Time passed like a fleeting shadow, and in the blink of an eye, a week had gone by.
That night, in the northeastern part of the Land of Fire, deep within a pristine forest, Seimei sat cross-legged beside a crackling campfire, quietly practicing the 'Heart Reflection Technique' to advance the evolution of his Sharingan.
Suddenly, a jolt ran through his spirit, and his eyes snapped open.
In his pupils, a mark resembling a black sun appeared—it was the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, activated unconsciously.
At the same time, a wave of pressure radiated from him, instantly silencing the chirping of insects and birds around him.
Seimei was no stranger to this scene and knew exactly what was happening.
A spark of joy lit up his heart. He quickly focused his mind, reining in the aura emanating from him while gradually bringing the uncontrolled portion of his mental energy back under control.
Time ticked by, second by second.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally regained full control over his mental energy.
The oppressive aura around him slowly dissipated.
"Panel!"
With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
As expected, his 'Mental' attribute had increased by one point, from 32 to 33.
Why the boost? Simple. After over two months of evolution, his Sharingan's progress had climbed from (30,000/100,000) to (40,000/100,000).
This naturally pushed his 'Mental' attribute up by a point.
Originally, Seimei had planned to boost his 'Physical' attribute before making further breakthroughs with his Sharingan or Byakugan, hoping to close the gap between his 'Mental' and 'Physical' stats.
But now, not only had the gap not shrunk, it had widened by another point.
Currently, his 'Mental' attribute was three points higher than his 'Physical' attribute.
Even though both his mind and body had undergone a qualitative transformation at 30 points, allowing them to handle a larger gap, a three-point difference still felt like a looming threat.
After all, the higher the base attributes, the greater the disparity each point represented.
Before, with a two-point gap, his mind and body could still maintain balance.
But now, a three-point gap was starting to feel dangerous.
Fortunately, his body was close to another transformation. In at most three weeks, he'd succeed.
Once his 'Physical' attribute increased, this hidden worry would be resolved.
With this thought, Seimei let out a sigh of relief.
Since he had a plan, he didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, he shifted his focus to testing the changes brought by this boost to his 'Mental' attribute.
First, there was the increase in his theoretical chakra limit.
After some testing, he concluded that the jump from 32 to 33 in his 'Mental' attribute had raised his potential—or theoretical chakra limit—by about 3.5 million points.
It wasn't a massive increase, but it wasn't small either. Compared to the 3 million-point boost when his 'Mental' attribute went from 31 to 32, this was an extra 500,000 points.
Next was his body's natural chakra recovery rate.
This was suppressed by the imbalance between his mental and physical attributes, so the increase was smaller—only about 1.6 million points.
This was just 100,000 points more than the 1.5 million-point increase from his last 'Mental' attribute boost.
Seimei frowned slightly at the result but quickly relaxed.
As long as this imbalance didn't persist too long and cause irreversible issues, the suppressed potential would be unleashed once his 'Physical' attribute caught up.
No need to stress about it.
Beyond these two changes, the boost to his 'Mental' attribute also strengthened his mental fortitude.
This meant he could now handle more shadow clones training at high intensity simultaneously.
After a rough test, Seimei estimated he could sustain about a thousand shadow clones at once.
But right now, he had no need for that many.
What was more useful was the additional 1.6 million points of freely usable chakra each day, which further slowed down the rate at which he needed to draw on his reserve chakra.
This meant his reserves could last even longer.
Clearing his mind, Seimei adjusted his state and resumed his earlier training.
Time flew by once again.
In the blink of an eye, it was mid-April.
That noon, inside a volcano beneath Moon Island, Seimei completed another round of his 'Body Extreme' training, but he felt little progress.
It was as if an invisible shackle was holding his body back, limiting his growth.
Every effort he made was ruthlessly blocked by this barrier.
All his sweat and hard work seemed to amount to nothing.
For an ordinary person, this situation might not lead to complete despair, but it would certainly feel discouraging. They might push on for a while before losing their drive.
But Seimei was different.
When he confirmed he could progress no further, instead of despair, he felt a surge of excitement.
Why? Because this meant his body was on the verge of another transformation.
Without hesitation, Seimei used the 'Flying Thunder God Technique' to teleport to the surface of Moon Island.
Before his body could fully recover, he dispelled his 'Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.'
Instantly, a flood of memories rushed into his mind, accompanied by a massive influx of chakra and natural energy.
Seimei split his focus, storing the chakra in the interdimensional space at his forehead and the natural energy in the space created by his 'Three Elements Sealing Technique' in his abdomen.
Then, he sifted through the memories, converting the training experiences they contained into proficiency points for the corresponding skills.
Once that was done, his body had mostly recovered.
Seimei pulled out a few enhanced soldier pills from his ninja pouch, popped them into his mouth, and replenished the energy he'd just expended.
After adjusting his condition to its peak, he began tackling the bottleneck.
With a thought, he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.
Then, he invoked the power of 'Human Control,' enhancing himself, and channeled a large amount of chakra, condensing it into Yang Release chakra to infuse into his cells.
This way, guided by 'Human Control,' his cells would mutate continuously, ultimately breaking through the bottleneck.
Of course, this process wasn't instantaneous—it required time.
In the blink of an eye, night fell.
Under the moonlight, Seimei sat cross-legged.
After once again injecting Yang Release chakra into his cells, letting them evolve under the guidance of 'Human Control,' he heard a sound like glass shattering.
In that moment, Seimei knew he'd succeeded.
His eyes snapped open.
Feeling his body, he sensed an incredible lightness, as if a thousand-pound weight had been lifted.
A surge of warmth flowed from within, coursing through his dense chakra meridian network and spreading across his entire body, making him so comfortable that he closed his eyes again.
Seimei knew this was the transformation process, so he didn't resist.
When he opened his eyes again, the transformation was complete, and his physical strength had reached a new level.