Chapter 105: Testing
"Hmm, is there a gap in the seal?"
Within the sealed space, the Nine-Tails abruptly opened its eyes, surprise flashing across its gaze. Without hesitation, it pushed its chakra outward.
In an instant, a surge of violent chakra coursed through Baishi's body, manifesting externally as a dark red Tailed Beast Cloak.
Feeling the oppressive malice radiating from the chakra, Baishi let out a cold snort, activating his Mental Resistance at full strength to maintain his clarity of mind.
However, as more and more chakra leaked out, the number of tails in the Tailed Beast Cloak steadily increased. One, two, three... In just a few breaths, five tails appeared behind him.
"Not good..."
Baishi groaned, muttering under his breath, "Looks like my current limit is five tails."
At this point, his pupils began to shift subtly. It was clear that the malicious intent imbued in the Nine-Tails' chakra was starting to affect his psyche.
Suppressing the rising tide of madness in his thoughts, Baishi quickly formed a series of hand seals. Pressing his palm to his abdomen, he twisted his hand, sealing the Eight Trigrams Seal shut once more.
"Ahhh!"
As the seal closed, the Nine-Tails let out a roar of utter frustration.
Baishi gasped for breath, sweat dripping from his face to the ground.
After a moment of rest, he cursed under his breath, "Damn it, had to pull one last trick on me, huh?"
The Nine-Tails had launched a fierce mental assault just as the seal was closing, a cunning and dangerous move.
Any ordinary person might have succumbed to madness in that critical moment.
After resting and regaining his composure, Baishi once again tore open the Eight Trigrams Seal.
As expected, the Nine-Tails' chakra leaked out once more, forming a Tailed Beast Cloak around his body.
This time, however, Baishi intentionally left the gap in the seal smaller. As a result, the accumulation of tails in the cloak was slower.
"Hmm, I can sustain this for about ten minutes."
He estimated the time, realizing that after ten minutes, the cloak would reach five tails, his current limit.
Though this was still limited, it was a vast improvement over the few fleeting seconds from before. Within this duration, he could accomplish a lot.
Focusing his mind, Baishi allowed his Energy Absorbing Skin to fully activate, beginning to absorb the Tailed Beast Chakra surrounding him.
A heavy sensation washed over him.
Compared to ordinary chakra, the quality of Tailed Beast Chakra was undoubtedly much higher. The only comparable energy was Sage Chakra.
Unfortunately, his brief encounter with Jiraiya had yielded too little Sage Chakra for him to form a solid understanding of it.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Baishi concentrated on studying the Tailed Beast Chakra that his body was absorbing.
Through his Energy Absorbing Skin, the violent and oppressive energy of the Nine-Tails' chakra was rapidly converted into his own.
Unlike normal chakra, the transformation efficiency was significantly higher.
In no time, Baishi's depleted chakra reserves were replenished.
"Ha ha ha!"
Realizing this, Baishi couldn't help but laugh. "This was definitely worth it!"
With this discovery, he knew that, for the foreseeable future, chakra shortages would no longer be a concern.
"Now, time to test the effects of evolution. Hmm, what should I evolve first?"
Baishi glanced at his system panel, quickly locking onto Skin Reinforcement under the "Special Enhancements" category.
Looking at his hand, where his skin was being corroded by the Tailed Beast Chakra, he murmured, "Let's start with you."
At present, his Skin Reinforcement was at Level IV, primarily enhancing resistance to physical attacks. However, it was clear that this reinforcement was insufficient against the corrosive nature of Tailed Beast Chakra.
Initially, Baishi had planned to rely on his Energy Absorbing Skin to handle such attacks, but he realized that this might not be the best approach.
As the name suggested, Energy Absorbing Skin should focus on absorbing and converting energy, while resistance could be handled by Skin Reinforcement.
This division of labor would allow each ability to perform its function optimally, creating a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts.
With this decision, Baishi quickly set his evolution target and parameters, initiating a trial evolution.
A vast amount of chakra was siphoned into the system.
Then, an incredibly pure, cooling energy—the Source of Evolution—began to flow toward his skin.
"Here we go..."
As Baishi watched the progress bar for Skin Reinforcement steadily climb, his excitement grew.
"This is way faster than using a buff to accelerate evolution!"
Normally, acceleration buffs increased evolution speed by 30-50%, depending on conditions. But now, his evolution speed had doubled.
And this wasn't even the limit; the speed could still increase.
The only constraint was maintaining balance within his body.
Currently, his Energy Absorbing Skin was converting the Nine-Tails' chakra into usable energy at a rate perfectly matched to the system's consumption.
If he wanted to push the limits further, he would need to upgrade Energy Absorbing Skin to process chakra even faster.
Fortunately, with the Nine-Tails serving as an enormous energy source, improving Energy Absorbing Skin would not be difficult.
As its efficiency increased, so too would the ceiling on his evolution speed.
With this, Baishi's abilities were poised for exponential growth.
"Haha!"
As he fantasized about the future, Baishi's expression suddenly shifted.
The Tailed Beast Cloak, which had manifested three tails around him, began to shrink.
"What's going on?"
He initially assumed that the seal gap was too narrow, limiting the chakra flow. So, he widened the opening.
But even then, no additional chakra emerged.
Realization dawned on Baishi. Closing his eyes, he projected his consciousness into the sealed space.
Inside, the Nine-Tails lay quietly within its cage.
"So, that's your game," Baishi muttered.
The Nine-Tails had seemingly given up its attempts to escape. Despite the widened seal gap, it made no effort to push its chakra outward.
Clearly, it had noticed that Baishi was using its chakra for his own benefit. Unable to influence his mind, the beast had decided to cut him off.
For most jinchūriki, this might have been a cause for celebration. But Baishi felt far from relieved.
After all, he still needed the Nine-Tails' chakra to train...
(End of Chapter)
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