Land of Waterfalls, underground experimental base.
Regular footsteps came from the dark passage, and Senju Chen's clone passed through the layers of seals and went straight to Orochimaru's private laboratory.
When Senju Chen walked into the experimental area, the first thing he saw was the back of Orochimaru.
The man in a white research coat, with gloves stained with unknown liquid, was muttering data to a huge culture tank. The operating table next to him was filled with densely packed test tubes and instruments, and some tubes were still emitting light green bubbles.
On the other side, Kabuto Yakushi was sitting on a folding chair with a small whiteboard in front of him, with a crooked diagram of the human body's meridians drawn on it.
Kurama Yakumo sat across from him, his little face tensed up, and he was holding a pen in his hand. There were two pages full of notes in his notebook, and his handwriting was surprisingly neat.
"So the operation of mental power does not rely on Chakra meridians, but another independent system." Kabuto Yakushi pushed up his glasses and pointed at a red line on the whiteboard, "The main soul and deputy soul in your body occupy two ends of this system. Normally, they operate independently without interfering with each other, but once you actively mobilize your mental power-"
"Ido will follow suit?" Yakumo answered.
"Yes, you understand quickly." Kabuto Yakushi nodded, "So before you learn precise control, don't mobilize your mental power easily, otherwise Ido will be stimulated. You should still remember what happened last time."
Yakumo shrank his neck, obviously remembering some bad memories.
Senju Chen didn't make a sound and leaned against the door frame for a while to look at it.
Kabuto Yakushi teaches very patiently, but the content he teaches is obviously not just as simple as "basic knowledge". What about the hierarchical guidance of spiritual power, the adjustment of the resonance frequency of the main soul and deputy soul, the independent strengthening of the soul anchor point...
You must know that these things, a year ago, were core topics that only Senju Chen and Orochimaru were exposed to.
Senju Chen turned his attention to Orochimaru.
This time, what was soaked in the culture tank was not White Zetsu, but a rune fragment peeled off from God Mask. The surface of the fragment was vaguely flashing blue light, and the frequency of the light was almost exactly the same as the frequency of Yakumo's mental power fluctuations.
Senju Chen raised an eyebrow.
Good guy.
Orochimaru is taking the mental power data of Yakumo and reversely calibrating the summoning parameters of God Mask.
He is not simply teaching Yakumo, but treating Yakumo as an in vivo reference sample, cultivating it, collecting data, and optimizing his experiments.
One fish, three meals, Orochimaru's abacus is indeed sound.
But Senju Chen didn't intend to stop it.
What Orochimaru does does no harm to Yakumo itself. On the contrary, the more Yakumo understands the working principle of mental power, the more precise she can control her own power. And Orochimaru can get experimental data from it to advance research, which is a win-win situation.
What Senju Chen really cares about is the newly added desk in the corner of the laboratory.
There are several thick experimental logs stacked on the table, with number labels on the covers - all of them are internal information of "God Mask Project Team".
On the edge of the desktop, three words were written crookedly with a marker: Kurama Yakumo.
Senju Chen:"..."
As a teacher, I must be too impatient. This must be properly considered as child labor in modern society.
"Teacher." Senju Chen walked in.
Senju Chen glanced at Kabuto Yakushi who was teaching Kurama Yakumo, "Are you too impatient?"
Orochimaru turned around and licked the corner of his mouth habitually, with undisguised pride in his golden vertical pupils.
"This girl's mental power data is so beautiful. I can overturn three old assumptions just by looking at her monitoring reports every day."
On the other side, Kabuto Yakushi had noticed Senju Chen, stood up immediately and said, "Hello, Minister."
Kurama Yakumo also saw Senju Chen and immediately ran over happily, "Teacher, why are you here?"
"Teacher, what Mr. Kabuto said is very difficult. I can't understand most of it." Kurama Yakumo curled his lips and said to Senju Chen as if he was complaining.
"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. Learn slowly. Don't be impatient. If you don't understand, just ask Mr. Kabuto and Teacher Orochimaru."
"The teacher came to Teacher Orochimaru to ask something. You should study hard with Mr. Kabuto and don't be lazy, you know." Senju Chen rubbed Kurama Yakumo's hair and said with a smile.
"Yes, Yakumo knows." Kurama Yakumo nodded heavily.
Senju Chen watched Kurama Yakumo return to the small whiteboard and began to listen to Kabuto Yakushi's lecture. He lowered his voice and said to Orochimaru, "Yakumo can join God Mask's project team, but there is a prerequisite - she will only participate in data analysis and basic theoretical learning. She is not allowed to touch the summoned experiment, at least not now."
Orochimaru rarely refuted, "Although her mental power is strong enough, her control is far from enough. If she were to face the gods directly now, there is a high probability that she would be backlashed."
"As long as the teacher knows what's going on." Senju Chen glanced at him.
"Teacher, please tell me the details about Ryūchi Cave." Senju Chen didn't say much and went straight to the point Gate of Opening.
"Ryūchi Cave?" Orochimaru said with some confusion.
"Yes, I want to know about Sage Mode of Earth Dragon Cave."
"Sage Mode...Little Chen, that thing is more dangerous than you think."
"But... with your mental strength, you might be able to practice successfully." Orochimaru seemed to have thought of something, and turned to Senju Chen.
"Teacher, Earth Dragon Cave, how does Sage Mode practice?"
"Three Great Sage Lands and Sage Mode need to be cultivated inside Three Great Sage Lands. If you want to cultivate Sage Mode of Earth Dragon Cave, you must first make a contract with a Earth Dragon Cave snake!"
"Does the teacher practice Sage Mode?" Senju Chen asked
"Yes, but it failed that time." Orochimaru did not hide it, but said directly to Senju Chen.
"Even the teacher failed?" Although Senju Chen knew the plot, he still wanted to know the reason why Orochimaru failed.
"I signed Summoning Contract with Manda." Orochimaru continued, "Although that grumpy beast was difficult to control, it gave me the key to Ryūchi Cave."
"Reverse Summoning?" Senju Chen asked.
"Yes." Orochimaru glanced at him approvingly, "The ordinary Summoning Technique summons the psychic beast to the location of the caster, while Reverse Summoning allows the caster to be teleported to the psychic beast's habitat."
He stretched out his fingers and sketched a complex spell in the air. "I used Reverse Summoning to send myself into Ryūchi Cave, which is a completely different world."
Orochimaru's eyes became profound.
"The endless underground caves are filled with huge snakes, and the air is filled with the sweet smell of blood." His voice was low and hoarse. "I moved along the depths of the cave. Along the way, I encountered the corpses of countless ninjas who accidentally entered them. Some have turned into white bones, and some still maintain the posture of struggling in life, but these are not real testers."
Senju Chen raised his eyebrows slightly. "Trialist?"
"Ryūchi Cave never rejects outsiders." Orochimaru turned around and said, "Anyone who can enter Ryūchi Cave is qualified to challenge Sage Mode's practice. White Snake Sage never sets restrictions, it can even be said to be welcome."
"Why is this? Sage Mode Shouldn't the threshold be very high?"
"Because those who fail will become its food." Orochimaru grinned. "Those who fail in the practice of Sage Mode, their bodies, Chakra, and even souls will be swallowed by White Snake Sage and become part of its power."
Sure enough, if you want to practice Sage Mode, Three Great Sage Lands is not easy.
"I saw White Snake Sage deep in the cave." Orochimaru's eyes flashed with awe, "It was a huge white snake, more than a hundred meters long, covered with white scales, with a purple orb on its head, and it breathed with suffocating pressure."
He paused and his voice became solemn. "Its eyes... those eyes seemed to be able to see through everything. When I stood in front of it, I felt like all my secrets had been seen through."
Senju Chen Listen carefully and keep every detail in mind.
"White Snake Sage asked me if I was willing to accept the trial, and I agreed." Orochimaru licked his lips, "Then it used its teeth to inject a drop of snake blood containing Senjutsu Chakra into my body."
"Snake blood?" Senju Chen has watched the original anime. Earth Dragon Cave wanted to practice Sage Mode but was bitten by White Snake Sage. It turns out that the real source is a drop of blood injected by White Snake Sage.