Other Ninja Villages were all very surprised and shocked when they heard this news.

In Hidden Sand Village, Rasa thought, “First Minato and their Jinchuriki’s deaths, and now Orochimaru’s defection? Are they falling apart? Oh, what a pity. We were hit so hard in the previous war, and we’re recovering so slowly because of that damn Daimyo. Otherwise, I would definitely take advantage of this situation.”

In Hidden Mist Village, Yagura also received the report.

But he was busy dealing with Hidden Mist’s internal issues and had no time to pay attention to this matter.

In Iwagakure, the council debated the issue in detail.

Some suggested that they should use this opportunity to retaliate for what Minato had done to them.

Others were cautious, suspecting Konoha might be playing some kind of game.

Finally, when the discussion ended, they asked Ōnoki what they should do.

Ōnoki said, “It’s pointless to rush things now. Even without Minato and Orochimaru, Konoha is still strong. And no matter what, that boy will definitely make a move. Let’s see what he does and how Konoha responds, then we’ll decide our actions.”

Hearing Ōnoki’s decision, everyone present at the meeting had one thought: “He’s a fence-sitter, as expected!”

However, in Hidden Cloud Village, the Fourth Raikage pondered this matter deeply.

After discussing it with his council, he decided to see if he could exploit Konoha’s misfortune.

---

While the entire Ninja World was discussing Orochimaru’s defection, Feng Zheng ignored it and focused on his own training.

After two weeks of training in Transformation Technique, it finally reached an acceptable level, though there was still much room for improvement.

After that, he began training in Substitution Technique. This one was much harder than the previous two.

It took him nearly twice as long to learn this Ninjutsu and master it to an acceptable level.

However, things were not as Feng Zheng had imagined. He thought:

“This technique is basically just a skill to mislead opponents. The main focus here is to pay attention to the opponent’s attention.

When the enemy loses attention for a moment, quickly replace yourself with an object so the enemy doesn't notice you.

This is not instant switching.

Therefore, it won’t work against people much stronger than you or those who have activated the Sharingan.

And the object must be very close to you, otherwise, the execution of this Ninjutsu will become even more difficult.

Alas, it makes sense, considering every child in school learns this technique; if it were instant switching, it would be too powerful.

But it does have many variations.

Genjutsu and Transformation Technique can better confuse the enemy.

Chakra threads can be used to pull distant objects closer.

It also pointed out that when you escape from there, you can use low-level Summoning Jutsu to instantly summon objects around you.

However, while it wasn’t as powerful as Feng Zheng imagined, it was still very useful.

As a Ninja, the ability to subtly mislead is a very important skill.

It can be applied in many scenarios.

Feng Zheng thought that he should master it to the point where he could perform it without Hand Seals. But now, the focus needed to be on Body Flicker Technique.

And he also had to learn some Wind Release and Earth Release escape Ninjutsu.

For nearly two months, Feng Zheng continuously tried these Ninjutsu until his Chakra was exhausted.

This process of training until Chakra exhaustion had a wonderful effect on his Chakra reserves.

During these two months, his Chakra reserves significantly increased.

During these two months, he also searched the Library for some scrolls to increase Chakra reserves.

He easily found two scrolls.

One scroll explained that Chakra increases with physical and mental growth.

That is, over time, Chakra reserves can be increased through physical exercise and Meditation.

The other explained that Chakra reserves were compared to muscles.

Just as the body tensing muscles increases muscle mass, Chakra reserves also increase by tensing them.

So, to increase reserves, one must constantly use Chakra until it is completely depleted.

Feng Zheng had always relied on the above two methods, so his Chakra reserves grew very quickly.

Besides that, he also discovered some other methods or theories.

One scroll talked about using natural Chakra, namely Sage Mode, which would increase Chakra reserves and become even stronger when Sage Mode was activated.

Another scroll talked about increasing cell activity.

By making cells more active, one could extract more Chakra from each cell, thereby greatly increasing reserves. It also helped enhance physical fitness.

Feng Zheng was impressed by this theory.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of methods to increase cell activity.

Feng Zheng wondered in his heart, “I suspect increasing cell activity won’t be easy. Otherwise, this method would be very common. I’m curious who proposed this theory. Maybe I can contact that person later.”

When he finished reading this scroll, he saw the name of the final author of the scroll.

He was very surprised at first, then concluded, “It makes sense, this theory was proposed by that snake bastard.”

Oh, it seems this method is a dead end.

Perhaps later, when Feng Zheng attacks his base and gets his research results, with luck, he might find a way.

But honestly, the chances are slim.

Otherwise, he could try asking Tsunade.

Her understanding of the human body might exceed Orochimaru’s.

And she was his former teammate. It’s likely she helped Orochimaru with this matter.

Alas, another problem to consider in the future!

Other theories were also impractical.

Some were incomplete, and some were harmful in the long run.

Feng Zheng sighed and put all the scrolls back in their original places.

He thought to himself:

His only option was to ask Genshu.

Unfortunately, Feng Zheng had no reasonable excuse to explain why he wanted to improve his Chakra level.

Genshu’s first question would definitely be to ask how his Chakra ran out.

And Feng Zheng couldn’t tell Genshu that he was practicing Basic Ninjutsu alone.

If he told him, and he told his colleagues, the news would eventually reach Hiruzen and Danzo.

A six-year-old orphan who could perform all three Basic Ninjutsu was a direct ticket to Root!

After mastering these three Ninjutsu, Feng Zheng began to allocate his time to other things.

In the past two months, he had reduced his practice time for Shuriken throwing, given up on clay sculpting, stopped practicing Chakra control, and only Meditated when his Chakra was completely exhausted.

Among these three Ninjutsu, he didn’t intend to spend too much effort on Clone Technique, as he would replace it with Shadow Clone and elemental clones later.