Chapter 344: Ghost Infants

Despite its scale in resources and funding, the World Nuclear Peace House was already a mid-tier guild, yet under Sun Changyao's leadership, it still retained its original human warmth.

Following Li Cheng's instructions, everyone stood in the surgical observation room, watching nervously through the one-way glass as Tiegu changed into a patient gown and lay down on the operating table.

"First, sign the contract."

Li Cheng casually pulled out a scroll and handed it to Tiegu, who lay flat; the Lousjie district forbade player-on-player harm, so to perform surgery, one had to sign a contract beforehand—same rule applied to some entertainment venues.

Tiegu made a slash in the air above the scroll, took a deep, tense breath, and asked, "Doctor, are you going to use anesthesia?"

"If I use anesthesia, how am I supposed to perform the surgery?"

Li Cheng frowned, then put on a mask and gloves. "Don't worry, it'll be over quickly."

With that, he pressed his hand against Tiegu's chest and activated the Assembly Doll·Modified effect—CRACK—a clean, precise motion severed the entire sternum along with the surrounding flesh and skin.

The open thoracic and abdominal cavities, along with the internal organs inside, were now exposed.

Holy shit holy shit.

Those watching from the observation room nearly jumped out of their skins; some still gripped their swords, faces pale, and through the observation room's microphone shouted to Tiegu: "Bro, are you in pain?"

". Not painful."

Tiegu lay on the operating table, expression uneasy and confused. He truly felt no pain at all—only a slight chill in his belly.

"Hmm, let me see."

Li Cheng casually placed Tiegu's sternum on a nearby sterile tray and leaned in to closely examine the exposed organs.

Nine, ten, eleven—eleven Ghost Infants, clustered within Tiegu's thoracic and abdominal cavities, each clinging to organs like the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.

The Ghost Infants were semi-corporeal, eyes half-closed, mouths slightly open, revealing rows of sharp teeth, sucking and drawing in Tiegu's Qi and blood.

Li Cheng first poked one with his finger—it passed straight through its body. After a moment's thought, he pulled out his most mysterious item: the Toy Factory Key, and poked the Ghost Infant again.

This time, the key made direct contact with the Ghost Infant's solid form.

The wounded Ghost Infant snapped open its eyes with a piercing wail, then lunged and bit into Tiegu's liver.

"Ughh!"

The pain nerves on the liver's capsule were stimulated; Tiegu broke into a cold sweat.

"Indeed, brute force won't work."

Li Cheng nodded, falling into thought again.

These things could only be touched by high-mystery objects, but upon contact, they immediately bit into Tiegu—leaving him either dead from pain or with his organs devoured.

Wait.

His eyes lit up. He immediately pulled from his 3D storage: an IV stand, a crate of fresh coconuts, a beverage oxygenator, a red plastic bucket, and a pile of random small appliances.

". What is he doing?"

You Anjian, watching from the observation room, was utterly baffled.

"Maybe he's preparing ritual materials?" a companion whispered. "Didn't the dad in 'Jackie Chan Adventures' use dried geckos and dried pufferfish to cast spells?"

Pfft!

The next second, Li Cheng jammed a straw identical to Mixue Bingcheng's into the vein on Tiegu's right neck.

The red-gray blood, contaminated by the Ghost Infants, immediately flowed through the straw into the red plastic bucket.

?!

Are you slaughtering a pig here? Next are you gonna add salt, scallions, bean residue, and corn flour to make pig's blood cake?

Several members of the World Nuclear Peace House closest to Tiegu instinctively rushed toward the operating room, but Sun Changyao waved her hand, summoning a barrier that blocked their path.

"Never doubt a man you employ. I've known Master Pi Fu for a while—he's still reliable… right?" Sun Changyao clenched her lips, uncertain even herself.

While rapidly draining Tiegu's blood, Li Cheng used the Assembly Doll effect to crack open the coconuts, pour out the water, oxygenate it with the beverage machine, then seal it in plastic bags and hang them on the IV stand.

After finishing, he inserted a second straw into the vein on Tiegu's left neck, pumping the oxygen-rich coconut water back into his body.

Coconut water is sterile and has an osmotic pressure close to blood—under extreme conditions, it can temporarily serve as a plasma substitute.

As for why Li Cheng didn't use isotonic saline but chose coconut water? Simply because he wanted something sweet.

Glug glug.

Li Cheng downed the leftover coconut water in one gulp, wiping his lips.

Thanks to the absurd, unreasonable effect of the Assembly Doll·Modified, Tiegu—whose entire blood volume had been replaced with coconut water—remained alive and fully conscious.

But the Ghost Infants nestled inside him could no longer bear it; one by one, they opened their eyes.

Now they could only suck coconut juice—no longer the nutrient-rich, life-force-laden plasma of a physical enhancement cultivator.

The Ghost Infants stared at each other, their large heads filled with confusion.

!

Bro, this tastes wrong.

Before the Ghost Infants could react, Li Cheng's hands moved like lightning, using the Assembly Doll to pluck out all of Tiegu's internal organs and place them on the sterile tray.

Then he grabbed an air purifier, a water pump, a grinder, and other small appliances, shoving them all into Tiegu's thoracic and abdominal cavities as temporary organs.

Lie flat on the operating table, Tiegu felt no pain and couldn't see Li Cheng's actions,

but he heard the clinking and clattering sounds—and his face turned green. "Doctor, I feel something's off—are my organs still there?"

Li Cheng replied as if it were obvious: "Of course they're there. Look: Nine Yang's stomach, Midea's heart, Gree's lungs, Haier's liver—all running perfectly."

??? What is this, rural appliance promotion?

Tiegu stared blankly, instinctively trying to sit up—only to be shoved back down by Li Cheng.

"Don't move."

Li Cheng glanced at the sterile tray beside him: the eleven Ghost Infants had just realized what happened, floating mid-air, preparing to return to Tiegu's body and resume their parasitism.

Heh, a knight never dies unarmed—Activate!

Li Cheng's eyes sharpened; he gripped the Toy Factory Key and instantly mastered Key Combat Technique, striking each of the eleven flying Ghost Infants and sending them flying.

Piercing, wretched howls rang without end. Changsun Yao and the others instinctively clamped their hands over their ears. It was only because the Zhu Xing Zhen Tai had decent soundproofing that the customers downstairs didn't assume the shopkeeper was listening to death metal rock.

Li Cheng split his focus: his right hand kept batting away the lunging ghost-infants, while his left triggered the assembled-puppet special effect, prying open Tiegu's skull and revealing the last ghost-infant hidden inside his brain.

This ghost-infant was visibly a size larger than ordinary ones of its kind, clinging stubbornly to the surface of the cerebral cortex.

Li Cheng couldn't drive this ghost-infant away with the coconut-water method, nor could he simply move Tiegu's brain out of the way — he didn't yet have anything on hand that could fully substitute for a human brain.

The only option was... Xuanlei Qilin blood plasma.

Li Cheng flipped his left hand, drawing a large bottle of crystalline, translucent crimson liquid from the void, and held it suspended above Tiegu's head.

"..."

The ghost-infant coiled in the brain caught the blood-reek thick with life energy, slowly opened both eyes, and instinctively poked its head out.

Now!

Li Cheng hurled the Xuanlei Qilin blood plasma high into the air, and his freed left hand suddenly gripped the Ape-Man Devolution Gun, blazing away at the enormous ghost-infant in rapid succession.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

All five rounds hit the ghost-infant; its body kept shrinking, until it finally devolved to the size of a thumb, whereupon Li Cheng snatched it up and flung it to the ground.

(End of chapter)