Bionics

During this period, Yoga Seido has been taking Minamoto Sōjun on missions. 

The new curse seal has reached the advanced upper tier. 

The content has begun to cover the major family factions within the jujutsu world, their family techniques, key personnel, faction distribution, and so on. 

The content is detailed. 

Such things couldn't possibly be easily spread—this touches on the taboo of the upper echelons! 

Minamoto Sōjun silently accepted the guidance from Yoga Seido. 

His palm's side edge grew hard and sharp, and with a genuine hand chop, he struck the cursed spirit's head in front of him, slashing wildly at its body for several moments. The cursed spirit froze in place, and with a gentle push, it collapsed to the ground and shattered into pieces. 

His right arm transformed into a spear, extending sharply to impale all the cursed spirits in the line ahead of him. The spear retracted instantly, returning to its normal form. Minamoto Sōjun flicked his arm, shaking off the blood clots turning to black gas from the top of his hand. 

The body transformation ability was now on track, and it was highly effective for cleaning up minor threats. 

He also had the ability to take on the form of other people or creatures, but that was purely auxiliary—changing appearances without altering his true self. This ability wasn't very useful for him at the moment. 

He didn't need to disguise himself. 

The transformation ability relies on physical attributes—the stronger and sharper the body, the more realistic the transformation. 

Minamoto Sōjun extended his hands and grasped the arms of the cursed spirit in front of him. 

Gotcha! 

Four arms regenerated from under his ribs, forming fists that furiously pummeled the cursed spirit. 

The fists were fast, leaving a series of afterimages as the air pressure stirred dust, pushing toward the cursed spirit. 

The cursed spirit struggled and screamed, blood and flesh splattering, until it finally collapsed to the ground as a pile of broken meat, leaving only its two arms still tightly gripped. 

Minamoto Sōjun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. 

This cursed spirit was the last and strongest of the group, and it had caused him quite a bit of trouble. 

Watching it dissolve into black gas, Minamoto Sōjun's four arms quickly retracted into his body. 

Creating additional organs and limbs allowed Minamoto Sōjun to gain an advantage over opponents of the same rank. This skill was useful when matching strength with strength. 

What he truly needed now was to develop a way to overcome stronger opponents... No, everyone was getting stronger. If someone can defeat him, it means they are stronger and he is weaker. 

What Minamoto Sōjun really needed was to keep getting stronger, to become the strongest, and then to find ways to become even stronger than the strongest. 

After some thought, he came to the concept of bionics— 

Studying the structure and function of biological bodies. 

Nature is truly wondrous, and while humans are the most stable and balanced species, they are not the strongest. 

However, there are too many subjects to study. 

The compound eyes of a fly, the echolocation of a bat, the infrared sensing of a snake, the olfactory abilities of a dog, the eyesight of an eagle... 

What if he could combine all these advantages in one being!? 

Simply put, he wouldn't just imitate—he would aim to create the most evolved, perfect human being. 

... 

After each mission, Minamoto Sōjun received a fair amount of money. 

Jujutsu sorcerers are invisible wealthy individuals—so long as they don't spend recklessly, money is always enough. 

The key is not to squander it! 

Minamoto Sōjun spent a large sum acquiring several hawks. 

Phase one of the hawk-eye construction experiment begins! 

He began constructing an eye on his palm, composed entirely of flesh and blood. 

Building extra eyes was no longer difficult for him; he could replicate the original by connecting blood vessels, and nerves, and making slight adjustments to the structure. 

The nature of his techniques made all this seem simple and effortless. 

This was the first layer of insurance—modifications would only occur in this eye. After a period of use and confirming no issues, he would begin modifying his own eyes. 

If the modification of his own eyes succeeded and lasted without issue, he would then attempt the same modifications on his soul-based eyes—that would be the second layer of insurance. 

Finally, he would create a few backup original eyes to carry on him, so if anything went wrong with the modifications, he could quickly restore the original state. This would be the third layer of insurance. 

... 

What are the differences between the structure of the human eye and that of a hawk? 

The related knowledge is in the textbooks, and various research materials are available for reference. 

He had acquired the hawks to use as reference subjects for analysis. He didn't need to dissect the birds—by channeling cursed energy into them, their internal structure would be imprinted directly in his mind. 

Human retinas have a central fovea, which is the area most sensitive to vision. 

But hawks have two foveae: one central and one lateral. The former gives them acute monocular vision, allowing them to detect slight movements, while the latter provides a greater awareness of detail. 

Additionally, hawk eyes have far more photoreceptor cells in their fovea than human eyes—1 million cells per square millimeter in a hawk, compared to just 150,000 in a human. 

Hawks also have superior control over the muscles that form their retinas, allowing them to adjust the amount of light entering their eyes. Even in bright light, they can still clearly see distant prey. 

Hawk's eyes also feature a remarkable "dual adjustment" function, allowing the contraction of the ciliary muscles to change the shape of the lens and the distance between the lens and the cornea, thus enabling the hawk to quickly switch from farsightedness to nearsightedness. 

... 

Once Minamoto Sōjun understood these differences and principles, what to do next and how to do it became clear. 

He attempted to construct the central fovea, and it worked! 

He then began adjusting its position to match the original central fovea... failure! 

Failure! 

Failure! 

... 

After dozens of failures, rebuilding and reconstructing the eyes multiple times, he finally succeeded in gaining sight. This new vision had a range unlike before, more spherical in nature. 

But it wasn't enough. He started increasing the density of photoreceptor cells in the fovea, improving sensitivity. The field of vision became clearer, and more responsive, with vivid colors, as if after a rainstorm clearing up. 

The completely different visual experience excited Minamoto Sōjun. 

He continued to attempt to strengthen the ciliary muscles to control the lens and cornea. 

Through contraction of the ciliary muscles, he tried to squeeze or stretch the lens, altering its shape, while also adjusting the distance between the lens and cornea, and changing the curvature of the cornea. 

This required simultaneous control and precise coordination of various tissues... the difficulty was immense. 

Minamoto Sōjun spent a lot of time and barely succeeded. 

He extended his palm outward, his pupils contracting. He could clearly see ants crawling on the grass in the courtyard, every fine detail; then he widened his pupils and could clearly see the gaps in the walls of a distant building. 

It's said that a hawk's vision can reach up to 36 kilometers, but his eye wasn't quite up to that level yet. The coordination between tissues wasn't perfect. 

However, phase one of the experiment was a success! 

Next would be optimization of the structure and fine-tuning of cells and tissues. 

Mimicking nature exactly wasn't his goal; achieving a simple 1+1=2 would be trivial. What he sought was a result greater than two—ten, one hundred, a thousand. 

Furthermore, he would later integrate the compound eye structure of a fly! Not only the vision but also resolution, color differentiation, night vision, underwater observation... 

There was still much more he could integrate. 

But now, he had to stop the experiment. 

The pain from the construction and disintegration of dozens of blood-and-flesh eyes had become overwhelming. 

The pain was the sensation he could endure the most. From a young age, he had been constantly aware of pain, gradually forming a tolerance. 

But the flesh and blood didn't materialize from thin air—where did they come from? They were forced out of his body. 

He was much thinner than usual now, his cheeks hollow, with fat largely consumed, muscles withered and strained, body fat at an extremely low level, and his skin looked like decaying dry wood. 

The first principle of flesh forging: equivalent exchange. 

Cursed energy, flesh, or soul could all serve as payment for creating additional organs or limbs. 

But the experiment needed to minimize differences. Using cursed energy to construct eyes would lose the point of reference—humans weren't like cursed spirits, whose bodies were made of curses. 

His body was flesh and blood! 

Minamoto Sōjun quickly urged his cursed energy to compensate, and his body slowly began to recover. 

This experiment had been a bit overdone. On the surface, it seemed fine, but internally his body had suffered

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