So far, most of the injuries Wang Ye had sustained were flesh wounds.

He had never suffered an injury involving a bone fracture and cut like this before.

Occasionally, minor fractures could heal quickly, thanks to support, where the body’s bone cells form a fibrous bone callus, mineralizing, hardening, and filling the broken tissue, fundamentally different from limb regeneration.

The complexity of limb regeneration is, one might say, tens of thousands of times higher than healing a broken bone, because limb regeneration requires rebuilding entirely new bones, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, equivalent to replicating the process from embryo growth to adulthood in a short time.

Therefore, when Wang Ye broke his little finger, he felt a bit apprehensive, uncertain if he could regenerate it.

Actually, whether a limb can regenerate depends entirely on the genes inside the body. Perhaps in the early stages of evolution, humans once possessed the gene for limb regeneration, but over time, this gene was gradually discarded because, from a survival standpoint, organisms of human size wouldn’t have enough energy to survive if they lost a limb. Adding the energy required to regenerate a limb increases the likelihood of starvation.

But now, Wang Ye’s means of energy replenishment have long since changed, and this gene should have undergone changes during long-term daily evolution.

Apart from genes, the principle of limb regeneration roughly involves stem cells differentiating out a new limb at the severed end. Typically, human limbs are differentiated from stem cells. During embryonic development, stem cells differentiate into organs, limbs, and other body tissues. Hence, to achieve limb regeneration, one needs enough stem cells in the body.

A lizard can regenerate its tail because it contains a large number of undifferentiated stem cells in its tail vertebra junctions. When they lose their tails, these stem cells gradually differentiate to regrow a new tail.

However, as advanced animals, humans have highly specialized somatic cells, and after reaching adulthood, they have very few stem cells left, making limb regeneration impossible.

Moreover, most animals in nature that can regenerate limbs are small creatures with extremely simple structures, requiring very little energy for limb regeneration. A salamander can simply eat a bit more for a few days to make up the loss, whereas humans or other large animals contain complex structures like bones, blood vessels, nerves, etc., which are incredibly complex. After limb loss, gorging for months may not restore the energy levels, and it’s considered ideal even to maintain body warmth after blood loss, let alone regenerate a limb.

The process of limb regeneration also carries certain risks. Even in simple organisms like lizards, there’s a chance that regeneration results in a malformed tail, such as a twin tail or short tail, significantly different from the original. Humans, with their exceptionally complex nerve systems, might face fatal "bugs" after regeneration.

Especially since the little finger is one of the most complex neural regions, there’s a chance of developing malformed six fingers,

so Wang Ye regretted his decision after breaking it, wondering why he chose such a complex neural area. Breaking the little finger not only brings excruciating pain but also makes recovery very challenging.

Had it been a toe, the pain might have been much less, and recovery would be simpler.

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Wang Ye, enduring the pain, pulled out a pre-prepared tissue from the corner of the desk, sprayed it with some alcohol to wet it, and placed the broken segment of his little finger on the sanitized tissue. Then he nervously watched the severed end of his little finger. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

After the bleeding had been stopped, the bone within slowly began to exude fibrous bone callus, rapidly mineralizing and hardening, resembling a chopped chive, with a tiny inner bone riser gradually ascending.

Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle—

Gradually, the bone stub grew longer and thicker, about a minute later resembling its former shape before being broken. But at this point, the surrounding nerves, blood vessels, and muscles had yet to recover, leaving the fully grown bone looking somewhat grotesque, like a finger stripped of its skin, exposing only bone.

At this moment, Wang Ye closely scrutinized his finger,

only to discover that his bone was no longer the coarse gray-white typical of ordinary humans, but rather a reflective iron-gray, as if replaced by some extremely hard metal.

Wang Ye tapped it with his nail, producing a metallic collision sound, and felt it with the pad of his finger, noticing that the texture was very similar to most steel—remarkably sensitive to temperature. Since metal conducts heat well, it becomes scorching hot when touching a heat source, and chilly in its absence. This tactile sensation can be distinctly felt by hand, so in everyday life, most people can discern metal from plastic without even looking.

With his enhanced tactile abilities now magnified many times over, Wang Ye could clearly sense the metallic texture.

This trait convinced him further that his bone composition had been replaced with some kind of metal.

Once the bone fully formed, the muscles attaching to it began to grow.

They proliferated like countless tiny snakes, developing high-density muscle fibers that bound around the bone’s surface. Then followed fascia, nerves, blood vessels, and other body tissues, which healed at an incredible speed, imperceptible to the naked eye, fully restored in just over ten seconds.