The ability contained on the wrist guards, "Absolute Run".This seemingly inadequate ability was currently proving to be tremendously useful in Sheyan"s hands!
Sheyan made use of the momentum to dash downwards with astonis.h.i.+ng speed. The gla.s.s curtain wall shattered with every step that he took, sending a large amount of gla.s.s fragments splattering into the building. A guard in the building was trying to check the situation on the ground through the gla.s.s wall, but a palm-sized gla.s.s fragment came flying towards him and slashed across his face. He fell to the ground screaming in agony as blood covered his entire face.
Sheyan sprinted vertically down from a height of more than 100 meters. The trail of gla.s.s fragments he left behind him soared more than seven meters high. They glimmered so brightly under the three o"clock afternoon sun that it was impossible for anyone to directly lay eyes on them!
Seeing this, the Sphinx raised its head and emitted a harsh roar while wagging its tail. Dust instantly billowed high into the air, almost covering the entire sky. But Zi and Reef did not stand idle either. They simultaneously attacked the Sphinx below.
The wind whistling in his ears, Sheyan readied his fist while he rushed downwards like a meteor. The Sphinx also opened its mouth and launched a lethal counterattack that was so strong that its vicinity became a vacuum area.
The two ent.i.ties collided together!
After an indescribable flash of light, a sandy hurricane descended upon the area. There were at least a few dozen tons of sand near Benghazi, and they were all sucked into the sandstorm.
Within the sandstorm, Zi and the rest of the party still clearly saw Sheyan"s figure that dove down like a meteor. Although he was then blown away by the claws of the Sphinx, his fist had also mercilessly struck the golden mask!!!
That sound made when "Extinction" was launched, so brutal it seemed to tear the stars apart, was heard once again.
The mask was instantly reduced to millions of tiny golden crystal fragments!! The lion behind it naturally did not escape the same fate.
Fortunately, the Nigerian Golden Mask seemed like it belonged to the category of non-living objects. After it was shattered by Sheyan"s punch, it still recovered into the menacing-looking mask afterwards. The mask fell down from the air and before it could reach the ground, it was already seized by the panting Sheyan.
Now, Sheyan truly realised how powerful the "Extinction" ability was. It was worthy of its reputation as an insane ability that could ignore the restorative power of the Realms!
The development of events following that incident was rather interesting. Some parts of Africa were still quite primitive and voodoo practice was very popular in some places. When a certain leader of a voodoo religion realised that the unexpected sandstorm could bring him great economic and social benefits, he bravely stepped forward to claim responsibility for the incident and loudly accused the Zandala tribe of having been punished by the G.o.d Legba!
As the saying goes, fortune favours the brave. His risky endeavour actually gained the support of several nearby tribes. These tribes were all either really ambitious, or had been suppressed hard by the Zandala tribe before this.
Religious pressure, external pressure, internal strife, and the fact that Chief Zandala died too suddenly all caused the end of the Zandala tribe"s rule in Benghazi. When Party Ace"s doings reached the newspapers, they became the "holy signs" of Legba, the G.o.d of the voodoo religion.
Meanwhile, the actual culprits, Party Ace had already arrived in Egypt. When they heard the news of what had happened in Benghazi, they couldn"t help laughing. Their subsequent operations seemed to be blessed by good fortune too. The Egyptians were currently packing all kinds of ancient treasures to send to the arks. After Party Ace dealt with a company of guards, they managed to secure the rest of the African ancient works of art in one go.
According to the plan, they should be heading to Europe to collect the cultural works of art there, but they suddenly received a very unusual side mission:
[ Side Mission: The Country Remains but the Land Lay in Ruins ]
[ Target Recipients: Everyone of Chinese descent. ]
[ Mission Briefing: Protect the special-model long-distance s.h.i.+ps from being destroyed. The specific mission area will be a.s.signed when the contestant steps foot in China. ]
[ Mission Details: Many special-model long-distance s.h.i.+ps (replica arks) in Mainland China have already been bizarrely destroyed. Protecting all of them is an impossible task. Outside help is much needed.]
[ At a time when the lands are about to crumble and the country"s energy and resources are almost exhausted, we welcome any kind of help we can get. ]
[ Warning: The reward for this side mission may be very low. Please think it over carefully. ]
***
Looking at this side mission, Sheyan remained silent for a while. Then, he slowly said, "This is probably the most critical moment for my country. Will you guys allow me to make an irresponsible and selfish decision for once?
"Although this is just a parallel world, although they may not have anything to do with me, although there may be corruption, power struggle, ambition and conspiracies there.... But I still wish to do something for them, to try and save the people there even if there won"t be much benefit in it for us."
Reef suddenly laughed. "When did you become such an emotional guy, boss? Now you made me a bit sad. It"s unfortunate that there aren"t any replica arks in the UK, or I would"ve tried to protect them too. If you want to do it, then I"ll go with you. Besides, we need to go to China to collect the cultural works of art anyway, so it"s not like we need to make a detour."
Sheyan took a look at Zi, who remained silent. Sanzi took out his phone to book flight tickets for them.
***
When the plane landed at an airport in southwest China, Party Ace could clearly sense a turbulent undercurrent in the society. Banners with the words "We want the truth" written on them could be seen everywhere. Perhaps due to the destruction of a considerable number of special-model long-distance s.h.i.+ps, the cat was slowly getting out of the bag.
Their destination was Heping Town, a town 50 kilometers away from the outskirts of Jiyang City. As an important defensive base in southwest China, Jiyang was once a candidate to be the capital of the province.
During wartime, in order to avoid the eyes of some foreign threats, military enterprises had generally moved deeper into the land. They first hollowed out the mountains. Residential areas were built in the valleys, while military factories and other defensive inst.i.tutions were built inside the mountains. This way, satellites wouldn"t be able to capture images of the defensive facilities, and they wouldn"t need to fear being bombed.
Every military enterprise had workers numbering in the tens of thousands. Including the family of the workers, they would add up to about 50 thousand people. In Heping Town, 70% of the population were family members and children of the factory workers and miners.
There was no doubt that a special-model long-distance s.h.i.+p was being a.s.sembled in the factory in Heping Town. It would be completed soon, no later than 12 o"clock tonight.
The mission they received was to secretly protect this metal transport that would be responsible for saving the lives of at least 50,000 people. Specifically, it was to protect the "brain" of the s.h.i.+p called the Galaxy System which would be transported over from Jiyang City today. Without this system, the special-model long-distance s.h.i.+p would be like a person without a brain, unable to perform its intended job.
Based on the cases that had occurred so far, Party Ace concluded that destroying the Galaxy System was the most convenient and direct way to destroy a replica ark. On the contrary, destroying the hardware of the ark was the most unpleasant method. The design of the ark focused primarily on durability and toughness. The watertight cabins alone numbered more than 400. As powerful as the contestants were, even they would find the ark body hard to deal with! And considering the staggering population of China, they could easily just mobilise a large number of people to repair the physical damages. It would be no big deal to them at all.
Therefore, after Sheyan performed some a.n.a.lysis, they decided to escort the car in secret. They were contestants, and based on the way contestants think, efficiency was of the utmost importance.
The authorities had obviously learned their lesson. This time, the Galaxy System was escorted by armoured vehicles and tanks. The time of departure was also s.h.i.+fted to 9 o"clock in the morning, obviously preparing to force their way through instead of moving in covert. Seeing the grand lineup, Sheyan was also wondering how the other contestants would deal with that.
When the motorcade was about ten kilometers away, something out of the ordinary finally happened. The armoured car moving at the very front suddenly halted for a brief moment, then went mad and crashed into the cliff ahead!
The whole procession stopped abruptly. After a careful inspection, they discovered a hole in the bullet-proof winds.h.i.+eld of the armoured vehicle.
The driver"s head was sluggishly tilted far back, as if it had been hit hard by a baseball bat. There was a b.l.o.o.d.y hole between his eyebrows, and a large amount of red and white liquid gushed out from the back of his head! Not only that, the bullet also carried an arewide electric interference, so the armoured vehicle was as good as useless now.
There was absolutely no doubt that this was a sniper"s work.
The sniper"s intention was vicious. He wanted everyone there to know that hiding in solid armoured vehicles and tanks was useless. All their lives were in his hands.
The motorcade members were obviously very well-trained, but even so, when the drivers of the three armoured vehicles and tanks at the very front all fell to a single shot to the head - and most crucially, the sniper was still not caught - though no one dared to publicly object, the fact remained that no one was willing to move forward to the front of the formation anymore. They requested for air support, and some even suggested the need for infantry reinforcement.
Sheyan saw all this from a distance. He immediately turned towards Sanzi. After a brief communication with Kulutego, Sanzi confirmed Sheyan"s a.s.sumption. The opponent indeed had an earth-element ability. That was how he could come and go at will without leaving any traces. Sheyan remained in place, choosing to observe further. He quietly committed the opponents" behavioural patterns and abilities to memory.