Conceptual Innovation

Early in the morning, Kamiya Keiyun jogged all the way to the academy while attempting to refine chakra during the run, so he arrived at school surprisingly early.

When he got to the school, there wasn't a single student yet. Umino Shihou was already there, running on the playground with a child. He waved at Kamiya Keiyun, who jogged over to join them.

"This is my son, Umino Iruka!" Umino Shihou said. "He's not in your class, but when you get to second or third grade, you'll be split into new classes, so you might end up classmates then!"

"Oh, hello Iruka!" Kamiya Keiyun looked at the kid—ordinary, with a forgettable face and a shy demeanor.

Probably a background character, he thought.

"Come on, let's run together. Why are you here so early?" Umino Shihou asked.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep at home." Mainly because the Meditation Method worked too well. It couldn't replace sleep entirely, but it could shorten it. Kamiya Keiyun felt he only needed six hours of sleep a day to be fully energized.

And he was only five years old!

"Alright, then you can come run here every morning. Taijutsu class won't start until second grade, but getting an early start on exercise is definitely a good idea!" Umino Shihou said.

"Oh, by the way, sensei, what else will we be learning in first grade?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"Nothing else!"

"Huh? What do you mean, nothing else?" Kamiya Keiyun was taken aback.

"In first grade, you only need to master the Chakra Refining Technique and Hand Seals. The rest of the time is mainly for learning to read. Don't think it's easy—you should know that your learning goal for this year is five hundred characters!" Umino Shihou said seriously.

Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. Five hundred characters—what did that even mean? In Huaxia, first graders spent a whole school year mastering pinyin and learning three hundred new characters.

But here, there was no such thing as pinyin. You just looked at the characters, read them, and memorized them.

The learning difficulty was much higher than in Huaxia.

In other words, five hundred characters really were tough for elementary school students.

But considering there were no weird subjects like math, art, IT, science, reading, calligraphy, or English here, those five hundred characters didn't seem like that many.

The key issue, though, was that Kamiya Keiyun had already learned them. He'd been a late talker, but an adult's learning speed was no joke. He only started speaking at two, but by three, he'd finished Five Hundred Characters for Beginners, and by four, he could read any book stored in the shrine without trouble.

Sitting through literacy class again was a complete waste of time.

This must be a problem most reincarnators face, Kamiya Keiyun thought. Unless the reincarnator starts as an adult, they all have to redo elementary school. He considered asking about skipping grades, but then thought it would be a shame to skip.

After all, this was a carefree childhood. Skipping grades meant ending it early.

He'd wait and see.

When class started, sure enough, there was an hour of chakra refining, followed by literacy class.

The teacher didn't care whether you were refining chakra or sleeping. During literacy class, it was the same—if someone slept, they were left alone, as long as they didn't disturb others.

So Kamiya Keiyun lay on his desk and practiced the Bright Virtue Method all morning. The humanoid figure he was shaping was getting more and more detailed.

In the afternoon, there was Hand Seals class first, then more literacy. But Kamiya Keiyun didn't continue practicing the Bright Virtue Method, because he noticed that outside, some students were sparring!

They were upperclassmen. From too far away, he couldn't see clearly—just two figures surrounded by a crowd. They formed a Hand Seal first, then started leaping and darting around, trading blows.

Suddenly, one of the kids jumped high, dodged a Sweeping Leg, then swung his arm as if throwing something.

"Whoa, how can he jump that high?" Kamiya Keiyun was shocked. One of the kids had leaped over three meters straight up, reaching the height of the top of this lecture hall!

That was no small feat. On Earth, the world record for a standing vertical jump was only 2.43 meters, and that was with a Fosbury Flop by the most elite athletes.

In the Wuxia world, the Cloud Ascending Steps, which was excellent for height, could only manage about one zhang—3.3 meters—when Yu Daiyan used it at full power in a life-or-death situation.

Yu Daiyan had trained under Zhang Sanfeng for over a decade, and Cloud Ascending Steps was a top-tier martial art. Combining the two only got him one zhang. And this kid jumped three meters?

That was ridiculous!

"Could it be... a natural talent?" Kamiya Keiyun muttered.

"What natural talent?" Inuzuka Hana's voice came from beside him. Kamiya Keiyun turned his head and realized class was already over.

"Look at that guy—he just jumped three meters in one leap. Is he from a family that specializes in leg techniques?" Kamiya Keiyun pointed at the two still fighting below.

"I don't know that person either, but judging by the clan crest, he's probably from the Hayate Clan. They're not a leg technique family—their heritage is Konoha-style Swordsmanship," Inuzuka Hana laughed. "As for jumping three meters, I can do that too!"

"What?" Kamiya Keiyun stared at the girl in shock. How is it possible? A master was right beside me?

"You don't believe me? Want me to show you?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

Kamiya Keiyun nodded.

"Then follow me!"

The two went outside the classroom, downstairs, and found a tall wall.

"See this wall? Is it three meters high?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

Kamiya Keiyun estimated and said, "Less than that—it should be about four meters high!"

This wall separated the ninja academy from the outside world. Probably built to protect the students, it was extremely tall.

"Do you think I can jump up there?" Inuzuka Hana asked again.

"That... impossible!" Kamiya Keiyun shook his head. "Forget it, you might hurt your leg. Don't—what the—!"

Kamiya Keiyun watched, wide-eyed, as Inuzuka Hana, who was less than 1.3 meters tall, leaped upward. The next second, she was standing on top of the wall!

How... how is this possible?

"Now do you believe me?" Inuzuka Hana jumped down again without hesitation. At this height, even if the ground below were soft dirt, Kamiya Keiyun wouldn't have dared to jump in his past life—but Inuzuka Hana landed from up there as if nothing had happened.

Kamiya Keiyun felt like he had overlooked something.

"You... how did you do that?" he asked curiously.

"Use Chakra. Channel it into the meridians in your legs, and it strengthens their power. When you refined Chakra, you should have felt those meridians, right? Try it—you should be able to do it too!" Inuzuka Hana replied.

"There's a trick like that?" Kamiya Keiyun quickly gave it a try. He had been cultivating the Bright Virtue Method for nearly three days now, and his control over Chakra was quite smooth. The meridians in his legs weren't as thick or robust as the major ones in his torso, but channeling Chakra into them was no problem.

Then, he felt his legs become extraordinarily strong, extraordinarily resilient!

And then, Kamiya Keiyun suddenly launched himself upward. By the time he came to his senses, he was already nearly four or five meters in the air!

"Holy shit!" Kamiya Keiyun hurriedly stabilized himself, then descended.

"Holy shit!" This time it was from the pain. His legs were fine, but his stomach and heart jolted sharply from the fall. Painful as it was, Kamiya Keiyun himself was incredibly excited.

"So this is Chakra? It's amazing—I've only been cultivating for three days, and I can already do this!" Kamiya Keiyun began to realize that comparing Chakra to the Internal Energy of Wuxia might not be quite right.

Chakra was on a different level than Internal Energy—far higher.

After all, someone who had trained for only three days could jump higher than Yu Daiyan, who had trained for over a decade. If he also learned something like the Tai Chi Sword or Tai Chi, wouldn't he be able to trounce Yu Daiyan?

Opening his eyes again, Kamiya Keiyun suddenly noticed that Inuzuka Hana seemed surprised too.

"How did you do that?" Inuzuka Hana asked quickly when she saw Kamiya Keiyun come back to himself.

"Do what?" Kamiya Keiyun was confused.

"How did you jump that high?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

"Uh, didn't you teach me?" Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. "You just taught me!"

"Did... did I?" Inuzuka Hana's mouth twitched. Was this what a genius looked like?

She had refined Chakra at age four, and though she had spent most of the past year studying Medical Skills, she hadn't neglected her Taijutsu.

Jumping onto the wall just now had looked easy, but that expression was an act. She had mainly wanted to show off the excellence of a clan child, to make Kamiya Keiyun yearn for the clan.

After all, marrying into a family was hard for most people to accept.

In truth, she had given it her all!

But Kamiya Keiyun had only tried it for the first time, and he had already jumped higher than her!

What if he trained a bit more and got used to it?

"What's wrong? Did I jump wrong somehow?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"No, no. I'm a bit tired. I'm heading back first." Inuzuka Hana waved her hand. She was tired—not just physically, but mentally too.

"..." Kamiya Keiyun was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

Sure enough, don't try to guess a girl's thoughts—you'll never figure them out. Totally inexplicable.

But wait—had he just mastered a new skill?