On a giant boulder, Seimei opened his eyes. He glanced at his left arm—now nearly restored to its original state—and muttered, "Is this the limit?" Even as he spoke, his brows furrowed ever so slightly, betraying his dissatisfaction.
In truth, that was exactly the case.
Even though his left arm appeared to have returned to normal, with those horrifying "worms" beneath his skin now gone, it was nothing more than a facade. Thanks to the exceptional control over his body granted by the "Human Dominion" technique, Seimei could clearly sense that the Hashirama cells still hadn't been fully assimilated. At the moment, they were only in a semi-dormant state; as long as they weren't overly disturbed, they wouldn't really affect him. Of course, "unlikely" doesn't mean "impossible."
If you imagine the assimilation of these cells as a progress bar, it'd be sitting at roughly 30%. This progress offers some benefits, but it also comes at a price. For instance, from now on he must maintain at least 200,000 chakra points within his body to keep the Hashirama cells in check. Dropping below that threshold might not cause immediate issues, but over time problems are bound to arise. This means he'll have to be extra vigilant during his training. Fortunately, he now has a chakra reservoir—created technique—that can replenish any losses on demand. Without it, even a single use of the "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique" could unsettle the suppression over those cells, and repeated use might eventually let them run wild. Even with backup measures in place, this flaw would still negatively impact his training, daily life, and combat.
Luckily, this imperfection isn't permanent. His body has yet to complete its transformation, and once that happens the rate of assimilation for the Hashirama cells will undoubtedly improve.
By then, the chakra needed to suppress them will drop, and with it the associated headaches.
With that thought in mind, Seimei's furrowed brow softened just a bit. Without any hesitation, he redirected the Hashirama cells concentrated in his left arm throughout his body. After completing this, he activated the power of "Human Dominion" once more and simultaneously employed the "Palm Immortal Technique" to gather Yang Release chakra, completing the final step of his transformation. Although it was called the final step, he actually went through three rounds of reinforcement before finally shattering the invisible shackles that had bound him.
In an instant, a warm current arose from deep within his body—more precisely, from the very core of his cells. This current merged and slowly flowed throughout him, strengthening his life force with every pass. After a long time, a sense of relief finally washed over him. At that moment, Seimei felt as if the chains that had once bound his flesh had been broken, freeing him to continue fortifying his body and enhancing his "physicality."
Speaking of enhancing his physicality, Seimei took a moment to sense his body. He could clearly feel that as his transformation completed, the Hashirama cells spread throughout him had drawn closer, and the assimilation progress had leaped significantly. Previously, no matter how hard he tried, he could only push that progress to 30%. Now, it had reached 50%. While breaking through from nothing is always the hardest part, a sudden boost of 20 percentage points still filled him with delight.
Taking a deep breath, Seimei gradually eased the chakra he used to suppress the Hashirama cells until only 100,000 points remained—just enough to sense their faint pulsation. In other words, from now on, maintaining a mere 100,000 chakra points would keep his body in balance. Undoubtedly, that was fantastic news. And it wasn't even the end. As the assimilation of the Hashirama cells continued to progress, the chakra needed for their suppression would drop even further. Once they fully merged with his body, he wouldn't need to worry about suppressing them at all. He estimated that wouldn't take too long. The reason was simple: now that his body had transformed, it could support much stronger mental power, which meant his Mangekyō Sharingan was poised for an upgrade.
Once he evolved it into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—eliminating the risk of blindness—he'd be free to occasionally tap into "Human Dominion" to further boost the assimilation of the Hashirama cells. That's exactly why Seimei insisted it wouldn't be long before everything fell into place. Moreover, by periodically activating "Human Dominion," he could accelerate the strengthening of his body, pushing him even faster toward his next transformative breakthrough. Seimei figured that after, at most, one more transformation, the Hashirama cells would be completely assimilated, becoming an integral part of his power. At that point, the whole issue of suppression would be behind him.
Before he upgraded his Mangekyō Sharingan, though, he needed to assess the changes brought about by fusing the Hashirama cells with his recent transformation. The most obvious change was in his "physicality" attribute. This time, his physicality jumped by two points—from 22 to 24. That modest increase was evidence that the Hashirama cells hadn't been fully assimilated; otherwise, the boost would have been much more dramatic. Still, even this slight improvement significantly enhanced his bodily abilities—most notably, his self-healing.
And here's a fun tidbit: the latest scoop first broke in the "69 Chronicles!" Once his physicality surpassed 20, his self-healing was already remarkably strong. Now, with some Hashirama cell genes integrated, his healing ability had grown even more impressive.
Acting on a whim, Seimei reached into his ninja tool pouch and drew out a kunai. With a swift slash, he made a small cut on his arm. Even without intentionally using chakra to speed up the healing process, the wound closed completely within one minute—and in another minute, it had fully returned to normal. Had he employed medical ninjutsu or gathered Yang Release chakra to expedite the repair, the recovery could have taken as little as ten seconds. Seimei was extremely pleased with the results.
Beyond his self-healing, the most noticeable enhancements were in his chakra recovery rate and his theoretical maximum chakra capacity. His recovery came from two sources: the chakra generated by the "Chakra Refinement Technique" and the chakra naturally regenerated by his body. Previously, with a physicality of 22, his body could endure 22 straight hours of passive "Chakra Refinement." Now that his physicality had risen to 24, he could handle even greater strain. After a brief test, Seimei concluded that he could now operate the technique passively for 24 hours a day. However, since his proficiency with the "Chakra Refinement Technique" hadn't improved, he still could only refine 3,000 chakra points per hour—meaning the extra two hours only netted an additional 6,000 points of freely available chakra.
As for the major contributor, that was his body's natural chakra regeneration. Thanks to the Hashirama cells—and the fact that his physical and spiritual attributes had once balanced out—his daily natural chakra recovery leaped by 500,000 points, from 950,000 to 1,450,000 points. Combine that with the 24-hour nonstop operation of the "Chakra Refinement Technique" to total 1,522,000 points, and you're looking at an increase of 506,000 points over his previous total of 1,016,000. Undoubtedly, this was a substantial boost. If he channeled these extra points into his training, every skill would see accelerated improvement. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right time just yet.
Now, let's talk about his theoretical maximum chakra capacity. Previously, after his "spiritual" attribute broke through 23 points, his capacity increased by 200,000 points—to an astounding 1,350,000 points. This time, with a two-point boost in physicality plus the additional potential from the Hashirama cells, that number soared to 2,150,000 points. With such a high ceiling, Seimei wouldn't have to worry about exhausting his potential for a long while. And this was just a phase. Once his Mangekyō Sharingan advanced further and his spiritual attribute improved even more, both his natural chakra recovery and maximum capacity would surge once again. Seimei could almost foresee that this upgrade would be the most significant enhancement of his entire journey.