Sarutobi Toru shook his head. "It's not that we understand the star so thoroughly. It's that you have never studied it at all. I imagine that even the beneficial mutation in your body was merely a highly accidental occurrence. You simply never figured out how to use the star's power to control bodily mutations."
Star Shadow immediately gave a bitter smile, rendered speechless by Sarutobi Toru's words.
Sarutobi Toru had hit the nail on the head. Over the past two hundred years, aside from developing the Mysterious Peacock Method by using the star, they had conducted no other research. The so-called beneficial mutations were entirely a matter of luck. Their cultivation methods had never changed either; they still relied on luck, hoping to reproduce a beneficial mutation.
"Why are you telling us this? Aren't you planning to kill us to silence us?" Star Shadow asked with a frown.
"Of course not. How could we possibly kill such a rare experimental subject with a beneficial mutation so easily?" Orochimaru said in a low voice, his greedy gaze sweeping over Star Shadow's body.
"Th-then what exactly is going on?" Firefly Star, whose head was full of secrets after listening to all this, finally could not hold back any longer. "The star causes mutations in the human body and leaves people riddled with illness. Why did I never know about this?"
Star Shadow sighed. "The Jōnin in the village all know about the drawbacks of the Mysterious Peacock Method, but..."
"But they are unwilling to give up power, right? Heh. And your existence probably gave them hope, which is why they kept demanding that the next generation cultivate the Mysterious Peacock Method, hoping for beneficial mutations to appear so they would have something to learn from."
Star Shadow's face turned pale as he