Lu Bian: [Kakashi, your progress is a little fast.]
Kakashi Hatake: [But catching up to your progress seems pretty much impossible.]
Kakashi Hatake: [The training of the ninjas on my side is based on chakra. Physical energy produced by the body's 130 trillion cells is mixed with spiritual energy to form chakra.]
Kakashi Hatake: [Training in Ultimate Boundless Qigong is similar to the process of extracting chakra, except that it involves only physical energy.]
At a training ground in Konoha, Kakashi Hatake was practicing Ultimate Boundless Qigong. He and Lu Bian kept each other accountable for their daily training, checking in every day in the Chat Group.
Kakashi, the genius ninja, was also exceptionally talented at training. The chakra inside his body and the magnetic field system didn't interfere with each other; instead, they strengthened each other.
As he kept up his Ultimate Boundless Qigong training day after day, Kakashi could clearly feel his physical energy growing stronger. The amount of chakra he had been able to draw on, once rather meager, had increased considerably as well.
Because he carried a Sharingan, Kakashi was using up chakra every moment of every day.
Ultimate Boundless Qigong brought nothing but good changes for Kakashi, making him seem much more "diligent."
"Kakashi!"
"Guy?"
"Are you practicing that new fist style you learned today, too? Come test it against my mighty fists!!"
"Careful, or I'll beat you."
"Failure is part of youth~! Anyway, I'll never give up!! Hah~!"
Might Guy let out a strange cry, and his daily spar with Kakashi began. Both of them held back, not throwing all their strength into it, and tried to win with their techniques.
They deliberately kept the fight confined to the training ground. Kakashi didn't want more people to find out that he had embarked on a new round of training.
"Gwaaah~~!!!"
Might Guy went flying.
"You beat me again, Kakashi!!"
"Not bad~!"
"Next time, I'll definitely win!!" Might Guy shouted.
"I'm hungry, Kakashi. Want to get something to eat together?"
"It's about that time. Sure."
Kakashi and Might Guy headed into the village together.
"Hehehe!"
Might Guy kept grinning foolishly the whole way.
"What are you laughing about?" Kakashi glanced at Might Guy.
"Nothing. I just feel like laughing," Might Guy replied.
"Did you think of something funny?"
"It's just that I've come down with a disease that makes me want to laugh whenever I see Kakashi," Might Guy said.
"What?"
"You asked," Might Guy said.
"Seeing you so much more cheerful makes me happy."
"I'm not laughing at you when I see you smile."
"Fine." Kakashi headed toward the barbecue restaurant.
"Barbecue?" Might Guy followed Kakashi inside.
"I'm going to cure this disease that makes you laugh whenever you see me," Kakashi told Might Guy.
"Don't!"
"Can't you leave it uncured?"
"I'll only cure half of it today."
The two ate barbecue and split the bill, but Might Guy felt a pang as he paid. Dinner didn't need to be so fancy; a simple bowl of ramen would have done.
Training,
training.
And more training!
Lu Bian's life had been reduced to chatting in the group and practicing martial arts.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Lu Bian was now training without using his arms, relying only on his two legs.
Front kicks, side kicks, back kicks, hook kicks, roundhouse kicks, spinning back kicks...
Lu Bian unleashed a dazzling array of kicks, darting and weaving through the forest with fierce, nimble footwork. He would have to wait until his cells had been restructured and his hands recovered before he could resume practicing fist techniques.
Training in the forest spelled trouble for the trees. Lu Bian kicked branches and trunks clean off. He gathered up the wood he'd broken, hauled it out of the forest on a donkey cart, and sold it in town.
Lu Bian lived a simple, unpretentious life in the Dali Kingdom.
He couldn't make much money selling firewood, and he spent what he earned on wine.
Having a couple of drinks before training, then practicing in a slightly tipsy state, let Lu Bian lose himself completely. That single-minded training in turn helped him improve his magnetic field cultivation even faster.
While tipsy, Lu Bian made Ultimate Arhat Fist his own, transforming it into Drunken Dream Arhat Fist.
Far from the Central Plains, the Dali Kingdom had fewer forms of entertainment than the Great Song capital. Drinking was one of the few "pastimes."
The villages throughout the Dali Kingdom liked to brew their own wine, and they did a pretty good job of it. The locals could hold their liquor, too. As Lu Bian settled in, he made drinking one of his hobbies as well.
A year passed...
Lu Bian's magnetic field cultivation reached the twentieth heaven.
He began trying to restructure the cells in his hands.
He unwound the cloth wrapped around his hands, revealing their horrifying state.
Missing fingers, torn ligaments, shattered bones... The magnetic field power of the twentieth heaven gradually restored Lu Bian's hands to health.
He flexed his fingers. They were just as nimble as before.
During the more than a year that his hands had been crippled, Lu Bian had trained his feet until they were as nimble as his hands. But in the end, people were still more accustomed to using their hands.
"Finally... I can grab things with my hands again."
Lu Bian: [My hands are healed.]
Lu Bian: [Hands.JPG]
Shi Tianwu: [Congratulations.]
Kakashi Hatake: [What about the new feature, group owner? Is it ready?]
Lu Bian: [It's here. I'll activate it now.]
[The Chat Group has added the Item Exchange Function]
Lu Bian: [Now we can exchange items with each other.]
Kakashi Hatake: [Can we exchange anything?]
Lu Bian: [Not everything.]
Lu Bian: [We can only exchange ordinary items, not special items.]
Lu Bian: [As for what counts as a special item that can't be exchanged, we'll have to figure that out bit by bit.]
Lu Bian: [I've got a basket of Jianshouqing Mushrooms here. Does anyone want to try some? We can trade.]
Kakashi Hatake: [Do you eat Sticky Rice Dumplings? I happen to be right outside a shop.]
Lu Bian: [Jianshouqing Mushrooms for your Sticky Rice Dumplings? Kakashi, you're getting the better end of the deal.]
[Lu Bian and Kakashi Hatake made an exchange...]
[Exchange successful]
Lu Bian was in the bountiful lands of Dali, where the mountains were covered in wild mushrooms every rainy season. Matsutake, a prized delicacy on Kakashi's side, was food for pigs in Lu Bian's neck of the woods.
Lu Bian: [Careful, Kakashi. Jianshouqing Mushroom poisoning feels no different from being caught in a genjutsu.]
Kakashi Hatake: [As long as it's thoroughly cooked, it's fine, right?]
Lu Bian: [As long as it's cooked, it'll definitely be fine.]
Lu Bian held a box of Three-Color Sticky Rice Dumplings. Apparently, they were one of Konoha's five great delicacies, Itachi Uchiha's favorite snack, and a favorite of Anko's, too.
Kakashi carried a basket of Jianshouqing and Boletus Mushrooms as he bought the other ingredients for stir-frying them in the shopping district, then hurried home. He had heard Lu Bian go on and on about how delicious Jianshouqing Mushrooms were, and today he would find out for himself.
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