Absorbing the Fruit! An Unexpected Delight! Meridian-Type External Soul Bone!

The fruit felt warm and moist in his hand, pulsing faintly as though it were alive.

He brought it to his mouth.

The fruit scarcely needed chewing. It melted the instant it entered his mouth, turning into a dense, warm, incomparably pure current, like the most primordial gift of Mother Earth, sliding down his throat into his abdomen.

Unlike the energy shocks from absorbing Whale Rubber and Soul Rings before, this warm current was exceptionally gentle and steady.

It did not rush to spread. Instead, like a trickling stream, it slowly permeated every corner of his body, every inch of flesh, every bone, and even the deepest parts of his organs and marrow.

Tang San could clearly "see" within himself that, nourished by this incomparably pure life energy of the earth:

The density of his bones continuously increased, and a faint jade-like sheen began to emerge on their surfaces. They became harder without losing their resilience.

His muscle fibers became denser, like dragon sinews forged through countless hammer blows, containing explosive strength.

His internal organs were wrapped in a faint yellowish-brown glow of energy, nourished and made tougher, stronger, and more vibrant. Their metabolic capacity greatly increased.

Under the widening and reinforcement of this steady energy, his meridians became broader and tougher, capable of withstanding even More Violent Soul Power impacts.

Even his blood seemed to have become heavier and more condensed, carrying a deep, weighty sense of power as it flowed.

This was not merely an increase in energy, but a strengthening and evolution of his very Life Essence!

The medicinal effects of the Earth Core Marrow Spirit Fruit mainly acted upon one's "foundation." It was a true transformation!

At the same time, part of that pure earth-attributed energy merged into his Soul Power, making the Soul Power of his Mysterious Heaven Skill denser and more enduring, with an incomparably stable foundation.

His Soul Power Level rose naturally once more, reaching the peak of Level Twenty-Six!

This fruit could not directly raise one's Soul Power Level. At most, it provided an auxiliary effect.

Reaching the peak already was excellent.

Moreover, this increase was not the least bit unstable. On the contrary, because his foundation had been so thoroughly solidified, his actual combat strength far exceeded that of others at the same level.

Who knew how much time passed before the last trace of Earth Core Marrow energy was completely absorbed. Tang San slowly opened his eyes.

He gently clenched his fist, feeling the Soul Power within him, vast as a river yet condensed like mercury slurry, as well as the vast power in his body that seemed capable of shaking mountains.

He felt that after this cleansing, his Physical Body Strength had likely truly stabilized at the Soul Ancestor level, perhaps even surpassed it!

The strength of his internal organs also gave him endurance and recovery abilities far beyond those of ordinary people.

"The Earth Core Marrow Spirit Fruit truly lives up to its reputation..."

Tang San murmured to himself, the sharp light in his eyes restrained.

This harvest had made his foundation terrifyingly solid.

He was confident that, with his current reserves, absorbing Soul Rings with higher year limits in the future would no longer be as risky and reliant on luck as it had been with his second ring. It would become a natural process.

He carefully put away the remaining Earth Core Jade Soil. It was also a treasure and might be useful for cultivating other rare herbs in the future.

Feeling the earth-shaking changes within his body, Tang San saw his future path more clearly.

Keep a low profile, develop steadily, solidify his foundation, and quietly grow stronger.

When he and his father appeared before the world again, they would surely shock the entire continent!

He glanced at the pale light beginning to fill the sky outside the window. A new day had begun.

And he would continue moving forward steadily along this path toward strength, a path unknown to all.

Having completely absorbed the medicinal power of the Earth Core Marrow Spirit Fruit and felt the transformed changes within his body, Tang San's heart was filled with clarity and satisfaction.

But he was a publicly acknowledged cultivation fanatic. He did not pause in the slightest. Taking advantage of the Spirit Qi swirling within him and his unprecedentedly perfect condition, he immediately began his daily meditation practice, circulating the Mysterious Heaven Skill to consolidate these hard-won gains.

The Internal Force of the Mysterious Heaven Skill flowed like a tame river through his broad, resilient meridians. With every circulation, his Soul Power became a little more solidified, and its compatibility with his Physical Body grew a little stronger.

However, when his Internal Force flowed through certain specific meridian routes that had previously been ordinary, Tang San keenly sensed an extremely subtle anomaly.

It was not an obstruction or discomfort, but rather... an additional, vitality-filled sense of flow.

It was as though an invisible, living membrane had attached itself to the walls of those meridians. As his Soul Power circulated, that membrane gently expanded and contracted as well, as if breathing in sync with him.

"What is this?"

Tang San's heart stirred, and he was deeply puzzled.

His intuition told him that this thing was not simple.

He immediately immersed all his focus within his body. The internal vision ability of his Purple Demon Eye was pushed to its limit, while the insight of the Mustard Seed Realm focused on the anomalous meridian regions.

At first, everything seemed no different from usual.

The meridian walls were smooth, and Soul Power flowed through them without obstruction.

But when he concentrated his Spiritual Power to the utmost and activated Life Perception, probing nearly to the most microscopic level of his meridian structure, he finally discovered the clue!

On the inner walls of some of his main meridians, a layer of an exceedingly thin emerald green network had somehow appeared, almost completely fused with the meridians themselves!

The network was as fine as a spider web, flickering with an almost imperceptible soft green light. Its material was neither metal nor jade, yet it emitted a Life Aura that shared the same origin as the Ten Thousand Year Life Vine, but was even purer and more condensed!

It had not attached itself afterward. Rather, it seemed that when he had absorbed the Soul Ring of the Life Vine, some most primordial Life Essence had combined with his meridians and naturally gestated into this growth!

Because it had completely fused with his meridians and concealed its aura so thoroughly, he had failed to discover it despite examining himself internally many times before.

Only now, after the Earth Core Marrow Spirit Fruit had thoroughly tempered and nourished his entire body, had this strange network been activated, revealing faint energy fluctuations.

"Could this be a Soul Bone?"

A thought flashed through Tang San's mind like lightning.

According to Master Yu Xiaogang's theory, Soul Bones were special bones that Soul Beasts had a certain chance of producing after death. They were divided into the six standard Soul Bones and the even rarer External Soul Bones.

But the thing before him was not an independent bone. It was a network-like structure perfectly fused with his meridian system!

"Holy crap!"

"Could this be... a meridian-type... External Soul Bone?!"

Combining this with the various fanfiction novels he had read in his previous life, Tang San came up with a bold guess.

He was shocked by his own deduction.

External Soul Bones were already one in ten thousand, while an External Soul Bone integrated with the meridian system like this was even more unheard of!

This was absolutely super rare, unprecedented in history!

Perhaps only a special Soul Beast like the Life Vine, formed from Pure Life Energy and possessing no fixed form of its own, could produce such a peculiar existence.

He tried accelerating his Soul Power through the meridians covered by the emerald green network.

In an instant, a sudden change occurred!

The emerald green network glowed faintly, as though energy had been injected into it. An even more vast and pure Life Aura spread from it and merged into the flowing Soul Power.

Tang San clearly felt that the speed of his Soul Power circulation had increased by nearly thirty percent!

Moreover, after flowing through these meridians, his Soul Power seemed to be refined into something even purer. It even gained a trace of rich Life Attribute energy, greatly enhancing its nourishing effects on his body!