Below, in Feiyu Town:
A misty ninja wearing a deep blue robe removed his index and middle fingers from his right eye.
His right eye was covered with a black cloth, which had traces of sealing symbols on it.
This person was none other than Aoi, a Mist Village Jonin known as the "Byakugan Killer."
His right eye, concealed under the cloth, was actually a Byakugan.
It was thanks to this Byakugan's far-sightedness and penetrating ability that he had spotted Qingming flying in the air earlier, and that's when they had launched the ambush.
Unfortunately, Qingming's reaction exceeded their expectations, and they failed to bring him down.
Seeing Aoi lower his hand, a nearby Mist Jonin spoke up, "How did it go?"
Aoi shook his head and replied, "He's already gone."
"What a shame..."
Upon hearing this, the other Mist Jonin sighed.
However, another Jonin seemed unfazed and showed no signs of regret. Calmly, he said, "There's no need to regret. We were unprepared, so it's only natural that we couldn't capture him."
He paused, then added, "This is just practice. Next time, we'll be able to do better."
"Better?"
Aoi muttered to himself, his gaze inadvertently drifting toward the direction Qingming had flown off. He thought to himself, This time, they've gained experience, but so has the other side. Once he's more cautious next time, it won't be as easy to deal with him as it was today.
Aoi continued pondering, glancing at the crossbows mounted on the rooftops.
These things are still too rigid—both in transportation and usage.
They have decent power, but they're not ideal for targeting humans, especially when Qingming has his Sharingan. It's going to be even more difficult to deal with him.
Looks like these crossbows will only serve as a deterrent from now on.
Aoi's mind was racing, trying to figure out a way to handle Qingming.
Meanwhile, after more than ten minutes of flight, Qingming finally returned to the Heishi Base.
By this time, it was already nearing midnight.
Just like the Feiyu Town base, the Heishi Base was brightly lit. Aside from the patrolling ninjas, there were also personnel on duty at the command center.
Clearly, both sides were on high alert, as a major battle could break out at any moment. There was no distinction between day and night; everyone remained in a constant state of readiness.
Qingming didn't waste any time. He immediately handed over the intelligence he had gathered.
Not only did he report on the general movements of the Mist Ninjas, but he also informed them about the twenty-one crossbows the Mist Village had somehow obtained.
Although these were most likely intended for targeting him, he felt it was necessary to report it.
This way, it would show that his mission was no simple task, and perhaps the village could find a way to destroy those crossbows.
If that was possible, it would provide him with a greater sense of safety during the upcoming battle.
However, Qingming suspected that the village would likely be unable to destroy them.
After all, as long as the Mist's command center wasn't foolish, they wouldn't slack off on protecting those crossbows. There was no way they would let anyone destroy them so easily.
Therefore, Qingming wasn't holding out much hope.
Rather than relying on the village to handle it, he thought it might be better to see if he could find a chance to destroy a few of the crossbows himself the next time he gathered intelligence.
Of course, these were the most straightforward approaches. Another option would be to develop a technique to conceal his presence.
If he could hide, the enemy wouldn't be able to see him and thus wouldn't attack. That would ensure his safety.
However, Qingming wasn't aware that it was Aoi's Byakugan that had exposed him tonight. Even if he could use a stealth technique, it wouldn't work against someone with the Byakugan's ability to see through any disguise. So, that wouldn't be helpful at all.
Still, not everyone had the Byakugan. Additionally, the reason he wanted to learn stealth techniques wasn't just for this war.
Even though he knew that his exposure tonight was due to Aoi's Byakugan, he wouldn't give up on learning stealth ninjutsu.
Speaking of stealth techniques, it seemed that Iwa Shinobi had a technique like that called Camouflage Concealment Jutsu.
Back when he was on the battlefield in the Land of Rain, he had participated in a mission to raid Iwa Shinobi's logistical supply center. During that mission, his teammate Mizutani Seiko had been killed by an Iwa Jonin, Kobara Shuji, who used this technique to get close without being noticed.
At that time, if it hadn't been for Seiko pushing him out of the way at the last second, he might have been the one to die.
That incident was the closest he had come to death. Even though he avenged his teammate later, that moment still left a lasting impression on him.
He could say that this technique was a perfect fit for his current needs.
The only problem was that Camouflage Concealment Jutsu was considered a secret technique even in Iwa Village, so it wasn't easy for anyone to learn—let alone someone like him.
"This is a bit of a hassle," Qingming thought to himself.
But he wasn't too anxious about it. After all, his Earth-style chakra still hadn't been developed successfully, so even if the opportunity was right in front of him, he wouldn't be able to learn it yet.
So, it's better to focus on laying a solid foundation first.
With this thought in mind, Qingming decided not to linger. After leaving the command center, he headed straight to his quarters.
Once back in his room, he treated his injuries before beginning his training.
Given that the war could break out at any time and there were many people at the base, he couldn't afford to divide his focus with shadow clones for full-scale training.
But that didn't mean his chakra recovery time was wasted.
Qingming raised his hands, crossing them to form the "Ren" hand seal, and then performed the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
With a puff of chakra smoke, three shadow clones appeared in front of him.
He immediately approached one of them and assigned it the task of developing his Earth-style chakra.
Next, he looked at the second clone and instructed it to focus on developing the Telepathy Jutsu.
Ever since learning his flying jutsu, he had been considering this technique. Given his past experiences and insights, he felt he was close to mastering it. Once successful, he wouldn't have to rely on canceling the Shadow Clone Jutsu to communicate with his clones.
Once the second clone left, Qingming turned his attention to the third clone.
This clone's task was to work on the theoretical development of Shadow Sword Technique. Specifically, how to create a technique based on Shadow Clone Jutsu that would allow the creation of Shuriken Shadow Clones.
This was certainly not a simple task.
As of now, there wasn't much progress.
But compared to developing flying ninjutsu from scratch, developing Shuriken Shadow Clones was much simpler. After all, it had a foundation, and he had a concept in his mind.
It was much like how he developed the Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken—although no one taught him, he quickly succeeded.
So, Qingming believed that developing Shuriken Shadow Clones wouldn't take him too long.
After assigning tasks to the three shadow clones, Qingming sat down in a corner of his room, cross-legged. He began alternating between practicing Mind Reflection Jutsu and Healing Jutsu.
Since his missions were mainly at night, the few hours he would normally spend sleeping had been shifted to the daytime.
Thus, tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.
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