Chapter 202: The True Waterfall
The Fourth Raikage clearly had no intention of treating them to a meal or allowing them to rest. Instead, he immediately led them deep into the mountainous heart of the island.
The landscape here was rugged and peculiar, much of it formed over the giant turtle's long life by the accumulation of substances like calcium carbonate and collagen.
Their sheer quantity had given rise to a sprawling mountain range.
And the so-called True Waterfall was nestled in the deepest part of these mountains.
The True Waterfall wasn't particularly grand; it was about five meters wide and just over ten meters tall. In terms of scale, it wasn't remotely magnificent; it was simply a small waterfall.
"This is impossible!"
The moment she saw the True Waterfall, Ino was ten times more excited than everyone else combined. She tugged on her long-legged senior's sleeve, nearly causing the latter to stumble.
"Senior, did you see that? This is a stream formed entirely by purified mental energy! It's incredible! To think that mental energy can reach such a level, actually interfering with matter from the spiritual realm! It's a miracle!"
She exclaimed, her face filled with wonder.
Shizune, cradling TonTon, let out a dry chuckle. "Yes, yes... truly remarkable..."
TonTon nodded incessantly.
The Fourth Raikage stepped back two paces and lowered his voice, asking, "Bee, did you understand what that little girl said? Isn't this just waterfall water?"
"Little girl? Little squirt? Little punk, Leaf Village's little airhead, yeah!" Killer B raised his right hand, bending his middle and ring fingers to make a 'love' sign.
"Idiot! I'm talking to you!"
Only after receiving an iron fist blow to the head from the Fourth Raikage did Killer B become slightly serious. After a brief moment of blankness, he replied, "Little Eight says it's probably what the little squirt meant, yeah."
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Big Bro, you didn't ask me, yeah?"
The Cloud Village ninjas were a bunch of physical powerhouses. When it came to physical training and Nintaijutsu, Ino couldn't compare; she was miles behind. But when it came to matters of mental energy, they weren't even fit to carry her shoes.
The Fourth Raikage looked at the waterfall, feeling it was a waste for the water to just rush down like this. But he wasn't a Jinchuriki, nor did he train in mental energy, so for a moment, he couldn't think of any use for this stuff for himself.
After marveling for a bit, Ino expressed sincere admiration for Cloud Village and Turtle Island. The Fourth Raikage didn't quite know how to respond, managing only a few mumbles and nods to get past it.
Tsunade whispered a few words to her. The master and student had already discussed the precautions for Spirit Transformation twice, and now they went over it again. Afterwards, Tsunade handed her a bottle of medicine.
Still feeling uneasy, Tsunade even considered taking off her crystal necklace to give to Ino.
Ino politely declined. Absolutely not!
Without enough Asura Chakra, anyone who wore that necklace would die! It was true she loved money, but she valued her life more! She wanted to live a few more days! Tsunade should keep it herself.
Ino took a gulp of the potion, brewed from rare substances like Mandragora grass, Vitality Ginseng, Red Salamander, Great Vine, and Ten Thousand Year Mud.
The medicine was bitter, but it produced a kind of condensing effect. Ino felt her mental energy slowly gathering from a mist-like state, gradually showing a trend towards solidification.
She walked to the platform in front of the waterfall and sat down cross-legged.
Reminding herself to focus, she slowly opened her Yang Seal, releasing the accumulation of Yin Release Chakra she had gathered over time.
The Spirit Transformation Technique required a large amount of Yin Release Chakra. The potion could aid condensation, and the True Waterfall, by allowing one to see the darkness in their heart, was also an excellent place to refine mental energy.
However, due to the bio-magnetic field of this giant turtle island, the location was more like a double-edged sword.
Unless Ino's mental energy was stronger than this giant turtle that had lived for who knows how long, the higher her mental energy rose, the greater the influence she would experience.
She completely unleashed her Yin Release Chakra, simultaneously resisting the island's influence and using the environment to refine her mental energy, allowing it to gradually break free from the confines of her body, completing the final step of the Spirit Transformation Technique.
When her mental energy converged, forming a completely new method of Chakra aggregation, and her consciousness fully detached from her body, that would be the true meaning of a Spiritual Body.
A Spiritual Body was not a soul; it could wander freely under the sun without any ill effects.
The Sage of Six Paths was a Spiritual Body. His physical body died after the Ten-Tails was extracted, but his consciousness remained. His dying wish was unfulfilled, leaving him stuck between life and death. He neither ascended nor descended. Could you call him alive or dead? Don't ask; ask about the characteristics of a Sage.
Obito, after death, could send a Sharingan to Kakashi across dimensions; this was also a characteristic of a Sage transforming into a Spiritual Body.
Ino couldn't do anything that powerful yet. Obito was the second Ten-Tails Jinchuriki in ninja history. Even if it was for a short time, he was still a Sage. The realm of a Sage and the things they could do were simply beyond the understanding of a mere mortal like Ino.
Sages could absorb energy through Tailed Beasts and human emotions to replenish their consumption. Their energy source was already external.
The energy making up Ino's Spiritual Body, on the other hand, was still Chakra, and the essence of Chakra was still a mixture of physical and mental energy – internal energy. This could not be changed currently.
The mental energy component could be extracted from consciousness, but the physical energy still had to rely on the body. In other words, once the part of her Spiritual Body consisting of physical energy was depleted, she would have to return to her physical body to replenish it.
Putting the body aside for a moment, the Spirit Transformation Technique was about finding an alternative path, using Chakra to achieve a process of returning the soul from an acquired state back to its innate, original state.
Orochimaru's great snake during his Reanimation Jutsu could also be considered a Spiritual Body in some sense, but the key to Reanimation Jutsu was the 'transfer' aspect. It had very low requirements for shaping the spiritual body. To succeed in the transfer, he abandoned too many things – not to mention the period of weakness and soul damage, even his personality changed in the end. A docile, passively enjoying life Orochimaru, an Orochimaru who couldn't do the ninja run and could only swing his arms like a normal person when running – was that still Orochimaru? He could almost be considered a different person.
Reanimation Jutsu had relatively low requirements for the user themselves; it was a purely predatory form of achieving longevity. Taking others' talents, taking others' Kekkei Genkai, even swallowing others' memories whole – this was a twisted path where the steps taken were too big, resulting in unwanted consequences.
The key to the Spirit Transformation Technique lay in 'transformation. It was about absorbing essence and turning it into one's own nourishment. Like drinking wine sip by sip, walking a path step by step.
Every Spirit Transformation was a process of making oneself purer, of elevating one's life level. This process was slow, but it was safe and steady.
Ino gradually peeled away her perception of the outside world. She could no longer hear the sounds from Shizune and TonTon. She immersed her entire mind into the deepest part of her inner world. The Chakra within her began to circulate according to the trajectory of the Spirit Transformation Technique, initiating the first transformation.
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