Aizen was unaware that Obito had noticed him. He didn't have time to pay attention to that right now, as he was heading south towards the Land of Rain, the Land of Wind.
Before long, he evaded the Sunagakure's border outposts and arrived in the desert country of Rōran.
Upon entering Rōran, one is greeted by a bustling and lively scene of people.
Caravans laden with goods were coming and going on the streets, while the people of Rōran were constantly hawking their wares on both sides, creating a lively scene.
The vendors' faces beamed with enthusiastic, happy smiles.
Such expressions, and such bustling scenes in the streets, were never seen in the Rōran of the past.
It's important to understand that Rōran was located in the desert of the Land of Wind, where the climate severely affected its living conditions. While not entirely uninhabitable, the environment was certainly not ideal.
The people of Rōran could barely keep themselves from dying of hunger and thirst.
Therefore, the people of Rōran remained in poverty.
Without changes in external circumstances, Rōran might one day be destroyed due to further alterations in the desert environment.
However, this fate took a turn for the better after the arrival of the Light Organization.
As a stronghold valued by Aizen, he made a pact with the Queen of Rōran, exchanging the right to use the power of the Dragon Vein for the condition that he help Rōran prosper.
Aizen knew that if he wanted Rōran in the desert to prosper, he had to solve the problem of survival.
Therefore, he used the power of the Dragon Vein to search for useful resources such as water and minerals within Country of Roran. After finding these resources, he used the Dragon Vein Chakra to transform the sandy land on the edge of Rōran, which was unsuitable for planting, into fertile soil with sufficient fertility to meet Rōran's needs for agriculture and food.
Of course, this alone only freed the people of Rōran from the scourge of hunger; prosperity still required external assistance. And to obtain external assistance, a superior environment had to be created to attract it.
Therefore, Aizen and his group used the Dragon Vein Chakra to set up an invisible barrier that was difficult to detect, reducing the damage of the desert storms to Rōran.
Sure enough, the barrier design quickly took effect.
After the desert storm subsided in Rōran, merchants and travelers soon arrived in Rōran to rest in order to avoid the sandstorm and other problems.
During their breaks, they would take the opportunity to sell the goods they carried in Rōran, and also purchase unique minerals or handicrafts from Rōran.
After resting, they will leave Rōran to trade in other countries.
Thus, with the existence of Rōran, a country unaffected by sandstorms and other severe weather in the desert, merchants and travelers from the desert continuously chose to rest and recuperate there.
With such constant comings and goings, Rōran began to become bustling with merchants and travelers, and the people of Rōran were no longer poor but began to prosper.
However, Aizen and his group carried out the transformation of Rōran in secret, as they wanted to conceal their presence. So, although Rōran's neighbor, the Land of Wind, had investigated the changes in Rōran, they found nothing. Furthermore, since Rōran was just a small country with no ambition for expansion, they eventually stopped paying attention.
Therefore, the scene Aizen was seeing was one of only merchants and tourists coming and going, with very few ninjas present.
However, the changes in Rōran were not Aizen's focus; they were more concerned with the enhancements the Dragon Vein would provide to their experiments.
At this moment, Aizen had already traveled from the streets of Rōran to the underground palace, to the research base secretly established by the Light Organization.
Pushing open the door to the research lab, one is greeted by six large culture containers filled with a green solution. Within the green solution, several naked, red-haired youths exist, their bodies connected by countless tubes, creating an eerie and sinister atmosphere.
They even bear a resemblance to Nagato in appearance, except these young men appear more mature.
Beside the large incubator, three figures were constantly busy.
They're either recording data from the culture vessel or injecting some unknown liquid into the human body inside it.
" Setsuna, how is the test subject?" Aizen walked up to one of the figures constantly observing computer data and asked.
The experimental subjects at this research base are the focus of their research during this period, so Aizen can't help but care.
This experiment should have been conducted by Aizen himself, but due to Nagato's Rinnegan infiltration plan, Setsuna had to take charge instead.
"Well, how should I put it? Combining the research data we obtained from Madara Uchiha with the human body information given to us by the original body, out of the six human bodies we obtained, only one was successful; the others were not ideal." Setsuna, wearing a white researcher's lab coat, touched her forehead and said with a headache.
This research base is studying the first step of their Six Paths, which is the replication of Kekkei Genkai.
The Kekkei Genkai they cloned was the Lava Release from Jinchūriki, the Four-Tails Roshi.
At the beginning of the experiment, they found a special genetic fragment belonging to Lava Release in Roshi's blood, and used it as the core to conduct multiple cloning experiments.
However, the difficulty of human experimentation was beyond their imagination. Even with the extensive human data they obtained from Ban and their own medical experience, they still failed many times.
What disgusts them most is that no matter how they combine genetic material with the human body, it causes the body's cells to collapse.
After several failures, they guessed that ordinary human cells might not be able to carry such genetic fragments, so they began using ninja cells to support their experiments.
To this end, they also killed many powerful ninjas in the black market.
After Jonin cells, the experiment's results improved significantly, successfully cultivating embryos fused with the Lava Release factor. However, strangely, even after successfully cultivating cloned humans, they did not exhibit the most crucial Lava Release. This puzzled them greatly, prompting them to search for the cause of the problem.
Then they realized that it was probably because their physical body wasn't strong enough or their physical talent wasn't outstanding enough that they couldn't awaken the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai.
Therefore, they tried using their own cells, such as his Uchiha cells, Jörmungandr's Dark Release cells, Aizen's cells, and Setsugetsu's cells, but none of them achieved the best results.
Ultimately, it was discovered that the cells Aizen obtained from Nagato were the best experimental subjects, with the highest survival rate and the best inheritance effect of Lava Release.
This surprised and puzzled them. After careful study, they discovered that the Uzumaki Clan was born with a powerful life force.
This vitality helps the genetic information of the Lava Release survive and develop.
Overjoyed by this discovery, they focused on studying the cells of the Uzumaki Clan to conduct Kekkei Genkai replication experiments on humans.
To date, a total of six experimental subjects who inherited the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai have been cultivated, which are the six currently in the laboratory incubator.
It's a bit of a pity that, although all the test subjects inherited the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai power, only one test subject had the best inheritance effect of Lava Release, and the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai within his body was the most active.
"It's alright, no need to regret it. It's already quite remarkable to have successfully obtained a body with the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai in such a short time." Seeing Setsuna's troubled expression, Aizen chuckled. He was already very satisfied with the result.
In fact, at the very beginning of the experiment, he believed that even with Madara's experimental data and the medical methods of the original body, it would take a year, or even longer, to replicate the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai.
It wasn't that he underestimated Setsuna's abilities; Setsuna and the Setsuna all originated from his original self, Kōki, and he knew their level perfectly well.
Rather, he knew that Kekkei Genkai, being the most unique thing in the ninja world, were not so easy to replicate.
Just like Orochimaru in the original work, who was the number one research master in the Shinobi World, he had been researching Kekkei Genkai, but he hadn't achieved any results. In the end, he still thought of using the Living Corpse Reincarnation to obtain the Kekkei Genkai of others.
However, Aizen did not deny Orochimaru's abilities. If he were to tell Orochimaru some information, Orochimaru would surely do something that would surprise him.
He simply wanted to show that even a genius like Orochimaru, who was exceptionally proficient in human research, failed miserably in Kekkei Genkai limit techniques, and it was quite possible that they would be stuck with Lava Release for several years.
Hearing Setsuna say that the Kekkei Genkai cloning had been successful, he was overjoyed.
"Have you tried to integrate the inherited factors of other Kekkei Genkai into this body?" Although he was very happy with the success of the experiment, he did not forget that the purpose of conducting the Kekkei Genkai replication experiment was to lay the foundation for the subsequent Kekkei Genkai fusion.
Their ultimate goal is to Kekkei Tōta, and even to eventually Kekkei Mōra.
Setsuna shook her head helplessly, even with a hint of despair, and replied, "It's too difficult. It's incredibly difficult to fuse other Kekkei Genkai factors together. If I didn't know that there's Kekkei Tōta above Kekkei Genkai, and even Kekkei Mōra, I would have thought that multi- Kekkei Genkai fusion was simply impossible."
He wasn't saying anything discouraging; he genuinely felt the difficulty was too great. If it were just an individual undergoing Kekkei Tōta training, then Setsuna felt it wouldn't be a problem and there was still a chance to achieve it.
However, Setsuna believes that there is no hope at all in the idea of directly cultivating an experimental subject with Kekkei Tōta ability, starting from the cell level.
From previous experiments, Setsuna had already discovered that the genetic factors of Kekkei Genkai are different. To fuse two different genetic factors together means that the two Kekkei Genkai must be fused together to create a new characteristic without affecting their original characteristics.
This is extremely difficult.
This is unlike real-world alloys, where two different metals can be fused together under unique conditions to create a metal with superior properties.
From the perspective of living cells, it is extremely difficult to fuse two Kekkei Genkai factors to form a higher level of Kekkei Genkai.
Therefore, in Setsuna of understanding, it was simply impossible to directly achieve Kekkei Genkai fusion.
Hmm... at least not now.
"Really? That's a real shame."
Aizen's initial idea was to see if he could directly fuse the genetic factors of the Kekkei Tōta at the cellular level, and then, through continuous fusion, gradually develop towards the Kekkei Mōra, ultimately using the fused Kekkei Mōra to sublimate his true form.
It seems that this path has been very winding.
However, Aizen would not give up, because the fact that Otsutsuki Kaguya gave birth to Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki, and that both brothers inherited the Kekkei Mōra factor, was enough to prove that this method was possible.
Since it's a possibility, he definitely won't let it go.
Of course, he won't stick to just one direction; he'll pursue both simultaneously. The Kekkei Genkai fusion experiments won't stop, and on the other hand, they'll focus on mastering the Six Paths techniques left behind by Madara.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to gain some inspiration for achieving a Kekkei Mōra from these Six Paths Secret Techniques.
"In that case, let's take our time with the experiments. There's no need to rush. The Third Shinobi World War is nearing its end. Once the battle in Kirigakure is over, the main body will come to join us in the research. Besides, I have some observation records about the Rinnegan and the latest Nagato cells, so our progress will only be faster then."
Meanwhile, the main body is also collecting materials on Kekkei Genkai ninjas. After the war ends, we can compare most of the Kekkei Genkai in the Shinobi World and perhaps find the key to Kekkei Genkai fusion. And don't forget, we have Madara's body tissue on hand. As the reincarnation of Indra, and having awakened the Rinnegan, his cells might bring us even greater surprises.
"We have prepared so much for the path of the Six Paths, and I believe that one day we will surely set foot on it," Aizen said confidently.
They've prepared so much to become the Six Paths, from scheming against the Uchiha to obtain the Eternal Eye, to killing Madara and seizing his legacy, and now they're even lurking around Nagato to obtain the secret of the Rinnegan.
With so much preparation, once they begin serious research, they will surely reap many rewards. After integrating these gains, the secrets of the Six Paths will eventually be revealed to them.
Even if not everything is revealed, as long as we know part of it, there will always be a way to deal with the rest.
Furthermore, even if this method doesn't work, they still have a way out.
That is to become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
It is believed that many years later, the main body and its many clones will only become stronger. At that time, they can secretly collect the Tailed Beast, find an opportunity to seize the Rinnegan, throw the Tailed Beast into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, revive the Ten-Tails, and finally absorb the Ten-Tails to become its Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, thereby breaking through to the Six Paths realm.
However, Kōki had previously considered that this method was rather opportunistic and had many problems, such as the possibility of the Sage of Six Paths interfering, making it impossible to maintain the Six Paths level for long.
Therefore, his fundamental purpose in becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki was to use his perspective after breaking through the Six Paths level to re-examine his own path and fill in any gaps in his knowledge.
Then he voluntarily gave up becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. After the Ten-Tails was re-splitted, he started over using the same method he had previously used.
At that time, achieving the Six Paths will no longer be a problem.
However, these are all just wishful thinking on his part; whether things will actually work out in the future is truly uncertain.
Therefore, the best approach is to explore multiple avenues and try every possible path; eventually, one of them will lead to success.