Chapter 54: Manipulation
When Su Hao approached the academy, the radar detected a strange fluctuation of blood energy in the shadows outside the academy. It was cautiously concealed, keeping a certain distance from the academy, seemingly afraid to enter its premises.
This peculiar fluctuation felt different from the vibrant aura of a normal person. It appeared ethereal and scattered, as if the blood energy could dissipate with the wind at any moment, yet it somehow gathered together.
This contradictory sensation piqued Su Hao's interest.
Through the radar, Su Hao carefully observed the intensity of the blood energy. It wasn't high, only at the level of a high-ranked elite, posing little threat to him.
So he continued to walk forward without showing any change in expression, always prepared to counter any attacks.
When Su Hao approached within about 5 meters, the other party made a move.
Silently, the attacker circled around and launched a surprise attack from behind Su Hao.
In just the blink of an eye, the attacker closed in on Su Hao's back and swung a hand blade toward his neck.
"Trying to knock me out!" Su Hao immediately realized the attacker's intention. He instantly thought of the news he heard in town today. Perhaps the missing people in town were related to this person who attacked him.
It seemed the attacker had set his sights on the students staying at the academy.
Su Hao lowered his head, evading the attacker's hand blade.
He took a step back, moving behind the attacker, and jumped up, reaching out and grabbing the attacker's neck before pressing him forcefully against the ground.
"Bang!"
The attacker's face was harshly slammed onto the stone pavement, blood splattering everywhere.
To Su Hao's surprise, despite such a heavy blow, the attacker didn't utter a sound. He vigorously struggled, desperately trying to flip over.
Frowning, Su Hao felt an even stronger sense of peculiarity. It seemed the attacker couldn't feel the pain on his nose. Even an ordinary strike to the nose would make someone howl in pain, let alone being slammed directly onto the ground.
Seeing that the attacker was still resisting in a senseless manner, Su Hao directly seized his neck and lifted him up before forcefully slamming him to the ground again.
"Plump!"
The amount of blood flowing from the attacker's face increased dramatically, resembling the visual effect of chili oil seasoning packets falling to the ground and bursting.
Yet the attacker remained silent, continuing to struggle.
Su Hao decisively broke all of the attacker's limbs once he was certain the attacker would no longer be able to resist. Then he flipped the entire person over.
The attacker's face was completely mangled by Su Hao's violent actions, making it impossible to discern his specific features. However, it was clear that he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man.
What stood out the most were the man's eyes—devoid of focus, lifeless. His mouth, which had been smashed to pieces, slightly hung open, saliva and blood mixing together and flowing freely.
This was madness! No consciousness!
It was akin to a manipulated corpse.
"What on earth is this? Could it be that some kind of savage beast has infiltrated the town and is capturing humans to control them?" Su Hao immediately pondered, unable to figure out the situation. He remembered the mysterious blood energy he sensed before it suddenly and violently dissipated, followed by a gradual dispersal.
Startled, Su Hao sensed the location where the blood energy dissipated and immediately lifted the man's upper garment.
He saw a peculiar pattern on the man's abdomen, which quickly evaporated and disappeared like water stains.
"A rune?" Su Hao was momentarily stunned. After the rune disappeared, the man convulsed for a moment and stopped moving completely.
Su Hao placed his finger on the man's neck, but there was no pulse. He was dead.
"Using runes to control corpses?" This was the first time Su Hao had witnessed such a situation, leaving him puzzled.
Seeing that no one was around, Su Hao quickly cleaned up the traces of the scene and left.
Within two hours, someone would discover the corpse, leading the guards to deal with it.
In any case, it had nothing to do with him in the end.
Although the peculiar rune had evaporated quickly, Su Hao had already recorded it and could fully replicate it.
He planned to study it when he had time in the next two days.
...
Back in his dormitory, Su Hao first fetched pen and paper to accurately draw the rune he had seen based on Xiao Guang's instructions.
He waited for a while but nothing happened.
Su Hao thought for a moment and then brought a wooden board. He carved the rune onto the board, but it still had no effect.
"Could it be that I need to draw it on a living creature with blood energy?" Su Hao thought, standing up and leaving. In an instant, the radar locked onto a faint blood energy reaction—a big yellow rat hiding in a corner.
After a short while, Su Hao returned to the dormitory, holding the tail of the big yellow rat. The rat's short limbs struggled desperately but eventually gave up and stared forward hopelessly.
Su Hao flipped the rat's belly and tied its limbs with a rope, instinctively reaching for a small knife to shave its stomach fur.
Then he realized that having fur didn't affect the drawing process, so he laughed at himself, pointing a finger at the rat's belly.
Carefully controlling the blood energy, following Xiao Guang's instructions, Su Hao began drawing. This rune was much simpler than his "Perception" rune, but it would still be challenging to draw it on such a small rat.
After a moment, he succeeded in drawing it. Su Hao lifted his hand, releasing control over the blood energy, which instantly collapsed and erupted inside the rat's body.
"Bang!"
Blood and flesh splattered all over Su Hao.
Speechless, Su Hao silently praised the big yellow rat. It selflessly gave its precious life for the sake of science, deserving his respect.
Then he began pondering the cause of the failure.
Blood energy could be used to construct runes within a living organism, but once control was lost, it would erupt and dissipate instantly, making it impossible to achieve a long-lasting effect.
"Why can others do it then?"
"Is it the materials, the carrier, or is the rune incomplete?"
If electrical current could be compared to blood energy, then just as electrical current needed the confinement of wires to follow a predetermined path, perhaps blood energy also required a material similar to wires to stably confine it within a specific range for it to be effective.
Su Hao recalled the quick evaporation of the watermark-like symbol on the man's abdomen, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. That watermark-like thing might be the material capable of stabilizing blood energy.
He also recalled a book he had read, "The Mysterious Rune Master."
It described a group of mysterious individuals in this world who hid in the shadows, secretly studying forbidden knowledge. They were called rune masters, studying runes extracted from beast patterns.
The reason why runes were considered forbidden knowledge was that the early rune masters conducted numerous human experiments, violating ethics.
In history, rune masters conducted many massacres in their pursuit of knowledge, arousing public anger. At some point, rune masters became the embodiment of evil, universally condemned, even more so than savage beasts.
"Perhaps I need to find these rune masters to uncover the secret of drawing runes."
Su Hao
had never thought of starting from scratch to study runes. It wasn't his style to ignore the knowledge accumulated by his predecessors and try to innovate and research on his own. Most of the time, doing so wasn't innovation but rather retracing the steps of previous failures, wasting time.
Under the long-term task of "Decrypting the Special Secrets of Runes" in his log, Su Hao established a small branch: "Seeking Rune Masters, Obtaining Rune Knowledge."
Looking at his blood-soaked dormitory, Su Hao sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "If only I had the conditions to set up a dedicated laboratory."
Just the thought of his empty pockets made his head ache.
So, the question arose—how could he quickly earn money without wasting time?
Su Hao immediately rejected the idea of preparing chemical supplies. Although it could generate a significant income, the preparation work involved and the long return period were too much. He didn't want to waste that time.
His ideal situation would be to find a plan that could promote rune research while earning a large amount of money.
"Didn't Teacher Liu say that a complete beast pattern is extremely expensive on the market?"
Thinking about it, Su Hao had a preliminary plan in mind.
(Translated by begs)