Pulling the Plug, Huh

The “family members” inside the Human Emperor Banner were all very enthusiastic, and their words were pleasant to hear.

In an atmosphere of yin energy and relentless internal competition, the family members were actively evolving—though occasionally they would devour one another.

Black spirits darted through the woods, and members of the Superpower Youth Corps fell one after another.

Some had their essence drained dry on the spot; others were dragged into the black mist, vanishing without so much as a sound.

Anyway, the ones being slaughtered were Koreans.

Lin Mo felt not a shred of pity.

It wasn’t about justice or evil—pure and simple, it was a matter of where you stood. If he ever became ruler of the planet, maybe he’d consider universal equality.

But not today.

The strongest spirits in the banner already had S-rank combat power, and unleashing them against these members of the Superpower Youth Corps was more than enough.

That night, the Superpower Youth Corps was going to lose a lot of people.

But the Human Emperor Banner would gain many new family members.

Especially these superpowered individuals with strong mental abilities—they could truly help build up the banner.

Even Dongfang Shuye, watching from the periphery, felt a chill. He even started to wonder if he was the villain.

He had personally witnessed that burly Korean with the absurdly hard fists—the man who could shatter boulders with a single punch—get wrapped up in something dark and formless.

He struggled for less than three seconds, and then the black mist dispersed, leaving behind a withered corpse of skin and bone.

“Damn!” Dongfang Shuye couldn’t help but curse.

Fortunately, the black spirits passed right by him without touching him, focusing only on the Superpower Youth Corps members.

Dongfang Shuye touched his own arm, confirmed it was still warm, and let out a long breath.

“This time, the Superpower Youth Corps is truly finished,” he muttered.

“Back home, they probably can’t even gather enough people to report the dead.”

Deep in the forest, the screams grew sparser—not because the killing was done, but because most people could no longer make a sound.

But it didn’t matter. This was Korea, after all. Weakening these nations’ strength was, in itself, a good thing for China.

Lin Mo didn’t bother with the cleanup on the battlefield; he trusted his family members to handle it.

He walked to the edge of the deep pit and looked down.

The Demon Witch lay at the bottom, her limbs twisted at unnatural angles, her body like a puppet with its strings cut.

That earlier burst of power had drained the very last bit of strength from her body. Now she couldn’t even lift a finger.

The Smiling Face was still there.

He could feel that the Smiling Face’s consciousness was still clinging to the Demon Witch’s body, though it was on its last legs.

Lin Mo jumped into the pit and crouched in front of the Demon Witch.

At this moment, the Smiling Face could only watch as Lin Mo stood before him.

Lin Mo raised the Human Emperor Banner, its tip glowing with a faint light, and aimed it at the Demon Witch’s chest.

“I won’t waste words—we’ll have plenty of time to talk later.”

“First, I’ll cut away one of your lives!”

The banner tip stabbed down.

But just as it pierced through, Lin Mo noticed that the Demon Witch’s eyes had lost all focus.

It wasn’t the emptiness of near death—it was the blankness of no one being home.

The Smiling Face’s consciousness had already withdrawn from the Demon Witch’s body.

Pulling the plug, huh? Ha.

Lin Mo pulled the Human Emperor Banner out of the Demon Witch’s body, watching as the body on the ground kept twitching.

Lin Mo crouched down, slapped a Healing Art onto her, and the gaping hole in her chest closed up at a visible speed.

But without consciousness controlling this body, it was just a puppet.

Still, this puppet—he wanted it.

Lin Mo directly used his divine sense to remove the signal receiver in the Demon Witch’s brain.

Then he drew out a sliver of a sealed soul from the Human Emperor Banner and poured it into the puppet.

The Demon Witch’s eyes reopened. This time, the gleam in her pupils was completely different from before.

“Stand up.”

The Demon Witch stood up obediently.

Lin Mo nodded with satisfaction and brushed the dust off his hands. “Good. From now on, I’ve got another worker.”

“Now then—time for that side.”

--System: Utterly inhuman. Utterly inhuman.--

About a dozen minutes earlier.

Elsewhere, Eric, Sam, and Ivy had already left the combat zone and were walking along a snow-covered mountain path toward headquarters.

Eric walked in the middle, steady and unhurried.

Sam trailed behind, fiddling with a vial of mental compound, humming an unknown tune.

Only Ivy kept quickening her pace.

She had urged them three times already.

“Can we walk faster?”

How to describe this feeling?

It was a bit strange.

Eric glanced up at her. “What’s going on? You’re never this impatient. Last time we stole data from the Big Bear military base, the alarms were blaring and you still insisted on going back for the lipstick you left behind.”

“That was different.”

But Ivy just shook her head.

“Different how?” Eric spread his hands.

Ivy didn’t answer his question directly. Instead, she said something else: “Lin Mo is strong.”

Sam stopped humming. “How strong?”

“The Demon Witch might not be able to beat him.”

At those words, Sam almost dropped the vial, and Eric stopped in his tracks.

The Demon Witch had been their only obstacle in this operation—that puppet body’s combat power was more than the three of them combined could handle. Yet now Ivy was saying the Demon Witch might not be Lin Mo’s match?

“Are you sure?”

“I fought him.”

Ivy spoke quickly. “He called down three lightning strikes. I didn’t even have a chance to dodge—I was struck down directly. My entire body was frozen, not from pain, but from my body simply refusing to obey…”

She didn’t finish, but the meaning was clear enough.

Eric and Sam exchanged a glance.

Of the three, Ivy was the most well-rounded, gifted by the Father of Gods, equally strong in offense and defense. If she said she couldn’t handle it, then that was truly the case.

“Let’s go.”

Eric didn’t hesitate anymore. “The mission is complete. The Superpower Youth Corps matter is handled—they won’t make any more waves in the future. No need to linger here.”

Sam pocketed the vial and chuckled. “Right. Those dogs will be obedient from now on. No need to risk ourselves for them.”

“Since that’s the case, let’s leave immediately. After we’re gone, Lin Mo probably won’t bother coming after us.”

The three quickened their pace.

The atmosphere gradually relaxed. Breath fogged up in the cold air, boots crunched over the snow, and up ahead was headquarters. Once they grabbed William, the four of them would head straight to the U.S. military base, and then they could evacuate.

Ivy stopped.

Not by choice—her legs simply wouldn’t move.

Her instincts were screaming.

Sam, the sharpest-eyed scout among them, widened his eyes. He was the first to make out the figure standing in the snow ahead.

The person’s hair was dusted with white snow, one hand gripping a long blade, standing silently in the middle of the road, as if they’d been there for quite some time.

Sam’s mind hadn’t finished analyzing, but his body had already reacted.

Without hesitation, he raised both hands, and laser rays shot out.

Fast, precise, ruthless.

The person on the other side simply raised a hand.

Not to block, not to deflect—just slapped the rays aside.

Slapped them aside.

The rays veered off into a nearby snowbank and detonated, blasting a half-meter-deep crater.