Time passed, another ten-plus years.
Inside the laboratory, a projected light screen continuously scrolled lines of data under cold blue lighting.
Jie Ming sat before the experiment, propping his chin with one hand, gazing at the final derivation report before him. He let out a soft breath.
“Finally… I understand.”
Over the past decade or more, he had poured almost all his energy into dissecting the underlying principles of the Blood Sacrifice Method.
All the jade slips related to similar techniques in the Great Dao Book Pavilion had long been flipped through countless times.
Various demonic secret arts related to aptitude, orthodox scriptures, and even fragmentary cultivation notes had been sorted and summarized by him piece by piece. At the same time, the Wizard Civilization’s theories on mental strength, soul structure, and the essence of life were also incorporated into his analysis model. Only today, the final piece of the puzzle was finally filled in.
Jie Ming reached out, stared at the conclusion on the light screen for a long time, and then suddenly smiled.
“So that’s how it is.”
“The answer has been written on the surface all along.”
In the context of cultivation physiques, “spiritual aptitude” refers precisely to the “spirituality” of living beings.
Yes, from the very beginning, this term itself told everyone what the true nature of aptitude was.
Why is the cultivation system called spiritual energy (lingqi)?
Why is the power cultivated called spiritual power (lingli)?
Why is cultivation talent also called spiritual aptitude?
The answer has always been right there.
Because the three are simply different manifestations of the same thing.
So-called spirituality is the ability of life to perceive and receive external knowledge and rules—or rather, the Dao.
It is also the medium through which life establishes a connection with spiritual energy.
The stronger the spirituality, the easier it is to perceive spiritual energy.
The easier it is to manipulate spiritual power, and the easier it is to comprehend the Dao.
Jie Ming leaned back in his chair, tapping the table with his fingers.
“In other words… so-called spiritual roots are merely the external manifestation of spirituality.”
“Or rather, a concrete name for spirituality.”
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but shake his head again.
He used to think that the cultivation system liked to make many concepts overly mysterious.
But now, having truly understood the underlying logic, he realized it wasn’t mysterious at all—in fact, it was excessively straightforward in naming and description. At this thought, Jie Ming suddenly connected to another matter.
“That is to say… human beings, as naturally intelligent life, are essentially born with spiritual roots.”
His eyes lit up slightly.
Ordinary mortals cannot cultivate, not because they lack spiritual roots, but because their spirituality is too weak—too weak to actively perceive the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Only those with exceptionally strong spirituality exhibit so-called cultivation aptitude.
As for those truly devoid of spirituality… the Great Dao Book Pavilion indeed has records.
For example, some puppets that have completely lost self-awareness, or certain lives born with spiritual deficiency and incomplete souls. Those existences are truly without spiritual roots.
Next, Jie Ming turned his gaze back to the Blood Sacrifice Method.
Having understood the essence of aptitude, this demonic cultivation technique finally lost its last layer of mystery.
What the Blood Sacrifice Method truly sacrifices is not flesh and blood, nor vitality.
What is actually taken is spirituality.
After the sacrifice dies, its spirituality is extracted and then integrated into the recipient’s body.
To avoid spiritual conflict between different lives, the Blood Sacrifice Method incorporates a highly complex filtering mechanism.
Through extensive purification and cleansing means, it ensures that the spirituality received by the subject is sufficiently harmonious. The entire process eliminates almost all parts incompatible with the subject.
Ultimately, the spirituality that can truly remain… is less than one percent.
“No wonder it requires close relatives for sacrifice. If it were other people without any blood relation, or even with entirely different living environments, it would be impossible to extract even a trace of compatible spirituality.”
Jie Ming shook his head lightly. “But even with close relative sacrifice, the improvement is very limited.”
The closer the blood relation, the higher the spiritual compatibility, and naturally the higher the retention rate.
But even so, under normal circumstances, it’s only about one percent.
Huge cost, limited gain.
More critically, even when sacrificing close relatives, and even though such techniques have an enormous number of filtration steps, they still cause massive hidden dangers for the user.
According to records in the Great Dao Book Pavilion, the vast majority of cultivators who rely on such external means to improve their aptitude ultimately stop at the Nascent Soul Realm.
Further realms—Void Refining and Dao Integration—are almost never achieved, let alone ascending to immortality.
Of course, there are those with astonishing innate enlightenment who, even with ordinary cultivation aptitude, can directly comprehend the Dao before Nascent Soul and ascend in one step.
But such existences…
Jie Ming just thought about it and smiled, shaking his head.
“With that kind of enlightenment, who would bother studying the Blood Sacrifice Method?”
At this point, he could finally confirm one thing completely.
His reasoning was absolutely correct.
Cloning bodies—especially those replicated using his own flesh and soul—essentially possess exactly the same spirituality as him. When they are sacrificed, there is indeed no rejection, no hidden dangers, and no pollution of his own foundation.
It sounded similar to his earlier conclusion, but this time Jie Ming understood the underlying reasons, not just relying on massive experimental observations to get results.
This is the significance of understanding essence.
If he only wanted to localize the Blood Sacrifice Method, he wouldn’t have needed to study it to this depth.
He could simply disassemble the many modules of the Blood Sacrifice Method’s operation and reconstruct them using existing Wizard Civilization technology.
As for spiritual aptitude… he could completely replace it with the Wizard Civilization’s mature talent enhancement system.
That would still produce a high-level aptitude enhancement technique.
But… aside from being a cultivator, Jie Ming was also a wizard. His thirst for knowledge has always been more important than efficiency.
“Although I took a roundabout path, now that I understand the essence, modifying various cultivation techniques in the future should be much easier.”
Jie Ming stood up and walked to a door on the other side of the laboratory.
As the heavy metal door slowly opened, a surge of spiritual energy, nearly liquid in concentration, rushed toward him.
Looking out, the entire hall was neatly arranged with hundreds of cultivation pods.
Inside each cultivation pod floated a body identical to his own, perfectly still.
Over the years, using his earned military merits to continuously purchase resources, Jie Ming had upgraded them far beyond their initial mortal state.
Every single one had been matured to the Dao Integration Realm in terms of cultivation level.
Of course, they only had the cultivation level—let alone combat power, these clones couldn’t even enter a state of Dao Integration.
Their only purpose was as sacrifices.
Jie Ming gazed at the cultivation pods and finally showed a long-lost smile.
“Over a decade of resources wasn’t wasted after all.”
He couldn’t help rubbing his hands together. “Then… let’s begin!”
The entire hall had already been set up; the Blood Sacrifice array covered the whole room.
With Jie Ming’s command, streaks of crimson patterns interwove, forming a superarray vast enough to accommodate hundreds of sacrifices simultaneously.
When Jie Ming stepped into the center of the array, the entire hall lit up at once.
Boom!!!
A dark red light slowly rose. Over six hundred cultivation pods opened simultaneously, and one by one, the dormant clones floated up.
As countless blood-red runes emerged from the void, these clones began to slowly disintegrate.
Countless streams of crimson light, like rivers flowing into the sea, converged from all directions and finally poured entirely into Jie Ming’s body.
The entire process lasted a full day.
Until the last cultivation pod was completely empty, the hall fell silent again.
“Huh…”
Letting out a long breath, Jie Ming slowly opened his eyes.
The completion of the aptitude upgrade did not produce any earth-shattering phenomenon or a surge in aura.
Jie Ming stood quietly, feeling that the whole world… seemed to have undergone a subtle change.
Yet nothing seemed to have changed at all.
It was an extremely mysterious sensation.
He slowly raised his hand, and a wisp of spiritual power naturally appeared in his palm.
Previously, spiritual power felt to Jie Ming like a group of soldiers that needed constant direction.
Now, they felt more like his own fingers.
As soon as the thought moved, they flowed naturally.
Feeling that smooth and effortless control, Jie Ming’s eyes lit up.
“So this is what it feels like after enhancing spirituality.”
Even without deliberate control, just after completing the aptitude upgrade, when he subconsciously thought of a problem that had troubled him before, his spiritual power automatically began to circulate the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art.
Spiritual power flowed, Dao resonance echoed, and the Inner World vibrated gently.
Those once obscure and headache-inducing paths of spiritual power movement now felt as natural as breathing.
The entire process was so smooth and fluent, as if it had always been meant to be.
Suddenly, Jie Ming’s entire body disappeared from the laboratory.
No trace of spellcasting or spatial fluctuation—he simply vanished from the laboratory out of thin air.
At the same time.
Inside the Inner World.
A consciousness slowly “opened” its eyes.
Feeling his state, Jie Ming was stunned.
He instinctively wanted to look down at his body, but only “saw” the boundless Inner World.
Jie Ming could clearly sense that the entire Inner World had become his body, able to move freely with his will.
After a long time, Jie Ming slowly exhaled. “I… succeeded just like that?”
Dharma Aspect Dissolution.
Inner World Smelting.
The first two steps of the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art had been completed instinctively in that instant.
He hadn’t even deliberately controlled it; it was purely done by the body’s instinct.
Jie Ming was silent for a long time, then couldn’t help but smile wryly.
“So this is what the jade slips meant by ‘natural and effortless, when conditions are ripe, success follows’!”
When he first saw those two phrases, he thought the author was exaggerating.
Now, having experienced it firsthand, he knew it was no exaggeration at all.
Once spiritual aptitude truly met the requirements, the problems that had troubled him for a century became as simple as drinking water.
Those past intricate and obscure spiritual power changes now seemed childish and laughable.
He even suspected that if he were to recultivate from scratch, he could cover the path of several centuries in just a few breaths.
But soon Jie Ming discovered another problem.
He couldn’t… get out anymore.
To be precise, his true body had completely sunk into the Inner World.
However, the third step of the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art—projecting an avatar—was still unstudied, let alone the method to reverse the process after completing the three steps. Therefore, at this stage, he simply couldn’t project the new body, fused with the Inner World and true body, to the outside world.
His entire consciousness could only stay inside the Inner World.
Jie Ming was silent for a moment, then sighed helplessly.
“Alright, I was getting a bit greedy.”
His original goal was to use this technique to solve the problem of his true body being too large, and now it was essentially solved.
As for the combat power boost from the technique, it was a complete bonus.
He waved his hand. In a corner of the Inner World, a prepared alchemical puppet slowly opened its eyes.
Jie Ming’s consciousness, through the soul connection, directly descended into the puppet body.
In the laboratory.
In the previously empty area, a puppet identical to Jie Ming’s appearance appeared. The puppet slowly raised its head, a human-like gleam in its eyes.
Jie Ming moved this body, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
“It seems that comprehending the third step of the Mustard Seed Contains the Dao True Body Art needs to be brought forward as soon as possible.”