After testing the effects of Extreme Body, Seimei quickly focused, standing still to carefully sense the changes in his body, estimating the time until his next transformation.
Indeed, after half an afternoon yesterday, an entire night, and this morning's intense training, he could now make fairly accurate predictions.
Thanks to the immense pressure from the thousand-meter-deep ocean floor, Seimei estimated that in about five months—by early November—his body would undergo another transformation.
By then, his Physique attribute would increase by another point, closing the gap with his Mental attribute.
However, five months felt like an eternity to him.
Putting other concerns aside, even if he reduced the casting time of Reflection Technique and slowed the evolution of his Sharingan, it was still likely to fully evolve within those five months.
At that point, his Mental attribute would hit 30 points, surpassing his Physique attribute by three points—a significant risk.
Moreover, five months was enough time for him to optimize Extreme Body once or twice.
This could enhance its ability to advance his Byakugan, potentially triggering another evolution.
If that happened, his Mental attribute would likely increase again, further widening the imbalance between his mind and body.
But completely halting the progress of his Sharingan and Byakugan? That wasn't an option he was willing to consider.
In short, his situation was far from ideal.
Still, despite realizing this, Seimei didn't panic.
Why? Because five months was just his estimate based on the current situation.
In reality, the time needed for his body to reach the next transformation would definitely be shorter than that.
With this in mind, Seimei glanced at the bloodline section of his status panel.
As he'd seen earlier, his Lava Release was on the verge of advancing, while Wood Release and Ice Release had reached 70% on their evolution bars.
It wouldn't be long before they leveled up one after another.
When that happened, his innate talent would improve, making it easier to strengthen his body and significantly shortening the time needed to reach the next transformation threshold.
And that was just the smaller part of it.
After all, the advancement of his three bloodline limits would enhance his potential, perhaps making physical training easier in the long run, but the immediate impact might not be dramatic.
The real game-changer was improving his external training environment.
With this thought, Seimei looked down at the island beneath his feet, his gaze seeming to pierce through layers of obstacles to see the hellish scene within.
Training in such a harsh environment would drastically boost the speed of his physical enhancements.
This way, he could achieve his body's second transformation well within five months.
That would eliminate the risk of imbalance between his mind and body.
And with that, he wouldn't need to pause the development of his Sharingan and Byakugan.
With these thoughts in mind, Seimei shifted his focus.
He formed hand signs again, casting Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As clouds of chakra smoke dispersed, 300 shadow clones appeared around him.
Now that Extreme Body had reached the current stage's limit, he no longer needed to dedicate 100 shadow clones to practicing it.
So, moving forward, he planned to have 250 shadow clones work on developing Storm Release to speed up its progress.
With his Physique attribute having increased by one point, his body and mind were somewhat rebalanced, so adding another bloodline limit shouldn't be an issue.
As for the remaining 50 shadow clones, Seimei tasked them with further optimizing Extreme Body, tackling the theoretical challenge of integrating physical enhancement into the process.
With everything set, Seimei wasted no time. After sending the shadow clones off, he teleported to the ocean floor to begin his physical training.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Soon, an hour had passed.
Seimei returned to the island, as usual, deactivating Lightning Release Chakra Mode. After a brief adjustment, he channeled a burst of Fire Release chakra to evaporate the water on his body.
Then, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, recalling all his shadow clones.
Instantly, a flood of memories and information poured into his mind.
Seimei closed his eyes, carefully sifting through these memories, absorbing and processing the training experience they contained.
About 15 minutes later, he opened his eyes again.
This time, he no longer needed to spend time practicing Extreme Body to convert the experience into proficiency.
Coincidentally, the time he'd saved by pausing his Byakugan nurturing could now be fully dedicated to casting Extreme Body and boosting his Byakugan's evolution.
This way, not only did his Byakugan's evolution speed remain unaffected, but the time spent was actually reduced.
After his Physique attribute improved, nurturing his Byakugan took two and a half hours, while casting Extreme Body could only be sustained for two hours.
Though he'd only saved half an hour, it was enough for Seimei to squeeze in extra physical training.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Seimei opened his ninja pouch, swallowing several enhanced soldier pills to replenish his energy before diving into the next round of training.
Time continued to slip by.
Soon, night fell.
When Seimei returned to the island again and fully absorbed the experiences and memories of his shadow clones, he finally completed his training plan for the day.
With that, he decisively stopped training.
Today marked the tenth day of this intense training cycle, and it was time to head back for some rest.
Come to think of it, over the past 20-plus days, he hadn't received a single mission.
This made Seimei wonder about the village's covert preparations.
Ever since Uchiha Obito's invasion was discovered, Konoha's higher-ups had been secretly setting up a barrier.
Perhaps they wanted to keep him, a high-level asset, in the village to prepare for a potential conflict.
But it had been so many days, and there was still no news.
Was it because Obito had noticed something and hadn't returned? Or had Seimei been excluded from certain events, with things happening that his shadow clones weren't aware of?
Or maybe his shadow clones simply deemed the matters unimportant and didn't bother contacting him.
Seimei mulled it over but couldn't find an answer.
Oh well, he decided not to dwell on it. Everything would become clear once he returned, so there was no point wasting brainpower now.
With that, Seimei quickly packed his gear, formed hand signs, and cast Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak, soaring into the sky.
After circling the island a few times, he activated his Byakugan to ensure no one was around. Then, he formed more hand signs, casting Earth Release: Ultra-Lightweight Rock Technique.
With his body's density reduced, he flapped his wings and sped toward the Land of Fire at 1.5 kilometers per second.