Under the glow of the setting sun, Seimei's figure appeared abruptly.
He stood in the central clearing of Moon Island, letting out a long breath.
His skin was flushed red, and hot air steamed from his mouth and nose with every breath—marks of the damage he'd taken from the harsh environment below.
But thanks to his 39-point "Physique" stat and its incredible recovery rate, those injuries healed in mere moments.
Cracking his neck, Seimei dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, every shadow clone on and off the island dissolved into nothing.
A flood of memories, chakra, and natural energy surged into his body.
As usual, Seimei first suppressed the incoming memories. Only after sorting and storing the chakra and natural energy did he start sifting through the information.
It took about fifteen minutes to process all the memories and absorb the training experience they contained.
When he was done, he opened his eyes again.
"Should be about right," he murmured.
That's right—after nearly ten hours of testing, he'd figured out exactly how many shadow clones he needed to assign to gathering natural energy and developing his kekkei tōta.
First, the natural energy part.
Because he was pouring so much more chakra into body enhancement now, his previous four hundred shadow clones weren't cutting it anymore. To keep up with the demand for full-speed body enhancement, he needed a whopping 550 shadow clones absorbing natural energy at once.
Of course, that was for when he went all-in on body enhancement. For the past two months, he'd been spending six hours a day using the Mind's Eye Technique to push his Sharingan's evolution, so he couldn't dedicate all his time to his body. For now, the four hundred clones were still enough.
That meant his chakra consumption for natural energy gathering wouldn't increase just yet.
But two months from now, when he bumped it up to 550 clones, the chakra cost would jump from 950,000 points per day to 1.3 million—an extra 350,000 points.
Now, onto the kekkei tōta development.
Unlike the natural energy issue, this one was already costing him a lot more.
Thanks to his skyrocketing mental strength, he now needed 160 shadow clones to most efficiently build experience with fusing the seven chakra nature transformations. That spiked his chakra consumption from 13.5 million points per day to 24 million—an increase of 10.5 million points.
That was no small number.
Luckily, the boosts from his recent "Physique" and "Spirit" stat increases were substantial enough to offset the extra costs.
After some calculations, his daily chakra surplus had gone from a deficit of 4.382 million points to a surplus of 7.118 million.
Here's the breakdown: the "Physique" boost added 17 million points to his daily chakra recovery, and the "Spirit" boost added another 10 million. Subtract the 10.5 million-point increase from developing kekkei tōta, plus an extra 2 million points he was now putting into body enhancement, and another 3 million for using the Mind's Eye Technique.
The extra 2 million for body enhancement? Yeah, that came from his tests yesterday, which confirmed he needed 120 million points of chakra for full-speed body enhancement. But since he was still spending six hours a day on the Mind's Eye Technique, he was only putting in 92 million points for his body—2 million more than the 90 million he used before his last transformation.
The 3 million? That was just for the Mind's Eye Technique.
So, all told, his daily chakra balance went from a negative 4.382 million to a positive 7.118 million.
As he'd noted before, the earlier surplus of 22.618 million was just a temporary figure. Even this new 7.118 million was transitional.
Two months from now, when his Sharingan's evolution hit its critical point and he stopped using the Mind's Eye Technique, he'd redirect those six hours to body enhancement. That would shake up the numbers again.
Plus, in about half a month, his "Chakra Control" skill would hit Level 10, which would likely shift things even more.
Seimei was pretty stoked about that.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he stood up. With a flicker of intent, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and teleported to the primal forests in the northeastern Fire Country.
He no longer needed to train inside a volcano, so there was no reason to stay on Moon Island or make his wood clones run back and forth.
Now, he could train right here in the forest.
With that decided, Seimei got to work.
First, he summoned 400 shadow clones to gather natural energy, topping off the reserves in the seal in his abdomen.
Then, he created 160 more shadow clones to focus on developing his kekkei tōta.
Finally, he sat cross-legged and used the Mind's Eye Technique to keep pushing his Sharingan's evolution.
And so, he dove into round after round of training.
---
A week later, Seimei had returned to the village once for a break.
Even so, he'd managed over seven full days of body enhancement.
The results were clear—his body was showing noticeable changes.
Based on those changes, he estimated how long it would take for his next transformation.
Despite the big jump in efficiency for body enhancement, the time needed was still longer than last time—and not just by a little.
Unlike his "Spirit" stat, which only needed a slight boost to his Sharingan's evolution to break past the 40-point mark, improving his "Physique" required real, tangible physical evolution.
And that was no easy feat.
As it happened, this next transformation would push his "Physique" to 40, triggering a qualitative leap. The difficulty was obvious.
His rough estimate? At least a year for his body to complete the transformation—three months longer than the nine months it took last time.
Even if he redirected the six hours from the Mind's Eye Technique to body enhancement in two months, it would still take over nine months.
Seimei wasn't thrilled about waiting that long.
For one, it was just too much time.
For another, his recent "Spirit" stat boost had sent his mental strength through the roof, putting unprecedented pressure on his physical body. Sure, he could seal away some of that mental energy to ease the strain, like he'd done before, but that would slow down his other training—like developing his kekkei tōta.
And he definitely didn't want to delay that.
So, he'd have to find another way to shorten the time for his next transformation.
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