Chapitre 4: Be Like Water, My Friend
The clock struck midnight. The moon hung full underneath the night sky, and a boy sat in the middle of a forest clearing. Two animals lay before him. A deer, young, and female, was bound at the feet by thick lines of rope. A rabbit lay beside the deer, with white fur and fluffy ears.
Beside both rabbit and deer was a complex series of squiggles and writings etched into the dirt. They were indecipherable to a layman, and even the most gifted of mathematicians would only be able to vaguely discern that the writings were a complex series of arithmetic formulas, calculations, and derivations, yet, they would never be able to decipher what was being calculated.
A young boy sat, shirtless, before both animals. His eyes, pale and white, had veins bulging around them, and his gaze peered into the animals before him, his expression firm.
"...I've gotten it."
Chakra swirled from within the center of the boy, and his form changed from a young boy to that of a man. His hair grew out, becoming longer and straighter, his body became toned and muscular, and the veins around his eyes vanished. The air he possessed was that of a young lord, a rich and aristocratic nobleman, and he proceeded to lean his cheek against one hand, exhaling loudly.
He extended his right hand over the rabbit first. Chakra, once more swirled within him. The rabbit let out a shriek that was utterly unlike anything a leporine creature was capable of, as an external source of chakra flooded through its entire system.
Swiftly, the man's hands struck out.
Numerous tenketsu were struck at once, and the rabbit's shrieking died. The chakra completely flooded the creature, and, the excess that did not enter its body dispersed in the form of white smoke. Once the white smoke dissipated, the rabbit was gone. In its place was an ornate jade sword.
The young man picked up the jade sword and examined it. His eyes peered deep within, searching for errors or blemishes. He swung it twice, and the satisfactory sound of a blade slicing through the air reached into his ears. He brought the blade to his finger and placed his hand against it, and the sword cut his hand as soon as he touched it.
"Hahaha…" a series of deep laughs emerged. "I, Zi Wuji, am indeed peerless under the heavens!"
He placed the sword back on the ground and regarded the complex writings he'd engraved into the dirt.
"To think this much calculation was needed to perform such a trivial feat…"
He'd first taken the people of the Elemental Nations to be utter and absurd fools incapable of realizing the sheer power at their disposal but was soon proven wrong once he began to experiment with the Transformation Technique.
His first roadblock was encountered when he discovered he could not willingly transform his hand into a sword, nor could he make his fingers into blades.
To perform such a banal trick, he needed to have mastery of not one, not two, but three entirely different aspects of the Transformation Technique. Not only that, but these three requirements each had complex steps.
Zi Wuji reached into his back pocket and emerged with a small jotter. It was amongst the things his father had provided for his schooling, but he'd converted it to a book detailing his breakdown of techniques and encoded it in a cipher only he knew.
Zi Wuji's Technique Breakdown Journal
Technique Name: Transformation Technique
Learning Difficulty: Low-Earth Tier [G-Rank](Academy Level)
Mastery Difficulty: Mid-Heaven Tier [B-Rank](Special Jōnin Level)
Mastery Requirements: Three
Effective Range: Short/Touch
He stopped his scribbling for a brief moment, muttering underneath his breath. His measurement of the difficulty of attaining mastery over a technique was different from that of most. Zi Wuji's measurement had ten ranks:
Low-Earth Tier, Mid-Earth Tier, High-Earth Tier, Peak-Earth Tier, Low-Heaven Tier, Mid-Heaven Tier, High-Heaven Tier, Peak-Heaven Tier, True-Heaven Tier, and God-Tier.
Correlated to shinobi terms, it would be: G-Rank, F-Rank, E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, A-Rank, S-Rank, SS-Rank, and SSS-Rank.
As difficult as the Transformation Technique was to truly master, in Zi Wuji's eyes, it was merely a Mid-Heaven Tier level of difficulty. Compared to some truly absurd Qi Arts he'd made, such as the Flutter Forcing Finger Art which had a True-Heaven Tier Difficulty to both learn and master, this was nothing.
Zi Wuji continued to scribble.
Path to Technique Mastery:
Requirement One: Partial-Transformation.
Step One: To transform only part of one's body into something or someone else, one must have a complete, unobstructed view of the body part that needed to be transformed, and this body part must be capable of harnessing chakra.
Step Two: One must deduce the exact point of cut-off from the regular body to the transformed part, and have a mastery of chakra control perfect and precise enough to transform the intended part and the intended part only.
Step Three: One must maintain the flow of chakra to this part, and this part only, requiring a significant amount of focus and investment, as any fluctuations or interruptions to the flow of chakra will undo the transformation.
Just the first requirement alone meant it was impossible for an average man to be able to master partial transformations. His father had informed him that not everybody possessed perfect chakra control. Even if they did, the technique was fickle. The slightest interruption to the chakra flow would undo it.
In a high-stakes battle, such a thing was effectively useless. If one transformed their hand into a sword, but all that was needed to undo the transformation was a kick to the stomach or a pulse of strong chakra, then of what use was such a technique?
The sheer effort involved was worth the benefits attained.
Zi Wuji continued to write.
Requirement Two: Material Transformation
Step One: To perfectly transform into a non-living/solid object, one must have the exact knowledge of the object's size, weight, density, scent, sound, taste, and feel.
Step Two; One must also have the exact knowledge of how that object interacts with its physical environment, such as its relationship with light, sound, liquid, heat, cold, lightning, and other forms of matter.
Step Three: One must conserve size and matter when transforming. When undergoing a proportional increase or decrease in size, the chakra required to maintain the technique costs three times the increase or decrease in surface area, mass, weight, and volume.
The second requirement made it clear it would be absurdly difficult to transform himself into a cloud of dust, or into liquid. Decreasing or increasing his mass at will could not be done without having a nigh-boundless amount of chakra to burn.
Transforming into an obese man was more chakra-intensive than transforming into a slender girl. Similarly, transforming into a pebble or a kunai was just as chakra-intensive as transforming into a giant.
Were someone to have an enormous quantity of chakra, Zi Wuji was certain they would be able to bypass the first and second steps of Requirement Two by sheer chakra quantity alone. They would be able to willfully transform themselves into solid objects even if they did not have the perfect knowledge of that object's exact dimensions and makeup.
Still, all the requirements made it clear it was utterly impossible to transform into a thing one was not familiar with.
Zi Wuji scribbled the final elements.
Requirement Three: Joint/External Transformation
Step One: To perform the transformation technique with or on another creature, the target must:
Be Willing and Consenting to the Transformation Possess Less Than or Equal amounts of chakra to the User Contribute their share of chakra to maintain the technique
Step Two: To perform the transformation technique with or on an object, the object must:
Be capable of channeling or conducting chakra. Be in direct physical contact with the wielder Not be chained, affixed to the ground, or otherwise immobile Not weigh more than the User of the technique can physically carry
Zi Wuji finished his entry, and then glanced at the Jade Sword laying before him. Everything he'd written had been true, and these were indeed the method required for mastery. It was simply, however, that he'd once again deciphered a loophole.
The rabbit had not consented to be turned into a sword.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing would be impossible. It was only by sealing every chakra point of the rabbit that the technique could work. By effectively blocking the pathways by which the rabbit could exude its innate chakra and shake off the technique, and then flooding his own chakra into the creature, he left it unable to dispel the technique.
In simpler terms, he'd treated the rabbit as an 'object.'
"These eyes…"
The only way it worked was due to his Byakugan. Being able to see the tenketsu of all living creatures meant having the fate of all living creatures in his hands. When one could not mold or form their chakra, what use were they? Even mere rabbits, who should have been capable of shaking off a forced transformation, were left utterly helpless to his machinations.
As long as I have more chakra than someone, Zi Wuji noted, upon blocking their tenketsu, I can turn them into anything or anyone I desire.
A puff of smoke emerged from his right. The Jade Sword had vanished, and in its place, was the same rabbit, tied-up and motionless. Zi Wuji's eyes zoomed into the creature's heart and found it was still pumping. The tenketsu, similarly, were still blocked.
He quickly began to scribble more.
Note (1): As long as there is enough chakra fed into it, a transformation can be kept indefinitely.
Zi Wuji put away his journal and undid his transformation. A bittersweet feeling lingered within him.
There are still too many limitations…
Compared to the Veracious Heaven Transformation Art, the Transformation Technique was too limiting. Every potentially heaven-defying application took far too much chakra to be feasible. Worse still, the transformations themselves were not permanent. There was no way to change his bone structure or musculature permanently and have it grow with him. There was no way to change his genes or genetics or even his blood, for it required a level of absurd knowledge that he himself did not possess.
Zi Wuji had been hoping to use the Transformation Technique to change his mortal body into that of a Cultivator, but it was not possible as he was. To perform such a thing, not only would he need a nigh-infinite source of chakra, he would need to remake his body from the ground up with intense elixirs and pills.
I've yet to see any mention of the art of alchemy or alchemists in this world…
Zi Wuji clicked his tongue.
I must intensify my research efforts.
He thrust his hand out towards the tied-up deer, flooding the creature's chakra system with his own. As it began to scream, his hands blurred out, striking every tenketsu he could find, and silencing it. A puff of smoke followed, and the deer transformed into the sleek woolen jacket.
That old witch, would be rolling in her grave if she ever learned that I made a bastardized version of her Naked Flesh Sewing Art…
Zi Wuji folded the jacket gently. Once he was done, he morphed the tip, and just the tip of his fingers, into sharper, hardened blades. Partial transformation was altogether ineffective when used largely, but small, focused applications were where it shined.
He struck the coat ten times in the span of a second. Upon the tenth hit, a large puff of smoke emerged and found the deer to be bleeding from ten points on its body.
Zi Wuji smiled.
…This is the answer.
He slayed the deer quickly after, butchering its pieces and taking it along with him. The rabbit, he let go, seeing no further need for it.
Now… I simply wait.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Happy Birthday, Neji-kun!"
The celebratory words came from multiple women, and along with it came a loud, yet, subdued cheer. Zi Wuji counted no less than ten people within the room, and he had not anticipated that so many would arrive for such a trivial thing.
His opinion on the matter changed the longer he observed. The attention of the young Hyūga women was not on him, but rather, on his father. He kept his Byakugan active, and, thankfully, due to his mastery of partial-transformations, he was able to place a transformation over his eyes to make them appear as though they were inactive.
The solution to the problem of everyone knowing when his eyes were activated was such a banal, simple thing. Of course, the partial-transformation was a high-level ability cloaked in a low-level jutsu, and he doubted that no one in a clan so heavily obsessed with taijutsu had thought of such a solution.
Or, maybe they'd never considered it a problem.
With his eyes activated, and none of the Hyūga ever the wiser, it didn't take long to realize why so many young women had come for his birthday. Not only were most of them of marriageable ages, but there were also many of them who were virgins. Zi Wuji could tell with his Byakugan, as a cursory scan towards the lower regions confirmed the existence of a hymen for eight out of the twelve women present.
They showered him with attention but did so only when his father's gaze turned towards him. Some of them, perhaps one or two, truly did try to humor and entertain him when his father wasn't looking, no doubt thinking he would narrate their 'kindness' to him at a later date.
All of the women were from the branch house, and his father's friends were present as well, occasionally making jokes, laughing and drinking, and giving celebratory toasts to the man in question.
There was no shortage of boxes wrapped in parchment and paper, all dedicated to him, all of which were provided by the women.
It was 'his' birthday in name only. The women were not here to celebrate him. They were here to get into the good graces of his father. They were here because his father was an eligible bachelor, and the man's seed was now worth its weight in pure gold. After word of his peerless genius spread, who, indeed, would not wish to try their luck with Hyūga Hizashi? Who did not wish to have a genius of their own?
Several of his former wet nurses hugged him and made comments as to how much he'd grown, and made blatantly obvious attempts to try and curry favor with him. A few of the guards whom he'd only ever met and greeted in person also came to celebrate the 'peerless genius' of their clan and offered him not only pocket money but their own wrapped presents.
Someone had gone as far as providing a cake with a candle atop it, which was a thing Zi Wuji found beyond amusing.
"Be sure to make a wish, Neji-kun!"
Zi Wuji blew out the candle, and the festivities began in earnest.
The adults drank alcohol amongst themselves and chatted amicably. His father was treated akin to a celebrity. His peers surrounded and listened to him, and even when the things he said were not significantly amusing, they would laugh as though their lives depended on it.
The women clung to him in all manner of ways and eagerly made him begin to open his presents. He'd faked as much surprise as he could, because, unlike the rest of them, his eyes were active 24/7, so he'd already seen what the presents were long before he'd been told to open them.
Most of it was practical. The first was a book titled History of Konohagakure. The second was another book titled, Formation of the Elemental Nations — The Legend of Hashirama Senju. There was a scroll detailing the usage of the Byakugan, a book on something called Chakra Affinities, which, for some reason, started a small argument once it was discovered.
"Chakra affinities? Isn't that too high level?"
"What? Neji-kun is a genius, isn't he?"
"You're not a shinobi, Inoue, so you wouldn't know, but that's too high level for an Academy Student. And besides, we don't use Ninjutsu so learning about chakra affinities is —"
"I'll take it."
"What? Neji-kun, that's —"
They'd tried to persuade him otherwise, but he'd not budged. The woman who'd gotten him the book apparently was not a shinobi, but Zi Wuji found it curious all the same. He would be the judge of whether something was too high level or whether it wasn't.
Most of the other presents were books, but none held any of his interest. It seemed they'd all collectively decided to give him books after hearing of his prodigious nature, and as books were often affordable and tremendously practical, it was hard to go wrong with such things as presents.
A few toys had been thrown into the mix, from the men's gifts. Wooden and rubber-bladed weapons called shuriken and kunai were amongst some of the presents he'd gotten.
A detailed book on Shurikenjutsu was unveiled by one of his father's friends, whilst another had gotten him a pouch to go with his now bountiful collection of wooden and rubber-bladed weapons. Zi Wuji accepted all the gifts with as much faux appreciation as he could muster. The party lasted a little late into the evening, and Zi Wuji had been filling himself quietly on cake whilst browsing through the book on chakra affinities, when everywhere went silent.
"Greetings, Hiashi-sama."
Hyūga Hiashi possessed an imposing presence. Despite being facially identical to his brother, his arrival brought a sudden chill to the festivities. He carried himself with a significant weight, as though the world were beneath him, and Zi Wuji had never seen the man smile.
As soon as he arrived, everyone stopped what they were doing. They bowed to greet him, and his father gestured he quickly do the same. The man examined them all, and his gaze landed on him.
"I heard it is your birthday, Neji."
"Yes, Hiashi-sama."
"I came to deliver a present."
The words traveled throughout the room like a pungent fart. With his Byakugan, Zi Wuji saw just how many hearts had lurched at the announcement. No one, it seemed, believed it. Or rather, no one anticipated it. Not even his father, which Zi Wuji could tell by the way the man's heart was thumping quickly, and the way the muscles in his jaw clenched.
None of this bothered him. What he did find odd, was that he'd already scanned the man thoroughly, and he'd found nothing on him save for a small scroll within the sleeves of his robes. Was that scroll to be a present?
Hiashi emerged the scroll, and a puff of smoke emerged as he opened it.
Zi Wuji's eyes widened. Had he not seen it with his Byakugan, he'd not have believed it. He saw rhe movement of chakra from the man to the scroll, and the corresponding shifting of space and time as an ornate box appeared within the man's hands just as swiftly as the chakra was inserted.
Could it be? Zi Wuji sucked a deep breath. A storage ring? Dimensional bag?
"This is —"
"How did you do that, Uncle?"
"Neji," his father's harsh voice came. "Mind your manners. Do not interrupt your uncle."
Zi Wuji could care less about manners. He'd just witnessed a man pull out a box from within a scroll. Dimensional bags or storage rings weren't all that rare amongst cultivators, but he'd yet to see anything even vaguely resembling such a thing in the world so far.
He needed to know how it was done.
"It's fine, brother," Hiashi intoned. The man's eyes observed him closely. "Is this your first time seeing a sealing scroll?"
"Sealing scroll?"
"As long as you have the chakra needed and the know-how, you can keep objects within a sealing scroll. Shinobi often use this to carry sensitive information or extra tools."
Hiashi handed over his present. It was a black-and-gold and ornate box, with numerous elegant designs engraved along it. At the mere sight alone, Zi Wuji could tell this was the most expensive gift he'd gotten so far. His father's grimace told him as much, as did the way the man's jaw clenched even harder.
"Open it."
Within the box was a pristine wooden brush, along with a small covered vial of a black liquid he assumed was ink. There were also several pieces of parchment, perfectly rolled deep within.
"What is it?"
"It is a calligraphy set that belonged to your mother."
Zi Wuji knew what calligraphy was. How could he not? Scholars roamed the world in search of enlightenment, and many a time had he encountered such beautiful works which took his breath away. He'd never dabbled in the art himself, finding it to be pointless grandstanding, but he could appreciate it.
"She was a… peculiar woman. She believed that one should be complex," Hiashi said. "She once told me that a good hand should be used for more than the striking of foes and the ending of lives. A good hand must give to the world as much as it has learned to take."
The man's heart did not waver as he spoke. Yet, for some reason, Zi Wuji saw his father's heart beat even faster and faster. There were no shortage of questions Zi Wuji possessed. If this belonged to my mother, why do you have it?
He didn't ask it. He didn't even think to. He observed his father instead. Outwardly, nothing on Hyūga Hizashi was different, but inwardly, the man's heart was ready to burst. Adrenaline was pumping through his system at an absurd rate. His chakra was all but bubbling and boiling and looked ready to explode.
…Something is amiss with these brothers.
Was it that his mother knew Hiashi intimately? Then why did she marry his father? Zi Wuji discarded the matter from his mind. In the end, he could care less about the complicated relationship between his father and his uncle.
"Thank you, Uncle."
As far as Zi Wuji was concerned, the true present he'd gotten was not the calligraphy set.
After his uncle departed, the festivities returned, albeit, slightly on a more somber tone. Once everyone departed, his father took him aside in private.
"Anything I want?"
"Anything at all, Neji-kun."
Zi Wuji knew that his father had planned a different gift for him. He'd hidden it in a special compartment in the kitchen, that was generally too tall to reach. The gift was nothing special, it was merely a new pair of shoes.
The man no longer planned on giving it to him. From the way Zi Wuji judged his actions, he deduced that Hizashi simply felt what he'd gotten him was lackluster compared to Hiashi's gift. He didn't want to be outdone by his brother, so, rather than giving him a pair of shoes, he was asking him for whatever it was he wanted.
"Sealing Scroll."
".You want… a sealing scroll?"
His father looked him over with uncertainty.
"Are you sure? You can ask for anything at all, Neji-kun. I mean it."
"A sealing scroll and…"
"And?"
"A good book on sealing scrolls."
His father stared at him oddly. "You want a Fūinjutsu book?"
"Fūin…jutsu?"
Zi Wuji tested the word out.
"Yes. A good book… on Fūinjutsu."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
His father had kept his promise.
The book he'd gotten him was titled An Introductory Guide to Fūinjutsu, written by a woman called Uzumaki Mito. Zi Wuji zoned out in the classroom, ignoring the non-practical and non-pertinent parts of the lessons in favor of digesting the newfound content with near child-like glee.
After the first page, his glee was tempered to a cautious excitement. After the second, his excitement became wariness. After the third, his wariness became disdain.
Uzumaki Mito was an utter imbecile.
She went on endlessly, about the risks, dangers, potential hazards, and mishaps that could occur if one were not careful with the art of sealing. The first two chapters were nothing but warnings and risks, dangers and pitfalls, with no practical knowledge whatsoever. Tales of a man setting off a storage scroll incorrectly, and accidentally ripping off his arm. Another, was of a woman failing to add an exemption in her barrier for children, and accidentally slaughtering her family. On and on it went with such nonsense.
All of it was described in vivid, graphic detail as well. It felt more like the woman simply wanted to find any and all means to ward off and scare anyone attempting to learn the art than to give them a genuine warning.
Four chapters of pointless warnings that would only weed out the cowardly and draw the attention of the deviant and twisted, and then the fifth chapter began to talk about the history of the art.
She mentioned a village, now collapsed into ruin by the onslaught of three others, and how she was of that village. She mentioned how the art was originally intended to be used to keep enemies at bay and spoke of some myth of some man called the Sage of Six Paths trapping a god in the moon — what was with these people and the moon? — with some sort of seal.
By lunch break, Zi Wuji had reached the eighth chapter of the book, and it was only then that practical information was available. He moved away from the other children, and sat in silence, munching on a pre-made rice ball as he brought out the sealing scroll his father purchased for him.
With his Byakugan activated, he studied the inner mechanisms. The sealing scroll operated by creating a temporary liminal space, a sub-dimension which an object could be stored within. The exact specifications of said sub-dimension were unclear. The nature of space-time within that sub-dimension was equally unclear. However, all of these were parameters that he wagered could be altered by changing the instructions inherent in the scroll.
Zi Wuji bit down on his finger, drawing a small amount of blood. He unfurled the scroll and drew his blood on it. The chakra in his blood diffused into the scroll, and a puff of smoke emerged from excess chakra before his wooden shuriken and kunai appeared. He placed the wooden shuriken and kunai back onto the center of the scroll, applied chakra, and in a puff of smoke, they vanished.
"...I can't believe it."
Fūinjutsu was this world's equivalent to arrays and formations —
And it was incredibly primitive.
Around the tenth chapter or so, Uzumaki Mito made a statement about how chakra could be sealed, albeit, doing so was considered a high-level utilization of the art. She made numerous hypothetical situations and explanations to support this statement, and all of them convinced Zi Wuji that the woman was a retard.
Qi could be sealed using numerous formations, and the easiest of said formations was still significantly harder than the hardest hypothesized method of sealing chakra.
To begin with, Fūinjutsu did not inherently need sacrifices, nor did it require valuable consumables, items, relics, specific physiques, elixirs, pills, or a required level of cultivation.
Setting up the Thousand Demon Scattering Array which could prevent an invasion of demons from the Underworld was so time-tasking and resource-intensive, that it could take years to fully create, and one often needed the blood and viscera of several powerful beasts to create it, along with countless valuable gems, minerals, metals and the supporting Qi of a high-level cultivator.
There was the Grand Expanse Ruination Formation that connected two expanses of land one million kilometers away and enabled cultivators to go through and from those places as easily as entering and exiting one's backyard. The Absolute Deluge World Barrier was another example of a high-tier formation, and it was one so grand that it separated the Lower Rain World from the Upper Rain World, separating the true immortals from the meager cultivators.
Breaking such a thing was called 'Ascension,' and it required one to cultivate past the Spirit Fragmentation stage.
The most difficult feats of Fūinjutsu the woman mentioned were so easy, that seeing the woman whining about it made Zi Wuji feel like he was watching a child with a papercut on their finger crying about 'pain' to a man who'd lost his arm in a war.
This world continues to baffle me.
The first requirement to learn Fūinjutsu was to possess flawless handwriting. Fortunately, Zi Wuji already possessed that, as it was one of the necessary things a Formation Master needed. The next was knowledge of cause-and-effect and chakra-infused components. This could be done easily by mixing one's blood and ink together in a very specific ratio or directly infusing chakra into ink. The latter was considered extremely difficult and required perfect chakra control, whereas the former was the most commonly used means.
Again, he had perfect chakra control.
Finally, one required a deep understanding of the language. The specific lines and kanji utilized in Fūinjutsu were deeper and richer than those used in common speech. Essentially, there was a certain 'Fūinjutsu Language' one needed mastery of to decipher seals. Once one was fluent enough in this language, they would be capable of glancing at a complex seal and reading it no differently than if one had written words.
The introductory book contained the most commonly utilized 'Fūinjutsu Language' and a cipher to translate it. After a swift glance through the cipher, he'd gained fluency in the language for one reason —
It was laughably simplified.
Eight hundred characters?
Zi Wuji exhaled.
One needs to have knowledge of at least ninety-five hundred characters to even be considered for an apprenticeship with a Formation Master…
The reason arrays and formations were so powerful and complex in the Rain World was a result of warfare and pride. A good formation could protect a dynasty, sect, or world for ten thousand years, and a poor one would last merely a decade. Thus, nefarious individuals attempted their hardest to master the art of breaking formations, and in turn, formation masters improved their skills to ensure their formations would never be broken.
The existence of competition and conflict set a stage that enabled formations to advance rapidly and become more and more complex. It was akin to an evolutionary arms race, wherein one side kept attempting to outdo the other, and the other's survival depended on not being outdone.
In contrast, Zi Wuji could find no evidence that the Fūinjutsu of this world had experienced such turmoil. It was primitive. Underdeveloped. It was crippled in its infancy. Without sufficient conflict, it had not grown.
I see…
He understood, now, why the woman's village was destroyed. He understood why she went to such lengths as to give warnings for nearly five straight chapters. The inhabitants of this world were aware of the dangerous potential of Formations, Arrays, and Fūinjutsu.
Rather than develop the art themselves and improve it, they struck swiftly to destroy those gifted at it and bury it forever.
Had the woman and her village had a couple of thousand more years to practice, refine, and study the art, it would be of a masterful level. It would change the entire world. They would be unrivaled and peerless.
Alas, it was not so.
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break, and Zi Wuji shut the book.
If there were only eight hundred major characters, there was nothing he would learn from it. He'd learned what he needed. Ink, blood, and chakra were the major reagents needed. With that knowledge, as well as his knowledge from the Rain World, he was qualified to be a Fūinjutsu Master.
It was only a matter of knowing what formations and arrays could be reworked with chakra, and what couldn't.
He briefly rifled through the book a final time, and, confirmed his suspicions. There were very few mentions of usage in combat. The entire art was still majorly supplementary, due to the fact that it was crippled in its infancy. It was used merely to seal away tools, toys, and trinkets, with a few snippets of mentions of applications for terribly inefficient barriers.
…Perhaps?
As the memory of the eight hundred characters flashed through his mind, he remembered the manji utilized by the Caged Bird Seal, and the mystery that had been plaguing him vanished. He'd had all the answers to the question from the get-go, but the question had been asked in a language he could not understand. Now that he could fluently speak, read and write the same language —
Surely, it's not that simple…?
If the answer was truly that simple, he would be irritated.
He would be irritated beyond measure.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone