Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 333 Mastering Chakra and Orochimaru's Greed.

"Refining chakra isn't as difficult as I imagined," Bane quickly tried again.

This thing is truly something you get used to after a few tries. Once you can do it the first time, it will form a pathway in your body, and you won't even need to meditate on it; your body will naturally function and gather chakra energy.

This is not a special phenomenon; most ninjas are like this, unless they are undergoing special training and using meditation to accelerate the gathering of chakra.

If there's nothing urgent on a daily basis, a normal life can maintain the continuous accumulation of chakra. It's similar to how many ninjas, after exhausting their chakra, can recover some of their strength by ending a battle, going home, and sleeping.

Initially, Bane thought that the combination of physical energy and mental energy was necessary to condense chakra. He also considered whether the consumption of physical strength would limit the speed of chakra accumulation.

Don't concentrate your chakra for too long, or you'll run out of energy and need to rest to recover before you can continue.

But after experimenting for a while, he found that it wasn't his idea.

When physical energy and spiritual energy combine to form chakra, it is not actually consumed; it is simply stored in the body in a different way.

Unless you use ninjutsu to release this energy, you will not feel the loss of physical and mental strength. Otherwise, it has not left your body at all, so how can it be consumed?

On the contrary, after chakra is condensed, chakra can be used as a more refined form of energy. The more chakra you store, the less physical exertion you expend, and the better your mental state.

This performance made Bane feel like he was cultivating immortality, becoming stronger and stronger with each practice!

"Normally, it takes a certain amount of time to condense chakra for the first time. Some people can't even sense it for ten days or eight months. Although you, Spirit Lord, have also encountered some difficulties, you have been able to achieve this in such a short time. Obviously, your talent is very strong," Orochimaru praised.

Regardless of whether he meant it sincerely or not, Bane calmly nodded and said, "It's all thanks to your teaching."

"Then let's test your chakra nature, Spirit Lord." Orochimaru smiled first, then took out several chakra test strips from his robes. "The nature of chakra can be seen on these test strips. For example, water-style chakra will make the test strips wet. Generally speaking, everyone has their own 'predominant' chakra nature."

After explaining the nature of chakra, Orochimaru handed the test paper to Bane, saying, "You only need to release your chakra to soak this test paper, and you will get the result."

Bane nodded, then channeled his chakra, which overflowed from his fingertips and stained the test strip.

Seeing this, Orochimaru said, "What's next?"

He seemed to be about to say something, but was somewhat confused by the situation before him.

Normally, test strips can only detect five attributes: wind, thunder, water, fire, and earth. They cannot detect the yin and yang attributes, which are manifestations of spiritual and physical energy.

Test strips often show signs of burning, becoming wet, wrinkled, cracked, or cut in half.

But at this moment, the test strip in Bane's hand turned black, as if it had been soaked in ink. Orochimaru had never seen anything like it before.

"What is this?" Bane looked up at Orochimaru, his expression a mixture of confusion and speculation.

Could it be related to my own dark element?

Orochimaru took the test strip, examined it carefully, and said with some doubt, "Could the test strip be expired? Spirit Lord, please wait a moment, let me try it."

As he spoke, he released his chakra and soaked it into the black test paper, wanting to see if there would be any changes. However, as soon as he released his chakra, it was quickly swallowed up by the dark test paper.

Orochimaru? ???

Seeing this, Bane had his answer. Seeing Orochimaru's confusion, he explained, "I think I understand now. Perhaps my chakra is tainted with my personal characteristics."

"Your personal characteristics?" Orochimaru asked Bane, puzzled.

"You can also think of it as what you called 'bloodline limit' before. I have the ability to absorb all energy," Bane said, looking at Orochimaru. "You can try attacking me with your ninjutsu."

Orochimaru hesitated for a moment, but then he felt that this might be a good opportunity to test the Spirit Lord.

Although his instincts and aura told him that the Spirit Lord was very strong, they had never actually fought each other before, had they?

Thinking of this, Orochimaru's expression turned serious, and he said, "Then I must offend you, Spirit Lord."

"Go ahead and use it," Bane said magnanimously.

Orochimaru stood up, then retreated more than ten meters, and began to unseal his hands.

He was skilled in using Wind Release ninjutsu, mainly because he was more comfortable using it and could form hand seals faster. Since there was no time pressure, and considering that the power should be as great as possible, Orochimaru chose to use Fire Release ninjutsu.

In fact, he was quite fast at forming hand seals for Fire Release. Almost instantly, the complex hand seals were completed. At the same time, Orochimaru took a deep breath and shouted, "Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!!!"

With a single breath, he spewed out three scorching fire dragons from his mouth, which swept across the left, center, and right directions before finally converging into a fiery impact in front of Bane.

The sweltering heat instantly dried up the damp cave, evaporating all the moisture in the air.

However, the next second, a dark element bloomed from Bane's fingertip. As if this dark element had an infinite attraction, the flame changed direction out of thin air and crashed into the dark element, as if returning to its nest. It was then quickly devoured by the dark element. If it weren't for the fact that the temperature around it hadn't dropped, it would have been just like Orochimaru performing a genjutsu.

Seeing this, Orochimaru's eyes showed a hint of surprise, followed by greed.

Of course, he hid it well; that hint of greed was quickly concealed.

Orochimaru is a man who pursues power and immortality. His ambition is neither too big nor too small; he hopes to master all the ninjutsu in the world and glimpse the truth. It is based on this ambition that he wants to achieve immortality, because he believes that the short lifespan of humans cannot acquire so much knowledge, and life is too fragile, and they are likely to die due to various accidents, thus failing to achieve his ambition.

He craved the unknown, and now Bane was showing it.

It's not just the power of darkness, but also the control over the soul.

However, to be honest, he wasn't really interested in Bane's body, even though he was modifying himself, taking over other people's bodies, and even wanting to obtain a bloodline limit and get his hands on the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan.

Ultimately, Orochimaru still defined himself within the category of "human".

He had been to Ryuchi Cave more than once or twice, met the White Snake Sage, knew that the White Snake Sage had lived for thousands of years, and had also met those snake princesses, but Orochimaru had never thought of taking over the bodies of these snakes. Even though he tried his best to transform himself into a snake, he never had such a thought.

He also knew that Jiraiya inherited the great toads of Mount Myōboku, and that there were many ancient monsters who had lived for countless years, but he never considered going to Mount Myōboku to take the toads' bodies.

Perhaps Orochimaru's ambition also stemmed from his own humanistic convictions.

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

At this moment, he regarded Bane as a dragon, and even in his limited understanding, he felt that Bane might have evolved from a large snake like the White Serpent Sage into the Azure Dragon he is today.

In short, he didn't treat Bane as a human being, so although he coveted Bane's power, he never considered taking over Bane's body.

The desire for power is not something difficult to understand. Bane also had a pursuit of power, which is a very normal desire and there is nothing wrong with it.

He wasn't afraid that Orochimaru would be greedy for the power he displayed. On the contrary, if Orochimaru didn't have such a desire, it would be a bit difficult to deal with him, since it would be hard to make empty promises.

There must be demand for something to motivate you.

Although Orochimaru harbored a deep longing and greed for that dark power and the power of the Spirit Lord, he still managed to restrain his greed well, praising, "What an astonishingly unique power! Although I haven't mastered Sage Mode and the power of nature, I can still discern that what I just saw was a dark natural power."

"You can understand it that way." Bane didn't explain anything further.

Showing Orochimaru his power was his intention, but there was no need to explain it; maintaining this mystery and power was more appropriate.

After a slight pause, Bane said, "Get another test strip. I'll try again after eliminating this dark natural force."

"In a sense, the chakra nature you just displayed is no longer just simple chakra, but carries the concept of Sage Mode," Orochimaru reminded him, and then took out a test strip and handed it to Bane.

This time, Bane did not release his chakra recklessly. Instead, he drew upon the dark elements within his body to restrain his power before releasing it.

This time, the test strip was much more normal. It first got damp, then immediately became wrinkled, quickly cut in half, then shattered into paper scraps, which burned into ashes as they fell.

Orochimaru's expression remained normal, showing no surprise. He calmly stated, "It seems that your chakra attributes are complete in the five basic elements, Spirit Lord. As for the Yin-Yang attribute, it cannot be measured in this way. We will find out later if you master Yin-Yang related ninjutsu."

Yin-Yang Release sounds high-level, as if only the Sage of Six Paths could use it, but in reality, it also has many ordinary manifestations.

The Akimichi clan's body-expanding technique is actually a manifestation of Yang Release.

The Nara clan's Shadow Binding Technique and the Yamanaka clan's Mind Techniques are actually manifestations of Yin Release.

Powerful sealing techniques often incorporate Yin-Yang Release attributes, which is why many sealing techniques are difficult for ordinary people to master—because they haven't developed their own Yin-Yang chakra attributes.

"That's roughly how chakra is condensed and its attributes. If you want to master ninjutsu, you'll need to learn some basics, such as hand seals." Orochimaru quickly took out another storage scroll.

After unrolling the scroll, they took out many books, all of which were related to ninjutsu.

It contains simple ninjutsu books such as "Hand Seals", "Basic Ninjutsu Explained", "Three Body Techniques", and "Summoning Technique".

"Ultimately, hand seals are just an aid to the flow of chakra in the body to release ninjutsu. For some ninjutsu that are frequently used and mastered, the body can use them almost instinctively, so the number of hand seals can be reduced or even used without hand seals." Orochimaru explained these basics again.

Although Bane had some understanding of these things, it was only superficial. He found it very interesting to listen to Orochimaru's teachings, and thus he seemed to enjoy it immensely.

(End of this chapter)