"Awooo—"
Inside the Secret Realm, Kaito stood before his old man with a sullen face, pointing his little finger at a clansman squatting on a tree branch in the distance, making sounds that could either be a dog's bark or a wolf's howl.
It wasn't entirely incomprehensible for clansmen to occasionally act crazy.
After all, even his old man sometimes inexplicably threw his head back and laughed maniacally.
But recently, these abnormal behaviors had become increasingly frequent.
Just today, upon entering the Secret Realm, he saw several teenagers standing on tree branches, striking the Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg pose. Some even got creative, attaching Chakra to the soles of their feet to hang upside down from the trees, arms outstretched, occasionally letting out hoarse shouts with their cracking voices.
This genuinely gave Kaito a huge scare.
If he hadn't skimmed through the classics while organizing them and discovered that two-thirds of the techniques were beast cultivation methods, he might have thought these clansmen were just performance artists or something.
But when he asked, the response was that the great Uchiha clan was thriving more than ever.
Fugaku, who was meditating under the tree, seemed already accustomed to his son's disrespectful words. He lifted his eyelids to glance at the boy before closing them again to continue his cultivation.
"Nonsense."
"That's body refinement technique."
Kaito: ??
All written records within the Secret Realm differed greatly from those of the Shinobi World. Under Kaito's tutelage, Shisui could understand some of them, and most of the clan's techniques were translated by him.
Except for those jade slips—one only needed to immerse their consciousness to comprehend their contents.
But these were quite rare. After five years of collecting, they'd only found one jade slip.
And it taught how to refine a Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
Because the technique was too sinister, coupled with a disclaimer inside the slip stating that refining the banner would make tribulation several times harder than normal, it was left to gather dust in the warehouse...
As for why Fugaku mistook beast cultivation techniques for body refinement—it was simply because these were much easier to understand than other methods, lacking obscure terms like 'Alas!', 'Great Medicine', or 'Dragon Liver and Phoenix Marrow'.
Shisui could comprehend 100% of those beast cultivation techniques, as their contents were straightforward: complete certain cultivation steps to gain corresponding power.
The Uchiha clan's "body refinement" began a year ago. Given their current physical strength, they completely overshadowed the Sharingan's brilliance. One could say that all the Ninjutsu they once knew...
Were utterly futile against their formidable physiques.
"Shoo, shoo."
"Hurry up and leave, don't disturb your father's quiet cultivation."
Fugaku waved his hand, glancing at his lingering son with evident disdain before closing his eyes again to continue absorbing the essence of sun and moon.
Kaito stood there, lips twitching repeatedly as he struggled to find words to persuade his old man to stop the beast cultivation. He was even starting to worry that in future battles, Uchiha clansmen might shout "Release!" before transforming into various animals...Feeling the presence of these illiterates, Kaito couldn't help but think that the school needed to be established immediately to properly educate these ninjas who knew nothing about Cultivation of Immortality.
After collecting all the books from the Secret Realm that day, Kaito directly called upon the Sect Ancestor to help him move these books into the "library."
"I say..."
"You could've just used sealing scrolls, couldn't you?"
Uchiha Hikari struggled to carry a stack of books as tall as a person, grumbling to Kaito beside her.
He kept calling her the Sect Ancestor...
Yet she didn't see much respect from this brat.
"No..."
Kaito lightened Hikari's load a bit by carrying an extra stack of books himself as they walked toward the tower.
"Sealing scrolls can't be taken inside. Consider this an early introduction to your job."
Listening to Hikari's complaints, the two carried the books all the way to the base of the tower. Before they could step through the gate, Orochimaru and Nagato arrived on the scene and began picking up books to help.
"Wait??"
"Weren't you supposed to be working on the school??"
During the moving process, Kaito expressed confusion at Nagato's sudden appearance for book-carrying duty. Just a few days ago, this guy had been full of fighting spirit, declaring he would build a massive Cultivation Academy rivaling a major Sect.
Hadn't even been three days, and he was back here already?
Nagato's face immediately fell upon hearing this. "Not enough funds. Kakuzu hasn't made much money these past few years..."
As he spoke, he shot Kaito an especially resentful look, the meaning in his eyes all too clear.
If not for this brat's impersonation scheme back then, perhaps Amegakure's finances wouldn't be in such dire straits now.
Not only that...
His proposal to build a Sect-level institution for a hundred thousand students had been vetoed by Konan, who insisted the village could only spare a small portion of funds to support the project.
The scale?
About a hundred students.
And Konan had made it clear these funds came from Kakuzu's recent hard-earned savings.
The thought that he, a divine being and Foundation Establishment Stage expert, could be stymied by mere money...
It was downright humiliating.
"That is... quite difficult indeed."
Faced with this situation, Kaito didn't dare say much, instead turning his gaze toward Orochimaru, who was flipping through books in the pile.
The snake sage's page-turning speed was remarkably fast, almost like quantum reading.
Clearly, even Orochimaru found himself momentarily stumped when confronted with books in an unfamiliar script.
Sensing Kaito's stare, Orochimaru lifted his head, brows knitted together.
"Don't look at me. My lab needs funding too."
As a researcher, Orochimaru naturally understood how money-burning serious research could be. No matter how much he agreed with their ideals, he couldn't possibly divert his research funds to these two's school project.
Exchanging glances, Nagato and Kaito both decided it would be too inhumane to touch an Alchemist's research budget, abandoning the idea that had just occurred to them.
"By the way, why don't you just move the books inside directly..."
After several days together, Orochimaru had finally synced with their thought processes, realizing this impressive-looking tower was merely for book storage.
"I need to catalog them first..."
Just mentioning this gave Kaito a headache.
He was the only one who could read all the text in these books. While his Divine Sense could scan them, it would still take considerable time to properly categorize everything.Anyway, he didn't want anyone practicing that so-called demonic beast cultivation technique anymore.
"Open the door first, and I'll help you organize things inside."
Orochimaru pointed at the gate, using this as an opportunity to learn this unfamiliar script from Kaito.
"Fine."
Kaito saw right through Orochimaru's little scheme but didn't call him out on it. Alchemists… being a bit studious was beneficial for everyone.
He raised his hand and pressed it against the pagoda, channeling spiritual energy from his body to activate the magical artifact.
The next second, the faint golden glow shimmering across the pagoda intensified.
However, an unexpected turn of events occurred—one that none of them had anticipated.
After the golden light flashed, the books placed at the entrance vanished without a trace, and all four of them were teleported inside the tower.
Immediately afterward, a deep, resonant baritone voice echoed in their ears.
"Four examinees, welcome to the library…"
"Knowledge training will now commence. Please select your training module."
Orochimaru, Hikari, and Nagato were baffled. Hearing the voice, they instinctively assumed defensive stances.
Meanwhile, Kaito, as the artifact's owner, froze—the voice had inexplicably transported him back to the examination halls of his past life.
What the hell…
Why did this artifact's voice sound exactly like the exam hall announcements from his previous life?!
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