Chapter 159: The Dangerous Snake Pool
At this time, in Ryuchi Cave, Kyosuke was still continuing his training.
Green snake shadows flashed by his side from time to time. Upon closer inspection, these snake shadows were made of illusory chakra, not physical entities.
This showed that Kyosuke's training in converting sage art chakra had already achieved considerable results.
As for Tagitsuhime, she was still guarding him closely, watching the changes in Kyosuke's body.
"Well, he can initially convert natural energy. It's time to start the next step of training."
Just as Kyosuke was still maintaining his seated meditation, Tagitsuhime suddenly interrupted his training.
"Follow me," she said with an expressionless face, and then walked into the depths of the cave.
"What's going on?" Kyosuke, who was in a daze, wanted to ask for the reason, but when he saw that Tagitsuhime's expression was a bit off, he could only forcibly suppress his questions and follow behind her.
The two of them thus walked toward an unknown place, one after the other. On the way, Tagitsuhime finally spoke and explained the reason.
"You now have the ability to convert sage art chakra, but if I just let you train on your own, not to mention three months, even in three years, you probably won't be able to successfully complete the 'Sage Mode' training."
"But there is a way to speed up this process, but this method is very risky. If..."
At this point, Tagitsuhime suddenly stopped and turned to look at Kyosuke.
"I'm willing to try," Kyosuke said with a smile.
"...I knew it," Tagitsuhime muttered to herself, then turned and walked away again.
Soon, the two of them arrived in front of a huge pool of water.
"This is our ancestral 'Snake Pool.' Many of our clansmen, including myself, were born here," Tagitsuhime said, looking at the pool before her.
Hearing her words, Kyosuke couldn't help but lean over and look with curiosity. He then found that there were indeed many snake eggs in this pool.
"Then why did you bring me here..." Kyosuke asked with hesitation.
Because at this time, he suddenly thought of "Orochimaru Kabuto" from the Fourth Great Ninja War, and his "Sage Mode," which seemed to be completely integrated with natural energy.
At this time, Kyosuke seriously suspected that Orochimaru Kabuto's strange state was probably related to the Snake Pool before him.
Sure enough, what Tagitsuhime said next could be said to have confirmed Kyosuke's guess.
"The water in this Snake Pool contains extremely rich natural energy, and it is very easy to absorb."
"You could say that you don't even need to actively gather it here. The natural energy will flow into your body through your skin."
"If you want to master the perfect 'Sage Mode,' you can only do it through the water here."
Kyosuke silently nodded on the side, indicating that he understood. However, he did not interrupt Tagitsuhime's speech, because she probably hadn't finished yet.
"But..." Tagitsuhime's words suddenly paused, and then she continued in a strange tone, "Doing so will also be accompanied by great risks."
"What risks?" Kyosuke asked.
"...If the conversion speed is too slow, you could be burst by the vast natural energy. Even if that doesn't happen, there's a high probability that you'll turn into an irrational poisonous snake," Tagitsuhime said with a complicated expression.
"Oh," Kyosuke replied simply.
"Are you sure you understood?" Tagitsuhime asked again with a helpless look, seeing his nonchalant appearance.
Kyosuke lowered his head in thought for a moment, then raised his hand and patted her on the shoulder, and asked with a relaxed smile, "Can I just jump into the Snake Pool like this?"
"Well, yes, just jump in..."
Before Tagitsuhime could finish, Kyosuke had jumped into the pool with a splash.
Tagitsuhime: ""
Cold, very cold. This was Kyosuke's first feeling.
But besides the cold, he did not have any symptoms such as difficulty breathing. It was clear that the water in this Snake Pool was not ordinary.
After swimming around for a while, during which Kyosuke even had the leisure to poke a few snake eggs, he finally slowly swam to the bottom of the pool and sat down, preparing to start absorbing the natural energy.
Almost at the moment he released the chakra restriction, a vast amount of natural energy madly poured into his body.
Seeing this, Kyosuke immediately began his conversion process.
However, although his conversion speed was now countless times faster than outside, it was still not as fast as the speed at which the natural energy poured in. If this continued, being burst would be his only end.
Tagitsuhime, on the shore, also clearly noticed this situation. For this, she couldn't help but walk back and forth on the shore with a anxious expression.
"...What should I do? Kyosuke can't resist it. Should I go down and save him..."
"But there's only one way to save him. But if I use this method, then I..."
Just as Tagitsuhime was hesitating, the situation under the Snake Pool changed again.
A pure stream of sage art chakra suddenly gushed out from the back of Kyosuke's neck, and then it began to fight against the vast natural ability in his body.
Although the amount of this sage art chakra was not large, it undoubtedly sped up Kyosuke's conversion efficiency, so his situation was temporarily stabilized.
"Whew... that's good," Tagitsuhime secretly let out a sigh of relief upon noticing this scene, but she then became a bit curious about the source of that sage art chakra.
"Is this the strange method Kyosuke mentioned that can store sage art chakra?"
Tagitsuhime's guess was correct. This weak stream of sage art chakra was the biggest source of Kyosuke's confidence in daring to enter the Snake Pool.
In fact, the reason his conversion efficiency had been slow before, besides being related to his own constitution, was also because he had been storing some of the converted sage art chakra in his cursed seal.
According to Kyosuke's idea, he wanted to store the sage art chakra all at once and then release it in one fell swoop, so as to be able to convert the "Sage Mode" into a skill.
He hadn't expected this action to be mistaken by Tagitsuhime as his conversion efficiency being too slow, which was why the subsequent events had occurred.
But this was also good. At least Kyosuke's training time would be greatly shortened, and he could also return to the battlefield sooner.
Under the Snake Pool, Kyosuke's training was still continuing.
At this time, in his body, although his resistance to natural energy was a bit of a struggle at first, as time passed, when more and more sage art chakra had been converted and joined the resistance, Kyosuke's situation had gradually improved.
It was likely that in a short while, his body would be filled with sage art chakra. At that time, his Sage Mode would be completely mastered.
But then, the unexpected happened.
The originally vast but calm natural energy, for some unknown reason, suddenly poured into his body at a doubled speed, almost instantly disrupting the original balance.
In just a few short minutes, the defensive line Kyosuke had built with his sage art chakra was completely broken.
The situation was once again in crisis.
"Damn it! How could this be?" Kyosuke roared in anger in his heart.
Although at this time, his conversion efficiency had been greatly improved, in the face of the suddenly violent natural energy, his conversion speed was still a bit too slow.
Suddenly, a pair of crimson, eerie eyes suddenly appeared in the Snake Pool.
"You think you can kill me with just natural energy? You're too arrogant!!!"
With the intervention of his powerful visual prowess, Kyosuke's situation improved slightly.
But just then, this natural energy, as if it were being controlled by someone, once again accelerated the speed at which it poured into his body.
For this, the tomoe in Kyosuke's eyes couldn't help but spin to an extreme in an instant.
"How could I die here? Convert for me!!!"
In a daze, it was as if a strange pattern flashed in his eyes.
Then, the originally restless natural energy, as if it had received some kind of command, actually began to actively transform into sage art chakra.
But then, besides some of the natural energy that had actively "defected," the rest of it actually sped up again and once again broke the defensive line that Kyosuke had rebuilt.
And the bad situation didn't end there. Kyosuke's Sharingan had also reached its limit at this time, and for some unknown reason, it had actually closed directly. No matter how he used his chakra to drive it, he couldn't open it again.
The situation had suddenly fallen into a desperate situation.
Just as Kyosuke's consciousness was gradually fading, it was as if he saw a figure jump into the pool. Then, his whole body fainted, and he could no longer feel anything.
After fainting, Kyosuke had a dream. He couldn't remember the specific content, but in the dream, he was as if floating on the water. His whole body felt very comfortable and relaxed. This feeling made him almost get lost in it for a moment.
But unfortunately, this feeling was too short. Before the Kyosuke in the dream could savor it, he felt a cool breeze.
"Whew..." Waking up from the beautiful dream, he directly leaped up from the ground.
Thump.
He had slammed a hole in the ceiling of Tagitsuhime's cave.
"Be careful of my cave. If you break it, you'll have to pay for it," Tagitsuhime said with a calm tone, her back to him.
"Uh, what am I..." Kyosuke, who had landed in a disheveled state, only noticed that something was wrong with his body after dodging the falling rocks.
The surging sage art chakra throughout his body, the strong and powerful body, the snake-shaped natural energy surrounding him that was as easy to control as his own limbs, and the single horn on his head—all of this seemed to be telling him that his Sage Mode had been successfully mastered.
While feeling the state of his body, Kyosuke eagerly opened the system menu and checked the system's information.
Sage Mode lv1 (0/200)
Just as Kyosuke had thought, the Sage Mode, which needed to be actively released, was not a talent-like ability, but was classified as a "passive skill" that could be directly upgraded with experience points.
For this, Kyosuke couldn't help but be overjoyed.
Because this meant that as long as he had enough experience points, his Sage Mode could be raised to the level of "Hashirama Senju," where it could be released with a single thought.
Of course, not to mention how slow it would be to upgrade this "god"-level skill, which had a starting rating of 200 experience points, just with his current physical fitness, which had not yet reached the "Kage" level, and his own chakra, he probably couldn't withstand too powerful natural ability.
So, although the path to becoming stronger was clear, Kyosuke still had to take it one step at a time.
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