Successful Fusion, Sage Soul State

Ryūchi Cave.

In a dim, secret chamber.

Inside the damp room, the layout was simple: a large bed, a table, a chair, and a large black-and-white snake coiled on the edge of the bed.

Its black, slit-like pupils scanned the surroundings vigilantly, glancing from time to time at the youth lying on the bed.

"Three days have passed already; the boss isn't dead, is he?"

Yinqian smacked its lips and flicked its tongue, considering whether to put the waste to good use; it had never tasted fresh meat before.

Every time it heard the brothers and sisters in the cave talk about it, it sounded delicious.

Within Ryūchi Cave, only those with strong physical constitutions were able to eat fresh meat.

Weaklings like itself were basically only able to scavenge whatever leftovers others left behind.

Most of the time, it ate things like mice and insects.

It had long since grown tired of that.

"Manda said... if the contract partner dies, one can fill their stomach. It has been craving Orochimaru for a long time."

"But... Kong is the only one who accepted me... I'm a bit reluctant."

"Boss, please don't die."

Yinqian muttered incessantly, forcibly resisting the temptation of its appetite while greedily licking its lips.

It had grown accustomed to this lonely life.

Within the snake clan, it was frequently isolated and had no friends.

Kong could be considered its only friend.

Upon learning that Kong was going into seclusion to cultivate, it had volunteered to stand guard to ensure that other snake kin would not disturb Kong's cultivation.

Kong, lying on the bed, had actually been listening to Yinqian's muttering the entire time; his soul had been floating in mid-air, maintaining this state for three full days.

Just a little longer, and I'll succeed!

Ever since he received guidance from the Sage at the White Snake Temple last time, he had observed the entire process of the White Snake Sage absorbing Natural Energy.

He had obtained the complete method.

Originally, he thought it would take some time to research and grasp the knack of fusing his soul with Natural Energy.

But after watching the White Snake Sage's entire cultivation process, a progress bar had appeared before his eyes once again.

The completion rate was as high as 52%!

Only now did Kong realize that the experimental progress screen from his past life could actually be applied to the cultivation of Sage Art.

He could treat cultivation as an experimental study...

This meant that as long as he knew the entire experimental process and mastered the experimental methods, he could easily complete the cultivation of Sage Mode.

He had thought it would be a breeze to finish.

But after Kong began his Sage Art cultivation, three days of experimentation had passed, and the progress bar had stuck at 92%, refusing to budge.

His soul had already undergone one transformation.

Under the infusion of Natural Energy, his entire being emitted an inexplicable golden light, circling his body like a sun.

His mental energy had undergone a qualitative change; the spirit that was originally illusory and ethereal had now gradually condensed into a golden liquid, showing signs of liquefaction.

My body won't actually starve to death, will it?

Kong spread his hands helplessly, not daring to return to his body, because the White Snake Sage had warned that the soul must not return to the body before the Sage Art cultivation was complete.

The physical body would attempt to harmonize with the soul, forcing out the Natural Energy he had painstakingly integrated, causing severe side effects—at best, soul damage and memory loss; at worst, the soul would scatter and the body would die.

This period was extremely dull.

He needed to maintain his soul state, carefully perceive the fluctuations of Natural Energy, and adjust his soul's vibrations to be in sync with the Natural Energy. After discovering the multicolored energy radiating all around, he began the process of fusing with these Natural Energies.

The White Snake Sage's method was to divide the entire body into seven major parts, fusing each one separately. If one failed, one could sever that part of the body to preserve the remaining soul and survive, avoiding the total dissipation of the entire body.

Kong accepted this suggestion and, with the help of the progress bar, divided his entire body into six parts: his four limbs, his torso, and his head.

Unlike the White Snake Sage's assessment that Natural Energy was attribute-less, he discovered that each color of Natural Energy seemed to represent a different attribute.

His soul could easily fuse with most colors of Natural Energy, and each color gave him a unique sensation.

It seemed to be able to influence his mood.

Light blue felt sad and lonely, gold represented joy and happiness, red was anger, and black represented tension, fear, and so on.

Now, all that remained was the soul's head position, which had not yet fully integrated with the Natural Energy.

The head...

Why couldn't it integrate with the Natural Energy?

Everything else had worked just fine.

Kong was very puzzled by his current state, as if something was blocking the experimental process.

The progress bar was stuck.

He understood that he had encountered a problem.

He immediately suspended the cultivation process and began to ponder exactly what reason had caused the experiment to stagnate.

"Soul... Natural Energy... head..."

Ao listed all the conditions currently present in the head area, excluding each item one by one, and quickly found the cause.

"Sharingan... So that's it! The ocular power unique to the Uchiha... did it also remain within the soul body?"

Having discovered this issue, he immediately began to work on a solution.

First, he followed the soul-stripping method used in the Cursed Seal created by Orochimaru, peeling away the soul-eyes where the Sharingan's ocular power was stored.

The process was excruciatingly painful.

It felt as if thousands of steel needles were constantly stabbing into his eyes; every time his soul was torn, it caused his soul to tremble, and the wounds caused by the stripping of his soul's essence could not be healed in a normal state.

The aura of his soul drifted away along with the wounds in his eyes.

"Ah..."

"Hiss!"

"Orochimaru, how on earth did you endure this pain to slice your own soul into fragments and create the Cursed Seal!?"

Ao had stripped the right eye from his soul, and he was already curled up in pain, collapsing onto the ground while letting out faint groans.

Is this the price of obtaining power?

Pain makes one remember vividly.

With trembling hands, Ao began the stripping of the second eye.

He dared not delay any longer.

The wounds within his soul body were constantly worsening; the soul body, which had previously maintained balance, was now showing signs of tearing and dissipating.

He understood that these were signs of damage to his soul body, and he could only return to his physical body to recuperate to avoid the possibility of further deterioration.

But in his current soul cultivation state, his body was infused with a massive amount of Natural Energy, which prevented him from returning to his physical body.

He was facing a dilemma.

"I don't know... if I can survive this time!"

After stripping his left eye, Ao noticed that the progress bar had moved another 3%! He immediately understood that this step was correct.

Enduring the heart-piercing pain, he immediately began the next step, using all his remaining energy to strip his right eye.

The two eyeballs in their soul state floated quietly in mid-air, looking like two blood-red round gemstones.

The ocular power unique to the Uchiha flowed slowly within them.

The three Tomoe maintained a dynamic balance like a formation.

Ao discovered that he could actually still see the state of his soul body through those eyes.

In the state where his eyes were stripped away.

He could even see his entire body.

The progress bar surged again at this moment, reaching 98%!

Soon, he "saw" endless Natural Energy beginning to frantically merge toward his head; a halo appeared behind his head and gradually extended to cover his entire skull, and the head area of his originally dim blue soul body began to emit a dazzling golden light.

Hum!

An invisible ripple spread out from Ao's soul body.

In an instant.

The progress bar finally reached 100%!

The Natural Energy of the entire Ryūchi Cave began to riot.

Violent power swept through the surroundings.

The Sage Soul Body was complete.

Ao's consciousness returned completely, and he gently pressed the two eyeballs into the eye sockets of his soul body.

A sense of obstruction followed, which was slightly uncomfortable.

It felt as if these things did not belong to him.