An Li’s gaze locked solely on the massive humanoid figure perched atop the industrial hairdryer at the center.

Everything else was merely a diversion.

The malevolent spirit’s true form—the core torso—lay right here. Those smaller inflatable figures weren’t clones or puppeted minions; they were the spirit’s invisible hands, stretching from the main body.

This central torso was small—headless, footless, utterly non-humanoid.

“What a repulsive form.”

The spirit’s “hands” moved sluggishly, failing to match An Li’s sudden dash. By the time she reached the core, the towering humanoid arch could only bend down and slam its watercolor-painted body against the ground.

Thud!

An Li didn’t dodge—she hadn’t even intended to. The plastic inflatable struck her arm with a heavy thump.

After gauging the impact, she had a rough sense of its direct combat strength.

“Its abilities are bizarre, but that’s all,” she murmured.

In An Li’s view, this entity’s S-rank status likely came from high lethality and widespread threat—not raw power.

She closed in. With a soul-captivating sweep of her pale leg, she kicked the inflatable figure clean off the hairdryer.

All other mascot-like inflatables on the square toppled backward instantly, as if yanked by invisible strings.

The whip-kick’s force dwarfed the earlier slam. The narrow humanoid soared over ten meters, crashing into the plaza’s main building before stopping.

Strangely, even without the hairdryer’s airflow, it remained fully inflated.

An Li strode forward. A plastic arm shot out and latched onto her—but nothing happened.

Luo Xiaoxiao’s guess was wrong. The struggle *had* occurred; it was just too fast to perceive.

Clearly, the same force that could tear organs from others hadn’t so much as budged An Li.

Even the reasonless spirit sensed the power gap. Its watercolor eyes curved into a faint, eerie arc as its body began contracting.

*It’s trying to escape.*

An Li swiftly drew the oddly reshaped knife from her thigh, gripped the hilt, and drove it deep into the inflatable.

The contracting form froze.

This blade had once been sharp. But the Holy See’s system was versatile: reshape a weapon of matching material, enchant it with precise ratios of concentrated holy water and silver—and it becomes any tool.

Now, it was the Zhenhun Nail.

At that moment, all smaller inflatables wobbled upright on noodle-thin legs and charged frantically toward An Li.

They sensed danger—the spirit was desperately reeling in its limbs.

Too late.

An Li rose slowly, fist clenched above her head. She held the pose, motionless, for three seconds.

Only when the nearest inflatable nearly touched her did her seemingly soft pink fist explode forward.

—Slow Heavy Punch—

BOOM!!

Smaller inflatables were blasted aside by the shockwave. The main figure detonated—

a gaping hole torn through its abdomen and straight through the building behind it.

All inflatables collapsed, deflated, slumping into limp piles. Yet An Li’s brow furrowed tighter as she scanned the scene.

“Is it over?”

I watched her return, pull the car door open, and hurriedly asked.

“It got away,” An Li replied flatly. She glanced at the handle, then shot me a displeased look. “You went out?”

“Uh… I saved someone,” I said, pointing to the little boy slumped—sleeping or unconscious—in the backseat. “Saving a life is better than building seven pagodas…”

“I should’ve welded this door shut!” An Li snapped. “Why are you so restless?!”

An Li alerted the police. Prosperity Plaza was cordoned off. Injured bodies—living or not—were loaded into ambulances; the boy was taken away.

Officers documented the scene before the deflated humanoid arch. The spirit was gone; the remnants harmless.

An Li stood nearby, expression unreadable.

*More troublesome than expected. Weak in direct combat, slippery as an eel… and the Zhenhun Nail failed.*

An officer eyed the crater, the spiderwebbing cracks across the pavement, and the massive hole punched through the mall wall. He murmured, “Chief An… if possible, please avoid heavy firepower in downtown areas.”

“I used no firearms,” An Li said lightly. “Just one punch.”

“…”