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However, these two soul bone skills being useless didn't matter—after all, it wasn't just these two that were useless.
For example: Element Domination—which enhanced all-elemental comprehension and control ability and amplified elemental power; Crystal Body—which completely immune physical and energy damage below god-level; Holy Dragon Protection—which weakened damage below god-level; and Holy Dragon's Power—which enhanced all attributes—all became useless after his own strength entered the god-level realm.
It could be said that aside from enhancing physical constitution or spiritual power, the only remaining function of soul bones for Chu Chengzhou was to evolve into divine armor when he ascended to godhood later.
Since these soul bone skills were already ineffective for him, there was no need to replace his soul bones.
Thus, Chu Chengzhou placed the right arm bone and right leg bone from the "Star Luo bros' gifts"—originally planned for replacement—into the AFKing slots for AFKing and upgrading. These occupied the two AFKing slots freed up after his supreme arts Indestructible Golden Body and Eternal Thought upgraded to Rainbow-Tier Super God skills.
Besides being able to automatically upgrade—and after achieving Level 99 Limit Douluo, their cultivation years automatically increased to nine hundred thousand years, later automatically upgrading to one million years—the external soul bone Holy Light Dragon Armor was the only exception. All others were directly AFK'd to one million years, waiting to evolve into divine armor when he ascended to godhood.
After all, when soul bones evolved into divine armor, all soul bone skills would disappear. The original attributes of the soul bones would also transform under the baptism of laws into the attributes of the godhood position of the person who became a god. There was no need to pursue soul bone sets that matched one's own attributes.
For example, the Angel soul bone set inherited by the Angel family—if Qian Renxue couldn't become a god, then after collecting all six pieces of the set (whose cultivation years would automatically increase to one hundred thousand years when complete), it would indeed be stronger than six randomly matched one hundred thousand-year soul bones.
But for Qian Renxue who could become a god, the Angel soul bone set wasn't stronger than six randomly matched one hundred thousand-year soul bones. Perhaps the Angel Divine Armor evolved after godhood would have certain differences in appearance style, but the quality would definitely be the same.
Of course, Chu Chengzhou didn't only think about himself.
To date, among all the supreme arts he mastered—aside from Creation Hammer which he wasn't considering for now, and Instant Bloom and Element Fusion—the following had successively upgraded to Rainbow-Tier Super God level after Nine Breaths Qi Absorption, Indestructible Golden Body, and Eternal Thought: Sun-Shooting Divine Arrow, Void Illusion Realm, Absolute Control, and Golden Light Earth Traveling.
That is to say, aside from the currently unupgraded Instant Bloom and the not-yet-completed Element Fusion, he currently had eight AFKing slots available for soul bone AFKing.
However, the AFKing cheat could only affect soul bones refined within his own body—it couldn't AFK and upgrade unrefined soul bones in his pockets.
Some time ago, after careful consideration, Chu Chengzhou successively "removed" the Golden Hawksbill left leg bone and Diamond Oyster torso bone—both originally one hundred thousand years old—from his body. He also removed the Crystal Protection left arm bone and Element Domination skull bone—which had been AFK'd to one hundred thousand years—as well as the right arm bone and left leg bone from the "Star Luo brothers' gifts." He replaced them with another set of six soul bones, also from the "Star Luo bros' gifts."
The purpose wasn't anything else—to first arrange one hundred thousand-year soul bone six-piece sets for Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Hu Liena.
For himself, one million-year soul bones weren't urgently needed. As long as he ensured all soul bones on his body were one million-year before ascending to godhood and having his internal soul bones evolve into divine armor, that was sufficient.
Ascending to godhood would be at least two thousand days later—after all, he still hadn't created the Chaos Law seed. And to fill the progress bar for the Chaos Law, the AFKing upgrade time definitely wouldn't be less than that for the Four Symbols or Five Elements Laws.
As for upgrading six one hundred thousand-year soul bones to six one million-year soul bones—with the current soul bone AFKing efficiency of one thousand years per day—it would only take six AFKing slots and nine hundred days.
The attribute panel's AFKing section had ten AFKing slots total. Element Fusion occupied one, Instant Bloom occupied one, and the six soul bones occupied six.
As for the remaining two AFKing slots—Chu Chengzhou obtained Heart Separation Control from his father-in-law Ning Fengzhi, and later even created a set of claw techniques himself.
Heart Separation Control truly lived up to being a secret technique inherited by one of the continent's three major sects. After he mastered it, the skills section of his attribute panel gained the text [Heart Separation Control (Dark Red)].
Clearly, in the attribute panel's classification, Heart Separation Control belonged to an incomplete red-grade secret technique.
As for the claw techniques—even though they were just preliminarily created, their grade reached black. After all, he, Chu someone, was still a powerful expert of the current era—he hadn't lost the dignity befitting a current-era powerhouse.
Needless to say, the claw techniques were for his big cat at home. The upgraded version of Heart Separation Control later—even for soul masters without Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda series martial souls—could provide some help, and could also be given to his father-in-law later.
After all, the betrothal gift he had previously given to Ning Fengzhi only involved the forging secret techniques up to the thousand-refined level, which was somewhat low in quality.
Gathering his scattered thoughts, Chu Chengzhou glanced at the nearly complete Element Fusion and the soon-to-upgrade Instant Bloom, as well as his nine soul rings which hadn't improved compared to before. A faint spatial fluctuation spread around his body as he flashed to appear on the shore. After dressing properly, he left the Ice and Fire Two Instruments Eye.
In these two and a half months, he had only left the Ice and Fire Two Instruments Eye once—when he went to obtain Heart Separation Control from Ning Fengzhi. At that time, Ma Jake already had some ideas about the thousand-refined one-character battle armor. After all, with materials in place, Ma Jake understanding soul guidance arrays, and his general ideas as guidance, creating the initial version of thousand-refined battle armor shouldn't be too difficult. It was time to go back and see if battle armor had already entered the world.
In the small courtyard beside the training ground, Ma Jake had his Mystic Spirit Carving Knife martial soul materialized in hand. He was holding a blue chest armor, concentrating intently on engraving soul guidance arrays.
Seeing Ma Jake busy and apparently nearing completion, Chu Chengzhou—who had just returned home and headed straight for the courtyard—didn't disturb him. He quietly waited on the side, not wanting to interrupt Ma Jake's inspiration before battle armor had entered the world.
After a long while, the enhancement-type soul guidance array on the blue chest armor was perfected. Ma Jake let out a long breath, then injected soul power to begin a new round of testing.
As soul power was injected, the soul guidance array engraved on the blue chest armor suddenly lit up.
Immediately, a faint blue aura spread out. Chu Chengzhou standing quietly beside it clearly sensed that under the array's enhancement, the strength of the soul power Ma Jake had previously injected into the blue chest armor had significantly increased.
Seeing this, Chu Chengzhou raised his eyebrows, his face filled with joy.
The reason battle armor masters in later generations could effortlessly defeat same-level soul masters was primarily because battle armor could massively enhance a soul master's soul power. As for battle armor having high defense, and spirit-refined and above battle armors being able to merge into the soul master's body—those were secondary.
The fact that this chest armor made from thousand-refined Blue Coppertite could produce a significant enhancement effect meant that battle armor had already entered the world?
Immediately, Chu Chengzhou smiled and stepped forward: "Not bad, not bad! Old Ma~, you have the potential to become a Titled Douluo—I, Chu Chengzhou, say so!"
Earlier, Chu Chengzhou had made a promise to Ma Jake: as long as he could create battle armor, he would guarantee Ma Jake would achieve ninth-ring Titled Douluo status.
"Young Master Chu? You're back? But your subordinate has disappointed you—the battle armor soul guidance device I created has effects far worse than what you described to me earlier."
Seeing Chu Chengzhou's return, Ma Jake's face lit up with joy, but immediately turned ashamed as he spoke.
"Far worse? No problem—as long as after engraving soul guidance arrays, the enhancement effect on soul master strength is better than simple metal armor! Quick, make a set for me to see~"
Chu Chengzhou waved his hand dismissively. It was just the initial version of thousand-refined battle armor—its effects being inferior to later one-character battle armor was normal.
After all, how could Ma Jake without cheats compare to the perfection achieved by countless soul engineers in later generations?
As long as he learned how to create thousand-refined battle armor, then the current thousand-refined battle armor's minor defects and shortcomings could mostly be completed through his cheat ability—just like the Super God-level secret technique "Element Fusion."
After the cheat completed it, continued AFKing upgrades would naturally bring forth spirit-refined battle armor, soul-refined battle armor, and heaven-refined battle armor in succession.
Hearing this, Ma Jake shook his head and said: "That won't be necessary, Young Master Chu. I've already created the first set of battle armor. Earlier, I was researching and improving the soul guidance arrays needed for battle armor."
As he spoke, Ma Jake took out a set of battle armor made from thousand-refined Blue Coppertite from his storage soul tool.
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