Chapter 278: Too Difficult
Once his thoughts were sorted, Li Yao's Wind Release clone fully relaxed and quietly waited for Sasori's success.
At this moment, Sasori was still unaware that he had just walked through the gates of death.
His current state was quite peculiar—somewhere between life and death.
He had no consciousness; his soul was gradually turning into spiritual energy, being absorbed and transformed by the puppet array—as though a soul was being reborn. Success meant life; failure meant erasure.
Thump…
Finally, with the sound of one last heartbeat, Sasori's heart completely turned to ash and vanished, and his soul was fully absorbed by the puppet array as spiritual energy.
"It worked!"
Li Yao's Wind Release clone's expression sharpened. In his soul perception, a flame of chakra emerged in the center of the round hole in the chest. Sasori's soul had fully taken form, turning into a flame of soul energy merged with chakra.
Sasori's current state was exactly the same as when Li Yao's main body fused his soul with chakra—he had now become a unique chakra lifeform.
Though it was unclear whether Sasori could develop the same powerful immunity to genjutsu as Li Yao's main body.
Still, even if he couldn't match Li Yao, it was likely that ordinary genjutsu would no longer work on him.
At this moment, Sasori's soul flame, fused with chakra, was still burning steadily.
Without a continuous supply of chakra, this flame would burn out completely within a few years.
Fortunately, Sasori had already prepared for this.
The puppet core seal engraved around the outer edge of the chest cavity emitted a faint light. Immediately, natural energy from the surroundings began to gather. After being converted by the puppet core seal, it turned into Sasori's chakra and continuously fed into the flame within the cavity.
With the puppet core providing chakra transformed from natural energy, the flame of chakra expanded and solidified, soon losing its flame-like form and becoming a pale blue orb of light.
Li Yao's Wind Release clone could sense a massive quantity of human chakra within it—roughly equivalent to several dozen Kakashis—far beyond the capacity of most Kage-level shinobi.
Li Yao's Wind Release clone smiled. Sasori now looked exactly like a biological version of Iron Man.
"My lord, I did it!"
The humanoid puppet Sasori opened his eyes and shouted in ecstatic excitement. The moment he saw Li Yao's Wind Release clone, he couldn't wait to share his joy.
"Yes, you did," Li Yao's Wind Release clone nodded with a smile.
Sasori spread his arms, lifted his legs, and twisted his body, testing the sensations of his new puppet form. There was no discomfort; he could sense and fully control every screw inside his body.
This complete bodily control was something no ordinary human flesh could ever achieve.
He could feel the chakra orb inside his chest cavity, and how solid and grounded his soul felt now that it was constantly nourished by chakra.
A realization blossomed within him—from now on, his destiny was his own, not heaven's to decide.
From now on, Sasori could forever pursue the eternal art he longed for.
"My lord, did you feel the natural energy just now?"
After a while, once his excitement settled, Sasori looked nervously at Li Yao's Wind Release clone.
"Sigh…" Li Yao's Wind Release clone sighed lightly and shook his head. "No."
"I see…" Sasori didn't know what to say. After a year of research, he fully understood the difficulty of sensing natural energy.
Even at such close range, Li Yao's Wind Release clone couldn't perceive it. That meant there was little hope.
"It's fine," Li Yao's Wind Release clone said with a smile. "I can't use the puppet core, but I'm very interested in your soul replication technique."
"I'll get it for you now." Sasori extended his left hand, and his five fingers suddenly stretched like threads. He opened a cabinet and retrieved a scroll from inside.
He handed the scroll to Li Yao's Wind Release clone. "All the research notes on the soul replication array are in here."
Seeing how Sasori handed over such a core technique without hesitation, Li Yao's Wind Release clone smiled with satisfaction and accepted the scroll. But he didn't read it immediately.
Instead, he glanced around and said, "You have the materials to make a puppet core here, right?"
"Yes, everything's already prepared," Sasori replied with a smile and led Li Yao's Wind Release clone to another long table. On it were all the materials needed to make a puppet core.
"My lord, what are you planning?" Ye Yi panicked when she saw Li Yao's Wind Release clone about to make one himself. She quickly grabbed his arm and looked at him with pleading eyes.
Li Yao's Wind Release clone patted his secretary-wife's hand and said, "Relax. I'm not trying to turn myself into a puppet. I just want to make a puppet core with my own hands to see if I can."
"Really?" asked Ye Yi.
"Really," replied Li Yao's Wind Release clone.
"Alright… I understand." Once she received his confirmation, Ye Yi finally let go of his hand.
The materials for the puppet core were all special chakra metals, with the best storage and conduction properties for chakra.
The puppet core couldn't be made as a single unit—or rather, it must not be. It had to be assembled from rectangular blocks using precise puppet techniques.
After assembly, the structure had to be disassembled again so that each rectangular block could have part of the puppet core seal engraved onto it.
This had to be done in parts, because all six faces of each block needed to have the appropriate puppet core seal markings.
Only then could the blocks be reassembled into shape and the structure activated to form the final puppet core.
The hardest part of this process was how to divide the puppet core seal among the blocks while still ensuring that the seals on the individual blocks formed a cohesive whole.
Even with Li Yao's Wind Release clone's superb chakra control, this step was difficult.
As he engraved the puppet core seal, Sasori stood beside him offering guidance.
Li Yao's Wind Release clone already fully understood the puppet core seal and had studied the large core in the main hall.
In theory, all he had to do was engrave it at a smaller scale.
But that didn't work.
Each puppet core seal engraving was unique, because the chakra metal blocks could never be exactly the same.
Thus, every seal had to be engraved based on the specific characteristics of the individual block, ensuring that together they formed a cohesive unit.
This introduced tiny variations in the engraving patterns.
These small differences affected the entire layout of the blocks.
To put it simply, the number of blocks needed to make a puppet core could vary—or could be the same.
But even with the same number of blocks, the arrangement would differ.
The three puppet cores Sasori had made all had different internal layouts, and the positions of the completed seal engravings were also different.
Think of it like sticking a painting onto a spherical surface—there are countless ways to align it. It may look the same, but the spatial orientation is completely different.
Three hours later…
After failing fifty-two times, Li Yao's Wind Release clone finally managed to create a puppet core.
Of course, since he couldn't sense natural energy, the core was just an empty shell.
Whether it was usable would depend on whether Sasori could activate the puppet core seal using his chakra as a catalyst.
Sasori immediately infused his chakra into the puppet core. In an instant, the entire core lit up.
Even without sensing natural energy, Li Yao's Wind Release clone could feel energy being absorbed by the core.
Within minutes, the puppet core looked just like the massive one in the main hall, with Sasori's chakra condensed inside.
"It worked!"
Li Yao's Wind Release clone picked up the core to examine it.
Not easy at all.
Li Yao's Wind Release clone sighed.
Indeed, no truly powerful ninjutsu technique could be mastered easily.
(END CHAPTER)
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