When it comes to the phrase "eradicate the root," different people really do have different interpretations.
Pure Lord now has a deep understanding of those two words, because he’s currently strapped to an operating table, locked inside a sealed sterile room. All around him are several robotic arms, waving and gesturing at him, making Pure Lord so nervous he keeps swallowing.
“Wh-what the hell is going on?”
Suddenly, one of the robotic arms equipped itself with a scalpel and, with a snip, sliced open Pure Lord’s pants, exposing "Little Pure" to the air in an instant.
“Hey, hey! What the hell is going on!”
Another robotic arm was fitted with a tiny electric saw, which started spinning at high speed and made cutting gestures toward "Little Pure."
“Aaaah! Help! What’s going on here! I worked so hard to stall for time until now, it should be the agreed time already—hurry up and save me! This is solving the ‘root problem’ way too literally!”
While Pure Lord was howling, the door to the sterile room was pushed open, and a little hamster dashed in ahead of everyone. When Pure Lord saw the hamster, he was so moved he burst into tears: “Cang Cang, here to save your little buddy? I knew you were reliable!”
Cang Cang squeaked twice and was about to rush forward, but someone called out, “Hold on, Cang Cang, don’t be hasty.”
Hearing that voice, Pure Lord’s face turned pale in an instant. The Fox Sisters walked in from outside, glanced at Pure Lord on the operating table, and started watching with great interest. The elder Fox Sister teased, “Well, Steel Bulls of Steel, let’s see if you’re all talk or the real deal. This is the perfect test.” The younger Fox Sister nodded, “They say a sword is sharpened by grinding—your big sword could use a little sharpening too.”
“Damn it, I’m Steel Bulls of Steel, not Steel Chicken!” As Pure Lord complained, the electric saw seemed to notice plenty of obstacles near its target, so it called in reinforcements. A pair of scissors came over and snipped at Little Pure’s little buddies. “Ah—!” Pure Lord wailed desperately, “They’re already ‘cutting the grass!’ ‘Eradicating the root’ is coming up next! Hurry, save me!”
The two Fox Sisters laughed triumphantly, finally showing mercy: “Alright, we’ll let you go.”
Pure Lord teared up again: “Thank heavens…”
But the very next moment, the Fox Sisters’ expressions changed. That scared Pure Lord badly, because he could tell they were genuinely panicking, not just faking it. Pure Lord immediately got nervous: “What’s wrong?”
“The power…!” The Fox Sisters started searching frantically: “Where’s the power? Where’s the button? Where’s the control panel?”
“Oh, come on!” Now Pure Lord was truly terrified—the electric saw was still closing in, and these two ladies were up to their tricks again. Are they trying to kill me? Pure Lord could only cast a desperate look at the hamster: “Cang Cang, get big! Hurry up and break all this stuff!”
But sadly, Cang Cang just shook its head—it seemed it had used up too much energy today and couldn’t get any bigger.
“No way!” Pure Lord was thunderstruck. He glanced down, looked at the buzzing electric saw, then at his little buddy so close by, and his eyes filled with farewell: “Goodbye, my career. Goodbye, my life. Goodbye, my pride…”
At that moment, there was a loud yell—someone burst through the door with a flying kick straight out of a kung fu movie, and it was Jill Young. “Move, move, everybody out of the way! I’m in a hurry!” Pure Lord saw a flash of light and wind so strong he couldn’t open his eyes. After a storm of crashing noises, he looked around and saw all those robotic arms battered and bent like crops after a typhoon.
Little Pure, at the very last second, was finally saved…
"Waaah..." Right now, Pure Lord felt just like a condemned man about to be executed at the market, only for a hero to suddenly shout "Spare the chicken!" and kick the executioner aside. Tears streamed down his face as Pure Lord imagined a holy beam of light shining down on him from above.
“My Queen…” Pure Lord choked out through sobs, “If mountains crumble, the earth splits, thunder shakes in winter, and the chicken is cut—only then would I dare leave you!” Overwhelmed by emotion, Pure Lord wailed, “My Queen, please stomp me with all your might!”
He turned around just in time to see Jill Young smash the opposite door off its hinges with a loud bang, sending it spinning far down the hall before it crashed to the ground. “You old bastard, just you wait!” Jill stormed off, full of fury.
“Uh…” Pure Lord stammered, looking at the mangled, twisted door. “Maybe… go easy on me after all…”
“Quit spacing out and get moving!” The Fox Sisters finally found the switch and freed Pure Lord from the operating table. The three of them and the hamster raced down the path Jill had cleared, passing all sorts of creepy things along the way—hearts and livers in petri dishes were the least of it, there was even a twitching intestine. If Lazy Doctor were here, maybe he’d be fascinated and start giving professional commentary, but Pure Lord and his crew weren’t interested—they just kept running.
Eventually, the three of them reached the end of the corridor—another grand door, tall and ornate, magnificent in every way. But now, it lay toppled in the dust. Beyond it was a hall that looked straight out of an ancient Greek temple, with rows of towering stone columns stretching into the distance and a luxurious red carpet rolled out. At the far end, they saw Jill Young—and a glass cocoon that defied description.
If they’d seen The Matrix, this glass cocoon would look familiar—it was just like the human battery pods from the movie, only bigger and fancier. Inside the pod was a person, shriveled up like a mummy, covered in IV tubes. But the fists were enormous, clearly taken from Lucas and stitched onto the body.
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Jill Young had just arrived at the glass cocoon too. She sneered at the mummy inside: “So this is what you really look like in the real world, huh?” Then she flipped out her Volcano Dual Pistols and fired. The glass wasn’t ordinary, but it still cracked with a loud snap—the Volcano Dual Pistols really packed a punch. The mummy inside panicked and started struggling. Before the glass broke, he pressed some kind of button.
There were a few sharp popping sounds as the tubes connected to his body all fell off. Then a hole opened at the bottom of the glass cocoon, and with a splash, the mummy was swept away by water. “Trying to run?” Jill smashed the glass cover, holstered her pistols, and stared at the hole. “Let’s see how far you get!” With that, Jill leaped into the hole after him.
The tunnel was long and slick, just like a water park slide. It wasn’t straight—there were curves and bends, but all expertly crafted so no one would get hurt. Clearly, this pipe was built for VIPs.
After more than ten minutes of high-speed sliding, Jill Young finally saw the light at the end. She shot out of the tunnel at an angle, flipped through the air, and landed—wait, not on the ground, but in the water!
Looking up, she found herself in a circular hall as big as the "Sanctuary." This hall was at the very bottom of the Heart of the World, with transparent glass-like floors and walls. Pipes in the ceiling poured liquid into the hall like waterfalls. The water was already up to her calves and rising fast.
“What is this…” Jill scooped up some of the nearly transparent liquid, sensed it, and exclaimed in surprise, “Original Liquid?”
“To be precise, it’s the highest-grade Purified Liquid made by Ghost Player.” A raspy voice sounded. Jill drew her pistols at the voice and saw someone lying on the ground, completely soaked beneath the liquid’s surface.
“Oh? You actually bulked up?” Sure enough, the guy soaking in Purified Liquid was Zhao Han. Compared to the shriveled mummy from before, he was much fuller now. Still looked like a dried-up old man, but at least he was alive, not a corpse.
“Ghost Player told me this Purified Liquid is 99% pure. But I know—even though there’s only 1% impurity, it’s the most stubborn kind. That’s why mutant creatures die and collapse—because of that 1%. I’m destined to become a god, and a god must be flawless, so I never used it. But if I really have to, Ghost Player swapped out special organs and tissues for me, and my body can handle this level of impurity.” Zhao Han went on.
As he spoke, the water kept rising—now it was past her knees.
Jill’s ears twitched—she looked toward the tunnel entrance. She heard voices inside: Pure Lord and the Fox Sisters, clearly they’d come down too. But suddenly, the entrance sealed shut, perfectly tight. Water splashed as Jill darted to the entrance, punching the iron plate that had closed it. There was a thud and a slight dent, but the barrier was thick.
“Don’t let those people interfere—this is between us now.” Zhao Han stood up, Purified Liquid streaming down his bare skin, but halfway down it seemed to get absorbed. At this point, Zhao Han looked about fifty or sixty, with a head of white hair and new muscles—he finally had some shape to him.
Jill raised her pistols and aimed at Zhao Han, arching an eyebrow: “Let’s settle our business first, then talk about the rest.” She wasn’t too worried about Pure Lord—after all, Pure Lord and the Fox Sisters both had third-level Titan Spirit Method strength. No way they’d suffocate in a pipe.
But Zhao Han didn’t flinch at Jill’s guns. He puffed out his chest, cracked his fists together, and taunted, “What, you beat me up so bad in the Quantum Network, but now you’re relying on guns? Where’s your swagger?”
Jill grinned, “Ha! You want to go hand-to-hand with me?”
Zhao Han didn’t answer—he just roared to the sky like a demon ape, smashing his fists together, then kicked off the ground and charged. Jill laughed, holstered her pistols, and shouted as she met him fist-to-fist.
Boom! The clash sent shockwaves rippling out, making rings of waves in the Purified Liquid.
In the next instant, Zhao Han was knocked right back to where he started, cutting a long wake through the Purified Liquid, his right arm twisted and bent. Just one punch, and he’d already fractured a bone.
On the other side, Jill plowed backward through the water too, surprise showing on her face. She shook out her numb right hand and eyed Zhao Han’s freakish fists: “So that’s the Killing Fist? Not bad, it’s got something going for it.”
“Ha, of course! The Killing Fist is the most valuable mutant organ! These fists are the only ones worthy of a mighty physique!” Zhao Han grabbed his right arm and snapped it back into place with a crack. He even looked younger now, maybe forty, like a Hollywood action star. “Ghost Player customized my whole body—I can absorb Purified Liquid through my skin. As long as I soak in this stuff, I just keep getting stronger!”
“Don’t get cocky—the Killing Fist came from Lucas, the mighty physique was Ghost Player’s project, and you’re just a lousy impostor showing off!” The Purified Liquid was up to her thighs now. Jill seemed to find too many clothes annoying in the water, so she kicked off her shoes, stripped off her jacket, tore her pants into shorts, and flexed in her tank top. “Even if you’re cheating, I’ll still beat you senseless!”
With a splash, Jill burst out of the water, kicked off the ceiling for extra speed, and charged at Zhao Han. Her pale foot came swinging down for a soaking-wet axe kick.
“Big talk—eat my fist!” Zhao Han roared, his punch rising like a dragon to meet her kick.
Fist met foot—boom! The shockwave sounded again, water surging around Zhao Han, waves shooting out in all directions. Zhao Han stumbled back three steps, while Jill did a backflip and splashed down. She shook out her right leg—so numb, like standing up after squatting too long. Ever since mastering the Titan Spirit Method, she hadn’t felt like this in ages.
“Again!” Just as Jill was about to attack, there was a huge boom—another reactor exploded. That was the fourth one, and the Heart of the World started tilting. The angle wasn’t much, but the Purified Liquid surged in waves. Jill realized fighting in water had a big drawback—buoyancy.
No matter how strong she was, Jill was pretty light. Women have a higher fat ratio than men, and Purified Liquid is much denser than regular water—when the big waves hit, Jill would float easily. Mr. Tang always said, a fighter’s power comes from the ground; if you can’t keep your footing, it’s hard to land a threatening blow.
Zhao Han, on the other hand, had fists like steel boxing gloves, acting like ballast so he could stand firm. The two battled in the waves—Jill was determined to go head-to-head with the Killing Fist, while Zhao Han kept absorbing Purified Liquid, growing younger and stronger with every punch.
“See? My Killing Fist is beyond your defense!” After a long brawl, Zhao Han figured out a new trick. He punched from two meters away, sending endless shockwaves through the Purified Liquid, enveloping Jill. “This vibration attacks every cell in your body—you can’t block it!”
Jill didn’t reply. Pushed away by the current, she twisted midair and landed on the wall, kicked off, and charged again. She was like an tireless butterfly, attacking Zhao Han over and over. But every clash sent her flying, unable to get traction in the water. The Killing Fist’s shockwaves rattled her bones and muscles each time.
Zhao Han laughed, throwing heavy punch after punch. Surrounded by Purified Liquid, every bit of energy he spent was instantly replenished—he had limitless stamina. And as time passed, his body grew stronger, inching closer to a true mighty physique. His odds of winning kept climbing.
The only thing to watch out for was Jill’s knack for pulling guns out of nowhere. For now, he’d hold back, keep her from despairing, then look for a chance to finish her in one blow! But she was weird—after all this, she should’ve been coughing blood and collapsing. The Killing Fist’s shockwaves weren’t a joke. So why did she seem totally fine? Her stamina hadn’t dropped, her face was odd—what was she up to?
“Oh, looks like you noticed. Yeah, by now even a fool would’ve figured it out—I never planned to kill you right away.” Jill paused, rolled her neck like she’d just had a massage, and smiled contentedly. “Honestly, I almost don’t want to kill you. Your fists are really useful.”
“What?” Zhao Han’s face changed, then he snorted, “Bluffing—you think I’ll fall for that?”
“Believe it or not, doesn’t matter. I’m starting to feel bored, so let’s kick it up a notch!” With that, Jill pulled a massive gun out of thin air—the one she used as a recoil booster before. Zhao Han’s face twisted, thinking Jill was about to fire. His mighty physique wasn’t complete yet, and he might not dodge her shot underwater!
But Jill just slung the heavy gun on her back and charged at Zhao Han. Boom—another clash, but this time Jill didn’t get knocked away; the gun’s weight kept her grounded. And Zhao Han didn’t fly either—because Jill grabbed hold of him.
“Don’t run—come on, let’s go again!” With a sharp grin, Jill punched, kicked, kneed, elbowed—an endless barrage. Zhao Han felt a chill, fighting back with Killing Fist after Killing Fist, while trying to break away. This woman was seriously freaky.
But he was shocked—he couldn’t escape!
Every time he tried to get away, Jill would drag him back, sticking close no matter what. After several rounds, they swapped places, but the distance between them was always just an arm’s length. The sound of blows came as fast as firecrackers—this brutal close-quarters fight made Zhao Han more alarmed and exhausted with every hit.
He had the Killing Fist, his body kept evolving toward a mighty physique—so why was he getting crushed? Now it wasn’t his choice to fight; it was Jill forcing him. If he didn’t fight, he’d get beaten. So he gritted his teeth and kept going, hoping the crazy woman would finally collapse and spit blood.
Too bad—Jill didn’t spit blood. She just got more and more energized, the light in her eyes growing brighter with every blow.
“Hahaha, what a pleasant surprise—these fists are amazing!” Zhao Han couldn’t understand it, but if another Titan Spirit Method user was in Jill’s shoes, they’d be thrilled too. The Killing Fist’s shockwaves were a powerful weapon, but Zhao Han couldn’t use them at full strength. Since Zhao Han started out weak, the Killing Fist only rattled Jill’s body, not hurting her.
Not only did it not hurt—Jill discovered a bonus: the shockwaves could dramatically boost her absorption of life energy!
Training in the Titan Spirit Method is like pouring concrete into a mold for a skyscraper. High-quality life energy is like dense, flawless concrete—no bubbles, evenly mixed, ready to pour. Low-quality life energy needs to be compressed and refined, with every bubble removed, to ensure the building is strong and solid.
After Jill got Original Liquid from the dungeon, she realized it was packed with life energy but not very high quality. To build a solid foundation, she had to refine, purify, and compress it before use. But refining and purifying took a lot of effort—so she didn’t rush into the sixth level of Titan Spirit Method.
But today, the Killing Fist was like a gift from heaven—straight into her mouth! The shockwave was like the best, most efficient mixer, smoothing out every gap, bubble, and flaw in the concrete. One round of vibrations could halve the "concrete’s" volume; after a few more, she could refine the purest, top-grade life energy.
With Purified Liquid everywhere, Jill felt like a foodie in paradise—especially with someone helping her digest, making sure she didn’t get indigestion! What could be better? No way she’d let Zhao Han stop now!
“No, no—what’s happening, what’s going on?” Zhao Han’s attacks grew frantic, but his face was terrified. Even he could sense something was wrong—currents from all directions were rushing toward Jill, like seawater flowing into the Abyss. He felt like a clueless blacksmith, forging a legendary sword for his enemy. The day the sword was finished would be the day he lost his head.