Konoha Year 42 September 6.
This was the first Saturday since the Ninja Academy had started.
Hyuga Ningyuan had originally planned to go dancing, but he had unexpectedly gained the Skill Fusion talent. Now, even breathing could raise his Cultivation Method levels, so there was no longer any need to dance!
Still, after waking up early that morning, he began to dance.
The concept behind Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens 1.0 was to exercise every muscle in the body while dancing, with a certain amount of combat technique incorporated into it.
In other words, it combined fighting methods, training methods, and dance into a Taijutsu that looked like a dance.
As long as one practiced Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens diligently, not only would their physical fitness improve, but their combat techniques and Taijutsu skills would improve as well.
And as the Phoenix Genealogy Chart increased in level, this dance was constantly refined with the system's help. It evolved from a rudimentary Taijutsu until, by the time the Phoenix Genealogy Chart reached level 3, it had basically fulfilled every one of Hyuga Ningyuan's ideas perfectly.
At this point, Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens was no longer merely a basic Cultivation Method. Like Quanzhen Swordplay, the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, and Tai Chi Sword, it was a sect's foundational Cultivation Method that concealed ingenuity within simplicity and established its path upon the basics.
Such Cultivation Methods all upheld a single philosophy: integrating the most profound principles into the most basic movements.
These Cultivation Methods could be practiced for a lifetime. They seemed unremarkable in the early stages, but the further one trained, the more formidable they became.
For most people, sixty meant that life had already reached its end.
For the Quanzhen Sect and Wudang Sect, sixty meant life had only just begun!
However, although the level had risen, it had all been directly granted by the system. His physical fitness and muscles had improved accordingly, but he lacked muscle memory.
It gave him the feeling that his mind was very familiar with it, while his body remained a stranger to it.
Therefore, personal training was indispensable.
The initial version of Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens lasted only four minutes and was divided into six sections.
The level 3 Phoenix Dance of the Nine Heavens, however, had already expanded to thirty-two minutes and consisted of one hundred and thirty-two movements.
Because it involved specific muscle rhythms and the circulation of blood and qi, every movement had precise requirements for speed and rhythm. It could be neither fast nor slow.
If it said thirty-two minutes, then it meant thirty-two minutes. Practicing it too quickly would not only bring no benefit, but could also injure the body.
"Is this what a divine secret technique feels like?" Hyuga Ningyuan practiced while studying and breaking down the movements in his mind.
He discovered that these movements were not merely for appearance. Some contained combat, grappling, and killing techniques, while others guided the blood and qi and eased the meridians.
Yet all those concepts were concealed beneath the overarching concept of beauty, making it seem, at first glance, as though there was nothing remarkable about it aside from its beauty.
Only a Taijutsu grandmaster could perceive the faint, chilling killing intent hidden within these beautiful movements.
But did Konoha have a Taijutsu grandmaster?
No!
Even Might Guy was not a Taijutsu grandmaster. His training remained on the surface of muscles and bones, never penetrating into blood and qi. In the martial world, he would only rank around the level of a lay disciple from Shaolin.
"I even trained Internal Force from martial arts!" Although he had not used Chakra, practicing this set of movements gave Hyuga Ningyuan the ethereal sensation of ascending to immortality on feathered wings. Every muscle in his body ached pleasantly, while every meridian felt completely unobstructed.
He also felt the muscles all over his body condense into one whole, his skin loose like water, yet able to tense like steel at a thought, indestructible as though he possessed a vajra body.
His fingers bent as he pleased; weight and force followed his will, speed and slowness followed his thoughts. When he exerted no force, he was limp and slack, but when his strength gathered, he was hard as refined steel.
"Hah!" Hyuga Ningyuan leaped up and landed atop a wooden wall over two meters high.
The wooden wall was less than two fingers wide, yet Hyuga Ningyuan stood on it as steadily as if he were on level ground. He walked back and forth with light steps, showing no sign of falling.
The Internal Force throughout his body had already been tempered to the realm where it obeyed his every thought. With a single thought, he could maintain absolute balance. This power could also circulate through his entire body; even if he were struck into the air and his limbs could not touch the ground, he could use it to twist his body and restore his balance.
The mysteries of the human body were boundless, especially for people of the ninja world. Their bodies contained as many as one hundred and thirty trillion cells, three times as many as people from his previous life.
Thus, realms that only geniuses could attain in his previous life—or realms such as True Gang and Embracing Dan that had existed only in speculation—could possibly be truly realized by people in this world.
Unfortunately, Chakra existed in this world, causing everyone to study Chakra while overlooking the potential locked within the human body.
If one could deeply develop the body's power, then even without Chakra, it might not be impossible to contend against ninja!
"By now, I should count as a Martial Arts Grandmaster, right?" He felt the Internal Force throughout his body unite as one. This was roughly the bearing possessed only by Embracing Dan masters in martial arts.
All he could say was that ninja bodies were ridiculously blessed by nature. Three times the cellular density—Earthlings could only dream of that!
"Ningyuan, why are you standing so high up?" After finishing the cooking, Hyuga Mie came to the backyard and saw Hyuga Ningyuan walking along the wall. She hurriedly shouted, "Get down here!"
"Mom, I created a dance that can sculpt the body, burn fat, and preserve youth. Do you want to try it?" Hyuga Ningyuan asked.
Calling her Mom had indeed been difficult at first, but modern people were shameless by nature. Once he got over the mental hurdle, it came naturally to him!
"A dance like that?" Hyuga Mie's eyes lit up, but then she grew doubtful. "Really? You can do something like that?"
Tell a woman that martial arts training could make her stronger and more powerful, and she might not be interested.
But tell her that this dance could sculpt her figure and preserve her youth...
"I'm your son. Would I lie to you?" Ningyuan said with a smile. "But this dance was created by combining the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist Style with the Yūhi Clan's Taijutsu. It involves the secrets of both clans, so you can learn it, but you cannot teach it to anyone else. You cannot even mention it!"
"I definitely won't tell anyone!" Knowledge restrictions, combined with the identity of a ninja village, had given the people of this village a generally strong awareness of secrecy.
Hyuga Mie had also been a ninja before retiring after marriage, so she naturally possessed that awareness as well.
"Good. Activate your Byakugan and watch my movements carefully, then practice along with me!" Hyuga Ningyuan said.
"Alright!" Hyuga Mie nodded, activated her Byakugan, and carefully observed every detail of Hyuga Ningyuan's movements.
The Sharingan's copying ability was nothing more than observing with sufficient precision, while activating the Sharingan also enhanced one's spiritual power.
Strong spiritual power naturally made one intelligent. A photographic memory was merely ordinary, and when combined with careful observation and the Sharingan's ability to see Chakra flow, it naturally produced the ability to copy.
Therefore, the core of copying was not the Sharingan, but intelligence.
As long as one possessed intelligence, they could still copy another person's Taijutsu without the Sharingan.
For example, the protagonists in Wuxia novels all basically possessed extraordinary learning ability.
Hyuga Mie did not possess a photographic memory, but she carried the bloodline of the Hyuga Clan and was naturally gifted and intelligent.
Combined with the Byakugan's observational power, she could not learn it in one viewing. But after Hyuga Ningyuan demonstrated it three to five times, and with the temptation of sculpting her figure, she was able to perform the dance with convincing form.
From now on, Hyuga Ningyuan would urge her to practice this dance every day. After a few days, she should develop Internal Force; after a year, she should reach the realm of Transforming Force. Gang Force and Embracing Dan afterward should not be difficult either.
When Hyuga Yuuki returned, perhaps he would not even be able to defeat his own wife.
That was the absurd advantage of the Hyuga bloodline combined with the ninja world's unusual physiques.
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