Inside the volcano.
In that hollow chamber.
Seimei's figure appeared out of nowhere.
He stood on the stone platform he'd melted and reshaped with his Lava Release, beginning his physical training.
Unlike at the ocean floor, where he had to endure crushing pressure, the "Thunder Armor" coating his body here wasn't as heavy.
This let him clearly sense the threats in the air around him.
Spurred by this, his body instinctively craved faster evolution.
Guided by his "Human Control" technique, he used Yang Release chakra, condensed through the Mystical Palm Technique, as fuel to drive his body's evolution.
Time ticked by, second by second.
An hour passed in a flash.
Seimei paused his training to assess his progress.
As expected, the results were noticeably better than what he'd achieved at the ocean floor.
But a single hour of training wasn't enough to predict when his body's next transformation would occur.
He'd need to keep going.
With that thought, Seimei teleported back to the clearing at the center of the island.
Without wasting a moment, he dispelled his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, recalling the clones.
It took him fifteen minutes to absorb and process the training experiences his clones had accumulated over the past hour.
Then, he cast the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again, splitting into three hundred clones to start a new round of training.
Round after round.
In the blink of an eye, it was the afternoon of the next day.
When Seimei finished another hour of physical enhancement and returned to the clearing above the island, he finally had enough data.
Standing still, he didn't rush to recall his clones. Instead, he carefully sensed the changes in his body over the past day and a half.
After a long pause, he let out a deep breath.
If his calculations were correct, his next physical transformation would happen about a month earlier than expected.
In other words, it would be complete by early October.
No doubt, this was a huge leap forward.
But Seimei still wasn't satisfied.
Why? Because it still meant three to four months before his body's transformation was complete.
That was too long—his Sharingan couldn't evolve at full speed in the meantime, which was a shame.
After some thought, Seimei's gaze dropped to the ground beneath his feet.
His eyes seemed to pierce through layers of rock, seeing the volcanic chamber where he'd just trained—and the even deeper chamber below it.
If he could train in that lower chamber, with its harsher environment, he might be able to accelerate his body's evolution even further.
But he'd only just started getting used to the first chamber. Diving into the more extreme conditions of the second one now would be reckless.
As the saying goes, you eat one bite at a time, walk one step at a time. Take too big a step, and you might end up hurting yourself!
So, slow and steady it was.
With that in mind, Seimei made a plan. He'd spend a month to a month and a half fully adapting to the first chamber's environment.
Then, he'd move to the second chamber for training.
The harsher conditions there would push his body's evolution even faster.
On top of that, he could work on advancing his other Bloodline Limits to further cut down the time needed for his body's transformation.
With that thought, Seimei opened his status panel, checking his Wood Release, Lava Release, and Ice Release.
Thanks to his daily practice of the Wood Clone Technique, his Wood Release had progressed, though its later effects had weakened, as expected.
Still, over the past week or so, its evolution points had climbed by about 500, reaching (4000/5000)!
At this rate, even factoring in the reduced effectiveness of the Wood Clone Technique, it would take about 25 days to complete its upgrade.
Once that happened, his aptitude would improve, lowering the difficulty of physical enhancement and naturally shortening the time needed for his next transformation.
But before that, his Lava Release would likely upgrade first.
After his last transformation, his Lava Release had already reached (920/1000), just a step away from leveling up.
He'd estimated it would take two weeks to close that gap.
But training inside the volcano, in an environment so perfectly suited to Lava Release, had sped things up more than he'd expected.
Now, just eight or nine days later, he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Seimei figured it would take just two or three more days for his Lava Release to fully upgrade.
When that happened, it wouldn't just shorten the time to his next transformation—it would also help him adapt to the first chamber faster, letting him move to the second chamber sooner and speed up his body's evolution even more.
It was a cycle of mutual reinforcement.
As for Ice Release…
After his last transformation, its progress bar was past the halfway mark, nearing 70%. But reaching a full upgrade wouldn't be easy.
Seimei estimated it would take at least two months to get there.
"Two months, huh…"
Seimei muttered, then shook his head, pushing the thought aside to focus fully on his training.
…
Three days later.
Moon Island.
Inside the volcano.
In the first chamber.
Seimei, mid-training, suddenly froze.
He quickly closed his eyes, focusing on the changes in his body.
Just moments ago, he'd felt it—his Lava Release had upgraded.
Right on schedule. Accounting for a day spent back in the village for rest, today was the third day of intense training, and his Lava Release had hit its mark, as predicted.
No surprises there. With this Bloodline Limit's upgrade, his physical aptitude had improved a bit more.
After a while, Seimei opened his eyes.
He paused briefly, then resumed his physical enhancement training as before.
This time, he noticed a difference.
The whole process felt smoother—he could clearly sense that strengthening his body was less taxing than before.
That meant greater efficiency and less time needed.
After testing for an entire afternoon, Seimei reached a conclusion: with this upgrade, his body's transformation timeline could be shortened by another ten days or so.
In other words, by mid-to-late October, his body would complete its transformation.
This thrilled Seimei, confirming his predictions were spot-on.
Next up were his Wood Release and Ice Release.
With that in mind, Seimei prepared for his final training session of the day—practicing the "Body Extreme" technique to evolve his Byakugan.
But as soon as he started, he felt something off.