Back home, Gong Yi looked around at the dust-covered room and let out a long sigh.
Compared to dangerous missions, staying home to do research was still the best!
Ding!
Mission complete: Rain Country intelligence successfully brought back to Konoha Village!
Reward: 100 Scholar Points and one low-level Scholar Skill!
Hearing the system's long-missed voice, Gong Yi's face lit up. After all that struggle, he had finally reached this moment.
He opened the system panel and began to browse.
"Age: 8
Ninja Rank: Chunin
Constitution: 50 points
Mental Strength: 35 points
Basic Chakra Affinities: Wind, Lightning, Water, Fire, Earth; strongest affinity—Earth
Weapons: Iron Kunai, ordinary shuriken
Scholar Points: 230 (Scholar Points can be exchanged for Scholar Skills or used to upgrade Scholar Rank.)
Scholar Rank: Level 1 (Can have up to three Scholar Skills)
Scholar Skills: Low-level Recovery Technique, Gravity Technique, Spirit Refining Technique
Current Research Topics: 0
Completed Research Topics: Eight. (Halves the Chakra cost of the C-rank Ninjutsu Earth Style Wall!) (Halves the Chakra cost of the C-rank Ninjutsu Headhunter Jutsu!) (Halves the Chakra cost of Rock Pillar Spear!) (Created the B-rank defensive Ninjutsu Rock Armor.)
Missions: Undying Xiaoqiang mission complete; Rain Country mission complete, intelligence brought back to Konoha!
Looking at his Scholar Points and the newly acquired Scholar Skill, Spirit Refining Technique, Gong Yi smiled with satisfaction.
His Scholar Points had originally risen to 130 through research that halved the Chakra costs of Ninjutsu and the creation of the B-rank defensive Ninjutsu Rock Armor.
Completing this mission had added 100 points, bringing his total to 230.
That was good news.
It meant Gong Yi could make other plans now.
First, he would spend 100 Scholar Points to upgrade Recovery Technique.
If his Recovery Technique had been a higher level during this mission, he would have recovered faster and the battle would have gone much better.
Not to mention, he had been seriously injured afterward and spent a full ten days recuperating before he could return.
Recovery Technique could also greatly assist his daily training, so upgrading it was definitely worth it!
He acted at once.
Without hesitation, Gong Yi put 100 Scholar Points into Recovery Technique.
"Host has upgraded Recovery Technique and obtained the intermediate Scholar Skill Healing Technique!"
"Healing Technique: Quickly recovers physical fatigue and injuries, mental exhaustion, and depleted Chakra. It can also heal internal and external injuries with a 100% success rate!
"To upgrade Healing Technique, master a large number of medical skills or invest 1,000 Scholar Points to advance it to the high-level Scholar Skill Creation Regeneration!"
Reading the description of Healing Technique, Gong Yi beamed.
Just as he had expected, the next stage of Recovery Technique retained its original effects while also treating internal and external injuries.
And the next upgrade was Creation Regeneration!
Although the description didn't explain what Creation Regeneration did, the name alone gave Gong Yi a rough idea.
"Regeneration, huh!"
Gong Yi wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. He'd better not get ahead of himself.
1,000 Scholar Points!
There was no way he could earn that in a short time.
He had spent four whole years accumulating his previous 130 Scholar Points, and he'd even completed a dangerous mission that had nearly cost him his life.
Putting aside that unrealistic idea, Gong Yi tried out Healing Technique.
A green light spread from within him, radiating outward.
In that instant, Gong Yi felt completely at ease, so comfortable he nearly moaned aloud.
Inside Gong Yi's body, the meridians damaged during battle were set right, and all his hidden injuries were completely healed.
"I thought I'd already recovered, but I didn't realize I had so many hidden injuries."
Gong Yi nodded to himself. Internal injuries were invisible and impossible to feel, yet they were extremely dangerous.
How many famous shinobi had died after years of accumulated internal injuries finally caught up with them?
Healing Technique could effectively treat internal injuries. That alone made those 100 Scholar Points well spent.
But that wasn't all. After his body had healed, Gong Yi suddenly felt itchy and tingly all over.
"Ugh!"
Gong Yi shuddered and hurriedly stripped off all his clothes.
A grisly sight met his eyes.
The scars from past battles rippled and writhed across his muscular body as if worms were crawling beneath his skin.
After the green light passed over them, the scars swelled, shifted, and then peeled away.
Gray-brown dead skin slowly fell onto the bed.
Gong Yi shivered, then smiled.
"I didn't know this thing could even remove scars and lighten my skin!"
Gong Yi's skin had been rather dark, since he trained every day and had been exposed to the sun countless times.
His body and hands were covered in calluses, too.
This time, Healing Technique had not only healed his internal injuries and erased his battle scars, but had even adjusted his calluses and skin tone.
He quickly got out of bed and took a shower!
Afterward, he looked in the mirror and rubbed his chin.
"Uh, I'm starting to look a little pretty-boyish. What a shame about those scars—those were proof I was a man!"
Gong Yi stopped dwelling on it. The more effective Healing Technique was, the happier he was.
He turned his attention back to the system.
"I still have 130 Scholar Points. I could upgrade another Scholar Skill, but I haven't explored Gravity Technique's potential yet, and I haven't even tried Spirit Refining Technique. There's no need to upgrade anything else so soon."
"But I can't let them go to waste. I need to improve my strength as quickly as possible!"
"I'll upgrade my Scholar Rank!"
"At Scholar Rank 1, I'm limited to three Scholar Skills. After upgrading, I'll be able to have two more. I'll also be allowed to work on more than one research topic at a time, and the number of missions and their rewards will change, too."
"The Third Shinobi World War is about to break out. Another Scholar Skill means another chance to stay alive. More missions will also help me earn Scholar Points faster. Yes, that's what I'll do."
Having made up his mind, Gong Yi immediately upgraded his Scholar Rank.
Compared to the changes from Healing Technique, the Scholar Rank upgrade was rather unremarkable.
It changed the system's rules, so there would be no immediate effect. Its benefits would show up later.
Gong Yi stopped paying attention to that and turned to "Spirit Refining Technique."
"I went through so much to earn this skill after completing my second mission. I wonder what it does?"
Before you continue