Chapter 199: The Subtle Use of the Earth Grudge Fear Technique
"No, it won't work!"
The shadow clone's spirit had merged with the shinobi's soul, but like oil and water, they appeared to blend, yet remained incompatible. The clone still couldn't control the soul.
"Is it because of the remaining mental fluctuation?"
Li Yao pondered.
The soul extracted using Rinnegan chakra wasn't dead—it was still active and emitting its owner's unique spiritual energy.
However, without the nourishment of a body, this spiritual energy emission was an irreversible drain on the soul—slow, but constant. The soul was fading.
Mental energy fluctuation acted like a genetic code for the soul. If the clone's simulated spiritual frequency didn't match, that might be why the soul rejected the fusion.
With that in mind, Li Yao had the shadow clone adjust its emitted mental energy to match.
"It worked!"
This time, it really worked.
Li Yao sensed that the moment the clone's energy aligned, the shinobi's soul absorbed it as if reclaiming its own dissipated energy.
He could now control—wait, what was this?
"It's... the person's will!"
Li Yao's expression froze. Just as he felt he'd succeeded, the soul resisted again. Though the fusion had occurred, the soul's core will was rejecting the clone.
And worse—because of the clone's integration, the soul was evolving, transitioning from a vegetative state into one with awareness.
"Still doesn't work…"
Frustrated, Li Yao dissolved the shadow clone and purified the extracted soul to prevent it from evolving further.
A soul, though in a vegetative state, still had basic will.
And the clone, carrying a fragment of Li Yao's own will, would inevitably clash with the target's will when trying to take control.
To truly take over someone's soul, that existing will had to be eliminated.
Just like possessing a body requires killing the previous soul.
One body, two souls—coexistence is impossible.
Soul possession works the same way. Only by erasing the target's will can Li Yao implant his own and turn the soul into a perfect clone soul, one fully under his control.
Though the experiment failed again, the path forward was clearer than ever.
Now only one question remained:
How to eliminate will without destroying the soul?
When the soul fades, the will naturally fades too.
But the real trick is how to remove the will while keeping the soul intact.
How to do that?
Li Yao closed his eyes and thought.
In the world of shinobi, everything is tied to chakra.
Chakra is a miraculous energy that can even turn illusions into reality—surely, there must be a way to erase will without harming the soul.
Was there a jutsu that could do this?
Li Yao carefully combed through all the jutsu he knew, had seen, or heard of.
"Wait…"
His eyes lit up. He had found one that might work.
"The Earth Grudge Fear Technique!!"
Li Yao never expected the immortality jutsu he had always looked down on would now give him hope.
Unlike possession-based rebirth, Earth Grudge Fear's core wasn't just about hijacking someone's heart for longevity. It was fundamentally different.
Possession is a passive exchange—your soul has to adapt to the new body, and soul-body rejection often occurs because every body is tailored to a unique soul.
But Earth Grudge Fear doesn't work like that.
It doesn't just replace the heart. It assimilates it using specialized chakra, turning it into an organ fully controllable by the user.
Though this limits the heart to only one chakra nature...
It also allows inheriting all jutsu associated with that nature from the heart's previous owner.
Li Yao had seen this limitation as a flaw.
But now—it might be the key to soul possession.
Chakra is formed by merging physical and mental energy.
If Earth Grudge Fear chakra could assimilate a heart and its mental imprint, then it might be able to assimilate someone's mental energy—thus preserving and utilizing their spiritual energy after assimilation.
Even if the technique doesn't extract the soul's spiritual energy directly, the assimilation effect could still apply to soul possession.
Poof!
Li Yao summoned another shadow clone and had it use the Rinnegan chakra to extract a shinobi's soul—not to purify, but to assimilate it using Earth Grudge Fear.
"It's working!!!"
Li Yao's lips curled upward. He restrained his excitement, wary of another failed test. He continued observing closely.
Earth Grudge Fear chakra spread like devouring ink, staining the soul black as it spread.
The shinobi's soul slowly began to assimilate.
"No...!"
"No!"
Li Yao seemed to hear faint screams—an instinctive wail from the soul's will as it was consumed.
After a while, those cries grew louder in the clone's ears.
They weren't hallucinations. The will inside the soul was being erased—but the soul itself showed no signs of disintegration.
"Is it finally working?"
Li Yao trembled slightly, filled with both anticipation and anxiety.
He had been burned by hope too many times.
Snap!
Just as the soul's will was erased, the entire soul burst apart—like water exploding from a balloon the moment it was pierced.
"Why?!"
Li Yao's heart sank, but he recovered quickly. With all his previous failures, he was now more focused on understanding why.
"Could it be… because the soul was removed from the body?"
He thought it through.
Without a physical vessel, a soul losing its will is like water losing its container—it disperses instantly.
To test that theory, Li Yao created another shadow clone and had it possess a shinobi's body. Then, inside the body, it began assimilating the soul using Earth Grudge Fear.
"So tough!"
Li Yao frowned and recalled the clone.
Within the body, the soul was like armor-clad—it was heavily protected. The assimilation worked, but progress was excruciatingly slow. Without hundreds of years, it wouldn't be completed.
"Still, it proves the concept is valid."
He smiled again.
A soul's will binds it together like an invisible force. The body, like a shell, maintains the shape of the soul.
Without a body, and once the will dissipates, the soul loses cohesion and dissolves like a popped balloon.
But with a body in place, it's like having a second layer of containment—even if the inner layer breaks, the soul remains stable.
This was the principle behind Earth Grudge Fear's heart acquisition: maintaining the chakra and spiritual imprint through physical containment.
Now, all Li Yao needed was to accelerate the assimilation.
Before, he couldn't do it.
But now, with the Rinnegan's chakra fused with Earth Grudge Fear chakra, he had the tools he needed.
For the next month, Li Yao not only captured every ninja who attacked the village, he even traveled far and wide to hunt down rogue shinobi to use in developing the Perfect Clone Technique.
(END CHAPTER)
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