Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 198 Soul Possession

"soul?"

"Spiritual energy?"

Li Yao pondered the two words carefully, then his eyes suddenly lit up.

Thinking about how the ninja's soul had become ownerless spiritual energy after being purified by the Rinnegan's eye power chakra, I wonder if the shadow clone would generate a soul and emit a continuous stream of spiritual energy if it used the Spirit Transformation Technique to absorb the ownerless spiritual energy.

"You can give it a try!"

Li Yao thought to himself, and then patiently waited for the ninjas who were causing trouble for the village to come, so that he could capture them and experiment on them.

Bai Jue is definitely watching him secretly now. If he leaves the village to capture people, who knows if it will cause other changes.

Li Yao must take his time and not rush things.

Day two of the mission.

A seven-man ninja squad was rushing towards the village. Li Yao landed from the sky and stood outside the village without making a move.

Soon, the attacking ninja squad arrived at the village entrance.

Li Yaoying's clone was already waiting at the village entrance.

"A black turtleneck trench coat, this is..."

One of the team members noticed the black trench coat on Li Yaoying's clone, his expression changed slightly, and he reminded him, "Boss, it's someone from Akatsuki."

Upon hearing this, the eldest ninja frowned and said, "It seems this village has entrusted a mission to the Akatsuki organization."

"What do we do, boss?"

"I've heard that there are several powerful individuals in the Akatsuki organization who have reached the Jonin level, but only one person has appeared here. Could it be...?"

Upon hearing that he was from the Akatsuki organization, everyone's hearts sank, and fear filled their eyes as they looked at Li Yao. Their strength was generally at the Genin level, with only their leader being at the Chunin level.

They had no chance of winning against a Jonin.

"Boss, should we just leave?"

Someone suggested it, and the others readily agreed. This made the ninja, who was the leader of the group, very uncomfortable. He felt that his authority had been challenged. Moreover, the other side was only one person, and no matter how strong they were, they were still just one person. There were seven of them, and they were even stronger.

The leader of the ninjas immediately glared at the others and said angrily, "What are you afraid of? He's all alone."

"Furthermore, have you forgotten the Akatsuki's principles?"

"The Akatsuki are a group of people who adhere to the principle of not killing. Even if we can't beat them, our lives won't be in danger."

"But if we've already fought, didn't we find out before we came that there are quite a few beauties in this village?"

"Then... should we fight?"

The leader's words successfully stirred up the evil thoughts in everyone's hearts, overpowering their fear of facing a Jonin. The key was that the Akatsuki's principle of not killing gave them the courage to continue their evil deeds, and everyone became restless.

"Go, kill him."

Seeing that his men were already harboring evil intentions, the leader did not hesitate any longer and immediately gave the order to lead his men to charge towards Li Yao.

As the seven thugs with ferocious faces and lustful eyes attacked him, Li Yao remained calm. In chaotic times, there are people like Yahiko who have the desire to save the world, and there are also thugs who have gone completely mad by unleashing their desires in the chaos.

Faced with the seven small fry who were attacking, Li Yaoying's clone made them realize in just one second that there was an insurmountable gap in strength between them.

Bang bang bang... The seven people flew out in an arc like seven small stones and landed heavily on the ground.

"Ah... what just happened?"

"I...we..."

"monster……"

"That's incredible!"

"This guy's strength is on a completely different level from ours."

Although the shadow clone remained standing in the same spot as before, seemingly without having moved an inch from beginning to end, the seven people understood that in that instant, they had been sent flying by this guy at a speed they couldn't even perceive.

And... the other side held back!

Otherwise, they would already be corpses.

"Walk!"

Realizing the enormous gap in strength, the leader of the seven no longer dared to stay and immediately ordered his men to leave.

As the seven turned to leave, their bodies were still trembling slightly, fearing that Li Yaoying's clones would come after them.

Fortunately, Li Yaoying's clone didn't chase after them, and the seven of them safely left the village.

"Hoo... alright?"

The seven people breathed a sigh of relief, secretly relieved, and were about to say they were saved when their consciousness was locked in a small dark room, and they lost control of their bodies.

Bang bang bang... Li Yao threw the seven people onto the clay bird with one in each hand, then jumped up and flew into the sky.

"What is Li Yao up to?"

Not long after Li Yao took to the sky, a white face appeared on a large tree. It was Bai Jue. He looked in the direction where Li Yao had ascended and muttered to himself.

For the past two years, Li Yao has been very well-behaved, staying quietly by Nagato's side and not causing any trouble.

What is he trying to do by suddenly doing something so unusual?

Why did he capture these wandering ninjas?

Bai Jue always felt that Li Yao was doing something shameful... no, something he didn't want Li Yao to know.

What exactly happened?

Bai Jue felt a strong urge to do something, but he couldn't do anything about Li Yao. He didn't dare to do anything unusual, otherwise it would arouse Ban's suspicion and be a loss.

"Fine, as long as this guy doesn't disrupt the plan, let him be."

White Zetsu retreated back into the tree and continued to hide.

Li Yao glanced down as he soared into the sky and smiled to himself.

"White Zetsu was indeed watching him."

Previously, he couldn't sense the White Zetsu, who was integrated with the tree and only had his face showing. Now, with the power of the Rinnegan chakra, his soul perception is much sharper, and he can sense the slightest flaw in the White Zetsu.

I believe that if he continues to grow stronger, White Zetsu will have nowhere to hide from him.

But for now... let's see if shadow clones can have souls.

Li Yao created a shadow clone, then gathered the power of his Rinnegan chakra, extracted the soul of a ninja, purified it, and obtained a ball of pure spiritual energy.

Li Yao used chakra to envelop this spiritual energy, then took it out of his body. His shadow clone immediately used the Spirit Transformation Technique to create a spiritual body to absorb this spiritual energy.

After absorbing the spiritual energy, the shadow clone immediately possessed the ninja's body from which the soul had been extracted.

"It can do it!"

The shadow clone, controlling the possessed body, stood up, his face beaming with excitement. He could feel that he could now gather chakra.

"It's done!"

Li Yao's eyes lit up, but before he could be happy for long, his brows furrowed again.

The spiritual energy absorbed by the shadow clone was rapidly consumed, and after a long time, it was all condensed into chakra.

Then the shadow clones lost their ability to gather chakra once again.

"Still not working!"

Li Yao scratched his forehead, quite annoyed. He thought he had succeeded, but... how exactly could he give his shadow clones the ability to condense chakra?

"Let's start over, and this time we'll think it through more carefully."

After a while, Li Yao composed himself and began to think again.

Pure spiritual energy is like a battery; once used, it's gone.

He needs to equip his shadow clone spirit with an engine.

Possessing a physical body resolved the issue of bodily energy.

The soul is the only way to generate spiritual energy. Shadow clones are just a ninjutsu, a result of chakra mimicry, and have no soul.

If you want to possess a soul... is it possible to possess another person's soul just like you would possess a physical body?

Li Yao suddenly realized.

It should be possible.

It can work.

The more Li Yao thought about it, the more he felt that possessing a soul was a viable option.

He immediately created another shadow clone. This time, after extracting the soul of a ninja, he did not purify it, but instead used the Spirit Transformation Technique to strip the soul of all its memories.

In this way, the soul will not be disturbed by the ninja's memories of his previous life after being possessed.

But... how does a soul possess another body?

Li Yao frowned. The possession technique of spirit transformation essentially involves first killing and dissipating the soul of another person, and then occupying their body. It's like changing clothes; the body is the clothes. It's very crude, so the side effects are significant.

But to possess a soul, one uses a spirit body. How does a soul possess another soul?

Unable to figure it out for a moment, Li Yao had no choice but to proceed anyway.

He used the technique of spirit possession to allow his shadow clone spirit to merge into the soul body that had been stripped of its memories.

(End of this chapter)