Upon seeing the towering God Tree piercing straight into the clouds before him, Owl was stunned at first. Then, various rumors about the God Tree resurfaced in his mind, and his heart trembled. "Could this be the legendary God Tree?"
Shinji said indifferently, "Follow me!"
"Yes, yes!"
Owl bowed and scraped, following Shinji as they flew to the top of the God Tree.
Reaching the top of the God Tree and seeing the flower bud rising and falling like a beating heart, Owl felt immense curiosity and couldn't help but ask, "My Lord, what is this?"
Shinji stood aside and said calmly, "Go closer and take a look, then you'll know!"
Owl couldn't hold back. Taking two steps in one, he walked towards the flower bud.
The reason he appeared so eager was that although his intuition told him this flower bud was very dangerous, it also told him it was an incredibly precious treasure. That was why he couldn't resist going forward to investigate.
Just as Owl arrived in front of the flower bud and leaned his head forward to peek inside, the bud suddenly opened and swallowed him whole.
"Damn it!"
Owl struggled desperately.
Although he had lost the Shinjutsu 'Conversion' and his chakra was greatly damaged due to 'Karma', he was still a 'Six Paths Level' combatant after all, so the God Tree's flower bud couldn't swallow him in one gulp.
But the God Tree was transformed from the Ten-Tails after all, and could borrow power from Shinji, the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. So the flower bud quickly gained the upper hand.
Seeing that he was about to be swallowed by the bud, Owl hurriedly shouted to Shinji, "My Lord, save me quickly!"
Shinji took a step and walked over.
Seeing Shinji approaching, Owl was overjoyed. "My Lord, come quickly! I can't hold on much longer! This damn flower bud, once I get free, I must eradicate it..."
Swish...
Before Owl could finish speaking, Shinji swung out a black rod, piercing Owl's chest.
"You..."
With a face full of astonishment, Owl was completely swallowed by the flower bud.
Shinji turned and went to the edge of the God Tree's top, sat down slowly, gazing into the distance while waiting for the third 'Chakra Fruit' to be nurtured.
Having the experience of consuming two 'Chakra Fruits' before, Shinji was much calmer now while nurturing the 'Chakra Fruit'.
Time passed bit by bit.
Night soon fell, and stars filled the night sky.
Just then, a refreshing fragrance wafted from behind Shinji. He sniffed lightly, then got up and went to the flower bud.
At this moment, the flower bud nurturing the 'Chakra Fruit' was already glowing with a soft halo. At the top of the God Tree piercing into the clouds, this glowing halo was like a star embellishing the night curtain!
Standing before this 'star', a look of joy appeared on Shinji's face.
He thought that with the experience of consuming two 'Chakra Fruits', he wouldn't be too excited facing the third one. But when the 'Chakra Fruit' was truly about to appear, he still couldn't help his heart beating faster.
Swish...
Before long, the glowing flower bud bloomed completely, revealing the dazzling 'Chakra Fruit' within.
Shinji reached out, steadily grabbed the 'Chakra Fruit' in the bud, stared at it intently for a while, and finally, without further ado, swallowed it in one gulp.
"The third one!"
Shinji whispered while absorbing the incomparably surging and terrifying chakra from the 'Chakra Fruit'.
Perhaps because Shinji had already reached a certain level, this time consuming the 'Chakra Fruit', he didn't feel the intense fullness or even swelling sensation like the previous two times. He appeared more at ease than before.
A moment later, Shinji sighed with emotion, "Worthy of being a 'Chakra Fruit'. Such an improvement is truly addictive!"
Although he had already reached the level of 'Kekkei Mora', same as the Progenitor of Chakra, Kaguya Otsutsuki, Shinji's strength hadn't stood still during this period. Instead, it steadily improved step by step.
For example, using 'Susanoo Tomoshibi' to control new eyes and obtain new dojutsu. Or researching Shinjutsu, browsing the river of time, and so on. These improvements were already very considerable, even exaggerated, at the 'Kekkei Mora' level. But compared to consuming a 'Chakra Fruit', it was clearly not enough.
The feeling of consuming a 'Chakra Fruit' wasn't like improvement, but more like some kind of awakening, or rebirth. So its improvement often focused more on quality rather than quantity. It's just that due to the improvement in quality, a huge quantitative change would naturally occur, so the previous two times consuming 'Chakra Fruits', Shinji felt stuffed by the massive amount of chakra.
And this time, with the improvement of his strength realm, he finally felt the essence of the 'Chakra Fruit', so he opened his arms and enjoyed this rebirth!
A week passed. The Research Institute completed various preliminary preparations and was intensively preparing for a new round of rituals.
Owl, who should have caused a reign of terror in the Shinobi World, disappeared silently just like that. Everyone tacitly chose to ignore it, as if such a 'Six Paths Level' powerhouse possessing Shinjutsu had never appeared in the Shinobi World.
While the Research Institute steadily advanced the new round of rituals, privately, Orochimaru also completed all preparatory work and prepared for his ritual.
On an island in the far east of the Shinobi World.
In a clearing at the heart of the island, Yakushi Kabuto was setting up the ritual site alone.
As the ritual process was optimized again and again by the Research Institute, the success rate of the ritual not only steadily improved but the required threshold was also lowered significantly.
For example, regarding borrowing the power of celestial phenomena. According to Hiruko's initial idea, the power of celestial phenomena was the key to determining the success of the ritual. But as the Research Institute broke through several important technologies, especially some related to suppressing 'Chimera' buds, the proportion of celestial power in the entire ritual plummeted.
Now, as long as there is celestial assistance, the ritual can proceed. There is no need to specially wait for some rare astrological phenomenon that occurs once in decades.
Swish...
At this time, accompanied by the sound of breaking wind, Orochimaru descended from the sky and landed at the ritual site.
Kabuto hurriedly bowed, "Lord Orochimaru!"
Glancing at the ritual site set up by Kabuto, Orochimaru nodded with satisfaction, "Kabuto, good work!"
Setting up the ritual site was not as easy as imagined. In the Research Institute's rituals, at least three teams with a dozen people needed to participate, and each was an experienced researcher.
That Kabuto could complete the setup of the ritual site single-handedly showed that his ability far exceeded that of ordinary researchers in the Institute.
Kabuto pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, "The ritual site is set up. We only need to wait for the celestial phenomenon to appear to start the ritual!"
Orochimaru nodded, "Very good. Let Gen'yūmaru start preparing!"