Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 1097 An unexpected surprise
Qingming closed his eyes, carefully observing his own state, and seized the time to gather cultivation experience.

Before we knew it, more than twenty minutes had passed.

Finally, Qingming could no longer maintain 'Sage Mode', and the Sage Chakra within his body suddenly collapsed, transforming into physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy.

Qingming temporarily ignored these energies, diverting some of his attention to control them before shifting his focus to the proficiency panel that opened with his thoughts.

As you can see, after more than 20 minutes of contemplation, his 'Sage Mode' proficiency level on his panel increased from lv5 (1/5000) to lv5 (8/5000), an increase of seven points.

Based on this calculation, if ten shadow clones cultivate together, and excluding the duplicate experience gains, he can gain approximately 120 proficiency points per hour.

Thus, to accumulate 5,000 proficiency points, it takes 41 to 42 hours of continuous practice; to accumulate 10,000 proficiency points, it takes more than 80 hours.

Combined, that's 120 hours.

He now spends about sixteen hours a day seriously cultivating, which is one hundred and twenty hours, or eight days.

In other words, it would take him eight days to grind the 'Sage Mode' to level 7.

Even if you improve your 'Sage Mode' proficiency later and the daily proficiency gains increase, the final time required will still be no less than six days.

Clearly, this is a significant increase in time compared to the previous few levels.

Not to mention, starting from level 7, each subsequent level requires even more proficiency.

Consequently, it will take longer.

This is why Qingming said that he could not easily and perfectly master 'Sage Mode'.

Gathering his thoughts, Qingming stopped thinking about it. He closed the panel, shut his eyes, focused his attention, and began to sort out the three streams of energy in his body after the disintegration of the Sage Chakra.

However, before he had been combing his hair for long, he suddenly opened his eyes.

A glint of light flashed in his eyes.

Qingming closed his eyes again, carefully sensing his own condition, especially the condition of his physical body.

Time passes minute by minute.

After a long while, he opened his eyes again.

At this moment, Qingming's face was filled with joy.

Just now, while he was sorting out the three energies in his body, he suddenly discovered that his body's enhancement progress had increased.

Although it was only a small step towards the tipping point of transformation, it was enough to surprise him.

After all, he hasn't cultivated the 'Ultimate Body Technique' yet.

So he focused his attention again and sensed it.

As it turned out, his earlier intuition was correct; his body was indeed a fraction closer to the critical point of transformation.

So, what special things has he done in the past period of time?
It seems that apart from maintaining 'Sage Mode', there are no special actions.

Therefore, the answer is obvious: it was the 'Sage Mode' that led to his progress this time.

This quickly reminded Qingming of a deduction he had made long ago: that 'Immortal Mode' could greatly enhance the caster's gene expression ability and subtly strengthen the caster's body.

This conclusion was drawn from the fact that Naruto did not inherit Kushina Uzumaki's iconic red hair from the Uzumaki clan, but instead inherited Minato Namikaze's blond hair, who came from a commoner background.

Previously, his 'Sage Mode' level was too low to maintain for long, which caused noticeable changes that he overlooked.

Now that he has reached level 5, he can finally perceive the impact it has had on him, and that's when he remembered this matter.

For Qingming, this was an unexpected and delightful surprise. Although the current improvement it brought to his physical enhancement might seem insignificant, it was just the beginning.

Once it advances to level 7 and level 9, resulting in two more qualitative changes, the effect will certainly not be as weak as it is now; it might even be very strong.

Not to mention, he is currently only maintaining 'Immortal Mode'. If he could combine it with cultivating 'Body Extreme', the effect would definitely be different.

Coincidentally, he also needed to use Sage Chakra when cultivating 'Body Ultimate'.

Although converting all the chakra in the body into Sage Chakra at once will take a little longer.

However, if the final result is good, then it is acceptable for him to spend more time preparing before each training session.

With this thought in mind, Qingming disregarded the need to end his training and return to Konoha. Instead, he faced the afterglow of the setting sun and once again unleashed the 'Multiple Shadow Clone Technique'.

bang bang bang~
As bursts of chakra smoke exploded, Qingming split into two groups, creating 560 shadow clones.

Qingming divided these shadow clones into three groups and assigned each of them a task to cultivate.

Then, he used the 'Flying Thunder God Technique' to teleport to the volcano below Moon Island.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the burning pain in his lungs, Qingming immediately began to mobilize the three energies within his body, fusing them back into Sage Chakra.

ten minutes later.

This step is complete.

Qingming naturally entered the 'Immortal Mode' state.

Then, while maintaining 'Sage Mode', he mobilized the Sage Chakra within his body and unleashed 'Body Limit'.

At first, he was a little unaccustomed to it, after all, he had to do two things at once.
But soon, he didn't need to go through all that trouble, because he discovered that 'Extreme Body' and 'Immortal Mode' were an exceptionally good match.

After a short while, he was able to skillfully cultivate the "Ultimate Body Technique" in the "Immortal Mode" state.

Just as he had anticipated, his speed in strengthening his body did indeed increase as he cultivated the 'Ultimate Body Technique'.

However, he will only know the exact extent of his improvement after completing a full round of training.

With this in mind, Qingming stopped being distracted and began to focus wholeheartedly on mobilizing his Sage Chakra to strengthen his body.

Time passes minute by minute.

Approximately 25 minutes later.

The immense Sage Chakra within Qingming's body suddenly became unsustainable and disintegrated into three basic energies.

Subsequently, he also exited the 'immortal mode' state.

"Whoo~"

With a light exhale, Qingming was unaffected. After a brief adjustment, he began to integrate the physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy within his body once again.

After converting all of it into Sage Chakra, he entered Sage Mode again and began a new round of training.

This time, it lasted a little shorter, just twenty minutes.

Thus, adding the time required for the two initial fusions of Sage Chakra, it's roughly enough for one hour.

So Qingming stopped wasting time. He paused his cultivation, and with a thought, activated the 'Flying Thunder God Technique' to teleport back to Moon Island.

(End of this chapter)