After thinking for a moment, Seimei suddenly activated his Mangekyo Sharingan again.
With a streak of blood-tears running down his right eye, the power of "Human Reign" was once more triggered.
Instantly, an invisible force enveloped his body and began to guide the Byakugan at his forehead to merge with himself as he wished.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... It wasn't until a full twenty seconds later that he stopped performing the technique.
Looking at the panel again, the awakening level of the Byakugan remained at (15/100), showing no change.
Seimei was undeterred. After a brief rest, he activated the power of "Human Reign" again and continued to guide the Byakugan into himself.
As before, after about twenty seconds—the maximum duration he could currently sustain—he once more deactivated "Human Reign."
The panel still showed no change in the Byakugan's awakening level.
Seimei's brows furrowed slightly, but he said nothing more.
After waiting a while and feeling that his eyes were more comfortable, he repeated the process and activated "Human Reign" to guide the Byakugan once again.
And so it went, time after time.
About five minutes later.
Seimei had used the power of "Human Reign" to its maximum extent five times, and the awakening level of the Byakugan finally increased slightly, from (15/100) to (16/100).
Seeing this change, a slight smile appeared on Seimei's face.
As he had expected, the power of "Human Reign" could indeed increase the awakening level of the Byakugan.
With this, he had a fallback strategy.
As for why he called it a fallback...
The reason was simple: based on the test results just now, he would need to perform the "Human Reign" technique at its maximum about 425 times to fully awaken the Byakugan's bloodline.
Admittedly, as his Mangekyo Sharingan evolved, the effectiveness of each use and the duration would improve.
However, this would not change the fact that he needed to frequently use the Mangekyo Sharingan's eye technique.
Seimei didn't want to risk going blind prematurely, so this method was not ideal.
Moreover, once his Byakugan awakened, it would need to continue evolving. He couldn't keep using "Human Reign" indefinitely. No matter how resilient he was, his eyes would not withstand it.
Thus, this could only serve as a fallback, not a primary strategy.
Wait a moment—
Suddenly, Seimei thought, if his Mangekyo Sharingan evolved into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan without the threat of blindness, could this become a routine method?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
He rhythmically tapped his fingers on the surgical table, lost in thought.
After a long while, he snapped out of his contemplation.
A smile of relief appeared on his face.
It was simple: after thinking deeply, he believed that this possibility was very real, even quite significant.
Moreover, he decided to pursue this plan.
After all, his Sharingan could continue evolving due to the legacy of past generations. Expecting himself to develop a unique skill similar to "Art of Heart Reflection" from scratch to enhance the Byakugan was almost impossible.
At least, in the short term, it was out of the question.
In the long term...
Seimei glanced at the progress of his Mangekyo Sharingan's evolution—(14,416/50,000). At his current pace, it would take no more than a year to reach the level of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Thus, there was no need to waste energy on that path.
Besides, even though he hadn't awakened the Byakugan's bloodline yet, it didn't prevent him from using the Byakugan; he just couldn't enhance its effectiveness.
For him, this didn't pose much of a problem.
For now, the Byakugan was more than sufficient for his use.
Considering all this, Seimei decided to set aside the issue of the Byakugan's bloodline awakening for the time being.
"Whew..."
Letting out a breath, Seimei felt a sense of relaxation wash over him.
Now he just needed to figure out how to conceal the eye on his forehead.
Although he could open and close this Byakugan at will, even when closed, it was somewhat noticeable.
That was unacceptable.
Thinking for a moment, Seimei's gaze shifted to the panel's skill section.
His eyes passed over various skills, big and small, and settled on the only two sealing techniques at the bottom of the panel—"Guardian Seal" and "Object Sealing Array."
The latter was irrelevant to solving his issue, but the former might be able to hide his Byakugan.
However...
Over the past period, due to a lack of need, he had invested only 5,000 chakra points in practicing it, having stopped after practicing "Technique of Extracting Finer Maladies."
As a result, its proficiency had only reached lv2 (250/500).
At lv2, it was hardly reassuring.
Thinking it over, Seimei raised his hand and deactivated the "Shadow Clone Technique."
Instantly, two shadow clones in the hall and outside the cave disappeared.
Consequently, his chakra points on the panel jumped from just over 20,000 to over 80,000.
It was still not even 2 p.m., giving him nearly five hours before nightfall.
Currently, with both his active and passive recovery, he could restore more than 12,000 chakra points per hour, totaling 60,000 over five hours.
Adding 60,000 to 80,000 made for 140,000 chakra points.
Investing all this chakra into "Guardian Seal" training would increase its proficiency by approximately 1,400 points.
These proficiency points would be enough to raise the technique from lv2 to lv4.
While lv4 still wasn't the transformative lv5, crossing the lv3 threshold would be enough to evade standard detection.
As for more detailed probing...
With his current power and status, it was unlikely anyone would be that foolish.
Of course, if anyone were, Seimei wouldn't mind using them as fodder to improve his skills.
"Alright, let's do this!"
Having made up his mind, Seimei wasted no time. He jumped off the surgical table and raised his hands to form the cross-hand "Tiger" seal, casting the "Shadow Clone Technique" once more.
Poof—
With a burst of chakra smoke, four shadow clones appeared in the room, making five of them in total, including Seimei himself.
They exchanged glances and, without needing any instructions, each found a spot to begin practicing the "Guardian Seal."
In the hall.
The five practiced and contemplated in tandem.
Every half hour, Seimei deactivated the "Shadow Clone Technique" to absorb their experiences and convert them into proficiency.
Then, building on that foundation, they resumed training.
Time passed, minute by minute, until five hours later.
Looking at the now lv4 "Guardian Seal" on the panel, a tired smile appeared on Seimei's face.
He closed his eyes, absorbing the insights from the upgrade, then wasted no time and raised his hand to form seals, casting the technique on his forehead.
In an instant, intricate sealing patterns appeared, covering his face and surrounding the Byakugan on his forehead, creating an intimidating sight.
But Seimei didn't mind.
At a certain point, his hand seals shifted, and he muttered, "Seal!"
In the next moment, the sealing patterns converged inward, merging with the Byakugan and vanishing.
With them, the Byakugan on his forehead also disappeared.
Seimei summoned a water mirror, inspecting his forehead. It now only bore a mark resembling "§."
Satisfied, he picked up a nearby Konoha headband and tied it around his head, hiding the last trace.
Seimei nodded with approval.
Now, unless someone conducted a detailed examination, it would be nearly impossible to detect the existence of this Byakugan.
With this, Seimei felt completely at ease.
After resting briefly to recover some chakra, he performed "Wind Release: Wings of Wind," taking to the skies and flying toward the Blackstone Base.
(End of Chapter)