Among the three great sacred lands of the ninja world, Ryosuke was already very familiar with Mount Myōboku and Ryūchi Cave. Only the Shikkotsu Forest was somewhere he was truly visiting for the first time.
Under the effect of the reverse summoning technique, Ryosuke and the little slug arrived at the edge of the Shikkotsu Forest.
The moment he entered, he could smell the high concentration of natural energy permeating the air. When this natural energy gathered together, it formed a white mist visible to the naked eye, drifting through the air.
Wrapped in the thick fog was a vast forest, and what came into view were towering giant trees.
Perhaps because they had been bathed in the white mist all year round, the tree trunks' surfaces were smooth, like stalactites, and even more like chilling white bones.
The giant trees crisscrossed, forming a natural maze.
This was… the Shikkotsu Forest.
"Lord Ryosuke, please follow me."
The little slug led the way in front.
Ryosuke followed behind, heading all the way toward the depths of the jungle.
Along the way, he could see many slugs of all sizes crawling on trees, devouring natural energy to cultivate.
When they cultivated to a certain scale and turned into large slugs, they would suddenly crack apart with a crash, splitting into countless small slugs, each climbing onto trees to repeat the process again and again in an endless cycle.
All things returning to oneself.
Ryosuke thought of Minato Namikaze's description of the Sage Slug.
Using clones to cultivate, feeding the gains back into the main body, its efficiency would certainly be higher than cultivating alone.
But after putting himself in that scenario, Ryosuke immediately thought of a question, 'Even if the clones cultivate and can transfer the corresponding results to the main body, with that much energy, how is the main body supposed to contain it?'
Ryosuke looked around.
The Sage Slug must have found a way to solve this problem.
It seemed the trip to the Shikkotsu Forest was indeed the right choice.
Following the little slug through the forest for a while, the view suddenly opened up before him.
He saw an ancient, rustic shrine sitting deep within the forest, faintly visible through the mist.
The muddy soil turned into a gravel path, and countless little slugs were scattered around the shrine.
When they saw Ryosuke approaching, they eagerly came over to welcome him, offering him towels, and several little slugs even crawled ahead to open the shrine's doors.
A beam of light pierced through the mist and fell into the shrine, illuminating the Sage Slug's massive, mountain-like true body.
It sat on a cushion, completely snow-white. Around its neck, or based on proportions, Ryosuke felt that area should be the neck, hung a necklace made of seven huge white pearls, with the largest pearl in the center engraved with the character "sage".
He couldn't tell if the sunlight had become too faint after being diluted by the fog, or if the inside of the shrine was simply too dim.
Clearly the Sage Slug was only a dozen steps away. Clearly Ryosuke's eyesight was excellent. Yet when he looked over, the Sage Slug seemed unusually blurry, as if he were looking at an old, yellowed photograph.
"Feels strange, doesn't it."
The Sage Slug's voice was very pleasant.
If one closed their eyes and only listened, it sounded like a gentle, hardworking female classmate sitting at the next desk.
It seemed to see straight through Ryosuke's thoughts, "I just returned from the 'Projection of the Past.' More or less, I still carry a bit of the past on me. That's why I may feel strange to you. Please don't mind it, after some time, this feeling will naturally disappear."
Ryosuke nodded.
He was visiting someone else's home, so of course he wouldn't care about something like that.
Ryosuke walked into the shrine, and two little slugs dragged over a cushion and brought him a cup of hot tea.
Fragrant steam curled upward. After Ryosuke took a small sip, he got straight to the point, "My condition…"
The Sage Slug nodded slightly, indicating it already understood.
"Is there a way to fix it?"
Ryosuke pointed at his constantly cracking skin, "The pain and being unable to use my power are secondary. Right now I don't even dare sleep. I'm afraid that if I twitch in my sleep, I'll blow myself and everyone around me into the sky."
Ryosuke's body didn't need sleep, but his mind did not work that way.
With human habits, he needed sleep to let his thoughts rest.
Long-term lack of sleep would affect his judgment.
For Ryosuke now, one wrong decision could be just as dangerous as exploding in his sleep.
"I do have a solution, but my path…"
The Sage Slug's tone grew serious, "is extremely dangerous."
Ryosuke pointed at himself.
"More dangerous than this?"
"Different, Ryosuke. Completely different."
The Sage Slug sighed softly, "There may even come a day when you regret it, thinking that if you had known earlier, you would rather have died than stepped onto this path."
"Sounds a bit… like a ghost story."
"Indeed."
The Sage Slug gave a light smile, "But saying it so suddenly, I know you can't possibly understand it, much less weigh the decision properly."
"So please forgive me, I might nag a bit in the next part."
"If anything feels too tedious, you may interrupt me anytime."
Ryosuke made a gesture inviting it to continue.
"Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, Shikkotsu Forest."
"The Toad Sage can peer into the future and possesses impressive combat power."
"The White Snake Sage knows all things under heaven, and speaking purely in terms of battle strength, she is the strongest of the three of us."
"And I am completely different from them."
"I cannot foresee the future or know all things. Nor do I possess world-shattering sage arts capable of deciding a battlefield."
"All I have is energy."
The Sage Slug spoke calmly, "Infinite energy accumulated over a thousand years within the 'Projection of the Past.'"
Ryosuke pondered for a moment and asked, "I've heard that you walk the path of the 'past.' Is this 'Projection of the Past' the core ability of your path?"
"That's right, Ryosuke. You are even sharper than I expected."
The Sage Slug said, "The so-called 'Path of the Past,' 'all things returning to oneself,' simply means searching within your own past for a projection anchor point."
"Then you pour the power you cultivate daily, power your body cannot contain, into that projection of the past for storage."
"When you need to use it, you draw it out from the Projection of the Past, ensuring you are always in a peak state."
"Uh… am I explaining it too simply? Can you understand it?"
Ryosuke nodded.
'Cloud storage.'
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Is your Projection of the Past established within the river of time?"
This time, the Sage Slug was truly a bit surprised.
"Tsunade told you this?"
Ryosuke shook his head.
"I don't know the exact mechanics, but since you search for a point in the past to create a projection, only by placing the projection in the river of time would the transferred energy have no delay or loss."
Ryosuke still remembered the process of beating Uchiha Itachi in the river of time.
It had been a profoundly mysterious experience.
Forget energy or time consumption, even the concept of death was stripped away there.
"You truly are remarkable."
The Sage Slug offered heartfelt praise. In the thousand years since the founding of Shikkotsu Forest, countless prodigies had come here to train.
Just understanding the theory behind the Projection of the Past took many of them several days.
Yet before the Sage Slug even explained it, Ryosuke had already pointed out the most crucial part.
"Each Projection of the Past can only hold a limited amount of energy."
"So the more anchors you plant in the river of time, the more projections you have, and the more energy you can store. But accordingly…"
"You become more and more dangerous."