Chapter 74: I’m Here
In the wilderness, Su Hao continued his research according to his previous pace, changing his location every now and then. He occasionally entered towns for rest and recuperation. At one point, he even arrived at the large human city – He’an Main City. His purpose was to gather information; he needed to understand more about this world’s material knowledge.
He had a concept in mind: if he could find a material that could restrain blood energy, then recording runes in advance would no longer be a fantasy.
In Su Hao’s imagination, the material for blood energy restraint would work like electrical wires restricting the flow of electricity. It would allow one to pre-embed the material into weapons and armor, enabling the immediate activation of runes by injecting blood energy.
Yes, Su Hao wanted to find a simple way to activate runes. This would lower the threshold for rune usage, making it accessible to anyone with blood energy, similar to how anyone with hands could play a mobile game.
However, Su Hao’s efforts yielded no results. It seemed like such materials didn’t exist in this world, and there was no recorded knowledge about them.
He even went so far as to capture numerous runemasters who secretly studied runes and engaged in in-depth discussions with them, but he returned disappointed.
Could there really be no material capable of restraining blood energy?
Impossible!
Su Hao believed there must be some material capable of restraining blood energy. Otherwise, how did he control his own blood energy? Almost every elite martial artist could control their blood energy, which was a form of restraint.
Su Hao’s mind raced as he contemplated the differences involved.
“Maybe… it doesn’t necessarily need restraint?”
Blood energy was essentially a form of biological energy. This type of energy had a better compatibility within biological organisms. Once it left the body, its control diminished significantly.
For example, injecting blood energy into a long knife would only allow it to be pushed inside without any fine control. This would result in a powerful burst of energy but wouldn’t allow for precise actions on the knife.
Su Hao reached a conclusion about blood energy: “In other words, biological compatibility with blood energy is much stronger than with metallic substances!”
Therefore, to pre-record runes, he didn’t necessarily need strong restraint materials. Instead, he could embed rune patterns into weapons and armor in advance and then fill those rune patterns with a material that had even stronger biological compatibility than metal.
Because the flow of blood energy would prioritize materials with higher compatibility.
A glint of light flashed in Su Hao’s eyes. “So, what should I fill it with? Crushed flesh and blood, perhaps?”
It was worth a try.
So, Su Hao first inscribed a rune pattern on a metal plate, and then he filled it with crushed flesh and blood, attempting to release blood energy and activate the rune.
He failed!
The crushed flesh and blood had essentially become lifeless, lacking the overall nature of a living organism. Moreover, this mixture couldn’t be preserved for an extended period.
What should he do?
Countless thoughts raced through Su Hao’s mind, only to be dismissed one by one.
Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him!
Planaria!
He remembered these parasitic creatures from his previous research on the dissection of ferocious beasts. They resembled long golden threads and were therefore called planaria by him.
He endured his disgust and continued his research.
He discovered that these planaria were not only long, resilient, and could survive with just blood energy, but they also didn’t seem to have any useful purpose.
Now, they were like a gift from this world!
Su Hao excitedly found several unlucky ferocious beasts and extracted numerous planaria from their bodies.
Then, based on the thickness and length of the planaria, Su Hao meticulously carved rune patterns on a metal plate. He used tweezers to insert the planaria into the grooves one by one, widening the grooves as needed where they intersected.
After connecting the heads and tails of the planaria, Su Hao injected blood energy and attempted to activate the rune.
Success!
Su Hao clenched his fists in excitement.
He checked the planaria; they were unharmed. In fact, they seemed even more lively, as if they had just enjoyed a feast.
And they could be reused!
It was this discovery that kept Su Hao awake for two whole nights, lost in endless visions of the future.
In this world, what would be the ultimate outcome under his influence?
…
A year and a half later.
During this year, Su Hao turned fifteen.
He had completed the integration of basic runes, carefully annotating and cataloging all the basic runes he had discovered, assigning them serial numbers.
In total, there were over eight hundred basic runes.
Based on the characteristics of these basic runes, he divided them into nine sequences, and within each sequence, he further categorized them into ten levels based on their common usage.
All eight hundred plus basic runes were now part of this systematic sequence.
For instance, Sequence One, Level One, Basic Rune Number One was “Fundamental Force I,” and so on. This system allowed him to quickly reference and select suitable basic runes when designing array disk runes for various effects.
This approach allowed most of his creative ideas to be realized through this array disk.
Su Hao even developed relatively simple usage of runes like “Fireball Rune,” “Ice Shard Rune,” “Corrosive Beam Rune,” “Earth Spike Rune,” “Electric Discharge Rune,” and more. The effects of these runes were something he had not seen from ferocious beasts.
There were also more complex versions such as “Laundry Rune,” “Fan Rune,” “Dust Removal and Diffusion Rune,” “High-Pressure Water Gun Cleaning Rune,” “Script Replication Rune,” “Roasting Rune,” “Boiling Rune,” and so on.
After all, one of the purposes of runes was to improve one’s life, right?
He had also successfully developed rune weapons and rune armor.
Even an elite martial artist could use a rune-inscribed long knife, after some practice, to activate runes within it for additional effects.
For example, a rune-inscribed long knife created by Su Hao had three runes inscribed on it: “Hardening,” “Sharpness,” and “Penetration.” The effects were incredibly powerful.
If the warriors in Lingyun Town had used his knife to fight against ferocious beasts like Bearded Beasts, everyone would have at least managed to make a small cut on the beast.
Although making a small cut on the Bearded Beast didn’t have much practical value, it was still a significant improvement, going from zero additional damage to +1.
He had also inscribed runes onto his armor with effects like “Hardening,” “Deflection,” “Barrier,” and “Oscillation.” The defensive effects were incredibly strong, making it nearly impossible for Bearded Beasts to pierce through even if someone were standing still and letting the beast attack.
What was this?
This was the call of the times!
This was true human transformation!
Furthermore, as long as he occasionally fed the planaria buried inside with some blood energy, they could live for at least a year and a half.
The first batch of planaria that Su Hao had captured hadn’t died yet. They continued to glow and radiate heat for runes, albeit looking a bit sluggish.
But did it matter? Not at all. With such powerful capabilities unlocked, they could proudly say they had brought honor to their ancestors.
These planaria probably never imagined that they could be so amazing, releasing various powerful attacks. They would be more than satisfied with their accomplishments.
In addition to all this, Su Hao wrote two books.
One of them was titled “The Path of Martial Artists,” which included chapters like “Introduction,” “The Principles and Breakthrough of Blood Energy Bottlenecks,” “Advanced Elite – Centrifugal Force,” “Blood Energy Enhancement Wave and Flesh Enhancement Wave Contemplation,” “Advanced Grandmaster – Array Disk Inscription,” “Advanced Grandmaster – Comprehensive Array Disk,” “Objective Exploration of Martial Artists,” and finally, at the end, a thought-provoking piece, “The Heart of a Martial Artist, the Strength of Humanity.”
It was a thick book, and Su Hao was very satisfied with it.
He wanted to spread this book, “The Path of Martial Artists,” to various places across the Everlasting Continent.
Later, for the sake of easier distribution, he also created a second version, where each chapter was separated and made available in a loose-leaf format.
With both options available, those who obtained the full book would treasure it, while those who had individual chapters would inevitably be motivated to collect more, ensuring that the book would quickly gain popularity.
In addition to this, he wrote a second book called “Rune Encyclopedia,” divided into sections like “Beast Patterns and Runes,” “Three-Dimensional Runes,” “Array Disk Structure Theory,” “Comprehensive Explanation of Basic Runes,” “Rune Case Study Workbook,” “The Beauty of Nature – Gold-Threaded Worms,” “Applications of Runes in Life and Battle,” and finally, a thought-provoking piece, “Enlightenment of Thought, Exploration of the Universe.”
Su Hao looked contentedly at the two thick books in his hands, signing them as “Passerby” at the end.
Perfect!
He extended his hand and clenched it into a fist towards the sky.
“I’m here! World!”
