The sound of bones hitting the ground echoed through the underground hall. The masterpiece’s head had been severed from its body for the umpteenth time.
The massive creature staggered a few steps, then collapsed on the ground.
Flesh, bones, and everything scattered across the floor again.
Lian stood without changing his expression. His breathing was still steady. His eyes were still calm. But he felt an annoying headache.
Maybe more than an hour had passed since the start of his battle with this strange creature, but he still had not been able to kill it.
He had tried all kinds of methods, but they all failed one after another.
In the middle of it, even when he realized the creature had a small core, he tried to destroy that too and succeeded. But the result did not change.
This monster was truly immortal. At least, he had not found a way to kill it.
The scattered flesh on the ground started moving again. Like thousands of living worms, like a flood of tiny, hungry creatures.
They crawled toward each other, stuck together, intertwined. And this time... faster than before. Much faster.
Lian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Three seconds.
No.
Less.
It took less than three seconds for the masterpiece to stand on its feet again.
The white-eyed man smiled from beside the broken egg, but he said nothing. He just watched, like a father watching his child grow. As if he was seeing the result of years of effort.
The masterpiece raised its head. Its body was still incomplete. In some places, it had no skin. In some places, bones were protruding.
But its movement... its movement had become smoother.
Lian stepped forward without wasting time.
[Glacial Reaper Claw] activated.
The air in the hall suddenly froze. Massive ice claws formed in the air and in an instant... split the masterpiece into several pieces.
Ice explosion, pieces of flesh, broken bones. Everything scattered in the air.
But just as Lian was about to launch the next attack, the masterpiece regenerated faster than before.
Lian’s eyes paused for a moment. This time, he felt the difference. Very small, but it was there.
The creature had not only become faster. It also moved better.
A few minutes later.
The hall had become a battlefield of ice, lightning, and flesh.
Thunder Calamity had struck many times.
Blue lightning had melted stone pillars.
Cataclysm Pulse had cracked the ground many times.
But the masterpiece was still there. Every time it was killed, every time it returned, every time better than before.
Lian took a step to the left. The masterpiece attacked, but this time, the creature had predicted his escape route.
Lian’s eyes narrowed for a moment. The blow passed by his face. Very close. Too close. In the previous attack, such a thing would not have happened.
And he realized that even the monster’s physical strength and speed were increasing rapidly.
What the hell was this? How was such a thing logically possible? How could nature allow such an abnormality to exist?
He jumped back.
And the masterpiece attacked again.
Faster, smoother, more precise. Like a student learning more every second.
Then it happened.
For the first time, the masterpiece succeeded. Its massive claw passed through the air and landed on Lian’s shoulder.
The sound of metal echoed.
The diamond layers on Lian’s skin rippled, and a large part of the force was absorbed. But this monster’s power had reached a level where it could bypass his defense.
Lian’s body was thrown several meters through the air and hit one of the stone pillars with force.
The pillar cracked. Dust spread in the air. For a few seconds, silence ruled.
Then the white-eyed man’s laughter echoed through the hall.
"See?" He smiled.
"He’s learning. He’s getting better and better! Hahaha, my child is the best! Invincible! A living god!"
Lian slowly came out of the dust. His shoulder hurt.
This was the first real hit he had taken, and that was enough to understand that time was definitely not on his side. He needed to find a way as soon as possible.
And for that reason, he could no longer just fight. He had to think, analyze, and put all the information together.
Twenty years, thousands of monsters, tens of thousands of humans, different types of genes, different types of energy, different types of bodies. And a creature that became stronger after every death.
No.
It did not just become stronger... It became more precise, better, more complete, and even smarter.
Suddenly, something sparked in his mind. His eyes widened slightly.
"No..."
The masterpiece attacked again.
Lian dodged, and the blow passed by him.
"It doesn’t feed on death."
The second blow came, and he dodged again.
"It feeds on information."
Everything suddenly made sense. Every time the masterpiece died, it gained new information.
Every attack, every technique, every weakness, every mistake. Everything was stored. And its body was rewritten.
The next version. The better version. The more complete version.
So in fact, he was not killing his enemy. He was training his enemy.
This monster had a mechanism where, after each death, its body would upgrade based on the information it had gained, becoming better and better.
Lian suddenly stopped Thunder Calamity. Glacial Reaper Claw turned off. Cataclysm Pulse disappeared.
The masterpiece attacked. Lian just dodged. Another blow, and he dodged again.
A third attack, and again he defended.
The white-eyed man frowned. The masterpiece was still getting stronger, but... its growth had slowed down. Much slower. That strange growth speed that had existed until a few minutes ago was gone.
Lian was sure. His guess was correct. The masterpiece’s problem was not death. The problem was information.
Every time he attacked with all his power... he was actually giving the creature more data.
"I am training my own enemy." The thought hit his mind like a hammer, and at the same time, it made him calmer.
If killing did not work... then he had to find another way.
First option? Killing. Rejected. It came back stronger every time.
Second option? Complete destruction. Also rejected. Even when only pieces of flesh remained, it came back.
Third option? Imprisonment. Sealing. Trapping. The only remaining way.
’If this monster gets stronger based on information, then that information must be stored somewhere.’ He thought to himself.
He remembered that when he had torn this monster apart once, he had seen a core in its head area. He thought that core was its mana source or its life source.
Back then, he tried to kill it by destroying it, but it did not work.
But what if the core was the main part of this monster? The place where information was collected, and then reviews and upgrades were decided for the monster’s body?
Something like the monster’s consciousness and soul?
’If my guess is right, this monster is not dependent on any part of its body to return to life. Any part that is destroyed is recreated.’
’But what if the monster’s consciousness is stopped? What will give the regeneration order?’ An idea came to his mind that was worth trying.
The masterpiece was killed again. This time, not by a massive technique, but by a precise strike. Its body scattered on the ground.
And for the first time, instead of attacking... Lian just watched.
Carefully, very carefully. The flesh started moving. The body parts crawled toward each other.
But at that moment... he saw the core again. Everything was pulled toward it, and the monster’s body took shape again.
The masterpiece stood again. This time, faster than the previous time. But unlike the previous times... because Lian had dodged more instead of fighting, the monster had not improved much in combat.
And Lian no longer looked worried. He stood quietly, his eyes locked on the creature.
On the same point. On the same small center. On the same thing that only appeared for a moment.
A very small smile appeared on his lips. He had finally found something that could help him win this battle.
The masterpiece roared and was about to attack again.
Lian quietly looked at it.
"I can’t kill you." Then his gaze fixed on that same central point.
"But maybe I don’t need to kill you."
The creature charged at him again. But this time... there was no trace of confusion in Lian’s eyes.
Only calculation. Only focus. And in his mind, the final thought formed.
"Every creature has a weakness... Even your masterpiece." He said mockingly, looking at the white-eyed man.