The tense situation outside temporarily did not affect the small country of Loulan located within the yellow sands. Ryun's daily life remained very routine. He used shadow clones to help his main body accelerate the infusion of the 'Yang Seal' while instructing Kushina in learning sage arts.
Actually, Ryun felt Kushina had the foundation to awaken Sage Body. This girl's physical constitution had always been incredibly strong. In the original story, even after the complete Nine-Tails was forcibly extracted from her, she managed to hold on through sheer tenacious vitality.
Afterward, she could still use sealing chains to restrain the Nine-Tails' movements. It must be remembered, she had just given birth at that time, a moment of extreme weakness for any woman...
If she hadn't been stabbed through by the Nine-Tails' claw, she might have actually pulled through.
In contrast, the main character Uzumaki Naruto, who had a minor Sage Body, immediately met the Sage of Six Paths after having half of the Nine-Tails extracted... Judging from these situations, Kushina's vitality was definitely not inferior to Naruto's.
In fact, if Ryun hadn't initially awakened his Sage Body, his physical constitution would have consistently been slightly weaker than Kushina's, let alone during their childhood...
He was determined to extract the Nine-Tails from Kushina. During this period, he would do his best to enhance her constitution. Learning sage arts and the 'Yang Seal' were both based on this goal.
If Kushina hadn't come to find him this time, he would have brought her to the Dragon Veil after achieving his own goals. Sage arts were a form of insurance for Kushina. With this insurance, she wouldn't be severely weakened when the Nine-Tails was extracted later.
"Ouch..."
Kushina suddenly covered her head and cried out, then looked pitifully at the culprit who had knocked her on the head.
"I told you to meditate calmly, not to doze off..."
Ryun glared at her fiercely.
This restless woman took a full month just to barely complete the basic introductory stage of sage training. It must be noted, when Ryun trained at Ryūchi Cave, he completed the basic introduction in just three days...
"Uh... because it's a bit boring, I accidentally dozed off... How about you stay here with me... then I won't get bored..." Kushina grabbed Ryun's arm and wheedled.
"Stay with you, my foot. If I'm next to you, you'll be even less able to meditate calmly. I've already proven that before..." Ryun rolled his eyes at her. He looked somewhat angry, but was actually holding back a laugh.
"Okay, okay... I'll continue contemplating. Don't be angry, okay..." Kushina said, sitting back down on the ground.
"Finish learning the sage arts sooner, and we can go back and get married sooner..." Ryun patted her head encouragingly.
"Yes, yes, get married, get married, hehe... I also want to have little monkeys with you..."
When she mentioned having little monkeys, Kushina immediately grinned like a simpleton.
"Hmm..." Ryun almost lost his composure and laughed out loud. At the critical moment, he bit his lip, barely maintaining his image.
"Be serious. Clear your mind, focus on sensing the purple energy around you, relax your body, open yourself up, and allow that energy to enter your body..."
Ryun's voice softly sounded by Kushina's ear. After he waved his arm, the natural energy gathered around Kushina noticeably increased several times over.
Another month passed in the blink of an eye.
After Kushina's prolonged efforts, she finally completed the basic introductory training and successfully absorbed several strands of natural energy.
"Combine your own chakra with the natural energy that has entered your body. Then, direct the successfully combined natural energy to your body core. The body core is here..."
As Ryun spoke, he reached out and touched that spot on Kushina.
"Once enough senjutsu chakra has gathered in your body core, I'll teach you how to condense a Dragon Pearl..."
"Yes, yes... Since I successfully absorbed natural energy, how about you reward me..."
Kushina gazed at Ryun's face with seductive, pleading eyes.
"Ahem..."
Ryun first coughed dryly for show, then with lightning speed, pulled Kushina into his arms. The two immediately began a breathless, passionate deep kiss.
Time flew, and another half a year passed.
After Kushina overcame her mental obstacles, with the help of the vast energy at the Dragon Veil and Ryun's meticulous, nurturing guidance, she successfully condensed a Dragon Pearl in seven months, preliminarily mastering this sage art.
Ryun, back at Ryūchi Cave, had condensed a Dragon Pearl in just one month. Within seven months, he had not only fully learned Sage Mode but also mastered all the sage arts of Ryūchi Cave...
The reason Kushina progressed so slowly even with the assistance of a blessed spot like the Dragon Veil was largely because she hadn't been bitten by a dragon or a sage snake.
It is worth mentioning that when Kushina first learned sage arts, her body showed no signs of serpentification or draconification, yet the increases in strength and chakra were very real.
"Darling... I've even cultivated my Dragon Pearl. When can we leave?" Kushina asked, leaning on Ryun's back and rubbing her cheek against his.
"We'll leave after you learn the 'Yang Seal'. Given your understanding of sealing techniques, it should take only a month or two to fully master this secret technique..." Ryun answered with a smile.
In another month, with his shadow clones working day and night, his own 'Yang Seal' should be almost full.
This was Ryun's greatest trump card, his strongest one to date.
"This technique of yours is改良 based on the 'Yin Seal', right? I once saw the scroll for the Yin Seal in big sister Tsunade's room. Learning this technique shouldn't take a month..." Kushina said with full confidence.
"Heh... Save those big words for after you've actually learned it..." Ryun shook his head and laughed.
The 'Yang Seal' involved more than just high-level sealing techniques. That tiny mark even contained advanced barrier techniques and certain profound, esoteric knowledge of inner space.
The location of the Yang Seal between the eyebrows is called the 'Muddy Pellet Palace' in Taoist tradition, also known as the upper body core. The mysteries of this place far surpass those of the lower body core below the navel. Even Ryun hadn't fully comprehended its secrets yet.
It had to be said, the Uzumaki clansman who invented the 'Yin Seal' was a true genius, to think of using meditation to open an inner space at the Muddy Pellet Palace and store excess chakra from the lower body core into the upper one.
(In Uchiha Madara's memories, Uzumaki Mito had the mark of the Yin Seal on her forehead when she was young, so let's not say Tsunade created the Yin Seal. Tsunade created the Strength of a Hundred Technique, which is the Creation Rebirth technique. The foundation for using the Strength of a Hundred Technique still relies on the Yin Seal.)
The Yin Seal could almost be considered a cultivation secret method. It even possessed the function of preserving youth. This secret technique shouldn't be classified merely as a sealing technique; Ryun felt it could fully be categorized as a sage art!
Tsunade infused an unknown amount of years worth of chakra into her Yin Seal without filling it. The inner space of the Yang Seal that Ryun改良 was more than ten times larger than that of the Yin Seal.
This was why, even while situated at the Dragon Veil and using shadow clones to infuse senjutsu chakra for so long, he still hadn't filled the Yang Seal.
The strength of this technique partly depended on the size of the inner space, meaning the storage capacity. But another aspect relied on the depth of meditation, the strength of spiritual energy, and it might even relate to the 'size of the heart'. It was profoundly mysterious, involved vast knowledge, and was extremely difficult to learn.
It would be very challenging for Kushina to learn the Yang Seal within a month, even with Ryun teaching her hand in hand.
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