Single-Handed Seals

Chapter 9

Hyuga Qingchuan unfolded the paper, and several bold words leaped into his eyes.

Medical Expense Itemization!

Beneath it was a line of fine print: Please settle the expenses for this treatment before your next treatment.

Because of the nature of ninjas, many of them had no family.

Therefore, hospitals here had always treated patients first and waited until they woke up before collecting payment.

The benefit of this was that patients short on funds had enough time to gather the treatment costs.

As for skipping out on the bill, it was relatively uncommon. After all, once someone owed money, the hospital could directly refuse treatment next time.

Other than those with no hope left, ordinary people would not choose to skip their bills.

Below that were the surgery fee, disinfection fee, healing ninjutsu usage fee... and various other itemized charges.

The long list of dazzling entries made his eyelids twitch.

His gaze quickly moved down to the total at the bottom.

"E-Eighty thousand ryo?!"

His eyes widened as though he had seen something even more terrifying than the brute.

He had risked his life to kill three enemies, yet had only looted around fifty thousand ryo in total!

A single trip to the hospital had wiped it all out and cost him another thirty thousand ryo on top of that.

He suddenly felt dizzy.

Sensing that her grandson seemed unable to stand steadily, Grandma worriedly pressed the back of her hand to his forehead.

Finding it cold and damp with sweat, she immediately asked with concern, "Qingchuan, are you still feeling unwell?"

"No, I'm fine, Grandma." Hyuga Qingchuan waved his hand.

"How do you feel? If you're uncomfortable, we should go back and have the doctor examine you."

As she spoke, the old woman tried to pull her grandson back toward the ward.

Hyuga Qingchuan jumped in fright and hurriedly stopped her.

"No need, Grandma. Let's hurry home. I'm hungry."

The moment Grandma heard that her grandson was hungry, she stopped dwelling on it and said with a smile,

"Then let's go home. Look at you—you've gotten thinner after going out. Grandma will make you a whole table of your favorite dishes."

"Thank you, Grandma!"

The moment they got home, Grandma rushed into the kitchen and began bustling about with a clatter.

Even Hyuga Qingchuan, who wanted to help, was chased back out.

He was somewhat helpless, but this was a good chance to sort through his earlier gains.

Before, he had been too focused on staying alive to pay attention to the vast amount of knowledge and information that had entered his mind.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered his sea of consciousness.

A string of messages popped up one after another.

[You defeated the strong while weak, won through wisdom, and punished evil. You have received favor.]

[Energy Crystals *320]

[Water Release: Water Formation Wall (Proficient) *1]

[Throwing Technique Experience *1]

[Your Ninja Tool Throwing Technique has advanced to Mastery.]

[Kunai Combat Technique (Proficient) *1]

He opened his personal panel.

-------------------------

Race Imprint: Quincy (Ordinary, Current Fusion Rate: 20.02%)

Talent Skill: Spirit Particle Gathering

Race Skill: Holy Arrow

Emblem: Innate Full Soul Power

Bloodline Limit: Byakugan

Chakra Attributes: Water, Lightning

Energy Crystals: 320

-------------------------

The gains were considerable!

He had obtained Water Formation Wall and another 320 Energy Crystals.

This time, rather than trying them out bit by bit, he dumped all 320 Energy Crystals into his fusion rate at once.

Since he had decided to raise his fusion rate first, there was no need to hesitate any longer.

As he repeatedly pressed the "+" after the fusion rate,

320 Energy Crystals gave Hyuga Qingchuan 16% progress.

His Quincy fusion rate rose to 36.02%.

In an instant, he felt his control over Quincy abilities strengthen again.

Hmm...

More accurately, it had been restored.

It felt like he had originally possessed this level of strength but could not bring it out due to certain factors, and now part of it had returned.

It was like his good buddy from his previous life, whose combat power normally lasted an hour.

Then one day, he might have done squats, deadlifts... or something similar.

His testosterone would be used to build muscle, so he might temporarily be on the same level as the Barbarian King.

Of course, that was only temporary!

He then shifted his attention to his chakra control.

His chakra control had also improved considerably.

Excited, he ran to the backyard to test the ninjutsu he had just acquired.

His hands rapidly formed seals in the order stored in his memory.

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall."

Water was drawn from the nearby water vat, and a curtain of water appeared on the ground, its waters spinning at high speed.

He had actually done it!

Across both lives, neither his former self nor his past-life self had ever used ninjutsu.

That made him extremely excited.

Like a child, he cast it several more times.

Only, to save chakra,

he controlled the amount of chakra he used and kept the water curtain at roughly knee height.

As he cast it more often, he vaguely felt that

"It seems..."

"Some seals aren't necessary. I can still use the ninjutsu without them."

The Quincy's nearly instinctive, precise control over energy

allowed him to sense every minute change in the flow of chakra through his body with exceptional clarity.

The purpose of ninjutsu hand seals was to guide chakra along fixed routes, thereby releasing the corresponding ninjutsu.

But hand seals themselves were merely an auxiliary method developed by Indra for those unable to cast ninjutsu.

Indra himself did not use hand seals when casting ninjutsu.

That meant ninjutsu itself could be released without hand seals.

"Then if I abandon hand seal guidance and directly control the chakra flow, would that work too?"

Hyuga Qingchuan immediately gave it a try.

Using the high chakra control granted by his Quincy abilities, he directly guided chakra through his body according to the ninjutsu's fixed pathways.

For a ninjutsu like Water Formation Wall, its four seals each represented a route and a stage.

Guidance—formation—pressurization—release.

Under Hyuga Qingchuan's control, water was drawn from the nearby vat and slowly formed a wall of water on the ground.

When he tried to make it spin, the water wall collapsed.

"The idea is right, but my control isn't good enough!"

His control had improved, but it was still insufficient to support releasing ninjutsu without seals.

Even if he used hand seals to assist with the last two steps and reduced the original four seals to two,

it had little practical combat value, because the first two stages were too slow.

He suddenly came to a realization.

Those jonin possessed such powerful chakra control that they might not be incapable of releasing ninjutsu without seals. At least, low-level ninjutsu should not be a problem.

Yet in actual combat, whether simplifying or reducing them, they would still form seals to some extent.

That was because hand seals could greatly accelerate the speed at which chakra was guided and circulated.

Looking at it the other way around, they formed seals quickly not because their hands were fast, but because their chakra control was strong.

Otherwise, if they only had fast hands but the first stage of chakra control had not yet been completed,

then the seals in their hands would be assisting the chakra flow of the next stage, and the ninjutsu would definitely fail to activate.

After figuring that out, Hyuga Qingchuan abandoned Water Formation Wall, a B-rank ninjutsu, and switched to the two C-rank ninjutsu he currently knew.

He spent the entire afternoon experimenting.

The result was that he could cast C-rank ninjutsu with a single seal, but the activation speed was too slow to be very useful in combat.

However, while he could not reduce the number of seals, he could form seals with one hand.

Although it was not as fast as forming seals with both hands, it had strong practical combat value.

Especially Water Clone.

Using Kunai Combat Technique with one hand while forming seals with the other was simply far too useful.