Xia Li thought about it for a moment, but he didn't explain everything.He only told her that the person at school had actually been his shadow clone, while his real body had been training elsewhere. Recently, his training had pushed him to the limit, so he hadn't been able to return to school.
"So… does that mean Xia Li right now is a shadow clone?" Ino asked curiously, gently squeezing his palm.Hmm. It was a bit rough—but that was probably unavoidable after long-term training.
"No. I'm the real one right now," Xia Li said. "I don't want to spend time with you as a shadow clone."
"But aren't they all Xia Li?" Ino asked, even more curious.
"Because I feel that when we're together like that, it isn't really me. Even if the memories are transferred back later, it's still meaningless," Xia Li replied.
It wasn't that he didn't want to be close to himself—but still…
Ino didn't say anything. However, the blush on her cheeks revealed her emotions. She didn't fully understand Xia Li's reasoning, but overall, she felt happy.
At that moment, Xia Li withdrew his hand and sighed softly.Sure enough, hands felt better when you were young. As you grew older, they became rougher—less soft, less cute.
That was why, deep down, he sometimes thought about raising a daughter who would never grow up.Of course, she would need to recognize him, and she would have to be born naturally. He wasn't the kind of person who would alter someone's physical growth just to satisfy his own preferences.
After escorting Ino home, Xia Li went to find Lee and, as promised, gave him a massage.
During the session, however, Xia Li noticed that Lee seemed to be pushing himself even harder than usual.He must have heard about Xia Li's condition.
Although Might Guy didn't know exactly what was going on, as a master martial artist, he could clearly see Xia Li's progress.
Guy was shocked by it.
Originally, he had still held onto a sliver of hope—that Rock Lee might be able to catch up to Xia Li.
Now… that hope seemed shattered.
What a cruel reality.
Might Guy felt like crying—especially seeing Lee refuse to give up despite knowing the gap between them. That made it even harder to bear.
After finishing everything, Xia Li returned home to rest.
The synchronization with his shadow clone left him dizzy and exhausted. There was no need to force himself further.
What filled Xia Li with despair was the realization that this kind of life might continue for a very, very long time.
Yet, he still had to endure it.
And Xia Li was right—
Because this went on for three whole years.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Xia Li's Flying Thunder God
Time flew by. Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
At Mount Myōboku, beneath a massive waterfall, a black-haired boy wearing only shorts sat cross-legged on a rock at the center of the torrent, letting the crashing water batter his body.
Beneath his wheat-colored skin, a terrifying power seemed to surge.The moment he moved, that power would erupt violently.
No one knew how long had passed when the boy opened his eyes.
At that instant, the waterfall seemed to stop.
No—not stop flowing, but as if it had been severed, unable to approach the boy any longer.
The young man yawned and vanished from the slick rock beneath the waterfall.
In the next moment, he appeared on the shore, picked up his clothes, and put them on. Beside them lay a kunai that looked utterly ordinary.
Only then did the waterfall resume its flow—and because of the interruption, it surged even more violently than before.
None of this concerned Xia Li.
He calmly wiped the water from his body, changed into clean clothes, and disappeared once again.
When Xia Li reappeared, he was standing in a training field at Mount Myōboku—one completely covered in markings.
These were Flying Thunder God seals, carved with his own chakra over the past three years.
To be honest, even Xia Li himself was surprised when he looked at them.
He hadn't expected to have engraved so many.
Some of the seals were extraordinarily complex—some even larger and more intricate than those of the Fourth Hokage.The markings on the "Sword of Tolerance" were especially complicated.
One could say that this field represented all of Xia Li's achievements over the past three years—but…
Now, even he couldn't read them anymore.
They were layered together chaotically, making it impossible to distinguish individual seals.
During this period, an unexpected change had also occurred.
No matter where Xia Li was, he could establish a connection to this place.
As long as he had enough chakra, he could directly activate Flying Thunder God and dash here, consuming only the chakra needed for the transfer. This dramatically reduced the cost.
This was something that Flying Thunder God kunai alone couldn't achieve.
If a Flying Thunder God kunai went beyond Xia Li's perception range, he couldn't retrieve it via teleportation.
So something inexplicable had clearly changed in the place where Xia Li had learned to master Flying Thunder God.
For now, everything seemed fine.
Xia Li examined the field again and still couldn't figure out why this was happening.It seemed his sealing techniques still needed further refinement.
He needed to understand the stacking principles behind these seals in order to transform each Flying Thunder God kunai into a truly effective weapon.
Only kunai with that level of efficiency could be considered optimal.
At present, Xia Li's sealing skills were still slightly inferior. As a result, the seals on his Flying Thunder God kunai were far more complex than those of the Fourth Hokage—and took longer to form.
"Little Xia Li, your control over Flying Thunder God keeps improving," Fukasaku said as he watched Xia Li suddenly appear, reminded of another extraordinary prodigy from the past.
"You still can't use it freely, and your chakra reserves aren't enough yet," Xia Li said calmly as he put away his ordinary-looking kunai.
With the Third Hokage's help, crafting special kunai wouldn't be difficult—but Xia Li felt it wasn't necessary.
Hiding Flying Thunder God kunai among ordinary ones might actually produce unexpected results.
Sometimes, a little trickery went a long way.
"Haha, that won't be a problem for long," Fukasaku laughed."Your chakra has been growing rapidly every day. That means your body has officially entered its accelerated growth phase."
He sighed as he looked at Xia Li.
For three full years, the young man before him had perfectly completed every training plan Fukasaku devised—and had even forced him to constantly revise those plans and the dosage of secret medicine.
Xia Li never complained, nor did he need supervision. His standards for himself were even higher than theirs.
As a result, Fukasaku's authority as a "trainer" had become almost meaningless—something that left him feeling both regretful and impressed.
"I hope so," Xia Li said, smiling as he felt the chakra within his body.
He had finally reached this level.
By every metric, he was now already at the peak of special jōnin strength.
Xia Li didn't like the term "special jōnin."He felt that "elite chūnin" sounded much better than "weaker jōnin."
Unfortunately, most people would say that even a weak jōnin… was still a jōnin.
Endure it.
That was why there was no such thing as an elite chūnin—only a strange tier of jōnin.
Learning Flying Thunder God was never easy.
Xia Li had been able to carve its seals a year ago. They were the most complex versions, but by following the reverse paths he had calculated, he could turn complexity into simplicity.
That part had gone smoothly.
But that was only the first step.
The second step troubled him for a long time.
Although he could sense the seals, controlling Flying Thunder God itself was extremely difficult.
Even with the "cosmic-level talent" praised by both Jiraiya and the Third Hokage, it still wasn't easy.
Eventually, Xia Li found the key—and once he did, he quickly mastered it.
The secret wasn't Flying Thunder God itself, but the Reverse Summoning Technique.
Summoning was a space–time ninjutsu, but at its core, it was about guiding a summoned being.
Reverse Summoning was undeniably a space–time technique—and more importantly, during the guiding process, Xia Li could clearly perceive spatial fluctuations.
At first, he noticed nothing special.
Then one day, inspiration struck.
He entered the Void State during reverse summoning.
Instantly, the spatial fluctuations became crystal clear.
Relying on that perception, Xia Li used Flying Thunder God for the first time—completely draining his chakra in the process.
Over the following days, Xia Li always entered the hollow, dark state before using reverse summoning, gradually familiarizing himself with spatial fluctuations.
The results were astonishing.
Xia Li could now use Flying Thunder God proficiently—and the deeper his understanding of spatial fluctuations became, the lower the chakra cost.
He believed this was also why the Fourth Hokage could use Flying Thunder God repeatedly.
Minato's chakra reserves were already immense, and combined with his profound understanding of the technique, the result was the legendary Yellow Flash of the Ninja World.
Now, Xia Li had also learned to wield Flying Thunder God.
Though his proficiency still didn't match Minato's, with continued use, he would inevitably reach that level.
As for reaction speed…
Xia Li had worried about that too. His reactions weren't particularly exceptional.
But once he truly used Flying Thunder God, he realized—
His version didn't need reaction speed at all.
It felt like cheating.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Abilities
The "cheating" sensation Xia Li felt didn't come from some system boosting his reactions to the limit.
It came from his perception itself—which was already absurd.
In battle, as long as a target had chakra, Xia Li could sense it.
It was like having global vision.
Normally, after teleporting with Flying Thunder God, one had to instantly determine both their own position and the enemy's before attacking.
Xia Li didn't need to.
Even after teleportation, the enemy's position remained constantly locked within his perception.
As long as they stayed within range, any movement was instantly tracked.
As a result, Xia Li's Flying Thunder God skipped the judgment phase entirely.
He only needed to think about how to attack after teleporting.
That was cheating.
In some situations, this basic perception was even more useful than the Hyūga clan's Byakugan.
After all, the Byakugan still required visual processing—and rapidly changing scenes were difficult to adapt to.
Over the past three years, Xia Li's greatest improvement lay in his fundamentals.
But if one had to name the area where he had progressed the most—
It was perception.
His perceptive abilities grew at an astonishing speed, with no sign of slowing down.
Thanks to this, Xia Li mastered Flying Thunder God so quickly.
And because of it, he could now sense natural energy even without entering the Void State.
Once in the Void State, natural energy became vividly clear.
At one point, Xia Li even wanted Fukasaku to watch him try absorbing it.
He was immediately and harshly rejected—Fukasaku nearly dragged Jiraiya over to lecture him.
Natural energy wasn't something you casually experimented with.
If it overwhelmed you, you'd turn into stone—or die.
Under Fukasaku's firm opposition, Xia Li abandoned the idea.
This wasn't the first time he'd thought about it. He felt that natural energy might not be as uncontrollable as described.
But he had never truly absorbed it—and the stone statues were a grim reminder of the risks.
So for safety's sake, it was better to wait until the boundary of danger was clearly defined.
For now, Xia Li could already move slightly while in the Void State.
He could walk and talk normally.
Fukasaku still remembered the look of disbelief on his face when he first saw Xia Li walking in that state.
If the Great Toad Sage hadn't been asleep, Fukasaku suspected he would've dragged Xia Li over immediately.
The improvement of the Void State also accelerated progress in other areas.
For example, Xia Li's shadow clones would remain in the Void State while reading—training the state itself while absorbing knowledge efficiently.
At this point, Xia Li was an extremely well-rounded ninja—
Even though, technically, he still hadn't graduated from the Ninja Academy.
As for ninjutsu—
Xia Li was now authorized to use the Rasengan.
When his chakra reached chūnin level, Jiraiya came to Mount Myōboku and taught him the technique.
Xia Li "learned" Rasengan in half a day.
Jiraiya was stunned.
So this was what a talent gap looked like?
No wonder Minato had been so casual when he showed off Rasengan back then.
Was it because, in Minato's eyes, Jiraiya's talent simply wasn't enough?
Although Xia Li had learned Rasengan, he rarely practiced it deliberately.
Once his chakra control and understanding reached the required level, the technique became instinctive.
If he wanted to use it, he simply did.
After teaching Rasengan, Jiraiya left with a visibly depressed expression—apparently struggling to accept the reality of his "poor talent."
As for other techniques—
Xia Li now needed only one hand seal for Substitution. With focus, he could even use it without seals.
It was extremely practical for an E-rank technique.
In Wind Release, Xia Li learned Vacuum Wave and its variants, such as Vacuum Bullets.
To him, Vacuum Wave best represented the killing power of Wind Release.
While Vacuum Bullets focused on overall output, Xia Li felt they were unnecessary.
The cutting force of Vacuum Wave alone was terrifying.
It had become his strongest offensive technique—stronger even than Rasengan.
Rasengan's advantage lay in its seal-less, instantaneous execution.
In Lightning Release, Xia Li finally mastered Lightning Blade—though using it smoothly was still difficult.
Even with perception "cheats," Lightning Blade wasn't like Flying Thunder God.
Opponents still had time to react and dodge.
If Xia Li tried to adjust mid-charge, the speed was often too fast—either no time to correct, or overcorrection.
That said, even imperfect, his Lightning Blade was still usable.
Its most fatal flaw had already been eliminated.
But Xia Li wasn't satisfied.
He had ideas—he just hadn't had time to test them yet.
After all, Lightning Blade was something he had learned in secret.
It was best not to use it openly unless necessary.
Finally, there was Fire Release.
Yes—Xia Li had also learned basic Fire Release techniques.
He lacked fire affinity, so their power was weaker—but that didn't matter.
He learned them mainly to ignite Toad Oil from his summoned allies.
That alone was sufficient.
Of course, if his body could slowly develop a fire attribute through Fire Release…
That would be even better.
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