Chapter 279

According to reason, this synthesis is merely a Supernatural Third Tier synthesis; with Su Hao's current mental power and proficiency with the Synthesis Heart, he should not need to expend much mental power, and should finish quickly.

However, the fact was not so.

After the golden light of synthesis wrapped the two runes inside, forming a golden light sphere, Su Hao felt his mental power actually beginning to drain at a faster speed.

In a short while.

His mental power, which had already reached Supernatural Fourth Tier, had already been depleted by a small half.

If this continues, in less than a quarter hour, his mental power will be completely drained.

Such a change made Su Hao both surprised and quite delighted.

Usually, the greater the mental power consumption, the better the synthesis result.

The Supernatural Sequence is the foundation of every supernatural being; if one could strengthen their own Supernatural Sequence, Su Hao would naturally welcome it.

Su Hao stopped thinking, hastily took a handful of crimson essence blood from his Blood Sea Robe, stuffed it into his mouth, and restored the lost mental power.

Time flew by; unnoticed, three hours had passed.

The golden light sphere wrapping the two sequence runes suddenly burst with blinding light, completing this synthesis.

After the golden light faded, a brand-new rune appeared deep within Su Hao's soul.

At the moment this rune appeared, Su Hao also felt a noticeable increase in his mental power and physique.

His mental power also reached an excellent standard of Supernatural Fourth Tier.

The improvement in his physique was relatively minor, not very noticeable, still at the excellent standard of Supernatural Fourth Tier.

But whether mental power or physique, they were only a step away from Supernatural Fifth Tier,.

However, compared to the increase in mental power and physique, what Su Hao cared more about was that new rune in his mind.

In appearance, this rune overall resembles the Crimson Bone Demon; its main body is likewise a black humanoid skeleton, with a blood vessel in the center of each bone.

However, after being synthesized into a new service, on the surface of the bones an additional layer formed—a crimson reticulum made of countless blood-red lines—making the rune's overall structure look more compact and its aura stronger.

With a slight movement of Su Hao's thought, he opened the information panel of this new rune.

【Aberrant Blood Demon】

Supernatural Grade: Fourth Tier

……

"Wait, Supernatural Fourth Tier? Can the Supernatural Sequence still skip ranks?"

Looking at the second line of the information panel, Su Hao couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Before this, he was merely a Supernatural Second Tier Crimson Bone Demon.

After consuming three kinds of demon elixirs and performing the synthesis, his Supernatural Sequence rank actually jumped directly to the fourth tier! But after calming down and thinking it over, Su Hao felt this result was actually reasonable.

Usually, after synthesizing three identical items, the chance to advance in Supernatural rank increases by one tier.

After synthesizing two different items, although the probability of promotion is not high.

However, if the synthesized item undergoes another synthesis, the probability of increasing the Supernatural rank by one tier becomes considerably higher.

Even if we exclude the syntheses of demon bone shards and crimson heart, the Aberrant Blood Demon is still a product after five syntheses.

A Supernatural Third Tier item, after five different syntheses, having its Supernatural rank rise to the fourth tier, seems perfectly reasonable.

"Let me see what abilities the Supernatural Fourth Tier Aberrant Blood Demon possesses."

Su Hao grinned, then looked again at the information panel.

【Effect 1—Crimson Regeneration: Mastery of all types of blood magic, and able to unleash greater power.

By consuming fresh blood, one can increase one's mental power and physique without limit.

As long as one possesses even a drop of blood, the soul cannot be completely destroyed, and any injury to the fleshly body cannot cause death.

If one's fleshly body and all of one's blood are destroyed, but there remains any drop of blood in the surroundings, the soul can be randomly transmitted to a drop of blood, gradually achieving self-regeneration.】

……

"Damn, this isn't just an enhanced version of the Crimson Nest's innate ability?"

Merely the first effect already made Su Hao feel greatly surprised.

Regarding the Crimson Nest's ability to regenerate using any drop of blood, Su Hao had long been envious.

That ability is practically a bug; possessing it, any flesh-and-blood creature would find it hard to inflict effective damage on the Crimson Nest.

Even if one chops his body into mincemeat, utterly destroying every drop of blood, it still cannot be killed.

Even after the Crimson Nest's body is completely destroyed, it can still parasitize a drop of blood in the opponent, awaiting a chance to revive.

Imagine, while you are asleep or severely wounded, the Crimson Nest suddenly begins to revive; a drop of blood inside your body rapidly expands, utterly bursting your body—how would you respond and prevent it?

If Su Hao did not then have a means to directly attack the soul and utterly crush the Crimson Nest's soul, he would have no recourse against it, only able to turn and leave.

And now, the abilities possessed by the Aberrant Blood Demon are even more perverse than those of the Crimson Nest.

As long as he retains a drop of active blood, not only can injuries to his fleshly body not affect him at all.

Moreover, as long as he retains a drop of active blood, his soul cannot be completely destroyed; even if a direct soul‑attacking skill is used, Su Hao can at least leave a fragment of soul alive.

Although this ability might fail when faced with an attack of too high a rank.

But it is certain that even a Supernatural Fifth Rank's attack on the soul cannot completely crush his soul before all his blood is utterly destroyed.

Furthermore, even if Su Hao's blood loses all activity, exposing his soul, as long as his soul cannot be instantly destroyed, it will randomly flit to a drop of blood.

Even if that drop of blood is found and destroyed, as long as another drop of blood remains nearby, Su Hao's soul can again flit and possess those drops of blood.

Unless the opponent can, before Su Hao's fleshly body recovers, completely destroy all the blood in the vicinity, only then can they truly kill Su Hao.

If the opponent is a flesh-and-blood creature, achieving that is basically impossible.

After all, as long as the opponent is a flesh-and-blood creature, their body's main component certainly contains blood; once their own blood is utterly destroyed, they have only a dead end.

Even if the opponent is not a flesh-and-blood creature, wanting to completely destroy the surrounding blood is no easy task, for two reasons.

First, Su Hao's Blood Sea Robe itself possesses considerable defensive power, and it stores a large amount of blood inside.

As long as Su Hao's soul is placed within it, even if the opponent hasn't yet broken through the defense of the magic robe, he can draw on the energy in the supernatural blood to restore his flesh.

Second, not even Su Hao himself knows how large the range of this ability is, let alone others; perhaps it's one kilometer, perhaps two, or even thirty to fifty kilometers. To destroy all the blood within such a vast area in a short time is no easy task.

In short, after advancing to the fourth rank, Su Hao's survivability is simply outrageous. Perhaps only a sixth‑rank supernatural powerhouse, or a fifth‑rank supernatural being skilled in sealing, could threaten him.

As for the fourth rank…

Forget it—when he was at the second rank, he already killed several fourth‑rank supernatural monsters; now his own supernatural sequence has risen to the fourth rank, and he truly doesn't regard fourth‑rank supernaturals as anything.

"With this kind of survivability, Xue Nv probably can't do anything to me, hehehe…"

Su Hao grinned, but just then, Xue Nv's voice suddenly came from the doorway.

"Huh? What can't you do?"

"... Er, nothing, maybe you misheard…"

Su Hao's eye twitched, his expression slightly embarrassed—how could Xue Nv have heard that just now…

He opened the door and saw Xue Nv wrapped in that familiar blanket, tilting her delicate little head slightly, her bright eyes looking at Su Hao with a hint of confusion.

"What's wrong with you just now? I sensed a strong aura suddenly coming from your room, so I came to check."

"It's fine, just a slight increase in my supernatural sequence."

Su Hao waved his hand, seeing Xue Nv's puzzled and slightly worried expression, his heart inexplicably warmed.

"If you're okay, then I'll head back to my room…"

Xue Nv pulled the blanket tighter around her neck, turned and walked downstairs; when she reached the stairwell, her body paused slightly, she turned back to glance up and down at Su Hao, fell silent for a moment, then said:

"That laugh of yours just now was… uh… kind of… never mind, it's fine."

Xue Nv agonized for a while, finally shook her head, turned away, and walked down the stairs with her bare, fair little feet.

"……"

Su Hao scratched his head, his expression a bit stiff; he could be quite sure that his laugh just now had nothing to do with words like "handsome" or "overbearing."

Since that laugh wasn't overbearing nor handsome, it must be…

"Cough cough, it's definitely just an illusion, everyone knows I'm not that kind of person!"

Su Hao gave a light cough, turned and went back into his room, locking the door behind him.

Afterwards he turned his gaze back to the information panel; the aberrant blood demon certainly wasn't limited to just that ability.

【Effect Two: Hell Bone Demon: After consuming supernatural bones, one can increase one's bone hardness and bone element concentration without limit.

Able to use all bone magic and necromancy, and can exert greater power.

Gain the exclusive skill—Hell's Gate.】

……

"Hell's Gate?"

Su Hao frowned slightly; this skill was not something he had heard of for the first time.

After he summoned the Tyrant Demon Ox, he had seen this skill on its information panel.

The Tyrant Demon Ox and other hellish demons, upon death, can be revived if their cores aren't too severely damaged, by consuming the appropriate materials and using a hellish demon construction device.

However, this method requires bringing the demon's core back to the territory and using a hellish demon component device to revive it, which cannot be done in battle.

Besides that, there is another skill that can revive hellish demons, namely Hell's Gate.

Su Hao had ordered Ling Xue'er to search for this skill for a long time, but there had been no news.

Unexpectedly, upon this advancement, he automatically gained this skill.

At the same time he understood why, after so long, there had been no word of Hell's Gate.

It turns out this is an exclusive skill of the aberrant blood demon or the necromantic bone mage, so not finding its skill scroll is quite normal.

With curiosity and anticipation, Su Hao's mind stirred slightly as he opened the skill's information panel.

【Hell's Gate】

Supernatural Grade: Fourth Rank (growable) Effect 1—Hell's Gate Structure: Using a necromantic medium, one can construct a fixed Hell's Gate at a set location.

At most one fixed Hell's Gate can be established; upon increasing one's supernatural grade or deepening exploration of Hell, the number of fixed gates can be increased.

Effect 2—Hellish Shifting: The user and hellish demons can ignore distance, freely shuttle between Hell's Gates, and through them enter the Hell plane.

……

"Holy shit? Ignoring distance?! This effect is way too strong!"

Su Hao first blinked in surprise, then widened his eyes, wearing an expression of disbelief.

Although the current Hell's Gate can only be fixedly built as one.

However, a temporarily summoned Hell's Gate has no such limitation.

Su Hao merely needs to expend mental energy to summon a temporary Hell's Gate beside himself.

Such a temporarily summoned Hell's Gate may not last long and might have a considerable cooldown, but as long as it can be summoned, it's sufficient.

On the battlefield, once a hellish demon is injured, one can summon a Hell's Gate to let the wounded demons pass through it back to Hell to recover.

Moreover, if Su Hao builds that permanently existing Hell's Gate within his territory, he can also have the hellish demons inside his domain use the gate to join the battlefield, giving the enemy a big surprise.

If faced with an unbeatable opponent, Su Hao can also summon a Hell's Gate to instantly return to his territory.

Likewise, if Su Hao is outside and his territory comes under strong enemy attack, he can also use the Hell's Gate to quickly return to his territory.

Although only Su Hao and hellish demons can use the Hell's Gate, it also functions as a teleportation portal with important strategic significance.

Furthermore, through the Hell's Gate one can enter a plane called Hell.

The more one explores Hell, the more fixed Hell's Gates one can establish.

However, what Hell is like, what dangers it holds, and what unique resources it contains, Su Hao currently does not know.

Moreover, since the Dark Forest has not yet been fully conquered, he has no plan to venture into Hell for exploration.

At the very least, he must first completely turn the Dark Forest into his own territory and settle all affairs there before considering entering Hell.

However, sending out some hell demon creatures to scout ahead first does not conflict with his plan.

Afterward, he stopped thinking about it and turned his gaze again to the information panel of the aberrant blood demon.

(End of chapter)