Cultivating the Pot with Water in the Naka River

After filling his stomach and making all sorts of plans, Uchiha Hara did not waste any time and immediately set off for a crucial part of his plan—the Naka River.

Hidden Leaf Village was surrounded by mountains and water, with a well-developed water system.

Konoha had two rivers—or, strictly speaking, two and a half rivers.

One was the North Naka River, which ran through the northern part of the village and nourished more than half of Konoha.

The other was the Naka River. It too originated in the mountains outside the village. Its main current ran parallel to the North Naka River, but one tributary curved south like a spirit serpent, passing directly through the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

The Uchiha Clan had cultivated Fire Release for generations. Whether it was "cooling down" after daily training—blowing leftover Fire Release chakra into the river to prevent fires—or simply obtaining drinking water for daily life, they could not do without this river.

Thus, whether it was their old clan grounds near the village center or their future new grounds after being pushed to the outskirts, the Uchiha always lived beside water.

This was a great convenience for Uchiha Hara now, at least sparing him from having to cross half the village just to fish.

To be honest, he really did not dare do that. A child in Hidden Leaf Village was, after all, in some danger.

By the time he arrived at the Naka River, it was already noon. Clouds covered the sky, though, and the temperature was not too high. The blazing sun scattered shimmering golden light across the babbling water.

The riverbanks were fairly quiet, with only a few clan members moving about in the distance.

Uchiha Hara had originally planned to inspect the surroundings, see whether there were many fish in the river, and determine if he could fish to supplement his meat intake.

He found a relatively secluded bend in the river and was about to look for fish when his gaze was involuntarily drawn to the endlessly flowing current.

"Water... is inorganic matter too..." A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

The Demon Refining Pot could refine inorganic matter, extracting tiny traces of material essence to repair itself and expand its internal space.

But refining stones, wood, and metal was terribly inefficient, and gathering materials could easily draw attention.

But what if he used water instead?

Judging by its efficiency in refining stone, wood, and metal, refining water should not be very efficient either. But water flowed. It was "alive"!

What if, instead of refining a single handful of water, he continuously "fed" the flowing river water into the Demon Refining Pot for refinement?

Would that not be like connecting it to an endless energy pipeline?

And this river was inside the Uchiha Clan Grounds!

No matter how powerful Sarutobi Hiruzen's crystal ball technique was, he could not openly monitor a river within a clan's core territory for long periods, could he? This was practically a natural barrier!

More importantly, while "collecting" the river water, he could also take in the fish and shrimp within it. Would that not solve his food problem as well?

And the fish stored in the pot could not only be eaten, but also refined. It was simply killing several birds with one stone!

No sooner thought than done!

Suppressing his excitement, Uchiha Hara found a depression along the bank half-concealed by bushes, making sure that touching the water would not be easily noticed.

He took a deep breath and slowly immersed his palm in the cold, clear river water.

His thoughts connected with the Demon Refining Pot at his brow.

This time, he was not "refining" the handful of water in his palm. Instead, he issued an order to "continuously absorb and refine the river water flowing through this spot"!

Bzz—

The Demon Refining Pot imprint on his brow grew faintly warm. Uchiha Hara could clearly "see" that the murky space inside the pot seemed to open an invisible vortex. The river water outside, along with the tiny organisms within it, was drawn in strand by strand, thread by thread, then instantly refined and absorbed by the faint spiritual light at the center.

The Demon Refining Pot's restoration progress, which had nearly stagnated before, now seemed to have been injected with a stimulant. It began advancing slowly but steadily at a speed visible to the naked eye... no, perceptible through spiritual sense!

The posture used to collect water did not really matter. As long as his body was in contact with water, it worked. So Uchiha Hara sometimes played with the water using his hands, and sometimes took off his shoes and put his feet into the river. No matter how anyone looked at him, he was just a boy playing by the river.

Like this, Uchiha Hara continued from noon until night had fully fallen and stars filled the sky.

Only when his mind grew tired, drowsiness set in, and his stomach began to rumble did he stop absorbing water.

To his delight, he discovered that the Demon Refining Pot's internal space had expanded from a pitiful one cubic meter to roughly ten cubic meters!

Moreover, the information conveyed by the pot had become clearer and more vivid. Many functions that had previously been obscure now suddenly became clear.

The most important one was this—it could now refine living creatures!

As long as a living creature could be taken into the pot—that was, as long as it had been subdued or trapped—it could be refined!

"Great!" Uchiha Hara was thrilled. He then looked inside the pot.

The Demon Refining Pot's interior had not only expanded significantly, but several hundred fish were also floating within it. Since the pot could now contain living creatures, many of those fish were still alive.

They were merely confined by the space and could not move.

He immediately locked his thoughts onto a grass carp that had been taken in along with the river water.

"Refine!"

The fish inside the space vanished instantly.

The next moment, two faint but distinctly separate clusters of energy appeared within the Demon Refining Pot's space:

One was pale red, pulsing faintly and radiating the aura of life—[Fish Blood Essence].

The other was nearly transparent, an energy cluster with a slightly cool sensation—[Fish Soul Essence].

So refining living creatures could yield Soul Essence.

At the same time, detailed information about the two essences flooded into his mind:

Blood Essence: Contains life essence and a Life Imprint.

Absorbing it can strengthen life essence—that is, physical foundations such as constitution, strength, and recovery ability—and offers a chance to gain the racial talents of that species, such as a fish's stamina or a rat's perception.

Soul Essence: Contains soul essence and a Soul Imprint.

Absorbing it can strengthen soul essence—that is, related attributes such as mental power, intelligence, comprehension, soul strength, Genjutsu talent, and Genjutsu resistance—and offers a chance to obtain memory fragments from that species, meaning skills such as a fish's method of swimming or its instinct to sense currents. However, most animal skills are simple and useless.

"So that's it! Life Imprints correspond to talents, while Soul Imprints correspond to skills!" Uchiha Hara suddenly understood.

The Demon Refining Pot's functions were far more powerful and systematic than he had imagined!

He took out the [Fish Blood Essence] and absorbed it. A warm current, far gentler and richer than rat Blood Essence, flowed into every part of his body, mainly strengthening his stamina and recovery ability.

The fish memory fragments—how to sway through water and sense changes in pressure—were easily filtered out and ignored by him.

Although Blood Essence also contained memories, they were bodily memories. Once refined into Blood Essence, less than one ten-thousandth remained, making them impossible to learn from.

However...

Uchiha Hara swallowed the [Fish Soul Essence] as well. Instantly, his mind jolted, as though his brain had become much more agile. Even the world before him seemed to grow a little clearer.

Along with the Soul Essence came the fish's swimming skill and its ability to sense water currents.

These were far clearer than the memories contained in Blood Essence.

Unfortunately, Uchiha Hara's body structure was completely different from a fish's, so those memories could only serve as reference and were not very useful.

Though he could clearly feel his body and soul growing stronger, Uchiha Hara frowned slightly.

"This kind of improvement... is too vague. 'I feel much better,' 'my stamina has improved'—but by exactly how much? And after refining different creatures and obtaining different talents, how do I compare which ones are better or worse?"

He had been a modern man, after all, and was accustomed to letting data speak for itself. This vague state of affairs left him somewhat uncomfortable.

He needed clearer, more quantifiable indicators!

Thinking of how the Demon Refining Pot was an Innate Spirit Treasure, with mysterious functions, and had already acknowledged him as its master, capable of deeply interacting with his soul.

A bold idea surfaced.

He focused his mind and conveyed his request to the Demon Refining Pot. "Pot bro, can you combine the knowledge in my head and display the state of my body, along with the things I refine, using clear and quantifiable data? Stop making me play guessing games!"

As though responding to his call, the Demon Refining Pot trembled gently, and a clear current merged into his consciousness.

The next moment, a simple panel resembling a virtual projection, visible only to him, appeared in his field of vision:

[Individual Status Panel]

Essence: 1 (Overall physical energy index, including strength, agility, constitution, stamina, taijutsu talent, and more)

Qi: 1 (Energy index, currently mainly chakra quantity and quality)

Spirit: 1 (Overall mental energy index, including intelligence, perception, Genjutsu talent, resistance, and more)

[Bloodline]

Sharingan (Unawakened)

[Talents]

Enhanced Perception (White): Slightly improves visual, auditory, and olfactory sensitivity. (Source: Rat)

Enhanced Stamina (White): Slightly improves physical recovery and sustained combat ability. (Source: Fish)

"It worked!" Uchiha Hara was ecstatic.

This panel had been constructed entirely based on his understanding of games and novels from his previous life. It was intuitive and easy to understand!

At the same time, information regarding talent grades naturally became clear:

White: Ordinary person/Genin level

Green: Chunin level

Blue: Jonin level

Red: Kage level

Purple: Super-Kage level

Gold: Six Paths level

Rainbow: Transcendent level

"White talents correspond to Genin level. Even if they only provide minor improvements, small gains add up! And this is only the beginning!" Seeing the two white talents on the panel, Uchiha Hara's confidence soared.

At the same time, he was immensely satisfied with the Demon Refining Pot's panel function.

He was not surprised that the Demon Refining Pot could display such a "systematic" interface.

An Innate Spirit Treasure contained the laws of the Great Dao and naturally possessed endless wondrous uses.

Moreover, laws themselves had no fixed form. The laws of water could perhaps give rise to fire, and an artifact's functions depended largely on its master's understanding and imagination.

Presenting the Demon Refining Pot's abilities in this "data-driven" form was merely one application of the artifact conforming to its master's wishes.

Looking at the still-considerable school of fish within the pot, then at the endlessly rushing Naka River before him, Uchiha Hara's pale face showed a heartfelt smile for the first time, like a fox that had stolen a chicken.

"Looks like I won't be short of fish to eat from now on."

And if I absorbed all the Blood Essence and Soul Essence from these several hundred fish, just how far could I grow?