Nine-Tails Chakra and Orochimaru

Twenty minutes later, after disposing of all the corpses, Uchiha Yuan returned to the treetop where he had hidden earlier.

The Shadow Clone had already vanished. The Demonic Statue Fragment that had been hidden in the clone's arms was now wriggling toward the enormous wooden fish covered in a sealing talisman.

But the moment it approached the paper talisman, faint lightning flashed from the air and blasted the Demonic Statue Fragment far away. It then wriggled back again.

After watching this happen several times, Uchiha Yuan chuckled and peeled off the sealing talisman.

A miniature orange fox leaped out of the enormous wooden fish and bared its fangs fiercely at Uchiha Yuan.

But before the little creature could make a move, the Demonic Statue Fragment pounced on it and instantly devoured that mass of Nine-Tails Chakra.

As he stroked the Demonic Statue Fragment sprawled contentedly across the tree trunk, Uchiha Yuan felt a similar sense of fullness.

He sensed that his body was undergoing some wonderful change after consuming the Nine-Tails Chakra.

Instinctively, Uchiha Yuan took out a kunai and cut a wound into his forearm.

More than ten seconds passed, and the wound healed completely.

Excitement flickered in Uchiha Yuan's black eyes. After consuming the Nine-Tails Chakra, his Unmarked Self-Healing had strengthened by more than half.

That was not all. The active chakra throughout his body made Uchiha Yuan feel that if he used the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique and Water Style: Water Severing Wave now, their power would definitely surpass what it had been earlier.

Nine-Tails Chakra could enhance Unmarked Self-Healing and amplify the power of ninjutsu.

More importantly, Uchiha Yuan could vaguely sense several similar masses of chakra moving slowly nearby.

Those were the true source of his earlier hunger.

Nine-Tails Chakra.

"Looks like tonight is a night for hunting..."

Muttering under his breath, Uchiha Yuan quietly vanished into the night.

"Who the hell are you? This monk merely wanted to keep you quiet for the time being. I never intended to kill you, so why did you strike so ruthlessly... Aah!"

"Brothers of the Hidden Mist, don't let that bastard escape! Otherwise, we'll have to bring back our heads as an explanation... Aah!"

"Thank you. You came to help me, didn't you? May this monk know your name... Urgh."

After being strengthened by Nine-Tails Chakra, whether it was the Hidden Grass Ninja or the monks of Fire Temple, Uchiha Yuan dealt with them as easily as chopping vegetables.

Counting the incident before him, this was the fourth conflict between Hidden Grass Ninja and Fire Temple monks that he had settled.

Uchiha Yuan felt that taking a strand of Nine-Tails Chakra as a mediation fee was not excessive at all.

After disposing of the corpses, Uchiha Yuan finally calmed down and examined his condition.

After absorbing five strands of Nine-Tails Chakra, the Demonic Statue Fragment had swollen into a round ball of flesh. Through contact, it continuously transmitted chakra brimming with abnormally powerful vitality into his body.

As the fatigue in his body slowly faded, Uchiha Yuan also tested the changes that had occurred within himself.

His Unmarked Self-Healing was several seconds faster than when he had first obtained Nine-Tails Chakra, barely breaking past the ten-second mark.

But the increase in his ninjutsu's power was extremely obvious.

When he had first dealt with those Hidden Grass genin and young monks, the full-force Bringer-of-Darkness Technique covered only ten meters, while Water Style: Water Severing Wave reached merely several meters.

But as the Demonic Statue Fragment absorbed more and more Nine-Tails Chakra, the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique's range expanded all the way to fifteen meters, and Water Style: Water Severing Wave could accurately blow apart heads from over ten meters away.

Besides that, his resistance to attacks, taijutsu, and chakra absorption ability had all increased to varying degrees.

During the fight with Hidden Grass just now, Uchiha Yuan had carelessly taken a Lightning Release Ninjutsu attack head-on.

Yet the damage from the ninjutsu had not even interrupted his movements. Several minutes had passed by now, and even the wound had healed completely.

When he had first fused with the Golem Genes, ninjutsu damage had taken a full ten-odd minutes to heal.

Nine-Tails Chakra was a treasure!

But the Demonic Statue Fragment was already full. During that time, Uchiha Yuan had also tried absorbing Nine-Tails Chakra himself.

The malice within it had nearly driven him mad and out of control, so Uchiha Yuan abandoned that suicidal endeavor.

After calming down, Uchiha Yuan had two thoughts in mind.

First, how could he further cultivate the Demonic Statue Fragment?

Second, obtain more Nine-Tails Chakra!

Uchiha Yuan knew that after Nine-Tails Night, half of the Yin Nine-Tails and the soul of Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze had been sealed inside the Death God's stomach.

At this moment, the mask representing the Death God was stored in the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple at the edge of the village.

But to obtain Nine-Tails Chakra, he first had to master the solution to Sealing Technique: Dead Demon Consuming Seal. Old Madara's collection of ninjutsu did not contain that sealing technique.

Uchiha Yuan could only consider obtaining that sealing technique from his teacher, Orochimaru, before figuring out the corresponding release method.

Fortunately, as a transmigrator, he did know some details.

As for further cultivating the Demonic Statue Fragment, Uchiha Yuan was not too worried.

Whether Hashirama Cells or Natural Energy provided the energy for growth, Old Madara's research notes contained relevant records.

Uchiha Yuan planned to study them slowly after returning to the village.

For now, after thoroughly destroying the scene as he had done the previous times, Uchiha Yuan hurriedly left.

This rash operation had yielded abundant rewards, but it had also shortened the time he had to reach Fire Temple as scheduled.

As for the remaining strand of Nine-Tails Chakra he could sense, Uchiha Yuan completely gave up on pursuing it.

Half an hour later, two ninja wearing ox-head and horse-head masks appeared in the primeval forest.

They were Grass Fruit, high-ranking members of Kusagakure's war faction, skilled in using restraining ninjutsu.

The deaths of several chunin and more than a dozen genin had made Kusagakure's higher-ups unable to remain idle.

With strength only at the jonin level, they had risked danger to come to the last location where the village's ninja had been before their deaths.

"There aren't even any bodies. Just how ruthless must the one who killed our subordinates have been?!"

After investigating the area for a while, the Kusagakure higher-up in the ox-head mask reached only one conclusion: the attacker acted with extreme efficiency and was undoubtedly a seasoned ninja.

"Do you think this could be a trap? Something the other side deliberately set for us?"

The Grass Fruit higher-up in the horse-head mask still felt lingering fear.

"Hey, Orochimaru, after all this happened, shouldn't you give us an explanation?"

The Grass Fruit higher-up in the ox-head mask shouted into the darkness.

"What explanation do you want? Wasn't our deal that I would provide the information while you intercepted the item?"

"But you failed to provide what I wanted. This transaction failed because of you."

A hoarse, cold, utterly emotionless voice echoed from the darkness. Though they could not see the pale, sickly man, the two Grass Fruit higher-ups could clearly feel an ever-growing chill spreading through their bodies.

"But you promised to help us revive the Box of Ultimate Bliss!"

"Hmph! Come find me to restart this transaction once you obtain the Nine-Tails' chakra."

The cold sensation in the darkness vanished completely. Without waiting for the Grass Fruit higher-ups to agree, Orochimaru had already left.

And the two Grass Fruit higher-ups did not even realize that, while speaking with Orochimaru, one of the Sannin whom they never saw face-to-face, they had not even been able to breathe properly.