Creating a small world, cultivating, devising techniques, and planning for future actions—Uchiha Hara had somehow accomplished so many things within a single day.
Although today's gains had been immense, Uchiha Hara felt a trace of mental fatigue.
He wanted to consume Blood Essence and Soul Essence to replenish what he had expended.
Although he could capture large numbers of fish at once and refine them into Blood Essence and Soul Essence for storage, he seemed to enjoy the freshness of "catching and eating immediately" more.
Previously, unrefined fish had floated directly within the Demon Refining Pot's storage space, where time stood still.
Now that he had a small world and that lake, he released all his daily reserve live fish into it. Watching them swim through the water added a touch of life to the place.
With a thought, a plump river fish leaped from the lake and landed in his hand.
Just as he was about to communicate with the Demon Refining Pot as usual and refine it into the purest Blood Essence energy, an unusual sensation suddenly came over him.
Among the feedback from the Demon Refining Pot, aside from the familiar [Refinement · Extraction] option, there was unexpectedly another hazy option that had never appeared before—[Refinement · Will Overwrite]?
"What is this..." Uchiha Hara paused and carefully sensed the information conveyed by this new option.
Its core function was not to extract life essence, but to completely refine and erase the target creature's faint consciousness and instinctive imprints, then inject a thread of Uchiha Hara's divided will into it, turning it into an [Avatar] under his absolute control!
"When did the Demon Refining Pot gain this ability? Why didn't it tell me?" Uchiha Hara was first surprised, then somewhat resentful of the treasure's lack of "consideration."
When had this been updated? Such a practical ability had nearly been missed because of his habitual actions!
Just as doubt arose in his mind, a faint but clear intent fed back from the depths of the Demon Refining Pot. It was not language, but the transmission of a concept.
Its general meaning was: This ability is not a restoration of my original source. It is an extension of the host's own Dao arts, naturally manifested.
"An extension of my own Dao arts? What Dao arts do I even have?" Uchiha Hara was briefly stunned, then inspiration struck him, and he suddenly understood!
"It's the Primordial Scripture!" Realization burst from his eyes.
One of the Primordial Scripture's core functions was to refine and cleanse the collective will of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki contained within chakra, then imprint it with Uchiha Hara's unique personal mark and transform it into Primordial True Qi.
At its essence, this was a form of replacing and controlling will!
The Demon Refining Pot was fused with his soul and intimately connected to him.
After he successfully created and cultivated the Primordial Scripture, mastering the mysterious method of "refining a will and replacing it," his comprehension of this Dao had naturally fed back into and enhanced the Demon Refining Pot, a supreme treasure that already contained the Law of Refinement. Thus, it had unlocked this related derivative ability!
"So that's how it is!" Uchiha Hara suddenly understood. "Repairing its body by searching for materials isn't the only way to improve the Demon Refining Pot's abilities! My own comprehension and development of the Law of Refinement, as well as related laws like the Law of Space, can also in turn promote the evolution of the Demon Refining Pot's abilities!"
The Demon Refining Pot was a spiritual treasure governed by both the Law of Refinement and the Law of Space, so the same approach should work for developing both laws!
This was an extremely important discovery! It meant that the Demon Refining Pot's potential was closely tied to his growth and comprehension, and that the future held limitless possibilities.
After his excitement faded, Uchiha Hara calmed down.
Naturally, he could not waste a precious [Avatar] slot on an ordinary fish.
He needed a more suitable vessel.
His gaze swept across the small world.
Some of the small animals he had captured earlier to advance his talent were still alive, kept in a small patch of woodland.
He selected an alert mouse and a sharp-eyed crow.
At present, he had encountered few combat situations. What he needed more was intelligence gathering. He had relied too heavily on Kuromai before.
"Come to think of it, it's not as though no one knows I killed Uchiha Osamu's group of three. Kuromai knows. Although summoned beasts share honor and disgrace with their masters, and ninja beasts are also creatures within the ninja system, so they naturally know to keep secrets, but..."
He would have to give Kuromai a proper warning later.
"Mice are good at sneaking around and burrowing. They're small and hard to notice, making them perfect for scouting at night and underground."
"Crows are flying units with broad fields of vision. They're relatively intelligent among birds, making them suitable for large-scale daytime surveillance and tracking."
Both creatures were extremely common in Konoha and would hardly draw any additional attention.
Moreover, at this point in time, neither Uchiha Shisui nor Uchiha Itachi's crow ninjutsu had likely appeared yet. People would not immediately associate crows with the Uchiha.
Having selected his targets, Uchiha Hara began his attempt.
He first caught the mouse, focused his mind, and chose [Refinement · Will Overwrite].
The process went more smoothly than expected.
He could clearly sense the mouse's faint biological instincts and fearful consciousness melting away like ice and snow beneath the Demon Refining Pot's power.
Then, he carefully separated an extremely tiny thread of mental power and injected it into the mouse's emptied shell alongside a wisp of Primordial True Qi.
A moment later, the mouse's formerly vacant eyes regained their light, but the calmness and scrutiny within that gaze belonged to Uchiha Hara.
A marvelous connection formed. It was as if he had gained another body, allowing him to share the mouse's senses and control its movements as easily as moving his own limbs.
"Success!" Uchiha Hara was exhilarated.
He repeated the process and refined the crow into his second Avatar as well.
Next, he began testing the upper limit on the number of Avatars.
When he tried to refine a third animal—a squirrel—he clearly felt a sluggishness and pressure in his mind, as though his brain was about to run out of capacity. Although the Avatar was successfully refined, he could no longer divide his attention to control it precisely.
So he decisively stopped before making a fourth.
"So the current limit is... three Avatars." He reached a conclusion.
Avatars also required him to divide his focus to control them, so the number of Avatars should be directly related to the current strength of his 2.0 "Spirit" attribute.
This setup reminded him of another technique—the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Shadow Clones were also physical clones that required allocated chakra and mental power, and their numbers likewise had an upper limit.
"Would Shadow Clones occupy the same slots?" With this question in mind, Uchiha Hara immediately pulled out the scroll that recorded the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
It was strange, really. He had clearly wanted to learn these two ninjutsu before, yet after obtaining the scrolls, he had never studied them until now.
With his current ninjutsu talent, mastering this A-rank forbidden technique was not particularly difficult.
After learning it, he conducted a test.
When he maintained the mouse and crow Avatars first, then attempted to use Shadow Clones,
he discovered that he could only create one additional Shadow Clone at most.
The moment he attempted to make a second, the spiritual connection to the mouse Avatar began to destabilize.
Conversely, if he created two Shadow Clones first, then only one Avatar slot remained.
"So one Avatar slot equals one Shadow Clone slot!" Uchiha Hara confirmed his guess.
"Currently, the total number of my [Avatars + Shadow Clones] can only reach three at the same time. Including my original body, that means four 'me's can be active simultaneously."
He looked at the [Spirit: 2.0] value on the panel. Combining it with the fact that Avatars plus Shadow Clones equaled three, a formula surfaced in his mind:
Maximum number of (Avatars + Shadow Clones) = Spirit attribute value * 1.5? That did not seem to produce clean integers.
Taking another approach, if only clones were counted—including Avatars and Shadow Clones—the maximum was three while Spirit was two. Perhaps it was clone count ≤ Spirit attribute value * 1.5, rounded down?
Or perhaps it was even simpler: clone count = Spirit attribute value + 1?
Or should the original body be included as well? Maximum number of (original body + Avatars + Shadow Clones) = Spirit attribute value * 2?
He could not determine it precisely for now, but he could be certain that the number of clones was strongly tied to the "Spirit" attribute.
"Still, I can only make three Shadow Clones. Then look at Naruto Uzumaki next door..." Uchiha Hara could not help sighing.
That guy could create more than a thousand Shadow Clones at once even during his days at the Ninja Academy!
"Working backward from that ratio, Naruto's 'Spirit' attribute might already have reached the terrifying level of several hundred back then!"
Naruto could create a thousand Shadow Clones. At a one-to-two ratio, his Spirit value should have been five hundred.
At a one-to-one-point-five ratio, his Spirit value should have been six hundred and sixty-six.
"Was this the benefit of nourishing himself from childhood—even unconsciously—through his Dantian, the sealing space, while having the Nine-Tails, which possessed immense Yang-attribute chakra, sealed inside him? Yang attributes primarily strengthen the body, yet they could indirectly nourish the mind to such a terrifying degree..."
"The Primordial Scripture truly has enormous potential! If I can continue cultivating it..."
Thinking of this, Uchiha Hara became even more resolute about the path ahead.
Whether it was improving his own attributes or developing new abilities for the Demon Refining Pot, both were filled with exciting possibilities.
But something was still strange. If Naruto's Spirit value was that high, why were both his learning ability and political ability so mediocre?
It would not hold up to say that his Spirit was often suppressing the Nine-Tails.
That would have made sense before, when he had been suppressing the Nine-Tails, but later he had already reconciled with it. Why was he still so foolish?
Or perhaps Naruto's own Spirit value was not high at all, and it was Asura Chakra that was high?
Maybe that thing was like equipment that gave +500 Spirit.
Since that portion of the value came from an external source, Naruto's own intelligence naturally would not be affected.
Forget it. Naruto had not even been born yet. What was the point of thinking so much? Once he saw Naruto for himself later, would he not know everything?
With a thought, the mouse Avatar silently burrowed into the soil of the small world and began adapting to underground movement. The crow Avatar flapped its wings and took flight, circling through the small world's sky as it familiarized itself with the perspective of flight.
These two new "eyes" would provide tremendous convenience for his upcoming "hunts" and reconnaissance.
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