Watching his shadow clones head off, Seimei didn't waste a second. With a flicker of thought, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
In an instant, he left the lush greenery of Moon Island and appeared inside the hellish inferno of a volcano.
The blistering heat and crushing pressure surrounded him. Seimei took a deep breath, letting the toxic air seep into his lungs. With a thought, he drew on the natural energy stored in the seal within his abdomen, instantly entering Sage Mode.
A surge of immense power coursed through his body. After a moment to adjust, Seimei followed the training regimen of The Extreme of the Body, channeling sage chakra to gradually strengthen his physique.
Ever since the invisible barrier holding back his physical growth was shattered last night, he could feel clear progress again when practicing The Extreme of the Body.
Lost in the rhythm of enhancing his body, Seimei didn't notice time slipping by.
An hour passed in a flash.
Snapping out of his trance, Seimei abruptly stopped.
He glanced around, let out a long breath, and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave the volcano.
His vision shifted in a blur.
In an instant, he stood in the clearing at the center of Moon Island.
Familiar surroundings greeted him, and without hesitation, he exited Sage Mode.
After waiting a moment for his body to heal from the volcano's harsh toll, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
In a flash, every shadow clone—on and off the island—dissolved into nothing.
A flood of memories poured into his mind.
Seimei held off on processing them, first sorting and storing the chakra and natural energy that came with them. Only then did he begin sifting through the memories.
At first, the memories from the clones absorbing natural energy were nothing out of the ordinary.
But when he processed the memories from the clones working on developing the Bloodline Net, he noticed something different.
He could clearly feel that increasing the number of clones dedicated to this task had significantly boosted the experience he gained.
On top of that, the experience he'd accumulated over the past few months was being put to good use.
Together, these factors sped up his progress in developing the Bloodline Net.
Still, Seimei wasn't satisfied. Adding five more clones wasn't his limit.
Opening his eyes, he swallowed several enhanced soldier pills to replenish the energy he'd burned over the past hour. Then, he formed hand signs and performed the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again.
For the first batch, he summoned 300 shadow clones, just like before.
He sealed them into a scroll and handed it to a waiting wood clone, who would take it to the primal forest in the northeastern Land of Fire to continue absorbing natural energy.
For the second batch, he summoned 75 clones to work on the Bloodline Net.
That's right—he'd added five more clones this time.
With a wave of his hand, he sent the 75 clones on their way.
Then, with a thought, Seimei used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport back to the volcano beneath Moon Island. He began a new round of physical enhancement, constantly testing his body's limits in the process.
Every hour, he returned to Moon Island, recalled all his shadow clones, and absorbed their training experiences from the past hour.
Based on their results, he adjusted his training plan for the next hour.
Round after round, the cycle continued.
Before he knew it, evening was approaching.
Seimei returned to Moon Island once more and dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, every shadow clone dissolved.
Another wave of memories flooded his mind.
After fully absorbing and processing them, Seimei nodded to himself.
After more than a dozen rounds of training, he finally had a clear understanding of his current state and a solid plan for his future training.
First, he decided to stabilize the number of clones working on the Bloodline Net at 90.
This was the most cost-effective setup he'd determined after hours of testing.
At this number, he could gain substantial training experience without wasting too much chakra.
Of course, the increased chakra consumption was unavoidable.
For the past few months, he'd only used 65 clones for this task. Now, with 90, his chakra usage naturally spiked.
By his calculations, maintaining 90 clones all day would require an unprecedented 13.5 million points of chakra for this training alone.
That was 3.75 million points more than the previous 9.75 million.
In other words, he'd need to pull an extra 3.75 million points from his daily chakra surplus to cover the gap.
Then there was his physical endurance.
According to his estimates, to maximize efficiency in full-day physical enhancement training, he'd need to invest 90 million points of chakra daily.
Before, he only needed 66 million points.
That's about a 35% increase in consumption.
Of course, he couldn't train at full speed yet, since he still had to dedicate six hours a day to performing the Mind's Reflection Technique to stimulate his Sharingan's evolution.
This meant his daily chakra investment for physical enhancement was around 61 million points.
Compared to the 66 million points he used to spend for full-day training, that was about 5 million points less.
After accounting for the 3 million points needed for the Mind's Reflection Technique to evolve his Sharingan, he still had a surplus of 2 million points.
As a result, his daily chakra surplus dropped from 23.618 million points to 21.868 million points (= 23.618 - 3.75 + 2).
But despite these calculations, Seimei's face showed no trace of joy.
Why? Because in just over two months, at the current rate of six hours of training per day, his Sharingan's evolution would reach its next critical point.
When that happened, the six hours spent on it would be redirected to physical enhancement, and his daily surplus of 21.868 million chakra points wouldn't be enough to cover the demand.
How could he be happy about that?
And this was just the beginning. Moving forward, every time he went all-out on physical enhancement, his chakra surplus likely wouldn't be enough to cover the shortfall.
He'd have to dip into the reserve chakra he'd accumulated over the years to make up the difference.
Thankfully, over the past two years, he'd built up a hefty chakra reserve, enough to sustain him for quite a while.
Otherwise, his expression wouldn't just lack joy—it'd be a lot worse.
He might even be considering capturing more tailed beasts already.