Success

Hyuga Seisen felt his palm stiffen, his fingertips beginning to petrify, with the effect showing signs of spreading upward.

He hurriedly closed the acupoints in his palm, cutting off the source of natural energy. At the same time, he opened several sealed acupoints at his wrist, allowing the natural energy accumulated in his palm to disperse upward through his arm.

He then refined a large amount of chakra throughout his body and sent it toward the natural energy within him, diluting it.

Under the dilution of chakra, the surging natural energy gradually calmed, and the petrification in his palm slowly receded.

Only then did Hyuga Seisen relax. He panted heavily, his clothes soaked through with sweat.

Had the natural energy remained too long?

Without being mixed with chakra, natural energy staying in the palm area for too long was effectively the same as having too much natural energy in that area.

When Hokage and the others trained in Sage Mode, they likely absorbed natural energy while simultaneously refining the corresponding amount of chakra to mix with it.

But for someone like him, who needed to use his palm as the unit of measurement and could only mix chakra after absorbing a full amount of natural energy—

He instead needed to increase his absorption speed to ensure the natural energy did not remain in his body for too long.

At the same time, he needed to refine the corresponding amount of chakra in advance, mixing the two the instant natural energy absorption was complete.

Sure enough, Sage Mode was not so simple.

Even though he had made thorough preparations and thought through every step, the situation just now had still been extremely dangerous. One slight mistake, and he would have turned into a stone statue.

He took a deep breath and calmed his heaving chest before expelling the chakra mixed with natural energy.

Then, he once again sealed several acupoints at his wrist.

This time, however, he left one acupoint unsealed as a channel for chakra circulation.

He similarly sealed off another area on his forearm, again leaving one acupoint unsealed as a channel.

He then refined chakra and sent it along the chakra pathway he had left unsealed into his palm, stopping only after it filled his entire palm.

This gave him one palm-unit of chakra, containing 0.5 palm-units of physical energy and 0.5 palm-units of spiritual energy.

Next, he opened the acupoints between his palm and forearm, emptied the chakra from his palm into his forearm, and sealed them again.

Using the same method, he sent chakra into his emptied palm, opened the acupoints again to drain the chakra into his forearm, and sealed it away.

This gave him two palm-units of chakra in his forearm, containing one palm-unit of physical energy and one palm-unit of spiritual energy.

All that remained was to absorb one more palm-unit of natural energy before he could mix senjutsu chakra.

He sealed the two acupoints he had left open for transferring chakra.

Then he prepared to absorb natural energy.

This was the most crucial step. Whether he could mix senjutsu chakra depended on it.

Hyuga Seisen took a deep breath, doing his best to calm his slightly rapid heartbeat.

He opened every acupoint in his palm and began absorbing natural energy with maximum force.

At the same time, he used Spirit Particle Gathering to control and assist the natural energy.

His goal was to absorb enough natural energy in the shortest time possible.

He had already sealed every chakra acupoint leading from his palm to his arm.

So he did not need to worry about natural energy exceeding the limit under such intense absorption.

Natural energy surged in, quickly filling his entire palm.

It even faintly showed signs of breaking through the sealed acupoints.

His palm immediately stiffened.

He hastily stopped absorbing and opened the acupoints connecting his palm and forearm.

He allowed the chakra in his forearm to mix evenly with the natural energy in his palm.

The violent natural energy was quickly soothed.

In an instant, he felt his body's vitality increase enormously.

His perception of his surroundings became incomparably clear, as though he had entered another channel.

He hurriedly got up and walked to the mirror. Sure enough, eye shadow had appeared around his eyes.

Thanks to the precise ratio, apart from the eye shadow, there were no other signs of mutation.

It worked!

This was precisely the unique advantage the Hyuga Clan had in cultivating Sage Mode.

Even without the enormous chakra reserves of the Uzumaki Clan to serve as a buffer, they could still rely on the Byakugan's insight and precise acupoint strikes.

To turn the process of absorbing natural energy, which originally relied on bodily sensation and was difficult to quantify.

Into controllable, practical steps.

Text appeared.

[You actively explored and learned Incomplete Sage Mode, gaining favor]

[Incomplete Sage Mode (Beginner Level)*1]

[Energy Crystal*30]

There was even a reward!

But Hyuga Seisen did not inspect it closely. His attention remained focused on Sage Mode.

Excited, he began going through motions in the room—straight punches, side kicks...

His body felt as though it had been pumped full of stimulants.

Every taijutsu movement, whether in strength or agility, was far superior to before.

He tried every taijutsu technique he had mastered.

Twenty seconds later, Hyuga Seisen's body went limp, and the eye shadow around his eyes faded.

He sensed that the senjutsu chakra within him had been completely depleted.

That's it?

He had not even used a single ninjutsu, nor had he engaged in any high-intensity taijutsu combat.

He had merely thrown moves at the air, and it was gone after such little exertion.

It seemed there was a reason Sage Mode required chakra tonnage.

That reason was endurance.