In the realm of alchemy, all things can be exchanged through equivalent exchange.

This is likely the principle behind the infinite revival of those four special, bizarre entities.

But can souls be exchanged through an alchemic array using equivalent exchange?

Legend says that the god-ranked alchemists of the Era of Gods could do it...

But that's just a "legend."

It's simply impossible now!

Although Suren didn't know what level the [Four Ghoul Spirit Fallen Sacrifice Array] set up in this restaurant was, it definitely wasn't the legendary "god-ranked" level.

With a piece of their souls devoured, there was no way this array could revive an identical spectral being!

Sure enough, just after Suren devoured the gray mist, the [Hanged Corpse] floated out again.

But this time, the spiritual light on its body was noticeably dimmer.

The appraisal even showed the word "Weak"!

...

"So that's how it is!"

Suren's face lit up with joy as he watched, confirming his conjecture.

The array revived the ghoul, but couldn't replenish its soul.

If he could kill it a few more times, he even felt that he might be able to devour the spectral being completely...

Just then, the fighting upstairs suddenly intensified, as if both sides of the battle had discovered something abnormal, triggering a new round of fierce fighting.

Immediately afterward, the [Drowned Female Corpse] also collapsed for the second time.

This time, Suren saw it clearly.

Before the ghoul dissipated, it seemed to have suffered a fatal attack from afar, causing its sudden death.

He didn't delay, running over very skillfully to devour the gray mist.

[Obtained 'Demonized Drowned Female Corpse' Soul Fragment*2]

[You have comprehended 'Mental Illusion·Drowning Art (Fragmented)'...]

[Mental Strength +0.7]

Then came the second harvest...

The third harvest...

The fourth harvest...

The four second-tier silver ghouls downstairs would explode from time to time, constantly reviving and being harvested.

Over and over again.

Suren didn't know what was happening upstairs, but that didn't stop him from happily harvesting soul fragments.

These second-tier ghouls provided him with...

The two spectral beings had their wool sheared by Suren again and again. Although the mental strength and fragments gained were decreasing, each shearing made the two spectral beings dimmer upon revival.

Even the two zombie types, in the extremely rare cases of repeated deaths, had dropped "gray mist" once or twice.

The zombie types didn't have much intelligence left, to begin with, and being stripped of their souls had a huge impact!

Even if their bodies were completely restored, the ghoul's essence, energy, and spirit were gone...

...

Finally.

The style of the battle gradually went awry because of Suren's [Death Harvester] talent.

The seemingly uncrackable infinite revival bug of the [Four Ghoul Spirit Fallen Sacrifice Array] was slowly broken by an unconventional method.

Suren guessed that the collapse of these "Four Ghoul Corpses" must be directly related to the battle upstairs.

The weaker the monsters, the better it would be for Aiwa and the others.

As a result, he wasn't in a hurry to join the battle upstairs.

He just stayed in the banquet hall, repeatedly harvesting soul fragments from the four second-tier ghouls.

Infinite revival, repeated stripping...

And because he was stripping the same target, each gain was guaranteed to be something new.

Before he knew it, Suren had stripped enough fragments from the two spectral ghouls to assemble a complete [Illusion·Drowning Art] and [Illusion·Suffocation Art] formula.

He even reached "Proficient" level of skill!

Moreover, he had stripped away some abilities related to the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire...

However, after so many strippings, even an iron body couldn't take it.

Suren had happily mastered some new skills,

But although the four twisted monsters were still reviving, the style had changed drastically.

When they first appeared, they were menacing, and it felt like one of them could wipe out everyone on the first floor.

With all four together, they were unstoppable.

If Suren hadn't gotten the "anti-ghoul four-piece set" in advance, he would have been in a desperate struggle to deal with just one of them.

But now...

The two spectral beings had become idiots, their eyes dull, without a trace of ferocity...

The two zombie types had become mentally retarded children, just being silly and relying entirely on their remaining instinct to attack...

The words "Severely Weakened" in the appraisal were particularly striking.

The two spectral beings had even had the memories related to creating illusions stripped away by Suren. How could they still cast mental illusions?

The two zombie types had even had their hunting instincts stripped away. With their already low intelligence, they could no longer control their limbs to move normally...

The current "Four Ghoul Corpses" probably couldn't even kill ordinary wasteland hunters.

...

And the culprit, a certain Su, hadn't stopped his wool-shearing behavior.

Where else could he find monsters that could be repeatedly killed?

Stripping a little at a time, ten times would be enough to collect all the skill fragments.

Suren had now almost killed all the other twisted monsters in the banquet hall. He was guarding a few survivors from the Sand Scorpion Gang, using them as bait to attract the four monsters.

Then, he waited for these four ghouls, who had almost lost all their fighting power, to explode and harvested them again.

In this way, the style of the battle had changed from a fierce battle to casual fishing.

The evil ritual arrays in those four rooms were still operating as usual, but the four "main materials" were almost completely damaged. He didn't know how effective it was now...

Suren heard the sounds of fighting upstairs and thought that after harvesting a few more waves and collecting a few more complete elemental skills, it should be about time to go up.

However, just then.

Suddenly, a figure darted down from the second floor, appearing in the hall in a few flashes.

The person was none other than Barbara.

...

Barbara was covered in wounds, looking like she had been through a fierce battle.

She had originally wanted to come down to check the situation and was prepared for a fierce battle against countless ghouls, but when she saw everything in front of her, the ancient arcanist was stunned.

The banquet hall was littered with corpses, rivers of blood, and piles of ghouls, with scattered limbs and pieces of organs everywhere...

There were almost no living people left, but there were no more ghouls either.

And in the hall, the "Four Resentful Corpses" were wandering around aimlessly like fools.

Seeing her come down, they showed no signs of attacking.

Looking at Suren waiting among the four ghouls, Barbara had a short-circuited expression.

In her limited knowledge, this scene shouldn't exist.

Seeing Barbara suddenly come downstairs, Suren, thinking something had happened in the battle above, curiously asked, "Oh, Miss Barbara, why are you down here?"

"..."

Barbara couldn't figure out what had happened and could only ask, "This... Officer Johnny, what exactly happened? Did you kill all these twisted monsters?"

Suren looked at her, relieved that she hadn't been completely "contaminated."

He spread his hands and said, "I watched them explode again and again, and then used a little trick, and they became like this. By the way, what exactly happened upstairs? Why did these ghouls suddenly explode?"

Barbara then explained, "Sister Elizabeth has been demonized. She used a damage transfer technique to transfer the damage to these 'Four Resentful Corpses'..."

Suren understood as soon as he heard it.

So, every time these four ghouls exploded, Howard and the others upstairs had killed the old nun once?

But because the damage was transferred to these four ghouls, the old nun was equivalent to gaining "immortality," which also put Howard and the other two in a bitter struggle.

This was originally an unsolvable ending.

The four specially refined corpses could be revived in the array after death because of the [Four Ghoul Spirit Fallen Sacrifice Array].

And there was the continuous energy supply from the "sealed object."

They would revive infinitely.

Without killing the caster, the four corpses wouldn't die.

But the clever thing about Sister Elizabeth, as the caster, was that she transferred her own damage to the four corpses.

This formed a dead loop.

At least within this restaurant, no one could kill her!

But...

This dead loop was broken by Suren, who was shearing the wool, in an unimaginable way.

The cycle was still there, but some key materials in the cycle had been almost completely depleted.

The Four Ghoul Corpses were getting weaker and weaker, naturally affecting the battle situation upstairs.

The damage that the ghouls could withstand was getting lower and lower, and the old nun's injuries were getting more and more serious.

This was originally good news for Edward and the others,

But because they couldn't have imagined that anyone in the restaurant could break the [Four Ghoul Spirit Fallen Sacrifice Array],

They even speculated whether it was the old nun's feint...

So, Barbara had come down to check the situation.

...

Now seeing this situation,

Barbara was also relieved.

She looked at Suren and said in a strange tone, "I didn't expect Officer Johnny to be such a powerful arcanist..."

Suren didn't explain much and asked about the battle situation upstairs.

Hearing that it was a lose-lose situation, he immediately stated, "If you kill that old nun a few more times, I might be able to completely solve this sacrificial array."

Seeing the scene in front of her, Barbara was also relieved.

But the battle wasn't over yet, and she didn't delay, "Okay! Then I'll leave the downstairs to Officer Johnny!"

Suren nodded, seeing that the black energy around her was already very strong, he reminded, "Miss Barbara, your condition doesn't seem very good."

Barbara's face showed determination, "Yes, I know."

She didn't look back and rushed to the second floor again.

...

Knowing the battle situation upstairs, Suren wasn't in a hurry to go upstairs either.

The previous intelligence said that if the "ghost mist" occurred at midnight, the wasteland hunters wouldn't have made it to the sound of the battle upstairs.

Which also meant that Edward and the others would be "contaminated" and demonized unconsciously.

Now that they knew their condition, it seemed that even if they died together, they wouldn't let themselves be demonized.

Perhaps, when Suren went up, he wouldn't need to do anything himself and could directly pick up the materials.

Suren felt that it was safer to wait until the sacrificial array downstairs was resolved first.

From beginning to end, the old nun was the ultimate Boss.