Even if this milky white spring water isn't real fire and can only burn one's soul, if Zhou Ziwei's soul were completely burned away, he would still die a very thorough death, with no possibility of resurrection. It would be better for his body to die, leaving behind a soul with the chance of being reborn...
Fortunately, the soul stepped into the spring first, and the intense shock made Zhou Ziwei suddenly wake up. The feeling of being inexplicably controlled and attracted in his heart disappeared without a trace in an instant.
Or perhaps that temptation still exists, but Zhou Ziwei is no longer affected by it.
This is like someone dreaming of a beautiful woman, the most perfect woman in the world in his eyes. He is completely unable to resist her allure. But if he could then realize that the beautiful woman is just a dream, a dream that could kill him, and if he continues to indulge in this dream, he will inevitably face certain death.
At this point, even if he admires and is infatuated with that beautiful woman, he can no longer be so captivated by her that he can't escape her charm.
After all, for a person, the desire to survive is the greatest desire. If even the most basic survival cannot be guaranteed, how can one expect anything else?
It was precisely because Zhou Ziwei realized that taking a step forward was not heaven, but the terrifying consequence of hell, that he woke up... Although he had previously guessed that there would be no such good thing in the world, the fact that this spring water could make him unable to control his thoughts and actions already explained something.
But speculation is still speculation, and it is highly uncertain, making it impossible for Zhou Ziwei to awaken himself with this only possible danger.
But now that he has witnessed the consequences of that soul entity firsthand, it's impossible for him not to wake up, even if he wanted to.
However, when Zhou Ziwei saw the souls around him still looking bewildered yet fervent, walking step by step toward the spring pool, he couldn't help but be slightly taken aback.
Didn't these ghosts see their companions burned and devoured by that milky white spring? How could they still be unable to resist the allure of the spring and fly like moths to a flame?
It wasn't until he witnessed yet another ghost recklessly plunge into the pool of milky white spring water and be swallowed up by white flames that Zhou Ziwei finally realized that these ghosts might genuinely not see the fate of their companions, or perhaps their intelligence and thoughts had been completely controlled by the spring water. Even if they saw their companions' fate, they were completely incapable of thinking or weighing the options, and were utterly unaware that going towards the spring water would mean certain death for them.
Just as another soul was about to step into the spring, Zhou Ziwei did not hesitate any longer. He immediately turned around and fled from this mysterious mountain space as if his life depended on it.
After returning to the cave, Zhou Ziwei still felt a little unsettled.
Looking back on what had just happened, it was incredibly dangerous, even more so than my previous life-or-death experiences.
Strictly speaking, he no longer needs to fear death. As long as his soul remains, death is merely the beginning of another rebirth.
But if it were just now... he really couldn't imagine what terrible consequences he would have faced if he had taken that step back then. The annihilation of his soul was what terrified him the most.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but develop a strong interest in the milky white spring water.
What exactly are those things? How can they have such a strong and terrifying allure for both humans and ghosts? And what is that white, flame-like thing? How can it so silently and instantly melt a soul away without a trace? If… I could obtain some of that milky-white liquid, I wonder if… if I could also utilize its properties to make it a highly lethal weapon?
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei's heart suddenly fluttered.
It has to be said that human desires are never satisfied. Just moments after escaping danger, Zhou Ziwei was still thankful that he was able to maintain his rationality at the critical moment and not become a moth drawn to the flame like those ghosts. However, now that he was sure he was completely out of danger, he couldn't help but think about the benefits that the milky white spring water could bring him.
Fortunately, although the milky white spring water still held endless allure for Zhou Ziwei, he now regarded it as a weapon and a deadly poison, and would never test it on himself again.
After pondering for a moment, Zhou Ziwei was confident that even if he entered the mountain again and was surrounded by that thick white fog, he would not be tempted again. Only then did he finally make up his mind to take out some milky white spring water and study it carefully.
There are still a dozen mercenaries in another cave, stunned by his soul roar, who can be used as test subjects for his "biological experiments." Such opportunities don't come often. Once they leave this place and return to normal society, no matter how ruthless Zhou Ziwei is, he wouldn't just randomly grab some innocent ordinary people to use as test subjects.
After making up his mind, Zhou Ziwei immediately ran around searching and found several wine bottles, medicine bottles, mineral water bottles and other containers. He then found some sturdy ropes, tied all the bottles together, and returned to the mountainside.
Zhou Ziwei had to make a huge decision before stepping into the thick white fog once again.
He was genuinely worried that the white mist was too powerful. Even though he knew it was dangerous, if he stepped into the mist again and felt that intoxicating comfort, he would lose himself once more and forget everything he had just seen. If that happened, he would be in big trouble.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei's anxiety did not materialize. Although he still felt a strange sense of comfort as he stepped into the white mist, he did not completely lose himself, nor did he forget the scene of the ghost being swallowed by the spring. Therefore, he remained extremely clear-headed.
Carefully approaching the spring, Zhou Ziwei saw another soul seemingly happily leap into the pool and vanish into nothingness. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, shaking his head, feeling a pang of regret for these souls… If only he could refine all the souls trapped here into soul beads… It was a pity that the spring's suction force on soul power was too terrifying. He dared not use his soul power recklessly here, otherwise, if he were to be swallowed by the white spring, he would be asking for trouble, losing more than he gained.
One should not be too greedy. It is already incredibly lucky to have obtained these mysterious springs. As for souls... there will be plenty of opportunities to obtain them in the future. There is really no need for me to get into any more trouble for these souls.
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei suppressed his greed and carefully dropped a mineral water bottle into the spring in front of him.
"Whoosh—" Almost the instant the mineral water bottle was thrown into the white spring water, a ball of milky white flame immediately surged up and engulfed the entire bottle. In less than a fraction of a second, it completely devoured it.
Even more terrifying, the milky-white flames actually flowed upstream along the rope tied to the bottle, burning straight towards Zhou Ziwei...
Damn it!
Zhou Ziwei exclaimed in surprise, hurriedly threw away the rope in his hand, and then quickly took a few steps back.
The rope was completely engulfed by the white flames in less than a second. The flames, like a living fire dragon, swayed slightly in the air before changing direction and falling back into the spring pool...
Damn, this spring water is amazing!
Zhou Ziwei was stunned for a moment, then looked at the bottles in his hand and felt a wave of frustration.
He knew that even if the bottles he held were made of other materials and wouldn't be burned by the white flames, as long as the rope couldn't touch the spring water, he was still destined to come up empty-handed. Even if glass or porcelain bottles weren't afraid of the spring water, he still couldn't use these containers to fetch water. Holding the bottles by hand and bending down to fill the pool with spring water without using the rope... that would be absolutely suicidal.
Although Zhou Ziwei was rather greedy, he would only act on the premise that his life could be guaranteed.
However, Zhou Ziwei was still somewhat unwilling. After hesitating for a moment, he finally threw the bottles in his hand into the spring water one by one.
Soon... one glass bottle after another, wooden jars and exquisite porcelain pieces vanished into thin air, and Zhou Ziwei's heart sank even further.
If this spring water can burn and devour anything, then he is truly helpless. Even if he knows that the value of this thing is unimaginable, if he cannot take it out, it is just a mirage.
However, when Zhou Ziwei finally threw a crudely made pottery jar into the spring, he was surprised to see that the jar only bobbed up and down in the spring a few times, and then spring water began to pour into it continuously. Surprisingly, it was never burned by the white flames.
However, the rope tied to the pottery jar was not spared and still attracted a wisp of white flame to burn up.
In this way, the pottery jar would be completely submerged in the spring water and could never be retrieved.
There's a chance!
Zhou Ziwei first threw away the end of the rope in his hand, and then shouted excitedly.
The fact that the magical spring water, which even glass and porcelain could not hold, could not swallow the poorly made pottery jar left Zhou Ziwei both excited and somewhat puzzled.
However, when he looked at the spring pool, he suddenly realized... In this world, everything has its counter, and nothing is omnipotent.
If this spring water can truly burn everything in the world, then even the soil on the ground will not be spared.
If the soil were also burned and swallowed by the spring water, how could the spring water remain safely stored here? Wouldn't this pool of milky white water slowly devour the entire earth?
Although the earthenware jar that was just thrown in couldn't be retrieved, Zhou Ziwei had already seen several homemade rough containers placed in what looked like a kitchen area inside the cave.
It seems that Storm Valley is sparsely populated and too far from the city, making it too troublesome to transport these ceramic products back and forth. So, they obtained some rough pottery from the local mountain people for use, which is now conveniently available for Zhou Ziwei to use to fill those mysterious white spring waters.
Zhou Ziwei quickly brought out two more coarse pottery bottles with lids. It seemed that these coarse pottery bottles were used to hold wine. They were originally sealed with wooden stoppers, but Zhou Ziwei knew that wooden stoppers could not stop this deadly liquid at all, so he had long ago thrown away all the wooden stoppers.
As for how to seal the bottle after filling it with spring water, Zhou Ziwei had already thought about it. He estimated that only mud could seal the bottle opening; nothing else would work.
How to safely remove the spring water from the pool also gave Zhou Ziwei a lot of trouble.
Finally, he found two more oddly shaped rough pottery bottles, sandwiched the pottery bottle used to hold the spring water between them, secured the other end with a rope, and slowly lowered it into the spring water, making sure the rope never touched the water. Only then did he finally manage to fill a bottle with spring water and pull it out.
When the rough pottery bottle was lifted out of the spring water, the milky white liquid clinging to its exterior immediately flowed down the edge like water droplets on grease, falling back into the spring pool with a "plop," leaving not a single drop on the bottle's surface.
Zhou Ziwei breathed a sigh of relief at this sight. If the pottery bottle still had some spring water sticking to its surface, he really wouldn't know what to do. Even if he took the bottle out, he wouldn't dare to touch it with his hands, which would be terrible.
In the end, Zhou Ziwei only filled three bottles with spring water before leaving the mountain. Although he was greedy, he knew that the spring water was too dangerous and the rough pottery bottles were too fragile. If he accidentally broke them, his fate would be to be annihilated. Carrying two or three bottles on him wouldn't be a problem if he was careful, but if he carried too many, he would be courting death.
After bringing the three bottles of spring water to a safe area, Zhou Ziwei immediately and carefully sealed two of them with soil, leaving only one bottle for an experiment.
Then Zhou Ziwei carefully poured about half a cup of spring water from the bottle into a rough earthenware wine cup, and then carried the wine cup to another cave where there were still more than a dozen unconscious mercenaries.
He casually selected an unconscious mercenary, smashed a glass bottle, and used the bottle's spout to pry open the mercenary's mouth. Then, Zhou Ziwei stood up, raised the rough earthenware wine cup in his hand, and with a trembling hand, poured more than a dozen drops of milky white spring water into the man's mouth...
Sizzle...
As a dozen drops of milky white liquid were injected, wisps of white smoke immediately began to emerge from the mercenary's mouth.
Fortunately, perhaps due to insufficient spring water, the white flames Zhou Ziwei had anticipated did not appear. However, the mercenary's body visibly inflated, as if it were a balloon being blown up.
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 261: The Invulnerable Giant
Seeing the mercenary's body grow larger and larger, Zhou Ziwei instinctively sensed something was wrong, hurriedly jumped up, turned around and ran far away.
The mercenary screamed and finally woke up from his unconsciousness. He then began to tear at his own limbs, his expression filled with pain...
In just over ten seconds, the mercenary's body had swelled to three or four times its normal size, looking like a round, fleshy ball, with an indescribably bizarre appearance.
"Oh—" In his desperate struggle, the mercenary could no longer control his violent emotions. After shouting, he roared and waved his limbs, smashing and slapping everything around him.
"Bang bang... thud thud..." A series of drum-like sounds rang out, and then Zhou Ziwei saw that under the mercenary's fists and feet, the surrounding lava was as if it were made of paper and clay, turning into countless fragments under his fists and feet.
That's insane!
Seeing the mercenary's astonishing strength, Zhou Ziwei was dumbfounded. The mercenary's body, seemingly inflated like a balloon about to burst, was also as hard as iron; no matter how hard he struck the rocks, there wasn't a single scratch. Zhou Ziwei was even more amazed. It seemed that after drinking those dozen drops of milky-white spring water, the mercenary not only possessed incredible strength, but his physical resilience also far exceeded people's imagination…
"Ah—" The mercenary smashed everything in a frenzy, then suddenly spotted Zhou Ziwei standing more than 20 meters away. His eyes flashed with a blood-red light, and he let out a deafening roar before rushing towards Zhou Ziwei.
This guy is so aggressive...
Seeing this, Zhou Ziwei dared not delay and quickly grabbed a submachine gun, firing a burst of bullets at the mercenary who looked like a huge ball of flesh.
When the bullets struck the mercenary and splattered blood, Zhou Ziwei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, no matter how thick the guy's skin was, it could still be penetrated by bullets. If the mercenary's flesh really couldn't even be hurt by bullets, that would be too terrible.
Before Zhou Ziwei could even feel happy, the mercenary roared again and used his two large, fan-shaped hands to block in front of him. A significant portion of the bullets struck the man's palms with a "crackling" sound.
Moreover, because the skin on his palms is relatively thin, Zhou Ziwei finally saw that the bullets had only just embedded themselves in the mercenary's flesh before becoming stuck and unable to move. Although Zhou Ziwei had shot at least a dozen bullets into the mercenary's body in one go, judging from the situation... it seemed that these bullets, apart from making this freak mercenary a little angry, did not cause him much substantial damage.
It seems that the bullets really didn't have any effect on the mercenaries. It felt like a normal person had a few splinters stuck in their hand. Although it hurt a little, it was fine as soon as they were pulled out. There was no need to worry about it at all.
Although the injury was insignificant, the mercenary was thoroughly enraged by Zhou Ziwei's actions. Like a wounded wild beast, he let out a series of cries that sounded completely inhuman, and then his steps quickened as he desperately chased after Zhou Ziwei.
Although the big guy was running very fast, he was still not good enough compared to Zhou Ziwei, who could run 100 meters in just over a second.
If Zhou Ziwei wanted to, he could easily run a few steps and break out of the cave, or even out of Storm Valley.
However, if this behemoth were to leave Storm Valley, it would surely bring a terrifying disaster to the entire country of Vietnam.
A humanoid monster that isn't even afraid of bullets could probably wipe out even a small group of Vietnamese soldiers.
Unless the army deploys a large force or uses heavy weapons, there is no possibility of wiping out the big guy.
Zhou Ziwei is not a savior; he has never considered saving the world as his responsibility. However… speaking of which, this terrifying behemoth in front of him was, after all, created by Zhou Ziwei himself, and he doesn’t want to cause endless bloodshed because of it.
Although Zhou Ziwei had never had a good impression of Vietnamese people, he felt that no matter how bad the Vietnamese were, it was the government's business and had nothing to do with the ordinary Vietnamese people living in poverty.
Therefore, he absolutely could not allow this mutated monster to break out of Storm Valley and harm the civilians.
Moreover… if this big guy were to charge any further, he would reach the exit of the cave, where there were still more than a dozen unconscious people… Zhou Ziwei could tolerate the other mercenaries, he never considered them human, but he couldn't bear to see those four children hurt, so… he had to stop this big guy here immediately, otherwise… he could only rescue the little princess at most, and as for the remaining three little boys, they would have to leave it to fate.
But how to stop this freakish giant? Ordinary firearms would definitely not work. A heavy machine gun might be effective, but the heavy machine gun in this cave is fixed at the entrance. It would take a lot of effort to turn the gun around. The giant probably doesn't have the patience to wait for Zhou Ziwei to slowly tinker with the weapon.
Having ruled out the possibility of using weapons to subdue the giant, it seems that Zhou Ziwei can only rely on his own strength to fight the giant head-on. In fact, if he just wanted to eliminate the giant, it would be very simple. Zhou Ziwei only needed to throw out one or two soul beads, causing them to explode on the giant's body. Then... even if the giant's skin and flesh were as hard as steel, Zhou Ziwei did not believe that it could withstand the terrifying decomposition ability of the decomposition ray.
However, the fighting power displayed by this big guy was truly astonishing. If he were to be taken down like this, Zhou Ziwei would feel it would be a real pity.
How can we make this behemoth work for us?
Zhou Ziwei hesitated for a moment, then immediately made up his mind, stopped and stood still, waiting for the big guy.
"Roar—" The big guy roared and suddenly leaped up several meters away, like a giant ball bouncing off the ground, slamming down hard on Zhou Ziwei's head...