Sage Jutsu Cultivation

Neji spent several more days working with Zabuza and a construction crew of over a hundred people to completely renovate his new home. Aside from some furniture and daily necessities that still needed to be purchased outside, it was basically ready to move into.

That day, Neji summoned Zabuza, Haku, and several other Chunin to the large training room on the second basement level of his new home. Taking out the Natural Energy Compression Tank, he said solemnly, "At present, shinobi have two cultivation systems. The first is the Chakra Cultivation Method we all know well. The second is the Sage Jutsu Cultivation Method, which has always existed in the Shinobi World but is known by very few!"

Rather than continuing with theoretical explanations, Neji walked over to a target and first used an ordinary Fireball Jutsu, blasting a small crater into it. Then he infused the Fireball Jutsu with Sage Chakra and fired again, directly shattering the target!

The difference between the two was obvious.

The sight left everyone around him exhilarated, and they could hardly wait to start learning.

Neji continued, "Chakra is formed by extracting one's physical and spiritual energy. In other words, the more advanced one's Chakra cultivation becomes and the more frequently it is used, the greater the burden and depletion on the body. Such people often have shorter lifespans and die sooner! This is not really a secret. We are all shinobi, so it should be easy enough to tell whether it is true."

The fact that shinobi had shorter lifespans than ordinary people was no longer much of a secret. The great ninja villages merely deliberately ignored or concealed it in order to encourage more people to become shinobi.

And during times of war, how many people truly lived to die of old age? How many genuinely cared about losing a few years of their lifespan because of ninjutsu training?

"But Sage Jutsu cultivation is different. It involves absorbing Natural Energy from the world into the body, controlling it to temper oneself, and finally using the Sage Chakra formed from that Natural Energy to fight enemies."

"Whether in offensive and defensive power, feedback to the body, range of use, or any other aspect, Sage Jutsu is vastly superior to Chakra cultivation across the board!"

"However, Sage Jutsu cultivation has one extremely difficult weakness to overcome: its difficulty!"

"Using traditional methods to cultivate Sage Jutsu has an incredibly high threshold. Only a handful of the finest people in the Shinobi World can meet its requirements. For example, Hashirama Senju, once known as the God of Shinobi; Jiraiya, one of the currently renowned Sannin; and Konoha's Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Which of them was not an exceptional talent of his era? Yet only people like them could barely meet the threshold for cultivating Sage Jutsu."

Naturally, everyone present had heard those names. They were legendary.

When Neji told them that those people had all cultivated Sage Jutsu, and judging from his manner, seemed likely to teach them Sage Jutsu cultivation as well, several Chunin with weaker composure became so excited that their faces flushed red.

Neji no longer kept them in suspense. Pointing at the Natural Energy Compression Tank in his hand, he said, "This contains highly concentrated Natural Energy. The reason Sage Jutsu cultivation is so difficult is that Natural Energy in the Shinobi World is too thin. Unless one is an unparalleled genius, one cannot even sense it, much less cultivate it!"

"Now, I can raise the concentration of Natural Energy in this training room by a hundred times. That effectively reduces the difficulty of sensing Natural Energy by a hundredfold, allowing even people with ordinary talent to sense it and have a chance to draw it into their bodies to begin cultivating Sage Jutsu."

Seeing the eager looks in everyone's eyes, even Zabuza trembled slightly with excitement. This was the Shinobi World's highest-tier cultivation method. It could greatly increase one's strength and even offer a chance to reach the pinnacle of the Shinobi World. Who could resist such temptation?

After explaining a few more details, Neji sealed the training room and raised its Natural Energy concentration to one hundred times that of the outside world before stopping the release of Natural Energy.

The group immediately felt that the world had become different. It was as though the air were filled with something. Not only did it feel exceptionally comfortable, but taking a few more breaths made them slightly excited and full of energy.

After giving them a few precautions, Neji had them remain in the large training room to sense Natural Energy and improve their affinity with it.

Neji himself went alone to his private training room and spread out a huge diagram of the human body's meridians across the wall!

At this stage, Neji's Internal Circulation of Sage Energy was still relatively simple. Not only could it strengthen only certain parts of his body, but the amount of Sage Energy stored within him was also very limited.

That was why, unless necessary, he did not easily mobilize Sage Energy in battle. He had so little of it that it would be gone after only a few uses. It could only serve as a decisive trump card at critical moments, and there was nothing he could do about it!

And the task Neji was currently undertaking was to optimize and expand the Internal Circulation pathways for Sage Energy!

For ordinary people, this process was extremely dangerous. Both meridians and acupoints were exceptionally fragile, while Sage Energy was incomparably violent when not completely controlled. Without internal vision, one could only grope blindly. To find a suitable Internal Circulation path, one either needed heaven-defying luck or had to pile up lives in experimentation!

But Neji possessed uniquely favorable advantages. First, nearly all the meridians and acupoints in his body had already been opened and strengthened by his own Chakra, laying a solid foundation for accommodating the more violent Sage Energy.

Second, the Byakugan possessed internal vision. He could clearly see the precise flow paths of Chakra and Sage Energy through his meridians, making it easier for him to control the direction of Sage Chakra and its impact on acupoints.

Finally, Neji himself had over five thousand Ka of Chakra. At critical moments, he could use Chakra to soothe Sage Energy that had gone out of control and become violent. This was also why the Three Great Sage Lands, without exception, treated whether one possessed abundant Chakra as the prerequisite for determining whether one had the aptitude to cultivate Sage Jutsu.

Even with so many advantages, Neji still carried out this task with great care and caution. He seriously studied the meridian diagram within his body, even though he had long committed it to memory.

The human body was mainly divided into the Twelve Main Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

The Twelve Main Meridians referred to the Gallbladder Meridian, Liver Meridian, Lung Meridian, Large Intestine Meridian, Stomach Meridian, Spleen Meridian, Heart Meridian, Small Intestine Meridian, Bladder Meridian, Kidney Meridian, Pericardium Meridian, and Triple Burner Meridian.

The Eight Extraordinary Meridians referred collectively to the Thrusting Meridian, Belt Meridian, Yang Linking Meridian, Yin Linking Meridian, Yin Heel Meridian, Yang Heel Meridian, Governing Vessel, and Conception Vessel.

Under normal circumstances, the Twelve Main Meridians remained open, providing energy for the normal functioning of the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, hands, feet, brain, and other organs.

The Eight Extraordinary Meridians, however, were normally closed. They were called "Gates" in the Shinobi World, meaning "gates" that controlled energy transmission! Their corresponding names were the Gate of Opening, Gate of Healing, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View, Gate of Wonder, and Gate of Death.

No one in the Shinobi World cultivated Sage Energy like Neji did, slowly widening and breaking through the pathways of acupoints and meridians with Sage Energy.

Instead, they used Chakra to forcibly break through the seals of the Eight Gates. This was the core cultivation principle behind Konoha's forbidden technique, the Eight Gates.

Although such violent breakthroughs of the Eight Gates' seals could temporarily increase one's strength to a certain extent, they inflicted even greater damage on the body, and the boost was only temporary. It was truly a case of killing the chicken to get the eggs.

What Neji needed to do was form a perfect Internal Circulation of Sage Energy within his body. This Internal Circulation would encompass the Twelve Main Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, allowing the Eight Gates within his body to remain permanently open without side effects and enabling Sage Energy to truly fill his entire body!

Then he would use the Sage Energy filling his body to temper himself and form a perfect Sage Body!

By then, Neji would surely break through the shackles of life and achieve immortality like the sages of the Three Great Sage Lands!

Perhaps then, he could break through the boundaries between worlds and go outside to take a look!