Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei had already considered this possibility. Therefore, when he was converting attribute-free energy into wind energy, he did not continue to control the wind energy to form a cyclone, but directly formed a unified tornado.
While tornadoes are certainly not as fast or agile as cyclones, they excel in comprehensive defense. As long as the tornado is not destroyed, no matter how many people attack from any direction, the effect on the two people hiding inside the tornado will be exactly the same.
Without the giant crossbows to participate in the battle, neither the arrows nor the spears thrown by the spearmen could break through the tornado's overall defense. However, after this attack, the tornado, which was originally five or six meters high, was shrunk to only two meters. Now it could barely enclose Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang.
This is because Zhou Ziwei no longer has any more attribute-free energy to support him, so he cannot replenish the energy that the tornado is constantly consuming. Meanwhile, the tornado is constantly being attacked from the outside, so its size can only keep shrinking.
Fortunately, just as the energy that formed the tornado was about to run out, it finally managed to pull Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang to Zhou Ziwei's side, where they landed safely.
As the two landed, the tornado, which was still more than two meters tall, vanished with a "poof".
In this way, Zhou Ziwei and the other two were trapped in a dense encirclement. On this wide city tower, at least tens of thousands of soldiers were crowded together, tightly surrounding the three of them in that small space.
However, the dozen or so swordsmen surrounding Zhou Ziwei and his men were now all without their swords. But after losing their weapons, these dozen or so men neither stepped forward to attack with their bare hands nor turned around to retreat and make room for their comrades.
From the moment their machetes were reduced to mere wooden hilts, a dozen burly soldiers clad in leather armor stood motionless around Zhou Ziwei, like statues of clay and stone, refusing to budge no matter how much their comrades pulled them.
However, there was one advantage to Zhou Ziwei and his men being surrounded: the enemy's archers and javelin throwers were temporarily rendered useless. If they dared to act recklessly in such a densely populated area, they would only end up accidentally injuring their own men.
Therefore, under these circumstances, the only ones who could pose the greatest threat to them seemed to be the swordsmen wielding large cleavers.
The petrification of those dozen or so soldiers caused a temporary stalemate.
However, this stalemate did not last long. A moment later, a series of rhythmic booming sounds rang out from the ramparts of the city wall, and then hundreds of soldiers fully clad in iron armor marched in unison, shouting in unison whistles, and charged toward Zhou Ziwei and his two companions with murderous intent.
These men were fully armored, their metal suits covered in sharp spikes. They moved like human tanks, so the soldiers made way for them, and no one dared to stand in their way.
Even though they belonged to the same faction, the other soldiers still felt a sense of awe towards these armored soldiers who were full of killing intent. Everyone knew that these armored soldiers were inhuman butchers who only had enemies in their eyes and their only purpose for survival was to kill the enemy.
Even if they are allies in the same camp, if anyone dares to stand in their way and hinder their killing spree, they will crush you into a pile of minced meat without hesitation!
Amidst the resounding, orderly footsteps, the dozen or so swordsmen who had been stunned for a long time finally came to their senses. Turning their heads, they saw that the iron-clad army, like a torrent of steel, was about to rush towards them. These men were immediately terrified, dropping their wooden sword hilts and fleeing for their lives back to their original camp.
In the blink of an eye, the originally crowded city tower was actually cleared of a large space under the powerful deterrent force of this group of armored soldiers, leaving only Zhou Ziwei standing still with his arms around Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang's waists.
The five hundred armored soldiers quickened their pace even further. Each of them was wearing nearly a hundred pounds of heavy armor, yet they appeared to be wearing only an ordinary single garment, which did not affect their speed at all.
Then, the five hundred armored soldiers changed from a brisk march to a jog, and finally launched a rapid charge. When the distance between the two sides was less than twenty meters, with a shout from the leading general, each armored soldier magically produced two heavy hammers covered with spikes in their hands, and howled like wild beasts as they charged madly towards Zhou Ziwei and the other two.
All the soldiers who witnessed this scene had no doubt that even if Zhou Ziwei and his two companions truly possessed extraordinary abilities beyond ordinary people, once they landed on the ground and were surrounded by this group of ferocious armored soldiers, their fate would be nothing more than being trampled into mincemeat.
Zhou Ziwei chuckled bitterly to himself. If he still had any attribute-less energy he could draw upon, he could simply ignore the impact of these armored soldiers and unleash a tornado to lift the three of them into the sky.
No matter how powerful these armored soldiers are, they only have a certain advantage on the ground. As long as they can't fly, they are no match for even the most basic archers against enemies in the air.
Unfortunately, the amount of attribute-less energy in his body is almost depleted. He doesn't know how long it will take to condense and absorb it to a certain scale again. For now, he can only use his soul power to repel the enemy, but he dares not use the levitation ability of his soul power.
Without the protection of cyclones or tornadoes, if they were to fly into the air, even a group of archers would be enough to give them a headache.
Moreover, since it cannot harness wind power, even if it floats in the air, it cannot leave the castle. Wouldn't that just be like someone using it as a tool in the air?
Or perhaps that strange white light could also be used as a powerful weapon. Didn't it just melt away more than a dozen large cleavers out of thin air? And that white light only melted the blades of the cleavers, seemingly uninterested in the wooden hilts, and didn't actively harm the soldiers wielding them. Does this mean... these white lights are only interested in metal objects? If that's the case... then using it to deal with these armored soldiers would be perfect.
Did you notice that these armored soldiers were made entirely of steel, from head to toe, even their boots were no exception, seemingly made entirely of steel? And the spiked iron hammers in their hands were also made entirely of steel, unlike ordinary iron hammers which had a wooden handle.
However, what made Zhou Ziwei somewhat uneasy was... if that white light could really fuse and absorb all the metal it came into contact with, then if it ended up consuming all the iron gear of these five hundred armored soldiers... uh... how many tons of steel would be inside his body then...
Never mind, let's just take it one step at a time! If this white light is really that greedy, Zhou Ziwei is worried that even if he wanted to control it, he might not be able to. He hadn't even had the thought of doing so when the white light suddenly burst out of his body. From beginning to end, it hadn't been under his control at all...
However, before he had a sufficient understanding of the effects of this white light, Zhou Ziwei dared not rely on it too much. In any case, he still had to use his soul power to protect the three of them.
So, just as the five hundred armored soldiers were about to rush close, Zhou Ziwei's body was already rapidly permeated with wisps of soul power. With this preparation, he could unleash his soul-covering technique at any time. As long as he was bathed in soul power, he was confident that he could directly face thousands of troops.
But just as Zhou Ziwei was ready and even planned to take the initiative before the two sides made formal contact, he suddenly heard a loud roar.
With this loud roar, the armored torrent that had been rushing to within three meters of Zhou Ziwei seemed to have been paused, abruptly stopping completely. Some of them were even still making movements such as raising their legs or swinging their spiked double hammers.
But all these actions completely stopped after that roar, and when everyone looked at Zhou Ziwei again, their eyes were filled with doubt and awe...
The swordsmen and archers who had retreated far to the side also showed the same expression after that roar.
Zhou Ziwei knew that the roar must represent some kind of earth-shattering information, but unfortunately he couldn't understand a single word of what these people were saying.
He was fluent in more than a dozen languages, but unfortunately this was not Earth. The languages here were new to him. However, he believed that if he could simply absorb the soul of one of the people here, the language barrier would naturally disappear.
Volume 2: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 395: The Divine Child
Zhou Ziwei was tormented by this inability to communicate. He had initially intended to simply merge with the soul of one of the people here first, but then he realized that after all this torment and the large-scale operation, not a single person had died yet...
However, perhaps it is precisely because no one has died yet that there is a possibility of reconciliation between the two sides; otherwise... it would probably be a fight to the death. Therefore, even though Zhou Ziwei was eager to obtain various information about this world, he would not rashly kill a soldier on the spot and then merge with his soul.
"Boom, boom..." The five hundred armored soldiers who had just stopped suddenly began to move again, but they did not intend to attack Zhou Ziwei again. Instead, they took a few steps back, then turned around as a group and slowly spread out to both sides, subtly surrounding Zhou Ziwei and his two companions in the middle.
Zhou Ziwei rubbed his nose, thinking to himself: What exactly are these guys trying to do? Are they trying to play a game of slow, ruthless manipulation? That would be quite interesting...
After the five hundred armored soldiers finally formed a circle, completely encircling the three, a gap suddenly appeared in the formation in front of them. Then, an old man wearing half armor, a cherry-colored helmet, and with long silver hair cascading over his shoulders, walked out with a solemn expression.
Behind the silver-haired general followed two heavily armored soldiers for protection. However, unlike the five hundred armored soldiers in front of them, the two heavily armored soldiers did not wear helmets that covered their faces, their heavy armor did not have spikes, and their weapons were not heavy hammers, but each held a gleaming short sword.
Zhou Ziwei's gaze was first drawn to the silver-haired general, but then it settled on the short swords in the hands of the two guards.
They were two short swords with a peculiar and ancient style. The swords were less than half a foot long. They were more like daggers than swords, but their style did make them a kind of sword.
The sight of two heavily armored warriors, each wielding a dagger-like short sword, seemed somewhat absurd.
Logically speaking, even if a heavily armored warrior doesn't wield a spiked hammer like an ironclad soldier, he should at least be holding a three-foot-long heavy sword to look more pleasing to the eye. This person is holding a short sword that is not much longer than an embroidery needle, which is too incongruous!
But it was precisely this sense of disharmony that made Zhou Ziwei even more wary. He couldn't help but recall a piece of information he had heard from the old commander: someone from Old M had emerged from that black hole space with a short sword, a short sword that resembled a dagger. However, this short sword could unleash a strange energy under certain circumstances to attack its target. It was Old M's research on this short sword that had finally led to the development of an energy weapon...
Could the short swords that Old M's men brought out from the black hole space be the same ones these two warriors are holding?
Zhou Ziwei frowned inwardly, feeling both puzzled and wary.
“Jili eguawa duma wu…”
The silver-haired general stopped five meters away from Zhou Ziwei, then began to utter a bunch of incomprehensible nonsense, which Zhou Ziwei couldn't understand a word of.
"Hey... what are you saying? I don't understand at all," Zhou Ziwei said with a helpless shrug.
Zhou Ziwei certainly didn't expect the other party to understand what he casually said. Even if there were people in this world who could learn foreign languages, they probably wouldn't learn Chinese from Earth. Since there was an army of this size here, there must be many different countries. And with the differences between countries and regions, there must be many different languages!
To Zhou Ziwei's utterance, his casual remark caused the silver-haired general to become so excited that he seemed to have a fit of madness. He took two quick steps forward and reached out to grab Zhou Ziwei's hands. Zhou Ziwei was startled and hurriedly pulled Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang back a couple of steps to avoid the attack.
The silver-haired general seemed to realize his actions were somewhat reckless, and he glanced at Zhou Ziwei with a look of fear and unease. He bent over and made some strange gestures. Although Zhou Ziwei didn't understand what the other party meant, he could guess that this guy was probably performing the customary greetings in this world! Uh... but the way people greet each other in this world is really strange. Not only do you have to bend over, but you also have to wiggle your butt... If a beautiful woman with a graceful figure performed this greeting, it would have a unique charm. But why is an old man like you wiggling his butt? It's unbearable.
Zhou Ziwei sighed and rubbed his forehead helplessly, saying, "Hey... can you even understand what I'm saying? If it's hard to understand, at least speak in human language and stop talking to me in gibberish, okay?"
It's unclear whether the silver-haired general finally understood Zhou Ziwei's words, or whether, like the closing words after a prayer in a church, after another string of nonsensical ramblings, he finally uttered a truly human phrase—"God be with me."
Zhou Ziwei heard those five words clearly as they came out of the silver-haired general's mouth. Moreover, the silver-haired general's pronunciation was accurate, without the slightest accent from the outskirts of the capital. It was exactly the most standard Mandarin. This gave Zhou Ziwei a strange feeling that the people he was seeing and the world he was in were not some "otherworld" he had traveled to through time, but rather a return to an ancient era where he was facing a dynasty with flourishing martial arts.
But what happened next was even more astonishing. Right after the silver-haired general finished speaking, the tens of thousands of soldiers present all bowed and wiggled their hips along with him, and then said in unison, "God is with me!"
When tens of thousands of people utter a single sentence at the same time, the impact of countless voices coming together is incredibly powerful. Zhou Ziwei was even a little sore from the roar of ten thousand people... He had no choice; his hearing was always at more than six times that of an average person, and being suddenly shouted at like that by a group of people next to him was quite overwhelming.
Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang were stunned when they suddenly heard the familiar language, and their faces showed a mixture of excitement and curiosity.
However, they also knew that although these people could speak Chinese, each of them probably only knew this one phrase. Their usual gibberish was their mother tongue. This phrase, "God be with me," was probably a religious prayer, just like "Amitabha" in Buddhism and "Amen" in Christianity.
It seems that the humans here are indeed closely related to humans on Earth, or more precisely, to the Chinese people on Earth. Could it be that the people here are ancient Earthlings who migrated here? Or... is it just that some powerful humans from Earth once came here, which is why they left behind a trace of the Chinese language?
Otherwise... if all the humans here migrated from Earth, then they should all be speaking Chinese, right?
The doubts in Zhou Ziwei and the others' hearts did not last long. Soon, they saw an old man who looked twice as old as the silver-haired general walk over, supported by several soldiers.
The old man wasn't wearing any armor; he was only dressed in a snow-white robe. His white hair was even whiter than the robe itself. His face was covered in wrinkles so dense they could trap a mosquito. His eyelids drooped, and his mouth was dry. He looked like he was on his deathbed.
However, this old fellow commanded the utmost respect from the tens of thousands of soldiers around him. Upon seeing him approach, all the soldiers bowed and swayed their hips once again, shouting in unison, "God be with me!"
The sight of ten thousand people wiggling their butts together was truly spectacular, but it also made Zhou Ziwei feel disgusted. He really didn't know which bastard created this kind of etiquette; it was just too... disgusting.
However, Zhou Ziwei and his group found this kind of etiquette unacceptable, while the white-robed old man seemed to enjoy it immensely. The old man smiled and nodded in all directions, uttering a string of gibberish, then pointed his hands repeatedly and muttered a few words into the air. Surprisingly, he managed to confuse the tens of thousands of people, making them bend over to the old man again and wiggle their buttocks wildly, as if they had all taken aphrodisiacs.
"Pfft—" Chu Qiutang, who was standing to the side, finally couldn't help but laugh. Seeing so many people wiggling their butts in such a bizarre scene, probably not many people with normal nerves could accept it... Of course, aliens are an exception.
Finally, under the watchful eyes of everyone, the old man walked shakily to Zhou Ziwei and the other two, then bowed slightly with a look of fear on his face...
"No, please stop wiggling your butt! I can't stand it!" Zhou Ziwei knew the old man was going to do it again as soon as he saw his expression, so he quickly spoke up to stop him. Whether the old man could understand him was another matter.
"May I ask where you distinguished guests come from?" This time, the old man seemed to understand. Instead of wiggling his buttocks at Zhou Ziwei again, he finally opened his mouth and uttered a sensible sentence.
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath, feeling quite emotional. He wanted to joke with the old man and say something like, "I come from the Tang Dynasty in the East," but after thinking about it, he honestly said, "Sir, if I said I came from another world... or from beyond the heavens, would you believe me?"
“A descendant of God, I never imagined... that I, this old servant, would actually live to see a descendant of God…”
Upon hearing this, the old man was overwhelmed with emotion. He looked up at the sky, tears streaming down his face, and cried so loudly that it moved the tens of thousands of soldiers around him.
Zhou Ziwei scratched his head, somewhat at a loss, but the weight in his heart was finally lifted a little. It seemed that... a long time ago, there really must have been humans from Earth here. And those people were here, pretending to be gods and being worshipped as some kind of deity. And they, probably because they spoke the same language as that ancient god or came from the same place, were regarded as the god's descendants.
Although Zhou Ziwei didn't really want to act as a charlatan and fool these ignorant humans, he couldn't afford to be polite in the current situation. If he refused to admit that he was a descendant of a god, or even slandered the deity in their hearts, the old charlatan in front of him would probably turn on him immediately. He could easily fool those tens of thousands of soldiers with just a few words, and they might fight him to the death.
Therefore, it's best to remain unchanged in the current situation. If they insist on treating you like a god, that's their business. Zhou Ziwei neither admits nor denies it, so let them think what they want.
"My Lord, I heard from General Huo Wubing that... you were just bathed in divine light, yet you are completely unharmed. Is this true?"
After the old charlatan closed his eyes and muttered some nonsensical words, he suddenly opened his eyes and asked Zhou Ziwei a questioning look.
"Divine light? The divine light you're talking about... is it the beam of light that shoots from that tall tower?" Zhou Ziwei said, pointing to the tower in the city that was much taller than the city gate. The thing on the top of the tower that looked like a sniper rifle had somehow retracted.
“Indeed…” the charlatan said with a solemn expression, “Your Highness, are you really not afraid of the divine light baptism? This matter is of great importance. Although the ten thousand soldiers present can all testify, this old servant cannot accept it because I did not witness it with my own eyes. So… if Your Highness does not mind, please accept the divine light baptism in front of this old servant once more. Would that be alright?”
"Wash your hair my foot..." Zhou Ziwei thought about how the white beam of light had struck his body, instantly consuming over 30,000 units of his soul power. This pained him deeply. Even though he knew the beam wouldn't kill him and might even be absorbed into his body, it was still a losing proposition. His soul power was nearly depleted, and he didn't know if he could replenish it here. He didn't want to exhaust his soul power only to end up with some strangely sentient white light that he didn't know how to use...
"NO, why should I perform in front of you? You are blaspheming the gods, you know that?" Since the old man regarded him as some kind of divine being, Zhou Ziwei decided to put on a divine air and accuse the old man of blasphemy first, to see if he would dare to be arrogant again.
"This old servant dares not." Upon hearing this, the old charlatan trembled slightly with fear, but after a moment's hesitation, he gritted his teeth and insisted, "Please forgive me, Your Highness, this matter is of utmost importance. If I cannot witness the wondrous sight of Your Highness bathing in divine light, I would never dare to hand over the divine inheritance to you. This is the rule of generations of divine servants. Please do not take offense, Your Highness. If Your Highness is dissatisfied with this old servant, after I have handed over the divine inheritance to you according to the rules, Your Highness may then execute this old servant to appease your anger, and this old servant will do so willingly..."
Zhou Ziwei was somewhat exasperated by the old man's stubbornness, but upon hearing the old man's talk of "divine inheritance," he couldn't help but be secretly intrigued. If this old charlatan called something a divine inheritance, it must be a relic left behind by ancestors from Earth! What kind of things could they be, and why was this old fellow treasuring them so much? Hopefully, they weren't just some broken antiques with only symbolic and commemorative significance!
However, it's quite possible that the so-called divine inheritance is just these broken antiques, so Zhou Ziwei would never be foolish enough to waste more than half of his soul power to obtain it.
He shook his head slightly and said, "Old man, I didn't ask you for any divine inheritance. You can give it to me or not, if you don't want to, then forget it. We're not in the mood to play games with you..."
After saying that, Zhou Ziwei took Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang's hands and said with a smile, "Let's go! Let's take a look at the exotic scenery here first. Sigh... if we can never return to Earth in this lifetime, then maybe the three of us will really have to live out our lives here..."
"Oh... well... alright!" Chu Qiutang and Wang Xuewei were initially quite interested in the divine inheritance that the old charlatan had mentioned, but when they heard Zhou Ziwei say that they might have to spend their lives here, both women were shocked and began to eagerly desire this outcome.
Although everything in this world feels new, it certainly can't compare to the comfort of modern life on Earth. But if I could live here with Zhou Ziwei for the rest of my life, it would be a completely different story.
As the saying goes, love makes even water taste sweet. They had already fallen in love with Zhou Ziwei without realizing it, but they also knew that once they returned to Earth, their fate would probably come to an end.
So if they could truly live forever in this world, the three of them could naturally live together without having to worry about marriage laws, ethics, or morality.
Since this is the era of cold weapons, I suppose polygamy is the norm! But it's just a good thing for Zhou Ziwei; he even managed to convincingly claim to be some kind of divine son. It seems like swindling two beauties from another world into his harem will be a piece of cake for him…