Chapter 206: Beginning of Changzhong Cultivation

“Every time a Breathing Technique reaches a new level, it undergoes a qualitative change. The next stage after skillfully using Total Concentration Breathing is to maintain Total Concentration Breathing continuously, keeping your body in a Total Concentration Breathing state every single minute and second.”

Muzuki began to lead Shisui and Obito in the Constant State training of the Breathing Technique.

In the world of Demon Slayer, mastering the Constant State is the foundation for becoming a Hashira, and it is a very crucial training that can greatly enhance physical abilities.

The Hokage-fied Constant State of the Breathing Technique is equally important. If one can master the Constant State, the ability to accelerate Nature Transformation will become permanent, meaning your Nature Transformation will be inherently stronger than normal, and it will also greatly enhance physical abilities.

Muzuki’s increasingly stronger body has a great deal to do with the Constant State of Rock Breathing.

“Ah? Maintaining Total Concentration Breathing all day? How am I supposed to do that? I’d die of exhaustion before I could.” Obito thought about his state when using Total Concentration Breathing and found it somewhat unimaginable.

Shisui looked at Muzuki, his expression also somewhat puzzled. How could Total Concentration Breathing, as an explosive technique, be trained to be maintained for twenty-four hours?

“It’s not as difficult as you think. You can achieve it with more practice,” Muzuki said with a smile. With Obito’s compatibility with Flame Breathing, the Constant State would not be an issue for him.

“But right now, I can only maintain Total Concentration Breathing for four minutes.” Obito felt that Muzuki’s ‘more practice’ might mean practicing for more than ten years.

“The Constant State of Breathing Technique doesn’t require you to be in extreme breathing every moment, but rather relatively concentrated. If your ultimate breathing can increase your strength by a hundred, for the Constant State, you only need to achieve seventy or eighty,” Muzuki explained.

“So that’s how it is, but wouldn’t that mean not enough Chakra?” Obito understood a little, then continued to ask. The native Breathing Techniques in Naruto only achieve their maximum effect when Chakra is added.

“When there’s no combat, you can choose not to add Chakra, or maintain a minimal Chakra output. There will be specialized training for this,” Muzuki answered.

Of course, it’s best to add Chakra for better enhancement and to avoid needing adjustments during combat. However, since the disciples currently have limited Chakra, they can only practice a ‘beggar’s version’ or ‘youth version’ for now.

With Muzuki’s explanation, Shisui understood the meaning of the Constant State. Essentially, it was to raise the upper limit of their Breathing Technique.

If they could maintain an eighty-percent output Breathing Technique all day, then their true breathing limit would certainly no longer be a hundred; it might increase several times over.

“First, everyone enter the Total Concentration Breathing state without using Chakra.” After explaining, Muzuki began to lead his students in formal Constant State training.

Obito and Shisui both entered the Total Concentration Breathing state as Muzuki instructed.

Slap!

Obito’s head was hit once. Muzuki withdrew his hand and said, “Don’t use Chakra.”

Muzuki clearly saw Obito using Chakra with his Byakugan while performing the Breathing Technique.

“Hehe, I’m used to it. I just used it subconsciously.” Obito scratched his head a little sheepishly, making a mistake in the very first step.

Usually, when Total Concentration Breathing is used, it’s with the aim of defeating an enemy in one go, so naturally, one would use it as powerfully as possible.

Rumble!

At that moment, a loud noise suddenly erupted. Obito and Shisui looked over and saw Muzuki’s Shadow Clone moving several stones of varying sizes to their location. The smallest was about as tall as Obito, while the largest exceeded three meters in height.

“Come on, let’s start training. Hold these stones and do squats until you can no longer maintain Total Concentration Breathing,” Muzuki said with a chuckle, pointing to the giant stones nearby.

“Is it this difficult right from the start?” Obito was a bit dumbfounded. He remembered that when he first started training the Breathing Technique, it was just inhaling and exhaling in place. This Constant State training was visibly intense from the get-go.

Shisui walked forward calmly and tried each stone, finally picking one about as tall as Obito and lifting it to begin squatting.

The stone looked heavy, but this was in the Total Concentration Breathing state. Even without Chakra, it provided a considerable boost to physical abilities.

Seeing Shisui immediately start training, Obito quickly walked forward and chose a stone slightly larger than the one Shisui had picked, and began his workout.

It wasn’t that he was competitive and insisted on choosing one larger than Shisui’s; it was just that the one Shisui took was the smallest.

However, when he lifted the stone and started squatting, it wasn’t as heavy as Obito had imagined.

Of course, that was only at first. As time passed, after five minutes, Obito felt a bit strained. He began to have trouble maintaining Total Concentration Breathing.

Maintaining Total Concentration Breathing itself was an arduous task, not just physically draining, but also requiring high mental concentration.

Ultimately, Obito put down the stone at five and a half minutes, while Shisui lasted half a minute less than Obito, putting down the stone at five minutes.

“You maintained Total Concentration Breathing for five and a half minutes. See, you can actually last longer than you thought,” Muzuki praised with a smile.

Obito’s fatigue instantly vanished, and he let out a simple-minded laugh. Muzuki always gave timely positive feedback.

“Shisui, you also did very well. You are a bit younger, so you’ll be at a slight disadvantage,” Muzuki said, stroking Shisui’s hair to comfort him.

Shisui’s face showed a faint smile.

Muzuki didn’t give them any rest time. Three minutes later, Muzuki had them re-enter the Breathing Technique state and unleash all the power they could from the Breathing Technique.

“Next is running, and you can only stop when you can no longer maintain the Breathing Technique,” Muzuki said.

The Constant State training, in fact, is to make the body remember the Breathing Technique, so that Total Concentration Breathing can be maintained all day, even consciously performing Total Concentration Breathing while sleeping.

Therefore, the intensity of Constant State training is particularly high, completely unlike the entry-level training.

It was only because Muzuki had training elixirs; otherwise, he might have slowed down the training. This intensity was even more demanding than Might Guy’s previous training.

By the time the training ended, Obito’s legs were weak, and he was dizzy, almost unable to distinguish directions. He felt his body no longer belonged to him, as if his soul could float towards the sky at any moment.

“So tired,” Obito sighed from the bottom of his heart.

He felt that his previous training paled in comparison to today’s. He didn’t know how many times he had used Total Concentration Breathing, and by the end, he couldn’t even tell if he was using normal breathing or Total Concentration Breathing.

Running, weighted squats, weighted push-ups, and a series of other basic training exercises, when combined with the condition of maintaining Total Concentration Breathing, instantly became incredibly exhausting.

Even Shisui couldn’t maintain his composed expression, his face clearly showing fatigue.

Muzuki smiled faintly without speaking. This was nothing yet; these were just some beginner exercises. There would be many more strengthen training sessions later.

That’s it for today. I feel like I need to adjust my schedule; sleeping at three every day isn’t really working.