A flurry of thoughts raced through Seimei's mind, but he quickly reined them in, focusing. After testing the current capabilities of his Byakugan for a while and gaining a solid understanding of its limits, he deactivated it.
With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
As expected, with the Byakugan's advancement, his Mental attribute had indeed increased by one point. It went from 35 to 36, widening the gap with his Physical attribute, still at 34, to two points.
The surge in mental energy, as predicted, put significant strain on his physical body. Fortunately, he'd preemptively sealed part of his mental energy, preventing a complete imbalance.
Still, sealing was only a temporary fix. To truly resolve the issue, he needed to boost his Physical attribute to close the gap with his Mental attribute.
This meant delaying the evolution of his Sharingan for now.
He also needed to test the Byakugan's current evolution speed. This would confirm his predictions about the increased difficulty of advancing it further and help him plan his future training.
From now on, he couldn't afford to push the Byakugan's evolution carelessly. After this latest upgrade, his Byakugan was now on par with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Since his Sharingan gained a Mental attribute boost every time it accumulated 10,000 evolution points and cleared a minor milestone, the Byakugan likely followed the same pattern.
He needed to be prepared for that.
On top of that, he hadn't yet tested the benefits brought by the recent boosts to both his Physical and Mental attributes.
That would take some effort too.
Seimei glanced up at the moon, now tilting westward in the sky.
It was getting late. Time to rest.
Testing could wait until tomorrow.
With a yawn, Seimei stood, walked to the side of his wooden cabin, and washed up briefly before heading inside to rest.
The night passed quietly.
---
The next day, Seimei woke up a bit later than usual. By the time he opened his eyes, the sun was already up.
He sat up in bed, stretched his neck, and zoned out for a moment before slipping into his gear and stepping out of the cabin.
At the stream nearby, he freshened up, then downed a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach.
Without wasting time, he took to the skies.
Byakugan!
With a thought, he activated his Byakugan.
Instantly, everything within a three-kilometer radius came into view.
Seimei circled the island a few times, confirming there were no anomalies within a ten-kilometer range, before landing in the central clearing of Moon Island.
He raised his hands, formed seals, and cast the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, creating 700 Shadow Clones.
As before, 300 were tasked with absorbing natural energy, while the remaining 400 continued working on developing the Bloodline Network.
After assigning their tasks, Seimei sent the clones off.
Once the clearing was empty except for him, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique. In an instant, he teleported to the volcano beneath Moon Island.
Following last night's plan, he would first test the Byakugan's evolution speed. Then, he'd measure the theoretical chakra capacity and recovery speed increases from the one-point boosts to his Physical and Mental attributes. Finally, he'd use those results to map out his next training phase.
But things didn't go quite as planned.
---
Inside the volcano, Seimei spent a few minutes completing a round of Extreme Body training. Then he stopped.
The harsh environment here no longer provided enough pressure to keep his training at peak efficiency. Sure, with his current Physical attribute, he couldn't completely ignore the conditions, but their effect had diminished significantly. Continuing here would only waste time.
This was unacceptable to Seimei.
Fortunately, he'd seen this coming.
Over half a year ago, he'd noted that after his body underwent two or three more transformations, the environment in this second chamber would no longer suit his training.
Now, that prediction had come true. No surprise there.
If this chamber wasn't cutting it, he'd just go deeper and find a harsher one. The volcano beneath Moon Island was still active, so there had to be a more suitable environment further down.
He'd even scouted a potential spot when he first realized this.
With that in mind, Seimei activated his Byakugan again.
He scanned downward for a moment, as if confirming something, then cast the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished.
But he didn't teleport back to Moon Island's surface. Instead, he appeared in the seawater near the volcano's rock wall, at a platform where he'd once trained—a spot marked with one of his Flying Thunder God seals.
Seimei stepped off the platform and dove deeper.
At a certain point, he stopped.
Using his Byakugan, he observed carefully for a moment before nodding. He pressed his palm against the volcanic rock wall and cast Earth Release: Earth Dragon Vein Technique.
In the next moment, he melded into the rock.
Slowly, he moved toward his target.
A few minutes later, Seimei felt his body lighten as he emerged from the rock wall into a new chamber.
Looking around, he saw another cavern.
It was somewhat similar to the second chamber's original state—shrouded in toxic mist, with churning lava flows below and no place to stand.
But this cavern was much larger.
The temperature and pressure were also significantly higher, and the lava below had pooled into a small lake, looking especially dangerous.
This was exactly the environment he needed.
"Not bad!" Seimei said, feeling the conditions and nodding in approval.
Just as he'd done in the second chamber, he used Earth Release to manipulate the surrounding rock, creating a cross-shaped bridge in the center of the cavern.
Then, he expanded the bridge's intersection, turning it into a circular platform suitable for training.
Moments later, standing on the platform and feeling the oppressive force from all directions, Seimei nodded with satisfaction.
This would be his new training ground.