Eighth Broadcast Calisthenics Routine?

The names on the electronic display glowed with cold blue light. When they settled on [Ye Tian VS Kin Tsuchi], a low buzz of discussion rose throughout the tower hall.

"Hey, is this for real? That sickly guy who gasps for breath after taking two steps is actually going to fight?"

"His opponent is that female ninja from Otogakure, right? I heard Sound Ninja methods are all vicious. This kid's probably done for."

In the stands, skepticism, ridicule, and pity intertwined like an invisible net, shrouding the frail figure who was clinging to the railing and painstakingly making his way down.

"Cough, cough... Um, Examiner."

Standing at the second-floor stairway, Ye Tian clutched the handrail and called weakly to Gekko Hayate below, "Does this tower... not have an elevator? Or maybe a pulley lift basket? These stairs are too steep. I'm afraid I'll pass out before I even get down there."

The entire audience was floored.

Even Neji, who had kept a cold face all along, could not stop the corner of his mouth from twitching. Everyone who came to take the Chunin Ninja Exams could run across roofs and scale walls. Someone was actually complaining that the stairs were too steep?

Below, Gekko Hayate coughed twice in sympathetic understanding, his eyes revealing the helplessness of someone who understood perfectly but could do nothing about it.

"Cough... Candidate Ye Tian, those are the rules... Please enter the arena quickly."

"Fine... What an inhumane design..."

Ye Tian sighed. Leaning on his signature crutch made from a broken tree branch, he swayed with every step as if moving in slow motion, finally "shuffling" into the center of the arena.

Standing opposite him was the only woman among the Sound Ninja trio—Kin Tsuchi.

Kin's face was so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water. She had personally witnessed Ye Tian's terrifying Stone Piercing Clouds technique in the Forest of Death. Though Ye Tian had looked as though he was having a final burst of strength at the time, she did not dare let down her guard.

More importantly, she wanted revenge!

"You bastard... You turned Zaku into that, and you still dare put on this act here!"

Kin gritted her teeth, several specially made Senbon already pinched between her fingers. The clear chime of tiny bells flickered faintly at her fingertips. "Don't think I'll underestimate you like that idiot Zaku! I'll make you die in pain and hallucinations!"

"Begin!"

At Gekko Hayate's command, Kin Tsuchi flicked her wrist without hesitation.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two bell-tipped Senbon did not fly directly toward Ye Tian. Instead, they shot toward his blind spots behind him.

Jingle, jingle—

The clear yet eerie ringing instantly echoed through the vast hall. This was no ordinary bell sound, but high-frequency vibrations infused with Chakra. They could directly stimulate the eardrums, disrupt brain nerves, and create visual distortions and loss of balance.

"Urgh..."

In the stands, several Genin with sensitive hearing, such as Kiba and Akamaru, covered their ears in pain.

"It's auditory genjutsu." Kakashi's gaze sharpened. "The bells produce specific frequencies that interfere with the brain's nerves. For Genin who aren't skilled at dispelling genjutsu, it's a troublesome technique."

Ye Tian, at the center of the sound waves, reacted even more "violently."

His entire body suddenly stiffened, and his eyes instantly lost focus, becoming dazed and vacant. His crutch fell to the floor with a clatter. Clutching his head with both hands, he began swaying violently, unable to stand steadily as though he were drunk.

"Ah... My head... It's so dizzy..."

Ye Tian moaned in pain. "Why are there... so many bells... So many stars..."

Seeing Ye Tian on the verge of collapse, Naruto anxiously shouted from the stands, "Big Brother Ye Tian! It's genjutsu! Hurry and disrupt your Chakra flow to break it! Don't listen to that sound!"

Sasuke frowned as well. "That guy... He was so strong in the forest. Why is he so helpless now? Has his body really reached its limit?"

Yet no one knew that Ye Tian, who was "struggling painfully," was internally mocking it all like mad.

That's it?

This is the so-called auditory genjutsu?

Under a Cultivator's Divine Sense, those so-called hallucinatory sound waves were nothing more than crude energy ripples, clearly visible to the naked eye.

Ye Tian did not even need to use Spiritual Power to block them. His Divine Soul, dozens of times stronger than an ordinary person's, automatically filtered out every bit of interference. To him, it was merely slightly noisy background sound—not nearly as harmful as the vendors' cries he had heard at cultivation world markets.

"The path of music in the cultivation world is a great Dao capable of making one's heart and soul ache with a single song, leaving one to search the ends of the earth for a kindred spirit."

While pretending to stagger about, Ye Tian mentally delivered an academic critique of Kin Tsuchi's ninjutsu. At best, yours is noise pollution on the level of old ladies dancing in the plaza. There's no Spiritual Power resonance and no Divine Soul penetration. Terrible review.

Still, if he was going to act, he had to commit to the act.

"Hehe... You fell for it, didn't you!"

Seeing Ye Tian's confused state, Kin Tsuchi revealed a cruel smile. She was wary of Ye Tian's hidden weapons, but he had clearly lost the ability to resist.

"Die!"

Kin Tsuchi threw several more Senbon. This time, she targeted Ye Tian's limb joints.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

As the Senbon came flying in, Ye Tian slipped as though he had truly lost his balance, his body lurching awkwardly to the left.

Thud! Thud!

The Senbon grazed his clothes and embedded themselves in the floor.

"He actually dodged them? What luck!" Kin Tsuchi snorted. "Let's see how many times you can dodge!"

She no longer probed him from range. Drawing a Kunai, she flashed forward and charged directly at the seemingly defenseless Ye Tian.

Close combat!

As long as she got close enough to slit his throat, everything would be over!

"Ye Tian! Behind you!" Sakura screamed.

At that moment, Ye Tian had his back to Kin Tsuchi. He seemed to still be blindly grabbing at the air, completely unaware of the killing intent behind him.

"Die!"

Kin Tsuchi rushed to within less than a meter behind Ye Tian. The Kunai in her hand flashed coldly as it stabbed viciously toward his back.

The strike was fast, precise, and ruthless!

Hinata covered her eyes in terror in the stands, unable to bear watching the bloody scene to come.

However.

At the instant the tip of the Kunai was about to touch Ye Tian's clothes.

That back, which had seemed clumsy, sluggish, and frail, suddenly moved.

It was not an explosive kind of speed, but an extraordinarily strange... slowness.

Ye Tian's body was like a weightless willow catkin. Following the forceful wind stirred up by Kin Tsuchi's charge, he naturally turned slightly to the right.

That turn was perfectly timed, evading the lethal Kunai.

Then Ye Tian slowly raised his left hand, drew an imperfect circle in the air, and lightly rested it upon Kin Tsuchi's wrist holding the Kunai.

He did not grip it forcefully. He merely touched it lightly.

Yet in that instant, Kin Tsuchi felt as though her wrist had sunk into a mass of thick mud or soft cotton. The power behind her killing blow vanished completely with that single touch, like a clay ox sinking into the sea!

"Wha... What?"

Kin Tsuchi's face changed drastically, and she instinctively tried to pull back her hand.

But Ye Tian gave her no chance.

"Borrow force, return force."

Ye Tian slightly raised his lowered eyelids, a glint flashing through his eyes. His right hand pushed forward seemingly without strength, landing squarely on Kin Tsuchi's shoulder.

The push was fluid and expansive, even carrying an inexplicable... sense of rhythm?

[Cultivator Mortal Martial Arts · Tai Chi Push Hands · Wild Horse Flies Mane!]

The seemingly weightless palm erupted with a hidden burst of force at the instant it made contact!

Kin Tsuchi felt an irresistible force surge in through her shoulder, instantly destroying her balance. The momentum of her forward charge was skillfully redirected and amplified by that force, then—rebounded!

"Ah—!"

Kin Tsuchi cried out as her whole body flew backward like a tennis ball struck by a racket, moving even faster than she had when she charged in!

Whoosh—Bang!

She flew more than ten meters before slamming heavily into the opposite wall. Several cracks even spread across the concrete, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Cough..."

Kin Tsuchi slid to the floor, her eyes rolling back. Without even a groan, she passed out cold.

The entire hall fell deathly silent.

The smile on the face of the Sound Ninja instructor, who had been shouting moments before and was actually Orochimaru in disguise, froze.

Gekko Hayate, who had been about to form hand seals for a rescue, stopped with his hand suspended in midair.

Guy and Rock Lee in the stands stared with eyes wide and mouths open enough to fit an egg.

"What... kind of taijutsu was that?" Guy muttered in shock. "There was no Chakra burst, no powerful muscle contraction... He merely followed the opponent's force?"

"So... so amazing!" Rock Lee trembled with excitement. "Those movements... Though slow, they were full of beauty! Is this the ultimate principle of overcoming hardness with softness?!"

At the center of the arena.

Ye Tian, who had defeated his opponent in a single move, did not strike a victorious pose.

Instead, he acted as though the "recoil" from that strike had injured him. Clutching his chest, he staggered back several steps until he could barely steady himself against the wall.

"Cough, cough... Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

A fit of bone-rattling coughs shattered the silence. Ye Tian pulled out a handkerchief, expertly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth—which was not there at all—and waved weakly at Gekko Hayate with a pale face.

"Examiner... She... She's unconscious, right?"

Gekko Hayate came back to his senses, used the Body Flicker Technique to check Kin Tsuchi's condition, and only after confirming that she had lost consciousness did he cough and announce:

"The winner... Ye Tian."

Whoosh—!

The stands instantly exploded into an uproar.

"He won? With just that light push?"

"Was that the Gentle Fist? No, the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist doesn't look like that!"

"What kind of bizarre technique did that kid use?"

As Ye Tian passed Sasuke and Naruto amid everyone's confusion and shock, Naruto, brimming with curiosity, grabbed him.

"Big Brother Ye Tian! That move was so cool! You drew a circle with your left hand, pushed with your right, and sent that woman flying! What ninjutsu was that? Teach me!"

Sasuke, Kakashi, and even Orochimaru in disguise all pricked up their ears.

Ye Tian stopped, took a deep breath, and calmed his "turbulent" blood and energy.

He raised his head and looked deeply at everyone, adopting the air of a sage who had seen through the vanity of the mortal world.

"That wasn't ninjutsu."

Ye Tian spoke slowly. Though his voice was weak, it carried an unquestionable solemnity.

"That was... a health-preserving secret technique taught to me by a hundred-year-old grandfather from my hometown."

"A health-preserving secret technique?" Everyone was stunned.

"That's right." Ye Tian solemnly spouted nonsense. "Its name is—the Eighth Broadcast Calisthenics Routine's... Tai Chi Self-Cultivation Form."

"Broad... Broadcast Calisthenics?"

This unfamiliar term left every ninja present utterly baffled.

Ye Tian continued his nonsense. "Its essence is this: keep the crown lifted, sink the energy into the Dantian, neither resist nor collapse, and move in smooth circles. It treats all kinds of lower back pain, muscle aches, Chakra disturbances, and... flashy nonsense."

After saying that, he deliberately assumed the opening posture of White Crane Spreads Its Wings. Although his trembling hands made the pose crooked and uneven, to everyone else, it now seemed unfathomably profound.

"The Eighth... Broadcast Calisthenics Routine..."

Teacher Guy stroked his chin thoughtfully, his eyes shining with a thirst for knowledge. "It sounds like an ancient taijutsu school capable of unlocking the human body's potential! Lee! Write it down! This may be another milestone of youth!"

"Yes, Teacher Guy!" Rock Lee frantically took notes.

Only Shikamaru rolled his eyes beside them and muttered, "I don't understand any of it, but it really feels like he's lying... That name sounds way too casual."

Ye Tian ignored everyone's reactions. Leaning on his crutch, he slowly climbed back to the corner of the stands.

He sat back down on his meditation cushion, picked up his thermos, and took a sip of Goji Berry Tea.

"Whew... Comfortable."

Ye Tian narrowed his eyes as he watched the names scrolling across the electronic display again, secretly chuckling to himself.

"Tai Chi against Sound Ninja. I guess that counts as a professional matchup. But..."

His gaze seemed to casually sweep toward Orochimaru, concealed in the shadows of the opposite stands.

"Old Snake Skin's look just now was a little off. It seems that push, while it didn't use Spiritual Power, still made him suspicious because of my control over 'momentum.'"

"But it doesn't matter."

A faint smile curled at Ye Tian's lips.

"Once the next good show begins, no one will care about me, the 'Broadcast Calisthenics Promotion Ambassador.'"

At that moment, the electronic display finally settled.