"How is it? Any progress?" Orochimaru asked the person ahead of him.
The man shook his head.
"Ah!" Orochimaru sighed, then continued leading Kaede farther inside.
Before long, they came upon a sizable cultivation tank. Inside the container was a white body that looked like White Zetsu, though it also felt somewhat different.
"This is...?" Kaede stepped forward and pressed her palm against the container.
"Ōtsutsuki!"
"Ōtsutsuki!" they said almost simultaneously. Orochimaru sounded helpless, while Kaede was surprised.
She had known that Orochimaru was very interested in Ōtsutsuki bodies, but she had not expected him to be cultivating Ōtsutsuki cells himself.
She could sense extremely powerful active factors inside these cultivation tanks. In the past, methods like these should have been used to cultivate Hashirama Cells.
"This is the secret behind the Gene Serum from before. We fused several Kekkei Genkai into it and found that a few of the results were particularly effective."
"However, there are only so many Ōtsutsuki cells. After deducting what our laboratory needs for research, they are scarce. Before long, we may even run out of materials," Orochimaru said helplessly.
A puzzled expression appeared on Kaede's face. Seeing it, Orochimaru began to explain.
"Ōtsutsuki cells are very special. Even when I use the methods for cultivating Hashirama Cells, I cannot produce them at all. Instead, their cells slowly age and die."
"You also know that many of the Ōtsutsuki cells were already unusable when I brought them back. These are the ones we managed to salvage. The substances in this cultivation fluid can accelerate the growth of Hashirama Cells, yet when facing these Ōtsutsuki cells, they can only slow their aging and give us some time to research them," Orochimaru said.
"Even your methods don't work?" Kaede asked doubtfully. She knew Orochimaru's research into cells