Tap, tap, tap...
A series of hurried footsteps echoed in the woods.
Anjino, a Chūnin from Iwagakure, was sprinting through the forest, frequently glancing back, his eyes filled with anxiety and unease.
Today, he had been ordered by his superiors to join three teammates in ambushing the Konoha ninjas who had occupied their village's outpost.
Initially, everything had gone smoothly; after suffering a light injury to one of their members, they managed to corner a Konoha Chūnin and a Genin at the battlefield's edge.
However, just as they were about to clean up the battlefield and leave, a figure suddenly appeared. In an instant, he took down their strongest member.
Then, in close combat, he evaded their attacks like a ghost and quickly defeated the other two.
In the end, only Anjino managed to escape.
Recalling the battle scene, Anjino shivered, silently acknowledging, "Indeed, there are only misnamed individuals, not misnamed titles."
"Ghastly Sword Qingming."
Anjino ground his teeth as he spat out those four words, his voice tinged with immense hatred and barely concealed fear.
"What's the matter? Are you looking for me?"
Suddenly, a voice came from above, laced with a hint of mockery and teasing.
"What?"
Startled by the voice, Anjino skidded to a halt and instinctively looked up.
Then, he saw a pair of blood-red Sharingan eyes.
Boom!
Under the influence of the genjutsu, Anjino collapsed to the ground.
Qingming swiftly closed the distance, formed hand seals, and skillfully executed the "Chakra Surgical Knife," cutting off the muscle groups and nerve connections in Anjino's limbs, eliminating his ability to escape.
After completing this, Qingming called out to the back, "Alright, come out!"
As his voice fell, two shadow clones appeared on the scene, one holding each of Anjino's teammates, while the other carried one with just its right hand.
These were indeed Anjino's three teammates.
Now, including Anjino, the entire team of four was gathered together.
Qingming tossed Anjino to the second shadow clone and said, "You can leave now. Be careful on the way and don't let anyone spot you."
"Understood."
The two shadow clones nodded, saying no more, and promptly left with their captives.
Once they had departed, Qingming surveyed the area, ensuring there were no onlookers or traces left before disappearing from the scene.
······
That night, inside the outpost,
Qingming left one shadow clone behind to handle any potential incidents. He cautiously avoided the patrolling Konoha ninjas and silently made his way to the secret base.
Well, calling it a secret base might be a bit of an exaggeration.
In reality, it was a hidden cave in the mountains that Qingming had tidied up a bit, spacious enough for about seventy to eighty square meters.
After all, he didn't plan on enjoying himself here; a place to hide was all he needed.
Upon arriving at the base, a figure appeared silently—an identical shadow clone of Qingming.
The two exchanged glances, and the shadow clone released its jutsu, transforming into a mass of chakra that flowed into Qingming's mind, along with the corresponding memories.
After quickly reviewing the clone's memories and finding nothing unusual, Qingming stepped into the cave.
He glanced at the seven unconscious Iwagakure ninjas on the ground and nodded in satisfaction.
This was his haul for the day: seven Iwagakure Chūnin. If he fully exploited their chakra, he could absorb around seven to eight thousand points of chakra from each daily.
Of course, he wouldn't deplete them entirely.
However, even considering sustainable practices and moderately reducing the pressure on these captives, he could extract five thousand points of chakra from each daily.
With seven captives, that would total thirty-five thousand points—more than the twenty-one thousand he could recover on his own each day.
While this wasn't a massive amount, it was certainly substantial. If allocated properly, it could significantly accelerate his power growth.
Nonetheless, there was no rush for allocation. It had already been ten days since he learned "Palm Sage Art" and "Chakra Surgical Knife."
Now, his "Chakra Refinement Technique" was on the verge of leveling up, and Qingming planned to elevate it to level 5 before distributing the daily available chakra.
With this thought in mind, Qingming entered the training room established by his shadow clone, sat cross-legged, and began silently operating the "Chakra Refinement Technique."
As a skill he had mastered from the start, combined with his daily practice, he was now performing this technique with exceptional ease.
He extracted threads of physical energy from his cells using his consciousness and skillfully mixed them with spiritual energy, transforming them into point after point of chakra.
These chakras then flowed into his meridians and circulated with the other chakra in his system.
At this moment, Qingming felt like an observer, quietly watching the process, with no distracting thoughts in his mind, just purely observing.
Time seemed to slow down, and the passage of it became imperceptible.
Suddenly, Qingming's spirit jolted, and he gained a new understanding of the process unfolding before him.
With a thought, the process of mixing physical and spiritual energy to form chakra accelerated dramatically; he was now able to refine the same amount of chakra in half the time.
Qingming realized his "Chakra Refinement Technique" had likely leveled up.
He interrupted his practice and opened his status panel to take a look.
Sure enough, his "Chakra Refinement Technique" had advanced from level 4 (1998/2000) to level 5 (1/5000).
Recalling the process of refining chakra moments ago, he felt that his passive chakra recovery speed had more than doubled.
Expressed in numerical terms, this meant he had increased his recovery rate from eight hundred points per hour to two thousand points.
Simultaneously, the maximum chakra he could absorb while using "Chakra Absorption Technique" had also doubled from sixteen points to thirty-two points per hour.
The only unfortunate aspect was that the level 5 "Chakra Refinement Technique" placed a heavier burden on the body; if his "Constitution" and "Spirit" attributes did not improve, he could only maintain it for six hours a day at most.
Despite this, his daily chakra recovery had increased from twenty-one thousand points to twenty-seven thousand points, a boost of six thousand points.
Additionally, the upper limit for his chakra absorption had risen from a maximum of one hundred forty-four points to one hundred ninety-two points per day.
Calculating this, he estimated that in about a month and a half, he could fully tap into his body's potential, raising his chakra limit to a theoretical thirty-five thousand points.
However, this premise depended on his potential remaining unchanged.
Given the current circumstances, that was nearly impossible. His "Constitution" attribute would definitely improve within that month and a half.
The reason was simple: after a week of intensive training, both his "Palm Sage Art" and "Chakra Surgical Knife" had reached level 4.
At present, the former had a proficiency of level 4 (350/2000), while the latter stood at level 4 (25/2000).
Now, when he used "Palm Sage Art" to gather Yang Release chakra to strengthen his bodily cells, Qingming could already feel a noticeable improvement.
Now, it was just a matter of when his "Constitution" attribute would advance.
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