42: Chapter 42 Fist Blade! Essence!

Su Ye examined it carefully, his Mental Energy continuously permeating inside.

The several bone fragments on the table shimmered with a grayish-white, cold light under the lamp. The bone structure was dense, faintly carrying a metallic texture. The claws left behind by the cat demon beside them, however, looked completely different.

He first picked up the front claw and examined it carefully in his palm.

The thing looked terrifyingly sharp, but once he actually held it, Su Ye quickly noticed the problem. While its outer layer was sharp, the internal structure was rather soft. It was more like a mixture of abnormally thickened keratin and cartilage, enough to cut through the skin and flesh of an ordinary person, but not necessarily capable of truly harming him, as he had already begun to cleanse his marrow and refine his body, his skin now like jade.

Su Ye thought about it and lightly scratched the back of his hand with the claw.

Sure enough.

There was only a shallow white mark.

"Flashy but useless."

He evaluated in a low voice and casually set the claw aside.

What was truly dangerous was not the claw.

It was the bone.

Su Ye held the forearm bone in his hand; it was heavy, with a surprising weight. He had previously made a rough estimate that the bone density of this thing was at least ten times that of a normal feline, completely exceeding the scope of conventional biological bones.

He calmed his mind, picked up the bone again, and examined it bit by bit against the light.

The bone surface was grayish-white with fine textures, and the edges were naturally somewhat sharp.

This was not a bone in the ordinary sense.

It was more like a biological material recast by spiritual energy within flesh and blood.

Su Ye suddenly felt a stir in his heart.

He took a small file and a whetstone from his toolbox and began to slowly grind along the thinnest and sharpest corner of the bone fragment.

Swish.

Swish.

Bone shavings fell finely.

At first, it wasn't obvious, but as the edges were ground thinner bit by bit, the edge of the bone fragment began to emit a more dangerous chill. It wasn't the bright shine of a metal blade, but a grayish-white, restrained, cold light that only appeared after extreme hardening.

Su Ye stopped, picked up the bone blade he had ground to the sharpest point, and lightly touched it to his fingertip.

A trace of stinging pain arrived instantly.

Su Ye's gaze sharpened.

He applied a little force and lightly scratched the back of his hand with the bone blade.

Szz.

A tiny red line slowly appeared.

It had actually cut through.

Su Ye was immediately delighted, the light in his eyes brightening all at once.

It could hurt him.

That meant this thing had already left the category of "ordinary weapons." At least at the material level, it was already enough to pose a threat to his current self.

And if it could hurt him, it was even more likely to hurt other transcendent beings who were at a similar stage of progress.

Su Ye did not hesitate any longer and immediately took over all the remaining high-density bone fragments.

He cleared a space on the table, laid out the bone fragments, pliers, a small saw, a file, and a whetstone. His movements became faster and more focused. In his hands, those bone fragments were continuously ground, trimmed, and cut; the edges were shaved into suitable curves, and the thickness was adjusted to perfection.

This was his forte.

He was originally a medical student, and his understanding of human anatomy far exceeded that of ordinary people. He knew what kind of curve facilitated power exertion, what length was most suitable for hiding in the palm, and what thickness could ensure sharpness without shattering due to being too brittle.

An hour later.

A finished product lay quietly on the table.

It was a fist blade.

To be precise, it was a bone fist blade that could be clamped between the fingers. It was grayish-white, with edges terrifyingly thin, and a slightly curved front, resembling a beast's fang or a miniature crescent blade. When held in the hand, it wasn't large, but it exuded a highly dangerous aura.

Su Ye clamped the fist blade between his fingers and lightly clenched his fist.

Cold.

Skin-clinging.

It was as if it should have been growing on his hand from the beginning.

The next moment, he slightly bent his knees, retracted his shoulders, lowered his breathing, and his heart pounded heavily in his chest.

Inch Power, erupt.

Boom!

He punched a discarded wooden board in front of him. The sound wasn't loud, but a thin and deep crack silently opened in the center of the board, as if it had been instantly sliced open by something. If this punch had landed on a flesh-and-blood body, it was feared that even the bones would have been shattered.

Su Ye slowly retracted his fist, stared at the crack, remained silent for a moment, and said in a low voice:

"If I encounter a transcendent being with the same progress as me, this weapon might be able to inflict damage on them."

After being attacked by that cat demon, the string in Su Ye's heart had completely tightened.

Before, he only thought about becoming stronger.

Now, he started to seriously consider the matter of "how to survive."

That cat demon had displayed an extremely obvious greed for the Water-element Golden Core inside his body. That wasn't the attack desire of an ordinary beast, but a targeted predation; it had come specifically for the "Golden Core."

Then, what about fellow human practitioners?

Su Ye's gaze slowly darkened.

His Golden Core had originally been transplanted from someone else.

What did this mean?

It meant that on this path of transcendence, the words "survival of the fittest" had been written from the very beginning.

The world has undergone a great change.

Order has collapsed.

Big fish eat small fish.

Small fish swallow shrimp.

Would everything eventually head toward such an out-of-control state?

Su Ye had no answer.

But he knew that he must arm himself.

Not to plunder others, but to prevent himself from becoming "prey" in the eyes of others.

He looked down at the bone blade in his palm, then wrapped it up and carefully tucked it into the inner pocket of his clothes. The position was well-concealed, yet he could draw it the moment he raised his hand. Once used in conjunction with Inch Power, its lethality would definitely not be inferior to any cold weapon.

After finishing all this, Su Ye sat back down at the table and began to organize his thoughts.

"I seem to have underestimated the preciousness of the Rudimentary Golden Core."

"I have come into contact with some people recently; they also have signs of mutation, but let alone a Golden Core, they don't even have a tiny bit of true crystallization on them. This even includes Li Tong from the Marathon back then; his heart was merely abnormal—it was a germ, a trend, not yet condensed into a crystal, far from it."

"Most people are just stuck in some unstable stage of mutation."

The more Su Ye thought about it, the clearer his thinking became.

Mutation also had levels.

The vast majority of people were just violently washed over by spiritual energy, causing some part of their bodies to strengthen, become disordered, or deform, but they had no qualification to condense a true "crystal."

But the Rudimentary Golden Core was something of a higher level.

It was a step from chaotic mutation toward orderly evolution.

It was a "crystal."

It was a "core."

Similarly, it was also the "essence."

That cat demon had specifically targeted him, not hesitating to launch a violent attack on the crowded street, with the goal being the Water-element Golden Core inside his body.

This was enough to explain the issue.

Su Ye slowly let out a breath, finally connecting many scattered clues together.

"To these mutated creatures, the Rudimentary Golden Core is a great tonic."

"And it's not just mutated creatures; what if other people who have already stepped onto the path of transcendence find out about this?"

Inside the room, the light was very quiet.

Outside the window, the sounds of cars came and went.

Su Ye sat there and suddenly felt a chill down his back.

He felt as if he could already see a future that was slowly cracking open.

Spiritual energy was becoming increasingly dense.

Mutations were becoming more frequent.

Animals were beginning to evolve, humans were beginning to transform, and sickness and demons, humans and beasts, order and desire were all being shattered and reorganized bit by bit.

And when more and more people realized that "swallowing someone else's crystal can allow one to advance further," what would this world become?

Plunder.

Slaughter.

Loss of control.

Su Ye closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his gaze had become icy cold.

"The future will not be peaceful."

"If the mutations inside the human body have a fatal attraction for these mutated creatures, then in the future, incidents of mutated creatures attacking humans will only become more frequent."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but think of his parents, the people who were still living their ordinary lives, and the patients in the hospital coming and going every day, completely unaware of all this.

Once order collapses, the first ones to be swallowed will always be ordinary people.

Su Ye looked down at the remaining bone fragments and bloodstains on the table and slowly clenched his fist.

Get stronger quickly.

He must get stronger faster.

Whether for himself or for his family, he could not let this situation truly spread to them.