After saying goodbye to Ryan, Itachi went to poke Sasuke on the forehead before heading off alone to attend the clan meeting.
However, when passing through the courtyard, he stood there stupidly for a full ten minutes.
Ryan had no idea what he was doing and simply assumed he was admiring his "masterpiece."
Once Itachi had been gone for a while, Ryan didn't head out immediately. Instead, he slipped straight into the sea of flowers in the courtyard, preparing to test the sunflowers' effects during the daytime.
Going outside now might draw ANBU surveillance—especially with the Uchiha clan holding a meeting today.
He burrowed into the flower field, casually found a corner, and released his "left and right guardians."
Thanks to last night's lesson—where he'd demonstrated interspecies violence—the two sunflowers were now completely silent, trembling slightly, not daring to make a sound.
Ryan was quite satisfied.
He raised his hand and snapped the stems of two nearby sunflowers, then tore their flower heads apart and stomped them into the dirt.
This was to make sure his "guardians" remembered their place.
"Stay quiet later, got it?"
"Use whatever abilities you have quickly. If you start yelling nonsense again, you'll end up just like them."
Ryan pointed at the two mangled sunflowers on the ground, his threatening intent obvious.
It was as if he were saying—
See that? That's what happens to disobedient sunflowers.
The sunflowers shuddered violently, several petals falling off from fear.
They dared not speak, nodding desperately instead. In their minds, this human was far more terrifying than the zombies in the backyard.
Seeing that they weren't going to cause trouble, Ryan casually sat cross-legged in the flower field.
He closed his eyes and focused on refining chakra.
Honestly, if he had a proper cultivation technique to enter the Qi Refining stage, he would've done it long ago and opened the system's newbie gift pack.
Unfortunately…
He was stuck right at the threshold.
All he could do was hope to encounter more cultivation-related tasks in the future.
He promised he wouldn't complain about the system being absurd anymore.
For now, if he wanted strength, he still had to rely on chakra training.
Blue chakra gathered in his abdomen, flowed through his limbs, and spread across hundreds of meridians throughout his body.
The refinement speed was astonishing.
Normally, it would take him ten minutes just to get chakra moving—let alone circulating through his entire body.
Now—
The chakra refinement speed had increased by seventy percent.
Ryan was secretly shocked.
After clearly sensing the change, he stopped refining chakra.
Even after stopping, the refinement speed still maintained a fifty percent boost.
Which meant—
As long as he didn't spam large-scale jutsu, his current chakra pool combined with the "guardians'" recovery ability was enough to sustain prolonged combat.
The downside…
This ability only worked during the daytime.
Still, this task reward was quite decent. Aside from the sunflowers being absurd, they solved his current problem of insufficient chakra.
Thinking this, Ryan formed hand seals and used Shadow Clone Jutsu.
With a poof, ten shadow clones appeared around him.
This was the absolute limit.
When his father taught him this jutsu, he had repeatedly warned him never to do this—excessive chakra consumption could endanger his life.
Even if it didn't kill him, the fatigue and mental backlash after the clones dispersed would be unbearable for most people.
But now—
After creating ten clones, with the sunflowers' recovery in effect, his chakra returned to full in under a minute.
He could even cast Shadow Clone Jutsu again.
Of course, Ryan didn't do that.
He dispelled the clones and flicked the sunflowers on his shoulders.
"Can you spit things out?"
The two sunflowers tilted their heads at each other, swayed left and right—and then spat a faceful of sunflower seeds straight at Ryan.
The seeds rained down like a dense shower.
Judging by the pile on the ground—
If he took them home and roasted them, he wouldn't need to steal snacks from Sasuke today.
Despite achieving accidental seed freedom, Ryan felt zero happiness.
Veins bulged on his forehead as he grabbed one sunflower by the "neck" and growled,
"I'm not eating this right now!"
He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to rip them off, and said patiently,
"Give me something special."
"Don't tell me this is all you can spit out!"
Hearing this, the sunflowers seemed to understand his meaning.
They nodded vigorously, and their bodies suddenly emitted an intense light.
Ryan felt as if he were staring directly at the sun—or like a teammate had thrown a flashbang directly in his face back in his gaming days.
His eyes burned.
And he really wanted to punch something.
Just you wait—I'll pluck you bald later!
After about three seconds, the light faded.
When Ryan could see again, he noticed two golden orbs on the ground.
The urge to punish his "guardians" instantly subsided.
That said…
The blinding light from earlier could actually be used as a combat tactic.
At the very least, it could cause temporary blindness.
Hmm… not bad.
Ryan convinced himself and crouched down to examine the glowing orbs.
After a full three minutes of observation, aside from thinking they looked mystical, he couldn't identify anything special.
He pointed at the orbs and tilted his head at the sunflowers.
"What do they do?"
The sunflowers stared at the orbs, thought for a long time, then nodded in unison.
"Edible! The kids next door are already crying from envy!"
"Oh my—that flavor—absolutely authentic!"
Ryan: "..."
Silence fell over the scene.
The sunflowers looked increasingly guilty, clearly afraid Ryan might lose his temper and eat them instead.
Ryan stared at the orbs for a long time, murderous intent leaking out despite his efforts.
He struggled internally, repeatedly telling himself:
Calm down…
They're still useful…
Don't kill them… don't kill them…
After a few minutes of calming himself, he grabbed one orb and, following the "edible" logic, brought it toward his mouth.
Before it even reached his lips, the orb dissolved into starlike particles and merged into his body.
Instantly, Ryan felt his cells become active.
Healing?
He closed his eyes and sensed the changes inside his body.
His expression softened.
Glancing at the remaining orb, he pulled a kunai from his pouch and lightly cut his arm.
Blood seeped from the wound.
He repeated the same process.
As the light dispersed into his body, the wound healed completely.
Just as he'd expected.
"So it's related to healing."
Ryan murmured, joy appearing between his brows.
He turned and headed back inside, intending to share the good news with his dear little brother.
"My adorable little brother~"
"Come here for a moment."
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