Zhou Ziwei leaped down without hesitation, plunging straight down into what appeared to be a bottomless cave.
The entire underground base was only about seventy meters deep, posing no threat whatsoever to Zhou Ziwei. He didn't even need to release the power of wind energy to condense the vortex. After descending a short distance along the passage and reaching the exit of the next floor, he immediately used an alloy blade formed from his alloy suit to slash fiercely, instantly splitting the closed elevator door on this floor in two.
Several US soldiers armed with assault rifles were also stationed on this floor. Upon hearing the elevator doors being breached, they immediately opened fire simultaneously.
Zhou Ziwei did the same thing, using their own methods against them, ending the lives of these people with the bullets they themselves fired.
After collecting the souls of these people and turning them into soul beads, Zhou Ziwei casually searched this floor but didn't find much of value, at most some ordinary military supplies.
Zhou Ziwei had no intention of rebelling, so these things were naturally useless to him.
He then jumped down from the elevator shaft again, taking out every single American soldier guarding each floor.
Because he was aware that his own sea of souls was filled with unresolved malevolent energy, he dared not recklessly absorb the soul energy of these people anymore.
It wasn't until they had fought their way to the last level of the underground base that Zhou Ziwei finally encountered some slightly threatening resistance.
That officer, the major Ryan was referring to as the one in charge of the operation, probably already knew that all of Ryan's men stationed at the top had died tragically.
The only elevator leading upwards had been completely destroyed by Zhou Ziwei. They didn't have Zhou Ziwei's Spider-Man-like ability to fly up and down, and they knew that this time they would surely die. So, the major made a desperate decision and actually brought out all the rocket launchers in the entire underground base.
Together with the dozen or so American soldiers here, they fired more than ten howitzer shells at the same time Zhou Ziwei broke open the elevator door.
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 417: The Assassin Returns
A dozen or so mortar shells exploded simultaneously. In this relatively confined space, the power was enough to destroy everything, and even cause the collapse of the entire underground base. In that case, even those dozen or so American soldiers would only have one way out: death.
However, Zhou Ziwei would not allow such a thing to happen. Before breaking through the door, Zhou Ziwei had already clearly seen the movements of the dozen or so American soldiers through his soul power scan. Now, seeing the dozen or so grenades flying towards him with white smoke, he did not panic at all. He simply raised his hand slightly and "poof poof" continuously ejected a soul bead to meet the overwhelming grenades.
Under Zhou Ziwei's incredibly precise control, the two soul beads accurately struck the two grenades from the left and right, and together with the dozen or so grenades next to them, they were instantly reduced to fine powder.
The dozen or so American soldiers were instantly petrified. Their ingrained thought patterns made it difficult for them to understand what was happening in front of them. They stared blankly at the fine powder on the ground, feeling as if they were in a dream.
"You all deserve to die!" Zhou Ziwei roared in a low voice, and twelve new-style cross-shaped darts flew out from his waist at the same time, instantly reaping the lives of more than a dozen American soldiers.
Zhou Ziwei noticed that among the dozen or so US special forces soldiers, several looked like special technicians in some field. This gave him a slight thought, so he recited the Six-Syllable Mantra again, directly purifying and absorbing the souls of these men into his sea of souls.
Throughout this time, Zhou Ziwei maintained a cold expression until he had absorbed the souls of those dozen or so people, after which a chilling red light once again shone in his eyes.
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath, barely suppressing the madness and restlessness in his heart, and then slowly walked to the middle of the corpses. To his slight surprise, the one with the rank of major among the corpses was a blonde, blue-eyed beauty.
However, Zhou Ziwei, whose mind was corrupted by violence, naturally did not feel any guilt just because the other party was a beautiful woman. He slowly walked to the body of the beautiful major whose forehead had been pierced by a new type of cross dart, squatted down, stretched out his hand, and a silver metal strip immediately extended from the alloy suit, which in the blink of an eye turned into a sharp alloy dagger.
With a "whoosh," the silver alloy dagger sliced across the blonde, blue-eyed female major's body, easily tearing a long gash in her field uniform, which was stretched taut by her ample breasts, and even pulling out her exquisitely crafted pink women's underwear.
Instantly, two plump, white mounds of flesh broke free from their restraints and bounced into Zhou Ziwei's slightly reddened eyes. Zhou Ziwei, with a blank expression, bent down, reached out his other hand, and gently grasped the pink flesh on the left that was enough to drive countless male beasts mad. Then... with a forceful tug, he tore off a small piece of flesh-colored invisible tape. Sticking to the tape was a tiny portable hard drive...
Such a small hard drive was hidden so well by that beautiful major. If Zhou Ziwei hadn't discovered the anomaly when he scanned it with his soul power, then even if someone had wiped out all these American soldiers here, they might not have been able to find this thing. This shows how important this small portable hard drive is.
Zhou Ziwei estimated that this portable hard drive was probably the real reason why the old men were making such a fuss, and that the Shenlong mercenary group was also likely killed because of this thing. As for fighting over the treasure... that was pure nonsense.
However, this doesn't mean that the soldier Ryan was able to lie while under Zhou Ziwei's hypnosis. Rather, it means that the matter concerning the portable hard drive was highly classified, and even the ordinary US special forces soldiers who participated in this operation probably wouldn't know the inside story.
Zhou Ziwei scanned the entire underground base again, but found no signs of life and nothing of interest to him.
In fact, there are some items in this underground base that look quite valuable, and there are also quite a few US dollars, euros and other cash.
Although these were valuable items, bringing them back to China wouldn't be an easy task for Zhou Ziwei. If he touched them, he might attract unnecessary trouble. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei didn't even glance at these items, which would have made most people risk everything. He immediately returned to the elevator shaft he had destroyed. With a thought, a small tornado suddenly appeared before him, then swept up his body and soared straight up the narrow, dark shaft…
Zhou Ziwei quickly returned to the place where he had parted ways with the two women, where Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang were waiting for him. When they saw Zhou Ziwei return empty-handed, they hurriedly went up to him and asked how things had gone.
Zhou Ziwei simply replied, "Kill them all."
He uttered three words, then roughly determined the direction, picked up the two women with one in each arm, and sped off towards the direction leading to the Chinese border.
"Ah... Director Zhou, where...where are you going?" Chu Qiutang asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Let's go back to China!" Zhou Ziwei said matter-of-factly. "Otherwise, what are we doing staying in this godforsaken place?"
Chu Qiutang gave a wry smile and said, "But... do you really want to... run back to the country like this? It's not close to the border here... Director Zhou, you don't want to be Tang Sanzang, do you? You want to walk all the way back to China?"
"What else can we do?" Zhou Ziwei said, "We don't have passports or any other documents on us. It's not realistic to find an airport nearby to fly back to China. Besides... the things we brought back from the pilot plane are too important. We absolutely cannot let foreign forces find out about them. So we have no choice but to return to China secretly."
Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang both agreed with Zhou Ziwei's explanation, knowing that he was right. Whether it was the spacecraft samples they brought back from the pilot plane, or those special plant specimens and seeds, they should all be classified as top secret by the state. Naturally, they couldn't just swagger back to China with these things.
Wang Xuewei reached out and touched the flying device on her back, then suddenly had a whimsical idea and said, "How about... we use this thing to fly back to China? That way we should be able to fly back home very quickly, right?"
"Are you crazy? How can you do this..." Chu Qiutang rolled her eyes at Wang Xuewei and said, "Although this flying machine looks a bit strange, we just carry it on our backs, and no one else knows what it's for. But once we use it to fly, then... once someone sees it, it will definitely cause a sensation all over the world, and then it will be impossible to keep it a secret."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei remembered that each of the two women was carrying a complete flying machine on their backs... He immediately stopped and, without saying a word, tore all the flying machines off the two women.
Caught off guard, the two were startled. Wang Xuewei exclaimed, "Ziwei, what are you doing?"
Zhou Ziwei patted the palm-sized water decomposer, which had been removed from the aircraft, hanging on his alloy suit. A faint red light flickered in his eyes as he said in a deep voice, "Didn't I say before? We just need to take this back with us when we return to China. As for the aircraft... I've already mastered its basic structure and principles. Keeping these two complete samples won't do us any good. Let's just destroy them on the spot!"
Without allowing the two women to object, Zhou Ziwei immediately tossed the two flying machines into the air and simultaneously launched a soul bead. With a soft "hiss," the two flying machines instantly turned into a pile of powder in the air, falling like rain.
During his adventures in the pilot dimension, Zhou Ziwei had already shown off his amazing abilities to the two women. Moreover, Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang were now considered his women, women with whom he had actually had intimate relationships, so Zhou Ziwei didn't mind letting them know more.
“Alright…” Turning to look at the two dumbfounded women, Zhou Ziwei smiled as gently as possible and said, “This place isn’t very safe. Let’s stay as far away from that underground base as possible, find a place to stay until night, and then I’ll take you directly back to China! Hmm… I also need to spend some more time meditating, otherwise… cough… I’m afraid my murderous appearance will scare you.”
"Oh... well then... you should really calm down..." Wang Xuewei noticed that Zhou Ziwei's eyes would occasionally flash with a red light, and she couldn't help but say with a pounding heart, "Your current appearance is indeed... indeed very frightening."
After carrying the two women for over thirty kilometers through the forest, Zhou Ziwei used the Soul Pearl to carve a cave in a secluded spot on a barren mountain. He then conjured a tornado to sweep away the fine powder from the Soul Pearl's decomposition, cleaning it up before resting with the two women in the cave and quietly waiting for nightfall.
Zhou Ziwei once again entered a state of suspended animation, shutting down his five senses and six consciousnesses, and continued to sort through the 400,000 units of soul power in his sea of souls, which he had not yet completely purified.
Meanwhile, at Jalalabad Airport, the capital of Nangarhar province in eastern AFH, a tall, thin white man wearing a black trench coat and a gray top hat slowly descended the aircraft's stairs.
His fairly handsome face, however, exuded a chilling, bloodthirsty aura.
When he disembarked, the other passengers on the same flight instinctively kept their distance from him, and no one dared to approach him.
Tarrust touched the stubble that had just grown on his chin, looking rather annoyed. Then he took out a pair of oversized sunglasses from his trench coat pocket and put them on his face before straightening his clothes and slowly walking off the plane.
Tarrust walked out of the airport empty-handed without any luggage and then hailed a taxi.
The taxi driver regretted getting into Tarrustev's car as soon as he got in, because the man's aura was too terrifying. He had a feeling that he was not carrying a human being, but a ferocious beast from the deep mountains and forests.
Although Tarrust was completely covered up and had even gentlemanly applied a little men's cologne, the almost invisible sense of oppression still seeped into the hearts of anyone who came near him, making them involuntarily feel that fearful and heavy sense of oppression.
The taxi driver desperately wanted to say that he had finished his shift and wasn't picking up any more passengers, but he guessed that if he dared to say that, he would probably be in a very bad situation. Helpless, he had no choice but to muster his courage and ask in broken English, "Sir... hello... hello, may I ask... where do you want to go?"
Tarrust, sitting behind the driver, leaned back slightly and squinted as he said, "To the Hindu Kush Mountains..."
"What?" The taxi driver was startled and hurriedly said with a pained expression, "I'm sorry, I... I only drive short distances within the city, not long distances. Maybe... you should find another car!"
"What... are you afraid I can't afford it?" Tarrust's face darkened, he snorted coldly, then pulled out a wad of banknotes and threw it heavily at the driver, saying in a deep voice, "Enough nonsense, drive!"
The taxi driver's eyes lit up slightly when he saw the stack of banknotes, but he could only nod helplessly and start the car...
"Drive faster... drive faster..."
Tarrust kept urging the driver on, but he had already pushed the speed to his psychological limit and refused to accelerate any further no matter how much Tarrust urged him.
Tarrust, however, finally ran out of patience. A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and he suddenly reached out a large, hairy hand, grabbed the taxi driver's neck, and with a gentle twist, snapped the driver's head off his neck with a "crack."
"What a nuisance!" Tarrust muttered helplessly, reaching out to yank the driver's body out of the window. His tall frame, however, moved with the agility of a monkey, leaping from the back seat to the front, grabbing the steering wheel, and regaining control of the out-of-control car.
"Sss...ah..." Tarustev licked the blood off his hands as he drove, then groaned softly with obvious enjoyment.
"The taste of human blood is truly wonderful... I originally intended to enjoy it when we arrived at our destination, but... this person is so ungrateful, I have no choice but to kill him first... What a hassle, I might have to catch another one alive later."
As Tarrust drove at breakneck speed, enjoying the thrill of high-speed travel, he let out low, beast-like howls that echoed in his throat...
More than two hours later, the taxi got stuck in the soft quicksand in the middle of a desert. No matter how many times it turned, it couldn't get out. Tarrust roared angrily and kicked the entire car door off with a very rough kick. He then climbed out of the car, jumped onto the roof, looked at the distant mountain range, hesitated for a moment, and finally gave up his plan to pull the whole car out of the quicksand.
He jumped off the roof of the car, then went around to the back, reached out and opened the trunk lid, and pulled out a slightly overweight Arab girl.
With a hiss, Tarustev first ripped off the girl's veil, and then, amidst the girl's scream, tore her white robe to shreds.
In an instant, a patch of snow-white, alluring skin and two full, bright breasts, as clear as the moon, were presented to Tarustev's lustful eyes.
"So beautiful, so tender!" Tarustev exclaimed sincerely as he gently stroked the two alluring, full breasts. Then, he slowly bent down and extended his tongue to lightly lick the tempting rosy tip of the snow-capped peak.
He felt the beautiful girl tremble slightly under the stimulation of his tongue, which made Tarustov chuckle with great satisfaction. Then his tongue slowly slid upwards along the snow-white plumpness, leaving a trail of sticky saliva in its wake.
Finally, he lightly kissed the girl's beautiful, snow-white neck a few times before suddenly opening his mouth wide and biting down hard...
"Ah—" The poor girl screamed desperately in pain, but in this vast, uninhabited desert, even if she screamed until her throat was hoarse, no one would hear her.
"Glug, glug..." Taltev kept sucking mouthfuls of blood, still warm from the girl's body, into his mouth and swallowing them. As the blood was swallowed, Taltev's exposed face, neck, and arms underwent horrifying changes.
His body hair, which was already slightly coarser than that of an average person, gradually turned blacker, thicker, and longer under the stimulation of the fresh, hot blood. In just a short while, Tarustev's face and hands were completely covered by long, black, glossy hair, making him look exactly like a wild beast. There was no trace of human features left on him.
"Ugh—" After the last drop of blood in the girl's body was completely drained, Tarustev suddenly ripped off the large trench coat he was wearing, revealing his muscular body covered in long black hair. He raised his head and let out a mournful roar at the darkening sky.
He... is Tarrustev, the werewolf ranked sixth among the world's top ten assassins.
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 418: Dead Ashes
It took Zhou Ziwei almost an entire afternoon to finally sort through the 400,000 soul powers in the Sea of Souls again using the Six-Syllable Mantra.
As for whether the malevolent energy contained in the soul power had been completely eliminated, Zhou Ziwei himself was not very clear, but at least he knew that his mind should no longer be controlled by this malevolent energy.
With the effects of the malevolent energy gone, Zhou Ziwei finally breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had pushed away a heavy stone that had been weighing on his heart, making him feel much lighter.
However, after regaining his senses, Zhou Ziwei quickly began to consider whether he should immediately remove another heavy stone weighing on his heart, or rather, his mind.
That damned chip, that thing that the black market assassin network forced into his head, was nothing short of a time bomb for Zhou Ziwei.
As long as this thing exists, Zhou Ziwei will feel like he has no control over his own destiny.
The main reason Zhou Ziwei hasn't defused this time bomb is that he feels he's not strong enough, and the black market assassin network hasn't posed a real threat to him.
As long as he doesn't have the chip removed from his brain, the black market assassin network should still consider him one of their own.
If something goes wrong during the process of removing the chip... at best, it will alert the black market assassin network, which will then strengthen its control over him; at worst... it might even detonate the chip.
After all, the complexity of that chip far exceeded that of ordinary chips, and many of its tiny components were completely unknown to Zhou Ziwei. Without sufficient confidence, Zhou Ziwei naturally dared not make a move.
Even when Zhou Ziwei's soul power had reached over 80,000 before, he didn't dare to try it easily.
However, right now... Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls contains more than 400,000 units of soul power. With so much soul energy, it should be more than enough for that tiny chip to consume!
However, the three of them are currently in a foreign country, and they are carrying many important items that they just brought back from the pilot plane. They may face some unstable factors at any time. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei can only think about it in his mind for now. In the end, he decided to return to China and wait until everything is stable before considering whether to try to use his soul power to capture the chip in his head.
Seeing that it was getting dark outside the cave, Zhou Ziwei decided to go outside and see if he could find something to eat. After he and Wang Xuewei had filled their stomachs, they could then rush back to China that night.
Just then, Zhou Ziwei, who was standing in front of the cave, twitched his ears slightly as if stimulated by something, and then his expression changed slightly.