It was as if he had fallen from a towering platform into a bottomless abyss. Everything around him rapidly vanished from his perception, replaced by countless buildings that appeared out of thin air.
At some point, the sensation of falling abruptly stopped.
Looking down at the Blue Silver Grass lawn, so familiar it could not be more familiar, Jiang Ci'an once again draped a layer of "Indifference" over himself. Then he activated "Perspective" to locate Tang San and Xiao Wu before slowly making his way over.
He deftly found Xiao Wu, then deftly had her come forward and offer herself as a sacrifice right in front of Tang San.
He had gone through this routine so many times he had lost count. At first, he had needed to give commands to guide her, but now he had gradually learned to control the puppet with his mind.
All it took was a glance. Xiao Wu would walk over on her own, embrace him on her own, then ignite herself and begin the sacrifice.
This time, however, he did not keep chiseling away at Xiao Wu's Soul Ring.
Jiang Ci'an paid no attention to the freshly formed Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring beside him. Instead, he raised his hand and gathered the power of "Time Control" at his fingertips, then gently brushed it across the air.
Just like dragging a video's progress bar.
He wound time forward, then kept adjusting it until he pinpointed the precise moment Xiao Wu's Soul Bone condensed.
Right here.
As Xiao Wu's sacrifice reached its final moment, the energy within her body gathered to its peak, and her bones began to undergo some kind of change—
The process of the Soul Bone forming appeared clearly before his eyes.
Jiang Ci'an locked time at that point and observed it over and over, analyzing it again and again.
Each time a Soul Bone formed, he made a slight interference, causing subtle variations in the process. Then he searched those variations for commonalities and, in the end, drew his conclusions.
Ever since coming into contact with the Knight System from the Throne of Seal, Jiang Ci'an had been thinking about how to adapt it to this world and fuse it with the Soul Master system, thereby establishing a viable path to godhood.
This problem was undeniably difficult, though not impossible.
According to Elder Yi, his "Body Tempering Method" was well suited to serve as the point of connection.
That method, which he had tested using Tang San's life, shared many similarities with the Knight System in its core principles.
With it as a foundation, adapting the related knight cultivation methods would not be difficult; it would simply take time.
And once he succeeded, the Body Tempering Method's original limits would be raised. Even the so-called "Martial Way" that he had once only bragged about would finally have a true foundation.
But another problem came with it: the "Spirit Apertures."
As everyone knew, Spirit Apertures were crucial to the Knight System in the Throne of Seal.
Most of the advanced cultivation methods for knights at the sixth rank and above were built on Spirit Apertures. Without them, he would either have to find a new path for developing the system or...
Solve the problem of lacking Spirit Apertures at its source.
So, was it possible to shape Spirit Apertures after birth?
The answer was yes. In fact, there was already an example.
That was the Eye of Life between his brows.
In essence, the Eye of Life was a Spirit Aperture between his brows, built after birth by harnessing the properties of Gold of Life and Elder Yi's modifications.
It was an exception, the result of several factors accidentally coming together, and for now it could not be replicated.
But its very existence proved that it was possible to construct Spirit Apertures after birth.
So, was there a way for ordinary Soul Masters to gain Spirit Apertures after birth, like the Eye of Life?
Jiang Ci'an's research into this question focused on Soul Bones.
Under normal circumstances, humans in the world of the Throne of Seal were born with nine Spirit Apertures.
The precise locations varied according to each person's innate talent, but their general distribution followed a pattern: three major Spirit Apertures and six minor ones.
The three major ones were the chest, lower abdomen, and brow.
The six minor ones were the limbs, spine, and brain.
Nine in all.
Didn't that sound familiar?
If he set aside the locations of the chest, lower abdomen, and brow, and looked only at the six minor Spirit Aperture locations—
The limbs, spine, and brain. These six locations happened to correspond to the main parts of the body where Soul Bones appeared on the Douluo Continent.
Perhaps it was merely a coincidence, born of the fact that human anatomy followed similar underlying rules in different worlds. But even so, that coincidence gave him a direction.
Could the places meant to bear Soul Bones also be used to bear Spirit Apertures?
So, he made his first attempts in the Virtual World.
Using Tang Hao, a Titled Douluo, as his test subject, he tried forcibly condensing Spirit Apertures in the places where Tang Hao had not fused with Soul Bones.
And then...
Tang San's dad exploded.
After he had blown him up dozens of times, he was fairly sure that, because of some fundamental difference in human anatomy, humans on the Douluo Continent were born without Spirit Aperture Slots.
Forcing Spirit Apertures to condense only caused the body's energy structure to collapse. The apertures could not take shape, and the body exploded outright.
The reason the Spirit Aperture between his brows had condensed successfully was, in essence, that the Eye of Life had taken on the function of a "Spirit Aperture Slot."
And since Spirit Apertures could not condense because there were no "Spirit Aperture Slots,"
That raised the question: was there some way for Soul Masters to acquire "Spirit Aperture Slots" after birth?
Once again, he thought of Soul Bones.
Soul Bones were special entities that fused into a Soul Master's body after birth.
Once fused with a Soul Master, they changed the bones and energy structure of the part they were fused into, making that part one with the Soul Bone.
That was the conclusion he had reached after chopping off Tang Hao's legs several times.
In other words, theoretically, the properties of Soul Bones could be used to change the bones and energy structure, creating a Spirit Aperture Slot that could bear a Spirit Aperture.
And with a Spirit Aperture Slot, condensing a Spirit Aperture would naturally be possible.
That was to say: modify a Soul Bone, fuse it, and ultimately obtain a Spirit Aperture Slot.
But there were several problems with this approach as well.
First, Soul Bones varied enormously from one individual to another.
Even Soul Bones produced by the same kind of Soul Beast and with the same number of years might not be identical in their microscopic structure.
Even if he managed to use a particular Soul Bone to create a Spirit Aperture in the Virtual World, that method might fail in reality if he tried it with a different Soul Bone.
The quality of Soul Bones was another major problem.
He had no use for hundred-year or Thousand-Year Soul Bones. Their quality was too low, and modifying them would bring little value. Even if he succeeded, he would not fuse with one.
Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones were viable, but their price was a problem. An ordinary Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone could cost several million or even tens of millions of Gold Soul Coins. Moreover, they were usually in short supply. Whenever one appeared, a major power would snap it up to strengthen its foundations, so they were scarce.
And since the modification experiments would certainly have a high failure rate, each Soul Bone worth tens of millions could end up ruined in the process...
Never mind whether he could get his hands on enough Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones to burn through. He simply could not afford the cost.
From there, he thought of another method—one that was more feasible, cheaper, and more broadly applicable.
Namely,
Self-Condensing Soul Bones.
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