Synthetic Wizard

Chapter 134: Chapter 107: Immortality with a Fatal Flaw (Part 2)

After a thorough search, the two indeed found several notebooks.

The paper of the notebooks was made of special materials, which, despite the passage of many years, showed no signs of corrosion or weathering.

Opening the first notebook, there was a line of bold characters on the first page.

“Blood Soul Insects’ Bloodline Extraction and Fusion!”

Sunan and Rose exchanged glances, completely bewildered.

Both had already experienced the bizarre and terrifying nature of the Blood Soul Insect, yet someone actually wanted to extract and fuse this monster’s bloodline.

Continuing to read, the name signed below was ’Avegni Lucas’.

What followed were a series of experimental processes and progress by this wizard apprentice called Avegni, along with his psychological insights during the period.

According to the description in the notebook, Avegni discovered the Blood Soul Insect by chance.

This bizarre creature follows instincts to devour the flesh and soul of all living beings, using it as nourishment to survive.

As long as there are enough souls, they can even live forever, without dying.

Avegni conducted experiments and found that a normal human soul could sustain a Blood Soul Insect for a month without food or water.

If replaced with the soul of a more powerful creature, it could survive even longer.

After discovering this, Avegni developed the idea of integrating the soul-devouring and longevity-extending bloodline ability of the Blood Soul Insect into himself to achieve immortality.

And he soon put it into action.

After cultivating Blood Soul Insects for some time and acquiring enough samples, Avegni immediately began his experiment.

Judging by the timestamp in the notebook, the entire experiment lasted more than twenty years, and after over a hundred failures, Avegni finally succeeded in merging the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline, acquiring the ability to extend life by consuming souls.

Upon seeing this, Sunan and Rose exchanged glances, their eyes filled with amazement.

Immortality!

This is a goal many wizard apprentices dream of.

Only with a sufficiently long life span can they hope to achieve their dream of advancing to become wizards.

Yet, attaining immortality is incredibly difficult.

The most that a vast majority of wizard apprentices can do is try to extend their life span as much as possible.

But Avegni truly achieved it — immortal life.

Compared to that, requiring soul consumption seems insignificant.

It’s much like how humans need to eat, and vampires need blood — in the face of eternal life, it’s hardly a flaw.

“But if Avegni already achieved immortality, then who is the corpse in the practice room?” Rose asked in confusion.

Sunan shook his head; this question puzzled him for the moment.

With uncertainty in their hearts, the two continued to read.

After the successful experiment, Avegni clearly fell into ecstatic joy, with excitement and pride evident in his words.

Afterward, he cultivated more Blood Soul Insects as research samples, aiming to further strengthen the bloodline ability, reduce reliance on soul energy, and achieve perfect immortality.

However, this research did not succeed.

Shortly after fusing with the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline, Avegni quickly noticed something was amiss.

His soul was polluted!

Through a series of experiments and examinations, Avegni finally identified the cause.

The truth is the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline contains a fatal flaw.

Continuous soul consumption would cause one’s soul to become polluted, gradually warping, becoming violent, ultimately losing sanity and descending into madness.

This is also why Blood Soul Insects go berserk upon seeing creatures with flesh and soul — they have long lost independent consciousness, leaving only the instinct to kill and survive.

Avegni was now gradually experiencing this process.

The good news is that he discovered it early; by ceasing soul consumption, he could prevent further pollution and maintain sanity.

The bad news is, due to the pollution of his soul, he was virtually impossible to advance to wizard in this lifetime.

Realizing this plunged Avegni into despair.

Afterward, he frantically sought a way to eliminate the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline flaw, but unfortunately, he never succeeded.

Thus, over a decade passed, and Avegni gradually sensed he was nearing the end of his lifespan.

Unwilling to die just like this, he resumed the path of soul consumption, hoping to find a solution before losing his sanity completely.

Beyond that point, the content of the experimental notebook gradually took on a distorted and mad tone, with increasingly profound insanity, until the last few pages became bizarre and unintelligible scribbles, making people feel eerily uneasy.

After reading the notebook, Sunan couldn’t help but sigh.

Avegni’s end was already evident.

Ultimately, he still failed to find a solution and got utterly lost in madness.

Looking back, the marks in the magic practice room weren’t left from combat; more likely, they were caused by Avegni’s own frenzy.

The corpse leaning against the corner of the wall was precisely Avegni.

“Such a pity, just short of the final step.” Rose whispered regretfully.

Sunan glanced at her, shook his head, and remained silent.

This wasn’t just a matter of one last step.

Avegni’s failure was almost inevitable.

In the wizard prosperity from a thousand years ago, Blood Soul Insects weren’t particularly rare creatures.

If fusing the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline led to immortality, stronger wizards would have already researched it.

But in reality, to this day, no similar methods have been heard of, including during the wizard eras that followed.

It suggests that from start to finish, no one has ever succeeded, and the flaw in the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline fundamentally couldn’t be eradicated.

From the moment Avegni fused with the Blood Soul Insect’s bloodline, his end was actually already determined.

“Don’t sympathize with this guy; he wasn’t a good person.”

Sunan said dismissively:

“Did you forget about those Blood Soul Insects just now?”

Rose was taken aback, and then quickly realized the issue, her face turning very grim.

Avegni died over a hundred years ago, and those Blood Soul Insects had been locked in the cave unable to go out and feed, yet they survived till now. It signifies that while Avegni was alive, they had already consumed a massive amount of souls.

The soul quantity required for nearly a thousand Blood Soul Insects to survive without food or drink for a century—how many creatures would need to be killed to extract it?

Just thinking about it sends shivers down the spine!

Before death, Avegni’s hands were likely stained with a massive amount of blood!

Putting down the experimental notebook on the Blood Soul Insect, Sunan turned to the second notebook.

The first page read ’Gemstone Bugs’ Genetic Modification and Cultivation’.

Gemstone Bugs?

The name piqued Sunan’s interest.

He flipped through it, and the initial content of the notebook described how Avegni found a type of bug in the underground world that feeds on minerals.

Their physiological structure was extremely unique, capable of decomposing and digesting the minerals consumed, expelling residue from the body while essence gathered in their back, gradually forming a hard crystal armor on their shell, greatly enhancing survival ability.

Avegni was very interested in this type of bug. To verify one of his ideas, he captured a large number of these bugs, used a radiation force field to induce their mutation, then utilized magic to alter their internal organ structure, enabling the essence from digesting minerals not to become crystals, but pure gemstones.

After cultivating for hundreds of generations, the Gemstone Bugs emerged.

The gemstones produced by Gemstone Bugs possessed the same natural spirituality as natural gems, fully capable of replacing them.

Sunan and Rose watched in amazement and joy.

The importance of gemstones to a wizard (apprentice) is immense without needing further explanation; gemstones are required in many places.

Yet, gemstones are precious and scarce. Even someone like Sunan, who holds abundant resources, often uses them sparingly.

The existence of a creature producing gemstones signals profound significance!

Additionally, the notebook mentioned that Gemstone Bugs enter dormancy when food is scarce, during which their energy requirement for sustaining life drops to an extremely low level, sufficient to survive for a hundred years without dying.

Sunan and Rose immediately thought of those stationary bugs they encountered earlier.

Their appearance and the crystal on their back are exactly identical to the description of the Gemstone Bugs in the notebook.

“I didn’t expect these little things could produce gemstones.”

Rose’s gaze toward the bugs in the cage suddenly became particularly heated, followed by a slight disappointment.

The dormancy period for Gemstone Bugs is excessively long, having exceeded a hundred years, leaving just six out of hundreds surviving.

Fortunately, according to the notebook content, Gemstone Bugs can perform fission reproduction.

Even if only one Gemstone Bug remains, with time it could gradually proliferate into a large group.