A secret technique of Earth Grudge Fear's caliber, no matter what price it's sold for, would be considered a massive clearance sale—because under normal circumstances, it's 100% not for sale.
So when Gorō Fūma started hawking it, the attraction it had for other ninja was comparable to shouting "free eggs and rice" in a neighborhood park.
Grandpas and grandmas from miles around—anyone who heard it had no reason not to come over.
Moreover, different positions lead to different perspectives on problems. When Yūshin told Gorō Fūma that transplanting Earth Grudge Fear tendrils could cultivate "Cursed Grudge Fear" powerhouses, the latter naturally chose to believe.
Even if the success rate wasn't high, that was just a matter of luck and probability.
So when Gorō Fūma laid out his "business principles," that ninja was completely swayed—he faced a "two thousand yuan internet café" situation.
The conditions Gorō Fūma offered were too generous: only charge upon success, and if it failed, the buyer's cost would be nothing more than a few dead people.
This ninja wasn't a fool either. He quickly understood that the Fūma Clan leader before him must have obtained this secret technique by chance. Powerful as it was, it was currently just a semi-finished product.
Precisely because assistance was needed, this leader offered such conditions.
On the surface, this was selling a secret technique, but in reality, they were looking for people to help complete the technique's development.
The bargain wasn't without cost—the cost was providing test subjects for the Fūma Clan.
But this made perfect sense. Otherwise, if the Fūma Clan could easily mass-produce secret technique powerhouses, how could they possibly show it to others?
Precisely because it was a dangerous semi-finished product, it wasn't a precious non-sellable item.
Would this ninja, whose original purpose was just to purchase ninja tools, refuse such conditions?
Of course not.
Although the current situation couldn't be called a free lunch, it wasn't far from it.
But just as the Fūma Clan wouldn't directly use their own people for experiments, this ninja felt the same way.
There were plenty of ninja anyway. As long as they weren't your own people, it didn't matter how many died... Not only would it not hurt, it might even feel satisfying.
So the actual transaction was this: the buyer provides test subjects for the Fūma Clan, then shares certain experimental results.
Thinking about it this way, this matter indeed had great potential.
"Can I see a sample of the secret technique transplant?"
With his mind already somewhat decided, this ninja wanted final confirmation of the matter's authenticity.
"Of course, please wait a moment."
Gorō Fūma agreed and left for a short while. When he returned, he held a glass vessel in his hand.
"Please look, this is a transplant sample of the Cursed Grudge Fear secret technique. It's very rare, so it's for display only."
As he spoke, he generously handed the glass vessel to the other party.
This potential cooperation partner looked at the long cylindrical glass tube in his hand—about thumb thickness, sealed at the bottom and open at the top, with a small white stem resting at the bottom of the glass tube.
A flesh bud grew from the stem, and white "threads" like hair emerged from the flesh bud. These threads were extraordinarily long, coiling round and round against the inner walls of the glass tube.
This scene matched some features described in the booklet perfectly.
More importantly, even through a layer of glass, this ninja could feel the tenacious vitality and some kind of hair-raising corrosiveness within.
He felt his scalp tingle. Looking at those thread-like living things, this person even unconsciously reached up to touch his own neck.
This thing was definitely not simple... After witnessing the real object, his last doubts were dispelled.
"You've shown your sincerity. I think we can try cooperating."
He agreed immediately, then reluctantly returned the "sample" to Gorō Fūma.
The situation was urgent—he worried that if he missed this village, there wouldn't be this shop, so with his mere "procurement supervisor" status, he made decisions for his side's top leadership.
"That's wonderful."
Gorō Fūma took back the sample. He noticed the other party's expression, so half-jokingly, half-seriously said:
"Although the sample is precious, if you want a transplant, we can provide help immediately... As you said, this is our 'sincerity.'"
This made the honored guest shake his head like an electric fan.
He decisively refused because he didn't want to die. Sincerity? This was the most malicious idea.
Don't look at how polite Gorō Fūma seemed—many of his ideas carried the common characteristics of this era, like "if you're not one of us, you're not human."
Both sides agreed on some transaction details, then parted ways happily.
...
Five days later, Yūshin and Gorō Fūma arrived at a remote village.
Both were familiar with this place because this village was exactly where they had stayed when they first came to Kikyō Castle's sphere of influence.
Yūshin wore a long white coat and a mask on his face, quietly waiting here.
Gorō Fūma stood behind him, carrying a black box.
The reason for choosing this place rather than Kikyō Castle for the transaction and experiment location was that Yūshin didn't want to disturb the people—he had already sensed that some rather noisy events might occur next.
Before long, their trading partner arrived as promised.
Led by the ninja they had met before, five clan ninja followed behind him, and these five ninja controlled another twenty prisoners.
This group clearly divided into three tiers, and Yūshin could tell at a glance which people would become the unlucky ones.
"Do you think they'll directly choose zero-dollar shopping?" Seeing the other party, Yūshin turned to ask Gorō Fūma beside him.
The other side had six people in apparent combat strength, and if they planted agents among the "prisoners" or "slaves," they would be sufficient to form a siege against Yūshin and Gorō Fūma.
Many against few—it seemed quite worth trying.
Gorō Fūma understood what zero-dollar shopping meant, but he shook his head and said with certainty: "Not very likely."
The so-called "no rabbit, no hawk"—without seeing any results first, as long as the other party had any brains, they wouldn't act blindly.
Yūshin actually thought the same way. He felt it was somewhat regrettable—if the other party directly launched a robbery operation, he could obtain a batch of experimental materials for free. Why would he need any troublesome transactions?
The return rate of doing business really wasn't as good as robbery—this statement could be called truth.
After a short while, the other party came before Yūshin and Gorō Fūma.
"I haven't introduced myself yet—you can call me Guemon." The ninja who had once been to Kikyō Castle introduced himself.
This name didn't sound real, but Gorō Fūma didn't have the option of using a false identity, because this transaction was conducted in the Fūma Clan's name from the start.
"Gorō Fūma." He somewhat reluctantly gave his name.
Then Guemon's gaze shifted to Yūshin.
Yūshin cleared his throat and said: "I am Takuque."
Of course you need to wear a disguise when doing bad things. Looking at Yūshin's outfit today, you could tell he was cosplaying as a miracle doctor.
The miracle doctor looked at those "experimental materials" and found that some were controlled by genjutsu while others were controlled by binding techniques.
He secretly shook his head, feeling these weren't materials but consumables.
Although their methods of controlling prisoners weren't very sophisticated—genjutsu and binding techniques were common goods that could be easily broken—the ninja serving as test subjects were pitifully weak in strength.
Using low-end methods to control people with severely insufficient strength could be considered making the best use of resources.
"Where's the payment?" Gorō Fūma asked Guemon directly.
Guemon took a box handed over by a subordinate. Opening it revealed neatly arranged oval, flat gold coins.
Then he pulled out a scroll from his chest: "This records some basic medical ninjutsu and their cultivation methods."
After that, he put the scroll in the box, locked it, and handed it to Gorō Fūma.
This didn't mean ownership transfer. According to prior agreement, Gorō Fūma was now just temporarily keeping this box. If the experiment succeeded, he would naturally receive payment; if it failed, the box would be returned to the other party.
"Let's begin, one by one."
"You should prepare yourself mentally—I feel it will be hard to achieve any results this time because these people are too weak."
Gorō Fūma said to Guemon. What Yūshin could see naturally couldn't escape his eyes either.
Never mind chakra intensity—these people's physiques looked very weak, basically impossible to withstand the coming erosion.
Guemon nodded without saying much.
Currently, the people he brought were just for "testing the waters," so he had a clear understanding of the experimental results.
"May I observe closely?" he asked.
"Of course." Gorō Fūma immediately agreed.
Joking aside, did the other party expect to see some high-tech operations from him?
Yūshin and Gorō Fūma entered a nearby house, with Guemon following closely behind with the first unlucky victim.
After the dazed experimental subject sat in a chair, Gorō Fūma, at Yūshin's signal, directly cut a wound on the other party's arm, then carefully extracted a flesh bud from the handheld box.
"Be careful, don't get your own arm involved." Yūshin casually reminded Gorō Fūma.
This made Gorō Fūma's nerves immediately tense up. He didn't know why, but he always felt Yūshin particularly enjoyed putting pressure on him.
After extracting the flesh bud, he planted it in the experimental subject's wound.
Then he pressed one hand on the "graft" location, guiding the remaining chakra in the flesh bud to stimulate its own growth—this was the most technically demanding step in the entire process.
Gorō Fūma naturally couldn't do such a thing himself, but Yūshin had already given him some of his chakra beforehand. Using Yūshin's chakra, he urged the flesh bud to grow outward rather than reversely eroding the experimental subject.
What happened next was simple. After the "seed" exhausted its own nutrients, it would then root downward, seeking to absorb nutrients from the soil.
The flesh bud began burrowing into the experimental subject's flesh at a visible speed, drawing on his chakra.
White "threads" began growing wildly out of control. Just a few minutes later, the flesh bud started proliferating.
Agonized screams echoed through the deserted village.
The flesh bud's erosion was too fast. The experimental subject had no resistance whatsoever—not only failing to control the transplant, but directly becoming its nourishment.
"Let's switch people."
Yūshin sighed and reminded Gorō Fūma to help end this person's life.
"This... Dr. Takuque, you truly have a healer's compassionate heart." Guemon spoke up.
Whether he was praising Yūshin or mocking his hypocrisy was unclear.
Yūshin was displaying "seeing life, unable to bear seeing death"—he felt somewhat compassionate, but calling it hypocrisy wouldn't be wrong either.
His initial thought was "if not a good minister, then a good doctor," but after the experiment began and quickly failed, his thinking had changed to "medicine cannot save the shinobi world."
Yūshin could never become a cold-blooded scientist like Orochimaru because he wasn't good at treating human lives as expendable.
Seeing Gorō Fūma adapt well to this work, and knowing no results could be achieved here in the short term, he turned and left this slaughterhouse.
Sure enough, the second experimental subject soon met the same fate as the first.
In just two days, the "consumables" were completely used up, with not a single successful experiment.
Guemon didn't feel disappointed. In fact, after witnessing the erosiveness of "Cursed Grudge Fear," he had already left early to look for new consumables.
He saw it very clearly—the more difficult the process, the more brilliant the eventual results would be.
Yūshin didn't stay here the whole time. His organization had just taken root in Kikyō Castle, and there were many trivial matters requiring his attention, so Gorō Fūma gradually became the experiment's main conductor.
The experiment stalled for about two weeks. Two weeks later, Yūshin heard good news... Gorō Fūma had finally found a suitable experimental subject.
The other party had withstood the flesh bud's erosion and begun controlling this power.
Yūshin didn't ask how many people had died specifically, but according to Gorō Fūma, the current experimental success rate was around 0.011... just like the gold drop rate in a gacha game.
So after paying such a price to achieve this single successful result, what was Guemon's mood as the cooperation partner?
Regret? Feeling like he'd boarded a pirate ship?
No, no—quite the opposite. The moment success was achieved, he nearly jumped three feet high, unable to stop praising Gorō Fūma:
"Doctor, your miraculous healing hands, Doctor!"
...
Yūshin only cared about results and didn't much care about the specific process, so after hearing this good news, he actually felt the experiment had gone unexpectedly smoothly.
This feeling was exactly opposite to Gorō Fūma, who had been silently contributing and working himself like a dog. He had once doubted whether the experiment could possibly succeed at all—it had been exhausting both mentally and physically from start to finish.
No helping it—this was the difference between boss and workhorse. Their perceptual disconnect was a normal phenomenon.
This experiment had no scientific process to begin with. Calling it development was actually just screening for special individuals who could resist erosion.
Success relied not on research ability but on chance.
By chance, a ninja individual's strength happened to withstand erosion, step by step fusing with the secret technique and making it their own power... So-called success actually came about this way.
But when Yūshin saw that experimental subject, he immediately understood just how compatible this person was with the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique.
More precisely, how compatible this experimental subject was with the former Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear.
They might well be brothers who had never met, with different fathers and mothers.
Because the scars produced on this experimental subject from transplanting Earth Grudge Fear were identical to the scars Yūshin had once seen on Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear—whether in number, shape, or position, they looked like they'd been copied using Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear as a template.
"Are there any further tests?" Yūshin asked Gorō Fūma.
Gorō Fūma looked somewhat mentally exhausted, his facial expression wooden. Facing Yūshin's question, he didn't immediately explain but first chose to demonstrate.
The experimental subject was currently sleeping. Gorō Fūma detached one of the subject's arms from a "scar."
The process was what you'd call "lotus root broken but threads still connected"—countless white threads filled the space between the two arm sections, pulling tightly. They looked extremely strong and resilient.
More importantly, the threads were bunched together in the middle, looking like a cocoon, and this cocoon was beating rhythmically.
Only then did Gorō Fūma say:
"This is another experimental subject's heart. After transplanting it, the Cursed Grudge Fear tendrils immediately wrapped around it. Now both have fused into one..."
"With this heart's help, this experimental subject's chakra intensity is continuously increasing."
Putting it this way, Yūshin felt this wasn't the secret technique itself taking effect, but rather the genetic information of Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear imprinted within it.
Although the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique wasn't a bloodline limit, its current performance was more like a bloodline limit... After transplanting the flesh bud, this experimental subject's performance was very similar to some people's performance after transplanting Sharingan or Byakugan.
No need for deliberate cultivation—certain characteristics naturally expressed themselves.
Chakra itself represented the original owner's spiritual will. Perhaps this statement was somewhat exaggerated, but the current phenomenon could be viewed as a small part of Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear being "revived" in this experimental subject.
Of course, the so-called revival referred to the reappearance of chakra and secret technique characteristics, not the awakening of consciousness... The other party was just a secret technique ninja. Could he be like the Sage of Six Paths, with his spirit lingering on?
"You did very well with this matter."
Yūshin praised Gorō Fūma while secretly inquiring with his eyes.
After the latter noticed his gaze, he nodded almost imperceptibly... Gorō Fūma had already quietly retrieved new flesh buds from this individual.
If the Earth Grudge Fear on Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear was first generation, and what Yūshin cultivated using White Zetsu was second generation, then what was successfully assimilated through this experimental subject should be considered third generation.
Guemon wasn't a fool either. Yūshin and Gorō Fūma had shown a fairly obvious superior-subordinate relationship, and by now he was somewhat suspicious of the so-called Fūma Clan.
The ninja force entrenched in Kikyō Castle was at least not just the Fūma Clan.
Gorō Fūma continued examining the experimental subject's condition, but Yūshin suddenly sensed something.
He calmly came to the experimental subject's side. Using Gorō Fūma's body as cover, he lowered himself and said in an almost inaudible voice: "Keep your mind clear."
Then he stood up and said to Guemon:
"The experiment achieved complete success. Our cooperation was very pleasant... Next, you can take him back and try to cultivate him into a powerful ninja proficient in five types of nature transformation."
Guemon smiled and nodded: "Thank you for your help. This cooperation was very successful. After we further confirm the secret technique's strength, we'll definitely visit again."
He had already developed different thoughts. Anyway, this Fūma Clan seemed not very smart. If there were opportunities next time... In any case, he wouldn't let any opening slip by.
One could only say ninja morals were worse than a dog's. If Yūshin knew this person's thoughts, then he...
Well, he wouldn't care at all.
After all, only those qualified to keep living have the right to formulate development plans, whether long-term or sinister.
...
Not concerning himself with what his excellent cooperation partner might face next, Yūshin had gained considerably. One chance success let him see an opportunity for organizational growth and strength improvement.
However, what he didn't know was that nowhere in the shinobi world could remain peaceful for long.
Yūshin wanted to develop slowly, but certain conflicts were already quietly approaching. (This is the last public chapter—forced transition. Once again requesting tomorrow's first subscription support.)
🔥 Want to read the next 50+ chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]