Zhou Ziwei was closest to the fireball, but his alloy suit had the ability to absorb heat on its own. Having mastered the secrets of fire energy, Zhou Ziwei completely ignored the high temperature. So even though the temperature around him instantly soared to a terrifying level of at least 80 or 90 degrees Celsius, Zhou Ziwei showed no signs of discomfort.
In contrast, the black-robed figure in the distance immediately took two steps back with some unease the moment the fireball appeared in Zhou Ziwei's hand. His whole body made a series of "crackling" sounds and trembled slightly, showing a very fearful look.
So this guy is afraid of fire... Damn, I should have known better than to waste so much soul power earlier.
Zhou Ziwei felt a pang of regret, but also a sense of joy.
The worst thing is that this black-robed monster is impervious to reason and fears nothing. In that case, Zhou Ziwei would really be helpless against him. But now that the guy has something to fear, Zhou Ziwei's courage has naturally grown a bit stronger.
"Speak! Who exactly are you people? Why did you capture my comrade and bring him here? Who is instructing you?" Zhou Ziwei was worried that the fireball in his hand wasn't powerful enough, so he didn't throw it directly at the black-robed monster. Instead, he questioned the guy, trying to find out what kind of people they were, while continuing to send pure fire energy into the fireball.
As Zhou Ziwei poured a large amount of fire energy into the fireball in front of him, the originally fiery red fireball trembled slightly, and its color slowly began to turn into a bluish-purple hue.
The size of a football has actually shrunk by two sizes, and the fireball is no longer as hot as before.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, muttering to himself: "No way! This... the fireball's temperature is getting lower and lower, and its volume is getting smaller and smaller. Doesn't that mean its power is getting weaker and weaker? Could it be... that this is what they call 'too much of a good thing'? This fireball has already reached its limit with so much fire energy. If I want to pursue the ultimate power and keep injecting more fire energy into the fireball, will it actually make the fireball's power decrease?"
Zhou Ziwei inwardly groaned, but deep down he was also somewhat skeptical. So he couldn't help but disregard costs and sacrifices, and poured twice the amount of fire energy needed to condense an ordinary fireball into the fireball in front of him.
And with the addition of such a dense amount of fire energy, the fireball began to shrink further, and now its size has shrunk to about the size of an ordinary large bowl.
The fireball gradually turned bluish-green, and as for the heat it emitted… God knows, Zhou Ziwei was less than half a foot away from the fireball, yet… he couldn't feel any heat at all. It was as if this bluish-green thing was just an ordinary colored light bulb… Oh, no, even a light bulb would start to heat up after being lit for a short while… But… what… what is this thing…? Why does it become more unbearable the more energy it receives? What is the purpose of this cold, glowing ball?
The black-robed monster didn't utter a single word from beginning to end, and didn't even react to Zhou Ziwei's questions. It seemed to have an instinctive, deep-seated fear of the fireball floating in front of Zhou Ziwei. Its tall, thin figure slowly retreated into the corner of the wall, while strange "crackling" sounds continued to emanate from its body, like the sound of a nonsensical drummer beating a hand drum.
However, as Zhou Ziwei continuously charged the fireball, causing it to shrink and grow colder, the black-robed man suddenly perked up. Gone was his earlier fear and apprehension. He not only stopped retreating but also straightened his chest, fluttered his black robe, and charged towards Zhou Ziwei. It seemed he was taking the initiative and wanted to start a fight with Zhou Ziwei.
Damn it... I'm so unlucky! If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have thrown that crimson fireball at the monster the moment I conjured it, wouldn't that have been enough? Why did I have to be so stubborn and try to create some kind of powerful, one-hit kill move? I wasted so much energy and ended up creating a giant light bulb instead. What kind of mess is this...?
The more Zhou Ziwei thought about it, the more frustrated and humiliated he felt. Seeing that the strange man in black robes actually charged forward for the first time, it seemed that he wanted to settle things with him in this situation.
With a sudden realization, Zhou Ziwei looked down at the blue fireball in front of him, which had shrunk to about the size of a size two bowl. He sighed in despair, then reached out and gently pushed the fireball, using it like a volleyball to hit the black-robed monster charging towards him. He then moved swiftly, preparing to slip through the wall and escape.
A wise man doesn't fight a losing battle. This monster in front of him is practically unkillable. Zhou Ziwei has already used almost all of his strongest techniques. Any method related to soul power has been completely ineffective against this black-robed monster. The butterfly dart was even swallowed whole by this guy, and the Soul Roar has become a powerful tonic. Even the fireball technique... sigh, Zhou Ziwei only knows one kind of natural energy attack: fireball and water arrow. He's turned the fireball into something harmless, and as for the water arrow... there's no water here. If he were to draw moisture from the air to condense a water arrow, the difficulty would be extremely high. Zhou Ziwei isn't confident he can use this method to deal with this monster.
Since there's no good way to deal with this guy right now, the best course of action is to run away. Anyway, we've already found the Dragon Group members. At most, they're all a bit delirious right now, but that's probably related to the strangeness of this place. Zhou Ziwei figured he should get Jiang Chunshui and the others out of this damned underground city first. Then he could either find a way to cure them or take them all back to China and then figure out how to help them regain their sanity.
Zhou Ziwei's plan was good, but the black-robed man clearly had no intention of letting him go. Seeing Zhou Ziwei turn around and run away, the man immediately let out a low groan that sounded like a ghost's cry. Then, his dark figure suddenly swayed and seemed to turn into a wisp of green smoke as he rushed straight towards them.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly startled. He immediately pushed off the ground with both legs and increased his speed to the maximum. With a "whoosh," he burrowed into the hole he had just punched through the wall and disappeared into the thick soil behind the metal and stone layer.
At the same time, Zhou Ziwei's soul power, which had been like a protective barrier around the blue fireball, was withdrawn as Zhou Ziwei quickly retreated.
Although Zhou Ziwei knew that now was not the best time to withdraw his soul power and let the fireball explode, because the black-robed monster had not yet reached the fireball, the power of the fireball after the explosion would be greatly reduced, and it was likely that it would not even be able to hurt a corner of the black-robed monster's robe.
However, feeling the fireball getting weaker and weaker, Zhou Ziwei could only feel extremely regretful. He no longer had any intention of using the fireball to achieve any effect. In any case, it was just a dud bomb. Even if it didn't hit anyone after exploding, if it could form a flame and even just slow down the black-robed monster's figure for a second or two, then the energy consumed by the fireball wouldn't have been completely wasted. It would still have some effect, wouldn't it?
So after Zhou Ziwei withdrew the soul power that was wrapped around the fireball, he immediately and desperately burrowed into the depths of the soil, intending to return to that strange, enclosed space and take Jiang Chunshui and the other members of the Dragon Group outside as soon as possible... This city buried deep underground was filled with an eerie atmosphere, and Zhou Ziwei really didn't want to stay here for another second.
Then, just as Zhou Ziwei desperately burrowed into the deep mud, he suddenly felt the entire earth shake violently. The surrounding soil seemed to go mad, rumbling and shaking incessantly, creating a scene reminiscent of the end of the world.
No way! Another earthquake? Or... is it like last time in Zhongdu, some strange thing underground causing trouble?
Zhou Ziwei immediately felt his face turn slightly pale, and he had an urge to curse out loud.
What is all this nonsense...? Does the Earth God have a grudge against me? Normally, everything underground is peaceful and harmonious, but every time I go deep underground, the earth starts to wreak havoc. This... this is unbearable!
This time, however, the commotion was clearly more terrifying than the one he had encountered underground in Zhongdu. Back then, he had only felt an incredibly powerful suction force from underground, pulling his body in and causing him to sink continuously.
After my body sank to a certain depth, I felt an immense pressure from the earth.
That pure pressure from the earth was absolutely as heavy as a mountain. Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei figured out a way to absorb and restore the earth's energy at the crucial moment, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise... Of course, it was during that time that Zhou Ziwei's body was constantly damaged and reshaped under the pressure of the earth. In the end, in order to adapt to the pressure of the earth, he actually reshaped such a miniature body. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei couldn't tell whether that incident was a blessing or a curse for him.
This time, however, the commotion was much stronger than the last. Not only did the surrounding earth tremble violently as if it were shaking, but then... Zhou Ziwei felt a scorching heat rushing towards him from behind, like a river bursting its banks.
Then, like a tidal wave, it engulfed him... and a large expanse of soil around him, all in the surging, raging torrent...
It's hot...so hot...it's fucking hot.
In that instant, Zhou Ziwei felt as if he were Sun Wukong being thrown into Laozi's Eight Trigrams Furnace, as if his whole body was surrounded by blazing flames.
The surging heat didn't have time to be absorbed much by Zhou Ziwei's alloy suit before it rushed into his body... instantly scorching Zhou Ziwei's body into a chaotic mess...
Flames... such hot flames... but... where did these flames come from? Could it be a volcanic eruption?
Despite being suddenly struck by this drastic change, Zhou Ziwei showed no panic. He frantically mobilized every meridian in his body that had not yet been burned, like a whale sucking in water, restoring all the flames that had entered his body into pure, attribute-free energy, and then absorbing it all into his middle dantian, which had become somewhat empty due to excessive use.
On one hand, it continuously released a large amount of liquid soul power that flowed throughout his body, allowing the super-strong restorative ability of that liquid soul power to keep every cell in his body at its most vigorous.
The body's many damaged organs were scorched beyond recognition by the raging heat of the flames, but under the influence of the liquid soul power, the charred cells were almost instantly devoured by other intact cells, and then decomposed again, repairing the damaged organs once more.
In the blink of an eye, countless cells in his body were burned countless times under this intense heat. Each time, a portion of the cells were burned and then instantly repaired, only to be burned and repaired again...
This process was repeated countless times until the surrounding temperature gradually began to drop, and the cells in Zhou Ziwei's body regenerated countless times.
After being tempered in the fire, Zhou Ziwei looked inward with his soul and was shocked to find that... in the nucleus of every cell in his body, there seemed to be a tiny blue flame.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the energy floating in the cell nucleus did indeed resemble a wisp of blue flame, but... it seemed to have no temperature at all.
Blue flames... without any temperature... why does this feel so familiar...?
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, then his expression changed drastically in horror...
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 547: The Blood-Red Butterfly
The fire energy... following the earth energy, merged so closely with Zhou Ziwei's body, creating an incredibly wonderful feeling. It gave Zhou Ziwei the illusion that he was the earth and the flames themselves.
However, when Zhou Ziwei used his soul consciousness to examine his own body and discovered that in the nucleus of every cell in his body, there seemed to be a trace of blue, temperatureless flame moving about, he was taken aback.
It seems that the fireball he had desperately condensed with fire energy, which was shrinking continuously, had finally turned blue and seemed to have lost all its temperature. He had once used that fireball as a volleyball, but when he touched the blue fireball, he didn't feel any heat at all.
And now... the flame with this characteristic has inexplicably entered his body and settled down in every cell of his body.
What's going on here? Could it be... that the flames that burned him to the point of ecstasy just now were actually... were actually created by himself?
Zhou Ziwei looked back, somewhat bewildered. He felt that the blue fireball, which resembled a stink bomb, shouldn't have had any effect. How could it have almost burned him to death? Moreover, after being scorched by the flames, Zhou Ziwei had desperately absorbed a large amount of fire energy from the flames. After converting it into attribute-less energy and storing it in his middle dantian, it almost filled his middle dantian again.
This shows how much energy he absorbed from that flame, but... how much elemental energy did he consume to create that blue fireball...? Even considering only the energy itself, it's impossible...
However, no matter how unbelievable it was to Zhou Ziwei, when he turned around and saw the strange change behind him, he couldn't help but be shocked.
Zhou Ziwei had already plunged headfirst into the thick soil, burrowing forty or fifty meters in one go.
This means that there should have been thick soil behind Zhou Ziwei, but now... a vast and expansive space has suddenly appeared behind him.
A huge space shaped like a sphere, about 100 meters in diameter, is perfectly balanced in every direction, both up and down, left and right, front and back. If you were to measure it with a ruler, you would be amazed at how regular the sphere is. Even if you hired a large group of skilled craftsmen to carve out such a spherical space, it would probably take several years and it would still be difficult to carve it out to be so regular!
Moreover, the four walls of this spherical space are no longer soil, but a smooth, mirror-like ceramic-like hard shell. This is because the soil here liquefied instantly under absolute high temperature and then solidified again, thus forming its current state.
In the entire spherical space, there was only a small gap on Zhou Ziwei's side. Zhou Ziwei's body was embedded in that gap, leaving a human-shaped mark on the entire ceramic-like sphere.
The reason I was able to survive those flames was because I had actually reached the edge of the flames' range. Perhaps... if I had run just a little bit slower... I would have been burned to nothing, just like the surrounding soil, and completely vaporized in an instant, leaving not even a trace behind.
What terrifying flames… Did I really create these flames? But I only intended to make a bomb, I never thought of making an atomic bomb… How could that little blue fireball have such terrifying destructive power? Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei subconsciously touched his body… Fortunately, the alloy suit he was wearing possessed the properties of various strange metals from another world, so he wasn't afraid of flames, but rather quite pleased with them. Moreover, the alloy suit itself had an independent soul controlling it, so even if some parts were burned, it could be restored to its original state with just a slight deformation.
Unfortunately, the Tyrant Spider that Zhou Ziwei had just captured, which had consumed a lot of his soul power, was burned to ashes in this undeserved disaster, leaving not even a single strand of spider silk behind.
Zhou Ziwei shook his head inwardly. Fortunately, he had never liked spiders to begin with, and the Kun pet had only been tamed for a short time, so there was no emotional attachment to it. It was just dead. At most, Zhou Ziwei felt a little cheated, but he wasn't too sad.
Looking around, the black-robed monster who seemed like an unkillable cockroach had long since vanished without a trace. It wasn't surprising, considering that even such a large area of soil had been burned to vaporization. And the black-robed monster was at the center of the blue fireball explosion; even if he were made of iron, he would probably have been burned to molten iron by now.
However, although the black-robed monster was nowhere to be seen, a small object, about the size of a one-yuan coin, appeared in the very center of the spherical space.
Butterfly dart.
Zhou Ziwei's heart skipped a beat. He sensed that the shape of the thing seemed to be no different from the butterfly dart that the black-robed monster had swallowed earlier, except that the color was very different. The butterfly dart was originally silver-white, but this thing had turned bright red, as if it had just been soaked in blood, which gave people a shocking feeling.
However, this is not surprising. After all, even the black-robed monster who was impossible to kill was burned to ashes by the powerful energy emitted by the blue fireball. The butterfly dart was inside the black-robed monster's stomach at the time, and it was a miracle that it survived under those circumstances. It is not hard to understand why it was burned beyond recognition and changed its original color during the process.
Just as Zhou Ziwei tried to use his soul power to control the blood-red butterfly dart and retrieve it, he suddenly felt as if his soul power had been wrapped around the dart, as if it had been branded with a red-hot iron. Instantly, he felt a burning pain from the depths of his soul power emanating from that wisp of soul power. In that short moment, Zhou Ziwei felt a large part of his soul power being corroded away.
Moreover, as Zhou Ziwei's wisp of soul power was continuously corroded and dissipated, that terrifying corrosive force was actually still spreading along Zhou Ziwei's soul power, slowly burning towards his physical body.
Judging from the situation, if Zhou Ziwei didn't stop it, this terrifying corrosive power would even burn all the way into his sea of souls, incinerating his entire soul into nothingness.
Holy crap... This was clearly a magical artifact used by a Spirit Warrior, how... how has it turned into a poison for Spirit Warriors? Just a touch of soul power is enough to kill someone!
Zhou Ziwei was shocked and dared not be negligent. He quickly made a move and without hesitation severed the strand of soul power that had extended out like an antenna, completely eliminating its connection with his body.
He finally escaped a disaster, avoiding being burned alive by the terrifying corrosive power of the blood-red butterfly dart.
How did this thing become like this...? This is my butterfly dart... Am I just supposed to watch it like this, unable to use it?
Zhou Ziwei felt quite unwilling, but he dared not use his soul power to touch that thing again. He was afraid that if he touched it again, he would really trigger the terrible corrosive power on that thing and burn his sea of soul in one go. Wouldn't he be devastated then?
However… considering how magical this thing was, Zhou Ziwei couldn’t bear to just leave it in this underground world. After hesitating for a moment, he thought that since he couldn’t touch it with his soul power, he could still touch it with wind energy, or even with his physical body… As long as he didn’t use his soul power, there shouldn’t be any problems!
That's what he thought, but when Zhou Ziwei actually tried to grab such a terrifying thing with his bare hands, he was a little scared. So he quickly used wind energy to create a small whirlwind, which swept up the blood-red butterfly dart that had fallen to the bottom of the spherical space.
As expected... the terrifying corrosiveness of this crimson butterfly dart only affects soul power. Wind energy is unharmed when it comes into contact with the dart. However, Zhou Ziwei dared not let the crimson butterfly dart get too close to him. Otherwise, if he accidentally released a wisp of soul power to explore and encountered this thing... he would probably have to make the difficult decision to cut off that wisp of soul power.
Indeed, it possesses a very powerful corrosive force... Zhou Ziwei knew that his butterfly dart had most likely been contaminated by some mysterious power from the black-robed monster when it was burned by flames, and that power had completely permeated the butterfly dart, which was why it had become what it was now.
No wonder that black-robed monster wasn't afraid of any attacks on soul power. It seems that the black-robed monster had a special ability to counter soul power. Fortunately, the black-robed monster's strength in life didn't seem to be as strong as this blood-red butterfly dart, otherwise... Zhou Ziwei would have suffered a great loss at his hands.
Zhou Ziwei was somewhat envious of the powerful and terrifying energy of the Crimson Butterfly Dart. He knew that if he could control such a treasure that specifically destroyed spiritual energy at will, then when he encountered a high-level spiritual martial artist like the Linen Monster in the future, he would have an extra weapon to defeat him. Just throw the Crimson Butterfly Dart outwards... and the Linen Monster would be so frightened that he would run as far away as possible. This thing was simply too heaven-defying, and it seemed to be tailor-made to deal with spiritual martial artists.
Therefore, no matter what, Zhou Ziwei will definitely not leave this treasure here; he must take it with him.
However... carrying this thing around is far too dangerous. Zhou Ziwei must be careful at all times, lest he lose a portion of his soul power due to a moment of carelessness.
It seems best not to keep this thing with me for now. I'll let Jiang Chunshui and the others hold it for now. They don't know how to release their soul power outwards, so they won't trigger the corrosive power within the Crimson Butterfly Dart. I'll find an opportunity to study it slowly after returning home and see how to use this Crimson Butterfly Dart safely and effectively!
While gently supporting the blood-red butterfly dart with a wisp of whirlwind, Zhou Ziwei once again used his technique of merging with the earth, plunging headfirst into the soil. After only a moment, he returned to the sealed stone chamber where Jiang Chunshui and the others had been imprisoned.
The fifteen people were still lying unconscious on the ground. Zhou Ziwei had used his soul power to penetrate their consciousness and damage their souls, and it would be difficult for them to wake up in the short term.
Although Zhou Ziwei knew that someone had tampered with these fifteen people, making them somewhat confused and tainted with a terrifying aura, they were like walking corpses who only knew how to kill in a frenzy.
However, this underground city was full of strangeness and danger. There was no idea how many more like that black-robed monster there were, so Zhou Ziwei dared not stay here any longer and decided to leave as soon as possible.
As for the problem with these people... Zhou Ziwei believed that after he safely led them out, he could slowly figure out a way to expel the evil energy from their souls and consciousness.
And once that malevolent energy is gone from their souls, they should be able to recover to a reasonable extent!
One person leading fifteen unconscious people together... Only a freak like Zhou Ziwei would have such an idea. If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't have the ability.
There are fifteen people here... If so many people gathered together, they would be enough to fill a truck. If Zhou Ziwei tried to lift them by himself, he wouldn't even be able to.
However, Zhou Ziwei did not need to expend his own power at all. With a thought, he released the large amount of attribute-less energy that he had just stored in his body and transformed it back into earth energy. After slowly merging it completely with the surrounding earth, he then had another thought.
With a deafening roar, the stone chamber collapsed completely, and countless rubble and dirt rained down from nowhere. However, Zhou Ziwei showed no fear. In a flash, a pangolin-like object made entirely of rubble and dirt material ...
This was a new method that Zhou Ziwei came up with on a whim when he thought about turning water into a dragon during his last solo fight with that burlap monster. Of course... as long as he merged with the surrounding earth energy, Zhou Ziwei could turn the entire stone chamber into a living entity at any time, and then make the stone chamber seem to come alive and crawl out from the deep underground.