With his decision made, Seimei didn't waver.
He glanced at his status panel one last time, his eyes pausing briefly on the Wood Clone Technique now at lv5 (3300/5000), before closing it and starting a new round of training.
It wasn't evening yet, so it wasn't time to nurture his Byakugan.
As usual, he cast the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, creating over two hundred shadow clones.
After sending them to work on researching and developing Storm Release, Seimei's main body began casting the Mirror Heart Technique to push his Sharingan's evolution.
An hour flew by.
Seimei paused the Mirror Heart Technique, dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, and recalled all his shadow clones.
After absorbing and processing their training experiences and memories from the past hour, he kicked off another round of training.
This time, though, his main body dove into the sea to strengthen his physique.
That round of training passed quickly too.
By now, the sun had set, and night was about to fall.
Returning to the island, Seimei dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again, absorbed the clones' training experiences and memories, and began his final round of training for the day.
This time, he didn't switch back to the Mirror Heart Technique to evolve his Sharingan. Instead, he focused on practicing the Wood Clone Technique.
This was one of the two daily sessions he dedicated to the Wood Clone Technique.
He took it seriously—very seriously.
For one, it ensured he didn't waste chakra, maximizing the proficiency points he could gain.
For another, practicing this technique actively helped evolve his Wood Release.
That's right—practicing the Wood Clone Technique boosted his Wood Release evolution.
He'd figured this out by checking his panel, where his Wood Release had jumped from (82/5000) to (1800/5000) over the past twenty-some days—way beyond normal progress.
He'd analyzed the possibilities and came to a conclusion: while the Wood Clone Technique seemed simple, it actually required heavily tapping into the power of the Wood Release kekkei genkai.
So, it made sense that using it would lead to a "use it or lose it" kind of growth.
And Seimei was thrilled about it.
As he'd said before, while he didn't plan to pour effort into actively evolving Wood Release to boost his combat strength, he wasn't going to turn down progress that came naturally.
This wasn't even incidental—it was a direct result of practicing the Wood Clone Technique.
So, he had no reason to say no.
Plus, when his Wood Release eventually advanced, its close connection to his body and life force might even shorten the time needed for his physique to reach the next-next transformation threshold.
Yup, the next-next one.
Why not the next one? Simple—his body was about twenty days away from its next transformation.
Over the past two-plus weeks, his Wood Release had only gained about 1,700 evolution points.
To go from (1800/5000) to (5000/5000), he'd need at least a month.
And that didn't account for the fact that as Wood Release evolved, the benefits from practicing the Wood Clone Technique would likely diminish.
So, it was certain: reaching the next stage of Wood Release would take at least a month, which was longer than the time until his next physical transformation.
Hence, the next-next transformation.
These thoughts flashed through his mind, but Seimei quickly reined them in, focusing back on training.
He poured his attention into practicing the Wood Clone Technique.
An hour passed in a blink.
The final training round ended, and Seimei, as usual, dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
After digesting the clones' training experiences and memories, he popped a few enhanced soldier pills to replenish the energy he'd burned through.
After a short break, he began his final task of the day—nurturing his Byakugan!
Everything went as it always did.
Three and a half hours later, deep into the night, Seimei finished nurturing his Byakugan.
Opening his panel and seeing the 18 new evolution points added to his Byakugan under the bloodline section, he nodded with satisfaction.
At this rate, his Byakugan would advance in just two more days.
"Yawn~~~"
Covering his mouth, Seimei let out a big yawn. He stood up, filled with anticipation for the future, and flashed over to the wooden cabin in the corner of the island.
Creak~
Pushing the door open, he collapsed onto the bed the moment he saw it.
Soon, soft snores filled the room.
---
Two days later.
Night had just fallen.
Seimei finished his final training round of the day.
Without wasting time, he immediately began nurturing his Byakugan.
Skillfully releasing the All-Encompassing Seal, he linked it to his Byakugan.
Focusing intently, he drew chakra from the interdimensional space in his forehead, compressed it twice through the seal to form a higher-energy state, and channeled it into his Byakugan.
A familiar tingling sensation hit, and Seimei let out a comfortable hum.
Splitting his focus, he carefully sensed the Byakugan's evolution while continuously drawing chakra from the interdimensional space to keep the flow steady.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Three and a half hours passed.
But this time, Seimei didn't stop.
After three days of nurturing, his Byakugan's evolution had hit exactly (5000/5000), teetering on the edge of advancement.
Instead of the usual swelling sensation, he felt an intense, almost greedy craving from his Byakugan.
It was a desperate hunger for chakra!
Seimei remembered the last time his Byakugan advanced—it had devoured a massive amount of chakra to complete the transformation.
This time was no different.
Without hesitation, he kept feeding it chakra.
At first, he only drew from the interdimensional space in his forehead.
But soon, he realized the seal's compression and transfer speed couldn't keep up with the Byakugan's absorption rate.
Left with no choice, he mobilized all the chakra flowing through his body's meridians, directing it toward the Byakugan in his forehead.
And the Byakugan took it all without complaint.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes.
In less than ten minutes, his 1.2 million chakra points were halved.
This was already more than what his Byakugan had consumed during its last advancement.
Just as Seimei started to feel uneasy, the Byakugan's chakra absorption slowed to a halt.
In the next moment, a subtle sensation stirred in his heart.
He knew instantly—his Byakugan had broken through to the next stage.