Chapter 246 Spiritual Root Upgrade

Five kilometers west of the Jianghuai defense line lies the Yellow Zone.

The once bustling Wanda Plaza is now nothing but a dilapidated steel skeleton. The glass curtain wall on the exterior has long since shattered into pieces, and the huge GG sign has collapsed in the center of the waterlogged plaza, covered with dark red mutated moss.

Old Ding made a hand gesture, and the hunters behind him immediately understood. They spread out in perfect unison, using the abandoned car wreckage and cement pillars to form a semi-enclosed crossfire network.

From the dark depths of the first floor of the mall, several low and heavy breathing sounds came.

"Uncle Ding, the thermal imaging shows there are five inside." Little Stone crouched behind the cover, staring at the tactical screen on his helmet visor, and reported in a low voice, "Four are Tier 1, and there's one that's exceptionally large, its spiritual energy waveband is already approaching Tier 2. They're very clever, hiding in the blind spot behind the load-bearing wall, their exact location can't be detected by radar."

"They've gotten smarter and know to avoid direct fire."

Old Ding's newly installed third-generation alloy robotic arm emitted a very faint hydraulic sound. He ripped a high-explosive concussion grenade from his tactical sling and gave a cold laugh.

"Too bad they only know the bare minimum of urban warfare. Stone, use armor-piercing rounds to wash them out!"

Old Ding suddenly threw the shockwave grenade through the broken door of the mall.

boom!

A blinding white light, accompanied by a powerful sound wave, exploded in the mall lobby. Almost at the same instant of the explosion, several extremely painful roars of a raging lion echoed from within.

"beat!"

Without hesitation, Little Stone pulled the trigger of the brand-new heavy psionic machine gun. A torrent of raging metal instantly tore through the load-bearing wall of the mall's first floor. Those mutated lions hiding behind the wall, thinking themselves safe, were riddled with holes by the highly penetrating psionic bullets. Two Tier 1 lions didn't even have a chance to fight back; half their bodies were smashed, and they lay convulsing in pools of blood.

Roar!

A second-tier Mad Lion King, the size of a small truck and covered in dark golden scales, leaped down the escalator on the second floor of the mall, braving a hail of rubble and bullets.

It was incredibly fast, and its intelligence allowed it to pinpoint the location of the most heavily armed small stone with remarkable accuracy. It opened its gaping maw, and a visible, foul-smelling sonic wave directly locked onto the small stone's cover.

But it overlooked Lao Ding.

Just as the Mad Lion King leaped into the air, its old power fading and new power yet to arise, Old Ding made his move. If it were the old, crude engineering mechanical arm, Old Ding would never have dared to attempt such an extreme interception. But now, he had donned the third-generation armor issued by the guild.

Old Ding's pseudo-spiritual root on his spine suddenly glowed, and powerful spiritual energy instantly flowed into his entire body. He pushed off the ground with both legs, and his whole body shot up like a black cannonball. The transmission delay of the third-generation alloy mechanical arm was almost zero. In mid-air, Old Ding twisted his waist, drew his sword, and slashed, his movements fluid and incredibly fast.

Stab it!

The high-frequency vibrating blade drew a sharp, cold light in mid-air, cutting precisely along the Lion King's soft belly and sliding all the way down to its jaw.

Scalding demon blood sprayed down like a waterfall, drenching Old Ding. The Mad Lion King's massive body slammed heavily to the ground, struggled a few times, and finally its intelligent and resentful beastly eyes dimmed completely.

"Well done, Uncle Ding!" Little Stone shouted excitedly as he poked his head out from behind the cover.

"Enough talk, hurry up and clean up the battlefield. Draw blood, remove bones, extract inner cores!" Old Ding landed steadily, shaking the blood off his blade.

Several hunters swiftly stepped forward, their movements incredibly practiced. Two hunters, wielding specially made vacuum extraction tubes, precisely pierced the Lion King's heart, drawing drop by drop the purest second-tier demon beast's heart blood into a blast-proof glass jar. This was the very lifeblood these mortal hunters used to nurture their pseudo-spiritual roots and prolong their lives.

Little Stone, holding a high-frequency cutting saw, peeled off the hard, dark gold scales and claws from the Lion King's body piece by piece, following the bone structure.

"Uncle Ding, the essence blood of this second-tier Mad Lion King is too rich. We extracted two large jars of it. The leather armor and bones are also very well preserved." Little Stone wiped the blood off his face, and finally used his dagger to cut open the Mad Lion's head and dug out an inner core the size of an infant's fist that emitted a dark golden light.

Old Ding looked at the monster materials scattered all over the ground, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

Every part of a demonic beast is a treasure. Its essence and blood are used to nourish its spiritual roots, its skin and bones can be given to the guild to exchange for new alloy armor parts, and its inner core is the most concentrated energy in this wasteland era.

"Pack it up and take it back to the distribution center." Old Ding waved his hand.

A few hours later, at the No. 17 trading and distribution center of the Jianghuai defense line.

This place was originally a large open-air stadium, but it has now been transformed by the Hunter's Guild into the most crucial logistics hub in the entire Yellow Zone. Under the gloomy rain, dozens of huge industrial searchlights illuminated the entire square. Hunters thronged everywhere, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of machine oil and the strong stench of blood.

A huge electronic trading screen hangs in the center of the stadium. Instead of displaying any old-fashioned credit point exchange rates, the screen lists the exchange prices of various goods in dense rows.

Third-generation customized exoskeleton right arm prosthesis: Exchange price: one Tier 2 primary demon core, or 500 ml of high-purity Tier 2 essence blood.

One thousand psionic armor-piercing rounds: exchangeable for one Tier 1 demon core or a complete Tier 1 demon beast hide and skeleton set.

High-purity Spirit Root Repair Liquid, latest version from the Academy of Sciences: Exchange price: two bottles of Tier 1 Demon Cores.

The entire economic system of the Yellow Zone underwent a brutal and thorough restructuring in just a few days.

Old Ding led his team to the resource exchange platform, pushing up the essence, blood, hide, and bones of the several Tier 1 Berserker Lions they had hunted that day, in exchange for enough ammunition and the latest repair fluid issued by the guild. However, he kept only the two large jars of Tier 2 Heart Blood and the inner core of the Tier 2 Berserker Lion King.

"Uncle Ding, aren't you going to exchange that second-tier inner core for some higher-level equipment?" Little Stone asked, somewhat puzzled.

Old Ding shook his head and patted the tactical pouch at his waist.

"In the past, we used essence blood to nourish pseudo-spiritual roots because our prosthetic bodies couldn't withstand the violent demonic energy in the inner core. They could only rely on essence blood to slowly nourish them and prolong their lives." Old Ding lowered his voice, his eyes revealing a ruthless glint.

He held up the vial of light blue, high-purity repair fluid that the guild had just distributed.

"But the new medicine the guild distributed these past few days is different. The Academy of Sciences added an extremely potent nerve stabilizer and aura neutralizing factor to the new repair fluid. With this as a base, we can do more than just suck blood."

Little Stone's eyes widened, and he gasped, "Uncle Ding, you mean...?"

"Yes." Old Ding's lips curled into a crazy smile. "We can grind the inner core into powder and dissolve it into this second-tier essence blood to directly upgrade our spiritual root."

Old Ding found a clean corner of the tent and sat down. He placed the dark golden inner core of the Mad Lion King in a specially made alloy grinder and ground it into powder that emitted a rich spiritual energy. Then, he poured all of this powder into the jar of boiling second-tier demon beast blood essence, and finally mixed it with a light blue repair fluid.

Three forces, one violent and one gentle, reacted violently within the glass jar, ultimately transforming into a tube of viscous, lava-like mixed potion radiating a blinding red light.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lao Ding took off his shirt, revealing the grotesque pseudo-spiritual root interface on his back that resembled a centipede, and poured the scalding hot mixed medicine directly into the energy infusion port.

laugh.

A thick plume of white smoke billowed from Lao Ding's spine, accompanied by a piercing sizzling sound, like cold water being poured onto a red-hot iron block.

"Ugh!"

Old Ding gritted his teeth, his hands digging deep into the soil beneath him, veins bulging on his forehead.

This infusion of energy, mixed with the essence of the inner core, was extremely savage. The remaining violent will within the demon beast's inner core and the surging vitality in its blood essence were frantically assaulting Old Ding's fragile mortal meridians.

Little Stone watched in horror. He clearly saw that the artificial metal spiritual root along Old Ding's spine, after absorbing this massive amount of energy, began to writhe uncontrollably. The originally silvery-white metal lines were now stained a strange dark red, and even a layer of fine texture resembling the scales of a raging lion was faintly emerging on its surface. Machinery and flesh were undergoing a profound fusion that defied all logic.

It took a full half hour for Old Ding's rapid and heavy breathing to gradually subside.

He suddenly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of foul-smelling air. In that instant, a flash of the icy vertical pupils belonging to the Mad Lion King appeared in his eyes, before quickly disappearing.

Old Ding raised his right arm, without activating any exoskeleton power, and slammed his fist into the half-meter-thick load-bearing concrete block beside him.

A muffled thud.

The cement block instantly exploded with large cracks, sending countless fragments of stone flying. And on Old Ding's fist, a layer of visible dark red blood-red aura emanated from it. This wasn't the mechanical energy of an exoskeleton; it was genuine, second-tier demonic power being released.

"This is true power."

Looking at his fists, Old Ding's weathered eyes ignited with an unprecedented fire of ambition.