Zhou Ziwei's hands, which were moving rapidly, suddenly stopped abruptly. The transition from extreme speed to complete stillness was completely uninterrupted, giving the impression that a sports car traveling at over 200 kilometers per hour suddenly stopped in the middle of the road without warning. The abrupt change made everyone present feel very uncomfortable, and two people almost fell to the ground from being shaken by Zhou Ziwei.
"Beep—" As Zhou Ziwei stopped waving his hands, the skylight above his head, which had been continuously pumping air downwards, suddenly made a soft sound and then "whoosh" slowly closed.
The turbulent airflow in the cockpit subsided, the air pressure gradually returned to normal, and the violent shaking of the fuselage eased.
Zhou Ziwei then removed his hands from the main control keyboard and instead grasped the joystick on the control panel. With a gentle pull and push, the descending aircraft suddenly shuddered slightly, then its nose lifted, and it began to slowly rise into the air again.
"It worked... Wow... It worked!"
The ball was the first to exclaim excitedly, and then immediately took on his duties as co-pilot, assisting Zhou Ziwei with the flight operations.
The onlookers all breathed a sigh of relief. Although they all felt like they had escaped death, no one shouted like the boy did. Even the youngest blind child showed no excitement, displaying a composure beyond his years.
Only when the plane ascended and climbed above the clouds, reaching the stratosphere for stable flight, did Zhou Ziwei breathe a sigh of relief. He then leaped off the cockpit, grabbed the rider who had been hanging by the seatbelt, and pulled him to the pilot's seat, saying, "Alright... now you can fly!" He then ripped off the metal ball connected to the control panel, and somehow, with a few crumpling motions, the large metal ball disappeared from Zhou Ziwei's body, its whereabouts unknown.
"Uh... Boss, you're really awesome!" When the ball saw Zhou Ziwei put the metal ball away, its tiny eyes, barely visible, widened in surprise. Then, it smiled obsequiously and said, "Boss... what exactly was that metal ball you were using? Was it some kind of legendary super software? Could you lend it to me to study? Hehe... if you could lend it to me for a few days, I wouldn't mind calling you 'Boss,' I'd even call you 'Dad,' how about it... Boss, please help me out and satisfy my curiosity!"
Seeing the fawning attitude of the pinball, many people present couldn't help but shrink back, and some even made vomiting gestures, truly disgusted by this kid. However, their curiosity was also piqued, and they wondered what exactly the metal ball Zhou Ziwei had taken out was. It seemed that although Zhou Ziwei's computer skills were very strong, without the assistance of that metal ball, he probably wouldn't have been able to successfully solve the problem that even the pinball couldn't handle!
Zhou Ziwei shrugged, ignoring the curiosity about the marbles, and turned to go into the back cabin. He had to comfort the frightened Mr. and Mrs. Yang and Yu Xiaoru, so he had no time to play with the marbles.
Back in the rear cabin, Zhou Ziwei saw that Yang's parents and Yu Xiaoru were sitting calmly in their seats, showing no signs of panic whatsoever.
Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but at the same time he was also a little curious. It was no surprise that the members of the Dragon Group could remain calm in such a dangerous moment because they were experienced in countless battles. But these three people were just ordinary civilians. It was already a miracle that they didn't cry and scream when the plane was about to crash. How could they possibly act so naturally and calmly?
"Are you alright?" Zhou Ziwei walked over and gently took his parents' hands, asking cautiously.
“It’s alright…” Mother Yang held her son’s small hand, who had lived two lives, and looked at him lovingly. “Being able to see you alive and kicking in front of me again is already a great blessing from God. I have nothing to worry about, so what is there to be afraid of? As for you… since you’ve died once and still… hehe… I think God will protect you, so we don’t need to worry about you anymore.”
The fact that Zhou Ziwei was a reincarnation was known only to Yang's parents and Yu Xiaoru. With members of the Dragon Group present, Yang's mother couldn't go into too much detail, but the meaning was clear: the three of them were glad to see Zhou Ziwei again and believed he had immense good fortune, that even the heavens would protect him. Therefore, they were free from worry and fear, which allowed them to remain calm and composed even in such a dangerous situation.
Zhou Ziwei was deeply moved upon hearing this. There are countless kinds of emotions in this world, but the most selfless one must be the love of one's parents. Having lived two lifetimes, he was still able to receive such love from his parents, which was an immense happiness for him.
Family ties... at this moment, their importance in Zhou Ziwei's heart became even greater.
Then Zhou Ziwei thought of his sister... He had already asked his parents before. His sister Yang Hongmei from his previous life immigrated the year after he was executed, and went to the United States with her brother-in-law Gao Jianjun.
When my sister first went abroad, she would call home every now and then, but as time went on, the calls became less and less frequent.
After all, overseas calls are expensive, so Yang's parents didn't pay much attention at first. However, starting two years ago, Yang Hongmei stopped calling home. When her parents finally called back, they found that the phone number was no longer in service. They didn't know if they had changed their number or what, and they were naturally very anxious. Later, they went to Gao Jianjun's former workplace to inquire, but no one knew anything about it. This made the elderly couple even more worried, but they had no other options.
They could only hope that their daughter would call again someday, so even when they moved, they didn't dare to change their home phone number.
Zhou Ziwei knew that their Dragon Group mission would be to go to the United States this time. If he had the chance, he could also take the opportunity to look for his sister's family.
To be honest... he didn't have much of a good impression of his brother-in-law, Gao Jianjun, but he always cared about his sister and nephew. He hoped he could find them on his trip to the United States!
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 502: Country M
After a series of perilous flights, the plane finally landed safely at a small military airport in Dangyang. This small military airport turned out to be the same military base where Zhou Ziwei had taken a military plane to Kunming to rescue Liu Xiaofei.
Zhou Ziwei didn't know who was behind this incident. Logically speaking, it was more likely that the Black Market Assassin Network was behind it. However, after coming out of the underground, Zhou Ziwei had gone from a seven-foot-tall man to a little kid. If the Black Market Assassin Network could confirm his identity even in this state, then the Black Market Assassin Network was too terrifying.
Although there were Yang's father, mother, and Yu Xiaoru on the plane, it was quite possible that they would become targets of the black market assassin network.
However, if the black market assassin network hadn't confirmed that Zhou Ziwei was on the plane, their operation should have been a kidnapping of Yang's father and the other two, instead of a direct murder.
After all, the reason why the black market assassin network sought out Yang's father and the other two was simply to use their influence in Zhou Ziwei's eyes to threaten him.
If they directly kill Yang's father and the other two, the only result will be Zhou Ziwei's even more frenzied retaliation, and it will not benefit them at all.
So Zhou Ziwei thought about it for a while and felt that it was unlikely that the Black Market Assassin Network was behind this. He didn't believe that the people in the Black Market Assassin Network could really be so powerful. If they could recognize him even in this form, it would prove that they had someone undercover around the old leader. The reason was that only the old leader knew that Zhou Ziwei had turned into a child, and everyone else was kept in the dark.
Could it be that this incident was targeted at the Dragon Group, and he was just an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire? If that's the case, then Zhou Ziwei has no way to figure it out, let alone investigate. Let the military worry about it.
The entire Dragon Group team only rested in Dangyang for one day before setting off. Zhou Ziwei used this day to make careful arrangements for Yang's father and the other two. He did not appear in person, but simply made a phone call to the brothers Yelü Xiaosu and Yelü Huage to invite Yang's father and the other two to stay in the Zhou family compound.
To reassure Yang's parents and Yu Xiaoru about moving into the Zhou family compound, Zhou Ziwei spent a lot of time talking to them. After all, he had only told his parents that he was reborn into an ordinary family with his memories intact, but he hadn't mentioned that after being executed, he was reborn into this body through possession of another's body.
This matter was rather terrifying to talk about, so Zhou Ziwei didn't dare to tell them the truth all at once. He could only lie and say that Zhou Ziwei, the richest man in the country, was his good friend, and that he had saved Zhou Ziwei's life by chance. Now that Zhou Ziwei, the rich young master, had become successful, he had benefited from his connections to some extent. So he told his parents not to be shy and to treat the Zhou family compound as if it were their own home.
On the other hand, Zhou Ziwei also spoke with Liu Xiaofei and Wang Xuewei on the phone, telling them that they must treat the three people well and not mistreat them, especially Yang's parents, and treat them with the same respect as their own elders.
Since the incident where Wang Xuewei was almost kidnapped, Zhou Ziwei immediately made adjustments to the security force of the Zhou family compound. Most of the strong and capable officers, such as the Yelü brothers, were stationed at the Zhou family compound to protect Liu Xiaofei, Wang Xuewei, and others.
Of course... this overt force is not the main one; it's merely to attract the attention of outsiders with ulterior motives. The most important thing is the more than one hundred Kun pets that Zhou Ziwei specially created.
These Kun pets were all nourished by Zhou Ziwei using liquid soul power, making them much stronger than the ones that were initially nurtured using only ordinary mist-like soul power.
Moreover, the biggest advantage of the Kun Chong is its strong stealth. Even the most cautious assassin would never take those ubiquitous flies and mosquitoes seriously.
Even most assassins undergo brutal training before they start their careers, one of which is specifically to learn to endure the harassment of mosquitoes without being bothered.
Assassins are creatures that live in the shadows. When carrying out a mission, they often have to lie in wait in one place for a whole day, or even several days, just for a chance to assassinate someone.
During the infiltration process, they must not expose themselves before the target appears, otherwise their operation will end in failure.
If you're hiding outdoors, you'll have to endure mosquito bites.
Whether in the city or the suburbs, the more suitable a place is for hiding and lurking, the more likely it is to be a place with a large number of mosquitoes.
If they raise their hands to swat away a mosquito bite, they are more than 80% more likely to be exposed to the virus.
So the education that assassins receive is... no matter how many mosquitoes bite you, you cannot resist in the slightest. You must learn to endure and bear it. Only by doing this can you possibly become an excellent assassin.
In this regard, Zhou Ziwei's Kun Chong army has an unparalleled advantage. If the Black God really dares to send people to the Zhou family compound again, then what awaits them is definitely a good show, and it is even possible that everyone will be wiped out.
Although there were over a hundred Kun pets protecting Liu Xiaofei and the others at the Zhou family's residence, Zhou Ziwei still couldn't be completely at ease. So, he came to Dangyang this time. Although it was not appropriate for Zhou Ziwei to return to the Zhou family compound in his current state, he still took advantage of the day he spent resting in Dangyang and created over a hundred more Kun pets in one go.
If you want to train a pet insect to have formidable fighting power in a short period of time, mosquitoes are naturally the best choice.
Although the newly cultivated mosquitoes do not possess much ability, if they are given a sufficiently powerful poison, these mutated mosquitoes will become infected with a strange toxicity.
It could cause instant sleep, paralysis, or even mental breakdown... all sorts of possibilities exist, depending mainly on what kind of poison the mosquito ingested for the first time after becoming a mosquito pet.
After spawning a large number of pet mosquitoes, Zhou Ziwei also discovered that even if the same batch of pet mosquitoes were fed the same poison, they might still evolve to have different toxicities.
As for why this phenomenon occurred, Zhou Ziwei had no idea.
This time, Zhou Ziwei made a special request to the old leader: that the old leader provide him with a large quantity of various poisons. This was one of the prices Zhou Ziwei demanded for agreeing to temporarily join the Dragon Group to complete a mission.
Zhou Ziwei wasn't trying to take advantage of his old superior's need for him to ask for any benefits. In fact, it was just that this way he could provide more benefits to the people around him, allowing him to have no worries.
Otherwise, if he's risking his life for the country while also worrying about the safety of his family, what's the point?
Zhou Ziwei made full use of the dozen or so potent poisons specially prepared for him by the military, successfully spawning more than a hundred powerful Kun pets. He also summoned the original batch of more than a hundred Kun pets that had been stationed at the Zhou family compound in batches, and replenished them with liquid soul power once again, so that all of the more than two hundred Kun pets could last for at least ten days without dying due to the dissipation of soul power.
Raising over two hundred Kun pets at once—if this had happened before Zhou Ziwei went to the pilot plane, the amount of soul power consumed just to feed so many Kun pets every day and ensure their souls didn't dissipate would have been terrifying.
However, Zhou Ziwei's total soul power reserves have now exceeded one million, so he no longer cares about the minor consumption. Moreover, what is most important to him now is the safety of his relatives and loved ones. If even the people he protects are gone, what use is all the soul power he has accumulated?
After departing from Dangyang, the Dragon Group members transited through Nanqiong City before officially boarding their flight abroad.
This time, the twelve members of the Dragon Group did not work together. Instead, they were split into six groups and traveled abroad in pairs on three separate flights under different identities. They would then meet at a location in the United States before commencing their mission together.
Zhou Ziwei was assigned to a group with the witch. The two of them pretended to be a brother and sister visiting relatives in M country. They were the first group to depart. Fat Bullet Ball and Cannon were also on the same flight as them.
These two guys really have the qualities of secret agents. They bumped into each other by chance when boarding the plane, but they acted as if they didn't see Zhou Ziwei at all, not even glancing at him. On the contrary, Fat Bullet Ball whistled at the witch with feigned amazement.
This time, the fat man wasn't deliberately acting; he genuinely felt that the witch was quite amazing.
Even after boarding the plane, Pinball was still puzzled. They had been together in the Dragon Group for several years, but how come they had never noticed before that the witch was so beautiful?
The witch's appearance didn't change much, but her complexion and temperament had been gradually changing over the past two days. On the plane that day, in order to let the witch perform divination with peace of mind, Zhou Ziwei first gave her a soul bead to swallow, which greatly replenished her life force. Not only did she not suffer any loss during the divination on the plane, but she even had some left over.
Afterwards, to thank the witch for her timely help, Zhou Ziwei gave her another Soul Bead.
Zhou Ziwei knew that someone like a witch who needed to use her soul power frequently would have a much larger capacity of soul power than an ordinary laborer. Therefore, even if the witch were given a soul bead that had not been weakened and was condensed from a complete soul, there was no need to worry that the witch would be overwhelmed by the soul bead.
Sure enough... after the witch swallowed the second soul bead, her complexion improved even more than before. Even her skin, which had become increasingly dry due to the severe loss of life force, looked as if it had just been soaked in water, full of vitality and regaining its former smoothness.
The witch was not old at all, only in her early twenties, but because she had repeatedly used divination over the years, she had consumed a lot of her life force, and she had no way to repair this lost life force on her own.
Although after a period of rest, the life force lost due to the unnatural consumption of a large amount of life force in a single instance like hers can be slowly and naturally replenished, the rate of replenishment is so slow that it is despairing. Even after three to five years after using a divination technique, the lost life force may not be fully restored naturally.
However, it's impossible for a witch to go three to five years without using divination after each use. Therefore, her life force will continue to be depleted after the previous one, and she will repeatedly sacrifice her own life force to gain some revelations from the unseen world.
This continuous accumulation of depletion of all life force caused the witch, despite her young age, to unknowingly exhibit the signs of old age.
Although her face still looks young, her expression and demeanor are increasingly resembling that of a seventy or eighty-year-old woman.
Now, Zhou Ziwei used only two small soul beads to give the witch, who had been in a state of depletion, enough vitality to regain. At this moment, the soul power stored in the witch's sea of souls was almost twice as much as that of an ordinary person at their peak. With so much soul power supporting her, the old and decaying aura on her body was naturally swept away, and she once again radiated the vitality that a young person should have.
The witch at this time was completely different from the witch before; she was naturally much more charming and beautiful than before.
To be honest... seeing her dressed up as a fashionable and beautiful woman now, it would be a little embarrassing for Zhou Ziwei to call her a witch.
After spending some time alone together, the two got to know each other better.
Zhou Ziwei learned that the witch had a Han Chinese name, Jiang Chunshui, which she chose herself, taken from the famous line "A river of spring water flows eastward".
In fact, the witch also has a name among ethnic minorities, but that name is a long string of gibberish that is very difficult to pronounce. Even the witch herself sometimes forgets her original name.
In fact, even the Han Chinese name Jiang Chunshui was only known to the leader of the Dragon Group, Zidan. The other members only knew her by her nickname, Witch, and that was what everyone usually called her.
Jiang Chunshui didn't like dealing with men, and usually wouldn't even bother to say a word to one.
However, Zhou Ziwei's height was significantly different from that of an average man, which made it easy for Jiang Chunshui to overlook Zhou Ziwei's gender and not treat him as a man at all.
The two men got along very well on the plane. Although they never said a word about their identities or missions, they still had a lot to talk about.
This gave the marbles and cannons sitting behind the two a real eye-opener.
The witch used to be a typical cold-faced goddess. She would never chat with any of the men in the group, and she rarely spoke to the female members either.
But what's going on today... How come she has so much in common with a little kid? Could it be... that the old witch has finally had a second spring? But... the person sitting next to her is just a child... Even if this old witch wants to have an affair, she can't just eat such a tender grass all at once, can she?
Flying doesn't always involve life-or-death situations, and this time Zhou Ziwei had no burdens or worries, so he no longer had anything to worry about.
Even if someone tries to bomb the plane again, Zhou Ziwei isn't afraid. At worst, he can just use a butterfly dart to cut open the plane's shell when it explodes and then fly off. It seems that although there are many people in this world who want to hurt him, there are probably very few who can actually harm him!
Jiang Chunshui, possessing a keen precognitive ability, felt no psychological burden as long as she didn't sense impending danger. On the other hand, the two guys, Danqiu and Paotong, were constantly on edge, not daring to relax for a moment, fearing that someone might disregard civilian casualties and plant another bomb on the plane. At such a high altitude, even the luckiest person would likely face certain death as the plane crashed.
After a long, drowsy flight, we finally landed on time in Los Angeles, USA.
To avoid being noticed by those with ulterior motives, according to the pre-arranged plan, the six groups would not meet in the two days leading up to their arrival in Country M. Instead, they would each arrive at the secret location in their own way within the agreed time, and then launch a coordinated and rapid operation.
After getting off the plane, it was already dusk. The beautiful lights illuminated the airport, while the city in the distance was even more dazzling, with neon lights flashing, giving it the appearance of a decadent and extravagant city.
Zhou Ziwei was being led out of the airport by Jiang Chunshui's hand. When they saw this scene, they were once again shocked to the point of being speechless, as Pinball and Cannon were following behind and peeking at them.
Being short...it turns out there are some advantages to it...