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Spirit Masters with spiritual attributes, upon reaching a certain level of spiritual power, can mobilize that spiritual power to use abilities that spirit power alone cannot achieve.
As their spiritual power increases, a Spirit Master might, through a fortuitous opportunity, be able to sense and open their Sea of Consciousness.
The Sea of Consciousness exists, but opening it requires a specific opportunity.
Perhaps there is a standard—once spiritual power is cultivated to a certain level, one can naturally sense and open the Sea of Consciousness. However, even before reaching that point, if the opportunity is right, one might still have a chance to open it by borrowing external force.
Su Wen, at this very moment, wanted to seize the opportunity of absorbing his second spirit ring to open his own Sea of Consciousness.
A spiritual-attribute spirit ring, even one absorbed while exceeding his rank, was not guaranteed to open the Sea of Consciousness.
However, Su Wen could take the initiative to open it himself.
Where was the Sea of Consciousness?
Su Wen didn't know.
The Spirit Master world didn't know either.
However, the fact that cultivating spiritual power to a certain point allowed one to sense and open the Sea of Consciousness proved that it could be sensed once spiritual power reached a certain intensity.
Su Wen's spiritual power had not yet reached that intensity.
"But I can clearly sense my spiritual power increasing."
The Sea of Consciousness was right there, and the spiritual power was inside it.
It was just that before opening the Sea of Consciousness, a Spirit Master could only mobilize the 'wandering' portion of spiritual power that emanated from it.
By sensing the increase in his own spiritual power, Su Wen was undertaking a process similar to how he had previously used the cultivation and consumption of his origin spirit power to sense his spirit space.
"The spirit is the bridge between a Spirit Master's soul and physical body. During the spirit's metamorphosis, the spirit space becomes tightly linked with the body, allowing the spirit ring's power to seep in. By that logic, at this very moment, the spirit space and the Sea of Consciousness must also be more closely linked than ever before."
Theoretically, this was the easiest time to sense the Sea of Consciousness.
Time passed.
The Phantasmal Spirit Fox was already primarily a spiritual-attribute beast. After its mutation, the Three-Eyed Phantasmal Spirit Fox's spiritual attribute was even stronger, far exceeding that of a normal one.
As the spirit ring's origin merged into the spirit's origin, the spirit metamorphosed, and his spiritual power received feedback, continuously increasing.
"I've sensed it!" Su Wen sensed the existence of the Sea of Consciousness.
He mobilized his spiritual power and struck at the barrier to the Sea of Consciousness.
Boom!
As if the heavens and earth were being split apart, a new space emerged.
The Sea of Consciousness was opened.
His spiritual power increased wildly.
In reality, it was the vast spiritual power that had always been within the Sea of Consciousness that now came under Su Wen's control.
Su Wen's Sea of Consciousness was vast, like a giant lake. The spiritual power he had gathered so far, forming droplets of water, was merely a tiny puddle in one corner of it.
Suddenly, the Sea of Consciousness began to tremble, as if a great rift had torn open in the "sky" above it.
Opening the Sea of Consciousness was merely a matter of using one's control over spiritual power to carry one's will and enter it, not to actually break it.
But at this moment, it truly seemed as if the Sea of Consciousness had been broken open.
"That's not right."
Su Wen observed the rift carefully and found it looked very familiar.
It looked like—
"The third eye from the Three-Eyed Phantasmal Spirit Fox's brow?"
Su Wen was first stunned, then immediately overjoyed.
He realized what this was.
An External Spirit Bone!
In the Spirit Master world, the most precious things, aside from 100,000-year spirit rings, were spirit bones.
Every spirit bone absorbed granted an additional spirit skill. This was a massive enhancement for a Spirit Master at any stage.
Unlike spirit rings, the appearance rate of spirit bones was extremely low, less than one in a thousand. Of course, spirit bones also had no restrictions; even a Spirit Master who did not personally kill the beast could still fuse with it.
Under normal circumstances, there were six types of spirit bones: left and right arm bones, left and right leg bones, a skull, and a torso bone.
In special situations, spirit bones could also form in other parts of the body. These were External Spirit Bones, the rarest and most special category of all.
External Spirit Bones possessed the characteristic of being able to grow. As a Spirit Master cultivated, given the right opportunities, even a ten-year External Spirit Bone could, in theory, eventually grow into a 100,000-year spirit bone.
An eye?
And a third eye in the center of the brow.
This was not the form a skull bone took, so it had to be an External Spirit Bone.
Su Wen marveled at his own heaven-defying luck.
But after obtaining the External Spirit Bone and thinking back on the entire process, he felt that perhaps it was to be expected.
The drop rate for spirit bones was abysmally low, but it became extremely high under two conditions: one, the spirit beast died with extreme hatred, and two, the spirit beast passed away in complete peace.
Su Wen's situation seemed to be the latter. He had previously assumed this condition could only be met through a spirit sacrifice.
"It seems I was ignorant."
Love truly is great.
...
Two and a half hours later.
Su Wen opened his eyes. His gaze was much more vibrant than before.
He spread out his spiritual power and could vaguely sense the general layout of the cave.
"My spiritual power is still too low."
If he could completely cover every inch of the cave with spiritual power, he would naturally be able to perceive everything clearly and without dead angles. But as it stood, his spiritual power could only just barely fill the cave, and its concentration was extremely low.
Not enough "pixels."
"There should be special techniques for using spiritual power, ones that stimulate its characteristics to make it more suited for perception."
If he could develop one, it would be equivalent to having a spiritual-attribute perception-type spirit skill.
Unfortunately, Su Wen had not mastered any such technique.
"Wait, I'll try the External Spirit Bone."
Su Wen's brow split open, and a magnificent, resplendent vertical pupil bloomed in its center. A dazzling light shone from it, emitting an allure that seemed to pull one's very consciousness in.
He circulated his spiritual power within this 'Phantasmal Spirit Eye,' and without even releasing it, Su Wen felt his vision become incomparably clear.
It wasn't just that the world observed through the Phantasmal Spirit Eye was clearer; his two regular eyes also received an enhancement. Everything in the outside world became rendered in minute detail. Su Wen could even see the motes of dust floating in the air.
With a thought, he caused the Phantasmal Spirit Eye to recede. At this point, the eye was merely hidden, not gone. He continued to try circulating his spiritual power within the concealed eye.
He no longer had the vision from the third eye, but the enhancement to his two regular eyes remained.
"Not bad. Under normal circumstances, as long as there are no accidents, this Phantasmal Spirit Eye of mine won't be exposed."
Unlike normal spirit bones, once an External Spirit Bone was fully fused, it would never drop again upon death.
However, the prerequisite was complete fusion, and Su Wen wasn't sure if his current state counted as 'complete.'
Besides, the most important point was—
"Not every damn Spirit Master knows this!"
The very existence of External Spirit Bones was a secret, to say nothing of their characteristics.
If anyone confirmed that Su Wen had a third eye and that it was a spirit bone, the vast majority of Spirit Masters would absolutely try to kill him to make it drop.
Moreover, this vast majority of Spirit Masters wouldn't even stop to consider whether Su Wen had 'fully fused' with it or whether it could drop after killing him.
Of course, even if they did know this characteristic, some would probably still gamble.
Human nature was just like that.
"Aside from the Phantasmal Spirit Eye, the biggest gain this time was the second spirit skill."
Su Wen began to sense his second spirit skill, and he was very satisfied.
(End of this chapter)