The monster had originally been a goat-headed demon about three meters tall. Even with its limbs severed and lying pitifully on the ground, its massive body still exuded a tangible sense of oppression. Facing it felt like standing in front of a fully loaded heavy truck, creating the illusion that you could be crushed by that enormous frame at any moment.

  Once it reverted to an ordinary human form, that oppressive feeling quickly shifted from something tangible to abstract, and it faded away. It didn't vanish entirely, but receded. It was like the cargo from that heavy truck being unloaded and hauled off by invisible hands, and even the truck itself being dismantled into scattered parts, with most of those parts carted away too. What remained was just a bewildered driver, clutching a burning fuel tank.

  We couldn't even take that burning fuel tank away from him, because he himself was the fuel tank on fire.

  Zhu Shi was still the fastest among us.

  The moment signs of self-destruction appeared in the enemy, a silver sword light shaped like a round fan decisively sliced off his head. This strike felt strange to me. If that invisible hand was still hauling things away from him, this slash was like severing that hand itself.

  Almost simultaneously, I couldn't tell if Zhu Shi had thrown a punch or a kick—her movements were too fast, and my eyes could only catch a blurry afterimage slamming into his torso, sending it flying.

  In an instant, the headless body was hurled like a baseball over twenty meters away, then exploded mid-air with a thunderous boom.

  The head spun and fell through the air, trembling faintly as if it too was about to burst. Zhu Shi sheathed her sword behind her back and caught the head with her palms pressed together. When she squeezed it firmly from both sides, the trembling stopped, as if suppressed by her sheer strength.

  "It looks just like what the data suggested..." Lu Youxun observed the sequence of events, seeming to grasp something, and spoke in a calm, unflappable tone. "The reason monsters self-destruct isn't because they're programmed that way. It's because when the source of their power departs, the energy inside their bodies loses control and erupts from within."

  Seeing that he offered no praise for Zhu Shi's lightning-fast reaction, I figured I should say something. "Zhu Shi, that was incredibly quick."

  "Really? Hehe..." Zhu Shi seemed flattered and smiled shyly.

  She was still holding the monster's head in her hands, creating a bizarre scene. But I liked bizarre things. A beautiful woman dressed in martial arts style, holding an enemy's head and smiling—that kind of contrast hit me right in the sweet spot.

  "It's a shame we didn't get to ask more questions. We still don't know what triggers a monster's self-destruction. Why didn't he explode earlier when we forced him to answer, but suddenly did after his resistance failed?"

  Lu Youxun looked thoughtful, then glanced at the head in Zhu Shi's hands with an even stranger expression. "By the way, Zhu Shi, why did you keep his head? I told you before you left that even if you brought back a perfectly intact head, I couldn't extract any information from it."

  "That might not be the case." Zhu Shi shoved the head into Lu Youxun's arms. "I've sealed the remaining energy inside the head, so it won't explode for now. Take a look at it first."

  Lu Youxun was puzzled but lowered his head to examine the head as she suggested.

  Heaven knows what angle he was looking from or what he saw, but after just two or three seconds, he froze in place and said in astonishment, "The information in the brain tissue hasn't been destroyed?"

  "When the source of his power detached from his body, I severed the connection between them. That way, the power source couldn't destroy the spiritual information in his body as it left." Zhu Shi had just revealed something extraordinary.

  Lu Youxun was shocked. "You can do that? None of the other Impermanents who've fought monsters have managed it."

  I was equally surprised. Severing the connection to the power source—it sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, where a sword immortal could cut not just physical objects, but even the invisible ties between things. Did Zhu Shi really have such an incredible ability?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  She often made a big fuss over my flame powers, which sometimes gave the impression she was nothing special herself, but clearly, she was far from ordinary.

  "Instead of focusing on me, pay attention to that head. Can you actually extract information from it?" Zhu Shi urged.

  "Alright, alright, I'll check right now." Lu Youxun didn't seem annoyed at all; in fact, he looked thrilled as he shifted his focus back to the head. "The brain tissue is mostly undamaged, very fresh, and even retains enough vitality. Hmm... your slash seems to have severed and trapped part of the spiritual entity inside. Good, that means I can do even more with it."

  "More things?" I realized he wasn't just planning to investigate information.

  "Yes, like this—"

  He tossed the head forward, then raised his right hand and pointed at it from afar.

  The head froze in mid-air as if pinned by his fingertip. With his free left hand, he rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a yellow talisman paper drawn with cinnabar ink, slapping it onto the head's forehead.

  He stepped back two paces, moved his pointing finger through the air a few times, and finally lowered it. The head's face suddenly twitched, then slowly opened its eyes, looking at us with a blank expression.

  Seeing this, Zhu Shi gave Lu Youxun a deep, meaningful look.

  "I... should be dead..." The head was dazed at first, then overjoyed. "...I'm not dead!?"

  He immediately spotted us and said with a mix of fear and anger, "What else do you want to ask me? Let me go now!"

  Had Lu Youxun actually revived this head? After the initial shock, I thought for a moment and said to it, "Haven't you realized yet? You're already dead."

  "Dead? Impossible, I'm clearly still alive!" He shouted at first, then paused in confusion. "Wait, why can't I control the shadows anymore... Did you seal my powers!?"

  Lu Youxun watched his reaction and sighed to himself, "My technique still isn't mature enough..."

  "What did you do to him?" I asked curiously.

  "Well, it's like this. His head was just severed, and while his consciousness died, the brain tissue was still alive, with some soul fragments lingering. So I used this brain as a medium, combined with a spirit-calling spell, to wake him up again." Lu Youxun had just said something utterly outrageous. "But now he seems to have some mental issues—either he's in denial from the shock of death, or my technique wasn't refined enough, leading to this failure to recognize reality."

  "This counts as resurrection, doesn't it..." I said.

  "Not really; he'll die again in a little while." He shook his head. "So if there are questions, better ask them quickly."

  I'd already gotten some answers to the questions I wanted most, but for more details...

  "How did you become a monster?" Zhu Shi asked the head, which had reverted to a normal human appearance. "You're not a freelance demon hunter from Saltwater City, are you?"

  "I'm very curious about that too." Lu Youxun showed interest as well. "I'm the patrol officer for Saltwater City, and I know every cultivator here inside out, whether they're with Mount Luo or independents. But your face doesn't ring a bell."

  "Cultivator?" I heard a new term.

  Zhu Shi shot Lu Youxun a displeased glance.

  "Oh, sorry, slip of the tongue—I meant demon hunter..." Lu Youxun corrected himself smoothly, then continued to the head, "If I'm not mistaken, you used to be an ordinary person, right? Where did you get power strong enough to match a resident-level demon hunter?"

  At first, the head seemed reluctant to answer, but since he'd been "awakened" by Lu Youxun, he probably couldn't resist questions and ended up answering honestly like before: "It was the Monster Maker... The Monster Maker turned me from an ordinary person into a monster."

  "Monster Maker..." Lu Youxun frowned.

  I set aside my curiosity about the term "cultivator" for now and asked the head, "You mentioned that title in the labyrinth space too. How does the Monster Maker turn you all into monsters?"

  "I don't know the exact mechanics; I just know he implanted something called a 'Heart Seed' into my body, and then I could transform into a monster." The head not only couldn't control his answers but even spilled more details involuntarily. "The Heart Seed gives us power and creates a craving to devour human souls. And if we die or fall into despair, the Heart Seed leaves our bodies."

  "No wonder you didn't self-destruct when we first captured you, but did after your resistance failed. You hadn't given up on surviving and fighting back at first..." I realized.

  Lu Youxun suddenly asked, "What does the Monster Maker look like?"

  "He... wears a white suit." The head wore an expression of strained recollection. "He's probably in his forties, tall and thin. Maybe he's had some etiquette training; sometimes he talks in a pretentious way. As for his face... I don't know, because he wears a mask—a silver mask..."

  "You said... a silver mask?" Lu Youxun's face suddenly contorted, his fists clenched tightly with a creaking sound.

  "Lu Chan, what's wrong?" Zhu Shi asked in surprise.

  But Lu Youxun ignored her, pulling a blank photo from his pocket. He stepped forward, grabbed the head, and said loudly, "Think hard about his appearance in your mind!"

  The head's eyes widened, seemingly forced to desperately recall the Monster Maker's look as instructed.

  Lu Youxun looked down at the blank photo, and Zhu Shi and I leaned in to watch. He must have read some information from the head through contact, which then appeared on the photo. Gradually, an image emerged of a person.

  It was someone in a white suit, wearing a silver mask.

  The moment Lu Youxun saw it, his eyes blazed with rage. He crumpled the photo into a ball and let out a low growl filled with hatred: "Humanity Division!"