The first class in the afternoon was still Chakra refinement.
Those who had already learned it lay sprawled across their desks and slept, and the teacher could not be bothered to manage them.
Perhaps the Ninja Academy was still a new thing, or perhaps there had never been a figure like Confucius to set the standard. In any case, the teachers here had nowhere near the sense of responsibility for educating students that teachers in his previous life had possessed.
Hyuga Ningyuan did not sleep. He could not sleep, because the Phoenix Genealogy Chart had already reached 90%. It only needed a little more to level up!
Then, ten minutes into the second class, he heard a ding.
The progress bar was full!
[ Ding, Phoenix Genealogy Chart has leveled up to Level 4 ]
[ You have unlocked the Phoenix Genealogy. Please choose one lineage from the genealogy as your primary direction of development! ]
"It's here!"
Hyuga Ningyuan had seen something like this when leveling up Eye Care Exercises. He had guessed that the Phoenix Genealogy Chart might have a similar feature, and sure enough, it did.
"Let's see how many lineages there are!" Hyuga Ningyuan opened the Phoenix Genealogy Chart, and a row of birds with illustrations unfolded beneath it.
White Swan: speed, strength, recovery
Blackbird: speed, concealment, perception
Azure Luan: speed, rhythm, command of Southern Bright Departing Fire
Bifang: speed, emotions, command of Liuding Divine Fire
Great Wind: speed, wind
Kunpeng: speed, strength, water
Vermilion Bird: speed, flames
Phoenix: strength, recovery, life
Peacock: strength, command of the five elements
Nine Phoenixes: will, life and death
Thunder Sound Authority: rhythm, lightning
Ice Crystal Phoenix: profound ice, life
Hyuga Ningyuan looked at the images, the corner of his mouth twitching. This was supposed to be a Phoenix Genealogy Chart?
He could accept things like Peacock, Nine Phoenixes, Phoenix, Vermilion Bird, Bifang, Great Wind, and Azure Luan being called phoenixes. After all, there were many varieties of phoenixes.
But this White Swan was clearly a fur-covered strategic bomber!
And Blackbird—wasn't that Eagle Sauce's reconnaissance plane?
And Kunpeng was not supposed to belong to the phoenix family either!
And Thunder Sound Authority... wasn't this image cropped from Genshin Impact? You system, so you too—
[The Phoenix Genealogies provided by the system are all powerful birds within the host's own conceptual understanding,] the system replied.
Hyuga Ningyuan was speechless. So this was somehow his fault?
Still, Ningyuan could not really refute it.
After all, he had no idea whether Kunpeng or Bifang were strong, since he had never seen them. But White Swan and Blackbird were genuinely powerful!
And very beautiful, too!
It was just a shame that domestic fighter jets were not named after birds. Otherwise, they should probably have appeared on the Phoenix Genealogy Chart as well.
"I can only choose one?" Hyuga Ningyuan asked. "I can't choose all of them?"
He had been able to select every option for Eye Care Exercises before.
[The Phoenix Genealogy involves meridian circulation. There is a risk of conflict between different lineages,] the system answered.
Hyuga Ningyuan froze, then was overwhelmed with delight.
Meridians!
In other words, did the Level 4 Phoenix Genealogy Chart already involve a Cultivation Method!?
Thinking about it, that made sense. The level 3 Phoenix Genealogy Chart had already pushed the use of muscles, bones, and even Chakra to the limit. There was practically no room left to advance. Any further progress could only head in the direction of meridians.
Hyuga Ningyuan felt that he understood the patterns behind these Cultivation Method upgrades.
For pure knowledge, such as mathematics or physics, upgrading was a process of knowledge infusion, while also enhancing talents related to that subject, such as calculation ability, spatial imagination, data analysis, and so on.
Skill upgrades were a process of deepening, broadening, and improving proficiency in that skill.
For example, drawing would raise him from apprentice level to proficient, then to master level. The content of his drawings would also advance from stick figures to the ability to draw anything.
The [Phoenix Genealogy Chart] belonged to a Cultivation Method, so naturally it evolved in the direction of cultivation. This evolution direction probably was not chosen at random either; it should have a certain connection to his own plans.
His original plan had been to seek out meridians and create a Cultivation Method later on, so the [Phoenix Genealogy Chart] had produced content related to meridians and Cultivation Methods.
What if he had not made any plans beforehand?
Then the system would offer all possible development paths for him to choose from, just like Eye Care Exercises had done.
Returning to the system, Hyuga Ningyuan currently had twelve lineages to choose from. But the lineage itself was not important, because it was merely the imagery of the Cultivation Method. It did not mean that he would truly turn into a phoenix after cultivating it.
What mattered were the attributes represented by those lineages.
Speed, strength, recovery, concealment, perception, rhythm, Southern Bright Departing Fire, emotions, Liuding Divine Fire, wind, water, fire, five elements, will, lightning, profound ice.
"First of all, speed is important!" Hyuga Ningyuan circled speed. In all martial arts under heaven, only speed could not be overcome.
And even if he could not win, being fast meant he could still run away.
Looking across history, every impressive person or group had possessed an exceptional ability to flee, such as Liu Bang, Liu Bei, the Great Wind River Chariot God, and Venerable Han.
Those who could not escape had basically become disgraces instead, such as the two emperors Huizong and Qinzong, and the Emperor Who Opened the Gates.
But speed was not the most important thing either, because this was the Naruto World, where there was a technique called the Flying Thunder God Technique.
No matter how fast one was, one could not outrun teleportation.
Therefore, speed could only be placed in the second tier.
Strength also belonged in the second tier. This was a world where people could cultivate. More Chakra meant greater strength, and even the Super Strength Punch relied on Chakra. Physical strength was not exactly negligible, but neither was it all that important.
Recovery, life, perception, wind, water, fire, lightning, and emotions were not important either. The ninja world had Medical Ninjutsu for recovery and life, the Byakugan for perception, five elemental ninjutsu for wind, water, fire, and lightning, and Genjutsu for emotions.
It was best not to choose powers that could be obtained in the ninja world.
The Peacock's five elements were rather interesting, because these five elements referred to Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth rather than earth, wind, water, fire, and lightning. In other words, choosing Peacock would allow him to awaken Wood Release and Gold Style!
But Wood Release was powerful because its user was Senju Hashirama. Looking across the entire ninja world, and even all anime, myths, and novels, there were practically no people who could use wood-element abilities well.
And there was an even bigger problem: Hashirama was already dead.
That meant that no matter how highly he developed Wood Release, he could only ever be a second Hashirama.
He could not surpass a dead man. Even if he used Impure World Reincarnation to bring Hashirama back and beat him up, it would be useless. Hashirama would just say that an Impure World Reincarnation body could not display its full strength.
After removing the unnecessary options, only concealment, rhythm, Southern Bright Departing Fire, Liuding Divine Fire, will, and profound ice remained.
"Although I've already solved the problem of concealment with the Glazed Robe, it still has value. Rhythm can work with dancing. Southern Bright Departing Fire should be a special kind of Chakra similar to Black Lightning and Violet Lightning, so it has value too. Liuding Divine Fire overlaps with Southern Bright Departing Fire. As for will, I have the Arcane Brush Palace. Profound ice is not bad either, but after removing life, Ice Crystal Phoenix only provides profound ice. Its value for the cost is a little low!"
After removing Ice Crystal Phoenix for its poor value and Bifang because its function overlapped with Southern Bright Departing Fire, the only choices left were Blackbird and Azure Luan.
Blackbird: primarily speed, concealment, perception
Azure Luan: primarily speed, rhythm, command of Southern Bright Departing Fire.
Blackbird only had two useful aspects, speed and concealment, while all three of Azure Luan's aspects were useful.
So, I choose
Before you continue