It was a full moon, but Jugo only realized this because of the restless feeling inside him, he longed to go out and devour human flesh, but he held back tightly. He couldn't enter the Tenebrous World at that moment.
This restlessness is part of the ritual.
He needed to endure it!
He had already completely transformed into a zombie, along with Bind, despite his intense desire to move, he didn't move a single muscle.
Jugo's dry, blackened body, with its long, pale hair, lay there, trapped in that coffin.
Jugo knew the ritual, but didn't fully understand it. However, the misunderstanding was short-lived, as the full moon rose, Jugo's unease grew. Just as the full moon was at its peak, a change occurred.
Jugo seemed to sense something shifting, the spiritual fragments in that dead zone, as if drawn by something, began to rush toward him.
Jugo didn't move, but the next moment, he began to feel fragments of spirituality constantly entering him, but that wasn't all, as soon as they entered, Jugo saw something, their death.
It was like being in a first-person scene, it felt like hours, witnessing death after death, but it was only a few seconds before the next story began.
Jugo's consciousness grew more and more confused as time went on, if it weren't for Bind, he would have already gone mad.
Who was he? He couldn't say, but as the full moon slowly set and the day began, souls ceased to be drawn to him.
If someone with visual awareness were to arrive there, they would notice that some of the spiritual mist surrounding that forest had diminished, by about 1/100th of its original size.
Jugo knew nothing about this, at that moment he was still a little confused.
Lying there, he was slowly remembering who he was.
To others it may have seemed like a night, but for him, who saw days passing instead of minutes, it felt like a very long time.
He witnessed the death of many beings, from humans to insects, some lived such short lives that he literally saw their entire lives.
Jugo spent the entire day trying to understand who he was again, feeling a persistent fear, but when night fell, the spirits returned to Jugo's body. It was far fewer than during the full moon, but Jugo still witnessed about 6 deaths per minute.
Each night felt like two years in Jugo's consciousness, he only had the day to rest and get his bearings.
The first night must have been about 10 years ago!
It was 30 days of that.
Jugo discovered that his spirit was growing stronger because of it, but at the same time, Jugo felt increasingly indifferent.
Time stopped mattering.
Life has lost its meaning.
He felt increasingly empty.
At the next full moon, Jugo felt his rigid body tremble as he felt that craving to devour meat again.
He was so indifferent that it took him a long time to remember to move forward, it was only when the moon was high above him that he felt the fierce urge to devour so strong that it momentarily awakened him, his eyes widening.
At that moment, he quickly connected to the Tenebrous World and wished to move forward.
As soon as the potion was "drunk" Jugo felt an extremely terrifying scream, the entire coffin froze instantly, but it didn't stop there, the earth around him continued to freeze more and more and soon rose up to the salamander cave.
The salamanders, sensing the danger, ran in all directions, fleeing quickly.
But the ice did not stop, it continued to advance furiously.
Half an hour later, the center of the Purple Mist Swamp was completely frozen.
Jugo, on the other hand, knew nothing of this, he felt the screams continuing in his mind, hammering again and again. Jugo wanted to scream, but his body was already frozen.
The pain seemed to emanate from his soul, even Bind couldn't completely stop it. Jugo could only accept it. Fortunately, after several days absorbing spiritual energy, Jugo's soul was much stronger. Not only that, but his partially clouded consciousness had somewhat slowed down the pain.
But the screams slowly subsided and the potion took effect, Jugo felt his soul healing at an incredibly fast rate and not only that, but his own body seemed to be undergoing a wondrous process.
His body slowly turned into nothing, an ordinary person would think he had vanished, but Jugo was still there, though without spiritual vision, a person wouldn't be able to see him.
When it was all over, Jugo finally breathed a sigh of relief, floating out of the cave and seeing the frozen world outside, with giant flowers and salamanders that couldn't escape in time, frozen, he looked at the full moon in the sky and didn't feel the curse.
This was because he seemed to have been "fed" enough souls, even if they were just spiritual remnants, to keep him sober during the full moon. Unfortunately, this is a process that only the first full moon of Wraith's transformation would have.
Jugo didn't care.
He gazed at the frozen world below with interest.
His powers had grown again.
Wraith's powers were varied, but their greatest characteristic, in Jugo's opinion, was that he had completely lost his weaknesses.
Even if a Wraith loses its head, it won't die immediately, there's still a chance of healing.
At this point, in terms of survival, Jugo has reached a new level, he can now compete with Orochimaru in this regard.
His power over ice and corruption grew to the point that Jugo even considered using specific jutsus.
He can probably learn ice release now, corruption can be linked to water release, creating an extremely corrosive and corrupting liquid.
Several possibilities crossed Jugo's mind and he would have to try them later.
A Wraith can become a spiritual being, a complete fusion between flesh and spirit. At this point, Jugo's soul is completely bind to his body. He doubts that a Jutsu like the Reaper Death Seal used by the Third Hokage would work on him. In fact, he could probably fight the Shinigami now, not that he will, after all, he's not sure of his strength.
This spiritual advancement truly strengthened his mind and spirit greatly, the main advancement in this sequence was in that direction. Now, even if he is hit by a genjutsu, he can not only resist but also retaliate. He wanted to see if Itachi would like to experience the effects of his Tsukuyomi.
Unfortunately, his spiritual strength hadn't yet reached the point of withstanding the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he realized this when he remembered his pendulum divination, but he was close.
Of course, this spiritual advancement also had consequences, powers linked to light and purification now cause him more harm, but to be honest, this is a disadvantage he already had since becoming a werewolf, it has only grown more so now.
Fortunately, there's no such thing as holy water or purifying light in the Ninja world, at least Jugo doesn't remember anything like that, but perhaps releasing lightning or fire would cause him more damage now.
His physiological resistance also increased, in his human form, he can go two weeks without eating and has become completely immune to biological poisons.
In the world of LOTM, being in Zombie form consumes spirituality and it's necessary to replenish that spirituality through eating and resting. However, Jugo is a natural energy battery, he doesn't need to worry about that. So, while he's in Zombie or Wraith form, there's no reason to worry about hunger.
Regarding their time underground? Their spirituality was constantly replenished by external spiritual energy, so it made sense that Zombies could survive without needing to eat for so long in the world of LOTM.
In any case, specters also possess various auxiliary and support abilities.
Firstly, with the spiritual aspect now active, he can actively deflect unwanted external guesses and glances. Furthermore, he now possesses knowledge of divination skills, so he can predict much more easily now, even without the help of the Tenebrous World.
Unfortunately, he's still just a Wraith, not a seer, so his predictive abilities still leave something to be desired.
He can also sense a connection to the spiritual world of that world, but he has no interest in entering it. He sensed that the spiritual world is probably the Pure Land and that that place is Hagoromo's domain, he's not sure if entering there won't attract the old man's attention.
Like a Wraith, its basic spirit powers are also active: passing through matter, invisibility, possession, flight and seeing in the dark.
When he says "seeing in the dark" he's not talking about normal night vision that can pick up very little light, but truly seeing in complete darkness.
The Wraith's invisibility isn't so simple that any dojutsu can see it, at least, he doesn't think a normal Sharingan or Byakugan could see their invisible form.
Unfortunately, they still give off an odor, so they can still be found by smell, which is a shame.
Possession is one of Wraith's strongest abilities, he can forcibly possess a body, whether living or dead, and the use of his abilities will not be limited by the body, so even if the body is destroyed, he will be fine.
The possessed entity gains control over the target's body, but not over their mind or, for example, chakra, so using jutsus without the help of the possessed body is nearly impossible.
A Wraith's strongest attack is the spectral scream, it can emit a piercing scream that directly attacks the soul, causing excruciating pain. It's an area-of-effect ability and if used with enough force or for long enough, it can even shatter the souls of those who hear it.
Jugo smiled at the thought of that ability, it would be perfect for dealing with guys like Orochimaru and Obito.
Finally, there is the power over mirrors.
Basically, he can teleport using reflections, any reflective surface becomes a medium for him. He can also remain inside a mirrored surface, like a coin, hiding for long periods.
Aside from that, he gained some spells related to death, such as purifying corpses, preparing zombies, sending souls to the afterlife, bringing souls from beyond... he could basically bring the soul of a deceased person and use it to transform them into a zombie, as long as he had the target's body.
This removed the limitation of having to find a recently deceased body, now he only needed a complete cadaver that had been previously prepared to attract the soul of the dead and create a zombie.
As for the curse of the specter? He needs to devour human souls or he will become extremely weak, nothing new there.
Of course, choosing to consume souls is the same as strengthening his cursed side, he still hopes to complete the Wraith's act purely from the chained side, so he will avoid that.
Consuming the spirituality of the dead also counts as the soul of the dead, but it still strengthens the cursed side, so he still hopes to use the Tenebrous World to avoid that period.
Speaking of curses, he felt he had forgotten something.
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--x--
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