"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Under the bright late-autumn sun, the morning breeze had lost some of autumn's coolness and gained a touch of winter's chill.
The repeated sound of flesh striking a wooden post rang out behind the Japanese-style wooden house, just as it had for the past fifteen days.
"Nine hundred ninety-nine... one thousand!"
With the loudest thud of all, Chiba took a slight breath and stopped his taijutsu training for the day.
Was it an illusion? Why did it feel like it took less time?
Drawing back the hand that had struck the wooden post, leaving a faint fist mark, Chiba furrowed his brow in confusion.
Over these past fifteen days, Chiba had resumed his old taijutsu routine. Of course, the base number could no longer be over five thousand; it was only at the thousand level. Still, he had begun training again. Though the daily results were limited, over time it would still have its intended effect.
After all, a base count of one thousand already surpassed ordinary human training.
Even if it did not do much to train his body anymore, steady accumulation would always bring some improvement.
Moreover, basic training with a count of one thousand did not take much time—only a few hours, less than a full morning. That was entirely acceptable.
After all, Chiba's focus now was research and development, work that required his mind. He had to rest when it was time to rest; he could not devote all his time to it.
Using this spare time for taijutsu training was also a form of balancing work and rest.
As for the results of these fifteen days, they had been quite substantial, strictly speaking.
First was the development of Sealing Jutsu Formulas. All six formulas had been completed, and Chiba had discovered the