Spirit Medicines and Cultivation

The spiritual energy in the Summoning World was extremely dense, most likely because these summoned beasts did not know how to cultivate.

The emergence of chakra had greatly accelerated the growth of these beasts that had originally been demonic creatures. Even ordinary wild animals could grow to enormous sizes.

But it had also limited the growth potential of these summoned beasts. Even the Great Toad Sage, who had lived from the Otsutsuki Era to the present day, was not as powerful as imagined.

Around Flower Fruit Mountain, Hiruzen Sarutobi found quite a few spiritual herbs and medicines, though they were generally not very old.

The Monkey Demon Clan surely harvested these spiritual herbs and medicines regularly to strengthen their bodies.

These spiritual medicines could also help with chakra cultivation to some extent, but consuming them directly was not very effective.

It seemed that if he wanted to find older spiritual medicines, he could only leave the vicinity of Flower Fruit Mountain and explore the depths of the Summoning World.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi was currently only at Sixth-Level Qi Refining, equivalent to the level of a jonin.

This Summoning World had been left behind by an expert suspected of having shattered the void at the Mahayana Stage and ascended to the Immortal Realm. There might even be contingencies and inheritances left behind.

Moreover, these summoned beasts had lived here for so long. There might be some monsters lurking within.

Hiruzen Sarutobi still decided to first search around Flower Fruit Mountain for spiritual medicines, refine some pills, and raise his cultivation before considering anything else.

Although the Yin-Yang Body Refinement Formula had no offensive spells before Foundation Establishment, every increase in cultivation significantly strengthened the physical body. A ninja's body was still fragile and relied entirely on chakra enhancement.

Even the Eight Gates, the strongest taijutsu in the Shinobi World, relied on squeezing out the body's potential and forcibly drawing upon its hidden strength. The price was one's lifespan, and it required long periods of training to push the body to its limits. It was not the proper path.

The development of this Shinobi World seemed to disregard all consequences, seeking only to squeeze out the greatest combat power in the shortest possible time.

This no longer had anything to do with Hiruzen Sarutobi. Having dispersed all his chakra and begun cultivating his body, he was destined to walk a different path.

Hiruzen Sarutobi directly chose to settle down at Flower Fruit Mountain and quickly became friendly with the little monkeys there.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's nickname was Monkey, and the Sarutobi Clan and Monkey Demon Clan had been partners for many years. He felt no discomfort living on Flower Fruit Mountain.

A few days later, Hiruzen Sarutobi had collected almost all the spiritual medicines around Flower Fruit Mountain. As it happened, inside Flower Fruit Mountain, aside from the Water-Curtain Cave, there was also a Fire Eye connected to underground fire, which could be used for pill refinement.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had refined pills often in his previous life. Without a pill furnace, it was only natural that the quality of the medicinal ingredients would be mediocre.

After all, his previous life had already been in an era of spiritual decline. The spiritual medicines that could be found on Earth were not even as good as those around Flower Fruit Mountain, yet he had still refined many pills.

There was no helping it. Cultivating immortality in an era of spiritual decline meant overcoming hardships. The Shinobi World was likewise a world where the path of cultivation had been severed and the entire world had gone astray.

If one wanted to cultivate immortality, one could only rely on oneself.

Time passed quickly. Through pill refinement and cultivation, Hiruzen Sarutobi reached Seventh-Level Qi Refining!

Ninth-Level Qi Refining was no longer far away. It was now necessary to begin preparing the pills needed to break through to Foundation Establishment, as well as materials for refining magical treasures.

During his time at Flower Fruit Mountain, the little monkeys had initially been very interested in Hiruzen Sarutobi. But later, they found that he did nothing every day except meditate, hunt, and eat. He was not interesting at all, so they gradually stopped paying attention to him.

Seventh-Level Qi Refining was already at the level of an Elite Jonin. But judging by Hiruzen Sarutobi's physical strength, while he did not dare claim invincibility in the Shinobi World, protecting himself would no longer be a problem.

The Shinobi World mainly relied on wide-area, highly destructive ninjutsu to crush lower-level ninja, or on strange secret techniques and ninja tools to catch opponents off guard. What mattered was instant kills.

A true powerhouse needed to analyze an opponent's intelligence in the shortest possible time and strike accordingly.

Hanzo of the Salamander had earned his tremendous reputation through his bizarre poison. The toxins were extremely difficult to detect and deal with, which was why he could be called a "demigod."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's greatest strength was taijutsu. Combined with his ability to summon Monkey Demon, his strategy was to catch opponents off guard and finish them with one punch.

Once he left Flower Fruit Mountain, the surrounding environment became especially primitive and wild.

There were no traces of human activity whatsoever. Even signs of large beasts were rarely seen.

Towering mountains rose amid jagged rocks, while some trees were so large that dozens of people would be needed to encircle their trunks.

Fortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi had reached Seventh-Level Qi Refining and achieved modest success. His body was strong enough for him to leap and maneuver through this wild land as he explored.

The harvest was gratifying. With relatively abundant spiritual energy and no one to harvest them, a great many spiritual medicines had grown there.

At first, Hiruzen Sarutobi picked every spiritual medicine he saw. Later, he realized he could barely carry them all. Even sealing them away with sealing techniques, there were simply too many.

Starting from the second day, he selected only spiritual medicines that were sufficiently old and relatively rare.

During this time, he encountered quite a few summoned beasts guarding medicinal herbs, but none could withstand even a single exchange with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Only a highly venomous bamboo pit viper gave Hiruzen Sarutobi some trouble. In the end, he still gave it a swift death with Fire Release.

He also obtained four Century Vermilion Fruits. After this round of harvesting, merely eating all kinds of spiritual medicines had brought Hiruzen Sarutobi close to Eighth-Level Qi Refining.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi returned to Flower Fruit Mountain, he began cultivating again. Simply eating spiritual medicines to raise his cultivation was obviously not enough; one could not blindly pursue speed when advancing from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, no one seemed particularly concerned about Hiruzen Sarutobi's disappearance.

Konoha was now thriving. Hiruzen Sarutobi had not shown himself for the past few days, and Konoha's affairs were being handled by Orochimaru and Shikaku Nara.

The temptation of the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki and the Mangekyo Sharingan was simply too great for Orochimaru!

Under normal circumstances, they should have studied the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki first. After all, the Cloud Hidden Village would certainly send envoys to demand the return of the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki.

This generation's Eight-Tails Jinchūriki and the Fourth Raikage were partners, brothers in all but blood.

If they did not return the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, the Raikage would most likely start a war, and another Shinobi World War would erupt.

The people of Konoha, whether civilians or ninja, had not yet recovered from the wounds inflicted by the last ninja war. Blindly provoking another war was clearly inappropriate.

But the Mangekyo Sharingan was simply too tempting. Orochimaru could not suppress his urge to study it.

Sometimes, having too many experimental materials truly was a happy kind of trouble...

The delegation from the Cloud Shinobi had already entered the Land of Fire. The Hokage's ANBU had also received the news, and Killer B was temporarily released from Orochimaru's research division.

After all, conducting human experiments on a hostage was an extremely unethical thing to do.