But it doesn't matter if these two spirit bone skills are scrapped. In any case, they aren't the only ones that became useless.
Take Elemental Dominion, which enhances comprehension and control of all elemental attributes and amplifies elemental power, Crystal Body, which grants complete immunity to physical and energy damage below god level, Holy Dragon's Shelter, which weakens damage below god level, and Power of the Holy Dragon, which boosts all attributes. Once his own strength stepped into the god level, every one of these spirit bone skills, without exception, became dead weight.
In other words, aside from improving physical qualities or spiritual power, the only remaining function of spirit bones for Chu Chengzhou is to transform into divine gear when he later ascends to godhood.
Since spirit bone skills no longer affect him, there is no need to replace his spirit bones.
Thus Chu Chengzhou placed the right arm bone and right leg bone from the "old pal from Star Luo's gift," which he had originally planned to swap in, into the AFK bar to auto-level. They filled the two AFK slots freed up after the two techniques, Indestructible Golden Body and Eternal Thought, were promoted to rainbow-ranked Super-Divine skills.
Aside from the external spirit bone Holy Light Dragon Armor, which can auto-level after he becomes a level 99 Limit Douluo, have its age automatically rise to nine hundred thousand years, and later auto-level to a million-year spirit bone, he put everything else straight on AFK to a million years and will just let them transform into divine gear when he ascends.
After all, once spirit bones transform into divine gear, all spirit bone skills disappear, and the bones' original attributes are washed by the laws and become attributes of the god position the ascender attains. There's no need to pursue a set that matches his own attributes.
For example, the Angel Spirit Bone Set passed down by the Angel Clan. If Qian Renxue failed to become a god, then after collecting all six pieces, the set would automatically rise to one hundred thousand years, which is indeed stronger than six randomly matched one hundred-thousand-year spirit bones.
But for Qian Renxue, who can become a god, the Angel Spirit Bone Set is no stronger than six randomly matched one hundred-thousand-year spirit bones. Perhaps the appearance of the transformed Angel Divine Gear will differ after becoming a god, but the quality will certainly be the same.
Of course, Chu Chengzhou wasn't only thinking of himself.
Up to now, among all the peerless arts he has mastered, aside from the Hammer of Creation, which he will not consider for the time being, and Bloom in an Instant and Elemental Fusion, after Nine Breath Qi, Indestructible Golden Body, and Eternal Thought, Sun-Shooting Divine Arrow, Void Illusion Realm, Absolute Control, and Golden Light Ground-Shrink have also been promoted to rainbow-ranked Super-Divine.
That is to say, apart from Bloom in an Instant, which has not yet upgraded, and Elemental Fusion, which has not been completed, he currently has eight AFK slots available for spirit bones.
But the AFK plug-in only works on spirit bones he has refined onto himself. It cannot auto-level spirit bones he carries but has not refined.
Some time ago, after thinking it over, Chu Chengzhou successively "removed" the Golden Hawksbill Left Leg Bone and the Diamond Sea Clam Torso Bone, which were already one hundred thousand years old, as well as the Crystal Guard Left Arm Bone, Elemental Dominion Head Bone, and the right arm bone and left leg bone from the old pal from Star Luo's gift, which had been AFK-leveled to one hundred thousand years. He replaced them with a six-piece set of spirit bones also from the old pal from Star Luo's gift.
The goal was simple: first outfit Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Hu Liena each with a six-piece set of one hundred-thousand-year spirit bones.
For himself, million-year spirit bones aren't urgent. He only needs to ensure that before he ascends and his spirit bones transform into divine gear, all the spirit bones on his body are million-year spirit bones.
Ascending to a god position is at least two thousand days away. He still hasn't produced a Chaos Law seed, and to max out the progress bar for the Chaos Law, the AFK time definitely won't be less than for the Four Symbols or the Five Elements.
As for upgrading six one hundred-thousand-year spirit bones to six million-year spirit bones, with the current AFK efficiency of one day for one thousand years of age, that's only nine hundred days for six AFK slots.
The attribute panel's AFK bar has ten slots in total. Elemental Fusion occupies one, Bloom in an Instant occupies one, and six spirit bones occupy six.
For the remaining two AFK slots, Chu Chengzhou asked his father-in-law Ning Fengzhi for Distraction Control, and then he created a claw technique of his own.
Distraction Control is worthy of being a sect legacy of one of the continent's three upper sects. After he got started, the skill bar on the attribute panel displayed [Distraction Control (dark-red)].
Clearly, in the attribute panel's classification, Distraction Control counts as an incomplete red-grade secret art.
As for the claw technique, though only in its infancy, it still reached black grade. He, Chu, is after all a powerhouse of this era, and he did not lose face.
Needless to say, the claw technique is for his own Big Kitty. The upgraded Distraction Control in the future, even for soul masters without the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda series of martial souls, will provide some help, and he can give it to his father-in-law later.
After all, the betrothal gift he gave Ning Fengzhi back then only involved the forging secret arts for the Thousand Refinements portion, which was a bit low in level.
Pulling back his scattered thoughts, he glanced at the Elemental Fusion that would soon be completed and the Bloom in an Instant that was about to upgrade, as well as the nine spirit rings that had not improved compared to before. Faint spatial ripples rose around Chu Chengzhou. He flashed to the shore, put on his clothes, and left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
In the past two and a half months he had only left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well once. When he asked Ning Fengzhi for Distraction Control, Ma Jieke already had some leads on Thousand-Refinements-grade One-Word Battle Armor. With the materials ready, Ma Jieke's understanding of Soul Guidance Arrays, and Chu Chengzhou's general direction as guidance, creating an initial version of Thousand-Refined Battle Armor shouldn't be difficult. It was time to go back and see whether the battle armor had already come into being.
In the small courtyard by the training grounds, Ma Jieke had manifested his Xuanling Carving Knife martial soul and was cradling a blue breastplate, carefully inscribing a Soul Guidance Array.
Seeing Ma Jieke busy, and looking like he was nearing the end, Chu Chengzhou, who had just returned home and headed straight for the courtyard, did not step forward to disturb him. He waited quietly at the side to avoid interrupting Ma Jieke's inspiration before the battle armor debuted.
After a long while, the amplification-type Soul Guidance Array on the blue breastplate was completed. Ma Jieke let out a long breath, then injected soul power to begin a new round of testing.
As soul power poured in, the Soul Guidance Array engraved on the blue breastplate lit up at once.
A faint blue halo rose. Standing quietly at the side, Chu Chengzhou clearly sensed that under the Array's amplification, the soul power Ma Jieke had injected into the blue breastplate earlier increased significantly in strength.
Seeing this, Chu Chengzhou raised an eyebrow, pleased.
The reason battle armor masters of later eras could crush soul masters of the same level is mainly that battle armor provides a massive amplification to a soul master's soul power. High defense and the ability of Spirit-Refined and above battle armor to merge into the body are secondary.
If this breastplate forged from Thousand-Refined Blue Gestation Copper can produce a notable amplification, does that mean battle armor has already been born?
At once Chu Chengzhou stepped forward with a smile. "Not bad. Old Ma, you have the makings of a Titled Douluo. I, Chu Chengzhou, say so."
He had promised Ma Jieke before that if he could create battle armor, Chu would guarantee him the achievement of a nine-ring Titled Douluo.
"Young Master Chu? You're back? I am afraid I've let you down. The battle-armor soul tool I made falls far short of what you told me before."
Seeing Chu Chengzhou return, Ma Jieke brightened, then spoke with shame.
"Far short? It's fine. As long as, after engraving the Soul Guidance Array, the amplification to a soul master's strength is better than a simple metal cuirass, that's enough. Hurry and make me a set to see."
Chu Chengzhou waved it off. For an initial version of Thousand-Refined Battle Armor, it is normal if the effect cannot match the later era's One-Word Battle Armor.
A Ma Jieke without a cheat cannot possibly match the refinements made by countless soul engineers of later generations. As long as he learns how to craft Thousand-Refined Battle Armor, the current shortcomings and flaws can likely be filled in by the plug-in, just like the Ultra-Divine secret art Elemental Fusion.
After the plug-in fills it in, continuing AFK upgrades will naturally bring forth Spirit-Refined, Soul-Refined, and Heavenly-Refined Battle Armor in turn.
Ma Jieke shook his head. "No need for that, Young Master Chu. I have already completed the first set of battle armor. I was just researching and improving the Soul Guidance Arrays needed for battle armor."
As he spoke, Ma Jieke took out a set of battle armor forged from Thousand-Refined Blue Gestation Copper from his storage soul tool.