But what's most troublesome is that if Zhou Ziwei were to wade through the sea of fire, his body would inevitably be covered with some viscous liquid that had seeped out from the plants and was already burning. And just a little bit of this spark could ignite the red vines wherever he went, instantly turning the area into another sea of fire.
This means that no matter how fast Zhou Ziwei runs, as long as he cannot isolate himself from those nasty viscous liquids, he will always have the sea of fire with him. Unless he can run out of this area where the red vines grow in one go, he will be with the sea of fire forever!
Zhou Ziwei felt that if he only allowed a small amount of this flame to burn close to his body, the heat generated would cause some damage to his body, but the damage should not be fatal... Of course, this "not fatal" is not absolute. The key is to see how large an area this ghostly red plant has grown. If he can run out within ten minutes, he should be fine. If it grows any longer, then it's hard to say.
But if... this world is entirely composed of such a plant and environment... then Zhou Ziwei can only blame his bad luck! However, Zhou Ziwei still believes that this most tragic situation shouldn't happen!
"Ah...it's so hot! Oh my god...why is the ground getting hot too!" Just as Zhou Ziwei was pondering this, Wang Xuewei also noticed that flames were slowly rising from the sand, and these flames were about to spread to the feet of the three of them. Instantly, Wang Xuewei's face turned pale.
"Ziwei... take Miss Chu with you and run! I believe you can escape!" Wang Xuewei sighed softly and said, "I caused this mess, so let me bear the consequences! Miss Chu is an innocent victim, you... if you can, please rescue her too!"
"No..." Chu Qiutang, who had been lying on the ground at some point, also woke up. Hearing Wang Xuewei's words, she groaned in pain and said, "I... I've become neither human nor ghost. What's the point of living? You two should leave! You... you don't need to worry about me!"
Zhou Ziwei, somewhat amused and exasperated, said, "I didn't say I could only take one person with me. What are you two arguing about? Hehe... You don't need to say anything more. You're both my companions, and I won't abandon either of you!"
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he bent down and first untied the climbing rope from Chu Qiutang's gear. Then he wrapped it around Chu Qiutang's waist several times and finally tied a knot.
The other end of the climbing rope was tied to Zhou Ziwei's own wrist.
These climbing ropes are also fireproof; it is said that they might not even break if placed in a steel furnace for several minutes.
In this context, it seems to be just right to use it.
After doing all this, Zhou Ziwei gently placed a hand on Chu Qiutang's helmet visor, transmitting strands of soul power through the visor to Chu Qiutang's severely burned face, while whispering, "Don't worry! I'm confident I can completely heal this injury for you. I guarantee that when you go home, you'll still be a stunning beauty that everyone loves!"
Chu Qiutang certainly didn't believe it. The burning pain on her face told her that even if she didn't die, she would be badly injured. As a medical worker, she had seen many burn patients before. In her mind, the scars left by fire were terrifying. She would rather have her face slashed with a knife than see the muscles on her face twisted together!
If she had been less attractive to begin with, it wouldn't have been so bad. But while she wasn't a stunning beauty, she was still a pretty and charming girl. Now that she looked like someone who would give people nightmares, she found it hard to believe she would have the courage to live under the scrutiny of others.
Since we're all going to die sooner or later, why put ourselves through this extra suffering?
Therefore, what Chu Qiutang said just now was entirely from the bottom of her heart, and she did not mean to be modest.
Hearing Zhou Ziwei comforting her, she initially wanted to disbelieve him, but when she felt a strange, electric-like sensation sweep across her face as Zhou Ziwei's large hand touched her mask, she felt as if all the blisters on her face burst open, and her severely damaged skin began to burst forth with unprecedented vitality under the influence of that electric current.
The excruciating pain almost instantly disappeared, replaced by an unusual tingling and itching sensation. Chu Qiutang, with her extensive experience in first aid, naturally knew what this feeling meant for a burn patient… It was clearly the sensation of massive cell regeneration and the wound beginning to heal! But… she hadn’t applied any medication to her face at this moment, and since being burned, she should still be in the most painful period. How could… cell regeneration have already begun?
Overwhelmed with surprise, Chu Qiutang completely forgot what to say. Like a puppet, she was manipulated by Zhou Ziwei. Even after Zhou Ziwei tied Wang Xuewei up with climbing ropes in the same way, she still lay there blankly without any reaction.
"Hey...we're leaving...don't panic while you're in the air. It'll be safer if you two hold hands. I'll catch you when we land..."
At Zhou Ziwei's loud shout, the two were both surprised... Wait, in the sky... What does that mean? They don't have wings, how could they be in the sky?
"Ah...you're not...you're not going to fly us like kites, are you?" Wang Xuewei looked at the rope tied around her waist, then at the other end of the rope firmly held in Zhou Ziwei's hand, and suddenly felt like she was going to faint.
You guessed right, but there's no reward!
Zhou Ziwei laughed loudly, and before they could say anything in protest, he suddenly grabbed the ends of the two ropes near their waists, took a deep breath, and with a shout, swung his arm with all his might. Instantly, Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang felt as if they were on a space shuttle, and with a "whoosh," they flew straight into the air.
"Ah—" As the figures in the sea of fire below shrank in their eyes, the two of them simultaneously let out a deafening scream, and at the same time, a huge wave of emotion surged in their hearts.
Although both of them had good figures, with this equipment, each of them probably weighed over 100 pounds, totaling over 200 pounds. But... how come their 200 pounds felt like only two or three pounds in Zhou Ziwei's hands? He actually tossed them so high with a single swing of his hand... five meters... ten meters... fifteen meters... God... is that guy even human?
Before the screams had even subsided, the two men were already thrown more than ten meters into the air by Zhou Ziwei's force. Then, they felt their ascent gradually slow down, until the momentum of their ascent was about to end, when they both felt the ropes around their waists suddenly taut.
What precise calculation capabilities!
Wang Xuewei didn't understand the mystery behind it, but Chu Qiutang, a specially trained soldier, could see just how terrifying Zhou Ziwei's move was.
She believed that if Zhou Ziwei had thrown them with all his might, they might have been thrown to a height far greater than this. And now, just as their upward momentum stopped, the ropes binding them were also lowered to the end. This ability to calculate force was truly astonishing!
Just as the rope tightened, Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang simultaneously saw the figure that was originally standing in a sea of fire suddenly move. The figure moved like a dragon entering the water, plunging into the endless sea of fire where the flames rose more than two meters high, and running away quickly.
As the figure below moved, the ropes binding their waists tightened considerably. Just as they felt themselves reaching their limit and about to fall, the slanted ropes suddenly pulled them along, involuntarily gliding them forward...
Too fast...too fast! So exciting...so exciting!
The two of them had tried extreme sports like bungee jumping at amusement parks before, so they were quite familiar with the feeling of being neither up nor down. However, compared to the amusement park rides, those games seemed rather mild. Now, they were truly experiencing what it meant to feel like they were flying. In fact, at that moment, they really were flying!
Just now, the sea of fire had spread to a distance of nearly 300 meters, and Zhou Ziwei broke through this distance in less than ten seconds. This made Chu Qiutang, who had been being pulled by Zhou Ziwei and flying more than ten meters in the air, so shocked that her eyes almost popped out.
100 meters in about three seconds! How is that possible? This... isn't the world record for the 100 meters over nine seconds? And Zhou Ziwei actually managed to triple that world record! And he did it while running through a sea of fire, and even... while holding two living people in his arms! This... if he were empty-handed on a flat track, what kind of astonishing results would he achieve?
Compared to Chu Qiutang, Wang Xuewei didn't notice any of this. She just felt as if she were really flying. This dreamlike feeling made her unconsciously burst into tears.
Every girl dreams of heroes and beauties, and longs for a day when a peerless hero will ride on auspicious clouds of seven colors, slaying endless demons to save her from her suffering.
Wang Xuewei was once a little girl who also had the same hazy yet beautiful dreams, but those dreams were shattered when she married Zhou Ziwei for the sake of her family and her father's Xinda Daily Chemicals.
Over the years, Wang Xuewei has been working tirelessly for Xinda Daily Chemicals, her mind filled with thoughts of how to revitalize the family business. She thought she had long forgotten the beautiful but unreal dream she had when she was young. But when she saw the figure leaping out of a sea of fire and turning into a human torch, she knew that she had never forgotten that beautiful dream. However, she never expected that the perfect hero in her dream had always been by her side.
At that moment, Wang Xuewei suddenly recalled the most classic line from "A Chinese Odyssey": "There was once a sincere love placed before me, but I did not cherish it. Only when I lost it did I regret it deeply..."
Yes... I deeply regret it. This hero who braved the flames was my man, my husband! But I never cherished him. Can I ever salvage our relationship?
Meanwhile, Zhou Ziwei, who was running swiftly through an endless expanse of red plants, paid no attention to what the two women above him were thinking. All he knew was that he had to run faster and faster.
Although he had already broken free from the already massive sea of fire, his body was covered in countless sticky plant sap clung to him. Blue and red flames leaped incessantly across his body, and every now and then, wisps of flame would fall from his body with the vibrations of his run, instantly igniting the red plants beneath his feet. Thus, in this endless, dark, otherworldly realm, a strange fire dragon was emerging from the sea of fire, following Zhou Ziwei's footsteps, relentlessly heading towards the distant, boundless depths of darkness…
Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 381 Escape from Death
With two kite-like figures in tow, Zhou Ziwei ran tirelessly through the endless red plants. With each step he took, the dark red plants beneath his feet, filled with an oily substance, would immediately burst into flames. Because of his speed, although the fire dragon behind him looked increasingly spectacular, the flames clinging to his upper body gradually died down.
However, below his knees, a viscous liquid that splattered from the plant's tubes would constantly adhere to his body, and a persistent flame would burn on his skin.
Gradually, the combat suits, which had undergone special treatment and whose performance even surpassed that of spacesuits, were also gradually scorched with small holes by the high temperatures continuously released from the flames.
The air was filled with a burnt smell, and a burning sensation began to torment Zhou Ziwei's nerves, which were far more sensitive than those of an ordinary person.
As Zhou Ziwei ran, sweat poured down his forehead, and his body began to convulse violently from time to time.
It would be easy for him to extinguish the fire on his body. He just needed to use his burrowing technique to enter the sand layer, burrow forward a distance, and then come out again. That should free him from the endless burning of the flames behind him.
The problem is that Zhou Ziwei isn't fighting alone. He's holding two ropes, and at the other end of each rope are two stunningly beautiful women... If he were to dive into the ground right now... without a doubt, the two women in the sky would immediately plummet into this sea of fire.
If he had stopped where he was and caught the two people in the air... then the fire would have spread around them in the meantime, and they would have been back to the same situation, or even worse.
Even if Zhou Ziwei is skilled in burrowing, he can only carry one person at a time and slowly burrow underground. If he were to carry two people at once, the result would be that none of the three people could leave.
The acrid smell was spreading, and Zhou Ziwei's body trembled even more violently. He could feel that there were already five burn marks on his thighs, and because of the damage to his combat uniform, more viscous oil was seeping into them. The flames were slowly spreading to both of Zhou Ziwei's thighs.
Zhou Ziwei gritted his teeth and used his soul power to continuously repair the damaged cells. However, although his healing speed was extremely powerful, it could never match the speed of the damage.
However, despite his efforts, the burns could not penetrate deeper into his flesh and could only slowly spread on the surface of his thigh.
Dancing in the fire is definitely not a pleasant experience...
As Zhou Ziwei sped up his run, he grinned and made a joke at himself.
He knew he probably wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, and this godforsaken place seemed to have no end in sight. Zhou Ziwei even doubted that even if he ran around here for a year, all he would see were these dark red vines and the endless darkness in front of him... oh, or maybe a long fire dragon behind him.
We must find a way to stop the burns from getting worse, otherwise... he might collapse on the ground because his legs are burned before he can run out of energy.
Should he replace the misty soul power in his body with liquid soul power? That way, the liquid soul power would definitely have a much stronger healing effect on his body, and it could also significantly increase his running speed…
However, Zhou Ziwei immediately dismissed this thought. While the healing effect of liquid soul power was better than that of misty soul power, the pain would also be amplified when his body was under the control of liquid soul power. He was already barely able to bear the excruciating burning pain in his legs. If the pain were amplified several times over... he suspected that he would be so badly injured that his whole body would spasm, making it impossible for him to even run. Wouldn't that be a certain death?
It hurts, it hurts so much! It's so hot, it's killing me!
Zhou Ziwei gritted his teeth and persevered, while helplessly groaning in his heart.
Thinking about it, life's encounters are truly unpredictable. Just a short while ago, he was on the snow-covered Kashgar Mountains, and in order to resist the cold, he had to sacrifice the energy of the Heart of Flame, converting the pure energy released within into heat to keep himself warm.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself engulfed in flames, desperately struggling against the scorching heat... What kind of world is this...?
With this thought in mind, Zhou Ziwei suddenly had a thought.
This energy conversion should be reversible, right? Since I can convert pure energy into heat energy, why can't I convert heat energy into pure energy and then absorb it for my own use?
The idea suddenly popped into Zhou Ziwei's mind and immediately filled him with excitement.
And indeed, just as Zhou Ziwei had guessed, the transformation of energy is reversible. Now that he has mastered one of the transformation methods, he only needs to reverse the transformation technique.
When Zhou Ziwei was researching how to convert pure energy into heat energy, he put in a lot of effort. At first, he couldn't convert it completely, so some of the energy was converted into light energy, turning Zhou Ziwei into a golden ray of light.
Now, Zhou Ziwei needs to convert thermal energy into pure energy and absorb it. This process has become much simpler after he has gained enlightenment. In less than a minute, Zhou Ziwei has successfully converted a portion of the heat emanating from the flames, which were initially enveloped by soul power, into pure, attribute-free energy. Under Zhou Ziwei's conscious control, this energy transforms into wisps of fine energy threads, which begin to slowly rise along some of the meridians in his body.
To Zhou Ziwei's surprise, these energy threads were not directly absorbed into his sea of souls like the energy he usually absorbed from the Heart of Flame. Instead, these scattered energy threads seemed to be attracted by another strange force, eventually rising up and gathering in a spot on Zhou Ziwei's chest.
And in that spot on his chest, there was already a crystalline energy body. Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, then remembered that this was the pure energy he had extracted from the Heart of Flame when he was in Myanmar. He had mistakenly converted all the misty soul power in his Sea of Souls into liquid soul power, which forced him to use liquid soul power to control his body. At that time, this pure energy did not enter the Sea of Souls, but instead lingered in this spot on his chest.
At first, Zhou Ziwei was troubled by this matter for a long time, but he never saw anything wrong with the energy hovering here, nor did it have any impact on his life. So Zhou Ziwei was almost forgetting about the existence of this energy. But unexpectedly, in his current situation, the energy he directly absorbed from the flames and converted from heat energy by himself flowed into this place on its own.
Zhou Ziwei could feel that the energy gathered in his chest was much more concentrated than the scattered energy he was absorbing. Fortunately, the two were compatible. The fine threads of energy, still carrying some heat that had not been completely converted, slowly seeped into the center of Zhou Ziwei's chest like a fine spider web.
What puzzled Zhou Ziwei was that the seemingly small point was actually like the sea of a person's soul, and it seemed to have a vast space. No matter how many fine energy threads were constantly replenished into it, there was no sign of that point overflowing, nor was there any sign of the energy there becoming violent.
The human body is truly a mysterious thing... It seems my understanding of my body is still incomplete. Why does the chest area also have the function of storing a large amount of energy? This chest area...
While continuously absorbing the pure energy transformed from the heat emanating from his legs and body, Zhou Ziwei pondered the mystery of his chest. He had to put in extra effort... After all, the energy he absorbed hadn't yet entered his sea of souls and been successfully transformed into soul power, which made him extremely cautious. If this energy accumulated in his chest to a certain extent and suddenly erupted, he would be the one in dire straits.
The chest is a very dangerous place. All of a person's internal organs are located here. If the energy in the chest suddenly goes out of control and explodes with a "pop," then even if he is several times more powerful, he will surely die.
My chest... Could this bottomless pit in my chest be... Could this be the Tanzhong Qihai acupoint, also known as the middle dantian, as described in traditional Chinese medicine?
Suddenly, a diagram of the human body's meridians and acupoints from traditional Chinese medicine flashed through Zhou Ziwei's mind. Because Zhou Ziwei had devoured the souls of more than one person skilled in traditional Chinese medicine, this diagram had long been deeply ingrained in his soul's memory. Now, with a slight recollection, the diagram immediately appeared clearly before his eyes. And as he expected, the place where that wisp of energy first lingered was indeed the location of the middle dantian in the human body.
Zhou Ziwei was a little stunned when he learned of this situation. The middle dantian? Why are these energy bodies gathered here, and it seems like they are going to stay here for a long time? Could it be that I have unintentionally cultivated some kind of peerless martial arts?
It's not surprising, really. Whether it's so-called Qigong or internal energy cultivation, it's really just a technique for absorbing and using energy. It's just that the method of absorbing energy is a bit complicated, and the technique of using it is a bit strange.
However, if you disregard both Qigong and soul power and simply view them as a type of energy body, then it's not surprising that they share some commonalities.
I wonder if I can control this energy at will? If not, then it doesn't matter if this energy comes and goes in small amounts, but if it accumulates too much, it will eventually become a big problem.
Zhou Ziwei pondered to himself, but escaping was the priority at this moment, and he didn't have time to study these things. Now, in order to alleviate his pain and prevent the flames from completely burning his legs, he could only use this newly learned method to continuously convert the intense heat he felt in his legs and body into a kind of attribute-less energy and store it in the Tanzhong acupoint in his chest...
Thus, Zhou Ziwei was temporarily maintained in a state of relative equilibrium. His soul power was constantly being consumed, and the burns on his legs did not continue to spread. However, no matter how hard Zhou Ziwei tried to repair them with his soul power, he could not completely heal the injuries. However, the pain was much less than before, and the strange energy he had gathered in his chest acupoint was becoming more and more abundant.
If things continue like this, he really doesn't know whether it will be a blessing or a curse for him...
In the blink of an eye, Zhou Ziwei had been running through the boundless sea of red plants for almost an hour. Leaving aside the consumption of his soul power, the physical exertion alone had reached an alarming level. Zhou Ziwei was now showing signs of stiffness throughout his body. The massive depletion of his energy made him like a fish out of a drained pond, gasping for breath with every step. Fortunately, the respirator in his mask provided relatively pure oxygen, which helped him maintain his stamina. Otherwise, without the respirator, Zhou Ziwei didn't know if he could have held on until now.
Leaving aside whether Zhou Ziwei could handle it, even the two beauties being flown like kites in the sky must have had a terrible time. Anyone would be put under immense strain if dragged along by a rope and flying through the air at such a terrifying speed. If these two weren't extraordinary, an ordinary person would have already collapsed from that kind of terror.
Chu Qiutang had undergone rigorous special forces training, including training like being pulled into the air, which was why she was able to persevere. Wang Xuewei, on the other hand, was an ordinary girl, but before coming here, Zhou Ziwei had fed her three drops of Reincarnation Water in one go. This substance had a terrifying effect on physical transformation. In fact, in terms of physical fitness and endurance alone, Wang Xuewei was definitely superior to Chu Qiutang now; otherwise, she probably wouldn't have been able to hold on for long.
"How much further... Is this damn place really going to never end?"
Zhou Ziwei murmured to himself, then slowly raised his head and looked towards the farthest point in his field of vision. Suddenly, his expression froze, and a complex look, whether joy or surprise, involuntarily welled up in his eyes.
So much so that he unconsciously stopped in his tracks, causing the two kite figures in the sky to plummet a short distance before he suddenly snapped back to reality.
The reason was simple: Zhou Ziwei, in that unconscious moment of looking up, actually saw a ray of morning light... Yes, it was a ray of morning light, a scene of the sun about to rise. Although that ray of morning light was only faintly visible at this moment, it would not even be noticed if one did not look closely.