Uchiha Kiyoshi was not particularly interested in the Samurai Body Tempering Method itself. What interested him was the reason behind samurai longevity.
"That makes sense. It was still a system capable of cultivating someone to Kage Level. I'd somehow overlooked the samurai cultivation system all this time. All I can say is that samurai had truly declined, replaced by the relatively quick-results ninja system."
On his way home, Uchiha Kiyoshi reflected on what he had gained that day.
Compared to when he had set out, Uchiha Kiyoshi's steps were no longer so heavy. They were much lighter.
Having finally found a possible breakthrough, Uchiha Kiyoshi naturally would not let it go. He carefully considered at what point the samurai system nourished the body and increased one's lifespan.
"Samurai... I never paid attention before, but what exactly did samurai rely on for their strength? Could it be this so-called Qi? That's possible, but what exactly is Qi? It couldn't have appeared out of nowhere, could it?"
Uchiha Kiyoshi continued pondering and arrived at the concept of Qi, but where did Qi come from?
Just as Chakra was formed by combining Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy, Qi should have its own source. Could it be Physical Energy?
Hm? Physical Energy!
"Physical Energy? That makes sense. Samurai made progress only through frenzied physical training, so Physical Energy would be a reasonable explanation."
At this point, Uchiha Kiyoshi had basically found his direction.
"When I studied Physical Energy before, I never looked into its effects on the body. Right, I overlooked that."
Uchiha Kiyoshi gave a bitter smile.
But then he thought of something else. Physical Energy was actually impossible to control. Even when he had studied it before, all he could do was sense it continuously; he could not control it at all.
Could he only cultivate Qi through the samurai method?
No, there had to be another way. If he kept trying slowly, he would eventually succeed.
Uchiha Kiyoshi stopped thinking about it. He felt as though he was becoming obsessed, so he should rest properly and continue researching tomorrow. With that thought, he did not linger. After returning home, eating dinner, practicing hand seals for two hours, and applying ointment, he went to sleep.
The next day, Uchiha Kiyoshi woke up full of energy. Remembering yesterday's discovery, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Ah! A wonderful day has begun."
Perhaps because yesterday's discovery had finally untied the knot in his heart, Uchiha Kiyoshi was in an excellent mood all day.
While doing his daily training, he also considered how he could control Physical Energy to nourish his body.
However, once it was time to study hand seals, Uchiha Kiyoshi put those thoughts aside and focused on his research.
"My research into hand seals is already on the right track. Although I can figure out many things, without enough Ninjutsu, it's difficult to understand what each circulation represents. So there's no need to rush; it's enough to spend one hour researching every day.
"As for One-Handed Seals, I can work on that. After all, it could be useful at any time."
Uchiha Kiyoshi reduced his hand seal research time to one hour, leaving himself more time for training.
Since the special training had ended, Uchiha Kiyoshi had not trained with kunai throwing for over half a month.
Now, he could use part of the time he had freed up to train kunai throwing.
After three months of special training, Uchiha Kiyoshi could already basically guarantee that he would hit the bullseye—against stationary targets, of course. Against moving targets, he could hit the target itself.
But his foundation had already been laid. As long as he trained step by step, Uchiha Kiyoshi's Shurikenjutsu would improve very quickly.
Of course, he had only decided today to shorten his hand seal research time, so he would not train with kunai today.
With the extra time, Uchiha Kiyoshi decided to attempt One-Handed Seals and see whether he could work out the corresponding hand signs.
Uchiha Kiyoshi had his own ideas regarding One-Handed Seals.
Hand seals were ultimately nothing more than a means of manipulating Chakra. As long as he found a set of single-hand signs that could replace the Chakra manipulation required by two-handed seals, he could initially accomplish One-Handed Seals.
The truly difficult part was compiling all single-hand signs into the most concise possible system.
However, Uchiha Kiyoshi had no intention of doing that.
For one thing, it would be far too troublesome and require a great deal of time, making it poor value for the effort.
For another, Uchiha Kiyoshi was only experimenting. It would be enough if he could use One-Handed Seals for several commonly used Ninjutsu.
Moreover, what Uchiha Kiyoshi truly cared about was Ninjutsu without seals.
Even without much research, Uchiha Kiyoshi could imagine that One-Handed Seals would be incomparably troublesome and would definitely require far more than the twelve signs used by both hands. Therefore, unless he could not use both hands to form seals or needed to catch an enemy off guard, Uchiha Kiyoshi had no real need for One-Handed Seals.
"I can't get too invested in researching One-Handed Seals. At this stage, it's only an experiment.
"After I learn Ninjutsu, I can just develop corresponding One-Handed Seal methods for the most practical few."
Uchiha Kiyoshi separated the twelve two-handed seal forms and performed them with one hand, recording the corresponding Chakra reactions.
By the time he was done, including the hour of two-handed seal research, it had taken about the same amount of time as before.
After finishing his research, Uchiha Kiyoshi headed to the Archives again to continue looking through materials.
After arriving at the entrance to the Archives, Uchiha Kiyoshi bowed and greeted the old man at the door, then entered under the man's strange gaze.
Uchiha Kiyoshi could not make sense of that strange look, but it was unimportant. He would look through the materials first.
When he reached the medical section, Uchiha Kiyoshi did not continue searching for information related to samurai.
Having already gained a direction from the samurai system, what Uchiha Kiyoshi now needed was a method of controlling Physical Energy. The samurai method did not offer much reference.
Based on what Uchiha Kiyoshi had learned yesterday, samurai body tempering had actually nourished the body only unintentionally. They had not realized how the process worked and might not even have known when it began. So Uchiha Kiyoshi did not waste time on the samurai method, instead turning his attention to Medical Ninjutsu.
Although there were no genuine Medical Ninjutsu scrolls here, he could still find some related materials.
Uchiha Kiyoshi remembered seeing a claim somewhere that the ultimate Yin Release was Spiritual Energy, while the ultimate Yang Release was Physical Energy.
It had probably been from some fanfiction. Uchiha Kiyoshi did not know whether it was correct, but that did not stop him from searching for a method through Medical Ninjutsu.
Medical Ninjutsu was a method that stimulated human cells around a wound, allowing it to heal quickly. To a certain extent, it was an exploitation of the potential within human cells. Yet Uchiha Kiyoshi still noticed something in it.
"Ninjutsu itself has no healing effect. The cells are stimulated and produce a corresponding healing effect, but then how does the healing actually happen?
"It should be that the cells are stimulated, begin dividing, and the wound heals. But newly formed cells are very fragile. Especially with a large wound, all the tissue after treatment would be newly generated. Its strength would be far inferior to the rest of a ninja's body, which had been tempered through years of training. How is that resolved? Could it really rely entirely on the ninja training it all back up?
"Could it be Physical Energy? The cells produce a large amount of Physical Energy, allowing the cells at the wound to catch up to the original cells in a short time. Even if they couldn't, they should at least become somewhat stronger, rather than relying entirely on the ninja to train them back up."
Uchiha Kiyoshi continued making deductions while searching for information related to Medical Ninjutsu.
"Finally found it—Introduction to Medical Ninjutsu. Hm? The author is from the Senju Clan? What's going on?"
Uchiha Kiyoshi was surprised when he saw the author's name on the book, but he quickly understood.
"It was probably spoils from the Warring States period. As long-standing mortal enemies, the Uchiha Clan and Senju Clan had fought countless wars. It was only natural for one side to obtain some of the other's basic scrolls."
After that, Uchiha Kiyoshi stopped overthinking it and began studying the book.
While Uchiha Kiyoshi studied Introduction to Medical Ninjutsu, what he did not know was that Uchiha Yu at the entrance had also looked back at him. After noticing the book in his hands, Uchiha Yu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and revealed a gratified smile.
"So the kid just happened to see that Samurai Body Tempering Method book yesterday and became interested in it?
"Studying Medical Ninjutsu is more useful than reading about that samurai stuff.
"The Uchiha Clan has never produced a truly powerful medical ninja. If this kid can achieve something in that field, it will make up for one of the clan's weaknesses."
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