Was it cruel?
Chen Ming felt that it was indeed quite cruel. But he did not find his discovery particularly surprising.
It was similar to how, in his previous life, humans deliberately implanted foreign objects into living creatures in order to obtain more bezoars and pearls. As long as the methods were appropriate, the success rate of forcibly creating Spirit Bones in this way would be extremely high.
At most, the Spirit Ability contained within such Spirit Bones would be uncertain, and their quality would likely be inferior to Spirit Bones naturally produced by Spirit Beasts of the same cultivation level.
Moreover, the very first material Chen Ming thought of as the most suitable implant for artificially creating Spirit Cores caused him to fall silent.
If he truly went through with it, the issue would no longer simply be whether it was cruel or not—it would become outright anti-human.
In the end, Chen Ming temporarily set aside this technology that could potentially alter the balance of the world, and continued his research into Spirit Beast bloodlines and Spirit Cores.
Using the flesh and blood of the Flame Lion Spirit Beast along with numerous medicinal herbs, Chen Ming refined a pill that truly possessed a fire attribute.
Such a pill could only be consumed by fire-attribute Spirit Masters, and it could only strengthen fire-attribute Spirit Masters.
However, because it specialized in a single attribute, its medicinal efficiency and absorption rate were much higher than those of universal, attribute-less medicines.
Through various stimulating methods and the already-established pill system now in his possession, Chen Ming further stimulated the dragon blood within the Dragon Wolf, causing the creature—which originally possessed only a small amount of draconic traits—to transform even further toward a dragon form. At the same time, he attempted to artificially cultivate a Spirit Core within it.
Not only did its cultivation increase by several thousand years, but during the process, the enhancement of its bloodline also allowed its quality to truly break through from high-grade to top-tier.
The only thing that left Chen Ming helpless was that after undergoing this transformation, the Dragon Wolf's resistance became even more intense.
After several failed attempts to break free, the Dragon Wolf actually began preparing to self-destruct.
Chen Ming had no choice but to kill the Dragon Wolf before it could self-destruct. While losing an experimental specimen into which he had invested considerable resources, he at least obtained a twenty-thousand-year Spirit Bone from it.
After a long period of experimentation, every Spirit Beast except the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear had been turned into various forms of research material and specimens. Yet Chen Ming felt that the progress of his research still was not particularly significant.
The closer a Spirit Beast was to the hundred-thousand-year level, the more likely it was to condense a Spirit Core. The stronger the bloodline of the Spirit Beast, the lower the threshold for condensing one.
Although the quality of these Spirit Beasts was quite good, their cultivation years were simply too low. The Dragon Wolf—the only truly outstanding experimental subject—had also died.
...
Despite being busy for such a long time, Chen Ming's greatest achievement was merely developing over a dozen new medicines. He had gained some clues regarding how Spirit Beasts condensed Spirit Cores, but as for how humans should do it… the progress was honestly minimal.
Heaven knew what that Spirit Master ten thousand years later had done to Spirit Beasts in order to discover the method for humans to condense Spirit Cores, or how much effort had been spent to uncover such a technique capable of greatly raising one's upper limit.
At present, without access to high-level Spirit Beasts for experimentation, Chen Ming could only wait for Dugu Bo to emerge from seclusion so he could thoroughly study Dugu Bo's inner core.
If that failed, then he would go probe Xiao Wu and see whether she had any understanding regarding the condensation of Spirit Cores.
The reason Xiao Wu ranked so low among his options was because Chen Ming had already sensed during their previous interactions that Xiao Wu understood very little about cultivation.
He seriously suspected that even Xiao Wu herself had absolutely no idea how the Spirit Core inside her body had formed back when she was still a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast.
Although she was called a Soft Bone Rabbit, in reality her Martial Soul was closer to a rabbit possessing the bloodline of the divine beast Jade Rabbit, rather than an ordinary low-level Soft Bone Rabbit Spirit Beast. Furthermore, she had likely experienced some sort of extraordinary encounter in the past that even she herself could not explain, causing her origin to be additionally strengthened.
Otherwise, she would not even have needed to face heavenly tribulation. She would have long since died of old age after exhausting her lifespan, or been eaten by some carnivorous Spirit Beast.
Moreover, Xiao Wu's parents were clearly no ordinary existences either. Da Ming and Er Ming had been saved by Xiao Wu's mother and then lived alongside Xiao Wu for a hundred thousand years.
And Xiao Wu's mother herself had only been a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, yet she had still chosen to transform into a human when facing heavenly tribulation.
So just what kind of power had Xiao Wu's mother relied upon back then, when she was at most only a thousand-year-level rabbit, to save the Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape? And where had a thousand-year rabbit obtained the intelligence necessary to empathize with other Spirit Beasts and even adopt them?
In short, even if he chose to study Xiao Wu, he could not expect Xiao Wu herself to possess any real understanding of Spirit Cores.
Besides, researching Spirit Cores was currently optional for Chen Ming, not mandatory.
After all, his Land Dragon Golden Melon inner core could already function as a Spirit Core, and he himself was still quite far away from the stage of truly condensing one.
His current focus was more on deepening his understanding of Spirit Power at a fundamental level and enhancing the strength of those around him, rather than being constrained by the absence of a Spirit Core.
...
The Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear, as a super Spirit beast, could surpass an ordinary thirty-thousand-year Spirit Beast even at just five thousand years of cultivation. Moreover, due to its extreme defensive power, Chen Ming's current attack strength could not even break its physical defense.
In order to study and control this Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear while maximizing the value of the research material, Chen Ming even called over Golden Crocodile Douluo to help. Only after expending tremendous effort did he finally complete the experiments he wanted to perform.
The flesh and blood structure of the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear completely broadened Chen Ming's horizons. The distribution of Spirit Power and blood essence within this kind of Spirit Beast formed an exceptionally intricate and exquisite network.
The movement of Spirit Power stimulated the growth of blood essence, while the movement of blood essence stimulated the purification of Spirit Power.
Metal-attribute Spirit Power flowed alongside the circulation of blood essence, weaving deeply through every inch of flesh and blood. Combined with the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear's own blood essence, it was equivalent to permanently engraving an extremely sophisticated innate cultivation technique onto its body, continuously strengthening every inch of flesh.
This unique network structure allowed the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear to possess defensive power surpassing metals of the same weight, along with vitality exceeding ninety-nine percent of Spirit Beasts, all without affecting the normal functioning of its body.
It required no additional training at all. Simply by continuously eating and growing, it would constantly become stronger.
This entire network was incomparably complex and refined, originating from the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear's own bloodline and bodily structure. It was the crystallization of both the race's bloodline and the individual's physical composition.
Even if Chen Ming copied it directly, he still could not fully understand or replicate it.
Yet merely comprehending a portion of it already made Chen Ming feel as though his progress in combining blood essence and Spirit Power had advanced tremendously. It also greatly pushed forward his techniques for strengthening the physical body.
As long as he could imitate this network where the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear intertwined Spirit Power and blood essence, and apply it to humans, then human physical capabilities could also be greatly enhanced.
As for the Dark Gold Terror Claws—the strongest weapon of the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear—they gave Chen Ming a feeling of awe. He could understand them, yet was utterly incapable of reproducing them.
The Dark Gold Terror Claws were forged little by little through the accumulation of the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear's bloodline power and Spirit Power over thousands of years, achieving gradual qualitative transformation through extremely high innate quality and the passage of immense time.
They were the ultimate weapon strengthened instinctively over countless years through endless circulations of blood essence and Spirit Power, as well as the energy obtained from endless hunting.
In essence, the Dark Gold Terror Claws were weapons constructed by the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear's unique life circulation system. Once one understood this circulation system, it was not difficult to determine how the claws accumulated their power.
The forging method itself could be replicated.
But that immensely powerful blood essence, that incomparably pure metal-attribute Spirit Power, and that vast life force accumulated bit by bit over thousands of years of life—those were things Chen Ming currently could not possibly imitate.
The Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear itself possessed no special tricks or mechanisms, only the purest overwhelming stats.
Its bodily structure and bloodline power alone formed an exceptionally sophisticated and powerful innate cultivation technique.
Among all the Spirit Beasts Chen Ming had encountered so far, not a single one could compare to the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear.