A week had passed since Jiang Yan and the others arrived in Liyang Country.
At seven in the evening, a cloud mass dozens of meters wide drifted a kilometer above Qianzhou City, Lingzhou Prefecture, heading toward a specific location in the urban area.
Inside the cloud, Jiang Yan stood with his hands behind his back, quietly observing the ground below. Beside him were Ghost Buddha, Wei Gaocheng, and the King of the Deep Sea.
Beneath their feet, the Cloud Ray's body trembled slightly. Dragging the multi-ton King of the Deep Sea for a thousand kilometers in one go put considerable strain even on it.
"President, the Huamen Club is right below us." Wei Gaocheng checked his phone's location and looked up to remind Jiang Yan.
"Stop!" Jiang Yan commanded upon hearing this, and the Cloud Ray beneath his feet halted.
Half of the cloud mass dissipated, allowing the group to clearly see the building below.
Directly below was a five-story building, topped by two neon signs flashing the name Huamen.
"Go down and kill them all." Jiang Yan looked at the Huamen Club below, his tone cold.
He had been busy rebuilding the laboratory and selecting cities for the skeleton tree, which was why he hadn't dealt immediately with this organization of Awakened Ones that dared to attack the Monster Association.
"Hahaha, as you command!" The King of the Deep Sea wore a sinister grin and immediately jumped down.
Falling from a height of several hundred meters, the King of the Deep Sea's speed accelerated rapidly.
Whoosh! Bang!
With a loud sound, the multi-ton body of the King of the Deep Sea slammed heavily onto the fifth floor. The terrifying impact instantly caused his body to smash through the fifth floor, and he continued to fall.
Inside the Huamen Club on the second floor, Qi Liang was drinking wine with an annoyed expression.
Xiang Ziming was at the bar counter, examining a large bottle of red wine.
"It was just two people who died. Is that reason enough to drink for so many days?" Xiang Ziming looked at him helplessly.
"You don't understand, I am..." Qi Liang spoke while slumped over the bar, but he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Bang! The next moment, a huge noise came from the roof, and the entire building began to shake.
Boom, boom, boom! Continuous loud noises came from above. Qi Liang's expression changed, and he looked at Xiang Ziming: "Get away from th—!"
Crash! Before he could finish his sentence, the ceiling above him suddenly exploded. A huge blue-black Monster rushed in with the debris and punched Xiang Ziming, who was standing below him.
Boom! With an explosive sound, Xiang Ziming, a Mental Awakened, had no time to react and was instantly blasted apart by the punch.
Splat! A piece of human tissue splattered onto Qi Liang's clothes. His eyes glazed over, and he tremblingly picked up the skin fragment stuck to his clothing.
"Hahaha, human! This is the fate of those who dare provoke the Monster Association!" The King of the Deep Sea laughed maniacally, looking at the human whose body was beginning to tremble in the distance, his eyes flashing with savagery.
"I'll kill you!" Qi Liang roared, his face contorted.
Azure flames erupted from his body, and the surrounding space began to warp from the high temperature.
"Amitabha!" A hollow, emotionless voice suddenly rang out next to Qi Liang's ear. Qi Liang, who was about to charge forward, instantly stiffened and became unable to move.
A few meters away, the King of the Deep Sea grinned and punched toward Qi Liang.
Crack! The punch landed heavily on Qi Liang's chest. The sound of breaking bones echoed as Qi Liang, his face twisted in pain, smashed through the wall behind him and crashed onto the street level.
Splat! His body hit the ground hard, and Qi Liang spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
His eyes were filled with horror: "So strong!"
As soon as he was knocked outside, he felt his body regain movement. At this point, the single punch had knocked him sober.
He immediately turned and ran toward the distant street, but after only a few steps, Qi Liang stopped.
Standing before him was a 'person' covered in black metallic outer armor, with red light shining through its eyes.
"I didn't expect a Level Four Physical Body like yours to be so tough; you weren't killed by one punch." Jiang Yan spoke with a hint of surprise in his tone.
Qi Liang did not speak, but azure flames erupted from his body. He had already heard the sounds of the Monster approaching from behind.
Buzz! At the same moment, a unique fluctuation appeared around Jiang Yan, and the surrounding time seemed to stop.
The King of the Deep Sea, who had jumped down from the second floor in the distance, was suspended in mid-air, and the debris he brought with him also froze.
The previously noisy world instantly became silent. Jiang Yan walked step by step toward Qi Liang.
He extended a sharp finger and thrust it directly toward Qi Liang's head.
Splurch! A black metallic claw slowly inserted itself into Qi Liang's forehead, and the surrounding world returned to normal.
Qi Liang stared at Jiang Yan, who had been dozens of meters away from him moments ago but had appeared in front of him at some unknown time, maintaining the posture of having one hand inserted into his forehead.
"So... fast." Qi Liang left this astonished remark as his body immediately collapsed.
Jiang Yan expressionlessly shook off the white substance clinging to his finger: 'Stretching Time Flow to this extent still consumes too much stamina.'
Just that brief moment had drained most of his stamina.
The reason he chose to take action was to use the three-on-one situation to conveniently test his abilities, giving himself a benchmark for his strength so he wouldn't be unclear about what level he was at.
Of course, going forward, he would still choose to act less often, just in case, unless the situation was absolutely unavoidable.
Thump, thump, thump! The King of the Deep Sea walked over, looked at Qi Liang on the ground, grabbed him, and was about to stuff him into its mouth.
"Wait, don't eat him. Take him back for Dong Guangjie to make use of the waste material." Jiang Yan quickly stopped the King of the Deep Sea's disgusting behavior.
"Fine." The King of the Deep Sea took the half-stuffed corpse out, held it in its hand, and said regretfully.
"Whoo!" The sound of the Cloud Ray came from the sky. It flew down to the street with Wei Gaocheng to pick up Jiang Yan and the King of the Deep Sea.
Wei Gaocheng watched the battle end so quickly and couldn't help but smack his lips: "Two Level Fours just gone like that. The President is truly amazing."
The entire engagement took less than a minute to conclude. The Huamen Club, famous in the Awakened Ones world of Lingzhou Prefecture, had two of its leaders killed by the Monster Association just like that.
Looking at the corpse held by the King of the Deep Sea, Jiang Yan said regretfully, "It feels like a loss that we didn't run into any other Awakened Ones."
He had acted based on the intelligence obtained from torturing Zhang Qing. Knowing that the two leaders of the Huamen Club were usually at the club, he decided to strike directly.
Not long after Jiang Yan left, an Inspector Vehicle slowly drove up. The driver came over after receiving reports of an explosion sound in the area.
Click! The car door opened, and a young man stepped out. He looked at the building in the middle of the street, which had collapsed until only two stories remained, and his expression grew serious: "This is severe. Was it a gas explosion?"
Two days after Jiang Yan raided the Huamen Club, inside the third floor of the laboratory located in the large mountain.
A section dozens of meters wide here had been converted into a tempered glass aquarium.
Inside were fish a meter long with two heads, three-eyed, two-meter-long octopuses, and a large sea turtle whose transparent skull revealed its brain.
Jiang Yan stood in front of the aquarium, observing the various mutated aquatic animals inside.
Just what Jiang Yan could see amounted to at least seven or eight different types of mutated creatures.