Zhou Ziwei closed his eyes, and it took him a long time to suppress the remaining ferocity in the souls of the extremely violent crocodiles. Although the crocodiles were all quite large, their soul power was pitifully small, which did not seem to be proportional to their size.
Although these crocodiles possess little spiritual power, the malevolent energy that runs deep within their souls is remarkably stable, making them quite troublesome.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei had once managed to quell the resentment of hundreds of thousands of battle spirits who had died on the battlefield, so dealing with this resentment was a piece of cake for him. Although there was no time to completely eliminate it, suppressing it to prevent it from causing trouble was not a difficult task.
Zhou Ziwei suddenly felt that when the light circle formed by his Six-Syllable Mantra reached its maximum range, it seemed to have scooped up a large amount of extremely pure soul power from somewhere. Moreover, it seemed to be pure soul power, not some kind of soul body. It was simply scooped up by one of the light circles and easily merged into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls. Even the processes of purification and fusion were completely skipped. This made Zhou Ziwei very strange. He didn't know how there could be such pure soul power in this world. It was as if... as if someone had refined a large number of soul beads and left them there for Zhou Ziwei to take at will.
However, just as Zhou Ziwei was feeling puzzled and savoring the moment, a deafening voice, like a bolt from the blue, suddenly rang in his mind: "Who dares to steal my spiritual energy?"
The voice came from nowhere, as if it hadn't been transmitted through any medium. It suddenly exploded in Zhou Ziwei's mind, startling him so much that he exclaimed in horror, "This... could this be a Spirit Warrior?"
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 535: Earth Spirit Spring
"Who dares to steal my spiritual energy?"
The voice was speaking Chinese, which surprised Zhou Ziwei. Spiritual energy... As far as Zhou Ziwei knew, this so-called spiritual energy was actually the power of the soul, but ordinary people could not absorb the power of the soul at all; only the legendary spiritual warriors could.
Therefore, from this person's sudden words, Zhou Ziwei guessed that this person was likely the Spirit Warrior that Ono Yuko had mentioned.
In fact, Ono Yuko can be considered a spiritual warrior, but her level is obviously not up to par. Even when she uses spiritual power to control the tiny butterfly dart, she only has enough power for one strike. One strike will completely deplete the spiritual energy she has painstakingly accumulated.
And this person who could make a sound suddenly explode in his mind... Although Zhou Ziwei had not yet faced him directly, just the fact that the other party could accurately transmit the sound to his ears by following the direction of the spiritual energy fluctuations made Zhou Ziwei have to admire this person's strength.
At least Zhou Ziwei is currently unable to accurately determine the person's exact location, nor can he transmit his soul power that far at once. Based on this alone, Zhou Ziwei seems to have already fallen into a disadvantageous position.
However, Zhou Ziwei soon realized that it might not actually be someone transmitting a voice into his mind. When he inhaled the pure soul power brought back by the light halo formed by the Six-Syllable Mantra, he suddenly discovered that it also contained a wisp of spiritual energy with independent consciousness. This wisp of spiritual energy was like a ghost whose soul consciousness had not been broken down and stripped away. However, unlike ordinary ghosts, this wisp of spiritual energy did not contain a complete ghost's thoughts, but only a part of a human's will.
That spiritual consciousness was the culprit that had caused the thunderous roar in Zhou Ziwei's mind just now. After the roar, the thing, like a nimble tadpole, took advantage of the chaos and burrowed straight into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls, seemingly intending to cause trouble there. However, once Zhou discovered the existence of this hidden danger, how could he allow it to cause trouble in his consciousness? He simply let out a cold snort, and a bolt of lightning seemed to descend from the sky into his sea of consciousness, instantly obliterating the spiritual consciousness.
Meanwhile, in a dark cave about five or six kilometers from the lake shore, a strange man wrapped in layers of white linen cried out in surprise and slowly raised his bloodless face.
Zhou Ziwei was utterly shocked when the mysterious voice suddenly entered his mind. Little did he know that the mysterious man, whom Zhou Ziwei was somewhat wary of, let out a cry of astonishment that was ten thousand times greater than Zhou Ziwei's. Then, the man's body shook violently, and with a "poof," he spat out a mouthful of thick blood.
"What a formidable junior." The mysterious man, wrapped in burlap, spat out a mouthful of blood. His already deathly pale face became even whiter than the white burlap cloth covering him, giving him a sinister and eerie appearance, much like a thousand-year-old zombie from a horror movie...
With a soft "glug-glug," a small spring, about the size of a washbasin, suddenly began to churn and surge in front of the mysterious man, followed by the rise of a pale white mist.
Upon seeing this, the mysterious man was overjoyed. He immediately disregarded his resentment and opened his blood-red maw, sucking in everything he could. He completely enveloped the small spring and then absorbed all the pale white mist emanating from it, which then sank into his sea of souls.
"What pure spiritual energy!" After swallowing the white mist completely, the mysterious man let out a long sigh of lingering satisfaction. Then, after sensing his improved strength, his expression turned extremely ugly again.
"Just one step away... just one step away from advancing to the Great Spirit Master realm! If that despicable person hadn't stolen that wave of spiritual energy, I would have undoubtedly advanced smoothly. Or... if I hadn't been so resentful about losing that wave of spiritual energy that I separated a wisp of my spiritual consciousness to use a secret technique to pursue it, only to have it directly refined by that person... I'm afraid I could now enter the Great Spirit Master realm without any hindrance. Alas... it's a pity... the Earth Spirit Spring here only spews out spiritual energy once every thousand years, and according to records, each spew out only about five to ten clusters of spiritual energy. Nine clusters of spiritual energy have already appeared, which is extremely rare even in ten thousand years. It's estimated that there will be no tenth cluster of spiritual energy. Otherwise... if I could absorb just one more cluster of spiritual energy and successfully advance to the Great Spirit Master realm, then... no matter how powerful that little thief is, I would definitely kill him with my own hands."
This step sounds simple, but if he didn't directly absorb the earth's spiritual energy under such weather conditions to improve his strength, and instead cultivated slowly using the usual methods, this step might have kept him trapped for another twenty or thirty years, or even his entire life, which would have been quite common.
It is important to know that there is a natural rank barrier between Spirit Masters and Great Spirit Masters. If one cultivates slowly in an ordinary way, the pitiful amount of spiritual energy that one painstakingly accumulates each day will not be able to break through the rank barrier.
Once this invisible barrier cannot be broken through, the spiritual energy painstakingly accumulated will gradually be exhausted and cannot be preserved.
This means that... if no extraordinary encounter occurs, this mysterious person may spend his entire life trapped at his current level of strength, with no possibility of further progress. For someone who has abandoned his family and all worldly honors in pursuit of ultimate power, this is absolutely unacceptable.
The despicable person who directly caused this consequence was someone he hated ten or a hundred times more than the enemy who had wiped out his entire family.
Kill him... As long as I break through to the Great Spirit Master realm, I... I will definitely kill him... kill him!
The mysterious man felt as if a huge stone was pressing on his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe. A surge of anger, like waves, bombarded his reason.
Fortunately, having become a Spirit Martial Master, he had long since cultivated a calm mind capable of remaining composed under any circumstances. He knew that since his opponent could use an unknown method to directly draw away the earth's spiritual energy from a great distance, and even subtly decompose and annihilate his separated spiritual consciousness, such methods were definitely beyond his current capabilities. This person must already be at the Great Spirit Master level; otherwise, they would never have the ability to so easily destroy a wisp of his spiritual consciousness. The fact that the opponent didn't immediately attack because of this precious earth spiritual spring likely stemmed from his ability to subtly conceal a wisp of his spiritual consciousness within the earth's spiritual energy, which made them somewhat alarmed. Otherwise…
Hmph... I'm afraid he won't let me get that other ball of earth spirit energy so easily! Sigh... What a pity... If only I could get one more ball of earth spirit energy, and if another ball of earth spirit energy could break through the barrier between these ranks, then I could directly advance to become a Great Spirit Master.
Even if that person is a Great Spirit Master, or even a powerful one among them, humph... as long as I advance to the Great Spirit Master level, I am absolutely confident that I can kill him using my sect's secret techniques, and even refine his sea of souls into a peerless, rare Heavenly Rank Spirit Pearl for my future spiritual cultivation. Perhaps... perhaps I can even use this to try and reach the legendary realm of a Divine Spirit Master...
Gods, gods... Once you can break through to the realm of a God Master, you'll be practically a god or immortal from mythology.
Just as the mysterious man was feeling utterly lost and frustrated, yet simultaneously lost in daydreams and fantasies, the small spring that had been quiet for so long suddenly gurgled again, followed by a violent surge, and then a larger cloud of white mist gushed out of the spring...
Although Zhou Ziwei easily annihilated the wisp of spiritual consciousness that had rashly entered his sea of souls using his unique soul power imbued with electrical energy, he knew that this was because the other party had a geographical advantage due to its sudden intrusion into his sea of souls, allowing him to kill it so easily. However… the person's ability to split off a wisp of spiritual consciousness and send it to such a distant place was truly astonishing. Zhou Ziwei had no confidence in defeating this person. He feared that this person might suddenly come knocking on his door. He could no longer care about the dozen or so fighter jets still flying around in the sky. He immediately identified the direction of the lake shore, which was opposite to the direction from which the wisp of spiritual consciousness had come, and quickly activated the huge sand space, desperately fleeing.
Zhou Ziwei created a sandy space using large chunks of soil, cramming in over a dozen people without feeling crowded at all. This demonstrates just how enormous this sandy space was. Originally, he had submerged it underwater and let it drift slowly in one direction, ensuring it wouldn't attract anyone's attention. Even if fighter jets flew overhead and used their life detectors, the protection of the water curtain and sand layer would prevent any detection instruments from detecting their presence.
However, with Zhou Ziwei charging forward with all his might, his massive size, comparable to a whale, instantly created a huge wave in the lake. Two waves surged to the sides, and a slightly concave waterline in the middle was clearly visible. Unless the pilots of the fighter jets flying in the air had cataracts, they would definitely not be able to miss such a clear target.
To Zhou Ziwei's surprise, the fighter jets circling overhead clearly saw this strange thing suddenly appear in the lake, but instead of indiscriminately dropping shells as before, they hovered above Zhou Ziwei's head, forming a line and advancing continuously.
Just as Zhou Ziwei was wondering what was going on, he suddenly felt Xiaoxin's thoughts enter his soul... "Master, those idiots sent a call request, asking if you are the target they are ordered to protect this time..."
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, then realized that the group of fighter jets in the sky must have received orders to rescue the researchers and their findings from the underground research base. If they could not complete the mission, then the research base would have to be completely destroyed.
When they arrived, they saw that the entire island had been blasted into the lake by a violent explosion. It was likely that no one in the underground research base could have survived such an ordeal. The pilots had probably used a unique communication method beforehand, and only after failing to find the target they needed to protect did they launch such a crazy bombing attack.
However, now that they suddenly see an unidentified object moving rapidly underwater at a speed far exceeding that of any living organism, they probably assume it is the submarine used for escape from the underground base, which is why they sent out such a communication request on the public channel.
Since he had already been misunderstood, Zhou Ziwei naturally hoped that the misunderstanding would continue. Now that he had inexplicably provoked a seemingly powerful spiritual warrior, he just wanted to speed up and run as far away as possible. He had no intention of getting entangled with those American soldiers. As long as they didn't let those iron birds defecate in the sky, Zhou Ziwei was too lazy to care about them. He immediately gave Xiao Xin an order to pretend to be an underground base member and fool the other party for a while. If he could fool them, it would be best to get them to leave first and not follow them anymore. That would be the best outcome.
As for how exactly to fool him... Xiao Xin's intelligence is much more flexible than that of an ordinary person, and Zhou Ziwei was too lazy to play mind games with a bunch of small fry, so he immediately handed everything over to Xiao Xin to handle.
Although the sand space clearly had no power system, because this huge sand space was currently submerged in water, and Zhou Ziwei had used a layer of water energy to control the lake water to envelop the sand space, and then used the consumption of water energy to create gusts of underwater currents, it naturally propelled the sand space to travel at a speed several times faster than a real submarine. However, the dozen or so fighter jets overhead followed closely, showing no intention of leaving.
"Xiaoxin... what are these idiots doing? Why aren't they leaving?" Zhou Ziwei asked in his mind.
Xiao Xin's voice then turned into a wry smile as he said, "No, Master... these guys are all stubborn. Although I managed to crack their communication codes and even managed to fool them with the voices of a few researchers I just recorded, and their identities haven't been exposed yet, no matter how eloquently I try to get them to leave, they just won't budge. They say... their mission this time is to safely bring us back to the air force base, and then it seems they're going to escort those important researchers directly to see a very important person... Hmph, it seems these people are determined to abduct them. Master... the lake shore is not far ahead. Once we reach the shore, your big guy will be exposed immediately, and then... you'll have to prepare for battle right away."
"So what if we fight?" Zhou Ziwei snorted indifferently, "If they weren't flying too high right now, I would have taken them all down already... Xiao Xin, immediately scan the terrain ahead and see if there are any dense bushes nearby. After we get ashore, we'll go straight into the deep forest and see if they come down then."
"Okay... Master... Please adjust your course and turn 15 degrees to the left. At your current speed, you should be able to reach the lakeshore in about one minute and twenty seconds. There, you'll be directly connected to a lush primeval forest. However... there's a distance of at least 35 meters between the lake and the forest. If you try to rush directly into the dense forest, you'll probably still be detected when you pass through that 35-meter gap!"
“It’s alright…” Zhou Ziwei chuckled and said, “It’s only about thirty meters away. I’ll rush over at full speed, and they won’t be able to see what it is that flashed past them. If that doesn’t work… I’ll just burrow through the ground and avoid that thirty-five-meter distance.”
Xiao Xinyan then remembered that Zhou Ziwei now possessed the energy of the earth, and with his ability to easily merge with and control such a large area of sand and soil, traveling through the land was no longer a difficult task. Previously, Zhou Ziwei had only learned the earth-burrowing technique from Xueying's ninjutsu, which could barely allow him to burrow underground with one or two people. But now that he had mastered the energy of the earth, he was on a completely different level in essence.
Using the technique of burrowing, one must both push aside the soil in one's direction of progress and resist the squeezing forces from all directions. However, after mastering the energy of the earth, Zhou Ziwei can use the squeezing forces from the earth to propel himself forward at any time. He doesn't even need to use the slightest bit of strength in this soil, and can easily pass through it as if he were naturally drifting in a stream.
For Zhou Ziwei, taking more people into the ground at once would only waste a little time and effort, and it was not a big deal at all.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 536: Black Iron Branch
Xiao Xin naturally had no objection to Zhou Ziwei's arrangements, but... those silly birds weren't so silly after all. When they saw that Zhou Ziwei was heading towards a dense and boundless primeval forest, they immediately lodged a strong protest and demanded that Zhou Ziwei change course, bypass the primeval forest ahead, and dock on the right side of the lake. Then, someone would arrange for everyone on the "submarine" to board the plane.
Zhou Ziwei naturally didn't take the protests of those silly birds to heart. When he heard Xiao Xin relay the message, he just pursed his lips and said, "Just tell them... there are some extremely important things in that forest that we must retrieve. If they don't have the patience, then they shouldn't wait. Let them go play wherever they want!"
Xiao Xin chuckled and relayed Zhou Ziwei's words almost perfectly. The silly bird responsible for liaising with Xiao Xin, however, was completely helpless. There were orders from above that there were several very important researchers, as well as some important research projects and specimens in this base, and there could be no mistakes under any circumstances. It was fine if they hadn't found the target at first, but now that they had, they naturally dared not be careless in the slightest. They had to escort the target back no matter what.
But... why are these people insisting on heading towards the primeval forest? This is really quite strange...
The person in charge wanted to contact headquarters again, but unfortunately found that the contact signal continued to be intermittent, making it impossible to complete the call. With no other choice, they had to continue following. They knew how important the people below were. Even though everyone was full of resentment, they didn't dare to directly drop a string of bombs to kill everyone in the "submarine" below.
Shin-chan successfully intercepted the electronic signals emitted by the fighter jet overhead once again, and couldn't help but chuckle smugly.
After gaining access to the network and several intrusions into important domains, Xiao Xin was able to recharge. He was no longer the novice who struggled to even hack into a gambling ship's network. Signal control and interception were his strengths. If those dozen or so planes had flown more than ten kilometers away before contacting headquarters, Xiao Xin would have been powerless to control them. But now they were so close… it would be a miracle if he could get them to send out their signals as usual…
"Attention swordfish sharks! Attention swordfish sharks! You are about to reach the shore in ten seconds. Please slow down or turn immediately, or you will run aground."
The flight squadron leader in charge of this mission tried to contact headquarters several times, but to no avail. He had no choice but to give up for the time being. It seemed that he could only let those lunatics cause trouble for a while. If it really didn't work out, he would immediately land two planes after they landed, forcefully prevent them from entering the primeval forest, and take them all away.
Otherwise, if these guys weren't looking to retrieve something from the edge of the primeval forest, but instead wanted to venture deep into it... then the trouble would be immense.
As the squadron leader was pondering this, he discovered that a vast expanse of primeval forest stretched out before him, with the deep lake extending to its end.
However... to the squadron leader's utter surprise, even though they had already reached the shore, the "submarine" that had been riding the waves showed no sign of slowing down. It looked as if it was about to crash headfirst into the lake shore.
Upon seeing this, the company commander was immediately overwhelmed with worry, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. He hurriedly reconnected to the channel controlled by Xiaoxin and frantically shouted warnings.
The so-called "Swordfish Shark" is the code name of the submarine in this underground base, and the code name of their flight squadron's operation is "Saving the Swordfish Shark".
The short-range communication that had been going smoothly just moments before suddenly stalled for the first time. No matter how anxious the squadron leader was, there was nothing he could do. He couldn't just throw a string of bombs down and sink the submarine to stop the "Swordfish Shark," could he?
The squadron leader guessed that the "submarine" must have suffered some serious malfunction and was probably out of control by now! But after anxiously waiting for a while, he could only helplessly scan the area below with his instruments and wait for the earth-shattering explosion to come a few seconds later.
The submarine crashed into the lake shore at such a high speed. It would probably disintegrate immediately after the impact, which would inevitably cause a powerful explosion. Alas... such an explosion would probably leave not even a trace.
In front of the company commander was a scanning display screen, showing the scene being scanned and then digitally displayed on the screen. He watched as the point of light, rapidly advancing from the lake, gradually approached the horizontal line representing the embankment, silently counting down the final countdown: five, four, three, two, one…
After counting to one, he closed his eyes for a moment with some helplessness, and waited for the astonishing explosion to occur. But to his surprise, he kept his eyes closed for more than three seconds, and still did not hear even the slightest explosion.
Strange... why didn't it explode? Could it be that it suddenly changed course at the last second before impact, or stopped abruptly at the last moment? But... how is that possible? At such a high speed, neither turning nor stopping is possible...
The squadron leader opened his eyes wide and looked at the scanning display screen, only to find that the submarine representing the Swordfish Shark, which he had been tracking, had suddenly disappeared and vanished completely from the screen.
Did it just explode and leave not a trace? And my ears... didn't hear anything at all?
The flight squadron leader rubbed his ears in confusion, but when he lowered the altitude and looked at the lake shoreline with his naked eye, he saw no signs of an explosion or any strong impact.
Everything on the lake shore was very quiet, and there wasn't even a trace of water splashing on the shore. That... that submarine just disappeared in an instant.
The squadron leader was horrified. He quickly activated the internal communication device and questioned all the pilots under his command. He discovered that everyone had experienced the same thing: they had watched helplessly as the submarine sped towards the lakeshore at top speed, about to crash into the shore and explode violently... But just as the impact was about to occur, the submarine vanished in an instant.
This is unbelievable! Can this thing just vanish into thin air?
After circling over the lake for more than a minute, the flight team suddenly discovered that the intermittent communication system had finally been restored and they could contact headquarters normally again.
The squad leader, filled with questions, immediately reported what had happened to his superiors, and as a result... he was inevitably given a severe scolding.
The submarine, maintaining its high speed, crashed directly onto the lake shore without slowing down and then disappeared... If this were reported to the higher-ups, there would be no way they would believe it. Naturally, they would be ordered to conduct a thorough investigation on the spot. If they couldn't find out where the submarine went, their flight squadron would be in for a scolding when they got back!
The flight squadron leader, overwhelmed with problems, had no choice but to order the entire squadron to search for a suitable landing site nearby.
The fighter jets flown by this squadron are all new-type helicopters. Helicopters are naturally different from ordinary helicopters. They do not have that seemingly cumbersome propeller on their backs, but they can still take off directly from the ground without needing to run to accelerate. They can adapt to take-off and landing in most geographical environments, and their maneuverability in war far surpasses that of ordinary fighter jets that require run-up to take off.
A dozen or so fighter helicopters slowly landed in a line along a narrow clearing on the lakeshore. The squadron leader then gathered all the personnel on the shore, selecting a few skilled swimmers to dive down to the spot where the submarine had disappeared to investigate. Did the submarine really vanish into thin air, or did it simply sink into the mud...? Or perhaps...?
However, just as the squadron leader had selected a few men and was preparing to go into the water, a piercing sound suddenly came from afar. Everyone looked up blankly at the sound, and then their eyes snapped open, and they were instantly stunned...
In the vast darkness of the night, on the boundless lake, a strange figure wrapped entirely in white linen held a bizarre, semi-circular, tree-branch-shaped weapon and flew at breakneck speed at an angle parallel to the lake's surface.
Ultraman?
All the flight combat personnel stood together on the lake shore, staring in disbelief at the strange man who had appeared out of nowhere.
A cold glint flashed in the eyes of the burlap monster. He first glanced at the helicopters parked on the lake shore, then looked at the rows of pilots standing there. His lips twitched slightly, and he snorted coldly. Suddenly, three dark shadows flew down from the tree branch-like object with lightning speed. They were actually three dark leaves that had flown from the strange tree branch in his hand.
The dark leaves transformed into dark lightning, slicing across the necks of the pilots lined up in three columns on the lake shore. In the blink of an eye, all three columns of pilots fell down, their throats severed, killing them instantly. Not a single one of them had a chance to dodge.
These soldiers were strictly disciplined, standing perfectly straight even in the wilderness, which saved the strange man in burlap a lot of effort. With just three black iron blades, he swept more than a dozen people into the Yellow Springs.
The burlap monster landed on the lake shore, slightly raised the black iron weapon shaped like a withered tree branch in its hand, and the three black iron leaves that had flown out immediately flew back into the air and were quickly reattached to the black iron branch.
The burlap monster glanced coldly at the corpses on the ground, then his eyes narrowed. The black branch in his hand seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, and with a "whoosh," it was suddenly lifted into the air. Because the burlap monster was holding the black branch tightly with one hand, he was actually lifted into the air by the force of the branch...
No matter how strong a person is, they cannot lift themselves up. However, people can create all sorts of strange and wonderful tools, and by manipulating these tools, they can indirectly lift themselves into the air, such as... the blackwood branch in the hands of the burlap monster.