Chapter 93: The Mysterious Zhu Huo Ren
Su Hao began a regular routine of daily cultivation. During the day, he stayed indoors as much as possible, and at night, he obediently remained in his hiding spot.
Soon, two months had passed.
The cold wind howled, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky, covering the ground with a thin white blanket.
Su Hao’s hiding place was sealed tightly, leaving only two ventilation holes, making it surprisingly warm.
“My elite blood energy is fully replenished! I can start inscribing runes and advance to the Master level. Although I’m still young, the physical qualities of Zhu Huo Ren are much stronger than those of the humans in my previous world, so advancing now shouldn’t be a problem.”
Su Hao’s consciousness entered the inner space of the pinball, and his manifested body lay lazily on the couch, contemplating the issue of advancing to the Master level.
“What rune should I inscribe?”
Su Hao’s choice remained the perception rune because of its tremendous benefits. This rune allowed him to sense life energy in advance, providing him with high self-defense capabilities, enabling him to prepare for any situation and take control of the situation.
He had two main points of hesitation:
First, he could use the array disk to construct other runes with special functions. As long as he wanted something, he could find a way to achieve it. This was a very adaptable method, allowing him to customize his innate talents.
Second, rune effects could be stacked, but more complex runes didn’t necessarily mean better. Runes with too many functions and complexity could lead to faster blood energy consumption and a decrease in their effectiveness.
For example, he could add a healing effect to the perception rune, making it appear very powerful. However, daily blood energy consumption would increase, combat endurance would weaken, and the range of perception and the healing ability would both decrease.
The advantage of this choice was versatility, but the downside was that it would dilute the strength of individual functions.
After careful consideration, Su Hao ultimately chose the single rune ‘perception’. He preferred to maintain the ability to control his surroundings at any time and place, giving him confidence and the ability to remain calm in any situation.
As for other functions, he could draw them as needed.
If perception was in place, he would have enough time to inscribe other runes when the need arose.
He wondered if this world had golden wireworms or similar creatures. If it did, he could inscribe the runes onto weapons and armor.
Su Hao didn’t know the difference between inscribing beast patterns inside the body and array disk runes. In the spirit of research, he chose array disk runes without hesitation. In his previous life, he had inscribed beast patterns inside his body, so this time, he wanted to make a comparison to determine whether beast patterns were better, array disk runes were better, or if they were equal.
Once he had set his goal, Su Hao immediately took action. He began to experiment with inscribing array disk runes, coordinating his body’s energy, and striving for a perfect inscribing degree.
Although this world’s body was slightly different from the previous world’s, the inscribing method remained the same. By controlling the eight array control rods and finding the energy pathways slowly, he could connect his entire body, creating a new blood energy network.
Five days later, Su Hao, in the inner space of the pinball, knew that he had succeeded in the adjustment. As long as he inscribed along the lines, he could advance to the Master level immediately.
“Create the inscribing task!”
Su Hao no longer hesitated, directly giving orders to Little Light, exiting the inner space, and quickly concentrating. He began to mobilize his elite blood energy to inscribe along Little Light’s mark.
He succeeded in inscribing in no time.
“Solidify! Imprint!”
Using the same method, he just needed to fill the gaps in the lines with blood energy, solidify them for a few days, and the runes would be completely fixed, waiting for his body to gradually adapt.
Within a maximum of three months, Su Hao would return to the high-level Master level!
Su Hao, like an outsider in this city, had very limited contact with the city itself. Aside from acquiring food and some daily necessities, he spent most of his time in his hiding spot, slowly converting blood energy to enhance his strength.
Three months later, as the ice and snow gradually melted, life began to return. Su Hao, now over four years old, had grown a bit taller, and his body was no longer weak. His skin had a healthy glow, and he looked exceptionally energetic.
He emerged from his hiding place.
Finally, he had reached the high-level Master level once more.
At the same time, the familiar radar appeared once again in his consciousness, albeit currently limited to a small range of four hundred meters, which still made Su Hao feel very reassured.
“Now I’m experiencing that long-lost sense of security again. It feels so reassuring!”
However, compared to the Grandmasters of his previous life, he was much weaker.
He didn’t even have one-tenth of the blood energy intensity from his previous life.
In his previous life, he had the assistance of “Muscle Enhancement Function” and “Bone Enhancement Function.” After nearly ten years of refining, his body had become extremely sturdy and robust, far beyond what this frail child’s body could compare to.
But Su Hao was confident that as this body continued to grow, his blood energy intensity would gradually increase, possibly surpassing the strength of his previous life.
The next step would involve researching the various “enhancement functions” of this body to quickly strengthen his physical abilities. This research would take approximately a year.
And what Su Hao had plenty of right now was time.
As for the Grandmaster level, it was just a minor regret.
However, the power of the Grandmaster level was basically unnecessary for Su Hao.
Firstly, humans couldn’t naturally generate energy cores and had to hunt Grandmaster-level savage beasts to obtain them from the beasts’ bodies. They would then transplant them into their own bodies and, through special methods, establish a connection between the core and their bodies, successfully advancing to the Grandmaster level.
This was a clever way to gain power.
For Su Hao, it held little value because, once he changed worlds, there would be no original cores, making it impossible for him to advance to the Grandmaster level smoothly.
If he had enough time in this world, he might consider researching the Grandmaster level.
However, Su Hao didn’t hold out much hope for this because who knew when unexpected events would occur?
With time on his hands, he would prefer to explore the secrets of this world as soon as possible, as there might be some unexpected surprises.
While practicing drawing runes in his palm, Su Hao walked towards the streets of the small town. His goal for the day was simple: wander around the town, collect radar information on the Zhu Huo Ren in the city, and when he encountered them again, he would be able to identify their origins instantly.
As soon as he entered the city, Su Hao’s pupils constricted, and his entire body tensed up.
It was because the blood energy of the Zhu Huo Ren in this city shocked him greatly.
Most of the Zhu Huo Ren he encountered had blood energy intensities equivalent to high-level ordinary martial artists. The remaining Zhu Huo Ren were mostly above the Elite level, and Master-level blood energy was not uncommon…
As he walked towards the city center, he even encountered a few Zhu Huo Ren with blood energy intensities at the Grandmaster level.
This was a tremendous shock to Su Hao. In this small town, there were so many powerful individuals? It was unimaginable in his previous life. Savage beasts were like insignificant pawns!
What was strange was that these powerful individuals blended into the crowd without drawing any attention to themselves during the day.
Su Hao even saw a Grandmaster-level aunt selling vegetables by the roadside.
“…,” Su Hao suddenly felt overwhelmed.
“The delicious preserved meat pancakes are only two Zhu!”
This was the sales pitch of a low-level Grandmaster-level Zhu Huo Ren, who smiled and promoted his goods when he saw Su Hao.
“Hey there, little guy, make way, and be careful not to spill your heartwater!” This was the friendly reminder of a high-level Grandmaster.
“Boss, how come these herbs have gone up in price after just one day? It’s not fair; you have to lower the price for me; my son can’t take it anymore!” This was the helpless plea of a high-level Elite.
“Custom-made new spring outfits! Only forty Zhu, and you can buy a well-fitting and stylish outfit!” This was an aunt at the Grandmaster level with her spring clothing store.
…
Su Hao’s scalp went numb.
During this period, he had used various improper means to earn some money. He had no idea whether he had earned the blood energy of Zhu Huo Ren at the Grandmaster level.
It was truly dangerous!
Thinking back, his high-level Master strength wasn’t very stable either!
However, he couldn’t continue to advance to the Grandmaster level.
“But what’s the deal with these people? There are Elites and Grandmasters all over the streets, but why do they act like ordinary people during the day, showing no signs of their true strength?”
If Su Hao hadn’t inscribed the perception rune, allowing him to clearly sense the powerful blood energy emanating from these people, he wouldn’t be able to recognize that these Zhu Huo Ren actually possessed extremely strong abilities.
Their acting skills were absolutely top-notch!
Furthermore, the closer he got to the city center, the higher the frequency of encountering people at the Grandmaster level.
Su Hao stopped and decided not to move forward. Instead, he turned and quietly moved towards the edge of the city.
Su Hao had made up his mind. Until he figured out what was going on in this city, he would follow the example of other Zhu Huo Ren and pretend to be someone without any combat ability, avoiding easily revealing his true strength.
Su Hao recalled the attack by the bat-like creature he had encountered earlier. It had definitely happened because he had exposed his strength during the day and drew someone’s attention.
“It really is a game of hide and seek!”
