One Year Later

"One hundred, one hundred and one, one hundred and two."

By then, Xuan Ye had already done more than a hundred push-ups. His arms had begun to ache, but he had not yet reached his limit. He could keep going.

"Ding-dong, Physical Strength Proficiency +1."

"Ding-dong, Physical Strength Proficiency +1."

"Ding-dong, Physical Strength Proficiency +1."

"One thousand nine hundred ninety-five, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven."

I'm so tired. My arms are so sore and painful. I really want to stop and rest for a while.

Now, after every push-up, he had to gasp for breath and rest for a long time before he could do the next one.

Just two thousand. I'll rest after two thousand. I'm already at one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven. I can't give up now.

Xuan Ye silently encouraged himself. "One thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, two thousand."

At last, Xuan Ye had reached two thousand. The moment he finished his two-thousandth push-up, he collapsed flat on the ground. He had no strength left at all. He was utterly exhausted.

He spent the rest of the day following the plan he had made that morning, devoting all his time to taijutsu training. Whenever his main body recovered some chakra, he transferred it to his Shadow Clone, then continued training his body.

After training until nightfall, he headed to the training ground where Might Guy practiced to watch how Guy used taijutsu. He compared it with his own techniques and drew conclusions from it. Finally, he would fight Guy once, and the result remained the same: Guy won completely.

Xuan Ye's life during this period was very simple. Every morning, he went to that training spot at daybreak to cultivate, and every evening, he returned. On the way back, he would also head to the training ground to spar with Guy.

What surprised Xuan Ye somewhat was that every time he went there, he could see Guy training his body. It seemed as though Guy spent the entire day tempering his body, with barely any time to rest.

Although Xuan Ye's days were simple and he gave his all every day to improve his strength, his life was incredibly fulfilling. Nearly every moment of every day was packed full, leaving him with no spare time.

Very quickly, a year passed amid Xuan Ye's frenzied training.

On the outskirts of Konoha Village, in a forest, a young man with jet-black hair that had grown down to his waist and bright, spirited eyes launched an attack at a large tree.

"Ha! Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm."

"Two Palms."

"Four Palms."

"Eight Palms."

"Sixteen Palms."

"Thirty-Two Palms."

"Sixty-Four Palms."

"One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms."

The young man's palms moved faster and faster as both hands struck wildly at the tree. By the end, the speed of his palms was nearly impossible to see. No one could tell how many strikes he had unleashed; all that could be seen was a blur of palm afterimages before him.

After completing the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms, Xuan Ye stopped his lightning-fast hands. His breathing was not disturbed in the slightest, showing that the technique had not consumed much of his stamina.

Bang!

As Xuan Ye stopped and moved roughly five meters away from the tree, it suddenly exploded, sending countless splinters flying everywhere.

Nothing remained where the tree had once stood. The entire tree had exploded, leaving only a short stump at its base. Everything else had been blasted apart by the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm.

The power of the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm was pretty good. However, its proficiency had already reached its maximum over the past year, yet the system had not given me any reward at all.

The other Basic Three Body Jutsu had reached maximum proficiency several months ago. Once they maxed out, they provided me with fifty thousand points of ninja chakra proficiency. It was because of those fifty thousand points that I was able to break through to the Genin rank several months ago.

Konoha Whirlwind and Konoha Gale had also reached maximum proficiency several months ago. After maxing out, those two taijutsu techniques did not grant Xuan Ye chakra proficiency, nor did they reward him with a ninjutsu technique like maxing out chakra control proficiency had.

However, after reaching maximum proficiency, those two taijutsu techniques fused together and evolved into a new, more powerful taijutsu: Divine Combat Skill.

This combat skill was indeed countless times stronger than Konoha Whirlwind and Konoha Gale. It possessed complete fighting techniques, as well as an incomparably powerful boost to strength.

Xuan Ye had asked the system about it, and it said that Divine Combat Skill was divided into several levels. At its current first level, it could double his own strength. This doubling did not only apply to strength; his stamina was doubled, his speed was doubled, and every ability of his body was doubled.

A twofold boost was truly powerful. Divine Combat Skill was only at level one, yet it could already provide a twofold boost. It was genuinely incredibly powerful.

Xuan Ye had also used Divine Eye frequently over the past year, so it had risen by one level. Divine Eye had originally been level one, but it had now reached level two.

Level-two Divine Eye had gained a new function. At level one, Divine Eye could only see through the flow of chakra in other people's bodies and meridians, while doubling his visual range.

But the new function of level-two Divine Eye was the ability to dispel all genjutsu. In other words, genjutsu no longer had any effect on Xuan Ye. What an incredibly powerful ability that was. In the world of Naruto, no Kekkei Genkai possessed such a heaven-defying ability. Even the Sharingan could not break all genjutsu.

Besides this new function, level-two Divine Eye also increased his visual range to five times its original distance. In other words, he could now see extremely distant places with perfect clarity.

As for his other ninjutsu, Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven had also evolved. It evolved into a ninjutsu called Golden Bell Shield. Xuan Ye had tested it, and the results showed that it was several times stronger than Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven.

Not only was its defense several times stronger than Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, but even its offensive power was several times greater. Do not assume that Golden Bell Shield had no offensive ability just because it was a defensive ninjutsu. Anyone who thought so would definitely pay the price.

When this defensive ninjutsu was activated, it formed a barrier around the body resembling a golden bell. As long as an enemy attacked the Golden Bell Shield with their body, the moment they touched the barrier created by the technique, it would generate an enormous reactive force.

In other words, it reflected the attack. Whatever amount of force the enemy used to attack would be rebounded back at them. The only downside was that Golden Bell Shield consumed chakra rather heavily.

But Golden Bell Shield was so powerful that Xuan Ye did not care about that amount of chakra consumption.

Interestingly, the system had also assigned levels to Golden Bell Shield. The current Golden Bell Shield was only level one, the same as Divine Combat Skill.