Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 307 Life and Death Moment

Standing outside the formation, Hyuga Kanan, seeing Orochimaru's current state, knew that Orochimaru's body was at its limit, his chakra was completely exhausted, and his consciousness was beginning to blur. He roared, "The perfect moment! Start now!"

Orochimaru, whose consciousness had been somewhat hazy, was jolted awake by the shout. His mind began to clear, and even though his body was extremely weak, he quickly used his strong will to control his body, preventing him from refining his chakra to restore his physical emptiness. Instead, he began to mobilize his soul power, gradually infiltrating every cell in his body.

As his soul power penetrated deeper into every cell of his body, Orochimaru quickly discovered the wisps of chakra deep within. Like parasites, these chakra seeds were slowly consuming his body's energy. Though tiny, these chakra seeds were incredibly active, seemingly possessing their own consciousness, constantly seeking opportunities to devour more physical and spiritual energy to form new chakra. However, due to Orochimaru's forceful control, these chakra seeds did not aggressively devour physical and spiritual energy to form new chakra. Nevertheless, they stubbornly remained deep within the cells, waiting for the right moment to reform into new chakra.

When Orochimaru sensed this wisp of chakra seed, he was overjoyed, knowing that this was what he was looking for. Without further hesitation, he immediately mobilized all his soul power, which surged like a tidal wave to envelop the chakra seed and began to refine it.

However, to Orochimaru's surprise, these chakra seeds were incredibly tenacious, completely exceeding his understanding of ordinary chakra. They seemed to possess their own consciousness; even as they were constantly refined by powerful soul energy, they were not easily refined like other chakra. Instead, they were like indomitable warriors, relentlessly resisting the refinement by the soul energy.

Orochimaru was secretly alarmed, but he was not discouraged. He increased the output of his soul power, attempting to refine these stubborn chakra seeds with even greater strength. For a moment, the entire space was filled with a tense and fierce atmosphere, as if a silent battle was underway.

As time passed and Orochimaru persevered, the chakra seed within him finally began to be slowly refined. However, during this process, the chakra seed did not completely give up resistance; instead, it began to frantically absorb and devour the life force within his cells. This caused Orochimaru's life force to rapidly deplete, and his cells began to die on a large scale, at a speed far exceeding his expectations.

Orochimaru's body began to show obvious changes; his skin turned as pale as paper, and his eyes lost their former brilliance. He felt his power gradually disappearing, and his body growing weaker and weaker. But he persevered, continuing to refine the chakra seed with all his might.

"No! I can't fail like this!" Orochimaru roared inwardly, a resolute glint in his eyes. "I must succeed!"

He took a deep breath, focused his energy once more, and devoted all his strength to refining the chakra seed. Although his body was already at its limit, he gritted his teeth and refused to give up. He knew that if he failed this time, he would face death directly, let alone pursue higher levels of power.

Orochimaru is currently teetering on the edge of life and death, engaged in a fierce race against it. The situation is extremely tense, hinges on who can break through first. If Orochimaru cannot withstand the chakra seed's devouring of his life force, he will exhaust all his vitality and ultimately die; conversely, if Orochimaru's soul power can successfully refine the chakra seed first, transforming it into physical and spiritual energy, he might be able to maintain a last glimmer of life. This life-or-death struggle is fraught with uncertainty, and every moment could determine Orochimaru's fate.

The chakra seed, like a greedy monster, forcefully devoured Orochimaru's physical and spiritual energy. This plunged Orochimaru into a semi-conscious state, his life force becoming extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, seemingly on the verge of being extinguished and falling into the abyss of death. However, Orochimaru's powerful willpower held on, clinging tightly to the last vestige of life, stubbornly refusing to let go. Even so, judging from the current situation, Orochimaru could not hold on for much longer. The massive loss of life force caused his consciousness to gradually blur, and many cells in his body began to collapse due to the depletion of life force, ultimately leaving him powerless, collapsing to the ground, and silently awaiting death.

Hyuga Kanan stood outside the formation, witnessing this breathtaking scene firsthand, a wave of shock washing over him. He never imagined that the chakra seeds within Orochimaru would be so tenacious, persisting for so long even under the refinement of Orochimaru's powerful soul force, and even accelerating the absorption of Orochimaru's physical and spiritual energy. Orochimaru could no longer withstand such depletion; his life hung by a thread, teetering on the brink of death. If left unchecked, Orochimaru could only hold on for a minute at most before succumbing to exhaustion.

Hyuga Kanan shook his head slightly in resignation. He knew now was not the time to hesitate, so he strode into the formation and knelt down beside Orochimaru. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then gently traced a line on his right palm with his fingers, and bright red blood slowly flowed from the wound. He carefully guided the blood from his palm into Orochimaru's mouth, afraid of wasting even a drop.

As Hyuga Kanan's blood flowed into Orochimaru's body, a powerful life force began to spread within him. This life force, like spring rain nourishing all things, caused Orochimaru's cells, which had been on the verge of collapse, to thirstily absorb it, attempting to replenish what had been devoured by the chakra seed. Slowly, a delicate balance seemed to form within Orochimaru's body, like weights on either side of a scale: Hyuga Kanan's life force on one side, and the devouring power of the chakra seed on the other. The two restrained each other, preventing Orochimaru's condition from deteriorating further.

This life force from Hyuga Kanan's blood flowed like a clear spring into Orochimaru's parched body, giving his nearly extinguished life a chance to breathe. At the same time, Orochimaru's powerful will continued to stubbornly resist the chakra seed's absorption. Thus, a stalemate formed within Orochimaru's body. However, even with the replenishment of life force from Hyuga Kanan's blood, Orochimaru's condition remained precarious. He was still on the verge of collapse, as if walking a tightrope. Every moment required immense effort and willpower to maintain this fragile balance.

Hyuga Kanan frowned slightly, a surge of indescribable pain and reluctance welling up in his heart. This flowing blood was no ordinary blood, but the most precious and vital essence within his body! Every drop contained his immense power and life essence.

At this moment, he watched helplessly as his own essence gushed out like a fountain, as if he could see his life force gradually slipping away. This filled him with immense heartache and regret, because the loss of this essence meant a tremendous loss for him.

It's important to understand that even though he has now entered the Nascent Soul stage, experts at this level still need a long period of recuperation to fully recover after losing some of their essence and blood. Moreover, this significant loss of essence and blood will directly affect his current strength, preventing him from unleashing his full combat potential.

Thinking of this, Hyuga Kanan couldn't help but sigh inwardly. He understood that to save Orochimaru, his important assistant, he had no choice but to sacrifice some of his life essence. Although it was such a price to pay, as long as Orochimaru could overcome this life-or-death crisis and truly break free from the shackles of chakra, then it would all be worthwhile. After all, with Orochimaru's talent and temperament, he should quickly grow stronger, providing him with powerful support and increasing his chances of victory against those behind the scenes in the future.

Having already made the effort, Hyuga Kanan didn't want Orochimaru to give up so easily. So he directly reminded the half-asleep Orochimaru, "Don't get distracted, strengthen your will, concentrate all your mind on the soul power, and accelerate the refining process."

Orochimaru, who was half-asleep, heard Hyuga Kanan's roar and felt the life force the other was injecting into his body. He immediately focused his mind on his soul power and accelerated the refining of the chakra seed. Although he didn't know how Hyuga Kanan had managed to inject life force into him when he was about to die, maintaining his almost depleted life force, Orochimaru was still incredibly grateful for the other's help, which had allowed him to escape the crisis of death. However, he was still in a rather dangerous situation and needed to speed up the refining process; otherwise, even with Hyuga Kanan's help, he would likely not escape his fate.

With Hyuga Kanan's help and Orochimaru's relentless efforts, the chakra seed's resistance gradually weakened, and its life force gradually stabilized. Although the cells were still dying, the rate had slowed considerably. Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief; he knew that he had achieved an initial victory in this battle.

Now that the final moment has arrived, whether Orochimaru will fail and die or succeed and rise to the top depends on whether he can maintain his willpower and persevere to the very end.