After dealing with Sasuke's matter and receiving another infusion of three hundred million in funds, Neji felt his wallet, which had just been drained, bulge again. His mood improved slightly!
Through various channels, Neji purchased a batch of experimental equipment and officially began researching the uses of "Natural Energy."
Under the cover of night, Neji arrived at the laboratory outside the village. Looking at how drastically the lab had changed, he began his experiments with confidence.
The laboratory contained over a hundred standardized sealed chambers, each housing ten newborn white mice.
Neji planned to test methods of using Natural Energy in two ways: increasing the concentration of Natural Energy in their living environment and directly injecting Natural Energy Diluent.
The experiment was divided into two groups:
The first group consisted of fifty sealed chambers. Each chamber held ten white mice and was numbered from 1 to 50. Chamber No. 1 contained natural air from the Shinobi World, while Chamber No. 2 had twice the Natural Energy concentration of Shinobi World air, and so on. Chamber No. 50 had fifty times the Natural Energy concentration of Shinobi World air.
The second group also consisted of fifty sealed chambers. Each chamber held ten white mice and was numbered from 51 to 100. The ten mice in Chamber No. 51 were injected with diluent containing no Natural Energy, while those in Chamber No. 52 were injected with Natural Energy Diluent at one standard unit of concentration, and so on. The ten mice in Chamber No. 100 were injected with Natural Energy Diluent at forty-nine times the standard unit concentration.
All other conditions remained unchanged. The growth of the white mice in each chamber was observed three times a day and recorded.
Collecting this experimental data would take at least two months to complete a single phase. Once the results were available, he would design and carry out the next stage of experiments.
To speed up progress, Neji opened up three more experimental spaces in the underground laboratory. Using the same method, he placed young monkeys, piglets, and wolf pups in the sealed chambers of the three labs. Since monkeys, pigs, and wolves were relatively large, he appropriately reduced the number of young animals and expanded the chambers according to the actual circumstances, ensuring they had relatively comfortable living spaces.
During this period, Neji also made a trip to the Summoning Realm and brought back two Thunder Roc chicks. He regularly placed one in an environment with an extremely high concentration of Natural Energy, while regularly injecting the other with high-concentration Natural Energy Diluent, observing the growth of both Thunder Rocs.
Thunder Rocs naturally possessed excellent physiques and had long lived in Natural Energy concentrations three or four times higher than normal. They should be more adaptable to Natural Energy than ordinary test subjects.
And so, Neji arranged for two Shadow Clones to begin the long and tedious experimental work.
Meanwhile, his original body continued undergoing frenzied self-improvement alongside Sasuke.
Having learned from the commotion caused by their previous sparring session and with another large sum of money at hand, Neji waved his hand and spent thirty million ryo to buy a residence covering nearly six mu on the outskirts of Konoha.
The main residence was not large, only four to five hundred square meters. What was large was the cultivation area in the backyard, which covered more than three thousand square meters—about half the size of a football field! It was more than enough for Sasuke and Neji to mess around in.
As for the laboratory beneath his old house, Neji decided not to move it. He even relocated some experimental functions aboveground to make the work more convenient.
In the blink of an eye, three months passed!
Neji's Natural Energy usage experiments also achieved preliminary results!
The experiments produced several useful sets of data:
1. Direct injection of Natural Energy Diluent carried extremely high risks. Of the fifty groups of white mice, nearly all those injected with Natural Energy Diluent exceeding three times the standard unit concentration died.
Only one mouse injected with a fivefold concentration tenaciously survived, but its body became deformed.
It could be said that directly injecting Natural Energy Diluent had an astonishingly high mortality rate. Yet low-concentration diluent had little noticeable effect, making it rather useless.
As for the white mice in experimental chambers No. 52 and No. 53,
while they did not all die, some deaths still occurred. The pattern was clear: the higher the injection concentration, the higher the mortality rate. Only Chamber No. 51 remained unharmed because its mice had been injected with mere diluent rather than Natural Energy. The surviving mice were slightly sturdier than ordinary white mice, but the difference was not especially obvious.
Monkeys, pigs, and wolves could tolerate higher concentrations of injected Natural Energy than white mice. Monkeys could endure fivefold concentration, pigs sevenfold, and wolves tenfold.
2. Experiments increasing the concentration of Natural Energy in the air were far safer than injections. Among the fifty groups of test subjects, deaths occurred only in chambers with concentrations above forty-onefold. Even at the maximum fiftyfold concentration, not all of them died. Two survived, and they were very robust, seemingly having adapted to the high-Natural-Energy environment.
On the other side, not a single monkey, pig, or wolf died. They were all healthy, and the higher the concentration, the faster they grew.
Whether injected with Natural Energy Diluent or kept in a high-concentration Natural Energy environment for extended periods, any test subjects that survived experienced improvements in every bodily function.
The most noticeable changes were slightly larger bodies, greater strength, enhanced recovery ability, better stamina, increased physical power, and various other benefits. It was a comprehensive enhancement.
Seeing the summarized experimental data report, Neji grew increasingly delighted. This has potential!
Even more excitingly, Neji guessed that this so-called "Natural Energy" was very likely the "Spiritual Energy" described in the fantasy novels of his previous life!
The various characteristics of "Natural Energy" were highly similar to "Spiritual Energy." For example, it nourished the body and comprehensively enhanced all physical attributes. It could also extend one's lifespan. The Great Toad Sage, the White Snake Sage, and others had cultivated Natural Energy—who among them had not lived for hundreds or even thousands of years? Natural Energy was also prone to gathering in deep mountains and blessed lands...
Yet in the Naruto World, there was no systematic inheritance for cultivating Natural Energy, and its concentration was low, which prevented it from ever becoming widespread.
Only the Three Great Sage Lands possessed complete inheritances!
However, the inheritances of the Three Great Sage Lands were secret arts for animals to cultivate Natural Energy. In the terms of his previous life, the Great Toad Sage, White Snake Sage, and Slug Sage should all be called toad demons, white snake demons, and slug demons. They had become demons through cultivating Spiritual Energy, ultimately gaining long lifespans!
The secret arts cultivated by demons should be called Demon Arts! They were not suitable for human cultivation. Forcing oneself to practice them came with extremely high risks, and even if one truly succeeded, there would still be the danger of demonization.
For example, Jiraiya's Toad Transformation and Kabuto's White Snake Transformation. Even Naruto, despite his high compatibility, bore distinct traces of practicing Demon Arts!
Having understood these key points, Neji decisively abandoned the idea of going to the Three Great Sage Lands to learn Sage Art—or rather, Demon Arts.
With the aid of an environment containing an extremely high concentration of Natural Energy, Neji intended to create a set of secret arts suitable for humans to cultivate Natural Energy. A true "Sage Art" suited to humanity!
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