Swift Release Cultivation

Time flew by, and it had already been five days since Ye Yuexin woke up.

Konoha was like a massive machine, operating at high speed every single moment.

Only Ye Yuexin and his companions enjoyed a rare few days of leisure.

Ye Yuexin's injuries had now completely healed.

He had begun training two days ago.

It was in that same deep forest training ground he frequented so often.

Ye Yuexin stood quietly beneath a large tree at this moment.

His eyes were tightly shut, and his Flying Dagger Mode was already activated.

After the previous battle, Ye Yuexin's Flying Dagger Mode had become even more powerful.

He could almost control the "Reishi" in the surrounding air with his sheer will.

Ye Yuexin did not yet know what this energy, which could replace chakra and was even more formidable than it, actually was.

So, he simply called them "Reishi."

Following that, through long periods of control using Flying Dagger Mode, Ye Yuexin slowly gathered the Reishi.

The Reishi in the air formed a small, circular sphere.

It slammed directly into the large tree.

In an instant, the tree was pierced clean through.

Dense clusters of leaves drifted down from the branches.

Just at that moment, Ye Yuexin moved.

His short blade left its sheath.

He vanished in an instant.

When Ye Yuexin's figure reappeared, he was already ten meters away.

The time taken was a mere three seconds.

The leaves were still falling, but if one looked closely, they would find that many of them had been sliced in two without anyone noticing.

"One hundred and thirty pieces! As expected, after using the chakra pathways of Swift Release, my speed has nearly doubled. And that's only after opening a single meridian."

Ye Yuexin said calmly.

He seemed quite satisfied.

Throughout these days, Ye Yuexin had been constantly practicing Swift Release.

He had originally intended to study it thoroughly only after Kurenai Yuhi went on a mission, but in the current climate, Kurenai Yuhi surprisingly had no missions at all.

Ye Yuexin did not know that this was actually because of him.

So, when he was alone at night, Ye Yuexin could not wait to open the Swift Release scroll.

Upon opening the scroll, the contents shocked him.

No matter what, he had never imagined that the mysterious Swift Release was not a Kekkei Genkai.

Instead, it was a training scroll similar to the Eight Inner Gates.

Inside the scroll, four meridians were described.

These four meridians did not exist in the human body.

One had to use chakra to open them up personally.

These meridians were developed specifically to enhance a ninja's speed.

After opening each meridian, circulating chakra through it could exponentially increase a ninja's speed.

However, much like the Eight Inner Gates, this training method also had its drawbacks.

But it was far less terrifying than the flaws of the Eight Inner Gates, though naturally, it was not as powerful either.

While it would not cause harm to the body, it would cause the ninja to lose the ability to use ninjutsu.

According to the description, the first two were manageable.

But starting from the third, if one wished to open it, the Swift Release meridians would directly obstruct the other meridians.

It would tear through the dense network of existing meridians to create a single, penetrating path.

In this way, many ninjutsu would become impossible to use.

Especially the final one.

It was like a high-speed highway, cutting off all the country roads.

There are gains and losses; this scroll could grant you extreme speed, but correspondingly, it would make you lose other ninjutsu.

Judging by the speed Taiyuan Zeng had displayed at the time, he should have already opened two meridians.

With Ye Yuexin's current chakra reserves, he could only open one meridian.

However, when combined with Ye Yuexin's mastery of footwork, the picture changed.

In terms of pure speed alone, Ye Yuexin estimated that he was likely no worse than those specializing in the high-speed Lightning Body Flicker.

Another major advantage was that because the meridians used by Swift Release were direct, the chakra consumption was minimal.

This complemented his footwork perfectly, making for an excellent match.

When he first looked into Swift Release, Ye Yuexin hadn't deliberated long before deciding to cultivate it.

To put it bluntly, even if he hadn't cultivated Swift Release, Ye Yuexin didn't know any other elemental releases anyway.

Although various elemental releases remained immensely powerful in Ye Yuexin's memory, he felt that the path suited for him was not that of ninjutsu.

Therefore, rather than learning a bit of everything, it was better to master one thing.

He chose to specialize in the path where he had already established an advantage.

During these past few days of training, besides practicing Swift Release, Ye Yuexin had also attempted to recreate that blade strike he used to defeat Tugang.

The true power of that strike remained a mystery to him.

Ye Yuexin had seen with his own eyes how that blade had passed through Tugang's earth sphere—which contained nature transformation—as easily as if it were a sheet of paper.

Thus, he intended to refine that move and adapt it into a technique for Flying Dagger Mode.

However, the experimental results left Ye Yuexin both pleasantly surprised and deeply disappointed.

He was surprised because the flying dagger, shimmering with white light points like an Inch Glow, was practically indestructible.

He was disappointed because he had to activate Flying Dagger Mode just to slowly gather spirit particles into the blade.

The time required for this was a staggering fifty-plus seconds.

What did fifty-plus seconds mean?

It was enough time for a person to die dozens of times over.

If he were to use this move in the middle of a battle, it would be a surefire way to commit suicide.

Ye Yuexin had tried various methods, but the speed at which the spirit energy gathered remained stubbornly slow.

With no other choice, this move, which could have been his trump card, was temporarily shelved.

"Yuexin! Time for lunch."

At that moment, Kurenai Yuhi's voice suddenly drifted over.

Dressed in a snow-white kimono patterned with red flowers, her hair groomed to a soft sheen, Kurenai Yuhi gradually appeared in Ye Yuexin's field of vision.

When Kurenai Yuhi reached him, he said, "Thank you for your hard work, Kurenai."

Hearing Ye Yuexin say this, a sweet smile immediately bloomed on Kurenai Yuhi's delicate face.

This kind of mature, womanly smile could warm one's heart and lungs.

Ye Yuexin felt a sudden itch in his heart.

Kurenai Yuhi then looked around and said, "You really are diligent. Your injuries have only just healed, yet you're in such a rush to train. Why?"

Her words were laced with both reproach and concern.

"Naturally, it's to work hard on improving my strength so I can reach the Kage level sooner." Ye Yuexin's words stopped there, and he looked at Kurenai Yuhi with a smile.

At this, a blush immediately rose to Kurenai Yuhi's face.

However, as a mature woman, shyness didn't really exist for her.

She smiled back, "Then I'll be looking forward to it."