Gene Serum

Successfully capturing White Zetsu was like injecting the most essential—and most dangerous—fuel into a precise but stalled machine. Kyohaku Uchiha's pace of life suddenly accelerated, yet it was compressed beneath absolute secrecy. Orochimaru knew nothing of it, and Kyohaku would never reveal even the slightest detail. This was a forbidden path to the future that belonged to him alone.

The underground laboratory had completely become his true "home." His work at the hospital and the experiments on Orochimaru's side had instead become covers for him to maintain appearances and acquire ordinary resources. All his remaining time and energy went into studying the White Zetsu specimen.

The White Zetsu confined within its containment vessel was like a pale, silent treasure. Kyohaku treated it as if it were the most sophisticated instrument—calmly, objectively, without the slightest emotion. He first conducted the most comprehensive basic analyses: tissue sections, cell viability tests, chakra affinity tests, genetic sequence fragment readings—using advanced technical models from Orochimaru's laboratory...

The results were shocking. White Zetsu's cellular structure was indeed as unusual as the records described, somewhere between animal and plant. Its cell walls possessed both resilience and permeability, while its cells contained a highly inert yet infinitely promising life energy—the foundational energy of the God Tree. Its genetic sequence was even more complex and ancient, bearing obvious traces of artificial modification. Yet its underlying code possessed unbelievable inclusiveness and adaptability, as though it had been born specifically to fuse and bear other things.

"Perfect culture medium... and the ideal genetic vector..." Kyohaku muttered as he watched the active white cells beneath the microscope. His heart beat slightly faster with excitement, but his mind remained as cold as ever.

His goal was clear: extract the God Tree traits within White Zetsu Cells, break through the limitations of his human genes, raise the upper limit of his life level, and take the first step toward the legendary Otsutsuki. More specifically, he first had to solve the problem of the atrophied meridians in his right foot, restore their vitality, and comprehensively optimize his cellular vitality and chakra capacity.

The process would be anything but easy. Directly injecting White Zetsu Cells? That would be no different from suicide. Their powerful assimilation ability would instantly turn him into a tree—or a puddle of white spores.

He had to modify and fuse them. He needed to create a special genetic serum that belonged solely to "Kyohaku Uchiha."

Countless vessels stood neatly arranged across the laboratory bench. He first attempted the most basic in vitro cell fusion, extracting his own somatic cells and placing them together with White Zetsu Cells that had undergone varying degrees of weakening and deactivation.

Without exception, the results were failures.

Either his own cells were completely devoured and assimilated by the White Zetsu Cells, or the two rejected each other and rapidly necrosed. The aggressiveness and rejection properties of White Zetsu Cells far exceeded his expectations.

Kyohaku was not discouraged in the slightest. Failure had been expected. He began a long process of iteration.

First-generation experiment: he adjusted the culture medium environment, tried nurturing the cells with yin-yang chakra in different ratios, and observed the reactions. He recorded three hundred sets of failed data.

Second-generation experiment: he introduced a third-party buffering medium—he tried a small amount of residual Hashirama Cells culture solution acquired from Orochimaru's laboratory, having applied to Orochimaru for a tiny sample under the pretext of research needs. He used its powerful vitality and gentle properties as a neutralizing agent. There was slight improvement, but the fusion was extremely unstable and quickly collapsed.

Third-generation experiment: he focused on trimming genetic fragments. Using Fūinjutsu formulas, he simulated ultra-precise "energy scalpels" and attempted to strip away the dangerous White Zetsu Cell fragments responsible for "unlimited proliferation" and "forced assimilation," retaining only the traits of "enhanced vitality" and "structural compatibility." This was the most time-consuming and labor-intensive step, and the number of failures was impossible to count.

Fourth generation, fifth generation... tenth generation...

The laboratory logs had piled into a thick stack, recording the parameters, phenomena, and new hypotheses from every failure. Day and night were indistinguishable in the basement; there were only the lights of the instruments and Kyohaku's eternally calm, focused eyes.

He tirelessly repeated, adjusted, and optimized. His powerful mental strength allowed him to maintain intense concentration for long periods. The rigor of his previous life as a forensic examiner and the research methods he had learned from Orochimaru in this life combined perfectly. He regarded every failure as a necessary step toward success.

After an unknown number of iterations, when the forty-seventh generation experimental sample maintained a stable symbiosis in the culture dish for seventy-two hours, and the microscope showed that his own cells had not only avoided assimilation but had significantly increased in vitality, forming a peculiar energy-exchange cycle with the treated White Zetsu Cells—

Kyohaku knew that he had succeeded in taking the first step.

But that was not enough. Success in vitro did not mean it would work inside the body. He needed to turn it into a serum that could safely be injected.

He extracted the stably symbiotic cell colony, purified and liquefied it, then blended it into a specially formulated nutrient solution that could preserve the serum's activity and assist its fusion with the human body. Finally, he added a trace of his own blood sample as a biological identification code, ensuring that the serum would act only on himself.

A liquid giving off an extremely faint emerald glow, with tiny points of light slowly drifting inside it, was drawn into a specially sealed syringe.

Kyohaku Uchiha's version of the White Zetsu Cell genetic serum, first generation, was complete.

Holding the serum that embodied countless efforts and contained immense power and risk, he walked to the center of the laboratory. He calmly sat down, rolled up his sleeve, and exposed his arm.

There was no hesitation, no fear—only absolute rational calculation and confidence in his own research. He carefully disinfected the area, then precisely inserted the needle into a vein and slowly pushed the serum that might change everything into his body.

The cold liquid flowed into his veins, followed by an indescribable life energy—gentle, yet vast—that rapidly spread through every limb and bone. There was no violent rejection, no painful transformation, only the comfort of parched earth being nourished by spring rain.

He could clearly feel every cell rejoicing, greedily absorbing the gentle energy and becoming more active, more resilient. Especially the long-sluggish meridians in his right foot, which sent out faint, itchy sensations like ants crawling across them—that was a sign that the atrophied nerves and meridians were being nourished and awakened!

The serum's effects gradually subsided after about an hour. Kyohaku slowly opened his eyes and felt the renewed vitality within his body. He tried moving his right ankle. The stiffness and sluggishness that had once plagued it had actually lessened a little! It was still far from recovery, but this was undoubtedly a historic breakthrough!

He had succeeded.

Although this was only the most preliminary fusion, and a long road still lay ahead before complete restoration and optimization, he had truly pried the gears of fate loose through his own efforts.

He looked at the empty syringe, his gaze profound.

The first dose was complete. Next would come the second, the third... constant optimization, constant iteration, until this mortal body was pushed toward a higher level.

The path of completion had truly taken its first solid step here.