Both of them piloted a Green Goblin Glider, floating suspended in mid-air. These gliders, after all, were high-tech products, incapable of being detected or tracked by the era's anti-air systems. Coupled with the cover of night, not a single soul in all of Shanghai could perceive their presence.

Wang Xia gazed down at the dazzling city beneath him and asked Chu Xuan, "What is our next move? Although they have already dispersed to various locations, exactly what should we do, and what can we achieve with just the five of us... uh, setting aside Zhang Heng's girlfriend for now, with just the five of us, how far can we actually go?" Chu Xuan silently watched Shanghai spread out below him. After a long pause, he sighed and then said to Wang Xia: "...It is truly a peculiar sensation. As I draw nearer to unlocking the fourth stage of the Gene Lock, that thing called emotion, or feeling, draws closer to me as well... Yet, simultaneously, my inner demons are gradually surfacing... Wang Xia, perhaps speaking of things outside the mission at this moment is inappropriate... but for some inexplicable reason, I feel as though the entire world lies crushed beneath my feet..." Wang Xia grew increasingly alarmed as he listened. He snapped his gaze toward Chu Xuan, catching the man looking down with a vacant expression, one hand extended outward, palm facing the ground below.

It seemed as though he intended to cup the entire earth within that single hand. This version of Chu Xuan was unprecedented, and for some reason, Wang Xia suddenly felt a sense of danger... much like when Zheng Zha had yet to overcome his own inner demons. It was the same instinctive feeling of peril he experienced near Zheng Zha when the latter was utilizing the power of the fourth stage.

However, this feeling lasted only an instant. Wang Xia then felt Chu Xuan return to normal. The man casually retracted his hand and stated calmly, "This situation appears rather unfavorable. I will devise a solution in the near future... Getting back to the main point, what we must do now is first complete the current side quest. Just as you asked earlier, how far can we actually push things... Wang Xia, what do you believe our limits are?" Wang Xia blinked, momentarily stunned.

He hadn't quite recovered from the shock of the previous moment and could only stammer out, "We... could probably forge some sort of agreement with both the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Then exchange technology or money for their intelligence... That should be correct, right?" "Impossible."

Chu Xuan shook his head immediately. "If we were given several months or half a year, we might follow that method step-by-step. But we only have six and a half days left. Do you grasp the meaning of six and a half days? A Green Goblin Glider can circle the Earth multiple times, but that time is only enough for six to ten meetings. Or for a few hundred people to exchange information. Six and a half days passes in the blink of an eye, yet the loss of that Buddha statue occurred months ago. To search for something that vanished months ago in the span of a blink... This method is absolutely infeasible. Therefore, we must employ a different approach."

"A different approach?" "Overcoming subtlety with brute force... or you could call it clumsy brilliance."

Chu Xuan spoke slowly. "Intelligence and strength are relative. When to use intelligence and when to use force depends entirely on the situation. But in certain moments, when both intelligence and strength reach a certain limit, one can forcibly resolve any issue regardless of other circumstances—such as our strength right now. Relative to this era, our combat capability is invincible. In this world before the development of nuclear weapons, the fighting strength of our Central Team alone could obliterate a nation. This is because our strength, in the context of the current situation, has already crossed the threshold, reaching a point where it can disregard any constraint."

Wang Xia listened with curiosity and asked, "Then what is the limit of intelligence?" Chu Xuan snapped his fingers. "The manifestation of intelligence lies in deduction, analysis, and strategic planning. If intelligence reaches its limit, it becomes precognition. While strength relies on one's own immense power, the prerequisite for extreme intelligence is access to an infinite source of information. Therefore, we currently lack the conditions to reach the limit of intelligence... Naturally, we can only utilize the limit of strength to achieve our objective. Wang Xia, do you see those Japanese Kempeitai troops below?" Chu Xuan pointed toward Shanghai City beneath them. Despite being over a thousand meters high, their physical capabilities allowed them to see the ground with perfect clarity. Thus, when Chu Xuan pointed below and finished speaking, Wang Xia immediately nodded.

"That's the basic situation. Wang Xia, your mission is to annihilate every single Japanese military unit surrounding Shanghai, extending no further than Nanjing. Centered on Shanghai City, destroy all Japanese forces. You don't need to wipe them out completely; your goal is to shatter the operational structure of the armies around Shanghai. Do not doubt your power; the weapons of this era absolutely cannot harm you. While the energy of the Dragon Crystal Necklace is finite, the destructive power of this era's weaponry is significantly weaker by comparison. Use the Green Goblin Glider for aerial assaults and the area-of-effect capabilities of your plasma bombs... You will quickly discover the extent of your combat power—no, rather, you will discover the sheer might of our Central Team relative to this era."

February 27, 1940. The Battle of Shanghai? We are strong. The Central Team is strong... Wang Xia had always known the Central Team was powerful. They were strong, but this 'knowing' was always rooted in the context of the Reincarnation Squad, within the 'Main God' space, within various horror movie worlds, or during battles against other Reincarnation Squads. This had caused Wang Xia and the others to forget a fundamental point: the 'Main God' space itself was created to facilitate evolution. Thus, as the members of the Central Team continuously grew stronger, the gap between their power and that of the real world gradually widened. While the current Central Team might not be able to act with impunity in the real world yet, in this era of World War II, before the widespread deployment of nuclear weapons, they were the very definition of invincibility! Wang Xia stood on his Green Goblin Glider, activating his Gene Lock, flying at tremendous speed about fifty meters above the ground. Below him, fierce fires blazed everywhere, punctuated by intense sounds and shockwaves of explosions. This was the garrison of a certain Japanese Army Corps stationed in Shanghai, comprising over twenty thousand Japanese soldiers and thirty thousand puppet troops. Since the Japanese front lines were experiencing smooth progress, this garrison had nearly become a logistics hub; not only were wounded soldiers from the front lines moved here, but many raw recruits from the rear were also concentrated here for training. Consequently, there were only about ten thousand active Japanese soldiers present. Of course, in this Japanese-occupied hinterland, beyond the stationed troops, numerous other Japanese forces were present in various locations. Such numbers were sufficient to suppress many matters... under normal circumstances, that is.

Wang Xia chose this location for his first raid. Initially, seeing the dense concentration of soldiers in the barracks made him hesitate, but Wang Xia was, after all, Wang Xia. Being a career soldier, he understood that orders superseded everything, especially when the order came from Chu Xuan. Whether considering Chu Xuan's peerless intellect or his rank as a Colonel, his command left Wang Xia with no room for refusal; he had to execute it steadfastly, even if the order seemed to demand a suicide run: attacking a military camp housing tens of thousands single-handedly.

But only when Wang Xia truly launched his assault on the barracks did he realize the astonishing level his own strength had reached. The plasma bombs, controlled by his Yokai power—especially now that the quality of his Yokai power had significantly improved—allowed him not only to control the detonation and trajectory of the plasma bombs but also to greatly enhance their destructive force. Originally, one plasma bomb could affect an area spanning at most ten meters, but with the amplification from his Yokai power, its effective range reached nearly a hundred meters, an amplification effect close to tenfold! A single plasma bomb, coupled with the Yokai power explosion, left a massive crater on the ground. Whether it was barracks buildings or the parade ground, anything within the blast radius was instantly melted away. The ground where the plasma exploded then vitrified due to the extreme heat. The explosion of one plasma bomb, besides its nearly hundred-meter blast radius, carried heat that could affect an area three times as wide. Soldiers, being ordinary humans, could not survive such high temperatures. If they were standing densely packed, one bomb could result in over a thousand casualties. After dropping ten plasma bombs at the start, one section of the camp was utterly reduced to ruins.

That wasn't all. As Wang Xia’s raid commenced, after deploying ten plasma bombs, he immediately grasped the full potential of controlling his bombs with Yokai power. He stopped wasting the plasma bombs unnecessarily. He dropped one bomb only where soldiers were densely gathered, but he focused more on detonating the armories. A cataclysmic explosion followed, completely vaporizing everything within a thousand-meter radius. Furthermore, Wang Xia casually snatched a heavy machine gun from a sentry post and swept the area from the sky. With him alone, the military camp beneath was already littered with corpses... As Wang Xia indulged in the frenzy of combat and slaughter, Chu Xuan descended onto a main street in Shanghai. A squad of Japanese Kempeitai was walking toward him. Chu Xuan spoke no words; with a flick of both hands, he produced two Gauss pistols. Then, he held both Gauss pistols slightly level—this was the initial stance for Gun Fu technique... Jump to