The first thing that catches the eye is a giant unknown plant.
Mokgetsu doesn't recognize this plant, whether from his past life or the Land of Fire, he has never seen it, he guesses it might be a unique plant to Mount Myoboku.
Although he is not familiar with plants, if there is such a special giant plant, he should have some impression.
Apart from the giant plant, many bright-colored large mushrooms grow on the ground of Mount Myoboku.
They look quite nice; whether they are edible is uncertain.
"Let's go see the mother of the kids, she quite misses you, little Mokgetsu,"
said Fukasaku Sage as he took Mokgetsu to their house.
"Oh dear, little Mokgetsu is visiting, welcome, welcome." Prepared with ingredients, Shima Sage saw Mokgetsu and greeted him joyfully.
"It just happens to be mealtime, later you'll see if my culinary skills have improved, little Mokgetsu."
"You have to be full to cultivate, let's wait for the mother of the kids to finish making lunch." Fukasaku Sage nodded and said.
Though there is some craving for Mokgetsu's cooking, Mokgetsu is a guest, and they can't have the guest cook on their first meal; that's not their way of hospitality.
"I'll do it; I just haven't used this kind of ingredient to cook before." Mokgetsu smiled slightly and proactively said.
Mokgetsu is wary of the Great Toad Sage's abilities, but he won't ignore the goodwill of the two sages.
Besides, it's also better for Mokgetsu himself; eating a chef-made insect dish is far better than eating Shima Sage's insect cooking.
"How could that be, you just arrived at Mount Myoboku, little Mokgetsu." Shima Sage thought this was inappropriate.
However, under Mokgetsu's strong insistence, Shima Sage reluctantly agreed.
"There's such delicious cooking in the Ninja World!"
After taking a small bite of Mokgetsu's insect dish, Fukasaku Sage was immensely surprised; he had never tasted such a delicious insect in over eight hundred years.
"The Great Toad Sage surely hasn't tasted this too." Fukasaku Sage thought of the Great Toad Sage.
But soon realized Shima Sage was already on a food spree, eating rapidly.
Immediately, Fukasaku Sage put the Great Toad Sage behind him and also started eating rapidly.
Anyway, Mokgetsu isn't coming just once, and the Great Toad Sage might not be awake now.
After eating and drinking satisfyingly, it's time for formal cultivation.
Fukasaku Sage took Mokgetsu to a place with many huge toad statues, first explaining the principles and precautions of Sage Mode to Mokgetsu.
Although Mokgetsu learned quite a bit from the Hokage original work, the content displayed in the real world is richer than the manga and animation, Mokgetsu listened very attentively.
The essence of Chakra is the evenly mixed product of two energies: spiritual energy and body energy.
And the essence of Sage Art Chakra is actually adding natural energy into that mixing process, requiring maintaining a 1:1:1 ratio balance of the three energies.
Therefore, the first cultivation of Sage Mode is perceiving natural energy.
If you can't even perceive natural energy, naturally, there's no talk of absorbing and controlling it within the body.
This is why cultivating Sage Art requires being in the Holy Land.
Mokgetsu doesn't know about Ryuchi Cave and Shikkotsu Forest's situation, but Mount Myoboku has Toad Oil that can help cultivators gather natural energy.
With the help of Toad Oil, cultivators can directly bypass the perception of natural energy; Toad Oil automatically attracts natural energy into the cultivator's body.
This allows the cultivator to control by feeling the natural energy within their body, simultaneously pushing back the first step and achieving the effect of quickly cultivating Sage Mode.
"Do you want to use the oil? It will be much faster but more risky." Fukasaku Sage asked.
He generally wouldn't recommend using Toad Oil to learn Sage Art.
Because using Toad Oil to cultivate Sage Mode requires Fukasaku Sage to focus on watching, timely using a special stick to disperse natural energy, otherwise the risk is huge.
Ninjas learning Sage Art don't give Fukasaku Sage rewards, so naturally, he won't do such a thankless job.
Mokgetsu is different, after just eating Mokgetsu's dish, wanting to eat again, it's not the same way he would treat a regular cultivator.
"Not for now, I want to first practice perceiving natural energy." Mokgetsu refused.
Using Toad Oil would undoubtedly hand his safety to Fukasaku Sage, a feeling Mokgetsu doesn't like.
Moreover, unlike Naruto, he isn't eager to fight Pain; he doesn't need to learn in a short time and can take it slow.
After all, he doesn't just want to master Sage Mode; his ultimate goal is to develop a new Sage Mode, thoroughly learn Mount Myoboku Sage Mode is what Mokgetsu should aim for.
"The first step and the core key is not moving, this motionlessness isn't just about you standing still, it's about achieving unity between man and nature, merging with nature, sensing the earth and sky, sensing the flow of natural energy in the earth and sky..."
Fukasaku Sage nodded to begin explaining the core points of perceiving natural energy.
After explaining for about two hours, Fukasaku Sage let Mokgetsu try to perceive natural energy and absorb control himself.
"Although it's the first step, this is the most important one; usually requires a long time, Mokgetsu don't need to rush." Fukasaku Sage preemptively consoled.
Next moment, Fukasaku Sage was dumbfounded; in its perception, natural energy surprisingly gathered toward Mokgetsu, being absorbed by him.
Fukasaku Sage's eyes widened, looking at Mokgetsu in disbelief.
Sensing natural energy for the first time and conducting absorption, what kind of eight-hundred-year rare Sage Art genius is this?
Mokgetsu was a bit surprised too, not expecting to have an unexpected talent in Sage Mode.
Ten seconds later, Mokgetsu frowned, actively stopped Mount Myoboku's guiding method, stopped absorbing natural energy, and dissipated the natural energy within his body.
For some reason, his body's natural energy was actually repelling each other, not only interfering with his synthesis of Sage Art Chakra but also disrupting his own Chakra.
After stopping, Mokgetsu showed a surprised expression.
There was still a small amount of natural energy continuously entering his body, yet he wasn't using Mount Myoboku's secret technique to absorb natural energy anymore.
In the Transparent World state, Mokgetsu quickly figured out the reason.
It was the Breathing Technique!
His ever-operating Breath of Thunder was absorbing natural energy into his body in a way different from Mount Myoboku's secret technique.
"Could the Breathing Technique always have this effect, only previously unable to perceive natural energy, nor mastered the method to inhale natural energy?" Mokgetsu's mind raced.
If the Breathing Technique has the ability to absorb natural energy, perhaps developing a new Sage Mode might be simpler than he imagined.
To validate his speculation, Mokgetsu stopped the Breathing Technique, exited the Transparent World state, only used Mount Myoboku's secret technique to absorb natural energy.
With this retreat, not only did the absorption of natural energy stop, Mokgetsu even found his ability to perceive natural energy significantly weakened.
Originally sensing natural energy like seeing in 2k resolution, exiting the Transparent World, instantly dropped to 480p.
Even with the decline, still able to perceive, absorb, and control.
This time, Mokgetsu had no issues absorbing natural energy, successfully gathered Sage Art Chakra smoothly.
"Amazing, little Mokgetsu!" Fukasaku Sage couldn't help but praise upon seeing.
Successfully gathering Sage Art Chakra on the first day, it was the first time encountering such a situation, knowing Mokgetsu didn't use Toad Oil.
At this pace, maybe in three days Mokgetsu could truly master Sage Mode.
"Did little Mokgetsu encounter any difficulties earlier? You suddenly stopped midway before restarting," Fukasaku Sage inquired.
Natural energy as an external energy is different from internal spiritual energy and body energy; high returns also mean high risks, must be cautious toward any issue in Sage Mode cultivation.
PS: Second update.
Successfully completed the first day's explosive update on National Day, asking for monthly votes.