Soul Cultivation

The plan for the Land of Rain was nothing more than the usual sowing of discord. The Land of Rain wanted to expand anyway, Sunagakure was practically going mad from poverty, and the two countries were said to have an old grudge. Stirring up conflict between them would be much easier.

After leaving the Hokage Building, Sarutobi Toru paid another visit to Orochimaru's laboratory in the Ninjutsu Research Department.

Although Orochimaru had yet to show any pursuit of immortality, his obsession with ninjutsu had already begun to emerge. He was faintly taking on the shape of a mad scientist.

Of course, what Orochimaru was currently most obsessed with was the Yang God Daoist Scripture Sarutobi Toru had brought him!

Unlike the laboratories of ordinary ninja, which were always gloomy and sinister, the Ninjutsu Research Department's laboratory was spotless and brightly clean. Its pure white walls and large shadowless lamps gave it an advanced, professional feel.

Part of that was due to Sarutobi Toru's suggestion. After all, spending all day in a gloomy environment made people prone to becoming twisted. The other part was because... Konoha had money now!

Research really did burn money! Honestly, Sarutobi Toru believed that with the Ninjutsu Research Department, Orochimaru would never leave Konoha for the rest of his life.

After all, having ample funding for research felt far too good!

Come to think of it, Orochimaru being discovered for conducting human experiments in the Original Work was probably deliberate on his part.

Human experimentation was not particularly taboo in the Shinobi World. Ordinary ninja might not come into contact with it, but every ninja village had such things.

Think about it: how repulsed could ninja who did not even spare the corpses of the dead really be by human experimentation?

The reason Orochimaru was branded a rogue ninja was because he had targeted his own people!

With his abilities, the only reason he would target his own people was to vent his frustrations. After all, the ones he captured were merely ordinary ninja, not Bloodline Clans like the Uchiha or Hyuga. Ninja like that were everywhere in the Shinobi World; there was no need whatsoever to lay hands on his own people.

It was probably because failing to become Hokage had left him completely disappointed. Though he acted as if he did not care, the Konoha Crush Plan, which harmed both others and himself, was enough to show that he still harbored resentment.

Of course, Orochimaru probably no longer coveted the position of Hokage. Back then, he had been the most outstanding one of his generation. Now, though, both Tsunade and Sarutobi Toru could take on two or three of him, so naturally he no longer had such lofty ambitions.

As he entered the laboratory, he saw Orochimaru casually tapping at a high-tech Display Screen, streams of data cascading across it like a waterfall.

Sarutobi Toru walked over and watched for a while. Even as something of an expert in human research himself, there was quite a bit of data on the screen that he could not understand.

"Is this... a Mental Strength test?" Sarutobi Toru asked.

"More precisely, these are the test values for a spirit body." Orochimaru kept his eyes on the screen and replied without turning his head.

"The soul and mind are intangible and difficult to grasp, but fortunately, we have Chakra. By converting the originally intangible mind into Yin Release and the ethereal, illusory soul into a spirit body, we can observe and analyze them."

As Orochimaru finished speaking, the data finally stopped. After saving it, he said, "Katō-kun, you can come out now."

A golden spirit body emerged from behind the laboratory's isolation door. It flashed past and entered the body of a blue-haired young man lying on a bed.

"The Spirit Transformation Technique... Dan Katō?" Sarutobi Toru looked at Tsunade's lover from the Original Work, but felt nothing in particular.

This was a real world. A single missed encounter could change one's fate, and he did not consider Dan Katō any kind of threat.

In fact, Dan Katō was not a bad person at all. He was mild-tempered, sincere toward others, and his character was far above Sarutobi Toru's. Even when he met Tsunade, he merely addressed her politely as "Lady Tsunade"—Tsunade was already the head of the Medical Department—with a strictly businesslike demeanor.

Love needed to be cultivated. With even the first spark snuffed out, how could Dan Katō possibly become involved with Tsunade?

When it came to personal relationships, Dan Katō was closer to Sarutobi Toru than he was to Tsunade. After all, the three of them were researching the Spirit Transformation Technique and the Dao Scripture together.

Well, Sarutobi Toru had found Orochimaru to test the technique on, while Orochimaru had found Dan Katō to test it on. Clearly, neither of them had much moral character.

"How do you feel, Katō-kun?" Orochimaru asked, staring at the Dan Katō who had risen to his feet.

Joy appeared on Dan Katō's face. "I feel like my soul has grown strong enough to reach a certain level. Just now, I even had the faintest sense of touch!"

Orochimaru and Sarutobi Toru were both startled, their expressions changing at once!

A soul gaining even the faintest sense of touch might not sound like much, but it was in fact the true leap from the insubstantial to the tangible—the point where it could affect reality!

In other words, it was the formation of the Yin God in the Path of the Ghost Immortal, the Object-Moving Realm!

"Try it. See whether you can use your soul to affect reality." Orochimaru casually pulled a sheet of paper from the table. "See if you can lift this paper!"

Dan Katō closed his eyes. In an instant, his golden spirit body left his body again and picked up the sheet of paper.

After Orochimaru released it, the paper hovered briefly, then passed through the palm of Dan Katō's golden spirit body and slowly fell.

Yet Orochimaru and Sarutobi Toru were both overjoyed. That brief pause had already proven that Dan Katō's spirit body had indeed reached the Object-Moving Realm!

This showed that the direction of their research was correct!

Researching the Path of the Ghost Immortal was far more difficult than the Human Immortal Martial Way. The Human Immortal Martial Way dealt with flesh and blood, something visible and tangible. It was simple to cultivate, and if problems arose, they could be remedied with Medical Ninjutsu.

The Ghost Immortal's path of the soul, however, was intangible and formless. Apart from the Spirit Transformation Technique and the Secret Techniques of the Yamanaka Clan, which could somewhat touch upon it, other ninjutsu were basically of little use.

And having few observable samples was one thing; the greatest problem was that mistakes were difficult to remedy. Once something went wrong in Soul Cultivation, the result would be one's soul scattering and dissipating. This meant the Path of the Ghost Immortal could not be cultivated through trial and error.

Previously, although Orochimaru and Sarutobi Toru had combined the Yang God Daoist Scripture with Chakra from the Shinobi World to develop a cultivation method, they probably could not even say for certain whether it worked on the soul. Otherwise, why had they not cultivated it themselves and instead handed it over to Dan Katō?

Although Sarutobi Toru and Orochimaru had both mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique, Dan Katō was the only one who had practiced the soul cultivation method they developed.

The data gathered by the machines and Dan Katō's own feelings both indicated that his soul was continuously growing stronger. The increase in Dan Katō's Yin Release Chakra also indirectly proved this. But without direct evidence, the two still had some doubts.

There was no such thing as daytime or nighttime wandering for the spirit body produced by the Spirit Transformation Technique. It could manifest in broad daylight from the start. Therefore, unless one reached the Yin God's Object-Moving Realm, there was almost no way to tell whether the soul cultivation method truly worked.

But now, Dan Katō's performance had undoubtedly verified the success of their cultivation method!