The Second Heaven Shadow was on his honeymoon, so the First Heaven Shadow, Orochimaru, was entrusted by him and reluctantly went to the Shadow Tower to handle Nagato's duties for a few days.
Under an order from the Heaven Shadow, a group of death row prisoners were secretly transported underground to the Village of Heaven. Then, Ryun transferred them to a deserted island within the Kamui dimension.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Uchiha Ryun. Next, I will be verifying cultivation techniques, and even some forbidden secret arts, on all of you..."
Ryun stood in mid-air, looking down at the hundred noisy death row prisoners on the island.
The vast majority of these prisoners were people who deserved death. In response to Ryun's words, many directly chose to hurl insults. They all felt uneasy about their situation.
"I hope you will cooperate with me. But if you really don't want to cooperate, that's fine too. I have ways to force your cooperation."
As soon as Ryun said this, the cursing from the prisoners on the island intensified. They felt they would most likely die, and there was a high probability they would be used as experimental guinea pigs. This kind of death was unacceptable to many.
Many wanted to run. However, before they could even move, an incomprehensible force forcefully immobilized them where they stood. Soon after, everyone was even stripped of the right to speak.
Ryun used his Nine Tomoe Rinnegan to control them. Then, he performed the 'Infinite Tsukuyomi' genjutsu, making them begin to cultivate the cultivation method he had designed on their own.
Wisps of natural energy were soon absorbed into the bodies of the prisoners on the island. Ryun, with his Nine Tomoe Rinnegan wide open, carefully observed the flow of energy within their bodies. In his hand, he held paper and pen, starting to record all the changes he saw.
On the first day of verifying the cultivation method, basically none of the hundred prisoners suffered any casualties or discomfort. This was because the immortal art Ryun created was very safe. Not only were they in no danger, but their bodies also consequently gained a minuscule amount of immortal spiritual power.
However, starting from the second day, Ryun's methods began to turn rough.
He injected his own power into some of the test subjects' bodies. Then, he forcibly manipulated that energy to substitute for immortal spiritual power, subsequently circulating it through the meridians of the human body.
Among the first batch of 20 experimental subjects, 2 individuals were unable to practice the immortal art due to congenital meridian blockages. Ryun attempted several times but was unable to break open the blocked meridians of these two people. Instead, he caused them to sustain injuries.
"Innate failures, incapable of cultivation," Ryun murmured to himself. He did not let these two continue cultivation, planning to test other forbidden arts on them.
He had perused all the techniques within the Secret Art Repository. There were internal cultivation methods and external cultivation methods. This time, he was not aiming to verify just one method. So, even those who were incapable of cultivation still had other uses for him. For now, they could not be killed or discarded.
Under Ryun's forced cultivation on the second day, out of 100 people, 90 successfully possessed internal spiritual power (Senjutsu Chakra) not inferior to that of a genin. However, 10 people, due to various reasons, were unable to continue cultivation and were temporarily set aside by Ryun.
The forced cultivation continued. On the third, fourth, and fifth days, there were still no deaths. In the end, 80 people actually successfully passed the trial task.
Their bodies were forcibly infused with immortal spiritual power at the jonin level. Not only did these people show no signs of physical discomfort, but all aspects of their bodily functions also received significant enhancement.
At this moment, assuming they possessed jonin-level combat experience and ninjutsu, these 80 people could probably defeat 80 ordinary jonin.
This was because they possessed immortal spiritual power. Using immortal spiritual power to perform ninjutsu was equivalent to Sage Art ninjutsu. Ninjutsu performed with normal chakra would be mercilessly crushed by the same type of Sage Art. This was the difference between chakra and immortal spiritual power.
"Apart from some accidents and special cases, 80 people had no issues. This proves the initial stage of my immortal art has no problems..."
Ryun continuously recorded and sketched on paper. Gradually, a portion of the correct cultivation method was mapped out by him.
After completing the mapping work at hand, Ryun decisively began making them continue their cultivation.
During this period, Ryun would try his best to ensure their safety. Because these people possessed powerful energy within their bodies, they did not have the necessity to eat. Drinking water alone was sufficient for survival.
Over the next period of time, Ryun began to infuse more immortal spiritual power into their bodies.
After several consecutive days of energy infusion, among the 80 people, cases of ruptured meridians and blood vessels began to appear one after another. The energy within their bodies had clearly reached a saturated state.
"Most ordinary people's bodies can at most contain immortal spiritual power at the Kage level. However, some physically strong or exceptionally gifted individuals can contain even more power..."
Ryun continued to record these experimental results one by one with his pen.
The prisoners possessing Kage-level spiritual power had physical strength and senses far surpassing ordinary ninjas. All their bodily functions were enhanced under the support of the spiritual power.
The strength within these 80 individuals varied, but the energy their bodies could absorb had reached a saturated state. Ryun could no longer continue infusing immortal spiritual power into their bodies for the time being.
This process from ordinary person to spiritual power saturation and completion, Ryun collectively termed it the 'Cultivation Qi Refining Stage'.
The Qi Refining Stage had reached its completion phase. Ryun next began to concentrate the spiritual power within those people to the dantian, the body core, located in the abdomen.
As the 80 people began to gather their spiritual power, Ryun planned to have them directly condense a Dragon Pearl within their bodies. Afterwards, he would compress the Dragon Pearl into an inner core. This was also the Ryūchi Cave cultivation step he had once taken.
Although Ryun had experience in condensing Dragon Pearls, accidents still began to occur among the 80 people. And as the cultivation deepened, the number of people encountering problems increased, making death an unavoidable event.
Ryun was not at all surprised by this situation. He just coldly began to analyze the causes of the problems. Then, based on his own experience, he attempted to resolve these issues.
As time passed, only 6 people out of the 80 successfully condensed a Dragon Pearl. And among these 6, not a single one could compress the Dragon Pearl within their body into an inner core.
Ryun was still not surprised by this. After all, these people were merely test subjects he had forcibly elevated using spiritual power. He used these test subjects to simulate cultivation, thereby obtaining data, experience, and inspiration from them. This was his true purpose in verifying the cultivation method.
"The Qi Refining method basically has no problems. It can be fully exposed for others to practice. However, the Core Formation method might still need some refinement..." This was the conclusion Ryun drew after the experiment.
The role of ordinary people could only help Ryun verify the Qi Refining method, a point he himself understood.
"Next, it's time to test other cultivation methods..."
Ryun still had several internal cultivation methods and external cultivation methods in hand. Additionally, he had many ideas that required testing on living humans.
For example, could the 'Eight Gates' be improved. Even, was there a possibility of permanently opening the Eight Gates in the human body. Also, why could special breathing techniques like the 'Seven Heavenly Breaths' enhance combat power. These were all experimental projects Ryun was very interested in.
The 100 prisoners within the Kamui dimension probably wouldn't be enough to support him in completing all experiments. These people would also never have the chance to leave the Kamui space.
As experimental subjects, they were unfortunate yet also fortunate. Because even though their bodies were being ravaged, their spirits still received immense satisfaction. This was because Ryun used the Infinite Tsukuyomi to weave a wonderful, beautiful dream for these people. They might die, but they would not feel pain.
In the dream, Ryun fulfilled all their wishes. In reality, they needed to satisfy Ryun's thirst for knowledge. Everyone got what they needed. No one owed anyone anything.
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