After eating three portions of premium grilled meat alone at the Akimichi Family's barbecue restaurant, the delicious food finally calmed Xing Ran's turbulent emotions, and he began considering the future.
From now on, he would develop in the direction of becoming a Medical Ninja. Medical Ninjas were extremely valuable resources to any nation and were rarely assigned to the front lines of the battlefield. Even on team missions, they were key protection targets, because the enemy's first priority was often to kill the Medical Ninja.
This way, Xing Ran would not have to worry about the Hokage assigning him trivial little missions every few days. Even when he went on missions, he would do so as a Medical Ninja, sparing himself a great deal of trouble.
Then there was the matter of his soul's weakness. He hoped Hai Yi would have a solution.
Early the next morning, beneath a blazing sun, Xing Ran arrived at Hai Yi's home. It was a small villa with both front and back yards. As one of the Yamanaka Clan's notable elites, Hai Yi's living conditions were quite good.
As soon as Xing Ran entered, he saw Hai Yi carefully tending to the flowers and plants he had grown. A burly man over six feet tall whose hobby was flower cultivation—there really was no one else like him.
"Yo, Xing Ran. I heard you took a mission and went out... Is your body all right... When did you get back?" Hai Yi stared at Xing Ran for a while. Only after confirming that Xing Ran was not injured, or that his previous injuries had not flared up again, did he speak. Hai Yi was not good with words, but he seemed to be in an excellent mood. Xing Ran taking on missions again probably meant the blow of his entire team being wiped out had not left him dispirited.
"Mm, I got back last night." Xing Ran naturally took the watering can from Hai Yi's hand and skillfully continued the work Hai Yi had been doing.
"It's good that you're fine. Have Zaohui make something delicious for lunch. Yesterday, I got a wild white eel from one of my seniors. It's a rare delicacy." Hai Yi naturally handed the task of tending the flowers and plants over to Xing Ran, then leisurely sat down in the reclining chair in the yard. As he watched Xing Ran bustle about, he spoke.
Back when Xing Ran had first become a ninja and started living independently, he rarely paid attention to whether his meals were nutritious. Hai Yi would always find one excuse or another to get Xing Ran to come over and improve his diet.
The current Xing Ran was no longer the same as before. Now that his income no longer depended entirely on mission rewards, nutritious feasts were no longer a problem. Still, Xing Ran remained deeply grateful that Hai Yi continued to care for him as always.
"You finally made it home. Shouldn't you spend some time with little Ino? Don't tell me you plan to spend the entire morning on that reclining chair." Xing Ran set down the watering can. He had originally intended to pull weeds, but quickly noticed that they had already been dealt with. He patted his completely clean hands, walked over to Hai Yi's reclining chair, and sat at the small table in the yard.
"Ino has been very sleepy lately. She won't wake up for a while yet. If you have something to say, say it." Hai Yi's senses were sharp, as expected of one of the Yamanaka Clan's foremost figures. Since they were family, he could not be bothered with beating around the bush, and he was not good at it anyway. Seeing Xing Ran acting as though he were looking for trouble, he knew this fellow probably had something to ask of him.
"It's like this..." Xing Ran did not stand on ceremony. He told Hai Yi that he wanted to strengthen his spiritual and soul power, then asked whether the clan had any corresponding training methods and whether he could practice them.
"Mm, not bad. If our Yamanaka Clan wishes to reach a higher realm with our secret techniques, spiritual and soul power are both the foundation and the most important core. I'm very pleased that you wish to strengthen your spiritual and soul power. But there are no shortcuts to becoming stronger, especially with this kind of foundational power. It can only grow through long-term training..." As expected, Hai Yi was not someone skilled with words. After hearing Xing Ran's thoughts, he started rambling.
"Hai Yi, the point. What's the point? What's the training method? What technique?" Xing Ran had listened for nearly half an hour, yet Hai Yi still had not gotten to the point. His liver was starting to ache faintly.
"Ahem. Training spiritual and soul power is very simple. In fact, every clan member encountered this method early on. It is the Yamanaka Clan's Meditation Technique... The method I used to train my spiritual and soul power was to use the Mind Body Switch Technique like mad. Of course, other secret techniques work too. The greater the expenditure, the better the effect. Control people, control animals, until you are exhausted every time. Then use the clan's Meditation Secret Technique to circulate Chakra and form special hand seals. Finally, after sufficient nutrition and enough sleep, your Spiritual Power will slowly grow." Hai Yi cleared his throat and told Xing Ran about his training method.
As one of Konoha's renowned secret technique clans, the Yamanaka Clan naturally possessed a Meditation Secret Technique. Every Yamanaka child learned this foundational secret technique before being confirmed as a ninja. After forming hand seals, they meditated by circulating Chakra along specific pathways. Xing Ran had initially thought this secret technique was merely meant to restore energy and improve the success rate of ninjutsu. He had not expected the ancients to be right after all—the most basic things were often the most essential.
However, Xing Ran quickly thought of another problem. He was extremely familiar with this Meditation Technique and had used it often, but the growth it brought to his spiritual and soul power was negligible. For all this time, Xing Ran had believed that his Spiritual Power going from weak at the start to merely somewhat weak now was a normal result of growing older. As a result, he had completely overlooked the fact that the Meditation Technique had this effect as well.
So the question was, just how slow was the "slow growth" Hai Yi had mentioned?
"May I ask, Hai Yi, how long did you train this way?"
"Over twenty years."
Xing Ran was somewhat speechless. If it took him twenty years of training to reach Hai Yi's current level of Spiritual Power, Naruto would have been Hokage for many years by then. Xing Ran himself might have long since become an ordinary name among the sacrifices on the Memorial Stone who died resisting the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
"Don't judge it by appearances. I never slackened over those twenty years. My soul power increased by at least fifty percent." Seeing Xing Ran fall silent, Hai Yi worried that the number twenty years had discouraged him. He hurriedly told Xing Ran about the results, intending to tempt him with the benefits.
But what Hai Yi said had an extremely negative effect. Xing Ran had not expected that after twenty years, Hai Yi had only increased it by fifty percent using this method. At first, Xing Ran had thought this method would be perfectly effective.
But upon further thought, it made sense. The ninja world had never lacked hardworking people. For Hai Yi to become one of the Yamanaka Clan's foremost figures, hard work alone certainly was not enough. He had been exceptionally talented to begin with, and only through unremitting effort had he gained his current strength. That made sense.
But so what if he understood? This method was the same in nature as Might Guy's Rigid Fist Style, relying on effort accumulated day after day. Xing Ran could work hard, but he did not have much time to let it accumulate.
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