Self-Condensing Soul Bone, Shaping Bone and Consolidating Position

It felt like falling from a ten-thousand-foot platform into a bottomless abyss. Everything in his surroundings vanished from his perception, replaced by countless buildings manifesting out of thin air.

At a certain moment, the sensation of falling ceased abruptly.

Looking down at the Blue Silver Grass lawn, familiar to the point of monotony, Jiang Ci'an cast his usual "Indifference" over himself. He then activated his "Perspective" to pinpoint the locations of Tang San and Xiao Wu before walking slowly toward them.

He found Xiao Wu with practiced ease and, right in front of Tang San, had her step forward to offer herself as a sacrifice.

He had performed this sequence countless times. From the early days when he needed verbal commands to guide her, he had gradually learned to manipulate the puppet with his spirit.

A single glance was all it took for Xiao Wu to walk up on her own, embrace him, and ignite herself to begin the sacrifice.

However, this time, he did not proceed to carve out Xiao Wu's spirit ring.

Instead of paying attention to the freshly manifested hundred-thousand-year spirit ring beside him, Jiang Ci'an raised his hand, condensed the power of "Time Control" at his fingertips, and swept it gently across the void.

It was as if he were dragging the progress bar of a video.

He dialed time backward, then adjusted it repeatedly, precisely locking onto the exact moment Xiao Wu's spirit bone condensed.

This was it.

At the final moment of the sacrifice, when the energy within Xiao Wu's body condensed to its limit and her bones began to undergo a certain transformation, the process of the spirit bone forming was clearly presented before his eyes.

Jiang Ci'an locked time at this node, observing it over and over, analyzing it again and again.

With every formation of the spirit bone, he introduced a slight interference, causing subtle differences in the process. He then captured the commonalities from these variations to draw a final conclusion.

Since coming into contact with the Knight System from the Throne of Seal, Jiang Ci'an had been contemplating how to localize this system, allowing it to merge with the Spirit Master system and forge a viable path to godhood.

This problem was difficult, yet it was not entirely simple.

According to Elder Yi, his "Body Tempering Method" was well-suited as an entry point.

That technique, which he had perfected using Tang San's life as a test, shared many core logical similarities with the Knight System.

With this as a foundation, converting the relevant knight cultivation methods was not difficult; it simply required time.

Once successful, the original ceiling of the "Body Tempering Method" would be raised, and the so-called "Martial Way" he had once boasted about would finally have a true foundation.

But another problem followed: the "Spirit Aperture."

As everyone knew, the existence of Spirit Apertures was crucial in the Knight System of the Throne of Seal.

Most high-level cultivation techniques for knights above the sixth rank were based on Spirit Apertures. Without them, one would either have to carve out a new path or...

Solve the problem of the missing Spirit Apertures at the root.

Was it feasible to cultivate Spirit Apertures post-natally?

The answer was yes, and an example already existed.

That was the Eye of Life at the center of his brow.

The Eye of Life was essentially a brow-based Spirit Aperture constructed post-natally, utilizing the properties of the Gold of Life and Elder Yi's modifications.

It was a special case, the result of a coincidental convergence of multiple factors, and currently lacked reproducibility.

Yet, its very existence proved that constructing Spirit Apertures post-natally was possible.

So, was there a way to allow ordinary Spirit Masters to possess a post-natal Spirit Aperture similar to the Eye of Life?

Jiang Ci'an's research direction for this was spirit bones.

Humans in the Throne of Seal normally possessed nine Spirit Apertures from birth.

Due to individual talent, the specific locations of these apertures varied, but their general distribution followed a pattern: three primary Spirit Apertures and six secondary ones.

The three primary ones were the chest, the lower abdomen, and the brow.

The six secondary locations were the four limbs, the spine, and the brain.

Nine in total.

Did that sound familiar?

If one were to temporarily omit the chest, lower abdomen, and brow, and look only at the six secondary locations—the four limbs, the spine, and the brain—these six positions happened to correspond to the primary locations where spirit bones appeared on the Douluo Continent.

While this was likely just a coincidence arising from the fact that human anatomy followed similar underlying rules across different worlds, this coincidence provided him with a direction.

Namely, could these locations, which were meant to host spirit bones, be used to host Spirit Apertures instead?

Thus, he conducted his initial attempts within the Virtual World.

He used Tang Hao, a Titled Douluo, as his subject, attempting to forcibly condense Spirit Apertures in areas of his body where no spirit bones were fused.

And then...

Tang San's father exploded.

After repeating this process and exploding dozens of times, he basically determined that due to some essential difference in the structure of the human body, humans on the Douluo Continent were not born with Spirit Aperture slots.

Forcibly condensing them only caused the body's energy structure to collapse, failing to take shape and resulting in an immediate explosion.

His own brow-based Spirit Aperture had succeeded only because the "Eye of Life" had essentially taken on the function of a "Spirit Aperture slot."

Since the inability to condense a "Spirit Aperture" stemmed from the lack of a "Spirit Aperture Slot," the question then became: was there any way for a Spirit Master to acquire a "Spirit Aperture Slot" after birth?

His thoughts returned once again to Soul Bones.

Soul Bones were special entities that fused with a Spirit Master's body after birth.

Once fused, they altered the skeletal and energy structure of the area they occupied, causing the bone and the Spirit Master to become one.

This was the conclusion he had reached after severing Tang Hao's legs several times.

In other words, theoretically, one could utilize the properties of a Soul Bone—its ability to alter skeletal and energy structures—to specifically create a Spirit Aperture Slot capable of housing a Spirit Aperture.

And with a Spirit Aperture Slot, one could naturally condense a Spirit Aperture.

That is, modify a Soul Bone, fuse it, and finally obtain a Spirit Aperture Slot.

However, there were several problems here as well.

First, there were massive individual differences between Soul Bones.

Even Soul Bones from the same species of Soul Beast and the same age were not necessarily identical in their microscopic structure.

Even if he succeeded in creating a Spirit Aperture using a specific Soul Bone within the Virtual World, that method might fail in reality if he were to use a different piece of Soul Bone.

Furthermore, the quality of the Soul Bone was also a major issue.

He had no interest in hundred-year or thousand-year Soul Bones; their quality was too low, and they held little value for modification. Even if he succeeded, he would not fuse with them.

Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones would work, but the price was a problem. A common Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone could easily cost hundreds of millions of Gold Soul Coins. Moreover, they were mostly in short supply; once one appeared, it was almost always purchased by major factions as a foundation, making them extremely rare.

On top of that, modification experiments would undoubtedly have a high failure rate, and every Soul Bone worth millions could be ruined in the process...

Not to mention whether there were enough Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones for him to experiment with, the cost alone was something he could not afford.

Thus, he thought of another method with higher feasibility, lower cost, and greater universality.

That is, Self-Condensing Soul Bone.