Chapter 556

The iron chain generated by the bat-hook gun slowly dissolved into the wind, while the Bagua Alchemical Magic Cannon, its surface scorching red from violent friction with the air, spun wildly before crashing to the ground, where it met a puddle and sent up a thick veil of steam.

The Hua Chong's body extended its arm, clad in a spiked armored gauntlet, passed through the dragon-shaped handles of the cauldron, and lifted the vessel.

As the steam cleared, half of the Hua Chong's head had vanished entirely, and the skin of the remaining half of its face had been completely burned away.

"If it were any other human player,"

Li Cheng, utterly baffled, spoke coldly: "You would have killed me by now."

In the instant the Bagua Alchemical Magic Cannon flew toward him, the Phase Shift Demon fired a metal spear—so powerful that even with Li Cheng activating 【Skill: Move USB Drive】 to trigger 【Stony Roots Technique】, it pierced his defense, shattering more than half his skull and destroying the brain tissue within.

Muscles can be trained, bones strengthened, but the brain—humanity's most intricate organ—has no effective enhancement method, even for martial cultivation transcenders.

Precisely because of this, Li Cheng chose another path.

"He backed up his brain..."

In a hilltop mansion in Manila, Zhongtian Beiji suddenly rose from his sofa, unaware that his elbow had knocked over a glass of red wine.

"Backed up his brain?"

Beside the sofa, Zhongtian Beiji's younger brother Gouchen automatically frowned, studying the 163-inch, million-dollar giant TV screen.

The TV's pixels were as fine as hairs, faintly revealing the cross-section of Master Pi Fu's skull, where red, white, and gray hues rose and fell—indicating the brain tissue was regenerating.

Gouchen, confused, asked: "What's the difference between this and drinking a medium-sized Life Potion?"

"Vastly different."

Zhongtian Beiji's expression was grave: "Life Potions are produced by the Killing Field. They work on carbon-based, silicon-based, atmospheric beings alike—their essence is the Killing Field's power restoring the drinker to a state it deems 'healthy and intact.'"

That standard of 'healthy and intact' grows lower with intense combat.

Drink ten or twenty bottles in succession, and the effects diminish drastically—you might lose a few fingers, a few ribs.

Keep taking them despite the side effects, and you risk memory confusion, personality splits."

"I know that."

Gouchen nodded; his backpack always carried over ten Life Potions and fifty-odd different magical potions from various guilds—always prepared.

"But brain backup is entirely different,"

Zhongtian Beiji spoke rapidly: "Personality stems from memory; memory's essence is the arrangement and combination of neurons and synapses—the dynamic reshaping of synaptic connections."

A normal human brain has nearly a hundred billion neurons, each with thousands of synapses—totaling hundreds of trillions connections.

When a person learns and memorizes new information, new neural pathways form between neurons, linking synapses. With repeated memorization, these connections strengthen—like carving paths through a forest; the more people walk, the clearer the trail becomes."

Thus, cloning technology is not equivalent to memory transfer—cloning can only restore the basic neural framework, not the specific neural pathways."

It's like replicating a bare concrete shell—the interior furnishings are still empty."

Upon hearing this, Gouchen immediately recalled the Joker he'd matched against in the Toy City brawl.

His Relic chip essentially controlled others' neurons, severed their existing neural pathways, and reformed them according to his own records, achieving soul usurpation.

It's like stripping all the furniture from someone's bare shell and rebuilding it with fresh paint.

The entire process inevitably causes massive distortion, blurring, and errors—this is why forum users mocked him for self-deception, though Joker himself didn't care.

"Master Pi Fu, using his own regenerative ability, reconstructs his brain. That means..."

Gouchen hesitated: "He has fully decoded the arrangement and combination of neurons and synapses within his own brain."

Zhongtian Beiji nodded, took a deep breath: "Do you know what this means? It means he can mass-produce copies of his brain, just like GS Biotech produces clones—store these brains in different locations."

This isn't Joker's self-deception, nor is it the Whale Song Guild's consciousness upload—changing the very form of existence. This is genuine immortality."

In past Killing Field missions, countless Lv25 and Lv30 prodigies—brilliant, deemed destined for the summit—vanished mysteriously in scenario missions, their bodies never recovered.

Everyone has their moment of glory—don't mistake a moment for eternity. The true master is the one who survives to the end.

Thinking of this, Zhongtian Beiji felt a quiet sense of relief.

Thank heavens I surrendered early, abandoned my grudge against Master Pi Fu—otherwise I'd be dead—Hun Douluo only has thirty lives; you're better than Hun Douluo.

On the streets of San Francisco, chaos reigned—vehicles collided and burned, spewing thick black smoke like a warzone.

In the reflection of shattered glass walls, Li Cheng twisted his neck; brain tissue and skull had fully healed.

Tap—

Footsteps approached from afar; three figures stepped out of the smoke at once. Undoubtedly the Phase Shift Demon—its body pitch black, expressionless—but its form was that of three fashionable Asian girls.

"K-pop girl groups have arrived."

Gouchen muttered instinctively, noticing an overturned truck at the street's end, its side plastered with a girl group's fan poster—the Phase Shift Demon must have copied its appearance from that. Human form is more convenient for combat.

"Not a commercial girl group."

Zhongtian Beiji, privy to more secrets, added: "Behind them is a South Korean government agency. Each member is a transcender, capable of absorbing and channeling fans' admiration and affection to strengthen themselves—equivalent to a weakened version of Faith Ascension without Divine Fire."

Faith Ascension is a powerful system—low cost, rapid results, high ceiling. It conflicts with no other power systems like Origin Force or Internal Energy; at advanced stages, one can even forge a personal divine realm capable of housing millions or tens of millions of believers.

The more believers, the more abundant the faith energy, the stronger the practitioner becomes.

The only problem: it requires 'Divine Fire' and 'Divinity.'

As a small nation, South Korea naturally lacks the extremely rare Divinity, so it devoted national resources to develop the system known as 【Zhao Mu Liu Xin】, leveraging its global head start in entertainment to launch male and female idol groups, harvesting fans' admiration and affection.

If the efficiency of Faith Ascension with Divine Fire is 100%, then South Korea's crude 【Zhao Mu Liu Xin】 system operates at roughly 5–7% efficiency.

Its advantage lies in lower thresholds and aggregation of small contributions: fans attending concerts, buying posters, voting on charts, or getting tattoos can all recharge their idols.

As for why the United States allows South Korea to promote Hallyu within its borders—three reasons: first, South Korea is a loyal U. S. ally that brings its own dog food.

Second, Hallyu primarily targets American teenagers, who rarely attend church and don't compete with Christianity for faith.

Second, Hanliu primarily targets American teenagers, who do not normally attend church services or compete with Christianity for faith.

Hallyu has massive global noise but a tiny actual market. SM, JYP, YG, HYBE—four companies combined generate 3.6 trillion KRW, equivalent to 17.5 billion RMB.

Idol groups work their legs off all year, then turn around to see MiHoYo's revenue of 27.3 billion RMB, and Arena of Valor's 37.7 billion RMB.

The boy and girl groups worked themselves to the bone singing and dancing all year, legs nearly broken, only to turn and see MiHoYo's revenue of 27.3 billion and Honor of Kings' revenue of 37.7 billion.

Ah xi ba. What can I say.

Back on the streets of San Francisco, Li Cheng's eyes held no sorrow, no joy—even though one of the girl group members before him was someone he'd met long ago during the mission "Oh No! I'm Surrounded by Beauties!": ICEY Jin Huiying.

She seemed to be around Level 18 or 19 now.

Come to think of it, isn't my own growth curve comparable to those of Zhenli Zhice, Han Shuishi, and others at Level 40? After all, times have progressed; when Zhenli Zhice was active, Luojie was still in its infancy, with no such convenient trading systems...

As he pondered, three girl group members charged forward, wielding guandao blades, long swords, and short stabbing weapons—their speed so great they left only afterimages in the glass reflections.

The clashing of metal rang out in rapid, chaotic bursts; the mantis-like bone blade severed the long sword, shattered the short stabbing weapon, and with a single kick, killed Jin Huiying's teammate.

Yet Jin Huiying and her last remaining teammate had already grabbed Li Cheng's arms with their bare hands.

This was the Phase Demon's hidden move—it had lost too much of its bodily mass and was forced to fight in human form.

But the human form had its advantages: as long as it touched Li Cheng, through direct physical contact, it could activate its corrosion and assimilation properties...

Boom! Boom!

Li Cheng's arm armor suddenly sprang loose and flew off him.

He had long known all the Phase Demon's tricks—how could he not have prepared in advance? Not only the outermost armor, but several layers beneath it, like thermal underwear tucked inside wool pants tucked inside cotton pants tucked inside underwear—each layer capable of exploding and rebounding.

Next...

Li Cheng freed both hands, clasped the Octagram Alchemical Cannon, and prepared to load it with material for the projectile.

"This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's special anti-memetic unit, 'Da Kai Yan Jie.' Drop your weapons."

At that moment, a broadcast voice drew nearer. As one of America's major West Coast cities, San Francisco had its own supernaturals stationed here. Previously barred by the Phase Demon's time-slowing field, they had now rushed in as the field dissolved.

Li Cheng glanced casually at the dozen or so supernaturals, their levels uneven, averaging around Level 20...

Wait...

"Fuck, don't you guys come any closer!"

One of the supernaturals had been fitted with a Prometheus-made "Manassas" tactical cybernetic limb.

And all these tactical cybernetics were networked to Prometheus Corporation's headquarters...

As expected, the moment the special unit appeared, the Phase Demon abruptly abandoned its struggle with Li Cheng, transforming again into black smoke and streaking straight toward the cybernetic-limbed man.

Li Cheng's battle with the Phase Demon occurred in the network realm, parallel to the real world.

Now, those networked cybernetics provided the Phase Demon the perfect opportunity to fully enter Earth's reality.

Vast black smoke stretched into a long, straight line; most of it surged into the top of the Level 23 supernatural's head. Instantly, he froze in place, silver-gray cybernetics blasting steam, the cybernetic eyeballs streaming black 01 code like a waterfall.

"Buddy, what's happening?!"

"He's being possessed!"

His comrades, panicked, jammed a cross-shaped item into his body, trying to halt the corruption.

"You guys are here to mess things up, aren't you?"

In the glass reflection, Li Cheng laughed bitterly. Though the FBI had once, under the pressure of political correctness, recruited plenty of LGBT minorities, ethnic minorities, and environmental activists—drastically lowering combat effectiveness—it still stunned him how unprofessional they could be.

The supernatural with the dirty dreadlocks, known as Buddy, suddenly opened his eyes—his eyeballs now dyed black by the Phase Demon.

He yanked the cross-shaped item from his chest with his left hand, kicked away a teammate trying to help, then twisted his right arm backward at a reverse joint angle; the palm of his "Manassas" tactical cybernetic limb fired a black energy blast, blowing the others away.

Worse still, the crater left by the energy blast was stained with a mold-like black substance.

This substance spontaneously evaporated and rose into solid mist, surging toward San Francisco citizens who hadn't escaped in time—wherever it passed, people's muscles, bones, and skin turned black, fully assimilated and possessed by the Phase Demon.

"So many Black people," Li Cheng thought sarcastically. "If I summoned the Farmer, he'd probably pay me extra Qi just to whip them into a spinning top."

Li Cheng had nearly crushed the Phase Demon—now, thanks to the FBI's interference, the situation had worsened further.

Earth was the planet Li Cheng depended on for survival; if the Phase Demon consumed and assimilated it, things would get very difficult. He couldn't just hide in Luojie for the rest of his life like a castaway on a deserted island.

Flames erupted from the vector nozzles behind Li Cheng's insectoid body, propelling him forward in a zigzag path. His left hand seized the last wisp of black smoke still struggling to fully enter Buddy's skull; his right hand withdrew the supernatural material nearly loaded into the alchemical cannon and replaced it with the 【Steel and Victory Flag Spear】.

Li Cheng's insect body's vector nozzles erupted flame, propelling him in a "Z"-shaped trajectory forward; his left hand seized the last wisp of phase-shifting magic black smoke that had not yet fully slipped behind Buddy's head, his right hand withdrew the extraordinary material nearly inserted into the alchemical magic cannon, replacing it with the 【Standard and Victory Spear】.

Through his glove armor, Li Cheng gripped the black smoke and yanked backward with all his strength, forcibly tearing the Phase Demon free from Buddy's body. Simultaneously, he plunged the flag spear into the furnace, where it melted into pure light.

The light converged at the furnace's muzzle—slow-seeming, yet swift—solidifying into a two-toned crimson-gold siege spear.

The Steel and Victory Flag Spear, forged in a toy factory using relics from the Soviet Great Patriotic War, bore clear traces of that heritage.

On the spearhead's front face was carved the hammer and sickle; on the reverse, CCCP. Along its shaft were printed images styled like propaganda posters.

The siege spear pressed beneath the Phase Demon. From the FBI's perspective, they could not directly see Li Cheng or the Phase Demon—only their reflections in the glass.

The siege spear pressed beneath the phase-shifting demon; from the perspective of the FBI and others, they could not directly see Li Cheng or the phase-shifting demon, only glimpsing their silhouettes through glass reflections.

The siege spear and the Phase Demon vanished instantly. San Francisco's skyscrapers stood only two or three hundred meters tall; the glass walls showed no trace of them. Only in the puddles on the ground could they be seen: the Phase Demon, transformed into a star, blasted clear out of Earth's atmosphere by the spear.

The siege spear and the Phase Demon vanished instantly; San Francisco's skyscrapers stood only two or three hundred meters tall, their glass facades showing no figures—only puddles on the ground revealed the Phase Demon, as if turned to starlight, flung by the siege spear beyond the atmosphere.