Boost

Three days later.

Early morning.

Qian walked out of his tent and moved through the Main Camp. Looking at the crowds coming and going, he inexplicably felt a suffocating sense that The Storm was Coming.

Qian knew where that feeling came from—with Orochimaru's temperament, there was no way he would only take a beating and not hit back.

The Canyon Ambush had been one time. The Sneak Attack three days ago had been another. After suffering losses twice in a row, there was no way Orochimaru would not retaliate.

He had reason to suspect the other man was holding back a big move.

However—

Qian swept his gaze over the smoke-blackened, fire-scorched traces around him and knew that even if there was going to be retaliation, it could not happen in the short term.

Three days ago, during the joint surprise attack by the Sand Ninja and Rock Ninja, Konoha had managed to hold them off, but more than half of the Main Camp's supplies had been burned.

So before new supplies arrived, Orochimaru was unlikely to make any major moves.

And judging by the speed at which they had rushed to the Rain Country Battlefield a month ago, transporting supplies from Konoha to here would take at least more than twenty days.

That did not even include the time needed to gather the supplies. If someone caused trouble along the way, it would drag on even longer.

Qian estimated that it could not be settled without at least a month.

In other words, over the next month, there would most likely be no large-scale battles.

That let him relax a little.

After leaving the Main Camp and passing through several defensive lines, Qian arrived at a Dense Forest northwest of the Main Camp.

The moment he drew near, he heard several shouts accompanying fists hammering into wooden posts, while farther away came the clinking of weapons colliding.

Qian had long since gotten used to this.

This place had originally been assigned by the Main Camp as training grounds for ninja. It was perfectly normal for people to train here.

Even in wartime, ninja could not carry out missions year-round without rest. Basically, every ten days or half a month, they would get a few days off.

And under the pressure of the battlefield, many ninja would choose to train during this period to improve their own strength.

For ease of management, the Main Camp had specially set aside this area.

In the month or so since he had arrived at the battlefield, Qian would come here whenever he had time. Especially over the past three days, he had come here to train every day.

Walking quickly to an unoccupied corner, Qian drew a Short Sword.

This Short Sword was something he had seized from Shiroishi Kurato. The sword was roughly half a meter long, its blade silver-white, and the whole weapon had been forged from Refined Iron mixed with some Chakra Conducting Metal.

Not only was it sturdy and durable, it also had quite good energy conductivity.

Unfortunately, Qian's Fire Release Ninjutsu level was not high, and his understanding of Fire Release Chakra was too shallow. He had not completed the corresponding attribute chakra's Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation, so he could not bring out the full power of this Short Blade.

Otherwise, with one move of "Blazing Fire Blade," the enemy would not only suffer physical damage, but would also have to endure the scorching burn of high-temperature flames.

Shaking his head and temporarily pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, Qian began practicing "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship."

That was right. Qian had already exchanged for "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship," and the process had gone very smoothly, without any bullshit complications.

During practice, Qian discovered that maxed-out "Basic Body Technique" actually provided a boost to it.

In less than three days, his "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" had already reached entry level, even reaching lv1 (60/200).

According to Qian's estimate, the difficulty of learning "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" should be Rank C. Even if practicing it did not require too much chakra, it should still take at least three days just to get started.

Comparing the two, this was not just a little bit faster.

As for the reason?

Qian had roughly figured it out. Many of the techniques in "Basic Body Technique" were actually contained within "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship."

In that case, maxing out "Basic Body Technique" was equivalent to him having learned part of the contents of "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" in advance.

That was why his progress had been so fast!

However, Qian estimated that this boost effect was limited. It could not keep assisting the growth of "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" forever.

After all, "Basic Body Technique" contained only so much. Once that foundation was used up, it would naturally be useless.

The development of events was about the same as he had expected.

Two days later.

Morning.

When Qian once again completed one round of "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" training, his Proficiency only increased by one point.

At the same time, on his Status Panel, "Basic Body Technique" in the Skill Slot suddenly disappeared after flickering for a while.

At first, Qian was worried for a while, but after confirming that the related knowledge was still in his mind, he felt relieved.

Clearly, "Basic Body Technique" had been completely absorbed by "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship."

At this moment, the level of his "Leaf-Style Swordsmanship" was lv1 (181/200).

Seeing that he was about to advance, Qian naturally did not waste any time. After only a brief rest, he began a new round of training.

However, without the buff from Basic Body Technique, his training speed inevitably slowed down.

It was not until midafternoon that he finally maxed out grinding Leaf-Style Swordsmanship to lv2 (1/500).

At this moment, although Qian still could not be considered a swordsman, he handled the Short Blade in his hand with a decent sense of form.

After practicing for a while, Qian put down the Short Blade in his hand and began reviewing the entire process of grinding Leaf-Style Swordsmanship over the past few days.

One thing was clear: the reason his Leaf-Style Swordsmanship had improved so quickly was definitely inseparable from the Basic Body Technique he had already maxed out grinding to perfection.

Because of this, Qian could not help thinking back to when he had first learned Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.

Back then, it was precisely because he had maxed out grinding Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to lv1 early on that he had been able to quickly get started with Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.

Even the Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique he learned later had only been able to accumulate Proficiency faster because Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique had successively been brought to entry level.

At that time, he had discovered a pattern: ninjutsu of the same attribute could, to a certain extent, promote one another.

But after all three ninjutsu had risen to lv1, that effect became less obvious—or rather, nearly nonexistent.

So he had not continued looking into it.

Now, Qian realized he had been wrong.

He should not have raised the levels of all three Fire Release Ninjutsu at the same time.

Because since they were all Rank C Ninjutsu, when their Proficiency differed little, there was simply not much meaning in using them for mutual reference.

Therefore, Proficiency could only increase bit by bit.

The correct approach should have been to raise the level of one ninjutsu first, thereby mastering the advanced usage of the corresponding attribute Chakra, and then learn other related ninjutsu.

That way, it was equivalent to a higher-grade student doing lower-grade exam questions. Naturally, the process would become much easier.

Reflected on the Status Panel, that meant Proficiency would increase several times over.

In this way, not only could he save time, he could also save Chakra.

This made Qian unable to help regretting that he had not thought of it sooner.

Fortunately, everything was not too late yet.

Qian opened the Status Panel and glanced over it, finally deciding that among the three Fire Release Ninjutsu, he would raise the level of Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique first.

The reason he chose this was simple: it had the strongest practicality.

As for his other skills.

They were not too closely related, so he could just improve them step by step.