New Assessment Standards

Half a day later.

In the center of the room, Lin Chuan stood with his eyes closed. Fluctuations of chakra and faint traces of spiritual power rippled across his body. The next moment, his eyes snapped open. The veins around his eyes bulged instantly as the Byakugan activated, and he shifted his stance into the starting posture of the Gentle Fist.

"Sage Art: Gentle Fist!"

Following Lin Chuan's low shout, his body began to glide across the room. He channeled Sage chakra into his palms, where a pale purple glow became clearly visible, emitting a distinct, sizzling sound.

Lin Chuan's speed increased rapidly. Every punch he threw generated a faint sonic boom. As his speed accelerated, his body seemed to transform into a blur that filled the entire room. His fists moved even faster, striking more than a dozen times in the blink of an eye, a dazzling display of technique.

Ten minutes later, Lin Chuan's speed finally slowed until he ceased the Gentle Fist entirely, collapsing onto the floor to pant heavily.

His physical exertion was immense. While Sage Mode enhanced his movement and strike speed, Lin Chuan's frail body struggled to keep up. However, the enhancement Sage chakra provided to the Gentle Fist was undeniable; if Lin Chuan reached the first level of the Qi Refining Stage, he would be confident in defeating a cultivator at the sixth level.

"I've truly managed to develop Sage Mode, though entering it requires a process. Furthermore, once I enter Sage Mode, I can no longer absorb external spiritual energy. This means I can only consume the spiritual energy within my own dantian; if I overexert it, I will automatically drop out of Sage Mode."

"But it is all worth it. The boost Sage Mode gives to my ninjutsu is significant. Even now, just starting my training, it provides a multi-fold increase, and it might even allow me to use some low-difficulty ninjutsu at my current stage!"

Lin Chuan rested for a moment before slowly crawling up from the floor, sitting cross-legged on the bed to cultivate his spiritual power.

The Gentle Fist was the foundation for the other ninjutsu of the Hyuga clan. Consequently, Lin Chuan had been practicing it daily, not only to improve his strength but also to continuously develop other unique techniques of the Hyuga, such as Tenketsu, Rotation, and the Eight Trigrams Palms.

However, these techniques had high requirements for chakra control and volume, so at this stage, Lin Chuan could only roughly develop them, waiting until the conditions were met to fully master them.

Another reason Lin Chuan was so fixated on the Gentle Fist was the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack! That powerful taijutsu of Kaguya Otsutsuki was clearly the ultimate version of the Gentle Fist. Once Lin Chuan's Rinne Sharingan was fully awakened, the Gentle Fist could evolve into the Kekkei Mōra of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, the destructive power of which was beyond doubt.

In Naruto, that taijutsu was described as: a fist that shakes the heavens with the way of the sage, combining offense and defense into a merciless assault!

Just thinking about it made Lin Chuan burn with envy.

For the next four days, Lin Chuan spent his time in intense training. Every time he exhausted himself practicing the Gentle Fist, he would return to his bed to rest while cultivating his spiritual power, never forgetting to develop his ninjutsu during his spare time.

Though he called it "developing" ninjutsu, it was mostly a process of recollection. Because he had been a fan of Naruto in his past life, Lin Chuan had even studied the official databooks carefully. He was intimately familiar with the hand seals and activation requirements for many techniques. Combined with his status as the progenitor of chakra in a sense after consuming the Fruit of the God Tree, he was able to develop most of the techniques he knew within a short period.

In particular, frequently used ninjutsu like Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu and Rasengan were etched into his mind.

However, he had only developed these techniques; he was currently unable to practice them. As for forbidden techniques like the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, Flying Thunder God, or Impure World Reincarnation, they were completely out of reach, and he would have to wait until his strength improved to see if he could tinker with them.

Time passed quickly. Four days flew by in the blink of an eye, and the day of the Lin Clan Assessment finally arrived.

Early that morning, specialized personnel arrived in the area to summon all disciples participating in the assessment. Lin Chuan took a rough look; there were over three hundred people, not counting the members of the main Lin Clan.

"This world seems to have quite a lot of people!" Lin Chuan curled his lip, looking around curiously. The three hundred-plus people had already been divided into groups of three. Naturally, Lin Chuan was in a group with Qin Lang and Bu Lianshi.

This was quite similar to the team formations in Naruto. Even more similar was that most groups were configured with two boys and one girl, which couldn't help but remind Lin Chuan of the various squads in Naruto. He had once thought with a dark expression that Kishimoto did this just to make writing love triangles easier!

Seeing Qin Lang and Bu Lianshi in the distance, Lin Chuan walked over. For the past half-month, these two had peeked at his training more than once. They thought they were being careful and hidden, but under the Byakugan, everything was in vain. However, they held no malice; they seemed to just be checking if Lin Chuan was training seriously.

"Lin Chuan, don't worry! We'll definitely be fine this time! Seeing how hard you've been training, I'll make sure to carry you through the assessment!" Qin Lang slung an arm around Lin Chuan's shoulder with practiced familiarity, a look of gratification on his face, as if he were looking at a son who had finally grown up.

Lin Chuan's mouth twitched. Who is carrying whom is still up for debate! But he was too lazy to argue. After forcibly wriggling out from under Qin Lang's arm, Lin Chuan gave Bu Lianshi a wide smile. "Thanks for these past few days. If it weren't for you, I probably would have had to train on an empty stomach!"

"It's no problem, we're a team, after all!" Bu Lianshi said with a soft smile, her voice as quiet as ever.

Lin Chuan laughed and patted Bu Lianshi on the shoulder, thinking to himself that this girl seemed very soft and easy to push over! But he immediately dismissed the wicked thought; after all, she was only eight years old!

"Alright, everyone pay attention! I am going to explain the rules and precautions for this assessment!" A booming voice echoed across the grounds, drawing everyone's attention.

"Today's assessment will be different from the past. The rules for passing have been revised!" The official's words immediately caused an uproar among the crowd.

"Quiet!" The official let out a sharp shout, instantly silencing the scene, and continued, "All of you will head to Hunting Ground No. 44. There, you will find Spirit Beasts ranging from the first to the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage. Kill them to obtain their Spirit Cores. Killing a first-level Spirit Beast earns ten points, a second-level earns twenty, and so on! After seven days of assessment, the ten groups with the most points will pass, and everyone else will be eliminated!"