That's the Path of Monster Cultivation!

The afternoon sunlight was somewhat languid, and the willow branches by the river drooped and swayed gently in the breeze.

The old man and two youths, who had just undergone an "academic exchange" in the bathhouse—though it had really been a matter of bluffing and being bluffed—had now moved to the grassy bank by the river.

"Burp—"

Jiraiya let out an utterly undignified belch, his face flushed red from the lingering kick of Ye Tian's jar of Century-Aged Spirit Wine. Though slightly tipsy, the sharp gleam in his eyes had not faded in the slightest.

"Alright! Since I accepted your gift, this Sage naturally has to show you some real skills."

With a sweep of his sleeve, Jiraiya pulled a massive scroll from his robes and spread it out across the grass.

With a bang, dust billowed into the air.

The scroll was densely covered in red names. Every one of them had been written in blood, carrying an ancient, mysterious power of contract.

"This is—the contract scroll of the Mount Myoboku Toad Clan!"

Jiraiya crossed his arms, looking smug. "As long as you sign your name on it in blood and press your fingerprints down, you can form a contract with the toads of Mount Myoboku. From then on, whenever you form the hand signs, you'll be able to summon powerful toads to aid you in battle!"

"Wow! That's so cool!" Naruto's eyes gleamed as he eagerly bit his finger. "If I sign my name, can I summon that huge toad from before?"

"Hmph, that depends on how much chakra you have and how lucky you are," Jiraiya snorted.

Naruto lay on the ground and crookedly wrote the four characters for "Naruto Uzumaki," then firmly pressed down five bloody fingerprints.

"Done!" Naruto jumped up excitedly.

"You're next, kid." Jiraiya turned to Ye Tian, who was sitting nearby watching the show. "Your body may be a bit weak, but summon beasts are an important part of a ninja's combat strength. With a powerful summon beast protecting you, you'll have a better chance of staying alive."

However, contrary to Jiraiya's expectations, Ye Tian shook his head.

"I'll pass, Senior."

Ye Tian covered his mouth and coughed twice, a trace of disgust appearing on his face. "I'm a germaphobe... Creatures like toads are slimy, and they have warts all over them... Cough, cough. I really can't accept that."

"Huh? A germaphobe?" Jiraiya's eyes widened as if he had heard the most unbelievable joke. "A ninja cares about that? Toads are very loyal!"

"It's not just that."

Ye Tian looked at the contract scroll, and a cultivator's pride flashed deep within his eyes.

In the world of cultivation, cultivators and spirit beasts favored either a Master-Servant Contract or a Soul Blood Pact. That was absolute control—the way of beast taming.

To Ye Tian, this equal summoning contract was practically tying himself to a bunch of uncivilized beasts. Not only would he have to make offerings to them, but he would also have to fight according to their moods and perhaps even keep them company when they were bored?

What a joke.

How could I, a dignified cultivator, become a babysitter for a bunch of toads?

"In any case, I'm not interested in keeping pets." Ye Tian waved his hand and found a clumsy excuse. "And with this body of mine, if I summon a giant toad, it'll probably crush me to death before anything else."

"Tch, what an ignorant brat." Jiraiya muttered, but he did not force the issue. After all, summoning was something that depended on fate.

"Alright, Naruto! Now that you've signed the contract, let's start trying to summon!" Jiraiya began instructing Naruto through the hand signs. "Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Ram! Gather your chakra in your palm, then slam it into the ground!"

"Watch me! Summoning Jutsu!"

Naruto took a deep breath, shouted, and slammed both hands hard against the ground.

Bang!

A cloud of white smoke rose.

Everyone held their breath.

The smoke dispersed.

Under Naruto's palm, there was no gigantic toad towering like a mountain. There was only a...

A tadpole no bigger than a thumb, with two hind legs.

The tadpole bounced helplessly twice across the grass and gave a "croak," as if mocking Naruto's incompetence.

"..."

The entire area fell silent.

"W-What is this?!" Naruto clutched his head and screamed. "Why is it a tadpole?! And it's a tadpole with legs!"

"Idiot! Moron!" Jiraiya flew into a rage and punched Naruto on the head. "Where's your chakra? Did you feed it all to dogs? That little chakra isn't even enough to fill Gamabunta's teeth!"

Watching the master and disciple create chaos nearby, Ye Tian sat beneath the shade of a tree with a thermos in his hands, a teasing smile curling at his lips.

"As expected, the inertia of the plot is powerful."

Ye Tian paid no attention to Naruto's special training. At that moment, all his focus was on Jiraiya.

More precisely, it was on the special energy within Jiraiya's body—calm on the surface, yet incomparably violent in essence.

While Naruto was still struggling with the tadpole, Jiraiya stomped over in a huff, plopped down beside Ye Tian, snatched his thermos, and took a gulp of water.

"Seriously, that kid is such an idiot. He's driving me mad," Jiraiya complained.

"Senior."

Ye Tian suddenly spoke, his voice calm and profound. None of his earlier playfulness remained.

"Hm?" Jiraiya turned his head.

"I've been observing for a long time." Ye Tian looked into Jiraiya's eyes, lightly tapping his knee with one finger. "That powerful force inside you... doesn't seem to be yours, does it?"

Jiraiya's pupils suddenly contracted.

His carefree demeanor vanished in an instant, replaced by the sharpness and vigilance of one of the Legendary Sannin.

"Kid, what are you talking about?" Jiraiya asked in a low voice.

"Don't be nervous. This is merely an academic discussion from a 'sickly person.'"

Ye Tian pointed at the air around them, then at Jiraiya's dantian.

"Ninjas refine chakra by consuming their own cellular energy and spiritual energy. But that has a limit. Yet the energy within you, Senior... is vast as the sea, endlessly renewing itself, and even carries a rhythm that resonates with the heavens and earth around us."

"It is borrowed power. Borrowed from heaven and earth, stored within oneself."

Ye Tian paused, and his tone became serious. "In my hometown, this is called the threshold of Unity of Heaven and Man. But... Senior, the power you borrowed seems far too impure."

"Impure?" Jiraiya frowned deeply. This was the first time he had heard anyone use that word to describe Senjutsu Chakra.

"That's right. Impure. Or rather... violent and mixed."

Ye Tian extended a finger, and a thread of pure spiritual energy condensed at his fingertip. It was colorless spiritual power that had been filtered and refined layer by layer through the Longevity Formula—crystal clear and gentle as jade.

"Look, this is my energy. Pure, mild, and completely under my control."

Then Ye Tian dispersed the spiritual energy and pointed at Jiraiya. "But the Natural Energy in your body, though immense, is mixed with too much violent energy from heaven and earth, the instinctive will of wild beasts, and impurities of various attributes."

"If such violent energy is absorbed directly into the body and fused with one's own chakra without being filtered and refined through special methods..."

Ye Tian stared at Jiraiya and spoke word by word.

"At best, the body mutates and grows organs that do not belong to humans. At worst, the mind is lost, and one becomes a beast that knows only slaughter, eventually turning into a lifeless stone."

"Back in my hometown, this kind of cultivation path is called—Monster Cultivation. It is a path strewn with thorns, even a demonic path that risks cultivation deviation."

Boom!

It was as though thunder had exploded in Jiraiya's mind.

He stared at the young man speaking so confidently before him, while stormy waves surged through his heart.

Every word had hit the mark!

The greatest risk of Mount Myoboku's Senjutsu was petrification! If one could not maintain balance while absorbing Natural Energy, the body would gradually take on frog-like traits and eventually become a stone statue.

Over the past several decades, who knew how many geniuses had fallen at this step? Even Jiraiya himself, after cultivating for half his life, could not avoid developing frog-like facial features when entering Sage Mode. He still needed to summon the two Great Toad Sages to help him maintain balance.

"You... How do you know all this?" Jiraiya's voice was dry. "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm merely a 'sickly fellow' who has read a few ancient texts."

Ye Tian smiled weakly and pulled a branch from his robes, beginning to draw in the sand before him.

"Senior, this Monster Cultivation path is not impossible to walk. The key lies in... filtration."

The branch in Ye Tian's hand moved rapidly, and before long, a complex and exquisite pattern appeared in the sand.

It was a circular formation diagram. At its center was a Tai Chi yin-yang symbol, surrounded by eight directional runes, while circles of vortex-like guiding lines formed the outer ring.

This was one of the cultivation world's most basic yet most classic formations—the Small Spirit-Gathering Array: Filtered Version.

"Although the power of heaven and earth is violent, as long as it passes through a formation like this before being absorbed into the body, undergoing an initial screening to remove those violent elements, then passes through a second 'filter' built from one's spiritual power, absorbing only the purest portion..."

As Ye Tian drew, he explained the cultivation world's principles of breathing and energy absorption. "This slows the rate of absorption, but the energy obtained will be the purest and safest. Not only will it not cause bodily mutation, it can nourish the flesh and prolong one's life."

"This is called—discarding the false to preserve the true, borrowing the false to cultivate the true."

Jiraiya stared fixedly at the formation diagram on the ground.

Though he could not understand those strange runes, his instincts as a top-tier ninja told him that the pattern contained an incredibly profound principle, perhaps even one beyond the scope of ninjutsu.

The direction of those lines, that framework of yin-yang balance... seemed to faintly conform to some supreme truth of heaven and earth.

"Discarding the false to preserve the true... borrowing the false to cultivate the true..."

Jiraiya murmured to himself, as if he had grasped something crucial. The Senjutsu bottleneck that had troubled him for years showed the faintest sign of loosening at that very moment!

If he could first filter Natural Energy outside his body as this kid had said... would that mean he could enter a perfect Sage Mode? Perhaps he would not even need the assistance of the Great Toad Sages?

"A genius... No, this is a monster!"

Jiraiya abruptly raised his head, and the way he looked at Ye Tian completely changed.

He was no longer looking at an amusing junior, but at an unfathomable... fellow traveler!

"Kid, can you give me this diagram?" Jiraiya swallowed, asking somewhat awkwardly. One of the Legendary Sannin seeking guidance from a Genin—if word got out...

"It's just a doodle. If you like it, Senior, take it."

Ye Tian generously tossed away the branch, but inwardly laughed. Take it, take it. This is only the surface of the Spirit-Gathering Array. Without the cultivation formula to support it, you can at most improve your breathing method. Truly cultivate? Not a chance.

Still, this favor had been delivered.

When I want to learn Sage Mode later, will you still have the nerve to hide anything from me?

"Thank you!" Jiraiya treated it like a priceless treasure. He hurriedly pulled out a scroll and copied the pattern from the ground, not even daring to alter the crooked stroke Ye Tian had drawn.

Just then.

"Croak!"

A grief-stricken frog cry came from nearby.

Naruto lay sweating heavily on the ground, staring at the toad in front of him. It was still only the size of a fist, except now it had two front legs as well. He looked like he wanted to cry but had no tears.

"Why is it still a tadpole?! It grew legs, but it's still a tadpole!"

"Idiot! That's a young frog! Do you understand? A young frog!" Jiraiya put away his scroll, walked over in an excellent mood, and kicked Naruto. "You've improved! Keep training!"

Ye Tian watched the scene and picked up his thermos again.

"He may be an idiot, but that perseverance... really is the mark of a genius."

Ye Tian took a sip of goji berry tea and sensed the Natural Energy around them, faintly stirring because of Jiraiya's excitement.

"It seems I can't stay idle during this month of special training either."

"With Jiraiya, this 'charging bank,' beside me, perhaps I can also try... recreating the Foundation Establishment process from the cultivation world in this world?"

He was only at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, still far from Foundation Establishment. But it was never wrong to prepare in advance.

"First step: squeeze out the secret of sensing Natural Energy from that perverted toad."

Ye Tian looked at Jiraiya, who was lecturing Naruto, as though he were looking at a walking manual of advanced cultivation techniques.