Practice

However...

Given his current level, he certainly couldn't create ice needles out of thin air; perhaps even if he did, they would be incredibly brittle.

Could he condense water-attribute chakra into a needle in his hand, then freeze it with ice-attribute chakra?

Action follows thought.

But then again, his grandmother once said that one must eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.

So, it was better to start by practicing with ordinary water.

Naturally, he would start by practicing for an afternoon.

After a bout of daydreaming, he found a bucket, drew a basin of water, and sat under a tree to begin controlling the water bit by bit.

"Come on, come on, rise!"

He spread his hands, his movements uncannily similar to Qianlong's Nine-Clan Stripping Technique.

Under his control, a drop of water hovered between his hands.

He guided his chakra to slowly infuse into the droplet, his focus intense, struggling to control the water as it extended upward, lengthening, thinning... attempting to form a water needle.

Of course, this process was not easy. Water is formless by nature and requires chakra to guide it; if too much chakra was injected, it would expand, and if the distribution was uneven, it would twist, break, and fall back into the water.

Once... twice... three times...

With these repeated attempts, Ning Xue's composure was clearly beginning to crumble.

"No, why is this so hard?"

Ning Xue complained, feeling flustered and exasperated.

"No, I must stay calm. My mindset is slipping, and I won't get anything done this way."

While telling himself he could do it, he readjusted his mindset, manipulated his chakra once more, and pulled out another droplet.

This time, Ning Xue was fully concentrated, injecting his chakra bit by bit. The output was extremely steady this time, and he used his intent to stretch it up and down, millimeter by millimeter.

After a long while, through his persistent efforts, a trembling water droplet that barely maintained the shape of a needle was finally pulled from the water—a needle about six centimeters long!

"Success!"

Ning Xue felt a surge of joy, but he immediately steadied his mind, not daring to relax in the slightest.

Maintaining the needle's form, he took a deep breath and began the second step: freezing.

He cautiously separated a sliver of ice-attribute chakra, created a tiny snowflake, and injected it into the fragile water needle with extreme slowness and gentleness, fearing that the intense cold would shatter it instantly.

The Ice Release of the Land of Snow, in the final analysis, was the condensation of moisture in the air into ice crystals—that is, snowflakes—which then coalesced into ice.

It was fundamentally different from the Ice Release bloodline limit of the Mist Village.

One was a special ice-attribute chakra.

The other was a special product of the combination of ordinary water and wind—the ice attribute.

Sizzle... A faint freezing sound echoed.

He watched as the water needle began to sprout white frost from the base, spreading rapidly upward. In the blink of an eye, it was completely frozen, turning into a crystal-clear ice needle!

Although its transparency and hardness seemed slightly inferior because the base was water rather than pure condensed chakra, it was undeniably an ice needle he could hold in his hand!

Ning Xue carefully pinched the homemade ice needle between two fingers, feeling the cold touch against his fingertips and the sharp point that was truly there. His heart was filled with a sense of accomplishment!

Although the process was cumbersome—needing to pull it out to form it first and then freeze it—it was only temporary. Moreover, the successful formation of the ice needle confirmed his hypothesis; this was indeed a viable path.

Perhaps in the future, he could use wind-attribute chakra to increase its sharpness.

"I'll practice like this!"

He made up his mind.

He would first use water to practice the form and control of the water needle, then after becoming proficient, he would try to condense the water needle directly with chakra before freezing it. His ultimate goal was to condense pure chakra ice needles out of thin air!

In the future, he could carry some poison in his bag and then pull it out to create them.

Just thinking about his next spar with Neji, where Neji would end up with numb limbs and a weak, powerless body mid-fight...

Ah~, just thinking about it is so satisfying~ I feel like I'm going to lose my mind with excitement.

Ning Xue was intoxicated by his fantasy, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

However, the ideal is plump, but reality is skinny. If there were no accidents, an accident was bound to happen.

Because Ning Xue was no longer injecting chakra to maintain it, the ice needle began to melt at a visible rate after only a dozen seconds, turning soft, and finally...

With a "plop," it snapped and melted back into a small puddle of water on the ground.

"...Uh." The smile on Ning Xue's face froze.

He realized then that an ice needle made from ordinary water was extremely prone to melting in non-low-temperature environments without the constant maintenance of chakra.

Especially when his own chakra maintenance was insufficient. This thing was a one-time consumable with a very short shelf life.

"It seems that carrying poison in my bag for later use is off the table for now."

Ning Xue scratched his head, but he was not discouraged.

Then he would have to rely on instantaneous condensation and point-blank firing. Furthermore, the ultimate goal had to be condensation using pure chakra; only then would the ice needles be sturdier and more controllable.

The road ahead was long and arduous!

He gave himself a pep talk and continued his monotonous practice.

As the old saying went:

Failure is the grandmother of success.

Besides, he was only three years old; what was the rush? Unless the Fourth Shinobi World War started tomorrow.

Because he had already successfully condensed one, Ning Xue was in a very good state of mind; after all, once there was a first, there would be a second.

He kept fine-tuning his chakra output, the speed of shaping, and the timing of the freezing.

The sun gradually set, and Ning Xue was still sitting under that tree. The water in the basin had decreased significantly, with most of it spilled on the surrounding ground or having turned into failed ice needles that melted and vanished quickly.

During this time, Hyuga Ning had originally intended to find Ning Xue in the afternoon to continue teaching him physical conditioning and the Gentle Fist.

But seeing Ning Xue sitting under the tree holding a water basin, not knowing what he was doing, he thought for a moment and then decided to turn around and leave to spend time with his wife, Xue.

If the child wanted to play, let him play.

By now, Ning Xue had reached a state of self-forgetfulness, fully immersed in his research.

His physical strength felt exhausted, and such precise manipulation was also extremely draining on his spirit. However, the gains were significant.

The speed at which he condensed water needles was more than twice as fast as when he started, and their form was more stable and slender. The freezing process had also become increasingly fluid, and his success rate had greatly improved, from one in ten to one in three.

But most importantly, he now had a basic idea of how to autonomously generate water and then use the ice attribute to condense it into needles.

This point alone brought him one step further on the path of ambushing others.

The sky had grown dim.

At this moment, a gentle female voice sounded in Ning Xue's ears.

"Ning Xue, come back for dinner."

Hearing the familiar voice, he finally snapped out of his self-forgetful practice.

"Oh, coming right away!"

Ning Xue hurriedly replied.

He stood up, patted his somewhat numb legs, and walked toward the house. His mind was still ruminating on the afternoon's practice and planning tomorrow's training schedule.

Hmm... tomorrow I'll try to see if I can convert chakra directly into water needles, skipping the step of drawing water from the basin... perhaps it will last longer... and I need to find a way to make the ice needles harder.

Lost in thought, he returned to the house and devoured his dinner in the warmth of his home.