Chapter 153: The Shift in Cultivation Goals

Walking out of Orochimaru's Root base, Uchiha Feiyu was followed by a young girl with blue hair.

This girl had a look of confusion on her face, her eyes filled with an expression as if she were about to cry; she was none other than Guren, the ninja with the Crystal Release Bloodline Limit, who had been the former reincarnation vessel "gifted" to Uchiha Feiyu by Orochimaru.

Although Orochimaru's personal outward image was not particularly great, and his temperament leaned toward the cold and murderous, always giving people the feeling of a cold-blooded animal, one had to admit that he was very skilled at tricking and brainwashing orphans.

If Danzō had Orochimaru's ability to brainwash and bewitch, he wouldn't even need to use Cursed Seals to control the ninjas of Root.

This vessel of Orochimaru, the Crystal Release ninja Guren, was naturally one of those bewitched by Orochimaru, and the thing she had always looked forward to most was offering her own body to Orochimaru.

Don't misunderstand; this was not an offering in that sense, but rather being directly possessed by Orochimaru as a vessel!

As it turned out, in order to demand more funding, Soul-Returning Pills, and unknown knowledge from Uchiha Feiyu, Orochimaru simply gave this fanatic away.

For Guren, this was naturally a world-shattering blow; for a time, she felt completely unwell, and naturally, it was impossible for her to have any pleasant expression.

However, Uchiha Feiyu couldn't be bothered to pay her any mind. He had played with too many beauties, and although this little beauty behind him was of high quality and even had the potential to be a Shadow-level Ninja, to him, she was just an ordinary plaything.

Nowadays, Uchiha Feiyu's Sage Body could be considered to have reached great success; to a certain extent, his body cells could even rival the Wood Release cells of Senju Hashirama, naturally counting as precious material.

Even if he were to truly enter a higher dimension, looking at the situation, he would likely turn into some kind of conceptual god or the like. Although Uchiha Feiyu yearned for powerful strength, if he were to cultivate himself into some kind of concept and lose his own physical form, he would still respectfully decline.

In the Naruto World, a pure-blooded Otsutsuki was naturally already the ceiling: an energy body, immortal and indestructible, vast chakra, and disaster-level ninjutsu that were like innate divine abilities...

Of course, the most important thing was that Uchiha Feiyu had the Book of Demonic Inheritance as a foundation, confident that even if he didn't evolve along the path of the Otsutsuki, he would still be able to successfully surpass these Otsutsuki in the future, and even surpass the entire ninja world.

For example, the legendary Otsutsuki God, Ōtsutsuki Shibai, was the Final Form evolved after an individual of the Otsutsuki Clan devoured countless planet fruits; it is said that he had already departed from the material world and entered a higher dimension.

What Uchiha Feiyu was truly considering now was the conclusion reached after Orochimaru had just examined his bodily materials.

Of course, the chakra system was not without its advantages; its greatest advantage was—it was very easy to cultivate!

In fact, there was no need to cultivate at all; planting trees and eating fruits were things anyone could do, and one could easily obtain powerful strength. Compared to the Covering the Sky Method, which was either fighting, fighting, fighting, or getting struck by lightning, living and dying every day, this was much more relaxed.

"The upper limit of the Book of Demonic Inheritance is undoubtedly far beyond that of the Otsutsuki Clan. Not to mention anything else, the mere fact that I could obtain the secret method of the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art shows that at least the entire Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art is inside."

Even if one were to overestimate the Otsutsuki Clan of the Naruto World, they certainly couldn't defeat the Great Emperors of the Covering the Sky World. Let alone a Great Emperor, I reckon any random Saint could wipe out the entire Otsutsuki Clan.

Otherwise, if he were truly a native of the ninja world, how would he have the heart to be picky? He would have long since gone to learn from Orochimaru, trying every possible way to make himself lean toward the bloodline of the Otsutsuki Clan.

The Otsutsuki Clan were almost all energy lifeforms; this point could be seen from Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, who could still hold onto his life with only half a body, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, who remained alive and well after being sealed on the Moon for thousands of years, and Six Paths Madara, who had a huge hole kicked into him by Might Guy and recovered in the blink of an eye.

But at the end of the day, Uchiha Feiyu still felt that the limits of these Otsutsuki were too low. Even for the so-called Otsutsuki God, there was no consensus yet on whether he had entered a higher dimension or had naturally disintegrated because he couldn't withstand the energy within his body!

"Compared to that group of fierce people in Shrouding the Heavens, the 'cannibalistic' genre written by Shenji is much easier to cultivate. As long as there are enough resources and population, and one's mindset is ruthless enough, even a pig could cultivate its way up!"

And the price Uchiha Feiyu paid to exchange for this little beauty was merely some of his own cells and having Orochimaru help with a physical examination.

Aside from the aspect of lifespan, the Otsutsuki Clan really had nothing to compare with those people from Covering the Sky. Not to mention the upper limits of both sides, even at the same power level, the chakra system was far inferior to the Secret Realm Method of 'using the body as a seed' from Covering the Sky.

This kind of strength, in some weak worlds, could be called a god without any problem, and according to the later Boruto, the Otsutsuki Clan had even stronger evolutionary modes.

"My body has reached the limit of flesh-and-blood life... and has begun to show signs of energy transformation? This should be the precursor to transforming like the Otsutsuki Clan!"

But... to be honest, Uchiha Feiyu still harbored great doubts about whether he should evolve along the path of the Otsutsuki.

"If the Book of Demonic Inheritance were even more powerful, and there were some inheritances like those from the Primordial World or the Sovereign of the Heavens, the upper limit would be unimaginably high... By comparison, the chakra system is just not good enough."

In any case, Uchiha Feiyu was making progress every moment. He believed that even if he gave his cells to Orochimaru, Orochimaru would never be able to research anything that could surpass him, just as Wood Release cells, even if researched to death, could never defeat Senju Hashirama.

"However, the Book of Demonic Inheritance certainly doesn't just contain the Covering the Sky Method; it's highly likely that it also contains inheritances from popular 'cannibalistic' genres like the Yang God World or the Eternal Life World."

Uchiha Feiyu had never changed his chakra system all this time simply because he knew very well that this most fundamental cultivation system must also have the highest consumption!

Moreover, there were some cultivation systems that Uchiha Feiyu might not necessarily be able to cultivate successfully.

To cultivate the Human Immortal Yang God Cultivation Method of the Yang God World, you first need acupoints and lightning tribulations.

To cultivate the Secret Realm Method of the Covering the Sky World, you first have to find the Huang Tian Emperor to leave you a secret realm seed.

To cultivate the Gene Lock in Infinite Terror, you first have to find 'Gu' to add a setting for you...

It was precisely because of this consideration that Uchiha Feiyu had to use precise sacrifice to obtain a foundation method that met his wishes. Otherwise, if he finally managed to get a powerful cultivation method only to find that he didn't meet the cultivation conditions at all, Uchiha Feiyu would probably be angered to death.

"But regardless, since I don't intend to walk the path of the Otsutsuki Clan, I cannot continue to absorb chakra afterward. Otherwise, I estimate that it won't be long before my body begins to fully transform into energy."

The chakra system didn't have much mystery; it was entirely about using a massive amount of chakra to force a qualitative change. An ordinary ninja might still have a limit to what they could bear, but Uchiha Feiyu, who had long since absorbed the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and was essentially a human version of the God Tree, didn't need to consider such things at all.

According to Uchiha Feiyu's estimation, he had already reached a certain critical point. If he continued to absorb like this, within a year or two, he would likely begin to transform into an energy body.

By that time, even if he wanted to change his cultivation, the paths he could take would become even narrower. After all, even the so-called Demonic Arts were mostly for flesh-and-blood bodies to cultivate; the number of Demonic Arts that would result in energy body transformation was extremely rare.

Moreover, energy bodies were not as durable as flesh-and-blood bodies. When a flesh-and-blood body encountered an energy conflict during a change in cultivation, one might just spit a mouthful of blood and rest for a few days; if an energy body encountered an energy conflict during a change in cultivation, it might just explode like a big firework!

Of course, not absorbing chakra didn't mean that chakra had no use. Chakra was an energy that was both mediocre and universal in its attributes; its greatest benefit was that it could be converted and absorbed at will, which could be called an energy specifically for 'leeks'.

Even if Uchiha Feiyu changed his cultivation system in the future, he could still absorb chakra and convert it into energy like Inner Energy or Dharma Power to increase his own cultivation, so there was no problem of waste.

In the blink of an eye, nearly three years had passed.

In these three years, the entire Naruto World had undergone earth-shaking changes, and the biggest change was that more and more people possessed chakra.

In the Land of Fire, where the policy of universal chakra was best implemented, basically one in every ten people possessed chakra. Even if that bit of chakra was barely enough to use a Transformation Technique, it had ultimately exceeded the range of a normal person.

In addition, the Land of Wind and the Land of Water were also constantly pushing this policy, but because the economic conditions of the two countries were poorer and there were more illiterate people, the chakra possession rate was far inferior to that of Konoha; it was about one in every fifteen or sixteen people who possessed chakra.

As for the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, their development speed was far behind the other three countries. After all, Uchiha Feiyu did not use Genjutsu to control them; the infighting between the Ninja Villages, Daimyo, and nobles alone had delayed them for a long time.

At first, the two great countries threatened war, wanting to force other countries to stop such a strategy. Unfortunately, the high-level officials of the three countries were all controlled by Uchiha Feiyu, and they were determined to push the policy of universal chakra, fearing not a single battle.

Under these circumstances, the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth eventually chickened out—there was no help for it; even the stubborn stone-heads of Iwagakure and the irritable brutes of the Cloud Ninja Village knew that they certainly couldn't win against the combined forces of the three countries on their own.

Let alone the combined forces of the three countries, even Konoha alone might not be defeatable by the combined forces of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, and with the addition of the Sand Ninja and Mist Ninja, the outcome would certainly be a miserable defeat.

Moreover, with the implementation of the policy of universal chakra cultivation, the number of experts in the three opposing countries would inevitably increase. The greatest benefit of the chakra system was that it was a shortcut; as long as one had good aptitude, an adult could form decent combat power after just a year or two of training.

After all, chakra was not like Inner Energy, which didn't care about the years of cultivation. How much chakra you could refine in your body was how much chakra you possessed; it wasn't that if you cultivated chakra for 20 years, your chakra volume would exceed someone who had cultivated for a year or two.

Therefore, this year or two was not used to cultivate the Chakra Refining Technique, but to cultivate ninjutsu and taijutsu. As long as the aptitude was good enough, an adult could become a decent combat force in a year or two.

Even if only one in a thousand ordinary civilians had good aptitude, the Land of Fire with its hundreds of millions of people could still produce an army of hundreds of thousands of ninjas. By then, how would the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth fight?

Finally, after nearly two years of tug-of-war, seeing that the three major countries were doing as they pleased and that the chakra cultivation method had already spread and could not be banned at all, the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth could only curse and immediately follow suit, lest they fall behind in strength.

These two countries had started late, and because their hearts were not united when implementing the strategy, they often had people holding them back. Even now, the policy of universal chakra had only just begun, and the chakra possession rate among ordinary civilians was less than one percent.

But regardless, the policy of universal chakra cultivation had taken root, and even if the monarchs and Shadows of the major countries wanted to abolish it now, they could no longer do so in the face of the spread of the Chakra Refining Technique.

The spread of the Chakra Refining Technique resulted in social chaos; after all, even just refining enough chakra to reach the level of a Ninja Academy Student and augmenting one's body with it was enough to turn an ordinary person into a fierce warrior from a romance novel, making it completely effortless to take on dozens of people alone.

When a person suddenly gains great power, they naturally become dizzy with arrogance and do things they would never dare to do on a normal day; the number of commoners who began committing all sorts of evils after gaining a bit of strength from practicing the Chakra Refining Technique was truly not small.

Of course, these commoners who were blinded by power all eventually became nourishment for the Hunyuan Treasure Box.

Having only chakra without knowing ninjutsu meant that any random Genin could take out seven or eight of these shoddy ninjas, and the ninjas from the Ninja Village soon taught these commoners who had gained chakra the lesson that your father is still your father.

When Uzumaki Naruto, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, first graduated, his chakra was already several times stronger than Kakashi's, yet if they were to have a one-on-one fight, Kakashi would have no problem at all taking on 100 newly graduated Narutos; this shows that having only chakra without ninjutsu or combat experience just makes one a punching bag with a bit more strength.

However, the Land of Fire and two other countries have now passed through the growing pains, because as more and more commoners possess chakra, no commoner feels that they are invincible just because they have undergone Awakening—you might just be preparing to dine and dash when you get beaten up by the restaurant owner, who has also undergone Awakening!

(End of this chapter)