In the blink of an eye, several hours had passed.
It was now mid-afternoon.
Aside from a brief break at noon, Seimei had spent the entire time diligently practicing Body Extreme.
He hadn't even summoned any shadow clones during this period.
His focused effort paid off.
After completing another round of Body Extreme, the skill proficiency on his status panel jumped from lv0 (100/100) to lv1 (1/200)!
A subtle sense of enlightenment surfaced in his mind.
At that moment, Seimei knew he'd done it. After hours of practice, he had finally mastered the basics of Body Extreme.
Pausing his movements, Seimei stood still, carefully savoring the sudden clarity in his mind.
Time ticked by, second by second.
About ten minutes later, he opened his eyes again.
After a moment of reflection, he assumed the stance once more and began practicing Body Extreme again.
This time, while his movements didn't look much different, they felt noticeably smoother.
And they were.
If anyone with a Byakugan observed him now, they'd see that the chakra flowing through his meridians was moving several times faster than before.
At the same time, as he moved, this chakra was subtly stimulating his body, triggering faint changes.
It was only now that he vaguely sensed that practicing Body Extreme could indeed promote the evolution of his Byakugan.
Confirming this, Seimei's face lit up with relief.
He'd been confident in his theory, and there were no issues on paper, but until he saw results, he couldn't fully relax.
Now, feeling his Byakugan evolve due to his body's bloodline advancements, he could finally let go of his worries.
Of course, at lv1, Body Extreme wasn't yet potent enough to significantly affect his Byakugan's evolution, let alone replace chakra nurturing.
But still, seeing a glimmer of hope was better than groping in the dark.
"Phew…"
Letting out a long breath, Seimei calmed his emotions.
Mastering the basics was just the start.
The real challenge was pushing Body Extreme to the limits of its current framework.
Only then could it potentially replace his old method and drive his Byakugan's evolution.
But before that, he needed to test how much chakra practicing Body Extreme consumed now that he'd reached lv1.
Just as he was about to start, he remembered that Body Extreme was different from other skills. The effects of practicing it with his real body versus a shadow clone were noticeably distinct.
Since he'd likely rely on shadow clones for future practice, it made sense to have them test it now.
With that in mind, Seimei raised his hands, formed seals, and used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, 250 shadow clones appeared.
He assigned 200 of them to continue the morning's progress on fusing Water Release and Lightning Release chakra, while the remaining 50 began practicing Body Extreme.
After dividing them into groups, Seimei sent the shadow clones off.
He observed from a distance for a bit, ensuring nothing was amiss, then locked onto a Flying Thunder God mark at the ocean floor. Activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode, he coated his body in a protective layer of lightning chakra and used Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport.
Today, to push Body Extreme to lv1 in one go, he'd fallen behind on other skills that required his real body.
Most could be delayed, but physical enhancement couldn't wait.
So, for the rest of the day, he planned to focus entirely on strengthening his body.
Whoosh~
Seimei's body vanished from the spot.
---
An hour later, he reappeared.
Boom~
With practiced ease, he summoned Fire Release chakra to evaporate the water clinging to him.
Glancing at the shadow clones, Seimei dismissed the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique with a thought.
In an instant, all the shadow clones dissolved.
A flood of experience and memories poured into his mind, and he quickly closed his eyes to review them.
Time passed slowly.
About fifteen minutes later, he opened his eyes again.
As for Storm Release development, there was no need to dwell on it—it was still in the phase of gradual accumulation, not yet ready to be registered on his panel.
But Body Extreme…
A thoughtful glint flickered in Seimei's eyes.
He began moving again, personally practicing Body Extreme based on the memories.
This time, he went through over a dozen repetitions.
By the time he stopped, he'd burned through a fair amount of chakra and time.
Only then did the experience in his mind translate into proficiency.
Unlike other skills, while shadow clones could accumulate experience for Body Extreme, he had to practice it himself to convert that experience into actual proficiency.
This showed that Body Extreme placed a far greater emphasis on hands-on practice compared to other skills.
Seimei understood why.
After all, Body Extreme was about real, tangible results, unlike some ninjutsu that only required casting experience.
But understanding didn't change the fact that this process ate up extra time.
His days were already packed, every minute meticulously planned. Where was he supposed to find the time?
After mulling it over for a while, Seimei made a decision.
Starting today, he'd pause his daily Byakugan nurturing, reallocating those two and a half hours to converting Body Extreme proficiency.
This way, he wouldn't need to adjust the training time for his other skills.
As for the Byakugan's evolution progress…
Daily nurturing didn't add much anyway, especially compared to the 10,000 evolution points now required—it was a drop in the bucket.
So, it made more sense to focus on maxing out Body Extreme quickly and then catch up on the lost progress.
Plus, the five million chakra points saved from pausing Byakugan nurturing could cover the consumption of practicing Body Extreme.
He'd just discovered that practicing Body Extreme was extremely chakra-intensive.
Including the final conversion process, it took an average of over 600 chakra points to gain a single proficiency point.
If he kept 50 shadow clones practicing it daily, as he had just now, he could gain around 3,000 proficiency points.
3,000 times 600 meant 1.8 million chakra points.
Only by pausing Byakugan nurturing could he cover this gap with the saved chakra.
After thinking it over, Seimei nodded. "Alright, that's the plan."
Decision made, he didn't waste any more time. He formed seals again and used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As clouds of chakra smoke dispersed, 250 figures appeared once more.
As usual, he divided them into groups and sent them off.
Meanwhile, Seimei teleported back to the ocean floor to resume his physical enhancement training.
Half a month had passed, and his body was getting closer to a transformation.
He could now clearly feel the barrier limiting further physical growth.
At most, it would take another week—or maybe even within this training period—if he pushed hard, he might break through that bottleneck and push his body past its limits once again.