Chapter Summaries

Li Yao struggled to develop new Space-Time Ninjutsu and considered a new way to study the foundational spell scripts in Nature Energy. He ordered research into a Nature Energy microscope and planned to use a Puppet Heart to gather Nature Energy for analysis.

• Li Yao sent Black Zetsu away from Konoha and warned him not to let any White Zetsu spy on it.
• Li Yao learned that his Shadow Clone had made no progress developing genuine Space-Time Chakra.
• Li Yao and his Shadow Clone proposed parsing foundational space-time spell scripts from Nature Energy to create new Space-Time Ninjutsu.
• Li Yao recalled Kumogakure's microscope and ordered the Fourth Raikage Clone to research one that could amplify Nature Energy fluctuations.
• Li Yao and his Shadow Clone identified the Puppet Heart as a way to gather Nature Energy before studying its spell scripts.

Li Yao planned to collect Nature Energy from across the world to study space-time Spell Scripts. While sensing Biwako’s pregnancy, he discovered a faint fluctuation he suspected was the soul of their newly conceived child, and considered using it to strengthen soul power.

• Li Yao and his Shadow Clones planned to modify Puppet Hearts to collect Nature Energy from varied environments and conceal them in the sky across the Shinobi World planet.
• Li Yao left the research to the Shadow Clones and returned to Biwako, telling her that Hiruzen and Danzo were playing tug-of-war.
• Li Yao sensed his Chakra inside Biwako’s developing child and noticed another faint fluctuation he could not identify.
• Li Yao concluded the fluctuation might be the newly formed soul of an independent embryonic lifeform.
• Li Yao considered strengthening soul power by studying the newborn soul fluctuation, contrasting this with the Sage of Six Paths’ use of souls dissipating after death.

Li Yao investigated how souls first formed by monitoring pregnancies, hoping to strengthen souls at their source and catch up to the Sage of Six Paths. After his clones began observing assigned women, the two Tsunades became pregnant, but Li Yao still could not sense a soul’s birth and continued the experiment with new subjects.

• Li Yao sensed a pure soul fluctuation in Biwako and used a Shadow Clone to imitate it while observing her for a month.
• After confirming the fluctuation developed into an ordinary soul, Li Yao assigned his six clones to monitor two women each for the first sign of conception.
• Li Yao kept Mikoto Uchiha and Kushina together so he could personally observe the births of the souls destined to become Sasuke and Naruto.
• The two Tsunades became pregnant, but the Lightning Style Clone—White Fang detected no change when their souls emerged.
• Li Yao ordered the Lightning Style Clone—White Fang to continue observing the Tsunades until their soul fluctuations strengthened, then assigned it two powerful Sarutobi Clan kunoichi.

Li Yao continued investigating how souls were born, but his experiments yielded no breakthrough until Kushina and Mikoto's latest pregnancies showed an unusual surge of life energy in their embryonic cells. The energy abruptly dropped back to an ordinary level, leaving Li Yao focused on what the change meant.

• Li Yao observed that faint soul fluctuations appeared in the first twelve pregnancies without revealing how souls were born.
• When Kushina and Mikoto became pregnant with Naruto and Sasuke, Li Yao again sensed soul fluctuations appear instantly and found no clue.
• Ten months later, two elderly Sarutobi women gave birth to Li Yao's children, and Li Yao arranged for two transformed Sarutobi men to mate with the Third Hokage, who had become a white female dog.
• Two years passed, and Li Yao still had not discovered how souls were born; Kushina and Mikoto had each borne him three children.
• Li Yao sensed Kushina and Mikoto's new embryonic cells absorb over a hundred times the life energy of their previous pregnancies before the energy suddenly fell to an ordinary level.

Li Yao discovered that life energy transformed into soul energy at the moment a soul first formed, and concluded that Sasori’s Soul Replication Formation had already achieved that conversion. The Sage of Six Paths had spent a thousand years trying to uncover the secret through his sons’ reincarnations, while Li Yao went to investigate Sasori’s research.

• Li Yao observed mature soul fluctuations appear in the embryonic cells of Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha as their life energy returned to normal, and realized their pregnancies were the reincarnations of Indra and Asura.
• Li Yao concluded that souls were born from life energy and connected the process to Sasori’s Soul Replication Formation.
• The Sage of Six Paths lamented that he had failed to discover the conversion secret after a thousand years of his sons’ reincarnations, leaving his soul too weak to face the coming Otsutsuki Clan.
• Li Yao examined Sasori’s hidden research at the Sunagakure institute and found that Sasori had stopped studying the Soul Replication Formation after transforming into a soul-flame life form.
• Li Yao reasoned that Sasori had neither recognized the formation’s power to convert life energy into soul energy nor continued researching it to protect its secrecy.

Li Yao improved the Soul Replication Formation in hopes of converting life energy into soul energy, while launching the Star Chain Nature Heart project to map Nature Energy across the Shinobi World. The project entered implementation, with hidden Hearts of Nature being deployed as Li Yao’s clones expanded the network.

• Li Yao planted a Black Hole Space sphere inside Yōi to destroy her body and soul if she neared death, and left a Shadow Clone guarding Sasori’s research materials.
• Li Yao took the Wind Style Clone’s Soul Replication Formation research to the Kamui Space and improved its three Puppet Sealing Methods to absorb life energy, but converting it into soul energy remained difficult.
• After two years of preparation, Li Yao’s Wind Style Clone activated a Heart of Nature high above the Land of Wind and concealed it with a Time Mirage seal.
• Li Yao’s clones began deploying Hearts of Nature a hundred kilometers apart, using radio principles to connect them into a network intended to cover the Shinobi World.
• Li Yao’s unified ninja forces developed materials for mass-producing Hearts of Nature, while clones sensed Nature Energy and Shadow Clones translated its laws into Spell Scripts.

In Year 50 of Konoha, Li Yao discovered a soul-related basic Spell Script and used it to develop soulification and the Psionic Equation. The equation let him convert life energy into soul energy, giving him a way to strengthen his soul, though the chapter leaves the scale of that power unresolved.

• During a year of research, Li Yao's clone discovered over a hundred basic Spell Scripts, while Yezi and Kushina helped him master them and studied Sealing Techniques.
• While researching the Psionic Equation, Li Yao sensed a soul-related basic rule in a Heart of Nature and converted it into a Spell Script.
• Li Yao developed the Soulification Sealing Technique, which turned matter into a soul state and let its barrier render physical attacks harmless.
• One month later, Li Yao completed the Psionic Equation and tested it on a ninja, converting the ninja's life energy into soul energy that strengthened Li Yao's soul slightly.
• Li Yao wondered how much his soul could grow by absorbing life energy from vast numbers of people or from other Shinobi Worlds.

Li Yao strengthened his soul by harvesting energy from countless parallel Naruto worlds, then confronted and absorbed the Progenitor of the Otsutsuki. After gaining the power of chaos, he broke through the Naruto Universe’s barrier and set out for home.

• Li Yao perfected the Psionic Equation, expanded its reach, and learned to convert life energy, souls, Chakra, Spiritual Energy, and Nature Energy into Soul Energy.
• Li Yao used Shadow Clones to seed Nature Hearts across parallel worlds and built Sacrificial Sealing Arrays that consumed entire Shinobi World planets.
• After the arrays consumed life across one hundred thousand parallel worlds, Li Yao’s soul grew powerful enough to reach the Progenitor of the Otsutsuki’s hidden space.
• The Progenitor of the Otsutsuki tried to overwrite Li Yao’s soul, but Li Yao used the Chaos Crucible Equation to devour her instead.
• One year later, Li Yao absorbed the Progenitor’s remaining energy, broke through the Naruto Universe’s barrier with the power of chaos, and left to go home.