Most toxins that entered the body would also be rapidly broken down by a powerful immune system.
Strength.
Speed.
Neural perception.
Chakra.
Vitality.
The five transformations together formed the improvements brought by the Second-Stage Gene Lock.
However, more important than those superficial changes was that Lie Yang had finally seen the true nature of chakra.
He sank his consciousness deep into his body.
Meridians, cells, blood, bones—all of them came into clear view.
Beyond these structures of the human body, there was another system spread throughout his entire body.
Tiny roots had sunk into every organ.
They grew along the meridians while remaining connected to the cells, like a biological implant covering his entire body.
Ninjas created chakra by refining physical energy and spiritual energy.
This was common knowledge acknowledged by everyone in the shinobi world.
But that understanding was only half right.
Humans themselves did not possess chakra.
This power came from the Otsutsuki Clan.
Kaguya had consumed the God Tree's fruit and gained chakra. The Sage of Six Paths had then distributed his power to the world in the name of Ninjū.
From that moment on, seeds of power had taken root within human bodies, continuously spreading through bloodlines and reproduction.
What ninjas refined was not power that purely belonged to themselves.
Spiritual energy and physical energy were merely nutrients that activated the seeds.
What truly carried out the conversion was the foreign structure rooted in the human body.
Lie Yang's perception continued to deepen.
Those roots had not completely fused with the flesh.
They possessed an independent structure.
They even contained an extremely faint vitality.
As though they were asleep.
Or as though they were instinctively drawing upon the host's spirit and life force.
"Parasites."
Lie Yang opened his eyes.
"Or perhaps symbiotes."
Chakra granted ninjas power