After confirming their direction of advance, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Jack adjusted the feed in his eye. This prosthetic eye was a crucial prototype developed by their organization, requiring further refinement after every use.
And resisting electromagnetic interference was one of its functions.
Just as he was about to step forward, a thick, sturdy hand reached out, clutching a high-energy battery. It was the burly man named Burst Bear.
"Boss, backup power." Burst Bear's voice was muffled and concise.
"I just swapped in a fully charged one before we set off." Jack patted his arm and pushed the battery back. "Keep it. On this job, we might have some big guys to deal with later."
Burst Bear didn't insist, silently putting the battery away.
Jack took the lead, guiding the group along the path locked in by his prosthetic eye, heading straight for the mountain peak.
This time, they encountered no further obstacles.
Finally, the moment they stepped onto the edge of the summit, a thick stench mixing burnt flesh and blood hit their faces, making even these battle-hardened agents feel their stomachs churn.
The scene before them was like a painting of hell.
Centered around the peak, as far as the eye could see, the ground was littered with corpses.
A corpse hung from every charred piece of wood.
Those charred spikes ruthlessly pinned the bodies to the trees.
The corpses were in various postures, but without exception, they all maintained expressions of extreme terror from before their deaths, burned beyond recognition by high temperatures.
Seeing this, Jack and the others couldn't help but gasp, subconsciously averting their eyes.
Heipi's mouth fell slightly open. A curse word reached his lips, but he just couldn't bring himself to spit it out.
What kind of terrifying power could create such a tragic scene in an instant?
Was it an unknown treasure losing control? Or some inhuman existence?
Jack's mission was to investigate this. If it was a treasure, bring it back; if it was a person, it was best to bring them back too.
His mechanical prosthetic eye rapidly scanned the entire summit, quickly recording and analyzing the condition of every corpse.
If it weren't for the electromagnetic interference, he definitely would have sent a message to headquarters immediately.
"Everyone, combat formation. Advance towards the center."
Jack's cold voice broke the dead silence.
The group immediately snapped out of their shock, quickly fanning out and slowly walking towards the very center of that forest of corpses.
Everyone's hands were already resting on their weapons, muscles tense and ready to strike.
The closer they got, the tighter Jack's brow furrowed.
He noticed a detail.
All the corpses, no matter where they were pinned, were facing the exact same direction.
What exactly was at that center position?
Pushing aside the last damp bush, a bizarre sliver of light finally pierced through the murky air.
As they drew near, the sight before them brought the men to a halt.
It was a naked teenage boy. Under the illumination of the multicolored light, his skin flowed with a jade-like luster. He sat cross-legged, looking peaceful, as if the surrounding corpses and devastation had nothing to do with him.
And right in front of the boy stood a banner.
That banner emitted a brilliant, multicolored light, much like the scattered radiance of Buddha in Buddhist tales. It was holy and majestic, painting this bloody land to look like a divine realm.
Jack's pupils shrank slightly.
He first cast a quick glance at the boy's fair skin and distinct Asian features, and then his gaze locked onto that banner.
That thing wasn't planted in the ground.
It simply floated quietly a few centimeters above the earth, moving without wind. The ancient runes on the banner flickered, exuding heart-palpitating energy fluctuations.
This was absolutely a treasure beyond common sense!
He turned his head and signaled Onitake beside him with a look.
"What is this?"
Others might not have seen it, but he clearly noticed that this flag-like object was hovering a few centimeters above the dirt.
Onitake narrowed his eyes, carefully examining it for a long while. In Nihon's sacrificial rituals, artifacts of a similar shape were not uncommon.
He lowered his voice and gave his assessment in English: "Looking at its shape, it should be a magical artifact used in our Nihon rituals, called a 'Hata'."
To help Jack understand, he specifically used Japanese for that last term.
Clearly, Onitake believed this banner was an item used for Nihon rituals.
Just as his words fell.
The boy who had been sitting quietly with his eyes closed suddenly twitched his eyelashes and abruptly opened his eyes!
Those eyes were as black as ink and bottomless. The peacefulness from a moment ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a trace of offended irritation.
"What the hell do you mean, a Nihon ritual artifact! This is my traditional Huaxia Human Emperor Banner! Do you even understand the value of the Human Emperor Banner!"
This loud scolding startled the birds in the forest, causing them to flutter up in all directions.
Originally, Lin Mo wanted to act cool, but these people came up and immediately called it some Nihon ritual artifact.
You're from Nihon, not South Korea, why do you love stealing things so much!
This sudden shout made Jack's heart skip a beat.
A Huaxia person?! No, not necessarily. He could be from Singapore or Malaysia.
Jack took a step back and frowned. The country of Luzon was located in Southeast Asia, where there were many Asians around, and many who could speak Chinese.
He immediately took another half step back. The atmosphere of the entire team instantly froze, and everyone subconsciously pressed their hands against the weapons at their waists.
The air suddenly thickened.
Lin Mo, however, ignored this tense atmosphere and slowly stood up.
He didn't have a single piece of clothing on his body. His well-proportioned and powerful body lines were fully exposed under the multicolored brilliance. He showed no bashfulness at all; instead, he exuded a primal and open sense of oppression.
It was for no other reason than that his clothes had been torn to shreds by lightning during his tribulation, including his underwear.
"Wait!"
Jack immediately raised his hand, stopping the actions of the people behind him.
Looking at the imposing teenager before him, he knew very well in his heart that once they made a move, their squad might not be able to leave this island in one piece.
He took a deep breath, trying to communicate in his Chinese, which was so broken it could serve as a tongue twister.
"Nee how... We, mean no harm."
Jack spoke while using gestures to assist himself. "We just want to know, the typhoon... the one called Jebi, why is it... gone?"
To show his sincerity, he pointed to the surrounding corpses wearing Luzon soldier uniforms.
"These people, they are not with us. We... come from the United States."
He nervously observed Lin Mo's expression, trying to find a trace of communicability on that overly young face.
However, Lin Mo merely glanced at him. The anger in his eyes had faded, replaced by a playful scrutiny.
After a good while, Lin Mo finally spoke lazily, his tone carrying the slight hoarseness of someone who had just woken up.
"Oh? The typhoon."
He rolled his neck, letting out a series of crisp bone-cracking sounds.
"I found it too noisy, so I smashed it apart."
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
