The Fourth Raikage clearly had no intention of treating them to a meal, nor did he mean for them to rest; he directly dragged them to the deep mountains in the central area of the island.
Here, strange rocks were rugged (jagged and uneven), many of which were calcium carbonate, collagen, and other substances accumulated by the giant turtle during its long growth.
There were so many that they had already formed continuous mountain ranges.
And the so-called True Waterfall was in the deepest part of the mountain range.
The True Waterfall was not tall, about five meters wide and over ten meters high. In terms of scale, it was not magnificent at all; it was just a small waterfall.
"This is impossible!"
The moment Ino saw the True Waterfall, she was ten times more excited than everyone else combined. She tugged at her senior sister's sleeve, almost making her stumble.
"Senior sister, do you see it? This is a stream of water formed entirely by purified spiritual energy! It's truly unimaginable that spiritual energy can reach such a height, even interfering with matter from the spiritual realm! It's a miracle!"
She exclaimed in awe.
Shizune, holding Tonton, let out two dry laughs: "Yes, yes, it's truly amazing..."
Tonton nodded vigorously.
The Fourth Raikage stepped back two paces, lowering his voice to ask: "Bee, did you understand what that little girl said? Isn't this just some waterfall water?"
"Little girl? Little runt? Little rascal, the little idiot from Konoha Village, yeah!" Killer Bee raised his right hand, bending his middle and ring fingers to form a 'love' gesture.
"You idiot! I'm talking to you!"
Only after receiving an iron fist to the head from the Fourth Raikage did Killer Bee become slightly more serious. He paused for a second, then replied: "Gyuki says it's probably what the little runt meant."
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Big brother, you never asked me?"
The Ninja of Hidden Cloud Village were a bunch of muscle fanatics. In terms of body tempering and Ninja Taijutsu, Ino definitely couldn't compare; she was light years behind. But when it came to spiritual energy, they weren't even fit to carry Ino's shoes.
The Fourth Raikage looked at the waterfall, feeling that it was a waste for this water to just flow away. But he wasn't a Jinchuriki, nor did he cultivate spiritual energy, so he couldn't immediately think of what use this thing had for him.
Ino marveled for a while, expressing sincere admiration for Hidden Cloud Village and Turtle Island. The Fourth Raikage didn't know how to respond and just hummed and hawed to get by.
Tsunade whispered a few words to her. The master and disciple had already gone over the precautions for Spirit Transformation Technique twice, and now they went over them again, after which Tsunade handed her a bottle of potion.
Still feeling uneasy, she even wanted to take off her crystal necklace and give it to her.
Ino politely refused, absolutely not! If there isn't enough Asura Chakra, whoever wears that necklace of yours will die! It's true I'm greedy for money, but I value my life more! I still want to live a few more days! You keep it yourself.
Ino gulped down the potion, which was concocted from rare substances such as mandrake grass, vitality ginseng, red newt, large vines, and millennia-old mud.
The medicine was very bitter, but it produced a certain condensing property. Ino felt her spiritual energy slowly gathering from a misty state, showing a tendency to gradually solidify.
She walked to the platform in front of the waterfall and sat down cross-legged.
While telling herself to concentrate, she slowly opened the Yang Seal, releasing the Yin Style Chakra she had accumulated during this time.
Spirit Transformation Technique requires a large amount of Yin Style Chakra. The potion can assist in condensation, and the True Waterfall can help one see the darkness within their heart, also making it an excellent place to temper spiritual energy.
However, due to the giant turtle's biological magnetic field on Turtle Island, this place was more like a double-edged sword.
Unless Ino's spiritual energy was stronger than this giant turtle, which had lived for an unknown period, the higher her spiritual energy, the greater the influence she would experience.
She fully released her Yin Style Chakra, on one hand resisting the influence of Turtle Island, and on the other hand using this environment to temper her spiritual energy, allowing it to gradually break free from the shackles of her body, completing the final step of the Spirit Transformation Technique.
When her spiritual energy condensed together, forming a new Chakra aggregation method, and her consciousness completely detached from her body, she would truly become a spirit body.
A spirit body is not a soul; it can freely wander under the sun without any ill effects.
The Six Paths Sage was a spirit body. His body died from the extraction of the Ten-Tails, but his consciousness remained. His wishes were unfulfilled, so he was stuck between life and death, neither ascending nor descending. Do you consider him alive or dead? Don't ask; if you ask, it's just a characteristic of a Sage.
After Obito died, he could remotely give Kakashi his Sharingan; this was also a characteristic of a Sage becoming a spirit body.
Ino cannot do such a powerful thing yet. Obito was the second Ten-Tails Jinchuriki in Ninja World history. Even though it was for a short time, he was still a Sage. The realm of a Sage and what he can do are simply beyond the comprehension of a mortal like Ino.
Sages can absorb energy through Tailed Beasts and human emotions to replenish their losses. Their energy source is already external energy.
The energy that forms Ino's spirit body is still Chakra, and the essence of Chakra is still a mixture of physical energy and spiritual energy, which is internal energy. This cannot be changed at present.
The spiritual energy part can be extracted from consciousness, but the physical energy still relies on the body. In other words, once the physical energy part within the spirit body is depleted, she must return to her body to replenish it.
Leaving the body aside, the Spirit Transformation Technique is a unique path to complete a process where the soul returns to its innate state from its acquired state, relying on Chakra.
The giant snake that Orochimaru used during Living Corpse Reincarnation was also a spirit body in some sense, but the key to Living Corpse Reincarnation lies in the 'reincarnation' aspect. The requirements for shaping the spirit body are very low. To successfully reincarnate, he abandoned too many things: not to mention the weak period, not to mention the damaged soul, and in the end, even his personality changed. An honest Orochimaru who enjoyed good fortune, an Orochimaru who couldn't do the Ninja run and could only swing his arms and run like an ordinary person—was that still Orochimaru? That could be considered a completely different person.
Living Corpse Reincarnation has low requirements for oneself and is a predatory form of immortality. Stealing others' talents, stealing others' Bloodline Limits, and swallowing others' memories whole—this is a deviant path where one bites off more than they can chew.
The key to Spirit Transformation Technique lies in 'transformation,' absorbing the essence and turning it into one's own nourishment, drinking wine sip by sip, and walking the path step by step.
Each Spirit Transformation is a process of making oneself purer and raising one's life level. This process is slow but steady.
Ino gradually peeled away her perception of the outside world. She could no longer hear the voices of Shizune and Tonton. She immersed her entire mind into the deepest part of her inner world, and the Chakra in her body began its first Spirit Transformation according to the operational trajectory of the Spirit Transformation Technique.
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