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"Damn, blasting heads every day, today I finally got my payback, huh,"

feeling the cracking noise from her own skull, in the last moment of darkness, Dorothy thought to herself, before her headless corpse naturally fell from the hands of the Great Dragon Mother due to gravity...

Well, that's how it should have been.

Only, the claw that had pierced through her own mother's chest gave her some support.

Seeing this, the Great Dragon Mother shook her head, prepared to reach out and pull the claw from her chest, to give her daughter some peace.

However, when she grasped that arm, Euphilia furrowed her brow and then immediately decisively turned the claw into a knife, swiftly cutting off her daughter's entire arm with a hand knife.

A smooth movement followed, and she perfectly avoided the follow-up low kick, delivering a precise punch to her daughter's knee, instantly followed by another clear sound of breaking bone.

"You've gotten quite used to this Martial Soul's combat style, haven't you?"

Looking at her daughter who finally fell to the ground, the Dragon Witch raised her eyebrows in surprise, but there was a hint of relief as well.

Both were now fighting with their Martial Souls, which as manifestations of willpower, naturally didn't have the many weaknesses of flesh and blood; to a Martial Soul, a lost head or broken heart were merely minor injuries.

However, because they were manifestations of spiritual power, Martial Souls were also easily influenced by the martial artist's inner thoughts. You must believe you can live headless and heartless to maintain the Martial Soul.

Once the martial artist's heart, influenced by past bodily experiences, subconsciously believed that losing a head or a broken heart meant certain death, then the Martial Soul might actually "die" on the spot.

In short, it exists if you believe it does; it doesn't if you don't believe.

Euphilia could tell that her daughter was probably using the Martial Soul to fight for the first time and didn't quite understand its special traits; otherwise, she wouldn't have gone for a heart-ripping move when she attacked her.

And such issues are the most common amongst beginners using Martial Souls, who find it easy to bring past bodily combat experiences to their Martial Souls, leading to an ending where the "heart dies."

For new War Gods to overcome this challenge called "heart death" isn't easy, as habits developed over a lifetime aren't easily "corrected." Remember, before advancing to War God, if one doesn't possess talents akin to pseudo-immortality, then being wounded at a weak spot could mean death.

Thus, overcoming "heart death" is about conquering the fear of death itself.

And this isn't something just anyone can do—all newly minted War Gods often need a considerable amount of time to adapt, to adjust their mindsets.

Of course, if one previously possessed talents like limb regeneration or resurrection from a drop of blood, typical of pseudo-immortality, witches accustomed to disregarding their vulnerabilities would have some advantages in this process and adapt more quickly.

However, the line of Dragon Witches to which they belonged, while having strong self-healing abilities, hadn't reached the level of pseudo-immortality yet; thus, they had to slowly adapt to this challenge.

As a genius of the Combat Magic System, Euphilia was the type to adapt quickly; she initially took half a day to adapt to the peculiarities of having a Martial Soul Body – but how long had her own daughter taken?

From being torn hearted to crushing her daughter's head, to the feigned death and subsequent sneak attack by her daughter—all these happened in just a second.

Good grief, the Fortune Teller of riddles had truly not deceived her; her daughter's talent far surpassed her own, and her instinct for combat was innately that of an Armed Witch.

"It's just comparable to the digitalization of a game character's body data, with nothing left but a health bar, a concept that's been done to death. Mother Superior, anyone who has played games would understand this at a glance, right?"

"I mean, you just demonstrated it to me in person. If I still hadn't caught on, wouldn't that be incredibly stupid? Who could be dumb enough not to grasp something so obvious and still need time to adjust? That can't be, right? No way, right?"

On the ground, the headless Little Dragon Maiden's previously sneak-attacked and broken leg twisted back into place automatically.

Dorothy did a kip-up from the ground, her voice coming directly from her abdomen.

"Tsk, a girl's body really is inconvenient. Otherwise, Daughter here would definitely perform a perfect War God Xingtian cosplay for Mother Superior today."

Though she was without a head, the neck was still there, and in the center of the Little Dragon Maiden's neck, a single eye opened, staring at the Great Dragon Lady as if it were a cat-eye neck ornament.

This wasn't because her aesthetic was influenced by Hat Senior Sister and had gradually become indescribable; it was purely because even though a Martial Soul had a game character-like data body with no fatal weaknesses, fixing physical impairments still required magic power, and she was so low on magic power that she couldn't afford to restore the whole head, settling for just an eye to regain vision.

Actually, according to Dorothy's original plan, she only wanted to fix one eye, since every bit of saved magic power counted. Her original magic power reserves could only support the Martial Soul's actions for five seconds.

Excluding the time talking, which didn't consume magic, the brief scuffle just now had already burned one second, plus half a second spent on repairing the eye, leaving her with only three and a half seconds.

But, for some reason, this damn Martial Soul decided to turn the navel into a mouth, forcibly restoring her ability to speak (and mock).

Damn, even with your head blown off, can nothing stop your annoying mouth? Was I really this obnoxious on the Magic Network before?

Dorothy's consciousness raged helplessly.

Because of the Martial Soul acting on its own, she was now down to only three seconds of full power output.

On the other hand, when that snide "Who could be dumb enough to need time to adjust, right? No way, right?" reached Euphilia's ears, the forehead of the Dragon Witch, who had been hit by her own daughter's explosive comment affecting nearly all witches, sprouted a "well" character.

Her temper really flared up; today, if she didn't show some of Mother's "affection" to the cheeky brat opposite, she just wouldn't understand why the flower is so red.

Thus, a new round of combat began, and this time, Dorothy went full force. Her attack speed was incredibly fast; in the blink of an eye, she delivered hundreds of punches and kicks, and of course, that expensively restored mouth wasn't idle either.

"Mother Superior, why are you rushing? You are my mom after all, you must have adapted instantly just like me, right?"

.....

And then….

And then there was no more after, do people really think a noob playing against a champion can turn the game around with just three seconds as a real woman? No way, right? No way.

"Even if I die and become Martial Soul Paste, I still have to shout out with a decaying voice…."

Dragon Witch looked at the puddle of flesh on the ground struggling to form a mouth, and she delivered one more punch without expression.

That punch shook the entire Great Colosseum three times.

And so, the probing test came to an end.

.....Strong-mouthed champion reborn.....