In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
On the open ground at the center of Moon Island, Seimei's figure appeared out of nowhere.
Drip, drip.
Droplets of seawater fell from his body.
Clearly, he had just teleported from the ocean floor.
With a thought, he conjured a burst of Fire Release chakra, instantly evaporating the water from his clothes.
"Phew."
Exhaling lightly to get his lungs working again, Seimei looked up at the shadow clones training both on and off the island.
Most of them were attempting to fuse Water Release and Lightning Release chakra, but a few were practicing an unusual taijutsu.
It was slow and deliberate, somewhat resembling the secret technique he'd once seen at the Hyuga clan's hidden training grounds—a method to awaken the Byakugan.
And indeed, that was the case.
The taijutsu his shadow clones were practicing was derived from the Hyuga clan's secret technique for activating the Byakugan.
Everything had gone as he'd expected.
A few days ago, when he returned to the village to rest, his shadow clone had indeed finished filling in the gaps.
After that, he began practicing.
But right from the start, he hit a snag: the Hyuga clan's secret technique had no effect on his current Byakugan.
With no other choice, he dove deep into analyzing why the technique worked.
From there, based on his own condition and knowledge, he developed a unique technique tailored to himself.
After days of experimentation, the technique had taken shape—the very one his shadow clones were now practicing.
Seimei estimated that within a day or two, it would be successfully etched onto his proficiency panel.
Once that happened, he could refine it further by grinding its proficiency.
Beyond this technique, over the past half-month, his Storm Release had officially entered the development phase.
A few days ago, while absorbing the training experiences of his shadow clones, he'd caught a fleeting spark of inspiration, breaking through the theoretical barriers to developing Storm Release.
He then began attempting to fuse the nature transformations of two chakras to create Storm Release.
He hadn't succeeded yet, but he was getting there.
Seimei's gaze swept over the clones working:on Storm Release, and with a thought, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
In an instant, all the shadow clones vanished.
At the same time, a flood of memories rushed into Seimei's mind, making him wince.
Since the balance between his mind and body had been disrupted half a month ago, every time he recalled his shadow clones, he felt a surge of pressure.
This forced him to reduce their numbers.
Before, he could handle 280 shadow clones training at high intensity simultaneously.
Now, he could only manage around 250.
No doubt, this had slightly lowered his training efficiency.
But it wasn't a huge loss.
Compared to that, his body's health was far more important.
Various thoughts flickered through his mind, but Seimei quickly refocused, diving wholeheartedly into the memories, absorbing and digesting the training experiences they contained.
Time ticked by.
About twenty minutes later, Seimei opened his eyes again.
A smile spread across his face.
No surprise there—his panel now had a new skill: Pinnacle of the Body: Lv0 (1/100)!
Indeed, Pinnacle of the Body was the name of the secret technique he'd developed, based on the Hyuga clan's methods, to aid the evolution of his Byakugan.
He'd thought it would take more time to etch it onto the panel, but to his surprise, it had happened this time.
And through the feedback from successfully imprinting the technique, Seimei realized just how narrow his previous thinking had been.
Before, he'd believed that to evolve the Byakugan, he needed to focus on a specific goal.
So, he'd planned to use a seal to gather massive amounts of chakra, creating a high-energy chakra environment to directly trigger the Byakugan's evolution.
But that was like forcing the Byakugan to passively adapt to a new environment—no different from a creature surviving through natural selection. It was just passive evolution!
Passive evolution would always lag behind active evolution.
This time, his Pinnacle of the Body was a form of active evolution, a stark contrast to simply nurturing the Byakugan with vast chakra reserves.
So, how did it work?
Simple. Unlike the Sharingan, which directly reflected the user's mental strength, the Byakugan relied more on bloodline power. The stronger the bloodline, the more powerful the Byakugan.
Thus, stimulating the body's bloodline was the key.
The Hyuga clan's secret technique used taijutsu to channel chakra, stimulating the bloodline to awaken the Byakugan.
Seimei's Pinnacle of the Body followed the same principle, but its effectiveness was leagues beyond the Hyuga's technique.
It was also far more suited to him.
He could foresee that as this technique grew, it would greatly accelerate his Byakugan's evolution.
Plus, he could integrate physical enhancement training into it, saving time and boosting efficiency.
In short, his earlier approach had been shortsighted.
Now, with his perspective broadened, he realized he could incorporate all body-related abilities into this technique to evolve his Byakugan.
One day, he might even develop a skill that could endlessly boost his "Constitution" attribute.
That's why he named it Pinnacle of the Body!
Perhaps only this could permanently resolve the imbalance between his mind and body.
Of course, these were just ideas for now.
His current priority was to grind the proficiency of Pinnacle of the Body to its limit, replacing the chakra-nurturing method to evolve his Byakugan.
Once that was done, he'd focus on integrating physical enhancement, streamlining his training and boosting efficiency.
These thoughts flashed through his mind, but Seimei quickly refocused. While the insight from imprinting Pinnacle of the Body was still fresh, he began practicing it on the spot.
He wanted to master it to the beginner level in one go.
That way, when his shadow clones practiced it later, they'd be far more efficient.
And so, standing alone, Seimei practiced Pinnacle of the Body over and over.
From time to time, he'd pause to reflect.
When he resumed, his movements became noticeably smoother.
Clearly, his proficiency was skyrocketing, inching closer to mastery.
(End of Chapter)