Chapter 439: Cultivation of Senjutsu (Part 3)
Merge with the Slug Sage and lose oneself forever?
In the girl's thoughts, such a way of dying was even more chilling than simply dying.
Haruno Sakura fell silent.
"Perhaps calling it dying is not quite right," the little slug's voice became sorrowful and ethereal, speaking faintly, "Because the loser is absorbed by the Slug Sage and becomes part of the great immortal individual named Slug Sage, in a sense..."
"The loser also gains immortality."
Sakura felt her scalp tingling: "Immortality? This kind of immortality is worse than being dead and done with!"
"Hehe."
The little slug didn't speak, just smiled meaningfully.
"Wait," Haruno Sakura suddenly realized something, her expression became strange, and her gaze towards the little slug flickered, "In that case, could it be... you are also one of the losers?"
She scrutinized the little slug carefully, and the more she looked, the more reasonable her speculation seemed.
Actually, Haruno Sakura had doubts for a long time. Katsuyu's clones always addressed her and Tsunade as "Tsunade-sama" and "Haruno Sakura-sama," but the main body of the Slug Sage called them "Little Tsunade" and "Little Sakura." Given the Sage's status and strength, the latter address was normal; it wouldn't respectfully call a few juniors "sama." Katsuyu's clones placed their status very low, indicating that in the clone's subconsciousness, it was different from the main body. Tsunade seemed accustomed to this, and since Haruno Sakura rarely summoned Katsuyu, she had never asked about it.
So only now did she suddenly realize that the thinking mode used by Katsuyu's clones was different from the Slug Sage. They likely originated from those losers who merged with the Sage...
No wonder the Katsuyu clones summoned by Tsunade were always polite and respectful to Tsunade, while the one in front of her had a bit of bad taste in its personality. Presumably, their predecessors were different ninja, right?
Also no wonder when she first met the Slug Sage, it could see through the secret of Haruno Sakura's soul at a glance; because this big slug itself was an aggregate of multiple souls. The mental cores merged together probably numbered in the dozens or hundreds. Compared to it, Sakura's mere three cores were completely insignificant!
"I am just a tiny clone of this great individual beneath our feet. If it weren't inconvenient for the main body to speak, I wouldn't appear in this world." The little slug shook its tentacles and said, "Perhaps I was once an outstanding ninja, but that was a matter of my previous life."
"You don't remember anymore?"
"Remember? Why should I remember?" The little slug asked back with a smile, "I am a part of the Slug Sage, not some ninja from the past. Whether having those memories or not is irrelevant to Katsuyu."
The little slug's answer sounded very open-minded.
But Haruno Sakura felt very uncomfortable hearing it.
Even thinking that if she failed, she would become such a slug, she felt horrified.
Scarier than death!
If she died, maybe one day she could be summoned by Edo Tensei; but once failing here, with soul and body merged into the slug, that would truly be vanishing like smoke, even memories lost, not knowing who she was, never able to leave her trace in this world again...
Seeing Haruno Sakura's ugly expression and delay in speaking, the little slug urged: "Alright, let's stop the chatting about the relationship between my main body and clones here, Haruno Sakura-sama! Let's hurry up and continue training!"
"Hn." Haruno Sakura took a deep breath, shook her head, and threw the chaotic thoughts out of her mind.
Focusing attention back on Senjutsu cultivation.
"Don't rush, Katsuyu-sensei. As the saying goes, learning without thinking leads to confusion. Before the second Senjutsu training begins," the girl's eyes quickly calmed down, looking at the little slug like a clear pool, "Let's discuss the reason for my failure just now first."
"Then where do you think your mistake was?" It asked back.
"There were factors from all aspects..." Sakura frowned slightly, carefully recalling the training process just now, and replied, "But the most fundamental point is that natural energy is too hard to control, and unfortunately, the quantity is extremely large."
"Senjutsu Chakra requires me to mix natural energy with physical and spiritual energy in equal proportions. I can control the latter two precisely, but natural energy is my first contact. Without experience in manipulating and using it, I could only let it run in the meridians. Mixing it with physical and spiritual energy into Senjutsu Chakra is extremely difficult! Moreover, even if the ratio of the three energies is adjusted well, new natural energy immediately pours in, breaking the newly established balance, and then I have to start all over again. This is the biggest headache."
The little slug smiled: "Indeed. I wonder if Haruno Sakura-sama remembers, when you came to Shikkotsu Forest last year, my main body once told you that you would only be qualified to cultivate Senjutsu when your chakra volume became larger."
"The reason is that during Senjutsu cultivation, the cycle of establishing balance, massive natural energy pouring in, balance broken, and then re-establishing balance consumes a large amount of chakra. For a ninja with average chakra volume, this cycle would only happen two or three times before chakra runs out, forcing the cultivation to stop. The progress of cultivation would be extremely slow, and even spending decades might not lead to successful cultivation!"
Haruno Sakura nodded.
"Refining Senjutsu Chakra is divided into two steps." Katsuyu continued to explain, "The first step, sensing natural energy. The second step, mixing natural energy. During training, we start from the second step. I will help pour natural energy into your body. You only need to concentrate on practicing mixing natural energy and generating Senjutsu Chakra."
"During this process, I will keep an eye on your status. So you can try and train with peace of mind, without worrying about natural energy going out of control, because before that, I will spit you out in time and draw away the excess natural energy in your body."
"Of course, this process might be a little uncomfortable..."
Haruno Sakura couldn't help rolling her eyes at it: "More than just a little uncomfortable!"
Katsuyu said it lightly, but Haruno Sakura, who was squeezed in the narrow esophagus and spat out, was quite uncomfortable. Plus the feeling of emptiness after the energy in her body was drawn away made her retch uncontrollably.
Compared to that nauseating feeling of wanting to vomit but unable to, being beaten up heartily might be more satisfying!
"Where in the world is there such a thing as easily gaining power without undergoing hard training? There is no special trick to Senjutsu cultivation, just relying on massive, massive, massive practice to cultivate your manipulation of natural energy. So, hang in there, Haruno Sakura-sama!" Katsuyu shook its head and said.
Haruno Sakura shrugged her shoulders, expressing understanding.
Before gaining unparalleled chakra control, she practiced boring basics for seven or eight years, so she knew better that there were no shortcuts for this kind of basic training.
Katsuyu finally added: "When practicing mixing natural energy, in the process of constantly trying to control it, you will slowly gain a certain understanding of it, which will make the perception training in the first step twice the result with half the effort. When it comes to practicing sensing natural energy, you won't need to be swallowed by me for cultivation again. At that time, cultivation will become much easier!"
"Anyway, let's start, Sakura-sama!"
Haruno Sakura's Senjutsu cultivation soon got on the right track.
Of course, the so-called right track didn't mean Haruno Sakura quickly mastered the knack of cultivation, so she was no longer as wretched as the first failure. She just—
Got used to it.
Used to the difficulty of manipulating natural energy, used to being spat out rudely by Katsuyu after failing cultivation, used to lying weakly on the Sage's back retching endlessly, used to her wretched self.
Similar to the first training, the second, third... up to dozens or hundreds of training sessions, the final result was no different, equally a naked girl being spat out wretchedly.
The biggest difference was that with each training, Haruno Sakura persisted longer than the last time.
And the appearance of the girl when spat out changed from being eroded by natural energy beyond recognition at the beginning, to finally having almost no trace of erosion by natural energy except for the gorgeous purple eyeshadow.
Time passed day by day, and Haruno Sakura was down-to-earth, slowly approaching the end of cultivation step by step.
Pure as I am, I don't quite understand what the "vorarephilia" (swallowing whole) you guys are talking about means!
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