Chapter 202: Battle Formation System — Absolutely Brutal

Sitting on the empty ground beside the training field.

Seeing Li Zheng and the other players of the Grinder Squad each held a bottle of potion, sipping it in small mouthfuls.

"Damn, that tastes awful. I don't even know how to describe it — like water soaked from a pair of socks that have been sun-dried for three days." Chi Tu pinched his nose and said in a muffled voice.

"Chi Tu, how do you know what socks sun-dried for three days taste like? Have you drunk it before?" Family Share Godfather frowned deeply, striking an expression of utter disbelief as he looked at Chi Tu.

"How could I have ever drunk that? It was just a metaphor — metaphor, get it, you dumb son?"

"If you've never drunk it, how can your metaphor be so vivid? I suspect you've definitely drunk it — and plenty of it — for it to leave such a deep impression on you."

Amid the teasing, occasional dry heaves rang out, and they finally finished the potions in their hands.

After confirming they would undergo the modification of their talent organs, they carried out a detailed preliminary physical examination.

After that, the rune pharmacists distributed the special potions in their hands.

This potion was referred to in the parsed information as "Spirit Source Harmonizing Agent."

The potion was carefully compounded by the rune physicians of the Reverse Tide Legion, fusing multiple rare materials with special energy — one of the keys to the success of the modification surgery.

The potions came in three types, namely:

Energy Purification Version: Clears impurities and unstable energy from within the body, providing a "pure" internal environment for the transplanted talent organ.

Bloodline Resonance Version: Allows the body to adapt in advance to the transplanted organ's energy frequency, reducing rejection reactions.

Reinforced Bearing Version: Enhances the short-term strength of bones, muscles, and nerves, ensuring the body can withstand the energy load of the new organ.

Drinking the potion was meant to lay the modification foundation for their bodies, ensuring they could better adapt to the talent organs implanted within them at the time.

For these days they could not take part in training programs, and could only sit near the training field watching.

At this moment, a small-scale battle formation drill for teams of thirty was underway on the training field.

"Every one of you trainees is a spiritual energy hub of the battle formation. Linked to one another, only then can you unleash boundless might — formation, complete!"

Accompanied by the assistant instructor's furious roar, a trainee squad swiftly took their positions at different spots.

Like stars returning to their places, spiritual light blazed brightly beneath their feet.

The trainees used themselves as formation nodes, the spirit runes they released linking with one another.

Thick, earthen-yellow energy surged vigorously from the initially formed battle formation, spreading across the ground and forming an earthen energy platform.

Energy runes flickered with a faint glow, laying a stable foundation for the entire battle formation.

Every inch of the earthen platform's grain connected to the great earth, causing the formation's intensity to climb ceaselessly.

Immediately after, azure-blue energy darted from the formation like a nimble water dragon.

The water flowed along the edges of the earthen platform, gradually forming a curtain of water that encircled the battle formation as a barrier.

This water curtain served not only for defense but also as a medium for the circulation of the formation's energy. The released energy could act as protection for the warriors within, and could also be used at any time to repair damage the formation sustained in combat.

Then, wisps of clear wind rose from the formation's center, transforming into streaks of cyan light and shadow.

Whirling rapidly around the earthen platform and water curtain, a fierce gale howled into being. Wind blades sliced the air, drawing the water curtain's vapor into the wind, forming layers of rotating mist barriers.

The howling of wind and the flowing of water intertwined, playing the prelude to a battle hymn.

At the formation eye position, this squad's captain sat cross-legged, eyes tightly shut.

A spirit seal surfaced between his brows, and his spiritual power transformed into invisible threads that spread toward all directions, precisely connecting with the energy threads released by the other trainees.

These spiritual power threads served as communication bridges, helping the captain regulate the flow of energy throughout the entire battle formation.

As the formation's coverage expanded beneath their feet, blazing flames erupted from the formation, converging and fusing into a massive illusory firebird. Flames churned across its body, and every beat of its wings sent out spreading waves of searing heat.

"Rise!"

The firebird illusion spread its wings, the formation lifted off the ground, and the firebird's illusory body of energy condensed into solidity along with it.

Once the battle formation was complete, all warriors were a single whole — there was no possibility of being picked off one by one.

This scene made Seeing Li Zheng, watching from the sidelines, think of a very popular newbie playstyle from a forum back home.

The Combining Mecha Style!

Using one player as the control core, with the rest serving as trait attachments.

But this playstyle was limited to newbies.

The strongest growth system for players was the Star Vein combination setup; the Combining Mecha playstyle was far inferior to a squad of players raised with the same resources.

Only in the early game, when newbies had only one Painful Painful Minghun and their Body Tempering level had not been raised, could using the Combining Mecha open a significant combat power gap against other player squads.

Battle formations were a similar kind of combat power combination mode to the Combining Mecha.

But the amplification of combat power was not a simple additive sum of the internal members' combat power values — behind it lay an intricate and complex logic for boosting combat power.

Chief Instructor Shi Shi Xiuluo's explanation could be simply understood as two points.

The first was Circulatory Empowerment.

In Seeing Li Zheng's eyes, a battle formation could be viewed as a precisely operating machine, and every trainee serving as a node within the formation could be seen as a component required for the machine's operation.

The energy they released was not consumed in a single direction, but flowed in circulation between the nodes, empowering one another.

For example, the elemental firebird released by the squad before them.

It utilized the complementarity of five elemental energies.

The swift flow of wind-type spiritual energy drove the spread of fire spiritual energy; the high temperature released by the fire spiritual energy during combustion further stimulated the stability of earth-type energy; once the earth-type energy was stabilized, it fed back stronger growth force to wood-type energy; the vigorous vitality of wood-type spiritual energy in turn provided greater fluidity to water-type spiritual energy; and water-type spiritual energy, through its fluid circulation, nourished the wind-type spiritual energy, making it even more nimble.

In this elemental circulation process, energy utilization was greatly improved.

This setting of elemental complementarity made Seeing Li Zheng think of the Five Phases mutual generation principle from Earth.

The blazing heat of fire, the yielding softness of water, the nimbleness of wind, the solidity of earth, and the lushness of wood—together they formed a cycle of mutual generation.

Elemental energy would be strengthened through the transformation between different attributes.

Like a snowball gathering ever larger, the entire battle formation thus maintained an abundant energy supply at all times, and the total energy released far exceeded the simple sum of what each trainee released individually.

The second point was Life Reconstruction.

A battle formation could be viewed as an entirely new life form composed of multiple trainees combined together.

Through combination, a sublimation of life intensity is achieved.

The complex array spirit patterns serve as the meridians within a living body, also acting as channels for energy flow.

Like rivers between mountains, carrying the surging circulation of power.

The trainees within the array play the role of acupoint positioning in the body, and can also be seen as energy release points in the life structure, as well as relay stations during energy flow.

When a battle array is formed, 30 trainees connect with each other, expanding the array into a vast and complex energy circulation network.

The carrying capacity of this network surpasses the limits of individual meridians, tightly linking the power of the 30 trainees together.

The team captain at the array eye serves as the soul and brain of this new body, and can also be seen as the consciousness of the new life.

He has full authority to control this new body in combat.

Building on these two foundations, the battle array's performance in actual combat is ever-changing.

Seeing Li Zheng had seen more than ten types of basic battle arrays.

The Flame Bird form is only one combat mode of the battle array; there are also pure-energy Divine Light Giants, dozens of zhang tall, radiating dazzling light all over their bodies — though weak in close combat, their spell-output capability is extremely powerful.

Or a colossus composed of trees, vines, and rocks, over 30 meters tall, with vibrant green light swirling around its body.

In battle, it can generate a massive ancient tree above its head, its branches and leaves blotting out the sky, its arms woven from vines that can extend infinitely.

Once its ability is released, it can swiftly create an oasis nearby, and also release life particles that heal wounds.

Others include the Mountain-Sea Giant Tortoise formed from ocean elements and mountains, shaped with small mountain peaks rising on its shell and sea waves coiling around its limbs, possessing formidable defensive capability, and so on.

Each battle array form corresponds to a type of ability expression.

One only needs the trainees serving as nodes within the battle array to change positions, rearrange themselves according to specific formations to combine into a new battle array, and a completely new combat form can be switched to.

It is not easy to master the evolution of battle arrays skillfully.

Energy release frequency (synchronization, sense of rhythm), unity of will (emotional control, consciousness transfer), positioning and movement (evolution), Deng Duo Zhong factors all affect the stability of the battle array.

The battle array is a whole externally, but if internal disharmony appears, it will collapse from the inside out.

This is a core knowledge of the war system that all trainees need to study for a lifetime.

Every trainee needs to master the combination of beginner, intermediate, advanced, and ultimate — a total of over 500 battle arrays.

In the brutal frontline wars, situations where battle arrays are broken by external force often occur, and casualties among internal members may also appear during this period.

At this time, the remaining warriors need to quickly merge into nearby battle arrays, combining with another battle array team to form a new battle array.

The current stage of battle array training uses familiar trainees from the same dormitory as the target for connection.

But once on the battlefield, warriors need a very detailed understanding of all battle arrays, able to merge into other nearby battle arrays at any time, becoming a node of that battle array and providing power assistance.

This battle array system is truly complex, and is also the course Seeing Li Zheng and the Grinder Guild players dislike the most.

It requires learning a large amount of theoretical knowledge, then conducting practical training.

If you don't learn well, you may not be able to graduate from the third-phase training camp.

If they don't study, the Four-Eyed Race and Ghost Ox Race members of the same squad will also grab them by the neck and force them to study through the night.

Even forcibly giving them extra lessons, coming to the training ground late at night for battle array adaptation training.

With such a group of diligent roommates, it's impossible not to work hard.

It's just that during this process, the mindset shifts from passive effort to active.

Because they want to take good care of these brothers from the training camp.

During the viewing process, Seeing Li Zheng and the other Grinder Guild players were also learning.

Through other trainees' performance, they imagined and deduced their own positioning within the battle array, as well as the frequency of energy release.

"It gives me a headache just watching, and this is only a beginner battle array. If in the future they make us learn even more complex ultimate battle arrays, my brain cells probably won't be enough even if they all burn out. If only we could directly master it like the player system's power." Kill Intent said powerlessly at this moment.

"No big problem, we have a learning cheat method." Seeing Li Zheng grinned.

"What learning cheat method?"

"Brain overclocking. This Painful Painful Minghun is a huge help for learning. You can go check the strategy analysis on the forum — as long as you embed this Painful Painful Minghun, you can completely achieve photographic memory during the learning process."

Hearing Seeing Li Zheng's explanation, Eating Dirt sitting nearby also nodded:

"Indeed, you can open a star vein slot for support abilities, and brain overclocking is a very good choice. It's just that the price of opening a star vein slot later on is too expensive."

Eating Dirt's complaint was also what Seeing Li Zheng was thinking.

At the current stage, the strength of star vein combinations is still gradually increasing along with the growth of the player army.

But the price of opening star vein slots is also rising along with it.

The body-tempering level can be assisted by cultivating combat skills; the price for the first 10 levels is 10,000 each. It felt outrageously expensive early on, but now it seems fairly reasonable.

But the opening price of star vein slots is unreasonable.

Apart from the initial No. 1 star vein slot being free, the No. 2 star vein slot costs 500 Shou Shou Jili, No. 3 costs 1,000 Shou Shou Jili, No. 4 costs 2,000 Shou Shou Jili... they have now opened eight star vein slots as a whole.

The opening price of the No. 8 star vein slot is 32,000 Shou Shou Jili.

Not counting the expenditure on decomposing Painful Painful Minghun and purchasing Painful Painful Minghun, just the cost of embedding one support Painful Painful Minghun is as high as over 30,000 Shou Shou Jili.

Every additional star vein slot thereafter, combined with a powerful Painful Painful Minghun, can allow one's strength to obtain leapfrog improvement.

But the cost also grows multiplicatively.

Embedding a non-combat-type Painful Painful Minghun seems simple, but the later the stage, the more expensive the cost.

This is also a feature of the Monster World game.

In the existing system, any single one taken out requires investing massive resources, and you still can't max out its strength — there's always a path for further improvement.

Compared to that, perhaps the method of alternating decomposition and replacement better fits the need to save money.

It's just that doing so will undoubtedly waste quite a bit of Shou Shou Jili on purchasing and decomposing new Painful Painful Minghun, and each replacement also has a 5% evolution point loss.

But to reduce the burden of learning, some expenses are considered necessary by Seeing Li Zheng and the others.

According to Chief Instructor Shi Shi Xiuluo's explanation, the ultimate battle array is the most complex type among all battle arrays, constructed with a legion as its cornerstone.

Controlled by the legion commander as the battle array core, condensing the entire legion into a super lifeform comparable to a deity.

For example, the Floating Pagoda of the 138th Legion that they saw through the Illusion.

The ultimate battle formation will use the Floating Pagoda as its core, linking every warrior of the 138th Legion together.

Fortunately, learning the ultimate battle formation requires graduating from the training camp and only opens up after entering a legion; each legion's ultimate battle formation takes a different shape, and the warriors' positions are all different.

At this moment, Eating Dirt seemed to think of something and suddenly asked curiously:

"Brother Li, do you think our player legions will introduce a combined mode similar to battle formations in the future?"

"How would I know… but it can be observed that the growth settings of player legions are being pushed toward integrating combat power, so there's perhaps a real chance a combined mode similar to battle formations will be introduced in the future."

"I think so too. Actually, the direction of the player system's refinement leaves traces to follow. Wasn't there a player early on who received a cultivation combat technique gifted by the God of Wealth? I was wondering at the time why our player system had no cultivation combat technique setting, and it made me so jealous… Then half a year passed, and our players also got a cultivation combat technique function they could use." Family-Share Godfather nodded in agreement.

"Hope they introduce a function soon that lets you grow quickly using very little Shou Shou Jili."

"How about spending 1 point of Shou Shou Jili to become a demigod?" Seeing Li Zheng glanced sidelong at Leopard-Head Zero-Top-Up, who had spoken.

"Great, why wouldn't it be great? If this function existed, I'd definitely praise the Moon Eclipse Clan on the forum for three days straight."

In idle chat, the battle formation training ended.

Seeing Li Zheng and the others immediately stood up and followed the dismissed trainees toward Wangshitang.

In the afternoon they would undergo the second round of physical examination, and based on their physical condition new special potions would be prescribed for them to drink; these few days of training, apart from eating, nothing else could be participated in.

Even eating had its requirements — the Rune Physician explicitly instructed that for these two days they must consume pure spirit spring water; they could pair it with mild-effect spirit-plant meals, but must not eat any kind of meat.

……

Two days later.

Slap!

A blinding, intense light struck his face. Seeing Li Zheng instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes and observed through the gaps between his fingers.

At this moment, a voice came from above his head.

"Step into the formation."

Hearing this, Seeing Li Zheng did not hesitate; once his eyes had adjusted somewhat, he went to the center of the formation and stood still.

"Lie down."

He continued to follow the Rune Physician's instructions and lay down at the center of the formation.

At this moment, an energy arm condensed in the air and gently drew a line across his chest; the spilled blood was drawn by an invisible force and fell into the center of the formation.

"Cadet Seeing Li Zheng, next we will conduct a more detailed examination of your physical condition. This is a necessary step before the talent organ transplant. The entire process requires your cooperation — please answer our questions accurately."

"Understood."

The formation below activated at this moment. The rune lines came alive as if awakened, and Seeing Li Zheng's blood floated up with them, breaking apart into tiny blood droplets at the center of the formation, each droplet wrapped in rune energy.

During this process, the runes sometimes condensed into complex patterns and sometimes dispersed into fine, dense points of light, seemingly reading the information contained within the blood.

During this, beam after beam of light swept from the top of his head down to his heels.

Wherever the light passed, he felt his skin grow faintly hot, as if countless tiny streams of energy were wandering within his body.

"Cadet Seeing Li Zheng, have you ever been eroded by curse-type energy?"

Faced with the question, Seeing Li Zheng thought briefly before answering:

"No."

In fact, he had.

Previously, when fighting the Earth-Mind Hegemon in the Imperial Tomb Mountains region, he had been eroded by curse energy released by Black Tide curse-type troops.

But that was so many lifetimes ago he couldn't count, and the him who came out of the Little Black Room was brand new.

So he gave the answer "no."

"Cadet Seeing Li Zheng, has your body ever been damaged by energy overload — for example, meridian rupture, energy circuit collapse, and the like?"

"No." Seeing Li Zheng answered crisply and cleanly.

In fact, in his previous battles he had suffered far more than meridian damage — he had even experienced limb loss — but that was the former him, and the him who came out of the Little Black Room was not the same person.

"Cadet Seeing Li Zheng, have you ever come into contact with forbidden energy or forbidden rituals?"

"No." Seeing Li Zheng answered without the slightest hesitation.

After a moment, the Rune Physician's voice rang out again:

"Cadet Seeing Li Zheng, have you ever experienced bodily mutation — for example, limb deformity, energy leakage, organ failure, and the like?"

"No."

……

After answering dozens of questions in succession, the Rune Physician once again began manipulating the energy arm to examine the body.

After a long while, the Rune Physician's voice came:

"Examination complete. Your physical condition basically meets the transplant requirements. Next we will carry out the pre-transplant preparations. Keep your body relaxed and do not resist."

Seeing Li Zheng nodded, took a deep breath, and knew that the real test had only just begun.

Before long, the illusory energy arm handed over a bottle of dark-red potion.

Seeing Li Zheng took the potion and drained it in one gulp.

The potion's taste was bitter with a hint of fishy sweetness; once it passed his throat it turned into a warm current that rapidly spread throughout his entire body.

He felt as if his body had been wrapped in a layer of gentle energy; even his breathing became much smoother, and his spirit was soothed as well, with the tension receding considerably.

But this potion was clearly not meant for anesthesia.

According to the pre-modification briefing, he knew that during the organ transplant he needed to remain conscious at all times.

During the process he also needed to answer the Rune Physician's questions, ensuring that while the talent organ adapted to his body, any undetected abnormal reactions would be caught.

Once the potion's effect spread through his body, the surgery officially began.

The energy arm in the air somehow produced a pair of eyes that emanated a ghostly blue glow.

The energy arm gave a light tap; the rune patterns on the surface of the eyes gradually lit up, awakened and activated.

"Student Seeing Li Zheng, close your eyes."

He decisively followed the Runic Physician's instruction and closed his eyelids.

At that moment he suddenly felt his eyelids being pried open by some kind of force, then a violent pain swept in. He could not help but let out a muffled grunt, veins bulging on his forehead.

His fists unconsciously clenched tight, fingernails digging into flesh.

The power of the potion he had just drunk also erupted at this moment, swiftly suppressing the pain.

The feeling was very strange — he could feel the pain, but the ache seemed to have built a barrier between his consciousness, so much so that the incoming pain felt unfamiliar.

What Seeing Li Zheng could not see was the energy arm holding a bone scalpel, crushing his two eyeballs into a mist of blood and drawing it away.

Then the energy arm drew out from his eye sockets strands of slender, thread-like nerve endings, connecting them to a pair of hovering deep-blue eyes. Each nerve linkage was accompanied by a flicker of runes on the eyeballs; during the process the energy arm would also sever the threads and reconnect them, continuously performing adaptive calibration.

Seeing Li Zheng could feel the pain, but the pain was like being behind thick glass — not so clear.

Time passed, and the two deep-blue eyes, pushed by the invisible force released by the energy arm, entered Seeing Li Zheng's eye sockets.

"Student Seeing Li Zheng, the implantation of the Nether Eye is complete, but I have a question I hope you can answer for me."

"Mm, please go ahead."

"Your body's condition is very special — I don't know how to describe it… perhaps 'pure' would fit. I've never seen a bodily state like yours. Under normal circumstances, the transplantation of a talent organ is inevitably accompanied by strong incompatibility."

"Even after my harmonization, the body would still produce a certain rejection response toward the new organ. This rejection might manifest as organ conflict, nerve pain, or even organ dysfunction — but your body is different."

A note of disbelief entered the Runic Physician's voice as he continued:

"After the Nether Eye was successfully implanted, your body actually produced no rejection response at all. The new organ fused perfectly with your body, the energy circuits were unobstructed, and even the nerve linkages were unusually smooth. At first I thought it was luck — that I'd found a matching nerve circuit — but after I changed the nerve connection circuit, I found it still adapted perfectly… I've never seen such a case."

Hearing these words, Seeing Li Zheng was instead utterly calm.

As a player, being a little special was perfectly reasonable.

"Perhaps my constitution is just rather special," Seeing Li Zheng answered, a note of modesty in his tone.

The Runic Physician's voice came again:

"No, this is not merely a matter of special constitution. Your body is like a blank sheet of paper — no impurities, no residual energy of any kind. This state of purity is as if… it had never been contaminated by any energy. I can paint and modify on it at will."

Noticing Seeing Li Zheng fall silent, the Runic Physician did not press further:

"I'll record your condition. Perhaps in the future I'll seek you out again. Let's continue with the talent organ transplantation and modification. Now try opening your eyes."

Hearing this, Seeing Li Zheng slowly opened his eyelids.

Immediately a faint stinging pain swept in; before his eyes everything was hazy and blurred, and he could make out nothing.

"I can't see clearly. My eyes are all white and foggy, like a layer of gauze has been laid over them."

"This is normal. Although the talent organ has been implanted into your eye sockets and adaptation is complete, what was implanted is only the Nether Eye's organ seed. Next it will draw on your flesh-and-blood energy to grow rapidly — this requires a process."

Seeing Li Zheng sat up. Though he could see nothing clearly at the moment, he could see the energy ripples in the air.

The location of the energy arm was outlined in rough contour by the energy ripples.

Compared with his former eyes, his current eyeballs were as if many new functions had been downloaded, ready to be opened and used at any time.

But the drawbacks were also very obvious.

The modification of a talent organ was different from a function update in the player system; how to use it would be branded into the mind like a memory.

For example, the use of the Painful Painful Minghun trait — the moment it was embedded, one already knew how to use it, saving the step of learning.

But after a talent organ modification was complete, one had to gradually master it through learning — there was no shortcut.

At this moment, beams of light swept across his body one after another, and the Runic Physician's voice came again:

"Very good, your vital state is extremely stable. Next we'll begin the next round of modification. This round's target is the left arm. Before modification, I need to sever your original left arm. Be prepared…"

"No rest needed?" Seeing Li Zheng was stunned.

"Under normal circumstances, several hours of rest would need to be arranged, but your pure constitution is very special — the transplantation of talent organs can continue without issue. Before that, I'll supplement your body with life force."

After the Runic Physician gave his answer, the modification surgery continued.

The energy arm approached, a needle pierced into the very center of Seeing Li Zheng's chest, and life particles were continuously injected into his body.

This was a necessary procedure within transplantation modification.

The Nether Eye implanted within him was rapidly drawing nutrients from his body to grow; by supplementing with life particles, the body needed to be kept at peak condition at all times.

Time passed.

Round after round of transplantation modification surgery — Seeing Li Zheng was in pain and yet happy.

But thinking of the soon-to-come large gains in Shou Shou Jili, happiness suppressed the surging pain.

Nothing was more terrifying than having no money.

At this moment, the other players of the Grinder Squad, just like Seeing Li Zheng, were simultaneously undergoing organ transplantation modification surgery, and the types of organs being modified were all the same.

As players, each of them possessed a perfect body forged by the Challenger System — that is, the pure body the Runic Physician spoke of — capable of perfectly adapting to every type of talent organ.

This extremely high bodily plasticity was precisely what Qi Sheng had configured for the future addition of new functions.

Like a brand-new computer, any software could be freely installed without crashing from system conflicts.

Or an unprogrammed chip — no matter what code was written into it, it would run perfectly, with no program conflicts.

This was also why a player's growth had no limits whatsoever, unaffected by any external force.

Put in terms of a novel's setting: there was no bottleneck to cultivation.

The talent organ modification lasted two days. Once it was complete, Seeing Li Zheng and the others were wrapped up like mummies and wheeled out of the modification room.

A day later, the healing bandages were removed with the Runic Physician's help.

After the modification was complete, Seeing Li Zheng and the others were immediately transformed in appearance.

After receiving the Runic Physician's confirmation that he could move freely, Seeing Li Zheng — feeling aches all over — walked to the mirror by the bed and stood before it.

The him in the mirror had clearly grown taller by a notch, his body's lines more elongated and powerful.

The contours of muscle flickered faintly beneath his skin; the skin's surface was covered in fine, dense runic patterns, at times flickering with deep-blue light, at times gleaming with a metallic sheen—as if his body had become a mobile spirit-rune array.

At this moment, his eyes had become a deep, fathomless blue; within his pupils stars seemed to twinkle, and wherever his gaze fell, faint energy ripples would stir in the air.

Blue patterns coiled around his left arm, and tiny arcs of electricity would occasionally burst from his fingertips beyond his control.

His right arm was a fiery red, with surging waves of heat flowing within it; after clenching his fist, his right arm would instantly swell a size larger.

He turned around, and on his back along the spine in the mirror, a faintly visible dark line could be seen wandering, stretching from the nape of his neck all the way to the tailbone, as if a slumbering dark evil dragon lay coiled across the surface of his body.

When he inhaled, the evil dragon flickered with a faint red light.

When he exhaled, the faint glow faded.

After the modification was complete, his legs had also become long and slender, with spirit patterns carved all over his ankles, as if he could launch himself into the air with just a slight exertion of force.

"Holy crap, after the modification I seem to have gotten more handsome."

At that moment a startled cry came from beside him; Seeing Li Zheng turned his head and saw Shou Shou Jili staring at his own reflection in the mirror with a look of astonishment.

As he spoke, as if suddenly thinking of something, Shou Shou Jili abruptly lowered his head and pulled open a quick glance.

"Oh-ho, it's advanced into a giant!"

Seeing Li Zheng:....

Equally curious in his heart, he too at this moment lowered his head and pulled open a look, and then also widened his eyes.

Yesterday a little bean sprout, today a pillar holding up the sky.

"Brother Li, this transplant modification is just too badass, I really want to bring it back to reality; with this thing, my plan to latch onto a rich woman might actually have a shot."

The voice of Family-Shared Godfather rang out in the chat channel.

"If this thing could be brought back to reality, it'd probably become a murder weapon, and our Grinder Squad would lose one of its top generals." Shou Shou Jili chimed in.

Seeing Li Zheng:....

Listening to his brothers joking around in the chat channel, Seeing Li Zheng actually didn't know how to chime in.

After the ruckus died down, they decided to head back to the rest area first to report that they were safe to Seeing Gui Tong and the other brothers.

At this point they only had a single pair of pants on them, along with the life-monitoring bracelet on their wrists; they had to go to the storage room first to retrieve their clothes.

Half an hour later, Seeing Li Zheng and the others, borrowing the hazy moonlight, returned to the rest area.

They had just pushed open the door when they saw Seeing Gui Tong and the others sitting beside the stone table in the great hall.

At this moment they all looked over at them, but the worry had not yet left their faces.

"Aha, we're back, receive your lords!" Shou Shou Jili proudly raised his chin.

"The modification is complete?" Seeing Gui Tong looked a bit incredulous; such swift progress was clearly beyond their expectations.

"It's done, went very smoothly."

Hearing these words, the trainees of the Four-Pupil Tribe and Ghost-Ox Tribe all wore expressions as if they'd seen a ghost.

In fact, before Seeing Li Zheng and the others had entered the modification room, they had discussed with trainees from other squads the success rate of modification for the Gamer Tribe.

The conclusion they reached was that for the Gamer Tribe to transplant fourteen organs, the success rate was probably only 10%, or even lower.

Feeling unable to believe it, Seeing Gui Tong subconsciously counted the number of Gamer Tribe members who had returned.

Not a single one was missing — in other words, the entire Gamer Tribe had completed the modification of fourteen talent organs without a scratch.

"Beasts, how is that even possible," a Four-Pupil Tribe trainee blurted out in shock.

"Watch how you talk, believe it or not I'll whip out the latest equipped mysterious weapon and lash you into a faint."

"I'm actually pretty curious, whip it out and let me have a look."

"Damn, you're really twisted, I was only joking."

Back in the room, everyone chatted about the modification process.

Learning that the talent organs had all perfectly adapted, Seeing Gui Tong and the others appeared in a very cheerful mood, occasionally chiming in with teasing remarks throughout.

Once the idle chat ended, everyone went to sleep.

Seeing Li Zheng summoned his attribute panel.

On the status bar, his health bar had bottomed out, and a new line of annotation had appeared in the right-side frame: Modified Body.

In other words, right now he was pretty much already dead.

The last similar situation was a player who died from contracting the Immortal Virus; the health bar on the status bar turned black, and the status displayed: Immortal State.

But their situation was different from the Immortal State.

The health bar was still red, just bottomed out.

The reason they could keep living was mainly that the Rune Apothecaries had continuously infused life energy into their bodies while transplanting the talent organs.

So they had not died.

It was just that the large number of organs belonging to the players had been removed during the modification process, which was why the health bar showed bottomed out — they were living in an entirely new state.

But what was certain was that this state, like the Immortal State, would also be reset upon their death.

The only question was, why had the talent organs not been broken down into Shou Shou Jili.

This seemed different from what the Guide had said.

"So, where's our Shou Shou Jili red packet?" Shou Shou Jili's slightly puzzled voice rang out in the squad chat channel.

"When in doubt, ask the Guide."

Seeing Li Zheng looked up at this moment, gazing at the Guide's water orb floating beside the bed:

"Guide-bro, why haven't the talent organs implanted into our bodies been broken down into Shou Shou Jili?"

Faced with the question, the Guide sighed helplessly:

【No matter how you slice it, you're veteran players, and you still haven't grasped the game's basic settings. I've told you before: the transplantation of talent organs will not alter your core settings; the implantation of talent organs will not affect your life-stable state — as long as you die, you can be reset to your original player body.】

【As for why the organs haven't become Shou Shou Jili, the reason is simple: it's because the talent organs perfectly adapted within your bodies are still alive. Only by killing them and disrupting their life-stable state can the Shou Shou Jili be broken down and extracted.】

【So as long as you kill the transplanted organs, the Shou Shou Jili gains will appear in the form of a Challenger prompt.】

The Guide's answer instantly made Seeing Li Zheng understand where the problem lay.

Just as the Guide said, it was like hunting monsters.

The monster isn't dead, the stable life structure hasn't been destroyed, so the players can't get the reward.

So they need to take the next step next: kill the talent organs.

【By the way, here's a hint for you: when killing the organs, it's best to proceed step by step, starting with the easy ones. Otherwise, when you die and the organs are still alive, the reward won't be obtainable, and you'll end up back in the little black room along with the stripped organs stored at the rune physician's.】

"Understood."

Understanding the reason, Seeing Li Zheng and the others knew they had to leave the third-phase training camp early.

Although the modified body could still continue the training camp's programs.

But this process would yield much less benefit.

Their bodies had astonishing absorption efficiency; whether it was spirit food or medicinal baths, they could obtain considerable Shou Shou Jili benefits.

But the current modified body couldn't absorb and digest as perfectly as before.

Whether from the benefit angle or from the angle of advancing the training camp's programs, they had to return to the village to reset their bodies.

As for how to explain it, they came up with a plan during their discussion.

Before this, they had already explained in detail to Elder You the reason they could resurrect, and with their performance in the training camp, they could fully continue the unfinished training programs.

They just needed Elder You to send warriors to pick them up next time, and they'd follow along.

"Brothers, it's time to return home in glory. When the time comes, we can say our talent organs suddenly developed a severe rejection reaction that led to death." Seeing Li Zheng said with a smile.

"Back to the village, back to the village is great. Just in time to equip our combat techniques — that can significantly speed up our Body Tempering level advancement. As for growth-type pets, no need, that feature doesn't fit the Reverse Tide Warrior path we're walking."

"Missing that bully Di Nian, heard this kid's pretty cocky now, time to let the Heavy Fist strike."

"Brothers, the guidance says start with the easy organs, which organ do we kill first?"

"Of course start with the ones that won't kill us when we kill them. The heart definitely has to be handled last."

"Then let's start with my Overlord Spear."

After listing the order for killing the organs, the Grind King Squad players decided to delay two days, finish the buildup before leaving.

Over the next two days, when the Grind King Squad members participated in training, their bodies felt all sorts of uncomfortable, but when examined by the rune physician, no abnormalities were found.

The final diagnosis was: suspected unknown rejection reaction between the talent organs.

……

The third day.

Late at night.

After everyone fell asleep, the Grind King Squad players got up and came to the living room.

When the moment to actually act arrived, Seeing Li Zheng and the others all chickened out.

Death wasn't scary, but laying hands on their own "good brothers" was truly too cruel.

"Stop hesitating, let's go home first. Here's the plan — I'll count 1, 2, 3, and we all act together." Seeing Li Zheng, as the leader of the Grind King Squad, proposed at this moment.

After getting the brothers' responses, Seeing Li Zheng raised the sharp blade in his hand and took a deep breath:

"Remember to endure the pain, don't disturb their sleep. Listen to my count: 1, 2, 3… act."

In an instant, the uncontrollable, miserable screams instantly jolted Seeing Gui Tong and the others awake from sleep.

Realizing something had happened, they decisively leapt from their beds, rushed toward the hall where the sound came from, and readied themselves for battle.

But the scene they saw next left them dumbfounded.

They had known before this that the players had developed a talent organ rejection reaction.

The rune physician's recommendation was to temporarily stop participating in training and observe for three days; if the situation didn't improve, consider removing some talent organs to find out exactly where the problem was.

So seeing this scene now, they all instinctively assumed the player trainees had chosen to remove the talent organs themselves.

"Holy crap, you guys… that's too brutal."

A Ghost Ox Tribe trainee stared dumbfounded at Seeing Li Zheng and the others, sharp blades in hand, "down there" still dripping blood, his lips trembling uncontrollably, his worldview receiving an unprecedented shock.

(End of this chapter)