When the earth collapsed, they thought they were doomed... If it were an ordinary lake, falling into the water wouldn't be a big deal, but... this lake was full of crocodiles that would eat people without spitting out bones. Falling into this lake would definitely mean a near-death experience. Moreover, they had failed to complete the mission and lost track of their team leader and the dragons. Even if they managed to escape, they wouldn't have the face to go back home like this.
However, just when they were filled with despair, they were inexplicably swept and flung into this space by a tentacle-like thing made of sand.
When they landed in this enclosed space and looked around, they clearly saw that the space was completely sealed, like a huge pottery jar, with absolutely no gaps or doors or windows. So how did they get in?
This puzzled them greatly, but they didn't know how to ask.
Apart from the few people who had just entered, all the Dragon Group members who had previously gone to the underground base to carry out their mission were still here. However, only Zhou Ziwei was still conscious, and it seemed that... Zhou Ziwei was also in control of this mysterious enclosed space.
Gunpowder Keg was the second to be brought into this enclosed space after the island in the middle of the lake collapsed. When he saw that Cannon had obviously been badly damaged before being thrown here, his fiery temper flared up. This guy and Cannon were birds of a feather, and the two usually got along quite well. Seeing Cannon get the short end of the stick made him a little uncomfortable, but after looking at the many unconscious companions in the enclosed space, he finally held back and didn't yell at Zhou Ziwei. However, he still said to Zhou Ziwei with a cold face, "You brat... can you tell me what happened? Why are they all unconscious, but you're the only one who's still awake? Tell me... what's going on? You're really not loyal!"
Zhou Ziwei rolled his eyes speechlessly and said, "What? Just because everyone else is unconscious, does that mean I have to suffer with them? Even if I don't faint myself, do I have to faint with them to be loyal? Uh... if that's the case, then we'll all die underwater, and none of us will come out alive. Everyone can clearly survive, so why would I drag them down with me? What are you up to?"
"I... damn it, you know that's not what I meant." True to his name, the powder keg immediately launched into a tirade, pointing at Zhou Ziwei's nose and saying, "You little brat, I know you're something, but don't try to be so cocky. Something's fishy about what happened today. What's wrong with me asking you a couple of questions? Everyone else is unconscious, and you're the only one still conscious. It would be strange if there wasn't something fishy going on. I don't believe you're stronger than Bullet and the others. They're all elite personnel who've undergone extreme survival training; they can maintain a clear head in any harsh situation. How can a little kid like you compare? There's definitely something wrong here... you're definitely up to something."
"Slap—" Zhou Ziwei didn't care whether this powder keg was straightforward or not. Hearing that this guy not only doubted him but also dared to repeatedly curse him, he immediately slapped him across the face without hesitation. The powder keg trembled and stared blankly at Zhou Ziwei, unable to say a word for a moment.
He wanted to rush forward and fight Zhou Ziwei to the death, but when he checked his own body, he realized that he hadn't brought any of the bombs he relied on for survival. And if it came to hand-to-hand combat... he knew that even Long Wu, the best fighter in the Dragon Group, couldn't last more than a few rounds against Zhou Ziwei. With his small frame, he probably wouldn't even be able to withstand two slaps from him...
Zhou Ziwei ignored the idiot and hated those kinds of people who had no real ability but always wore a sour face, acting like they were the most important person in the world and wanted to meddle in everything.
Zhou Ziwei had nothing else to do for the moment, so he turned around and picked up Jiang Chunshui. She was the most seriously injured among them. If she didn't receive timely treatment, it would be very troublesome. At least, if the hand and foot that were bitten off by the crocodile weren't treated before the cells in the wounds atrophied, she would have to endure the same pain again.
At this speed, it would still be quite a distance to drift from the bottom of the water to the shore, so Zhou Ziwei decided to use this time to cure Jiang Chunshui first.
With a "rip," Zhou Ziwei first tore open Jiang Chunshui's clothes covering her wounds. However, he only tore half of them before he came to his senses, turned around and glared at the powder keg who was still panting heavily like an old ox. He snorted and said, "I'm going to treat Miss Jiang's wounds. You close your eyes and don't peek."
"What...you little brat can heal people's injuries? You...you're not taking advantage of people, are you?" The powder keg was still incorrigible. He didn't dare to fight back after being slapped by Zhou Ziwei, but he was unwilling to suffer a verbal defeat after being yelled at by Zhou Ziwei.
"Get out—" Zhou Ziwei was furious upon hearing this. He pointed at the earthen wall next to the gunpowder barrel, and immediately a "crack" was heard. A large, portal-like crack appeared on the earthen wall, and outside the crack, layers of rolling lake water were revealed. Strangely, although the lake water had completely submerged the crack, not a single drop of water flowed in through the huge gap in the wall.
As a crack appeared in the earthen wall, Gunpowder Barrel and the others immediately heard the rumbling of airplanes flying around outside, and the sound of silent bombs being thrown into the lake, exploding like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.
“If you don’t want to stay here, get out of here right now… This is my territory. I only saved you because you’re a fellow member of the Dragon Group. If you have any backbone and don’t want to be saved by me, then get out of here right now.”
"I...I..." The powder keg finally lost all its temper. Originally, he was only slightly resentful of Zhou Ziwei. But when he saw his good friend being ravaged so badly by Zhou Ziwei, he took the opportunity to lash out and go against Zhou Ziwei. He didn't even consider that his own life had just been saved by Zhou Ziwei. What right did he have to question Zhou Ziwei?
Although Zhou Ziwei was angry, he wouldn't actually do anything to the powder keg... Of course, if this guy had a temper and jumped out on his own, refusing to accept his protection, then Zhou Ziwei wouldn't bother with him and would be happy to let the guy go into the lake and fend for himself.
Speaking of which... those dozen or so fighter jets in the air seem to have gone mad, dropping bombs into this lake without regard for cost. After they retreat, this entire lake will probably become a dead zone, with not a single living thing left. Zhou Ziwei doesn't believe that someone swimming naked in this powder keg can actually leave alive.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 532: Special Medicinal Herbs
Gunpowder Keg naturally dared not go out. Upon hearing the continuous explosions outside, which were more terrifying than thunder, even if he had a hundred more lives, he wouldn't dare to jump out rashly. No matter how much he disliked Zhou Ziwei, he wouldn't risk his life.
Seeing that he remained silent and did not speak, and although he did not close his eyes, he turned his back to him. Zhou Ziwei did not make things difficult for him. He carefully cleaned the clothes around Jiang Chunshui's wound, then placed one hand on Jiang Chunshui's severed arm. With a thought, a thick liquid soul power was injected directly into the wound.
At the same time, Zhou Ziwei also removed a small patch of lake water containing water energy that had been blocking Jiang Chunshui's severed limb wound.
Just now, because this small patch of lake water had been sealed here, the wound, though it looked shocking, had never bled. But now... although Zhou Ziwei had taken away the lake water containing water energy, a large amount of liquid soul power had flowed into the wound, and the wound had stopped bleeding. Instead, it showed a vibrant vitality.
However, Zhou Ziwei found it very difficult to get Jiang Chunshui's severed limbs to regrow.
Soul power, in essence, is nothing more than a kind of life force. With the infiltration of this life force, the speed of cell metabolism in the human body can be accelerated without limit. Furthermore, because Zhou Ziwei's own soul consciousness has been infiltrated into it, Zhou Ziwei can also influence the result of this repair through his own will.
For example, if someone cuts your hand, and you let it heal on its own, the wound may take several days to heal. It may take more than ten days or even a month for the injury to fully recover. Moreover, after the injury is fully healed, there may still be a very obvious scar on your hand.
Although the skin itself has the ability and memory to heal itself, this instinctive memory of the body often has significant deviations, which leads to the formation of scars.
Zhou Ziwei used his soul power to infuse the wound with vitality, increasing the speed of metabolism at the wound site by hundreds, even thousands or tens of thousands of times. As a result, a wound that would normally take a month to fully recover could be completely healed in an instant.
Moreover, with Zhou Ziwei's soul consciousness making fine adjustments, the deviations caused by the body's own memory can be corrected, thus preventing scars from remaining after the injury heals.
However, this soul power only serves to inject vitality and accelerate metabolism; it cannot truly create something from nothing, allowing a person to suddenly grow an arm out of thin air.
If it's just ordinary wound repair, then after the wound is infused with vitality and its metabolism is catalyzed, it's enough for the fully activated cells to engulf some of the dead and damaged cells in the wound, allowing these active cells to divide and thus heal the wound.
This is because the amount of substances consumed during wound healing is relatively small. However, to make a person's severed limb regenerate... theoretically, this should be feasible. As long as the cells at the severed part of her limb can maintain a frenzied activity and undergo countless divisions and regenerations, and then Zhou Ziwei uses his soul consciousness to control these divided cells to grow according to certain rules... it would not be difficult to make a person's severed limb regrow.
The problem is that if you want these cells to keep dividing, they need to be able to absorb enough nutrients. After all, cells cannot divide without enough nutrients, and even if you inject them with the most vigorous vitality, it won't work without enough nutrients.
This time, Zhou Ziwei injected enough liquid soul power into Jiang Chunshui's severed arm, making the vitality of that area incredibly strong. In an instant, the cells, supported by the vigorous life force, devoured all the accumulated blood and tissue fluid that had seeped into the soft tissue and muscles near the wound, as well as some dead cells. Then, a large number of cells began to divide under the influence of the vigorous life force, and then... due to insufficient subsequent nutrient supply, the area where new flesh had just grown stopped growing.
Without the replenishment of nutrients, the cells still maintained a high metabolic rate, which resulted in these cells aging rapidly.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly startled and quickly withdrew all the liquid soul power he had injected there, leaving only a small amount of misty soul power still covering Jiang Chunshui's wound, allowing the cells in her injured area to barely maintain their fresh vitality.
This looks like it's going to be a bit difficult...
Zhou Ziwei, holding the spot where Jiang Chunshui's severed arm was located, tilted his head and fell into deep thought.
If Jiang Chunshui's severed arm could be found again, Zhou Ziwei would be almost 100% certain that he could reattach it and make her feel completely unaffected, as if she had never been injured.
However... Jiang Chunshui's severed limbs had long been eaten by that group of frenzied crocodiles, so how could they be found again?
Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice...
It seems that if I want Jiang Chunshui's severed limbs to regenerate, I must ensure that her cells have enough nutrients to absorb before this is even possible.
So... what nutrients should she feed these cells? This... seems to be a question of medicine and biology. Zhou Ziwei has some understanding of these areas, but... he is not very proficient. You know, this is not something that can be done carelessly. If the nutrition is not balanced, even missing one substance will have a serious impact on Jiang Chunshui's future life.
Then Zhou Ziwei thought of a great possibility... what if... what if he got some other people's body cells and used them as nutrients for Jiang Chunshui's cells to devour, and then gradually divide into new limbs? He wondered if this would be feasible? After all, artificially formulated nutrients are made to mimic the composition of human cells as much as possible.
However, a counterfeit is still a counterfeit, and it can never truly provide balanced nutrition to the body's cells.
Although the idea was a bit wicked, Zhou Ziwei didn't think it was anything special. Since he could absorb the souls of the dead into his own sea of souls, what was so bad about plundering other things from other people's bodies?
This natural lake was quite large, and at this speed it would take some time to reach the shore. Zhou Ziwei simply released his soul power and scanned his surroundings. After a moment, a look of joy suddenly appeared on his face. With a thought, he immediately increased his drifting speed and headed to the left front.
A moment later, a gap suddenly opened up in the huge sandy space, right in front of the gunpowder barrel. The gunpowder barrel was inside, reflecting on its actions, when it suddenly saw the smooth sandy wall in front of it crack open. It was startled, but it forced itself to remain calm and didn't move. In its heart, it was thinking to itself, "I don't think I've provoked that brat lately... Is that guy going crazy again and trying to throw me out?"
Just as I was feeling uneasy, I saw the lake water outside the crack suddenly rush in with a "whoosh," like a water dragon rushing in.
Oh no, this... it seems that this time it wasn't that brat causing trouble, but that this strange big house really did crack.
Startled, Gunpowder Bucket was about to call on Zhou Ziwei for a solution when suddenly a blur appeared before his eyes, and a dark shadow rushed in, slamming heavily onto him with a "smack," followed by a large, snow-white foot kicking him hard in the face.
"Ah—" In a fit of rage, the powder keg grabbed the big foot, but when it was about to get up and fight it, it was horrified to find that what it was holding was only half of a person's body.
Oh... to be precise, it was just one half of a corpse.
Apart from the large foot he was holding and an arm, he was only connected to the waist by a small part of it, and even his head was gone.
Such a horrifying half-corpse was being held tightly in the gunpowder barrel's arms. Upon seeing it clearly, he immediately screamed in terror.
Gunpowder Keg was certainly not a novice who had never killed anyone, nor was he a newbie who had never seen a corpse before, but... to be so "intimately" embracing half of a mutilated corpse was something Gunpowder Keg had never done before.
After the initial shock subsided and he calmed down, he tried to throw the half-corpse outside again... but unexpectedly discovered that the wall, which had just developed a crack, had closed up completely on its own.
The gunpowder barrel had just been lifted up, but the half of the corpse was now at a loss for what to do with it. After a moment of hesitation, just as he was about to let go and throw it to the ground, he suddenly felt his hand loosen, and the half of the corpse was snatched away...
"What are you yelling for... These are medicinal herbs I finally found, what do you want?"
Zhou Ziwei snatched the half of the corpse, glared at the powder keg, and then turned and walked to Jiang Chunshui's side.
"The medicinal herbs we finally found... is this... a medicinal herb?" Gunpowder Keg turned to the Spider Woman beside him, looking somewhat bewildered, and asked in astonishment.
"It depends on which angle you look at it from..." Although the Spider Woman was not very old, she had a cold and calm demeanor. Even though she saw a bloody corpse suddenly appear in the sand house, she did not show any horror. In this respect, she seemed to be a bit stronger than the big man, Powder Keg.
"From an ordinary person's perspective... this is just a mutilated corpse. But from an animal's perspective, it's a delicious meal. And from the perspective of pure scientific fanatics... this half of the corpse can be used as an experimental subject, a medicinal material, or something else entirely. In short... whatever you want to use it for, that's what it is..."
Gunpowder Bucket had to admit that Spider Woman's words were quite philosophical, but... upon closer inspection, they seemed rather absurd... Then, when Gunpowder Bucket saw a little spider swinging happily on her ear, he finally realized that asking such a perverted little thing was incredibly stupid.
However, Gunpowder Bucket still didn't believe that the mutilated corpse could really be some kind of magical medicine. Could such a corpse really be used to heal the witch's wounds?
Gunpowder Keg glanced furtively at Zhou Ziwei... only to see Zhou Ziwei standing in front of Jiang Chunshui, holding the corpse, lost in thought for a moment, before suddenly waving his hand and conjuring up a gleaming dagger from who-knows-where.
"Swish swish swish swish..." Zhou Ziwei raised the dagger in his hand and began to cruelly mutilate the corpse. In an instant, all five fingers on one of the corpse's hands were cut off by Zhou Ziwei.
Moreover, Zhou Ziwei didn't simply cut off those fingers and call it a day. Instead, he used a very perverse method to grind those fingers, along with blood, flesh, and even bone, into a powdery paste. Then, this disgusting mess was poured onto Jiang Chunshui's severed arm wound.
"Holy crap... He... he actually used this corpse as medicine for the witch!"
Seeing this, Gunpowder Keg was utterly speechless. He'd seen powerful people before, but never one as powerful as this. No wonder he was a little monster… This person's thinking was probably different from ordinary people's. Hmm… Actually, scientists have said something about "you are what you eat," that dietary supplements are most important. Eat kidneys if you have a kidney, eat brains if you have a headache. This little brat probably believed that, seeing the witch had a missing hand, and wanted to get a dead hand for her to eat! Oh…
The powder keg is almost unimaginable; if Zhou Ziwei really did that, then…
Fortunately... Zhou Ziwei didn't feed the minced meat to Jiang Chunshui; it just spilled onto her wounds. It seems that although this little monster is a bit wicked, he's not completely stupid.
Zhou Ziwei was unaware of the powder keg's inner turmoil. After scattering some of the corpse's blood and bone fragments onto Jiang Chunshui's wound, he began to channel a large amount of liquid soul power into the wound, causing the cells and tissues in Jiang Chunshui's wound to become active again, accelerating metabolism countless times over...
A few minutes later, Zhou Ziwei had to admit with some reluctance that he had indeed been thinking too far ahead. Theoretically, if these active cells could absorb enough nutrients indefinitely, and then, under the influence of the power of the soul, their metabolism could be accelerated, the severed limbs could be regrown quickly.
The problem is... the nutrients coming from outside the body seem to be naturally rejected. Even though Zhou Ziwei had pulverized the flesh and blood of that person's corpse into a thick paste and sprinkled it on the wound, when Zhou Ziwei tried his best to activate the cells in Jiang Chunshui's body, those cells were not as readily able to devour the accumulated blood and dead cells in her body as before.
No matter how Zhou Ziwei tried to entice them, those clearly thirsty cells seemed to ignore the piles of flesh and blood in front of them, showing no intention of devouring them at all.
Could it be that this person has been dead for too long, and the cells in the corpse have completely lost their activity, or... is there an instinctive repulsive effect between the bodies?
Right... it must be an energy issue.
Zhou Ziwei stared blankly at the lifeless half-corpse for a long time, then suddenly his expression changed. Energy... Cell division not only requires the supply of material nutrients, nor just sufficient vitality, but also... the support of energy to be completed.
The flesh and blood of the corpse can only provide nutrients, but not corresponding energy. So even if it is devoured by these cells, it will only be bloated to death, but it will not be able to divide at all. These cells are supposed to have a life instinct. They can sense that the flesh and blood is just pure nutrients like stagnant water, but does not contain any vitality or material energy. So naturally, it does not arouse the desire of these cells to devour it.
A person's body should contain material energy in every part and every inch of the body, just like a person's strength. You have it in your hands and feet. As long as you stretch out your hands and feet, you can unleash powerful force everywhere. However... if your hands or feet are cut off, then the energy originally stored in your hands and feet will naturally be lost.
This was a corpse that had been dead for a long time. The power-like substance within such a corpse had long been exhausted. Without this energy, it was no longer possible to stimulate Jiang Chunshui's cells to divide.
However… this corpse doesn’t contain that essential energy that lures cells to devour it, but Zhou Ziwei certainly doesn’t lack energy… I wonder if adding a little energy to these fragments of flesh and blood would…
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei's eyes lit up immediately. Although he was currently supporting such a large sand space and using a water shield to propel it towards its destination, the attribute-less energy in his dantian was also very precious to him. He was even feeling that his income was insufficient to cover his expenses. However, Zhou Ziwei did not hesitate to activate another wisp of attribute-less energy from his body and inject it into the lump of flesh.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 533: Rebirth of Severed Limbs
However… Zhou Ziwei seemed to have long been accustomed to transforming attribute-less energy into attribute-based energy upon leaving his body. This time… now that he had created a sand space and a water shield, he naturally couldn't create earth and water energy as well, as that would easily cause these two energies to directly replenish the sand space or the water shield. Therefore… Zhou Ziwei naturally transformed the wisp of energy drawn from his middle dantian into fire energy and injected it into that mass of flesh and blood…
The mass of flesh and blood that Zhou Ziwei had pulverized into a paste with his dagger wasn't much, and Zhou Ziwei was only tentatively injecting energy into the lifeless flesh and blood this time, so of course he couldn't inject too much energy at once.
A small amount of fire energy will only generate a little heat, but will not immediately ignite.
When Zhou Ziwei realized that the energy he had injected into the flesh and blood actually had an attribute, and tried to change it back to ordinary, attribute-free energy, it was already too late. In just a moment, the active cells in Jiang Chunshui's body, which had previously shown no interest in these lifeless, dead flesh and blood cells, suddenly seemed to go mad, relentlessly swallowing the nearby cells brimming with fiery energy. These active cells, already overflowing with excess vitality and nowhere to vent it, began to divide almost immediately after consuming the substances and energy, and then began to devour and divide again...
Seeing Jiang Chunshui's severed arm begin to grow back at a visible speed, Zhou Ziwei cheered with great joy. However, he then remembered that the newly grown limb contained a fiery energy body, and he couldn't help but feel a little worried.
Never mind... So what if it carries fire energy? If this limb grows back but can't be used, then... I can just cut it off and make a new one.
Zhou Ziwei made his decision with a touch of arrogance, though it seemed to disregard the suffering of others. However… the mistake had already been made, and for the time being, the limb that had absorbed the fire energy seemed to be growing smoothly and normally, without any unexpected incidents. So Zhou Ziwei had no choice but to continue with the mistake for now.
Conversely, if they were to switch to attribute-less energy under the current circumstances... Zhou Ziwei believed that the possibility of problems arising in the future would actually become greater.