"Akaseki... succeeded, didn't he?" Orochimaru watched as all the serpentine features on Akaseki's body sloughed away with the tainted blood.
The White Snake Sage fell silent for a moment, and Orochimaru realized-she had never seen anyone succeed either!
The next moment...
Squelch-
A tail suddenly sprouted from behind Akaseki...
At first glance, it looked like a lion's tail, but a closer look revealed that it was actually a red-scaled snake. The rounded tip was a snake's head, complete with eyes and a mouth!
After emerging, the red-scaled snake coiled around the Red Lion's waist.
"Now... he should have succeeded." Only then did the White Snake Sage nod with certainty.
"So it really was rejection?" Orochimaru nodded with an air of authority.
The White Snake Sage: ...
Are you ever going to stop?
Indeed, it was slightly different from what the White Snake Sage had imagined. The completed "Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode" did not merge with the serpentine transformation, but instead... "rejected" it! Outwardly, this meant that the "snake" was entirely outside the body, looking as though someone had attached a snake to it.
Akaseki, for instance, now looked exactly like a Red-Maned Lion. Apart from his tail, there wasn't a single serpentine feature left, and only his "tail" had become a small snake.
At the same time, after the "light of righteousness" drove out the serpentine mental state, Akaseki abruptly relaxed from his tightly wound state and passed out.
When Akaseki awoke, he found himself in a room furnished in an antique style.
"Huh? Did I... fail?" After recalling what had happened, Akaseki suspected that someone had knocked him unconscious.
After all, they had said that if he failed, they would knock the "nature energy" out of him. He had passed out after just one attempt, so... presumably, he