"Oh, is that so? As expected of a member of the Uzumaki Clan."
"Those Uchiha people deserve to die!"
It was already the third day since Bai Sui had been treated. Perhaps because he had been injured while helping the Uzumaki Clan, he hadn't been assigned any work. They had simply told him to focus on recovering.
When the villagers living near Bai Sui learned that he had helped with a transport mission for the Uzumaki Clan, they were willing to listen to him talk about his experiences while taking a break from work.
Bai Sui was happy to have this opportunity to grow closer to everyone, both to blend in completely and to learn some of the things he wanted to know.
After two days of subtly probing for information, Bai Sui had gradually pieced together the memories in his mind and matched them to reality.
Now that he truly understood this place, Bai Sui actually felt a little disappointed.
After all, this was the world of Naruto. Although he still didn't know how many years remained before the story began, this was a world with miraculous powers. If he could only watch and never experience them for himself, he would always feel that something was missing.
But judging from what he'd learned over the past two days, even people who had lived on the outskirts of the Uzumaki Clan for generations had never heard of anyone becoming a ninja. They even believed that the clans' powers were innate, rather than something gained through training.
Of course, Bai Sui had asked his questions very subtly. He would often describe the Uzumaki Clan's strength in an admiring tone, leading the people who came to hear his stories to share their thoughts.
That way, even if someone heard about Bai Sui's actions later, they would simply think he was an ordinary villager who had become infatuated with the Uzumaki Clan after witnessing their formidable power.
A forty-year-old man in the crowd noticed that Bai Sui looked a little unwell, but didn't think much of it. Everyone knew Bai Sui had been allowed to recuperate at home because he was injured, so the old man began shooing the others away. "All right, everyone, break it up. Don't disturb Bai Sui while he's resting. His injuries haven't healed yet. Go on, go, go."
Yes, in this era, anyone from among the common people who lived to forty could already be considered old. When the others saw the old man speak up, they didn't linger. They all got up and left Bai Sui's room.
The commoners under the Uzumaki Clan's protection, Bai Sui among them, weren't each given a room of their own. The Uzumaki Clan treated them fairly well, but not generously enough to go that far.
The house Bai Sui lived in had wooden posts marking out its boundaries. The walls were made of packed earth mixed with straw, and the roof was thatched. Since it was near the sea and exposed to strong winds, thick logs and stones had been laid on top of the roof as well.
The floor was just packed earth. A fire pit had been dug in the middle of the room, with a few boards laid around it to sit and sleep on.
As for houses like townhouses, people like them could only dream of living in one. Only the nobility of the various countries and members of the ninja clans were entitled to build and live in them.
Besides, even the wooden hut Bai Sui had lived in before hadn't been for one person alone. Four people had shared it.
That was because the room assigned to Bai Sui and the others was relatively small. The larger ones housed as many as eight people.
The roommates who had lived with Bai Sui had died on their last mission, so he had returned alone and currently had no roommates.
For some reason, no one had been assigned to join him yet.
To be honest, Bai Sui had shared a room with other people when he was in school in his previous life, but it had never been anything like this, where they were practically "sleeping foot to foot."
So although Bai Sui felt a little guilty about it, he was also rather glad that those people were gone.
Lying on the boards covered with straw, Bai Sui once again confirmed that he hadn't gotten any of the systems or cheat abilities that were practically essential for transmigration. He couldn't help letting out a deep sigh.
For the first two days, his body had been the reason he'd slept so much. Although the boards beneath him were hard, he had been so exhausted that he'd quickly fallen asleep.
Now, Bai Sui had more or less recovered his energy. He wasn't as drowsy as he'd been the previous two days, so he tossed and turned on the straw, unable to fall asleep.
After wearing himself out, Bai Sui decided he needed something to do. After all, the people here rose with the sun and went to bed at sundown.
It was only around seven now. For someone like Bai Sui, who was used to the schedule of the modern era, going to bed this early was a little difficult.
Bored out of his mind, Bai Sui lit the firewood in the fire pit. By the flickering flames, he gathered up the straw on the boards, then plopped down on it.
First, he raised both arms and stretched his upper body. Then he put his legs together and extended them forward, gently pressing on his knees to loosen his legs.
Maintaining this posture, he closed his eyes and focused his thoughts, imagining the qi throughout his body flowing toward his feet.
Gradually, Bai Sui felt his feet growing warm, and the warmth slowly spread up his legs.
He did this so that his legs wouldn't go numb when he meditated in a moment.
Besides, this was also the time he used to calm his mind and clear away distracting thoughts. His preparations now complete, Bai Sui began meditating in earnest.
He first tried sitting in the full lotus position, but this body had never crossed its legs before, and its legs weren't very flexible. In the end, he could only manage the half lotus position.
But that didn't really matter. After all, it wasn't the flesh that meditated, but the Primordial Spirit.
The body's meditation was merely a way to dispel as many distracting thoughts as possible and prevent the Conscious Spirit and consciousness from stirring.
Bai Sui formed the meditation mudra with his hands below his navel (his left hand underneath his right, with his thumbs lightly touching).
He drew his gaze inward, lowered his eyelids halfway, and fixed his eyes on a small bone just above the bridge of his nose, a spot that was easy to feel when pressed with a finger.
Then he clenched his teeth, touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth, gathered his tongue's qi, and focused inward on the sound in his ears.
He adjusted his breathing through his nose and gradually quieted his thoughts.
His breathing had to be so soft that he couldn't hear it. He had to be careful not to make a sound, or his state of mind would be disturbed.
So his breathing had to be gentle. The gentler it was, the quieter it became, and the gentler it was, the calmer his mind grew.
This was because breathing was controlled by the Conscious Spirit. If his breathing was unsteady, it meant that his Conscious Spirit hadn't quieted down.
So the best approach was to make every breath as light as possible, until his ears could no longer hear it.
He silently counted each breath. If he lost track of the number while counting, it meant his mind had wandered, and he needed to refocus and begin counting again.
The reason for all these actions—lowering his eyelids halfway and carefully counting his breaths—was that it was extremely easy to fall asleep during the early stages of meditation.
Once he fell asleep, the Primordial Spirit would hide again. And when people fell asleep sitting up, they often lowered their heads and put pressure on their cervical vertebrae, which could harm their bodies over time.