In other words, for every new soul absorbed, Zhou Ziwei can extend the ladybug's life by five more days.
Although the ladybug only needs to provide the soul power of two remnant souls each time it replenishes its life, this amount is not much for Zhou Ziwei now, but it cannot withstand the consumption over a long period of time.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei never wanted to miss any opportunity to replenish his soul power.
Just as Zhou Ziwei was hesitating whether to look around to see if the newborn soul had escaped far, he suddenly heard a weak cough coming from ahead.
Zhou Ziwei was stunned for a moment before he realized... it wasn't that a newborn soul had escaped, but rather that there was still one ruthless bandit who wasn't quite dead yet!
Zhou Ziwei followed the coughing sound and found that the surviving creature was actually a fanged dragon. Its heart had been pierced, and blood was flowing like a small river, but it was still able to hold on to its last breath. Its vitality was truly remarkable!
"What...aren't you surprised?"
Zhou Ziwei squatted down next to the fanged dragon. Seeing that the guy was staring at him with his goldfish eyes, Zhou Ziwei smiled smugly and said, "Are you wondering how I can stand up again when all four of my limbs have been broken?"
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he lightly rolled up one of his sleeves and waved the elbow that should have been shot in front of the fanged dragon, saying, "See? I wasn't actually shot at all. Those shots just hit the blood bags hanging on my body. I used to be a stuntman, I'm very good at this kind of trick, hehe..."
Upon hearing this, the buck-toothed dragon's already small eyes widened even more, resembling steamed buns. He struggled to turn his neck to the side, and seeing Xiao Liu, whom he had killed first, he uttered a few broken words: "Xiao...Xiao Liu...traitor..."
Of course, Baoyalong never expected that Zhou Ziwei would have such a monstrous ability to dodge bullets at close range, so he naturally connected it to the fact that Xiao Liuzi was an inside traitor.
Because Xiao Liuzi fired all the shots at Zhou Ziwei, and only with Xiao Liuzi's full cooperation could the play be performed well. Otherwise, even if Zhou Ziwei had hidden blood bags on his body beforehand, how could he guarantee that other people's bullets would hit his blood bags?
Zhou Ziwei chuckled inwardly upon hearing this. Since he wanted to think that way, so be it. Zhou Ziwei naturally wouldn't expose him. He nodded and said, "That's right... Looks like you're not too confused after all!"
The man with the buck teeth had initially felt a little guilty about accidentally killing Xiao Liu, but now he was filled with endless resentment. He gritted his teeth, glanced at the pistol that had misfired twice and tossed aside, and stammered, "The gun...the gun...there's...something wrong with it..."
Zhou Ziwei chuckled and said, "The gun is fine, it's your character that's the problem..."
"I...I have character flaws...flaws...flaws..."
The fanged dragon was clearly bewildered by Zhou Ziwei's last words, but Zhou Ziwei ignored him. He could only mutter to himself before finally taking his last breath.
Zhou Ziwei's biggest secret was his special ability, and he certainly wouldn't reveal it to anyone, not even a dying person.
Besides, aren't there two other living people nearby? Even if Zhou Ziwei, the driver who brought him here, could be killed to silence him, he certainly wouldn't harm Liu Xiaofei.
Although Liu Xiaofei had already fainted when blood and tears streamed from her eyes, what if she had actually woken up at that moment? Therefore, Zhou Ziwei cautiously refrained from telling the truth.
Zhou Ziwei waited until the fanged dragon was completely dead, and only after he saw a faint phantom gently float up from the dragon's corpse did he recite the six-syllable mantra again in his mind, decomposing and absorbing the dragon's newborn soul.
Zhou Ziwei was then surprised to discover that the soul power contained in this fanged dragon's soul was actually more than that of other newly born souls, basically equivalent to the soul power of fourteen remnant souls.
This was something Zhou Ziwei had never encountered before, which piqued his curiosity.
But thinking about it, this isn't surprising. It's like two people, one who's listless all day and the other who's mentally exhausted all day. It's likely that the soul power these two people possess would be quite different.
However, most newborn souls have roughly the same amount of soul power, which is why they are difficult to detect.
The fact that this fanged dragon could hold on for so long after its heart was pierced is not surprising, as its soul power is stronger than others.
Zhou Ziwei didn't have time to study the problem any further. After absorbing the soul of the fanged dragon, he immediately went over and helped up the unconscious Liu Xiaofei.
Zhou Ziwei had seen Liu Xiaofei's state just now and knew that the girl thought his limbs had really been broken. Moreover, under such circumstances, he was still desperately crawling over to save her while facing the enemy's guns... That's why Liu Xiaofei was so moved that she cried buckets.
Zhou Ziwei never expected that Liu Xiaofei would eventually go to such lengths for him, which shows how much pain and emotion Liu Xiaofei must have felt at that time!
Zhou Ziwei felt extremely guilty about this, but only he knew in his heart that he was not as good as Liu Xiaofei imagined.
He knew that the reason he rushed here immediately after learning that Liu Xiaofei had been kidnapped was only partly to rescue her. He probably also wanted to eliminate this group of ruthless bandits once and for all to avoid leaving any potential threats.
When Zhou Ziwei saw blood and tears streaming from Liu Xiaofei's eyes, he was truly moved. However... at that moment, he dared not make the slightest move. Under the cover of the enemy's guns, he could only continue to pretend to be clinging to life and struggling in his death throes.
Fortunately, by then, the ten-meter distance was already very close.
Just as the fanged dragon grabbed Xiao Liuzi and angrily pointed a gun at Xiao Liuzi's head, Zhou Ziwei barely managed to crawl within ten meters of the bandits. He then immediately released his soul power to capture the pistol in the fanged dragon's hand.
After devouring the souls of a large number of ghost bats, Zhou Ziwei became increasingly proficient in using soul power. In less than a few seconds, he successfully created a new, independent soul within the pistol.
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Ziwei did not hesitate to let the independent soul inside the pistol control the gun to fire a bullet, which entered Xiao Liuzi's head.
Although this little Liu Zi didn't seem to have a shred of conscience left, he actually dared to plead for Liu Xiaofei under the tyranny of the fanged dragon.
However, Zhou Ziwei didn't have many other options at the time. Moreover, Xiao Liuzi only asked Baoyalong not to abuse Liu Xiaofei, but he didn't think about actually saving Liu Xiaofei's life.
Therefore... Zhou Ziwei could only use this person as a breakthrough point to dismantle these six ruthless bandits in one fell swoop.
Everything went smoothly. After capturing a pistol, Zhou Ziwei didn't lift a finger and successfully caused the six ruthless bandits to kill each other.
Liu Xiaofei was still strapped with a time bomb, and with only four minutes left, Zhou Ziwei didn't have time to worry about the driver who had collapsed in the rain. He quickly hugged Liu Xiaofei, letting her lean against him, and concentrated on gently placing a finger on the time bomb on her chest. Then, he slowly channeled his soul power into the time bomb, preparing to create an independent soul within it. Only then would he dare to safely disarm the time bomb.
After Zhou Ziwei captured the gun in the hand of the fanged dragon from a distance, he couldn't wait to capture the time bomb at the same time.
But who knew that after observing with his soul power, he discovered that the thing strapped to Liu Xiaofei was actually a very rare heart rate control bomb.
In addition to the timer, the bomb also has a hidden heart rhythm detonator connected to Liu Xiaofei's heart rhythm. Even if the timer switch on the bomb fails, it will explode immediately as soon as it leaves Liu Xiaofei's body and can no longer sense her heartbeat.
Zhou Ziwei originally thought that he only needed to capture the heart rhythm control device as well, but he was surprised to find that the heart rhythm control device was actually made with a peculiar biotechnology. In the core component of the controller, there was no common microcomputer chip, but it contained an insect that looked like it was in hibernation.
Zhou Ziwei had inherited the memories of several remnant souls who were quite familiar with firearms and weapons, but he had never heard of a time bomb being controlled by a living insect.
He could only marvel at the genius of the man who created the bomb! For ordinary bomb disposal experts, this kind of bio-controlled bomb was a nightmare, an insurmountable problem.
Zhou Ziwei couldn't figure out the principle behind how the bomb was made, but he knew that to prevent it from exploding, he had to capture the dormant bug in the controller first, and he absolutely couldn't dismantle the timed detonator first, because there was a thin metal connection between the two controllers.
Zhou Ziwei guessed that if he stopped the timer first, it might stimulate the sleeping insects and cause the bomb to explode suddenly, which would only lead to certain death!
To capture that worm, it can't be done remotely; he has to make direct physical contact with the worm to have any chance of recreating an independent soul within its body.
Regardless of how much soul power it would take to create this independent soul entity, the difficulty alone is considerable; it certainly can't be accomplished in a few seconds... Moreover... because Zhou Ziwei failed several times before finally succeeding in capturing the ladybug that night, he's very likely to fail again this time, and the result of that failure... might cause the bomb to detonate prematurely...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 120: I Won't Be a Good Person in My Next Life
Human nature is selfish, and Zhou Ziwei was no exception. However, seeing the girl who had just been heartbroken and wept for him struggling on the verge of death, Zhou Ziwei could not bring himself to abandon her. So, even though defusing the bomb was extremely dangerous, Zhou Ziwei did it without any hesitation.
However, just as Zhou Ziwei was about to concentrate on solving this problem at the risk of being smashed to pieces, he heard a piercing siren, and then saw three police cars speeding towards him through the misty rain.
"Click-click-click..."
Three police cars stopped not far from the timber warehouse, and seven or eight police officers jumped out and nervously pointed their guns at Zhou Ziwei.
"You, surnamed Zhou, what... what have you done to my little Feizi?!"
After the police officers took their positions, Gu Dongfeng got out of the car with the help of a tall, strong, and well-dressed young man in his early twenties.
When Gu Dongfeng saw Liu Xiaofei's eyes were closed and her face was covered in blood, he was startled. He angrily pointed at Zhou Ziwei and tried to rush forward, but was firmly stopped by the police officers next to him.
It turned out that when Gu Dongfeng caught up with Liu Xiaofei this morning, he saw that although Liu Xiaofei was a little down, she didn't act too badly, so he wasn't too worried. When Liu Xiaofei said that she wanted to take a walk by herself to clear her mind, Gu Dongfeng didn't say anything more. After all, the two of them were decades apart in age and had a serious generation gap. He wanted to say a few words to Liu Xiaofei, but he didn't know how.
After thinking about it, he invited Liu Xiaofei to his house for a casual dinner that evening, and then introduced her to his godson whom he had recently taken in a couple of years ago.
Gu Dongfeng wasn't so confused as to want to immediately introduce another boyfriend to Liu Xiaofei. He just thought that his godson was eloquent and about the same age as Liu Xiaofei, so he thought it would be more effective to have his godson persuade Liu Xiaofei.
To his surprise, after his wife prepared a sumptuous feast that evening and he called his godson over, Gu Dongfeng waited and waited but Liu Xiaofei did not show up. Gu Dongfeng began to feel uneasy.
They then called the hotel, but no one was in Liu Xiaofei's room, so the call went unanswered. They then called the hotel front desk, but were told that Liu Xiaofei hadn't returned since leaving that morning.
This finally made Gu Dongfeng a little worried. He waited a while longer, until after 10 p.m., when he still hadn't seen anyone. Finally, Gu Dongfeng couldn't help but call the police.
Given Mr. Gu's social standing, the police naturally wouldn't neglect him. Especially after learning that the missing person was a police officer from Kunming, they became even more anxious and quickly mobilized all the police forces in the county to search for him throughout the county overnight.
The county town is only so big, and there aren't many places that can still operate at this late hour. The police searched all the places they needed to in less than an hour, but still couldn't find Liu Xiaofei.
This makes people even more suspicious that Liu Xiaofei may have had an accident.
Finally, with no other option, the police had to turn their investigation to Zhou Ziwei.
They had already conducted an investigation and knew that Zhou Ziwei had returned to his hotel room after leaving the coffee shop in the morning and had not come out since, while Liu Xiaofei had not returned to the hotel at all during this period. Therefore, there was virtually no possibility that Zhou Ziwei had plotted against Liu Xiaofei.
However, since there were no other clues at hand, Captain Zhang of the Criminal Investigation Team had no choice but to hold onto a sliver of hope and send an officer to find Zhou Ziwei and conduct a casual investigation to see if Zhou Ziwei could provide any useful clues.
Unexpectedly, the police officer arrived at the hotel on his motorcycle and saw Zhou Ziwei hurriedly walk out of the hotel, get into a taxi, and head straight for the suburbs.
The officer immediately noted down the taxi's license plate number and checked it. He discovered that the car had just been stolen, and the owner had reported the theft just five minutes earlier.
The officer quickly reported the situation to Captain Zhang. Upon hearing this, Captain Zhang immediately increased the suspicion on Zhou Ziwei. He then instructed the officer to carefully follow Zhou Ziwei, but not to alert him. He only needed to keep track of him. Meanwhile, Captain Zhang arrived with several detectives to provide backup.
At that time, Gu Dongfeng was waiting for news at the police station with his godson. When he heard that there was a clue and it seemed to be related to Zhou Ziwei, the old man couldn't sit still and insisted on coming with Captain Zhang to see what was going on.
Captain Zhang couldn't persuade the old man otherwise, so he had no choice but to pull both of them over.
Zhou Ziwei was initially quite impatient, but upon seeing that Old Master Gu Dongfeng was among the visitors, he frowned and explained, "Officer Liu has been kidnapped by these thugs, and I came here specifically to rescue her."
"You're here to rescue her? Then..."
Gu Dongfeng looked at the corpses lying haphazardly around him and asked in confusion, "Who are these people...?"
"Of course they're kidnappers! Do you think they're just spectators watching the show?" Zhou Ziwei saw that there were only three minutes left on the timer on the bomb, and he couldn't help but feel anxious. His tone became impatient as he spoke.
"Hey... how dare you talk to my godfather like that?"
Before Gu Dongfeng could say anything, the young man beside him objected, stepping forward and pointing at Zhou Ziwei's nose, saying, "I don't care whether you're here to rescue my cousin or are an accomplice of the kidnappers. Now I'm telling you to put my cousin down immediately, raise your hands and surrender obediently, otherwise... hehe... otherwise you'll be resisting arrest!"
After the young man finished speaking with great enthusiasm, he turned to a man in a police officer's uniform next to him and whispered, "Captain Zhang, am I right?"
Upon hearing this, Captain Zhang frowned slightly and said, "Mr. Zhang, although this person is highly suspicious, and our police have an obligation and a necessity to conduct further investigations into him, Mr. Zhang, you are not a police officer. It's... a bit inappropriate for you to say such things, isn't it?"
"What's inappropriate about it!"
The young man sneered arrogantly, but when Gu Dongfeng turned and glared at him, his arrogance vanished, and he quickly adopted a humble demeanor, saying, "Since Captain Zhang thinks it's inappropriate for me to handle this, then you should hurry up and arrest that guy! Didn't you see what he was doing? He actually dared to touch my cousin's chest in front of so many people... Bastard! Even if he's not a kidnapper, he definitely has no good intentions towards my cousin... Hmph... Daring to mess with my cousin! I, Zhang Jie, will definitely make him regret this time!"
Captain Zhang had also noticed that Zhou Ziwei had his hands inside Liu Xiaofei's clothes the entire time, and hadn't removed them even under the watchful eyes of so many police officers. He was getting annoyed, so he ignored Zhang Jie's gesturing and immediately stepped forward, shouting, "Mr. Zhou Ziwei, perhaps the case is indeed as you say, but we must investigate to know if you are truly innocent… Until the case is concluded, you will be the primary witness and suspect. So… now, please release Officer Liu immediately, put your hands behind your head, and come forward. I warn you, do not attempt to resist or try to escape, otherwise we will shoot!"
Seeing the corpses scattered everywhere at the crime scene, along with several pistols strewn about, Captain Zhang dared not be careless. Regardless of whether Zhou Ziwei was innocent or not, he had no choice but to take him into custody immediately before conducting a detailed investigation.
Zhou Ziwei knew that if he didn't explain things clearly to these people, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on debunking the deadly bomb that was on Liu Xiaofei.
Left with no other choice, he gently lifted Liu Xiaofei's shirt and said, "Officer Liu has been hit by a time bomb planted by the kidnappers. There are two minutes and thirty-eight seconds left before it explodes. If any of you are absolutely certain you can successfully detonate it before it explodes, then I'll listen to you and cooperate with your investigation... So, who here is a bomb disposal expert? Or if you're not, it doesn't matter. If anyone has the guts, come and assist me. If not... then all of you get the hell out of here and don't waste my time and life!"
Zhou Ziwei's voice grew louder and louder as he spoke, and by the last sentence, it was almost an angry roar.
He wasn't entirely confident about capturing the little bug inside the bomb to begin with, and now that these people were interfering, he became even more agitated. He knew that if he made a move now, his chances of success would probably decrease by another 20%.
However, the timer on the bomb was running out, and he didn't have much time to calm himself down. So Zhou Ziwei didn't choose to control his emotions, but instead simply vented his dissatisfaction loudly.
It's important to understand that releasing emotions is always a faster way to alleviate them than suppressing them.
Everyone present was stunned by Zhou Ziwei's shout.
Under the bright spotlights above the police car, they could clearly see a meticulously designed time bomb strapped to Liu Xiaofei's coat... At least on the surface, it was indeed a time bomb, with the timer display decreasing second by second. After Zhou Ziwei finished speaking, only two minutes and twenty-one seconds remained!
"It's fake...who are you trying to fool? That bomb must be fake...it must be you...you made it up to win my cousin's heart, yes...it must be!"
Two years ago, Zhang Jie saw Liu Xiaofei's photo through Gu Dongfeng and couldn't stop thinking about this god-sister he had never met. He even made two special trips to Kunming, hoping to get closer to Liu Xiaofei and win her heart.