Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 1017 Questions
Three days later, time flew by.

This evening.

Qingming had just finished a round of training in the 'Wood Clone Technique' and, seeing that the time was almost up, he retrieved the dozen or so shadow clones that were absorbing natural energy.

Instantly, tens of thousands of points of chakra, along with nearly five thousand points of natural energy, returned to his body.

As usual, Qingming first controlled these natural energies, and then immediately absorbed and digested the cultivation experience and memories of those shadow clones.

He originally thought that this time, like before, he would improve his proficiency in 'natural energy perception' and 'natural energy control'.

However, unexpectedly, the proficiency he gained this time was just enough to upgrade both of his skills.

In a short while, they leveled up from lv4 to lv5 (1/5000)!
That's right, it's level 5.

Three days ago, after he upgraded 'Natural Energy Perception' and 'Natural Energy Control' to level 3, he has been gaining about 1,000 proficiency points for these two skills every day since then.

Including today, it's exactly 3,000 points.

And this is exactly what allowed these two skills to be upgraded from level 3 to level 5.

Unlike the minor qualitative change at level 3, level 5 is often the beginning of a true qualitative change for a skill, and 'Natural Energy Perception' and 'Natural Energy Control' are no exception.

At this moment, Qingming felt that his perception of natural energy had become more acute, and he was also able to control a much larger amount of natural energy.

With a thought, Qingming once again channeled his spiritual power into the alternate space in his abdomen, attempting to manipulate the five thousand points of natural energy within.

As expected, the whole process was much easier.

So he used the 'Mind Communication Technique' again to contact the shadow clones scattered throughout the island, who were absorbing natural energy, and caused more than a dozen of them to also release the 'Shadow Clone Technique'.

In an instant, another five thousand points of natural energy returned to his body.

Qingming immediately manipulated it and sent it into the alternate dimension in his abdomen.

In this way, the natural energy stored in his body reached 10,000 points.

Qingming tried to manipulate these natural energies again, and this time, the difficulty was indeed much higher. Although it was still not his true limit, it was close.

Using his body to contain natural energy is ultimately risky, and Qingming didn't want to push it to the limit. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, he would only control 10,000 points of natural energy.

Ten thousand points of natural energy can be fused into ten thousand points of Sage Chakra.

If used properly, these Sage Chakra energies can already significantly accelerate the strengthening of his body.

However, this also brought a problem: the extra-dimensional space in his abdomen could no longer contain this natural energy.

That's right, there's simply not enough room.

Initially, he simply used the 'Sealing of All Things' technique to create a separate space that could only hold a thousand points of natural energy.

After several improvements, its capacity was increased to 5,000 points.

But now, the amount of natural energy he can control has reached 10,000 points, which is somewhat beyond his capabilities.

Just like now, he has to constantly devote some of his energy to maintaining the seal on his abdomen.

Otherwise, these natural energies would have long since spiraled out of control.

But maintaining this for such a long time is not a solution. He can't possibly dedicate a portion of his energy to stabilizing the sealing array in his abdomen every time he recycles natural energy, can he?
Putting aside whether it's troublesome or not, Qingming simply cannot accept the drain on his energy.

His time and energy are limited each day, and he can't afford to waste them here.

However, as for improvements...
This also has some problems.

Since the original purpose of developing the 'All Things Sealed' technique was to store chakra, not natural energy, further improvements would only be a temporary fix. Its ability to store natural energy can never reach the scale of storing chakra, and will be far inferior.

Doing so will only make things worse and worse, and in the end, it will be counterproductive.

It is foreseeable that as time goes by, he will need to store more and more natural energy, and the increase will be greater and greater, and the risk of losing control will also be higher and higher.

This is an exponential growth pattern.

Therefore, he must find a way in advance to solve this problem once and for all.

Otherwise, it will be too late when the crisis breaks out.

Various thoughts flashed through his mind, and Qingming's brain worked at high speed, trying to find a solution.

Thanks to the development of several extremely difficult sealing techniques over the past few years.

So he quickly came up with an idea.

As the saying goes, to untie a bell, you must tie the bell.

The reason why 'Sealing All Things in the World' is ineffective is that it is designed to target chakra.

Could he then follow the same line of thought and design a new seal targeting natural energy?

No, it's not just natural energy.

Considering that the natural energy he controls must reach a level that balances the amount of chakra within his body, he must complete the fusion of Sage Chakra within the sealed space.

Therefore, this new seal cannot only target natural energy, but also needs to take into account ordinary chakra, and even the fused Sage Chakra.

For a moment, all sorts of thoughts filled Qingming's mind, making him somewhat lost in thought.

Fortunately, the unusual movement of the seal in his abdomen reminded him that now was not the time to be distracted.

Immediately, Qingming gathered his thoughts and first fused the natural energy in the alternate dimension in his abdomen into Sage Chakra.

Next, he drew up the sage chakra and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to temporarily teleport himself inside the volcano.

Afterwards, he spent some time using these Sage Chakra to perform 'Body Limit' and strengthen his body.

After exhausting all the Sage Chakra, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique again to teleport to an open area in the center of the island.

Qingming glanced at the shadow clones still developing Dust Release techniques inside and outside the island, and with a thought, he deactivated the 'Multiple Shadow Clone Technique'.

In an instant, all of these shadow clones disintegrated and vanished.

Immediately following this, a large amount of memory information flooded into the mind.

Qingming immediately closed his eyes and quickly browsed through these memories, absorbing and digesting the cultivation experience contained within.

Fifteen minutes later, Qingming opened his eyes again.

Standing still and pondering for a while, he once again used the 'Multiple Shadow Clone Technique' to create more than 430 shadow clones.

Among them, the four hundred shadow clones, just like before, started from an even higher level and continued to develop Dust Escape.

The remaining thirty-odd shadow clones
After thinking for a moment, Qing decided not to send them to replenish the hundred-person team that was absorbing natural energy. Instead, he followed his previous line of thought and tried to develop a new sealing technique to address the risk of excessive natural energy.

Time passes minute by minute.

And so, silence fell over the arena once again, and Qingming continued his cultivation!
(End of this chapter)