It was afternoon.
Moon Island.
Inside the volcano.
After Seimei finished another round of training with the "Body Extremity Technique," he paused for a moment.
Glancing at the time, he muttered to himself, "It's about time."
No sooner had he spoken than, within a few breaths, over twenty fragments of memories surged into his mind through an invisible connection.
Along with them came nearly a hundred thousand points of chakra and about twenty thousand points of natural energy.
Ignoring the regular chakra, Seimei immediately focused his mind and directed all twenty thousand points of natural energy into the special space in his abdomen.
Then, he closed his eyes and carefully sifted through the memories in his mind, absorbing and processing the training experiences they contained.
That's right—these memories came from the shadow clones training in the ancient forest in the northeastern part of the Land of Fire.
As planned, they had sent over the required amount of natural energy at the agreed-upon time.
And, of course, their memories came with it.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Normally, Seimei would need just a few minutes to fully process these memories.
But this time, it took him nearly a quarter of an hour.
When he finally opened his eyes, a thoughtful glint flickered in them.
Standing there, he mulled things over for a bit before using the "Flying Thunder God Technique" to teleport back to Moon Island.
Once there, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began sensing the natural energy around him.
Instantly, all the natural energy within a few hundred meters entered his perception range. Every single point of natural energy and its movements appeared clearly in his mind's eye.
There was no doubt about it—his ability to sense natural energy had improved by leaps and bounds.
And it wasn't just his sensing ability.
With a single thought, Seimei extended his mental energy, trying to capture a single point of natural energy.
This time, he didn't even need to shape his mental energy into a hand. With just a thought, that point of natural energy was drawn into his body by his mental force.
And in an instant, he had it under control.
Throughout the process, that point of natural energy behaved remarkably "obediently," almost as if it were intimidated by him.
Of course, natural energy didn't have emotions. The reason it acted this way was simple: his "Natural Energy Control" skill had leveled up too.
That's right—too. The earlier boost in his sensing ability was because his "Natural Energy Sensing" skill had also leveled up.
In other words, both skills had advanced.
Opening his eyes again, Seimei mentally accessed his proficiency panel.
Sure enough, in the skills section, both "Natural Energy Sensing" and "Natural Energy Control" had gone up a level, from Level 5 to Level 6 (1/10000)!
He had initially thought that moving from Level 5 to Level 6 wouldn't bring a qualitative change, so the skills' effects wouldn't improve much.
But now, he realized he had completely underestimated the impact of this upgrade.
Judging by what he had just experienced, the changes brought by this level-up were no less significant than the qualitative leap from Level 4 to Level 5.
At Level 6, both his ability to sense and control natural energy had improved dramatically.
Directing his mental energy into the special space in his abdomen, Seimei tried manipulating the twenty thousand points of natural energy stored there.
As expected, it felt much easier this time.
He could clearly sense that he was capable of handling even more natural energy.
Seimei was tempted to test his new limits, but after some thought, he decided against it.
First, the twenty thousand points of natural energy were already pushing the limits of what his abdominal space could safely store. Any more could cause problems.
And natural energy was inherently dangerous. If it spiraled out of control, it might not endanger his life, but it would definitely leave him in a rough spot for a while.
Taking such a risk just for a test wasn't worth it.
Second, he had already planned out when and where to recall his shadow clones and how much energy they should bring back. Calling back extra clones on a whim would disrupt his training rhythm.
To Seimei, that would be a loss not worth making.
And finally—the most important point—the sealing technique he had been developing specifically for storing natural energy was almost complete.
Based on the memories he'd received from his shadow clones after the last training session, he was confident that by tonight, he would successfully create the prototype of this technique and add it to his proficiency panel.
When that happened, he could level it up and then run his tests.
So, after some consideration, he abandoned the idea of testing his limits now.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Seimei stopped dwelling on it.
"Flying Thunder God Technique!"
With a single thought, he cast the technique again, teleporting back inside the volcano.
There, he mobilized the chakra in his body, entered the special space in his abdomen, and fused the natural energy with his chakra to create Sage Chakra. Then, he began accelerating his training.
---
Time passed, and evening arrived.
In the Land of Fire.
The northeastern region.
In the ancient forest.
By a campfire, Seimei finished his final round of training with the "Wood Clone Technique" for the day and paused.
He glanced around at the dim forest surrounding him.
At that moment, several hundred shadow clones were still training nearby.
With a thought, Seimei used the "Mind Link Technique" as usual, instructing twenty or so shadow clones that were absorbing natural energy to dispel themselves.
Instantly, nearly a hundred thousand points of chakra and twenty thousand points of natural energy returned to his body.
Along with them came the training experiences those shadow clones had accumulated while absorbing natural energy.
Seimei spent a few minutes converting all of those experiences into proficiency points for "Natural Energy Sensing" and "Natural Energy Control."
After that, he fused the twenty thousand points of natural energy in his body into Sage Chakra, using it to further strengthen his body.
Once he was done, he lingered for a moment before notifying the shadow clones working on Dust Release and those researching the sealing technique to dispel their "Shadow Clone Technique."
The next moment, a large number of shadow clones dissolved and vanished, their memories flooding into Seimei's mind.
Gritting his teeth against the discomfort, Seimei quickly sifted through the memories, absorbing and processing the training experiences they contained.
About a quarter of an hour later, Seimei opened his eyes.
A look of delight spread across his face.
"Did I do it?" he murmured to himself before immediately opening his proficiency panel.
As expected, a new skill had appeared: Three Elements Sealing Technique: Level 0 (1/100)!
This so-called "Three Elements Sealing Technique" was the name he had given to the sealing technique he'd been developing.
In other words, he had succeeded.
After five days of relentless effort, he had finally created a sealing technique capable of storing large amounts of natural energy.
(End of Chapter)