Supplementary Provisions (Seeking Collection & Recommendations)

Successfully used the Kaguya Clan's Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai (Medium) {Extremely Rare}. Body modification complete. Physique +10!

He didn't know how long had passed—maybe an instant, maybe an eternity—but Qifeng finally opened his eyes again.

He felt utterly drained, yet every cell in his body was buzzing with exhilaration. In this extreme contrast, Qifeng was both miserable and strangely comfortable.

He patted his head.

"Damn it, not even a single hint."

Everything had come too suddenly, catching him completely off guard.

If he'd known in advance, he might have hesitated to use that card.

Too much suffering.

A glance at the bloodstains everywhere and the ground wrecked by his uncontrollable convulsions told the whole story.

Of course, the inhuman torment also brought enormous rewards.

Qifeng opened his panel, and the numbers had changed drastically.

Character: Maruyama Qifeng

Age: 13

Affinities: Fire, Earth

Rank: Chunin

Kekkei Genkai: Shikotsumyaku (Medium)

Physique: 38

Chakra: 25

Ninjutsu: 24

Genjutsu: 19

Control: 27

Hand Seals: 22

Taijutsu: Flowing Water Sword Technique

Ninjutsu: Three Basic Jutsu, Fire Release: Great Fireball, Earth Release: Rock Concealment Technique, Earth Release: Earth Shore Return, Fire Release: Flame Bullet

Items: Uchiha Clan Thin Bloodline Card (2/3), Kaseki's Obsession, ...

The most obvious change was in his Physique stat. In a single night, it had shot up from 25 to 38, leaving all other stats far behind.

Three points came from a single-attribute Boost Card, while ten came from the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai.

Absolutely insane.

But those ten points matched the inhuman pain Qifeng had endured.

The key point: Shikotsumyaku!

He'd actually awakened it!

Qifeng couldn't resist trying it out.

He reached out a hand, focused his mind, and felt the cells in his fingers begin to rapidly divide and multiply. Along with an aching itch in his bones, he clearly sensed the bones in his fingertips splitting.

Then, a piercing sting. Five small openings appeared at his fingertips, and five bullet-sized distal phalanges shot out.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The finger bones flew at high speed, striking the mortuary wall with dull impacts.

Afterward, the openings at his fingertips closed silently, leaving no trace of difference from before.

Qifeng looked down at his fingers, then walked to the wall and eyed the five black holes.

"The power's decent—almost as good as bullets—but damn, it hurts."

Ten fingers connect to the heart. Opening a slit at the fingertip and shooting out bone—imagine how painful that was.

He'd been completely fooled by how casually Kimimaro used Shikotsumyaku in the anime. Shikotsumyaku was strong, but pulling out bones, tearing through skin and muscle—it meant hurting yourself before even harming the enemy.

A ninja without strong enough willpower couldn't endure such self-torture.

"These bones are really hard, though."

He pried out a deeply embedded finger bone, tapped it lightly with his longsword, and it gave a metallic clink.

If just a finger bone hurt this much, then pulling out his spine like Kimimaro did without flinching...

Qifeng involuntarily shivered.

In a word, Kimimaro was inhuman!

"But Shikotsumyaku isn't just about using bones."

As he muttered to himself, he lightly dragged the longsword across his arm. A thin line of blood appeared, and crimson seeped out.

But soon, the wound healed at an astonishing speed, restoring itself completely.

He nodded. "Sure enough, my physical fitness, recovery ability, and even the precise utilization of cells for perception have all been greatly enhanced."

Shikotsumyaku already strengthened a ninja's bone structure to rival precious metals, and now paired with this kind of recovery ability.

Qifeng suspected that if someone beheaded him, they'd need to cleave his head off in one clean strike.

If they couldn't, with this recovery speed, wouldn't that make him unkillable?

Extreme recovery speed + hard bones = unkillable ≈ immortal.

A simple formula—he turned it over in his mind and understood it completely.

"As long as I steadily improve, I can collect corpses without worry."

From now on, he wouldn't fear various AOE attacks either. Let them be strong; he would stand unmoved.

He'd taken another step closer to becoming a safe and laid-back Corpse Collector.

Rubbing his arm, he gave himself some time to adapt. His body felt much better.

Satisfied, he tidied up the morgue and prepared to head back to sleep.

Then he suddenly remembered something.

He still hadn't figured out the experience card's matching mechanism.

Miura Ikkō's Jōnin Experience Card had only fifty percent compatibility, while Akagi Tsukasa's Quasi-Kage Experience Card had seventy percent.

He opened the system interface.

It took a full half hour before he finally found the nearly transparent, barely visible appendix menu button.

It clearly didn't want him to know, but was forced by the rules to include these things.

He clicked it open. A dense mass of appendix clauses.

Qifeng realized for the first time that the system actually had this many rules and regulations.

Appendix:

1. The host's death has no relation to this system, and the system bears no obligation whatsoever.

Well, then.

The first clause was already this ruthless.

He flipped through rapidly, skimming most of the clauses.

Finally, amid the dense text, he found the rules about experience card compatibility.

136. Experience card compatibility is determined by the host's Chakra attributes, combat style tendencies (e.g., Taijutsu type, Ninjutsu type, Sensory Ninja, disguise specialist, etc.), attire and appearance, weapon type, attribute value tendencies, behavioral principles, inner fluctuations, desire intensity, and so on.

During the experience card usage phase, based on the host's self-learning, compatibility level, thought tendencies, and other factors, the system may, at its discretion, increase basic attribute values after the experience card ends. For specific details, please explore on your own.

"So it's tied to that many factors. That means Akagi Tsukasa is a ninja skilled in Earth Style Ninjutsu, plus some other aspects I don't know about, which led to my high compatibility."

Qifeng wondered if, in the future when he obtained more experience cards, he could adjust himself in various ways to increase compatibility and unleash stronger abilities from the cards.

But in the end, an experience card was just an experience card—not his own power.

Right now, when he was still relatively weak, experience cards were a great asset. But once his strength grew, their main use would probably shift from temporarily boosting power to learning relevant experience and even ninjutsu from them.

For example, when he used Akagi Tsukasa's experience card, relying on his memory and his own Chakra circulation, he learned two B-rank Earth Style Ninjutsu: "Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld" and "Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet."

As for the A-rank Ninjutsu "Earth Style: Turning Road into Mountain," its difficulty was too high—even with his full effort, he still couldn't learn it.

"Finally, I can get a good night's sleep."

This mission had demanded intense focus, full-speed travel, and combat with Mist Ninja—he was long since exhausted in both body and mind.

A nap could only ever be a nap; nighttime sleep was the best recovery for a person.

Even though the sky was already showing hints of pale dawn.

But it didn't matter. For the next while, he could use the excuse of recovering from injuries to hole up in the morgue.

The easy life was back again.