Consciousness Mutation and the Gift of Control

Whether it was the human soul or body, energy constantly leaked out into the outside world every moment.

This was easy to understand. A living human body was itself a source of heat, constantly radiating heat outward.

This was a natural process of energy loss, one that basically every living creature experienced.

The heat dissipated through these losses was actually gathered from the energy naturally released by the body's cells during their vital activities.

This energy was the bodily energy needed to refine Chakra.

The soul was the same. As long as the soul had not gone extinct and consciousness remained, every fluctuation of thought or emotion would naturally release Spiritual Energy.

Chakra was created by controlling these two forms of constantly dissipating energy and merging them at a one-to-one ratio.

At first glance, refining Chakra this way did not seem slow.

In truth, it was difficult.

What made it difficult?

The difficulty lay in the word "control."

In reality, almost no one could achieve one hundred percent control over their bodily energy and Spiritual Energy.

Even geniuses like Minato, or the talented members of ancient ninja clans such as the Senju Clan and Uchiha, could not precisely control their bodily energy and Spiritual Energy.

Since they could not control bodily energy and Spiritual Energy, how did people merge them into Chakra?

The answer was "guidance."

Bodily energy and Spiritual Energy could not be controlled precisely, but they could be guided through one's consciousness.

Those with ninja talent could guide their bodily energy and Spiritual Energy into colliding and merging.

During that fusion, part of the bodily energy and Spiritual Energy happened to merge at a one-to-one ratio, forming Chakra.

The process of refining Chakra was, in fact, the process of guiding bodily energy and Spiritual Energy to merge.

What mattered here was guidance, not precise control.

And since it was guidance, there was inevitably the issue of efficiency.

Guiding bodily energy and Spiritual Energy together was like guiding two masses of black and white ink into collision and fusion.

At the instant they merged, it was impossible to make the black and white ink combine at exactly a one-to-one ratio and become gray ink.

Only some of it would successfully merge into gray; the rest would be gray leaning toward either white or black.

The same applied to guiding bodily energy and Spiritual Energy together.

It was impossible to instantly merge all the guided Spiritual Energy and bodily energy into Chakra at a one-to-one ratio.

A large portion of the bodily energy and Spiritual Energy failed to become Chakra and simply dissipated.

In fact, if there were enough time to continuously guide bodily energy and Spiritual Energy into merging, all of it could eventually be merged into Chakra.

Just like those two masses of black and white ink.

If one mixing was not enough, stirring them several more times would cause most of the black and white ink to merge into gray at a one-to-one ratio.

If bodily energy and Spiritual Energy could likewise be repeatedly guided into fusion, most of them could become Chakra as well.

Unfortunately, bodily energy and Spiritual Energy were not ink. They could not remain for long.

The bodily energy and Spiritual Energy within a ninja dissipated extremely quickly, remaining in the body for less than a tenth of a second.

They were like a waterfall with a rapid current, where not a single drop remained on the falls for more than a second.

Bodily energy and Spiritual Energy were the same.

Although a great deal of bodily energy was produced every instant, it quickly dispersed into heaven and earth.

It was precisely because bodily energy and Spiritual Energy existed for such a short time that hardly anyone could precisely control their fusion. They could only guide most of it.

Thus, the vast majority of ninjas could not fully utilize the bodily energy and Spiritual Energy naturally dissipated every instant.

From some of Kimura Yao's remaining memories, Li Yao could roughly determine something.

Kimura Yao's utilization rate for bodily energy and Spiritual Energy had barely reached one percent.

In other words, the former Kimura Yao had needed to guide one hundred portions of bodily energy and Spiritual Energy to refine a single portion of Chakra.

As for that talent for refining Chakra... without anything to compare it to, Li Yao did not know just how poor it was.

Still, by instinct, Li Yao felt that Minato's talent for refining Chakra probably allowed him to utilize at least over twenty percent of his bodily energy and Spiritual Energy.

As for the exact amount, Li Yao could not sense Minato's Chakra refinement process, so he did not know.

But even a genius like Minato, no matter how outstanding his talent for refining Chakra was, absolutely could not achieve a one hundred percent utilization rate for bodily energy and Spiritual Energy.

Yet Li Yao could now utilize bodily energy and Spiritual Energy one hundred percent.

Because he could precisely control every portion of bodily energy and Spiritual Energy leaking from his body, preventing them from vanishing.

He did not know whether it was because of his transmigration.

Li Yao's consciousness seemed to have mutated, changing from an illusory conceptual thing into matter that truly existed in the real world.

His consciousness no longer seemed to be merely "consciousness." It was like another version of himself that had come alive.

That living consciousness naturally merged into his flesh, bringing Li Yao's control over his body to the legendary realm of unity between body and mind.

His microscopic perception of his body had also reached a level ordinary people could scarcely believe. Seeing cells was no longer just a feeling; he could truly "see" them.

The sensation was intoxicating, as though he had become a god.

Besides that extreme, minute perception, his living consciousness had granted him another ability.

He could control the energy he sensed as though using telekinesis.

From the very instant he began refining Chakra,

Li Yao could precisely sense and control the energy naturally released by every cell in his body every moment, preventing it from dissipating.

The Spiritual Energy released by his soul was the same.

Every trace of Spiritual Energy was precisely sensed and controlled by his consciousness.

That precise sensing and control resulted in a one hundred percent utilization rate for bodily energy and Spiritual Energy.

"This is amazing!!!"

Feeling the continuously refined Chakra within his body, Li Yao was thrilled beyond measure.

Compared with the Chakra refinement speed of his former self in his memories, where it had formed drop by drop like dripping water,

the stream of Chakra now constantly pouring from Li Yao's entire body, like a burst water pipe, was worlds apart.

Every instant, the bodily energy and Spiritual Energy that dissipated from him were controlled by Li Yao's consciousness within moments and merged into Chakra at a one-to-one ratio, without wasting the slightest bit.

If someone touched Li Yao's body right now, they would find it incredibly cold.

Because almost all the energy his body released was being used to refine Chakra, his body temperature naturally dropped.

At that moment, Li Yao was like a popsicle in summer, freezing cold.

Minato, sitting beside Li Yao, felt it especially clearly, as if he were sitting next to an air conditioner.

"What an incredible Chakra refinement speed!!!"

Minato was shocked. Li Yao's Chakra refinement speed was far too fast, and the amount was enormous.

The Chakra in Li Yao's body was increasing at a terrifying rate.

Most of the refined Chakra flowed through the Chakra meridian channels into his Dantian for storage. A small portion remained within the various acupoints, while some dispersed into cells throughout his body.

Li Yao could sense that the Chakra dispersed into his cells was being absorbed by them.

And the cells that absorbed Chakra became stronger and more vibrant.

Those more vigorous, powerful cells in turn nourished and strengthened the spirit, making it more stable and active.

This strengthening was extremely subtle. Ordinary people could not feel it.

But over time, it would rapidly widen the gap in physical fitness between ninjas and ordinary people.

Li Yao finally understood why the child ninjas in Hokage were so absurdly powerful.

Having Chakra and lacking Chakra truly made an enormous difference.

For genius ninjas, being young did not matter.

As long as their Chakra reserves were sufficient, their physical ability would not be inferior to that of older ninjas. It might even be stronger.

Then... could I control more Chakra and disperse it into my cells for them to absorb?

Li Yao's heart stirred. Since he could absolutely control bodily energy and Spiritual Energy, he also had one hundred percent control over Chakra.

He could easily control Chakra and disperse it into his body's cells.

Let's try it.

Li Yao gradually increased the amount of Chakra dispersed into his cells. He did not dare increase it all at once, fearing the cells would be unable to withstand it and collapse.

Hmm... it doesn't seem to work.

After a while, Li Yao frowned slightly. The amount and speed at which cells absorbed Chakra were fixed; increasing the amount of Chakra dispersed into them did not make them absorb more.

With that, his idea of accelerating the cells' Chakra absorption to improve his physical fitness had failed.

Still, it was not bad.

Li Yao did not dwell on it. With his current Chakra-refining talent and its one hundred percent utilization rate, his Chakra reserves would rise quickly.

Then he could provide Chakra for all of his body's cells to absorb around the clock.

Others could not precisely supply Chakra to every cell in their bodies twenty-four hours a day.

Only Li Yao, whose mutated consciousness granted him absolute control over Chakra, could do so.

In that case, his physical fitness would improve rapidly as well—at least much faster than before.

As he pondered this, Li Yao felt a prickling pain begin in his cells. He withdrew the Chakra he had actively dispersed into them and controlled it back into his Dantian.

Absolute control over Chakra brought another benefit.

Since Chakra could be controlled absolutely, aside from the Chakra used to nourish cells, the rest would not dissipate or leak away.

Chakra, like bodily and Spiritual Energy, naturally dissipated even within the human body, though not nearly as quickly as bodily and Spiritual Energy.

Chakra was like the heat source of an ordinary human body.

While its temperature—its Chakra amount—remained at a constant level, heat was still continuously radiated outward every moment.

Of the Chakra that leaked away and dissipated, some was absorbed by the body's cells, but most actually scattered into heaven and earth.

Compared to others, Li Yao could use his absolute control over Chakra to collect and store in his Dantian the portion that would otherwise dissipate into heaven and earth.

With one gain and one reduction, Li Yao's Chakra would only continue growing.

In the original work, Tsunade's Yin Seal collected and sealed away the Chakra that naturally dissipated in daily life, releasing it when needed and thereby effectively granting her enormous Chakra reserves.

If Li Yao learned the Yin Seal, the Chakra he sealed away would definitely exceed Tsunade's by far.

Because Tsunade could not collect one hundred percent of her dissipating Chakra, while he could.

"Looks like I need to find a way to become Tsunade's disciple!"

A sealing technique like the Yin Seal, capable of granting massive Chakra reserves, was extremely precious. In the original work, the only one who learned it was Sakura, Tsunade's disciple.

If Li Yao wanted to learn the Yin Seal, becoming Tsunade's disciple was his only path.

But becoming Tsunade's disciple would not be easy.

Especially since he was a boy.