[Spend 2,000 Valor Points to upgrade Swordsmanship?]
Cangyue sat cross-legged on the bed without hesitation.
"Upgrade."
[Valor Points -2,000]
The instant the notification appeared, a vast torrent of insight into swordsmanship crashed into his mind.
Slashes, footwork, Flying Sword, sword intent...
Everything he had mastered was shattered and reconstructed in that moment, transformed into something purer.
By the wall, the Flame and Thunder Swords rang out together.
The Thunder Sword slid from its sheath on its own, blue-white arcs roaming through the room.
The Flame Sword followed close behind, concentrated violet flame burning along its edge and warping the surrounding air with heat.
Cangyue did not open his eyes.
Yet the two swords slowly circled the bed as though they were alive.
Before, he had controlled the swords with sword intent.
Now, his sword intent was no longer confined to the swords.
An invisible ripple spread outward from Cangyue.
The bed, the stone table, the walls, the flowerpot by the window, even the tiny motes of dust in the air-all appeared within his awareness.
He had no need to observe them with his eyes.
Every minute change within his domain became perfectly clear.
Cangyue could even "see" rain landing on the roof and slipping down the cracks between the stones toward the ground.
Sword intent was no longer merely something he imbued into objects, projected outward, or used to control swords.
Instead, it had formed a domain under his control.
Once something entered that area, its presence, movements, chakra, and even abnormal fluctuations in space would be hard to conceal from him.
This could no longer simply be called swordsmanship.
It was the sword way.
The nascent form of Cangyue's own sword way.
Outside the room, a vortex invisible to the naked eye rippled through space.
A figure wearing the Swirl Mask slipped silently into the wall.
Obito Uchiha.
He did not reveal himself immediately.
Keeping his body intangible, he hid in the gap between reality and the Kamui Dimension, leaving only one eye to observe Cangyue inside the room.
Obito had already investigated Kambara Sogetsu in Konoha.
The information he had obtained was exceedingly strange.
Not long ago, Cangyue had been nothing more than an unremarkable student at the Ninja Academy.
He had no special bloodline ability.
No illustrious family.
Neither his ninjutsu, his taijutsu, nor his theoretical grades had been outstanding.
Yet one day, he had suddenly acquired the Flame and Thunder Swords, and his swordsmanship had begun improving at an incomprehensible pace.
Sword Intent: Rain Severance.
Dream training.
Flying on a sword.
Overpowering Hidan and Kakuzu head-on.
And now, he had even briefly clashed with Deva Path Pain at an Akatsuki base.
In such a short time, Cangyue seemed to have become an entirely different person.
Obito had never believed the claim that he grew stronger by sleeping.
He was more inclined to suspect that Cangyue had obtained some special legacy, or harbored a power similar to a tailed beast within his body.
So he had come.
He wanted to see for himself just what secret this boy possessed.
But after watching for a while, Obito had discovered nothing.
Cangyue was simply sitting on the bed.
He formed no hand seals.
He did not train.
He took no medicine.
The chakra within his body was not circulating intensely, either.
Just as Obito decided he would learn nothing tonight, Cangyue changed.
There was no warning whatsoever.
One moment, he was merely a young swordsman with a steady presence.
The next, Cangyue's aura suddenly soared.
There was no gradual accumulation.
No breakthrough past a bottleneck.
Nor any life-or-death stimulus.
It felt as though an already sharp sword had suddenly crossed countless years and attained a way of its own.
Obito's Sharingan abruptly contracted.
What was going on?
This brat clearly hadn't done anything!
He had just been sitting there, yet his strength had leaped enormously out of nowhere?
Every power in the world had to have a source.
Ninjutsu required chakra.
The Sharingan required emotional stimulation.
Even the enhancements granted by Hashirama cells required the body to adapt and integrate them.
Yet Cangyue's transformation had involved no process.
It was as though the result had descended upon him out of thin air.
Unbidden, the rumor circulating in Konoha surfaced in Obito's mind.
Dream training.
Could it be true?
What a joke!
Even the legendary Sage of Six Paths couldn't suddenly grow stronger just by sitting still, could he?
It was only because Cangyue could not read minds that he did not break into a grin.
A system. Pretty amazing, right?
The strength you gained by getting up early, going to bed late, and training your heart out is utterly flimsy.
But I spend points through my system, strengthen myself with a single click, and build a rock-solid foundation.
The difference speaks for itself!
[Valor Points +50]
Cangyue had not opened his eyes, but he had already noticed the anomaly in the room.
Within the coverage of his sword way domain, a small area inside the wall was distinctly unnatural.
It appeared to contain nothing.
Yet an extremely faint distortion existed in the space there.
It was as though something overlapped with reality without truly entering this world.
Cangyue knew who it was without even looking.
Besides, when the Valor Points appeared, he could see that their source was Obito Uchiha.
The man whose tears even Kamui could not hide.
The man with half a ruined face.
The master of intangibility.
A demonic brat molded from Hashirama cells.
Sure enough, this fellow was uneasy about him joining the Akatsuki and had come specifically to investigate.
Cangyue did not expose him immediately.
He continued sensing his new sword way domain with his eyes closed, letting his sword intent expand outward.
Ten paces.
Twenty paces.
The entire room was encompassed within it.
Obito, hiding inside the wall, still believed his surveillance was flawless.
As long as he remained intangible, his body did not exist in real space.
Ordinary sensory ninjutsu, the Byakugan, and physical attacks could hardly reach him.
Cangyue suddenly turned his head.
His closed eyes faced the Sharingan inside the wall.
"Who's there?"
Obito reacted extremely quickly.
A spatial vortex flashed, and his figure immediately withdrew from the wall.
The entire process made no sound and left not the slightest trace of chakra.
But after retreating outside, Obito could no longer remain calm.
Had he been discovered?
Impossible.
Almost all of his body had been inside the Kamui Dimension just now.
Cangyue had no Sharingan and had never encountered Space-Time Ninjutsu. How could he have detected his gaze?
Was it a coincidence?
Or had he deliberately been bluffing?
Obito stood in the shadows on the rooftop. After a moment of silence, he still did not leave.
He activated Kamui again.
His body gradually became intangible, passing through the wall once more.
This time, he avoided his previous position and entered the room behind Cangyue.
Cangyue was still sitting cross-legged on the bed.
The Flame and Thunder Swords slowly circled him.
He did not turn around.
Nor did he speak again.
A cold glint flashed through Obito's eye.
Just a coincidence, after all.
If Cangyue could really detect Kamui, there was no way he would fail to notice that he was already behind him.
He edged half a step closer.
Yet he failed to notice that the sword intent in the room had changed.
It no longer spread evenly.
Instead, like an invisible net, it silently wrapped around the point where Obito overlapped with reality.
Although Obito's body was hidden inside the Kamui Dimension, the spatial fluctuations caused by his ocular power still left traces here.
That trace was precisely what Cangyue had seized upon.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Domain expansion."
Humm-
The Flame and Thunder Swords rang out together.
There was no sword light.
Nor any explosion of chakra.
Clearly, there was nothing before Obito's eye, yet a sudden stinging pain shot through his body.
It was as though thousands upon thousands of tiny swords were pressing against his skin through space.
One more step forward, and their edges would truly pierce his body.
Danger!
Obito's pupil contracted violently.
Since awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan and mastering Kamui, this was the first time he had felt such a clear premonition of death while completely intangible.
Cangyue had not truly defeated Kamui.
But his sword way domain had locked onto the traces of the spatial overlap.
If Obito wanted to return to reality from the Kamui Dimension, he would have to appear within the domain.
At that moment, he would be greeted by the sword intent blanketing the entire room.
[Valor Points +50]
Obito hesitated no longer.
A spatial vortex swiftly formed.
His figure vanished from the room in an instant, warping repeatedly until he was several miles away.
Only after he had completely escaped the area shrouded in sword intent did the stinging sensation on his skin slowly fade.
Obito stood in the rain, looking back at the hideout.
Raindrops passed through his body and fell to the ground below.
Behind his mask, his expression was graver than ever.
He suddenly grew stronger.
He detected Kamui.
He could even threaten me across dimensions.
Kambara Sogetsu's threat level needs to be reassessed.
Inside the room.
Sensing that the trace of spatial distortion had receded completely, Cangyue gave a soft snort.
"Did you really think turning intangible meant no one could touch you?"
His sword way domain was still only in its infancy.
Its range was limited, and it could not truly cut across dimensions to strike Obito.
But if he kept improving, he might yet be able to send a sword strike chasing him into the Kamui Dimension.
Cangyue refocused his attention.
The Flame and Thunder Swords stopped circling and hovered on either side of the bed.
The little purple flower swayed gently by the window, untouched by the sword intent from beginning to end.
The sword intent within the domain bristled with sharpness, yet it could avoid anything he did not wish to harm.
This was true control.
The system panel unfolded.
[Swordsmanship upgraded to lv5] [Sword Intent Domain awakened] [Total Valor Points: 4006] [Currently available Valor Points: 151]
Cangyue closed his eyes again.
With no one spying on him, the room finally grew quiet.
Now I can contemplate the sword way in peace.
Before you continue