However... considering the immense pressure underground, and the fact that forcing the stone chamber outwards would obviously encounter tremendous resistance, it would be better to use the earth's energy to control the sand and gravel in this area to condense into a creature that is adept at burrowing underground. Then, one could control this virtual creature, which is entirely formed from sand and earth energy, which would surely achieve twice the result with half the effort.
And what could be more powerful than a pangolin in its ability to burrow underground? After Zhou Ziwei finished shaping the pangolin from the sand, he immediately had a thought and urged the big guy to struggle. It moved like a fish swimming in water, smoothly squeezing out of the thick soil and quickly burrowing upwards towards the surface.
The area where the stone chamber originally stood collapsed due to the sudden loss of a large amount of sand and soil...
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." Just after Zhou Ziwei drove the pangolin formed from sand away, four strange figures dressed in black leather robes, their entire bodies and faces covered in them, appeared in the enormous spherical space underground at almost the same time.
Four figures emerged from four directions, each standing silently in their own place, seemingly shocked by this sudden underground miracle. After a long while, one of the four figures suddenly turned around, flashed in the direction where Zhou Ziwei had disappeared, and then vanished like a wisp of black smoke.
The remaining three black-robed figures exchanged glances, but none of them made a move. They remained quietly in the huge spherical space, as if they had turned into three statues.
In the quiet mountain forest, a clever monkey was perched on a pine tree picking pine cones that were not yet fully ripe when it suddenly heard a soft "pop" sound from below.
Startled, the monkey leaped away and fled to a higher grove of trees. When it turned its head again, it saw the fallen leaves and withered grass on the ground undulating rapidly. Then the ground bulged up, and a moment later, with a soft sound, countless withered branches and leaves flew everywhere. A huge monster had actually crawled out of the ground.
The monster was so huge that it resembled a prehistoric beast. Its entire body was made of sand and soil particles, and its face was ferocious and terrifying. Its strength was also immense. As soon as it emerged from the ground, it actually pushed down a grove of pine trees in that area.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 548: Leaping Over the Clouds
We finally escaped from that damned underground city.
Zhou Ziwei breathed a sigh of relief, still feeling a lingering fear. Although the black-robed monster was dead, Zhou Ziwei believed that there shouldn't be only one monster in that underground city. When he used earth energy to condense a giant pangolin and broke through the ground, he felt as if a cold gaze was always watching him.
This feeling sent a chill down one's spine, but Zhou Ziwei carefully scanned his surroundings and found nothing unusual, nor was there any living being hidden within his scanning range.
However, the more this was the case, the more Zhou Ziwei felt terrified.
Now that we've finally escaped from that mysterious underground city, the strange feeling of being watched has naturally disappeared.
Zhou Ziwei leaped out of the giant pangolin's belly, then looked around and frowned slightly.
Pangolins, which are made of sand and gravel, are very good at burrowing underground, but it would be quite difficult to walk in a primeval forest with this heavy creature.
After all, the trees here are dense, and the pangolin is terrifyingly large. If this guy were to charge straight out, he would probably carve out a ten-meter-wide road in this forest.
With the weight of a pangolin, plus Zhou Ziwei's use of earth energy, he could easily knock over and break all the not-so-thick trees along the way, but... wouldn't that be a bit too high-profile? And it would consume a lot of energy, so it's really not a good idea.
Originally, Zhou Ziwei could have immediately had Xiaoxin use the wireless signal to contact his people in the US to come and meet him. Xiaoxin now integrates multiple functions such as satellite phone and wireless signal transmission, so it wouldn't be a problem for him to call his old leader back home directly from here, and notifying the people here to meet him would be extremely easy.
However... although Zhou Ziwei has now escaped the underground city, he still has a primal fear of that place and feels that it would be unsafe to stay there any longer.
That makes sense... Jiang Chunshui and his dozen or so people were just sitting there peacefully, but they were still kidnapped and taken to the underground city. This shows that some people in the underground city can come out to the surface on their own.
In short, this place is not a good place, and it's best to get far away from it as soon as possible to feel at ease.
Fortunately, it was still dark, so Zhou Ziwei decided to fly these people a distance first, in case anything else happened while they were still here.
As soon as Zhou Ziwei had a thought, the giant pangolin, which was entirely made of sand and soil, stopped moving and then made a series of "crackling" sounds. Immediately afterward, the pangolin's body shattered into pieces, and countless fragments fell in all directions. However, the dozen or so unconscious people hiding inside the pangolin's belly were not hit by any of these sand and soil fragments.
The wind rises—
Zhou Ziwei had never attempted to take more than a dozen people into the sky at once before, so this was a small challenge for him.
Fortunately, since the last time his body was squeezed by the earth underground and had to undergo countless reorganizations and modifications, the amount of attribute-free energy that his body's meridians could transmit at one time was now almost unlimited, which allowed him to condense even larger whirlwinds or tornadoes.
However, using the wind to carry a group of living people through the air is not as simple as having a pangolin protect them crawling on the ground. If someone were to fall off the ground by accident, it could really be fatal.
While theoretically Zhou Ziwei could control an infinite number of whirlwinds and tornadoes, in reality... the amount he could control could be increased, but he also needed the ability to control them effectively...
This is like a soldier. In theory, a squad leader can only command seven or eight people, and those seven or eight people are all the forces he can mobilize. But if one day, the military suddenly assigns him a task that allows him to mobilize a division of troops for his use.
With such an order in hand, his power naturally increased, and the forces he could mobilize increased by hundreds or thousands of times.
However... for a squad leader who has never had the experience of being a senior officer, being able to mobilize the forces of a division is one thing, but whether he can actually mobilize the forces of a division and whether he can manage the forces of a division well is another matter entirely.
Sometimes, authority and ability are not necessarily proportional.
Just like Zhou Ziwei now, after being blasted by that blue fireball underground, he inexplicably replenished 70-80% of the attribute-less energy in his nearly depleted middle dantian. Now, his attribute-less energy is abundant. If he were to use all of this attribute-less energy, he could create an incredibly terrifying windstorm.
However... all along, the wind energy that Zhou Ziwei has been controlling has been a very small and concentrated part. When used for flying, it can usually only carry one or two people at most, and carrying three people is already the limit.
Now, suddenly having to take fifteen people into the sky at once is naturally quite difficult for Zhou Ziwei, who has never gathered such a large amount of wind energy before.
However, Zhou Ziwei was not intimidated by this. If it really didn't work, he would take his men to fly in the airspace for a while, and then fly to higher altitudes after they got used to it.
A swirling tornado rapidly formed under Zhou Ziwei's mental control. Initially, the tornado was not very large, but as Zhou Ziwei continuously injected wind energy into it, causing more and more air around it to spin rapidly along with this energy, the size and power of the tornado grew larger and larger.
Zhou Ziwei didn't immediately lift the fifteen people into the wind. Instead, he first tried to get used to the largest tornado he had ever controlled. The tornado, spinning faster and faster, rose higher and higher according to Zhou Ziwei's will, slowly ascending to a height of tens of meters before sinking down again. When the small vortex at the bottom of the tornado reached the top of a large tree, there was a crisp "crack" sound. The large canopy on the treetop was immediately shattered into fragments by the powerful wind.
Then the tornado continued to descend, and immediately uprooted the entire tree trunk.
Then Zhou Ziwei let the tornado carry the big tree around in mid-air for a while. After getting used to it, Zhou Ziwei was basically used to the ability to use the tornado net to carry relatively heavy objects.
The tree that Zhou Ziwei just uprooted with a tornado was quite large. If weighed... even all fifteen people combined wouldn't be as heavy as that tree trunk.
With a loud "boom," feeling that the practice was almost over, and unwilling to stay in this awful place for even a second longer, Zhou Ziwei immediately flung the large tree caught in the wind far away. Then, the tornado sank back to the ground, instantly grabbing all fifteen unconscious people lying on the ground like a giant hand, engulfing them in the massive tornado, and then shooting into the sky along with Zhou Ziwei...
Zhou Ziwei was still somewhat apprehensive about leading these fifteen people. After all, there was a big difference between leading fifteen people and leading a big tree. No matter how heavy the tree was, it couldn't compare to these fifteen people.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei, having just surpassed the treetops, led the group and flew towards a distant, faintly visible mountain peak.
With a "plop," just after Zhou Ziwei flew away with the tornado that dragged a string of people, a splash suddenly appeared in the deep pool in the distance. The strange man in the black robe slowly emerged from the water like a water ghost, and then stood on the water's surface as if it were a smooth mirror, or as if the strange man, who was covered in a black robe, had no weight at all.
The black-robed figure stood on the calm water, raising his head to look in the direction where Zhou Ziwei and the others had disappeared. Although Zhou Ziwei and the others had left no trace in the darkness, the black-robed figure seemed to see them very clearly. In fact, his head was moving very slowly and gently in sync with the flight path of Zhou Ziwei and the others in the far distance.
A moment later, the black-robed figure swayed slightly, then instantly transformed into a black line, disappearing completely into the night in the blink of an eye…
"Boom..."
Three hours after Zhou Ziwei left the underground city, a loud roar sounded in the sky. The M Country Special Agent Division had finally sent a military helicopter to pick him up.
Since the shocking terrorist incident that occurred in Country M more than a decade ago, the country has become extremely strict in its control over aircraft. Unless it is a military aircraft, it is simply impossible for it to fly into this area that deviates from the flight path. Otherwise, once it is detected by Country M's satellites, it will be given a severe warning and restraint immediately. If the aircraft does not land immediately as required to accept the investigation after receiving the warning, Country M's defense forces will definitely launch an attack without hesitation and shoot it down.
Even military aircraft must report their fixed flight routes every time they take off; otherwise, if they fly haphazardly, it will only cause more panic in the US Ministry of Defense.
However... if high-ranking military officials could temporarily report the route a subordinate's aircraft wanted to take... then everything would naturally fall into place.
Of course... once the secret is discovered, all those involved will be severely punished.
So... don't be fooled by the fact that this is just a military aircraft being deployed to pick up Zhou Ziwei and his group. This will inevitably expose many of the country's agents who have infiltrated the United States, and they may be in great danger.
However, Zhou Ziwei couldn't care less about that now. If Jiang Chunshui and the others were all normal, they could still leave the country through other means. Once they were out of the country, they wouldn't have many concerns and could return to their home country without any problem.
But now... trapped in a primeval forest within the territory of the United States, and apart from himself, all the members of the Dragon Group have lost their normal rationality, leaving Zhou Ziwei with no other options. He couldn't possibly lead them all out of the United States by himself, could he? That simply wouldn't work.
If it were just one or two people, they might be able to sneak out into the clouds at night, but now he's leading such a large group of people. There's absolutely no way they could slip out of the country unnoticed. It's alright in this primeval forest, but once they leave this forest, they'll have nowhere to hide.
The plane descended slowly, but there was nowhere to land in this primeval forest. So, as usual, the people on the plane lowered a rope ladder from each side, probably so that those who were about to evacuate could climb up the rope ladder to the plane by themselves.
Zhou Ziwei rolled his eyes and smiled bitterly to himself. Of the sixteen people, he was the only one who was still conscious. The other fifteen were all confused and could not possibly climb up on their own.
Left with no other choice, Zhou Ziwei picked up Spider Woman with one hand and bullet with the other, then leaped into the air, soaring nearly two meters into the air. He lightly touched the first rung of the rope ladder with his toes, using the momentum to propel himself another two meters. He then switched to the other rung, lightly touching the first rung of the rope ladder with his other foot, and continued to rise...
And so... Zhou Ziwei, carrying two people, jumped up the rope ladder, which was about thirty meters long, in just a dozen leaps, and finally got onto the plane that was suspended in mid-air. He didn't go into the cabin himself, but just shoved the two people in his hands into the arms of two agents who were standing blankly in front of the cabin door. Then he turned around, grabbed the rope on one side of the rope ladder, and slid down quickly.
Zhou Ziwei could have taken everyone with him and flown them into the air to board the plane.
However… because all fifteen people were unconscious just now, Zhou Ziwei could use his supernatural powers without restraint. But now… there are quite a few people on this plane watching… and these people are all elite forces of their own country. Zhou Ziwei is too embarrassed to kill them all to silence them afterward, so… he can only keep a slightly low profile to avoid appearing too powerful and scaring people away.
Of course... even though Zhou Ziwei tried his best to keep a low profile, the agents who came to pick him up on the plane were still so shocked that their eyes almost popped out.
What kind of kung fu is this? The Wudang School's unparalleled lightness skill, the "Ladder Cloud Leap"? And who is this kid? Zhang Wuji reincarnated? This...this kid is too amazing! Holding one person in each hand, he can "walk" up a rope ladder over thirty meters long in just a dozen steps, as if it were flat ground. If he wasn't carrying two adults whose weight far exceeded his own, then...he could have just jumped straight up and onto an airplane...
If Zhou Ziwei's initial leap onto the plane carrying Spider Woman and Bullet only startled the agents for a moment, then when he simultaneously leaped onto the side landing gear with a chubby ball in one hand and a massive cannon in the other, taking a dozen steps, and then tossed the two men, each weighing at least 200 pounds, into the arms of the two agents, causing them to stagger, the agents who came to meet him were completely speechless with shock.
Indeed... these are the true elites of the nation... No wonder the higher-ups were willing to sacrifice agents who had infiltrated the upper echelons of the M country's military in order to safely bring these people back. Elites among elites like this child are truly the nation's most valuable asset, and we cannot afford to lose them under any circumstances...
Including the members of the Lianlong Group and four researchers from the underground biological research base, a total of fifteen people need to be brought back to China. Zhou Ziwei takes two people on the plane at a time, so he has to make eight round trips to get everyone on board.
Just as Zhou Ziwei jumped onto the plane for the sixth time, a black shadow silently emerged from the dense forest like a falling leaf. However, as Zhou Ziwei turned around and jumped down again, the black shadow plunged into the grass.
Zhou Ziwei sensed something amiss and glanced around warily as he jumped down for the seventh time, but saw nothing unusual. He then noticed the twenty-odd Kun pets surrounding the plane, all keeping watch. He figured there was nothing wrong; anyone approaching couldn't escape their surveillance. And if the Kun pets detected anything amiss, Zhou Ziwei would immediately receive their reports through his spiritual connection. Therefore… Zhou Ziwei stopped looking around and quickly helped two more people up the rope ladder. Finally, only Jiang Chunshui remained on the ground. Once Zhou Ziwei jumped down again, the mission would be complete, and everyone could evacuate…
However, just as Zhou Ziwei was still in mid-air, struggling to leap towards the military aircraft, the dark shadow in the grass flashed again and darted in front of Jiang Chunshui. The more than twenty Kun pets were clearly guarding Jiang Chunshui's front and back, but... not a single Kun pet reacted to the arrival of the dark shadow, as if the dark shadow did not exist at all.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 549: Military Salute
Like a ghost, a dark figure pounced on Jiang Chunshui with lightning speed as Zhou Ziwei carried the two men onto the plane for the last time. However, before the dark figure could make any further move, a clear voice suddenly rang out from the air: "You're asking for death!"
The shadowy figure was slightly startled and looked up at the sky. Suddenly, it saw a dazzling red light descending from the sky, which turned out to be a huge fireball crashing down on it.
The dark figure seemed to have an innate fear of the fireball. Upon seeing this, it was terrified and no longer cared about dealing with Jiang Chunshui. It immediately turned around and, like a wisp of black smoke, "whooshed" across dozens of meters before plunging into the vast primeval forest, disappearing without a trace.
Seeing this, Zhou Ziwei breathed a slight sigh of relief. He stared at the direction where the dark figure disappeared. After a while, when he was sure that the thing had gone far away, he had a sudden thought. The large fireball that was flying around in the air immediately burst open with a "poof," but it did not form any aftershocks. It was as if it had just popped a pretty soap bubble.
Sure enough, some strange things did chase after us. Luckily, I kept a close eye on them, otherwise... if I had been even slightly careless, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Zhou Ziwei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, feeling a lingering fear. He had indeed thought that with those twenty-odd Kun beasts watching below, everything would be safe. However… fortunately, the plane was only about thirty meters above the mountaintop, and at such a short distance, Zhou Ziwei could easily use a wisp of his soul power to clearly monitor the ground.
The black shadow used some unknown method, and none of the Kun pets were able to detect its presence, yet they still couldn't escape Zhou Ziwei's soul power scan.
When Zhou Ziwei realized something was wrong, he turned around and was immediately shocked to find that the person was dressed almost exactly like the black-robed monster he had extinct underground. He didn't have time to think and knew that most of his attacks would be ineffective against this guy, except for fireballs, which were quite lethal.
It takes time to condense a fireball, even if it's just a basic red fireball that won't be very harmful.
Now the dark figure was about to pounce on Jiang Chunshui. Who knew what that guy intended to do to Jiang Chunshui? Zhou Ziwei had no time to prepare at all. Helpless, he could only hastily condense a wisp of fire energy to form a large, hollow fireball around his body... Because only a very small amount of fire energy was injected into the fireball, only a thin ring around the outside of the huge fireball had a tiny, insignificant flame burning. Of course... although that thin layer of flame was insignificant, it still looked like it was burning very brightly at first glance.
However, this illusion of intense heat can only last for a short while. After that wisp of fire energy burns out, the entire empty fireball will immediately vanish without any explosive power.
However, this seemingly useless fireball actually scared the dark figure away. It seems that the guy knew about the fate of his companion, so as soon as he saw the fireball, he ran for his life and didn't dare to fight Zhou Ziwei anymore.
When Zhou Ziwei spotted the black-robed figure, he was still suspended in mid-air, holding a person in each hand, one foot on the rope ladder, the other slightly bent, his body at a 45-degree angle. It seemed as if his center of gravity had already shifted to the unsteady air. He remained in this position for a moment, and it was a mystery how he managed to keep his balance and not fall.
The two agents on the plane responsible for the pick-up were once again stunned into disbelief... Whose child is this... This kid is too fierce! His entire body is suspended in the air, with only one toe lightly touching the rope ladder, and he actually... actually manages to support his body? Hmm... If it were just a child's body, it would be fine, but he... he is clearly carrying two adults in his hands.
In reality, it was impossible for Zhou Ziwei to maintain his balance in mid-air when his center of gravity was severely shifted. From the beginning, he had not actually used his own strength to lift these people up the rope ladder with any kind of light-footed skill.
Zhou Ziwei didn't know if the Wudang Sect actually had the "Ladder to the Clouds" lightness skill, but he certainly didn't know it. He only knew how to perform the "Wind and Cloud Leap," which was actually quite simple. Carrying several hundred pounds of living people and climbing up dozens of meters into the air was extremely dangerous. So Zhou Ziwei simply secretly condensed a faint vortex of air under himself. That way... even if there was no rope ladder in the air, Zhou Ziwei could still carry two people step by step up into the air.
However, manipulating such a whirlwind was too flashy in other people's eyes, so in order to keep a low profile as much as possible, Zhou Ziwei could only pretend to jump up the rope ladder.
Pretending to be a martial arts master is always more acceptable than acting like a deity, isn't it?
After a brief pause, Zhou Ziwei was finally able to confirm that there were no other black-robed figures around. He then cautiously turned around and leaped up... too lazy to pretend to jump up step by step like a frog, he simply stepped onto the landing gear, which was still five or six meters away from him, and then threw the two people he was holding into the arms of the two agents on the plane.
"Thump—" According to the usual practice, Zhou Ziwei would have had to jump at least three more times to reach this height. But who would have thought that Zhou Ziwei was now anxious and dared not linger here any longer? He actually combined the remaining steps into one and completed it in one step. The two agents were caught off guard and were suddenly bumped into by the two bodies. In a moment of carelessness, they both fell down on their butts inside the plane.
Worried that Jiang Chunshui might be left alone down there, Zhou Ziwei didn't pretend to slowly slide down by holding onto a rope this time. Instead, he jumped down in one step.
It's only a little over thirty meters high. At this height, it poses absolutely no threat to Zhou Ziwei. Even without using the upward force of the whirlwind, Zhou Ziwei can easily jump down without getting hurt at all.