Once she had this realization, Satsuki naturally wouldn't let such inspiration slip away.
Under Candle Nine Yin's protection, she sat cross-legged again, preparing to actively absorb the sage land's energy, now branded with the Candle Dragon imprint.
The Tenseigan's insight into energy granted Satsuki a fine perception of the power around her.
These originally pale-blue streams of natural energy gradually transformed into gold under the change brought by the life imprint.
One spread to ten, ten to a hundred…
Within just a few minutes, the entire sage land had shifted to the same golden, aggressive natural energy found in the Tenryū Heart Cave.
From her vantage point, Satsuki saw koi in a distant pond twist and deform under the invasion of this energy, their bellies turning up as they died one after another.
"Just by altering the life imprint's nature, what was once sweet nectar instantly became a lethal poison."
The sight made Satsuki pause in thought—an idea forming in her mind.
"Candle Nine Yin, if someone forcibly altered another person's natural energy attribute, would it cause a backlash of natural energy?"
From its embroidered form, Candle Nine Yin replied, "If the sage land's master is still alive, it's impossible for outside force to change the life imprint of that natural energy."
It added, "Once Sage Mode is successfully mastered, a sage imprint forms within the lifeform's body. This ensures that any unbranded natural energy absorbed outside can be converted to match. With this safeguard, no sage has ever been able to forcibly alter another's imprint while its owner lives."
Hearing this, Satsuki relaxed.
She lacked neither strength nor skill, but if training sage energy created such a fatal weakness, she would rather abandon the idea.
Closing her eyes and clearing her mind, Satsuki entered a state of emptiness, beginning to draw in the surrounding natural energy.
Thanks to the prior training records of Shirakumaru and Ranzuki, she had already studied the key points and necessary states for cultivating natural energy.
With her exceptional perception and Tenseigan control, Satsuki guided the golden natural energy around her. Part of it was drawn into the Candle Dragon embroidery on her robe, serving as nourishment for Candle Nine Yin; another portion was sealed into her forehead.
After testing for a while, she confirmed there was no longer any repulsion.
"The first hurdle of sage training—successfully resolved."
Satsuki let out a slight breath of relief, then moved to the next stage.
The second step of Sage Mode cultivation was to maintain the absorption of external natural energy while keeping a balance between it and her own chakra.
For most ninja, this was a major obstacle. Even Jiraiya, one of the so-called "Sannin" had to rely on the elder toads Fukasaku and Shima to solve it.
Another method was Naruto Uzumaki's—using shadow clones to gather natural energy, then dispelling them to feed the energy back to the main body.
But the most flawless method belonged to the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju—clap his hands, and Sage Mode was instantly available.
For the current Satsuki Ōtsutsuki, Jiraiya's approach was unacceptable. Not only was it inefficient, but it created unnecessary vulnerabilities.
Naruto's method was a slight improvement, yet still required preparation time and couldn't achieve instantaneous Sage Mode.
"Hashirama could enter Sage Mode so easily…"
Satsuki pondered. She had once observed him through her puppets—a boy with a bowl-cut hairstyle, showing nothing exceptional, with even less sensory ability than his brother, Tobirama.
His only notable traits were a relatively large chakra reserve for his age and a Sage Body.
Both of which pointed to the same source—being the reincarnation of Asura's chakra.
"But Naruto Uzumaki was also an Asura reincarnation…"
The only difference, then, was that Hashirama Senju, as Asura's reincarnation, had also fully awakened the Sage Body.
Naruto Uzumaki, as a descendant of the Uzumaki clan and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, perhaps lacked the bloodline strength to awaken the Sage Body?
"Could that be it? Is the key factor whether one has the Sage Body?"
For Satsuki, who had inherited the bloodline of the Ōtsutsuki clan, the Sage Body was hardly unfamiliar.
Forming hand seals, she began extracting her Ōtsutsuki chakra and fusing it with the natural energy she was absorbing.
Through the Tenseigan's vision, she entered an introspective state.
Her forehead continued to draw in natural energy from the outside, while within her body she extracted matching amounts of Ōtsutsuki chakra, mixing them together in a precise ratio.
The pale violet Ōtsutsuki chakra and the golden natural energy formed a tiny taiji diagram inside her forehead.
They ground against each other, suppressing one another, neither willing to yield.
At this moment, Satsuki's entire body was wrapped in vast natural energy and her own Ōtsutsuki chakra. The surging flow of power was just like when she had once bathed in the Ryūmyaku.
But the Ryūmyaku was merely the most basic form of chakra.
Now, she was immersed in two of the highest and most exalted forces in this world.
For a time, these two energies turned her forehead into a battlefield, waging an intense war.
"What terrifying talent," Candle Nine Yin thought, as it absorbed natural energy from within her robe, watching Satsuki's state with both awe and apprehension.
It knew exactly what its master was doing—attempting one of the most difficult feats in Sage Mode training: taming foreign natural energy with one's own chakra.
If she succeeded in this step, she would be able to enter Sage Mode at will, instantly and without side effects.
"But aside from the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, no one has ever accomplished this."
Moreover, Hagoromo had only tamed the natural energy of Mount Myōboku—utterly incomparable to the Tenryū Heart Cave's natural energy.
The difference between the two was not only in sheer power, but also in the difficulty of subjugation.
Just as there were differences in quality and quantity between forms of chakra, natural energy also had its own hierarchy.
The most direct reflection of this disparity was the difference in strength between the various sage land masters.
"Still… it's not impossible," Candle Nine Yin mused inwardly while continuing to absorb energy. "With the Giant Tenseigan's assistance, perhaps she really could become the second person in history to create such a miracle."
But all of this would take time to prove. The clash between natural energy and Ōtsutsuki chakra would require a long and grueling battle before any victor emerged.
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