Inside T33.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
Accompanied by the sharp whistling of breaking wind, ink-colored 'Truth-Seeking Balls' acted like missiles, circling the God Tree and continuously attacking the hill-sized flesh puppets approaching it.
The flesh puppets' ultimate biological armor, capable of withstanding nuclear explosions, offered no resistance in the face of the 'Truth-Seeking Balls' and was instantly pierced through.
This seemingly astonishing scene was actually quite normal.
One must know that the 'Truth-Seeking Balls' are the product of fusing a full seven nature transformations: Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements. Their power level far exceeds 'Particle Style,' which is a 'Kekkei Tōta.'
And 'Particle Style' already possesses the ability to ignore a target's hardness and instantly reduce it to an atomic state.
Therefore, no matter how sturdy the flesh puppets' armor was, as long as they didn't possess the 'Power of the Six Paths,' it would be difficult for them to confront the 'Truth-Seeking Balls' head-on.
On the God Tree.
Shinji, arms crossed and leaning against the trunk, lowered his gaze to observe the battlefield on the ground.
At this moment, within a radius of a dozen miles around the God Tree, the ground was piled high with the bloody corpses of flesh puppets. These corpses were densely packed, layer upon layer. If Alice, Hengo, and the others saw this, they would surely cry out in shock.
As the mastermind behind all this, Shinji felt not a shred of pride.
Those seemingly clumsy flesh puppets below, defenseless against the 'Truth-Seeking Balls,' did not represent the Propagation Hegemon's true power.
Shinji knew very well that the vast majority of the Propagation Hegemon's power was currently blocked outside by 'T33's' spatial barrier. These flesh puppets were just a sliver of power that had seeped in; compared to the Propagation Hegemon's main body, this amount of power wasn't even a drop in the bucket.
Defeating Hegemon creations of this level might make other 'Lampbearers' smug, but for Shinji, who was determined to eliminate the Hegemon, it was merely an appetizer, not worth mentioning.
Therefore, he stopped paying attention to the battle situation below, withdrew his gaze, and began to study the working principle of the God Tree absorbing planetary energy.
Placing his palm on the God Tree, Shinji raised an eyebrow.
He clearly felt every aspect of the God Tree. Even the root system planted over ten thousand meters deep into the ground was perceived clearly by him, as if this God Tree towering between heaven and earth was an extension of his body, a part of his physical form.
"No wonder the range of my Truth-Seeking Balls is so vast..."
He vaguely remembered that in the original timeline, Madara Uchiha's 'Truth-Seeking Balls' had a limited range of activity, roughly around a hundred meters.
This range was more than enough for ordinary ninja combat.
But if the battlefield moved to the sky, or even into interstellar space, a mere hundred meters was simply insufficient.
Yet, when he used the 'Truth-Seeking Balls' on the God Tree, he found his effective control range suddenly extended several kilometers.
Initially, he thought it was because he was stronger than Madara Uchiha. Now that he thought about it, perhaps it was simply because the God Tree was also judged to be part of his body, so his 'Truth-Seeking Balls' could move freely within the area covered by the God Tree.
Gathering his scattered thoughts, Shinji cleared his mind bit by bit, sending his attention down along the veins of the God Tree, sinking into the underground, sinking deeper.
In a short while, his consciousness arrived at the very bottom of the God Tree's roots, seventeen thousand meters underground.
And this wasn't even the limit of the God Tree's root system. He stopped at this depth simply because there was no need to go deeper for the time being; this depth was already sufficient for the God Tree to absorb 'T33's' energy.
Next, Shinji witnessed the process of the God Tree's roots absorbing energy.
Rather than 'energy,' it was more accurate to say 'various forms of matter.' But on second thought, nuclear energy, bio-energy, electrical energy, etc., all require matter to generate, so matter and energy were obviously the same thing in the eyes of the God Tree.
Feeling the developed root system of the God Tree constantly swallowing various substances deep underground, Shinji finally understood why the planets plundered by the Otsutsuki clan all looked barren and dilapidated.
When these substances that could nourish and nurture life were all sucked away, remaining barren was a matter of course.
"So that's how it is..."
After understanding the working principle of the God Tree's roots, Shinji's consciousness moved upward with the matter absorbed by the roots, arriving at the base of the God Tree.
Then, a shocking scene appeared.
All the matter absorbed by the roots was transported into the trunk of the God Tree. Inside the trunk, there was a huge hollow space, like a reaction chamber, performing complex reactions on the matter absorbed by the roots, turning it into chakra.
This chakra would eventually be transported to the top of the God Tree along the meridians in the trunk, stored in the huge stamen at the top, waiting to accumulate a sufficient amount of chakra, and finally bear the 'Chakra Fruit' that all Otsutsuki dreamed of.
After understanding all this, Shinji's expression became even more solemn.
Chakra is the product of combining a ninja's physical energy and spiritual energy; it can be understood as a combination of bio-energy and psionic energy. The fact that the God Tree could convert matter into the purest chakra just by absorbing it was inconceivable just thinking about it.
This was equivalent to the God Tree being a ninja with a great appetite and a huge capacity.
The matter absorbed by the roots was like it eating, and the stamina and energy obtained after digesting this food were all used by it to refine chakra. It then stored this refined chakra in a certain area of its body using a method similar to the 'Yin Seal,' waiting for quantitative change to lead to qualitative change, bearing the final fruit.
"The Otsutsuki clan is truly terrifying!"
The more he understood, the more Shinji felt the terror of the Otsutsuki.
The God Tree they created was almost no different from a Hegemon, except that it couldn't eat the entire world completely clean.
Phew...
After a light sigh, Shinji cast his gaze into the distance.
The 'T33' before him was still lush and green, a world full of life. If given enough time, perhaps a brilliant civilization would have been born here.
But unfortunately, all this was about to be destroyed soon.
Putting aside his emotions, Shinji evaluated the speed at which the God Tree absorbed 'T33's' energy.
Kaguya Otsutsuki guarded the God Tree for a millennium to get a 'Chakra Fruit' because the Ten-Tails she brought to the Ninja World was a juvenile. Just making the Ten-Tails grow required sacrificing an Otsutsuki, which was why Kaguya ambushed her companion Isshiki Otsutsuki and sacrificed his body to the Ten-Tails.
But what Shinji held now was an adult Ten-Tails. Its absorption efficiency far exceeded that of a juvenile Ten-Tails, and it didn't need to spend time developing itself. Therefore, as long as the planetary energy was sufficient, bearing a 'Chakra Fruit' wouldn't take a thousand years at all...