Chapter 1375: Countdown

The moment Yang Xiao saw that terrifying, hideous face, his heart couldn't help but tremble.

He instinctively wanted to cry out in terror, but as his peripheral vision caught sight of the very familiar black costume, he froze. He stared blankly at the pitch-black face, which seemed to be peeling off like crumbling wall plaster, trying to find some familiar features on it.

"You are... Director Chen?"

Although his skin had turned shadow-black, Chen Ling's facial contours and features hadn't actually changed much. Someone familiar with him could still recognize him upon close inspection.

"I knew you were having these strange dreams... Wake up quickly, you have more important things to do." The black-robed Chen Ling snorted.

"Huh?" Yang Xiao looked bewildered.

"Am I... dreaming?"

After Chen Ling pointed out it was a dream, Yang Xiao's consciousness began to stir, like constantly surfacing from the deep sea. Everything around him became illusory and fragile.

As Chen Ling said, he really seemed to be just dreaming... But if this was his own dream, how did Director Chen get in? And how did he end up looking like this?

Yang Xiao's consciousness was rapidly withdrawing from the dream. At the same time, the black-robed Chen Ling's voice softly echoed again:

"60-second countdown..."

Yang Xiao didn't understand what that meant. Chen Ling seemed to have said something else afterward, but he could no longer hear it clearly...

He jolted awake from his daze, as if bursting from the seabed to the surface. His lungs instinctively expanded rapidly, and he began to cough violently, expelling all the seawater from his windpipe through his nose and mouth.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Yang Xiao was tightly bound to a metal chair, soaking wet, as if someone had thrown a large bucket of seawater over him, almost drowning him on the spot.

Across from him, two American soldiers casually tossed an empty bucket aside, coldly watching the awakened Yang Xiao.

One pointed a gun at Yang Xiao's forehead, while the other asked in a grim voice, in English:

"Who sent you, and what is your mission?"

"...Where is this?"

Yang Xiao frowned deeply, asking back in English.

The man holding the gun's face darkened. "We're asking the questions here."

As a gust of wind and waves swept over, the ship swayed on the sea. Faint creaking sounds came from the deck above. Yang Xiao seemed to realize something, his gaze becoming serious as he looked at the two American soldiers in front of him.

Combining his fragmented memories from before he lost consciousness, he already had an idea of where he was...

"I don't know," he replied calmly.

The man with the gun seemed to lose patience. He strode forward, grabbed Yang Xiao's hair, forcefully pressed the gun barrel against his forehead, and roared like a beast:

"My patience is limited! Tell me! Who are you?! What's your purpose for being here?!!"

Foul-smelling saliva splattered onto Yang Xiao's cheek. He turned his head away in disgust, while calmly speaking.

The American soldier frowned even deeper, not understanding what this "Oriental man" was talking about. Before he could say anything more, an explosive roar came from outside, followed immediately by a rapid burst of gunfire!

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

"Enemy attack?!"

The other soldier immediately said, "You stay here and watch him. I'll go out and see what's happening."

He opened the door and rushed onto the deck. He saw that a destroyer next to them had been blown in half, with thick black smoke rising from it. Large amounts of artillery and deck debris were scattered across the surrounding sea, and terrified figures were frantically jumping into the water to escape...

The next second, a black shadow descended from the sky.

Boom—!!!

Its speed was so immense that the American soldier couldn't even see what had happened. Dozens of meters of white spray erupted between the two ships, and those attempting to jump into the sea to escape were instantly disintegrated into bloody mist...

By the time the scattered seawater fell back onto the surface, the destroyer and all the soldiers on it had been reduced to floating debris.

The surging waves almost capsized their destroyer, and all the soldiers clung tightly to nearby objects to prevent themselves from sliding into the water... Just as the soldier who had been questioning Yang Xiao desperately grabbed the railing to steady himself, an entirely black figure slowly rose from the sea.

The black theatrical robe fluttered in the wind, and its playful yet violent crimson eyes seemed like Satan's gaze descending upon the world.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

Firepower from the surrounding destroyers swarmed towards it, like countless points of light enveloping the black-robed figure!

At this range, standard missiles were useless; only the destroyers' close-in weapon systems could be deployed. Over a dozen 20mm six-barrel cannons furiously sprayed bullets, but how could weapons of this caliber possibly harm the black-robed Chen Ling?

The black-robed Chen Ling didn't even bother to dodge, enduring the hail of bullets flying everywhere. He transformed into a black meteor and directly pierced through the hull of another destroyer. Intense flames erupted as the massive destroyer, after being blown in half, quickly began to disintegrate.

The black-robed Chen Ling showed no sign of stopping. After that, he successively pierced through two more destroyers, and columns of fire exploded on the sea surface. Accompanied by splashing deck and weapon debris, the entire sea area seemed to have become a living hell.

The soldier was completely dumbfounded at this point. In his memory, the last time someone was this formidable was the blonde woman from a certain movie who headbutted through an alien spaceship...

In reality, could someone truly, effortlessly, destroy so many destroyers all by themselves?

What kind of monster was that??

Within mere tens of seconds, only one ship remained of the vanguard destroyer fleet. Just as the many soldiers on board despaired, the black-robed figure chose not to pierce through it as well, but instead slowly descended onto the deck...

"Leave no one alive," the black-robed Chen Ling said indifferently.

Whoosh—!

A boning knife shot out from his embrace, instantly piercing an American soldier's chest. Then, like a flying sword, it consciously turned in mid-air. Tiny, intricate centipede legs waved on the knife's handle, easily tearing through the steel hull and, in one swift motion, severing the heads of more than a dozen other people!

Terrified heads rolled densely onto the ground like raindrops, making dull thuds. Their deaths were so shocking and sudden that their eyeballs were still fixed on the direction of the deck, their expressions utterly bewildered.

The black-robed Chen Ling walked calmly along the deck, the boning knife swiftly harvesting every life on the destroyer, like a grim reaper wielding his scythe.

He walked all the way across the deck and pushed open the door to the lower cabin. At the same time, a sound came from inside the room:

The moment the voice ceased, the black-robed Chen Ling stood still, and the last soldier's head fell to the ground.