Cultivation Manuals

"Hiss... could this, could this actually be a cultivation manual?" Uchiha Tenshu's eyes widened, staring at the books in his hands in utter disbelief. As he flipped to the first page, he was met with a diagram of the human body's full meridian system.

Uchiha Tenshu carefully brought one of the books before his eyes, as if it were a priceless treasure.

One had to understand that in the entire ninja world, there was no such thing as a cultivation manual. All the training that so-called ninjas underwent was nothing more than the refinement of Chakra and the study of Ninjutsu. Everything was confined to the concept of "Jutsu," rather than what was known as the "Dao." This was precisely what Uchiha Tenshu had looked down upon most regarding ninjas in his previous life.

No matter how wondrous these Ninjutsu were, they were like the countless leaves on a great tree; though numerous and distinct, they could never touch the tree's true path of growth. Even with power great enough to move mountains or fill seas, it had nothing to do with achieving true longevity.

The true key to cultivation lay in the tree's roots and branches. A cultivation manual was like a map guiding the growth of those roots and branches. By practicing such a manual, one was like watering and fertilizing the tree, allowing it to grow faster and stronger, transforming a mere seed into a towering giant.

At this moment, Uchiha Tenshu's mind was involuntarily flooded with various legendary manuals from Eastern worldviews. These manuals spanned the realms of martial arts, immortality, and fantasy, but without exception, they all touched upon the ladder of life's evolution. They were like keys to higher planes of existence, helping people transcend their mortal limits and enter a brand-new, superior state of being.

Even if the manual in his hands came from an extremely low-level world, or was even the most basic, common variety, its value did not lie in a quick boost to his current strength. Rather, it was like a precious key, the gateway to a gold mine filled with infinite resources.

The philosophy and path it contained were by no means inferior to the so-called forbidden arts of this world; on the contrary, they were countless times superior.

And now, such a treasure was in his hands.

"Then, let me see what kind of charm this holds, and what level of manual it truly is!" Uchiha Tenshu's heart burned with excitement. As the pages unfolded, the first thing to catch his eye was an illustration of human meridians and acupoints. The diagram was drawn with such exquisite detail that every blood vessel and every acupoint was clearly visible, leaving him in awe of the creator's masterful skill and extraordinary technique.

It was hard to imagine that such precision could have been produced in an ancient world.

However, what surprised Uchiha Tenshu even more were the dense annotations in archaic script beside the diagrams.

The characters were tiny, like mosquitoes etched onto the paper. Uchiha Tenshu could not recognize all of them, but he could identify some of the simpler ones. The phrases formed by these recognizable characters read smoothly, and he was certain he hadn't misread them.

Uchiha Tenshu guessed these must be characters left behind by an Eastern worldview; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to decipher them at all.

Although he could only recognize sixty or seventy percent of the text, Uchiha Tenshu was not discouraged. He knew that ninjas possessed superior decryption skills, and since they also had meridians and acupoints, he could combine these with the diagrams and the fragments of text he understood. With enough time and effort, he could crack the rest. Besides, if all else failed, he had the Shadow Clone—a cultivation cheat code that allowed him to experiment with the manual endlessly.

Uchiha Tenshu took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and began to observe the text and diagrams with intense focus.

He studied the recognizable characters word by word, attempting to find clues and patterns.

At the same time, he scrutinized the meridians and acupoints in the diagrams, contemplating their connection to the text while continuously flipping through the detailed explanations of the subsequent cultivation stages.

Time ticked away, and Uchiha Tenshu became completely immersed in the process of decryption. He forgot everything around him, his eyes fixed solely on the mysterious text and illustrations.

Several hours passed.

Uchiha Tenshu stared at the manual, a flash of realization crossing his eyes. He carefully flipped through the pages, discovering that this manual indeed had its own logic.

On the surface, it was a fairly decent manual, divided into eight levels: Refining Essence, Converting to Qi, Refining Qi, Converting to Spirit, Refining Spirit, Returning to Void, Refining Void, and Merging with Dao.

It mirrored the levels of the Daoist cultivation system he knew from his previous life. Each level had its own unique process and description of power growth.

However, Uchiha Tenshu soon realized that this was not exactly the same as the legendary Daoist realms of his past life.

Despite the detailed explanations for each stage, based on the descriptions of the resulting power and capabilities, it resembled a cultivation system from an ordinary martial arts world rather than one from a fantasy or immortality-based worldview.

In other words, according to the manual, even if one endured immense hardship to reach the profound levels of Refining Spirit, Returning to Void, or even Merging with Dao, the result would only be the ability to fly a thousand meters high or shatter a few hundred meters of ground.

Its true power was still far removed from the transcendent, immortal-like beings described in the novels of his past life. Those so-called earthly immortals possessed heaven-defying abilities, capable of moving mountains and draining seas with a mere gesture, their power truly staggering.

By comparison, according to this manual, even those who reached the levels of Refining Spirit, Returning to Void, or Merging with Dao would be nothing more than ants in the eyes of those true immortals.

Their power might be unreachable to the mortals of their original world, but before true powerhouses, it appeared insignificant.

One could even say that such a level of cultivation might not even surpass a Jonin in the ninja world; even the Ninjutsu unleashed by a Jonin could easily cause such destruction.

In this world filled with mystery and fantasy, Jonin possessed various unique Ninjutsu and skills, and their strength was not to be underestimated. If placed in the history of Uchiha Tenshu's original world, which lacked any supernatural abilities, they would be worthy of being called "Heavenly Masters" or gods descending to earth.

If one were to give them titles, they would undoubtedly be burdened with a dozen honorifics after their names.

Looking at the manual in his hand, compared to the immortals in those novels, the so-called realms of Refining Spirit, Returning to Void, and Merging with Dao seemed like arrogant boasting. In reality, it was like riding a horse to challenge a Dou Di—an act of utter delusion that would only invite laughter.

This made Uchiha Tenshu feel a trace of doubt regarding the manual's actual value.

But then, Uchiha Tenshu shook his head.

Compared to the expectation of ascending to the heavens in a single step, this manual was more like an endless treasure trove, containing infinite gold reserves waiting to be mined.

Not to mention anything else, the process of the Refining Essence Chapter alone was like a magnificent symphony, involving multiple movements such as nourishing the body, storing essence, absorbing essence, preserving essence, and refining one's own vitality.

On the mental level, there were also preludes to cultivation like meditation, entering a state of stillness, communicating with the sense of Qi, and synchronizing one's breath—all like a melodious poem that left one full of praise.

Not to mention the subsequent Converting to Qi Chapter.

It contained a series of miraculous methods for nourishing, condensing, and utilizing the energy produced, much like a vibrant and colorful scroll.

These were cultivation methods that simply did not exist in the ninja world.