But then he thought that if he didn't refine these people's souls, they would most likely be attracted by the milky white spring water like the previous souls, and be swallowed by the spring water like moths to a flame. Since these souls couldn't survive no matter what, why should he give them to that spring water? At most, he would try to only kill bad people in the future and not use such killing intent and methods on any good people or ordinary people.
After Zhou Ziwei had eliminated all the people who weren't completely dead and turned them into jet-black soul beads, A-Da had already carried everyone onto the helicopter.
The only time it was difficult to carry Ah Er was when he was carrying him. Zhou Ziwei didn't even know that Ah Er had only drunk a dozen drops of white spring water. If it was just that his cells and tissues were strengthened, it wouldn't be a big deal. But Ah Er suddenly gained more than 200 pounds, which was quite amazing.
Zhou Ziwei didn't believe that the two hundred jin (200 catties) all came from those dozen or so drops of spring water. How heavy were those dozen or so drops of water? But Ah Er hadn't eaten anything else besides drinking those dozen or so drops of spring water. So... could the weight of the two hundred jin have come from the air?
Zhou Ziwei knew that this was a problem he couldn't figure out for the time being, but if a professional academic institution were to study it, they might be able to find a solution.
However… he estimated that if he were to casually release a few drops of spring water, it would cause a worldwide sensation. He would then become the target of pursuit by governments, underground forces, and even terrorists. That would be absolutely suicidal, and Zhou Ziwei would never do such a stupid thing.
If he doesn't understand, he doesn't understand. As long as he knows how to use the spring water, there's no need to get to the bottom of everything.
After Zhou Ziwei finished dealing with things here, he immediately boarded the helicopter and flew all the way to the location of another helicopter that he had previously hidden more than 30 kilometers away.
Then Zhou Ziwei had A-Da move A-Er and the others to another helicopter, leaving Xiao Wenzi and a few fruit flies there to keep watch. If A-Da and A-Er made any unusual moves, Xiao Wenzi was to just take them down... Although the soul memories of these two had been erased once, Zhou Ziwei couldn't be sure whether those memories would return after the soul trauma was repaired. Naturally, it was better to be safe than sorry.
After making these arrangements, Zhou Ziwei immediately returned to Storm Valley alone in the empty helicopter and began his long-planned scheme: to knock down the largest stalactite in the cave and then change the angle at which it fell, so that it would be inserted into the passage leading to the mountain spring.
The enormous stalactite was over twenty meters long, with a diameter of only about one meter at the front end, but a diameter of over three meters at the point where it connected to the top of the cave. It was cone-shaped and relatively uniform in thickness, like a cone hanging down from the sky...
When Zhou Ziwei saw the stalactite hanging overhead, he exclaimed that it was practically a roadblock tailor-made for that passage. However, the weight of this roadblock must be at least tens of tons. It wouldn't be difficult for Zhou Ziwei to smash it down from the air, but the difficulty was how to stuff it intact into that passage...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 263: Submitting the Mission
Niu-style Tai Chi... This was the only solution Zhou Ziwei could think of.
He planned to use two Soul Beads to simultaneously break down the base of the stalactite from both sides. Once the entire stalactite collapsed and fell, he would use the "borrowing force to strike" technique of Niu-style Tai Chi to change the direction of its descent and insert it horizontally into the passage leading to the mountain's interior.
The idea was a bit far-fetched, but Zhou Ziwei felt it was somewhat feasible. He had no intention of using his body to withstand the stalactite weighing tens of tons. If he succeeded, great; if not, he would run away immediately. He would never risk his life to cover up the spring in the mountain.
Having chosen the right angle, determined his location, and planned the direction to use the Soul Beads to break down the stalactites... After everything was ready, Zhou Ziwei climbed up a stone pillar about ten meters high along the uneven rock wall of the cave, and then took out two Soul Beads from his pocket.
There was no other way; his Soul Bead had to be guided by his soul power to explode and release the decomposition rays. However, his soul power could only extend for twenty meters so far, but the cave was more than thirty meters high. If Zhou Ziwei wanted to hit the base of the stalactite with his Soul Bead, he would have to climb into the air.
Zhou Ziwei sat atop the stone pillar, looked up at the straight, hanging stalactite, then at the pre-selected foothold below the cave, and took a deep breath. Suddenly, he raised his hand, and two soul beads floated into the air. Immediately, two invisible soul forces completely enveloped the two soul beads, and then, with lightning speed, they smashed down towards the base of the stalactite above his head…
"Whoosh—" After throwing out the two soul beads, Zhou Ziwei immediately leaped down from a height of more than ten meters.
They returned to the ground before the stalactites.
Only then did a crisp "crack" sound come from above. The two ends of the stalactite's base were mostly broken apart, leaving only the middle part connected to the cave. Under the weight of the stalactite's tens of tons, it finally broke apart and, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, plunged straight down from the sky. The spot where it pierced was the very spot where Zhou Ziwei was standing.
"Swish swish swish..." Zhou Ziwei ignored the stalactites falling from mid-air, and just kept drawing circles, trying to set up as many force fields as possible to change the direction of the force before the stalactites fell.
It wasn't until Zhou Ziwei clearly felt the gust of wind rushing down from above making his scalp ache that he suddenly raised his head, took a step back, and then released a large amount of soul power, surrounding a five-meter radius around him, once again entering a smaller version of soul coverage.
In this state, Zhou Ziwei can unleash his full power and, with his keen sense of touch, clearly perceive every change and transformation in the power around him, thus making wise judgments and rational decisions...
The enormous stalactite fell from above in an instant. However, in that brief moment, with the help of his soul covering, Zhou Ziwei managed to set up hundreds of force fields in the direction the stalactite was falling. Finally, he leaped up and gently patted the tip of the stalactite with both hands...
Zhou Ziwei's slap wasn't particularly heavy, but with the preparation of hundreds of force fields beforehand, it became the last straw that broke the camel's back. The stalactite, which was rapidly falling, suddenly trembled slightly, and then, surprisingly, it began to quickly adjust its angle along the direction of Zhou Ziwei's slap, diagonally inserting itself into the passage leading to the mountain spring.
With a loud "boom," the enormous stalactite was almost perfectly inserted into the passage, not a single part of it protruding. It was seamlessly embedded into the passage, and no one who saw it would ever guess that there was a cave inside...
Zhou Ziwei quickly cleaned up the stone dust and fragments that had fallen outside. Seeing that no obvious traces remained, he breathed a sigh of relief, turned, and left the cave. He then used his satellite phone to access the black market assassin website. After entering a common assassin's registered account and password, he brought up the list of completed missions, which displayed:
Mission accepted: Annihilate the Storm Mercenary Group.
Mission Requirements: Eliminate more than 90% of the members of the Storm Mercenary Group, including the five leaders of the mercenary group, to complete the mission.
Task reward: US$27 million
Mission Difficulty: Four Stars
Task completion time limit: 120 days
Time remaining: 115 days
Close Submit Task
Zhou Ziwei smiled, then used his stylus to tick the "Submit Task" option. The page flashed and changed to another format. Zhou Ziwei filled in some data on the new page, especially registering the coordinates of the Storm Mercenary Group, before turning off his phone.
Now Zhou Ziwei could only wait for the Black Market Assassin Network to come and investigate the mission's completion. He hoped they wouldn't pull any tricks, so he could follow the trail to their location and wipe them out.
However… Zhou Ziwei really didn’t know if the black market assassin network would actually send someone with inside knowledge to investigate. What if… the person they sent was also an assassin like Zhou Ziwei who didn’t know much about the black market assassin network’s inner workings? Then the outcome would be really hard to predict…
However, Zhou Ziwei estimated that even if he couldn't find the Black Market Assassin Network through the investigators, at least he had completed a four-star mission this time, so he should be qualified to enter the core circle of the Black Market Assassin Network and should be able to register as a VIP member assassin of the Black Market Assassin Network, right?
Zhou Ziwei had already made up his mind that when he saw the investigators sent by the black market assassin network, he must not give anything away. He would just send a small fruit fly to track them down and find out if they were core members of the black market assassin network. Then he could apply for the VIP membership test.
If we take a two-pronged approach, surely one of the directions will lead to success, right?
Fortunately, the black market assassin network is usually quite efficient. They promised that unless it involves some of the world's most dangerous places, such as the Himalayas or the Sahara Desert, the verification of such missions would generally be completed within three days in normal areas.
This means that Zhou Ziwei only needs to wait here for a maximum of three days, and everything will be resolved.
Three days is neither a long nor a short time, but during these three days, Zhou Ziwei can no longer contact A Da and A Er, lest their identities be discovered by the Black Market Assassin Network. If, by some unfortunate coincidence, A Da and A Er's video data is on file with the Black Market Assassin Network... and they discover that Zhou Ziwei has been able to enhance them to this extent, it will definitely attract the attention of some people with ulterior motives.
Fortunately, the helicopter was equipped with plenty of food and water, presumably for the five leaders of the Storm Mercenary Group to use in case of emergencies during their escape. Therefore, they always kept enough food on board the helicopter.
This food should last at least three days, and after three days... the black market assassin network should have a result by then.
In order to prevent any accidents and to find the investigators from the black market assassin network as soon as possible, Zhou Ziwei has been lying in wait on a cliff next to Storm Valley for the past three days, monitoring every movement in the valley from all angles using a few fruit flies.
Seven fruit flies patrolled back and forth throughout the valley, and it was believed that not even a single mouse could escape their surveillance.
Two days passed, and the entire valley remained calm, showing no signs of disturbance.
Zhou Ziwei was not discouraged and remained quietly lying on the cliff, waiting for the fish to take the bait.
On the afternoon of the third day... finally, a series of chaotic sounds came from outside the valley. According to the information returned by the fruit flies, Zhou Ziwei could see that it was a geological survey team of more than a dozen people. The group, carrying various instruments, entered the location of Storm Valley...
Zhou Ziwei grinned slightly. Without a doubt, the person from the black market assassin network who was reviewing the completion of the task should be among this group of people. However, which one it was still needed to be confirmed.
Zhou Ziwei observed coldly and saw that most of the people in the group were local Vietnamese, but there was a man and a woman who were Americans. The man and woman were not very old and looked like college graduates. The man was very tall, at least 1.9 meters tall, and very handsome and stylish. However, his eyes seemed a bit frivolous and arrogant, which made people feel uncomfortable.
The woman was over 1.7 meters tall, with a flawless figure and a fair complexion with a rosy glow, looking like a porcelain doll and endearing to all.
After reviewing all the members of the geology survey team, Zhou Ziwei immediately focused on the two Americans, a man and a woman, along with the team leader and a middle-aged Vietnamese man, making them key targets for surveillance. He assigned a small fruit fly to each of them to keep a close watch on them at all times.
"Something terrible has happened...something terrible has happened! People are dead...so many dead people!"
After the expedition team entered the valley, it seemed they intended to set up camp there. However, an ordinary Vietnamese team member discovered more than a hundred corpses lying haphazardly on the edge of the square.
These people were all killed by Zhou Ziwei when he first used force, as he used his soul to deflect all the bullets back and shoot them with his own bullets.
The scene was truly breathtaking...
The entire geological survey team was terrified. Screams and fearful curses could be heard everywhere. However, Zhou Ziwei knew that someone in the team was faking it. But... who could that person be?
Zhou Ziwei watched coldly, simply waiting for this person to reveal his true colors.
If the person sent by the black market assassin network to review the completion of the mission, then he would have to see the corpses of the five leaders of the Storm Mercenary Group in person before he could finally determine whether the mission was considered complete.
Therefore, this person would personally search for the bodies of the five leaders.
The dozen or so people stopped at the entrance of the valley. After discussing for a while, they decided to send two people back to report to the police, while the rest would stay here temporarily and move into the cave... because their geological survey team's goal this time was to explore the caves in this area.
Zhou Ziwei watched as the site team members, one by one, carried various instruments and crawled into a cave with the fewest corpses in the area. He then pursed his lips slightly, jumped up, and, taking advantage of their inattention, crawled into the main cave and followed the secret passage to the place where the helicopter had been parked.
The helicopter has now been taken away by Zhou Ziwei, but the bodies of the five leaders of the Storm Mercenary Group and the three mercenaries who were responsible for guarding the helicopter are still lying here.
Zhou Ziwei believed that the people from the Black Market Assassin Network would find this place soon, and he didn't need to waste so many brain cells trying to guess which of the dozen or so team members was the Black Market Assassin Network's investigator. As long as he saw someone coming here, they would immediately become Zhou Ziwei's focus of attention.
Zhou Ziwei waited for another half day. He checked his watch and saw that the three-day verification period promised by the black market assassin network was about to expire. Suddenly, he saw a stone door disguised as a rock at the entrance of the cave ahead creak open. Then, the two Americans crawled out of the cave at the same time and exclaimed in surprise at the eight corpses in front of them.
two?
Zhou Ziwei shook his head. He didn't think the black market assassin network would send two staff members to review his mission completion for an assassin who seemed to be a newcomer. So... it meant that one of them was unaware of the situation.
Zhou Ziwei, hidden in the shadows, carefully observed the expressions of the two men, but couldn't quite make heads or tails of them. They seemed to be both somewhat afraid, yet also somewhat excited.
Zhou Ziwei frowned inwardly, thinking that if all else failed, he would simply send a small fruit fly to each of them to monitor their movements 24 hours a day. That way, it would naturally reveal who the black market assassin network's agents were.
"My God... Tom, have you noticed that these people's wounds seem... seem not to have been caused by bullets!"
Just then, the blonde woman, who looked like an angel, pointed at the corpses on the ground and exclaimed, "Look... the holes in their foreheads are only the size of soybeans! As far as I know, even the smallest caliber .38 pistol wouldn't cause such small wounds... Ah... What's more, these wounds are penetrating. Ordinary pistols don't have that much power; they can actually pierce a person's skull! This... This is simply unbelievable!"
The man named Tom was also quite surprised upon hearing this. He nodded and said, "Yes... these wounds are indeed surprisingly small. Could it be... wounds caused by some new type of weapon? What kind of firearm is this? It seems that there hasn't been any mention of it in the latest issues of Weapon Enthusiast Magazine... Quick... let's check if there are any shell casings or bullets on the ground. Haha... if we find a new type of weapon that even the Weapon Enthusiast Magazine has never seen before, we'll become famous overnight!"
As Tom spoke, he began to bend over and carefully examine the ground, bit by bit. The woman, however, did not follow Tom in his search. Instead, she muttered to herself, "This is incredible. This will definitely be headline news... Hmm... I'll take some photos first and then send them to the newspaper to see if I can get some money for them."
As the woman spoke, she pulled out a high-resolution phone and started snapping photos of the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground. Zhou Ziwei smiled slightly. When the woman turned to face him, Zhou Ziwei instantly increased his vision to six times its normal level and immediately saw that what the woman was holding was actually a very advanced satellite phone. And while she was taking pictures, she had been constantly sending them to a very strange email address…
This email address isn't from the Black Market Killer Network, or rather... it's not the Black Market Killer Network in the open. Maybe this website is actually the backend controlling the Black Market Killer Network.
Zhou Ziwei immediately memorized the website address and then, as if summoning two fruit flies, decided to take control of both of them first, no matter what.
Tom, of course, couldn't find the shell casings or bullets. After searching the ground for a long time without any results, he immediately lost interest and then pulled the woman away from there, returning to the cave.
After the two men left, Zhou Ziwei immediately logged onto the internet on his phone and received an email from the Black Market Assassin Network. The email confirmed that he had successfully completed his mission and gave him a prompt: he was now eligible to apply for the Black Market Assassin Network's VIP membership review process.
He can choose to apply or give up. After applying, he will be put through an assessment. If he passes, he will become a VIP member of the Black Market Killer Network and will enjoy privileges that ordinary members cannot experience.
If he fails the assessment... then he might be selected to become an internal staff member of the organization, thus losing his freedom... As for what would happen if he wasn't selected to become an internal staff member, there was no indication from above, but Zhou Ziwei knew... that would most likely mean certain death.
Without any hesitation, Zhou Ziwei immediately clicked the option to apply for VIP membership...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 264: Crossing the Border
The website quickly replied that the application was under review and that they would respond to his request in three days.
Zhou Ziwei pondered for a moment, put his phone away, then circled around the mountain and returned to the entrance of Storm Valley.
As for the key individuals who appeared here today and are suspected to be members of the black market assassin network, Zhou Ziwei doesn't want to deal with them for the time being. Instead, he has sent Little Fruit Flies to monitor their every word and action closely.
Unfortunately, these Kun pets needed Zhou Ziwei to replenish their soul power every other day in order to survive. Otherwise, Zhou Ziwei wouldn't need to follow these people at all. He could simply send a Kun pet to each person to monitor them for a long time, and he would definitely be able to find the headquarters of the black market assassin network by following the clues.
Now, he has to follow these people closely and send new Kunchong to replace the little fruit flies lurking around them at any time.
Because of the unexpected discovery of a large number of dead bodies, the geological survey team discussed the matter and immediately prepared to retreat back to the city.
Zhou Ziwei followed closely behind, keeping a steady pace several kilometers behind the group to avoid being discovered. With a few fruit flies nearby, Zhou Ziwei could accurately sense their location, so even in the dense, unpredictable forest, he didn't have to worry about losing them.
Every few hours, Zhou Ziwei would send out the three fruit flies around him and bring back the fruit flies that were originally there to keep watch. He would replenish their soul power and receive their soul memories from this period of time so that he could have a clearer and more specific understanding of the actions of those suspicious individuals.
A day later, they finally emerged from the mountains. The geological survey team had several vehicles parked there. After getting in, they immediately drove towards the nearest city.
Zhou Ziwei continued to follow at a leisurely pace, and even though he was now following the other vehicle on his own two legs, he still hadn't been shaken off.