At this point, Zhou Ziwei finally breathed a long sigh of relief. Now he was almost completely certain that Emily was the only darling of the world besides himself who could control natural energy.
So Zhou Ziwei then had Emily sit in front of the brazier burning with strong liquor, constantly absorbing the heat emanating from the brazier into her body, slowly accumulating it.
This will definitely be a very long process for Emily. After all, Emily is different from Zhou Ziwei. Zhou Ziwei can absorb natural energy of various attributes from the outside world at any time through every pore of his body and instantly convert it into attribute-free energy to be absorbed into his body.
Emily, however, did not have that ability. She could only rely on the meridian line that Zhou Ziwei had repeatedly cleared through with heat energy, running from the palm of her hand all the way to her middle dantian.
Therefore, Emily only has this one option when absorbing external energy, and the absorption speed is naturally outrageously slow.
Fortunately, Emily wasn't in a hurry. She had just learned this new trick and could clearly feel an energy line flowing up and down within her body, then pouring into a point on her body, as if it were being poured into an illusory lake... This feeling was truly astonishing and kept Emily entertained. She didn't even feel the sweat pouring down her body from the heat. She laughed and giggled until the entire case of strong liquor was poured into the basin and burned to ashes, at which point she finally stopped.
Next, it was time to learn how to use the attributeless energy that had been subdued. Since Emily's only known form of energy was heat, Zhou Ziwei instructed her to draw out the attributeless energy in her body, convert it into heat, and then exhale it from her palm.
This method of utilizing natural energy was also the first offensive natural energy law that Zhou Ziwei mastered—the Fireball Technique.
Thermal energy condenses and accumulates outside the body, and when the thermal energy accumulates to a certain extent, a qualitative change occurs, transforming from thermal energy into fire energy.
Without that qualitative change, no matter how much heat energy there is, it would just be a burst of hot air, and even if the temperature is high, its harmfulness to people would be very limited.
However, once thermal energy is transformed into fire energy, giving that energy cluster the characteristics of combustion and explosion, its destructive power naturally transforms tenfold or even dozens of times.
Such a powerful move would be quite impressive, and it would be very inappropriate to cause trouble in such a grand hotel. If one is not careful... it could very well set the entire building on fire, and in that case... the outcome would definitely be tragic.
However, the hotel is located in the city center, and Watson is too big. It would be a waste of a lot of time for Zhou Ziwei to take Emily to the suburbs.
Moreover, there were many eyes and ears outside, and Zhou Ziwei didn't want others to know that Emily had learned the laws of natural energy. Therefore... after hesitating for a long time, Zhou Ziwei decided to simply let Emily practice in the bathroom of this guest room.
Since water can extinguish fire, Zhou Ziwei first used a large amount of water energy to surround the entire bathroom, forming a huge water sphere. Then, he used wind energy to evacuate the air layer outside the water sphere. This not only isolated any flammable or explosive materials to prevent a fire, but also created a thin vacuum layer after the air was evacuated. This completely isolated the sound inside the water sphere. Even if an atomic bomb exploded here... as long as the vacuum layer was destroyed, no one outside would be able to hear it.
After everything was ready, Zhou Ziwei began to teach Emily the trick of how to condense a fireball outside her body. Unexpectedly, when Emily saw Zhou Ziwei casually wave his hand and turn the water that was constantly spraying from the faucet into a large water ball, Emily's eyes turned blue instantly—it seemed that her eyes were originally blue.
So, before she had fully mastered the absorption and manipulation of thermal energy, Miss Emily immediately began to beg Zhou Ziwei, saying that learning about thermal energy was not interesting, and that water energy was more fun and practical.
For example, even if they were out and about now, hiking in the mountains, Emily could easily conjure up a large water balloon and dive right in... for a bath. What a wonderful and beautiful idea that is...
Unfortunately, Zhou Ziwei completely ignored her aspirations and immediately urged Emily to try to condense a fireball. If she succeeded, Zhou Ziwei might teach her how to use water energy in the next few days. But if Emily couldn't even handle a simple, ordinary fireball, what was the point of learning about water energy? She might as well go home and nurse from her mother...
Upon hearing Zhou Ziwei's words, Emily immediately flew into a rage. The reason was simple: poor Emily, in both her past and present lives, was a motherless child who had never tasted breast milk. Therefore, hearing Zhou Ziwei's mocking remark was like rubbing salt into her wounds. Forgetting all about being a teacher, her hair stood on end, and a huge fireball quickly condensed above her palm…
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 627: Sixfold Shockwave
Although Emily could use soul power, she was, after all, just an independent soul entity created by Zhou Ziwei. Therefore, the amount of soul power she could mobilize was pitifully small. Consequently, she could not, like Zhou Ziwei, use soul power to wrap fireballs and fly freely in the air, making the fireballs explode whenever she wanted.
Emily could only barely bind the fireball to her side with her soul power before it took shape. Once the fireball was formed, the powerful energy it contained was beyond the control of Emily's meager soul power, let alone allowing it to fly around. Therefore, the only way Emily could control the fireball was to "smash" it. As soon as the fireball took shape, she would smash it out. In this way, the fireball was essentially a bomb with a broken fuse. Once it took shape, it would explode at any time. Without the isolation effect of soul power, this thing would definitely explode if it touched anything solid. Even if it didn't touch anything, it might still self-destruct while burning in the air.
After all, this fireball was made up of extremely concentrated energy. It was not an ordinary flame. Such a huge amount of energy condensed together was ultimately very unstable, and an explosion was inevitable.
Following Zhou Ziwei's explanation, when Emily felt she could no longer suppress the small fireball floating in her palm, she immediately and without hesitation pushed it outward with all her might...
Then a loud "boom" was heard. Before the fireball could even reach the water curtain set up by Zhou Ziwei, it suddenly exploded, and a powerful shockwave instantly spread outwards.
"Huh... this girl's fireball seems really powerful... how come... it seems even more powerful than my fireball? How much heat energy must have been compressed into it!"
Zhou Ziwei felt the powerful shockwave from the fireball's explosion and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. Fortunately, he was prepared. Although the water sphere he had arranged looked inconspicuous, it was actually formed by Zhou Ziwei using water energy to compress the water flowing from the tap dozens of times to create this spherical water sphere. This water sphere looked like ordinary water, but if someone were to hit it with a large iron hammer, they would find that this water sphere, which looked less solid than an eggshell, was actually much stronger than reinforced concrete.
However, although the water curtain was sturdy enough, the force of the explosive shockwave was also considerable. The first impact immediately caused countless spiderweb-like cracks to appear on the huge water curtain. These cracks did not last long, as Zhou Ziwei repaired them with the fluidity of the water curtain. Then, the second and third shockwaves continued to strike, and the water curtain always looked like it was about to collapse and shatter at any moment, but it stubbornly withstood the impact.
This is related to the flexibility of water. If Zhou Ziwei used earth energy to form a protective body here with soil and rocks, then the protective ability of the soil and rocks would definitely be stronger than the water curtain formed by water energy. However, the protective body of soil and rocks is strong but not tough. If it is repeatedly impacted by this wave after wave of impact energy, it will probably collapse after two or three times.
Zhou Ziwei still hadn't expected that the small fireball Emily had conjured would not only explode with astonishing power, but what was even more remarkable was that... after it exploded, it was able to generate layer upon layer of shockwaves. Moreover, these shockwaves seemed to be getting stronger with each wave, and six shockwaves were emitted in succession before the fireball finally disappeared completely from the sky.
This greatly surprised Zhou Ziwei. The shockwave energy… It seems Emily controlled the fireball, preventing it from exploding completely at once, instead allowing it to explode layer by layer… Hmm… This must also be related to the method used to condense the fireball. This… this little girl actually compressed the fireball into layers, like pressing a mille-feuille, impressive! Truly a talent; she can design such a powerful fireball with just one move… she's simply too talented! Oh no…
Just as Zhou Ziwei was marveling at the situation, he suddenly realized something was wrong... He had created a water sphere that completely covered the laundry room, ensuring that no matter which direction Emily's fireball went, it wouldn't damage the hotel's buildings or facilities, and no one would hear the explosion.
However, Zhou Ziwei had clearly forgotten one thing: Emily was also trapped inside this giant sphere. Unlike Zhou Ziwei's fireball, which exploded in one direction, Emily's fireball was like a miniature atomic bomb, creating concentric shockwaves that radiated outwards in all directions. Furthermore, without Emily's soul power to control it, the fireball didn't recognize its master. Its violent energy exploded, rushing towards everything in its path as if trying to pulverize everything in sight.
Just as Zhou Ziwei sensed something was wrong, the first shockwave struck Emily. The poor girl's beautiful clothes didn't even last a second before turning to ashes and vanishing in the blink of an eye. Then, her fair and delicate skin began to turn black at a visible speed, and then…
Just as the second shockwave hit her, Zhou Ziwei managed to separate a water curtain from the water sphere beside him, instantly enveloping her completely.
Meanwhile, the fireball had already disintegrated completely after releasing six shockwaves from a distance. Fortunately, the hotel bathroom was quite large, providing enough distance between the two sides for Zhou Ziwei to react. Otherwise, if he hadn't reacted by the time all six shockwaves hit Emily... he would have been left only to collect Emily's body. The worst-case scenario was that he wouldn't even be able to collect the body...
Emily's six-wave fireball was simply too powerful. Six shockwaves struck one after another, and when the final core of the fireball erupted, catching up with the previous five shockwaves and merging into one… the terrifying power almost overwhelmed Zhou Ziwei's water sphere, causing it to crack instantly. In several places, the shockwaves nearly escaped… If Emily had injected just a tiny bit more energy when condensing this fireball… it would have been a tragedy. Not only would the hotel bathroom have been destroyed by the shockwave that shattered the water sphere, but Emily, who had just been protected by the water curtain, would likely have been killed instantly.
After the shockwave completely disappeared, Zhou Ziwei immediately flicked his hand, sending most of the water spheres into the sewer, leaving only a small amount of water energy mixed with some water to envelop Emily, whose body was severely burned.
The first shockwave was the weakest of the six, and it was quite far from Emily at the time, so Emily was barely spared from internal organ damage. However, her skin injuries were quite severe, and her skin even smelled like roasted meat.
She was completely knocked unconscious the instant she was hit by the shockwave.
With no other option, Zhou Ziwei had to perform another major operation on Emily... Fortunately, this time Emily only suffered burns. Although the superficial injuries were severe, the damaged skin was still there, so Zhou Ziwei no longer needed to prepare disgusting bits of flesh to replenish nutrients to Emily's cells.
So... this injury, which would be considered by other doctors to be so severe as to be life-threatening, and which... would definitely only be repaired by full-body skin grafts, was completely healed by Zhou Ziwei's meticulous treatment. In just a short while, the burned skin on Emily's body was devoured by the intact active cells in her body, and then new cells were regenerated.
In less than two minutes, a completely transformed beauty was created again by Zhou Ziwei's hands.
It has to be said that Zhou Ziwei didn't have enough materials to use this time. Otherwise, he really wanted to try and see if he could add some substances to Emily's skin to increase its toughness and improve her defense. That way, she would be less likely to get injured in the future.
However... Zhou Ziwei didn't have any suitable materials to use, and secondly... he was also worried that randomly adding some special materials into Emily's body might be bad for her health.
This… although it was a life created by Zhou Ziwei, it is still a truly complete life… If I were to conduct random experiments on it like that… wouldn’t that be a bit too inhumane…?
With a loud crash, the door to Zhou Ziwei's room was smashed open, and Zhuihun and Chu Qiutang walked in together. Zhuihun seemed to know where they were in advance, and rushed straight towards the bathroom as soon as he entered the room... Then he was completely dumbfounded.
All he could see was his beloved daughter, Emily, lying naked in mid-air like a sleeping princess, her body enveloped in a thin layer of water... As for Zhou Ziwei, he stood beside Emily, "lewdly" reaching his hands into the water-covered shell, directly touching Emily's smooth, delicate skin, and rubbing it up and down...
"You brat... how dare you bully my daughter!"
Upon seeing this scene, Zhuihun flew into a rage and roared. Instantly, streaks of dark light erupted from his body, tearing his outer garment to shreds in the blink of an eye. These streaks then merged together in mid-air, solidifying into the shape of a giant sword, which slashed straight down from the sky, aiming directly at Zhou Ziwei's head...
Instead of transforming into a briefcase, Zhuihun's Hundred Transformations had turned into a suitcase-like garment, which he wore close to his body. This transformation not only allowed him to hide his magical artifacts, making them difficult for others to detect, but more importantly, it was like a super-powerful bulletproof vest. With this, even if someone were to shoot him with a rocket launcher, they wouldn't be able to harm him in the slightest.
However, if you need to use the Hundred Transformations skill temporarily, it will turn into something like this, transforming into another form and becoming a weapon that can attack, which will directly tear the outer clothes to shreds. This... seems a bit unseemly.
If he wore the Hundred Transformations Blade over his clothes, there wouldn't be this problem. However, since the Hundred Transformations Blade is just a bunch of metal lumps, if he wore it directly on the street, he would probably be stared at as a monster.
Fortunately, Zhuihun knew that using Baibian would lead to this situation, so he wore a tight-fitting T-shirt underneath, which prevented him from being shirtless.
As soon as Zhou Ziwei saw streaks of dark light emerging from Zhuihun's body, he knew something was wrong. In his haste, he didn't have time to draw upon natural energy to counteract it. As for magical artifacts... all he had at the moment were a pitiful few pieces of black iron leaves that he had snatched from the burlap monster and three butterfly darts.
While these magical artifacts are extremely effective against ordinary people, using them to deal with the terrifying and versatile Soul Chaser is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
In this critical moment, Zhou Ziwei had no time to think and could only helplessly raise one arm to meet the black greatsword made of countless steel bars that was slashing down from the sky.
Zhou Ziwei was certainly not arrogant enough to think that he could block the ever-changing attack of the Soul Chaser with his flesh and blood alone. Fortunately, he had an alloy suit that he always wore and never took off. This alloy suit also had an independent soul and could defend and attack on its own.
So when Zhou Ziwei suddenly raised his arm, the alloy suit immediately understood his meaning, and with a "whoosh," a gleaming silver alloy knife emerged straight out from Zhou Ziwei's seemingly casual clothes.
No sooner said than done, a black greatsword and an alloy knife collided head-on in mid-air in an instant, colliding violently and producing a series of teeth-grinding sounds.
This wasn't the first time Zhou Ziwei had witnessed the power of a spiritual weapon, so he knew very well that it was absolutely impossible to resist the opponent's ever-changing attacks with the alloy blade. Therefore, the moment the blades clashed, Zhou Ziwei released a large amount of attribute-less energy from his dantian with lightning speed, which instantly condensed into a terrifying fireball in front of him, about half the size of a football.
The fireball that Zhou Ziwei conjured was far beyond what Emily, a novice in the art, could compare to. Although Zhou Ziwei couldn't create a strange fireball with six shockwaves like Emily, even if Zhou Ziwei's fireball only had a one-time attack, its destructive power was still more than ten times stronger than the combined six shockwaves of Emily's fireball.
This was just an ordinary fireball that Zhou Ziwei hastily condensed. If he had enough time, he could compress it continuously and eventually condense it into a terrifying blue fireball, just like he did in the underground city last time.
Given the power of that blue fireball, once it was thrown, even someone as powerful as Soul Chaser, even with his ever-changing armor protecting him, would probably not be able to escape unscathed. Even if he didn't die, he would lose half his life.
However, the space here is too small. Even if an ordinary fireball were to explode here, it would be a disaster for everyone. Zhou Ziwei is protected by his alloy armor and should be fine. That old bastard Zhuihun probably won't be able to kill him either. But Chu Qiutang and Emily, those two women, would probably be turned to ashes. So, although Zhou Ziwei condensed a fireball, he didn't rush to throw it. He just used it to block in front of his chest. After Zhuihun's black gold greatsword cut through his alloy knife, he would use this big fireball to block it.
In that case, unless Zhuihun has lost his mind, he should understand that fighting Zhou Ziwei here is not a wise choice. If he dares to act recklessly, he will directly kill his daughter.
If Zhuihun hesitates and stops, Zhou Ziwei will have time to explain. As for whether Zhuihun will believe him... that's none of his concern. If all else fails, he can wake Emily up. With her own testimony, even the most domineering Zhuihun should understand the truth.
However, at this moment, something unexpected happened to Zhou Ziwei.
With a clang, the alloy sword that Zhou Ziwei hastily conjured from his alloy armor was indeed no match for the imposing black gold greatsword. However, it was not easily severed by the opponent's sword; the blade was only broken in about a quarter of its length, with a small part still connected.
But then... the alloy blade twisted and contorted, then, as if turning into molten iron, completely enveloped the black gold greatsword...
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 628: This is the Divine Weapon
The alloy blade itself wasn't very large, so theoretically it shouldn't be able to completely enclose the black gold greatsword. Of course, if the alloy blade were melted into a thin layer of molten alloy, as thin as paper, it wouldn't be completely unable to enclose the black gold greatsword. However, in that case, this layer of alloy would definitely be of little use. With just a thought, Zhuihun could easily make the black gold greatsword cut through this layer of alloy.
However, this alloy knife was connected to the entire alloy suit. Therefore, what appeared to be just a thin piece of alloy knife turned into molten alloy and enveloped the black gold greatsword. Immediately, countless streams of molten alloy flowed upwards from Zhou Ziwei's alloy suit, tightly binding the black gold greatsword in an instant.
Zhuihun hadn't actually intended to kill Zhou Ziwei with a single sword strike; he was just angry and decided to at least cut off one of the kid's arms before doing anything else.
After all, although his daughter was his daughter, it was Zhou Ziwei who resurrected her.
Zhuihun is a person of conscience and loyalty, and he would not actually do something as despicable as crossing the river and then burning the bridge.
Although he saw Zhou Ziwei seemingly molesting his precious daughter, the lifestyle of people in the US has always been quite open. Zhuihun was indeed very angry at the sight, but not to the point of killing him.
Even if he intended to cut off Zhou Ziwei's arm, it was because he knew that Zhou Ziwei had the ability to regenerate severed limbs, so he wanted to use this method to vent his anger.
However, to Zhuihun's surprise, Zhou Ziwei grabbed an alloy knife from somewhere, which clearly did not look like a spiritual weapon, but it actually blocked his ever-changing black gold greatsword.
When Zhuihun failed to sever the alloy blade with his sword, he was only slightly surprised. Just as he was about to use his consciousness to command the black gold greatsword to swing wildly again, he felt as if the black gold greatsword, after being wrapped by the opponent's alloy blade, had suddenly sunk into a bottomless swamp. He tried to urge it with his consciousness twice in a row, but he couldn't get the black gold greatsword to break free from the alloy blade's grasp.
This immediately ignited Zhuihun's fighting spirit. He and Zhou Ziwei had become acquainted through a fight, but back then, when they chased each other and fled deep underground for nearly a hundred kilometers, although they had exchanged a few blows, they had never truly fought with all their might. Therefore, it was really hard to say who was stronger between the two.
Zhuihun believed that his title of King of Assassins was well-deserved; otherwise, how could he have chased Zhou Ziwei so relentlessly? However, after witnessing Zhou Ziwei's endless stream of wondrous methods, Zhuihun became increasingly astonished. In any case, compared to Zhou Ziwei, his spiritual power cultivation was perhaps higher, and as for the power of his spiritual weapon... he didn't believe that Zhou Ziwei could produce a spiritual weapon more powerful than Bai Bian.
But apart from that, Zhuihun had no other skills that he could be proud of in front of Zhou Ziwei, while Zhou Ziwei's skills were far beyond his reach.
Putting everything else aside... his ability to resurrect the dead alone is enough to shock the world. As for his magical abilities such as controlling water and wind, they dazzled Zhuihun. In particular, the scene where he turned two missile vehicles into dust with a wave of his hand still makes Zhuihun feel a little scared when he thinks about it now.
Thinking back to how the two had only fought briefly underground before stopping, without even determining a winner, and how Zhou Ziwei seemed to have not even used his amazing skills, Zhuihun gradually began to doubt that if the two had truly fought at full strength, it was not certain who would have been able to defeat the other...
The more Zhuihun realized this, the more itchy he felt inside, and he longed to have a real match with Zhou Ziwei. However... because of Emily, and because Zhuihun had agreed to be Zhou Ziwei's henchman for three years, they had a master-servant relationship.
Even though Zhuihun would never admit that he was Zhou Ziwei's bodyguard or follower, the fact remains that this relationship is undeniable.
Even considering this relationship, Zhuihun was too embarrassed to bring up the topic of competition or sparring with Zhou Ziwei again.
However, now... the fact that his daughter was "humiliated" gave Zhuihun a perfectly legitimate excuse, and he once again witnessed Zhou Ziwei's terrifyingly powerful combat strength, which made him feel restless and eager to get back to work.
At that moment, he no longer cared about the master-servant relationship, or that Zhou Ziwei was his daughter's savior. He immediately roared, "Good...good lad, then let's have a big fight to see who's better!"
As he spoke, Zhuihun roared again, then his head twitched slightly. In an instant, a surge of hot blood rushed to his head, and his eyes bulged out in anger... Then, under Zhuihun's control, the black gold greatsword, which was wrapped in the alloy blade, suddenly disintegrated and broke into pieces, turning into black gold needles no more than three inches long. These needles pierced through the alloy blade from different directions, flew out with a "whoosh," and then gathered in mid-air, reforming themselves into a black gold sword.
However... what was formed this time could not be considered a great black gold sword, but only a very ordinary-looking black gold sword. This time, the black gold sword was obviously a bit narrower than the previous one, as if it had successfully lost weight.
"How could this happen... I... my ever-changing abilities!"
No one could sense the change in the black gold sword more clearly than Zhuihun. Others could only visually observe that the black gold sword Zhuihun had condensed this time seemed to be smaller than before, but it was also possible that Zhuihun had used some method to make the black gold sword more compact.
However, Zhuihun himself knew perfectly well that in that brief moment when he was enveloped by that alloy blade, his black gold sword, which was formed from the ever-changing parts, inexplicably shrank by nearly a quarter of its volume.