Chapter 41: Three Upgrade Paths

Off work.

Go home.

Locked inside the room.

Feng Mu stood in the very center of the bedroom, his attention focused on his hand.

The next second, his palm writhed, and pale white wrist bones protruded from his palm like blade edges, fresh blood dripping down along the cracks onto the floor.

Feng Mu controlled the wrist bones, testing the limit of their growth distance, roughly 15 centimeters, the length of a dagger.

"If this afternoon I hadn't suppressed it, but instead thoroughly transformed into a bone person, then this distance should still be able to double."

Feng Mu understood in his heart, but he did not regret it in the slightest; trading stunted development for concealment and lurking among humans was a good deal.

After all, if one could be recognized as a Heretic at a glance, no matter how powerful, one would be a rat crossing the street, a dead end.

On the contrary, hiding away, seeming harmless to humans and animals, lurking and waiting for the right moment to act, is what brings endless harm.

"I am originally pure and good, it's all the 【Entries】 that led me astray." Feng Mu sighed long in his heart.

Feng Mu continued experimenting.

Then the surprises grew more and more; he discovered that not only could his palm shoot out wrist bone blades, his shoulders could also shoot out a row of bone thorns, his back could bulge with dense bone spurs, and his chest ribs could split open into sawtooth bone hooks.

Feng Mu tried them one by one; before trying, he himself did not know what the morphological changes would be after that part of the body was stimulated by bone.

At this moment, he developed a tremendous interest in his own body, as if groping to develop his body's G-spot, his smile gradually becoming pathological.

Elbows and knees can shoot out bone spurs, and they even come with blood grooves.

Toes can kick out five bone hooks, like a feline's sharp claws.

Facial bones can cover the face, growing into a white mask without facial features, revealing only a pair of pitch-black pupils.

The above,

are all the changes of the 【Iron Eater】 Second Stage.

"Every change cannot freely control the morphological change, only barely control the length a little, and moreover, each time only a maximum of two local parts can change."

"That is to say, if I maintain the mask state throughout, then when using the hand blade I cannot use the foot claws, shoulder thorns and other forms to attack or defend, and vice versa."

"Except for the ten bone fingers which can be constantly and flexibly controlled, for other parts to attack or defend, I need to switch on the fly, equivalent to an extra switching gap in between."

Feng Mu had an outline understanding of the Iron Eater Second Stage's Bone Transformation Form in his heart; further detailed comprehension could only be experienced through real combat.

In short,

He named this state Bone Transformation Form.

"If I had let the bones burst out of my body this afternoon, then my current form should be the complete integration of all the above Bone Transformation Forms, right~"

Feng Mu stroked the cold pale mask covering his cheek, thinking quietly in his heart,

"So more accurately speaking, my current Bone Transformation Form is a castrated version, hmph, a castrated version is good!"

As for the rise in overall strength, Feng Mu found it hard to give an accurate assessment; if forced to give a reference comparison, it would be... yesterday's me, I could beat ten of him.

After sensing the changes in strength, it was time to draft the upgrade plan for the next phase.

The 【Iron Eater】 Second Stage panel displayed it very clearly.

Compared to First Rank, Second Stage has two additional eating slots, meaning in Phase Two he can continue to eat two types of iron metals.

Two types of iron metals means he can ultimately absorb two characteristics; upgrading to Third Stage requires filling two eating bars, the overall experience bar doubled.

"Of course I can also choose the same for both iron types; this way although ultimately only one characteristic can be absorbed, the characteristic will most likely be strengthened."

"For example, after the new characteristic comes out, it's not (White), but some other color?"

Feng Mu pondered for a while, and wrote out three plans on paper.

First type, choose two different ones, and neither is Pig Iron; this way when Phase Two reaches Perfection, he will possess three characteristics simultaneously, although most likely all are the most primitive (White), they can be used in combination, increasing the number of weapons in the arsenal.

Second type, both choose Pig Iron; this way when Phase Two reaches Perfection, although he only has one characteristic on his body, the 【Molding Embryo】 will be strengthened to the extreme, and 【Crane Claw Technique】 will also obtain even more terrifying mutation strengthening due to the 【Molding Embryo】's enhancement.

This type is strengthening the power of a single weapon, taking the extreme route.

Third type, choose two different ones, one is Pig Iron, the other undecided; thus when Phase Two reaches Perfection, he will possess two characteristics, and 【Molding Embryo】 will be strengthened, and it guarantees that 【Crane Claw Technique】 will also be enhanced.

This type is the most balanced.

Feng Mu personally leans most towards the 3rd type; no way around it, this person's bones exude steadiness, he doesn't like specializing, and prefers a hexagon warrior.

He is in no rush to decide, planning to spend a couple days searching around, seeing what iron metals he can get his hands on, then decide based on the situation.

Moreover, a more important point is, he still has to wait for progress on Ma Bin's side, to confirm whether he needs to reserve an eating slot for the Yin Sha Nine Nether E Corpse Resentment Iron fragments.

Thus,

Tonight no need to practice Body Forging Exercise, no Eat Iron, no need for Duo Xue, time actually freed up.

Feng Mu, who had been spinning non-stop like a top with a wound spring, suddenly had nothing to do, and surprisingly felt maladjusted.

Long-lost emptying of the brain, spaced out for a while, looked at the time and it was just past 12 o'clock.

Glanced at his phone, read the text message Ma Wei sent, content more or less the same as yesterday, not much nutritional value, he didn't pay it any mind.

"Forget it, can only go to sleep."

Before bed, Feng Mu took off his tattered, hole-ridden bloodstained clothes, casually balled them up, planning to burn them tomorrow together with some E Corpse.

"Activating Bone Transformation Form is a bit hard on clothes." Feng Mu thought, "In the future when going out I'll have to bring an extra set of clothes for backup."

Lying on the bed, thoughts drifting chaotically, one moment thinking about his villain identity exposed, wanted everywhere and hiding all over, another moment thinking about himself mutating into an E Corpse, leading a corpse horde to counterattack the human world.

Another moment thinking about the Yin Sha Nine Nether E Corpse Resentment Iron fragments all gathered, himself directly ascending to godhood in one step.

Finally thinking about the Upper City collapsing and crashing, the firmament tearing apart, countless 【Destiny】 Extremist Members descending from the sky, kneeling in dense darkness at the unit gate, respectfully welcoming his return.

Thoughts drifting more and more ridiculously, in a daze, Feng Mu slowly fell asleep.

Black Market.

Doesn't operate during the day, only opens after the Upper City lights out.

It's called a gate, but there isn't one — just a cluster of stalls, no storefront, no walls; any gap the air can squeeze through is a path people can thread through.

Entry is unrestricted, exit unblocked.

If one day they really put up railings and erected a gate, eighty percent of the Black Market would stop coming.

From the day the Black Market formed, it naturally carried a "lawless" attribute — here there are no laws, no order.

Those who come here to trade mostly wear Masks to hide their faces; coming and going are all beasts draped in human skin.

It's not that they've lost their humanity, but that the Black Market's trading rules follow the way of animals: the traded goods are goods, and the trading parties themselves may become goods.

Robbery, theft, double-crosses, cold knives in the back — all are scenes playing out in the corners at every moment.

Zhang Hao has stayed in the Black Market for many years, always safe without incident; aside from having a few brothers who watch his back, it's because the goods he's traded for years have been singular and not high-value, rarely drawing others' covetous eyes.

Yes,

in the Black Market he only purchases one thing — Black Cores.

In most people's eyes, Black Cores are the ash crystals left after E Corpses are burned, similar to how some people with excessive radiation indices, after death, have foul-smelling lumps mixed in their ashes.

Medically, they're classified in the same category as stones.

All along, the Black Core business has been low-key and safe, but these two days there's suddenly a hint of something off, making Zhang Hao's mood not too good.....

End of Chapter