Six Six Paths Stages

Hagoromo had the Ten-Tails, so there was no need to even discuss his strength. By now, he was probably almost as powerful as his mother, Kaguya.

Although Hamura didn't have the Ten-Tails, when Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten went to the moon, he had personally seen Hamura create life from nothing.

In other words, he could create all things from nothing and give them life.

Calling him a god would be entirely fitting. Otherwise, how could there possibly be life on the moon? The animals there had all been created by Hamura using the Tenseigan.

Neither of them had stepped in when Urashiki was dealt with.

If they had, there would have been nothing for Tatsuten to do.

Urashiki probably wouldn't even have had time to eat his Rinnegan before he was killed.

There were differences in strength among those in the Six Paths Realm, even though there was no clearly defined ranking.

But based on Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten's calculations:

Six Paths First Stage: Naruto and Sasuke, who had just obtained Six Paths Power, belonged to the First Stage. Although the adult Naruto and Sasuke had lost their Six Paths Power and were weaker than before, after more than ten years of training, they were still stronger at this First Stage than when they had first obtained Six Paths Power. Six Paths Obito also belonged to the First Stage.

Second Stage: Urashiki, Yao Style.

Third Stage: Crane Form Urashiki, Yao Style after eating Kinshiki, Six Paths Madara, Otsutsuki Kawaki, Otsutsuki Boruto.

Fourth Stage: Otsutsuki Hagoromo, Hamura, Jigen in Karma State Two, Eight Gates Might Guy, Unsealed Code, Boruto using Flying Thunder God.

Fifth Stage: Ten-Tails Jinchuriki Sage of Six Paths Hagoromo, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.

Sixth Stage: Naruto in Baryon Mode.

With Baryon Mode, Naruto had brutally beaten Ōtsutsuki Isshiki and reduced his remaining lifespan to less than thirty minutes. You could say Naruto had completely suppressed Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.

But Baryon Mode was also a subject of much debate. After all, although Baryon Mode was powerful, Naruto's Six Paths Mode during the Fourth Great Ninja War had included the chakra of all ten Tailed Beasts.

And how could one possibly compare to ten?

Simply put, Naruto's Baryon Mode consumed the Nine-Tails' chakra inside him until the Nine-Tails disappeared.

By contrast, Naruto's Six Paths Mode gave him the chakra of all the Tailed Beasts, as well as some of the Sage of Six Paths' chakra. One had the Nine-Tails' chakra, while the other had the chakra of every Tailed Beast. It was obvious which was stronger.

However, considering that Naruto hadn't yet reached adulthood at the time and his base strength was still below what it was now, Naruto in Baryon Mode could be considered the strongest.

Tatsuten's strongest combat power was currently equivalent to the Six Paths Third Stage.

"Next, I need to perfectly master using the Tenseigan and Rinnegan at the same time. That way, I'll save the time it takes to switch between them. At the Six Paths Third Stage, I should be invincible."

Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten thought to himself.

Another month passed.

Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten sat cross-legged atop a colossal statue. The statue looked exactly like him and stood about a hundred meters tall. His disciples had created it in his honor.

Natural Energy began rushing toward Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten from every direction.

The Natural Energy within Tatsuten's body continued to grow, and a faint wisp of spiritual energy appeared in his dantian.

A golden core, about the size of an egg and radiating golden light, appeared in the dantian inside his body.

Following the methods and steps for cultivating the Golden Core Path that he had found online in his previous life,

cultivation of the Golden Core Path also involved sitting in meditation, breathing in qi, swallowing saliva, and guiding the breath. While meditating, one could sit with both legs crossed, one leg crossed, in a comfortable cross-legged posture, or with the legs extended. One should adjust one's breathing, touch the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, rest it behind the philtrum, loosen one's clothing, and relax the entire body. When distracting thoughts had gradually faded and breathing had become slow and even, one should draw one's gaze inward, focus on the space just outside the nostrils, and listen to one's breath.

Refining essence into qi: The purpose of this stage was to gather essence, qi, and spirit together and form a sacred embryo, enabling one to shed the mortal body and become an immortal.

Essence was equivalent to the physical body, qi was probably chakra, and spirit was mental energy—in other words, things like genjutsu.

During cultivation, one had to still the mind and dispel thoughts, gradually training oneself to enter a state of tranquility by concentrating one's thoughts on a specific part of the body. In that state, one would turn one's attention inward and observe the lower dantian. Qi would gather there in increasing abundance. Over time, the reproductive organs and lower dantian would become excited, indicating that the Natural Energy within the body had been roused.

This could be considered the earliest stage of Sage Mode.

Refining qi into spirit: Building on the foundation of refining essence into qi, one used the Natural Energy of heaven and earth to nurture the immortal embryo. This immortal embryo was the Golden Core.

If one could achieve the stage of refining qi into spirit, then the final step of refining essence into spirit would be complete.

Refining spirit and returning to the void: Once the spirit had been refined, one continued cultivating one's mind and nature, purifying them further until they became one with the void.

Refining the void and joining the Dao: Only then could one transcend the three realms, escape the five elements, and free oneself from the cycle of life and death.

But Tatsuten didn't know much about the stages beyond refining qi into spirit, such as refining spirit and returning to the void or joining the Dao.

"I can't believe I really managed to cultivate a Golden Core.

"I'm now a cultivator at the Golden Core Realm, though people on this planet would call it the realm of immortal cultivation!"

Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten divided the realm of refining essence into qi into four stages: post-heaven, innate, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul.

This was the cultivation method Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten had created based on his own body.

Tatsuten had combined sealing techniques, Sage Mode, and the Golden Core Path from his previous life to create his cultivation method.

He used Sage Mode to absorb Natural Energy and seal it in the part of his body where his dantian was, just like the Yin Seal and the Strength of a Hundred Technique.

The Yin Seal's main function was to store excess chakra, while the Strength of a Hundred Technique released the chakra stored in the Yin Seal. It used that energy to strengthen oneself or other techniques.

This method couldn't have been more suitable for absorbing Natural Energy.

"As for my strength, it's only increased by ten percent. Nothing else has changed much, but I can feel that the cells throughout my body are more than twice as active as before.

"It seems this Natural Energy has remodeled my body.

"If I could only have lived to two hundred before, then I should be able to live to five hundred now."

Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten's complexion had improved considerably.

He had thought that reaching the Golden Core Realm would greatly increase his strength, but he hadn't expected it to rise by only ten percent—roughly equivalent to the power of one Super Kage.

If strength was measured in units of Super Kage power,

the Six Paths First Stage was equivalent to two Naruto-and-Sasuke-level fighters without Six Paths Power—in other words, two units of Super Kage power.

Second Stage: three units of Super Kage power. The Six Paths Second Stage was what truly counted as the Six Paths Realm, in Ōtsutsuki Tatsuten's view.

Third Stage: five units of Super Kage power.

Fourth Stage: ten units of Super Kage power. Since Guy could temporarily gain power dozens of times greater than the Five Kage by opening all Eight Gates, Guy could be considered the ceiling of the Fourth Stage.

Fifth Stage: twenty units of Super Kage power.

Sixth Stage: forty units of Super Kage power.