After checking his gains, Seimei waited in place for a while.
About fifteen minutes later, a figure suddenly appeared before him.
It was none other than the shadow clone that had left earlier.
The moment he saw the clone, Seimei eagerly asked, "How'd it go?"
"Everything went smoothly!" the clone replied concisely.
With that, it tossed a sealed scroll to Seimei and continued, "Check the details yourself!"
As it spoke, the clone dispelled itself with the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique).
Seimei caught the scroll.
At the same time, a flood of memories surfaced in his mind.
Quickly sifting through them, Seimei saw the entire process of the shadow clone extracting chakra from Danzo.
He saw that the clone didn't stop after draining one million chakra points but kept going until it had extracted a full one and a half million.
The reason it stopped at one and a half million, rather than taking more, was simple. As the clone continued to siphon chakra, it noticed a slight disturbance in a seal embedded deep within Danzo's soul.
It was as if the clone's aggressive chakra extraction had awakened the seal, triggering a faint reaction.
Fortunately, the clone stopped in time, allowing the seal to settle back down.
After waiting a bit longer to confirm nothing else was amiss, the clone teleported back.
Seeing all this through the clone's memories, Seimei couldn't help but frown.
It was becoming increasingly clear that the seal was likely tied to the Pure Land—or, more precisely, to the Sage of the Six Paths himself.
This made his plan to siphon chakra from Danzo through the Pure Land a lot riskier.
For a moment, Seimei even considered halting the operation.
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
Since he'd already started, there was no point in stopping halfway.
At worst, he'd be more cautious moving forward, having his shadow clones disguise themselves to extract Danzo's chakra without revealing his own presence, and keeping the amount steady.
Give up? Absolutely not!
Making up his mind in an instant, Seimei stored the scroll containing Danzo and began channeling the Senro Bansho Fūjin (All-Encompassing Seal) at his forehead to absorb the chakra that had returned with the clone.
Since it was essentially moving chakra from one hand to the other, the process was quick. In less than two minutes, he'd stored all the chakra in the interdimensional space at his forehead.
Seimei planned to use this chakra entirely on the Reika no Jutsu (Spirit Transformation Technique).
His Reika no Jutsu hadn't reached max level yet. He'd only paused its progress to free up chakra for perfecting the Fushin Sakuon: Keiyaku Shunshin no In (Heart-Sealing Soul Lock: Contract Teleportation Seal).
Now that the Fushin Sakuon was complete, it was time to resume leveling up Reika no Jutsu.
Based on the past rate of 500 chakra points per proficiency point, his daily investment of 1.5 million chakra points would yield 3,000 proficiency points.
At that pace, going from Level 9 (1/100,000) to Level 10 (0/0), which required 100,000 proficiency points, would take just under thirty-five days.
Calculating this in his head, Seimei nodded in satisfaction.
Closing the panel, he shifted his focus to his physical evolution and the development of Lava Release.
He'd previously estimated that his body would undergo another transformation around early February. Today was February 3rd, and his body was indeed on the verge of that change.
Seimei figured it would take a week at most for his body to reach the tipping point.
When that happened, he could attempt a breakthrough using Hito no Miya (Human Shrine).
Once his body transformed again, his potential would increase, and his natural chakra recovery rate would improve.
This would give him more chakra to use for training.
Additionally, his Byakugan, closely tied to his physical evolution, would likely see a sharp spike in progress.
The last time his body transformed, his Constitution attribute went from 24 to 25, and his evolution progress jumped by 500 points.
This time, it'd probably be even more significant.
After all, his Constitution was about to go from 25 to 26, balancing out with his Mental attribute, which would amplify the boost.
Just recently, he'd been frustrated with how slow his Byakugan's evolution was. This boost should save him a ton of time.
And that was just the short-term benefit.
Beyond that, his body's evolution would also enhance his Byakugan's capacity.
This meant he could use more chakra daily to nurture it.
As long as he had enough chakra, this would drastically cut down the time needed to evolve his Byakugan to a higher level.
This was a long-term gain!
Seimei was really looking forward to it.
And it wasn't just his Byakugan—his Sharingan's evolution progress would likely get a boost too.
While it wouldn't be as dramatic as last time, when it jumped by 1,000 points, it wouldn't be insignificant either.
Why wouldn't it be as big as last time? Simple—last time, his body's transformation fully integrated Hashirama's cells.
As everyone knows, Hashirama's cells act as a catalyst for evolving an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan into a Rinnegan.
That's why his progress had spiked by 1,000 points back then.
Now that Hashirama's cells were already fully integrated, expecting another jump that big wasn't realistic.
Still, any progress was progress, and it would save him some time.
Gathering his thoughts, Seimei turned his attention to developing Lava Release.
Though developing Lava Release was proving tougher than expected, nearly two months and close to 60 million chakra points had gotten him close to a breakthrough.
Seimei estimated that in as little as seven or eight days—or two weeks at most—he'd complete the development of Lava Release.
When that happened, he'd master the technique of combining Fire and Earth chakra natures.
This would bring him one step closer to fusing all seven chakra natures and ultimately mastering the Bloodline Net.
As for which Bloodline Limit to develop after Lava Release? Seimei already had a plan: Ice Release.
Why Ice Release? The reasoning was straightforward. After successfully developing Wood Release and Lava Release, he'd have mastered the fusion of Water and Earth, as well as Earth and Fire.
For the next Bloodline Limit, he'd need to incorporate another chakra nature. Of the five basic chakra natures—excluding Water, Fire, and Earth—that left Wind and Lightning.
Wind and Fire made Scorch Release. Lightning and Water made Storm Release. Lightning and Earth might make Explosion Release, and Wind and Earth could be Magnet Release.
He wasn't sure about the latter two, and without references, they weren't viable options.
Between the first two, logic suggested he should go for Storm Release.
After all, he had research and training notes from Uchiha Madara, found in the Uchiha clan's library. While they wouldn't let him develop the Bloodline Limit outright, they'd save him a lot of time.
Plus, he had Darui from the Hidden Cloud Village as a backup reference.
With such favorable conditions, Storm Release seemed like the obvious choice.
So why pick Ice Release?
Simple: the conditions for developing Storm Release were so good that he could tackle it anytime. Ice Release, on the other hand?
With the Third Shinobi World War over, the Bloodline clans in the Hidden Mist Village were declining. Back when the war was still ongoing, Seimei had faced a Ice Release shinobi from the Yuki clan.
But now, according to reports from his shadow clone in the Hidden Mist, the Yuki clan's numbers had dwindled over the past year, and not a single member had awakened their Bloodline Limit.
Seimei worried that if he delayed any longer, the Yuki clan might not have any Bloodline shinobi left.
If that happened, finding a reference to develop Ice Release would mean waiting for Haku to awaken his Bloodline Limit.
Seimei wasn't about to wait that long.
That's why he decided his next Bloodline Limit would be Ice Release—to take advantage of the Yuki clan's remaining shinobi before they faded completely.
(End of Chapter)