Avid Reader · Elemental Grandmaster

Time flew by, and before he knew it, October had arrived.

Standing beneath the eaves and watching the endless autumn rain, Uchiha Hara felt somewhat melancholy.

A full month had passed since Uchiha Hara transmigrated here.

Looking back on the past month, it all felt like a dream.

And over that month, he had undergone a complete transformation.

He had gone from a frail child without the strength to truss a chicken, teetering on the brink of death, into an unconventional existence blessed with numerous talents, strength comparable to an Elite Chunin, and limitless potential.

All of this was certainly due in part to the "insignificant" help of the Demon Refining Pot, but it also could not have happened without his own efforts and planning.

If he had been some other transmigrator protagonist, he might already have been unable to hold himself back, applying for graduation and preparing to stir up the Ninja World.

But Uchiha Hara was simply the sort of person who followed the steady, Low-Key Way.

Not only did he have no intention of graduating early, he had instead decided to continue studying in depth and solidify his foundations.

Having been an adult in his previous life, he knew full well that once he graduated, he would face endless missions, never-ending wars, and ceaseless work.

By then, he would have very little time left for studying.

And even if he did have time to study then, he probably would not have the motivation for it.

"Anyway, Uchiha Jiang left behind tens of thousands of books. I'll set a small goal first: finish reading all of them."

With that thought, he first turned his gaze toward the mountain of Ninjutsu scrolls.

Previously, concerned about the potential connection between Chakra consumption and lifespan, and hindered by mediocre learning efficiency, he had followed the principle of not biting off more than he could chew and only focused on mastering five practical Ninjutsu.

But things were different now. [Three-Aperture Exquisite Heart] had directly doubled his learning talent. With his current aptitude, the vast majority of Ninjutsu no longer held any secrets in his eyes. Usually, after reading through their principles and Chakra circulation routes once, he understood them completely and could master them without even casting them.

"If I can learn something with a single glance, why wouldn't I learn it?"

With that mindset, Uchiha Hara began his journey of "browsing every Ninjutsu."

Starting with the most basic D-Rank Ninjutsu, he gradually worked his way up through C-Rank, B-Rank, and A-Rank. In the end, he did not even spare the few S-Rank Ninjutsu he had dismissed as "trash."

In his view, even the most worthless technique contained its creator's way of thinking and some possibility for Chakra application. It still had reference value.

As he frantically absorbed Ninjutsu knowledge, his overflowing desire to learn spread into other fields as well.

Besides studying Ninjutsu, he began learning carpentry, blacksmithing, masonry, stoneworking, techniques for all kinds of weapons—staff arts, swordsmanship, and so on—architecture... As long as there was a skill-related book in Uchiha Jiang's library, he could pick it up and immerse himself in it.

With his extraordinary learning talent, abilities such as [Cat's Coordination] and [Three-Dimensional Balance], and the bodily control granted by Tai Chi, there was practically no skill he could not learn.

Usually, after reading through the theory a few times and practicing it several times, he could quickly grasp the essentials. After a few dozen more attempts, he could advance to proficiency, mastery, or even the level of a master.

And unlike Ninjutsu, once he learned these skills, he could put them to use immediately.

After learning blacksmithing, his understanding of all kinds of metals took another step forward. In the future, when forging weapons, he would no longer be limited to imitating the material of "Autumn Rain." He could research alloy ratios himself, design weapon blueprints himself, and completely refresh his forging philosophy.

After mastering carpentry, stoneworking, and architecture, he looked again at the house and warehouse he had created with the Earth and Stone House Technique and found them utterly unbearable to look at.

It felt like playing Minecraft and building nothing but matchbox houses.

"But this isn't my fault. The person who invented this technique just lacked aesthetic sense and structural knowledge, so they could only make matchboxes."

He redesigned the blueprints for his residence and functional buildings. However, limited by his current mastery of Earth Release nature transformation—he could not yet create special materials such as glass—many ingenious designs could only remain on paper for the time being. This, in turn, drove him to study Ninjutsu more deeply, especially fields related to matter transformation.

From October to December, over the course of two full months, Uchiha Hara devoted himself wholeheartedly to "learning" all 1,469 Ninjutsu in his collection.

His definition of "learning" went far beyond merely being able to cast them. He deeply understood the core of every technique:

* How attribute-less Chakra was guided through specific hand seals to construct corresponding circulation circuits within the body.

* How Chakra was precisely molded outside the body into all sorts of forms, such as water dragons, earth walls, and fireballs.

* What the underlying energy frequencies and laws were behind the nature transformations of different Chakra attributes.

Those two months of immersion brought him tremendous progress in both the breadth and depth of Chakra shape transformation and nature transformation.

He could now skillfully employ common nature transformations such as wind's "sharpness," fire's "high heat" and "explosiveness," water's "high pressure," and earth's "heaviness."

Because of his need to build houses, he had researched Earth Release nature transformation even more deeply. He could already use Earth Release to shape stone, cement, and glass.

In the terminology of the Ninja World, that meant he had mastered Stone Release, Lava Release, and Glass Release.

It was worth mentioning that Glass Release and Crystal Release looked very similar, but they were not the same thing.

That said, both of them feared vibrations.

The moment he finally finished thoroughly analyzing the principles of the last S-Rank Ninjutsu—the "trash" Earth-Water Combination Ninjutsu, Mud Tide Technique—an indescribable sense of loss welled up within him, as though a climber had finally reached the edge of the known map.

His tightly wound mind completely relaxed at that moment. Right then!

He felt his mental sea shake violently!

Within his mind, the vast ocean of Ninjutsu knowledge was no longer isolated from itself. As if drawn by an invisible hand, it began madly colliding, intertwining, and fusing together!

Countless sparks of inspiration burst forth, principles confirmed one another, and laws gradually emerged...

At that moment, Uchiha Hara lost all awareness of the outside world.

Who knew how long passed before the chaotic torrent finally calmed. In the end, it converged into a purple origin radiating an arcane aura, quietly floating within his sea of consciousness.

When Uchiha Hara came back to his senses, he felt as though the world before him had been wiped clean, becoming clearer than ever before.

As for himself, he had gained a profound understanding of the entire Ninjutsu system that pierced straight through to its essence, as though he were looking down upon everything from a higher dimension.

He instinctively summoned his panel and discovered that his former [Elemental Affinity (Blue)] and [Spirit Illusion (Green)] talents had disappeared.

In their place was a line of text radiating noble purple light:

[Elemental Grandmaster (Purple)]: Greatly enhances absolute control over Chakra (energy), elemental perception, comprehension of laws, technique creation, and destructive power. See through appearances and directly grasp the essence of energy. (Awakened after integrating a vast amount of Ninjutsu knowledge and touching upon the threshold of laws.)

He now had two purple talents.

His other purple talent was the endurance talent he had gained from eating fish for four months.

After advancing to purple, even its name had changed, from [Enhanced Stamina] to [Super Stamina].

"An epiphany... This was an epiphany born from accumulated knowledge, a natural breakthrough after long preparation!" Uchiha Hara understood inwardly.

As he carefully experienced the changes brought by [Elemental Grandmaster], he felt as though he had transcended the category of an ordinary "ninja" and changed classes into an elemental mage.

When casting Ninjutsu, he no longer needed hand seals or incantations. Those were things of the past.

Now, he could cast with a mere thought!

Wherever his thoughts went, Chakra—or Primordial True Qi—would automatically construct the technique, and energy would pour forth.

The forms of his techniques were no longer restricted by what was recorded on scrolls.

Fireballs, fire arrows, fire crows, fire dragons—everything could change at a single thought, according to his will.

Furthermore, the Ninjutsu he cast could still be guided by his mind within a certain range—roughly a hundred meters—moving as easily as his own limbs.

Uchiha Hara also discovered that creating new elemental Ninjutsu now came as naturally to him as eating and drinking.

It was not limited to the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and lightning. Even Wood Release and Gold Release, which he had never studied, could be used as foundations. Based on his understanding of energy's essence, he could try to construct the corresponding technique frameworks through imagination and need. As long as he had enough energy, they could display a rudimentary degree of power!

He even felt that his control over Chakra and Primordial True Qi had risen by another major step.

This improvement was directly reflected in his cultivation—the circulation of the Primordial Scripture became more refined, allowing Chakra to enter those finer, narrower secondary meridians that had previously been inaccessible.

No, not merely secondary meridians, but secondary meridians of secondary meridians!

His control over Chakra had suddenly risen by two levels!

This meant that his Primordial Scripture realm had already broken through from the first layer to the third layer!

But an awkward problem soon emerged: his realm had advanced, but he had yet to create the cultivation method corresponding to that level!

Previously, his realm had not been high enough for him to sense the precise positions and flows of those subtle meridians, so there had been no way to create the method.

Only now that his realm had broken through and the range of his perception had expanded did he have the possibility of continuing to deduce the cultivation method.

This also gave him a deep understanding of the hardship and danger faced by pioneers.

Everything was unknown. Every step of exploration carried risks. A single misstep could send Chakra down the wrong path through unfamiliar meridians, resulting in damaged meridians.

"Luckily, I have the Demon Refining Pot. The Blood Essence it refines can repair damage at the level of life's origin. It works better than any medicine." This was his greatest source of confidence in daring to take risks.

However, as the meridians developed toward increasingly secondary networks, their numbers began to rise exponentially. The finer the meridians, the more complex they became.

"No wonder cultivation methods in those wuxia worlds become harder and harder to practice the further one progresses!" Feeling the densely packed meridians, Uchiha Hara realized that trying to invent everything behind closed doors was not the best solution.

These meridians were unknown to him, but perhaps others already had complete meridian charts.

For example, the Hyuga Clan—or Tsunade!

"Perhaps I should find Tsunade and systematically study Medical Ninjutsu." He pondered. "She has spent years treating illnesses and saving lives. Her understanding of the human body's meridians and acupoints must far surpass that of ordinary people. She should have systematic theories and detailed materials."

It just so happened that the Ninja Academy was about to begin winter break, and he needed to travel to Kyoto to exchange gold. He could inquire about Tsunade's whereabouts along the way.

"But what if Tsunade refuses to teach me Medical Ninjutsu after I find her?" Uchiha Hara's thoughts shifted, and he prepared a backup plan. "Then I'll have to settle for second best and go to Konoha Hospital to 'borrow' the relevant backup materials.

"A hospital that large must have detailed charts and research records concerning meridians and acupoints."

Uchiha Hara continued reading. This epiphany had brought him not only a purple talent, but also an improvement in his essence, qi, and spirit.

Uchiha Hara remembered that before his epiphany, his essence, qi, and spirit value had been 2.607.

Now, however, his essence, qi, and spirit value had reached 3.126!

One epiphany had directly increased it by 0.519, equivalent to refining five ordinary people, five Genin, or two Elite Chunin!

"I never expected essence, qi, and spirit to be improved this way too!" Uchiha Hara was somewhat surprised and curious. He had not eaten anything, so where had this essence, qi, and spirit come from? It could not possibly have appeared out of thin air, could it?

But that question was destined to remain unanswered, because he had been completely unaware of the outside world during his epiphany.

"What a pity that epiphanies are something one can only stumble upon by chance. I can try to trigger one through accumulated learning, but where am I supposed to find another thousand-plus Ninjutsu to study?! And I've already had an epiphany through Ninjutsu. Even if I got another thousand scrolls, I probably wouldn't have another one."

"Still, aside from Ninjutsu, I can try swordsmanship, Sealing Jutsu..."

The Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu was a millennia-old inheritance accumulated by an entire clan, while swordsmanship had an entire country called the Land of Iron, where countless samurai studied it.

The volume of Sealing Jutsu and swordsmanship available for study was therefore enormous. If he could find a large number of relevant books, the odds of having another epiphany would be quite high.

"No rush. I'll settle the Medical Ninjutsu and gold first. As for everything else, I'll deal with it next year!"