In the blink of an eye, evening had arrived.
Splash—
A sound of water being stirred echoed.
Seimei emerged from the sea, step by step, making his way to the shore ahead.
A surge of Katon (Fire Release) chakra flared up around his body, instantly drying his clothes.
He glanced at the shadow clones in the distance, still immersed in training. With a thought, he released the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu (Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu).
In an instant, all the clones vanished.
At the same moment, a massive wave of memories surged into Seimei's mind.
He quickly shut his eyes, carefully sifting through the memories, absorbing and digesting the accumulated training experience they had gathered.
Time ticked by, second after second.
This time, Seimei took a bit longer. It was over twenty minutes before he finally opened his eyes again.
A sharp glint flickered in his gaze, and a faint smile crept across his face.
With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
Just as he had sensed, his Fūton: Wings of Wind (Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa) had indeed advanced to Level 9 (0/0)—the state of perfection.
That's right—digesting the experience and memories from the clones had taken longer this time precisely because Wings of Wind had leveled up, requiring him to fully absorb all that came with it.
As for why it suddenly leveled up...
Actually, it wasn't sudden at all.
Two days ago, after his body underwent a transformation and his Constitution attribute was enhanced, the proficiency of Wings of Wind had already reached Level 8 (41250/50000).
After three more days of solid practice, he had finally filled the remaining gap and brought it to Level 9 (0/0)—a state of mastery.
So no, it wasn't a surprise at all. In fact, it was right on schedule.
But that's a matter for later.
Right now, he wanted to test what Wings of Wind could do at its peak.
Closing the panel, Seimei reviewed the new insights fresh in his mind. After a short moment of contemplation, he raised his hands and formed a seal, activating Fūton: Wings of Wind.
Whoosh!
A pair of pale blue wings instantly unfurled from his back.
But these weren't your typical, rough, chakra-formed wings—on the contrary, they were intricately detailed and lifelike, with a flexibility that made them seem almost natural.
And in truth, they were extremely agile.
With just a thought, Seimei flapped his chakra wings—and his body soared into the sky.
He flapped again, and like a butterfly darting through blossoms, he twisted and danced through the air with impressive finesse.
It was a long while before he finally slowed down.
Hovering high above, he looked down and saw the endless ocean blanketed in golden hues from the setting sun.
Though it wasn't his first time witnessing such a view, he still couldn't help but take a moment to admire it again.
Then, as a salty sea breeze brushed past him, he reined in his thoughts and shifted focus back to himself.
That first flight had only tested Wings of Wind on its own—next, he needed to see how well it synergized with his other jutsu.
With another hand seal, Seimei activated the Chakra Feather Robe (Chakura no Hagoromo).
Silently, a soft cyan glow shimmered into the shape of a flowing cloak, enveloping his entire body.
Despite its delicate appearance, this robe had powerful defensive capabilities. Thanks to its ever-renewing property, as long as it didn't suffer damage beyond a critical threshold, it would remain active.
But Seimei wasn't using it for defense this time—it was mainly to reduce air resistance while flying, and also to protect his body from the high temperatures generated during high-speed movement.
And he wasn't done yet.
Next, he cast a third jutsu—Doton: Super Light-Weight Rock Technique (Doton: Chō Keijūgan no Jutsu).
With this, Seimei drastically reduced his body's density, even lower than air.
A sense of lightness immediately surged through his whole body.
Without hesitation, he powered up his chakra wings and shot forward.
In the next instant, he blasted off like an arrow, vanishing into the horizon.
If someone were measuring his speed right now, they'd find that Seimei was flying at over 1 kilometer per second.
And even that wasn't his limit.
Back when his Super Light-Weight Rock Technique was only at Level 7, and Wings of Wind hadn't yet evolved into its advanced form, his maximum flight speed had already reached 3 km/s—but due to limited neural reaction speed, he could only maintain a steady speed of 1 km/s.
Now, however, his Light-Weight Rock Technique had also reached Level 9 (0/0)—his body's density was more than eight times lighter than it had been at Level 7.
At the same time, Wings of Wind had evolved, and reached the level of perfection.
Combining the two, his theoretical maximum speed had skyrocketed.
Up in the sky...
Seimei activated his Mangekyō Sharingan to boost his neural response.
Even so, he still couldn't push himself to his full potential.
After testing for a while and feeling his chakra depleting rapidly, he finally decided to stop.
Clearly, the ceiling was there—but unlocking it would depend on his continued effort.
And as for the direction of that effort...
Seimei already knew: he needed to further increase his Mind attribute to sharpen his reaction time.
Right now, the only thing holding back his speed—was his own neural response.
So if he could improve that, he could steadily unleash more of his true potential.
"Tch… what a shame."
With a soft sigh, Seimei descended back onto the island.
He dismissed Wings of Wind, along with the other two jutsu.
His training schedule for the day wasn't over—he couldn't afford to waste too much time.
Raising his hand once more, he cast the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu again.
Boom boom boom—
Amid clouds of chakra smoke, 150 clones appeared.
Efficiently, Seimei grouped 130 of them to resume training their respective jutsu.
As for the remaining clones—they were originally dedicated to training Wings of Wind. Now that it had reached completion, he reassigned them to a new task: training the Spiritual Transformation Technique (Reika no Jutsu).
That's right—this was the "later matter" he had mentioned earlier.
When he was assigning clone groups that morning, he had already anticipated Wings of Wind reaching completion, which is why he hadn't yet allocated any clones to the Spiritual Transformation Technique.
Now that the Wings of Wind group was free, it transitioned perfectly into the new assignment—no need to reshuffle anything.
This saved him a lot of time.
As his clones dispersed to resume their training, Seimei didn't rest either. Finding a clear patch of ground, he began practicing the Raiton Chakra Mode (Lightning Release Chakra Mode) to strengthen his body.
Earlier, he had used Mystical Palm Jutsu (Shōsen Jutsu) and Yang Release: Grace of Man (Jin no Go) for body enhancement while training underwater.
Now it was time for Lightning Chakra Mode.
(End of Chapter)