You Got Faster Again

Fang Xu cleared the table and stared at the tablecloth.

"Medicinal chicken soup to replenish qi and nourish the blood."

A steaming bowl of chicken soup appeared.

The broth was clear, with chicken, red dates, goji berries, and several medicinal herbs he recognized.

Fang Xu took a sip.

Warmth flowed into his stomach. His body did feel a little warmer, and his spirits lifted.

"Medicinal lamb soup to strengthen muscles and bones."

This time, it worked too.

A rich white lamb soup appeared. Its medicinal flavor was stronger than before, but it could still be considered food.

Fang Xu continued testing.

"Advanced medicinal cuisine to restore stamina."

The tablecloth paused for half a beat, then produced a bowl of medicinal porridge.

"Topical medicine for wounds."

There was no reaction.

"Detoxification pills."

Still no reaction.

Fang Xu quickly figured out the boundary. Pure medicine would not work, but as long as it could be classified as "medicinal cuisine" or "food," the tablecloth would most likely be able to produce it.

That was enough.

What the Thunder Body Tempering Technique needed most had never been topical ointments, but massive amounts of food and nutrition.

Now, ordinary meat, staple foods, drinks, and medicinal cuisine were all taken care of.

Fang Xu looked at the tablecloth, growing more satisfied the longer he looked.

"Blue Fatty's world really is a treasure vault."

A single Gourmet Tablecloth had solved his biggest resource problem for now.

What about the other gadgets?

The Anywhere Door, Time Furoshiki, Small Light, and most importantly, the 4D Pocket.

Thinking of Doraemon pulling gadget after gadget from his pocket made Fang Xu's heart burn with excitement.

If he could exchange for the 4D Pocket one day, that would be the real takeoff.

A portable warehouse was only the foundation. If it could also hold other gadgets, that would be absurd beyond belief.

However, Fang Xu quickly suppressed those thoughts.

The randomness of the Exchange Talent was too strong.

Getting the Gourmet Tablecloth this time had already been an incredible stroke of luck. If he wanted to connect to Doraemon's world again, he could only keep trying slowly in the future.

He folded the tablecloth again and stored it in the most hidden cabinet.

From that night onward, Fang Xu's training rhythm completely changed.

Previously, whenever he trained the Thunder Body Tempering Technique, he had to ration his food.

When his body neared its limit, he had to consider whether he had enough meat that day and whether he should save some medicinal cuisine.

Now, he did not have to.

Before heading out in the morning, he loaded up on beef, eggs, rice, and hot soup.

After morning training, he ate a high-protein breakfast.

During the day, he attended Ninja Academy and still had a substantial lunch.

Before going to the Hatake Residence to practice swordsmanship after school, he first ate another meal at home.

After returning from the Hatake Residence at night, he replenished the exhaustion from body tempering with medicinal cuisine.

Once he had eaten enough, the effects of the Thunder Body Tempering Technique changed immediately.

He no longer cautiously held his body back. Instead, he trained right at his limit every day.

Thunder Breathing mobilized his muscles, lightning-attribute chakra stabilized his meridians, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's real lightning tempered his flesh little by little.

After every training session, he hurt so badly that sweat drenched his entire body.

But as long as he had a serving of medicinal cuisine, he could continue again the next day.

The changes to his condition on the Attribute Panel also grew faster and faster.

The time needed to recover from exhausted to healthy shortened, Lightning Mode lasted longer, and the burden of Thunderclap and Flash decreased.

His physique seemed to be forcibly pushed higher and higher.

In the Hatake Residence's backyard, Kakashi quickly noticed something was wrong.

After one sparring session, he sheathed his blade, looked at Fang Xu's breathing, and frowned.

"You got faster again."

Fang Xu slid his longsword back into its sheath.

"I've been eating better lately."

Kakashi stared at him.

"Eating better can improve your swordsmanship that fast?"

Hatake Sakumo stood nearby and smiled as he looked over.

"Kakashi, don't just watch his speed."

"Fang Xu's footwork is much steadier than last week, and his force is flowing more smoothly too."

"This isn't simply his body getting stronger. He's absorbed the fundamentals."

Kakashi fell silent.

Of course he could tell. Precisely because he could tell, he felt even worse.

Fang Xu had been like a dry sponge lately. Whatever Hatake Sakumo taught him, he absorbed.

How to grip a sword, footwork, distance, rhythm, holding back force.

Mistakes he made the previous day were noticeably fewer the next.

For the first time, Kakashi felt that even a genius like him had to chase desperately.

Hatake Sakumo looked at the two children, in high spirits.

"Fang Xu, starting today, I'll add some practical combat breakdowns to your training."

"You already have the beginnings of Lightning-Attribute Ninja Swordsmanship, but it still isn't stable enough."

"In real combat, having powerful techniques isn't enough."

"When to draw your sword, when to withdraw it, and when to hold back are more important than power."

Fang Xu immediately stood straight.

"Please guide me, Teacher."

Over the following days, Fang Xu's Kendo improved even faster.

With guidance from someone like Sakumo, one of the Shinobi World's finest swordsmanship masters, he avoided far too many detours.

And in the secret base, he did not stop integrating his abilities either.

Thunder Breathing was no longer merely a sword technique of the Demon Slayer Corps.

After he fused Rice Spirit's Second Form with real lightning, every one of its five consecutive slashes carried paralysis and scorching heat.

With Thunder Swarm's Third Form, he used lightning-attribute chakra to fix the trajectories. The slashes were no longer scattered, instead twisting forward like a net of lightning.

Distant Thunder's Fourth Form, paired with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, allowed his blade light to strike with lightning arcs from farther away.

With Heat Lightning's Fifth Form, heat and electric current erupted together. After a tree trunk was cut apart, its edges were completely charred black.

Rumble and Flash's Sixth Form became a thunderstorm-like series of slashes for continuous suppression.

What satisfied Fang Xu the most was still Thunderclap and Flash.

Lightning Mode propelled his body, Thunder Breathing compressed the burst, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit gave it penetration, and lightning-attribute chakra stabilized the blade's path.

With one slash, he crossed more than ten meters almost in the blink of an eye.

The struck wooden post did not simply break apart. A charred hollow exploded directly through its center.

Its power had increased dramatically.

Fang Xu did not get carried away.

He still followed his routine every day.

Train, eat, train again, eat again.

More than a month passed under his relentless grind.

During that month or so, the Exchange Talent cooled down another five times.

Fang Xu tried five times as well.

Unfortunately, nothing as valuable as the Gourmet Tablecloth appeared again.

Only three exchanges were truly worth noting.

For the fifth attempt, he did not touch the original and merely copied a version of the Incomplete Cloud Lightning Body Tempering Technique.

After the exchange, what appeared was a piece of Sea King meat large enough to be wrapped in both arms.

That meat came from the pirate world.

Its flesh was firm, and the nutrition contained within far surpassed ordinary meat.

After Fang Xu prepared it with seasonings produced by the Gourmet Tablecloth, it still took him a full week to finish it.

That week, the progress of his Thunder Body Tempering Technique increased noticeably.

Ordinary food could replenish the body.

But high-energy ingredients from another world were even more helpful for body tempering.

For the sixth attempt, Fang Xu reused the Chakra Refinement Technique along with chakra.

This time, it connected to the Hong Kong crime world.

In the end, he obtained a Desert Eagle pistol and one hundred bullets.

Fang Xu's expression was complicated after receiving them.

For ordinary people, this thing was highly lethal.

But in the Shinobi World, it was loud, had strong recoil, and fired straight trajectories. Against quick-reacting ninja, it was difficult to use as a primary weapon.

Still, it was not entirely useless as an unexpected trick or for studying a gunpowder weapons system.

He carefully sealed the Desert Eagle and the bullets, then hid them at the bottom of the cabinet.

For the seventh attempt, Fang Xu cut another small lock of Obito's hair.

This time, the image connected to the apocalypse world again.