Konan was almost 1.70 meters tall, a little taller than Ino, but for a spiritual body, height was just a thought.
Ino leaned in and glanced at the black cloak with red clouds. Hmm, she had a large mole on her chest, so it must be Konan herself.
"Yes, it's Sister Konan."
"How did she become like this? Konan has a very gentle personality."
Ino explained, "This Sister Konan seems to be very conflicted internally. She wants to return to this wooden house, which means she intends to die, but she didn't completely block the gap, allowing me to see a flaw and enter first. I think she herself is very hesitant, caught in a state of indecision."
As she spoke, she took control of the dark vines on the walls to reinforce the wooden door that Konan had put a hole through.
Jiraiya was a bit shocked, and more so, he didn't understand why things had turned out this way.
Ino, however, was quite calm. This was nothing; she had seen far more sinister things.
"All the malice in this Sister Konan's heart has erupted. Hokage-sama, don't worry, this is a normal phenomenon. Everyone has malice in their heart, and the more it's suppressed, the more it accumulates. Ouch, that hurts! It's fine, it's not a big deal!"
Jiraiya was dumbfounded, watching Ino elbow Konan in the chest. From any angle, it didn't look like "not a big deal"; it looked like "a very big deal"!
In front of Ino was a Corrupted Konan, completely different from the calm and composed Konan from before.
Countless black tentacles emerged from her eyes, ears, nose, and even every opening on her body, seemingly trying to entangle Ino and drag her out of the wooden house.
Ino truly felt it wasn't a big deal; she had seen far more bizarre things.
Her body was entangled by numerous black tendrils, lifting her off the ground, and her golden ponytail was tightly clutched by Corrupted Konan. She showed no fear, raising one foot high to press against Corrupted Konan's chin to prevent her from biting, while kicking her chest with the other foot. At the same time, her hands were still manipulating the surrounding vines to reinforce the wooden house.
This wooden house was extremely important to Konan. Whether the door was broken or not didn't matter, but the house absolutely could not be destroyed by this Corrupted Konan.
Jiraiya really wanted to help, but seeing how intensely they were fighting, he didn't know how to intervene at first.
He felt he should consult a professional: "What should I do now? How can I help you?"
Ino, relying on her rich experience, suppressed Corrupted Konan. At this point, she had bound her several times with vines and was pushing her outwards with force.
Her words were simple and direct: "Find some wood, reinforce the wooden door, and then block it to keep her out."
No sooner had she spoken than Corrupted Konan let out a piercing shriek, like fingernails scratching glass, the sound thin and irritating.
Ino's vision blurred from the shriek, and three of the five vines were torn apart.
"Still resisting? Think I can't handle you? Shiba!" She pressed her knee into Corrupted Konan's spine, putting all the weight of her spiritual body on her, one hand grabbing her hair, the other swinging a punch.
A young girl's heart only holds poetry and distant lands; a mature woman is different!
Konan was clearly a mature woman. She had seen many things over the years, and a lot of darkness had accumulated in her heart.
Ino held her down tightly, raining blows upon her head and face.
Jiraiya tried to help, but found his body was completely ethereal here, unable to touch "solid objects." With a slight effort, he floated out of the house.
Seeing Ino struggling but unable to help, he felt quite awkward for a moment.
The cause and effect of this matter had nothing to do with Ino; she was purely an outsider. Konan's resistance towards her grew stronger and stronger. 'You're an outsider, what are you meddling for?! Who do you think you are?!'
Only the one who tied the bell can untie it. This matter had to be resolved by Jiraiya.
Ino could only temporarily teach him some tricks.
"Hokage-sama, actually, the rules in the spiritual world are like this: we are not physical entities, we are just thoughts. Abandon your preconceived notions, imagine yourself as a pure individual, a unique individual."
Jiraiya: "???"
He had never considered himself a genius, and Ino's words were completely incomprehensible to him.
Thoughts? Individuals? He was already an individual, wasn't he? Was he something else?
Ino continuously applied more force, and half of Corrupted Konan's body had already been pushed out by her, but no door wouldn't do. Jiraiya had to help her construct the concept of a "door."
"...Let me think. Ah, I'll give you an analogy. Actually, our bodies in the outside world are not simply individual entities, but rather a collection."
Knowing Jiraiya didn't understand, Ino explained in simple terms: "When we eat, is it our soul that wants to eat, or our body? Actually, it's the body; our soul doesn't need to eat. To be more specific, it's the cells in our body that want to eat. For their own survival, they produce things like dopamine and hormones. They transmit signals to the brain, urging us to eat, sleep, drink, and so on. In these moments, it's not our subjective consciousness controlling the body, but the body's consciousness. We appear to be a single living individual, but we are actually an ecosystem."
Our Ninja Chakra is much higher in level than these cells. Chakra allows our consciousness to break free from the constraints of the body, to shed those lower survival needs, and to become more pure. Now that we are in the world of the mind, Hokage-sama, you need to strengthen your resolve, abandon ingrained thought patterns from your consciousness, discard those lower needs, and pursue the most fundamental thoughts in your heart. That is your essence."
Jiraiya was half-convinced; it sounded somewhat logical. He closed his eyes, strengthened his resolve, and tried to make his mental energy purer.
He was capable of using Sage Mode, having practiced communicating with body energy, mental energy, and Natural Energy. Ino's words weren't a sudden enlightenment, but they allowed him to see more of the mysteries of mental energy, things he had never thought about or realized before.
It was indeed as Yamanaka Inoichi had said; body energy and Natural Energy aside, his daughter had gone very far on the path of mental energy.
He grasped the trick and quickly gathered materials from the wooden house scene, creating a "door" that was more conceptual in nature.
Ino pushed Corrupted Konan out of the wooden house, then stepped aside. "Alright, Boss, you block the door."
Jiraiya was the protagonist of this wooden house, or at least one of them. His influence on Konan was definitely higher than that of a mere passerby like Ino.
Jiraiya said with a heavy expression, "Konan, I know you all hate me. I don't blame you, but I hope you listen to me carefully..."
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