Digging up sand was for making glass.
Making glass was naturally for producing purification equipment, such as funnels, beakers, graduated cylinders, and flasks...
And producing purification equipment was for making perfume!
That was right. When it came to luxury goods, the first things Kamiya Keiyun thought of were handbags, lipstick, and perfume.
But handbags required this kind of leather and that kind of leather, which he knew nothing about. Lipstick was even more complicated; he was completely clueless about it.
Perfume, on the other hand, was simple.
He studied plants. Not only had he learned flower cultivation, but he had also personally made perfume from flowers before.
"Is there anything I can help with?" Sanyō asked when she saw her younger brother return with a bucket of sand.
"Remove all the leaves and stems from those flowers and keep only the blossoms. Then find a rack, put them in the courtyard, and let them air-dry naturally!" Kamiya Keiyun said. Then he glanced at the sky. "Actually, put them in the room where we train. It might rain this season!"
"Okay!" Sanyō went to get busy.
Kamiya Keiyun began sifting the sand. He first rinsed it with water to wash away the impurities.
What remained was clean river sand, pure white with a faint yellow tint.
According to proper glassmaking methods, he should have heated the sand and fired it into glass, but Kamiya Keiyun did not have a kiln.
The method he chose was still ninjutsu.
If soil could be molded into stone, then molding sand into glass should not be a problem, right?
He raised his hands and formed Hand Seals. "Earth Release: Sand to Glass Technique!"
Soil had an extremely complex composition, including organic matter, minerals, humus, microorganisms, and a great deal of water.
The primary materials of glass were also among the components that made up soil. You could not say that sand was soil when mixed into dirt, then claim it was no longer soil after being picked out separately.
And Kamiya Keiyun's Chakra seemed not to discriminate between such things. Whether it was sand or soil, it worked all the same, even including the metallic minerals within the soil.
If classified according to the Five Elements, it seemed to encompass both metal and earth attributes, to the point that Kamiya Keiyun felt calling this technique Earth Style was somewhat inappropriate.
The Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire classification seemed more suitable. So should this be called Earth Release?
Under Earth Release, there could then be Sand Style, Metal Style, Earth Style, Rock Style, and the like.
"Huh, this actually seems promising. If I got myself an iron sword and controlled it with Chakra, wouldn't I be able to achieve Sword Flight?" Kamiya Keiyun's thoughts began to wander.
Following that line of thought, he would first need to be capable of controlling objects with Chakra.
Could he do it?
Kamiya Keiyun gave it a try. No.
Controlling objects did not require a momentary burst of Chakra, but a sustained effect outside the body.
But once Chakra was released outside the body, it quickly dispersed. It simply could not remain for long.
"Forget it, forget it. I'll focus on what's in front of me first and write this idea down for now!" Kamiya Keiyun recorded the idea in his little notebook.
So far, that little notebook had eleven questions recorded in it. They were all problems Kamiya Keiyun had discovered while researching Chakra and learning ninjutsu, problems he found difficult to solve himself.
Before, he might have considered researching them on his own. But now that he had Snake Uncle, he could ask Snake Uncle to solve them in a month.
Snake Uncle was one of the Three Legendary Sannin, practically someone who had reached the pinnacle of Chakra in this world. He would surely be able to answer his questions easily, right?
Now then, back to making glass.
He did not know whether it was because he had chosen the wrong materials, but although the glass before him had indeed been made, it was not colorless and transparent. Instead, it was like a beer bottle—pale yellow with a greenish hue.
Also, perhaps because his concentration was not fine enough, the beaker he shaped had a bumpy, uneven surface.
It was not that obvious, really, but a beaker was not a pipe. It had extremely high requirements for surface smoothness. The level Kamiya Keiyun could currently produce was still some distance from what he wanted.
Kamiya Keiyun was not discouraged. It was his first time making glass, so it was only natural that it would not be perfect. He just had to keep trying.
Fortunately, a beaker was much smaller than a pipe, so he barely felt any Chakra consumption.
With a beaker this small, he felt he could make them all afternoon!
It was just a pity that there was nothing he could do about the color. But it did not matter. His current standards were not that high, so he could make do with it.
At noon, after eating, Kamiya Keiyun attempted to cultivate Cooking Gold, Serving Jade for the first time.
He infused Chakra into his stomach, small intestine, and large intestine.
These three organs actually had an enormous surface area and involved quite a large number of meridians. This time, the effect was not nearly as obvious as when he had strengthened his legs.
The little bit of Chakra Kamiya Keiyun had could only strengthen a tiny amount, distributing an almost imperceptible trace of Chakra throughout each meridian.
"I'm a little sleepy, but I don't feel any obvious change in food digestion. Is the enhancement too weak?" Kamiya Keiyun pondered. If his original digestive capacity was 100 and it was now 101, he truly would not be able to feel the difference.
"Too little Chakra means the digestive system's enhancement is too weak. Weak enhancement of the digestive system lowers food digestion efficiency, and low food digestion efficiency means the accumulated amount of Chakra cannot increase."
But viewed from another angle, Chakra could enhance the digestive system, and a stronger digestive system would in turn give Kamiya Keiyun a stronger body and more Chakra.
That was also a positive cycle. It might be slower, but it was stable.
Just as he was about to continue polishing the bottles, Keiyun suddenly remembered the two ninjutsu Snake Uncle had taught him.
There was nothing much to say about the Summoning Technique. He did not want to look for the white snake yet. But that Shadow Clone Technique was something else!
"Snake Uncle gave me this technique after I expressed that I didn't want to go to school. So can this technique help me solve the problem of not wanting to attend class?" Kamiya Keiyun recalled that peculiar feeling from when he had tested ninjutsu at Snake Uncle's home.
"Shadow Clone Technique!" Kamiya Keiyun summoned a Shadow Clone and then ordered, "Take this sheet of paper, go outside and casually write a character on it, slip it under the front gate, then dismiss yourself!"
"Okay!" His Shadow Clone had a personality similar to his own—honest, rigid, full of curiosity, and not prone to any tricks.
It took the paper and walked straight outside. A few minutes later, Kamiya Keiyun's mind went blank. He hurriedly got up, went to the entrance, and picked up the paper!
There was no character on the paper, only a large question mark!
"Holy shit?" He froze. When the clone had returned, he had actually received the clone's memories along with it!
What kind of principle was that?
Weren't memories synapses formed by nerve cells? Why could a Shadow Clone made entirely of Chakra produce memories? Why did a Shadow Clone have thoughts of its own? And after a Shadow Clone dispersed, why did the Chakra return to his body instead of dissipating into the air?
After standing there dumbfounded for a while, he understood Snake Uncle's intention. This Shadow Clone had a physical body and would not be seen through, so it could attend class in his place!
That way, he would naturally be freed from those boring lessons.
But with every new ninjutsu he acquired came more and more questions.
Kamiya Keiyun felt like a circle. As it grew larger, the unknown it came into contact with increased dramatically as well.
He was a little... excited!
Kamiya Keiyun raised his hand. He felt that the Shadow Clone Technique contained enormous potential. If he researched it deeply, he might gain unexpected rewards!
Before you continue