Time flies, and the years pass like a shuttle.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had gone by.
It was now mid-October.
That evening, in the Land of Fire, in the northeastern region, within the same primeval forest, Seimei completed a round of the Reflection Heart Technique and paused his actions.
With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
On it, his Sharingan's evolution progress had reached (59,870/100,000), just a hair's breadth away from the critical threshold of (60,000/100,000).
However, he knew that as he continued strengthening his body, the Human Control technique would passively boost his Sharingan's evolution by one or two points daily.
So, Seimei decided to stop grinding its progress for now. He didn't want his mental attributes to surge ahead before his body could undergo its transformation.
That kind of imbalance between mind and body would be a major hassle.
Moving forward, he could redirect the six hours he'd been spending daily on the Reflection Heart Technique to stimulate his Sharingan's evolution toward practicing Body of the Extreme to strengthen his body.
This would significantly speed up his physical evolution, bringing him closer to the critical point of transformation sooner.
And that was just one piece of good news.
Over the past half-month, he'd made another gain.
With a thought, Seimei closed the panel.
Looking up, he directed his gaze toward the ten shadow clones nearby, who were maintaining Sage Mode.
After half a month of practice, they'd accumulated enough proficiency. By the end of this round, his Sage Mode should level up.
Previously, his Sage Mode was already at lv8. Another upgrade would bring it to lv9.
This would trigger another qualitative leap in his Sage Mode.
At that point, its enhancement effect on his Body of the Extreme training would improve further.
And that would push his body even faster toward the critical point of transformation.
Seimei was eagerly looking forward to it.
With a thought, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
In an instant, all the shadow clones in the forest—whether the 500 absorbing natural energy, the 300 working on fusing the seven chakra natures to develop the Bloodline Net, or the ten right in front of him—dissolved and vanished.
A flood of chakra, natural energy, and memories surged into Seimei's body.
Without hesitation, he endured the discomfort, following his usual method: suppressing the influx of memories for now, sorting and storing the chakra and natural energy, then finally reviewing the memory information.
Time ticked by, second by second.
This time, it took a full half-hour before Seimei opened his eyes again.
A flash of joy crossed his face.
Just as he'd expected, after absorbing the experience from this round of shadow clones, his Sage Mode had indeed leveled up.
It was now lv9.
And his understanding of Sage Mode had undergone a qualitative leap.
Sitting in place, he pondered for a moment before suddenly standing up. Closing his eyes, he waited for less than ten seconds, then opened them again.
The moment his eyes opened, the unique sage markings appeared on his face.
Clearly, he had entered Sage Mode.
This speed was leagues faster than before—practically instantaneous.
And his condition?
Even at lv8, he couldn't fully suppress the distinctive chakra fluctuations when entering Sage Mode.
But now?
He slipped into Sage Mode almost silently.
If nothing else, this skill alone would give him the upper hand in a fight.
And then there was the boost it gave him.
Seimei could clearly feel that his strength, speed, reflexes, endurance, and other basic attributes had improved further, building on the already significant boost from lv8.
By how much?
Roughly 30%!
Considering how high his base attributes already were with lv8's Sage Mode boost, a further 30% increase was massive.
Seimei was beyond satisfied.
After a brief adjustment, he returned to the spot where he'd tested Sage Mode a month ago and began testing its amplification effect on ninjutsu.
No surprise—its boost to ninjutsu had also improved.
This filled Seimei with joy.
But it still wasn't the perfect state.
Sure, he could now enter Sage Mode in a split second, but that relied on the natural energy already stored in his body.
Without the natural energy in his abdominal seal space, relying solely on real-time absorption, it wouldn't be a matter of seconds.
With a thought, Seimei exited Sage Mode.
Then, he focused, sending all the natural energy left from the collapsed senjutsu chakra into the seal space in his abdomen.
Once no trace of natural energy remained in his body, he tried entering Sage Mode again.
Fully activating his Natural Energy Perception, bolstered by his 34-point mental attribute, he sensed the natural energy within a one-to-two-kilometer radius.
Then, using his perfect-level Natural Energy Control, he quickly drew that energy into his body.
While doing so, he multitasked, continuously fusing the natural energy with his chakra to create senjutsu chakra.
Time passed, second by second.
About three minutes later, the sage markings that had faded when he exited Sage Mode reappeared on his face.
He was back in Sage Mode.
But the time it took?
Clearly much longer—not even close to "instant."
And this was without interruptions. In a battle, it would likely take even more time.
This was why Seimei said it wasn't yet perfect.
In his mind, true perfection was like Hashirama Senju—entering Sage Mode effortlessly, at will.
Fortunately, this wasn't an insurmountable challenge.
Because even after reaching lv9, his Sage Mode still had a progress bar.
In other words, he could keep leveling it up.
Seimei estimated that once he grinded it to the S-rank skill's maximum level—lv10 (0/0)—he'd likely be able to do what Hashirama did.
He was really looking forward to that.
For now, though, he needed to pack up and return to Moon Island for a good night's rest.
Starting tomorrow, he'd test how fast his body could strengthen under the latest Sage Mode boost by training Body of the Extreme all day, then estimate how long it would take to reach transformation.