Cultivation

"If there are no questions, that's all for today. When you get home, practice diligently. Remember the order of the hand seals and increase your seal speed. Tomorrow we can try taking on some basic missions." Seeing that they had no questions, Tenzo dismissed them to practice on their own, while he himself needed to report this matter to the Third Hokage.

"No problem, take on missions... We'll practice our ninjutsu properly." They nodded, planning to first get a good understanding of their summoning beasts before considering anything else.

Zi Xu couldn't wait to get back and try cultivating Sage Mode. After saying goodbye to Chino and the others, he returned to his room, locked the door, sealed off the sound within, and pulled down the little black snake that refused to leave his head.

"Hmm... Essentially, this guy wasn't summoned by me. Even though he signed a summoning contract with me, he won't return to Ryūchi Cave for other reasons. Is this the White Snake Sage's doing..." Zi Xu poked the little black snake's head with his finger. It looked dull, not very bright.

The little black snake was quite close to Zi Xu, lifting its head to nudge his fingertip, its eyes half-closed.

"Never mind, let's try cultivating Sage Mode first. Since you're also a snake from Ryūchi Cave, I hope you can help me during my training..." Zi Xu started rambling again. Though the little black snake couldn't do anything at the moment, it still raised its tail at him in a cheering gesture.

"Alright, good. To cultivate Sage Mode, first I need to sense the natural energy around me and blend it with my physical energy and spiritual energy in a perfect 1:1:1 ratio..." After drawing the curtains, he sat cross-legged on the bed, using the energy left by the White Snake Sage within him to focus on sensing the natural energy.

Calming his mind, Zi Xu closed his eyes. In a daze, he indeed "saw" some white energy floating in the air around him.

At the same time, he looked inward at his own body and similarly "saw" a sphere formed by blue and green energy, the two colors evenly dividing the space inside the sphere.

"Next, I just need to let that white energy merge into this sphere. It feels pretty simple..." At this point, Zi Xu hadn't yet realized the severity of the problem and began absorbing natural energy into his body.

He started very cautiously, slowly integrating the natural energy into his body. But he quickly found this approach wouldn't work—the natural energy was too scarce to merge into the sphere of the two energies before being extinguished by them.

Left with no choice, he increased his intake of natural energy. However, he hadn't expected the natural energy to be so powerful. He only felt it rapidly assimilating his other bodily energies, and in response, his body underwent a terrifying transformation.

His once deep, dark eyes gradually elongated, their pupils shifting from pure black to a golden, vertical slit. Dark purple eye shadow appeared beneath his clean eyelids. His skin turned pale, like fish skin left to dry in the sun for days. Sharp fangs grew in his mouth, and his jaw split open toward his ears, making him look more and more like a snake.

"Damn, this natural energy is too domineering..." Zi Xu gritted his teeth, suppressing the natural energy that was frantically assimilating his other energies. The little black snake beside him whipped its tail against Zi Xu's body, forcibly interrupting his absorption process.

He lay on the ground, panting heavily. Touching his face, he found it had returned to normal, then sat back on the bed to resume training. Dangers during cultivation were inevitable, but he couldn't give up just because of a little risk.

He patted the little black snake's head with some satisfaction. "I didn't expect you little guy to be useful. Maybe you can be trained as a combat-type summoning beast after all."

He wasn't scared off by this failure; instead, he was even more determined to master Sage Mode. But during his subsequent training, he discovered one thing: natural energy wasn't everywhere. At least, the natural energy around his house had been drained dry by him.

Night had fallen, and the little black snake was growing more energetic, constantly flicking its small tail to urge him to train. Yet he still hadn't grasped any knack for it.

Growing more frustrated, he simply summoned a Shadow Clone and reinfused the Demon Power into the clone's body. The once-normal clone immediately fell into a listless state.

"Do you understand everything I told you before? You need to grasp the essence of 'Silence' to develop the Devil Fruit Ability. Soundproofing and the like are just the initial stage. Stop obsessing over your Soundproof Sleep Technique. Apply the power of silence to combat—silence others' movements, and extending it to the realm of time and space would be advanced..." Zi Xu felt like a parent grieving over their child's lack of progress.

The Silent Clone reluctantly got up from the bed, added a Soundproof Barrier to itself, and obediently tried to silence the surrounding space, though with little visible effect.

After squeezing the clone dry, Zi Xu turned his gaze to the little black snake, causing its wagging tail to freeze mid-air. He formed hand seals—if Tenzo were here, he'd be furious.

"Stay put, don't run off. Reverse Summoning!" The familiar white smoke dissipated, leaving only the Silent Clone and the little black snake in the room.

Feeling the damp rock beneath him and listening to the sound of dripping water, Zi Xu actually felt a bit relaxed. In the darkness, he seemed more at ease.

"As expected, the natural energy here is astonishingly dense. This is practically a holy land for cultivating Sage Mode." He hadn't noticed it before, but now that he was training in Sage Mode, his perception of the surrounding energy had sharpened—like a fish sensing water, or a person seeing air.

"You've come. Cultivate Senjutsu. Though the White Snake Sage won't interfere with your training, we can still give you some help." The Three Divine Maidens emerged from the air like ghosts, sticking out their tongues as they spoke eerily.

Zi Xu reached out and pushed aside the face of the Divine Maiden who was trying to scare him, then began preparing for his Sage Mode training.

"How will you help me?" Zi Xu sat cross-legged, closing his eyes to sense the energy within his body.

"We'll create noise around you to disrupt you, and wake you up when you're about to turn into a snake." Ichikishimahime let out a hissing sound, clearly intending to settle a personal grudge—she hadn't forgotten that this guy had dirtied her scales.

"Do as you please. That's fine. Thank you." Zi Xu knew they wouldn't harm him anymore, so he ignored them. But he might have misunderstood what they meant by "noise."

He held his breath and focused. The natural energy in the surrounding air was so dense it was practically overflowing. He effortlessly drew it into his body.

"No, no, how can you start absorbing natural energy right away? Before that, you must have a heart that can remain calm no matter what. So..." The Divine Maiden's voice came from somewhere, echoing off the cave walls and irritating him.

"Stay calm. Keep calm. Balance the ratio of the three energies... Hiss... Ah." Unfortunately, even with a calm mindset, Zi Xu always made some mistake in the ratio when integrating natural energy into himself—either too much natural energy, or too much physical and spiritual energy. He never found the balance point, and each time he was about to snake out, a Divine Maiden would appear and smack him with her tail.

"I told you, don't rush to merge the energy. First, you need a state of mind that ignores external disturbances." The voice came from all around again. This time, Zi Xu noticed that even their words carried the power of Genjutsu.

"Unaffected by the outside world..." Forcing down the irritation stirred up within him, he carefully considered the Divine Maidens' words and tried to ignore their disruptions.

Sure enough, once he calmed down, he noticed many details he'd overlooked. For instance, he had been forcibly drawing natural energy into his body, relying entirely on his physical constitution to suppress the violent energy. If he kept this up, he wouldn't be using it to fight enemies—he'd likely self-destruct before any battle.

He tried to relax his body, pretending not to see the natural energy, and subtly absorbed it, but in a gentler way. The natural energy, which responded to softness rather than force, integrated into his body more easily this time.

"Plop~" Zi Xu was startled by the sudden sound, losing control of his natural energy intake. He failed again, nearly turning into a snake.

"Don't be affected at any time. Control your breath..."

...And so, Zi Xu trained in Sage Mode all night. Though he never succeeded once, he at least became more sensitive to the energy around him.

"Yawn..." Zi Xu had dark circles under his eyes and was propping up his chin with a long yawn.

"Hm? Zi Xu, looks like you didn't sleep well lately. As a ninja, you need to maintain a good mental state to face crises at all times." Tenzo could tell at a glance that Zi Xu hadn't rested well last night. His summoning beast, on the other hand, seemed well-rested, still sound asleep on his head.

"Ah, Teacher Tenzo, I really didn't rest well last night. It's fine—I'll sleep earlier these next few days and adjust in no time..." Zi Xu stretched, loosening his joints.

"Mm, get some rest. Soon we'll go take on a mission. This is everyone's first mission, so do your best." Tenzo put down the chalk in his hand, planning to take them on some tasks to familiarize them with the mission format.

"A mission? We can take on missions now?" Chino and the others were also curious about what ninja missions entailed.

"Of course. Taking on missions early will help you understand the mission process and gain experience. Don't underestimate any mission, and don't let your guard down just because it's low-ranked."

"If you're all ready, follow me now. This is also a form of training."

"Okay."