Zhou Ziwei has long lost interest in fighting ordinary people, but if the opponent is a martial arts practitioner, then that's a different story.
Whether it was the monster draped in burlap he encountered in the US or the black-robed figure he met in the underground city, both of them possessed enough power to threaten Zhou Ziwei's life. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei naturally dared not be careless in the slightest when he saw a Spirit Warrior again.
However, Zhou Ziwei quickly realized something was wrong. Although the metal used on the short daggers in the man's hand was somewhat special, only the metal at the tips of the daggers, less than an inch in diameter, was the kind of metal that possessed spiritual energy. The heavy handle above that seemed to be made entirely of ordinary refined steel.
Such a weapon can no longer be called a spiritual weapon. Even if there were a spiritual warrior here, there would be no way to control such a weapon, which is forged from a large amount of ordinary iron, to fly and hurt people.
Even though only a small amount of spiritual metal was added to these short spikes, it greatly increased their sharpness and enhanced their power transmission capabilities, making them far superior to weapons made of ordinary metals.
Before the short, fat man even arrived, the chilling killing intent emanating from his pair of short daggers shot straight towards Zhou Ziwei's neck, making Zhou Ziwei vaguely feel an itch on his neck.
These six guys must all be martial artists, right? Hmm... but their strength level is obviously much inferior to Ono Yuko's senior brother.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 595: Stirring Up Another Horrible Bump
Although Zhou Ziwei and Ono Yuko's senior brother only exchanged a few blows before the guy immediately smashed through a window and jumped off the building to escape, his determination and accuracy in judging danger, despite ultimately failing to escape, left even Zhou Ziwei speechless.
These six people in front of them were clearly too incompetent. They actually treated Zhou Ziwei like an ordinary child. Such a serious mistake was simply unforgivable. So, regardless of their fighting skills, at least in terms of experience and methods of handling things, they were far inferior to Ono Yuko's senior brother...
"Whoosh—" Two faint, cold lights suddenly struck down from the sky like mercury spilling onto the ground. Zhou Ziwei didn't feel much of an airflow shock. It seemed that the pair of short thorns were not only extremely sharp, but also had the effect of tearing through the air, meaning they could easily rip through the air as they passed through it.
This advantage is maximized when launching a surprise attack in the dark.
Unfortunately, it wasn't dark yet, and the short, fat man was attacking head-on, so even if Zhou Ziwei couldn't hear or feel anything, he could still see everything clearly with his eyes.
Zhou Ziwei remained speechless once again.
It's clear that the short, fat man's pair of short spikes were weapons designed for assassins, meant to be used for a stealthy strike in combat. Even in a one-on-one fight, he should never have revealed both of these treasures at the very beginning. Zhou Ziwei really didn't know if this guy was just not smart enough, or if the mentor who taught him his skills was a born idiot...
With a "whoosh, whoosh," just as the two shiny short spikes were about to pierce his eyes, Zhou Ziwei casually flicked out two columns of wind. In an instant, the two columns of wind seemed to transform into two fierce wind dragons, spiraling upwards along the two short spikes and directly coiling around the short, fat man's arms. Then, they spun and twisted rapidly upwards.
"Crack, crack..." Zhou Ziwei's newly acquired technique was indeed quite terrifying. After the two violent wind dragons easily shattered the bones of the short, fat man's two arms, they immediately transformed into water energy and seeped into the short, fat man's flesh and blood. Then, they stirred up the short, fat man's blood and bodily fluids, directly stirring up a terrifying storm within his body.
With a "thud," the short, fat man failed to even touch a single hair on Zhou Ziwei's head. He then plummeted to the ground in despair. His eyes shifted several times in an instant: first terror, then confusion, then bewilderment, then pleading, and finally, all of it turned into utter despair...
After his gaze shifted several times, the poor, short, fat man's life came to an end. Although he was still flying through the air due to inertia, in reality, he had already become a dead man in just a moment.
Even though the man was completely dead, there wasn't a single wound on his body. So when they saw him inexplicably fall from mid-air, the other five onlookers were still a bit confused. They couldn't understand why this idiot's stab, which was clearly earth-shattering and could have turned that wretched little boy into a string of candied hawthorns if it had gone half a foot further, would have resulted in him falling straight to the ground and landing neatly on the stone slab...
But then, as the short, fat man's body abruptly crashed to the ground, a terrifying change occurred. First, his pair of eyes, filled with despair, suddenly burst open, like a pair of light bulbs exploding, shooting out a jet of black blood. Then, the short, fat man opened his mouth wide, and a torrent of blood gushed out of his mouth like a fountain.
While others cough up blood in small sips, this guy's spurt was massive. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, it didn't stop flowing, shooting up more than a meter high, and then maintaining that height and gushing speed, continuously spewing out bright red liquid.
In the blink of an eye, a blood-red river appeared on the flat ground.
The blood in the human body is very limited, but this short, fat man seemed to be made entirely of blood except for his skin. The mouthful of blood he spat out was incredibly powerful. In the blink of an eye, the short, fat man's originally round body quickly shrank, just like a deflated balloon.
As the fountain of blood gushing from the short, fat man's mouth gradually weakened and finally stopped, the unfortunate boy had completely become an empty shell, a true empty sack. His entire corpse lay supine in the pool of blood, its body less than three inches thick. It seemed that the inside of this sack was practically empty, with nothing left.
If you look closely, you can easily see that the blood vomited by the short, fat man was mixed with many other things, such as... some small pieces of internal organs and some bone fragments that looked like powder.
The poor fellow was entangled by the two wind dragons that Zhou Ziwei spewed out and seeped into his body. In one breath, his bones and flesh were all shredded into powder, finer than minced meat, which then mixed into the short, fat man's blood, which he then spat out in one breath.
It's terrifying and cruel.
Among the crowd, there were almost no people who had never killed anyone, and there was no one who had never seen bloodshed. However, none of them had ever seen such a heinous way of dying. This guy saved a lot of trouble. If the short, fat man's relatives wanted to keep a memento, they could just pick up this skin, hang it at the door to dry, and then stuff it with some cotton and plastic bones as a support. They could then turn the short, fat man into a specimen that could be preserved permanently.
"You...you're a devil...you're so...so vicious." The tall white man gagged upon seeing this, then pointed at Zhou Ziwei's nose, his face pale, and scolded, "How can you, at such a young age, have such a vicious heart? Killing someone is just a matter of a quick death. Even if he offended you first, you could have just killed him with a single, clean stab. Why torture him like this...why make him die such a miserable death?"
In fact, Zhou Ziwei was also startled and disgusted by the effect of his unintentional attack. However, upon hearing the tall white man's accusation, he immediately curled his lip in disdain and said, "I think I only used one strike to kill him, right? One strike to kill, how did I torture him? As for what he becomes after death... what does it matter? Anyway, people are all dead. No matter how he died, he will eventually just become a handful of ashes. What's so tragic about it? It's all the same."
The tall white man paused for a moment upon hearing this, then looked down at the short, fat man who had turned into a skin, and suddenly became enraged. He roared at his four companions, "Kill...kill this brat, avenge the fat man!"
With a roar from the tall white man, the other four men responded enthusiastically, each drawing a pair of short daggers from their hands.
This time, Zhou Ziwei saw it clearly. It turned out that the short spikes were strapped to their forearms. When used, bending their elbows triggered a small mechanism that automatically popped the spikes out of their sleeves. Then, by timing their sudden clenching of their hands, they could easily grasp the rapidly ejected spikes. Someone with poor eyesight wouldn't even see where the spikes came from, and might even think they appeared out of thin air…
Zhou Ziwei shook his head inwardly once again. It seemed that the initial design of these short spikes was quite reasonable. Even the small mechanism for equipping the spikes was designed for surprise attacks and assassinations. When the mechanism was activated by bending the elbow, it did not make a sound. In this way, if they were attacking someone from behind while they were unarmed, but suddenly released a pair of short spikes, it would be difficult for anyone without eyes in the back of their head to notice.
If the person being ambushed still believes they are unarmed, then things will likely turn tragic immediately.
It's a real shame that these dim-witted guys have such exquisite assassin weapons, yet they insist on showing them off openly and then launching a frontal attack... There are five of them now... If they just spread out, they could easily surround Zhou Ziwei and attack from all sides simultaneously. Although they still wouldn't be able to do anything to Zhou Ziwei in the end, it would still be better than what we're doing now!
Sigh... What a bunch of brainless idiots... I wonder which moron taught them.
Zhou Ziwei shook his head inwardly, then stomped his foot. Just as the five idiots were less than three steps away from Zhou Ziwei, a dozen densely packed stalagmites suddenly burst out from the ground, instantly skewering all five poor idiots onto candied hawthorn skewers.
Zhou Ziwei gradually grasped the basics of utilizing the earth's energy. The earth's thickness and solidity are very powerful, and weapons formed from it are equally indestructible.
Although Zhou Ziwei felt that it would be easier and simpler to use the earth's energy to attack others after merging into the earth, he could still achieve the same effect of using the earth's power to create a large-scale destructive attack, just like he was doing now.
Five idiots were impaled on the stalagmite, but they didn't die immediately. After all, they were special people with physical abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people. Even though their vital organs had been pierced by the thick stalagmite, it didn't prevent them from retaining their last breath.
The tall white man was the most unlucky; four stalagmites had pierced his body, and his body had been almost cut into several pieces.
The tall white man glared angrily at Zhou Ziwei, then suddenly roared, somewhat reluctantly, "You...you're not human at all...this isn't...this isn't martial arts at all! Why don't you use martial arts to kill us? You...you know Chinese Kung Fu, don't you? But...this...this is magic!"
Zhou Ziwei rolled his eyes, somewhat speechless, and said, "Poor kid, who taught you to be such a brainless idiot... We're not putting on a show for someone else in a ring now. In this battle of life and death, as long as we can kill the other person, who cares what methods I use... With your pathetic IQ, you shouldn't be born as a human in your next life... You're such a disgrace to humanity... I almost forgot, you don't have a chance to be reincarnated anymore. Since you're already dead, then let your remaining soul contribute to your brother's life!"
After Zhou Ziwei finished speaking, he saw that everyone had died one after another, and faint phantoms were constantly rising from the corpses. So he hurriedly began to chant the Six-Syllable Mantra, transforming the souls of these dead people into pure soul energy and letting it enter his own sea of souls...
“Om—” As Zhou Ziwei finished chanting the six-syllable mantra, just as he was happily absorbing the pure soul power flowing into his sea of souls, he suddenly felt a terrifying and insane killing intent coming from the northeast.
The sheer intensity of this frenzied killing intent was no less than that of the strange man in burlap that Zhou Ziwei had unintentionally offended.
Holy crap, what kind of place is this M country? How can there be so many powerful people? Reciting the Six-Syllable Mantra casually can actually cause trouble? Back in China, I could recite the Six-Syllable Mantra without any problems, but now…
Zhou Ziwei was secretly troubled. He didn't want to cause trouble. He might not be afraid of a master like the Mabu Monster if they actually fought, but it would be better to avoid a confrontation if possible.
After all, at that level, fighting each other is still very risky. If you are accidentally killed by someone... if you are killed by a Spirit Martial Master, you may not even have the chance to be reincarnated.
Zhou Ziwei sensed that the soaring killing intent had indeed been disturbed by the halo formed by his Six-Syllable Mantra, and it seemed to be rushing towards him at an extremely fast speed, indicating that it might not let him off easily.
Zhou Ziwei hesitated for a moment, then decided that it was wise to avoid trouble and temporarily avoid direct confrontation. The enemy's momentum was overwhelming, and they had come from so far away, so it was a time when their killing intent was at its peak. It would not be a good thing to meet them head-on under these circumstances.
Moreover, Zhou Ziwei didn't know who that angry guy was or why he was picking a fight with him. Anyway, Zhou Ziwei didn't want to kill that person, so he decided to back down for now.
Wouldn't it be better to go back and do some physical exercise with Chu Qiutang instead? Why waste your time fighting to the death with some idiot who appeared out of nowhere...
Thinking this, Zhou Ziwei moved swiftly, using the force of the whirlwind to soar into the air. Then, he pressed his palm down, and countless "whoosh" of wind cones appeared out of thin air, raining down on the surviving policemen and thugs below, instantly blowing their heads off. Then... Zhou Ziwei rode the whirlwind straight away in the opposite direction from the person rushing towards him...
The guy was very fast. At least Zhou Ziwei could feel that the distance between them was constantly closing. When Zhou Ziwei had covered more than a dozen streets in one breath, the guy behind him was less than five kilometers away.
What a persistent guy...
Zhou Ziwei really couldn't understand what had gotten into that guy. The last time he provoked that burlap monster was because when Zhou Ziwei was reciting the Six-Syllable Mantra, he absorbed a large amount of earth spirit energy that the burlap monster had been guarding for a long time, which made the old monster furious.
This time... Zhou Ziwei didn't feel like he absorbed much energy... It seemed that besides the souls of those he had just killed, he had only collected the energy of a dozen or so remnant souls in the surrounding area.
Zhou Ziwei's Six-Syllable Mantra now has an extremely wide coverage area. He can easily obtain ten or eight remnant souls by reciting just one syllable. That's the minimum. If he were on the sea... it's possible for Zhou Ziwei to absorb the energy of ten or twenty thousand remnant souls at once with the Six-Syllable Mantra.
Since I didn't absorb any powerful soul energy just now, it proves that I didn't steal someone else's food this time. So... what's wrong with that guy who was chasing me like crazy?
Could it be that this guy is like a wild beast, with a strong sense of territory, and because he lives in this area, he absolutely forbids any other expert of his level from appearing in this area? Or perhaps even if someone comes to his territory, they can only keep a low profile and not let him know, otherwise he will fight them to the death.
Zhou Ziwei didn't know what the guy was after, but he knew that he had accidentally stirred up a hornet's nest again.
He didn't have time to figure out the specific reason for the moment; if he delayed any longer, he was afraid that guy would catch up with him.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei checked his soul sea and found that there was no sign of anyone having placed a soul mark on it.
So, as Zhou Ziwei was riding a black whirlwind through the bustling city, he suddenly crashed into a building, while the black mist whirlwind he had just controlled continued to fly straight into the distance due to inertia, just as before.
Zhou Ziwei landed on the rooftop of the building, concealed his aura, and slightly raised his head. Sure enough, he soon saw something that looked like a small patch of dark cloud flying past from the sky.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 596: Jumping Off a Building
The thing was flying too fast and was disguised so well that even if someone saw it, they would think it was a dark cloud. But Zhou Ziwei could see it clearly: the person was wrapped in something that looked like a cage and was flying around in that huge black cage.
What a huge magical artifact...
Zhou Ziwei immediately confirmed that the black cage-like object must be a complete spiritual artifact, one that could be controlled and flown by a spiritual warrior.
I just didn't expect... this magical artifact to be so large, and I wonder how much spiritual power it would take to activate it.
However, Zhou Ziwei only knew one thing: this guy was definitely an extremely troublesome person, even more troublesome than that burlap monster.
If it's possible to avoid direct confrontation with this guy, it's best to avoid causing trouble.
The creature flying overhead clearly realized that its target had disappeared, and it became bewildered, circling back and forth in the air.
The reason he was able to accurately locate Zhou Ziwei was mainly due to the huge fluctuations generated by Zhou Ziwei's energy during flight. Once Zhou Ziwei stopped and landed on the ground, and even withdrew his soul power, the guy immediately lost his target and could only wander around aimlessly like a headless fly.
Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he watched the creature fly erratically through the air. He knew that the creature couldn't find its target but dared not stop in mid-air.
Because his cage-like magical artifact can only conceal his figure when he is moving at high speed. Once he stops or flies slower, people on the ground can vaguely see him, which will inevitably cause a commotion among ordinary people, and such a commotion is obviously not what the authorities want to see.
Although this person is very powerful, if he were to truly oppose a state apparatus, even if he were to win, he would likely find it difficult to have a peaceful life afterward.
Then Zhou Ziwei realized that he was actually quite stupid. When he realized that this madman was chasing after him, he didn't need to run away in a panic. He could have just disappeared into a crowd and concealed his energy aura. Wouldn't that have left the guy completely helpless?
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei was in no hurry to leave. He simply sat down on the edge of the rooftop of the building, looked up at the sky, and pretended to enjoy the breeze, but in reality, he was keeping a close eye on the thing that was circling around in the sky.
He wanted to see just how long this guy could linger there.
You have to understand that the iron cage-like magical artifact that guy was using consumed a lot of spiritual energy. Just think about how Ono Yuko was exhausted after using only a few butterfly darts, each no bigger than a coin, for a single attack. In terms of size, that guy's iron cage was probably at least several thousand times the size of a butterfly dart. So how much spiritual energy did he have to consume to control that thing to fly in the sky?
To Zhou Ziwei's surprise, the guy in the sky had an unusually good patience, and his spiritual energy seemed to be inexhaustible. He rode the big iron cage and flew irregularly around the area in the clouds for almost half an hour without giving up.
Seeing this, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. Such a large spiritual artifact, even if Zhou Ziwei were to use his soul power to drive it, would probably cause him to lose a small portion of his more than one million soul power reserves if he used it for half an hour straight.
Such a severe loss would probably break Zhou Ziwei's heart. You see, Zhou Ziwei's soul power is gone once it's used up, and he can only absorb it from the outside to replenish it. Unlike those true spiritual warriors, who can rest, take a nap, or do nothing after their spiritual energy is exhausted, and their spiritual energy can slowly recover to its normal maximum state on its own.
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Ziwei discovered that the thing in the sky didn't seem to be blindly circling around, but was actually using its spiritual energy to carefully examine the people on the ground. Zhou Ziwei had clearly sensed that a very thin but obviously human spiritual energy was sweeping past him not far away, and the direction that large area of spiritual energy was sweeping was clearly the pedestrians on the busy street below the building where Zhou Ziwei was.
Although Zhou Ziwei did not use his soul power to sense it at the time, nor did he release any natural energy, someone like Zhou Ziwei would be very sensitive to abnormal energy fluctuations at close range, even in his sleep.
Zhou Ziwei knew that the spiritual energy cultivated by a spiritual warrior and his soul power had similar characteristics and could both be used to activate spiritual weapons, but... there were also fundamental differences between the two.
Zhou Ziwei had never truly cultivated the spiritual energy of a martial artist, so he wasn't entirely clear about the specific effects of a martial artist's spiritual power.
However, judging from the behavior of this guy in the sky, it seems that the spiritual energy cultivated by spiritual warriors also has a scanning function similar to that of soul power.
Of course, it's hard to say exactly how far they can scan. Maybe they can see through any object at will, just like Zhou Ziwei, or maybe they can only sense some special energy fluctuations.
However, Zhou Ziwei was certain of one thing: this guy's scanning range was many times larger than his own.
Zhou Ziwei estimated that the thing in the sky must have been busy for almost half an hour, constantly using its spiritual energy to scan and investigate everyone in most of the surrounding area.
Since that guy was willing to expend a lot of spiritual energy to investigate, he must have a certain degree of confidence. Presumably, if I were to be swept by his spiritual energy, he would be able to detect the abnormality in my body.