As Uchiha Feiyu stepped out of the room, a massive chakra wing suddenly formed behind his back. With a single beat, he shot straight into the sky, arriving above the cliffs overlooking Sunagakure.
Sunagakure itself was built within a canyon landscape, originally meant to shield the village from the violent sandstorms of the Wind Country. However, with a certain Edo Tensei First Hokage continuously planting forests and expanding greenery, the oasis surrounding Sunagakure had grown larger and larger. At this point, sandstorms were barely a concern anymore.
The slopes above the canyon were now lush with grass and shaded by trees. Only one area had been deliberately cleared of vegetation, transformed into a massive training ground.
At this moment, two kunoichi were already sparring there. Feiyu didn't even need to ask—he already knew who they were.
"Natsumi Hoshi, Karura. You're here early."
Reaching this training ground required scaling the cliffs on either side of Sunagakure. Although the area was spacious, few ninja were willing to climb sheer rock faces just for a larger practice field.
Only ninja with true flight capability could reach it with ease. And among Sunagakure's current forces, only Natsumi Hoshi's Peacock Mystical Method and Karura's Magnet Release could lift someone more than a hundred meters up the cliff face.
Hearing Feiyu's voice, both kunoichi stopped their training and turned toward him.
"Lord Feiyu!"
He pulled the two beauties into his arms, gently rubbing their heads. Their expressions softened instantly, like small animals craving affection. But after a moment, both quickly regained their composure.
The mission to Hoshigakure had posed no real difficulty. In fact, by then, Hoshigakure's leader had already decided to seal away their secret treasure—the Star.
The reason was simple: cultivation of the Peacock Mystical Method had nearly destroyed the entire village. They couldn't even find more than a handful of ninja over the age of thirty.
It could be said that even relying on the Peacock Mystical Method alone, reaching Kage-level was theoretically possible. However, such a powerful secret art was far from flawless.
The Peacock Mystical Method had undeniable advantages. In terms of performance, it combined offense and defense into one, essentially functioning as a miniature Susanoo. In terms of flexibility, it even surpassed first- and second-stage Susanoo by a wide margin.
"I came this time to solve the problem with the Peacock Mystical Method."
At present, Natsumi Hoshi was already the third-strongest ninja in Sunagakure, second only to Pakura and Karura. With her all-in-one offense and defense, plus aerial mobility, she could tangle with a Kage-level opponent for a long time.
In truth, if even one of the Peacock Mystical Method's major flaws could be solved, it would already count as an invaluable inheritance.
Precisely because the Peacock Mystical Method conflicted so heavily with other ninjutsu systems, Sunagakure's ninja had little interest in it.
Leaving aside the fact that the Star itself damaged the body and shortened lifespan, the Peacock Mystical Method alone already counted as an extremely advanced form of chakra nature and shape transformation.
Karura had long since become Feiyu's cauldron.
As for Natsumi Hoshi—she was a "gift" Karura had brought back while executing the Hoshigakure mission, taking the village's secret treasure, the Star, along the way.
Once a ninja became accustomed to the chakra nature and form changes of the Peacock Mystical Method, cultivating other ninjutsu became exceedingly difficult. At best, they could only manage basic C-rank techniques.
"Is Lord Feiyu here to cultivate today?"
Moreover, the dual cultivation of the Hehuan Manual had compensated for some of the Peacock Mystical Method's drawbacks, allowing her strength to reach elite jōnin level in an extremely short time.
In Karura's eyes, Natsumi Hoshi's talent was second only to herself and Pakura. Had she been born in Sunagakure, she would have at least become an elite jōnin—an excellent cauldron candidate.
In Sunagakure, aside from Natsumi Hoshi, only Feiyu himself had cultivated the Peacock Mystical Method. No other ninja dared to touch it.
Under the influence of the Hehuan Manual, Natsumi Hoshi had completely become one of their own, abandoning Hoshigakure entirely and donning a Sunagakure forehead protector.
Seeing Feiyu arrive, both women lit up with delight and rushed over to him.
Later, using the excuse of needing help to fix the Peacock Mystical Method's flaws, Karura brought Natsumi Hoshi to Sunagakure—and eventually offered her to Feiyu.
"No. I'm done cultivating for now. The rest can't be digested in the short term anyway."
Only someone with Feiyu's profound foundation—having pushed both chakra nature and form transformation to extreme levels—could cultivate the Peacock Mystical Method without interfering with other ninjutsu.
And indeed, Natsumi Hoshi's talent, combined with her intact yin essence, allowed Feiyu to advance slightly faster as well.
Feiyu couldn't solve the issue of the Peacock Mystical Method conflicting with other ninjutsu—or rather, he didn't consider it a real issue at all. The real problem was simply insufficient foundation among those who forced themselves to cultivate it.
However, the radiation emitted by the Star itself was something Feiyu could easily handle, thanks to the Great Dao Bottle from the Devouring Heaven Art.
The Great Dao Bottle could devour and refine external forces, discarding impurities while retaining essence. Using it to deal with the Star was effortless—like using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken.
Of course, aside from Feiyu, ordinary ninja had no chance of cultivating such a technique. Even Feiyu himself wouldn't have managed more than surface-level understanding if he hadn't absorbed it directly from the Demonic Path Inheritance Grimoire.
And he had no intention of letting ordinary ninja practice it anyway.
Natural energy refined by the Great Dao Bottle was extremely gentle. It could easily allow someone to enter Sage Mode—or even elevate them to the level of animal sages, transforming the human body into an immortal one.
That was no longer Sage Mode.
That was the realm of true sages.
Feiyu would have to be insane to spread something like that freely.
His solution, therefore, was to deconstruct and weaken the Great Dao Bottle, developing a specialized technique that only absorbed and refined the Star's essence.
Perfecting such a supreme art was beyond him—even in eight hundred years. But degrading it and lowering the cultivation threshold was extremely easy.
"Lord Feiyu, have you really solved the Peacock Mystical Method's problem? Does that mean I can continue cultivating it?"
Natsumi Hoshi's face lit up with joy.
For the past two years, although dual cultivation had greatly enhanced her physical attributes and increased the Peacock Mystical Method's raw power, her mastery of the technique itself had stagnated.
Without the Star, advancing the Peacock Mystical Method was practically impossible. Its demands on chakra nature transformation were simply too high.
"Of course. And once your chakra control and perception of natural energy improve further, you'll be able to rely on my secret method to cultivate Sage Mode as well."
"When that happens, your strength will surge again—and you'll truly reach the very peak of Kage-level."
"That's wonderful! Lord Feiyu, please teach me this secret method!"
Feiyu pulled out a scroll from his robe and handed it to her. It contained the technique he had already整理 prepared.
"This technique isn't difficult to get started with. Once you've learned it, you can resume cultivating the Peacock Mystical Method."
"But to reach full mastery—enough to absorb natural energy—will require a great deal of effort."
"Karura, you should look at it too. Later, pass it on to Pakura as well. I estimate that only the three of you in Sunagakure can cultivate it to completion."
If it couldn't be cultivated to completion, the technique would only be useful when practicing the Peacock Mystical Method. For other ninja, it would be nothing but a waste of time.
After teaching them his newly developed technique and giving further guidance, Feiyu prepared to leave. At that moment, two masked female ANBU appeared in the training ground.
"Lord Feiyu, the Uzumaki clanswoman you asked us to monitor has appeared in Kusagakure."
Feiyu nodded calmly, understanding immediately.
"Understood. You may go."
An Uzumaki in Kusagakure—there was no need to guess. It could only be Uzumaki Karin's unfortunate mother.
This Uzumaki woman had already awakened the Sage Body bloodline trait, possessing the ability to heal others through her blood and chakra. Her talent was unquestionable.
Unfortunately, she lacked proper education and training, leaving her powerless. In the end, she fell into Kusagakure's hands, reduced to a living blood bag—and was eventually bitten to death.
Rather than letting her suffer that fate, Feiyu might as well capture her and bring her to Sunagakure as a jinchūriki candidate. After all, Shukaku currently had no suitable host.
And there was another reason.
Feiyu felt it was time to test the techniques he had learned.
Kusagakure was perfect—neither too weak nor too strong, with some foundation and three to four thousand ninja. The difficulty was just right, and the Demonic Path Grimoire would yield substantial rewards.
Feiyu believed he now possessed the power to bulldoze even a major hidden village—though whether he could face the entire ninja world at once was still uncertain.
Besides, wiping out everything in one sweep would ruin any chance of long-term harvesting.
The best approach was to start with small villages: kill the majority, absorb the rest, and fold them into Sunagakure—villages firmly under Feiyu's control.
"If I want to keep growing stronger, to surpass this world, I have to think long-term."
"Even the demonic path needs its crops to grow back before harvesting again."
The Land of Grass, sandwiched between several great nations, lived up perfectly to its name—the ultimate fence-sitter.
Unlike the one-nation-one-village system of the Five Great Countries, small nations were chaotic. Some had daimyō without ninja villages; others had villages without daimyō. The Land of Grass belonged to the latter.
Kusagakure's specialty was imitation—copying techniques from other villages and modifying them.
In plain terms: bootlegging ninjutsu and slapping on a new label.
And those so-called "improvements" were usually the same as Feiyu's degradation of the Great Dao Bottle—not stronger, but weaker, in exchange for easier cultivation.
It sounded disgraceful, but with fence-sitting and bootlegging, Kusagakure had indeed grown. Over the years, it even surpassed Takigakure and Amegakure, showing signs of becoming the leader among second-tier villages.
Because they lacked principles, the great villages never trusted Kusagakure—but when strong, they weren't afraid it would defect; when weak, they simply ignored it.
And because Kusagakure only copied techniques, the great villages weren't worried about real prodigies emerging there. Even if a genius appeared, the village's shallow foundation would never support reaching Kage-level.
"Not to mention… the atmosphere in this damn village is rotten to the core. Even if a genius appeared, they'd probably defect immediately."
Sitting in an inn in a Grass Country town, Feiyu looked down at two Kusagakure ninja kneeling and trembling before him.
These two had sought him out on their own after he arrived—seeing Feiyu, who looked wealthy, as a foreign fat sheep ripe for slaughter.
In truth, this happened to almost any outsider passing through the Land of Grass. Lone travelers who weren't ninja were routinely extorted—or outright robbed and killed.
In this country, traveling alone meant constant danger unless you clearly looked untouchable or were a foreign ninja.
Feiyu had already lowered his expectations of ninja morality—but Kusagakure still managed to break his bottom line. Even major villages didn't openly rob people like this.
"Both of you—report everything you know about Kusagakure."
Under the pressure of Feiyu's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the two ninja immediately spilled information like beans from a bamboo tube.
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