Escaping the Mist Ninja starts with backstabbing your teacher.

Chapter 152 Acquired Curse Seals and Innate Curse Seals!

Izumi's gaze lingered through the glass wall, fixed on the tissue sample that was slowly floating in the nutrient solution.

Jugo's cells, or rather, the part separated from Jugo's body that contains the secrets of the rampage of natural energy.

It floats quietly in the pale green liquid, occasionally tumbling gently with the pulse of the circulatory system, as if it is asleep, or as if it is waiting to be awakened.

He raised his right hand and pressed his palm against the cool glass wall of the culture jar.

I could feel the faint pulsation through the glass on my fingertips; it was the cell activity maintenance system at work.

Beneath this cold, mechanical pulse lies another, more primal, and more elusive fluctuation of natural energy.

There is another way to use Jugo's Sage Chakra more easily.

You don't need to fully understand its essence, nor do you need to go through long periods of meditation and use auxiliary tools like the toad sages who have practiced on Mount Myoboku for many years to feel the energy of nature.

"Cursed Seal————"

Izumi withdrew his hand, muttering the word under his breath.

The curse mark is a natural power of markings that Jugo was born with; those black markings were not carved on later.

Instead, they grew from within him, like the rings of a tree or the stripes of an animal.

Those were the marks left by natural energy within him, his innate talent, and also a curse he could never escape.

Orochimaru's cursed seal is merely a replica, not the original.

The snake painstakingly studied Jugo's cells, eventually creating the Heavenly Curse Seal, the Earthly Curse Seal, and countless secondary curse seals.

They can indeed grant the recipient powerful abilities, and can indeed allow ordinary people to access the realm of Sage Chakra.

But those are all fakes, faded replicas, and can never touch the original's natural essence.

Orochimaru injects natural energy into the recipient's body in the form of a "cursed seal," forcibly activating the recipient's physical potential while also eroding the host's spirit.

In the original storyline, the Heavenly Curse Mark and the Earthly Curse Mark were both results of this research path.

The curse seal itself is also a way to sense Sage Chakra.

The receptor can clearly perceive the violent force from nature the moment the curse is activated.

Of course, before that, most of them couldn't withstand the corrosive force and had already fainted or even gone mad.

This is the nature of the energy that Jugo absorbs; it erodes mental power, causing people to go mad and start berserk.

But Izumikawa wasn't worried about any of that; all he needed was that "moment" of perception.

A single moment is enough, enough for his eyes to capture the flow of natural energy.

It was enough for his consciousness to remember that feeling, enough for him to find direction in his subsequent cultivation.

"Therefore, we also need to put in a lot of effort in researching the curse seals."

Izumi turned away from the culture tank, walked back to the lab bench, and picked up the research data on the cursed seal left by Orochimaru.

The scroll is covered with dense writing, some sections of which have been repeatedly modified, and the ink varies in shade, clearly indicating that Orochimaru left records at different times.

From the initial cell observations to the first successful implantation of the cursed seal into an experimental subject, and then to the classification and effect comparison of different cursed seal types, the records are very detailed.

Orochimaru has already traversed most of this research path.

All he had to do was stand on Orochimaru's shoulder and keep moving forward.

Izumi laid the scroll on the lab bench, took out a pen, and wrote a few lines of annotations in the blank space. The pen tip scratched on the paper, and the handwriting was neat and calm.

The activation mechanism of the curse seal is essentially the forced introduction of natural energy.

The receptors can sense the presence of natural energy at the moment of activation, but this perception is accompanied by great pain and mental shock.

We need to find a gentler approach to guidance that reduces risk while preserving the perceived benefits.

The rampage of natural energy in Jugo's cells stems from a special constitution within him.

Can this physical constitution be replicated through acquired means? If the rampant natural energy can be "tamed," can this rampage be utilized in turn?

The balance point of Sage Chakra lies between spiritual energy, physical energy, and natural energy.

Finding that balance point is key to cultivating immortal arts. The reason why the natural energy in Jugo's cells went berserk was precisely because the balance was broken.

If I could master this balance—

He stopped writing, placed the pen on the table, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

balance!

This term permeates all power systems in the ninja world.

Yin and Yang, body and spirit, nature and man-made.

The balance between the Yang-attribute chakra of Hashirama's cells and the Yin-attribute chakra of the Sharingan maintained the stability of his left Mangekyou Sharingan.

The balance between his Corpse Bone Pulse and Wood Release maintained the stability of his physical body.

Sage Chakra, on the other hand, represents another layer of balance, one that is more delicate and more dangerous.

He needs to find that balance, but he can't rely on the toad oil from Mount Myōboku, nor does he have the guidance of the White Snake Sage.

Instead, he relied on his own hands to explore step by step.

Izumi closed his eyes, and the next experimental plan appeared in his mind.

Research on the cursed seal requires test subjects, and the ideal test subject is himself. He knows his own body intimately, can accurately describe every sensation when the cursed seal is activated, and can detect any abnormalities immediately and stop the process in time.

But the risk was too great, and he didn't want to risk his body until he fully understood the principles of the cursed seal.

Research on cyclophosphamide cells can begin by culturing them and extracting their natural energy residues.

He looked at the cells inside the tank, those tiny clumps floating slowly in the nutrient solution.

It seems that as the culture time goes on, after absorbing enough natural energy, black lines begin to appear on the surface of the cells.

Like a fine spider web, like cracks in parched earth, it outlines natural lines on the transparent cell walls, twisting, entwining, and spreading.

That was the prototype of the curse mark, a trace left by natural energy at the cellular level.

Izumi Kawa stretched out his hand, slowly closed his eyes, his consciousness sank into his body, and his spiritual power, like an invisible tentacle, reached out from between his eyebrows.

The mental energy permeated the tissue sample in the culture vessel. Something in the air seemed to tremble slightly.

The tremor was like ripples on the surface of water after a stone has been thrown in, spreading outwards from his body.

"optimization!"

He spoke in a low voice, which echoed softly in the empty laboratory.

The optimization ability is activated along with the consumption of mental energy, like an invisible hand that wraps around that Chongwu cell and begins to balance the energy within it.

Natural energy, life energy, and chakra are forcibly adjusted under the intervention of spiritual power in an attempt to achieve some kind of balance.

However, natural energy seems to have sensed external interference.

Instead of obediently accepting the adjustment, it retaliated like an enraged beast, retaliating along the threads of spiritual power.

In that instant, Izumi felt a cold and violent force rushing straight to his brow along with his spiritual power.

It felt like a thousand needles piercing his consciousness, as if trying to lure out that malice and unleash its fury.

This power is indeed completely different from ordinary chakra.

Izumi's powerful mental strength demonstrated its value at this moment.

The natural energy absorbed by a mere small piece of Chongwu's cell could not shake his sea of ​​consciousness.

The moment those cold, violent tentacles touched his spiritual core, they were like waves crashing against a reef, forcefully blocked and unable to advance an inch.

He opened his eyes, a slight sneer appearing on his lips.

"You're not afraid of me, yet you dare to fight back?"

He looked at the tissue sample that was still floating quietly in the culture jar, his tone tinged with sarcasm.

"This mere natural energy is truly rampant!"

Even if he has the ability to provide support, he still needs to have a physique strong enough to withstand the backlash; otherwise, it's all just empty talk.

He had always focused on cultivating his mental strength, and at this moment, that value finally became apparent.

Izumi withdrew his hand and moved his somewhat stiff fingers.

Although the experiment was brief, it gave him a more intuitive understanding of the characteristics of natural energy.

It is "aggressive" and resists external interference; it will try to erode those who try to control it.

If one's mental strength is not strong enough, that backlash would have been enough to cause an ordinary ninja to suffer a mental breakdown.

Jugo's rampage is probably not just because the balance was broken.

It was precisely because his spirit could not withstand the backlash of natural energy that he was dominated by that force and lost himself.

"So—" Izumi picked up his pen and added a new annotation to the scroll: "The prerequisite for cultivating immortal arts is not only to find a balance point, but also to have a strong enough mental power to withstand the backlash of natural energy."

He put down his pen and his gaze fell on the culture jar.

The black lines in the tissue sample gradually faded under the suppression of the optimization ability, and the natural energy was forcibly suppressed back into the depths of the cells, temporarily falling into a state of dormancy.

But Izumikawa knew this was only temporary. Natural energy was everywhere, and sooner or later it would gather again and etch those black lines onto the surface of this cell once more.

What he needs to do is design the next experiment before the natural energy reassembles.

He turned around and walked to the other side of the laboratory.

There, rows of sealed scrolls were neatly stacked on the shelves, each scroll marked with a number and date.

He stopped in front of the column marked "Curse Seal," reached out and took out a scroll, slowly unrolling it.

The edges of the scroll were already yellowed, and Orochimaru's handwriting emerged from the ink, carrying the man's unique coldness and precision.

Izumi's gaze slowly swept over the words, his expression calm as still water, with only the occasional flicker in his eyes revealing that he was currently processing this complex information.

One by one, the laboratory lights went out, leaving only a faint blue light at the bottom of the culture jar, like a flickering will-o'-the-wisp in the darkness.

The light outlined a blurry silhouette of Izumi Kawa as he sat quietly at the lab table, like a sculpture lost in thought.

Length of night.