Chapter 255: with translation of chapter title

More than an hour later.

More than three hundred Pale Bone Dragons surged like a white storm, dispersing the surrounding green poisonous mist and sweeping one after another over the Blood Lake.

They circled above the Blood Lake but did not enter it.

The purpose of the Pale Bone Dragons' presence was not to explore the Blood Lake, but to take advantage of their high-altitude position to fully monitor and record all activity within the Blood Lake.

The Blood Lake also contained eleven Bloody Octopuses and hid unknown enemies; recklessly entering it could prove fatal even for a capable Pale Bone Dragon.

Even the Pale Bone Dragons faced this danger, and the Pale Skeleton Warriors and Pale Skeleton Warhorses were even more vulnerable.

Although these undead creatures are expendable and their deaths matter little, if the reconnaissance findings cannot be relayed back, their sacrifice would be in vain; even a single Bloody Octopus, using the environment to its advantage, could instantly kill a Pale Bone Dragon.

If the Pale Skeleton Warriors and Pale Skeleton Warhorses come under attack, they will likely never return, making it impossible to relay any gathered intelligence back—so Su Hao would have labored for nothing. The duty of the Pale Bone Dragon is to accurately convey the Undead Army's reconnaissance findings, ensuring Su Hao receives timely information about the Blood Lake.

Another hour passed.

Over four thousand Pale Skeleton Warriors and Pale Skeleton Warhorses arrived silently, moving like phantoms through the green poisonous mist from various directions, reaching the vicinity of the Blood Lake without a sound.

They lifted their heads to gaze at the Bone Dragon in the sky, the soul fire in their skulls flickering as if sending some unspoken signal to the Bone Dragon.

After a brief exchange, these undead creatures hesitated no longer and resolutely stepped into the Blood Lake.

The water of the Blood Lake is entirely composed of blood, unfathomably deep and extremely viscous.

Not only is visibility within the lake extremely low, but it also harbors a special force that can corrode the bodies of living beings, contaminating or devouring their blood.

For ordinary beings, even those of Supernatural First Rank, entering the Blood Lake without special means is almost certainly fatal.

Pale Skeleton Warriors and Pale Skeleton Warhorses, being undead and lacking blood, have no fear of the Blood Lake's corrosive effect.

Although the Undead Army is immune to the Blood Lake's corrosion, the near-zero visibility within its murky waters still creates many difficulties for their exploration.

In this dark, lightless environment, every step forward is fraught with uncertainty and danger.

Making matters worse, the eleven Bloody Octopuses lurking throughout the Blood Lake began launching fierce attacks.

They possess considerable intelligence, are cunning and ruthless, exploiting the terrain to indiscriminately hunt any Pale Undead Creature that enters the lake.

At times they fire extremely penetrating blood arrows that silently take the lives of undead warriors.

At other times they lash out with powerful tentacles, brutally striking nearby foes.

They can even whip up towering waves of blood, dragging surrounding undead into the depths for a devastating area attack.

Under the octopus's onslaught, the Undead Army suffered heavy losses; soon, Su Hao deep in the cave sensed that over a hundred Pale Skeleton Warriors and Warhorses had fallen forever.

Su Hao felt neither surprise nor regret over the Undead Army's losses; he had anticipated this outcome.

Summoning Pale Undead Creatures costs him almost nothing; even when the Bloody Octopus's fierce assault whittles down the Undead Army, he feels no regret.

If he can fully uncover the secrets of the Blood Lake, he believes sacrificing five thousand of the Undead Army is worthwhile.

"It's past twelve; we can proceed with today's synthesis."

Su Hao looked up at the dark sky and glanced at the time on his Communication Bracelet.

He reached into his Storage Space and took out six portions of Expanded Muscle, fusing them into two Titan Meat Chunks.

He then placed the newly synthesized two Titan Meat Chunks alongside the one from yesterday on the ground before him, beginning today's third synthesis.

After more than an hour, the Golden Light Orb encasing the three Titan Meat Chunks burst with brilliant light, completing the synthesis.

As the golden light faded, a massive heart appeared before Su Hao's eyes.

Just as Su Hao was about to consume the Titan Heart, the Synthesis Heart Rune deep within his soul suddenly vibrated, noticeably boosting his soul power, and a message appeared before him.

"Congratulations! The Synthesis Heart's proficiency has reached Great Accomplishment!"

"Huh?"

Seeing the message pop up, Su Hao furrowed his brow slightly.

While the proficiency increase was undoubtedly good, based on his past experience such notifications usually come with a detailed explanation of the changes, but this time there was none.

Surely the proficiency increase can't come with no changes at all…

Feeling a hint of apprehension, he flicked his thoughts and opened the detailed information interface of the Synthesis Heart.

【Synthesis Heart】

Proficiency: Great Accomplishment – Daily synthesis limit: 5 times

Effect 1 – Regular Synthesis: Can synthesize items up to Supernatural Fifth Rank, and multiple syntheses can be performed simultaneously.

Effect 2 – Low-Rank Synthesis: Supernatural items of Third Rank or below do not consume synthesis uses; however, as the daily synthesis count rises, spiritual power consumption gradually increases.

Moreover, multiple syntheses cannot be run concurrently; a new synthesis can only begin after the current one finishes.

…… -> none.

"Holy cow, this increase is way too huge!"

Looking at the information displayed on his talent details, Su Hao couldn't help but exclaim; his expression shifted from slight worry to utter disbelief, and his heart rate quickened a bit.

Although he knew that raising proficiency would bring some benefits, this change still far exceeded his expectations.

Although the Synthesis Heart's proficiency has reached Great Accomplishment and the daily synthesis limit remains five, this limit now applies only to advanced items of Supernatural Fourth and Fifth Rank.

For low-rank items of Supernatural Third Rank or below, the synthesis-use limit has been removed entirely.

This change is of great significance to Su Hao; previously, he was often hampered by the synthesis-use limit, forcing him to synthesize only important items.

Now he can synthesize large quantities of low-rank items as he pleases.

As long as Su Hao's spiritual power does not run out, he can carry out synthesis day and night, from the first light of dawn until deep into the night.

For Su Hao, spiritual power consumption is no longer a problem.

Long ago, Su Hao was able to summon Crimson Tendrils and refine Crimson Essence Blood from them.

When he consumes these Crimson Essence Blood, they not only raise his physical and spiritual power limits and heal his wounds, but also slowly replenish his expended spiritual power.

Especially after the Crimson Touch's supernatural grade advances to Fourth Rank, enabling the refinement of Fourth-Rank Crimson Blood.

Fourth-Rank Crimson Blood restores spiritual power far exceeding the cost of summoning and refining Crimson Tendrils, though the recovery is somewhat slower. However, synthesizing items of Third Rank or below consumes little spiritual power, so as long as Su Hao continually summons and refines Crimson Tendrils and then takes Fourth-Rank Crimson Essence Blood, he need never worry about running out of spiritual power—working ten-plus hours a day is no problem.

It's just too damn tired...

Su Hao wryly smiled and shook his head.

Although the significant increase in proficiency made Su Hao overjoyed, there was also a slight flaw.

Although from now on, supernatural items of Third Tier and below have no limit on the number of syntheses, he can no longer perform multiple syntheses simultaneously as before.

Now, he must complete each synthesis one by one before starting the next.

However, this minor limitation, in the face of the huge benefits brought by the proficiency increase, appears so trivial that it can be completely ignored.

Besides the breakthrough in synthesis count, the highest grade of supernatural items he can now synthesize has leapt from Fourth Tier to Fifth Tier.

This filled his heart with anticipation; upon returning to his territory, if the black dragon's heart has been successfully duplicated into three, he can synthesize them.

As for the dragon bloodline talent, he has long been yearning for it.

Afterwards, Su Hao brought his thoughts back to reality, his gaze falling on the titan heart before him.

He took a deep breath, opened his jaw, and swallowed the huge heart in one gulp.

As the titan heart entered his throat, Su Hao immediately felt a surging burst of energy explode within his body.

This energy surged like a flood, washing over every inch of his flesh and blood, bringing an unprecedented sense of fullness.

As the energy continued to pour in, his physical strength began to rise rapidly.

At that moment, he seemed to hear a "crack" in his ear; under this powerful energy impact, Su Hao's physique finally broke through the barrier of Fourth Tier Intermediate, successfully advancing to Fourth Tier Advanced level.

He could clearly feel that every inch of his muscle and every bone had become tougher and stronger.

"The Supernatural Series only has Second Tier, yet it possesses a physique of Fourth Tier Advanced—who would believe that if I said it out loud?"

Su Hao felt the immense power within him, sighing with emotion.

Afterwards, Su Hao calmed his slightly excited mood and continued with the remaining two syntheses for today.

He first planned to synthesize the Divine Light Heavy Axe and the Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer to forge an even stronger weapon.

The Divine Light Heavy Axe, as Su Hao's most handy weapon to date, has already become a capable assistant in his battles.

Now, with the proficiency of the Synthesis Heart increasing, Su Hao decided to further enhance it, making this weapon he bears even stronger.

Choosing the Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer as the synthesis material was a decision Su Hao made after multiple considerations.

First, the Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer's weight is astonishing; for heavy weapons, weight often means greater attack power.

This trait combined with the Divine Light Heavy Axe's gravity field will undoubtedly further enhance the weapon's overall strength.

Moreover, the Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer possesses a skill with extremely high burst damage, capable of inflicting terrifying flame damage on close-range enemies.

The only thing that worries him is that if the synthesized new weapon resembles the Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer in appearance, it would be equivalent to losing the Divine Light Heavy Axe, his handy weapon.

However, he soon stopped worrying about this.

With his current physique and strength, he can fully wield any weapon.

The improvement of his physique not only makes his strength, defense, speed, etc., stronger, but also enhances his ability to learn martial techniques.

As long as he wishes, whether it's an axe or a hammer, he can quickly become proficient in wielding it.

Most importantly, as long as the new weapon retains the gravity field, that is sufficient.

The gravity field plays a crucial role in battle; as long as this trait remains, the new weapon after synthesis will not become worse!

Since he had made up his mind, Su Hao began this synthesis.

However, as soon as he used the Synthesis Heart, his face slightly changed.

"Hiss—!"

"This consumption is too great……"

In just an instant, he felt his mental power rapidly drain by a large amount; if this continues, his mental power will absolutely be insufficient to complete this synthesis.

After all, this synthesis involves a Fifth-Tier supernatural item and a Fourth-Tier supernatural item, so the mental power consumption is definitely greater; he just didn't expect it to be this large.

Fortunately, Su Hao carries a large amount of Fourth-Tier Scarlet Essence on him.

He quickly took out a vial of Scarlet Essence Blood, swallowed it without hesitation, to replenish his rapidly draining mental power.

As the power of the Scarlet Essence Blood was released within his body, Su Hao's mental power gradually began to recover.

With sufficient mental power supporting him, the Divine Light Heavy Axe and Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer gradually became enveloped by a golden light sphere, formally beginning this synthesis.

Since the items being synthesized are a Fourth-Tier and a Fifth-Tier supernatural item, the required synthesis time has obviously become longer.

During the waiting period, Su Hao, having nothing to do, began organizing his Storage Bag.

When his gaze fell upon the Omniscient Magic Book, he suddenly slapped his forehead as if waking from a dream, a flash of regret crossing his eyes.

"Ah! How did I forget this treasure……"

Back then, being eager to end the battle, he forgot the Omniscient Magic Book.

If he had remembered to use the Omniscient Magic Book to appraise the Bloody Octopus, perhaps he could have discovered more secrets about the Blood Lake through its related information.

Now that it's come to this, regret is useless; he can only hope that the Undead Army will make some discovery.

If even that multitude of pale Undead Army finds nothing, then even if he had previously appraised the Bloody Octopus, it wouldn't mean much.

For an enemy of that level, even knowing some related information would likely make it hard to find them; even if found, perhaps they could also be dealt with.

Time flew by; soon over five and a half hours passed, and there was no sign of the aura surrounding the Divine Light Heavy Axe and Explosive Flame Heavy Hammer dissipating.

"Roar—!"

But just then, a sudden roar came from the sky; a pale figure flew back from above the Blood Lake, circling above the cavern.

(End of Chapter)