"Are you ready? I'm about to begin," the shadow clone asked Seimei, who was lying on a stone operating table.
Hearing this, Seimei nodded and swallowed a handful of pills.
These "pills" were actually more like a kind of toxin.
It was a drug Seimei developed based on his own physique, designed to suppress his body's self-healing ability.
Currently, his "physique" attribute had reached 19 points, giving him a self-healing ability far beyond the average person. This was typically beneficial, but not right now.
After all, in surgery, you have to cut open the body. If it healed in the middle of the operation, it would cause a lot of trouble.
Thus, this toxin, which could inhibit his body's healing ability, became crucial.
Fortunately, the books and scrolls left by Kimura Kazuhiko included many principles for drug formulation.
Without them, Seimei might not have been able to develop such a drug in such a short amount of time.
Of course, with something created so quickly, the effects could hardly be perfect, and side effects were inevitable.
However, Seimei had the "Heavenly Dominion" ocular technique, so minor side effects didn't concern him at all.
This was because he could completely remove the side effects after the surgery using the second ability of "Heavenly Dominion": the power to remove specific negative states through a reset-like process.
So he could safely ignore these delayed side effects.
Feeling his vitality quickly diminishing, Seimei's face paled. After a brief pause, he nodded again at the shadow clone and said, "Go ahead!"
"Alright!"
With that, the shadow clone didn't waste any time. He raised his hand, forming seals, and performed the "Chakra Scalpel" technique.
A faint green light enveloped his right hand, and he used it to cut off some of Seimei's pain nerves.
Just suppressing his body's healing wasn't enough; he also needed to cut off his own pain perception.
Seimei didn't think he had the willpower to endure extreme pain without these preparations.
As for using anesthesia or knocking him out, not only would that potentially disrupt the shadow clone's presence, but the transformation process also required several of Seimei's own actions.
In this situation, he couldn't lose consciousness or his ability to move.
So cutting off his pain nerves was the simplest approach.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…
With several strokes of the shadow clone's scalpel, Seimei felt some of the nerves in his face go numb. His expression became strangely rigid, and he lost some subtle sensations.
Despite this, the shadow clone didn't stop. He continued severing all the pain nerves above Seimei's neck, and only then moved on to the next step.
Then, picking up a scalpel, he swiftly cut into the skin and flesh between Seimei's eyebrows, along with a large area of his facial skin nearby.
It was a horrifying sight.
And what made it worse was that Seimei kept his eyes open the entire time, making the scene even more terrifying.
The shadow clone kept moving, and after completing this step, he switched to a smaller scalpel and continued cutting along the muscle lines, quickly reaching the skull.
At this point, the shadow clone injected a faint amount of Wind Release chakra into the scalpel, greatly enhancing its sharpness.
With a single cut, he opened Seimei's frontal bone, revealing the brain inside.
Even with his pain nerves severed, Seimei's sharp mental awareness still let him feel significant pain.
However, after two years of life-or-death battles, he gritted his teeth and endured it.
The shadow clone's expression remained unchanged as he carefully separated Seimei's diencephalon from his midbrain, exposing the third ventricle.
At the top of this ventricle was a small, gray-red oval-shaped gland about seven millimeters long and four millimeters wide—the mysterious pineal gland.
Seimei's visual system transformation technique was based on this gland, intending to add an additional visual system to his body.
The reason for choosing this location was twofold: First, he planned to implant the Byakugan at his brow, and this was the most suitable spot.
Second, the pineal gland is covered with networks of nerves and blood vessels, which, with some stimulation and guidance, could help create an additional optic nerve.
With that in mind, the shadow clone performed the "Healing Palm Technique," creating a mass of Yang Release chakra to stimulate the pineal gland's vitality.
At the same time, Seimei activated his Mangekyou Sharingan, and a trail of blood streamed from his right eye as he activated the "Dominion of Man" ability.
Immediately, an invisible force acted on him, guiding the pineal gland's evolution.
The core ability of "Dominion of Man" was absolute control over his body, allowing him to influence anything he considered "part of himself."
Initially, when he first awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, he could only affect his organs to a limited extent—maybe slowing his heartbeat or enhancing digestion.
However, as the Mangekyou Sharingan evolved, the depth of his control increased, allowing him to affect more microscopic levels of his body.
For this reason, he had been using this ability to assist his body's evolution.
Now he could even catalyze nerve system growth.
Thus, with "Dominion of Man" guiding the direction and the shadow clone injecting vitality, they could establish a second visual system together.
To be cautious and allow the Mangekyou Sharingan to rest, he paused periodically to let the shadow clone inspect the optic nerve's growth.
The shadow clone also used surgical techniques to connect these nerves to various parts of his brain.
Minute by minute, the time passed.
After an hour, Seimei finally completed the optic nerve catalysis.
Closing his Sharingan, Seimei focused his attention forward.
Suddenly, he felt as though a thin veil covered everything in front of him, making it hard to see clearly.
It was apparent that his vision had significantly deteriorated.
Realizing this, Seimei paused briefly, but then regained his composure.
Indeed, using "Dominion of Man" so frequently had taken a toll on his eyesight.
However, it was all worth it.
In no more than a year, his Mangekyou Sharingan would evolve into the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, naturally resolving the vision problem.
But even without that, the gains from this operation made it worth the sacrifice.
Other people undergoing body modifications often disrupt the body's systems, causing various side effects.
However, for Seimei, this transformation was more like evolution than modification.
The entire process was based on his own structure, using various techniques to guide the transformation.
Though there might be issues initially, over time, this transformation would only become more compatible with him.
And with a few more rounds of evolution guided by "Dominion of Man," it would practically become one of his innate abilities.
With this, Seimei could even hope to unlock a new bloodline ability.
In theory, transplanting foreign organs doesn't grant one the associated bloodline. Bloodline traits are encoded at the genetic level.
For instance, even though Kakashi had the Sharingan, he couldn't gain the Uchiha bloodline, making it difficult for him to use it effectively.
But Seimei was different; his body already had Uchiha blood, and both the Uchiha and Hyuga clans originated from the Otsutsuki clan.
Theoretically, he already had Hyuga genes within him.
So by merging the Byakugan, he might activate that potential.
If that happened, he could potentially acquire the Hyuga bloodline, allowing him to use the Byakugan without the same limitations as Kakashi with the Sharingan.
Of course, Seimei understood that chasing bloodline powers might bring rapid gains but would ultimately limit him on the highest levels.
Thus, he aimed not to pursue the Otsutsuki bloodline intentionally but to transcend it and forge his own path.
Only by doing so could he truly consider his future.
As Seimei's thoughts wandered, the shadow clone finished the final inspection and prepared to implant the Byakugan.
At this point, the surgery was nearly a success.
(End of Chapter)