Selecting Ninja Beasts

Every effort was rewarded. Did teaching and imparting knowledge count as effort?

Of course it did!

Then what kind of reward should teaching and imparting knowledge receive?

Naturally, students would absorb knowledge faster and fully understand what they were taught!

So, perhaps Kamiya Sanyō extracting Chakra in forty minutes was not because her talent was off the charts, but because Kamiya Keiyun's Heaven Rewards Diligence had taken effect.

Perhaps Ruri the cat being able to extract Chakra was not because she was some genius monster, but because Kamiya Keiyun had taught her.

"There's something like that?" Kamiya Keiyun fell silent for a long while before his eyes suddenly lit up. "There's something like that?"

So that was it. So that was it!

What was a World Secret Treasure? It was something that could be used to dominate the world, something that even the greatest experts in the entire world would fight to the death over!

How could the Heaven Rewards Diligence talent possibly be so simple?

It did not merely strengthen himself. Its power extended to every aspect!

"I have an idea!" Kamiya Keiyun turned his head. "Ruri, stop studying the Three Character Classic for now. I'll teach you—no, I'll teach both of you—the Transformation Technique!"

After telling them the Hand Seals needed for the Transformation Technique, Kamiya Keiyun watched the two of them try it.

Sanyō was fine. She was human and had hands.

Ruri, on the other hand, was dumbfounded as she looked at her cat paws. "How... how am I supposed to form Hand Seals?"

"Just do it!" Kamiya Keiyun said. "There's only one Seal. Even if you just imitate it, that's fine. With me here, you'll definitely learn it!!"

Ruri was somewhat bewildered. She had never imagined that a cat would need to learn human Hand Seals. Ninja Beasts had always been unable to use ninjutsu, relying mostly on their physical bodies.

But since Kamiya Keiyun had asked, she still tried forming the Seal with her cat paws.

Cats only had four toes, and they could not move them flexibly. Forming a Seal designed for human hands should have been utterly impossible!

But the Heaven Rewards Diligence system did not care about any of that. If he worked hard at teaching, there would definitely be gains!

Then, for some reason, Ruri suddenly felt a flash of inspiration. The next second—

Poof!

She had turned into another Kamiya Keiyun!

It was just that this Kamiya Keiyun was rather small, only twenty centimeters tall. Compared to the nearly one-meter-tall Kamiya Keiyun, it was simply the difference between a giant and a dwarf!

"It worked! Haha, it actually worked!" Kamiya Keiyun said excitedly. "Increase your Chakra output, and you can become bigger. You need to transform into exactly the same size as me!"

Poof! Kamiya Sanyō succeeded on the other side as well!

However, she had transformed into a 1.4-meter-tall Kamiya Keiyun. A youth's body with the face of a five-year-old child looked rather strange.

But that was not important. What mattered was that Kamiya Keiyun's guess had been right. Heaven Rewards Diligence truly had miraculous effects when it came to teaching!

"Big sister, try shrinking your body while still looking like me!" Kamiya Keiyun said. "I'll teach you two the Clone Technique next. Big sister, try making your clone look like me too!"

It was the same logic as saturating every possible option. He wanted Ruri to transform into him, but if Ruri could not do it, then Sanyō would have to take her place.

"Oh, right, don't practice here!" Kamiya Keiyun suddenly remembered that Konoha's ninja often climbed onto other people's rooftops. If one of them looked down, everything would be exposed.

Though he did not know why, his senses had become much sharper. However, some ninja could burst forward too quickly for his senses to react in time.

Yes, Hatake Sakumo was exactly who he meant.

"You two go practice inside!"

As for Kamiya Keiyun, he first needed to figure out the activation time and range of Heaven Rewards Diligence.

Logically speaking, once he taught them the Clone Technique, Heaven Rewards Diligence should ensure that both of them could learn it.

But now, Kamiya Keiyun was on the first floor outside the house, while the two of them were indoors on the second floor. Was Heaven Rewards Diligence still in effect?

While he was at it, Kamiya Keiyun began catching bugs in the courtyard again.

The courtyard was not large, but it had a patch of grass, so there were quite a few insects. There were also goldfish in the pond.

Kamiya Keiyun caught a grasshopper, an earthworm, an aphid no bigger than a grain of rice, an ant, a praying mantis, and a horsehair worm pulled from the praying mantis's abdomen.

Together with the goldfish in the pond, that made seven targets.

He taped them to a wooden board, except for the goldfish, which he scooped into a basin of water. Then Kamiya Keiyun said to them, "From now on, I will teach you the Chakra Refining Technique!"

With that said, he recited the Chakra Refining Technique his teacher had taught him. Afraid that once would not be enough, he recited it seven times.

Then Kamiya Keiyun began observing the changes in the seven animals and insects.

The aphid was first. After he had recited it only three times, he noticed that it had stopped struggling. When he checked again after the seventh time, he found that the aphid was already dead.

"?" Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. He had only lightly stuck the aphid onto the tape. How had it died?

He looked at the ant next. There was not the slightest sign of it extracting Chakra; it was even kicking its legs nonstop and struggling to escape.

The earthworm, grasshopper, praying mantis, and horsehair worm were the same. All of them were struggling, all trying to escape.

"None of them worked?" Kamiya Keiyun frowned. "Goldfish, you'd better come through!"

Kamiya Keiyun looked at the goldfish, only to find that it was swimming around without showing even the slightest sign of extracting Chakra.

"So why is this happening? Heaven Rewards Diligence clearly improves teaching efficiency!" Kamiya Keiyun thought for a moment, then came up with another possibility.

IQ.

Could it be because of their intelligence? These animals had barely any intelligence to speak of, so naturally they could not understand what Kamiya Keiyun was saying. They probably did not even think he was teaching them; they would only think he was carrying out an execution.

Yes, execution by sound.

After all, the cat had been able to learn because he had first developed its brain with Chakra. Furthermore, cats were naturally intelligent and could understand Kamiya Keiyun's intentions to some extent.

Kamiya Keiyun held down the earthworm. He still had some expectations for it, since his future plans would require an earthworm's abilities.

He sent Chakra into the earthworm's body, and then—

Poof.

Kamiya Keiyun stared silently at the earthworm, which had been blown into several pieces and no longer showed any signs of life.

So this creature's meridians were so minute that even their thickest parts could not withstand me?

What a pity. It seemed he could only find a replacement for earthworms.

"So, the prerequisite for activating Heaven Rewards Diligence is that the animal has to be intelligent enough to understand my lessons, while its Chakra Meridians must also be thick enough to withstand my initial development. Does that mean it can only be a large animal?" Kamiya Keiyun shook his head. He liked large animals, but not right now.

He was planning assassinations. He could not be too conspicuous.

He needed small animals.

Cats were already big enough. If he raised too many, they might attract the ninja's attention. As a ninja himself, he knew all too well how keen a ninja's nose could be.

Besides, cats did not eat much per meal, but if he raised too many of them, he still would not be able to afford it.

Were there animals smaller than cats that were intelligent enough and would not attract attention?

There really were.

First, rats.

Second, crows.

There was no need to say much about how smart rats were. Everyone knew it—just look at Jerry, or Ratatouille.

It was generally believed that rats possessed the intelligence of an eight-year-old child. There were even rats on social media that could do housework and play basketball. Some rats could play obstacle-course games, and certain content creators specialized in making videos of rats clearing such courses.

There was even less need to mention crows. The story of the crow drinking water was included in elementary school textbooks!

Crows could even make and store tools. They possessed logical thinking and deductive reasoning abilities. Likewise, crows were remarkably good at escape-room challenges.

Animals such as squirrels and magpies were also intelligent, but squirrels were not as widespread or as stealthy as rats, while magpies were not as widely distributed as crows. Since rats and crows were also easier to raise, Kamiya Keiyun discarded the other two options.

As for rats and crows, which should he choose?

Naturally, he would take both. Rats would handle the ground, crows would handle the sky—full-spectrum surveillance!

If possible, Kamiya Keiyun also wanted to get an amphibian. That way, he would have Ninja Beasts for sea, land, and air.

However, he was somewhat afraid of amphibians, so he could put that off for now.