Chapter 109

Synthesize!

After returning to the bedroom, Su Hao dove into the fully activated hidden gauze canopy, facing nine butcher hearts, and used the Synthesis Heart three times in a row.

Although he had signed an equal contract with Xue Nv, now Xue Nv, like Da Xiong Mao, is a trustworthy partner.

But the Synthesis Heart is Su Hao's biggest secret and also his greatest reliance, so it's better to be careful—if possible, not let people know, or at least try not to let others know.

Butcher hearts are ordinary items barely reaching First Rank Supernatural; almost as soon as the golden light of synthesis appeared, the synthesis was already complete.

Thereafter, Su Hao simply thought, using his final synthesis opportunity of the day, and combined these three First Rank Scarlet Hearts into a Second Rank Scarlet Heart.

【Second Rank Scarlet Heart】

Supernatural Grade: Second Rank

Effect: After consumption, there is a relatively high chance to strengthen physique, increase blood production speed, enhance recovery ability, and a certain chance to increase blood-element affinity.

……

"Once tomorrow's Second Rank Blood Mage potion is finished refining, we can start synthesizing, and then—"

"I will become a Second Rank Supernatural being, and—"

Su Hao's fingers lightly tapped the table, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

Due to the extreme heat disaster, and with his advancement tomorrow, after finishing the synthesis, Su Hao did not choose to go out, thus enjoying a rare moment of leisure.

Besides occasionally coming outside the shelter to summon scarlet tentacles, refine some scarlet essence blood, go to the vegetable garden, and help pick the purple-gold bamboo and Spirit Fruit Water Honey Peach.

Su Hao then lay on the sofa, stroking Da Xiong Mao while chatting idly with Xiao Anni, Hua Yao, and others.

As for Xue Nv, since Su Hao helped her close the door, she has not been seen coming out of her room since.

"It's been a whole day plus half a night—could she still be asleep? Could Xue Nv have some shut-in traits?"

At night, when Su Hao prepared to return to his room to sleep, looking at Xue Nv's tightly closed door, this thought suddenly popped into his mind.

But immediately, he shook his head.

"No way, no way—Xue Nv is a Fifth Rank Supernatural expert; how could she be associated with a shut-in?"

Perhaps this is just Xue Nv's lifestyle differing from ours; what is a full day for us might be merely a brief nap for her.

"Exactly! That must be it! Su Hao shook his head and smiled, then continued walking upstairs."

At the same time.

In the room, Xue Nv dazedly glanced at the doorway, pulled her exposed fair little feet back under the blanket, turned over, and went back to sleep.

"Su Hao is truly a great person, preparing such a comfortable bed for me; I want to sleep soundly for a week to not waste his kindness…"

……

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, Su Hao woke up early; today was his advancement day, how could he possibly sleep? After getting up, he took one red and one black potion from the table and dove into the hidden gauze canopy.

Subsequently, Su Hao took out a black bone fragment—Demonic Shattered Bone—from his Storage Bag, as well as a blood-red heart—a Second Rank Scarlet Heart.

Next, he used the Synthesis Heart twice in a row, separately synthesizing the Demonic Shattered Bone with the Second Rank Necromancer's potion, and the Second Rank Scarlet Heart with the Second Rank Blood Mage's potion.

About an hour later, the golden light spheres wrapped around the two potions burst with blinding light, completing this synthesis.

At this moment, the two potions, the Demonic Shattered Bone, and the Second Rank Scarlet Heart—all vanished.

Only two red and black runes remained, floating in midair.

The left rune is vivid red, resembling a river made of drop after drop of viscous blood.

【Second Rank Flesh Controller Rune】

Supernatural Grade: Second Rank

Effect: Upon use, one gains a special supernatural sequence—Second Rank Flesh Controller! …

The right rune is jet black, like a skeleton framework composed of black gas.

【Second Rank Necromancer Bone Mage Rune】

Supernatural Grade: Second Rank

Effect: Upon use, one gains a special supernatural sequence—Second Rank Necromancer Bone Mage!

……

"I never expected that after synthesizing the potions, they would actually turn into supernatural sequence runes."

Looking at the two runes floating above the bed, Su Hao raised his eyebrows, showing a look of surprise.

Although potions and sequence runes alike can grant one a supernatural sequence, making them a supernatural being,

but sequence runes are naturally occurring, whereas potions are artificially refined postnatally.

Therefore, even if the effects are the same, Su Hao still prefers to use sequence runes.

"Phew! Hope everything goes smoothly."

Thereafter, Su Hao took a deep breath, picked up the blood-red rune, and pressed it against his glabella.

The next moment.

The blood-red rune transformed into a special energy that merged into Su Hao's flesh and blood throughout his body.

Under the influence of this energy, Su Hao's flesh and blood began to swell at a visible speed.

In the blink of an eye.

Su Hao went from being a 1.8-meter-tall giant to a massive flesh mass occupying half the room, blowing the hidden gauze canopy away.

In appearance, Su Hao now resembles Suolu—an amorphous mass with no discernible human shape, not even limbs visible, only a faint outline of a head within the huge flesh lump.

On the surface of the flesh mass, countless wriggling meat sprout grow; an ordinary person glancing at it more than once would likely feel their sanity plummet.

However, Su Hao felt no panic; instead, on his face, extremely distorted and twisted from the swelling flesh, he showed a hint of delight.

"Old Master Andrew was right—after using a higher-tier rune of the same sequence, the body and soul's capacity to contain supernatural power indeed increases further."

Su Hao dared not waste time; he hurriedly used his mental power to control the other rune—the Second Rank Necromancer Bone Mage sequence rune—and made it merge into his glabella.

This black rune, after merging into Su Hao's brow, became a special energy like the Flesh Controller's rune, merging into his bones throughout his body.

In an instant, Su Hao's soul deep in his mind turned into a black mist, drifting around his body.

At the same time, all the white bones inside Su Hao's body turned pitch black like ink.

Irregularly shaped black bone spikes grew wildly from his bones, piercing his flesh throughout his body.

Turning Su Hao's body from a huge mass of flesh into a spiked ball covered in black bone spikes.

At the same time, Su Hao's soul and body underwent a special change, letting him instantly realize he had become a Supernatural Second Rank.

Huh? That's not right—advancement isn't complete yet, so how did it succeed?

Su Hao frowned slightly; after merging with the Second Rank Bone Necromancer's sequence rune, he felt his body and soul undergo a fundamental change, and he could no longer accept any second-rank sequence rune or magic potion.

But the problem is, the Flesh Controller's rune deep in his soul is slowly changing to second rank, and the Second Rank Bone Necromancer's rune is also gradually being built by absorbing the energy of the sequence rune.

This means he hasn't truly completed advancement, but his body and soul have already stepped ahead, reaching the level of a Supernatural Second Rank.

Could it be that…

Is this a basic rule?

Originally Su Hao was thinking, anyway, after synthesis the magic potion wouldn't produce any side effects during use.

As long as one can withstand the influence of the supernatural sequence on mind and habit, theoretically using two magic potions for advancement makes no big difference compared to using three or five.

But through this practice, Su Hao can basically confirm that a supernatural being's advancement can use at most two magic potions simultaneously.

Because, at the moment Su Hao used the second magic potion, while advancement was still ongoing, he had already become a Supernatural Second Rank, and thus could no longer use any other second-rank rune or magic potion. Though thinking about it, this advancement method has never succeeded before.

But this advancement method is a conclusion drawn by countless scholars through various possibly inhumane experiments; how could it have a large deviation? They must have given this method because they discovered that, no matter the race, after using the second magic potion.

Because of the world's rules, during the advancement process one would prematurely become a Supernatural Second Rank, making it impossible to use a third magic potion.

However…

Just because others can't do it doesn't mean I can't; perhaps I can still indirectly obtain a supernatural sequence.

On Su Hao's twisted, deformed face, covered in black bone spikes, appeared a faint, barely noticeable smile.

Afterward, he stopped thinking further and quietly waited for the advancement to finish.

Because the energy contained in the second-rank sequence rune is greater than that of the first-rank.

Originally, the time for a first-rank supernatural being to advance to second rank is already not short; moreover, Su Hao used two different second-rank sequence runes, making the time even longer.

He waited until noon before Su Hao truly completed his advancement, and his body returned to normal at that time.

As the first-rank Flesh Controller's rune deep in his soul turned into a river-like pattern, becoming the second-rank rune for advancement, first the swollen flesh on Su Hao's body returned to normal.

At the same time, beside the second-rank Flesh Controller's rune appeared a black-skeleton-shaped second-rank Bone Necromancer rune, and the ferocious black bone spikes on Su Hao's body all retracted into his bones.

Even the soul that had turned into black mist drifting outside his body withdrew back into the depths of his mind.

Su Hao once again became a 1.8-meter-tall giant, but his qi and blood grew stronger, a blood-red mist shrouded his body, and his pupils darkened as if they could devour souls.

Thus, Su Hao truly became a Supernatural Second Rank.

However, Su Hao did not rush to examine the changes after advancement, but began to test a previous hypothesis.

If skill runes can be synthesized, then could supernatural sequence runes also be…

Thinking this, Su Hao immediately focused his mind and used today's third Synthesis Heart on the two red-and-black supernatural sequence runes deep in his soul.

The next moment.

The two sequence runes deep in his soul were simultaneously wrapped in golden light, slowly approaching each other, and finally the two golden lights merged into a golden ball of light.

What the heck! Why is my mental power still being consumed?!

Previously, when using the Synthesis Heart, the moment the golden light of synthesis appeared, Su Hao's mental power stopped being consumed; he just needed to wait for synthesis to finish.

But this time, after the golden ball of light appeared, Su Hao's mental power not only didn't stop being consumed, it actually consumed faster.

At this rate, in less than an hour Su Hao's mental power will be completely drained.

I hope the synthesis finishes quickly.

Su Hao took a deep breath, pulled out all the first-rank magic potions and the Spirit Fruit Water Honey Peach he had picked yesterday from his storage bag, and set them aside for later use.

Whenever his mental power dropped to about half, Su Hao would take a magic potion and the Spirit Fruit Water Honey Peach to restore his mental power to peak condition.

Time flew by, and before he knew it, three hours had passed.

Thanks to large amounts of first-rank magic potions and Spirit Fruit Water Honey Peach, Su Hao's mental power remained at least half-full at all times.

During this process, the golden ball of light deep in his soul grew larger and brighter.

Finally, a burst of brilliant golden light erupted, and a brand-new rune appeared deep in Su Hao's soul.

This rune is a completely black skeleton, with each bone's center flowing with a river-like stream of bright red blood, and around the skeleton twine strands of red-black mist.

【Crimson Bone Demon】

Effect: You can use bone magic, blood magic, and necromancy, and these three types of magic can exert stronger effects.

Your muscles and organs are no longer necessary; as long as your bones, blood, and soul remain, you will not truly die.

No matter what injury you suffer, you can speed up your recovery by consuming blood.

By consuming blood, you can increase the limits of your mental power and physique, and additionally enhance your soul strength, bone hardness, and recovery speed.

……

Holy crap? Does this mean my heart is no longer a weakness?

After seeing the Crimson Bone Demon's abilities, Su Hao's eyes widened instantly.

Originally, Su Hao's biggest weakness was his heart; once his heart was completely destroyed, even with strong regenerative ability it would be useless.

So, before each outing, Su Hao would cut a piece of heart fragment and put it in his pocket; once a battle occurred, he would place that heart fragment far away.

To ensure his heart wasn't completely shattered, letting him retain his regenerative ability and indirectly achieve an immortal body.

Now that he has become a Crimson Bone Demon, his heart is no longer a weakness; from a certain angle, one could barely say he has no weakness.

As long as Su Hao still has one bone, a drop of blood remains active, and his soul is not destroyed.

So even if Su Hao's body were smashed into a pulp, he wouldn't die; drinking a few mouthfuls of blood would allow him to recover.

Ordinary physical attack methods basically have no chance of killing Su Hao.

After all, even if ordinary physical means could grind Su Hao's bones into powder, there's no way to completely destroy his blood, rendering all of it inactive.

In theory, as long as Su Hao still has a drop of fresh blood, he cannot possibly die!

Furthermore, after advancing to become a Crimson Bone Demon, the effect of increasing spiritual power and physique limits through drinking blood has also been enhanced.

Now, by drinking blood, not only can the limits of spiritual power and physique be increased, but bone hardness, bodily recovery speed, and soul strength can also be increased additionally.

In theory, as long as the types and quantities of supernatural blood Su Hao consumes are sufficient, even if he is merely a Second Rank Supernatural, his recovery ability could reach that of Suolu's level! Moreover, after becoming a Crimson Bone Demon, Su Hao feels that his soul strength, spiritual power limit, physique limit, bone hardness, recovery ability, etc., have all seen a huge increase.

Compared to when he was a First Rank Supernatural, it's not necessarily a tenfold increase, but a three- to fivefold increase is definitely there; the exact situation will need further testing.

In short, Su Hao's current strength and future growth limit are now several times stronger than this morning! Usually, after a supernatural advances, besides the change in sequence runes, they can automatically learn a skill.

Thinking of this, Su Hao slightly moved his mind and opened his personal information panel.

【Su Hao】

Supernatural Sequence: Crimson Bone Demon.

Rank: Second Rank.

Race: Human, Bone Demon Skills: Item Refining Technique, Item Appraisal Technique, First Rank Blood Flame Technique, Second Rank Blood Missile, Third Tier Crimson Touch, Blood Shield, Summon Skeleton Warrior.

Talent: Synthesis Heart.

……

"What the heck? Can race even have two kinds?"

Looking at the race column in his personal information panel, Su Hao couldn't help but slightly stare.

But upon further thought, it doesn't seem impossible; some special elemental beings can possess both water and fire attributes.

From a certain perspective, isn't this just having the traits of two elemental beings at once? Calling it a dual race seems fine.

"Alas! Too bad I didn't learn the skill to create Stitching Monsters!"

Seeing Su Hao continue to lower his gaze, after looking at the skill bar, he couldn't help but let out a helpless sigh.

As he knew, after advancing, he indeed learned new skills.

Moreover, he differs from others: he didn't just learn one skill, but two.

The reason is easy to guess: others use a single potion to advance, so they can only learn one skill, while Su Hao simultaneously used two different sequence runes to advance, thus learning two different skills.

But unfortunately, there is no 【Create Stitching Monster】 skill.

This means that after picking up that set of manufacturing equipment at Andelu Daye's house, Su Hao still cannot use it for now, which makes him a bit disappointed, but being able to learn two new skills is still a good thing.

Immediately, he slightly moved his mind and opened the Blood Shield skill information panel.

(End of Chapter)