Chapter 511: Talk About Thinking Of Something And Having It Arrive Immediately

He slowly raised both hands as though embracing a full moon in empty space. His fingers extended naturally, his palms faced the sky, and his entire spine relaxed section by section, beginning from the tailbone and flowing upward to the base of the neck inch by inch, as though a slumbering dragon were gradually awakening.

It was as though he were using his body as a brush to write invisible scriptures across empty space. The instant his shoulder blades spread apart, even the valley's gentle breeze seemed to be drawn by his movements, circling around him without disturbing the corners of his robes in the slightest.

This was the fruit of his dedicated exploration over the past three months. By combining theories of modern yoga from his previous life, the chakra visualization methods of ancient yoga, the chakra system of the present Shinobi World, and even certain principles of Taijutsu and Genjutsu, he had finally created the beginnings of a training method that belonged solely to himself.

In this yoga cultivation art, movement became physical mudras while stillness became meditative contemplation. It tempered Spiritual energy while regulating Physical energy.

In motion, it flowed like drifting clouds and running water; in stillness, it resembled a massive rock immersed in meditation. Between movement and stillness alike, both mind and body steadily ascended.

Only after an unknown amount of time did the flowing sequence of movements finally come to an end.

Genjo brought his palms together before his chest, exhaled a long breath of stale air, and then slowly opened his eyes once more.

Those eyes were blood-red Sharingan, each pupil containing a single black tomoe floating silently within. Yet that crimson carried none of the ominous or sinister aura usually associated with the Sharingan. Instead, it resembled the eternal lamp before a Buddha in an ancient temple, burning peacefully within the darkness, just like its owner's state of mind, unhurried, untroubled, neither increasing nor diminishing.

After three months of exploration and verification, Genjo could already clearly sense that if he continued at this pace, in about another month his Sharingan would advance from one tomoe to two.

However, the three tomoe Sharingan, and especially the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan that supposedly required experiencing extreme suffering to awaken, still remained a distant dream.

"If only there were some shortcut... Ah, no, an opportunity. Say, for example, if a powerful source of Dark chakra were to fall from the sky and land right in front of me, it would save me quite a bit of hard work."

Genjo lowered his hands and laughed inwardly. Through his firsthand experience over this period, he had also confirmed his previous hypothesis.

The evolution of the Sharingan did not necessarily require extreme emotional stimulation as a catalyst. As a Kekkei Genkai born of Dark Style, the Sharingan was ultimately nothing more than the manifestation of spiritual energy.

By steadily tempering one's Spiritual energy as he had done, accumulating it day after day, drop by drop until water wore through stone and grains of sand formed a tower, quantitative accumulation could likewise produce a qualitative transformation, allowing the Sharingan to evolve step by step.

To a certain extent, the path he was taking was the one truly worthy of being called the righteous path.

By comparison, the method of forcibly awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan through extreme emotional stimulation resembled the demonic path far more.

Granted, the demonic path could indeed allow one to ascend to heaven in a single step, granting in an extremely short period power that others might never attain even after years or decades.

Yet throughout the original course of history, every Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan through this method had suffered visibly deteriorating mental states, obsession, madness, self-destruction, despair, and without exception, each eventually descended into one form of extremity or another.

Sasuke in the original timeline could already be considered the Uchiha Clan's undisputed champion when it came to enduring psychological pressure. Even so, during the period immediately after awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan, he had practically been in a state of complete insanity.

An even more tragic example was Itachi Uchiha. The incurable terminal illness that plagued him was explicitly stated in the original timeline to be directly connected to his Mangekyo Sharingan.

However, while Genjo's path was stable, it was ultimately far too slow.

Genjo knew perfectly well that, judging from his current rate of progress, even if he continued refining and optimizing this yoga art in the future, advancing from two tomoe to three, and then reaching the threshold of the Mangekyo Sharingan, would still have to be measured in years.

That was why he could not help wondering whether there might still be some hidden opportunity in this world that could lend him a helping hand.

So, in today's Shinobi World, what could truly be called an opportunity?

Genjo fell into deep thought, rapidly sorting through everything he knew, yet before he could continue, an intense stirring suddenly welled up within his heart.

Genjo paused briefly before immediately understanding.

It was the talent, Fortune Sight!

"Talk about thinking of something and having it arrive immediately."

Seeing this, Genjo smiled faintly.

...

At the Village Hidden in the Stones, inside the Tsuchikage's office.

The third Tsuchikage, Onoki, sat behind his desk as his son, Kitsuchi, reported every detail of the Land of Iron conference from beginning to end. Throughout the entire report, he remained silent, revealing neither joy nor anger.

A long, long time after Kitsuchi had finished speaking, Onoki merely lifted a finger slightly and said, I understand, before signaling for him to leave.

After the door closed with a soft click, the spacious office was left with only Onoki and his silence.

"At most five years. I can kill every last one of you."

On the first day of the conference, Shinichi Higashino had made many earth-shattering statements. Those words spread throughout the Shinobi World like thunder through the intelligence networks of every village and the major newspapers.

Yet of all those statements, this was the only one that truly occupied Onoki's mind.

To many people, it might have sounded like nothing more than the arrogant boasting of an overconfident fool. Many would dismiss it outright, believing that no one in this world could possibly possess the power to stand alone against the military might of an entire nation.

Indeed, only a little over forty years had passed since the era when the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha dominated the world.

Many people in the Shinobi World had lived through that age, yet people always placed greater faith in what they had personally witnessed and experienced.

Those who had never seen such power with their own eyes could never truly comprehend what it meant, no matter how many records they read or how many legends they heard.

But Onoki was different. He had not only lived through that era; he had personally witnessed Madara Uchiha's power.

Every detail of that day remained engraved upon his soul even now.

Those eyes looking down upon him from above, that casual aura that left his entire body unable to move, that gaze of a god looking down upon mere ants.

That brief confrontation had cast a shadow over his heart for decades. Even now, though he had become the renowned Onoki of Both Scales who shook the Shinobi World, he could still feel that same sense of helplessness whenever he awoke from dreams in the middle of the night.

Therefore, more than anyone else, he knew that there truly were people in this world capable of standing alone against an entire nation.