Seimei was just about to dive back into his training when a wave of exhaustion hit him out of nowhere.
"Yawn…"
He couldn't help but let out a big yawn, suddenly realizing how late it was. Normally, he'd already be fast asleep by now. With tomorrow's training in mind, Seimei decided to call it a night. With a quick thought, he canceled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
In an instant, all the shadow clones scattered throughout the nearby forest vanished, their chakra and memories rushing back to him. The flood of information hit his mind like a tidal wave, causing a brief moment of mental lag.
Luckily, his Mental attribute was at a solid 30 points, so his mental strength was more than enough to handle it. He snapped back to normal quickly.
Instead of diving into the memories right away, Seimei focused first on channeling the natural energy that came with them into the sealing space created by his Three Elements Sealing Technique. Good thing he'd already burned through most of his natural energy-absorbing clones in earlier rounds—otherwise, he'd have had to recall them in batches to avoid overwhelming himself.
Once all the natural energy was safely stored, Seimei closed his eyes and started sifting through the shadow clones' memories. He carefully processed their training experiences, converting them into proficiency for the relevant skills.
Time ticked by, second by second.
About 15 minutes later, Seimei opened his eyes again. Checking his status panel, he saw that his Natural Energy Perception and Natural Energy Control had both gained some proficiency. On top of that, he'd come up with a fresh idea for developing Dust Release.
Unfortunately, it was too late to test it out now. That'd have to wait until tomorrow.
"Yawn…"
Another yawn slipped out as Seimei shook his slightly foggy head. With practiced ease, he cast the Spiritualization Technique and Sealed Heart, Locked Soul: Contract Instant Movement Seal to seal away part of his mental energy. Then, locking onto the Flying Thunder God mark on Moon Island, he activated the technique.
His vision shifted in a flash.
In the blink of an eye, Seimei went from the northeastern forests of the Land of Fire to the wooden cabin on Moon Island. He pushed open the door, collapsed onto his bed, and was out like a light.
---
The next day, morning came.
Seimei woke up a bit later than usual. After quickly washing up and scarfing down a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach, he was ready to get back to training.
As always, he started by casting the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, summoning 500 shadow clones. This time, though, he switched up their assignments.
Three hundred clones were tasked with continuing the development of Dust Release, same as before. The remaining 200, however, he split into two groups: 50 clones to keep absorbing the still-decent natural energy on Moon Island, and 150 to start practicing the Three Elements Sealing Technique.
That's right—starting today, he was using his shadow clones to speed up his progress with the Three Elements Sealing Technique. Before, when he was still getting the hang of it, he had to practice it himself to build proficiency. But now? He could let his shadow clones take a crack at it.
As for the three types of energy needed for the technique—physical energy, mental energy, and natural energy? No problem. Shadow clones were made of chakra, which could be broken down into physical and mental energy. And natural energy? The clones could absorb that on their own. So, they had everything they needed to train the technique.
There was a catch, though. The Three Elements Sealing Technique, whether actively canceled or accidentally broken, caused some damage to the user. To play it safe, Seimei had his clones absorb just enough natural energy to barely cast the technique—nothing more. This might slow down their proficiency gains a bit, but it drastically reduced the chance of the clones collapsing from the damage.
After ownerall, Seimei's main body was training too. If his clones kept dispelling themselves unexpectedly, flooding him with memories, chakra, and natural energy, it'd seriously mess with his focus. Not to mention, the chakra loss from frequent clone collapses would be a pain he'd rather not deal with.
So, steady was the way to go.
Even so, every half hour, Seimei had to recall these clones. Shadow clones just weren't stable enough, and even with his precautions, 30 minutes was their limit. Unlike the Dust Release clones, which could use Flying Thunder God to dodge damage, the Three Elements Sealing Technique was applied directly to their bodies, so they couldn't avoid the strain.
But this didn't last long.
By mid-morning, Seimei's Three Elements Sealing Technique hit Level 2.
At this level, the technique became much more flexible. Canceling it or failing didn't hit the clones as hard, making the impact manageable. They could now hold out for a full hour without issue. This meant he could sync the recall of the 150 sealing technique clones with the 300 Dust Release clones, streamlining the process.
As for the natural energy that came back with them? That's where the Level 2 upgrade shined. Seimei tested it and found that the sealing space's natural energy storage capacity had doubled from Level 1, reaching 20,000 points. Including the portion cycling outside the seal, he could handle over 33,000 points total.
Why not 40,000? Simple: at Level 2, the natural energy needed to maintain the seal's stability dropped from 50% to 40%. In other words, the ratio shifted from 5:5 to 4:6. Now, he could use 40% of the natural energy to control 60% of it.
It was pretty much what he'd expected last night. And moving forward, that ratio would keep shrinking until it hit zero.
Whoops, getting off track!
With the 20,000-point storage capacity, Seimei could now store all the natural energy brought back by the 150 sealing technique clones without wasting a drop. Since these clones weren't hoarding tons of natural energy—just enough to practice the technique—their combined total wasn't much. If they were absorbing energy nonstop like the other 50 clones, his 20,000-point limit wouldn't cut it.
But that problem wouldn't stick around for long. Based on how fast he was racking up proficiency for the Three Elements Sealing Technique, Seimei figured it'd hit Level 5 by tomorrow night, triggering its first major transformation. Given how Level 1 to Level 2 doubled the storage capacity, he had every reason to believe Level 5 would bring a game-changing leap in how much natural energy the sealing space could hold.
When that happened, he wouldn't have to worry about excess natural energy for a while. He could even stockpile it, then release it strategically at his control limit to supercharge his physical enhancement, saving him a ton of hassle.
With those thoughts swirling in his head, Seimei processed the insights from leveling up the Three Elements Sealing Technique to Level 2. He popped a few more enhanced soldier pills to replenish the past hour's chakra loss, then cast the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again, summoning over 400 clones to kick off the next round of training.
And just like that, time slipped by, bit by bit.
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