The matter of war is temporarily unrelated to Hakushi. Although the coming of war makes him somewhat uneasy, even if he really goes to the battlefield, that's still something two years from now.
Be optimistic, perhaps the war will already have ended in two years, won't it?
Moreover, wars have their benefits. Due to war, Konoha Village is somewhat short of manpower, the Hokage's direct Anbu is definitely busy every day; who would pay attention to a little transparent student from the Ninja School like him?
The attention of the Hokage and other higher-ups has been attracted by the Hidden Sand Ninja.
——Uchiha Clan Land, Ruri's family underground laboratory.
So spacious with a hundred square meters, here are fully equipped electrical devices, making the laboratory as bright as daylight.
The center is left as space for people to move about, with electronic testing equipment and an operating table also placed.
A floor-standing transparent cylinder filled with green solution, inside which is soaked the parts extracted from animals, catalyzed in unknown ways and degrees, turning into extremely bizarre alien forms.
Hakushi holds a glass test tube, containing a condensed light green liquid energy, which is the natural energy entity extracted from the earth and air by Hakushi.
"How is it, any progress?"
Ruri walks down from above, inquiring about the research progress on natural energy.
To help Hakushi conduct research steadily, Ruri tries to procure both equipment and materials by all means possible.
The manpower and funds spent are simply uncomparable to the previous small-scale operations.
"No, the natural energy does exist a little longer, but the time maintaining materialization is still too short."
Hakushi sighed, put down the test tube, and the light green liquid energy inside started to dilute without warning, color growing fainter, ultimately turning blank, leaving the test tube empty.
The natural energy has actively volatilized completely.
If not fused with other materials while natural energy is materialized, this situation occurs.
Of course, it's not unusable, as long as it's utilized during the volatilization of natural energy.
However, the efficiency of sustainable usage is somewhat reduced.
After all, the experimental process of receiving and refining, condensing natural energy is intricate, requiring auxiliary metals with high conduction properties for chakra.
Thus, refining natural energy is not only complicated but also costly.
"Moreover, this isn't even the most important issue."
"What do you mean?"
"You see, the parts of these creatures inside, they, based on chakra, after injecting natural energy, turn into sage art chakra and absorb it, resulting in these bizarre shapes."
Hakushi walked to a floor-standing glass cylinder, tapping it with fingers, making a crisp sound, while the alien creature inside remains unresponsive, like a dead object.
"What does this represent then?"
"In other words, utilizing sage art chakra comes with a terribly frightening risk."
Hakushi's eyes grew profound, with an inexplicable hue.
He slowly walked to a bookshelf on the side, picking up a scroll, spreading it open on the table, pointing at a line of text.
"Ryuchi Cave, Mount Myoboku, Shikkotsu Forest are called the Three Great Sacred Lands, saying that one can train to achieve Immortal Technique in these places. However, the sage arts inherited in these Three Sacred Lands seem inconsistent with human processing systems. After learning, corresponding biological characteristics emerge."
Saying this, Hakushi sighed again.
"The Uchiha Race's collection of books is truly abundant; although the specific cultivation method hasn't been explored, these materials have given me great inspiration. In other words, the sage arts of the Three Sacred Lands likely aren't suitable for humans; a correct sage art system for humans must be found from multiple paths. The workload is unimaginably huge."
Hakushi has definite evidence proving the sage art system of the Three Sacred Lands is incompatible with human bodily systems.
Because the biological structure of frogs, snakes, and Katsuyu differs significantly from human life structures.
Sage arts suitable for frogs, snakes, and Katsuyu would likely clash within human processing systems, thus elevating the mortality and failure rate to infinity for humans cultivating Three Sacred Lands sage arts.
Looking at the alien creatures in the floor-standing cylinder, transformed due to the acceptance of sage art chakra, serves as the best proof.
For instance, using mice as the source for refining sage art chakra, then transferring this sage art chakra to the limbs of snakes, characteristics of mice appeared on snakes.
Similarly, using snakes as the source for refining sage art chakra and transferring it to mice, snake characteristics appear on mice.
The alien creatures within the floor-standing cylinder originate from such processes.
This is why Hakushi determined the sage art system of the Three Sacred Lands isn't compatible with humans.
Human physical structures are far more complex and abundant than frogs, and any error would yield unbearable consequences.
Without absolute certainty, Hakushi won't personally attempt.
Therefore, Hakushi can now only use animal bodies for experimentation, awaiting risk minimization before proceeding with human body experiments.
Yet, Hakushi repels such inhumane practices.
Nonetheless, if wanting the risk-free mastery of sage art chakra, human experimentation is unavoidable.
Life isn't to be treated lightly.
Saying such is slightly hypocritical.
But reality just develops step by step like this.
More advanced medical science, life sciences, cannot avoid human experimentation.
Precious experiences are gained only upon the foundation of countless sacrifices and deaths by predecessors.
Fortunately, his sage art research has just taken the first step, and it should be many years before needing human experimentation.
Moreover, even without using sage art chakra, natural energy is versatile.
The life force contained in natural energy is immense, with extremely high medicinal value.
So, slowing down sage art chakra research is the most prudent choice presently.
Now, what he needs to do is maximize the utilization rate of natural energy to enhance his own strength.
"Ruri, could you help me find some medicinal materials? I want to refine a new drug to improve physical capabilities based on natural energy."
"What about the sage art chakra experiment?"
"I still need to collect more sage art data before securely proceeding to the next step; otherwise, experimenting with sage art chakra is too dangerous, a slight misstep leads to death. But unfortunately, we have insufficient data on the Three Sacred Lands' sage arts, hence, it has to be slow going."
Hakushi isn't eager to hastily use sage art chakra. Already achieving the application of natural energy is a pleasant surprise.
"Is it? Sure, write down the names of the medicinal materials you need and list them for me. I'll have the ninja cats purchase and collect them as quickly as possible."
Ruri has her private channels to avoid everyone's sight in Konoha, obtaining various materials from outside, thus purchasing medicinal materials poses no difficulty.
And to ensure secrecy of the laboratory here, Ruri has arranged numerous ready-to-act explosive tags around, if outsiders intrude, Ruri will sense it, immediately triggering these tags, detonating all explosive tags in the laboratory, blowing up intruders along with the laboratory, destroying everything here.
"Thanks for your trouble; if war is inevitable then, we must be prepared now. I have a premonition; this war will be terribly fierce."