The night was deep, and the forest was silent.
Only the occasional chirping of insects and the soft crackle of embers from the charcoal fire could be heard.
Tanjirou, wrapped in a blanket, had long since fallen into a deep sleep, a result of both the medicine and his exhaustion.
His breathing was even, and a faint flush from his training still lingered on his face.
He was still far from Cheng Mo's level, where he could substitute most sleep with deep meditation and energy circulation.
Cheng Mo remained seated cross-legged not far away, his body occasionally emitting extremely subtle, almost invisible, azure electric sparks that flickered like breaths.
He was performing his daily, unshakeable Chakra refinement and adaptive training for the Lightning Release Armor.
But gradually, he frowned slightly.
Efficiency had slowed... In the past few days, he had clearly perceived that the growth rate of the Lightning Release Chakra within him, as well as the increase in the Lightning Release Armor's strength, had begun to show signs of fatigue.
It no longer surged forward by leaps and bounds as it did when he first acquired it.
The accumulation of mere quantitative changes had already hit a bottleneck... This included the total amount of Lightning Release Chakra and its instantaneous output power, both of which seemed to have touched an invisible ceiling for the current stage.
The defensive strength of the Lightning Release Armor and its muscle activation effect, combined with the explosive speed and strength boost from Thunder Breathing, also began to show a clear diminishing marginal returns effect.
He calmly analyzed his own condition.
It seemed that for the next stage, what he sought was no longer 'more powerful' lightning, but rather... 'more precise' and 'smarter' lightning.
It required more refined control over Chakra, the development of new form changes, or the exploration of deeper mysteries of nature changes.
It appeared his period of rapid growth would temporarily come to an end, and he was about to enter a bottleneck phase requiring slow accumulation and comprehension through sustained effort.
Cheng Mo quietly walked behind a rock slightly further from the campsite.
After confirming Tanjirou was sound asleep, he had a thought and retrieved a... tablet computer from the space of the myriad realms compass.
In the real world, time was tight; he was busy taking care of his sister, earning money, and studying, with no time for anything else.
Upon arriving in the Demon Slayer World, although dangers lurked everywhere, the difference in time flow instead gave him a rare opportunity to calmly reflect and ponder.
He lit up the screen, which stored the complete animated series of Naruto he had already downloaded.
As a child, this work was popular worldwide, and he had watched a good portion of it intermittently.
But later, as academic pressure increased and family burdens grew heavier, he had to give up such entertainment and dedicate himself entirely to the struggles of life.
Many plot details had long since blurred in his memory.
Not to mention the Lightning Release Armor, a ninjutsu that didn't have much screen time in the original work and was mostly mentioned as the Fourth Raikage's signature ability, his impression of it was even fainter.
He opened the video software, found the relevant episodes, and started playing them at an accelerated speed.
On the screen, ninjas leaped and bounded, with various dazzling ninjutsu clashing.
Cheng Mo's gaze was primarily focused on the segments that used Lightning Release ninjutsu, especially the Fourth Raikage and Hatake Kakashi's Chidori series.
He tried to find some inspiration from these fictional techniques that could guide his subsequent development of Lightning Release.
"Lightning Blade... Chidori... sharp, thrusting, piercing..."
Cheng Mo watched quickly, his brain working at high speed, analyzing in conjunction with his own understanding of Lightning Release Chakra.
"But essentially, it's still about concentrating highly condensed Lightning Release Chakra in the hand for a thrust, not a true long-range attack."
"Lightning Release: Grinding Wave? An area attack, but requires higher precision in control. My Chakra attribute seems to lean more towards violent bursts and speed; this kind of precise control..."
He paused the video and instinctively raised his hand, attempting to imitate.
Azure electric arcs converged in his palm, emitting a sharp, bird-like "Chidori Ming" sound, the light blinding, and the energy fluctuations intense.
However, he quickly discovered that once the Lightning Release Chakra left his body, its controllability plummeted.
They were more like energy masses roughly projected outwards, difficult to maintain a stable form for precise control, let alone achieve accurate long-range strikes.
Forcing long-range maintenance resulted in huge consumption and poor effectiveness.
"External release and control are difficult..."
Cheng Mo dispersed the lightning in his hand, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Perhaps... I should seek inspiration from the Lightning Release Armor itself?"
He began to review his own process of cultivating the Lightning Release Armor.
It wasn't simply covering the body with Chakra.
Instead, it involved a series of complex internal energy operation modes, such as full-body cell activation, accelerated neural reflexes, and muscle fiber strengthening.
"What if this activation mode were applied not to myself, but to the projected Lightning Release Chakra?"
He fell into deep thought.
"Or... instead of pursuing complete detachment from the body for long-range attacks, what about controllable energy form changes at medium to close range? For example... a lightning whip? A lightning net? Or a more condensed lightning arrow?"
He tried to condense the Lightning Release Chakra into a whip-like form.
But less than half a meter from his palm, the condensed form began to dissipate, with significant energy leakage.
"The combination of Chakra's form change and nature change... requires extremely high control."
"My Eye of Truth might help me see the energy flow, but precise control still requires a lot of practice and comprehension."
After a long period of contemplation, he still didn't have a very clear direction.
This was not something that could be solved directly by watching videos; it required a lot of practice and trial and error.
He turned off the tablet and put it back into his space.
It seemed that developing new techniques was not an overnight affair.
For now, it was better to focus on using the Eye of Truth to optimize existing abilities, and... prepare Tanjirou for the upcoming combat training, while also collecting those valuable "experimental materials" for himself.
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