Inside the laboratory, the cold blue illumination scattered silently, making the entire hall appear spotless.
A row of brand-new culture pods were neatly arranged in the center of the experimental area.
Pale green high-concentration nutrient fluid flowed slowly, producing a faint sound of bubbles.
Through the semi-transparent pod walls, one could clearly see ten bodies suspended inside.
They had identical facial features and the same bone proportions. Even the subtle patterns on their skin were no different from Jie Ming's own.
The ten clones floated quietly in the nutrient fluid, eyes tightly shut, their chests rising and falling rhythmically with the circulation of the nutrient fluid, like ordinary people in deep sleep.
Jie Ming stood before the culture pods, arms crossed, carefully examining his work.
After a moment, he nodded in satisfaction. "No issues with the bodies... next step is the soul."
His gaze slowly swept over the ten sleeping clones. The reason he chose to create experimental subjects using his own genetic material through a slower method, rather than directly creating them with alchemy, was not due to any special preference but out of caution.
After all, although the Blood Sacrifice Method had been thoroughly studied by him, it was still only at the theoretical stage and had never actually been performed. According to the method's records, although it was called "blood sacrifice," what was truly offered was not merely the flesh, but the complete life composed of bloodline, physical body, and soul.
Jie Ming worried that if he created them with alchemy out of thin air, there might be subtle deviations he himself hadn't noticed, which could lead to the failure of the entire sacrifice or even cause backlash. So, to be safe, the experimental materials in early tests should be as close to the target as possible.
Of course, precisely because these clones were merely experimental materials, Jie Ming didn't waste many resources on cultivation.
These clones only possessed Jie Ming's appearance and bloodline.
Aside from that, both physical strength and spiritual talent were at the most ordinary mortal level.
Apart from inheriting some special resistance left over from the body refinement method through his life information, they didn't even possess a trace of supernatural power.
Now, these ten bodies still lacked one final thing: a soul. Jie Ming slowly raised his right hand: "To be safe, I'll directly cut samples from my own soul for replication."
Within his spiritual sea, two completely different sets of knowledge systems began to operate rapidly, countless pieces of knowledge about souls surging forth like a tide. In this regard, Jie Ming was quite fortunate to have knowledge from two systems, allowing him to combine the strengths of both.
In the immortal cultivation system, the understanding of the soul leaned more toward "oneness."
Starting from the Qi Refining stage, the three treasures of essence, energy, and spirit continuously fused.
The entire cultivation process was essentially about constantly condensing the scattered life origins and finally returning to unity.
Therefore, cultivators had profound attainments in strengthening the soul, refining the Primordial Spirit, affecting divine sense, and other aspects.
But techniques related to soul division were almost considered forbidden territory. After all, ordinary souls were inherently fragile; one small mistake could lead to complete destruction.
While the souls of high-level cultivators were sturdy enough, they revered perfect unity, and to preserve their cultivation potential, they rarely actively split their Primordial Spirit.
Thus, within the immortal cultivation system, those truly skilled in soul division were either demonic cultivators who didn't care about future potential, or great beings who had reached extremely high realms and used avatar techniques to divide their Primordial Spirit.
Wizard Civilization, however, was the complete opposite. Wizards never regarded the soul as something sacred and inviolable.
What they truly valued were wisdom and knowledge; aside from that, whether it was themselves or others, soul or body, everything could be arbitrarily twisted and modified.
In their eyes, the soul was merely another energy structure that could be observed, studied, dismantled, and reassembled. It was special, but by no means incomprehensible.
For this reason, over the long ages, through countless soul experiments continuously advancing, wizards had already studied the soul to a very fine degree. The soul could be dismantled, stitched, replicated, and even reshaped.
Soul division was merely a routine operation in experiments for wizards. For high-level wizards, the real trouble with cultivating a new soul was not the technique but the cost.
Cultivating a high-level soul comparable to oneself required too many resources, and for most wizards not skilled in this area, it wasn't cost-effective. Therefore, unless necessary, few were willing to do so.
And Jie Ming happened to excel in both systems! "Since that's the case, there's no reason not to use it."
As his voice fell, alchemy activated, and an invisible force slowly probed into the depths of his soul.
Throughout the process, his movements were extremely gentle, like a surgeon performing a delicate operation.
Several transparent blades formed from alchemic power slowly descended, lightly cutting along the fluctuating patterns of the soul.
Chi...
Several strands of soul fragments, as thin as hair, were cleanly peeled off.
The entire process was smooth without any hesitation.
Those soul fragments were crystalline and transparent, with smooth and rounded edges, no signs of tearing, as if they had grown naturally. Even the soul body itself showed no visible wounds, as if the alchemic power had merely taken away some trivial debris attached to it.
Jie Ming only felt a slight sting, which quickly returned to normal. For the him now, such a degree of soul loss could be fully recovered in the blink of an eye.
He raised his hand, and ten wisps of soul fragments flew toward the ten culture pods, slowly merging into the sleeping bodies within.
The next moment, the alchemical formations at the bottom of the culture pods lit up simultaneously. Runes lit up layer by layer, and the high-concentration nutrient fluid flowed rapidly.
Large amounts of life energy were drawn out by the formations and continuously injected into the clones' bodies.
With the assistance of alchemy, the initially rudimentary soul fragments began to grow rapidly. Neural networks were actively connected by the souls, and brain tissue truly came to life.
Minutes later, all ten culture pods vibrated slightly almost at the same time. The next moment, the ten clones slowly opened their eyes.
Twenty eyes gazed simultaneously at Jie Ming outside the culture pods. Their gazes appeared very hollow.
That was normal.
Their brains were complete, and their souls had matured, but Jie Ming had not input any knowledge into them. Thus, these clones could breathe and have heartbeats, performing the most basic physiological activities. But they could not speak or think.
Jie Ming observed quietly for a moment.
After confirming there were no abnormalities, he nodded lightly.
"Good, the cultivation is successful."
Then, he opened two culture pods, and two clones slowly floated out.
Jie Ming raised his hand and pointed, casting a hypnotic spell. The two, already blank-minded, fell into a deeper sleep, lying quietly on the experiment table.
Jie Ming's third eye on his brow slowly opened, and a pale silver star swirl began to rotate slowly.
The True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye. Activate!
Wizard Civilization did not have specialized instruments for detecting spiritual aptitude. But the True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye analyzed the underlying information of all things and originally came from the immortal cultivation system.
So-called spiritual aptitude naturally could not escape its observation.
Moments later. Two sets of data appeared in his vision. [Spiritual Aptitude: Average.]
Both clones showed this result, and Jie Ming was not surprised at all.
He extracted some blood from each, the bright red blood suspended in midair under mental control, then slowly fell onto the experiment table. The blood seemed alive, flowing along a predetermined trajectory.
Strands of crimson lines quickly intertwined and connected, eventually forming a complex and eerie blood-colored formation.
The entire formation exuded an ominous aura.
Jie Ming placed one clone on the sacrifice end and the other on the receiving end. After confirming that all runes were correct, he slowly extended his right hand, lightly pressed it on the center of the formation, and slowly infused spiritual power.
"Let's begin."
Boom!!!
A dark red light burst forth, instantly illuminating the entire laboratory in a sea of scarlet. Within the formation, countless blood-colored light threads, like living things, spread out and quickly entangled the clone on the sacrifice end.
That clone's body began to disintegrate bit by bit. Skin, flesh, bones, internal organs, and even the soul...
All that constituted life was decomposed by the formation into some special force, then slowly flowed along the entire formation to the other end.
The clone on the receiving end shuddered slightly, and a faint red glow began to permeate from its skin. Certain deeper life structures began to reorganize slowly.
The entire process was not long.
In less than half a tea's time, all the red light dissipated, and the laboratory returned to calm. The sacrifice end was empty; all that remained of the original clone was a small pile of gray-white ashes.
The next second, an automatic cleaning formation activated, and the ashes vanished silently.
Jie Ming did not look at the ashes; all his attention was on the other clone.
The True Illusion Void-Breaking Eye activated again, and streams of data rapidly emerged.
After discerning the information he wanted, Jie Ming's pupils suddenly contracted. Even his vertical eye widened unconsciously. [Spiritual Aptitude: Excellent.]
The laboratory fell into a brief silence.
Jie Ming stood motionless, his pupils trembling as he rescanned the clone. The result was consistent.
He slowly straightened up, his gaze falling on the bloodstains left from the experiment, then slowly shifting to the eight culture pods still running behind him.
"Hiss... from Average directly to Excellent?"
He murmured to himself, his eyes full of thought.
In the immortal cultivation system, going from ordinary aptitude to excellent aptitude often meant several opportunities for a complete rebirth.
Countless cultivators couldn't cross this threshold in their entire lives.
And now, an ordinary clone, merely by sacrificing another identical clone, had crossed it.
This was not just a good result. It was... almost exaggeratedly good.