The celestial phenomenon appeared as expected. Light from the starry sky shone against the night, dazzling the entire world.
"I must succeed!"
Owl roared, absorbing all the 'Chimera' buds that had already devoured the sacrifices into his body, pushing the ritual to its peak!
The myriad colors of the night sky, reflected by various mirrors at the ritual site, shone onto Owl at the center of the ritual, causing Owl's chakra to break through the critical point, reaching an unprecedented level.
Instantly, bursts of white mist emerged from Owl's body. In just a few breaths, the entire ritual site was enveloped.
Observation Area.
Beep beep beep...
Piercing alarms sounded one after another from various instruments. Researchers were busy recording the data displayed on the instruments.
Tsunade asked loudly: "How is it?"
A Hyuga clansman, promoted by Tsunade as an assistant, immediately activated his Byakugan. While observing the mist-shrouded ritual site, he answered with a solemn expression: "The experimental subject's chakra is maintained at an extremely high level, and it's still getting stronger, showing no sign of weakening!"
Shizune said nervously: "So, the 'cocooning' was successful?"
'Cocooning' was the latest conclusion reached by the Research Institute.
In the eyes of many researchers, completing the ritual meant a leap in life, so the experimental subject would inevitably undergo a process of rebirth, just like Orochimaru at the beginning.
Using the body to forcibly contain everything like Hiruko did would only result in the body exploding and death.
Tsunade didn't give Shizune an answer because no one could confirm whether the ritual was successful until the results truly came out.
A long time later, the white mist at the ritual site gradually dissipated, revealing a huge fleshy cocoon.
Although this huge fleshy cocoon looked hideous and terrifying, the moment they saw it, the researchers in the observation area all cheered.
The appearance of the fleshy cocoon meant the step of 'cocooning' was completed. As long as this step was completed, the ritual was at least eighty percent done.
As for what would hatch from the fleshy cocoon, and whether it would still be Owl, it didn't matter to ordinary researchers. Because as long as there was something in the fleshy cocoon, it was worth researching.
Bang...
Just as everyone's eyes were focused on the fleshy cocoon, with a muffled sound, the fleshy cocoon was blasted open by a huge force, and a figure walked out from inside.
"Hiss!"
Seeing the figure walking out of the fleshy cocoon, everyone couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
From the appearance, there were still faint traces of Owl, but the skin was pale like an Otsutsuki, and there was a ring-shaped bone-like horn on the forehead. At first glance, it looked just like an Otsutsuki.
"What's with those looks?" Owl grinned, then spread his arms: "Why aren't you congratulating me yet?"
Undoubtedly, the success of the ritual changed Owl's mindset.
The researchers whom he previously held in awe now all looked like low-level life forms in his eyes.
Looking at the unscrupulous Owl, Amado said coldly: "If you've forgotten the rules, I can help you review them!"
Owl's face sank, and hatred appeared in his eyes. But seeing the researcher guards faintly forming a circle around him, he suppressed his anger and said: "According to what you said, I have completed the ritual and am no longer a prisoner of researchers. Asking for a 'congratulation' isn't too much, right?"
Amado said indifferently: "We'll know if this ritual was successful after collecting your body data!"
Owl snorted lightly: "Fine, do as you say!"
Seeing Owl behaving, Amado secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Not just him, except for Orochimaru, everyone else in the observation area, even Tsunade as the Hokage, was shocked when facing Owl.
Amado's words were obviously an excuse. Owl's ritual this time was undoubtedly successful because just by Owl standing in front of everyone, the researchers felt a heart-pounding sensation of being stared at by a predator.
This perception from the intuitive level was the most real!
After Owl and the Research Institute crowd left, Tsunade stayed at the ritual site, looking around with bewildered eyes.
Shizune walked over and said: "Lady Tsunade, everyone has withdrawn; we can leave."
Tsunade suddenly said: "Shizune, do you think what we are doing is right or wrong?"
"Ah!"
Shizune was stunned.
Tsunade continued: "Manufacturing such monsters in batches, are we bringing disaster to the shinobi world?"
Shizune finally understood Tsunade's worry and comforted: "Lady Tsunade, with 'A' around, these experimental subjects shouldn't be able to cause any trouble."
"I hope so!"
Tsunade sighed lightly.
She actually knew all this wasn't something she could stop. Whether she wanted it or not, the Research Institute's steps wouldn't halt.
Returning to the Research Institute, Tsunade watched Owl's test.
Actually, not just her, everyone who could come to the Research Institute came, wanting to see how strong this lucky guy who successfully completed the ritual after Orochimaru was.
And Owl's performance didn't disappoint everyone.
Owl was essentially just a bandit with strength at the Chunin level. His combat skills, combat experience, etc., were all mediocre. But after experiencing the baptism of the ritual, Owl became a completely different person. Let alone ordinary Jonin, even when besieged by experts like Kabuto, Ranmaru, Deidara, and Delta, he handled it with ease.
Orochimaru looked mocking: "Tsk tsk, looks like we've manufactured another monster!"
Sasori had a gloomy face.
Every success of the Research Institute meant that his path of choosing machinery to replace flesh and blood for eternal life was wrong.
Amado remained silent.
Boom...
Just then, a roar came from the test field. It turned out that Owl, fighting fiercely with Ranmaru and Kabuto on the ground, became impatient with Deidara's sneak attacks from the air. He directly soared into the sky and fought with Deidara riding a clay bird in the air.
"Flight ability!"
Everyone exclaimed.
Amado secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Flight ability is a basic ability of the Otsutsuki clan. Now that Owl showed flight ability, it meant the plan went smoothly. After the baptism of the ritual, Owl completed the Otsutsuki transformation.
On the other side, watching this scene, Orochimaru's eyes flickered, wondering what he was thinking.
After a while, with Deidara, Delta, Ranmaru, and Kabuto losing one after another, the Research Institute's first round of combat power test on Owl ended.
Seeing these famous strongmen in the shinobi world defeated by him one by one, Owl couldn't hide his smugness and laughed rampantly.
This test was both a test by the Research Institute on Owl and a test by Owl on himself. After this battle, he understood his strength and knew he had joined the small group of top people in the shinobi world, so his old habits returned.