A Bountiful Harvest

"I did open the first gate, but why does it feel different from what Kai told me?" Zi Xu eyed the Goddess, whose forehead was already dotted with sweat, with some doubt, as if trying to spot a flaw in their story.

"It's normal for it to be different. When Taijutsu training reaches a certain point, everyone develops their own unique style. It means you've found your own path. Congratulations, congratulations!" Tagorihime said with a beaming smile, deftly changing the subject. Beside her, Tagitsuhime floated in the air and slowly faded from view.

Ichikishimahime seemed to enjoy stirring the pot. She fanned the flames, urging Zi Xu to open a gate and show them what he could do. She really wanted to know what on earth he'd trained himself to do.

"Come on, hurry up! You've found a way to train, so show us what you've got! Quick, quick, quick!" The Three Divine Maidens all looked at least somewhat interested. Zi Xu privately suspected there was definitely something wrong with the Eight Gates he'd trained, but he'd already learned it, so he might as well go with it.

"What's the rush? I'll give it a try." Zi Xu felt the Chakra pathways in his body gradually settling into place. In his mind, he recalled the effect of the first gate of the normal Eight Gates: the "Gate of Opening."

"Gate of Opening: Releases the brain's restrictions, allowing the body to use 100% of its physical capacity. The body's energy is consumed beyond its limits to increase attack power and speed." That was how it was supposed to work.

Ichikishimahime watched as Zi Xu entered the zone. His red hair stirred without a breeze, each strand standing on end until he looked like a red-haired hedgehog. A faint, pale-red aura appeared around him. Her confusion only grew. In her memory, the Eight Gates made one fast and powerful, but the first gate, the "Gate of Opening," shouldn't cause this kind of transformation. The Eight Gates usually produced this effect only from the third gate, the "Gate of Pain." That was when one truly entered the Eight Gates state. Zi Xu's appearance didn't look like the "Gate of Opening" at all.

"Zi Xu, once you open the Eight Gates, your speed will increase dramatically. You'll be able to strike before your opponent and turn defense into offense. The Eight Gates release your body's energy without restraint and beyond its limits, which naturally places a heavy burden on your body. We don't recommend using it often."

"When you use the Eight Gates, the energy within your body will be released without restraint, and your strength will increase tremendously. In this state, you can use Taijutsu without holding back and clash head-on with your opponents."

The two Goddesses might have been a little irresponsible, but at least they told him what he needed to know.

Feeling the explosive strength surging through his body, Zi Xu was suddenly filled with confidence. He had the illusion that he could shatter stars with a casual move. Whatever else this Super Saiyan mode was, it certainly had style.

"Let's spar and see. I feel like I've gained a lot of new insights into Taijutsu." Zi Xu bounced a couple of times to get used to his body. The last time he'd felt this way was when he'd raised his Fusion Level. Now, it was as if he'd increased it all over again, and this strength could continue to grow as his body grew stronger.

His greatly enhanced reflexes made it difficult for his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. Everything he saw, including the Three Divine Maidens, seemed to move extremely slowly. He could clearly see a few tiny specks of dust dancing in front of him with everyone's breaths. That wasn't a good thing. If he couldn't control this state in time, his stamina would drain at a terrifying rate, and he'd end up exhausted without accomplishing anything.

Fortunately, Zi Xu had similar experience before and quickly adjusted to his stronger body.

The Three Divine Maidens said little. They went along with Zi Xu and prepared to test the power of this strange first gate of the Eight Gates.

They stopped joking and spread out in the air. Before, they'd been wary of hurting him, so they'd only practiced with Zi Xu using their rather mediocre Taijutsu. Now that he'd learned the Eight Gates, they would use Senjutsu Chakra.

"Whoosh!" An invisible punch came at Zi Xu's face in the blink of an eye, impossible to detect. It was an attack from Tagorihime, who had combined Senjutsu Chakra with the Natural Energy around her. Before Zi Xu learned the Eight Gates, he could have endured it, but he definitely couldn't have dodged it.

"Rustle." Zi Xu remained where he was, but the invisible punch seemed to pass through an illusion and went right through his body. His terrifying reflexes let him "see" the attack's path in advance. He sensed the punch's location from the way his body reacted to the surrounding environment, then dodged at the last moment. He moved so fast that a blur remained in his place.

The Three Divine Maidens didn't let up. After noticing Zi Xu's reflexes, they quickly adapted. Tagorihime continued to launch invisible attacks, Tagitsuhime created Genjutsu to confuse Zi Xu's senses, and Ichikishimahime quietly absorbed his Chakra to weaken his various abilities.

Strangely, even when Genjutsu deceived his senses, Zi Xu still managed to dodge the invisible punches by the narrowest margin, as if he had eyes all around him.

"Something's not right. This guy seems to..." After probing him repeatedly, Tagorihime seemed to notice something. She concealed herself once more, smashed the surrounding stalactites into more than a dozen pieces, and shot them at Zi Xu.

Tagorihime had covered the pebbles with energy that blocked perception, so Zi Xu didn't notice them flying toward him. But when they came within about a meter of him, he seemed to sense something. He slid into a quick dodge and avoided them.

"An ability like a domain? Could this be the right way to use the Eight Gates after all?" Tagorihime had taught him the real Eight Gates. She was nearly convinced of it herself.

"This feeling..." Zi Xu was a little surprised. He really hadn't noticed the pebbles just then, but once they came within a certain distance, his body reacted on its own, as if it had known exactly where they'd come from.

"Could the Eight Gates help awaken Observation Haki?" Zi Xu couldn't figure out the reason. Maybe Tagorihime and the others really hadn't lied to him?

"System, did I awaken Observation Haki?" Only then did Zi Xu remember to ask the system. He'd found its constant pop-up reminders annoying and had muted its notifications, so they would only appear when something important happened. He'd only just remembered that completing previous missions seemed to have earned him quite a few reward points.

[Host has partially awakened Observation Haki]

"NICE! If I can train it myself, I don't have to spend reward points. That saves me a ton—I can use them to draw... No, I need to save them to unlock a Devil Fruit Ability..." He really wanted to try for a lucky draw, but forced himself to suppress the wicked thought.

"Forget it, let's stop." Tagorihime halted her attacks. Zi Xu was even more slippery than they were, despite being snakes. His dodging was incredibly crafty. Since they were only testing the Eight Gates, they couldn't use powerful ninjutsu to control the battlefield, so what was the point of fighting him?

Zi Xu was a little disappointed that he hadn't been able to test the physical strength of his "Gate of Opening." But after awakening Observation Haki, he instinctively dodged attacks whenever he could. He could suppress that instinct, but it felt awful, like seeing a conspicuous chalk mark in the middle of an otherwise clean blackboard. Anyone with obsessive tendencies would find it unbearable; he had to wipe it away.

"If there's nothing else, you should keep practicing Sage Mode. We're pretty good at that. Or you could try Genjutsu." Ichikishimahime teased him. Aside from Senjutsu, Zi Xu never chose a field the Three Divine Maidens were good at. Taijutsu was fine; they could at least try to teach him that. But asking them to teach him swordsmanship, and then staff techniques, was ridiculous. Staff techniques? Ichikishimahime wanted to smack him with a staff just for bringing it up.

"Actually, learning some ninjutsu would be fine too..." Zi Xu sat cross-legged and tried to harmonize with Natural Energy, while multitasking and chatting with the Goddesses.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What's gotten into you today? You want to learn ninjutsu? Didn't you say you wanted to focus on mastering Taijutsu first?" Tagitsuhime clicked her tongue in amazement. She figured Zi Xu must have something important to deal with soon. With his personality, he wouldn't learn other ninjutsu until he'd mastered the Taijutsu he'd already learned.

"Ah, it's nothing much. It's just that I'll be taking the Chunin Ninja Exams in a few months. I heard from the teachers that people can die during the exams. You know how it is—I'm physically weak and afraid of violence, so I want to learn some ninjutsu to protect myself..." A faint purple hue gradually spread over Zi Xu's eyelids, and his skin grew noticeably paler.

Tagitsuhime looked at Zi Xu's sturdy body, strong enough to kill two tigers with a single punch, then thought of his Super Saiyan form. She couldn't imagine how the words "physically weak" and "afraid of violence" had anything to do with him. It helped that Zi Xu had a handsome, refined face. If he were rougher-looking, with that muscular body and his heavy features, he'd look just like a villain who ate several children every meal—someone who was "afraid of not enough violence."

Tagitsuhime did her best to resist the urge to punch Zi Xu and considered the first half of what he'd said.

"But the Chunin Ninja Exams will have plenty of strong opponents. Better safe than sorry. Learning some ninjutsu would be a good idea..."

The purple markings around Zi Xu's eyes deepened, and fine scales appeared on his skin. In his "vision," he was about to turn into a snake, but in reality, he hadn't reached that point yet. Suspecting it was the effect of Observation Haki, Zi Xu adjusted the flow of energy with even greater precision.

"What nature is your Chakra?"

"Hmm... Lightning."

"Lightning, huh..." Tagitsuhime pondered. She considered Zi Xu's fighting style and the properties of Lightning Release Chakra, searching her memory for a suitable Lightning Release technique.

"There are a few that might suit you. You said before that you wanted to learn swordsmanship... staff techniques, right? Then why not gather Lightning Release Chakra around a staff to increase its speed? You could use Lightning Release to create high-frequency vibrations, giving it tremendous penetrating power."

Zi Xu opened his eyes slightly. His pupils had become amber-colored slits, somewhat different from the Goddesses' eyes. They seemed to have less of a snake's gloomy air and a little more righteousness.

"True. If I applied it to a... sword, it would create powerful slashes. I could also use the Lightning Release Chakra on the blade to paralyze enemies, attract lightning, and so on. It could work." Zi Xu ignored Tagitsuhime's suggestion that he use a staff and spoke for himself.

Tagitsuhime was speechless. She didn't understand why Zi Xu was so fixated on using a sword. She had a hard time understanding his claim that "the world's greatest swordsman has a lot more gravitas than the world's greatest staff fighter."

"What's wrong with Nintaijutsu? Just master one technique to the highest level. Flashy ninjutsu can't compare to a single staff strike backed by all your strength. One day, you should be able to make an ordinary swing into a finishing move." Ichikishimahime chimed in. As far as she was concerned, he should specialize in one technique. If you were merely decent at everything, you'd excel at nothing. Master one skill, and it would take you everywhere. There was no need to hesitate.

"She's got a point. Let's give it a try." Zi Xu took a samurai sword he'd picked up earlier from a Sealing Scroll. Just as he had used Chakra that night, he tried to coat the blade in Lightning Release. But as soon as he finished, Tagorihime shook her head.

"You're wasting too much Chakra. You're relying on brute force and your Chakra reserves to keep it up. You need to control the amount of Chakra and make use of every bit."

"There's a noticeable hitch as the Chakra travels to the blade. It isn't flowing smoothly."

"Your swings are fine, but why does it look like you're swinging a staff? Have you really not considered changing weapons?"

The Goddesses' voices seemed to drift in and out as they merged with the surroundings again. Zi Xu followed their suggestions and tried again. Sure enough, his Chakra consumption dropped considerably. The lightning on the blade dimmed, but he could clearly feel that its edge had grown even sharper.

"Ideally, the blade or staff shouldn't look special at all, as if no Chakra had been applied. But that's actually the opposite of what's happening: the Chakra is completely contained within the sword or staff. An ordinary-looking strike—or staff swing—can still surprise your opponent."

They explained the ideal state to Zi Xu, though they didn't expect him to truly master it. A technique at this level had reached the point of returning to simplicity. Even Kumogakure, famed for its Lightning Release techniques, had only a few people capable of this.

"Got it. I'll do my best. That's enough training for today. I'll head back." Zi Xu felt the afternoon had been well spent. He'd unexpectedly awakened Observation Haki, partially entered Sage Mode, and made considerable progress in his lightning-based Nintaijutsu. It had been a bountiful harvest.