Mental Weight Training?

"Remove the seal for me!" Anko stared at Bai Yue with blazing eyes.

"You want to make the power within the Curse Mark of Heaven your own?" Bai Yue looked at Anko curiously. Hadn't this girl outright rejected the Curse Mark of Heaven's power?

"Yes!" Anko said resentfully.

"I refuse!" Bai Yue replied without hesitation!

Although the Curse Mark of Heaven could grant tremendous power, it was far too ugly. Some transformations were so hideous they barely looked human.

So Bai Yue directly rejected it on Anko's behalf for being ugly.

As long as Anko didn't turn into a Sweet Potato, Bai Yue still rather liked her dashing, heroic appearance.

"Then why the hell did you bring it up?!" The irritable Anko wanted to smash Bai Yue's head in with one punch, but Kurenai Yuhi was holding her tightly.

Unable to break free, she could only fly into a furious rage.

"I won't remove the seal anytime soon, because you're too weak! You simply can't withstand the Curse Mark of Heaven's corrosion." This was a lie. In the future, Anko had forcibly endured the Curse Mark of Heaven, but the price was that its burden greatly slowed her growth.

Moreover, whether due to the higher-ups' suspicion or some other reason, the techniques Anko used were always Ninjutsu taught by Orochimaru.

At their core was the Summoning Technique of Dragon Cave.

Yes, that's right! Anko had a summoning contract with Dragon Cave, one of the Three Great Sacred Places.

Bai Yue simply had no interest in Dragon Cave. Otherwise, even if the Summoning Scroll was in Orochimaru's hands, he would have tried to swindle Dragon Cave's contract out of Anko.

"Once you grow stronger in the future, I'll gradually remove the seal," Bai Yue continued. "Although the seal is currently also passively sealing part of the Chakra entangled with the Curse Mark of Heaven, that's actually a good thing in a sense."

"How is that a good thing?!" Anko snapped.

Damn it! I really want to beat this smug little brat to death!

"Ever heard of weight training?" Bai Yue said with a smile. "Having part of your mental power sealed is, in a sense, like putting weighted shackles on it. As long as you keep training, your mental power will eventually undergo a transformation."

"Really?!" Kurenai Yuhi's eyes lit up beside them!

As a Genjutsu Ninja, mental power was simply too important to Kurenai Yuhi!

If this was real, Kurenai Yuhi wanted a seal like that too.

"Of course it's real~" Bai Yue raised an eyebrow and smiled. "If Sister Anko also trains in Taijutsu, then once the seal is removed, your Chakra reserves will increase significantly."

For a Ninja, nothing was more important than Chakra reserves and Combat Awareness.

As long as one possessed either of those, it was practically a ticket past the threshold to becoming strong.

"Then cultivate a few powerful techniques, and tsk tsk..."

"You aren't lying to me?!" Anko was a little tempted!

"Do I need to lie to you?" Bai Yue said with a laugh, though he also felt somewhat helpless.

He was an ordinary man with a taste for wine, women, wealth, and pleasure. Only his age, the urgency of survival, and most importantly, his desire for longevity and Eternal Life kept him in check!

Otherwise, Bai Yue would have become arrogant long ago!

No, damn it! I'm already arrogant right now!

Starting today, I'm quitting drinking!

First, settle Anko, this little troublemaker! Then work hard and grow stronger!

"How about this? Work hard for a year first. When the time comes, I'll remove part of the seal, and you'll see for yourself."

"A year?! That's too long!"

"You don't have the right to refuse~" Bai Yue spread his hands and said confidently. "My Sealing Jutsu may not be extraordinary, but undoing a seal I set isn't that easy."

"In other words, as long as I don't want to remove it, this seal will be very difficult to undo."

"Bai Yue, can you give me a seal too?" Kurenai Yuhi, who now felt Bai Yue was quite reliable, wanted to try this so-called Mental Weight Training method.

Don't joke around. You don't have Orochimaru's Soul Fragment corroding you, nor the Natural Energy corrosion brought by Jugo Cells. Without those two Whetstones, how could you temper your mental power?

Although Bai Yue's seal on Anko blocked the corrosion on her body, it did not seal it away completely. Otherwise, without the supply of external Natural Energy and Anko's own Chakra, the Jugo Cells would simply "starve to death."

At that point, Orochimaru's Soul Fragment would either perish or follow its survival instinct and invade Anko's sea of consciousness to possess her through Living Corpse Reincarnation.

Of course, as a damaged Soul Fragment with nothing to rely on, it was bound to fail.

"I'm sorry, Sister Hong. For now, this Mental Weight Training method is only suitable for Sister Anko. The Curse Mark of Heaven on her body is very special and constantly absorbs Natural Energy to corrode her," Bai Yue said frankly. "So unless we find a suitable sealed entity to serve as a 'Whetstone,' Mental Weight Training is simply impossible."

"Fine! I believe you!" Anko was invigorated.

When Bai Yue first said that this method was only suitable for her, she thought he was deceiving her. But after he briefly explained the principle, she genuinely believed in this so-called Mental Weight Training method.

"..." Kurenai Yuhi lowered her head in disappointment.

There had clearly been an opportunity to cheat her way to strength, yet things had not gone as hoped.

Compared to Taijutsu, which could be improved through hard work alone, the mental power needed for Genjutsu required slow, painstaking effort to build.

After all, not everyone had a pair of Sharingan that could greatly increase their mental power just by losing a beloved friend or relative.

"I'll study it some more. If I find a suitable sealed entity, I'll set one up for you too, Sister Hong," Bai Yue said with a smile.

Unless he transplanted some of the Jugo Cells within Anko into Kurenai Yuhi, Bai Yue truly had no suitable carrier.

What? Bai Yue had perfectly fused with Jugo Cells?

Bai Yue could indeed absorb Natural Energy now, but his level was still too low. Even activating Sage Mode was difficult, let alone having a mere handful of cells affect his mind and body to such an extent.

For Bai Yue's cells to reach that stage, he would need at least Sage Mode Lv. 5 or higher, perhaps even to go a step further and awaken a Sage Body.

There was something Bai Yue hadn't said: compared to Jugo Cells, Orochimaru's Soul Fragment had an even greater impact.

"All right, thank you, Bai Yue~" Kurenai Yuhi smiled, feeling that Bai Yue was merely trying to comfort her.

Although she had failed to obtain the cheat she wanted, getting Anko to pull herself together had been her main goal today.

Though it differed slightly from what she had envisioned, turning the Half-dead Anko into someone driven by revenge was still better than before.

Kurenai Yuhi gave Bai Yue a deep look, seeing him in a new light once again.

He was just a Little Bean! How could he be this reliable?!

"If there's nothing else, I'll be going back." Bai Yue rose to his feet, glanced once more at the bustling village, and prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Kurenai Yuhi immediately called out.

"What is it?"

"Let's go get barbecue. My treat!"