Amidst these sudden ups and downs, his mind had been so shaken that he had almost lost the ability to think. The Heart of Flame, which he had been tightly clutching, had somehow slipped from his grasp. However, the Heart of Flame did not fall to the ground; it seemed to be held up by an invisible hand, hovering silently in the air, without moving an inch.
Zhou Ziwei was shocked again, staring blankly at the Heart of Flame suspended in front of him for a long time, his mind still reeling. Could it be that Earth's gravity had suddenly disappeared? How come he inexplicably floated into the air after simply raising his arm, and now this Heart of Flame, without any external support, hasn't shown any sign of falling for so long?
Oh, wait a minute... Doesn't this Heart of Flame seem to be entwined with my own liquid soul power?
Zhou Ziwei's mind stirred, and he finally focused his gaze on the wisp-like liquid soul power, which he could easily overlook without careful observation. Then, with a flash of thought, the liquid soul power flickered, and the fiery heart entangled within it began to spin rapidly around Zhou Ziwei's body…
Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 319 This is unbearable
Zhou Ziwei watched in astonishment and joy as the heart of flame, radiating a faint golden light, floated in the air before him, following his every thought.
Although Zhou Ziwei could use his soul power to fly with the Soul Bead before, the Soul Bead was something that had no weight at all... so only soul power could move it. Otherwise, if it were a steel ball of the same size, or even a grain of rice, Zhou Ziwei would feel quite strained even if he could use his soul power to lift it, and moving it would consume an enormous amount of energy.
This is because soul power differs from ordinary energy in this world; it is difficult to use for physical movement. However, this time, when Zhou Ziwei used liquid soul power to move the Heart of Flame, he clearly felt no burden whatsoever; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he handled it with effortless ease. For the past few days, Zhou Ziwei had almost constantly held the Heart of Flame in his hand, so he knew its weight far better than anyone else.
Don't let the small size of the Heart of Flame fool you; it's surprisingly heavy. Even a piece the size of half a fist weighs nearly two kilograms. Yet, Zhou Ziwei's liquid soul power carries this weight without any apparent difficulty, which naturally delights him.
Who would have thought... that this liquid soul power would have such a wonderful use.
Zhou Ziwei sighed inwardly, sensing golden light constantly rising from the heart of flame. He knew this was because the heart of flame's energy wasn't completely covered by his soul power, causing energy leakage. Fortunately, he was currently in the almost absolute darkness of the tent, so the energy the heart of flame could absorb was negligible, which was why it was only emitting a faint glow; otherwise… it would probably have burst into flames immediately.
If they were to open the tent like this, it would definitely not work. The Heart of Flame in front of them had already been consumed enough to make Zhou Ziwei feel heartbroken. If most of its energy were to be lost in vain because the soul power could not cover it, Zhou Ziwei would probably feel even more heartbroken and want to commit suicide.
The covering must be done with the power of the soul to completely cover the Heart of Flame. Looking at the thin, orange liquid soul power wrapped around the Heart of Flame, Zhou Ziwei had a thought and forcibly used his soul consciousness to force that extremely thin liquid soul power to suddenly begin to expand and extend.
This was absolutely a mentally taxing task, akin to splitting a single hair in half and then flattening it into a sheet the size of a handkerchief. The difficulty was astonishing. Fortunately, the liquid soul power was a highly condensed, viscous liquid with decent malleability. Furthermore, it was essentially a manifestation of Zhou Ziwei's consciousness, making it relatively easy for him to control with his soul power.
Despite this, it still took Zhou Ziwei almost half an hour to complete this step. During that long time, Zhou Ziwei's body was still suffering from excruciating pain and numbness all over his body. After half an hour, the blanket under him was completely soaked with sweat, as if it had just been pulled out of water.
He put in a lot of effort this time, but it wasn't all for nothing. After some hard work, he finally managed to expand that thin thread of liquid soul power, which was countless times thinner than a hair, into a huge flat surface with great perseverance. Then, he easily and completely enveloped the small piece of flame heart, about half the size of a fist.
Moreover, Zhou Ziwei had a feeling that the hardship he had endured this time had created an instinctive memory for this liquid soul power. The next time he used this liquid soul power for stretching, he wouldn't need to go through the same trouble as this time. Finally, he reached out again and gently unzipped the tent, and the soft moonlight immediately poured into the small single tent.
"Sizzle—"
As the moonlight shone upon him, Zhou Ziwei immediately felt the Heart of Flame, which was wrapped in his liquid soul power, react in some way. The light was instantly devoured by the Heart of Flame, and then transformed into a gentle and pure energy. After circulating once in the half-fist-sized sphere, it began to flow slowly in the opposite direction along with the trace of liquid soul power wrapped around it, heading straight into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls.
Thank goodness, it seems that although the soul power has been transformed into a liquid state, its basic properties remain unchanged, and it can still be used to absorb the pure energy from the Heart of Flame. However, Zhou Ziwei's joy was short-lived; his face quickly darkened. Slow, far too slow.
Zhou Ziwei could clearly feel that the thin energy line, which was stretched upwards along the thin thread of liquid soul power, was swimming towards his sea of souls. However... this energy line was crawling much slower than a snail. After Zhou Ziwei carefully sensed it for a long time, this energy line had only just crawled out of the thin thread of liquid soul power outside Zhou Ziwei's body and barely managed to enter Zhou Ziwei's body along that thin thread.
Once the thin energy thread entered Zhou Ziwei's body, its crawling speed slowed down considerably once again. If its speed before was comparable to that of a snail, then Zhou Ziwei didn't know how to describe the speed at which this thing was crawling. If it weren't for Zhou Ziwei's amazing senses, he probably wouldn't have even noticed that this thing was moving.
My God... this energy line is moving so slowly, when will it finally enter my sea of souls and transform into my own soul power...?
What exactly happened?
Zhou Ziwei clearly felt that his liquid soul power had completely enveloped the Heart of Flame, and there should be no possibility of energy leakage. Moreover, if the energy were to leak out, the Heart of Flame should immediately emit a strong light and heat. However, the Heart of Flame was reacting even less than it had in the darkness, and even the faint golden light was no longer emitted. This was clearly a sign that all the energy was firmly locked up.
After pondering for a long time, Zhou Ziwei gained no results, but the physical strain continued.
The intense pain caused Zhou Ziwei's entire body to tremble in a very subtle way. Every nerve in his body was enduring the super sensitivity, sensitivity, and excruciating pain brought to him by the liquid soul power.
Having no other options, Zhou Ziwei sighed helplessly. Fortunately, in his perception, the wisp of energy that was being drawn back from the heart of flame, though moving ten times slower than a snail, was still in motion. If this continued... no matter how long it took, there would eventually be a moment when it would return to his sea of souls.
Once this wisp of energy fully enters the Sea of Souls, it can immediately form new soul power. At that time, as long as Zhou Ziwei accumulates even just a little bit of soul power, he will finally be able to escape the sea of suffering and replace his current liquid soul power with gaseous soul power.
That said... while this liquid soul power seems to have some unexpected benefits and wonderful uses, the price is far too heavy, and the continuous pain it brings is simply unimaginable.
Time passed second by second. As the eastern sky gradually brightened and a golden sun slowly rose, Zhou Ziwei finally felt that the thin energy thread that was slowly rising in his arm seemed to be climbing a little faster.
Although this small difference wasn't significant, it still moved Zhou Ziwei so much that he almost burst into tears.
Almost there...almost there...at this rate, in just two or three more hours, that wisp of energy should be able to return to the Sea of Souls! Oh...no...if we wait until the sun is fully up, under the scorching sun, the energy that the Heart of Flame can receive will increase exponentially. Perhaps...in just over an hour, I'll finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
"Hey... Ziwei, what's wrong? You look terrible... are you sick?"
When Liu Xiaofei woke up early, she saw that Zhou Ziwei's tent had been opened and immediately ran over. However, she was shocked to see Zhou Ziwei sitting inside with a pale face and asked him what was wrong.
"*—*#￥.* No…it’s nothing…" Zhou Ziwei opened his mouth to speak, but because the liquid soul power controlled all the nerves in his body, the vitality of every cell in his body was brought out dozens of times. Even the flexibility of his tongue was beyond what he could have imagined before. Therefore, when he spoke for the first time under these circumstances, he involuntarily uttered a series of sounds that sounded like an alien language, which startled Zhou Ziwei himself.
He carefully controlled himself for a long time before finally finding his rhythm and restoring a normal speaking speed. However, the sound of his voice still sounded a bit strange to him.
Liu Xiaofei stared blankly at Zhou Ziwei for a long time, and then tears began to flow uncontrollably.
"You said you were fine, but look at you... your clothes are completely soaked with sweat... what happened to you... Ziwei... don't scare me..."
Zhou Ziwei was taken aback when he heard this, and then he realized that his clothes were indeed soaked through with sweat, as if he had just gone swimming in the water while still wearing his clothes.
"It's nothing... I'm really fine." Zhou Ziwei hurriedly explained, "Well... I was practicing a martial art. Look at me... hehe, I'm really as light as a swallow now, you don't believe me, just look..."
After Zhou Ziwei finished speaking, he slowly stood up, suddenly raised his leg and jumped slightly upwards... Then, after hovering at a height of about half a meter above the ground for about two seconds, he lightly fell back down.
As expected, Zhou Ziwei's move successfully diverted Liu Xiaofei's attention. Seeing that Zhou Ziwei could stay in the air for so long without falling down without any external force, she was so shocked that her pretty face turned pale. She covered her mouth tightly with her delicate white hands to prevent herself from crying out.
"My God... how did you do that... how is that possible?" Liu Xiaofei stared at Zhou Ziwei with stars in her eyes, her expression filled with endless admiration.
But Zhou Ziwei felt like crying but had no tears left to shed...
With that slight movement, the moment he landed lightly on the ground, the soft impact of his feet against the earth almost made Zhou Ziwei faint from the pain.
To be honest, he had been moving very gently, even lighter than a cat walking, but even so, the impact almost killed him. How could he possibly live like this? Zhou Ziwei seriously doubted that if he were in this state and walked a short distance, he would probably die from the pain. He would probably be the first person in history to die from the shockwave from the ground hitting his feet while walking, and thus be immortalized.
Zhou Ziwei's wry smile seemed incredibly handsome to Liu Xiaofei. She simply felt that her man was becoming more and more remarkable. Although his expression was a bit strange, it could only be described as tangible. Just like yesterday when he pointed angrily at the sky with one hand and turned an incoming missile into a pile of iron powder, it was so tangible...
So Liu Xiaofei got excited and naturally gave Zhou Ziwei a rather passionate hug.
When the two bodies were tightly embraced, poor Zhou Ziwei rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot...
If Liu Xiaofei knew that her hug would cause Zhou Ziwei so much pain, to the point of fainting, she would be heartbroken and self-pitying... Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei fainted quickly and woke up even faster. In less than half a second, he woke up in pain again, and at that moment, an alarm suddenly sounded in his mind.
This is an alert sent by the ladybug to Zhou Ziwei.
Every time Zhou Ziwei retracts all his soul power into his sea of souls and enters a state similar to suspended animation to condense his soul power, all five senses of his body disappear. If an enemy were to attack at this time, even if Zhou Ziwei's head were chopped off, he probably wouldn't feel anything.
No one else could wake Zhou Ziwei, so... once danger occurred, Zhou Ziwei could only be awakened by the Kun Chong who had a subtle soul connection with him.
Without the protection of these Kun pets, how could Zhou Ziwei dare to peacefully cultivate his soul power in a place where he could encounter enemy attacks at any moment?
However, Zhou Ziwei did not expect that the ladybug would suddenly bring news of an enemy attack while he was in this state. He trembled and almost fainted from the pain.
Given his current condition, where he could faint from pain even from being hugged, how could he possibly fight anyone? Fighting in this state would be tantamount to courting death.
However, General Nabamo's men wouldn't discuss the timing of their attack with Zhou Ziwei. From the message transmitted by the ladybug, Zhou Ziwei learned that General Nabamo had somehow lost his mind and had actually mobilized nearly a thousand troops at once, rapidly approaching them in a semi-encircling formation.
A force of nearly a thousand men?
Zhou Ziwei sneered inwardly. To him, this numerical advantage didn't seem to be anything to fear. At most, he could just unleash a few waves of soul roars, and then...
Just as he was pondering this, Zhou Ziwei was suddenly startled. It seemed that he didn't have even a trace of misty soul power left in his body. If he were to use Soul Roar, he would probably only be able to use liquid soul power.
But what kind of state would the soul roar emitted by this liquid soul power be? You must know that his soul roar is a skill that uses gaseous soul power to simulate sound waves. If it were replaced with liquid soul power... putting aside the issue of consumption, it would be questionable whether he could even unleash this move normally with liquid soul power instead of the misty soul power...
No, I must regain control of the mist-like soul power now.
Zhou Ziwei anxiously scratched his scalp. It was just a habitual action, but this gentle scratch almost made him cry from the pain.
Damn it... I can't live like this anymore.
Zhou Ziwei let out a painful groan in his heart, then suddenly remembered... it seemed that he didn't necessarily have to draw his gaseous soul power from the heart of flame... Didn't he still have a lot of soul beads stored on him? Swallowing these soul beads would also immediately replenish his soul power.
Although the amount of this supplement was relatively small, as long as he regained control of his body using gaseous soul power, he would never have to suffer like he was now again.
Furthermore, since the gaseous soul power envelops the heart of flame, it can quickly absorb a large amount of pure energy from it, and then transform this pure energy into a mist-like soul power, thus achieving a perpetual life-giving effect.
How come I only just thought of such a simple solution... Damn... Do I have a masochistic tendency?
Zhou Ziwei painfully mocked himself...
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 320: Time
Without delay, Zhou Ziwei immediately pulled out a handful of soul beads from his pocket and threw them into his mouth without even looking at them.
Some time ago, their convoy encountered several groups of bandits. Although they experienced some dangers, Zhou Ziwei was able to refine some Soul Beads as a result. This time, Zhou Ziwei swallowed at least dozens of Soul Beads formed from the condensation of souls.
As soon as the Soul Pearls entered his abdomen, they instantly transformed into a ball of pure soul energy that slowly rose until it was poured into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls.
"Hoo—" Feeling the misty soul power finally filling his sea of souls once again, Zhou Ziwei let out a long breath. He then quickly retrieved the liquid soul power that had been dispersed throughout his nervous system back into his sea of souls, transforming it back into a tiny droplet that fell into the small pool of soul spring water at the center of the sea of souls. Then, Zhou Ziwei poured the newly replenished misty soul power back into his nervous system.
This alternation was extremely fast, taking less than a fraction of a second. So, although Zhou Ziwei completely lost control of his body for that fraction of a second, even Liu Xiaofei, who was right next to him, did not notice anything unusual about Zhou Ziwei.
After the misty soul power took over control of his body, the persistent pain and itching immediately vanished completely, making Zhou Ziwei almost groan with pleasure. This feeling is so much better…
However, along with the loss of pain and itching, the intensely sensitive sensation he had felt earlier also vanished, leaving Zhou Ziwei with a slight sense of disappointment. Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei knew that it wouldn't be difficult for him to experience that feeling again; he only needed to inject another drop of liquid soul power into his body, and that bittersweet sensation would reappear.
However, when liquid soul power controls the body, the body's flexibility and other abilities increase to a terrifying level, but the pain is also unbearable for ordinary people. So, thinking about it, it's best to avoid it unless faced with a life-or-death crisis.
"Go and inform everyone immediately that a large number of armed bandits are approaching us. Tell everyone to take cover..."
Once Zhou Ziwei had returned to normal, he immediately instructed Liu Xiaofei, "Tell everyone to be careful. This time is different from before; there are quite a few enemies, and we might encounter some trouble. Tell Yelü Huage and the others not to act rashly, or I won't be responsible if they lose their lives."
Seeing Zhou Ziwei's serious expression, Liu Xiaofei knew that this matter was probably very serious. She didn't dare to delay and immediately ran to wake up everyone who was still sleeping, and relayed Zhou Ziwei's words to them one by one.
While the enemy was still far away, Zhou Ziwei seized the opportunity to quickly draw soul power from the heart of the flames.
After enveloping the Flame Heart with his misty soul power once more, Zhou Ziwei tried loosening his grip. As expected, the nearly two-kilogram Flame Heart immediately plummeted to the ground. The small amount of misty soul power he had created was simply insufficient to support such a heavy weight.
If he were to unleash a massive amount of soul power all at once, it wouldn't be impossible to hold up the fire with just the power of his soul power. However, the consumption of soul power would become terrifying, which would naturally be a losing proposition.
It seems... only liquid soul power could have such a monstrous effect, and it doesn't seem to consume much soul power at all. At least, the drop of liquid soul power he just withdrew didn't seem to have been depleted much after that use.
Furthermore, Zhou Ziwei was able to hover in the air for a second or two without immediately falling down, which must also be related to that liquid soul power!
Because of the brief interval between the alternation of liquid soul power and misty soul power, the Heart of Flame was exposed to the air for a moment. Although it was less than a fraction of a second, the Heart of Flame still rapidly heated up and now felt quite hot to the touch.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei's body had been strengthened by the Reincarnation Water. Perhaps because the Reincarnation Water itself is a very peculiar substance with some fire properties, Zhou Ziwei was quite resistant to this kind of burn-like damage. He only felt a heat in his hand, but didn't feel much of a sensation.
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Ziwei felt a wisp of pure energy, enveloped by the soul power, flow upstream along the path of the soul power, rapidly surging into his sea of souls. The speed of this surge was incomparable to the tortoise-like crawling speed of the thin energy line from before.
However, just as this pure energy was rapidly flowing into his body, Zhou Ziwei was surprised to find that the peculiar energy line he had absorbed when he enveloped the Heart of Flame with liquid soul power was still inside him and was still slowly crawling towards the Sea of Souls at the same snail's pace.
What surprised Zhou Ziwei even more was that when the continuous flow of energy he had just inhaled entered his body, it did not merge with the thin energy line from before. There was no sense of repulsion between the two, but they just couldn't blend together.
Streams of energy were continuously drawn from the heart of the flame, flowing through Zhou Ziwei's body and sinking into the vast sea of his soul, transforming into new soul power. However, these waves of energy had absolutely no impact on that thin energy line. The energy line was like a tenacious little snail, relentlessly climbing upwards with its sights set on a target, completely ignoring everything that rushed past it, even those that were its own kind.
Zhou Ziwei was secretly alarmed, and for a moment he couldn't figure out what that wisp of energy was all about. However, with a formidable enemy at hand, Zhou Ziwei couldn't bother to study it. He hurriedly ordered all the Kun pets to keep an eye on the enemy's movements and report back to him at any time.
He found a relatively open spot, raised the Heart of Flame high above his head, and exposed it directly to the morning sun in order to catalyze the generation of more pure energy.
When the group of about three hundred people drove up and stopped about two kilometers away from Zhou Ziwei and his group, Zhou Ziwei frowned slightly and sighed inwardly.