Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 36 Natural Energy

Is that really the case? Hinata Kanan looked at the stone sculpture in front of him.

Hyuga Kanan did not launch any attack; he simply used his usual training process, which involved absorbing natural energy and refining it into his own internal energy.

Ultimately, the energy within the body is nothing more than refined natural energy, which has an assimilative effect on the surrounding natural energy and can quickly absorb the surrounding natural energy to complete the assimilation process.

The inspiration comes from my own practice of Baguazhang - Returning to Heaven. When I release the energy in my body to use Returning to Heaven, if I don't use the powerful soul force to bind the energy in my body, it will quickly absorb the surrounding natural energy and complete the assimilation process.

As can be seen from the original Naruto manga, ordinary people cannot use natural energy. If they inhale too much natural energy, they will be petrified. This can be seen from Jiraiya's training in so-called Sage Mode at Mount Myōboku. Absorbing natural energy is a very dangerous thing.

Based on these two events, Hyuga Kanan was inspired. If he injected his energy into the other person's body and then used his soul power to draw natural energy there, then his energy, which had already left his body, would absorb and assimilate a large amount of natural energy in the environment.

Then the opponent will absorb a large amount of natural energy into their body. Iwa ninjas who haven't learned to use natural energy will naturally experience a backlash from it.

And what about the consequences of the backlash? As seen in the original work, a small amount might result in someone turning into a grotesque monster, like Orochimaru later became Jugo Ueto, losing their mind. However, a large amount will almost certainly turn them to stone.

Hinata Kanan was inspired by the risks of natural energy and, having gone through the process of practicing Baguazhang to turn back the heavens, came up with this method to attack the enemy, since he was unable to break through the opponent's defense and the difference in strength between them was too great.

Hyuga Kanan uses gentle attacks to gradually mix his energy into the opponent's chakra, allowing his energy to enter the opponent's chakra circulation. By continuously increasing the amount of energy injected and using his soul power to draw in the surrounding natural energy, he can quickly get the natural energy into the opponent's chakra.

However, the risks this time are extremely high.

First of all, this method can only be used in close combat. If that Iwa ninja doesn't want to fight me and directly uses ninjutsu to attack me from a distance, then I will definitely be able to dodge from a distance and will not have the opportunity to inject energy into my body.

Secondly, this Iwa ninja was clearly still attached to his Hyuga clan identity from Konoha; capturing him and bringing him back would be a huge achievement. He was instructed to attack while focusing on capturing him alive, not killing him easily, and even if he had to kill him, to preserve his eyes and prevent him from having the chance to damage them. This naturally made him hesitant in his attacks, lacking the decisiveness he showed against other ninjas. He wanted to use close combat to defeat him and capture him alive.

Finally, despite clearly noticing the strangeness of Hyuga Kanan's final fighting style—his light attacks that caused no harm yet relentlessly drained his stamina—he remained unfazed, clinging to the arrogance of a Jonin, believing he posed little danger. Rather than being killed by Kanan's natural energy attack, it's more accurate to say he was killed by his own greed and arrogance.

The tall, lifelike stone sculpture of the Iwagakure ninja still stood there. Hyuga Kanan scanned the inside with his soul power, then got up and slowly approached, placing his palm on the stone sculpture.

The energy within the body began to frantically absorb the natural energy inside the stone sculpture and enter the vortex of the dantian within the body. It was discovered that there was a great deal of this natural energy erosion inside the stone sculpture, to the point that it was almost liquid.

Furthermore, unlike the ninjas who died before, whose soul energy clusters were not taken away by the Sage of Six Paths, the clusters of soul energy inside remained within the stone sculpture.

This discovery brought Hinata Kanan both joy and surprise.

Taoist practitioners seem to have a different approach to natural energy than ninjas. Ninjas seem unable to truly absorb and refine natural energy for cultivation, as their chakra system seems to have an innate aversion to external natural energy. Taoist cultivation, on the other hand, requires natural energy to enhance and evolve itself, achieving life evolution.

This might be the limitation imposed by the Sage of Six Paths. He also didn't want ninjas to learn how to cultivate using natural energy, at most allowing them to only touch upon the most rudimentary applications of natural energy. This is the 'Sage Techniques' used in the ninja world, which seem powerful but don't bring any evolution to one's own life.

In a world abundant with natural energy, humanity has not yet embarked on an evolutionary path. This is likely due to the Sage of Six Paths' plan. He divided his will into countless fragments and passed down the chakra cultivation system, just as some highly talented individuals among humanity independently developed a cultivation system utilizing natural energy, thus enabling humanity to truly evolve.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths, the ninja world was his nursery, and no one could escape his control. His chakra cultivation system seemed to be far superior to Hyuga Kanan's Taoist cultivation system. As long as one became a ninja, one could use various escaping techniques, which was far more powerful than the cultivation system that used natural energy. Coupled with the endless threat of battle, it made humanity completely give up the possibility of using natural energy to evolve itself.

The three holy lands may be the last shackles left by the Sage of Six Paths. When humans discovered that natural energy could be used to enhance their strength, they immediately had the demons of the three holy lands come forward and guide them into the cultivation system of the three holy lands, making them completely abandon their own exploration and pursuit of the cultivation system of natural energy.

This effectively cuts off humanity's last hope of creating and utilizing natural energy for spiritual cultivation.

In reality, anyone who truly understands how to cultivate using natural energy can see that strength is not the path to be pursued in this kind of cultivation; the evolution of life is. Once life evolves to a certain level, the strength brought by chakra is utterly laughable in front of a true cultivator—like trying to show off one's skills before an expert.

However, his initial weakness was also real. Hyuga Kanan is a typical example. Even though he had all the techniques and guidance to cultivate step by step to break through the void and ascend to immortality, he was still at the level where he could be killed by a mere Jonin.

The ninja world isn't entirely devoid of intelligent individuals; Orochimaru is one such clever fellow. While he might lack creativity, he possesses a trait most people lack: a relentless pursuit of the truth. When he came into contact with natural energy, Ryuchi Cave immediately lured him inside, intending to trick him into learning their 'Sage Techniques.' Upon seeing the so-called sages within Ryuchi Cave and discovering their incredibly long lifespans, he prepared to try out Ryuchi Cave's Sage Techniques. However, after realizing that those so-called Sage Techniques couldn't grant the same longevity as the serpents, he abandoned the attempt.

Hyuga Kanan even suspected that Orochimaru had discovered problems with the chakra system during his research, and that the Reanimation Jutsu was invented to evade these problems, but ultimately he failed. After realizing he couldn't avoid the Sage of Six Paths' schemes no matter how hard he researched, he gave up on the possibility of further evolution.

In the later Boruto series, the fact that he directly created a person who could utilize natural energy demonstrates that he truly discovered the secret of using natural energy for cultivation, which could lead to human evolution.

But everything is under the Sage of Six Paths' control. As long as you don't completely abandon the chakra system, you will eventually become his nourishment. This is his final foreshadowing.

When Hyuga Kanan discovered that his bloodline contained the will of others, he realized that the chakra system was a complete scam. Training in the chakra system meant working for someone else, forever working for the masters of those wills. He decisively abandoned the idea that early-stage chakra could enhance his strength and save his life. Using someone else's power always comes with a price, possibly with exorbitant interest.

Despite a world brimming with natural energy, no one has created or discovered how to truly utilize this superior environment. Even the will of heaven and earth cannot alter it.

This is completely different from the situation on Earth in ancient times. When Earth was rich in natural energy, it was a time of great intellectual ferment, with countless cultivation systems and techniques being created. People made the most of natural energy to evolve and develop their potential, and countless people broke through the void to become immortals or gods.

But in the end, the great power forcibly cut off Earth's hope. Perhaps the chaotic prehistoric era, with its endless fighting and plundering of resources, also frightened many people.

It is recorded in many inherited documents, but without detailed descriptions, mostly consisting of speculation and prediction. The closest account is the endless war between humans and demons, which claimed countless innocent lives, caused the earth to crumble, and finally, the powerful Nuwa, a hybrid of demon and human, could no longer bear the suffering of humanity due to war. She created the Heaven-Mending Project, using her own consciousness and life to directly obliterate the will of heaven and earth, ultimately becoming the foundation stone to successfully mend the sky. This severed the natural energy between heaven and earth, depriving cultivators of their source of power in this world, forcing them to leave.

Later cultivators who wished to become gods or immortals could only break through the void and escape the cage designed by Nuwa.

This world, still in its nascent stage, was targeted by others, completely losing any hope of evolution and becoming nothing more than a nursery and nourishment for them. They even continuously plundered the world's natural energy, causing the will of heaven and earth to degenerate and eventually disappear. It was locked onto before it even experienced the flourishing of diverse schools of thought.

Looking at the stone sculpture before him, Hyuga Kanan also saw the grand scale and exquisite ingenuity of the Sage of Six Paths' design! It completely made everyone in the ninja world give up the possibility of cultivating natural energy for evolution, and also cut off the possibility of discovering and exploring natural energy.