The reason Uncle Jiu accepted Qiu Xia as a disciple was twofold. On one hand, after Qiu Xia arrived at the Mortuary, the Patriarch enshrined there helped him undergo a cleansing ritual, lifting the curses on his body and refining his meridians and marrow. On the other hand, Qiu Xia had been perfectly straightforward about his circumstances from the very first moment he met Uncle Jiu.
Uncle Jiu was famous for having a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Between Qiu Xia revealing his true identity and his pitiful attempts at flattery, the master eventually agreed. In the beginning, Uncle Jiu had tested Qiu Xia's character.
While staying at the Mortuary, aside from throwing every ounce of his energy into cultivation, Qiu Xia handled the small matters of daily life quite well. Even though his talent far surpassed his two seniors, he never looked down on them, treating Qiusheng and Wencai like his own brothers.
Beyond that, Qiu Xia gave the cultivation methods he comprehended through Maoshan Taoist Arts directly to his teacher. He also brought spiritual vegetables from the Naruto world to help Uncle Jiu,
Qiusheng, and Wencai increase their strength. To ensure Uncle Jiu wouldn't spend his life alone, he even helped foster a relationship with Guchu. Even after discovering Ren Tingting was a transmigrator, he did nothing to harm her, instead passing her high-level cultivation techniques.
Later, he even brought Uncle Jiu and Guchu into the Naruto world. Before making the move, he went on a massive campaign to slay demons and exorcise ghosts, helping his master sever his karmic ties so that Uncle Jiu could have a chance at becoming a Celestial in this new world.
Uncle Jiu didn't know how other versions of himself across the Myriad Worlds felt when they took transmigrators as disciples, but he felt as though his ancestral graves were practically smoking with good fortune. He felt that his previous life, Lin Fengjiao, must have accumulated immense virtue to land a disciple like this.
After all, if it were anyone else, they might have patted their pockets and walked away after getting what they wanted from Uncle Jiu, leaving nothing behindor perhaps just a few crumbs. But Qiu Xia was different.
He provided spiritual vegetables in bulk even when he wasn't sure if he could bring people between worlds. Once he confirmed it was possible, using Qiusheng and Wencai as test subjects,
he worried that Uncle Jiu's departure might leave the land in chaos. To prevent that, he swept through Shenzhou to clear out every monster and demon he could find, leaving behind three grand arrays before they departed.
Regardless of what others thought of Qiu Xia's character, as far as Uncle Jiu was concerned, he was beyond reproach. Besides, could someone with his temperament really be bad? After learning Taoist arts, Qiu Xia could have easily slipped away from the Uchiha clan on his own.
Yet he chose to stay and deal with the "cancers" like Shisui Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, and the three elders to ensure the clan's safety. Even after solving those problems, he kept a clone in Konoha for a long time just in case things went sideways.
Furthermore, while Qiu Xia was cultivating in the Land of Demons, he was incredibly good to the local people. He didn't just pull every household out of poverty; he built houses and established academies for the common folk. To the people of the Land of Demons, Qiu Xia was an absolute saint.
Setting aside Qiu Xia and Ren Tingting, there was the matter of Ruri Hyuga. Uncle Jiu knew nothing of her situation in this world, but earlier, when she asked to become his and Guchu's disciple, her request was riddled with calculations. If she had succeeded, heaven only knew if she would have treated them as masters or just tools.
Qiu Xia had mentioned before that transmigrators are just like people from any other world, with one difference: they might carry knowledge of the "plot" of that world. Because of this, their mindsets often shift after crossing over. Someone who was honest and hardworking in their original world might turn into a demon king, and a lazy "salted fish" might become a Salted Fish Demon King.
Therefore, when training transmigrators as disciples, it was vital to focus on their character to prevent them from going astray. Of course, this didn't apply to those who were naturally rotten to the corelike a certain bad seed who wore a blue eye mask and loved playing with hidden weapons.
Though she failed to become a disciple, Ruri Hyuga didn't dare breathe a word about Uncle Jiu and Guchu's situation. They were Taoist priests, and who knew what kind of means they possessed? While they were unlikely to strike a child,
they could certainly find ways to discipline her. Besides, they had transmigrator disciples of their own. Ren Tingting might seem cute and harmless, but that man was definitely not someone to be trifled with. Heaven only knew if he would kill her.
Having offended Uncle Jiu and Guchu, Ruri's hopes for Taoist cultivation were ruined. She could only focus on training her Chakra. To have the strength to protect herself when things eventually turned sour, she began to train with desperate intensity.
Neither Qiu Xia nor the master and his wife knew about this, nor would they have cared if they did. How could a mere Chakra user compare to those cultivating for immortality? In their eyes, even if one mastered Sage Mode or became a Six Paths level powerhouse,
they would at most be at the Zhenren level. If someone ate an entire Chakra Fruit and became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, they might be slightly strongerreaching the Spirit Severing rankbut that was the limit. They could never reach the level of a true Celestial.
Qiu Xia was currently at the Spirit Severing rank, and Uncle Jiu's couple had reached the Zhenren rank. If they were to fight, their Taoist Manabeing a purification of natural energywould likely overwhelm even a Six Paths expert using Sage Mode. This was why Qiu Xia continued to push further down the path of Taoism.
This year marked the enrollment of the Konoha Rookie Nine. However, things were different this time. Because Qiu Xia had posed as Obito Uchiha and informed certain people of Naruto's situation,
and because the Third Hokage and the three elders had been ousted, Naruto's life was much easier. At the very least, he wasn't cursed at when walking down the street, and he was finally allowed to buy things at the shops.
Furthermore, Tsunade had revamped the academy's textbooks. The previous versions were a joke. Who was the strongest Hokage? Hiruzen Sarutobi? What a laugh. How could that old geezer be worthy of such a title?
If you only counted those who were still alive, he might be the oldest, but in terms of strength, he probably couldn't even beat Minato Namikaze. If a guy like that counted as the strongest, then what was Hashirama Senju?
After reading the original textbooks, Tsunade felt that the Third Hokage had completely lost his humanity. Expecting students to spend six years learning nothing but the Three Basic Jutsu was one thing, but bragging about being the strongest was another. It was truly disgusting.
Upon becoming Hokage, Tsunade didn't just change the books; she also opened up D-rank jutsu. Academy students could now learn techniques based on their elemental affinities, and top students were even permitted to study C-rank jutsu.
Tsunade, who already had a certain level of popularity, gained the loyalty of a massive number of civilian ninja after launching this plan. Clan ninjas only lacked high-level techniques, not low-level ones, but civilians had nothing. They didn't even have access to Chakra refinement methods before entering the academy. Tsunade's move provided an enormous benefit to the commoners.
The clan ninjas weren't happy about it, but Tsunade wasn't Hiruzen Sarutobi. Her family background was more prestigious than theirs, and her strength was at the Kage level. It didn't matter if they disagreed. She was the one in charge. Since Konoha no longer had elders, she was the sole authority as Hokage. Her word was law.
Even though the policy had just begun, it was certain that even the current fifth-year graduates would be stronger than those of previous years. Of course, that didn't include the "freaks" from the major clans. Tsunade's actions had effectively brought the academy back to the standards of the Second Hokage's era, undoing years of restrictions imposed by the Third.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was far from Konoha, wanted to return and stop her after receiving this intelligence. However, before he could even reach the village, he began to suffer immense torment the moment he re-entered the Land of Fire.
If he were truly unafraid of death, he could have endured the pain and pushed forward until his body gave out, but could an old man like him really be that brave? If he weren't afraid to die, he would have been the one to seal the Nine-Tails himself back then.
Some might wonder: if Hiruzen was so afraid of death, why did he use the Reaper Death Seal to seal Orochimaru during the Chunin Exams? The reason was simple: Orochimaru had driven him into a corner. Trapped within a barrier and forced to face two reanimated Hokages via the Reanimation Jutsu, he couldn't run and he couldn't win. That final move was his only choice left.
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