Minamoto Sōjun sat cross-legged beside the coffee table, with his back to the window. A single eye on the back of his neck opened, its sharp gaze scanning the surroundings.
Inside his eye, its structure was constantly fine-tuning, adjusting what needed to be enhanced and what needed to be reduced.
For example, the blood vessels on the retina, which caused astigmatism and color distortion, were reduced in number to improve vision. However, too few vessels would result in an insufficient energy supply to the eye, causing it to gradually deteriorate. Balancing this is crucial.
What is the ideal amount? Where is the optimal position? Not only must one find the most effective solution, but it must also cooperate with other tissues to form the perfect structure and maximize its function.
This requires continuous adjustment and experimentation.
Minamoto Sōjun used flesh and blood to constantly construct new eyes, consuming large amounts of cursed energy to replenish the lost flesh and blood.
His hands wrote and drew on a notebook.
The drawings were of the eye's perspective structure, surrounded by dense notes detailing experiments and hypotheses about the eye's structure.
He generated new ideas based on his understanding, testing them for feasibility, and eliminating the incorrect hypotheses one by one.
He was constantly repeating this process.
Another hand was flipping through a book, gathering knowledge and sparking inspiration.
One hand rested on the table, holding a teacup.
Another hand held a fly's head, playfully pinching it.
For Minamoto Sōjun, this was a way of balancing work and rest.
The remaining optimization steps for the eyes were repetitive and tedious, not requiring full concentration, and inspiration could not be forced.
It was fine to take it slow.
He was multitasking, achieving the current extreme, allowing him to relax while still advancing his experiments.
This fly's head had a special connection to Minamoto Sōjun.
At the age of six, when Minamoto Sōjun was about to awaken his cursed technique, he struggled to break through a barrier. Coincidentally, this fly kept buzzing nearby, becoming the final straw that pushed Minamoto Sōjun into a state of irritation, breaking through the barrier and successfully awakening.
At that time, he accidentally crushed it halfway to death, and later, it was sealed by Lady Minamoto in a glass bottle, where it stayed for four years.
When Minamoto Sōjun was ten, he casually noticed it again, remembered what it was, and released it. Since then, he had kept it tied to his hair.
This creature, impossible to tame, always tried to escape. Perhaps Minamoto Sōjun wasn't strong enough yet, his cursed energy not vast enough to subdue it completely.
He knew that cursed spirits could be domesticated. Many jujutsu sorcerers today used cursed spirits.
Some relied on their techniques, others on their strength.
Normally, a fly's head like this, though lacking intelligence, still had the instinct to seek benefit and avoid danger. After all this time, it should have been submitted, but this one was an exception.
Never mind, just keep it tied for now.
Minamoto Sōjun extended a strand of hair, wrapping it around the struggling fly's head, leaving only its white wings visible, fluttering in the air.
He had no intention of releasing the fly or fully exorcising it.
Everyone is rebellious!
You refuse to submit, so I will make you submit.
The cursed spirit he had was mostly weak and small.
He was experimenting with cursed spirits for simple reasons: to conduct experiments, and explore or verify certain hypotheses.
He didn't care much about their strength, only about their functionality.
At that moment, Minamoto Sōjun extended a strand of hair, its red tip suddenly piercing the fly's left arm.
The fly seemed to sense the danger and struggled frantically.
But it was tightly bound by several strands of hair.
Minamoto Sōjun fed it some cursed energy, which immediately calmed it down, linking the energy to bring it a sense of pleasure.
"Slurp~ Slurp~~"
The red hair's tip made an eerie swallowing sound.
The fly's left arm visibly shriveled, quickly drained and cleansed, revealing a network of veins formed by the red hair, with the tip still connected to its shoulder.
In the next moment, blood surged, and bone, flesh, and skin reformed, constructing a new left arm.
The fly's head looked pleased throughout, unaware of any abnormality.
Minamoto Sōjun had known for a long time that his cursed technique couldn't control detached objects.
Fallen hair, cut nails, or organs or parts formed from them would lose control once detached from the body.
The perfect control of one's technique meant having 100% control, not diminishing to 80% or 50% due to weakened vitality.
There are only two possibilities: either losing control or perfect control.
As long as any vitality remains, perfect control won't disappear.
A sudden thought struck Minamoto Sōjun:
If he used his cursed energy to construct a new left arm for the fly, replacing its old one, and connected it with a strand of hair for energy supply, maintaining its vitality,
Would he be able to achieve perfect control over the fly?
...
The new left arm drooped limply, looking out of place with the fly's body, with no symmetry to its right arm, presenting a strange appearance.
An ugly, weak fly with a left arm that conformed to human aesthetic standards.
The oddity was inevitable because this arm belonged to Minamoto Sōjun. It had simply been scaled down, but fundamentally, it was still his.
Minamoto Sōjun could clearly feel his control over the arm, knowing it was now craving energy.
A red glow flowed through the hair and into the arm.
The left arm became stronger, and the hand flexed a few times.
The other parts of the fly began to flail about wildly.
With its limited brain capacity, it couldn't understand this scene and instinctively tried to regain control of its body.
Minamoto Sōjun experimented, then released control, allowing the fly to move freely.
This arm would continuously invade the fly, transforming and assimilating its entire body, eventually guiding its soul to undergo the same changes, somewhat like grafting.
What the final result would be, Minamoto Sōjun didn't know.
That's the fun of experiments.
Either way, the fly would become special.
You're unique, but now you're mine.
Minamoto Sōjun wouldn't erase the fly's consciousness or control it too much.
As promised, he would make it submit.
Physical submission counts too.
...
In the early morning, as dawn broke, Minamoto Sōjun stood on his second-floor balcony, gazing into the distance.
He could see most of the city beyond, observing the flowers, birds, fish, and insects, noticing every little detail.
His pupils expanded, almost filling his entire eye socket.
Then, he clearly saw a plane flying high above, noticing the fine lines on its surface and the pilot's facial features.
This was not even his visual limit.
It is said that an eagle's visual range can reach up to 36 kilometers. They can fly at speeds of 3000 meters in the air, spotting small animals among many moving objects, and adjust focus and distance to see more details, allowing them to accurately capture prey.
Minamoto Sōjun withdrew his gaze, his pupils quickly shrinking into small dots. He focused on a stray dog across the street, scanning it sharply, like an eagle on patrol, locking onto his chosen prey.
The stray dog seemed to sense something, its skinny body trembling like an electric shock, crouching and whining, too scared to move.
Minamoto Sōjun withdrew his gaze, feeling great. The eagle-eye experiment had ended perfectly, and the first phase of his eye transformation plan had been a success, with excellent results in the trial.
He jumped off the balcony and landed smoothly, pushed open the gate, and walked onto the street, curiously observing everything around him, like a newborn baby discovering the world.
Finally, he bought a few meat buns from a roadside stall, tossing two of them to the stray dog as he passed by.
...
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