Unexpected Joy

Clang, clang, clang~

About two kilometers southwest of the Town Outpost, in a Dense Forest, Qian held a Short Blade and clashed with Furukawa.

Kunai and Short Sword collided again and again, ringing out with crisp clashes as the two traded blows back and forth in an intense exchange.

This was already the eleventh day since they had come to carry out the rotation mission.

Over the past ten days, their group had not encountered any great danger. The few times they had fought the enemy, it had all been minor skirmishes, nothing worth mentioning at all.

Qian could clearly sense that farther north, the ninjas in the Iwagakure outpost facing off against them were extremely restrained.

They could even be described as cowardly.

Those people did not get entangled with them at all. Most of the missions they carried out were mainly surveillance, and the moment they were discovered, they immediately withdrew.

As for why this was happening, Qian guessed that the other side was probably worried about Konoha's retaliation.

After all, after causing trouble twice in a row, Konoha would inevitably strike back.

Under such circumstances, most of their energy was likely focused on guarding against Konoha's surprise attacks, which was why the front line here seemed so restrained.

Qian was more than happy to see this. What was the point of fighting to the death? With that time and energy, he might as well train properly!

Just like now. With Furukawa as his sparring partner, his Leaf-Style Swordsmanship was improving rapidly and was already about to break through to lv2.

Another ten-odd minutes later, Furukawa stopped attacking, put away his Kunai, and retreated to create some distance. Looking at Qian, he said, "All right, let's stop here for today."

"Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."

Hearing this, Qian bowed slightly and thanked him.

"Mm."

Furukawa nodded, then continued, "Your swordsmanship has more or less reached the Limit of its current stage. If you want to break through the present bottleneck, you'll still need to polish it seriously for a while."

Hearing this, Qian opened his Status Panel and glanced at it—Leaf-Style Swordsmanship: lv2 (497/500)!

In this situation, as long as he practiced seriously a few more times and accumulated three more Proficiency points, his Leaf-Style Swordsmanship would break through its current Limit and reach lv3.

"Bottleneck?"

"That doesn't exist!"

However, although he thought this, Qian did not show it on his face. Instead, he echoed in agreement, "Yes, Teacher. I understand."

With that said, he began practicing on his own.

To the side, Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko had originally planned to rest a little longer, but after seeing Qian working so hard, they stopped resting too. They immediately got up and continued their own training.

Seeing this, Furukawa smiled without saying a word.

He knew Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko's talent. Although they were somewhat stronger than ordinary people, they definitely did not reach the level of geniuses.

But because of Qian's existence, the two of them trained extremely hard, and the speed at which their strength improved was in no way inferior to that of some genius ninjas.

This was the power of an example.

An hour later.

It was near dusk.

Qian, who was practicing swordsmanship, suddenly froze in his movements. Then he sheathed his blade and stood still, closing his eyes as he silently sensed the changes in his body.

Just now, his Leaf-Style Swordsmanship had finally accumulated enough three Proficiency points, advancing from lv2 (497/500) to lv3 (1/1000).

At the same time, a warm current emerged from deep within his bone marrow and, through his blood vessels and meridians, quickly flowed throughout his entire body, nourishing every cell inside him.

This feeling was not unfamiliar to Qian. Back when his Basic Body Technique had risen from lv1 to lv2 and driven the growth of his Physical Constitution attribute, he had experienced it once before.

Now that this situation had appeared again, it was obvious that his Physical Constitution attribute was about to increase once more.

A moment later, the warm current vanished.

Qian opened his Status Panel and glanced at it. Sure enough, his Physical Constitution attribute had changed from the previous seven points to the current eight points.

Along with it, a sense of ease from a set of Shackles being opened welled up within him.

Qian was certain that if he circulated the Chakra Refining Technique at this moment, his Chakra Limit would inevitably increase. This was the result of his body's restraints being broken through and his potential rising.

Originally, Qian had thought he would have to wait until his Sharingan evolved again.

He had not expected Leaf-Style Swordsmanship to actually give him an unexpected joy.

But thinking about it, that made sense. Leaf-Style Swordsmanship inherently contained elements of body tempering. Since Basic Body Technique could guide the body's evolution, there was no reason the higher-level Leaf-Style Swordsmanship could not.

Of course, it was still the same old saying: the main force that had driven his body's evolution was the foundation he had accumulated through long-term Arduous Training.

Whether it was Basic Body Technique or Leaf-Style Swordsmanship, they were only triggers.

If he wanted to continue improving in the future, then he had to train hard.

In addition, with this breakthrough, the Evolution Speed of his Sharingan should be able to accelerate a little more.

However, whether it was as he expected still had to be tested in detail.

Just as Qian was deep in thought, Furukawa suddenly appeared in the field and said, "All right, time's about up. We should head back."

Hearing this, Qian and the others packed up, then followed Furukawa back to the town.

That night.

In the room.

Qian sat cross-legged, closed his eyes in meditation, and refined chakra.

After a long while, Qian opened his eyes and glanced at his Status Panel.

Just as he had expected, with the breakthrough in his physical constitution attribute, his body's potential had grown once more, and the amount of chakra it could contain had risen along with it.

For the first time in a long while, he once again saw the scene of his Chakra Limit rapidly increasing.

If that were all, it still would not be enough to speed up the evolution of his Sharingan.

Because as long as the Chakra Amount he could use each day did not increase, his Sharingan's Evolution Speed could not be raised.

Now it all depended on whether his physical constitution attribute increasing from seven points to eight would allow the maximum Chakra Amount he could use each day to break through the three-thousand-five-hundred-point mark.

With that thought, Qian closed his eyes again.

Three days later.

After a series of tests, Qian could confirm that his physical constitution attribute breaking through from seven points to eight had indeed allowed him to break the limit of using at most three thousand five hundred points of chakra per day.

Now, that number had gone from three thousand five hundred to four thousand two hundred.

It might look like an increase of only seven hundred points, but when used on the Mind Reflection Technique, that meant four points of Proficiency.

And five points of Proficiency could increase his Sharingan's Evolution Progress by one point.

In other words, from now on, his Sharingan would gain four extra points of Proficiency every five days. That degree of improvement was already no small matter.

And this was only the most direct increase.

As his physical constitution attribute improved, the amount of time his body could withstand running the Chakra Refining Technique each day would also increase.

In this way, under the same conditions, his Chakra Refining Technique was bound to advance to lv4 at an even faster rate.

When that time came, the Chakra Amount he could use each day would increase further, and what followed would be an increase in his Sharingan's Evolution Speed.

This was what people meant by one step ahead, every step ahead.

As long as Qian did his best at every stage, he would be able to speed up the evolution of his Sharingan to the greatest possible extent.