Successfully used Kaguya Clan Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai (Medium) {Extremely Rare}. Body modification complete. Body +10!
Who knew how long had passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps a century—before Qifeng finally opened his eyes again.
He felt exceptionally weak, yet every cell in his body was incredibly excited. Amid this extreme contrast, Qifeng felt miserable, but also strangely comfortable.
He rubbed his head.
"Damn it, why wasn't there any notification at all?"
Everything had happened too suddenly, catching him completely off guard.
Had he known beforehand, he might even have considered whether to use this card at all.
It was too agonizing.
A glance at the blood all over the floor, as well as the ground that had been uncontrollably damaged by his convulsions, was enough to tell the story.
Of course, the benefits brought by inhuman torture were equally immense.
Qifeng opened his status panel, where the values had undergone enormous changes.
Name: Maruyama Qifeng Age: 13 Attributes: Fire, Earth Strength: Chunin Kekkei Genkai: Shikotsumyaku (Medium) Body: 38 Spirit: 25 Ninjutsu: 24 Genjutsu: 19 Control: 27 Seals: 22 Taijutsu: Flowing Water Sword Technique Ninjutsu: Three Basic Jutsu, Fire Release: Great Flame Flower, 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, of course, in his taijutsu stat. In just one night, it had soared from 25 to 38, leaving all his other attributes far behind.
Three of those points had come from the single-attribute Boost Card, while the other ten were brought by the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai.
It was simply outrageous.
But those ten attribute points matched the inhuman pain Qifeng had endured.
The key was Shikotsumyaku!
He had truly awakened it!
Qifeng could not help wanting to try it out.
He held out his hand, and with a thought, he felt the cells in his hand rapidly splitting and multiplying. Accompanied by a sore itch in his bones, he could clearly feel the bones at his fingertips dividing.
Then came a piercing pain. Five openings split open on his fingertips, and five bullet-sized distal phalanges shot out.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The finger bones flew extremely fast, striking the Morgue wall with several dull thumps.
Then, the openings at his fingertips quietly closed, leaving no trace of any difference from before.
Qifeng lowered his head to look at his fingers, then walked to the wall and glanced at the five dark holes.
"The power is pretty good, almost comparable to bullets. But it really hurts like hell."
The ten fingers were connected to the heart. Opening a slit at his fingertips and shooting out bones—just thinking about it made the pain obvious.
He had been completely deceived by how effortlessly Kimimaro used Shikotsumyaku in the anime. Shikotsumyaku was powerful, sure, but extracting bones and tearing through skin and muscle meant that before he could hurt an enemy, he had already injured himself first.
A ninja without sufficiently strong willpower simply could not endure that kind of self-torment.
"These bones really are hard, though."
He dug out a deeply embedded finger bone and lightly tapped it with his long blade, producing a clear metallic ring.
Just a finger bone hurt this much, yet Kimimaro could pull out his own spine without changing expression.
Qifeng shuddered instinctively.
In short, Kimimaro was no ordinary human!
"Still, Shikotsumyaku brings more than just the use of bones."
As he muttered to himself, he lightly drew the long blade across his arm, leaving a fine bloody cut as blood seeped out.
But the wound quickly healed at an astonishing rate, returning to normal.
He nodded. "As expected, my physical constitution, recovery ability, and even my perception of how precisely my cells can be used have all been greatly enhanced."
Shikotsumyaku already strengthened a ninja's skeletal structure until it rivaled precious metals, and now it came with such recovery ability as well.
Qifeng suspected that if someone tried to behead him, they would need to be able to cut his head off in a single strike.
If they could not cut it off, then with such healing speed, would that not mean he could not be killed by slashing?
Extremely fast recovery + hard bones = impossible to cut down ≈ immortality.
It was a very simple formula. With a turn of his mind, he understood it completely.
"As long as I improve steadily, I can collect corpses without worry."
He would no longer fear all kinds of AOE attacks in the future. Let them be as strong as they pleased; he would remain unmoved.
He had taken another step toward becoming a safe and laid-back corpse collector.
He rubbed his arm and, after getting used to it for a while, felt much better.
Satisfied, he tidied up the Morgue and prepared to go back to sleep.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
He still had not figured out the matching mechanism for Experience Cards.
Miura Ikkō's Jonin Experience Card had only fifty percent compatibility, while Akagi Tsukasa's Quasi-Kage Experience Card had seventy percent compatibility.
He opened the system interface.
It took him a full half hour before he finally found the supplementary provisions menu button, which was almost transparent and nearly impossible to see.
The system clearly did not want him to know, but was constrained by the rules to include such things.
When he opened it, there was a huge pile of densely packed supplementary clauses.
It was the first time Qifeng had learned that the system actually had so many rules and restrictions.
Supplementary Provisions:
1. The host's death has nothing to do with this system. No obligations need be assumed.
Well then.
The very first clause was this cruel.
He rapidly skimmed through the rest, most of the clauses passing in a blur.
Finally, amid the dense provisions, he found the compatibility rules for Experience Cards.
136. Experience Card compatibility is based on the host's Chakra attributes, combat-style inclination (such as Taijutsu type, ninjutsu type, sensory ninja, disguise ninja, and so on), clothing and appearance, weapon category, attribute-stat tendencies, code of conduct, inner fluctuations, intensity of desire, and more.
137. During Experience Card use, factors such as the host's independent learning, degree of compatibility, and thinking tendencies will be considered. After Experience Card use ends, basic attribute values may be increased as appropriate. Please explore the specifics yourself.
"So it is related to so many factors. In other words, Akagi Tsukasa was a ninja skilled in Earth Style Ninjutsu, and together with certain factors I don't know about, that led to my compatibility being so high."
Qifeng wondered whether, if he obtained more Experience Cards in the future, he could adjust himself in various ways to increase compatibility and unleash even greater power from them.
Still, an Experience Card was ultimately only an Experience Card, not his own power.
At his current stage, when he was still relatively weak, Experience Cards were indeed useful. But once his strength increased, their greater value would probably not be temporary boosts in power, but learning relevant experience and even Ninjutsu from them.
For example, when he used Akagi Tsukasa's Experience Card, he had learned the two B-rank Earth Style Ninjutsu, "Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld" and "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet," through memory and the circulation of his own Chakra.
As for the A-rank Ninjutsu, "Earth Release: Turning Road into Mountain," it was too difficult. Even after doing his utmost, he still had failed to learn it.
"Now I can finally get a good night's sleep."
During this mission, he had remained intensely focused, traveled at full speed, and fought mist ninja. He had long been exhausted in both body and mind.
A midday nap was ultimately just a midday nap. Sleeping at night was still the best way for a person to recover.
Even though a faint strip of dawn had already appeared on the horizon.
But it did not matter. For the next while, he could hole up in the Morgue under the pretext of recovering from his injuries.
His peaceful life had returned.
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