Chapter 396: Mōryō
Based on the Yin Release stages that Katsumata had previously summarized, all three of them were at the second stage. After these few days of research, all three had made a certain degree of improvement in their Yin Release.
The sheer volume of Ishiro's spiritual power already surpassed that of most Kage-level shinobi, so he had made the most progress during the research process. Ishiro had a feeling that he was about to reach the third stage. At this point, if Ishiro was willing to calm down and spend time learning the Spirit Transformation Technique, he could reach the third stage even if it was just through grinding.
However, Ishiro's time was always in short supply. He felt he couldn't afford to waste too much time on a training path like Yin Release, which was unrelated to his main quest.
After a day of rest, Ishiro said to Miroku, "Lady Priestess, I plan to appropriately undo a part of the seal, then launch an attack on the Mōryō within to first weaken its power."
Miroku was surprised. She had thought that Ishiro had finished his research and was preparing to seal Mōryō. She hadn't expected that not only was he not planning to seal it, but he was actually going to help Mōryō widen the breach in its seal.
Ishiro explained, "According to our research, this seal cast by you Priestesses is very magical. As long as we protect the seals at these few key positions, even if the others are undone, it will be very difficult for Mōryō to escape for a while."
"It's just that at that time, Mōryō will have the ability to attack us. But similarly, we can also attack Mōryō."
"Mōryō is a spiritual body. It's not easy for normal attacks to harm it, and it's even more difficult to directly obliterate it. But I can try to weaken it."
"After I have weakened Mōryō to a certain extent, as the Priestess, you can then judge whether to continue sealing it or to fuse it into yourself."
Miroku's body trembled. "Fuse with Mōryō?" she said in disbelief.
Ishiro nodded. "That's right, fuse with Mōryō. To make it disappear completely, there are only two ways. The first is to have supreme mastery of the soul and directly obliterate it. The second is for a Priestess of the same origin to devour it."
"Actually, the main reason Mōryō was able to become so terrifying is because it has been continuously fusing with your Priestesses, generation after generation."
"When the successive Priestesses sealed Mōryō, they all used all their power, including their own lives. A part of this power should have been absorbed by Mōryō, which is why it has become stronger and stronger."
Miroku was shocked. This was a speculation that a previous Priestess, her mother, had also once mentioned.
Ishiro said, "It can be seen from those documents that it was not difficult for you Priestesses to seal Mōryō in the past, and the seal could be maintained for a very long time."
"But the last few times, the duration of the seal has become shorter and shorter. If you also use your life to seal Mōryō like the previous Priestess, then the next time it breaks the seal, little Shion may not have even grown up yet."
Miroku looked at her daughter, who was not far away, crawling around on a carpet and playing happily with Little Saiken and Little Chōmei. She felt a wave of panic.
Then she hurriedly said, "Lord Tsuchikage, I will listen to you. I will do whatever you ask."
Ishiro drew the seal on a piece of paper. "Here, here, and here. These places must be kept. These are the keys to this seal. And these places, their function is unknown, so we need to be careful. The remaining places can all be released."
"We'll take it step by step. Mōryō probably won't just wait for us to prepare and then go in to attack it. It might attack us midway, so try to stay as far away as possible."
"Mm," Miroku nodded forcefully, then asked, "When do we start?"
Ishiro looked up at the mountain and said in a strange tone, "Let's wait a moment. I still have some preparatory work to do."
After speaking, Ishiro signaled for everyone to leave the cave and move far away from the valley. After only he was left in the cave, he directly entered his Six-Tails Chakra Mode and began to use a large-scale Earth Release jutsu.
Through a combination of A-rank Earth Release and the Super Light-Weight Rock Technique, Ishiro directly moved the mountain where the cave sealing Mōryō was located. He had directly exposed the seal imprisoning Mōryō to the sunlight.
After doing all this, Ishiro flew to the others who were far from the seal and said to the dumbfounded Miroku, "Lady Priestess, we can begin."
Miroku nodded dazedly, only coming back to her senses after a long while. She handed the little Shion in her arms to Megumi's care, then walked back to the seal and began to undo it bit by bit.
At first, there was no movement from under the seal. But when Miroku had released half of it, the Mōryō underground could no longer hold back. It let out a huge roar, then extended countless tentacles, stabbing towards Miroku like lightning.
Fortunately, Ishiro was well-prepared. His Mind's Eye had long been at maximum range. As soon as he detected the movement below, he grabbed Miroku and rushed into the sky using the Light-Weight Rock Technique.
Mōryō, having missed its target, was unwilling to give up. It continuously extended its tentacles, trying to reach Miroku in mid-air. Soon, the location where the cave had been was filled with Mōryō's body.
At the same time, Mōryō's sinister and terrifying voice clearly entered Ishiro's ears: "Priestess, you won't be able to seal me again this time! The day I break the seal will be the day the ninja world is destroyed! Hahahahahaha!"
Looking at the dense mass of tentacles below, covering a range of several hundred meters, Ishiro revealed a cold smile.
"Finally out," Ishiro created a porcelain clone to take care of Miroku, while his main body took the starting stance for Light Release. Then, with a low shout, "Light Release: Primordial World Stripping Technique!"
Boom~~
Mōryō either didn't expect anyone to be able to harm it, or its senses were limited by the seal; it didn't detect Ishiro's attack at all. The Light Release hit the countless tentacles extending from the seal without any issue, instantly vaporizing a large patch of them.
Mōryō immediately retracted all its tentacles at the fastest speed, leaving only some that had been separated from the main body by the blast, still twitching instinctively on the ground.
At the same time, Mōryō also let out a piercing roar. The sound carried a powerful soul shock, which spread out in all directions with the seal as its center.
Fortunately, the two of them were far away, and the soul shock had weakened a lot by the time it reached them.
As a Priestess, Miroku was naturally not afraid of this kind of soul attack. The Priestess's power around her body just lit up for a moment, and Mōryō's attack was blocked. Ishiro's spiritual strength was already very high, so he was only dazed for a moment before returning to normal. However, his porcelain clone was directly dispersed by this soul shock.
Ishiro grabbed the falling Miroku, somewhat surprised.
He hadn't expected the porcelain clone to be destroyed by a wave of soul shock just like that. One had to know that the porcelain clone had no soul and should normally be immune to soul attacks. The fact that Mōryō's soul attack could disperse it meant that its Yin Release level, according to Katsumata's classification, might be close to the fourth stage.
The four stages in Katsumata's Yin Release theory were:
Stage 1: Mobilize spiritual power.
Stage 2: Perceive the existence of the soul.
Stage 3: Use the soul to directly attack and kill the enemy's soul.
Stage 4: The soul exists independently of the body.
Even at the third stage, it was only using a soul to attack a soul. To achieve a soul attacking a physical entity, according to Ishiro's understanding, required the fourth stage. And the fourth stage was the level of Black Zetsu, or rather, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. This was a bit scary.
However, the soul attack just now didn't have a great impact on his main body, which meant Mōryō had not yet truly reached that level.
At this time, the explosion below had ended, and Mōryō had retreated back underground. Ishiro could only see the half-undone seal and some of the broken tentacles on it; he could no longer see any part of Mōryō's body. Clearly, Mōryō had been hurt quite badly by this one blast of Light Release and no longer dared to show its head so easily.
This was not good. If Mōryō didn't come out, he didn't dare to go in either. If he were to take a few of those soul shocks at close range, Ishiro felt he wouldn't be able to take it.
As if seeing Ishiro's difficulty, Miroku handed him a bell. "Lord Tsuchikage, this contains the power of the Priestess. It can ignore the kind of attack Mōryō just used."
Ishiro's eyes lit up. Wasn't this the bell that Miroku had left for Shion in the original story, which Shion had then lent to Naruto?
Taking the bell, Ishiro brought Miroku to where Megumi and the others were. He first entered Sage Mode, then flew into the breach in the Priestess's seal alone. With Miroku's unsealing and the recent蹂躏 by Mōryō and Ishiro, the seal was now completely open enough for him to enter and exit.
After entering, Ishiro immediately used Sage Art: Porcelain Release.
Countless streams of porcelain mud spread out from him as the center, scouting the surroundings. Soon, Ishiro discovered Mōryō's location. It was simply too huge, bigger than the complete Nine-Tails he had ever seen.
Mōryō also discovered his intrusion at the same time and immediately extended its tentacles to attack.
Ishiro controlled the countless streams of mud to meet the attacking tentacles head-on. The mud would sometimes transform into hard rock to block the attacks, sometimes into sharp weapons like kunai to attack Mōryō's main body, and sometimes into flowing mud to bypass its blockade and continuously approach it.
Mōryō was also not careless. While using its tentacles for both offense and defense, it also frequently used soul attacks on Ishiro. Fortunately, Ishiro had the bell from Miroku for protection. A layer of white light always surrounded his body, resisting Mōryō's attacks, rendering its most potent weapon useless against him.
Both sides were capable of 360-degree, no-blind-spot attacks and defense. For a time, they were evenly matched, in a stalemate.
"Who are you?! You are not the Priestess! The Priestess's attack methods are not like this! How do you have the power of the Priestess?" Mōryō's shocked and angry voice continuously came through.
"Human, pledge your allegiance to me, and I can give you eternal life! I will give you the opportunity to command my army of the undead!"
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