Soul Cultivation Art, a Technique for Cultivating the Soul

All right, 1,000 points. Let's see what good stuff I can trade for...

A Luo had not been thinking about points at all. After all, both he and the system were used to it. Going years without earning a single achievement was perfectly normal.

Now that he had suddenly received points, he definitely had to spend some.

[The host has not yet reached the Qi Refining stage. Chakra attribute exchange has not been unlocked, so items from this world cannot be exchanged.]

Although the system had given him a prompt, whether to buy anything was still A Luo's own decision.

When he opened the system shop, the items currently available for purchase were all cultivation tools and techniques that A Luo could use.

[Soul Cultivation Art: Cultivation technique. Can increase soul strength; can be cultivated by both living beings and dead spirits. Price: 999 points.]

System, thank you for leaving me one point!

The moment A Luo saw it, he bought it outright.

After purchasing it, he did not need to painstakingly interpret it himself before cultivating. That was one of the conveniences that came with the system.

But he had bought it not only for his own cultivation. It was also because the Soul Cultivation Art was not limited to him alone.

Sasuke was the reincarnation of Indra's will. Although his soul was independent, Indra's lingering will would sooner or later cause trouble that A Luo would not like.

So while Sasuke was growing up, A Luo needed to make Sasuke's own soul stronger. The stronger his soul became, the easier it would be for him to break free from the pull of certain lingering wills.

[Host, teaching cultivation techniques to people in this world will not be easy.]

The system did not forbid it, but it could not skip the necessary warning.

The Soul Cultivation Art was extremely simple for A Luo, even far simpler than the immortal cultivation techniques from his previous world.

But the young people of this world centered everything around chakra and aspired to become ninja. The Soul Cultivation Art was practically an intrusion of outside knowledge...

It's fine. I need it for myself anyway. It'll be best if they can cultivate it, but even if they can't, I won't lose out. Still...

A Luo smiled as he turned around to look at the ancestor's soul crouching before him.

Both dead spirits and living beings could cultivate it, so...

He would start with this dead ancestor and let him cultivate it first. That way, A Luo could see whether any parts needed adjusting...

"I have a feeling there's danger behind that smile of yours."

Izuna watched A Luo, who had been silent for quite a while before suddenly smiling. His instincts told him that he should hurry up and run.

Yet he could not help being curious. Curious about what this brat was planning now—was he going to put on another act to trick him, or was it some other new game...

"Ah... I really can't do anything right. I only dug a few holes, and I'm already this tired..."

A Luo sighed, set the little shovel on the ground, slowly got to his feet, went back to wash his hands, and lay down again.

"A Luo, tell me. What are you trying to do this time?"

Izuna sat beside him, watching A Luo's spirit form drift out. He did not find it strange in the slightest.

In fact, the less eager A Luo was to speak, the more impatient Izuna became to find out.

"Ancestor, let me ask you something. Do you dead spirits have any cultivation methods?"

Since he was not sure, A Luo felt it was necessary to ask first.

"I woke up here after I died. Even if there are cultivation methods, I wouldn't have had access to them."

Izuna shook his head. He did not know what things were like after death either.

So many members of the Uchiha clan had died, yet after arriving here, he had not seen any other departed souls.

Perhaps they had all gone somewhere else, while only he had remained in this world. And somehow, it was as if time and space had gone wrong, sending him from the Warring States era to the present.

"Then do you want to give it a try? Learn from me. I came up with a soul cultivation method myself, and maybe it'll work for you too. Look at you, wandering around all day. How boring is that!"

Without the slightest blush, A Luo claimed the Soul Cultivation Art was something he had researched himself.

It belonged to him anyway. The system was not going to come out and tell anyone otherwise, so he could say whatever he wanted.

"I can learn it? Then... should I give it a try?"

Izuna truly had nothing else to do. If A Luo had not taken him along, he would not even have been able to leave the gates of the Uchiha clan compound.

Whether the cultivation succeeded or not, at least it would give him something to do. After all, there was only so much he could teach, and Sasuke Uchiha's growth had to proceed step by step.

"Then you'd better learn properly. First, do this..."

A Luo dragged Izuna's spirit form onto the roof and had him lie down to properly absorb the energies of the sun and moon. Only after sensing the existence of that energy could he absorb and gather it to strengthen his soul.

After teaching him twice and making sure Izuna remembered all the tips he had given, A Luo lay down nearby and quietly began absorbing energy himself.

For now, his soul was already strong, but he was an outsider. If he wanted to kill people with his soul in this world, he needed to cultivate and improve it using this world's energy as much as possible.

It was said that Tsunade's boyfriend, Kato Dan, possessed the Soul Transformation Jutsu, allowing his soul to leave his body and fly out to kill enemies.

If A Luo wanted to reach that same level now, he first needed to absorb enough energy that belonged to this world...

It was a little troublesome, but it would be safer this way.

"..."

Izuna lay on the roof and concentrated for a long time, yet he could not detect even the slightest energy fluctuation.

But when he looked at A Luo, he was undeniably cultivating.

Izuna continued lying there. He even activated the Sharingan in his spirit form, all so he could catch traces of the energy around them.

At dusk, A Luo's spirit returned to his body. Happily, he waited for Sasuke to come home so they could eat together, chat for a while, and watch Sasuke train.

Then it was time to return to their room and rest.

Day after day passed. Their daily routines were very similar, yet every day brought new progress.

More than half a month later, A Luo once again left his body after falling asleep at night and came out to greet Sasuke.

Then he saw Sasuke in the dark room, his pair of red two-tomoe eyes following A Luo's position as he drifted about.

"You can see me! Sasuke, you can see me!"

A Luo floated around the room. Once he confirmed that he could be seen, he immediately drifted right up to Sasuke and met his gaze.

He can see me...

Sasuke had long known that A Luo could wander around at night in spirit form, but this was the first time he had actually seen him like this.

The spirit form looked somewhat smaller than his physical body. Weightless, it floated close to greet him.

Sasuke reached out to touch him, but his hand could only pass through the spirit form.

He raised a finger and wrote words into the little hand still held in his grasp.

He could see him, but he was not happy now. Instead, he felt even more worried.

If you go out now, will you be discovered?

What worried Sasuke was that his little brother had always liked running outside. Before, no one could see him, so there had been no problem.

But now, since his state could be seen by the Sharingan, there was a chance that other ocular techniques or ninjutsu could detect him as well.

If A Luo went outside again like this, it would become extremely dangerous.