Chapter 54: Control

As Su Hao neared the academy, his [Minimap] detected a strange blood Qi fluctuation hidden in the shadows outside. It was located a certain distance from the academy's boundary, seemingly hesitant to enter the academy's grounds.

This eerie blood Qi fluctuation felt different from the vibrant life force of normal warriors—It was faint and scattered, as if the blood Qi might dissipate at any moment, yet it somehow remained gathered together.

This contradictory feeling piqued Su Hao's interest.

Through his [Radar], Su Hao carefully observed the fluctuation. The blood Qi intensity was not high, merely at the level of a high-tier elite warrior, posing little threat to him.

Without drawing attention, Su Hao continued walking forward, while keeping himself prepared for any counteraction.

When Su Hao was about five meters away, the figure moved.

Silently, it circled behind Su Hao and launched an attack.

In the blink of an eye, the figure was right behind Su Hao, delivering a knife-hand strike toward his neck.

'They want to knock me out!' Su Hao instantly understood the assailant's intention. He immediately recalled the news he'd heard earlier in town—this attacker might be linked to the recent disappearances in the area.

It seemed the attacker had set their sights on students who stayed at the academy.

Su Hao ducked his head, causing the assailant's strike to miss.

He took a step back, getting behind the assailant and grabbed the back of the assailant's neck, slamming him to the ground.

"Bang∼!"

The assailant's face was smashed against the stone pavement, blood splattering everywhere.

To Su Hao's surprise, despite the heavy blow, the assailant didn't make a sound. Instead, he flailed his limbs wildly, struggling to get back up.

Su Hao frowned. Something was off—this person seemed unaffected by the pain of having their nose smashed in. A normal person would scream from such a heavy blow, let alone having their face slammed into the ground, but this guy didn't even flinch.

Seeing the assailant still thrashing chaotically, Su Hao grabbed the man's neck, lifted him up, and slammed him down again.

"Thud∼!"

The assailant continued to struggle in silence.

Su Hao decisively broke their arms and legs. After ensuring the attacker was completely incapacitated, he flipped him over.

The assailant's face was now a bloody mess, barely recognizable, but it was clear he was an ordinary middle-aged man.

What stood out most were his eyes—glazed, unfocused, and lifeless. His bloodied mouth hung slightly open, saliva mixed with blood dripping freely.

It looked disturbingly like a puppet.

"What is this? Could there really be some sort of fierce beast infiltrating the town and capturing humans to control them?"

Su Hao couldn't quite grasp what was happening. Just as he was about to study the strange blood Qi within the man, the eerie blood Qi began to tremble violently and then slowly dissipated.

Alarmed, Su Hao quickly checked where the blood Qi was fading and lifted the man's shirt.

There on the man's abdomen was a bizarre pattern that rapidly sublimated and vanished like evaporating water stains.

"A rune?" Su Hao froze for a moment. After the rune disappeared, the man's body convulsed once before going completely still.

Su Hao placed his fingers on the man's neck to check for a pulse—there was none. He was dead.

"Controlling corpses with runes?" This was the first time Su Hao had encountered such a situation, leaving him utterly confused.

Seeing no one around, Su Hao quickly cleaned up the traces at the scene and left.

Within two hours, someone would find the body, and the town guards would handle it.

In any case, it had little to do with him now.

Although the strange rune had dissipated quickly, Su Hao had already recorded it and could fully replicate it.

He planned to study it when he had time over the next couple of days.

….

Back at his dormitory, Su Hao grabbed some paper and a pen and, following the instructions from [Cosmic Light], carefully reproduced the rune he had seen.

After waiting for a while, nothing happened.

Su Hao thought for a moment, then fetched a wooden board and carved the rune onto it, but there was still no response.

'Could it be that the rune needs to be drawn on a living organism using blood Qi?' Su Hao wondered. He got up and left the room, and his [Radar] quickly locked onto a faint blood Qi signal—a large rat hiding in a corner.

In no time, Su Hao returned to his dorm with the rat dangling by its tail. The rat struggled with its tiny limbs for a bit before giving up, staring ahead in defeat.

Su Hao flipped the rat onto its back, tied its limbs with a string, and instinctively reached for a small knife to shave the fur off its belly.

Then he realized the fur wouldn't affect the drawing, so he laughed at himself and, under the terrified gaze of the rat, extended a finger and pressed it against its belly.

Carefully controlling his blood Qi, Su Hao began to draw the rune according to [Cosmic Light]'s guidance. Although this rune was much simpler than his ‹Perception› rune, inscribing it on such a small rat posed a considerable challenge.

Moments later, the drawing was complete. Su Hao lifted his hand and cut off the control of his blood Qi. Immediately, the blood Qi collapsed and exploded inside the rat.

"Bang∼!"

Blood and flesh splattered all over Su Hao.

Su Hao was speechless and silently gave the rat a thumbs-up. It had selflessly sacrificed its life for the sake of science, earning his respect.

Then, he began analyzing what had gone wrong.

Blood Qi could be used to create runes inside living organisms, but once the control was lost, the energy would explode and dissipate.

"How do others manage to achieve it?"

"Is it the material, the medium, or is the rune incomplete?"

If blood Qi was akin to electric current, it needed something like wiring to guide it along a set path. Could blood Qi require a similar material to stabilize and guide it within a specific range for a [Rune] to function?

Recalling the quickly evaporating watermark on the man's abdomen, the more Su Hao thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. That watermark-like substance might be the material needed to stabilize blood Qi.

He remembered a book he once read, [The Mysterious Rune Masters].

It described a group of enigmatic people who studied forbidden knowledge in secret. These individuals were known as Rune Masters, who extracted and studied runes from beast veins.

Runes were classified as forbidden knowledge due to the Rune Masters' extensive human experimentation, which violated ethical norms. Throughout history, Rune Masters had committed many atrocities, including massacres of entire cities, inciting public outrage. Eventually, they became synonymous with evil, feared even more than fierce beasts.

"Perhaps finding these Rune Masters is the only way to uncover the secrets of [Rune drawing]."

Su Hao never considered starting from scratch with [Rune] research. He wasn't one to ignore the accumulated knowledge of others in favor of solo ventures.

It was like trying to innovate without fully understanding the existing body of work—failure was almost guaranteed. More often than not, such attempts were less about innovation and more about repeating the mistakes of the predecessors, wasting valuable time.

In his log of long-term tasks, Su Hao added a new subtask under [Decipher the Secrets of Runes]—[Locate Rune Masters and Acquire Rune Knowledge.]

Looking at the blood-splattered dorm room, Su Hao exhaled deeply and muttered, "If possible, I need to set up a proper lab."

However, the thought of his empty pockets gave him a headache.

Now the real question was, how to make money quickly without wasting too much time?

Su Hao immediately dismissed the idea of synthesizing chemical products (Drugs). Though it could be highly profitable, the initial setup was too time-consuming, and the return period too lengthy. He didn't want to waste his time on it.

His ideal scenario was finding a way that would both advance his rune research and generate significant income.

"Didn't Teacher Liu mention that a complete beast vein is extremely valuable in the market?"

With that thought, Su Hao formulated a preliminary plan.