Chapter 5

{A/N: MC would be quiet and not outgoing for some time for the simple reason... There is nothing worth his time. He would care more about learning more then anything else,}

"Odd… with all the resources I've given you, you should've reached level 3 Qi Refinement by now," the Sect Master, Itachi's master, said with a deep frown, eyeing his disciple carefully.

It had already been four days since Itachi joined the sect, yet he hadn't shown even a single breakthrough.

"But then again…" the Sect Master mused, his tone lightening, "I've heard that geniuses often have slower cultivation speeds. I suppose that's what's happening here. Maybe your talent comes with a trade-off, you'll need more resources and more time just to advance a single stage."

He looked at Itachi more closely, his thoughts drifting. He couldn't help but recall the strength test he'd given the boy, and how easily Itachi had shattered expectations, despite having no measurable cultivation at all.

Itachi's strength was equivalent to a level 7 Body Tempering cultivator, despite not having any cultivation at all. It was unheard of. A true anomaly.

He was a monster in human form, so it made sense that breaking through would take longer. His foundation was simply too solid, too overwhelming for standard cultivation methods to apply cleanly.

"It's alright. I should have a breakthrough in a few months," Itachi said casually, as if it were of no real concern.

The Sect Master gave a light nod in response. After all, who better to understand Itachi's state of cultivation than Itachi himself?

"The Outer Sect Tournament will be held in six months. You should aim to reach level 10 Body Tempering by then," the Sect Master said lightly. Anyone below the Qi Refinement realm was eligible to participate, and with the rewards at stake, he believed Itachi should compete.

"I don't plan to take part," Itachi replied calmly. "Su Yan will compete in my place."

The Sect Master frowned slightly at that. Su Yan… He remembered her clearly—Itachi's fiancée and servant. During his investigation into Itachi's background, he had come across everything worth knowing. Su Yan was part of that picture, but in his eyes, she held little value. No notable bloodline, no outstanding talent. A background as ordinary as they came. To him, she was a non-factor.

"…Alright," was all the Sect Master could say in the end.

He dismissed Itachi, instructing him to return once he had reached level 1 in Body Tempering. Before letting him go, he also provided several valuable tips on cultivation—things most newcomers wouldn't be told so early. To his surprise, Itachi listened attentively. For someone with such monstrous talent, he took in every word seriously. After all, he had never cultivated before.

"Before I go," Itachi said calmly, "I want to become an alchemist. And an array master."

The Sect Master's eyes widened slightly at the declaration. But after a brief pause, he nodded and made the necessary arrangements. A scroll containing the foundational knowledge for both paths would be delivered to Itachi's residence.

"If you need help, just come find me," the Sect Master said with a smile. Itachi gave a simple nod before turning and leaving.

He sighed quietly as he walked through the streets of the Core region of the sect. The area was refined and serene, lined with elegant buildings and grand structures. This was where the elders resided, their presence giving the district a subtle pressure that hung in the air.

Not far from here was the housing for Core Sect disciples, those considered the true future of the Seven Lotus Sect.

Four years. That's how long he had been cultivating. In the Immortal Realm, he would've already reached level 3 Body Tempering by now. But here in the lower realm, his cultivation speed was painfully slow.

Not that it mattered. Because he still had Chakra. Yes, Chakra. The fusion of spiritual and physical energy. While the people of this world didn't seem to be born with the ability to merge the two, Itachi was.

His limit wasn't level 7 Body Tempering; that was simply his limit without using chakra. Shocking, right? But Itachi was just that talented.

In fact, he would've been far stronger if he had spent the last four years purely training his body. Instead, he chose to split his time, cultivating steadily while focusing more on improving and creating new jutsu, and studying the DNA of the people in this world.

Oh, and by the way, cultivation in this world followed a specific path.

It began with Body Tempering, which was exactly what it sounded like. A stage where cultivators hammered away at their own bodies, refining them to the point where normal human-grade weapons couldn't even leave a scratch. Think bulletproof, down to the eyeball.

At level 7 Body Tempering, something significant occurred: the formation of a Qi Sea within the dantian. That Qi Sea allowed cultivators to store Qi inside their bodies, giving them quick access to energy rather than constantly needing to draw it from the surrounding air. It was a vital turning point on the road to true power.

At the Qi Refinement Realm, the Qi within the dantian begins to take on a liquid-like form—hence the name Qi Sea. As one progresses through this stage, the Qi becomes denser, more refined, and purer with each breakthrough.

By the time a cultivator reaches the peak of the Qi Refinement Realm, their Qi Sea is so thick it's nearly solid, on the verge of transformation.

That transformation happens in the next realm: the Core Formation Realm.

In this stage, a cultivator condenses their Qi Sea into a single, powerful core. The grade of this core determines its potential—higher-grade cores can unleash greater strength. At the same time, the density of the core dictates how much energy it can store and how effectively it can be used in battle or cultivation. 

In short, the Core Formation Realm was where true power began to show itself.

Next came the Core Shattering Realm, considered a subrealm, yet one of the most difficult stages to overcome.

This realm served as a massive wall in the cultivation path. To progress, a cultivator had to face a Heavenly Tribulation and use that tribulation to shatter their core. It was a test of both will and understanding.

Many cultivators survived the tribulation, but failed to shatter their core. While it was still possible to step into the next realm without doing so, it came with a heavy cost: a permanently limited future.

Following this was the Nascent Soul Realm. Technically, one didn't need to shatter their core to enter it. But those who did, those who shattered, reforged, and then fused their core with their very soul, formed what was known as a Nascent Soul.

Cultivators with a true Nascent Soul gained access to terrifying abilities, and even the potential to regenerate their physical body, even if only a fragment of their soul remained intact, given they have the required technique. It was a level where life and death no longer held the same meaning.

A good number of the Nascent Soul cultivators in the sect were what people called false Nascent Souls—cultivators who had failed to shatter their core before advancing. While they had stepped into the realm in name, their foundation was flawed, and their potential would forever be limited.

Then there was the Alchemy Guild. It functioned much like a sect, but in truth, it was something far greater. Unlike sects, which were bound by territory, hierarchy, or empire, the Alchemy Guild was welcomed by every major power on the continent.

Its influence stretched far beyond the borders of the Great Ling Empire, and its reputation was universal, known by all as an untouchable force.

There were two types of people no one dared to offend: An Alchemist… and an Array Master.

They might not have overwhelming combat power, but that hardly mattered—countless cultivators were willing to do just about anything to earn their favor.

Array Masters were experts in crafting powerful formations—barriers for defense, traps for attack, and intricate support arrays that could boost cultivation or suppress enemies. Their presence could turn the tide of battle or protect an entire sect.

Alchemists, on the other hand, could create pills of every kind—pills that healed injuries, enhanced breakthroughs, suppressed poison… or inflicted it.

And then there was Itachi. He had the talent to be a jack of all trades, a master of all. To not walk those paths would be nothing short of a waste.

So, when he returned home and found that a scroll had already been delivered to him, he wasted no time diving into it. And just like that, he began mastering the techniques written inside. It helped, of course, that he seemed able to grasp almost anything with a single glance.

"Arrays are basically just codes written in reality," Itachi muttered as he flipped through the scroll. "A way to create limited effects through structured patterns… aren't these just handseals, transformed into unique symbols?"

He paused, eyes falling on an array designed to increase gravity wherever it was applied.

Was this not the Earth Style: Weighted Boulder Jutsu? The array functioned almost identically, enhancing the gravity of the target. It could be used to make someone so heavy they couldn't move, or to increase one's own weight to deliver devastating strikes.

Itachi wasted no time. He immediately began exploring how he could fuse jutsu with arrays, and before long, he was creating formations that mimicked the effects of traditional ninjutsu.

By treating every array symbol as a hand seal, Itachi found that the limits of what he could do were virtually nonexistent. With that perspective, the world of arrays had just become his newest playground.

He quickly found a way to reduce the number of symbols needed to construct an array, just like how a skilled shinobi could reduce the number of hand seals required to perform a jutsu.

But why stop there? Naturally, Itachi pushed further. He began experimenting with combining hand seals with array symbols, and the results were astonishing. The jutsu he created using this fusion consumed far less energy, while its power multiplied several times over.

Then he reversed the process. He infused hand seal logic into arrays, and the arrays became stronger, more refined, and significantly faster to deploy. It was like the two systems were meant to complement each other all along.

'Now… time to try jutsu without hand seals,' Itachi thought, eyes narrowing with focus.

Hand seals had been created to aid chakra control. But beings like the Sage of Six Paths had never needed them. They simply willed chakra into shape. So, if that was possible, then using arrays without symbols shouldn't be impossible either.

With that thought in mind, he got to work. It took time, more than he expected, but eventually, he cracked it. He learned how to activate arrays without writing anything down, using arrays without the need for symbols and markings, and just pure intent.

And just like that, the same applied to jutsu, as he could use any jutsu without the need for handseals, only will.

Snow watched everything unfold with calm, half-lidded eyes. From start to finish, she hadn't moved; more than ten minutes had passed. For anyone else, that would have only been enough for them to read the scrolls Itachi had.

But this was Itachi. He was a fast reader, and more than that, he had the unnerving ability to master anything he laid eyes on with a single glance. Creating a technique capable of shaking the entire Immortal Realm? For someone else, that would be a miracle.

For Itachi? It would've been strange if it had taken longer.

Next, his attention shifted to Alchemy. That was when Snow started hearing strange things—words like organic molecules, compound structures, and a dozen other terms that had no place in traditional alchemical study in the cultivation world..

Snow couldn't follow all of it, but from what she gathered, Itachi seemed to be saying that organic molecules, to him, were fundamentally the same—and the same applied to non-organic matter.

'Is he saying he can take a normal flower and rearrange its building blocks to create a heavenly herb?' Snow thought in shock, his calm demeanor shaken for the first time in a while. He watched as Itachi stepped outside and casually plucked a few blades of grass.

Then, without hesitation, Itachi activated his DNA Manipulation Jutsu, beginning the process of working on the grass. But this wasn't just a matter of affecting its DNA. No—Itachi was trying to push the jutsu even further, trying to influence the grass on a level deeper than genetics.

Molecular… no, the Atomic. He aimed to rewrite its very nature. But in the end, he was forced to stop. He couldn't sense what that small, not yet.

"I'll put this aside for now," Itachi said calmly, brushing the grass from his palm. "But in the future…" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. His plan was already clear.

One day, he would turn sand into gold. To him, all matter would be the same, waiting to be reshaped in his palm.

"Next formation," Itachi said, taking a deep breath.

A formation was the result of countless arrays working in harmony toward a single purpose. Unlike individual arrays, formations operated on a larger scale, massive and complex.

This very floating island was held aloft by a formation. Cities were protected by formations. Sect grounds were empowered and reinforced by them. The list went on.

Arrays were typically small-scale, precise, and limited. But once the scale and complexity surpassed a certain point, they were no longer called arrays. They became formations. Even the so-called Qi Gathering Array was, in truth, a formation—despite what it was commonly called.

Now, a question stirred in his mind. 'What if I could cast countless jutsu simultaneously, the same way formations layered countless arrays?'

He didn't spend long thinking about it. Instead, he got to work. He needed to understand how formations truly functioned, and the only way to do that was to build one himself.

Within minutes, Itachi had constructed a Gravity Formation, a system capable of both increasing and decreasing gravitational force, depending on the energy supplied.

It was built using two distinct types of gravity arrays: one that amplified gravity, and another that reduced it. On their own, they were simple. But together, synchronized and layered, they gave birth to a functional and flexible Gravity Formation.

Etched into the ground was something akin to a glowing magic circle, humming faintly as it absorbed energy from its surroundings to sustain itself.

'This brat improved the formation without even realizing it,' Snow thought, mouth slightly open in disbelief.

Normally, a formation of this scale would require spirit stones to function properly. The energy demand was simply too high for natural Qi alone. But Itachi, without even knowing, had improved the formation's efficiency to the point where it could run entirely off ambient Qi.

He had casually bypassed one of the biggest limitations of formation design… and didn't even notice.

Snow continued to watch in silence as Itachi mastered everything within the hour. Then, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, he headed upstairs and etched a Qi Gathering Array around his bed.

Once it was complete, he lay down and closed his eyes. While others had to sit still and focus to cultivate, Itachi didn't need to.

He had created a breathing technique that worked in perfect harmony with his cultivation art, so that every breath he took was the same as someone else entering deep meditation. Even in his sleep, Itachi was cultivating.

To say the least, mastering such a breathing technique was complex, so much so that even a minor mistake could cause one's lungs to explode. And that was for immortals.

For someone like Itachi, who hadn't even formally stepped into the cultivation realm yet, attempting something like this should've been suicidal. But this was Itachi.

Over time, he had created and discarded countless breathing techniques, Water Breathing, Thunder Breathing, and several others. Each one had potential, each was intricate in its own right, yet to him… they were all trash. They were simply stepping stones.

All of them had been created for one purpose: to build the foundation for something greater. The Uchiha Breathing Technique, a breathing method capable of drawing the purest Qi from the surroundings, perfectly tailored to fuel the Primordial Uchiha Cultivation Art.