Black Book's Second Function

After noticing the Black Book's unusual movement, Wang Chen immediately forgot all about the soul bone and quickly sank his consciousness deep into his soul to see what had happened.

Wang Chen knew deeply what his true foundation for survival was. The family had only given him a thousand-year soul bone.

Even a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, or even a hundred-thousand-year soul bone, could not compare to a single page of the Black Book.

A moment later, Wang Chen stared at the Black Book in utter shock. The originally damaged Black Book had actually recovered somewhat more than before.

Though the Black Book's changes were not obvious, Wang Chen regarded it as extremely important and had its every detail deeply etched into his mind. He could notice even the slightest change.

Seeing that the Black Book had recovered a little, Wang Chen was overjoyed.

After all, the Black Book had originally been damaged too severely, leaving only its most basic recording function.

Did this mean that some of its previously unusable functions had been restored?

Even if powerful functions such as World Travel still could not be used, having one more minor function would still be good.

After all, merely its most basic recording function was already so powerful that it allowed Wang Chen to fight across ranks.

In fact, if the soul masters of Douluo Continent had not lacked powerful skills so badly—

If this had been another world, such as one of martial cultivation or immortality cultivation, Wang Chen would have long used the Black Book's recording function to learn countless powerful martial arts and Daoist techniques.

It could only be said that Douluo Continent was too weak, limiting the potential of Wang Chen's cheat, the Black Book.

Filled with anticipation for the Black Book's new function, Wang Chen immediately began testing what abilities it had gained.

Wang Chen's consciousness entered the Black Book and began searching every corner of it.

Very quickly, Wang Chen discovered something that had not been there before.

It was a crystal-like mark formed from countless profound inscriptions.

Wang Chen investigated it more deeply and soon learned the purpose of this Crystal Mark.

Its use was simple. He only needed to inject Spiritual Power into it and place a skill recorded in the Black Book within it, after which it could deduce and refine that skill.

As for how far it could deduce or refine a skill, that depended on the skill's developmental potential, how incomplete it was, and the strength of the Spiritual Power injected.

In short, the more impressive and complete the skill was, and the stronger Wang Chen's Spiritual Power became, the more terrifying the transformed skill would be.

Seeing this, Wang Chen immediately began considering which ability he should place into the Crystal Mark for deduction and refinement.

After thinking for a while, the first thing Wang Chen considered was the Meditation Method he cultivated, which could also be called a cultivation technique.

The cultivation techniques of Douluo Continent were extremely crude. They did not involve the Eight Extraordinary Meridians at all and could only barely be called cultivatable.

God King Tang had been able to dominate the world with the Mysterious Heaven Skill alone. This showed just how weak the cultivation techniques of Douluo Continent truly were.

Naturally, Wang Chen was extremely dissatisfied with the cultivation technique he practiced. Over the years, he had also considered improving it.

But improving a cultivation technique was extraordinarily difficult. The human body's meridians were countless, and every meridian and every circulation involved countless factors.

It was not as though simply knowing the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and a few meridians would allow someone to create a cultivation technique.

Moreover, even after creating one, they would need a great deal of human experimentation to see whether it had any problems.

Once problems were found, it would need to be improved and patched up. After each revision, it still required people to test it. Therefore, creating a complete cultivation technique required an enormous amount of time.

The cultivation methods of many sects had often only succeeded after generations, even dozens of generations, worked tirelessly to improve them.

Wang Chen was young, his accumulation of knowledge was insufficient, and he also had to focus on cultivation. How could he possibly have the time to improve a cultivation technique?

Therefore, Wang Chen had not spent time improving his cultivation technique. Of course, the most important reason was that even if he forced himself to improve it, he would not dare use it himself. Who knew whether there would be problems? What if he suffered a cultivation deviation?

Thus, after learning of the Black Book's second function, Wang Chen immediately wanted to place his cultivation technique into the Crystal Mark for deduction and refinement.

No sooner thought than done. Wang Chen also wanted to test the Crystal Mark's wonders.

He poured a large amount of Spiritual Power into the Crystal Mark.

As the Spiritual Power entered, the Crystal Mark emitted a faint glow.

Clearly, Wang Chen's Spiritual Power... was a little weak.

After injecting his Spiritual Power, Wang Chen placed the cultivation technique he practiced into the Crystal Mark.

The Black Book could record skills Wang Chen saw. As for his own skills, they could be entered without needing to see them.

With the cultivation technique and Spiritual Power injected, the Crystal Mark immediately displayed its powerful effect.

A moment later, the Crystal Mark's faint glow faded. Then, a greatly changed cultivation technique was transmitted into Wang Chen's consciousness.

This brand-new cultivation technique included the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and was countless times more complex than the Meditation Method Wang Chen had originally cultivated.

Just as Wang Chen was overjoyed, the immense expenditure of Spiritual Power left him unusually exhausted, and his consciousness immediately returned to his body.

Then, enduring his fatigue, he placed the soul bone floating before him back into its box, stored it in his Soul Tool, and fell asleep at once.

While Wang Chen slept soundly.

Inside the Wang Family Clan Leader's Hall.

Elder Wang Yuan, the chief judge of the Family Competition, arrived there.

He had come this time to report to the clan leader that the family had produced a genius rarely seen in decades.

He hoped the family would increase its investment of resources so the genius could grow better.

Elder Wang Yuan bowed and said, "Clan Leader, Yuan'er has something to report."

Wang Yan did not immediately respond upon hearing Wang Yuan's words.

At that moment, he was not reclining in a lounge chair as usual. Instead, he sat upright before a table, and his expression was no longer as kind and calm as before.

Recently, First Prince Xu Tianran and Third Prince Xu Tianshi had joined forces against Second Prince Xu Tianyu, causing the previously dominant Second Prince to suffer several minor setbacks.

Therefore, Wang Yan, who had sided with the Second Prince, was naturally in a poor mood.

Wang Yan was currently considering how to counter the alliance between the First Prince and Third Prince.

He had already thought of two methods. One was to secretly undermine the alliance between First Prince Xu Tianran and Third Prince Xu Tianshi.

After all, neither the First Prince nor the Third Prince truly shared one heart. They had only joined hands because of the Second Prince's strength.

The other method was to win over the princes who were not qualified to compete for the throne, promise them certain benefits, and unite against the First Prince and Third Prince.

Compared to the first method, Wang Yan favored the second.

Neither Xu Tianran nor Xu Tianshi was foolish. They both knew they could only oppose the Second Prince by joining forces. Therefore, Wang Yan believed that even if he made some covert moves, the two would simply pretend not to see them.

Thus, the second method was more practical and feasible. Although those princes were not qualified to compete for the throne, they still held some power. Even at worst, winning them over would strengthen the Second Prince's momentum.

Seeing that the clan leader remained silent, Wang Yuan could only maintain his bowing posture and wait for Wang Yan's response.

A moment later, Wang Yan's eyes shifted as he glanced at Wang Yuan beside him. In an utterly flat voice, he said, "Speak. What is it?"

Only then did Wang Yuan straighten up and say, "Clan Leader, Wang Chen, the first-place winner of this Family Competition, defeated Wang Teng, who had three Soul Rings, despite only having two himself. His talent is exceptional, and he is a genius rarely seen in decades. Given time, he will surely become a great figure."

Wang Yuan did not continue by saying that he hoped the clan leader would greatly nurture him.

Making demands was something those above said to those below.

If he dared say such a thing, it would undoubtedly be disrespectful to the clan leader. Therefore, Wang Yuan stopped there, merely explaining Wang Chen's excellence and leaving the rest for Wang Yan to decide.

Hearing Wang Yuan's words, Wang Yan became somewhat interested. A Soul Grandmaster defeating a Soul Elder across ranks was something only possessors of top-tier martial souls had been able to achieve in the past.

Wang Yan was also somewhat moved. This generation of the Wang Family had over a hundred direct descendants, far more than the previous two generations. Among so many people, a true genius had emerged.

Recently, Wang Yan had focused most of his attention on the Second Prince. He rarely concerned himself with family matters, leaving most of them to the elders.

Still, since such an outstanding talent had emerged in the family, he should indeed be nurtured properly.

Wang Yan took out a token from his Storage Soul Tool and tossed it to Wang Yuan. "Grant him the Young Master Token. From now on, Wang Chen's monthly allowance will be raised to 100,000 Gold Soul Coins.

Raise his daily clothing, food, lodging, travel, cultivation resources, and Soul Ring acquisition treatment to the highest tier. Also assign a squad of guards for his use. That is all. You may leave."

Wang Yuan caught the token, bowed, and slowly withdrew from the Clan Leader's Hall.

Wang Chen's Home.

Wang Chen slept from daytime all the way until night before slowly waking up.

After opening his eyes, Wang Chen was starving. Left with no choice, he first went out to eat before quickly returning to his room.

Excitedly, he began testing the new cultivation technique that had been deduced and refined through the Crystal Mark.

Wang Chen sat cross-legged in meditation, shut his eyes, and began circulating the cultivation technique.

Once he started cultivating, Wang Chen could not stop. The new cultivation technique's efficiency was at least twice that of his previous trash technique.

More importantly, the quality of the Soul Power it cultivated was also stronger than before.

The quality of one's Soul Power was an extremely important matter for a soul master.

The reason Soul Sages and Titled Douluo were so difficult to reach was because those breakthroughs had considerable requirements for Soul Power quality.

To break through to Soul Sage, one needed to transform the Soul Power within one's body into liquid form. To break through to Titled Douluo, one needed to transform that liquid Soul Power into a solid Soul Core.

This was why Soul Engineers who recklessly used pills to increase their cultivation in the early stages, leaving their Soul Power unstable, found it difficult to break through to the realms of Soul Sage and Titled Douluo.

However, with this new cultivation technique, Wang Chen would certainly find it far easier than other soul masters to break through to Soul Sage and Titled Douluo in the future.

After cultivating for an hour and experiencing the new technique's appeal, Wang Chen finally opened his eyes. The smile curling up his lips could no longer be suppressed.

Wang Chen could not help thinking excitedly, *With this new cultivation technique, I can maintain an extremely high cultivation speed at least until Soul King rank. Top geniuses average four or five levels per year at this stage.

Maybe even gaining ten levels in a year isn't impossible. This new cultivation technique is truly insane. Its cultivation efficiency far surpasses the old one.*

Wang Chen rubbed his chin and named his new cultivation technique the Meridian Opening Skill, signifying swift passage and swift cultivation.

After cultivating the Meridian Opening Skill for a while, Wang Chen immediately continued studying the Black Book.

Wang Chen could not help wondering whether he could send the Meridian Opening Skill into the Black Book's Crystal Mark again and deduce and refine it a second time.

A single deduction and refinement had already made it so powerful. If he could refine it several more times, would he not soar into the sky and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun?

Overwhelmed with excitement, Wang Chen eagerly entered the Black Book again and placed the cultivation technique into the Crystal Mark once more.

A moment later, Wang Chen's face turned pale, and he gave a bitter smile.

"I was still too naive. How could there be such a good thing? My Spiritual Power is still too weak. I simply cannot bear another deduction and refinement of the cultivation technique."

Wang Chen shook his head, easing the headache caused by Spiritual Power depletion.

Then, like a child who had received a new toy, he eagerly continued using other skills to test the Crystal Mark's wondrous effects.

After a night's worth of experiments, Wang Chen had expended a great deal of Spiritual Power and deduced and refined several skills that consumed less Spiritual Power. He completely understood the Crystal Mark's deduction and refinement function.

At the same time, Wang Chen discovered that quite a few of his skills had very low potential.

The skills within the Soul Ring system in particular had shockingly low potential. It could be said that the power of soul skills was already bound by their Soul Rings, leaving virtually no room for improvement.

On the other hand, technique-based skills such as spear techniques and close-combat skills had improved greatly through the Crystal Mark's deduction and refinement ability.

The current Wang Chen was practically a master of combat techniques. In this regard, only veteran soul master experts with decades of battle experience on Douluo Continent could likely compare to him.

Since he had only one night and some skills consumed an enormous amount of Spiritual Power, Wang Chen had not yet had time to deduce and refine them.

He planned to wait until his Spiritual Power had recovered before continuing.

Wang Chen got off the bed, stood up, stretched lazily, and loosened his somewhat stiff body.

At that moment, sunlight streamed through the window into the room, illuminating the previously dim bedroom.

Looking at the rising morning sun outside, Wang Chen felt better than ever.

After the Black Book's second function had opened, he felt as though he had been reborn. His potential had received an enormous boost.

Wang Chen withdrew his gaze and looked around the bedroom.

Only then did he remember the soul bone he had forgotten.

Wang Chen smiled helplessly. The Black Book's second function was simply too powerful.

Compared to it, he could not bring himself to care about a mere thousand-year soul bone.

In any case, he would never absorb this thousand-year soul bone. Only a soul bone at least a hundred thousand years old would catch his eye.

At that moment, Wang Chen suddenly thought of something. Why had the Black Book suddenly recovered somewhat? Its recovery speed had previously been so slow that it was almost imperceptible.

Combined Chapter