Everything seemed to be advancing steadily according to his will. The Iwagakure incident had served as a touchstone, testing the solidity of the Shinobi World's current power structure while quietly changing everyone's mindset.
And the real storm might be quietly brewing deep within a laboratory where no one was watching.
Beneath Rōran, in a top-secret biological laboratory.
For Orochimaru and Mayuri Kurotsuchi, immersed in frenzied research, half a year had passed in the blink of an eye.
The vessel holding Momoshiki Otsutsuki had long since been surrounded by an array of even more complex and precise instruments. The hum of energy, the faint sounds of flowing liquid, and the flashing indicator lights of operating instruments formed the perpetual backdrop here.
Momoshiki Otsutsuki had long since abandoned his pointless roaring and threats.
Half a year of imprisonment, research, blood draws, tissue sectioning, and energy stimulation... had utterly worn away the last of his arrogance. He spent most of his time half-conscious or numb, letting out a few stifled groans only when subjected to certain particularly invasive examinations.
The once-proud Otsutsuki was now nothing more than a living specimen that continuously supplied precious data.
His blood had been one of the main focuses of their research over the past six months.
It was no ordinary red liquid, but a wondrous substance with a pale golden sheen and an extremely high density. Under certain lighting, fine threads of energy could be seen flowing within it.
Every drop contained astonishing vitality and complex genetic/energy information.
On one side of the laboratory, large quantities of this pale golden blood were slowly being spun, filtered, and separated inside several enormous culture columns made of special crystal and alloy.
This was all blood safely drawn from Momoshiki Otsutsuki over the past six months. To obtain it,