First Law of Chakra Cognition

Since the Shadow Clone had its own consciousness and a physical body, Kamiya Keiyun's interest in research immediately surged.

First, he had the Shadow Clone try to use a ninjutsu. Logically, the Shadow Clone had no meridians and could not make Chakra flow, so it should have been impossible for it to use ninjutsu!

Yet the result was that the Shadow Clone casually used a ninjutsu—the Beaker Technique Kamiya Keiyun had created!

"Ninjutsu has nothing to do with meridians!" Kamiya Keiyun's eyes widened. He was not shocked, because he knew nothing about Chakra. Everything his experiments revealed was brand-new to him, and he could quickly accept it and try to study the principles behind it.

So Chakra Meridians were merely channels for Chakra to circulate through. What determined Chakra's shape and function were actually hand seals and one's own thoughts, right?

No, only one's own thoughts mattered. Hand seals merely mobilized Chakra. As long as one's control over Chakra was sufficient, there was no need for Hand Seals to use ninjutsu at all!

To verify this idea, Kamiya Keiyun said, "Don't use Hand Seals. Just control your Chakra and use that technique from earlier!"

He believed the clone understood what he meant. After all, it was his clone!

"Buzz!" The sand formed another beaker!

More importantly, this beaker was no different from the previous one or the one Kamiya Keiyun himself had created.

Kamiya Keiyun had previously tested that casting with Hand Seals produced better results than casting without them. Yet now, the Shadow Clone had achieved the same effect as the original body casting with Hand Seals without using any seals at all!

That was it. Chakra Meridians were not an aid to humans using ninjutsu—they were an obstacle!

Without riverbeds, water should be able to go wherever it wanted and take whatever shape it wanted. It was the riverbeds that restricted the river's infinite possibilities!

Kamiya Keiyun also understood why using Hand Seals made ninjutsu more successful. Hand seals acted like traffic cops. Without traffic cops, the water flow would crash into the riverbeds. But with traffic cops guiding it, the water would obediently follow the riverbeds, and naturally more water would reach its destination in the end.

"So, without meridians, a Shadow Clone made of pure Chakra should possess casting abilities superior to those of humans. Some ninjutsu that cannot exist due to the limitations of the human body can be displayed through a Shadow Clone!" Kamiya Keiyun looked at the Shadow Clone. This technique was unquestionably divine—it meant that, in terms of technique application, a clone could surpass the original body!

This completely overturned the conventional logic that the original body was strong while clones were weak!

What made Kamiya Keiyun even happier was that he had finally taken a major step forward in his research on Chakra!

Science was a method of observing natural phenomena and summarizing their laws. After more than a hundred research attempts, Kamiya Keiyun had finally derived a law of cognition concerning Chakra.

First Law of Chakra Cognition: Chakra and the use of ninjutsu were idealistic. Chakra Meridians were not an aid to using ninjutsu, but an obstacle!

"So, the more Chakra Meridians one can utilize, the greater the power of one's ninjutsu. If the human body had no meridians, or if Chakra could transcend the limits of the meridians and achieve unity between human and Chakra—where Chakra was everywhere—then that person would possess an Innate Dao Body! All kinds of techniques could be used at will. The ninjutsu he used would be more powerful than others', and his ninjutsu could also transcend the restrictions of hand seals, achieving a spontaneous, unconstrained effect!"

Kamiya Keiyun had finally clarified his cultivation goal!

To free Chakra from the restraints of the meridians!

And what lay beyond the meridians?

Cells. There were only cells!

He would make cells accept and absorb Chakra, make cells perfectly adapt to Chakra, make cells serve the same purpose as Chakra Meridians, leaving no riverbeds within the body—or making riverbeds everywhere!

There were two ways to achieve this goal.

The first was from the outside in. He could have a Shadow Clone use the Transformation Technique and turn into an invisible film covering his skin, or develop a ninjutsu to strengthen the skin and keep Chakra covering it at all times.

This would allow the outermost skin cells to gradually adapt to Chakra, from the outside in!

The second was from the inside out: continue deeply exploring Chakra Meridians. Thick Chakra Meridians connected to thinner meridians, thinner meridians connected to tiny meridians, tiny meridians connected to capillary meridians, and capillary meridians directly connected to cells!

As long as he continued cultivating the Bright Virtue Method and gained enough control over Chakra to enter the capillary meridians, Chakra could naturally begin integrating into the cells throughout his body.

This was the cultivation method from the inside out.

The first method could proceed step by step: temper the skin, temper the flesh, temper the bones, temper the organs, temper the blood, temper the marrow. Once marrow tempering was complete, the entire body would move with perfect ease, achieving an innate body!

The second method could be divided into the first layer, second layer, third layer, fourth layer, and so on according to the thickness of Chakra Meridians. Once he reached the final capillary level, meridian cultivation would be complete. At that point, Chakra could enter every cell throughout the body through the capillary meridians, beginning the body's evolution in tandem.

"Hmm? This feels awfully familiar. Why does it resemble Qi Cultivation First Layer, Second Layer, and Third Layer so much?"

Then once he reached the capillary level and began strengthening cells, would that not be Foundation Establishment?

Once Foundation Establishment was complete, every cell throughout his body would be capable of containing Chakra, and he would naturally become an innate body!

After writing down the cultivation path he had deduced, Kamiya Keiyun read it over twice more and suddenly found himself speechless.

Why do these two paths feel so familiar?

The former is the commonplace cultivation path of a Martial Artist, while the latter is the commonplace cultivation method of an Immortal Cultivator.

But I did not draw on either of those methods. This is clearly a method deduced from the Chakra theories I discovered myself. I only borrowed a few names!

What I cultivate is not some Martial Artist's blood and qi, nor spiritual power!

Rather, the fact that theoretical deductions align with things that actually exist proves that my theory is correct!

Isn't this the finest example of theory being derived from practice and connected back to practice?

"I wonder whether ninjas in this world cultivate like this!" Kamiya Keiyun was curious. He could ask Snake Uncle about it, but he would wait until a month later!

As for which of the two paths to choose, Kamiya Keiyun could not choose both this time. He could only choose the second.

His Chakra reserves were simply too small. If he sent a Shadow Clone to school, he would not have enough Chakra left to temper his skin.

Besides, with immortal cultivation and martial cultivation before him, was there even any need to ask which one to choose?

Everyone would choose immortal cultivation!

"If I follow my classification, I've already used all the thickest meridians, as well as the next tier down. I can now see an even finer layer of meridians. So I'm at Qi Cultivation Second Layer, working toward the third!"

As for how many layers there were in the Qi Cultivation stage, that would depend on how many levels the Chakra Meridians were divided into.

Having set foot on the path of immortal cultivation, Kamiya Keiyun suddenly understood why those Immortal Cultivators who had practiced Qi Cultivation for ten or even twenty years found their spiritual power so quickly exhausted, running out after using only a few spells.

It turned out that spiritual power could not be accumulated day by day. It could only increase as one aged and one's physical constitution improved. Increasing Qi Cultivation layers enhanced one's control over spiritual power and control over more meridians.

No wonder challenges across cultivation levels were so common during the Qi Cultivation stage. The gap between everyone really was not that great!

"If that's the case, then what is the difference between a Jonin and a Genin? It can't simply be about who has finished training which system, right?" Kamiya Keiyun also realized that his judgment of Hatake Sakumo's cultivation path had been mistaken. Hatake Sakumo might not have strengthened his nervous system.

Because the cultivation path he had previously researched was wrong, any information inferred from that erroneous foundation was naturally wrong as well!

Fortunately, neither the Bright Virtue Method nor the Pure Tranquil White Lotus Sutra had any major problems. His route had been wrong, but the way he walked was not.

However, he would still need to make slight adjustments to these two methods later according to the correct cultivation method.