Taotie Technique

Akimichi Choza offered some praise for Denji's talent as a ninja.

He was certainly not wrong.

Akimichi Denji checked his status panel.

[Physique: 7].

According to his assessment, a normal child at the Ninja Academy should have a physique of 5. Rock Lee, who had been training in taijutsu consistently, was at 7, just like him.

And his foolish younger brother was at 6.

The physique of a standard chunin should be 8, which meant that in terms of raw physique alone, Akimichi Denji was already touching the threshold of a chunin.

"However, the fundamental secret technique of our Akimichi Clan lies in converting energy into chakra. Regarding your situation, I have some conjectures; it is possible that the energy from your food is currently insufficient to meet your daily consumption. Your Kekkei Genkai must have a massive energy requirement."

Akimichi Denji curled his lip. In reality, that wasn't the case at all; the energy was being plundered by the system, much like Yao Lao with Xiao Yan.

"To better utilize our Multi-Size Technique, our Akimichi Clan has developed many supplementary secret techniques. Among them, there is one that is perfectly suited for your situation. It can increase gastric digestion and use chakra to stimulate acupoints, accelerating your stomach's metabolic process. In this way, you can ingest enough chakra to store as fat."

Hearing this, Akimichi Denji's eyes lit up.

It sounded like this secret technique would accelerate the process of turning an average person into Ryoko.

But Denji was different; the system would store all the excess energy. And energy could be added to his physique points!

Becoming Ryoko was absolutely out of the question.

"I think this might be enough for you to ingest sufficient energy, convert it into chakra, and then practice the Multi-Size Technique."

"What is this secret technique called?"

Akimichi Denji asked curiously.

Akimichi Choza spoke slowly.

"The Taotie Technique!"

"Take off your top. The practice of the Taotie Technique requires the stimulation of specific acupoints."

"Yes!"

Akimichi Denji obediently followed instructions, removing his shirt to reveal a fair upper body. There wasn't an ounce of excess fat, and muscles rippled faintly beneath his pale skin.

Akimichi Choza extended two fingers, pressing them onto several acupoints above Denji's lower abdomen, injecting chakra.

"Generally, after using the Butterfly Transformation, our bodies suffer damage, and all our fat is converted into chakra. That is when this secret technique is needed. It is not meant to be used in a normal state."

After speaking, Akimichi Choza looked at the curious Denji.

"You are the only exception."

Denji felt a warm current slowly flowing through his acupoints, his blood gathering toward his stomach. It even began to make distinct, unusual movements, and the food he had just consumed for dinner began to increase in processing speed.

The rate at which energy points increased on his panel was faster than before, with [+6][+6] constantly popping up.

It was twice as fast.

But along with it, the food in his stomach was also digesting at an accelerated rate.

Denji wore a satisfied smile.

The Taotie Technique was perfectly suited for him.

Once Akimichi Choza's chakra dissipated, the sensation of accelerated digestion vanished.

"The Taotie Technique was originally only used by us in emergency situations. Because in a normal ninja battle, there are many situations where one does not need to activate the Butterfly Transformation.

If one uses the Taotie Technique, it creates too much excess energy, and since all that energy converts into fat, it greatly affects daily combat. That is why it is only activated after using the Butterfly Transformation."

"Did you memorize the acupoints?"

Akimichi Denji nodded.

Akimichi Choza smiled with satisfaction and patted Denji's head.

If it were that brat Choji, perhaps...

The feeling of teaching a genius was truly great; he got it on the first try.

"Then practice more. If you don't understand something, take a look at this ninjutsu scroll."

Having said that, Akimichi Choza handed Denji a ninjutsu scroll.

The practice of the Taotie Technique was not simple, at least not for the members of the Akimichi Clan. The difficulty lay in mastering the circulation of the internal cycle through the Zhongwan, Tianshu, Neiguan, Gongsun, and Fenglong acupoints.

After all, their Akimichi Clan lacked the Byakugan and could not clearly perceive the specific acupoints.

He himself had practiced for a month before barely reaching the entry level.

No matter how much of a genius Denji was, it should take at least a week to learn it.

Choza rubbed his chin, lost in thought.

Akimichi Denji looked at his wish points, but he didn't intend to use them yet.

The points he spent yesterday made him realize that the true function of wish points was likely far beyond simply practicing ninjutsu.

Last night, practicing the Akimichi Clan Chakra Refinement Technique to the Grandmaster level had already reached the peak, but he could still use wish points to deduce it to the Transcendent level, and it even allowed him to awaken the Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai.

Therefore, the best way to use them should be to save the Wish Points for when a ninjutsu cannot break through. At the very least, one should use them only after reaching the entry level!

Thus, Akimichi Denji intended to use his own ability to first cultivate this secret technique to the entry level, which would also save him a Wish Point.

After all, no matter how much of a waste he was, he shouldn't be so incompetent that he couldn't even reach the entry level of cultivation, right?

A night passed, and the east turned white. The morning light was faint, thin mist floated through the forest, dew dripped from the tips of the grass, and birds chirped crisply.

Akimichi Denji's eyes were bloodshot, his mouth was twisted in a grimace, his eye sockets were sunken, and dark circles covered his eyes.

He stared at the cold words on the panel.

[Ninjutsu: Taotie Technique (Not yet entered)].

The cold words pierced his heart: he accepted it; this body was destined to be a ninjutsu failure.

It didn't matter; it was time to activate his world-shaking wisdom. Deep Blue, add points!

[Taotie Technique (Not yet entered) -> (Entered)].

[Effect: Focus your mind to use chakra to stimulate specific acupoints, enhancing digestive ability].

A year of bitter cultivation flooded into Denji's mind, and he felt that he could finally touch those acupoints. However, the drawback was that he still had to focus intently to activate this Taotie Technique.

He couldn't just sit there all day driving this secret technique just to eat a little more, could he?

He had to continue.

A prompt came from the panel.

[Ninjutsu: Taotie Technique (Entered) -> (Proficient)].

[Effect: Automatically runs at all times, digestive ability multiplied by 3.]

A wave of fatigue hit Denji, and he could feel his stomach churning, emitting a roar similar to a computer case cover being forced open.

Having not slept all night, his stomach was already empty, and combined with the suddenly tripled digestive speed, it caused sharp pain in his gut. Denji nearly collapsed to the ground; he struggled to stand up, rummaged through a drawer to find a Military Ration Pill, and slowly swallowed it, finally finding some relief.

But he clearly felt that the Military Ration Pill, which usually took three days to digest, was now being rapidly broken down into energy to replenish his body, while the system panel continuously popped up prompts of [Energy +9] [Energy +9].

At this rate, it would only take a day to consume one Military Ration Pill.

He grinned; he still had two Wish Points left.

Without hesitation, he continued to add points.

This time, the memory was even longer than before, and he felt that the Taotie Technique hit a bottleneck right here. Even the person who created this secret technique for the Akimichi Clan had never imagined that someone would possess an even faster digestive speed.

One had to know that the human body was a precise structure; changing one part of the structure would inevitably affect other organs.

Therefore, having a single organ function too strongly was not necessarily a good thing.

But no one had expected an anomaly like Akimichi Denji, who could store the excess energy.