With Zhou Ziwei's speed, if he were to sprint at full speed, even those other cars might not be able to outrun him.
However, this speed is quite physically demanding. Zhou Ziwei was fine for a short time, but he couldn't take it for long.
Fortunately, the car that Zhou Ziwei had rented was also hidden not far ahead on this road. Soon, Zhou Ziwei ran to the location where the car was hidden, drove it out, and then continued to follow the convoy at a distance, staying a few kilometers behind the convoy until they reached that small city.
The geology survey team has a base here. After they arrived, they were immediately taken in by the police for investigation, and then returned to their base to rest.
Zhou Ziwei stayed in a hotel a few hundred meters away from that base, keeping a close watch on the situation there.
He quickly determined that the problem must lie with the American woman in the memory images transmitted by the fruit fly. Zhou Ziwei learned that the two Americans had temporarily joined the geological survey team three days earlier, the day after Zhou Ziwei submitted his mission.
The man named Tom was indeed an American geology graduate student stationed in Vietnam, while the blonde beauty named Jenny was Tom's former classmate. She suddenly came to the area three days ago, approached Tom, and said she wanted to travel to the mountainous region of Vietnam. She begged Tom to help her find an opportunity to go out with her.
So Tom used his connections to join the geological survey team that was originally working in the mountains, along with Jenny...
So Zhou Ziwei listed Jenny as a key target for surveillance, with two fruit flies watching her all day long. Tom was not completely ruled out either, as there was still a fruit fly observing him.
Zhou Ziwei didn't just wait around; he went to the largest computer mall in the area and bought himself a brand new desktop computer that could be assembled to the highest specifications.
He didn't plan to take the computer with him; he only intended to use it once and then throw it away. However, he didn't feel bad about spending tens of thousands of dollars. After all, he was rich... He had just completed that task, which brought him another 27 million US dollars. Although he couldn't use the money for the time being, looking at the string of numbers that had increased in his account still gave him a bit of a nouveau riche feeling.
Thinking back to his past life, how he tightened his belt to buy a beat-up secondhand computer that sounded like a tractor when it was turned on, all to save money for his two daughters, Yu Xiaoya and Yu Xiaoru, to go to school, and now he was spending tens of thousands of yuan on a new computer only to throw it away after using it once... It really felt like living two lives...
Zhou Ziwei plugged in his computer at the hotel, familiarized himself with the keyboard, and then eagerly connected to the internet to begin his hacking journey.
He first created a new email address, then quickly edited an email package that could automatically root itself in the recipient's data manager and obtain feedback from the recipient. Then, using a dozen or so botnets he randomly found online, he sent the email to the email address he had previously obtained from Jenny...
Half a minute later, the computer notified him that the other party had opened his email package. Zhou Ziwei's spirits lifted, and his two fingers flew across the keyboard, performing a series of precise operations. Then, the image on the screen changed... A woman dripping blood grinned silently at him with a wide-open mouth...
Holy crap... I've got a virus!
Zhou Ziwei was so frustrated he felt like vomiting blood. He had no choice but to immediately and decisively shut down his computer and unplug the network cable to prevent the other party from tracing his location.
As expected... This black market assassin network has managed to make a name for itself by operating a mysterious assassin platform through the internet, completely ignoring the wanted notices and crackdowns of various governments, yet it has remained standing. Within this organization, at least the hacking and anti-hacking skills are absolutely top-notch.
Zhou Ziwei had initially been somewhat confident in his hacking skills, but now he was completely convinced of his inferiority.
There are always people better than you, and there's always something beyond your understanding. This old saying is certainly true. At least in the field of hacking, Zhou Ziwei has definitely not reached the peak yet, and there is still a considerable distance to go before he does.
Zhou Ziwei secretly made up his mind that once he had completely dismantled the black market assassin network, he would devour the soul of the most skilled hacker in the organization and completely take over the hacking skills.
However, Zhou Ziwei was secretly horrified by the thought that he had such a thought. He had never thought of killing someone to steal their precious soul memories before. It seemed that once he started this, he would easily become more and more evil and inhuman. Wouldn't he really transform into a devil then?
Zhou Ziwei shook his head vigorously, trying to temporarily clear his mind of these chaotic thoughts...
Throughout the entire night, Zhou Ziwei received no valuable clues from the soul memories returned by the fruit fly. Jenny didn't make a single phone call all night and remained remarkably quiet, which made Zhou Ziwei start to get a little impatient.
Ah Da and Ah Er are still deep in the mountains and forests. The little princess and the boys have probably woken up by now. I wonder if those little guys will reveal Ah Da and Ah Er's true colors.
After all, Ah Er is still alright; now he looks so different that even his own mother probably wouldn't recognize him. But Ah Da's appearance hasn't changed much.
Those four children have been in Storm Valley for quite some time, so they're probably quite familiar with Ah Da. If Ah Da and Ah Er find out that they've actually been members of the Storm Mercenary Group all along, it could cause some unforeseen trouble.
If the little mosquito had been watching over things, it could have knocked the person who was talking nonsense unconscious if something like this happened... However, since the little mosquito also needs Zhou Ziwei to replenish its soul power at least once a day, the ladybug and the little mosquito took turns guarding the people on the helicopter after Zhou Ziwei left the mountain area. They would switch shifts every twenty hours or so.
The insects that are removed will immediately fly back so that Zhou Ziwei can replenish their soul power.
So, the little mosquito wasn't in that helicopter 24/7. If the little mosquito wasn't there, the ladybug couldn't stop the children from talking nonsense. After all, ladybugs are quick to kill people, but they can't just knock them unconscious.
Moreover, the food and water left on the helicopter were only enough to sustain those few people for a few days, so the situation here had to be resolved as soon as possible.
The next morning, Jenny still hadn't received any news, but Zhou Ziwei finally received an email from the black market assassin network.
His application has been approved, and he is required to arrive at a small island in the Philippine archipelago within seven days. There, he will contact a contact person and then be taken to undergo certification testing by the black market assassin network.
Before he could receive the certification, he had to complete an assassination mission for the Black Market Assassin Network without pay. His target was a high-ranking official at the ministerial level in a certain island nation.
Zhou Ziwei was delighted when he saw the assassination target. When he joined the black market assassin network, he registered his nationality as this island nation, and he had always insisted on using the island nation's language in all communications and emails.
Based on the language skills of the professional translator he had directly absorbed, there was absolutely no sign of unfamiliarity or unfamiliarity with the language in his use. Even the most professional person would likely conclude that the island language was his native tongue.
It was probably because he successfully deceived the people on the black market assassin network, making them believe that the nationality he filled in was accurate, that they assigned him this task. Their intention was undoubtedly to make him pledge his allegiance first.
If he were an undercover agent from some country trying to infiltrate a black market assassin network, this single act of loyalty would put him in a difficult position.
However, Zhou Ziwei didn't actually have much resistance to this pledge of allegiance. Although he wasn't exactly a typical radical, he had never felt any goodwill towards the people of the island nation, having lived two lives. Therefore, to achieve his goal, he didn't hesitate to kill a potentially innocent official... after all, the official had chosen to kill someone from the very ethnic group he hated most.
After receiving this reply, Zhou Ziwei hesitated once again, but in the end he decided to let Jenny go for the time being, that is, to temporarily put this clue aside.
Although he might be able to get some useful information out of Jenny if he kidnapped her now, it would be more likely to alert her.
It's also quite possible that the woman knew nothing about it. If she really was just an insignificant pawn bought by the black market assassin network, then it would be a huge waste for Zhou Ziwei to expose his intentions by kidnapping her.
Having made this decision, Zhou Ziwei wasted no more time. He immediately recalled the few soul pets that were still monitoring the area and then quickly returned to the mountains...
It took Zhou Ziwei about two days to get to this city when he followed the geological survey team, but the return trip was much faster. He hid the car in the same spot, and then Zhou Ziwei ran as fast as he could to the location of the helicopter.
Fortunately, nothing happened during the few days we were away. Ah Da and Ah Er's reactions remained normal. Although the little princess and the three little boys had already woken up, they had become very quiet, perhaps because they had suffered a lot in the Storm Mercenary Group. During this time, they rarely spoke and were extremely quiet, which was seriously inconsistent with their age.
When Zhou Ziwei returned, A Da and A Er immediately showed him extreme enthusiasm, as if they had seen a long-lost relative. On the contrary, the other children were very wary of Zhou Ziwei.
Zhou Ziwei didn't seem displeased. He explained to the children in a friendly manner that the Storm Mercenary Group no longer existed, and that if they wanted to go home, he would try to find their families and send them back.
If they have nowhere to go, Zhou Ziwei will also help arrange their future life.
When it came to family, the seemingly cool kids couldn't help but show their childlike nature, their eyes all reddening, and the little princess cried even more uncontrollably.
Because their families were all dead, killed by the Storm Mercenary Group. Two of the boys had even been forced by the mercenaries to kill their own relatives.
For them, even if they had no relatives left in the world, they would never go back.
Zhou Ziwei could only sigh at the matter, then said nothing more, immediately started the helicopter, and flew directly towards the Yunnan border of China...
As they approached the border, Zhou Ziwei had to resort to some extraordinary measures to ensure a safe crossing.
He first parked the plane in a relatively safe area on the border side, and then sent Ladybug out to reach the Vietnamese border guards' garrison first. Ladybug brutally killed three mid-level border guards and destroyed their radar detection system, throwing the entire border garrison into chaos.
On the Chinese border, Zhou Ziwei certainly wouldn't use the same methods. Fortunately, he had already made arrangements with Wu Di. Within the agreed time, Wu Di demonstrated his power as a local strongman on the border, creating just enough trouble for the border guards to attract their attention. This allowed Zhou Ziwei to successfully cross the border safely without any major incident.
"Mr. Zhou, how have you been?"
At a secret training base near the Yunnan border, Wu Di respectfully welcomed Zhou Ziwei and his group to his office.
Ever since the incident where Zhou Ziwei's roar shook everyone in the building, Wu Di had always kept his position in mind. He knew that for Zhou Ziwei, replacing him would be as easy as lifting a finger, but Zhou Ziwei hadn't done so and had allowed him to retain everything he had. This filled Wu Di with gratitude, but even more so with awe.
Therefore, although Zhou Ziwei did not take over his property, Wu Di regarded himself as a subordinate. No matter what request Zhou Ziwei made to him, he would do his best to help Zhou Ziwei and dared not be negligent in the slightest.
Moreover, no one knows better than him what Zhou Ziwei has been doing during this time... Killing the princeling Xiao Yundong and completely eradicating the Dark Elves—any one of these things is something Wu Di couldn't have done.
And now... he knows even more that Zhou Ziwei has set his sights on the world's most mysterious and terrifying black market assassin network...
Wu Di now has a kind of blind worship for Zhou Ziwei. No matter how powerful the black market assassin network is, as long as Zhou Ziwei finds the organization's headquarters, he believes that Zhou Ziwei can definitely do it.
The power of that roar has haunted Wu Di's dreams more than once, and he still can't escape that nightmare...
“Your legs…” Zhou Ziwei glanced at Wu Di, who was still sitting in a wheelchair, and said calmly, “You should still be able to walk, so why are you always in a wheelchair?”
Zhou Ziwei felt that Wu Di had helped him a lot recently, and there hadn't been much conflict or contradiction between them. Now Wu Di didn't owe him anything, but he owed Wu Di a lot. So he planned to do something for Wu Di. Seeing that Wu Di was always in a wheelchair, he thought that he could help him heal his leg injury.
However, after he used his soul power to examine Wu Di's legs, he was astonished to find that Wu Di had only suffered a gunshot wound to his left leg, which had damaged the bone, while the other leg was intact. Even if the injury to his left leg would affect his walking, it shouldn't mean he would have to be in a wheelchair forever...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 265: The Water of Reincarnation
Zhou Ziwei asked Wu Di out of genuine concern, but Wu Di was immediately terrified, his face turning deathly pale. He hurriedly stood up from his wheelchair and said in a trembling voice, "Mr. Zhou, I absolutely did not mean to deceive you. I... I can indeed walk, but... after this leg was injured once, I found that my limping gait was really unsightly, so... so I simply started using a wheelchair."
Zhou Ziwei nodded upon hearing this and said, "Oh...I see!"
Zhou Ziwei was fairly understanding of Wu Di's answer. Men, after all, all have a sense of self-respect. Walking with a limp would attract strange looks from others, while sitting still no matter where you go would give you more of an imposing presence.
Just like when Zhou Ziwei first saw Wu Di at the gym, Wu Di was sitting on a sofa that seemed to move around, looking completely at ease. After exchanging a few words with Zhou Ziwei, he quickly retreated from the sofa to behind more than a hundred burly men, looking incredibly arrogant. If Wu Di hadn't been sitting on the sofa but had instead limped backward... he would have looked rather pathetic.
Zhou Ziwei spoke calmly, but Wu Di remained terrified and hurriedly continued to explain, "Of course... I... I did this to deliberately show weakness to the enemy. If any business rivals want to assassinate me, seeing me in a wheelchair every day, they will only treat me as a disabled person. So, if they want to send people to deal with me, they certainly won't take me, the person in question, seriously. They will only consider the fighting strength of the people around me. In this way... when someone really tries to assassinate me, I can use this as a surprise attack and catch them off guard..."
But, Mr. Zhou… please believe me, I, Wu Di, have never intended to deceive you in the slightest. It's just that you've never asked me, so I haven't told you. I truly… truly haven't lied to you… To you, if you really wanted to kill me, you could easily annihilate me with a single breath. Why would you care whether I'm lame or paralyzed? To you, the two seem to make no difference at all…”
Zhou Ziwei hadn't expected his casual question to frighten Wu Di so much. He quickly waved his hand with a wry smile and said, "Don't be nervous. I didn't mean to blame you. I was just asking casually... Well, you helped me a lot recently, and I, Zhou Ziwei, am not ungrateful. I certainly won't treat you unfairly after all you've done for me. I know a little about medicine, and I'm thinking... I can completely heal your leg. However, if you want to use this limp to deceive the enemy, then... I can't insist on treating you."
"Ah—" Wu Di was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and hurriedly said, "No, no, no, I... I used this trick to paralyze the enemy, but that was just a side effect. If my legs are fine, I can walk and live a normal life like a normal person. Why would I pretend to be a paralyzed person?"
Mr. Zhou, if you are truly confident you can cure my leg, I... I would gladly give you everything I own to repay you... You absolutely must help me! Before I became wealthy, I always went to great lengths to make money, even sacrificing my health for wealth. But now that I have money, I realize how foolish I was. Money... is just an external thing; your body is what truly matters. What's the point of having so much wealth if you don't have a healthy body?
As Wu Di spoke, he recalled his youthful days as a tall, imposing man, seven feet tall. Although he had no money, he was as healthy as a young calf. Now he had money, but at only thirty-something years old, he looked like an old man in his seventies or eighties, spending all his time in a wheelchair. Occasionally, when he went out on the street, even a naive child would call him "Grandpa." If this was the price he had to pay for money, then Wu Di would rather not have money at all. If he could just have a healthy body again, he would rather become that poor boy again, full of vigor, health, and confidence, even though he had no money.
If someone else had claimed they could cure his leg, Wu Di would naturally not have believed them.
You have to understand, he's now a powerful figure in his own right. If all the money in his possession were converted into cash, he'd have at least a billion or two billion. With that much money, where wouldn't he find the best doctors? The problem was that the gunshot wound in his leg not only damaged the bone, but because he was in a poor mountainous area of Myanmar at the time, there was no medical care or medicine available. He could only use makeshift methods, forcibly prying the bullet out of the bone himself, then haphazardly covering the wound with mud and binding it tightly with rags... He endured this for more than half a month until he luckily escaped back to Yunnan and finally found a surgeon to treat the wound. After so much time, the damaged bones and muscles had long since healed, and it was impossible to fully heal it afterward. In fact, Wu Di had consulted many of the world's most famous orthopedic surgeons for this crippled leg, but as soon as they saw the X-ray of his leg, they all said they couldn't help. Over time, Wu Di naturally gave up hope.
But now... the person who said he could cure his leg injury was Zhou Ziwei, so he had no choice but to believe it.
Who is Zhou Ziwei? He's a genius who single-handedly wiped out the Night Elves, a powerful figure who dared to challenge the world's most mysterious assassin platform, a god-like person who could kill him with a mere sneeze... Why would he need to fool such a nobody? So... if Zhou Ziwei says he can cure him, then he definitely can. Wu Di wouldn't even consider the foolish question of why the best doctors couldn't cure him, while Zhou Ziwei could. It's like how he could never understand why Zhou Ziwei could knock everyone on the floor unconscious with just a shout. A wise person wouldn't waste brain cells on questions that will never be answered.
Zhou Ziwei felt a chill run down his spine from Wu Di's agitated and resentful expression. He quickly waved his hand and said, "Alright, if I really cared about your little bit of money, would you have been able to keep it? Didn't I just say that you helped me a lot recently? I should repay you in some way, both out of courtesy and principle. If you keep talking nonsense to me, I'm really not going to care about you anymore."
Upon hearing this, Wu Di shuddered again and hurriedly nodded and bowed, saying, "Yes, yes, yes... Mr. Zhou is so kind, how could I, Wu Di, possibly... Oh, I won't say anymore, I won't say anymore... Mr. Zhou is more than willing to help me treat my illness. May I ask what medicine or equipment Mr. Zhou needs? I'll ask here first if we have it. If not, I'll immediately send a helicopter to Hong Kong to buy it..."
Zhou Ziwei shook his head and said, "Don't bother me. I don't need anything to treat people. All I need is my two hands. So you don't need to prepare anything. Just sit back in your wheelchair and I guarantee you'll be back to your lively self in a few minutes."
"A few minutes...this..." Wu Di was completely bewildered by Zhou Ziwei's words. Even with his unwavering faith in Zhou Ziwei, doubts began to creep in. Nothing needed? A few minutes to completely cure his illness...this...even if Zhou Ziwei were a deity, wouldn't a deity need time to absorb a magic pill? A few minutes? That's absurd!
Regardless of what he was thinking, Wu Di didn't dare to hesitate at all. He obediently sat back in his specially made wheelchair and looked at Zhou Ziwei with trepidation, wondering what Zhou Ziwei was going to do to him next.
Zhou Ziwei wasn't very wary of Wu Di. After all, Wu Di had already witnessed the power of his soul roar and seen his extraordinary abilities, so it didn't matter if he knew a little more.
Therefore, when Zhou Ziwei treated his legs, he didn't exert himself as much as when he treated his parents in his previous life, and he didn't have to use any massage techniques to pretend it was a treatment.
As for Ah Da, Ah Er, and the others standing to the side, Zhou Ziwei basically treated them as his own people. Moreover, appropriately demonstrating his strength in front of these people would make it easier for them to develop some respect for him, so Zhou Ziwei did not intend to avoid them... So Zhou Ziwei directly placed one hand on Wu Di's injured leg, quickly channeling a large amount of soul power to completely surround Wu Di's tendons, bones, and muscle tissues that had been damaged for many years. Then, he incorporated the fist intent of Niu-style Tai Chi Chuan into it, rapidly catalyzing the strengthening and repairing properties of soul power.
Sure enough, in less than five minutes, Zhou Ziwei had completely cured Wu Di's chronic illness. Stimulated by the power of his soul, the damaged muscles and bones quickly regained their vitality and grew rapidly. Naturally, it didn't take long for them to fully recover to their normal state.
Sensing that the changes within Wu Di's body seemed to be almost complete, Zhou Ziwei immediately withdrew his hand and said, "It should be fine now. Why don't you stand up and walk around a bit to try?"
"This...this is good."
Wu Di stood up in disbelief and tried to take a few steps forward, but he was still limping. Sure enough, his walking was terribly ugly, and he didn't look as imposing as when he was in a wheelchair.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Ziwei frowned, secretly wondering:
How come he's not better yet? His bones and muscles have clearly recovered to normal levels... Could it be that he has some hidden ailment in his leg that I haven't discovered yet?
"I'm all better... I really feel like I'm all better!" Contrary to Zhou Ziwei's doubts, Wu Di, though limping, looked as excited as if he'd won the lottery. He paced rapidly in circles around the office, shouting, "It doesn't hurt anymore! My leg really doesn't hurt at all... My leg is really better..."
As Wu Di walked faster and faster, his limp gradually stopped limping. By the time he had walked around the office for the fifth time, finally... the frequency of his two feet reached a relative balance, and no one could tell that he was still limping.
Zhou Ziwei finally breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that the reason Wu Di still walked like a cripple was probably because over the years, his walking posture had become a habit, which couldn't be corrected immediately once his leg was healed; there would always be an adaptation process.