Rookie's Voyage

Returning to the empty compound, Uchiha Aozora went back to his room to prepare to cultivate the "True Fire of Samadhi."

Of the "True Fire of Samadhi," Uchiha Aozora possessed only the inheritance of "Qi Fire."

Qi Fire was True Qi aflame, the standard hallmark of those who had achieved success in Fire-attribute Qi cultivation and Foundation Establishment.

The last time he had received the Heavenly Book's enlightenment, he had been too busy experiencing the uses of the "True Fire of Samadhi" to carefully examine its specific cultivation methods.

Crossing his legs and focusing his mind, he saw the four ancient Pale Gold characters for "True Fire of Samadhi" appear at the center of the Heavenly Book in his mind.

As he visualized the four characters, passages of text emerged in his heart.

Having obtained the cultivation methods, Uchiha Aozora felt no joy. Instead, he was somewhat disappointed.

The Heavenly Book provided two methods for cultivating True Qi Fire.

The first was the grand and proper path. As long as one cultivated Fire-attribute True Qi and continuously purified and tempered it, once the True Qi became pure enough, it would spontaneously ignite into True Fire.

There was no danger in this path, and it was simple to carry out, but the purification and tempering took a long time. Even a genius would need at least three to five years.

The second was an unorthodox shortcut: find a Heaven and Earth Exotic Fire and use it to temper one's True Qi.

This method was the opposite of the previous one. Both finding an Exotic Fire and using one to temper True Qi were extremely difficult and dangerous. Its advantage was that progress was incredibly swift; True Fire could be condensed in at most a month.

Fortunately, the two methods did not conflict. Uchiha Aozora could temper his True Qi while searching for an Exotic Fire.

"Looks like I won't be able to cultivate Qi Fire anytime soon!"

"The Heavenly Book is great, but it can't create something from nothing. It would be nice if there were some other way to perfect supernatural abilities and spells."

With a sigh, Uchiha Aozora gave up on his pointless daydreaming. After adjusting his mood, he prepared to first try converting Chakra into Fire Release Chakra.

There were many ways to train Chakra nature transformation, the most common being the use of ninjutsu.

Uchiha Aozora slowly formed Hand Seals while devoting all his focus to sensing the changes in his Chakra, using this to investigate how attribute-less Chakra transformed into Fire Release Chakra.

"Snake—"

He felt streams of Chakra flow out from his dantian.

"Goat—"

Some streams of Chakra converged into small rivers, while others remained separate and flowed upward against the current along different meridians.

"Monkey—Pig—"

The small Chakra rivers passed through one acupoint after another before surging toward his chest.

"Horse—"

The larger Chakra streams began to boil, turning scorching hot.

"Boar—"

The blazing Chakra stream encountered another stream, like dry kindling meeting a raging fire.

Uchiha Aozora hurriedly opened the window. A searing blast burst through it, and a massive fireball shot into the sky.

After dispelling the ninjutsu, Uchiha Aozora carefully recalled the process and confirmed that the Horse seal was the key to Fire Release transformation.

That was easy enough to understand. The Hand Seals were named after the Twelve Earthly Branches, and among them, Snake and Horse both belonged to fire, making them fitting representatives of Fire Release transformation.

Though he had already reached a rough conclusion, Uchiha Aozora conducted several more tests before fully confirming that the Chakra circulation corresponding to the Horse seal was indeed related to Fire Release transformation.

By the time he finished his experiments, it was already late.

Uchiha Aozora practiced the Guidance and Qi Cultivation method for a while before falling into a deep sleep.

Immortal cultivation was wonderful, but he was still a child. He needed to grow taller.

The next morning, Uchiha Aozora woke before six-thirty.

The year's plans began in spring, and the day's plans began in the morning!

Uchiha Aozora had understood this principle in his previous life, but work and life had been tangled together, and his routine had often been disrupted.

In this life, there was no boss to bother him and no phone to tempt him, so he successfully developed the habit of going to bed early and rising early.

After getting up, Uchiha Aozora spent an hour doing morning exercises in the courtyard.

Once he finished, Uchiha Aozora went to the bathroom to wash up, taking the opportunity to admire his peerless good looks and perfect physique.

He changed into a set of rough, dirt-resistant clothes, took his ninja tools, put on his ninja forehead protector, and headed out.

"The gears of fate slowly began to turn. From this day onward, Uchiha Aozora embarked upon his magnificent ninja career.

"He knew the future was bright and the road was winding, so he would rise to meet any hardship."

After giving himself some narration, Uchiha Aozora gave himself a burst of motivation.

To make sure he would not be too resistant while carrying out missions later, Uchiha Aozora first prepared himself mentally.

The First Floor of the Hokage Building was bustling with people.

After the Nine-Tails' Rampage, Konoha was severely short on ninja, with too many missions and too few hands.

Yet Konoha could not simply abandon too many missions.

After all, Konoha was not the only village in the Shinobi World. If Konoha turned down too many missions, those clients might be lost for good.

Thus, Konoha's ninja were now using women like men, and men like livestock.

Uchiha Aozora was the first to arrive. Afterward, Gekko Hayate and Inuzuka Aya also arrived one after another.

It was not until 7:50 that Aburame Shibi entered the Hokage Building.

After nodding to the three of them, Aburame Shibi led them to the mission hall.

The mission hall was on the left, taking up nearly half the First Floor of the Hokage Building. It was crowded with ninja, as well as many civilians dressed in all sorts of clothing.

Aburame Shibi glanced at the lines for receiving missions and joined the longest one.

Watching the slowly inching line, Inuzuka Aya fidgeted anxiously. Pointing at the sparse line nearby, she asked her two companions, "Why is Sensei standing in the long line? There isn't even anyone over there."

Uchiha Aozora could not help rolling his eyes. She did not even know this much common sense, yet she had the nerve to call herself dead last.

Gekko Hayate was much more patient and explained, "That line is for A-Rank Missions. Our team is not qualified to accept them."

"A-Rank?" Inuzuka Aya asked in confusion.

"You seriously don't know that? That's ridiculous!"

Clicking his tongue, Uchiha Aozora said to Inuzuka Aya, "Listen carefully, lousy student."

Inuzuka Aya grunted twice but obediently stood to the side and listened.

"The Shinobi World divides missions into five ranks according to difficulty: S, A, B, C, and D. The different lines in the hall correspond to missions of different ranks."

Inuzuka Aya looked at the four lines and still did not understand. She continued, "There are five ranks, so why are there only four lines?"

"Because S-Rank Missions are not issued in the hall," Uchiha Aozora replied. "S-Rank Missions are the highest-difficulty missions and involve national-level secrets. Their secrecy level is too high, and they are too dangerous, so they are generally assigned directly by the Hokage."

Only then did Inuzuka Aya nod, but she soon had another question. "D-Rank Missions are the lowest-ranked missions. We're so strong, so let's take A-Rank Missions!"

This time, Uchiha Aozora said nothing. He simply gave a "Heh-heh."

Though Inuzuka Aya did not know what "heh-heh" meant, she could still sense the disdain in Uchiha Aozora's eyes.

Just as she was about to get angry, Gekko Hayate promptly cleared up her confusion. "We're only newly graduated genin. By the rules, we can only accept D-Rank Missions. To accept B-Rank and C-Rank Missions, we need to complete many D-Rank Missions and perform well."

"As for A-Rank Missions, only Jonin are qualified to accept them."