vstars Chapter 7 A Billion Can't Buy a Life
Chapter 7 A Billion Can't Buy a Life
The capital city. One thousand meters underground. The headquarters of the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals.
In the 3,000-square-meter circular main control hall, only the hum of the supercomputer's cooling fans could be heard.
Long Yuan stared intently at the 100-inch screen in the very center.
His hands were braced on the synthetic resin workbench. His fingernails dug into the hard panel, leaving several glaring white marks.
On the screen is a high-resolution aerial view of Panlong Mountain, transmitted back by a space-based satellite three minutes earlier.
There was no smoke of gunpowder. There were no craters.
All that remained were corpses crushed into meat patties on the ground.
Xue Wanshan, the president of the Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association, that old monster who had been stuck at the half-step divine realm for ten years, had his head stuck to the marble floor tiles like a rotten tomato.
More than a hundred elite internal energy cultivators were reduced to lumps of flesh and blood embedded in the rubble before they could even finish drawing their swords.
Long Yuan's black military uniform shirt was completely soaked through. The cold fabric clung to his spine.
Half-step into the divine realm.
Even if Long Yuan himself, a peak War God Realm expert, were to personally take action, it would take him more than three hundred moves to kill Xue Wanshan.
But the young man in the blue robe in the picture didn't even move his feet.
This is no martial arts master.
This is a nuclear bomb disguised as a human.
"Chief."
The researcher in the white lab coat next to him had his Adam's apple bobbing wildly. His voice cracked like a broken gong.
"Jiangzhou Customs and the aviation system have just intercepted abnormal data. In the past two hours, 137 overseas IPs with red notice tags, as well as ghost accounts with no entry records, have been concentrated in the main urban area of Jiangzhou."
The researcher's fingers trembled as he typed on the keyboard. A long string of densely packed code names popped up on the right side of the screen.
"People from the dark web have come in."
Long Yuan suddenly turned his head. The scar on his cheek twitched violently as he clenched his teeth.
"That brainless idiot Zhao Tianlong!!"
"A stingy offer of 10 billion US dollars. He's brought all ten of the world's top mad dogs to China!!"
The researcher's palms were sweaty, and he wiped them haphazardly on his white lab coat.
"Should we immediately notify the Jiangnan Military Region? Deploy an armored brigade to set up perimeter defenses? These assassins are definitely carrying heavy firepower..."
"What are you using to control this?!"
Long Yuan slammed his hand on the workbench. The solid surface cracked instantly.
"Using ordinary soldiers' lives to fill that deep pit?!"
"Pass on my highest order. All field personnel of the Jiangzhou Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals must evacuate within a ten-kilometer radius of Panlong Mountain. Cut off all traffic control to the western suburbs. No one is allowed to approach even half a step."
Long Yuan looked again at the figure in blue standing on the second-floor terrace of the villa on the screen.
let's hit.
Let those reckless insects on the dark web test the limits of this monster.
If they can really force him to reveal some of his trump cards, the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals will be able to assess whether or not to awaken the thing beneath the Heavenly Prison ahead of schedule.
……
Western suburbs of Jiangzhou. Abandoned container terminal.
The rain poured down. Raindrops the size of soybeans pounded on the rusty metal, creating a dense, cacophony of noise.
Shura spat out the rain-soaked cigar from his mouth.
He was shirtless. His two-meter-tall iron tower body was covered with eerie dark red tattoos.
The raindrops, falling half an inch above his shoulders, were instantly vaporized by an intense heat, turning into puffs of white steam that rose into the air.
Ten billion US dollars.
This money is enough for him to buy a private island in half of the Pacific Ocean and never have to put up with those old bastards on the dark web again.
"Boss."
A burly white man in a black raincoat strode over, carrying an anti-materiel sniper rifle loaded with armor-piercing high-explosive rounds.
"Reconnaissance complete. The target is a villa atop Panlong Mountain. There are no official signs around. The Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association members were just wiped out up there."
Shura grinned, revealing a mouthful of teeth stained yellow by tobacco.
"Chinese martial artists"
"A bunch of useless people who practice calisthenics."
He raised his right hand.
"boom!"
A dark red flame suddenly appeared in his palm.
The surrounding air was instantly distorted and warped by the heat. The muddy puddles beneath their feet dried up and cracked at a visible speed. Several assassins standing nearby couldn't withstand the heat wave and retreated, covering their faces.
S-rank fire-type ability.
With this fire, Shura burned three fully armed warlords to death in North Africa. It could even melt the chassis of the latest European armored vehicles into molten iron within ten seconds.
He treated the red warning email sent by the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals to the dark web as a piece of waste paper to wipe his butt.
"Walk."
"Go and get that guy surnamed Lu."
"Burn it to ashes, along with the entire mountain."
Dozens of black SUVs without any license plates roared out of the dock, like a pack of hyenas attracted by blood, disappearing into the rainy night of Jiangzhou.
……
Panlongshan Villa.
Second-floor bedroom.
Lu Yuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
The thunder outside made the glass rattle.
But the torrential rain, just ten meters from the villa, struck an invisible barrier. It all slid down in an arc, not a single drop splashing into the yard.
Lu Qingxue lay on the large velvet bed.
The icy shell covering her body was thicker than before. The golden rune between her brows, drawn from Lu Yuan's own blood essence, was slowly flickering.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes.
The divine consciousness of the Mahayana stage was like a vast, all-encompassing net, instantly enveloping the entire Jiangzhou City.
Rats scurrying about in the sewers. Traffic jams on the overpass. Young Master Zhao's screams in the city's central hospital.
Everything was vividly clear in his mind.
One hundred and thirty-seven insects.
They are converging on the mountaintop from four different directions along the winding mountain road.
These insects emitted a pungent, gunpowder-like odor. There were also some mixed and impure energy fluctuations emanating from them.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes.
The methods employed by worldly tycoons are so inadequate that they are laughable.
If you can't beat them, throw money at them. Throw money at a bunch of stronger ants to their deaths.
but.
Lu Yuan turned his head and looked at the mountain path to the southeast.
There was a source of extremely high-temperature energy rapidly approaching. Although it was so full of impurities that it was nauseating, it could still be considered a wisp of extremely hot energy.
It's just the right amount to extend my sister's life.
Lu Yuan pushed open the bedroom door and walked down the spiral staircase to the first floor.
……
City center. Jiangzhou First Hospital.
In the corridor outside the top-floor VVIP ward.
Zhao Tianlong slumped into the leather sofa. His custom-made Armani suit was crumpled into a ball.
On the coffee table in front of him were three military-grade tablets. They displayed various surveillance footage and thermal imaging radar images of the western suburbs of Jiangzhou.
He spent 10 billion US dollars. He also spent an additional 50 million to buy a backdoor into the Jiangzhou Sky Eye system.
He wanted to watch with his own eyes as that little bastard surnamed Lu was fried into mincemeat.
Inside the soundproof glass of the hospital room, Young Master Zhao was still rolling around frantically on the bed.
The black lotus mark between her eyebrows has already opened to its sixth petal.
One more day.
If we kill Lu Yuan tonight, that vicious curse can definitely be broken.
"Sir, they've gone up the mountain."
The butler stood to the side, pointing to one of the tablets.
On the screen, the 137 green dots representing the assassins' locations have already crossed the mountainside of Panlong Mountain.
There were no obstacles.
Zhao Tianlong clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his flesh.
"Kill them all..."
"Cut pieces of his flesh off his body!"
……
Halfway up Panlong Mountain.
Shura trudged through the fallen leaves. The sound of his military boots snapping twigs was especially clear in the rainy night.
It's too quiet.
There wasn't even a chirping of insects or a bird's song. Only the monotonous sound of rain.
He made a tactical hand signal.
The dozens of top assassins behind him immediately scattered.
A white sniper, like a monkey, leaped into the canopy of a century-old tree and set up his anti-materiel sniper rifle. Several Southeast Asian snipers, skilled in assassination, drew Nepalese kukri knives coated with a deadly poison that could kill instantly, and disappeared into the bushes.
"Playing tricks."
Shura let out a cold snort.
He clasped his hands together. The fire-based supernatural power within him surged wildly. The dark red tattoos on his skin seemed to come alive and move about.
A huge fireball, more than two meters in diameter, formed above his head.
The dark red flames illuminated half the mountainside. Rainwater was evaporated completely by the absolute heat before it even got close to the fireball. The surrounding trees even began to spontaneously combust.
"Go to hell!!"
Shura let out a beast-like roar. His arm muscles bulged, ready to hurl the fireball at the villa on the mountaintop.
He hadn't even swung his hand yet.
The movement froze in mid-air.
It wasn't just him.
One hundred and thirty-six other assassins scattered throughout Panlong Mountain. At the same time. All frozen in time.
It's like someone pressed the pause button on a video.
Lu Yuan stood under the eaves on the first floor of the villa.
He didn't even come down the mountain. He didn't even glance down at the foot of the mountain.
He simply raised his right hand, his five fingers pointing towards the void, and gently grasped.
"arrest."
Shura felt as if his skull had been cleaved open with a rusty, blunt axe.
An invisible, terrifying hand, ignoring the intense heat on his body and his flesh and bones, probed directly into his mind.
It gripped his soul tightly.
His prized S-class flames were nothing more than a spark before this power, extinguished on the spot.
"Well......"
The roar, like a broken bellows, came from Shura's throat.
His eyeballs bulged outwards wildly. The corners of his eyes ruptured. Black blood gushed from all seven orifices.
He wanted to rebel. He wanted to detonate his superpowers and perish together with the enemy.
But his body was completely out of his control. He was even deprived of the ability to move a single little finger.
"Sizzle."
A chilling tearing sound.
The Asura's soul was forcibly torn from his body.
One hundred and thirty-seven grayish-white, semi-transparent phantoms screamed shrilly in the torrential rain, flying uncontrollably towards the mountaintop.
Soulless bodies lay scattered across the mountains and forests.
The white sniper plummeted from the treetop into the muddy water. The assassin, gripping a poisoned knife, lunged face-first into the bushes.
In the courtyard of the villa.
Lu Yuan looked at the dark red soul struggling violently in mid-air.
At the heart of Asura's soul lies a tiny spark, the size of a soybean.
Lu Yuan opened his mouth and inhaled sharply.
The spark detached itself from Shura's soul and transformed into a beam of red light, flying into Lu Yuan's mouth.
It's of very poor quality.
Lu Yuan frowned slightly.
It wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap. But it could barely suppress the cold poison in his sister's body for another half a month.
He swallowed the embers.
Looking at the more than one hundred wailing souls in mid-air.
"You regard this incomplete supernatural ability as a miracle, and the firelight at the bottom of the well as the sun."
"Today I will use this karmic fire that extracts souls and refines spirits to burn through your pathetic theory of evolution."
A cluster of dark red Samadhi True Fire emerged from Lu Yuan's fingertips. He flicked his finger.
Mars fell into the pile of souls.
"boom!!"
There was no temperature. There was no bright light.
Only an explosive passion that strikes straight to the soul.
One hundred and thirty-seven of the world's top assassins. Not even a complete corpse was left. Their souls were burned to nothingness.
The soulless bodies in the mountains and forests decayed rapidly, turning into pools of foul-smelling blood.
This is the place with the densest spiritual energy within a hundred miles. It's perfect for using as fertilizer to nourish the spirit-gathering array.
……
Jiangzhou First Hospital.
The string in Zhao Tianlong's mind snapped.
On the tablet in front of him, there were originally 137 green dots flashing, representing the positions of the assassins.
In a single second, everything turned a deathly gray.
Not even a ripple was made.
Ten billion US dollars. That's all.
A large wet patch appeared in Zhao Tianlong's crotch. The stench of urine permeated his expensive suit trousers.
His knees buckled, and he knelt directly on the carpet in the corridor.
He finally realized what he had messed with.
This is not human.
This is a god who transcends worldly rules!
Ordinary people always think that holding a few pieces of waste paper can buy their life and death.
His prized financial empire was less than a piece of toilet paper in the face of such absolute violence.
In the hospital ward, Young Master Zhao's screams grew weaker and weaker.
Zhao Tianlong crawled on all fours towards the elevator. He was going to Panlong Mountain to kowtow. He was going to donate the entire Zhao family. He just wanted to save his son's life.
……
Headquarters of the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals.
The hall was deathly silent.
The stainless steel thermos in Long Yuan's hand was crushed into a flat disc. Scalding hot water poured onto the back of his hand, burning off a layer of skin. He didn't even blink.
What did the thermal imaging radar just capture?
There were no explosions from firearms. There was no clash of internal energy.
More than a hundred red high-energy reaction points. In an instant, they all turned into a cold, blue hue, representing death.
"Chief...should we send a second team to probe?"
The researcher slumped in his chair, his trouser legs shaking as if he'd been electrocuted.
Long Yuan stared intently at the screen.
"Try it my ass!!"
"Raise Jiangzhou's danger level to Level X!! No one is allowed to approach Panlong Mountain without my authorization!!"
"Immediately connect to the royal family's inside line in the capital."
Long Yuan took a deep breath of cold air.
"Prepare to awaken that thing beneath the dungeon."
……
Panlongshan Villa.
Lu Yuan turned and walked back into the house.
When he swallowed that fire seed, he also searched the Asura's soul.
Although these dark web worms are physically weak, they have a very large intelligence network.
Deep within Shura's memory lies a coordinate system classified as top secret by the higher-ups of the dark web.
The East China Sea, international waters. A trench fissure at a depth of 10,000 meters.
For the past two weeks, the area has been emitting terrifyingly high temperatures that could boil the seawater. The Dark Web originally planned to send Shura to lead a team to investigate.
Extreme Flame Dragon Marrow.
A cold smile appeared on Lu Yuan's lips.
This wasteland, devoid of spiritual energy, actually hides an ancient immortal cultivation cave.
"Ten billion US dollars for this piece of junk. These worldly tycoons are really poor, all they have left is money."
Lu Yuan glanced at the torrential rain outside the window.
Even if you kill all these worldly tycoons, you won't be able to squeeze out much profit.
It's time to head to that area. Time to collect some real interest.