Zhou Ziwei's eight divided thoughts were completely merged into one the instant the eight giant hands came together. He no longer needed to be distracted. This greatly enhanced Zhou Ziwei's control over his soul power. In his excitement, he exerted all his strength to clench the giant hand tightly...
"Squeak—" Under immense pressure, the eight infant-like souls finally could not bear the burden and all ended their original infant state, continuing to be compressed.
As Zhou Ziwei increased the pressure on the giant hand, the eight originally unrelated souls, which had shrunk to the size of a fist, began to slowly be kneaded and merged together, forming a chaotic mess that no longer had any rules or shape.
With a soft "poof," as Zhou Ziwei continued to refine it, the mass formed by the eight souls finally completed the process of quantitative change leading to qualitative change, ultimately transforming into a bead the size of a bean, as black as ink.
It is also a bead that looks completely weightless... or you could say it is a bead that is not subject to Earth's gravity, just floating quietly in mid-air.
When Zhou Ziwei reached out and gently grasped it in his hand, he immediately felt a strange sensation... Although this was a soul bead created by combining eight souls, theoretically it should have the same properties as eight ordinary soul beads. However, Zhou Ziwei always felt that this soul bead, which was a combination of eight souls, was somewhat extraordinary.
With a calm touch and feeling, Zhou Ziwei seemed to be able to sense a vibrant life force within the Soul Pearl, like rain nourishing the earth.
Moreover, the physical presence of this soul bead became increasingly apparent. Although it seemed to have no weight, when held in his hand, Zhou Ziwei could clearly feel that it had a gentle, jade-like texture.
The density of this soul bead was obviously greater than that of a soul bead formed from a single soul, but... its buoyancy in the air remained unchanged, which puzzled Zhou Ziwei.
Clearly sensing the difference in this soul bead, Zhou Ziwei vaguely thought of something, but now was obviously not the time to ponder it. So Zhou Ziwei put this unusual soul bead into a small box in his pocket, along with the more than twenty soul beads he had previously condensed.
He then casually peeled off a member of the Storm Mercenary Group's camouflage uniform and put it on, picked up an automatic rifle and slung it over his shoulder, before starting to run quickly into the valley. As he ran, Zhou Ziwei's face twisted slightly, then transformed into the appearance of a member of the Storm Mercenary Group who had just died...
After passing through another checkpoint with hidden sentries, the sentries, mistaking Zhou Ziwei for one of their own, were completely unsuspecting. However, Zhou Ziwei, through his soul power, clearly detected the location of each person and easily turned all six sentries in the checkpoint into ghosts under the new cross-shaped darts.
Zhou Ziwei's interest in collecting soul beads increased greatly. Instead of directly purifying and devouring these newly formed souls, he used the same method again to condense the six ghosts into a single soul bead.
However, when Zhou Ziwei opened the small box on his body, intending to put the newly refined soul bead inside, he was suddenly taken aback.
The twenty-odd rice-sized soul beads that had been refined in the box had all vanished in the blink of an eye. In this large box, only the soul bead that had just been condensed from eight soul bodies remained, and nothing else.
This is unbelievable! Where did those soul beads go?
Zhou Ziwei picked up the box and examined it from all angles for a long time, but he couldn't find any holes or leaks. If the box wasn't broken, then how could those soul beads have just disappeared?
Zhou Ziwei was puzzled, but he still threw the soul bead that he had just refined with six souls into the box. However, he was worried that the two soul beads would disappear again, so he did not close the box immediately. He held it in his hand and looked at it from all angles, hoping to find out why the more than twenty soul beads had mysteriously disappeared.
Just then, Zhou Ziwei suddenly noticed that the two soul beads in the box were slowly moving closer together on their own.
Zhou Ziwei exclaimed in surprise, and after observing carefully, he indeed found that the two soul beads, which were slightly different in size, were slowly rolling towards each other at the same time.
Zhou Ziwei's hands were very steady, and the box he held in his palm did not shake at all, so the two soul beads must have been moving on their own.
The two soul beads are actually moving on their own... Weren't the soul consciousnesses within the soul beads supposed to have completely dissipated long ago? How... can these things still move on their own?
Zhou Ziwei stared wide-eyed at the two soul beads without blinking.
The two soul beads drew closer and closer until they finally stuck together, like two magnets attracting each other, and stuck tightly together.
That's strange... Do these soul orbs have an attraction to each other? But... why didn't we notice this property on the previous twenty-odd ordinary soul orbs...?
Just as Zhou Ziwei was wondering about this, he suddenly noticed that the color of the soul bead, which was formed from six souls, began to fade rapidly after it was placed next to the previous soul bead.
In just over ten seconds, the original jet-black color gradually faded to dark gray, then gray, light gray... As time went on, the color of the soul bead became lighter and lighter until, after two or three minutes, the entire soul bead finally became an almost colorless and completely transparent object. Then, with a "pop," it burst open like a bubble floating on the surface of water, completely disappearing without a trace.
So that's how it is. It turns out that all the Soul Beads in this box were actually devoured by this one.
Zhou Ziwei was taken aback. He picked up the soul bead in the box again and examined it closely. He immediately discovered that despite absorbing so many soul beads, the bead did not seem to have increased in size at all. However, its color had become much darker. Upon closer inspection, it looked as if there was a mass of black liquid inside the bead, surging and churning endlessly.
This thing is really strange; it's unlike anything else in the world.
It can suspend in the air, which suggests that the Soul Bead has properties similar to a gas. At the same time, it also has a relatively fixed shape, which suggests that it is a solid.
However, looking at the surging black ripples within the Soul Pearl, Zhou Ziwei felt that it should perhaps be categorized as a liquid...
What a strange thing...
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ziwei carefully put the Soul Pearl back into the box and hid it close to his body.
I've decided to take some time to properly study this Soul Bead after I've finished wiping out the Storm Mercenary Group.
Just then, the walkie-talkie on one of the nearby corpses suddenly rang, and a cold voice called out a name.
Zhou Ziwei frowned, unsure whether he should impersonate someone and exchange a few perfunctory words with the person on the walkie-talkie. However, his understanding of the Storm Mercenary Group's internal affairs was far too limited, so he decided against it. He hadn't originally expected to infiltrate the valley silently and kill all the Storm Mercenary Group members without them knowing what was happening... Now that things were as they were, he might as well let things take their course! If he wasn't exposed, he could sneak in again, plot against a few more people, and give himself time to collect more Soul Beads. If he was exposed... then it would be a face-to-face battle!
So Zhou Ziwei ignored the walkie-talkie that was still calling and immediately moved forward, quickly advancing into the valley. He planned to take control of the medium-sized helicopter placed in the center of the valley first, in case someone else took advantage of the chaos to get on the helicopter and escape. Even if Zhou Ziwei was fast, he probably wouldn't be able to catch up.
However, just as Zhou Ziwei entered the valley and before he could even get close to the helicopter, he suddenly heard a series of piercing alarms sounding in the valley. Then, dozens or even hundreds of heavily armed men emerged from the small wooden huts beneath the three rock walls of the valley.
Everyone wore an expression of excitement and anger, their eyes darting around as they searched for the enemy's hiding place.
Under these circumstances, Zhou Ziwei was standing within the effective range of hundreds of guns, and in a fairly open area similar to a square, which was extremely unfavorable for him.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei stopped immediately as soon as he realized something was wrong, otherwise he would have become the focus of everyone's attention. If hundreds of automatic rifles had opened fire on him at the same time, no matter how fast he was or how quick his reaction was, he would probably have faced a life-or-death situation.
After all, those were hundreds of automatic rifles... Even if these people weren't well-trained sharpshooters, but just a bunch of greenhorns who couldn't hit a bullet during training, with so many people and so many guns covering the area, even the stray bullets flying everywhere would be enough to turn a living person into a sieve.
Zhou Ziwei stood there for a short while, and seeing that none of the gunmen seemed to be paying attention to him, he breathed a sigh of relief and then slowly moved towards the helicopter.
Who knew that Zhou Ziwei wouldn't have attracted much attention if he had just stood there still, but the moment he moved, he immediately drew the attention of many people.
"Number 168...aren't you supposed to be on night watch? What are you doing here? What are you doing heading towards the helicopter?"
A skinny guy, who looked like a monkey, squinted and questioned Zhou Ziwei, then raised his rifle and slowly pointed the muzzle at Zhou Ziwei's head...
Zhou Ziwei snorted inwardly. He knew that the guy was probably bluffing him, but Zhou Ziwei had no intention of outsmarting or testing his patience. He glanced around and found that his current position was far too disadvantageous. He was practically surrounded in the middle of an open space, and the closest place he could hide was the helicopter about fifty meters in front of him.
However, the helicopter was not an ideal cover. You have to know that helicopters have flammable and explosive things like fuel tanks. If the members of the Storm Mercenary Group recklessly sprayed bullets at the helicopter and blew it up, it would be even more of a threat to Zhou Ziwei.
What frustrates Zhou Ziwei the most is that the members of the Storm Mercenary Group who are currently exposed are not concentrated in one place, but scattered in all directions. Even if Zhou Ziwei wants to use the Soul Roar method to stun them, he would have to make at least three or four consecutive roars to effectively control everyone.
The problem is that this soul roar cannot be used continuously; there must be a period of time between each use.
Moreover, the consumption of soul roar is enormous. One use might not be much, but three or four in a row... that would probably deplete nearly half of Zhou Ziwei's soul power reserves, which is far too uneconomical.
Damn... let's give it a shot! This seems like a pretty interesting challenge...
Facing hundreds of terrorists and hundreds of guns, and this was only about half of the Storm Mercenary Group's strength, with the other half hidden in the shadows.
This made Zhou Ziwei feel slightly apprehensive, but more than that, he felt a faint sense of excitement, indicating that he still had a bit of bloodlust and ferocity in his bones.
In any case, Zhou Ziwei had great confidence in his healing abilities. As long as he carefully protected his head and heart, the two most vital organs, during the battle, he was confident that he could recover completely even if his limbs were smashed.
Moreover... even if his body were truly killed, as long as his soul remained, he could simply find another corpse to be reborn.
After acquiring the amoeba, he could transform into anyone at any time. In this way, changing bodies was no different from changing clothes. After all, it was just a stinking shell no matter how he changed. As long as he changed his face back to its original appearance after being reborn, wouldn't that be the same as returning to his original identity?
It was precisely because of this advantage that, despite feeling somewhat intimidated by the threat of hundreds of automatic rifles, Zhou Ziwei did not feel much fear when facing them.
There was only excitement about the upcoming fierce battle.
"What am I doing here?" Faced with the skinny monkey's doubt and questioning, Zhou Ziwei smiled faintly and said, "I'm here to harvest wheat."
Without hesitation, he raised his automatic rifle and fired a clean, sharp burst, piercing a bloody hole in the skinny monkey's head.
Even though the skinny monkey had already pointed the gun at Zhou Ziwei's head, Zhou Ziwei's quick reflexes meant that even though he reacted later, he wouldn't give the other party a chance to fire.
As soon as the gunshot rang out, the entire valley fell silent for a second. Then, suddenly, countless gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, like the rapid crackling of popping beans, as countless whistling bullets flew towards Zhou Ziwei in the center of the square at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei became completely excited, and in his extreme excitement, he simply closed his eyes... Although Zhou Ziwei's eyesight could help him catch the trajectory of bullets that ordinary people could not see with their naked eyes, he only had one pair of eyes. He could see what was in front of him but not what was behind him, which would cause him to lose sight of what was in front of him and suffer losses.
So Zhou Ziwei simply closed his eyes, and suddenly a large amount of soul power surged from his entire body, quickly covering every inch of space within a twenty-meter radius around him.
A 360-degree all-around perspective... This extremely familiar feeling that Zhou Ziwei had when he was a ghost arose once again. At this moment, it was as if Zhou Ziwei's whole body was covered with eyes. Within the space covered by his soul power, even a small insect burrowing in the soil or a speck of dust floating in the air could be seen clearly by Zhou Ziwei as if under a microscope.
Countless bullets flew wildly into the space covered by Zhou Ziwei's soul power at that moment, and instantly... a very strange feeling began to rise in Zhou Ziwei's heart...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 254: Instant Kill of a Hundred People
In almost an instant, ninety-six bullets had entered the area covered by Zhou Ziwei's soul power.
Zhou Ziwei didn't need to count how many bullets there were; he simply had the exact number in a flash of his mind.
This feeling is like someone holding four peanuts in their hand. When they open their hand and glance at them, they naturally know that there are four peanuts in their hand. Getting this accurate number is just a glance. It's impossible for them to count them one by one like a child.
And that's exactly how Zhou Ziwei is right now. Even if those ninety-six bullets were just lying quietly on the ground, they might look dazzling to others... but in Zhou Ziwei's mind, they were so clear and distinct, just like looking at a few peanuts in his hand.
What surprised Zhou Ziwei the most was that when he unleashed his soul power to the fullest extent and demonstrated this 360-degree all-around vision ability on such a large scale for the first time, he found that his body was bathed in this rich soul power, and his body's reaction speed and sensitivity suddenly increased to an astonishing level.
Those bullets that are usually invisible to the naked eye and flying at high speeds seem to Zhou Ziwei at this moment to be no faster than leaves slowly falling from the sky.
This doesn't mean that time slowed down under Zhou Ziwei's soul, nor does it mean that Zhou Ziwei had the ability to slow down the flying bullets on their own.
It was only because Zhou Ziwei's reaction speed under these circumstances had increased to a level that even he himself was unsure of exactly how many times faster than that of a normal person that he had this illusion.
It's like a pedestrian seeing a person riding a bicycle pass by; you might sense that the bicycle is going very fast.
However, if you were sitting on a speeding train, you would only feel that the person riding the bicycle was moving so slowly that they would be left far behind by the train in just a few seconds, and you wouldn't even be able to see their shadow.
Therefore, the so-called speed, whether fast or slow, is fundamentally relative, and it has the most direct relationship with the observer's own ability and speed.
If Zhou Ziwei were to improve his vision to six times the normal level, he could observe the trajectory of bullets in the air and do his best to avoid them. However, it must be said that in that situation, he would still feel that the bullets were moving extremely fast.
That's because his reaction speed and his own speed hadn't exceeded the bullet's flight speed, which is why he had that feeling.
But now... Zhou Ziwei is bathed in his own soul power, and the speed of the bullets is far slower than his reaction speed. So... although at first glance, it seems that Zhou Ziwei is surrounded by densely packed bullets flying towards him at high speed, there are still some gaps or sequences between the densest bullets.
Therefore, in Zhou Ziwei's perception, the ninety-six bullets looked almost no different from ninety-six tiny bubbles suspended in the air. If he was just a little careful, he could easily pass through the gaps between them.
Just as the fastest bullets were flying less than half a meter away from Zhou Ziwei, he suddenly twisted his body and easily dodged the bullets through the gaps between them.
The bullets closest to Zhou Ziwei are still about a meter away...
It's so simple, is this still the terrifying hail of bullets?
Zhou Ziwei felt much more relaxed. He felt the slight movement of air caused by the rapid flight of several bullets that were flying past his clothes. Suddenly, a thought struck him.
His hands began to move like dancing sprites, drawing small, perfectly formed circles around the bullets that were passing by.
And so... one after another, magical force fields extending from the intent of Niu-style Tai Chi began to rapidly form around Zhou Ziwei. The bullets that were flying into the force fields set up by Zhou Ziwei were immediately subjected to a strange pull, and their original flight trajectories were completely changed in an instant. They began to fly along the route set by Zhou Ziwei...
Soon, Zhou Ziwei discovered that bathing in this dense spiritual power not only enhanced his reaction speed and agility to an outrageous degree, but also made his Niu-style Tai Chi Chuan seem like an instinct. In particular, his control over the subtle details was so effortless that it reached a level akin to being able to perceive the minute details.
In the past, Zhou Ziwei could also use the boxing intent he had learned from Niu-style Tai Chi to create a magical force field around his body that could reverse attacks, but most of the time he could only roughly grasp the direction of reversal and could not achieve precise control.
And it will inevitably lose a large part of its strength... For example, if the opponent's attack force is 10, then if he uses the force field of Niu-style Tai Chi to change the direction of the opponent's attack, then the force after reversal can only be 5 at most.
Now, bathed in this dense spiritual energy, when Zhou Ziwei uses the force field principle of Niu-style Tai Chi to reverse the bullet's trajectory, he can not only control the bullet's reversal direction with extremely precise accuracy, but also minimize the loss of the bullet's own power to an almost negligible degree.
Seeing the first few bullets flying along their predetermined trajectories under his control, Zhou Ziwei was overjoyed. Now, facing the bullets following closely behind, he no longer simply dodged. Instead, he drew strange circles in the air, instantly changing the direction of the bullets that grazed past him… sending them flying towards the Storm Mercenary Group's gunmen who were firing at him from all around…
Before the initial ninety-six bullets were all reversed and fired by Zhou Ziwei using the force field of Niu-style Tai Chi, hundreds more bullets followed and entered the area covered by Zhou Ziwei's soul power.
After all, most of the gunmen in the Storm Mercenary Group were equipped with relatively advanced automatic rifles, and even when using burst fire, they were firing three-round bursts.
Therefore, in the blink of an eye, the hundreds of Storm Mercenary Group gunmen actually fired at least three hundred bullets.