With his decision made, Seimei wasted no time. He pulled out the books and scrolls left behind by the Second Tsuchikage, Mu.
While these didn't contain ready-made instructions for mastering Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique or Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique, they did outline Mu's thought process during the development of Dust Release and ideas for subsequent ninjutsu techniques.
Over the past few months, Seimei's shadow clones had focused on figuring out how to fuse the nature transformations of Wind, Fire, and Earth chakra. They'd only skimmed this part of the material.
But now, it was time to shift gears.
Seimei planned to create two hundred shadow clones dedicated to studying this knowledge, hoping to soon develop his own versions of Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique and Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique.
As for the other two hundred shadow clones? He decided they'd join the existing hundred in absorbing natural energy.
Yup, he was doubling down on gathering natural energy.
Sure, when natural energy was in short supply before, he'd put this option on hold. But times had changed. Back then, he needed all his shadow clones focused on developing Dust Release. Now that he'd succeeded, he could afford to redirect some to address the natural energy shortage.
With these two hundred extra shadow clones, he could not only make up for the two million points of natural energy he was short but also cover the gap caused by pausing the Reflecting Heart Technique to extend his Extreme Body training.
With enough natural energy to synthesize Sage Chakra, his body-strengthening efficiency would skyrocket. Maybe he wouldn't even need twenty days—half a month at most—and his body would hit the tipping point for a transformation.
This thought sparked some excitement in Seimei.
On the topic of natural energy, aside from rest periods and the three days spent awakening Dust Release, he'd been training normally for thirty-two days. That time had built up enough proficiency to push his Natural Energy Perception and Natural Energy Control to the peak of Level 8.
At this pace, those skills would hit Level 9 either today or tomorrow.
When that happened, they'd undergo a qualitative leap, letting him absorb even more natural energy.
With that in mind, Seimei got to work.
He opened his ninja pouch, pulled out a few enhanced soldier pills, and popped them into his mouth to replenish the energy he'd just burned. Then, he formed hand signs and unleashed the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Clouds of chakra smoke puffed up, and five hundred shadow clones appeared around him.
Looking at them, Seimei split them into three groups as planned. Two hundred grabbed the books and scrolls to start researching and developing the Dust Release techniques.
From the remaining three hundred, he picked thirty and sent them across the island to absorb nearby natural energy.
That left two hundred seventy shadow clones. Seimei glanced at them, pulled out a scroll, and sealed them all inside. Then, he used the Wood Clone Technique to create a wood clone, tossed the scroll to it, and said, "Yo, take them and go!"
The wood clone didn't waste words. It caught the scroll and zoomed off toward the primeval forest in the northeastern part of the Land of Fire.
Watching it leave, Seimei nodded, then flickered away, teleporting to the volcano beneath Moon Island to start his training.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Before he knew it, the next day had arrived.
That morning, Seimei emerged from the volcano. As usual, he recalled all his shadow clones outside, absorbing their training experience and memories from the past hour. Suddenly, a spark of clarity hit him.
He knew it—his Natural Energy Perception and Natural Energy Control were about to level up.
Without hesitation, he focused his mind, processing the insights flooding his head.
The process took about ten minutes.
When he opened his eyes again, he immediately checked his status panel.
Sure enough, his Natural Energy Perception and Natural Energy Control had jumped from Level 8 to Level 9 (1/100,000)!
And no, Level 9 wasn't the cap for these skills.
That caught Seimei off guard, but it was good news.
For now, he set aside thoughts of their ultimate limits and decided to test the actual effects of Level 9 Natural Energy Perception and Natural Energy Control.
He glanced around, sensing the natural energy nearby was a bit thin. After a moment's thought, he locked onto the island in the southern seas of the Land of Fire where he'd first trained. With a flicker of intent, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport there.
His vision shifted in an instant!
Looking at the somewhat familiar surroundings, Seimei felt a twinge of nostalgia. But he didn't linger on it. He cast Wind Release: Wings of Wind, soared into the sky, and activated his Byakugan to scan the area.
After confirming nothing was out of the ordinary, he landed back on the island, settling onto the giant rock at its center. Sitting cross-legged, he began absorbing the surrounding natural energy.
Right away, he noticed the difference.
At Level 8, he could only sense natural energy in a small nearby area. Now, at Level 9, while the energy was still sparse, he could feel it stretching far into the distance—like stars scattered across the night sky, everywhere he looked.
Yup, Level 9 had massively expanded his perception range.
If that was all, the upgrade would've been underwhelming. Sensing energy was one thing; using it was another.
Luckily, his Natural Energy Control had leveled up too.
At Level 9, he could effortlessly manipulate all the natural energy within his perception range. That was a huge boost.
Seimei tested it for a few minutes and concluded that, even without the extra two hundred shadow clones, the original hundred could now gather enough natural energy for his daily training needs.
Of course, he wasn't about to cut back. Natural energy was scarce in the outside world, so the more he could stockpile, the better.
But this brought up a new issue: storage. His Level 7 Three Elements Sealing Technique could only hold five million points of natural energy. With his Level 9 Natural Energy Perception and Control, it wouldn't take long to max it out.
He'd need to increase the seal's capacity, which meant leveling up the Three Elements Sealing Technique.
Opening his proficiency panel, he saw that his Three Elements Sealing Technique was already at its max—Level 7 (0/0). To improve it, he'd have to break its limit.
Fortunately, the seal's structure was relatively simple. Beyond requiring some skill in sealing techniques, it mostly tested his control over the three types of energy.
And that was his specialty.
Breaking the limit shouldn't be too hard.
With that in mind, Seimei decided to reassign one hundred of the three hundred shadow clones gathering natural energy to focus on studying this.
With that sorted, he turned his attention to another effect of Natural Energy Control: managing the natural energy within his body.
At Level 8, he could handle one million points of natural energy flowing through him without losing control. Now? He drew natural energy from the Three Elements Sealing Technique in his abdomen, letting it build up in his body.
Soon, his meridians held one million points of natural energy. Then one and a half million, two million, two million two hundred thousand… until he'd pulled all two and a half million points from the seal, and still didn't feel his limit.
His eyes widened, sparkling with excitement.
After some careful sensing, he estimated he could handle another five hundred thousand points or so.
In other words, he could now control up to three million points of natural energy—more than double his previous limit and even surpassing his current chakra cap.
This meant that if he chose to pause tapping into his body's potential and stop increasing his chakra limit, he could start training for Sage Mode right now.
But that would be shortsighted.
Compared to mastering Sage Mode and then boosting his chakra limit, Seimei preferred letting things progress naturally. Every time he used Sage Chakra to train Extreme Body, he was giving his body a chance to adapt. If he kept at it, achieving Sage Mode would happen organically—no need for shortcuts.
This approach might stray a bit from his original plan, but plans weren't set in stone. When a better option came up, you adapted.
"Phew…"
A flurry of thoughts passed through his mind, and Seimei let out a long breath.
Then, he closed his eyes again, diving back into testing his Level 9 Natural Energy Perception and Control, determined to catch every little detail.