A commotion rippled around them. The experimental subjects tried to scatter and flee, but Fu Zhi lifted his blade.

As he stood up, the experimental subjects sensed danger again and fell silent, curling themselves into the corners and exposing the numbers on their bodies.

Ruan Xing suddenly remembered something.

Back when the machine announced the researchers' names as numbers, he thought it strange. But now he understood. These experimental subjects only had a single name, identified solely by numbers.

Fu Gui asked, "Those people whose souls got swallowed… can they go back to normal?"

As a former researcher, Fu Gui was clearly feeling some pity.

Ruan Xing replied, "They can, if Will is willing to voluntarily cut off his own soul and leave the body he has taken over."

But as long as there was even the slightest chance of survival, Will would never choose to kill himself.

What Ruan Xing didn't say was that, after occupying another's body for a long time, Will's soul and the host's would be almost completely fused, making it extremely hard to eliminate without a trace.

Unless there was some special method aimed directly at the soul.

Ruan Xing turned his gaze toward Fu Zhi.

Ever since he had a body, he had awakened the ability to destroy souls.

Through the medium of a cold weapon, this power could be guided and used with great effect.

The white blade had been given to him by the Enforcement Division. But eight years ago, Fu Zhi had forged this black blade from materials inside the Tower, turning it into a blade capable of directly killing souls.

Now, it would be aimed at the one who had started it all.

Perhaps sensing this, the entire blade trembled lightly, as if expressing joy or declaring its mission.

After a short rest, the two prepared to head for the top of the Tower. At that moment, Ruan Xing noticed that the small red dot from before was now growing larger.

Under what conditions would a soul keep growing?

The strengthening of soul power.

But why did it suddenly start to surge? What happened during this time?

Memories flashed quickly through Ruan Xing's mind, and he recalled the faint smile at the corner of Will's lips after being bitten to death by the wind wolf.

If the red dot could move, it meant the soul could return. And if each soul fragment carried with it the complete soul of its host back to the main body, then what would that body, now holding both the power of this world and the strength of its hosts, become?

And how powerful would Will be at that time?

Ruan Xing's gaze darkened.

If the roots were not destroyed, then Will would return one day. But if they killed the clones, they would be facing not one person, but the combined power of countless souls.

Endless killing would only create the strongest monster in the world. If they did not kill, they would be left with countless hidden threats. Perhaps decades later, another Tower would rise somewhere, or perhaps, without them even realizing, the entire base would have become Will.

No matter which it was, Ruan Xing didn't want to face it.

Countless soul fragments seemed to glow as they surged toward an unseen sky.

Fu Gui's expression was ugly. "This kind of disgusting method really is the sort of thing that only a bastard would do."

Fu Zhi lightly touched the young man's fingertips.

Feeling the warmth through his fingertips, Ruan Xing pressed his lips together.

In truth, there was no need to choose.

Even if it was only a single fragment of a soul, Ruan Xing would destroy it.

They returned to the room where the magic crystals were stored. The floor was littered with corpses, but neither of them paid them any mind. Their eyes went straight to the twisted pipes above.

The energy in the magic crystals was strong, but when Ruan Xing had passed through the other rooms earlier, he didn't see these pipes. Judging from their direction, they likely led upward. After confirming with Fu Gui, they knew this room was indeed very close to the top floor.

"These pipes… I wonder if we can blow them up." Fu Gui's green beady eyes flashed as he looked up at the ceiling.

After setting the charge points, Ruan Xing used ten times the usual amount of explosives.

At the same time, a faint barrier swirled around the two of them.

Boom!

With the violent explosion, a freshly lit sky appeared above them.

The barrier wavered from the blast, but it still held strong. Surprisingly, even though the ceiling had been blown open, the pipes remained completely intact. It was frighteningly solid.

By now, Ruan Xing's mastery of the art of explosions was already quite high.

Fu Zhi held Ruan Xing close and leapt through the opening.

They were now at the very top of the Tower, but here stood a massive transparent glass dome filled with a mess of pipes. Some were coming from the room below, while others extended from elsewhere.

The top of the Tower was not a sharp point but had a small flat surface. Sitting cross-legged on that flat surface was a figure.

The pipes wound around him like the vines of a tree.

The blond man was bare-chested. Behind him, a massive lump of flesh several people tall pulsed and throbbed. Above his head, a spiral of low, heavy clouds swirled, as if gathering something.

The pipes connected and anchored to the flesh lump. The front part of the lump resembled a funnel. Wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. The widest part was over ten meters across, while the narrowest part was only the size of a fist. Bulging movements ran down the fleshy tube from top to bottom, carrying some kind of substance.

The fleshy tube was deeply embedded in Will's body, like a tumor growing from him. Several cracks swelled along his skin, and blood flowed from the wounds, but he paid it no mind.

Around his waist and legs, his bare skin was covered in metal plates that reflected a cold sheen.

A creation blending magic, technology, and flesh stood before them. As absurd as a stage play.

Will lifted his eyes. "Welcome."

Behind him, the funnel-like flesh tube twitched, and then a long red strip of flesh was pulled out from his body, bringing red blood with it. The drops splattered onto the ground, leaving deep, corroded marks where they landed.

Fu Zhi took a step forward. Blood sprayed, and his black blade blazed crimson with fire. In a blink, his figure flashed before Will.

For a mage, this was a deadly distance.

But clearly, Will wasn't concerned.

An energy layer formed an invisible membrane at his side, shielding him. The blade embedded itself deep into the membrane, halting Fu Zhi's movement.

Ruan Xing raised his hand, sending up a glowing orb of corrosive energy.

When it touched the mechanical parts of Will's body, it made a sizzling sound.

Even this half-mechanical body trembled slightly.

Will's expression grew more excited, unfazed by the "gift" upon their meeting.

He said, "Ruan Xing, I studied your thirty-eight notebooks and deciphered the spells from over a hundred magic books. But do you know what I thought when I held the key to deciphering the world, yet found the door to the world still closed to me?"

"You are truly hateful. You gave me hope, then slapped me hard across the face."

Will had obtained the method to wield power, but then discovered he couldn't actually use it. It was like a man holding the key to a vast treasure, yet crippled and unable to reach the vault.

Will wrapped the entire energy shield around his body, preventing Ruan Xing from landing another surprise attack.

Fu Gui let out a sharp cry. "Bullshit!"

Will's eyes curved slightly. "As a pioneer, the first to witness the world's new life form, you have every reason to be excited, Aisa."

Ruan Xing's face went cold.

Fu Gui, the first successful test subject.

Revived in the dying body of a crow, and from then on, shackled at the ankle. He was turned into a begging bird, stripped of freedom, forever reduced to a trophy for Will to flaunt.

Years of humiliation had long buried the human part of him.

Everyone who saw the crow would exclaim, "What a beautiful pet bird."

They never knew that Mr. Will's assistant, who had suddenly vanished, was struggling inside that body.

Will's twisted pleasure was in breaking a person's spine and then trampling it with mud-caked boots.

Just as the word "knight," heavy with the meaning of protection, held special significance for Ruan Xing. But Will deliberately used it to call his seated watchdog.

Will knew exactly how to dance in someone else's minefield.

The bald crow screeched, ignoring Ruan Xing's attempt to stop him, and for once charged headlong. "I'll kill you!"

With old grudges and new hatreds together, Fu Gui's eyes burned with fire. He burst forward with incredible speed, aiming his sharp beak at Will's neck!

But clearly, he couldn't break the defense. Will's lips curved as he lazily waved his hand. The crow was struck down, and in the next second, a black energy orb followed. But Ruan Xing repelled it, while the mycelium quietly slipped out to drag Fu Gui back.

The crow twitched on the spot, feet curled up, while it gasped for breath.

"You're lucky to be by my side. If you were released like the other test subjects, what would await you is the Investigation Corps' hunt."

Will stood up, stretching his body.

The machines behind him, which had served as a backdrop, began to clatter and hum.

Clang!

Fu Zhi broke through the shield's defense. The black blade was inches from Will's flesh. He could already see the pulse of veins beneath the man's skin.

But then, behind Will, the grotesque lump of flesh let out a furious roar.

Countless invisible tendrils extended from the funnel, surging toward Fu Zhi.

Fu Zhi raised his arm, feeling contact with something that wasn't solid. It was sticky, soft, and wet, like half-congealed liquid glue.

Flames crawled along the invisible substance as if they had found fuel.

The lump of flesh had no will of its own, but clearly, Will had done something to it. As if in fear, it suddenly withdrew all the tendrils.

Once retracted, the mass began to tremble in place.

It wasn't a random mechanical failure but more like a strange ritual, which was unsettling to see from something shaped like a flattened stomach.

The funnel of flesh opened with a loud "grrk" sound, and Will lifted his arm.

Danger surged in an instant. Fu Zhi leaned back, narrowly avoiding a sharp blade that had appeared from nowhere.

These blades fell like snowflakes, drifting and swirling, covering the entire top of the Tower.

They looked harmless, but even from a distance, they could slice through special protective suits.

Fu Zhi frowned. He was cut. But unexpectedly, these blades affected not only the body.

"In the past, I used these soul blades to slice apart souls," Will said with nostalgia. "Painful and pleasurable."

A weakened, modified version of [Soul Blade].

Ruan Xing wasn't unfamiliar with this magic, so he knew. Unless one's soul was strong enough to withstand it, the only option was to wait until its effect faded.

He pulled Fu Gui into a corner and raised a barrier for him.

The "feathers" falling with the air split into two streams, most of them sweeping madly toward Fu Zhi.

Fu Zhi's figure was gradually buried under the blades.

The surroundings blurred as countless feather-like blades scraped past, sending shivers through the air.

The pain of a soul being cut, somehow, felt familiar.

Fu Zhi's soul had been modified before, so cutting it couldn't bring him permanent death, but it was like being sliced by a blunt knife. A drawn-out torment.

Ruan Xing cast protective magic on him, but the blades infused with this world's power couldn't be completely neutralized. They fluttered onto his combat suit and then sank into his body.

Was it because of the power mixed in that couldn't be resisted?

Fu Zhi turned his gaze toward the funnel-shaped mass, which appeared to be in the midst of a stomach spasm.