Chapter 108: The Fatal Flaw of Immortality

Chapter 108: The Fatal Flaw of Immortality

With the protection of his Guardian Rings, Su Nan could attack without reservation.

Facing the highly threatening Blood Soul Bugs, he didn't hold back at all, immediately activating the Catastrophe Ring on his left hand.

The four rings simultaneously flashed with a bright light.

Instantly, four massive gray claws materialized in the air, sweeping through the swarm like a gale.

In an instant, countless Blood Soul Bugs fell to the ground like rain.

The dense swarm visibly thinned.

Following this, a large amount of silver metallic liquid overflowed from Su Nan's body, transforming into sharp spikes that shot out in all directions, instantly slaying hundreds of Blood Soul Bugs.

Under Su Nan's relentless and fierce assault, the swarm rapidly diminished.

In just over half a minute, Su Nan cleared the Blood Soul Bugs around him and turned to look at Rose on the other side.

Her situation was much more dire.

Rose had used all her trump cards but had only managed to eliminate fewer than a hundred Blood Soul Bugs, leaving over a hundred still around her.

Her strange plants had been completely devoured, and she could only barely hold off the swarm with magical items.

Fortunately, most of the Blood Soul Bugs were drawn to Su Nan, allowing her to hold on until now.

With Su Nan's support, the two quickly cleared the remaining swarm.

A few surviving Blood Soul Bugs were locked away in an iron cage Su Nan had temporarily crafted from refined iron.

Such rare creatures needed to be studied thoroughly.

Relieved to be out of danger, Rose let out a sigh of relief, turning to look at the battlefield where Su Nan had fought. Seeing the thick layer of dead bugs on the ground, she couldn't help but be amazed.

No matter how many times she witnessed it, Su Nan's power always left her secretly astonished.

After the battle, two of Su Nan's Guardian Rings had their defense completely depleted and needed to be recharged before they could be used again.

Another ring's defense was more than halfway depleted.

The four Catastrophe Rings also needed to be recharged.

The two Iron Golems were injured to varying degrees, but fortunately, their injuries were not severe. They could self-repair by absorbing energy from a ground pulse node back at the base.

His mental energy was about half remaining, enough to use the Magic Core for roughly a minute.

Overall, he still had more than half of his combat strength left.

With a clear understanding of his situation, Su Nan held a high-level rune gem in his palm and cautiously entered the tunnel where the Blood Soul Bugs had emerged.

The tunnel led to a room that had been converted into a bug nest, with walls covered in dense, honeycomb-like holes, some of which still contained the discarded shells of Blood Soul Bugs.

After a thorough inspection, Su Nan found no surviving Blood Soul Bugs and relaxed a bit.

If another swarm appeared, he would have to consider a temporary retreat.

Rose also breathed a sigh of relief; she definitely didn't want to face those terrifying bugs again.

Exiting the left tunnel, the two turned to enter the right one.

The right tunnel also led to a room converted into a bug nest, with dense holes in the walls, each containing a bug.

At first, Su Nan and Rose instinctively tensed up, ready for battle, but they soon realized these were not Blood Soul Bugs. Instead, they looked like oversized ladybugs with crystalline shells on their backs.

They lay motionless in the holes, as if in a deep slumber.

Su Nan approached and carefully removed one of the bugs, observing it for a moment before shaking his head at Rose.

"Dead."

The bug had no life force left in it.

They then checked the rest, finding that most of the bugs were dead, with only a few—about six—still retaining a faint spark of life, weak like a candle in a storm, ready to flicker out at any moment.

After some thought, Su Nan decided to take these bugs with him, placing them in the iron cage.

Leaving the bug nest, they began searching the other rooms.

The first was a storage room, with over a dozen shelves holding various materials.

However, as they had expected, most of the materials had deteriorated due to the long passage of time and were no longer usable.

Only a small amount of rare metals remained in good condition.

Next, they checked the meditation room, indoor garden, and alchemy lab, but found nothing of interest.

It wasn't until they entered a room that appeared to be a spell practice area that they made a discovery.

The entire practice room was covered in dust, with the walls, floor, and ceiling pitted and cracked, as if it had once been the site of a fierce battle.

A skeleton, clad in a long robe, sat alone in a corner.

Su Nan immediately recognized it as a magic robe, but after so much time, it was undoubtedly no longer effective.

"Was this the owner of this place?"

Rose pointed to the rings on the skeleton's hand bones. The enchantment runes on them had become blurry over time.

"Perhaps," Su Nan said, his eyes scanning the battle scars in the practice room. "We can't rule out the possibility that there was a second person here at some point."

After thoroughly checking the skeleton, they found nothing of value and left the practice room to enter the last room.

When they saw the large workbench inside, both of them felt a surge of excitement.

Clearly, this was a laboratory. As a place where wizards and apprentices conducted experiments and research, it often contained their notes and records.

Without finding a study, the notes in the laboratory were likely the most valuable things in this cavern.

After a thorough search, they indeed found a few notebooks.

The pages of the notebooks were made of a special material that had resisted corrosion and weathering over the years.

Flipping open the first notebook, the first page boldly read:

The Extraction and Fusion of Blood Soul Bugs' Bloodline!

Su Nan and Rose exchanged a look, both feeling a mix of awe and unease. They had already experienced the eerie and terrifying nature of the Blood Soul Bugs, and the idea that someone wanted to extract and fuse their bloodline was almost unimaginable.

Continuing to read, they found the name 'Avegnus Lucas' at the end of the entry.

The pages detailed the experiments and progress of this apprentice named Avegnus, along with his psychological insights.

According to the notes, Avegnus had discovered the Blood Soul Bugs by chance.

These bizarre creatures instinctively devoured the flesh and souls of living beings, using them as sustenance to survive. With enough souls, they could live forever, never dying.

Avegnus had conducted experiments and found that a single human soul could keep a Blood Soul Bug alive for a month without eating or drinking. More powerful souls could sustain them even longer.

Realizing this, Avegnus conceived the idea of fusing the Blood Soul Bugs' ability to devour souls and extend life into his own body, thus achieving immortality.

He quickly put his plan into action. After cultivating the Blood Soul Bugs for a period and obtaining a sufficient number of samples, Avegnus began his experiments.

The notes indicated that the entire experiment lasted over twenty years, with no fewer than a hundred failures. Ultimately, Avegnus successfully fused the Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline, gaining the ability to devour souls and extend his life.

Seeing this, Su Nan and Rose exchanged a look, their eyes filled with amazement.

Immortality!

This was the dream of many wizard apprentices. Only with a long enough lifespan could they hope to achieve the rank of a full wizard.

Achieving immortality was incredibly difficult. Most apprentices could only hope to extend their lives as much as possible.

But Avegnus had truly achieved it, gaining immortality.

In comparison, the need to devour souls seemed like a minor drawback. It was similar to how humans need to eat and vampires need to drink blood. In the face of eternal life, it didn't seem like a significant flaw.

"But if Avegnus achieved immortality, who was the skeleton in the practice room?" Rose asked, puzzled.

Su Nan shook his head; he couldn't figure it out either.

With their curiosity piqued, they continued reading.

After the experiment's success, Avegnus was clearly overjoyed, his notes filled with excitement and pride.

He then cultivated more Blood Soul Bugs to use as research subjects, aiming to further enhance his bloodline ability, reduce his dependence on soul energy, and achieve perfect immortality.

However, this research did not succeed.

Not long after fusing the Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline, Avegnus noticed something was wrong.

His soul had become polluted!

After a series of experiments and investigations, Avegnus finally found the cause.

The Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline had a fatal flaw. Continuously devouring souls would pollute one's own soul, gradually twisting and driving it to madness. Eventually, one would lose all reason and sink into complete insanity.

This was why the Blood Soul Bugs would attack any living being with flesh and a soul. They had lost their autonomy and were driven solely by the instincts to kill and survive.

Avegnus was now gradually experiencing this process.

The good news was that he had discovered the issue early. By stopping the consumption of souls, he could prevent further pollution and maintain his sanity.

The bad news was that because his soul was already polluted, he had almost no chance of ever advancing to the rank of a wizard.

Realizing this, Avegnus fell into despair.

After that, he frantically searched for a way to eliminate the flaw in the Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline, but he never succeeded.

This state of affairs continued for over a decade. Avegnus gradually felt that he was approaching the end of his natural lifespan. Unwilling to accept death, he returned to the path of devouring souls, hoping to find a solution to his problem before he lost his sanity.

From this point on, the content of his experiment notes began to take on a twisted and increasingly deranged tone, with the final pages filled with various incomprehensible doodles, evoking an inexplicable sense of dread.

After reading the notes, Su Nan couldn't help but sigh. Avegnus's fate was all too clear. In the end, he never found a solution and was ultimately consumed by his own madness. It now seemed that the marks in the spell practice room were not from a battle but from Avegnus's own frenzied actions. The skeleton in the corner was none other than Avegnus himself.

"Pity, he was so close," Rose murmured, a hint of regret in her voice.

Su Nan glanced at her and shook his head, remaining silent. This was far from being just a matter of one last step. Avegnus's failure was almost inevitable. In the golden age of wizardry a thousand years ago, Blood Soul Bugs were not particularly rare. If fusing their bloodline could grant immortality, more powerful wizards would have discovered it long ago. Yet, there has never been a mention of such a method, even in the later wizarding era. This indicates that no one has ever succeeded, and the flaw in the Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline is fundamentally unresolvable. From the moment he fused the Blood Soul Bugs' bloodline, Avegnus's fate was sealed.

"Don't feel sorry for him. He wasn't a good person," Su Nan said coolly.

"You forgot about those Blood Soul Bugs?" Rose was taken aback, but quickly realized the implication, her face turning pale. Avegnus had died over a century ago, and the Blood Soul Bugs had been confined to the cave, unable to go out and hunt. Yet, they had managed to survive until now, indicating that they had already devoured a vast number of souls while Avegnus was still alive. The amount of souls required to sustain nearly a thousand Blood Soul Bugs for over a century is staggering. The thought of how many creatures had to be killed to extract those souls was enough to make one's scalp tingle. Avegnus must have had blood on his hands in unimaginable quantities.

Putting down the notes on the Blood Soul Bugs, Su Nan picked up the second notebook. The first page read, "The Genetic Modification and Cultivation of Gem Bugs."

Gem Bugs? The name piqued Su Nan's interest. As he continued reading, the notes described how Avegnus had discovered a type of insect in the underground world that fed on minerals. These insects had a unique physiology that allowed them to break down and digest the minerals they ingested, expelling the waste and concentrating the essence on their backs, gradually forming a hard crystalline armor that significantly enhanced their survival capabilities. Avegnus was fascinated by these insects and, to test a hypothesis, captured a large number of them. Using a radiation field, he induced mutations in the insects and then used magic to alter their internal organs so that the essence of the minerals they digested would form pure gems rather than crystals.

After over a hundred generations of cultivation, the Gem Bugs were born. The gems produced by these insects had the same natural essence as natural gems and could be used as a perfect substitute.

Su Nan and Rose were both amazed and delighted. The importance of gems to wizards and apprentices cannot be overstated, as they are used in many aspects of magic. However, gems are rare and precious, and even with abundant resources, Su Nan often had to use them sparingly. The discovery of a creature that could produce gems was a significant breakthrough!

Additionally, the notes mentioned that Gem Bugs enter a state of hibernation when food is scarce, during which their energy requirements drop to an extremely low level, allowing them to survive for a century without dying. Su Nan and Rose immediately thought of the motionless insects they had seen earlier. Their appearance and the crystalline structures on their backs matched the description of the Gem Bugs in the notes.

"Who would have thought these little creatures could produce gems," Rose said, her eyes gleaming as she looked at the insects in the cage. She then sighed, a bit regretfully. The Gem Bugs had been in hibernation for far too long, well over a century, and out of the hundreds they had seen, only six had survived. However, according to the notes, Gem Bugs could reproduce by splitting. Even with just one Gem Bug, they could gradually breed a large population over time.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end