light step back, effortlessly evading the crushing assault of the ten massive roots.
The dead wood's appearance had completely transformed. If at first glance it still resembled a piece of wood—
Now, no one would be able to tell that this creature had once been nothing more than a simple log.
Ten thick roots writhed behind its body, while its torso had taken on a bestial yet un-beastly form, its color and texture resembling dried bark.
After its attack on Yuto, the dead wood didn't continue its assault. Instead, it retracted the ten thick roots and lay still on the ground.
Though it made no further movements, its entire body continuously radiated a sinister, terrifying Chakra.
This Chakra aura gave off an inescapable sense of chaos and bloodlust!
An ordinary ninja would undoubtedly be affected by this Chakra if they stayed here too long.
Looking at the dead wood that had attacked only once before going still, Yuto's face showed a thoughtful expression.
With a thought, Yuto took another step backward.
As Yuto moved, the ten massive roots that had been writhing behind the dead wood suddenly sprang into action once more.
The ten enormous roots transformed into ten shadows, shooting toward the direction Yuto had just moved.
The ground ahead was struck repeatedly by the thick roots, producing a series of heavy thuds!
As the dust settled, Yuto was nowhere to be found where the roots had struck.
At that moment, Yuto had somehow already appeared at a position not far behind the dead wood.
"No self-awareness? It seems it can only determine the enemy's position based on sound."
A hint of disappointment flashed through Yuto's eyes as he murmured to himself.
He had originally hoped that after injecting eight types of Tailed Beast Chakra, the dead wood might undergo some kind of mutation, perhaps even awakening a fraction of the Ten-Tails' power.
After all, this fragment of dead wood had been severed from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Yet the current result left Yuto deeply disappointed.
After injecting eight types of Tailed Beast Chakra, the dead wood before him was nothing more than a chimera!
It was neither Tailed Beast nor Ten-Tails. To be precise, in its current state, the dead wood was inferior even to a Tailed Beast.
Perhaps because the dead wood was ultimately a fragment of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, it possessed an innate suppression over Tailed Beast Chakra.
Even so, Yuto could still sense from the chaotic Chakra aura radiating from the dead wood that within it, the eight types of Tailed Beast Chakra hadn't been fully absorbed. They still existed independently.
"Looking at it now, I can only hope that after gathering all nine types of Tailed Beast Chakra, this dead wood will fully transform into the Ten-Tails."
Yuto rubbed his temples and spoke softly.
Even as he said this, Yuto had a feeling that his original hypothesis might have been too idealistic.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Yuto felt he had overlooked the most crucial point.
Regardless, the first step was to find the Four-Tails Jinchuriki Roshi and inject the Four-Tails' Chakra into the dead wood to see the result. Only then would he know what to do next.
After all, overthinking most things served no real purpose.
As Yuto pressed his temples, this small movement seemed to be detected by the dead wood once more.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A series of sounds tore through the air as the ten thick roots converged from all directions!
[
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